Granny McIntire

We have many elusive ancestors, and Granny McIntire is another.  She has been my brickwall in genealogy terms, for at least 10 years.  When I first started researching her, she didn't have a surname.  Eunice Jackson McIntire, was born in 1806 in Delaware.  I believe that she was born in Brandywine or Wilmington area.  I suspect that her parents are Susannah & Joseph Jackson, son of Philip Jackson, but I'm unsure if she had any siblings.  My first legal record of her, was her marriage record to Christopher McIntire on the 30th of December, 1829 in Old Asbury's Methodist Episcopal Church.  I also found her mentioned in the sale of her husband's McIntire property in downtown Wilmington. Then she disappeared in all records until 1870, where I found her living in her son's household in Worth County, Missouri.    She lived out the rest of her life on her son's farm on the stateline of Iowa & Missouri.  Eunice was laid to rest, after a sudden heart attack, in Honeygrove Cemetery, not quite a mile from her final home.

I planted some black-eyed Susan's at Granny's grave, the last time I visited, about five years ago.  It probably had been more than fifty years since someone had cleaned her grave.  Now it may have been ironic, that I thought these flowers to be the ones that would remind me most of this Granny.

Last month, after searching for at least a decade, I found Eunice in downtown Philadelphia between 1842 and 1865,  where I suspected for some time, that she may have gone to live.

Christopher & Eunice McIntire appear to have left Wilmington, Delaware when his father, Christopher Sr. passed in 1837.  In the next year, he enlisted in the United States Army.  While Christopher served in Florida over the Seminole War, Eunice appears to have lived in Philadelphia.  Christopher served three years, and after he was discharged, they appear to have stayed in Philadelphia.  Just a little over two years later, Christopher died from a condition called mania a potu.
This condition could be caused by drinking heavily of spirits, then stopping, as we now call it, "Cold Turkey."  Today this condition is known as Delirium Tremens. In the 1840's, doctors had no idea how to treat it.  It left Eunice a relatively young widow, and mother to two young boys, James & George.

I don't know the full details, but this would have made Jim McIntire about 12 years old, when his father died.  His mother bound him out to a Printer, as an apprentice to learn the printing trade.  Here, Jim had access to books, and loved reading Shakespeare.

The records I've recently found for Eunice were in different Philadelphia Methodist Church Records.  The Jackson family had once belonged to the Old Swedes or Holy Trinity Church of Wilmington.  However between 1790 and 1860, most of the Jackson's had converted to the Methodist Meetings.  Eunice regularly attended Sunday School at several different Methodist Churches in down town Philadelphia, in the 1850's through the 1860's.

Now I think I know where to look for Grandpa Jim's apprenticeship papers.  My guess is that they'll be found in the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, in downtown Philadelphia.