House of Samuel

Samuel and his wife Anna Gilliland appear to have settled on his father's land in the Bethany community, where they lived all their lives. They had a family of six daughters and five sons. Anna died in 1833 at age 44, when her youngest child, Sarah Ann, was four years old. She is said to be buried in the old Stewart-Gilliland burying ground not far from Bethany Presbyterian Church, which was founded the year she died.

There is no record that Samuel ever married again. In the years after about 1850, he was the only one of the seven Stewart brothers and half-brothers left in the Bethany area, the others having removed either to Georgia or to the Fountain Inn area in upper Laurens and lower Greenville counties. (4 Walter Stewart, Jr. died in 1842.) How he managed to provide for his large family may forever be a mystery to anyone who walks over the steep rocky farmland left by his father, but he lived out his long life on the land and died in 1866 at age 85. He is buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church, where he and several of his children were members for many years. Like many old graves in the cemetery, his is no longer marked by a stone.

Five of Samuel and Anna's children died without issue. The oldest son, 12 Robert G. Stewart, died as a child of nine and is thought to be buried near his mother in the Stewart-Gilliland burying ground. 19 Samuel T. Stewart, who never married, died at age 30 and is buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church. 18 James W. Stewart served in the Civil War, was killed in action at age 41 at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and is buried in the National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Like his brother 17 John F. Stewart, he served as a private in Company E, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade).

Samuel and Anna's two unmarried daughters, 14 Nancy and her younger sister 1.10. Martha Stewart, lived all their lives at their parents' homeplace. Martha died in 1873 at age 46, and Nancy in 1885 at age 71. Both are buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church. Nancy, the elder of the two sisters, appears to have been the mistress of the household after her mother's death in 1833. (Her two older sisters married and left home around the same time.) According to an old resident of the Bethany community, the home was a large two-story farmhouse up the hill to the right of a recently constructed barn that in 1982 stood on the property (see Bethany map). Not long before her death in 1885, Nancy wrote a will. (She was the first known member of the entire Walter Stewart family to do so.) In her will she left her property, passed down to her from her father and her grandfather, Walter Stewart, Sr., to her only surviving brother, 17 John F. Stewart of the Harmony community near Fountain Inn. The land eventually passed from him and his heirs into other hands, but it was known locally for many years as "the old Nancy Stewart place."

Samuel and Ann's oldest child, 11 Jane Stewart, married Alexander McKelvey and settled in Georgia, with descendants last known living in Douglas County not far from Atlanta. 16 Walter Monroe Stewart married Sallie Garrett and settled in Forsyth County in north central Georgia, with many descendants still found in the area.

The families of three of Samuel and Anna's children settled in the Harmony community near Fountain Inn: 13 Mary Ann Stewart (m. Isaac Henry), 15 Rachel Ross Stewart (m. Benjamin Newman), and 17 John F. Stewart, whose wives included Mary A. Dial, the widow of his double first cousin 32 Robert Gilliland Stewart. The youngest child, 1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart, married James Monroe Donnan and settled in the Sandy Springs community about four miles from Bethany Presbyterian Church. Sarah Ann and her children were the only descendants of Walter Stewart, Sr. who stayed in the immediate area where the family settled after coming to America from Ireland.


11 Jane Stewart

Jane Stewart was the oldest child of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. She was born in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC in 1808, and was the first grandchild in the Walter Stewart Family.

Jane was the only grandchild her Irish grandmother, Mary Ross Stewart, could have lived to see. By the time the next one was born (in the fall of 1810), Mary Ross was missing from the household of her husband, Walter Stewart, Sr., according to the Census of 1810.

As a young woman Jane married Alexander McKelvey, who may have been the son of a John McKelvey, the only McKelvey head of household listed in the 1790 Census for Laurens County. Jane and Alexander named their first child John Pinckney McKelvey. He was born on September 12, 1833, a few weeks before the death of Jane's mother, Anna Gilliland Stewart.

Not much is known about Jane and Alexander McKelvey. They appear to have "gone West" to Georgia, like Jane's grandfather and others in the Bethany community. However, Jane and her husband do not appear to have settled near other members of the Stewart family in Georgia. An old notation in the family records says she is buried near Albany in southwest Georgia (Dougherty County). There is no record of any children after her son John, which suggests that she may have died young.

An old letter in the family records indicates that later descendants of Jane and Alexander McKelvey lived in Douglas County, Georgia. The letter is found on the next page.


1 Samuel Stewart

11 Jane Stewart

111 John Pinckney McKelvey

John Pinckney McKelvey was the only recorded son of Jane Stewart and Alexander McKelvey. He was born in 1833, place uncertain, but possibly in the Bethany community of Laurens County, SC before his parents removed to Georgia.

In 1853 John P. McKelvey married Lucinda J. Couch, by whom he had three children. On February 25, 1861, not long before the birth of their third child, he enlisted and served throughout the Civil War as a private in Company A, 56th Regiment, Georgia Infantry, which saw action throughout the war in east Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and the Carolinas. In his Confederate military record, his place of enlistment is shown as "Campbell and Coweta Counties, Georgia," west of Atlanta.

John seems to have returned after the war to this area, where he lived for many years. (Georgia county lines and names have changed a great deal over the years, making locations hard to pinpoint.) In the family records there is an old letter from John S. Bobo to his cousin, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC. This Clark Berry Stewart, founder of the House of Clark, was John P. McKelvey's great-uncle. The "J.P. McKelvey" mentioned in the letter appears to be John Pinckney McKelvey. Other than this letter, we have no information on where John and his family lived in later years.

Douglasville, Georgia

October 25, 1876

Mr. C.B. Stewart
Dear Cousin. I wrote you a line or toe for the purpose of finding out your whereabouts as I have not known since the war, where you live. This will inform you that I am still living. And am blessed with common health for a person of my age. I live 20 miles west of Atlanta and 20 mi. southwest of Marietta and live near Douglasville, the county cite of Douglas county, a new county made since the war closed. I moved to this place in 1852. Bitsey and me had raised seven children. All to be grown and all are married two has died since and left families. Our connexion are Scattered and ded so that i have but little knowledge of but few. Except my own family. I live near one of your relatives, J.P. McKelvey, his father also lives near me. If you should receive this, please write me without delay and I will write more fully.

