My first cousin, 4 times removed, Eli Thayer was born 187 years ago on 21 September 1832 in Pembrooke, New York, to Darius and Diadama Jenks Thayer. Eli was the second of five children. Soon after Eli’s birth, and before that of his next sibling, Emily in 1840, Darius and Diadama with their family removed from New York and joined her parents, Laban and Prudence White Jenks, in Oakland County, Michigan. In 1855, Eli married Jane Powell and the couple had one child, Myron. Eli fought in the Union Army during the American Civil War and died during 1864 in Libby Prison, Richmond, Virginia.
His widow, Jane, married Eli’s older brother, Seth Darius Thayer around 1890 after the death of Seth’s first wife, Catherine C. Crosby.
A Tree Grew in Oakland 