CLARISSA ELIZABETH WHITE

1819-1868

 

Earl Lathrop, Rainous Russell, Gertrude McLain Russell Rowlee, Compiled, updated and edited by JoAnne Douglass Leppo

 

Clarissa White was born in 1819 to Doctor John and Ellen White in Watertown, Jefferson County, New York. Her father was a well-known and respected man in their city. He raised Clarissa to be an educated woman, trained her to be a nurse and to be productive in society.

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In 1838, Clarissa professed her faith at the Stone Street Presbyterian Church at eighteen years old. She always maintained her faith throughout the years and passed it on to her children.

 

According to family sources, it was arranged that Clarissa was to marry an older man, a politician. But actually, she and John Rarrick were madly in love. She just couldn’t marry someone that she didn’t love, so they eloped. This enraged her father so much so that he completely disowned her. Clarissa didn’t care, she was in love and that’s all that mattered. It is not clear if John was born in New York or Ohio. It's been recorded as both in different federal census as father's birth place for their two daughters. Perhaps, they really didn't know his birthplace when giving the information.

 

John and Clarissa traveled and settled in Ohio, where they had a successful shop (John was a tailor) and small farm. Their firstborn was Sarah Etta in 1844 who was the first wife of Augustus Russell. We see John and Clarissa in the 1850 federal census of Ohio with two children, Sarah and Ann Marie. Clarissa was possibly pregnant at the time, as in her future letters to her husband, she refers to her three children missing their Pa. 

 

1849 brought on the gold rush. John wanted more for his family so in 1850, John went west to California, leaving his family with the promise of funds coming. The California 1850 Federal Census  finds him working in the gold mines at Diamond Springs/Diamond Bar, El Dorado County, California. An interesting note here is that Augustus (A.P.) Russell also traveled to California the same year and was in the same area. They mostly likely were acquaintances. A. P. eventually had a freighting business while John worked the mines. 

 

While John was gone, Clarissa kept the store running (she was a tailor) She made pants for 30c. And she kept the farm the best she could. Clarissa tried to write once a month to her dear beloved husband. She was faithful to him, believing in him. She would occasionally hear from him, but not often. After three long years, she writes in 1853 how she hadn’t heard from him for a year. She was so worried if something had happened to him. It had been very cold and she didn’t have enough money to buy wood, so she went out and split the wood herself. Many people in town died with lung fever that winter. People were freezing and were starving to death. Things were also getting rough for her and their family. The children were in need of clothes, etc. By then, she only had one milking cow, a few chickens and a hog.

 

After three long years of waiting, Clarissa received a large amount of money from John. ($100). It was a godsend. Not only did they need the money, but she worried that others in town would be talking about her that her husband had forgotten her. She mentions some of them would act as her “best friends in appearances”, but felt like they would "stick up their noses that Mrs. Rarrick’s husband did not think anything about her or he would write to her and send her some money.” She would not tell anyone how they were without because she thought some of her neighbors would rejoice to hear that she would beg and often wondering how she got along.

 

As soon as she received that $100, she wrote to John. “Dear husband, you cannot tell what a life that money was to me and what comfort to hear from you and to hear that you were alive and well. But my dear husband, I would rather see your own face once more than to have ten thousands of dollars. Yes, I can truly say for I have lived almost three long years, and almost a miserable life if I thought I would have to live three more years and have you gone, then I could not live. I never can see any pleasure as long as I live till you come home.”

 

That very year that she received the money and heard from her husband (1853), she sold everything, packed up all her belongings (including her piano) and left to join her husband in California. Stories from her family are that she traveled by ship around the horn to get to California. She possibly caught a ship going down the Ohio River to the Mississippi River and caught the Ship in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

Clarissa and John were reunited and Clarissa was pregnant right away. In 1854, Harriett Ellen Rarrick was born. Harriet was the first white child born at Jackass Bar, California. Some say she was the first white woman to be born in northern California.

 

John Q. Rarrick died some time before 1856. One family story is that he suffered from “creeping paralysis” (MS) and succumbed to it. Another family member said that John sent Clarissa to get supplies. When she returned, he was dead, an accidental shooting; but family felt it was a mercy killing as his best friend was with him---and he had been suffering so much that didn’t want to be a burden on his family. John was buried in Jackass Bar in Tuolumne River Old Cemetery for Jim Town, now called Jamestown, Tuolumn Co., California.

 

Clarissa must’ve been heartbroken from losing the love of her life, but life must go on and Clarissa was a survivor with four children to care for. So soon after John died, Clarissa remarried to Augustus Varnumn, Jr. on 23 Nov 1856 in Yuba, Co, California. Clarissa and Varnumn had a son named Willie who died in infancy. In 1857, a son, Augustus “Gus”, was born to them. Then, in 1862, they had one more daughter, Clarissa (Clara). There may have been other children born that did not survive which we have no record of.

 

When their oldest, Sarah Etta, was sixteen years old, she married Augustus (A.P.) Palmer Russell in 1860. They had large land in Sutter, California so he could keep all his horses that he needed for the freight hauling. Sarah bore him three children.

 

Clarissa and Varnumn had a homestead next to her daughter and A.P. Russell, being 160 acres and did farming there.   At one point, they had a count of two horses, four swine and grew wheat. 

 

This whole time, Clarissa was very active in the community where she helped the early settlers in educating their children and the natives. She had a background of education, so knew the importance of schooling and attributed much to the early settlers there.

 

On May 26, 1868, Clarissa died leaving 6 year old Clara, 11 year old Augustus, and 14 year old Harriet with her husband. Clarissa was buried in the Russell Cemetery where her husband, Varnumn, was eventually buried as well. Their tombstone is marked together. Varnumn got a cook (Sing Hop) to help him with the children. 

 

Within a year of Clarrisa’s death, her oldest daughter, Sarah, who married A.P., got sick. Harriet went to nurse her, but she died of tuberculosis in 1870. On her death bed, she begged Harriet to care for her three children. Of course, Harriet promised her and stayed to help and the coming year, she and A. P. were wed. She and A.P. had fourteen children besides the three of her sisters that she was raising.

 

Varnumn died in 1876. His son, Augustus Varnum was 19 years old and Clara was 14 years old. Clara married Isaac Giles, A.P.’s Russell’s nephew, the following year. Her brother, Augustus died the next month and is buried next to his parents in the Russell graveyard. So, when Varnumn’s estate was finalized, the 160 acres of land went to Clara.

 

Clarissa Elizabeth White Rarrick Varnumn was an important part of our Russell heritage. Her three daughters married into the Russell family, passing on the pioneer spirit, filled with passionate desire for love, dedication, and perseverance. I think we could add in music too since she brought her piano along with her on the ship to California!

 

What a woman to have in our family.