Yours v c

J.S. Bobo

(Clark Berry Stewart answered his cousin's letter. See 4 James R. Stewart for J.S. Bobo's newsy reply.)


1 Samuel Stewart

13 Mary Ann Stewart

Mary Ann Stewart was the third child of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. She was born in 1812 in the Bethany community of Laurens County, SC, probably at her parents' home about a mile behind the present site of Bethany Presbyterian Church.

In 1834, about a year after her mother's death, Mary Ann married Isaac R. Henry of the Bethany community. Mary Ann's uncle, 6 Clark Berry Stewart (almost her same age), notes in his journal that he visited them in Bethany one July morning in 1840, on his way from 1 Samuel Stewart's house to 2 John Stewart's house. A few days later he mentions that "Mrs. Margaret Henry" (possibly Isaac's mother) joined Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Mary Ann and Isaac appear to have lived in the Bethany community for several years after they were married. Then, like several other families in the community, they moved to the Fountain Inn area about 20 miles northwest of Bethany, settling in the Harmony community in upper Laurens County. They joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church by certificate from Bethany Presbyterian Church on December 27, 1846, being the 35th and 36th members on roll. Isaac was elected elder at New Harmony in 1864, and he and Mary Ann are both buried there. Their home stood not far from the church.

Mary Ann and Isaac Henry had a family of three sons and a daughter, Sallie. Sons Samuel and Isaac Franklin Henry (and future son-in-law Alexander Singleton Owings) all enlisted early in the Civil War as privates in Company G, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade). Samuel and Isaac Franklin Henry were both wounded at the Battle of Washington Court House in Virginia in July 1862, Isaac on the 26th and Samuel on the 27th. Both were moved to Louisiana Hospital in Richmond, where it is recorded that Samuel died of his wounds on July 29th. Isaac Franklin died in the same hospital four months later, on November 26, 1862. Both are buried at the Confederate Cemetery in Richmond.

"Sing" Owings survived the war and returned to marry Sallie Henry. Mary Ann and Isaac's son Robert Leland Henry also served in the war, and he too returned safely to his wife and young family.


1 Samuel Stewart

13 Mary Ann Stewart

132 Robert Leland Henry

Robert Leland Henry was the second child of Mary Ann Stewart and Isaac R. Henry. He was born in the Bethany community of Laurens County, SC in 1837, and as a child moved with his family to the Harmony community (upper Laurens County) near Fountain Inn.

Land, as he was called, grew up to be an unusually tall and handsome young man. (He is shown on the picture of the Chief and Subchiefs at the 1907 Stewart Reunion.)

At age 24, he married 16-year-old Othello Melissa Martin, the only daughter of a Martin family of the Rocky Springs community in Laurens County.

In 1862, not long after the birth of their first child, Land left to serve in the Civil War. He enlisted in Company B, 6th Regiment, SC Infantry, and was promoted to sergeant and transferred to Company E, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade), where he saw action at Gettysburg, Chancellorsville, and elsewhere during the war. Land was promoted to 2nd lieutenant on November 1, 1862, and was listed as wounded on January 1, 1863 (battle not given). He surrendered with his unit at Goldsboro, NC in May 1865.

Toward the end of the war Land's wife Othello and her mother joined New Harmony Presbyterian Church on the same day that Land's father was elected as an elder. The following entry is found in the Minutes of the Session of the church:

Saturday February 27 -- 1864. Session met present Rev. E.F. Hyde moderator and David Stoddard ruling elder constuted by prayer Letters of dismission from Rocky Spring Church were presented by Mrs. Nancy Martin and Mrs. Othella M. Henry who were recived as members of this church and there names enrolled According to previous appointment a Sermon was preached on the nature and duties of the office of ruling Elders and Isaac R. Henry was elected to the offic of ruling elder & having signified his acceptance it was ordered that his ordination take place tomorrow...

David Stoddard

Cl. New Harmony Ss.

After the war, Land Henry returned safely to the Harmony community, where he and Othello appear to have lived until after the birth of their fourth child, John Watts Henry, who was baptized at the church at the age of seven months on June 27, 1869.

During the 1870s Land and Othello moved to nearby Woodruff in Spartanburg County, where they lived near Nesbit's Bridge between Woodruff and Gray Court. They were charter members of the First Presbyterian Church (founded 1877) in Woodruff. Land was one of the first two elders to be elected in the newly organized church.

In later years Land and Othello brought their family of nine sons and three daughters back to the Fountain Inn area, where they lived for a time in the Durbin community. Finally they built a home (still standing in 1982) in nearby Owings Station south of Fountain Inn, just across Highway 276 from the present Owings railroad depot. Land was elected elder at New Harmony Presbyterian Church in 1893. He was elected as a Subchief at the first Stewart Reunion held at the church in 1907, an office which he held until his death at age 73 in 1910. Othello died in 1926 at age 81, and is buried with Land at New Harmony Presbyterian Church.


1 Samuel Stewart

13 Mary Ann Stewart

133 Sarah A. Henry

Sarah A. Henry, born in 1839, was the only daughter of Mary Ann Stewart and Isaac R. Henry. Like her three brothers, she was born in Laurens County, SC, probably in the Bethany community where her parents lived for a number of years after their marriage. Sallie, as she was called, was about seven years old when the family moved to the New Harmony community near Fountain Inn, SC. They lived in a house not far from New Harmony Presbyterian Church, where Sallie's father Isaac Henry (and later her brother Leland) were elders.

All three of Sallie's brothers served in the Civil War. Two of them--Samuel and young Isaac Franklin Henry--were killed while serving as privates in Company G, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade). Also serving as a private in this same company was Alexander Singleton Owings ("Sing"), who returned safely from the war and married Sallie a few months later. Sing Owings was probably related to the extended Owings family that settled in the old Powers Shop (later Owings) community between Fountain Inn and Gray Court.

Sallie and Sing Owings had a family of four daughters, three of whom died as young girls. (The old family records say that all three died of tuberculosis.) Sallie herself died in 1875 at age 36, less than two years after the birth of her fourth child. She is buried at New Harmony Presbyterian Church. Sing outlived her by many years and died in 1902 at age 70. His place of burial is not known.

