Blind Alleys

On July 16, I reported that I had discovered that the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas had a collection of The Wylie News covering the period of time during which Will died and was buried in Wylie, Texas.  I was shocked, shocked, to discover today that you cannot believe everything you read on the Internet.  A Library of Congress website (if you can't believe the Library of Congress, who can you believe?) informed me that the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum had a collection of these newspapers.  Thus, I wrote to the museum asking for a copy of the obituary of Will Stewart, if it could be found.  Today, I received this very polite response:

Mr. Walker:

 

Unfortunately, the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum does not have issues of the Wylie News or other newspapers of that area in its collection.  Because of the museum’s participation in a Texas newspaper survey a number of years ago, many newspapers are listed as part of our collection, even though there were actually located in other small museums and libraries.  My records show that the Wylie newspapers found as part of that survey were located in the Wylie News office.  You might contact the Dallas Public Library or the public library in Wylie as another possible source.

 

I am sorry I am unable to assist, but if you have other questions, please let me know.

Warren Stricker
Director, Research Center
Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum
D: 806.651.2261  |  T: 806.651.2244
panhandleplains.org

Perhaps my first step should have been to contact The Wylie News directly.  In any event, I sent an e-mail today to the managing editor.

Almost two weeks ago, I sent an e-mail to my second cousin, Marcia Kaye Stewart Case, via the company her husband owns and for which she works.  I have not received a response of any kind.  I don't know if she is just not interested, or for some reason has not received the e-mail.  The company website has a street address, so I will send regular snail mail to her at that address.

Sometimes family research is exciting.  Sometimes it is slow going.

Working on the Railroad

In the 1900 Census, Will is enumerated with wife Fannie and son Ernest in Denison, Texas.  His occupation is listed as "Carpenter RR."  Denison was created in 1872 by the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MKT or "Katy") Railroad and named after one of its vice-presidents.  "In addition to the tracks of the MKT, the town also became a stop on the St. Louis, San Francisco and Texas and the Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf railroads. Five additional rail lines that connected Denison with other communities in North Texas were chartered between the late 1870s and 1900, including the first interurban electric line between Denison and Sherman in 1896."  "Denison, Texas" in The Handbook of Texas Online by the Texas State Historical Association  So, who knows what railroad employed Will in 1900?

Did Will find work with the railroad before he moved to Denison?  Or did he move to Denison, and then find work?  Questions, questions.

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

I posted a request on a Collin County, Texas message board at GenForum, asking is someone would look up the obituary for Will in an old newspaper.  I received this response:

"You might try Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) site -- http://www.raogk.org/faq-requesters.htm -- Several volunteers listed for Collin Co, TX and at least one says they will do look ups for obituaries.

"There's a photo of his headstone on the Find a Grave site -- http://www.findagrave.com/ -- Click on the search for the cemetery, type in Wylie, state of Texas and then you can view who is buried there. Just type in his surname and you'll find him. With a common name it is easier than looking for him by name alone.

"Happy Hunting (^_^)"


Since I have already sent an e-mail to the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum asking someone there to look up the obituary.  If I do not receive a response soon, I will try the "Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness" website.  The thank you reply I sent to the person who responded mentioned that I have found the headstone.

What Happened Between 1890 and 1898?

I have been trying to find out what happened with Will between 1890, when he was living at home with his parents, and 1898, when he was living in Denison, Texas and enlisted to fight in the Spanish American War.  Will's father was the superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, and Will was "an agriculturalist" (his father was a cotton farmer).  What caused him to leave Bienville Parish?  From the scant evidence available, Will not only left, he never went back, and he never told his family about his marriage and his new family.  Since the scant evidence suggests that he was a boozer (Methodists in the Bible Belt in the late 1800s tended to be teetotalers), his drinking may have led to his being shunned by his family.  But this is speculation, at this point.

In my internet research, I ran across this interesting bit (which may have nothing to do with Will, but you never know . . .) from History of Bienville Parish by Sharon O. Kleinpeter:



In 1890 citizens of Arcadia and Gibsland petitioned the state legislature for permission to hold a referendum to decide whether or not to move the parish seat. In the third referendum, Arcadia carried the election by 65 votes eliminating other candidates, Bienville and Gibsland.

