All In The Family History: Annette Viona Staples Stewart

BIRTH 07 DEC 1866 • Johnston, Rock, Wisconsin
DEATH 22 APR 1943 • Viola, Latah, Idaho
MARRIED: 1886 • Isaac George Stewart

I want to begin this post with an appreciation of Dorothy Stewart Gilman (1907-2011). She was Nettie's youngest daughter and the Stewart family historian. For nearly a decade starting in 1990, she published the Stewart Family Newsletter, together with her daughter, Diane.

She learned how to use a computer, format a newsletter, printed and mailed it to anyone who wanted a copy. I am grateful she documented so many amazing stories about the Stewart family. I have borrowed heavily on her work for my post about my great-great grandmother, Nettie Staples Stewart.

1940, Moscow, Idaho. Frank and Dorothy (Stewart) Gilman, daughters Diane & Sharon

Annette Viona Staples (Nettie) was born on Dec 7, 1866 in Johnston, Wisconsin to Dennis Benjamin Staples and Julia Ann Stevens. Her father Dennis was born in 1826 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He married Lydia Ann Laighton in 1847 and by the 1850 Census they had one daughter, Ellen Frances.

Dennis' occupation is listed as 'Confectioner'.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Sadly, Lydia died at the age of 26, when her little daughter was only 3 years old. Dennis and his daughter headed out west to Wisconsin.

Nettie's mother was Julia Ann Stevens, who was born in 1835 at Fort Snelling, Minnesota Territory. Her father was an Indian missionary and she grew up and was educated with Indian children as well as white children. She even had an Indian name, Winona Neput. She became a teacher.

Dennis Staples and Julia Ann Stevens married in Iowa, Wisconsin on April 30th 1857. They had 6 children:

Ellen Frances (1850- from 1st marriage to Lydia)
Ada Mary (1858-1938)
Charles Henry (1860-1960)
James George (1861-1863)
Annette Viona (my great-great grandmother 1866-1943)
Esther (Essie) Gertrude (1871-1888)

Nettie as a girl

Dorothy Stewart Gilman recalls when her grandmother came to live with the family when she was nine years old:

"Grandma was paralyzed on one side when she came to live with us and I was given the job of helping her get ready for the day. I helped her wash up and dress before I went to school everyday. I really didn't look on the job as work because I loved her so much and she made the chore fun."

Julia Ann Stevens Staples 1835-1906

By 1886, The Staples family moved to Minnewauken, Benson County, North Dakota. Nettie taught school at Bachelors Grove while her parents ran a bakery in Minnewauken selling fresh baked bread, rolls and pies. Dennis was one of the founding proprietors of a library in Minnewauken containing over seventy books for loan. You may recall Isabella and Wilson Hunter lived in Cavalier County, ND.

The Stewarts

Isaac George Stewart was born in Thomasburg, Ontario, Canada on November 5, 1851 to Hugh Stewart (1819-1899) and Elinor Kerr (1821-1902) who were both immigrants from Ireland. When Isaac was 12, his father took he and his brother west in search of a new home. They traveled in an open buggy for over 300 miles, stopping at inns along the way. They left the horse and buggy and traveled by boat up to Kincardine, where Hugh Stewart bought 160 acres of timber land. Eventually the entire family joined him there.

When Isaac was 15, he found he and his father had too many differences to stay together and he struck out on his own. He spent some time cutting ice on one of the Great Lakes as he traveled north. His brothers Robert and William had gone to North Dakota and settled at Arthur, near Fargo. Isaac came to their place and was a lumberjack for a few years, working with his brothers. Isaac heard about of the opportunity to get free land in the U.S. through the Homestead Act and he decided to get in on that. He traveled by horse and wagon to the area around Devil's Lake, North Dakota where he chose the land he wanted. He said the grass on that land was as "high as the horse's bellies" and he knew it would grow great wheat.

He arrived in Devil's Lake when he was about 32 years old. He built a sod shanty, a dwelling made out of chunks of dirt, with only a dirt floor. During his first two years in Dakota Territory, he lived in the sod house, one part for him, one part for the horses and a cow. He became acquainted with some of the Indians living in the area and became friends with a number of Indian Chiefs. They grew to respect one another and they had no troubles with each other.

