History of the Worden and Thayer Families

Written by Rufus Rypha Worden

To His Son Edward O. Worden

17 May 1905

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Thayer Family History

As you know, your gradfather on your mother's side was ____ Thayer, and that's all I know. I never saw him. His wife, your grandmother's maiden name was Lavina Swick. They were both Cannecks, came to Michigan at an early day and settled close to Detroit in what was afterward Wayne County. Your mother (Almyra) had uncles and aunts and cousins enough in Canada, down on the Grande River, to have started a good size state. The Swicks, Lembergers, and lots of others whose names I've forgotten; and none of them stopped short of from twelve to sixteen and upward in a family. They used to come stringing over the river to our place like quails around a wheat stack. Good Lord, boy, if you ever go down on Grand River in Canada and meet a man, call him cousin; tell him your grandmother was a Swick, related to the Lembergers (sounds Dutchy) and Thayers, and you will not lack for entertainment.

Your grandfather Thayer's family consisted of seven sons and three daughters, Ben, Jarvis, Cyrus, Peter, Nahum, William, and Oliver, Almyra (your mother), Margaret and Lavina.

Margaret married Theodore Evans, raised a family of three girls, but who they married or where they went to I don't know. But all of your mother's brothers and sisters, except Peter, who went to Wisconsin, were in Michigan. The last I knew of them, Lavina married Dar Fisk, had one child and died years ago. Of the boys, Ben, the oldest, lived a Bachelor til nearly fifty then married a German girl, that's all I know of Ben. Jarvis married Jane McDonald and raised a whole lot of kids. I remember Theron, Albert and William. Jarvis died years ago. Cyrus and William both went out to Kalamazoo, Michigan, married sisters I think, but have forgotten the name. They both raised families but I know nothing further. The last I knew of Peter he was still a bachelor. Nahum married a girl by the name of Louise Platner, had three children, two girls and one boy. The son Albert was a policeman in Detroit some years ago and was killed while an officer. Nahum died when Albert was quite young. What became of the rest of them I don't know. Oliver, the youngest of the family, when we came west lived with your grandmother Thayer on the old home farm where your mother was born and raised. Ben and Jarvis also lived on the same farm. Ben and Oliver, (both single then) and Grandma lived together, Jarvis in a house of his own nearby.

This is about all I know about the two families. Whether any of your uncles or aunt on your mother's side are still living, I don't know.