Mudgett Family Photographs

Myrum Mudgett was born to David and Elizabeth (Kennison) Mudgett in Vermont in 1803. The family moved to New York sometime after 1810 and then to Tecumseh, Michigan, sometime before 1830. Here, Myrum Mudgett married Electa B. Underwood. The couple had four children who survived to adulthood: Elvin (1832-1905), Almeda (Mudgett) Frakes (1839-1934), Nelson (d. 1915), and Almira (Mudgett) Wood. The family moved to Texas before 1844 and departed for California on April 1, 1849. They traveled by wagon train and passed through New Mexico, Arizona, and possibly northern Mexico before arriving in southern California. Electa Underwood died in childbirth, probably near Santa Cruz, Mexico, on the journey in about September of 1849. The rest of the Mudgett family arrived in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve of the same year.

Myrum Mudgett worked as a blacksmith in Los Angeles until 1850 when the family moved to Mariposa county. Here, Myrum Mudgett continued his blacksmith work in addition to hunting meat to sell to miners with his oldest son. Myrum Mudgett was killed by a bear in 1851 and the family split up. Elvin Mudgett married Eliza Ann Reed and the couple settled on a homestead knows as The Fig Trees on the Fresno River. Here, they raised four children: Elvin Leroy (1873-1942), William (1877-1946), Mary Celia (Mudgett) Walker (1881-1961), and Viola Evelyn (Mudgett) Gookins Cherbbonno (1889-1973). Elvin and Eliza Mudgett separated in about 1889 but never divorced. Nelson Mudgett married Martha A. (Hensley) Carter (1836-1908) in Fresno on December 28, 1871 and the couple had one son, Charles Austin (1877-1950). Almeda and Almira Mudgett lived with a doctor and his family until they reached adulthood. Almeda married cattleman Samuel Frakes and eventually settled near Lake Elizabeth. The couple had three children: William Franklin (1858-1942), Myrum (sometimes given as Samuel; 1860-ca. 1864), and Samuel A. (1867-1922). Almira Mudgett married J. H. Wood in Santa Cruz, California on September 9, 1863 and probably died before 1900. Both the Frakes and Mudgett families were involved in the cattle and angora goat businesses in California during the late 1800s and early 1900s.