MYRA BLAKEMAN NEWMAN and HER FAMILY
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MYRA BLAKEMAN NEWMAN and HER FAMILY Newmans, Stacys, Averys, Carletons & Patersons Carroll Edward Schwartz and Martha Stacy 1 2 Table of Contents Introduction Page 4 Chapter 1 Myra’s Story - A farm girl from Phelps, NY Page 5 -- Newman Family Tree Page 6 -- Map of Phelps, NY Page 13 -- Newman Pictures & Documents Page 27 Chapter 2 The Stacy Brothers and the Civil War Page 55 Chapter 3 Martha Stacy– Early New England Settlers Page 59 Chapter 4 Martha Stacy– Stacys in England & America Page 67 -- Carleton Line of Decent Page 78 -- Paterson Line of Decent Page 83 Chapter 5 Martha Stacy– Stacy Family 1888-1962 Page 89 Appendix A Ruth Bishop - Avery Line of Descent Page 119 Appendix B Martha Stacy - Stacy Family Tree Page 125 3 INTRODUCTION This book is about my mother, Myra Schwartz (née Newman) and her family history. There is a companion book about my father, Max Schwartz, titled “MAX SCHWARTZ & WWII LETTERS”. This book is an amalgamation of multiple stories that I have written and gathered separately over the years so it has a somewhat strange structure. I have chosen to combine these multiple writings into one book so that anyone who inherits this has a lot of family history put together in one place. I am writing this primarily for those who come after me, my daughter (Jennifer Ann Schwartz McClain) and now my granddaughters (Sabrina McClain & Natalie McClain). Chapter 1 is the story of my mother, Myra Newman, whose family ran a farm in Phelps, NY. They had a hard time when their father died in 1935 during the “Great Depression”. Chapter 2 talks about my great grandfather, Timothy Stacy, (my grandmother, Ella Stacy’s father) who along with his three brothers fought for the Union in the American Civil War at Gettysburg, Chattanooga and in Sherman’s march to the sea. Ella’s grandfather (John Thomas Smith) also fought in a Maine unit for the Union. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 – Were written by my grandmother’s sister, Martha Stacy, who was born in 1890; never married; went to Japan as a missionary and when she returned to the U.S. decided to do genealogical research and write a family history. In the 1960s she wrote what she had learned and had copies mimeographed. The blue print in the mimeographed copy of her work that I have is becoming illegible so I have entered it into the computer to preserve it for the future. Appendix A – Avery Line of descent based on a letter from Mrs. Benjamin Bishop, Phelps, NY to my mother Myra Newman Appendix B – Martha Stacy’s Stacy Family Tree. The original was put together by Martha Stacy in 1962 and then updated with help from Walter Stacy in the 1990s. Special thanks to Noel Doherty, (CEO of the Goodway Group of MA, INC), for providing many helpful suggestions and printing this book. 4 Chapter 1 – Myra’s Story - A farm girl from Phelps, NY THE NEWMAN FAMILY My mother’s sister Elizabeth (Newman) Secor visited me (Carroll Edward Schwartz) in August of 2000. We realized that as the sole survivor of the three sisters who had grown up together on a farm in Phelps, New York that she was the only remaining witness to their lives in that period. The following information is mostly from her memories of that time with some information inserted from my memories of my mother’s ( Myra Blakeman Newman Schwartz) stories and documents, such as obituaries. In September of 2001 Elizabeth and I returned to Phelps to visit her cousin, Elizabeth Carol (Lawrence) Fox, who is the daughter of Arvilla Stacy who was Ella Stacy’s sister. We visited the graveyard in Phelps where generations of Newmans and Avery’s are buried from my grandfather’s (Mortie Newman) side of the family. The old Newman farm where my mother and her sisters were born had been bought by a neighbor. The farmhouse is gone but the barn remains. The “Five Waters” roadhouse that was run by my grandfather’s brother remains but is now the home of the local Farmer’s Grange. All told Phelps is still a small town with many pretty old buildings and a single stoplight in the center of town. My grandfather and great grandfather’s generation My great grandfather, Nelson Edward Newman, was born in Chatham, Columbia County, New York on January 5th, 1832. In 1856 he was engaged in the grocery business at Westbury, New York. He came to Phelps, New York and on February 6, 1863 he married Esther Christina Avery of Phelps who was born in May 23,1836. He worked as a farmer until his