Susan Ann Baird Malson Bristol

This information is available thanks to the research done by the descendants of Susan Ann Baird, Venlora Taylor Clawson and Penny Clawson Hardy.

When she was just 14, Susan Ann Baird made the long trek on the Oregon Trail with her family. This was just one of the many hardships she experienced in her life, yet despite the challenges thrown her way, she is remembered by her descendants as “a very beautiful woman with an indomitable spirit [with] the ability to adapt and make a new life wherever she was.”

Susan Ann Baird was born on a farm in Missouri on August 12, 1848. In 1862, her family made the decision to head out on the Oregon Trail, joining the thousands of people who made the harrowing journey in search of a new life. She married her first husband, 29-year-old Daniel Perry Malson, when she was just 16. The Malsons traveled along the Idaho and Oregon trail, and gave birth to 11 children, only three of which survived into adulthood. The couple eventually divorced, and Susan married Union veteran Levi E. Bristol in Washington State. After the death of her daughter Dora, Susan and Levi took in her three young daughters, raising them despite the couple getting on in years. After the girls reached adulthood, Susan and Levi moved out to Los Angeles, California, where Levi resided at the Sawtelle Soldier's Home. After his death in 1924, Susan returned to Seattle and lived in the Moore Hotel. She died there on December 27, 1927.

The Oregon Trail

Like so many other families, young Susan Baird's family was tempted by the allure of Manifest Destiny, an ideology that proved to be harmful in many ways for both indigenous people forcibly removed from their land and the often ill-equipped settlers who made the dangerous journey out West. In particular, Susan's father was drawn to the Oregon Trail by the promise of gold, as he had attempted to strike it rich in California a few years prior and was unsuccessful. So in 1862, the Baird family set out with seven children in tow. Susan and her brother James helped drive the family's oxen on the journey. After an arduous six-month journey, the family settled in Oregon, where 16-year-old Susan married 29-year-old Daniel Perry Malson. Daniel repaired wagon wheels, so the couple continued to travel on the Oregon/Idaho trail into California. Life on the Oregon Trail was brutally dangerous, with disease and accidents causing the majority of deaths for those walking along the trail. Susan Malson experienced 11 pregnancies during her time on the trail, with only three of her children surviving to adulthood, and recounted burying her babies along the trail to her descendants. She was one of many women who traveled on the Oregon Trail while pregnant, a surely harrowing place to experience pregnancy and give birth.

Susan Ann Baird, 16. · Dan Perry Malson. Photos property of Venlora Taylor Clawson.

The family's enormous losses and significant age gap between Susan and Daniel put a strain on the marriage, and the couple was divorced in 1882. Divorce for a woman at this time was incredibly difficult, as women were not legally allowed to initiate an equal divorce in the United States until 1937. Additionally, being a single woman, let alone a divorcee, in the 1880s came with a great deal of stigma and a number of societal hurdles. Yet she continued raising her three children in Montana — Augusta, Dora, and Oscar — and was able to send them to schools in Idaho and Oregon. Sometime before 1897, Susan remarried to Union Civil War veteran Levi E. Bristol, who treated Susan's children as his own. Susan's daughter Augusta became a career opera singer in San Francisco, Seattle, and Salt Lake City, and her son Oscar became a jockey and real estate agent.

Raising a Second Generation

Her daughter Dora married when she was only 17, had three daughters — Ethel, Augusta, and Venlora — and was then divorced eight years later in 1898. Dora was also facing desperate times due to divorce, so she left to start a restaurant in Dawson, Alaska, and placed her three daughters in her mother's care. Susan, Levi, and Dora's three daughters all moved to Washington State, where they resided in Tacoma, then Seattle. Two years later, Dora returned from Alaska and remarried, and reunited with her daughters. Unfortunately, this didn't last long, as Dora died from blood poisoning due to a faulty surgery in 1906. This resulted in Susan and Levi assuming full responsibility for raising Dora's daughters. Once the three girls married and went their separate ways, Susan and Levi retired to be near the Sawtelle Soldiers Home in Los Angeles, where many of Levi's comrades from the Civil War were living. The couple enjoyed the companionship of soldiers and their families in Los Angeles, and remained there until Levi's death in 1924.

Dora Malson. · Dora's daughters Ethel, Augusta, and Venlora. Photos property of Venlora Taylor Clawson.

Susan made her way back to Seattle alone to be near her family, and moved into a room at the Moore Hotel where she died on the evening of December 27, 1927. Her descendants claim that her daughter Augusta cared for Susan here in her final days, and turned her bed for her so she could look out the window to see the sunset. Susan was buried at GAR Cemetery, and had a small cement stone until her great-granddaughter and great-great-granddaughter found her grave in the 1990s, and ordered a family replacement stone to match her daughter Dora's stone.

Susan Ann Baird Malson Bristol. · Susan and Levi Bristol. Photos property of Venlora Taylor Clawson.

Susan's tombstone before and after replacement. Photo property of Venlora Taylor Clawson.

Susan Ann Baird Malson Bristol's experiences demonstrate some of the hardships endured by many on their way to Seattle. Her persistence and kind heart for her family, regardless of the tragedy thrown her way, is still remembered today by her descendants.