Dr. Sumner Ives (7) was the son of Abraham Ives (1769 - 1855). He was born on Sept. 11, 1799*. He married Sarah Humiston on Nov. 26, 1829* in W. Springfield (see Humiston family). The Ives and Humiston families are listed on the same census sheets in the 1820 census, suggesting they were neighbors and the families are also both originally from New Haven and Hamden and they moved to West Springfield around the same time so they must have known each other for generations. Their intension to be married was recorded on Oct. 31, 1829* in W. Springfield and they were probably married shortly afterward as was the custom.
They lived in Suffield, CT (1836/39-1844), where he is listed in the 1840 US Census, and he died Oct. 22, 1844 in Suffield. His brother, Dwight, was minister of the Second Baptist Church in Suffield while he lived there. In the marriage record he is recorded from Suffield, CT while she is from W. Springfield. Sarah was born Dec. 26, 1803 in W. Springfield, MA and died on Nov 23, 1875 in Holyoke, MA. Sumner was as a doctor in Suffield, CT and they appear to have moved there from W. Springfield between 1836 and 1839. Sumner Ives died Oct. 22, 1844 in Suffield.
Sarah then moved to Holyoke to live with her brother, Bishop Humiston, between 1850 and 1860 bringing along four of her children, who were ages 14 – 5 when their father died in 1844. Sarah Humiston Ives refers to an Uncle Bishop to her son, Sumner Abraham in correspondence from Holyoke, Oct. 25, 1873. The 1860 and 1870 Census records for Sarah’s family follows. The five children of Sumner and Sarah are:
1. Eunice, born 1830 W. Springfield, MA, died in Holyoke MA April 17, 1878.
2. Sarah, born 1832 W. Springfield, MA, died in Suffield, CT Dec. 17, 1850.
3. Frances, born Dec. 12, 1834 W. Springfield, MA, died in 1862 in Holyoke, MA.
4. Mary, born 1836 W. Springfield, MA, remained single. Mary was living in Saxonville, ME in 1873. She wrote to her brother Sumner Abraham in Aug. 5, 1906 from Holyoke and Feb. 27, 1907 from upstate New York. In this correspondence, Mary refers frequently to the happy times they had in childhood, growing up together at their Uncle Bishop’s farm on Homestead Ave, Holyoke. She and Sumner retained a ¼ interest in the farm when Bishop died but heir cousin, Caleb, eventually had to sell it around 1910 as the upkeep was too much as he grew older. She is listed in Holyoke Directory in 1902 and 1912. She is also listed in the 1910 US Census in Holyoke as 76, single and owner of her home free of mortgage.
5. Sumner Abraham, born Oct. 21, 1839 in Suffield, CT, married Alice Dunbar Sept. 19, 1879, Alfred, ME, died in 1924 in Pinebluff, NC age 85. They had 3 children: S. Albert (1882-1944), Judson Dunbar (1884-1971), Dwight (1893-1969).
Comments