Family:Josephus Blake and Mary Merrill (1)

After Mary Jane's death, Josephus married Mrs. Sarah Curtiss on January 29, 1894

The 1880 Federal Census of Richland Michigan (Kalamazoo County) showed the following information:

Blake, Josephus Head white male 45yrs; POB: Vermont; father's POB: Massachusett's; mother's POB: Vermont; Occupation: Farmer & Thresher

Blake, Mary. J. Wife white female 33yrs POB: New York; father's POB: New York; mother's POB: New York; Occupation: Keeping House

Blake, Luna Daughter white female 12yrs POB: Michigan; father's POB: Vermont; mother's POB: New York; Occupation: At School

Blake, Roy W. Son white male 4yrs POB: Michigan; father's POB: Vermont; mother's POB: New York

Apparently, Josephus' father, Winthrop, remarried Paulina Clary after Laura Keeler died. They moved to Bangor, Franklin County, New York and appear in the 1850 Federal Census there. Josephus is 14 yrs old in that census. Bangor is 35 miles from Potsdam, N.Y. and 25 miles from Stockholm, N.Y. which are the towns in which Mary Jane Merill's family lived in the 1850 census and 1860. Perhaps this area common to both had something to do with them getting together in Springfield, Illinois in 1864.