[This is a record of a document I got from my mother, Leonora Stanley Meddaugh.  The record is a photostat 11.5" x 16.4" in negative image.  It is basically a photographic negative of two approximately 8" x 11" sheets.  The handwriting is pretty darn good spencerian.  It is unsigned and undated and has been ascribed to W.C. Stanley but just might have been done by J.R. Stanley.  It has been transcribed by, I believe, Laura Stanley.  The ditto marks were from the original; I have made an effort to keep the spelling and much of the punctuation like the original .  The poem/song I have included as W.C. Stanley was confined in a confederate prison.]

    On this page you can find:
        Marriages,
        J.R.Stanley's Family Record
        Notes on W.C.Stanley and his family
        A note about W.C.'s father, Jesse Stanley

John R. Stanley + Juliet Purkeypile	was married	Feb. 10th 1856
Alfred Ozias Stanley	was borned	May 2nd A.D. 1857
Ransom Heenan   "	"        "	June 10,  "  "  1860
Minnie Francis      "	"        "	July 29,   "  "   1862
Juliette Stanley	Died	July 29th 1865
Martha    "	"	April 30 1870

 

Alfred Purkeypile	was bored	Oct 23rd 1813
Frances Standard	"      "	July 23,   1808
Hariet Purkeypile	"      "	Feb. 14,  1838
Juliette         "	"      "	Jan 13th  1840
Nancy Ellen  "	"      "	Oct 20 "   1842
Matilda         "	"      "	Feb. 17,   1844
George Edward "	"      "	Feb 14     1847
Evalane         "	"      "	"   25th  1850

Jesse H. Stanley	was married to	Mahala Aner Smith [this is probably where it came from but it is wrong]
Mary E.	"        "       "	John Bucher Gibson
Oliver, H.	"        "       "	Nancy Ann Grimes June 22n 1854
William F	"        "       "	Joanna Lykins   May               1857

In the prison cell I sit thinking Mother Dear of you
And the bright+ happy home so fare away
And the tear that fills my eyes spite of all that I can do
Though I try to cheer my comrades + be gay    Cho.  tramp
In the battle front we stood
When their fiercest charge they made + they swept us off a hundred men or more
But before we reached their line they were beaten back dismayed and we heard the cry of victory or + or
So within the prison cell we are waiting for the day
That shall come to open wide the Iron Door
And the Hollow eyes grow bright + the poor heart almost gay
As we think of seeing home and friends once more   Cho.  tramp

Alfred Meour Stanley	was borned	March 23rd 1809
Margaret Stanley	"        "	June 29th 1810
Alfred M. Stanley + Margret Heather	was married in Marion County Tennessee on the	15th Nov. 1827
Births and Nativity of A M	+ M.Stanley's family
William Forrister Stanley	was borned in Marion Co. Tenn.	Sept 7th 1828
Jesse Harris Stanley	was borned in Hendricks Co. Indiana	July 24th 1830
Mary Elisabeth Stanley	was borned in Marion Co. Tenn,	Jan 10th 1832
Oliver Hillis Stanley	was borned in Warren Co. Tenn	Dec 13th 1833
John Robert Stanley	was borned in Warren Co. Tenn	Nov. 13th 1835
Ozias Lafayette Stanley	was borned in Warren Co. Tenn	Nov 13th 1837
Frances Marion Stanley	Decalb Co. Ala	Feb. 13, 1839
Christopher Columbus Stanley	Decall Co Ala	Nov 26th 1840
Lemuel Hurbert Stanley	Borned in Warren Co Mo.	Oct 29 1842
Joseph Dunkin      "	was borned in Mercer Co Mo	Oct 26 1844
Lou Annie             "	was borned in Decatur Co Iowa	Dec 29, 1846
Celah Jane           "	was borned in      "        "     "	Sept 25 1848
Alfred Newton       "	was borned in      "        "     "	Aug 25, 1850

Margret Stanley	Died	Oct 18  1851
Francis Marion Stanley	"	April 1st 1862
Joseph Dunkin     "	"	Feb 17, 1863

[The following is a note written by the daughter of Olivia Purinton Owen describing a clipping.]
 

 On 25 November 1866, W.C. Stanley married Sarah Jane Brown - to this union were born eight children, my grandmother, Bertha Olevia Stanley being the fifth child.  Great - Grandmother died in 1907.  In 1910 Great - Grandfather married a widow Mrs Eliza Knott who had a number of children however there were only two or three young enough to be home.  She had a lovely home with a large olive grove, etc.  They lived here for several years near Elsinore, California.

 [My mother has a newspaper clipping in her family record book telling about great - grandfather Stanley.]

May 30, 1929
 

 Claiming the honor of having the youngest member of the G.A.R. to carry a gun during the conflict between the states, Long Beach Post No. 181 yesterday challenged the nation to produce a younger veteran than W.  C.  Stanley, 79, 1036 East Fourth Street.  Mr. Stanley was born October 12, 1849 at St. Joseph, Mo.  He enlisted in Company "D" Fifty-First Missouri infantry, March 10, 1865.

