Sarah Geer McIntyre: The Courage to Carry On, Part 2

Continued from previous post. . .

Little is known of Sarah Geer’s life between the end of the Civil War and her marriage to Martin McIntyre in 1897; no censuses recorded where she lived or with whom. She likely lived with her mother's sister Hannah Allison and her large family, although the 1870 and 1880 censuses of Smyth County, Virginia do not include her in the Allison household. Family tradition says that her dark complexion earned her the nickname “little black Sally,” and she was said to be “black Dutch,” a term commonly applied to Melungeons, a group of people of mixed ethnic ancestry first noted living in northeastern Tennessee and southwestern Virginia.1 At this writing, however, there is no proof of Melungeon ancestry.

There is no uncertainty, however, that Sarah’s lifelong best friend was Sarah Alice (“Allie”) Rumbley. Allie’s pale blue eyes, blonde hair, fair skin, and round face contrasted sharply with Sarah’s brown eyes, black hair, dark skin, and bird-like features. Family tradition says that Sarah and Allie met while they worked at the Palmer Inn in Saltville, where Sarah was the cook and Allie was the housekeeper.2 Earliest written evidence suggests that their friendship began possibly before 1888. A note in a small account book written by Allie in her even and carefully slanted script describes important events in their lives:

Sarah Alice Rumbley was borned June 6, 1858  was convicted of sin Feb 14 1877. Sunday the 18, candidate for membership. May Thursday 2^nd 1878 professed faith in Christ. First prayer in public July Thursday 25 1878 amersed september Thirsay 6 1883.

Sarah A. Geer convicted November 21 1888 converted the 22^nd and received in the church.3

Another page identifies the church as Methodist.

 

Between the time Allie says she felt “convicted of sin” and the time she “professed faith in Christ,” she wrote the following letter to an “Absent Friend” entreating that person’s prayers for her:

By the request of a friend

Woodland, Virginia

July 7^th, 1877

My Absent Friend

I hardly know how to address you, as I have never bin blessed with anoppertunity of forming your acquaintance, but by the halls of God’s Spirit, and the influence of your earnest prayer I will endever to address you in the best way and manner that I know how. In the first place I must confess how greatly your request surprised me; and at the same time I thank God for ever giving me such a friend here in this selfish world to take such a deep interest in my soul’s eternal welfare. O, that true Christians would a wake to the deathless interest of poor perishing sinners; ever remembering that he that converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. My friend don’t think me presumptuous or unkind when I endever to impress upon your mind the request of an increased interest in your prayers, for freely you have received and freely give.

Oh, pray earnestly till I have received that good potion which can never be

taken from me. I do thank God for the impression that secret prayer has made on my heart, for often I feel happiness unspeakable.

Excuse me if I have bin two plain, for thoughts welcome to my bosome, may

make yours bleed. My friend you will do me a great favor by keeping those few illcomposed lines in secret—let them be as though they had never bin written, and as if the occasion for them had never arisen.

To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,

both now and ever. Amen.

                        I remain most affectionately and respectfully yours,

                                                                                                Sarah A.

 

Both Allie and Sarah could have signed a letter Sarah A., but the handwriting is Allie’s uniformly slanted script. By contrast, Sarah’s handwriting looks haphazard, angling this way and that, like a river meandering through the countryside.

 

Allie’s letter reveals the religious language commonly used during that day, phrases such as “my soul’s eternal welfare” and “wake to the deathless interest of poor perishing sinners.” Her words are elegant and passionate: “I do thank God for the impression that secret prayer has made on my heart, for often I feel happiness unspeakable.” The “ill-composed lines” she references, we shall never know. This letter reveals a passion for God that continued with Allie and Sarah throughout their lives, a passion they passed on to Sarah’s son, stepchildren, nieces, and grandchildren.