Sallie and Sing's only surviving child, Della Owings, married George E. Moore and lived to be 84 years old, but had no children. Della and her husband are buried in Gray Court at old Dorroh Presbyterian Church, founded in 1885 by a group of 11 members of New Harmony Presbyterian Church.


1 Samuel Stewart

15 Rachel Ross Stewart

Rachel Ross Stewart was the fifth child of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. She was born in 1816 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC. She was probably named "Rachel" after Anna Gilliland's sister, Rachel Gilliland (who later married Samuel's brother 3 Robert Stewart) and "Ross" after her grandmother, Mary Ross (wife of Walter Stewart, Sr., founder of the Walter Stewart Family).

In 1843 Rachel married Benjamin J. Newman, who according to family tradition was the son of a family of Newmans living in a house to the left of Bethany Presbyterian Church. Benjamin and Rachel settled nearby. In his journal for 1849, Rachel's uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, mentions buying 110 bushels of cottonseed from Benjamin Newman for 8¢ a bushel. (Benjamin dropped the charge for him from $8.80 to $8.75.)

Rachel and Benjamin had a family of three children: Caroline, Samuel, and Mattie Newman. Rachel died in 1857 at age 41, a few months after the birth of little Mattie. She is buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

The Civil War started four years after Rachel's death. Benjamin was among the first to enlist. He served throughout the war as a private in Company E, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade). His unit was sent shortly after it was formed to Charleston, SC, where it remained until after the firing on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, the action which started the war. The 3rd Regiment of Kershaw's Brigade later fought with the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee, and it saw action from the First Battle of Manassas until its surrender at Goldsboro, NC on April 15, 1865.

Benjamin Newman returned safely from the war, and later settled with his three children on a farm in the Harmony community near Fountain Inn, not far from Rachel's sister Mary Ann and her husband Isaac Henry. Benjamin later married a second wife, Elizabeth Henderson, who outlived him by many years and later lived with his daughter Caroline and her husband, John Thomas Farrow. Elizabeth had no children of her own, but later descendants say the children in the family always remembered her affectionately as "Grannie."

Many of Rachel and Benjamin's descendants still live in the Fountain Inn-Greenville area and, like Benjamin, tend to be Baptists. He and his three children are buried at Harmony Baptist Church in the same cemetery as their Presbyterian relatives.


1 Samuel Stewart

15 Rachel Ross Stewart

151 Margaret Caroline Newman

Margaret Caroline Newman was the daughter of Benjamin J. Newman and Rachel Ross Stewart. She was born in 1844 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC and later lived in the Harmony community in upper Laurens County near Fountain Inn.

Caroline was 13 years old when her mother died. When she was 17, her father left to serve in the Civil War for several years. During this time, she and her younger brother and sister probably lived with relatives, possibly in the Harmony community where her father lived in later years after his return from the war.

Caroline married John Thomas Farrow, the oldest son of Marion Levi Farrow (1821-1894) and Margaret Ann Cox (1823-1865) of the Fountain Inn area. John Thomas Farrow was a descendant of the "Fighting Farrows" up upcountry South Carolina, as they had been known since Revolutionary War days. His Scotch-Irish great-great grandfather, John Farrow, Sr., settled on the east bank of the Enoree River in the 1760s not far from the Bethany community. Five sons in the family fought in the Revolution. Three of them, it is said, were captured by the British during skirmishing in the area. Rosanna Waters Farrow, the widowed mother of the family, received word that her three sons would be hanged if not exchanged two for one for British prisoners captured during the Battle of Musgrove Mill near the Bethany community. Rosanna mounted a horse, rode posthaste to the Patriot camp near Fair Forest in Spartanburg County, was given six British prisoners and a guard, and rode with them to the British encampment at Ninety-Six in Laurens County. She exchanged the six British soldiers for her sons, the eldest of whom was 20 years old, and rode off with them after some spirited words on the appropriateness of exchanging six Redcoats for three Farrows. All five of her sons survived the Revolution and were the forebears of numerous Farrows who fought in later wars.

John Thomas Farrow was 19 years old when the Civil War began. His military record is missing from the National Archives, which are known to be incomplete for the Confederacy. However, later descendants obtained the following statement from the Honorable Oliver G. Thompson, an old Civil War comrade of "the Fountain Inn men" and later probate judge of Laurens County:

Writing from personal knowledge, I never knew a better man than John Thomas Farrow. True in the home, in Church, in Society, loyal and brave in war, was three times wounded. He served in the 3rd S.C. Battalion, which, with its 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th, and 15th S.C. Regiments, constituted the Brigade of Gen. J.B. Kershaw, McLaw's Division, Longstreet's Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, and fought in all the Campaigns in Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, fought at Chickamauga and Knoxville. In the last days of the Confederacy, the old brigade was transferred to South Carolina, and fought Sherman's army at the time of the burning of Columbia, and at "Bentonville," (North Carolina), and surrendered with Joseph E. Johnstone at Greensboro, N.C., April 26, 1865. No finer body of troops than Kershaw's Brigade were ever organized for battle.

O.G. Thompson

John Thomas Farrow returned from the Civil War, and in 1869 married Caroline Newman. They lived for some time in nearby Pelzer in Anderson County, returning in later years to live in the Harmony community in a house built for John Thomas by his brother, Jefferson Marion Farrow ("General"), who was a carpenter. The house was still standing in 1982 near Harmony Baptist Church, where Caroline and John are buried. The old records of the church show that John served as Church Clerk. Caroline was one of the early presidents of the Women's Missionary Society at the church, as was her daughter Mittie after her.

Caroline and John Farrow had a large family of twelve children, four of whom died as infants. Their only surviving son, Thomas D. Farrow ("T." Farrow), never married, and lived for many years at the old Farrow homeplace in the Harmony community. He was a car salesman in Greenville, SC until his death in 1941 at age 61. He is buried at Harmony Baptist Church.


1 Samuel Stewart

15 Rachel Ross Stewart

152 Samuel Taylor Newman

Samuel Taylor Newman was the second child and only son of Benjamin J. Newman and Rachel Ross Stewart of Laurens County, SC. He was born in 1847 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, not far from the homeplace of his great-grandfather Walter Stewart, Sr. who came to America from northern Ireland.

