Ancestor of the Day #5: Clorenda Rose Short Barber Porter — “They Go Together”

Yesterday I told you about Theodore — the 27-year-old corporal who never came home from Chancellorsville. Today I’m telling you about the woman who waited for him, buried him in her heart, and went on living for forty-nine more years.

Her name was Clorenda Rose Short. The records spell it three different ways — Clorenda, Clarinda, Clorinda — so you can pick your favorite, but she was my 3rd great-grandmother, and this is her story.

She was born in November 1838 in Chatham, Tioga County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel Short. Somewhere around 1855 she married Theodore James Barber, and in 1857 their son William Henry was born. Then came the war, and in May 1863 Theodore died at Chancellorsville. Clorenda was about twenty-four years old, a widow with a little boy.

She did what widows did — she kept going. And years later she married again, to another Civil War veteran: Allen A. Porter. (My records say August 16, 1868 — but there’s a question mark beside it in my own files, so I’m giving it to you with the question mark still on. The pledge is the pledge.)

They built a life together near Henderson, Michigan. Decades of it. And then came Monday, July 8, 1912.

That evening, at about nine o’clock, Allen Porter died.

And about two hours later, according to the Owosso Argus-Press, Clarinda walked out onto the porch, cried out — and fell dead in the farmhand’s arms.

The coroner, Guy A. Cole of Owosso, wrote her cause of death on the Michigan death certificate in words I’ll never forget: “a shock occasioned by the death of her husband.” Her heart, the certificate says, had been troubled for years. Her son Frank gave the information. She was buried at Henderson Cemetery on July 11th.

The newspaper ran the story under a headline that says everything: “THEY GO TOGETHER — Wife Succumbs To Heart Trouble Two Hours After Husband’s Death.” And it described the funeral this way: “The two sombre caskets were placed side by side… At the cemetery they were both lowered into one large grave, where the departed will sleep the long sleep together, as they went through the greater portion of their lives.”

One large grave. Together. As they went through the greater portion of their lives.

Now follow her line forward, the way I showed you Theodore’s yesterday: Clorenda’s son William Henry grew up, married, and had a daughter named Ada May. Ada May married George Arthur Allen. Their son Alvin married Marion — my grandmother. Their son Rex was my father.

So the woman who died of a broken heart on a Michigan porch in 1912 is the reason I’m here telling you about it. That’s how this works. That’s the ever widening circle.

I wrote about this couple years ago — They Go Together (2013) — and I keep a whole chapter on Clarinda in my files. But today she gets her Ancestor of the Day, because a love like that deserves its afternoon.

Who do you want to see next? Tell me below. 💛

— Coni

Sources: Michigan Certificate of Death for Clarinda Short Porter, Shiawassee Co., Rush Twp., July 8, 1912 (written copy in Coni’s files; Coroner Guy A. Cole) · Owosso Argus-Press, July 9/10/11, 1912 — “THEY GO TOGETHER” (clippings collected by Pauline Goodwin, 2013; in Coni’s files) · Individual Report for Clorenda Rose Short, by Coni Dubois · Find A Grave #566602325 · Chapter 16, Clarinda Short Porter (Coni’s files).

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