Clara Stanton: First wife of Chester Dayton

DFH Volume 1 Issue 23

In 1929, Clara [Stanton] Dayton died of tuberculosis a mere one hundred days after her marriage to Chester Dayton.  Clara and Chip were sweethearts at Houghton College where Chip was a sophomore and Clara was probably a senior. (Chip is in the yearbook, but I could not find Clara).   

Clara was born to George and Linnabelle Stanton in Long Lake New York on April 22, 1908 two years older than Chip. Prior to marriage she was a resident of Long Lake.  Long Lake is a tiny village (under 1,000 residents) in the Adirondack Mountains.  It’s a great vacation spot if you want to be away from the crowd and are willing to ”rough it”.

Since she was born in 1908, she probably entered Houghton College as a freshman in 1926.  Chip entered college in 1927 so they met in 1927.  We know nothing about her from her birth until the following announcement appeared in the newspaper, The Warrensburg News, November 22, 1928.   Crown Point and Broadalbin were locations of sanatoriums where persons with tuberculosis were located.  It is curious why they would send her home, and we don’t know how long she had been a patient at the sanatorium.  This was Thanksgiving time in 1928.  Chip was a sophomore at Houghton.  This was the year of their courtship, but it is not known when the courtship began.  Since the disease is contagious through microscopic droplets released into the air, it is not likely that Houghton would have let her return to school without a clean bill of health.

A variety shower (nowadays called a bridal shower) given shortly before the wedding had a large crowd and was a festive affair (Warrensburgh News, July 11, 1929).  She and Chip were married July 4, 1929.  Apparently, the tuberculosis was abated to the point of appearing cured or being cured at that point.

The next time we hear about Clara is when she enters the Homestead Sanatorium in Middle Grove (near Corinth) on October 5, 1929. This was only three months following the wedding of she and Chip.  Note that in October 1929 they were living with Chip’s parents (Wilber and Jessie Belle).  Perhaps my grandma was taking care of Clara while Uncle Chip was working at International Paper Co. 

Her final bout with tuberculosis was first noticed three weeks before her final admission to the Homestead Sanatorium.  Then, sometime around October 16, 1929, Clara [Stanton] Dayton rested from her illness.  I can’t begin to even imagine the pain and anguish that Uncle Chip had to endure.  I have heard, without proof, that he went into seclusion for a while.

Chip eventually began to court Elizabeth Duell, and they married March 7, 1931.  We are all blessed that they did.  My aunt Lib was one of the sweetest and humblest women I have had the privilege of knowing.

Houghton College

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Jessie Dayton…Women’s Equality Before Her Time

DFH Volume 1 Issue 15

Before she was married, and at the age of 24, Jessie was named to be Sunday School superintendent of the newly organized Hadley Sunday School in District 4 on Hadley Hill.  This district was a one-room schoolhouse located toward West Mountain from the general populace at the top of Hadley Hill. Her daughter, Flossie [Dayton] Denton, taught there years later. Jessie’s appointment to such an important position of leadership in the local church is noteworthy.  In the latter half of the 19^th century until the time of prohibition, the Wesleyan Methodist Church was a progressive denomination, leading the way in woman’s rights.  Woman’s Rights convention, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, convened July 19-20, 1848, in the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York and was attended by 200 women.  Stanton joined forces with Susan B. Anthony two years later, and the rest is history.  In nearly every other protestant denomination, women were not allowed in church teaching and preaching because of strict adherence to Paul’s instruction in I Timothy 3:11-12, well into the 20^th century. My denomination, Christian Reformed, is still struggling with this issue.  The Wesleyan Methodist Church was very progressive in those days.  From their inception to the late 1800’s,  the Wesleyan Methodists were at the cutting edge of woman’s rights, including woman’s rights in church leadership positions.  Jessie White was an example of this.  Jessie [White] Dayton began her “ministry” in 1904 and continued in church teaching and leadership positions into the 1940’s.

Jessie’s commitment to her church was commendable.  The Wilber Dayton family attended Sunday morning worship at the Corinth Wesleyan church.  Then they were at the Hadley Wesleyan Methodist Church, five miles from home, by the time church started at 2 pm.  After church was over in Hadley, they hurried back to Corinth to attend evening service.  Talk about Sunday being a day of rest!  Not for the Wilber T Dayton family. It was likely a day of stress.  Since grampa didn’t have a car, it’s not clear how they got to Hadley and back. They may have walked, or someone from Hadley may have picked them up.  There was no time for the traditional Sunday dinner after church.