Sam was nine years old when his mother died, and 13 when his father Benjamin Newman left to serve in the Civil War for four years. Sam and his two young sisters probably lived with relatives during the war, possibly in the Harmony community near Fountain Inn, SC, where their father lived in later years.

As a young man of 20, Sam married Margaret E. Hughes, the 19-year-old daughter of Lucinda Bruce and George T. Hughes of Jones Mill Road near Fountain Inn. (The old Jones Mill itself stood on property that had been in the Hughes family for many years.)

Sam and Margaret moved to nearby Greenville, the county seat of Greenville County. The town of Greenville saw an explosive growth in population from less than 3000 about the time they were married (1867) to over 20,000 in the early 1900s. Greenville became the most important railroad center in the upper part of the state (and there were "many attractive bar rooms," notes the City Directory for 1888). Sam became a policeman for the bustling little city of Greenville. An old clipping from "The Greenville News" (Dec. 30, 1921) shows the Greenville City Police Force for 1884-1885, lined up in front of the old City Hall, billy clubs ready in their hands. Sam shows up as a short, stocky man with a handlebar moustache, his round face fringed by a dark beard. A young man who appears to be Sam's oldest son, Henry Leroy Newman, appears in the background of the picture. (Unfortunately, the picture was too faded for reproduction in this book.)

Sam and Margaret lived in Greenville for many years and reared a family of two sons and five daughters. They are buried at Harmony Baptist Church near Fountain Inn, SC.


1 Samuel Stewart

15 Rachel Ross Stewart

153 Martha Jane Newman

Martha Jane Newman (Mattie) was the third and youngest child of Rachel Ross Stewart and Benjamin J. Newman. She was born in 1857 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC. Her mother, who died a few months after she was born, is buried at old Bethany Presbyterian Church about a mile from where the Walter Stewart family first settled after coming to America from northern Ireland.

It is not certain who took care of baby Mattie after her mother's death. Her only sister, Caroline Newman, was twelve years old when their mother died. Their father left four years later to serve in the Civil War. His three young children apparently lived with relatives during these years, possibly in the Harmony community near Fountain Inn, SC where the family lived in later years after Benjamin married again. Family tradition says that young Mattie Newman taught school in the Gowansville community, which was in the "Dark Corner" in upper South Carolina where Greenville and Spartanburg counties join the North Carolina line. Gowansville took its name from revolutionary Gowan's Fort, which stood in the center of an area said to be a later haven for lawless types who could slip across nearby state and county lines and thus elude officers of the law, including Revenuers.

Mattie married young Adolphus Berlin Norman (Dock), who was the son of Sarah Anderson (2nd wife) and the Rev. John Lemuel Norman, who was the pastor of Gowansville Baptist Church (founded 1820, one of the earliest in the area). The Norman family is said to be descended from one of three Norman brothers who came to this country from England.

Mattie and Dock settled near Greer in Greenville County, where Dock farmed and operated a sawmill. They had a family of three young sons when Mattie died in 1882 at age 25--like her mother, not long after the birth of her third child. She is buried at Harmony Baptist Church near Fountain Inn.

Dock Newman later married a young widow named Emma Crain Aiken, by whom he had two daughters, Minnie Lee and Jessie Lavinia Norman. He is buried at Gowansville Baptist Church near Gowansville.


1 Samuel Stewart

16 Walter Monroe Stewart

Walter Monroe Stewart was the sixth child and oldest surviving son of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. He was born in 1818 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC at his parents' homeplace about a mile from the present site of Bethany Presbyterian Church.

At age 27, Walter Monroe Stewart married 24-year-old Sallie Garrett, eldest of 15 children of John Miles Garrett (1803-1891) and Nancy Owings (called "Manicy," rhymes with "Dicey") of Laurens County. Sallie was a sister of Miles Rainwater Garrett (see 323 John Marion Garrett) and was related to the other old Laurens County Garrett families who intermarried with the Walter Stewart Family. Sallie and her brother Miles were great-grandchildren of Edward Garrett (1722-1794) and Ann Ousley (1744-1823), who came from Virginia and settled on Warrior's Creek in Laurens County about 1767. This area is not far from the Bethany community where Walter Monroe Stewart was born.

Walter and Sallie Garrett Stewart had seven children, five daughters and two sons. Several of them bear the names of Sallie's brothers and sisters. She appears to have named her children after her sisters Pamelia (born 1824, married Ruben Denton), Rachel (born 1835, married Austin Cheek), and Martha (born 1839, married Alberry Buton). and her brothers John Alvin (born 1842, married Mary Lou Cox), and Rice O'Neal, (born 1844, married Fannie Castleberry).

In the 1850 Census for Laurens County, Walter and Sallie and their infant daughter Pamelia are found living not far from Walter's father, 1 Samuel Stewart, in the Bethany community. Walter's occupation is listed as "overseer." A good guess is that he and his little family were living on the homeplace of his deceased uncle and aunt, 5 Walter Stewart, Jr. and Sallie Temple, whose young orphaned children were living nearby with their Templeton grandparents. This property, immediately behind Bethany Presbyterian Church, Was sold in 1854.

Walter and Sallie joined the general migration out of the Bethany community in the 1850s, probably leaving with Sallie's Garrett relatives. They settled in Forsyth County, Georgia near the town of Cumming, not far from Sallie's parents, who also left Laurens County and settled there. Walter and Sallie's first son, 162 Wister O'Neal Stewart, was born in Forsyth County in 1852. On December 31, 1855, Walter's uncle, Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, mentions in his journal a visit from "W.M. Stewart from Georgia," whom he seems to have encountered at the home of 2 John Stewart near the old Fountain Inn stagecoach stop.

Walter and Sallie are buried at old Bethlehem Baptist Church in the Bethel View community four miles southwest of Cumming, Georgia (Forsyth County). Also buried in the same cemetery are Sallie's parents, John Miles Garrett and Nancy (Manicy) Owings.