 

Other than her conversion at age 28, no other record exists of Sarah’s activities for another nine years. In 1897, at age 37, Sarah would have been labeled a spinster or an “old maid” when she was married on June 16, 18974 to Martin McIntyre, a laborer and widower with four children. Allie Rumbley and Sarah’s cousin Rachel Allison, daughter of Hannah and John Allison, witnessed the marriage.5 Martin’s first wife, Susan (neé Chapman) McIntyre, had died the previous summer (July 13, 1896).6

 

Whether Sarah was acquainted with the McIntyre family before Susan’s death is unknown. The marriage may have been one of convenience for Martin who surely needed a cook and housekeeper and caretaker for his children: Katie (16), Stephen (14), Gould (12), and Elizabeth, or Lizzie, (7).7 On the other hand, Katie was old enough to step in as cook and housekeeper, so his marriage to Sarah may have been a love match. Existing evidence does not answer this question.

 

Whatever the case, tragedy struck less than eight weeks later when Martin suffered a sudden heart attack and died on August 7, 1897, as he was splitting wood.8 Suddenly, Sarah was left a widow with four stepchildren in her care—and she was pregnant. At Martin’s death, Sarah’s friend Allie immediately came to her aid. Eight and a half months after Martin died, Sarah gave birth to a son on April 30, 1898. She named the child John Martin and called him Martie. By the time the 1900 census was taken, Allie Rumbley was living with Sarah,9 and Martin’s children were scattered, as often happened with the death of parents. Gould lived in Kentucky,10 Lizzie lived with Sarah and Allie,11 and the whereabouts of Kate and Stephen is unknown.12 Allie and Sarah supported their family by their work as cook and housekeeper at the Palmer Inn.

 

About 1905, a Church of God preacher from Norton, Virginia, named M.P. Rimmer traveled  to Allison Gap and held a revival. Influenced by Rimmer’s sermons and those of other evangelists, such as A. G. Riddle of Atkins, Virginia, and W. P. Long and W. A. Sutherland, both of Greenville, Tennessee,13 Sarah and Allie left the Methodist Church and became followers of the Church of God movement.14 Through this association, they would later play a part in establishing a Church of God congregation in Allison Gap. 

 More later. . . .

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1 For more on the Melungeons, see The Melungeon Heritage Association web site at http://www.melungeon.org/.

2 This version is according to Lois McIntyre Troutman. Other family members assert that Sarah and Allie started working at the hotel after Sarah’s husband, Martin McIntyre, died.

3 Booklet is in the author’s possession in Anderson, Indiana.

4 McIntyre Bible. This Bible was in the possession of Mayo Moses McIntyre in about 1985 when family historian, Carol Noonkester, visited with Mrs. McIntyre. Carol transcribed the information from the Bible, but the whereabouts of the McIntyre Bible is unknown today.

5 Ibid.

6 Arnold Family Bible. Cordelia McIntyre Arnold was a sister to Martin McIntyre. This Bible is in the possession of Sarah’s granddaughter NH of Saltville.

7 Ibid.

8 This story has been passed down through the family. The piece of wood Martin was said to be splitting is in the possession of a great-granddaughter of Sarah’s, St. Charles, MO.

9 1900 Census; Rich Valley, Smyth, Virginia; Roll T623 1728; Page 13A; Enumeration District 83.

10 1900 Census; Black Oak, Whitley, Kentucky; Roll T623 555; Page 10B; Enumeration District 142.

11 1900 Census; Rich Valley, Smyth, Virginia; Roll T623 1728; Page 13A; Enumeration District 83.

12 According to Arnold Bible records, Stephen died Feb. 18, 1901.

13 The Tie That Binds. Compiled by the Women’s Missionary Society, Allison Gap Church of God, Dec. 1970. p. 4. Republished and updated in July 2005 as A History of the First Church of God, Allison Gap, Saltville, Va, by Jack Barbrow, Geneva Louthen, Thelma Swartz, and Saundra Wassum.

