William Stalcup - Fiddle King

I have recently been reading 'Frontiersman - Daniel Boone and the Making of America' by Meredith Mason Brown. Mainly because I didn't know much about him, but also because many of my old Stalcup's lived in the frontiers of North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky in the late 1700's (with many Stalcup's still in the Appalachan areas) and I wanted to get a feel for what life may have been like for them. The book is a great read, and it got me thinking - I wonder if there were any connections between the Boone family and any Stalcups. A quick search on Google didn't really turn up much - but I did find one curious link that highlighted both 'Daniel Boone' and 'Stalcup.' As so often happens in my family tree web searches, something quirky and unexpected comes up when I least expect it, or when the link seems like it might not be quite what I was looking for. In this case, Google pointed me to a book in the online Google library about the Carter Family (Appalachian Bluegrass music super-family). It mentions a 66 year old William Stalcup winning the 1923 King of Missouri Old Timers Fiddling crown. As you can imagine, I was immediately intrigued, and within a few minutes I had figured out through my family tree on Ancestry.com that the best match was a certain William Stalcup (1861 - 1933) of Shelbina County, MO, son of a James Stalcup (1835 - 1864) who had died during the Civil War. He was a Union soldier who was massacred at Centralia by Bloody Bill Anderson and Jesse James. This is a whole other blog post - but this should help fill in the gaps for now: Shelby County and the Centralia Massacre.

Well, a few more quick searches turned up a biography of William Stalcup from the 1911 General History of Shelby County, as well as a newspaper article in 1922 from the Pittsburgh Gazette (of all places) that mentions William losing a fiddling contest in Paris, MO (I guess he was second fiddle - groan!).

To add to all of the fun of this little side trip through Stalcup relative family history, I recently came across some pictures of fairly close Stalcup relatives (yet another blog post for that story!), and in those pictures that I found where pictures of William's brother George Washington Stalcup, as well as Willaim and George's grandparents William and Sarah Kimble Stalcup. Again, I'll post more about them in a future post. The cool thing is that William's grandfather William 1821 VA - 1916 MO) was the first born son of my gr-gr-gr-grandfather John Stalcup and an older brother to my gr-gr-grandfather Isaac Stalcup! Yet another picture that zeroes in on our direct Stalcup ancestors. I sort of imagine that John must've looked fairly similar to the picture of William. And of course, I imagine the fiddling William Stalcup to look fairly similar to his brother George.

Part of the fun for me in digging like I have through our tree is that many things that you just don't really think about when it comes to ancestors come to life. Since a big chunk of the family tree is spent in the frontier and back woods, it would make sense that certain family members would be good at things like playing the fiddle. I can picture it now - large families sitting on the porch after a long day of farming listening and dancing (and drinking!) to folks playing bluegrass and folk music. I've always liked that kind of music - must've been passed along in the genes!

More Robert Lee Stalcup Photos

Courtesy of my cousin Dr. Jim Foster of Shelbina, MO. Jim is related via Robert Lee Stalcup's younger brother Isaac Taylor Stalcup and Taylor's wife Annie Ensor Stalcup. Anyway, he came across these old photos recently and sent them to me. I can't thank him enough for that! Not sure of the date of the photos, but they might be from around the mid-1940's. First picture is of Robert Lee and Taylor's wife Annie Ensor Stalcup. Second picture is of Robert Lee, Taylor and Annie Stalcup's daughter Myrtle Stalcup Shatzer, and Harry Stalcup (son of Robert Lee's older brother John Larkin Stalcup). Also posted is a copy of a newspaper article mentioning Robert Lee Stalcup and his connection to the St. Louis Browns - courtesy of the Monroe Co, MO Genealogical Society and the Shatzer family - thanks to all of those fine folks!

Old Baseball Photos - Blair, Nebraska

I found these pictures while searching through the excellent Blair, NE Historical Society website. The top picture is from 1905, and while I know it is a huge stretch, I like to imagine that the player in the front row holding his son is none other than Robert Lee Stalcup (sans mustache) and his son, Chester. The child would appear to be the right age, and it wouldn't be a stretch to think that Robert Lee still played some local baseball in Blair after playing professionally for the St. Louis Browns.

The remaining pictures are the Blair High School baseball team from 1914 (the bottom pictures just being blown up from the main picture). In my head, I like to think that the kid on the very right, or the kid two kids away on the left (his right) is none other than my grandfather Chester Stalcup. I don't know if any of what I'm guessing is true - but who knows!

