Ancestors

Christina Elizabeth Sunderland

Christina Elizabeth Sunderland was born on 24 November 1837 in Illinois, at Beardstown in Cass County by family accounts. Her parents were Benjamin Sunderland, a native of Indiana, and Elizabeth Schaeffer, a native of Illinois. She was the eldest of a large family. Her brother Albert Milton and her sisters Elizabeth Farrell, Harriet Paddock, Mary Mock, Rosa Gupton, Lydia Lott and Frances Fleckenstein were all living in Portland in 1904.

The Sunderlands went overland to Oregon and settled near Portland. On 10 March 1853, at fifteen, Christina married Thomas Kelly, a Kentuckian who had come out in 1848 and was running a sawmill on his donation claim.

The Kellys farmed in Oregon until 1871 and then moved to the Wenas country of Yakima County, Washington Territory. In July 1878 the family took refuge with about eighty settlers behind a breastwork at John Cleman's cabin during the Indian scare. Her children were Martha, Sena, Henry, Lura, Minnie, Albert, Nannie and Wilbur; Nannie and Wilbur were born in Yakima County. She was a Methodist like her husband.

Thomas died in October 1903. In 1904 she was still living on the 515-acre ranch. She died at Wapato on 1 February 1914, aged 76. Her death certificate names her parents as Benj. Sunderland and Elizabeth Schafer. She is buried in the Wenas Cemetery near Selah under a small flat marker reading Kelly.

If Christina Elizabeth Sunderland is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Christina Elizabeth Sunderland (1837-1914)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/christina-elizabeth-kelly-1837-1914-729b04.