William M Stites (1839 - 1885)

Born 29 May 1839 in Lancaster Township, Jefferson, Indiana, United States [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Hannah (Green) Smith — married 19 Oct 1865 in Coles, Illinois, United States

Descendants

Died 15 Mar 1885 at age 45 in Pardee, Atchison, Kansas, United States

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Robert Stites [send private message] and Jim Stites [send private message]

Biography

William Stites was born in Lancaster Township, Jefferson County, Indiana, went to NW Missouri and eventually Kansas before the Civil War and joined the Union Army there. Immediately after the war, he went to Charleston, Illinois to marry Mary Hannah Green. William's older brother, Jonathan, had earlier married Mary Hannah Green's older sister and was living in Charleston during the war. In the final year of his life, William moved back to Kansas in a covered wagon and died not long after arriving.

The Civil War Pension files for William Stites in the National Archives in Washington, DC, make it clear that William volunteered for the Kansas Infantry in 1862 and was initially sent to defend several forts on the western frontier. Later, the Kansas Infantry participated in Union campaigns in Mississippi and then Tennessee. Just outside Nashville, in August 1863, William fell ill. In letters in the pension file, William said his heart was damaged by having move heavy equipment on a very hot day. William was sent to an Army hospital were he was diagnosed first with tuberculosis and later with yellow fever. He was move to another Army hospital near Nashville and spent the remainder of his time in service there before being discharged in May 1865. For the rest of his life, William was never well. A letter in the pension files, from his friend, Isaac Laird, notes that William could never work a full day and was in constant pain, sometimes having the bend over a chair for relief. William made his final trip from Illinois to Kansas with the Laird family. The two families had made the trip several times.

There is another letter in the pension files for William Stites. It is addressed to his re-married widow, Mary Hannah (Green) (Stites) Smith and was sent by Vespasian Warner, the head of the Bureau of Pensions at the time. The letter is a denial of William's widow's pension claim on a technicality. In her filing of paperwork she misidentified William's service unit as Company A (when in fact, it was Company C).

Born 29 May 1839. Rush County, Indiana, USA. ^[1][2]

Died 15 March 1885. Pardee, Kansas, USA. ^[3]

Residence 1850 Carroll, Platte, Missouri. ^[4] Marital Status: Single. 31 May 1865. Center, Atchison, Kansas. 1870 Charleston, Coles, Illinois, United States. ^[5] 1880 Crooked Creek, Jasper, Illinois, USA. ^[6]

Military Service: 7 Oct 1861. Kansas ^[7]

Marriage 19 Oct 1865. Coles, Illinois, United States. ^[8]

• Fact: Residence (1850) Carroll, Platte, Missouri, USA
• Fact: Military Service (7 October 1861) Kansas
• Fact: Residence (1870) Charleston, Coles, Illinois, United States
• Fact: Residence (1880) Crooked Creek, Jasper, Illinois, USA
• Fact: Burial (1885) Kansas, United States

Sources

1. ↑ Year: 1880; Census Place: Crooked Creek, Jasper, Illinois; Roll: 215; Family History Film: 1254215; Page: 258D; Enumeration District: 158; Image: 0279
2. ↑ Year: 1850; Census Place: Carroll, Platte, Missouri; Roll: M432_410; Page: 407B; Image: 249
3. ↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/119170743
4. ↑ Year: 1850; Census Place: Carroll, Platte, Missouri; Roll: M432_410; Page: 407B; Image: 249
5. ↑ Year: 1870; Census Place: Charleston, Coles, Illinois; Roll: M593_197; Page: 36A; Image: 77; Family History Library Film: 545696
6. ↑ Year: 1880; Census Place: Crooked Creek, Jasper, Illinois; Roll: 215; Family History Film: 1254215; Page: 258D; Enumeration District: 158; Image: 0279
7. ↑ Ancestry.com. Kansas, Grand Army of the Republic Post Reports, 1880-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.
8. ↑ Ancestry.com. Illinois, County Marriage Records, 1800-1940 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

• "Family Tree," database, FamilySearch (http://familysearch.org : modified 09 May 2023, 17:00), entry for William Ellsworth Stites (PID https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/4:1:LBCV-BVH ); contributed by various users.
• WikiTree profile Stites-123 created through the import of STITES (Rbt Sept-7-2011).ged on Sep 9, 2011 by Jim X. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Jim and others.

• Source: S-1879345225 Repository: #R-1879354075 Title: Ancestry Family Trees Publication: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members. Note: This information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created. Page: Ancestry Family Trees Note: Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=29431797&pid=179
• Repository: R-1879354075 Name: Ancestry.com Address: http://www.Ancestry.com Note:
• The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Office of the Quartermaster General; Record Group Number: 92; Series Number: M1845
• The National Archives in Washington, DC; Washington, DC, USA; U.s., Civil War Pension Index: General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934; NAI Title: General Index to Civil War and Later Pension Files, Ca. 1949-Ca. 1949; NAI Number: 563268; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773-2007; Record Group Number: 15; Series Number: T288; Roll: 454