Only two of Walter and Sallie's seven children had issue: their son 162 Wister O'Neal Stewart, and their daughter 164 Nancy Ann Stewart - who, like her grandmother Nancy Owings Garrett, was always called "Manicy." Wister O'Neal Stewart married and lived down across the Gwinnett County line in Buford for a time, but he is buried in the Cumming City Cemetery in Forsyth County. Nancy Ann Stewart (married Truman S. Bennett) remained in the Bethel View community where her parents are buried.

In later years, 167 Alvin Stewart, the bachelor brother and youngest in the family, bought "the James place" in the Bethel View community near Cumming and provided a home for his maiden sisters 165 Mattie and 166 Rachel Stewart, who were joined by their sister 164 Othello ("Thelly") after the death of her husband Bascomb Fowler in 1926. The three sisters and their brother Alvin all lived to be over 80 years old, and are remembered with great affection by later descendants. Their tall one-story house still stands in 1982 on the property of 16482 Lyndal Eugene Bennett, whose father Luther Bennett looked after the needs of his bachelor uncle and his household of sisters in their old age. Next door lived their sister 164 Nancy Stewart and her husband Truman Bennett and their family.

Although 16 Walter Monroe Stewart died in 1869, his family appears to have kept in touch with their Laurens County relatives for many years; Sallie Garrett Stewart lived to reach age 87 and died in 1910. Later descendants found in 167 Alvin Stewart's homeplace a number of mysterious Farrow pictures dating from the turn of the century. The pictures showed a handsome collection of young men and women decked out in their Sunday finery. These proved to be the Laurens County children of Walter's niece, 151 Margaret Caroline Newman, and her husband John Thomas Farrow. Also found was a picture of 3221 Lillie Mae Stewart (born 1882), a charming little girl with dark curls, the oldest step-granddaughter of 16 Walter's only surviving brother, 17 John F. Stewart of Fountain Inn, SC. The family gradually lost all memory of its South Carolina roots, and was "re-discovered" in 1982 through contacts with 164321 Tony Bennett and 16483 LaVon Hall Bennett.


1 Samuel Stewart

16 Walter Monroe Stewart

162 Wister O'Neal Stewart

Wister O'Neal Stewart was the second child and oldest son of Walter Monroe Stewart and Sallie Garrett. He was born in 1852, probably near Cumming, Georgia (Forsyth County) not long after his parents moved there from the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC.

According to available records, Wis Stewart was a farmer. As a young man, he married Nancy Nalley (parents not known). Wis and Nancy were the parents of six children - three girls and three boys all said to have been born in Forsyth County.

Wis's wife Nancy died in 1906, just short of her 63rd birthday, when their youngest child was about 20 years old. She is buried in the Cumming City Cemetery in Cumming.

According to the oldest records of the Stewart Family compiled about the time of the first Walter Stewart reunion in 1907 - Wis Stewart was living in or near Buford, Georgia (north Gwinnett County), about 10 miles southeast of Cumming. In these old records, his children are listed but with no record of dates of birth. A handwritten notation at the bottom of the page states "house burnt and destroyed records."

Sometime in the years after Nancy NalleyÕs death, Wis Stewart married a second time to young Emily Cheek, by whom he had one child, a daughter named Mary Almer Stewart. At last report Wis lived in the Haw Creek community three miles southeast of Cumming on the Buford (Dam?) road. He became something of a wanderer in his old age, it is said, and his second wife Emily left him, taking her young daughter with her. Wis Stewart died in 1935 at age 81 and is buried in the Cumming City Cemetery.

Four of Wis Stewart's children by his first wife, Nancy Nalley, married Pruitts, of an extensive family of Pruitts living in the Cumming area. Three of the marriages appear to involve the unusual case of three brothers and sisters marrying three brothers and sisters. According to available records, Mary Pruitt (married 1621 Jefferson Davis Stewart), George Washington Pruitt (married 1622 Viola Josephine Stewart), and Sarah T. Pruitt (married 1624 Walter O'Neal Stewart) were the children of Patience (Pacie) Payne and John Pruitt. Henry Franklin Pruitt (married 1623 Dora Alamanda Stewart) was the son of Mary and Jack Pruitt. All four of these Stewart-Pruitt couples lived in the Cumming area in Forsyth County.

Wister O'Neal Stewart and his first cousin, 174 Robert Walter Stewart (Bob Footsy) of the Lanford Station community in Laurens County, SC, were the only male descendants with issue in the entire House of Samuel - thus in 1982, the surname of Stewart is carried in this House only by their descendants. Interestingly enough, later descendants in both Georgia and South Carolina make identical reports on both of them: each "walked everywhere he went."


1 Samuel Stewart

16 Walter Monroe Stewart

164 Nancy Ann Stewart

Nancy Ann Stewart (Manicy) was the fourth child of Walter Monroe Stewart and Sallie Garrett. She was born in 1858 near Cumming, Georgia (Forsyth County) a few years after her parents left South Carolina and settled there. She bears the same name as her maternal grandmother, Nancy Owings Garrett, and like her grandmother was always called "Manicy."

As a young woman, Manicy Stewart married Truman Sanford Bennett, the son of Frances Delong and Cooper S. Bennett of the Hog Mountain community in forth Gwinnett County (see 4 James Stewart). Manicy and Truman settled near Manicy's widowed mother in the Bethel View community in Forsyth County, about 20 miles from Truman's home. They acquired a two story house on another part of the James property that Manicy's bachelor brother Alvin Stewart later bought - in later years, the homes of the sister and brother were side by side. Here Manicy and Truman farmed and reared their family of seven children. (The eighth, one of a pair of twins, died at birth.) To accommodate their growing family, Truman and Manicy later built an addition to their original home. After they passed on, their youngest son Luther bought the old homeplace from his brothers and sisters and reared his own five children there.

Truman and Manicy are buried at old Bethlehem Baptist Church near Cumming, where they were members for many years. Their home, and the old home of Alvin Stewart, are both still standing in the Bethel View community in 1982. The homes are located about four miles southwest of Cumming, 1/4 mile from the intersection of US 19 and State Route 141 (from Cumming, turn right on SR 141).

The descendants of Manicy Stewart and Truman Bennett gather at the nearby home of 16483 Larry and LaVon Hall Bennett each year on the third Sunday in September for a family reunion. For more details, contact Larry H. Bennett, Route 4 Bethelview Road, Cumming, GA 30130.