1998 Dayton Family Reunion-Chester Dayton Family

DFH Volume 1 Issue 12

During the 1998 reunion, we photographed the offspring of each of the children of Wilber and Jessie Belle Dayton who attended the reunion.  The following is the Chester “Chip”  Dayton family.

Chester “Chip” Dayton was the third child of Wilber and Jessie Belle Dayton.  He was born in 1910, during the presidency of William Taft.  Ford’s Model T had been invented only 2 years earlier, so there were very few roads and mainly dirt with ruts, as were all streets in towns and cities.  The preferred transportation was still horse and buggy.  Chip was raised in a home with Christian training and did well in school.  He was one of three graduates to speak at his high school commencement ceremony. He enrolled at Houghton College after high school where he met and fell in love with Clara Stanton from Long Lake, New York.  They married in 1929 when Chip was just 19 years old.  Tragically, just three months after marriage, Clara died of tuberculosis.  After a time of seclusion, Chip rebounded and married Elizabeth “Lib” Duell in 1931. Out of this union, Chip and Lib had Mary Lou, Betty, Nanette and Roger.  Tragedy struck Chip and Lib in 1936, when their 4-year-old daughter, Mary Lou was struck and killed as she ran into the street after getting a piece of ice from the ice truck.

Chip worked at International Paper Company until about 1946, when he decided to launch into a business venture which would fulfill a lifelong dream.  He asked his kid brother Paul, who was also working at International Paper Company, to become an equal partner with him in the Dayton Brothers Lumber Company.  It was a lifelong partnership of best friends.  As far as I know, they never had a major confrontation or disagreement.  Most remarkable!  They were partners for 35 years.  Lib, his wife of 50 years, died in 1981.  He remarried to Marjean Chapman in 1982.  Chip died in 2005, at the age of 95. 

He and Paul loved deer hunting.  They both had a natural harmony with the forest and mountains.  Chip loved being in the outdoors and enjoyed woodworking of any kind.  He was a gentleman and a gentle man.  His strength was his generosity.  He was devoted to the Christian faith in a very active and profound fashion, he was a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Corinth, New York. He held nearly all officer positions of the church at various times, even serving as a local pastor to provide assistance in the absence of the senior pastor. His favorite charity was the Gideons, an organization which spreads the gospel and places Bibles in the hands of personnel in the armed forces, hotel patrons and students at educational facilities.  He was unusually generous with both his money and his abilities, not only for the local church, but with family and friends who needed a helping hand.  He was so humble that it was sometimes difficult to recognize what a tremendous contribution he was making.  He was indeed the role model that we all need in our lives.

Children of Chester:

Mary Lou was tragically killed when running into the street and being struck by a car when she was only four years old.

Betty–I’m quite sure that Betty got her degree from Houghton and was an R.N.  She and husband Ramon (Ray) Orton had children David, Dennis, Duane, Pamela and Robin.  Betty passed away in 2011.  Ray enjoyed a prestigious career in Engineering at IBM. After a period living on his boat in Virginia, he now lives with his daughter, Pam Pichette in Michigan.

Nanette-Nan first attended Marion College (Indiana Wesleyan University) and then Kentucky Mountain Bible College.   She married Rev. Leonard Humbert and was married for 51 years before Len passed away in 2012. In recent years she went back to Roberts Wesleyan College to receive the necessary education for her ordination.  She has since been ordained in the Free Methodist Church.    Nan is still very active in church and community affairs [81 years old].   She lives in Rose, NY near her son, Mark.   She and Len had children Mark, Maribeth, Paul, and Heidi.

Roger-Roger spent the early part of his career working at Dayton Brothers Lumber company.  After he left the sawmill, he worked in construction for a short time.  He then established Dayton Pest Control which he owned and operated for many years.  Roger and his wife Dale have a blended family of Tamara, Lydia, Katie, Amanda, Stacy. [Roger had carrot top red hair -the envy of many of us in the Dayton family]