Controversy still surrounds what the residents call "the midnight raid". Approximately thirty minutes after the final tabulation of the ballots six wagons, loaded with Arcadians, surrounded the deserted Sparta courthouse. Some of the Arcadians entered the building and tossed out most of the parochial records to their waiting companions. In a wild chase which ensued, it is more than likely that some records were lost. Many newspaper articles referred to that night in 1893 as the night "Bienville government was stolen".

 A picture of the old Bienville Parish Courthouse in Arcadia.

History is fun.

Hunting Down Leads

My main focus today was celebrating my mother's birthday.  However, on the Searching for Will Stewart quest, I did a few things.

First, I have been trying to find out if there was an obituary of Will Stewart in a Wylie, Texas newspaper in 1956.  I have discovered only one library that has a collection of The Wylie News that includes the year 1956.  That library is the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas.  Canyon is about 20 miles south of Amarillo, which is about a five hour drive from my home in Albuquerque.  Thus, if necessary, it would be a doable trip.

But, the museum has an e-mail link to the director of its periodical collection.  I have requested research and a copy of any obituary, for which I am willing to pay a reasonable fee.  We will see what kind of response I get.

Second, when researching records of Will's and Fannie's divorce, I ran across an index listing a divorce in Franklin County, Tennessee entitled Will Stewart vs. Fannie Stewart which took place in 1909.  It is quite possible that this is a coincidence.  But the records of this divorce are apparently kept on microfilm, and the Tennessee State Library will send me a copy of the microfilm roll containing these records for $20.  I have ordered that roll.

I have also been researching the history of Denison and Grayson County, Texas, to see if I can figure out why Will and Fannie left Denison in 1903 to move to Roswell, New Mexico.  I was reminded that Dwight D. Eisenhower was born in Denison in 1890.  His house is now a state park.

I also may have found motivation for Will to leave Denison in 1903.  On March 7, 1903, the good citizens of Grayson County voted to adopt the local option and become a dry county.  ;D

My Grandmother's Notes About Her Father

            Will (as he was called) was my father, but we never met, and I am trying to write about him.  The trouble is, I didn’t ask the right people about him, or they didn’t want to talk, until it was too late.  Mother said he drank, a cousin of hers said he gambled, so he was probably an alcoholic and maybe a gambler.

            He was born in Bienville Parish, Louisiana, in July 1870, and he served as a corporal in the Spanish American War.  This is all the information the National Archives in Washington, D.C. has on him – except he was living in Denison, Texas when he was mustered out, and he was 28 years old at that time.  Wellington Simmons, Mother’s brother, was also in the Spanish American War and had to be the one who introduced Will to Mother.  He probably brought him home on a weekend pass.

            The Simmons farm was a prosperous one at that time, and Fannie was pretty, naïve, and ready to fall in love, especially with at handsome man in uniform.  (Aunt Annie Simmons Fine said he was handsome, and she also said he was good to Mother.)  Will was nine years older than Mother.

 

            William David Stewart and Fannie Matilda Simmons were married November 24, 1898 in Grayson County, Texas.  I had trouble getting a copy of their marriage license from the county courthouse in Sherman, the county seat.  They kept telling me it was probably destroyed in a fire at the courthouse [about 1920].

            Once, when I was visiting in Denison, Atlee [Simmons, a cousin], Dorothy [Atlee’s wife], Ruth [Richardson, Atlee’s sister] and I went to Sherman.  We split up.  Atlee and Ruth went to the courthouse.  Dorothy and I went to the library, where we did not find anything.  When we got in the car to go back to Denison, Atlee handed me a copy of Will’s and Fannie’s marriage license he had found on his own.

 

            Ernest Guy Stewart was born January 16, 1900 in Denison, Texas.  James Lewis Stewart was born in July 1901 and died May 8, 1902, age ten months.  Baby Stewart was born December 2, 1902 and died the same day.  Both babies were buried in Coffman-Layne Cemetery, Denison, Texas.

            Sometime in 1903, my mother, father and Ernest moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where I was born November 29, 1903, in an adobe house (so Mother said).  [This is a link to an interesting history of Roswell that suggests that everything in the early days of Roswell was made of adobe, including horse corrals: http://www.cleananpress.com/roswell/maincentral.htm.  Yesterday's post revealed that the family lived on Main Street, where the first buildings in town were made of adobe.]  My father had left Mother and Ernest.  I don’t know how long before I was born he left.  I don’t know if he provided money for them to live.  He didn’t seem to have trouble making a living.

