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  Robert Josiah Comfort
  Alice Lenora Cougher


Documents
Deed to Trevathan Ave Property- Page 1 , Page 2 (images)
Death Certificate

Obituary
Santa Cruz Sentinel-News, Sunday, April 22, 1951

Robert Comfort, Resident Here
40 Years, Dies


  Funeral services for Robert Comfort, 84, a longtime Santa Cruz resident who died in a local rest home Friday, will be held this afternoon at 2 o'clock in the Wessendorf mortuary. Rev. William Snider and Rev. Clayton Dillworth will officiate.
  Comfort, who was a native of Kansas, had lived here since 1910. He formerly worked for the East Side Lumber company and was a member of the Adventh-Christian church most of his life.
  He is survived by his widow, Alice L. Comfort of Santa Cruz; three daughters, Mrs. Edith Sundean and Mrs. Marguerite Williams of Santa Cruz and Mrs. Alyce Darland of Santa Monica; three sons, Clyde Comfort of San Francisco, Keith Comfort of Niles and Wayne Comfort of Sacramento, 15 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.


FUNERAL NOTICES

COMFORT--In Santa Cruz, April 20, 1951...
One son and one daughter preceded him in death....
Friends are respectfully invited to attend. Interment will be Monday at 2:00 p.m., in the Oakwood cemetery.


Obituary
Santa Cruz Sentinel, Thursday, October 31, 1970

Alice Comfort's Rites Conducted

  Services for Alice L. Comfort, who died Monday in a local convalescent hospital, were today at Oakwood Memorial Park with the Rev. Glennon Culwell of Scotts Valley Baptist Church officiating. Irvin M. Smith and Sons Mortuary was in charge of arrangements.
  Mrs. Comfort, a native of Pennsylvania, was a Santa Cruz resident for the past 58 years and lived at 312 Trevethan Ave. She was 89 and a member of Seventh-day Adventist Church.
  She was the mother of the last Margaret [sic] Comfort Williams and the late Alyce Comfort Darland, and is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Edith pearl Sundean of Santa Cruz; three sons Keith Comfort of Fremont, Wayne Comfort of Santa Cruz and Clyde R. Comfort of Santa Monica; 15 grandchidren, 28 great-grandchildren, 2 great-great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.


Documents
Death Certificate

 
Robert Josiah Comfort was born 04 November 1866 in Westmoreland, Pottawatomie Co, Kansas, to Josiah Comfort and Margaret Ann O'Daniel. In the Kansas migration of 1859-1860, Josiah came from Illinios with his brother William, and Margaret came from Kentucky by way of Missouri. Robert attend school in Westmoreland and became a stonemason and farmer while in Kansas. He was married to Alice Lenora Cougher 06 April 1899 in Westmoreland, Pottawatomie Co, Kansas, by Probate Judge M Hasty. Sometime between the fall of 1910 and 1912, Robert, Alice and family left Kansas for Santa Cruz, California. While in Santa Cruz, Robert was occupied with his diary farm and was a lumberman. Robert died at the age of 84 on 20 April 1951 in Santa Cruz, California, and is buried in Oakwood Memorial Cemetery, Santa Cruz, California. Robert Josiah Comfort
About age 31. Alice writes on the back, "This is a picture of Robert J. Comfort as he looked when I first knew him. We were married in Westmoreland Kansas April the 6th, 1899. he was 32 years old and I was 18 years old the 14th of march 1899."

Alice Lenora (Cougher) Comfort & Robert Josiah Comfort
Alice Lenora (Cougher) & Robert Josiah Comfort at their home on Trevethan Ave.

News
Santa Cruz News, Saturday, October 4, 1924

ROBERT COMFORT PAINFULLY HURT
AS TEAM RUNS AWAY
  Robert Comfort, residing at Trevethan and Almena streets, was painfully injured yesterday morning when the team he was driving ran away, catapulting him from the wagon, the wheels of which ran over his right leg at the knee.
  The team which Mr. Comfort was driving at the time of the accident was hauling a load of lumber from the Wood Bros. mill to a house which was being builded [sic] on Pacheco avenue. According to the injured man, the team was an exceedingly restless one, and when but a short way up Pacheco avenue, began to run away. Mr. Comfort was thrown out between Carmel and Fairmount streets.
  Besides a serious injury to his knee, which was run over by two wheels of the wagon, Mr. Comfort sustained painful bruises over his entire body. His nose was badly injured, with possibility that it might be broken.
 The injured man is being attended by Dr. A. F. Cowden.

Alice Lenora Cougher was born 16 March 1881 in Pennsylvania to John Glover Cougher and Clara Buehl. It is rememberd, by some family memebers in Santa Cruz, that Alice was a twin. We can only assume that the twin died at a young age. John and Clara are found in Sligo Borough, Clarion County, Pennsylvnia in 1880. In 1882 it is presumed the family was near Kansas City, as there is evidence that John was there. Alice was just one year old at this time. They remained based around the Kansas City area at least until 1887. By 1891 John and Clara were divorced. It is told--through the Nadeau branch of the family--that John left the family poverty-stricken and Alice, being the oldest, had to steal bread so the family could eat. Sometime before 1897 Clara and children--Alice, Laura, Grace--had been living in Pottawatomie County, Kansas. It has also been remembered that Clara was remarried to a man named Krohn after she and John were divorced. We find this last to be true, as Clara turns up in the 1910 census as the wife of Ludwig Krohn. They were married 25 April 1896. At the age of 18 years and 21 days, Alice married Robert Josiah Comfort in Westmoreland, Pottawatomie County, Kansas. By the time Alice and Robert moved to California-- sometime after the 1910 census was taken--they had had 6 chidren: Edith Pearl, Marguerite Beth, Clyde Robert, Alyce Viola, Florence Grace (died at 3 days old), and Keith Raymond. They arrived in Santa Cruz by 1912, where Alice had two more children: Wayne Willis, and Harold Rodney (born and died the same day). Alice and Robert remained in Santa Cruz until their last days. Alice died at the age of 89 years old on 28 September 1970 in Garden Convalescence Hosp, Santa Cruz, California, and was buried 01 October 1970 at Oakwood Memorial Cemetery, Santa Cruz, California.

A note about Alice's mother, Clara:
(to be moved to a future profile page for Clara)

Stories that came through the Nadeau's (Alice's sister Grace's family) has it that...

Clara's mother died on the ship while coming to America. Clara had several brothers that settled in Pennsylvania. It was believe that Clara might have been the only girl in the family.

After John Glover Cougher's first wife, Eliza, died shortly after giving birth, he hired Clara to be a "wet nurse" for his young baby. Clara's husband (unknown) had just been killed in an explosion (a mine?) and at the time she was expecting their child. Clara's baby died soon after being born. Clara was then able to nurse John's child. Soon after, John and Clara were married.

After being married for about 10 to 15 years, Clara and John where divorced. It is said that John left Clara and the girls (Alice, Laura, Grace) to fend for themselves. About 1897 Clara married Ludwig Krohn, a fellow German, who settled in Pottawatomie County.

Clara's life was a very difficult one: her mother died on the voyage to America; her first marriage ended with the death of her husband and baby; her second marriage ended, seemingly abandoned and divorced; and her third marriage ended after three years when her husband, Ludwig, died; all this by the age of 51.

Stories contributed & relayed by Frances Miller, 2003
Alice Lenora Cougher
Copyright © 2003 Stephen D. Williams. All rights reserved.