 Describing some of his war experiences yesterday, Mr. Stanley declared that among his memories of the period, his first attempt to enlist stands out.

 Accompanied by two other boys, whose imagination had been fired by the stories told by a returned soldier, he left his home at Modena, Mo, for St. Joseph, Mo., 100 miles away.  After a forty-mile hike, they reached a point on the railroad, where they boarded the first train any of the trio had ever seen.

 Upon their arrival at St. Joe, December 31, 1864, they attempted to enlist.  Only one of the boys was accepted, and Mr. Stanley and his remaining comrade found themselves in a strange town in the dead of winter without a bit of money.  Philosophically deciding that the "Johnny Rebs" would have to be licked without their assistance, the two boys turned their faces homeward and started out on their 100-mile hike, arriving safely three days later.

 The "youngster" as his fellow G.A.R. comrades refer to him, has been a resident of California since 1883 and came to Long Beach in 1913.  He is a past commander of the local post and is active in the affairs of the organization.

 [This is a note called "Random Notes on William Clemens Stanley 1850-1930 which I believe was written by Stanley Brown to Norma Ledbetter April 1983.]
 

 "Random Notes on William Clemens Stanley 1850-1930
Wanted to join Civil War as a Drummer Boy at a very young age.  His mother would not give her consent so he got another woman to walk with him to another settlement.  She claimed to be his mother etc.  Recruiting officer soon exposed their plan.  Walked to another settlement & made good his enlistment.

 All these notes are the result of Granddad Stanley "baby setting" with me in 1922 and 1923.
 I was a full time bed patient in traction and a plaster cast.  I had plenty of time to listen.  I was born Jan. 20 1910 in Lake Elsinore.  Events between joining the northern army and Granddad being a P.O.W. have all slipped my mind.  But events in the Vicksburg Stockade are very clear.  Every thing was planned for an escape.  The P.O.W.s dug a tunnel but wasn’t deep enough and a guard's horse broke through from the surface.  To hide all the dirt from their tunnel they burned it in a hot stove fire.  Then it looked like ashes.  This was time consuming and made their progress slow.  Their second tunnel wasn’t big enough so one of their own men got caught in it.  They all saved every bit of their pepper to foil the bloodhounds on their trail.  A few prisoners did make good their escape with lots of help from the black people.  They had a pretty complete form of government set up including Sheriff and Judge.  A panel to draw a jury for trials.  One sentence used to be very effective was rubbing the big toe with a brick until the blood flowed freely.  On all the toes if the crime was more serious.  This treatment would be considered too "cruel & unusal" to use today.  But might be the answer to our crowded jails and drunk drivers.  On July 4th 1863 the same old colored slave came through with his bucket of smoking pitch knots calling "Sweet Smoke".  In a loud whisper he said "Grants captured Vicksburg".  This was close enough for the Union P.O.W. to know they would soon be set free.
 Granddad Stanley worked for my Uncle Jim Brown hauling freight & grain.  Uncle Jim owned & operated the water powered flour mill up Kelsey Creek in Lake County.
 Granddads biggest desire was to start a church with enough members to support him full time.  He was an ordained Minister.  When he was Commander of the G.A.R. in Long Beach he was the youngest living Civil War Veteran known.

[This is another clip from Norma Ledbetter’s files, remember who is writing.]

 My mother, Bertha Olevia Stanley was a native of Humiston, Wayne County, Iowa, the fifth child of William C. Stanley and Sarah Jane Brown.
 When my mother was three years of age, the family moved to Lower Lake County [sic] California.  They lived here for several years then moved to Kelseyville, Lake County, California where Grandpa was postmaster.  This too is where she met John H. Purinton.  She received the education in the schools there.  In 1902 she and John Purinton were married.  Their first child was born in 1903 and I was born a little more than a year later.  Just a week after my birth my mother died.  This was on June 24, 1904.  She was twenty-three years old and seven months at the time of death.

[This is another clip from Norma Ledbetter’s files]

 From 1914 until June 1918, I lived in Southern California and while there each summer I visited my grandfather William C. Stanley and his second wife, whom I call Grandma as well as my grandmother who had died in 1907.
 Grandfather lived at Westminister.  When I first visited them, he was a retired farmer and Postmaster, having been the latter in Kelseyville, Lake County, California.  He was a strict Methodist and active in church work as well as in the G.A.R.  He was an early riser and thought that we all should be,  I remember so well, when I went with neighbors to Santa Ana to the show, we didn’t return until 2:00 Sunday A.M.  Grandpa called me at 6:00 as usual as he wanted us up for morning prayer and for Sunday School and of course breakfast.
 Later they moved to Long Beach where I also enjoyed visiting him, we all loved the ocean and enjoyed going to the beach.
 While in Westminister, Grandpa’s hobby was a little leather and harness shop he had back of the house.  I do not know whether he had it in Long Beach or not.
 Grandpa died in Long Beach on 11 May 1930.

