The Reubenites, part 2

William C. McNabb was the third son of Reuben and Mary (Ferguson) McNabb. Mary Ferguson, you will recall, was the great-granddaughter of James Callin, the granddaughter of John and Elizabeth (Simon) Callin of Ohio, and the daughter of James and Eliza (Callin) Ferguson.

In our last post, we talked about his two older brothers, George and James. William was born in Indiana on 21 November 1861. After the close of the War Between the States in 1865, he and his family moved to Michigan, and he grew up there.

He married Edna Hall (1872–1941) on 20 March 1889, and he worked as a machinist and a carpenter in Grand Rapids, Michigan. When William died, he was 56 years old, and had likely only seen two of his grandchildren born. His youngest daughter was only 10 at the time, and Edna was only 46.

Edna stayed in their house at 455 Delaware SE for a couple of years before relocating to 434 6th Street, where she ran a dry goods business. Her death record shows her name as Edna May Coats, so she must have re-married in the 1930s. (Her brother married a woman named Coats, so it's possible that Edna married someone from that family.) She died 21 July 1941 in Grand Rapids.

1. Leora McNabb (1889–1897) died at 8 years of age, causes unknown, and she was buried in the Fairplains Cemetery at Grand Rapids, where her parents and many others named in this post are also buried.

2. Charles McNabb (1891–1938) was born and raised in Grand Rapids, and was working as a cabinet maker when he married Chloa Wellman (1890–1933) on 16 September 1915. He worked his way up to being a stock clerk, and then moved his wife and infant son to Chicago for a few years, where the other two boys were born. By the end of the 1920s, they were back in Grand Rapids.

In 1933, Chloa died from unknown causes, and five years later, in 1938, Charles was hospitalized and quickly died from complications from cellulitis and septicemia. They were buried in Fairplains Cemetery.

     a. Warren Colburn McNabb (1917–2014) married Marion Elvira Renberg (1919–2008) in 1939 in Royal Oak, Michigan. Warren worked as a gear design engineer for 44 years and retired in 1979. During his career he published several technical books and manuals and also held several design and production patents. After his retirement they moved to Pentwater, Michigan, where they lived for 29 years. They moved to Florida and the Spring Haven Retirement Community in 2008, because of Marion's advanced Alzheimer's disease. She passed in 2008, they were married for 69 years.

Warren and Marion held a large McNabb family reunion in Lansing Michigan for 75 years. They had three daughters and a son, all of whom are still living. He died from congestive heart failure on 14 April 2014 at the Good Shepherd Hospice House, Auburndale, Florida.

     b. Charles Wayne McNabb (1919–1992) was known by his middle name, Wayne, and moved in with his aunt, Beatrice (McNabb) Blackall (she is #7, further down this post) after his father's death. He worked in an assembly plant in 1940.

Wayne enlisted in the U.S. Army 16 April 1941, and was inducted at Camp Haan in Riverside, California. He served throughout the war, and was discharged on 1 November 1945 at the rank of technical sergeant.

     c. Kenneth Earl McNabb (1920–2004) married Jeanne Ann Houman (1926–2015). Like his brother, Ken was a veteran of World War II and served four years in the Navy aboard the USS West Point. After the war Ken worked for Traveler's Insurance Company retiring after 32 years of service. He and Jean had two children, a son and daughter, both of whom are still living, and four grown grandchildren.

3. Ethel M Mcnabb (1894–1963) married Mark D Markham (1891–1918), and they had one son, Jack Markham (1918–1927), before Mark's untimely death in 1918. Ethel remarried, Edward Adolphus Mirandette (1887–1957) in 1922. Sadly, young Jack died five years later, but after that, Ethel and Edward had another son and daughter together.

   a. Elton Adolphus ("Al") Mirandette (1929–1997) married Rosemary M Breen (1929–2001). Al and Rose have three sons and two daughters still living, and as of 1997, 14 grandchildren.

   b. Marthajane "Marty" Mirandette (1937–2013) married and had three sons, two of whom are still living. According to her obituary, Martha held a Master Degree with the International Women's Organization, Beta Sigma Phi and was a long time member of the Faith Lutheran Church congregation.

     i. Bret James Stockreef (1958–2004) was the son of Marthajane (Mirandette) Stockreef; he died in Connecticut in 2004.

4. William Earl McNabb (1896–1956) married Marcia L Rushford (1891–1988) on 23 June 1917 in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Marcia's father, Antoine (or Anthony) Rushford was born around 1820, and was a cousin of Napoleon Bonaparte. William served as a corporal in the U.S. Army in World War I.

They had three children, and their middle daughter is still living, as far as I can tell.

   a. William Earl Mcnabb Jr (1920–1969) married Barbara Ann Love (1921–1996) on 29 December 1945. They lived in Royal Oak, where William worked as a salesman until his death at the early age of 48. Barbara's last name at the time of her death was Barbara Ann Brunk, which would indicate that she probably remarried, but I have not been able to find any records besides her Social Security Administration application.

   c. Leila Joan McNabb (1932–1965) married John Thomas Carroll (1926–1998) on September 8, 1962, and she died just three years later.