death at age 69 on June 2, 1901. They had five children Libbie Newman (born 12/18/1863) who died (8/1/1883) at 19 of tuberculosis, Charlie E. Newman (born 3/1/1872) who died (6/10/1872) at 3 months, Mortie Blakeman Newman (born July 21, 1873), Avery Newman (born February 16,1875 ), and Ray C Newman (born February 24,1880). Most of this information comes from a copy of a letter written in 1895 by Nelson Edward Newman to a relative of his, the Reverend John Newman, in Iowa. Nelson Edward Newman had a sister, Mary June Newman who married a Ransler Stedman. Their only surviving child, Ida Stedman, born in 1859, married Clifford Wilber. He had one child Edgar Wilbur from a previous marriage. Edgar and Blanche Wilber owned a farm and were referred to by my mother as the Wilbers. 5 6 The above photograph was probably was taken in the 1890s. It shows Nelson sitting in front of the farmhouse with his three sons; Ray as a teenager standing next to a horse, Avery standing next to another horse and Mortie sitting on a plow harnessed to a team of two horses. Only the barn remains today. The obituary says that Nelson was a successful farmer. Nelson and the three boys probably worked on the farm at that time. Ray Newman with Footlight 7 The farm was about 1 mile from the village of Phelps, which is about 4 miles from Clifton Springs, NY. Phelps is about 40 miles east of Rochester and near Geneva, NY. The farm was probably a little over 100 acres. It was called the Star Farm in a 1907 advertisement offering the stud services of a registered thoroughbred Hackney stud named Footlight (15 hands 2 inches high, weighing 1150 pounds at two years) whose ancestor Fandango had won many prizes. His services cost $25. Elizabeth does not remember the horses. My Grandfather, Mortie Newman, Marries Ella Stacy My grandmother, Ella Edmonia Stacy (born July 27, 1879 in Merrimac, MA to a shoemaker named Timothy Augustus Stacy - 46 & Mary Elizabeth Smith- 27). This information is on her birth certificate a copy of which can be found in the back. Ella had taken nurses training at the Clifton Springs Sanitarium and graduated as a registered nurse in 1907. After graduation she spent a year as a college nurse at Lake Erie College but was unhappy with her job and returned to the Clifton Springs Sanitarium to work. In 1908 some friends took her for a visit to the Newman farm in Phelps to see the horses and she met Mortie. After a courtship of 1½ years they married on June 11, 1910. 8 Ella cared for Mortie’s sick mother, Esther, who was an invalid. When Ella was about to deliver her first child she wanted to go to the hospital in Clifton Springs for the delivery. However, Esther insisted that she stay at the farm to care for her. In May of 1911 a baby boy named Selden was born. The childbirth was difficult (breech delivery) and he lived for three days. Ella grieved for this lost child for the rest of her life and felt that her mother-in-law Esther was not very sympathetic about the death of Selden. Later in life she had the baby’s stone moved so that it would rest next to her husband’s and her own grave. Mortie’s mother Esther died April 25, 1913 at the age of 76. Mortie and Ella had three daughters; Elizabeth Esther Newman (11/6/1913), Myra Blakeman Newman (4/20/1916) and Christina Avery Newman (9/21/1917). The girls spent their early years on the farm. They raised potatoes, corn, wheat, oats, hay, had 9 a few milking cows and an apple orchard. This was a typical farmhouse with a cistern in the basement that collected water from the roof for washing that could be pumped into the kitchen. There was a windmill that pumped water from a well for drinking and watering the livestock. The facilities were an outhouse (3 hole) connected to the wood shed. Kerosene lamps and lanterns provided lighting. Elizabeth remembers going to church in a horse drawn buggy in the summer and a cutter in the winter. Mortie, Myra, Ella and Elizabeth 10 Very early in life Elizabeth learned not to share her feelings with her mother. As the older sister she was expected take responsibility for the younger children but not to express her own feelings or opinions. My impression is that her mother, Ella, was a very stern, determined Methodist lady who was certain that she knew what was right and what was right did not include anything that might be considered fun. I think all three sisters bore emotional scars from their early years. Myra, Christy and Elizabeth Uncle Avery ran a gas station and roadhouse called the “Five Waters”.