This was a particularly fun find in light of my son playing in a tee-ball league recently. My mom tells me that my dad was offered a semi-pro baseball contract when he was in high school, but his dad turned it down. I think my dad said he played third base. Anyway, he was certainly good at baseball. My dad mentioned that his dad (Chester) played baseball a little bit as a kid, and of course Chester's dad Robert Lee Stalcup played for the old St. Louis Browns from 1881-1885. I played a season of little league baseball when I was 10. Lots of baseball in the family, indeed!

Vermont Horse Stock Company, Catalogue of Blood Horses, Shelburne, VT, 1873

This is the book (booklet) from Charles Predmore that I've been meaning to post in its entirety. I apologize for the not-so-straight fashion that it was scanned - I blame the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library for that!

Chester Stalcup - WWI

I knew that my grandfather Chester Stalcup had served in the Navy during WWI - but I had no idea what his rate/rank were, what ship he was on, or where he was stationed. Luckily, after a couple of tries, the fine folks at the Military Records Archives were able to find his records, and I was able to get copies of them. What a gold mine they turned out to be! Turns out that Chester enrolled in the Naval Reserves on May 8th, 1918 in Omaha, NE, and went to Great Lakes Training Facility outside of Chicago, IL until June 18th when he is listed as being in Paulliac, France. Next stop was the Northern Bombing Group, Field A, in St. Inglevert, France on July 5th. He is back in Norfolk, VA on November 11th, 1918, then back to Great Lakes on February 24th, 1919. He is discharged from the Reserves on August 19th, and ends up in the Regular Navy a week later as a Seaman 2nd Class, on his way to the USS Mac Kenzie (DD-175) stationed in San Diego, CA. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how one looks at it!), Chester is booted from the Navy with a Bad Conduct Discharge for being AWOL on December 19th, 1919.

That is the big picture summary of it all. It shows his monthly pay was $35.90, that he listed himself as a farmer, and that he had 1 year of experience working with electricity, and 6 months as a shipping clerk. He also lists that he knew how to play the piano. He lists his mom, Minnie Virginia Stalcup as next of kin and the recipient of any monies/insurance. We get to see his signature, as well as his finger prints and physical description (5' 8", 150 lbs., brown eyes and brown hair). Listed in his records is also that he is living with the Ransome family in Omaha when he joins the Regular Navy. His first wife was Fanchion Ransome, whom he married August 19th, 1920.

Other cool things about all of this include knowing that Chester was invloved with early Naval Aviation in WWI. St. Inglevert was the home of the Northern Bombing Group, and from what I've been able to find on the web, was mainly involved with night-flying. I added a picture of the Caproni 450 plane that the squadron flew. I even found a picture of the personnel in the squadron - I suppose it is even possible that Chester is in it! I also added a picture of the USS Mac Kenzie (DD-175).

Being that I was in the Navy, it is pretty cool to relate to what my grandfather went through - even though I never got a chance to meet him!

Margaret Stalcup Gollehon

An unfortunate obituary that ties Margaret Stalcup Gollehon as Robert Lee Stalcup's sister. I had thought he moved to the Blair, NE area on his own around 1895, but it turns out he went with his older sister and her husband, Clayborn T. Gollehon around 1890. If you look closely at the will for Isaac Stalcup (from a much earlier post), the father to Maggie and Bob, you can see she and her husband are mentioned - as well as Robert Lee and the rest of their siblings.

Margaret and her husband Clayborn are buried in the Kennard Cemetery - where Robert Lee and his wife Minnie are also buried. I have gravestone photos for Clayborn and Margaret that I will post soon, too.

I am hoping that I might be able to find some pictures of Margaret and Clayborn to add to the blog - you never know! I have more articles concerning Clayborn that I will add as a future post. All of these are courtesy of the fine detective work of Mrs. Pat Hunsche of the Washington County, NE Genealogical Society in Blair, NE.

As an aside, there are quite a few Stalcup-Gollehon marriages (as well as neighboring land) dating back to Washington County, VA in the early 1800's. In fact, Robert Lee's grandfather - John Stalcup - married Rachel Gollehon. More on all of those connections in a future post.

Robert Lee Stalcup - 1906 Move From Blair, NE

Courtesy of the amazing work of Pat Hunsche of the Washington County, NE Genealogical Society - these all come from the Blair Democrat - Jan 25th and Feb 22nd, 1906, and give an idea of why he moved from Nebraska to Montezuma Valley, CO, as well as a great inventory of the items he needed to sell before moving. Guess you just can't up and leave from a farm without taking care of the animals and equipment that you can't bring with you (duh!).