The Stanley story starts in England in Derbyshire with an Earl of Derby. That there were Earls of Derby (they lent the name Derby to championship horse races) and that they were Stanleys (and that at least one was a Prime Minister) is a matter of record. A reason to think they were my Stanleys is given later. One Lord Stanley had a son. That son was said to be enamored of a french  maid by the name of Bette. They had a son which got him disinherited and started the line of Stanleys of which I am a part. I have no further information on Bette. The son was:

    Joseph Stanley b.~1767 England d.1854 in Tenn.
        m.  Comfort Mure b. & d. in Tenn.

    Joseph owned land in Knox Co. Tenn.  in 1844 (however, Lander doubts this). They are said to have had 6 children; the only one that I have information on is the oldest:

    Alfred Muir Stanley b. 23Mar1809, in North Carolina. (many sources say b. 1812, often in Tenn. but this is due to an error by his first biographer)  d. 8Dec1882 Lakeview, Ore.  m. 15Nov1827 Margaret Heather b. 19Jun1810, Warren Co. Tenn. d. 18Oct1857 d.o. Thomas  Heather and Polly Means (one source has her as Polly Mure).  I prefer to believe the family  name and Alfred's middle name was Muir; hey, it's my page.

    Alfred m. also, Rebecca Sandlir.  I have information that indicates she was Rebecca Sandlin and some of her background.   Mauldin's Lake Co. notes have Alfred and his father b. N.C. Tennessee was carved out of N.C. in the early 1800s and there is enough time between Joseph's and Alfred's births for another generation.  DamnifIknow.   A family letter indicates that Rebecca came to Oregon with Alfred M. 'tho she died in Mo.  

    I'm getting absolutly nowhere on the Derby story; some Stanley families have it, some don't.  More info is in Marvin's book linked above.

    Lander is certain that a Jonathan Stanley living near Alfred in Decatur Co. Iowa is a brother and, judging by the name and physical proximity of Johnathan's descants I believe so also.      Lander also is aware of a Benjamin Stanley who's son, John, lived in Colusa Co. Calif. and was visited by Alfred's family and feels Benjamin might be a brother.      There was also a Louanna STANLEY b. 4 Feb 1821, possibly in Warren Co., TN.  She m. abt 1840/41in TN to Andrew James RANDOLPH. In 1850 she was in Decatur Co. and is possibly a sister of Alfred Muir STANLEY.

    Alfred and Margaret's family numbered 13 children born in Tn. In, Tn. Al, Tn. Mo. Ia (they moved a lot!) from 1828 to 1850. The second of these children was:

    Jesse Harris Stanley b. 24Jul1830 Hendrick Co. Indiana.  m. Mahala Ann SMITH who was born about 1830 in Hendrick Co. Indiana (this is just south of  present Indianapolis).  As an aside, the N.C. to Hendricks Co. Indiana move was not an unusual one for Quakers.  It now appears that Mahala was a Culp, see Jesse's link above.

    Jesse and Mahala had 3 children, b. around 1850 in Buchanan Co. Missouri.  Jesse and Mahala's eldest child was:

    William Clemens Stanley b. 12Oct1849 In St. Joseph, Buchanan Co. Missouri d. . 11May1930 Long
    Beach, Calif.  m. Sarah Jane BROWN b. 6 Sep 1846 in Mercer Co., Missouri d. 25Sep1907 in Kelseyville, Calif.

    More about Sarah Jane's ancestors can be found here.

    W. C. was, toward the end of his life, one of the oldest living Civil War Vets. He signed up with the
union forces by exaggerating his age, became a drummer boy and later was captured and escaped from the Vicksburg stockade toward the end of the war.  He was said to have been the youngest of the veterans.

    My mother claimed that the Clemens middle name was from Samuel Clemens family and came from his (W. C.'s mother's I presume) side. Sarah Jane was born in Missouri and Samuel Clemens was just
younger than W. C.'s parents and married an Olivia, a name which showed up in the Stanley family later.  I haven't found the connection however. S. C. (Mark Twain) it turns out was in Nevada in the early 1860s as his brother was a territorial governer there; I find no connection.

    W. C. came to Lake Co. Calif. about 1883 judging from his children's birthplaces, 1885 if he came with his son Otha; presumably he came because some of his uncles and probably his father were there. He farmed, ran a harness shop and was the postmaster of Uncle Sam which was later Kelseyville. I suspect it was when his wife died that he moved south to Elsinore where he Eliza Jane Knott and later moved to Long Beach.

    It was W. C.'s uncle John Robert Stanley that, I have heard, wrote the Earl of Derby's solicitors to see what, if any, of the estate the family might be entitled. The response was that although there was some possibility of an inheritance, the expense involved would certainly be greater than any gain that could be realized. John was a Notary and Justice of the Peace so it would be reasonable that he would be the one to write and the story has some air of legitimacy.

    William Clemens and Sarah's family numbered 8 children the oldest of which was my grandfather:

    Otha Lonzo Stanley b. 1Oct1867 in Mercer Co. Missouri. d. 14May1911 in Lakeport
        m. 17Jun1896 Mary Alice Gard b.17Jun1872 in Kelseyville d. 1Apr1963 in Oakland, Calif.

    My mother told me that the intent was that Otha's second name was to be "Alonzo" but it didn't work that way.  The story goes that the family lived in Iowa but Sarah Jane Brown's family lived just over the Missouri line so they went there for him to be born.  Otha was a printer by trade. He had worked on several newspapers in the Lake Co.  area and had his own paper for a while, the Kelseyville "New Era".  However, by the time he was married, he was unemployed and searching the California Coast for work. He found a job as editor of the Mendocino Beacon probably just before marriage. They rented a small house in Mendocino City at Little Lake and Ford streets where the first 3 of O. L. and Mary's family were born. The home is still there and, as the entire area is a historical district, it is quite well kept up; it is diagonally across from the Blair House where "Jessica Fletcher" of "Murder She Wrote" lived.

    In 1903, because of deteriorating health, Otha moved his family to a small house on Clara St. in Ukiah where he had accepted a position of editor of Phoebe Hearst's (or was it Leland Stanford's?) Democrat. The younger 2 children were born here but in 1907 the family moved to Lakeport to a small house well up 4th street which I have been told he built. Here he worked as a printer until he died of consumption in 1911.  The family then lived on a corner of a ranch in Finley owned by Mary Gard Stanley's brother-in-law Benton Thomas.  [Check out Don McBride's page on Benton Thomas and the Gard family.]  He not only provided for them but was a great favorite of my aunt Norma and my mother Otha Leonora (she never did figure out why she inherited the name Otha).  Better info is available from O. L. and Mary's link above

 02May'01
06Apr.'06     Marvin link and cleanup first para.