14 According to The Tie that Binds (compiled by the Allison Gap Church of God Women’s Missionary Society, 1970), a history of the First Church of God of Saltville, VA, the Church of God movement dates to 1825-30 when the Rev. John Winebrenner of Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania, began preaching the following points as the basis of the organization:

            1) Under the Divine order, believers in any given place are to constitute one body.

            2) Division into sects and parties under human names and creeds is contrary to the spirit of the New

    Testament.

3) Believers in any community organized into one body constitute God’s household, and should be known

    as the Church of God.

4) The scriptures, without rote or comment, constitute a sufficient rule of faith and practice, while creeds

    and confessions tend to division and sects.

5) Binding upon all believers are the ordinances of baptism by immersion in water, in the name of the

    Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; the washing of the saints’ feet; partaking of breads and wine in

    commemoration of the suffering and death of Christ. (p. 3)

Daniel S. Warner, from Ohio, influenced by these tenets and by the holiness movement spreading across the country, began preaching the importance of the work of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives. This eventually created a split between Warner the leaders of the Winebrennarian Church of God. Warner began publishing his convictions in a periodical called The Gospel Trumpet. At the time that Church of God preachers began spreading their teachings in Southwest Virginia, The Gospel Trumpet was being published in Moundsville, West Virginia. However, in 1906, the entire publishing company moved to Anderson, Indiana. In 1917, the company started a Bible school, which developed into what is now Anderson University. The headquarters of the Church of God remains in Madison County, Indiana, today.

This shows Allie, Sarah, and Martie at the grave of Martin McIntyre, Elizabeth Cemetery, Saltville, VA, c. 1905. The man is Tom Geer, Sarah's uncle. On the back of the photo, Sarah wrote, "This is the graveyarde[.] here is Mr. Mctyre grave [.] Uncle Tom is at the foot[,] me and martie at the head and a lady that is living with us by the name of Allie Rumbley[.] 

This the old Elizabeth grave yard [.] 

Sarah Mctyre

Aunt Nonay is burried here too[.]"

Allie Rumbley, about age 16.

Sarah Ann Geer McIntyre: The Courage to Carry On

Only child, orphan, traitor’s daughter, bride, step-mother, widow, single mom, bff, cook, housekeeper, caretaker, Christ follower—all these names fit my maternal great-grandmother, Sarah A. Geer McIntyre. My mother called her Mammy McIntyre. She died many years before I was born, but I heard stories.

 

Sarah A. Geer1 was born on January 4, 18602 in Smyth County, Virginia, to Margaret Ann Moore Geer (1838-1860), daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Moore3, and William E. Geer (1830-1913).4 Though the couple had been married five years, Sarah was their first known child.5 The couple’s joy at Sarah’s birth turned much too soon to sorrow, for Margaret died just eight days later of “child bed fever.”6 The early loss of her mother was the first in a number of tragedies Sarah would face throughout her life. 

 

By April 1860, Sarah, age 4 months, lived at Seven Mile Ford with her father, William E. Geer, age 29, a wagoner, and with her grandmother, Celia Geer, age 57. They lived in the home of Henry L. McLure, his wife Lear, and their two children.7 The relationship between the McLures and the Geers is unknown.8

 

Sarah’s grandmother Celia was herself a single mother. Whether she was widowed or not is a mystery, as is the identity of her children’s father. In 1850 Celia and her two sons, William, age 19 and Thomas, age 12, lived in Washington County, Virginia. Celia was farming.9 Perhaps some of Celia’s resourcefulness in the face of difficult circumstances was passed on to her granddaughter, Sarah.