1 Samuel Stewart

17 John F. Stewart

John F. Stewart was the seventh child of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. He was born in 1820 in the Bethany community of Laurens County, SC. He was one of only two sons of Samuel Stewart to have issue. (The other was his older brother 16 Walter Monroe Stewart, who settled in Georgia.)

John was the suffering Job of the Stewart family. He married for the first time when he was 33 years old, and subsequently lost two young wives and three young sons. Only in his third marriage was he blessed with a wife and two children - a son named Bob and a daughter named Bess - who outlived him.

According to recent information, John's first wife was Cynthia Edwards, the daughter of Amelia (Milly) Pickeral and Thomas Edwards of Laurens County. John and Cynthia were married in 1853.

Early in 1982, not long before the Walter Stewart Family History went to the printer, Historian 31714 Mary S. Rawlinson talked with 3.13.6 Emma S. Fulmer, age 103, whose memory is exceeded only by the computer that Mary sometimes uses. "Miss Emmie" related the following about John F. Stewart:

My daddy (3.13. Samuel Turner Stewart) called him Cousin John. He lived near our house. My Aunt Belle (34 Isabella Ann Stewart) used to take me with her when she went to see them. We walked through the woods behind the house, and there was Cousin John's house...I'll tell you something I bet you donÕt know about. A long time ago Cousin John was married to my grandmother Sara Edwards Holcombe's sister. Her name was Cynthia - Cynthia Edwards. My mother told me all this. My grandmother helped Cynthia make her wedding dress before she married Cousin John. It was white, you know, a pretty dress. She said Cynthia held it up and looked at it one day and said, "I'm going to be buried in this dress." Maybe she was, I don't know, because she died and Cousin John later married Mary Dial Stewart, the widow of my Uncle Robert (32 Robert Gilliland Stewart) who was killed in the Civil War.

Historian Mary had never heard the story, and there was nothing in the Stewart Family records about John F. Stewart marrying a Cynthia Edwards. But the story cleared up a minor mystery in 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart's journal, a reference to a Stewart that no one could explain. Clark had been on a trip from Fountain Inn to Laurens, and on his return he made this entry in his journal:

October 21, 1853. During my Trip I heard of the death of John R.. Saxon & Child - Also of Cynthia Stewart, Wife of J She was an Edwards, only married one Month to a day -

Truly God's ways are mysterious...Will the Lord be pleased to sanctify the peculiar dispensations of His Providence unto the good of his people -

Four years later, in 1857, John married Caroline Pitts. They appear to have lived in the Harmony community near Fountain Inn. The records of New Harmony Presbyterian Church show that John joined the church on August 13, 1857. John and Caroline's first child, Charley, was baptized in the church in 1859 at the age of 14 months.

Not long after the birth of their second child, the Civil War started. John served with his brother 18 James (who was killed) and several of his Stewart cousins in Company E, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade), which saw action at Gettysburg and elsewhere during the war. He returned safely, but as a widower. His wife Caroline died just before the end of the war, on February 16, 1865. She is buried at New Harmony Presbyterian Church (which gives the cause of her death as "newmoney" - pneumonia). John was left with two young sons, six-year-old Charley and four-year-old Samuel.

A few months later John married a third time to Mary A. Dial Stewart, the widow of his double first cousin, 32 Robert Gilliland Stewart of the House of Robert, who died in the Civil War. Mary Dial Stewart had three young fatherless children about the same age as John's two young children: 321 Emma Maria Stewart, 322 Hasting Dial Stewart, and 323 Mary Rachel Stewart. To their combined household of five children John and Mary eventually added three more of their own - 173 James A. Stewart, 174 Robert Walter Stewart (Bob Footsy), and 175 Elizabeth Ann Stewart (Bess), for a grand total of eight children.

Three of the eight children died young (family tradition says of malaria): John's two sons Charley and Samuel by his second wife Caroline, and John's son James A. Stewart by his third wife Mary. Charley and Samuel are buried at old Bethany Presbyterian Church in the Bethany community where John was born. James' place of burial is uncertain.

John died in 1895 at age 75, having long before asked his cousin 31 William Stewart to season some fine wood from his sawmill for the coffin. Squire Bill took the lumber from his upstairs store room, constructed a coffin lined in black velvet, and John was laid to rest in New Harmony Presbyterian Church cemetery.

Mary A. Dial Stewart outlived her husband John by several years. She died in 1904 at age 71, surrounded by Stewart, Parsons, Leonard, and Garrett grandchildren by her two Stewart husbands. An old note in the family records says she smoked a pipe for asthma in later years. Like her two husbands, she is buried at New Harmony Presbyterian Church. "Miss Emmie" says if you go to the cemetery, you will see that Mary Dial Stewart is not buried by either of her husbands. She is buried off to one side in a grave by herself.


1 Samuel Stewart

17 John F. Stewart

174 Robert Walter Stewart

Robert Walter Stewart was the fourth child of John F. Stewart, by his second wife Mary A. Dial Stewart, the widow of John's cousin, 32 Robert Gilliland Stewart.

Bob, as he was called, was born in 1869, probably in the Harmony community in Laurens County near Fountain Inn, SC. An 1880 map of Laurens County shows his father John living about a mile behind New Harmony Presbyterian Church, not far from the home of his uncle, 3 Robert Stewart, founder of the House of Robert.

In 1902, Bob married Etta D. Abercrombie, the daughter of Arana Abercrombie and Jonathan Abercrombie of the Dials community in Laurens County. (Arana and Jonathan were said to be first cousins, the children of two Pickens County brothers name Alexander and Harrison Abercrombie.) Bob and Etta settled in the Lanford community--known as Lanford Station after the Seaboard Air Line Railroad came through in 1885--about halfway between Fountain Inn and the old Bethany community where Bob's father was born. Here they farmed and reared a family of one son and three daughters, one of whom died as a child. They lived just across the road from Bob's sister, 175 Bess Stewart, and her husband Bob Parsons. The children attended Youngs School in the nearby Youngs community.

