The Life of Elizabeth Duryea, born 1836

While collecting marriages of Duryeas in New Jersey, I happened upon a record for Elizabeth T Duryea. She remarried to Augustus B Palmer in 1885 in Jersey City, Hudson County, New Jersey.

This explains why Augustus B Palmer is on the monument for Elizabeth's first husband, children, sister, and mother at Cypress Hills Cemetery in Queens, New York. Elizabeth herself has no inscription and the cemetery found no record of her burial, so her date of death continues to elude me.

Augustus B Palmer was born in Maine around 1843. He probably relocated to New York City in the 1870s. His death in 1891 was reported in The City Record; he joined the police in 1877.

An brief mention in The Evening World newspaper told of Policeman Palmer's death in Maine on April 19, 1891, where he was on sick leave.

Augustus B Palmer also has an inscription on his family's monument in Dover Cemetery in Dover-Foxcroft, Piscataquis County, Maine. His residence, career, and wife in New York City may easily have gone unconnected.

I do not know what became of Elizabeth after the death of Augustus. She does not appear as his widow in the New York City directories.

One year before Augustus' death, Elizabeth was in the 1890 Veterans Schedule at 304 East 125th street in New York City, the same address as the city directories. Closer inspection of her entry shows "Palmer" scribbled next to her name.

Elizabeth's life was not easy.

She was born in 1836 in New York City after the death of her father, John H Duryea. She joined a sister, Catherine Jane. Their mother, Sarah Moffitt, remarried to Joseph Scott.

In 1854, Elizabeth married Joseph Jones in New York City; they adopted the last name Henley. Joseph died during the Civil War as a prisoner in Texas, making her a widow with two children. Any other children had died.

Elizabeth and Joseph had four known children. None had surviving issue. They used the surname Henley.
-Frederick, born about 1855 in Michigan; died 1887 in California.
-Lambert Scott, born about 1858 in Ohio; died in 1861.
-Augustus B, born about 1859 in Ohio; died in 1931.
-Florence May, born about 1863, died in 1864.

I do not know why the children were born outside New York or New Jersey.

After discovering Elizabeth's marriage to Augustus B Palmer, I wonder if there was a prior connection between them that caused her to name a son Augustus B.

Elizabeth's sister, Catherine Jane, first married William Leander, then Harry Abraham Lockwood. These unions produced no known surviving issue. Thus, this branch has extinguished.