            Anyway, when I was three weeks old, Grandfather Simmons sent sons John and Wellington in a covered wagon to bring us home to the Simmons farm near Denison.  That must have been a hard trip for Mother.

[Yesterday, I said I did not have a photo of Mabel as an infant, but I forgot that my sister had provided me one.  Here it is.]

            From the time I can remember, Mother worked hard on the farm, helping with all the chores and in the fields.  Wellington and Ike (I called him “Ikey”) were still at home.  All the others were married and living away.

            Mother would not get a divorce.  Nor would she sue for child support, because she would have to let Will see us.  She was afraid his bad habits might rub off on Ernest.  I’ve thought a lot about that.  I’m pretty sure that decision was made with the help of Ike and Wellington.  They both had good jobs for those days, they were young and mad at Will, and probably said, “We’ll take care of you,” which is easy to say and hard to do.

            In 1910, Ike and Wellington both married.  That took care of their support.  I knew nothing of this, of course.  I was seven years old.  Ikey moved to Dallas, and I didn’t want to lose him.  Uncle Wellington stayed in Denison.  Fannie did get a divorce on August 21, 1911, before she married John Wilson Smith.  I have a copy of the papers.

            When Mother died [in 1959], Uncle Ikey told me how sorry he was that he wasn’t able to help us after he married.  I told him I was sure Mother didn’t feel that way.  He said, all the same, he should have.  That, and the fact that when the Katy Railroad bought twenty acres of the Simmons farm Ikey sent me his part of the money (I was going to East Central Oklahoma Teacher’s College at the time), makes me believe both had something to do with not getting help from our father.

            As far as I know, Will did not marry again.  He visited the Roulains in San Antonio.  He and Luther must have been friends.  The last time I saw Aunt Minnie Simmons Roulain, was when John [Adams Walker, Jr., Mabel’s first child born December 10, 1928] was a few months old.  Grannie [Louisa Pounds Simmons] was sick and living with Mother and Jack Smith.

[This is one of my favorite photographs.  Four Generations in March 1929: The woman sitting in the rocking chair (which I now have) is Louisa Edna Pounds (Jackson) Simmons, born January 1, 1841, died July 12, 1929. The woman on the left is Louisa's daughter, Fannie Matilda Simmons (Stewart) Smith, born February 26, 1879, died November 12, 1959. The woman on the right is Fannie's daughter, Mabel Claire Stewart Walker, born November 29, 1903, died December 28, 1998. The baby that Louisa is holding is Mabel's son, and my father, John Adams Walker, Jr., born December 10, 1928, died August 17, 1998.]

            I saw Aunt Min in 1924 when we had the big reunion on the farm.  She had recently seen my father, and he said he would like to do something for me, send me away to school if I wanted to go, and my reply was, “I’ve already been to school.”  In other words, where was he when I was working my way through school?  I liked Aunt Min, she was lots of fun.  Of course, now I wish I had asked about my father, or at least let her tell me about him.

Finding a Birth Record

The State of New Mexico did not create and keep birth records until 1919 (and New Mexico was not a state until 1912).  Where can I find a record of my grandmother's birth in Roswell, New Mexico Territory in 1903?  It's on the internet, of course.

A wonderful woman I have never met, by the name of Patsy S. Fannin, reviewed the hand-written records in the Southeast New Mexico Museum in Roswell of physicians who delivered babies in Chaves County from 1903 to 1907, compiled the information, and even obtained missing birth dates from cemetery records in the museum.  Then she put the information online in 1997.  Here is a link to the information:

http://files.usgwarchives.org/nm/chaves/vitals/births/chvbirth.txt

That compilation shows, in the first collection from 1903, that a female child was born to a parent named W.D. Stewart (I do not know why mostly fathers were named; there only a few women named), who lived on Main Street in Roswell, on November 29, 1903 and was delivered by Dr. Mayes.

That certainly comports with my grandmother's report that she was born on November 29, 1903 in Roswell, New Mexico (in an adobe house, according to her mother, Fannie).  This appears to be a record of the birth of Mabel Claire Stewart.  I have not run across a baby picture of my grandmother, but here is one of her about the age of 5, in Denison, Texas.

Where Did Will Go After 1903?

Where was Will between November 1903, when he left my great-grandmother with a three year-old boy and about to deliver a baby (my grandmother) in god-forsaken Roswell, New Mexico Territory (I have been to Roswell; I know whereof I speak), and November 1956, when he died without any family present in a V.A. hospital in Dallas, Texas?