Bob was elected as one of the seven Subchiefs at the first Stewart reunion at New Harmony Church in 1907. He was only 38 years old at the time--a good twenty years younger than any of the others--but probably fell heir to the title as the only resident male bearing the name of Stewart in the entire House of Samuel. The only others, the two sons of his father's brother 16 Walter Monroe Stewart, lived in Georgia. (The name of Stewart can be found in the House of Samuel now only among the descendants of Bob's son, 1743 Albert Teague Stewart, and among the descendants of 162 Wister O'Neal Stewart of Forsyth County, Georgia.)

In later years Bob was known as "Bob Footsy" or "Walking Bob," because of his healthy habit of walking wherever he went. Later descendants remember him regularly walking from his home to Fountain Inn even in his retirement years, a round trip of some 20 miles or more. Bob lived to ripe old age and died in 1948, one day past his 79th birthday. He and Etta are buried near their little daughter Nellie at Bramlett's Methodist Church not far from the Lanford community.


1 Samuel Stewart

17 John F. Stewart

175 Elizabeth Ann Stewart

Elizabeth Ann Stewart (Bess) was the youngest child of John F. Stewart by his second wife, Mary A. Dial Stewart. She was born in 1875, probably in the Harmony community (Laurens County) near Fountain Inn, SC.

In 1894 Bess married Robert Martin Parsons (Bob), the son of Mary Ann Lanford (1839-1922) and Benjamin Martin Parsons (1829-1903) of the Lanford community in Laurens County near the Enoree River. Bob Parsons was the great-grandson of Revolutionary War soldier William Parsons and his wife Mary Goolsy.

After their marriage Bob and Bess settled on a farm in the Lanford community, across the road from her brother, 174 "Bob Footsy" Stewart. Here their eight children were born. Bess died at age 35, a few weeks after the birth of their last child, an infant who did not survive. Bess and her baby are buried at Lanford Baptist Church. After her death Bob married a second wife, Carrie Electra Barnett, by whom he had two daughters, Rebecca H. and Clara Beatrice Parsons.

Two of Bess and Bob Parsons' children, 1751 Frank and 1755 Sarah, married Taylors, Lola Blanche and Robert Richard, brother and sister, children of Clark Berry Taylor and his wife Mary Ellen Franks. Clark Berry Taylor was named after 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, who in 1848 (the year Clark Berry Taylor was born) was the pastor of Rocky Springs Presbyterian Church near Laurens, where Clark Berry Taylor's parents were members. The name is now carried by two of Clark Berry TaylorÕs grandsons, 17513 Clark Berry Parsons and 17553 Clark Berry Taylor.

Parsons and Taylor reunions are held at Lanford Baptist Church in the Lanford community on the second Sunday in October (Parsons reunion) and the second Sunday in August (Taylor reunion). For more information, contact C.B. Parsons (Route 1, Enoree, SC 29335) or C.B. Taylor (Route 2, Box 153, Gray Court, SC 29645).


1 Samuel Stewart

1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart

Sarah Ann Stewart was the eleventh and youngest child of Samuel Stewart and Anna Gilliland, founders of the House of Samuel. She was born in 1829 in the Bethany community of Laurens County, SC, at her parents' homeplace about a mile behind Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Little Sarah Ann was four years old when her mother died in 1833. Like the other younger children in the family, she grew up in a household managed largely by her older sister Nancy, 15 years her senior, who never married and lived for many years at the old Samuel Stewart homeplace. (This property, thought to be the first American home of the Walter Stewart Family, passed into other hands after Nancy's death.)

As a young woman Sarah Ann married James Monroe Donnan, the son of Mary Elizabeth Dodd and John Stoney Donnan, whose family is found listed in the 1850 Census for Laurens County not far from Samuel Stewart's home. James Donnan's father is said to be the only son of a Rev. James Donnan of Virginia, who married a Miss Stoney of Charleston, SC. Sarah Ann and James were married on December 9, 1852 by her uncle, 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, who briefly mentions the marriage in his journal. (His only comment was that the compensation was $3.00.)

Sarah Ann and James Donnan settled in the Sandy Springs community about four miles west of Sarah Ann's home. Of all the 73 grandchildren of the American founder of the Walter Stewart Family, Sarah Ann is the only one who stayed in the immediate area where the family first settled, and also had children who lived there after her. Some of the descendants of Sarah Ann's second child, Janie Donnan Peterson, still live in the Sandy Springs community near Bethany in 1982.

Two years after the birth of Sarah Ann and James Donnan's third child, James left to serve in the Civil War. He served as a private in Company A, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade). In January 1862, not long after he left, Sarah Ann died at age 32 at the birth of her fourth child, an infant son who died not survive. Both are buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

James Donnan returned safely from the war and married a second time to young Mary Eliza Langston, the daughter of a Langston family who settled around Langston Baptist Church near the Bethany community. In addition to his three surviving children by Sarah Ann Stewart, James Donnan had seven surviving children by his second wife, Mary Langston: Francis Mason, LaFayette, Robert, Fitzhugh, Alice, Mollie, and Grover Donnan. James Donnan died in 1897 at age 66 and is buried at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Several of Sarah Ann Stewart and James Monroe Donnan's descendants are buried at Sandy Springs Methodist Church, not far from their home. A later letter from one of their grandchildren, 1.11.14 Mary Donnan Huddleston, sheds some light on the Methodist origins of the Donnan family. The letter came into the hands of Mr. W.C. Baldwin (Baldwin Motor Company) of Clinton, SC, custodian of the records of Bethany Presbyterian Church, which at the time was not an active church. Mr. Baldwin kindly passed the letter on to a Stewart family historian recently.

235 Wilson Avenue
Panama City, Florida
November 10, 1953

Pastor or Clerk of the Session
Bethany Presbyterian Church
Clinton, South Carolina

Dear Sir:
I am sure this must seem a strange request but I am trying very hard to straighten out some records of our family and I thought maybe you could help me out. My grandfather, James M. Donnan and his wife, Sara A. Stewart, are buried in the cemetery there at Bethany. I wondered if you have any records in the history of your church of them, or their children, her father Samuel Stewart, also my great-grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Dodd Donnan (are) buried there ....

My father, G.W. Donnan, left South Carolina as a young man and resided in Asheville, North Carolina, where we have lived, visiting only infrequently with his family so we do not have much of the information we should like to have.

