I finally finished stitching up the Waterbury doll and stuffing her with cotton in places that needed it.

On the back of her head is written Emaline and there was indeed an Emaline Waterbury. Emaline died at the very end of the 1800s. The slip the doll had on was made out of very coarse fabric and I had seen that before in very early baby clothes.

The dress the doll had on did not cover up her patched arms so I did not use that dress but instead put on one of my early baby dresses my grandmother had made. On her head I put the tatted Waterbury baby hat and that worked perfectly.

Now she was ready to meet the Waterbury family of today. All 25 inches of her in a basket so she will not be handled anymore. After all, if you are over 100 years old, you feel like just resting.

The Waterbury family all arrived at the museum on the Friday morning. Polo Mayor Mark Scholl greeted them by Zoom and then I gave a brief history of the Waterbury family. The first one arrived from England in 1621 at Stamford, Connecticut.

There they lived by the sea and spent several generations until the move to Andes, New York took place. In Andes they had fruit trees and eventually a woolen mill where wool was carded into rolls, spun into yarn, and woven into cloth.

The family had strong moral convictions, religious beliefs, and a social networking of anti-slavery ideas with others such as Solomon Shaver (Shafer) a neighbor close-by. It was time to move on and put those ideas into use.

John sold his business to Ezra, his brother, and in 1836 headed for Buffalo Grove in Illinois. Ezra stayed behind to care for the elderly parents and in 1848 he headed for Illinois also. There were 11 children in the family of John and Ezra. Lots of brothers and one sister. They were Lewis, Talmage, John, Daniel, James Steven, Ezra, David, David Stevens, Samuel, Calvin (died at birth), Mary Ann, and Calvin. It was not unusual to name another child after one who had died.

My husband was a descendent of John, and the Waterbury group that came to visit were family of Ezra. John came in 1836 to run the Underground Railroad and settled in Eagle Point.

Ezra did not come until later and Ezra’s son William Waterbury went to the Civil War with Zenas Aplington. Aplington was killed in Corinth and Willam Waterbury was hurt and taken to Libby Prison, where he died from disease and starvation. The body of Zenas was brought back to be placed in Fairmount. The body of William was lost.

While the Waterbury family were here, they had a stone placed in Fairmount Cemetery honoring William beside his wife, Lydia. It is a beautiful stone and the Polo American Legion honored him with a ceremony. The word is called centotaph, when you have an empty grave where the remains have been buried elsewhere or have been lost. We have brought the memory of William back to Polo. We will never forget what he did for our country.

• Betty Obendorf is a retired teacher and volunteer for the Polo Historical Society.