Cecelia Deete Gray
(1856-1886)

 

Family Links

Spouses/Children:
1. Napoleon B. Lightfoot

Cecelia Deete Gray 2

  • Born: 8 October 1856, Indiana 1 2 3 4
  • Marriage (1): Napoleon B. Lightfoot on 16 March 1873 in , Porter County, IN 1 2
  • Died: 13 August 1886 at age 29 1 4
  • Buried: After 13 August 1886

bullet   Another name for Cecelia was Deete Casbon.1 3 4

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bullet  Noted events in her life were:

• She appeared on the 1880 US Census in Boone Township, Porter, IN on 8 June 1880. 2

1880 US Census
Page 550B, District 145, Family 94, Roll 0305
Boone Township, Porter County, Indiana
Deitt Lightfoot..Wife..23..IN..Keeps House
(Living with husband and 2 sons.)
.

• She was buried at the Unknown after 13 August 1886. 4 Find A Grave Memorial #38283424
.


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Cecelia married Napoleon B. Lightfoot, son of John Lightfoot and Atha Ann Walters, on 16 March 1873 in , Porter County, IN.1 2 (Napoleon B. Lightfoot was born on 1 January 1854 in Kouts, IN,2 5 6 7 8 9 died on 31 October 1930 in Valparaiso, IN 9 and was buried on 3 November 1930 in Hebron, IN 9.)

bullet  Noted events in their marriage were:

• They appeared on the 1880 US Census in Boone Township, Porter, IN on 8 June 1880. 2

1880 US Census
Page 550B, District 145, Family 94, Roll 0305
Boone Township, Porter County, Indiana
N. B. Lightfoot..Head..26..IN..Farmer
Deitt Lightfoot..Wife..23..IN..Keeps House
Giles J. Lightfoot..Son..4..IN
Earl Lightfoot..Son..1..IN
.


bullet  Marriage Notes:


There is a major problem with this marriage date and the name of the bride. The marriage license lists the name of the bride as Cicley D. Gray instead of Deete Casbon.

The name of Deete Casbon seems to originate from another researcher's web page at http://www.aylesworth.net/Confidence_family_DWT_CSS/Porter/porter_john5_giles_1.htm but that source provides a marriage date almost 1 year earlier than the actual marriage license shows (1872 instead of 1873). Owen R. Aylesworth provides no source citation for his marriage information.

Would it have been possible that the original marriage to Deete Casbon was very short lived and Napoleon was remarried to Cicley D. Gray in 1873 as shown on the marriage license? The answer is probably no because the 1880 census record shows Napoleon living with Deette (her name spelled as Deitt on the census form). It appears that the Aylesworth web site has the year incorrectly as 1872 instead of 1873.

So now the question becomes if it is possible that Cicley D. Gray might actually be Cicley Deete Gray which would mean that she might have been married to someone named Gray before her marriage to Napoleon Lightfoot. That seems very unlikely because she was only 16 years of age at the time of her marriage to Napoleon.

The obituary for Napoleon as published in the Vidette Messenger on 3 Nov 1930 say "On March 8, 1873, he was married to Deepie (sic) Gray who preceded him in death August 13, 1886." While the exact day is not correct, it does show the marriage was in 1873 and that her surname was Gray instead of Casbon.

For some yet unknown reason, it appears that Deete Casbon's name at the time she married Napoleon Lightfoot was indeed Cicley Deete Gray. I can find no record of any marriage between a Casbon and Gray anywhere in Indiana at anytime in the 1870s.

So consideration must be given to the thought that she might have been an orphaned daughter born with the surname of Gray and who was raised by Sylvester and Adeline Casbon. Records show that Deete was born in 1856 but Sylvester and Adeline did not marry until 1860.

The 1870 census for Giles Ellsworth (Aylesworth) show that he and his wife, Mary, had a "Cicelia Gray", age 13, living with them and her occupation was listed as "Domestic Servant". Unfortunately the 1870 census did not list any relationships but this information from this 1870 census would appear that Cicelia Gray was probably an orphaned girl that was initially living with Giles and Mary Aylesworth who were already in their 60s. They had a daughter, Adaline, who married Sylvester Casbon in 1860. I suspect that as Giles and Mary got older, Cicelia Gray may have been a servant between the household of the elderly Giles and Mary Aylesworth and the household of Sylvester and Adeline Casbon. In 1873, Cecilia (which is likely the proper spelling) married Napoleon Lightfoot. She probably was of no relationship to the Casbon or the Aylesworth families other than maybe Sylvester Casbon sponsored her or stood up for her at the time of her marriage to Lightfoot. I can find no official records which ever listed her with a Casbon surname.
--------------------------------------------------

Name: Napoleon Lightfoot
Event Type: Marriage Registration
Event Date: 16 Mar 1873
Event Place: Porter, Indiana, United States
Gender: Male
Marriage License Date: 11 Mar 1873
Spouse's Name: Cicley D Gray
Spouse's Gender: Female
Officiator's Name: D Tucker
Page: 151
GS Film Number: 001686156
Digital Folder Number: 005014494
Image Number: 00569
Number of Images: 1

Citing this Record:
"Indiana Marriages, 1811-2007," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KDH3-TBC : accessed 23 March 2016), Napoleon Lightfoot and Cicley D Gray, 16 Mar 1873; citing Porter, Indiana, United States, various county clerk offices, Indiana; FHL microfilm 1,686,156.
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Sources


1 Jon Casbon, "Casbon - Boerger - Finney Genealogy" (http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=casbonj; Updated: Mon Oct 21 11:33:02 2002).

2 1880 U.S. census, population schedule, Boone Township, Porter County, Indiana, enumeration district (ED) 145, p. 550B, family 94, Napoleon B. Lightfoot and Cecelia Deete Gray; index and images, FamilySearch.org (accessed 23 Mar 2016); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T9, roll 0305.

3 Owen R. Aylesworth, "The Aylesworth Family of Porter County Indiana" (http://www.aylesworth.net/Confidence_family_DWT_CSS/welcome.htm; Updated August 1, 2003).

4 Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/ : accessed 23 Mar 2016), http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=38283424.

5 1900 U.S. census, population schedule, Pleasant Township, Porter County, Indiana, enumeration district (ED) 89, sheet 8B, dwelling 171, family 173, Napoleon B. Lightfoot and Euphany Brody; index and images, FamilySearch.org (accessed 17 Apr 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623.

6 1910 U.S. census, population schedule, Eagle Creek Township, Lake County, Indiana, United States, enumeration district (ED) 43, sheet 5B, dwelling 82, family 83, Napoleon B. Lightfoot and Euphany Brody; index and images, FamilySearch.org (accessed 17 Apr 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 362.

7 1920 U.S. census, population schedule, Keener Township, Jasper County, Indiana, United States, enumeration district (ED) 20, sheet 6B, dwelling 115, family 115, Napoleon B. Lightfoot and Euphany Brody; index and images (accessed 17 Apr 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T625, roll 440.

8 1930 U.S. census, population schedule, Morgan Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, enumeration district (ED) 0013, sheet 8A, dwelling 166, family 168, Napoleon B. Lightfoot and Euphany Brody; index and images, FamilySearch.org (accessed 17 Apr 2015); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T626, roll 622.

9 Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/ : accessed 17 Apr 2015), http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=31430112.


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