5. Hazel I Mcnabb (1898–1987) married Charles Edward Peet (1898–1966) on 23 October 1918 in Frankfort, Michigan. The couple lived in the Grand Rapids area through the 1930s, and that is where seven of their eight children were born. By 1940 they had relocated to Battle Creek, where they had one more daughter. Their two youngest daughters are still living.

   a. Maxine Lorraine Peet (1920–2005) married Austin Alvin Collar (1918-1994) on 24 June 1941. Two years later, Austin entered the U.S. Army, and served from October 1943 through December 1945. They do not seem to have had any children, and they lived in Battle Creek for the rest of their lives.

   b. Jean Marie Peet (1922–1981) enlisted in the Women's Army Corps (WAC) in 1943 and served through her release in January 1946. Just a couple of months later, she married Kenneth Lee Stelma (1921-2009). Ken was also a veteran of World War II. They had three children, still living: two sons and a daughter. After Jean died in 1981, Ken remarried and moved to Florida; their children all moved to North Carolina.

   c. William J Peet (1923–2010) enlisted in the U.S. Army on 13 December 1941, less than a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served until 10 November 1945. He married Doris Joyce Walton (1924-1998) of Paterson, New Jersey, probably in 1942 - as their eldest daughter was born not long after that.

The couple lived in Battle Creek, Michigan, and they raised four daughters and a son - all but one of whom are still living. They also left behind 12 grand children, and 23 great grandchildren.

     i. Nancy Carol Peet (1951–2008) was the fourth child of William and Doris. She was married and lived with her husband in Wayne county, Indiana.

   d. Charles M "Chuck" Peet (1928–2013) was only 13 when World War II broke out, and could not enlist when his older brother and sister did. But he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps on 23 January 1946, anyway, just a few months before his eighteenth birthday. He married Joyce Ann Gray (1931-1995) around 1949, probably just after his discharge from the Army, and he began a long career as a truck driver.

The couple raised two sons and a daughter; only their daughter is still living. But they also have six grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.

     i. Charles R. Peet (1950-2015) was born on July 11, 1950, in Jackson, Michigan. He was a lifelong resident of the area graduating from Harper Creek High School in 1968. Charles married in 1970, and he and his wife raised two sons and a daughter - all four of whom are still living. He worked as a carpenter and millwright for Carpenter’s Local 525, and he retired in 2009. When he died, he left behind six grandchildren, as well. He died Thursday, February 12, 2015, in Grand Rapids with his family by his side.

     ii. Dale E Peet was the other son of Chuck and Joyce; I know very little about him, other than the apparent fact that he died before his father and before his brother. He is mentioned only briefly in their obituaries. He also appears to have been named for his uncle, Chuck's younger brother.

   e. Dale Edward Peet (1930–1986) enlisted in the U.S. Navy on 22 July 1948 and served in the Korean War. After his discharge on 21 July 1952, he married Betty Jane Copenhaver (925-2003), and they lived in the Battle Creek area, where Dale worked as a machinist.

   f. Joyce I Peet (1931–1973) married Gerald Duane Lawhead (1922-1981) on 14 January 1950, and worked as a clerk-typist and a stenographer in the Battle Creek area throughout the 1950s. Duane worked his way up from a packer to a receiving clerk, and then in the late 1950s became an accountant. After Joyce died, he moved out to Clark county, Nevada, where he died a few years later.

The two youngest daughters of William Earl and Marcia (Rushford) McNabb are still with us, but the family lost one of their sons just a month ago.

  Louis Charles Monaweck (1954-2016) was one of four brothers, and leaves behind a wife and two sons of his own. Louis graduated from Harper Creek High School and then attended Michigan Tech on a wrestling scholarship. He later graduated with his Bachelors Degree from Western Michigan University and worked for Consumers Energy for 32 years prior to establishing his own company, Midwest Powerline Inc.

6. Frank Carmine McNabb (1901–1983) married Helen E Murray (1905–1998) on 23 November 1927 in Detroit, Michigan, and they had two children - a son and a daughter who are still living.

7. Beatrice J McNabb (1908–1992) married Lowell James Blackall (1905–1998) on 6 April 1929 in Grand Rapids. This is the family that took in Charles Wayne McNabb in 1940, after his parents died. Beatrice and Lowell had two sons, one of whom is still living.

   a. Robert Lee Blackall (1930–2004) married Beverly Sue Strohpaul (1932–2004) on 28 October 1950 in Grand Rapids. I have not been able to find any more information about them.


And that brings us up to date on this line. As you might be able to tell, there were a lot more descendants of William and Edna (Hall) McNabb for me to research than I originally expected. This post also seems to have more than the usual share of names of those who died recently - one, Louie Monaweck, who died between the time I started drafting this post in January and today.

As always, I do the best I can to tell their stories, but there are always details that I have to leave out in order to respect the privacy of the living. I often have more information from obituaries and public records than I can include here, but I won't post any of it in public without permission.

If you are one of the many children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of this family, I'd love to hear from you how I did. If you have stories or memories you'd like to share here, I'm happy to host a guest post - and if I made any mistakes, I'd love to fix them.

Let me know what you think, and share this post with your family - and I'll keep digging for more cousins!