 

On June 20, 1861,10 when Sarah was eighteen months old, her father left her with his mother and traveled to Abingdon, Virginia, with his brother-in-law, Theophilus Moore,11 and signed with the 48^th Virginia Infantry, Confederate States of America. In 1863 he was captured on the retreat from Gettysburg and imprisoned at Fort Delaware on Pea Patch Island, Delaware. After ten weeks, William signed the “yellow dog contract,” as the Rebels called the oath of allegiance, and he was assigned to the United States Army’s 1^st Regiment Connecticut Cavalry,12 Company G.13 When the war ended, William’s mother wrote to him that it was unsafe for him to return home.14 Consequently, when he was mustered out of the service in Minnesota where he was stationed in October 1865, William stayed there, eventually making his home in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin.15 

 

Back home in Smyth County during the war, Celia took care of little Sarah. Family tradition suggests that Sarah’s maternal aunt, Hannah Moore Allison, wife of John P. Allison, Civil War veteran and farmer, probably kept Sarah after Celia’s death, prior to 1870. During the war, Smyth County endured two battles, one at Saltville (1864), resulting in the destruction of the salt works, and another battle at Marion. How these events affected Sarah and her family can only be imagined. Although specific events of Sarah’s childhood are unknown, it is easy to surmise that a little girl whose father was considered a traitor faced scorn.16

 

More to come. . .

Sarah A. Geer, c. 1900

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1 Sarah’s birth certificate states her name as Sarah A. Gear. In the 1860 census, her name is listed as Sarah Ann, and it is recorded as Sarah Ann in the McIntyre Family Bible, but the name on her tombstone, chiseled by her son, John Martin McIntyre, is Sarah Alice. As for the spelling of her last name, in documents prior to and during the Civil War, the name is spelled G-e-a-r. After the war, it is spelled G-e-e-r. So too, the spelling of McIntyre varies in records: McIntire, McEntire, MacEntire, and McIntyre.

2 Smyth County (Virginia) Register of Births Book 1, p. 15. The spelling of the name in the record is Gear.

3 For Margaret death date: U. S. Federal Census Mortality Schedule, 1850-1880, Smyth Co, Virginia, p. 571, l. 22, citing Margaret A. Geer, 12 Jan 1860; Ancestry (NARA, T1132 Roll 5).

4 The year of William’s birth is unconfirmed. The 1850 census records his age as 19, and the 1860 census records his age as 29, which would indicate that he was born in 1831. However, his enlistment in the U.S. army on October 1, 1863, records his age as 33, and the newspaper in Maiden Rock, Wisconsin, reports that his wife, Julia, threw him a 75^th birthday party on January 31, 1905, his birthday, both of which would indicate that he was born in 1830.

5 The marriage date of Margaret Moore and William E. Geer is unconfirmed. The only record of their marriage I have found to date is actually a record of their application for a marriage license dated Jan. 4, 1855, located at the Washington County Historical Society, Abingdon, Virginia, STA VA WA 3.1, p. 22.

6 Smyth County Register of Deaths, Book 1, 1857-1896.

7 1860 U. S. census, Smyth Co, VA, p. 888, dwelling 165, family 165, Henry S. McLure, see Sarah Ann Gear; Ancestry (NARA, M653, Roll 1377).

8 Some family researchers have assumed that Lear McLure was William’s sister, but further research of the McLure family revealed no relationship. Henry and Lear were both born in North Carolina, and Lear’s maiden name was most likely

9 1850 U. S. census Washington Co, VA, p. 70B, family 35, Celia Geer; Ancestry (NARA, M432 Roll 980)

10 John D. Chapla, 48^th Virginia Infantry (Lynchburg, VA: H. E. Howard, Inc., 1989), p. 124.

11 Ibid., p. 142.

12 Ibid.

13 Veterans Records, Union, Ist Connecticut Cavalry, Company G, Muster Roll, 1 Oct. 1863.

14 “An Old Soldier’s Romance,” Maiden Rock Press, Dec. 1905, n. pag.

15 Ibid.

16 Several years ago, I met a descendant of Thomas Geer, William’s brother. When I told her I was descended from William, she said, “Oh! He was the traitor.” That remark made 120 years after the fact opened my eyes to how difficult it must have been for Sarah to have grown up in a community where people viewed her father to be a traitor.