Most of the Donnans, I understand, are Methodists, running true to form to the first Donnan in South Carolina who was a Methodist circuit rider. Our family are Presbyterians.

Any information or help you can give me I shall greatly appreciate.

Sincerely yours,
Mary Donnan Huddleston (Mrs. S.W.)

The writer of the letter apparently succeeded in locating her Stewart relatives. On her parents' page in the old Stewart family records appears a handwritten notation by Historian 3174 Nan Stewart McCarter: "Dates by Mary D.H."


1 Samuel Stewart

1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart

1.11.1 George Washington Donnan

George Washington Donnan was the oldest child of Sarah Ann Stewart and James Monroe Donnan. He was born in 1854 in the Sandy Springs section of Laurens County, SC, not far from the homes of both of his grandfathers, 1 Samuel Stewart and James Stoney Donnan.

George's mother, Sarah Ann, died when he was seven years old. He grew up in a large household that included his younger brother and sister, plus his father's second wife, Mary Eliza Langston, and his seven children by her.

Not much is known of George Donnan and his descendants. He left the Sandy Springs community as a young man and moved to Asheville, NC, possibly with a family of Templetons who transferred their membership from Bethany Presbyterian Church to "Asheville Church" in the early 1880s. William Cater Templeton, the head of the family, was a nephew of Sallie Templeton, who married George's great-uncle, 5 Walter Stewart, Jr. of the Bethany community. Like George, William C. Templeton is buried at Riverside Cemetery in Asheville (Buncombe County, NC).

In later years George Donnan became the successful owner of a foundry in Asheville. His first wife was Emma Cantrell, who died after the birth of their second child, an infant son who lived about a year (name unknown). In 1894 George married again to Mary Clifford May, by whom he had three more children. Mary Price Donnan, the youngest, wrote a letter to Bethany Presbyterian Church inquiring about her Stewart ancestors (see 1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart).


1 Samuel Stewart

1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart

1.11.2 Jane Elizabeth Donnan

Jane Elizabeth Donnan was the second child and only daughter of Sarah Ann Stewart and James Monroe Donnan. (James Donnan had two more daughters among his seven children by his second wife, Mary Eliza Langston.) Janie, as she was called, was born in 1856 in the Sandy Springs community in Laurens County, SC. She was five years old when her mother died.

At age 19, Janie married John William Peterson (Bill), the son of Elizabeth Fray and Hiram Peterson, who are buried at Bramletts Methodist Church in the Lanford community in Laurens County.

Janie and Bill Peterson reared a family of nine children on their farm in the Sandy Springs community. They lived in a two-story house which stood just behind Sandy Springs Methodist Church. (The ruins of the house can still be seen in 1982.) They are buried at Sandy Springs Methodist Church.

Janie appears to have been a favorite of her aunt, 14 Nancy Stewart, who lived nearby on the old Samuel Stewart homeplace behind Bethany Presbyterian Church for many years. Three years before her death in 1885 at age 70, Nancy wrote a will. (She was the first known member of the entire Walter Stewart Family to do so.) Nancy left most of her property to her only living brother, 17 John F. Stewart, but one special bequest went to her niece Janie--who by that time had named her third daughter Nancy Lola:

To my niece Mrs. Jane Peterson, wife of William Peterson, I give and bequeath at my death one hundred dollars and hereby authorise and empower my Exe. to pay to her the above amt without any further recourse to law...

Nancy Stewart (seal)


1 Samuel Stewart

1.11. Sarah Ann Stewart

1.11.3 John Wesley Donnan

John Wesley Donnan (Wes) was the third and last surviving child of James Monroe Donnan by his first wife, Sarah Ann Stewart. He was born in 1859 in the Sandy Springs community in Laurens County, SC.

In 1880 Wes Donnan married Izora Sloan, one of the daughters of Lucy McKelvey (of Fountain Inn, SC) and William Winder Sloan. They settled on a farm in the Sandy Springs community not far from Wes' homeplace, where they had a family of two little daughters and a son. A fourth son, never named, was born and died on February 2, 1889. Izora died five weeks later, shortly before her 29th birthday, leaving Wes with three children under the age of seven.

After Izora's death, her younger sister Mattie joined Wes' household to take care of the children. She lived there for five years (with "never a breath of scandal," according to later descendants) before Wes married a second time to Cornelia Isabella Todd, the daughter of Joseph Todd of Laurens County. Mattie Sloan stayed to help rear not only her sister's three children, but also Wes' nine additional children by his second wife, Corrie Todd. Mattie lived in the household all her life and was much loved by both sets of children and grandchildren, who remember her as "Auntie."

Wes lived and farmed all his life in the Sandy Springs community. He was a leading lay officer in Sandy Springs Methodist Church and a recognized community leader. He was known as "Squire Donnan" in later years, being Justice of the Peace of Scuffletown Township. (Scuffletown is an old name for the nearby community of Ora - deriving, says a local historian, from the scuffling matches in which the menfolk engaged after crops were laid by.) Wes is buried with his two wives (and Mattie Sloan) at Sandy Springs Methodist Church, having earlier donated the land for the church cemetery.

John Wesley Donnan had a family of eleven surviving children by his two wives, three sons and eight daughters (one son died as an infant, and another in a hunting accident as a child). Several of his daughters never married and established successful careers of their own. Irene ("Renee") went to Greenville, SC, where she was a secretary for an auditing firm for several years before moving to Whitmire near her sister Annie Mae Donnan Scott, where she was a private secretary to executives at the Stevens Plant. Corrie Belle ("Teeta") and Jane Donnan moved to Columbia, SC, where Corrie Belle worked at the South Carolina State Hospital. Jane entered the field of nursing at age 16 and became a highly respected staff member of the Baptist Hospital in Columbia (it is said that her portrait hangs in the hospital now). In later years after their father's death, the two Columbia sisters were joined by their mother, Corrie Todd Donnan, along with their sisters Lucy and Bess, who was a school teacher. After her husband's death, their sister Lula Donnan Deaver joined the household. The last of the "Columbia sisters" died in the 1970s, and most of them are buried with their parents at Sandy Springs Methodist Church.