I found a William D. Stewart in Sabine Parish, Louisiana in the 1920 Census.  This Stewart was the right age, and he had a wife named Emma about 9 or 10 years younger.  (Fannie was 9 or 10 years younger than Will.)  However, William and Emma Stewart were also enumerated in the 1910 Census in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, with a 15 year-old son, Lamont.  Could Will have been married to Emma in the early 1890s, had a son about 1895, then gone to Denison, married Fanny, had a family, and then returned by 1910 to his first family?

Of course he could have, although that seems to assume quite a bit.  The Sabine Parish William Stewart was a farmer in 1910 and in 1920.  While Will was described as an "agriculturalist" in the puff-piece about his father, nothing about Will's life between 1898 and 1903 suggests he was remotely interested in farming at that point.  Further, Will certainly did not stay in one place very long during that period of time.  I believe the Sabine Parish William Stewart was not the Will Stewart of my family.

Bolstering this conclusion is the fact that his niece's son reported in 1995 that Will never married.  Had Will been married before he left Louisiana (even though in a different parish), his family probably would have known that.  Will must have never told anyone in his family about Fannie, Ernest or Mabel.  I assume a serious rift between Will and the rest of his family which never healed.  And right now, there is a gap of 53 years of total mystery.

The Courtship of Fannie Simmons

My wife and I recently moved, and I seem to have misplaced the records of Will's military service (of a little more than six months, drilling in Texas during the ten-week Spanish American War and waiting for discharge after the war ended).  My grandmother told me that her mother, Fannie, was in a long courtship with a young man, when suddenly Will came into town in uniform after being discharged, swept Fannie off her feet and married her a few weeks later on November 24, 1898.

As my grandmother also used to say, "Well, it makes a good story."

What makes me wonder about the story is that the muster rolls, created in April 1898 when the men of Grayson County, Texas signed up for Troop L of the First Texas Volunteer Cavalry, have Will's name right after Wellington Simmons and right before William Simmons.  Wellington was one of Fannie's brothers (later my grandmother's favorite uncle), and William was one of Fannie's and Wellington's cousins.  Thus, these three may have signed up together, suggesting they knew each other before joining.  If that is the case, Will may well have known Fannie at least six months before their November marriage.

On the other hand, if Wellington and William first met Will when they signed up, the meeting between Fannie and Will may have happened some time later, even as late as November.  But Will would not have been a complete stranger, as I imagine that Wellington made the introduction of Will to Fannie.  Wellington was one of the brothers who took the long trek from Denison to Roswell to get Fannie, Ernest and Mabel after Will ran out on them five years later.

And, it was not until August 21, 1911 that Fannie was able to get her divorce from Will.

More on Will's Family of Origin

Yesterday, I copied and pasted an account of Will's parents' family published in 1890, stating that "Willie D. . . . resides with his parents and is an agriculturist by occupation[.]"  The makeup of Will's family in 1890 might give us a clue as to why Will made some of the choices he did.

Will's parents, James L. Stewart and Lovie I. Wise, were married in Barbour, Alabama in 1849.  Their first son, Elastus T. ("E.T." or "Lack") was born in Alabama on August 2, 1850.  Their first daughter, Celestia (or Selesta) Lavonia was born in Alabama on Christmas Day, 1851.  Ada C. was born in Alabama on July 1, 1855.  The history states that James L. and Lovie moved to Bienville Parish in 1859.  The fourth child, James, was born in Louisiana probably in 1866, and Will was born in Arcadia, Louisiana on July 5, 1869 (one source has him as early as 1868 and another as late as 1870).

Why was there a gap of about 11 years between the third child and the fourth?  Infant mortality and miscarriages were common during that time.  The history reports that four children survived and three died young.  But the three deaths came after 1866.  This suggests miscarriages as a reason for part of the gap.  It is also clear from other documentation (to be discussed in a later post), that James L. spent at least the end of the Civil War in the Confederate Army.  Certainly, his absence during the war would explain some of the period between 1855 and 1866.

The second son and fourth child, James, died on March 16, 1875 at the age of 8.  I have found nothing so far that suggests the cause of death, but it could have been anything from a childhood disease we have since cured to a farm accident to who knows what.  But Will would have been about 5 at the time of death of his closest older brother (his oldest brother would have been about 25 and probably out of the house).

