The Stuart family, the ancestry of which we are about to relate, is a
people coming from North Ireland to America, and most probable, they came from
Scotland. The name as first known was spelled Stewart. We do not know who made
the change in spelling, neither do we know when. John Stuart was born in North
Ireland, about the year 1756. He and two brothers went to Antwerp to enter
school when he was 15 years old. Antwerp is a seaport; the boys not being
accustomed to the sight of big boats and other seaport wonders went to see them.
John went aboard one of the vessels at a time when it was ready to sail. It
looked good to him and he went with it without telling his brothers of his
intentions of departure. He just sailed with it, not having any idea of whither
it was bound or when it would return. He was gone five years before he came
back. In 1776, he and two brothers left Ireland and came to America, settling in
Pennsylvania. The Revolutionary War was on. He was not here long when he
disappeared. Nothing was heard of him until 1780 when he was found with Gen.
Green in the Carolinas. After the Revolution he went to Virginia, remained
thereabouts two years and married. After marriage, he and his wife moved into
Kentucky. Here he met the famous Daniel Boone; disposition, condition and
association proved them fast friends. He kept moving westward until he reached
what is now Louisville. While living there, there was an Indian uprising against
the palefaces of the locality. Knowing the uncertainty of life in the time of
war John and his wife took their eight children, John, Stephen,Daniel, George,
Moses, James and two girls, their names not known, to the Indiana side of the
Ohio River where they presumed them to be safe, and went back across the river
to their white friends to help battle the Redskins. Both John and his wife were
slain, thus their children scattered in the several directions. Now this son
John went up the Ohio River above Madison to near Canaan (Indiana). In the
meantime he met a Miss Youtsey, to whom he was married; unto them in 1809 a son
was born and they gave him the name of Daniel, and about two years later a
second son was born to them and they gave him the name of Wesley. The Mother
soon died. After the death of the first wife he took unto himself a second wife
and unto them were born five children, then John died.
From this sketch and the several pages of genealogical material that
followed I was able to piece together what I believe is my branch on the Stuart
family tree:
PATERNAL LINE MATERNAL LINE
Great/great/great/great Grandparents:
John of Ireland (b. circa 1756) Wife taken in Virginia
Great/great/great Grandparents:
John Jr. (b. in Kentucky) Miss Youtsey
Great/great Grandparents:
Daniel (b. circa 1809) Rachel Phillips
Great Grandparents:
Robert Ward (b. 1831 d.1909) Luticia Scothern
Grandparents:
Henry Clay (b. 1869 d. 1956) Adelaide (Addie) Myers
Parents:
James Bonner (b.1900 d. 1958) Elizabeth Sisloff
The only thing I know about the Sisloffs, my mother Elizabeth's family, is
that her mother, whom I called Mammie, was named Maude; mother's father, whom I
called Paw Paw, was Charles. My recollection of Mammie is that she was a rather
pretentious grand dame, and that she did not like my father. I suspect
that Mammie thought that her daughter, Elizabeth, had married beneath herself. I
suspect, also, that she may have been right, if that is indeed what she thought.
I have no recollection of Paw Paw, but I believe that Paw Paw was a small time
politician, a serious drinker and perhaps an alcoholic. My mother, Elizabeth,
was their only child. My paternal Grandfather, Henry Clay Stuart, just Clay to
his wife Addie and his friends, was a hard-of-hearing mild mannered man. A
millwright by trade, he travelled all over the United States in his work, and
eventually settled about 1922 in the town of Montrose, a tiny village at that
time in the northwest foothill suburbs of Los Angeles, California where he built
a house on Waltonia Drive. He was a staunch, "rock ribbed" Republican; when
not working, on weekends, holidays and family get togethers, Clay always dressed
in three piece suits with a gold pocket watch suspended from a gold chain in his
vest pocket. In later years, after he had retired, Clay loved to sit under at
tree in his yard smoking Cotton Bowl twist tobacco in a curved stem briar pipe
while tapping out long letters on an old Oliver typewriter to his brother Curt
who was still back in Indiana on a farm. Clay was not a daily drinker but he
periodically liked to go into the town of Montrose to tipple a few in some of
the bars along Honolulu Avenue. I seem to recall that on at least one occasion
he fell and injured himself while staggering home along Waltonia Drive.
Sometime after their children were grown Addie began travelling with Clay to
his jobs. They had a Model T Ford which Addie drove, but it wasn't just in the
car that Addie was in the driver's seat. She was an eccentric, manipulative,
strong willed woman very much taken by the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, and, I
believe, she worked as a practical nurse. Addie claimed to have asthma, and no
one even presumed to light up tobacco in her presence.
After having given birth to six children (all boys), Addie had a separate
bedroom from Clay in the house on Waltonia Drive, and it is a kind
understatement to say that housekeeping was not Addie's primary interest. Her
bedroom overflowed with stacks of old newspapers as did the kitchen sink with
dirty dishes, pots and pans.
As a young child I frequently stayed overnight with Clay and Addie where I slept in the same bed with Addie, and I
remember listening with her to the radio in the early morning. She liked to
listen to a Spanish speaking station. When I asked her what the man was saying
she said, "I don't know but isn't it a beautiful sounding language." When she
eventually had to be moved out of the house into a nursing home my father and
uncles found several hundred dollars stashed among the old newspapers in her
bedroom.
One brief anecdote will reveal a little of the relationship that prevailed
between Addie and Clay. In the kitchen they had a "breakfast nook" where, when I
was staying with them, we would all eat our meals and especially breakfast. One
morning grandpa was buttering his toast and Addie said, "Look at that, he can't
even butter toast properly. He never puts the butter out to the edge of the
bread." Clay ignored her and continued buttering the toast. I'm not sure he even
heard her, but that little put down impressed me so much that I rarely butter a
piece of toast without thinking of Grandpa and Grandma Stuart.
Of the six boys born to Addie and Clay only three survived to adulthood;
twins, Harry and Harold, and my father James Bonner. Harry was involved in
insurance sales, Harold was an executive with a major Oil Company and my father,
Jim, was a musician, then a jack of all trades eventually becoming an
electrician. I know that one boy of the other three, Maurice,was killed by
drunken policemen in an auto accident on Christmas Eve. Gene McCoy © July 1998
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