10/12/2026
HistoryForge: Stories from the 1910 Census - Post 4
In this post for “HistoryForge: Stories from the 1910 Census” series, we will visit one of the newest neighborhoods in the city at that time. We will also look even more closely at how HistoryForge can enhance the research you may be doing, whether it’s work on a family tree, history of the house you are living in, or something else about Cortland and its people. HistoryForge is a springboard into the past. Let’s go!
It was Friday, April 22, 1910, a fine spring day with a high temperature of 61 degrees Fahrenheit. Census taker, Frank G. Dibble, was revisiting 6 Wadsworth Street because nobody had been at home the previous day. Only seven families lived on Wadsworth at this time and the day before, six of them had someone available to answer his questions. He hoped to wrap up Wadsworth today.
When Mr. Dibble knocked at number 6, someone did come to the door and this is what he recorded about the family at 6 Wadsworth Street: Arthur P. Barden was the head of the household. He was a white male, 21 years old and his wife’s name was Ferne. She was also 21 years old. They had been married for one year and had no children. They had both been born in New York and so had their parents. They both could read and write. Arthur worked as a carpenter, building houses for a wage and had not been out of work in the past couple of years. Ferne did not work outside the home. Arthur was paying off a mortgage on the house.
What Mr. Dibble also knew, if Ferne was the person who answered the door, was that some of what he wrote down in his census form would be factually inaccurate very soon. That’s because Ferne was very pregnant and it must have been obvious to anyone. Maybe they even chatted about it in a sociable way as he filled out the paperwork and she rested in a chair. Or maybe not. Maybe it would have been too personal a topic for Ferne, or Mr. Dibble who might have been too eager to finish his day’s work for that sort of conversation. Regardless, ten days later, on May 3rd, a ten-pound baby boy that they named Clarence Randall was born to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur P. Barden.
As the family historian, the Barden family is one that I know; Clarence is my step-grandfather, the 2nd husband of my grandmother. And though I knew and loved Grandpa Barden, his early life and his family were basically names, dates, and old black & white photos. That is the real challenge of genealogy- bringing some life to the factoids that make up a family tree. But encountering Arthur and Ferne within the context of HistoryForge triggered several questions that have allowed me to know more fully some little part of their life experience.
Looking at the Sanborn maps for 1908 and 1915 on HistoryForge made me aware that only a few families were living on Wadsworth and Banks Streets at this time, so it was obvious to me that these were new neighborhoods. When was this land subdivided into lots? Since these were newer houses, was this the first home for Arthur and Ferne? Were they the home’s first owners? Why this house? Did they build it? HistoryForge could not answer any of these questions, at least not yet, but it made me aware that there were questions to be answered. And doing research is just looking for answers to some questions. So, on to the fun part!
There were many options open to me at the Historical Society for moving forward. An 1882 map of the city showed that this area north of Fitz Ave. (W. Main St.) had already been designated as new streets and possibly even subdivided. But looking at city directories, it was clear that there was no Wadsworth St. before 1905. But in 1906, living at 6 Wadsworth St. was Clarence Ernest Barden, Arthur’s older brother. This suggested that Ernest was the original owner of the house. But to be sure, I searched online for deeds connected to both Ernest and Arthur and in doing so I learned a lot about the neighborhood around Wadsworth as well as the Barden family.
In 1905, Edgar Sebring of Waverly in Tioga Co. bought from Fred Lyford, also of Waverly, all that land designated as the Wadsworth Estates back in 1882. Mr. Sebring, under the name of Central Land Company, subdivided the land and began selling the lots. Visiting the Cortland Free Library’s online historical newspaper site, I found that the Cortland Standard advertised these lots in June as available to buy at an upcoming auction and on terms easy enough for even the average working man. The day of the auction, transportation was hired to take possible buyers out to the lots from the Cortland House and a band was hired to provide music. But despite the festive atmosphere, only 25 of the 66 lots were sold that day. So, another auction day was set up. But once again sales were apparently slow and there were still lots for sale in September when Ernest bought Lot #56. In October 1906, Ernest also bought the property (Lot #55) next door. Ernest, unfortunately, would be dead by June 1909. But before he died at age 29 years, he would sell Lot #56 to his wife, Clara Belle, and she, in turn, would sell the property at 6 Wadsworth St. to her brother-in-law, Arthur Barden. It was here that Arthur was married to Ferne on March 17, 1909, and almost exactly a year later, his first child, Clarence, was born.
Edgar Sebring would continue to sell various lots on this tract well into the 1920’s. Eventually, both Wadsworth and Banks Streets would fill in with a full complement of houses and families. Arthur and Ferne would continue to have babies, though not at 6 Wadsworth St. The year following the census of 1910, they sold the house to Eliza J. Freese and moved to 26 Woodruff St. By the time that Arthur died in 1936 at the age of 47, there were a total of five children, all of whom made the area their home, except for the 2nd child, William. William attended Cornell University, joined the Army Reserves as an electrical engineer, and eventually settled in Virginia.
Arthur Barden and his family have become one of the more interesting in my family tree, thanks to the availability of online resources, like HistoryForge, that can help one build a more meaningful picture of these people’s lives. Arthur seems to have been quite a character, as well as a local businessman and he may deserve a separate post at some future date. Isn’t it time you found out more about the characters in your family tree?
~Taryn Evans, CCHS volunteer and HistoryForge transcriber
