Charlotte Abigail Tifft

A BIOGRAPHY OF CHARLOTTE ABAGAIL SELTS TIFFT, by Laurence Overmire (2nd great grandson), Jan. 2012:

Charlotte Abagail Selts was born June 18 or 23, 1834, near Yates, Orleans County, New York, the ninth of eleven children of John and Mary Warner (Douglass) Selts. She joined the Methodist-Episcopal Church at age 10 and remained an active member throughout her life. In 1846, she moved with her family to Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois.

At the age of 16, she married 26-year-old Samuel Lonard Tifft, the son of John Hooper and Elizabeth (Knapp) Tifft, on Sept. 26, 1850, in Mayfield, DeKalb County, Illinois. The newlyweds lived with Charlotte's parents as they began their married life together. Their furniture consisted of one chair.

Charlotte would give birth to 8 children in the ensuing years: John Selts, Mary Elizabeth, Alberto Pitcher, Harriet Maria, twins Cyril M. and Merrill C., Marcia Lee, and Wallace Lonard.

In 1879, the family moved to Hutchinson, McLeod County, Minnesota.

She died with all of her children present on Nov. 8, 1908, in Hutchinson, and is buried in Oakland Cemetery in that city.

Her obituary in the Sycamore True Republican eulogized her as follows: "The late Mrs. Tifft was a tender and loving mother, and to speak in the simple but expressive words, a good woman. She had a wide acquaintance in the locality in which she lived and was highly esteemed by all who knew her."