There was another gap of about ten years from Will's birth in 1869ish until around May 1879 when Joseph T. was born, but he died March 28, 1880.  Finally, another child, name and gender unknown, was born at some time after Joseph but died shortly after birth.

I do not know how this history of tragedy may have affected the family or Will's psyche.  I do wonder if it had a bearing on his leaving Fannie three weeks before Mabel was born.  Their first son was still living, but they had lost the next two in about two years.  Maybe he did not want to face another tragedy.

Biography of James L. Stewart

Teresa Stewart Sitz sent me this information, posted by a descendant of Will's grandfather.  This is typical for what you find in the 19th Century in family histories.  But I think one can read between the lines to get an idea of Will's background, especially since he appeared to be living at home at the time this was published.  I have added what appears to be a wedding photograph of Will's parents that I found on ancestry.com.  I don't know why the font does strange things on this, but it still reads.

Biography of James L. Stewart 

This biography is from Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana, originally published in 1890 by the Southern Publishing Company, Nashville and Chicago. The information in the biographies was usually obtained from the person or family members. A fee was generally paid to place an article in the book.

James L. Stewart married Lovie Wise in 1849 in Barbour County, AL, the home of her parents.

James L. Stewart, cotton planter and farmer, Arcadia, LA. Mr. Stewart has been a resident of Bienville Parish, La., since 1859, and is recognized as one of the stalwart and representative men of the same. His honesty and integrity have never been doubted, and his genial, social disposition has shed its light over many.

He was born in Jackson County, Florida, the land of flowers, on September 27, 1827. 

His parents, James and Sarah (Tucker) Stewart, were natives of South Carolina and Georgia, born in 1795 and 1796, respectively. The father was a stock-raiser and an agriculturist, and lived to be ninety-one years of age. The mother died in May 1890. They were educated in the primitive log school-house of former days.

Their children are named in order of their births as follows: Mary T. (deceased, married and was the owner of a large amount of land in Texas), Lucinda (resides in Lincoln Parish, and became the wife of S.P. Sutton, deceased, who was a fine scholar and a successful agriculturist) Sarah J. (deceased), James L. (resides in Bienville Parish), and Candis (resides in Lincoln Parish and is single).

Mr. Stewart received the principal part of his education by the light of the "pine knot", when he would spend a considerable portion of each evening poring over his books. In this manner he fitted himself in an admirable manner for the arduous duties of life, and is an example of industry and perseverance, which any young man would do well to follow. He is a gentleman who has been familiar with toil and hard work from an early age, for he started out in life with nothing but a pair of willing hands and an unusual amount of perseverance. After two years spent on the farm he engaged in the manufacture of boots and shoes, and this continued for almost 20 years.

He was married on October 11, 1849, to Miss Lovey I. Wise, a native of Alabama, born in 1829, and who was reared and educated among the Indians. Her father, Ezekial Wise, was a native of the Old Dominion and was a farmer. The mother, whose maiden name was Winifred Bullock, was a native of Georgia. Both are deceased.

To Mr. and Mrs. Stewart have been born seven children – four living and three deceased. Those living are: E.T. (married and resides in Bienville Parish, where he is engaged as a farmer and a tanner), Selesta L. (resides in Bienville Parish and is the wife of T.J. Land, who is a first-class farmer), Ada C. (resides in Bienville Parish and is the wife of T.C. Johnson, a farmer), and Willie D. (who resides with his parents, and is an agriculturist by occupation). 

He was well educated in the common branches. During the war Mr. Stewart was the only one in his parish who had an independent detail, which was an honorary title, and a position which was an arduous and important one. Mr. Stewart has always been a Simon-pure Democrat, and his first presidential vote was cast for James K. Polk. He, with his worthy wife, belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Mr. Stewart has been superintendent in the Sunday-school for almost five years. He has also filled the same position in the home schools for three years. He has been remarkably punctual in his Sunday-school work, and was the organizer and founder of the Sunday-school in Arcadia. He asserts this fact, that during the years from 1885 to 1890, the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school increased from ninety-seven to 200 pupils, and during that time but three of the pupils have died, which is a remarkable record. Mr. Stewart is the owner of 270 acres of good land, and is one of the public-spirited citizens of the community.

Who Are We?