After a few years, Isaac heard of new teacher who had come to Bachelor's Grove (named for the seven Norwegian men who settled there looking for wives) and he wanted to meet her. Isaac and Annette were introduced to each other by Annette's niece, Maude Stevens. Maude had been dating Isaac, and Annette had been dating George Dickerson, somehow the couples got switched up and Isaac and Annette got married and Maude and George got married.

Annette always said what attracted her to Isaac was his team of horses (I'm sure his Irish charm played a part too). The two were married in Bachelor's Grove, North Dakota on January 12, 1886. She moved to the farm and was in no way pleased with the sod shanty. It wasn't long before Isaac had to go into town and buy a 2 room, 2 storied house and had it moved to the farm on a sled.

Stewart Family Farm - 1911. The middle section is the original 2 room house.

Their first child, Benjamin Hugh, was born on December 8, 1887 in Dakota Territory and died of diphtheria in April of 1889. Nettie and Isaac spoke of his death later to their children. Dorothy recalls:

"The shock of his death was very traumatic and left in our hearts and our minds a great loss. Our mother was so lonely that first year on the prairie with no neighbors, so that when Bennie came along it was great company for her. He was such a good baby and a real joy to both mother and dad. There were no doctors near enough to call so when he became sick with diphtheria, mother did all that she could do to help him and as she rocked him, he died in her arms."

Isaac and Nettie would go on to have 10 more children:

Julia (Nell ) Eleanor (1890-1983-my great grandmother)
Shirl Henry (1892-1986)
George Isaac (1893-1982)
Charles Walter (1895-1987)
Harry Guy (1987-1979)
Maude Salome (1899-1992)
Robin Roy (1901 died at birth)
Marcia (Marjorie) Katherine (1903-1977)
Donald Keith (1905-2001)
Dorothy Evelyn Irene (1907-2011)

L-R - baby Charlie, Isaac, Nettie, George, Shirl, Nell

As the Stewart family grew, so did the area. There was a need for a school, so Isaac donated land near the family farm for a schoolhouse and it was called "Stewart School". All of the kids went there until they finished 8th grade. Annette sometimes boarded a teacher at their home and used the extra money to buy things for the house.

Some of the recollections gleaned from the Stewart Family Newsletters about Nettie:

She was a good seamstress and made lots of quilts, even though she herself thought quilting took too much time. She involved the children in the making by having them tie the quilt. They were usually made of wool and were strictly for utility, warmth and comfort. Sometimes in the winter the snow would drift in from the outside and the bed would have snow on it in the morning.

Washing was done on an old washboard and there was a never-ending pile to be done and the mending basket was always full.

She was a big reader, reading to her children often. She wanted them to be educated and expressed her happiness at the advanced education that some of her grandchildren received later.

She went for walks in the evenings. If any of the children wanted to go with her, she'd say no, she just had to get away by herself for a while (I think we know why).

She had a strong faith in God, which she said kept her going. She had no church to attend, but on the Sabbath she took her children down to a little grove of trees that ran between the house and the railroad track and she would read to them.

They rarely saw a doctor. Cold compresses, steam packs for the flu, lots of cold lemonade to drink, hot foot baths to draw out congestion. In 1918 when the Spanish flu epidemic was raging, there were six Stewart children struck all at the same time, including papa Isaac. Little Charlie nearly died. Nettie didn't get the flu, even though she was the primary nurse to the family.

Nettie was always interested in what was going on in the world. She shared her grave concerns about what was happening in Europe with the growth of the following of Hitler. She could see that war was coming and dreaded when it would start. Her sons were too old at the time, but her grandsons were not. She made a list of all the grandsons that would be old enough: Jack, Roy H, Bud, Kenny, Keith, John, Glen, Roy S, Frank, Clinton, Bob and Donald. Her prayers at night named each of them as the war progressed. She had a map of the world with a pin for each boy that was in the service.

By 1940, Nettie and Isaac left the family farm to live in Viola, Idaho to be nearer to their children who had moved "out west". She suffered from gallbladder problems later in life and needed morphine to help with the pain. The doctor's orders were misunderstood by the caregiver who was supposed to awaken her every hour and give her a drink of water. She let her sleep and Nettie died during the night on April 22, 1943. She was 77 years old.

Isaac moved to Oregon City to live with family, he died of cancer of the stomach at the age of 98 in 1950. He missed Nettie terribly after she died. Several of their children remarked that they could not have been more different from one another. They were married for 57 years at the time of Nettie's death in 1943. They are buried next to one another in Viola, Idaho.