 [This note was typed on the back of a typed family group sheet.]
 

 Our great-great-grandfather was Lord Stanley of Stanley Manor at Berkshire, England.  But g.g.grandfather of ours was disinherited because he married a French maid, Bettie.  He became a captain of a ship, there was quite an estate left in England.  Uncle J.R. (John Robert) Stanley being a lawyer [well, he was a Notary and J.P.] traced it up, and the ones handling the estate admitted there was still a vast estate, but they wrote it would take so much red tape on account of their son being disinherited, it would cost more than it was worth to get it.  I saw this letter that they wrote to Uncle John Robert which was during the year of 1893 so he and father concluded to let it drop.
   Annie Stanley Reynolds

 [The following is from the Long Beach Press, May 12, 1930]
 

 William Stanley
  Past Commander
   of Veterans, Dies

Leader in Patriotc Work Had Resided in State for Half Century.

 William Stanley, age 80 years, Past Commander of Long Bach Post No. 181, G.A.R., also Past Commander of the Veterans Union Blue and Gray, died yesterday at his home, 1036 East Fourth Street.  Mr. Stanley had lived in Long Beach twenty years and had been active until recent years in patriotic work of the community.
 Mr. Stanley, a native of Missouri, came to California nearly half a century ago, living first at Kelseyville, Lake County, in the northern part of the State then at Elsionre. He served as a postmaster at Kelseyville.
 Mrs Eliza Stanley, his widow, survives and there is a son, Owen Stanley of Oakland and three daughters Mrs. J. H. Brown and Mrs. Jesse Hayden, both of Palo Alto and Mrs. Lois Esau of Los Angeles. There are also two stepdaughters, Mrs. Ella M. Pratt, Long Beach, and Mrs. G. A. Dirr, Elsinore, and four stepsons, Alfred Knott, Temecula, Cal., and John Thomas and George Knott of Lebanon, S. D.  A grandson, Charles Stanley, lives in this city and there are several other grandchildren.
 [His funeral was at Calvary Presbyterian Church, Third Street and Atlantic Avenue where he was a member; an interesting contrast with the above.]

    [The note below was writtenby my mother, Leonora Stanley Meddaugh]

    My knowledge of the family goes back only as far as my grandfathr, William Clemens Stanley, & I know very little about him.  The story that I was told about his father, Jesse H. Stanley, I heard from both Aunt Lois & Uncle Owen.  That was that during the California gold rush he left his family & came out to the gold mines [his brothers were at the mines in the Yreka area].  He had set up a sluice box, but in which area no one could tell me.  He realized after a time that some one was robbing his sluice box in his absence. He stood watch one night & saw a Chinese apparently taking gold from his box.  He threw a rock at the Chinaman, hit him on the head & killed him. The Chinese in camp became infuriated & planned revenge.  When some of Jesse Stanley's friends heard of it, they persuaded him to leave camp at night dressed in woman's garmants.  And that was the last anyone saw or heard of him.  It makes a good story, with a sort of Bret Harte twinge to it.   [Marvin Lander has found that Jesse made his way back to Iowa; others have him dying in 1865, possibly in Mo.  I wonder if the fact that no one could tell my mother what happened to Jesse implys that he did not contact the California Stanleys again.]

[From the Lake Co. Record-Bee, 21 May 1930:]
     William Stanley, age 80 years, a former resident and postmaster of Kelseyville, died at his home at Long Beach on May 11.  Mr. Stanley, who was a native of Missouri, came to California nearly half a century ago, living first at Kelseyville.  He later moved to Elsinore in southern California, and for the past twenty years had made his home in Long Beach.

     In Lake Co. he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Frankie Brown,  and by several grandchildren:  Miss Norma Stanley, Park and Harold Stanley and Carroll Spielman.  Mrs. O. E. Meddaugh of Oakland and Charles Stanley of Long Beach are other surviving grandchildren.  Mrs. Anna Reynolds of Lakeport islikewise related to the departed pioneer.  The late O. L. Stanley, who passed away here a number of years ago, was a brother [he was a son].

     Mrs. Eliza Stanley, his widow, also survives, and there is a son, Own Stanley of Oakland and two other daughters, Mrs. Jesse Hayden of Palo Alto and Mrs. Lois Essau of Los angles.  There are also two stepdaughters, Mrs. Ella M. Pratt, Long Beach and Mrs. G. A. Dirr, Elsinore, and four stepsons, Alfred, John, Thomas and George Knott.

     Mr.  Stanley was a Past Commander of Long Beach Post No. 181, G.A.R., also Past Commander of the Veterans Union, Blue and Gray.

     Funeral services were held last Wednesday with interment at Glendale.
[this from the Pomo Bulletin, Feb.1993]

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16Apr.'02    g.m.