Francenia (Stewart) White, Family Historian

Co-author of the book: Genealogy of Hugh Stewart and Descendants. which has contributed its records to our family tree.

Some commentary from the book:

Dr. White practiced medicine for several years in Union City, Indiana, but his health failing steadily from heart disease consequent on exposure during- the war, he went south and lived a number of years in the Cumberland mountains.

In 1909, still searching for health, he removed to Florida, but his heart was in Tennessee, and he longed to go back, but lived only a week after making the change. He sleeps in the beautiful cemetery of the Soldier's Home, at the foot of the mountains he loved so well, under the soft blue of the Tennessee skies, in a soldier's honored grave.

It is with feelings of the keenest regret that I write a tribute to my father's memory. Looking backward over the years in search of something tangible to bridge the chasm that yawns between us and our ancestors, I realize how blind I have been to let the time pass, without learning from those who could have told me, more about events, lives, and characters, of our grandparents.

My father, Dr. Hugh C. Stewart, youngest of his father's family, was sent to New York and left there with his eldest brother. Rev. George Stuart, to be educated. Though I have heard him speak of his brother's school, I do not know how long he remained there. Next I remember him as speaking of being in Cincinnati clerking for Cassidy and Co., Merchants, which must have been in his early manhood. He read medicine at Chillicothe, though he did not complete his medical course until some years later, after a failure in the mercantile business, when he attended Ohio Medical College at Cincinnati, Ohio, in which his brother-in-law, Dr. John Moorhead who was a professor.

Note: — An interesting side issue of the family record in this relationship is the second marriage of Susan Allibone, sister of Sarah, to Dr. Moorhead, a notable man in his profession. He succeeded to an entailed estate in County Monohan, [reland, and when Manila, the only child, was about seven years old, they went to Ireland, and so unpleasant was the passage to Susan, she never could induced to return. Martha Moorhead married William Tyrone Power, who was sent during our Civil War by Queen Victoria to watch the Canada border.

He said it amused him, for "if the Yankees had wanted it, the small force of soldiers kept there would have been poor defense. But the "Yankees" had something else to do just then.

On his return to England he was knighted by Queen Victoria, which made him Sir William, and his wife Lady Power. The title admitted her to a presentation at court. She died over thirty years ago, leaving two sons and three daughters, who still live in Ireland. — E. S. L.

At Cincinnati he secured his license to practice medicine, which he continued till shortly before his death. Starling Medical College of Columbus, Ohio, conferred on him the honorary degree M. D. He was the first physician west of the Allegheny Mountains to make use of ether in general practice, as an anesthetic.

He married Miss Sarah Allibone of Phila., Pa., at Brush Creek Furnace, near Chillicothe, Ohio, and they rode on horseback thirty miles to Bloomingburgh, Ohio., where they established the home of fifty years existence.

Father was of medium stature and weight, blue eyes, light hair and fair complexion, with a frank, cordial manner, making a very attractive personality. He was a true "progressive" as they say now-a-days, and I am proud to say "was always on the right side of every question".

He was an advocate of total abstinence when it required courage; a strong opponent of slavery, when by being one he risked everything he possessed ; and on what is now called the "woman question," he was far in advance of the times. It is popularly believed that you "can not mix religion and politics", but my father and his brothers, were all godly men, and carried their religion with them to the polls. He was for years a deacon, and later till his death, a ruling elder in the Bloomingburgh, Ohio, Presbyterian Church.

I feel it a duty as well as a pleasure to mention one whose life was closely linked with ours. My parents took a little girl of six from the orphan shelter in Cincinnati to rear, Eliza Bricker. She nursed us all, living with us twenty-four years and then married E. G. Paugh, and at this date, 1914, is living with her daughter in Chicago, a wonder to all who know her, full of interest in life, useful, cheerful, happy and always busy, though past eighty-four. — F. S. W.

It is fitting that the closing memorial written by Francenia Stewart White, should be followed as an ending to the record, by a brief sketch of her to whom we owe such a large part of what we have been able to secure of the family history.

Born in Bloomingburg, Ohio, the seventh child (and only living daughter of Hugh C. and Sarah Allibone Stewart) her days were devoted to the tender care of both parents as long as life required. She was famed always among her kindred for the crown of her character, the tenderness and compassion felt for tortured objects, especially those dependent on the care of mankind. She was a "Humane Society" in herself, and no brutal teamster or unfeeling urchin could resist her plea for justice, if not mercy. She was of a character, steadfast in aim, with a warm heart and boundless sympathy, original in her wit and humor, generous and loyal. Her brightness and good cheer are of the finest quality and never in the darkest hour deserted her. How often she quoted :

"A health unto the happy heart, A fig for him who frets ! It is not raining rain to me, It's raining violets."

Religious without bigotry or cant, her spirit found quiet faith and resignation in all events that came to her in the migratory life that befell after her marriage. The fateful burning of her home on a Tennessee mountain, took many treasures, much of the old family silver willed her father, the old Stewart family Bible, worn and aged, with "Hugh Stewart" upon the cover, and mementoes of her mother, all went in crimson flame.

Born in the days of political stir, she had a clear and vivid understanding of the needs of the political and social life of our nation, and no man ever had a keener mental power of discernment into the good and ill of our beloved country than she.

To one who had the pleasure of her society during the months of compiling these records, no weariness or discouragement stayed her willingness, though a broken arm required courage and fortitude to continue the work.

Her hope, faith and belief in our national progress was ever a part of her life, and her prayer for the future of her dear country is best told in these words :

"God give us men ! A time like this demands Strong minds, great hearts, true faith and willing hands. Men whom the lust of office does not kill ;

Men whom the spoils of office can not buy ; Men who possess opinions and a will ;

Men who have honor; men who will not lie; Men who can stand before a demagogue

And damn his treacherous flatteries without winking; Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog

In public duty and in private thinking."

—E. S. L.