My wife joined ancestry.com (and I have taken full advantage of that) and likes to see how far back she can go in her family lines.  While I am also interested in that, I spend a great deal of time working on bringing the lines forward for each of my ancestors, trying to find each of their descendants.  As I once told Sharon, "You want to see who we are descended from.  I want to see what we have descended to."

Ernest Guy Stewart, my grandmother's brother, had one child, Bernie Guy Stewart (b. July 24, 1928, d. September 30, 1982).  He had one daughter, Marcia Kaye Stewart, who (according to my grandmother's records that are probably 30 years old) married Theodore Mont Case, and has two sons, Michael Mont Case and Christopher Brent Case.  I have never met Marcia, who was reportedly born in San Diego.

Thank goodness for Google.  I decided I should report my progress in searching for Will Stewart, just in case Marcia is interested (and I have no idea whether she is).  I tried Googling (Google is now a verb) Marcia Kaye Stewart Case, and I got lots of hits for a lawyer in North Carolina named Marcia Kaye Stewart (who obviously will take your case) but I was pretty sure that was not my second cousin.  I then Googled Marcia Case.  I discovered that Marcia "Showboat" Case is a character in the movie and series "Battlestar Galactica."  Interesting, but not very helpful.

I then decided to Google Theodore Mont Case.  There must only be one of him, because I soon found out that he is the president of Case & Sons Construction, Inc., a contractor in Orange County, California.  Case & Sons has a website, with pictures and biographies of Ted, his sons and vice-presidents of the corporation, Mike and Chris, and the secretary and treasurer of the corporation, Marcia "Kaye" Case.  I took the liberty of using their business e-mail to send a message to Marcia (or maybe, like me, she goes by her middle name, Kaye) introducing myself and telling her what I am doing.  I will see if she will respond.  Here is her photo from the company website.

CORRECTION: Yesterday, I stated this: "One of the links reports that James' and Lovey's son, 'Willie,' fought in the Spanish-American War, never married, and died November 16, 1956 in a V.A. hospital."

The statement was actually (and I quote): "Willie, born 1868 in LA, according to the 1870 LA census. According to Mr. and Mrs. Gordie Dance, he served in the Spanish American War. Never married, died in a Veterans Administration Hospital in Dallas and is buried in Wylie, TX."

Sharon thinks this means he never told his family that he got married and had children.  This, of course, begs the question, why?

Just because I have discovered Will's parents' names and where Will is buried does not mean the mystery has been solved.  Why did he go to Denison, Texas?  Why did he apparently have no contact with his family?  What did he do in the 53 years from the time he abandoned his young family in Roswell to the time he left Wylie, Texas to die alone in a V.A. hospital in Dallas?

BREAKING NEWS: Will Stewart's Death Certificate Found! Parents' Names Revealed!

Incredible.  This afternoon, my amazingly beautiful, talented and intuitive wife was searching the internet for her Stewart ancestors (yes, my mother-in-law's maiden name is Stewart, so I tease Sharon and tell others that I married my cousin, but we have yet to find our common ancestor).  She ran across a website dedicated to Stewarts in Texas and sent an e-mail to the owner of the website, Teresa Stewart Sitz, asking about both Will and Sharon's own Stewart dead end.  Almost immediately, Teresa responded with a copy of a death certificate.

William D. Stewart died in a V.A. hospital in Dallas, Texas on November 16, 1956.  His residence is listed in Wylie, Texas, which is in Collin County.  Collin County is immediately south of Grayson County.  His date of birth is July 5, 1869, just one year off from the date appearing on the 1900 Census.  His birthplace is listed as Arcadia, Louisiana.  Arcadia is the parish seat of Bienville Parish.

He is listed as a veteran of the Spanish-American War.  Teresa pointed out the he died alone, because the informant providing the information is a registrar from the V.A. and the information comes from V.A. hospital records.  The body was removed to a funeral home in Wylie for interment in Wylie Cemetery.

Teresa also sent Sharon a link to a website which catalogs headstones.  Sharon found this headstone in Wylie Cemetery (the only headstone for a William Stewart).

The headstone says:
William D. Stewart
CPL [Corporal] TRP [Troop] L 1 [1st] Texas Cavalry
Spanish American War
July 5, 1869     Nov 16, 1956

It's him.

The death certificate lists his father as J.L. Stewart.  Will's and Fannie's second son who died at less than one year was named James Lewis.  The death certificate lists Will's mother's name as Lovey Wise.

I went on to ancestry.com and filled in this information in Will's profile.  Will's father was named James L. Stewart.  Teresa sent some links to information about this family, which was prominent in Bienville Parish.  One of the links reports that James' and Lovey's son, "Willie," fought in the Spanish-American War, never married, and died November 16, 1956 in a V.A. hospital.

I think it is time to re-write some history.

What I Know (or What I Think I Know) About Will Stewart

My grandmother told me one time that someone (if she told me whom, I don't remember) described her father to her by saying that "he drank and he gambled."  Since everything comes in threes, I thought to myself that he probably womanized, too.  But I never said that to my grandmother.  My wife, Sharon, insists he most likely lied, also.

This leads to a bit of a problem, trying to track down a man more than 100 years after he disappeared.  All the information I have about him, even if it comes from government documents such as military records and census lists, is information he gave someone.  Thus, he just as easily could have lied to the mustering officer or the census taker as he could have to his wife and friends.

So, I think I know that William David Stewart was born in July 1870 in Louisiana.  In 1898, he was living in Denison, Grayson County, Texas.  In April of that year, the Spanish-American War began, President McKinley requested volunteers for the woefully undermanned Army, and Will, along with many other men in Denison, joined Troop L of the First Texas Volunteer Cavalry.  This unit, and those in many other states, developed into our National Guard system.

When Will joined the cavalry, he reported his birthplace as Bienville, Louisiana.  Since the town of Bienville is located in Bienville Parish, it is not clear whether Will was born in town or in the country.

Although the Spanish-American War lasted only about ten weeks, Will drilled at a fort near Houston, Texas, and achieved the rank of Corporal, until his discharge in November 1898.  On November 24, 1898 in Denison, Will married Fannie Matilda Simmons (b. February 26, 1879, d. November 12, 1959).

On January 16, 1900 in Denison, Fannie gave birth to their first child, Ernest Guy Stewart (d. December 28, 1973).  The 1900 Census enumerates this small family in Denison and records Will's occupation as a carpenter for the railroad.  This was probably the Missouri-Kansas-Texas ("Katy") Railroad, which ran through Denison.

I discovered only recently, in going through my grandmother's genealogy research, that Fannie gave birth to two other boys before my grandmother was born.  My grandmother reports that James Lewis Stewart was born in July 1901 and died May 8, 1902.  An unnamed (or unknown named) boy was born in 1902 and died the same year.  It would not be surprising if he was stillborn or died very shortly after birth.

On November 29, 1903, Fannie gave birth in Roswell, New Mexico Territory to my grandmother, Mabel Claire Stewart (d. December 28, 1998).  If my grandmother knew why the family had moved to Roswell, she did not tell me.  However, Will did not witness the birth, as he abandoned Fannie and Ernest three weeks before Mabel was born.

Two of Fannie's brothers drove a wagon and team from Denison to Roswell, a distance of around 500 miles, to pick up Fannie, her children, and her few belongings to return her to Denison.  Under Texas law at that time, Fannie had to wait seven years to file for divorce for abandonment.  The divorce was granted on August 21, 1911.  On April 10, 1912, Fannie married John Wilson "Uncle Jack" Smith, with whom she later had three children.

Except for a somewhat tantalizing message from Will delivered through a relative to Mabel many years later (and on which I will write more in a future post), that is pretty much the extent of Will's biography.  The few documents I have concerning Will reveal some finer details, or at least lead to some interesting speculation.  But who this man was, who his parents were, where he came from, and where he went, are all mysteries I hope to solve.

Who is Will Stewart?

William David Stewart was my great-grandfather, the father of my paternal grandmother, Mabel Claire Stewart.  The very little information I have about him, that my grandmother was able to discover, comes from just five and one-half years of his life, from April 1898, when he joined the First Texas Cavalry to fight in the Spanish-American War, to the first week of November 1903, when he abandoned my great-grandmother three weeks before my grandmother was born in Roswell, New Mexico Territory.  My grandmother spent a good many years trying to gather more information about her father, but every trail went nowhere.

I have re-plowed much of the same ground as my grandmother.  I think I have chased many more fruitless leads than she.  I have thought of more ideas, and I thought it might be good to keep a journal of my efforts.  I am not good at keeping journals.  But since I have never blogged before, I decided this might be a way to keep myself interested in recording what I have done and what I plan to do to try to find out who this great-grandfather was.