Birth: 7 Mar 1856, York, York Co, Penna2
Death: 5 Oct 1932, Gettysburg, Penna
Burial: Evergreen Cemetery, Gettysburg, Penna
Bapt: 11 Jul 1856, St Johns Episcopal Church, York, York, Pennsylvania3
Alias: Annie K Swope In Census Listings/ called Nana by her grandchildren.
Father: William Henry STAIR (1830-<1855)
Mother: Mary [Maria Elizabeth] BENTZ (1834-1916)
Spouse: Hon Samuel McCurdy SWOPE4
- Birth: 4 Oct 1850, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania/
- Death: 25 Jun 1931, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
- Father: John Adam 'John' SWOPE (1815-1880)
- Mother: Nancy Moore McCURDY (<1820-1904)
Children: [See Links in names for details]
- Marion (died in Infancy)
- Mary Stair (1885-1966)
- Amy McCurdy (1893-1980)
Narrative and Substantiation for Anna Kate STAIR:
Annie was not yet born when her 21 year old mother was widowed. Her father, besides being mentioned by Annie to her grandchildren, is identified as William Henry Stair in the family bible located by their grandchild in the hands of a ìMrs. Keller, of Yorkî. His ascendancy is still unknown to me and he is among my most wanted. Annie is found as a 4 year old in the 1860 census residing in the town of York, York county, Pennsylvania and in the home of her maternal grandmother Annie [Quickel] Bentz, for whom she was likely named, her mother, and her brother, along with her uncle Peter, an organist at St Johns Episcopal who would become the owner of a music store in York and and a music teacher. As Annie grew up, Peter remained an influential male in her sphere until her marriage. When Annie's mother remarried, she and her husband lived next door to Peter and his family; Annie was 11 and her brother 13 when their mother remarried to Reuben Leber. Annie and her brother are found residing with their step father and his wife in the 1870 census.next to Uncle Peter and family. Hamme research incorrectly identifies her as a daughter of Reuben Leber, while the Keller Bible incorrectly identified half sister Mary LEBER as a full sister. She was a 20 year old bride when she married Samuel McCurdy Swope, a new graduate of Pennsylvania College in the groom's hometown of Gettysburg. After they married, he started clerking with David Wills, the attorney of Gettysburg with whom Lincoln stayed the night before the Gettysburg Address, and who is sometimes shown [somewhat incorrectly] as the primary force behind the development of The National Cemetery of [Northern] Civil War Dead of the battle. Her first child died in infancy. By 1893 she had had her fourth and final child, and the following year her husband was elected Judge of Fulton and Adams Counties. The surviving children are all identified in the 1910 census of Gettysburg. They resided on Baltimore Street, in the home now owned by and part of the Presbyterian Church. In 1920 and 1930 the children are noted gone from the nest and her husband still engaged in practice. B R Swope recalls stopping at her grandmotherís home on the way back from school in the 1920s and being asked to sing ìOh take me homeî at the foot of the Sleigh Bed in which Annie reclined. A beautiful woman in youth, the wear of a recent pregnancy shows in the picture of her ca 1894 with her mother , husband and surviving children. By 1924, her picture reveals a lovely, relaxed and contented grandmother with her brood about her in front of the home of their son James Donald, who practised with his father, and Ruth Swope. Annie died in 1932, 5 years after her husband, and lies with him in the 2nd of three Swope plots in Evergreen Cemetery, with their infant Marion, and three adult children and their spouses beside them.
Annie about the time of her marriage above
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Below: Annie with her youngest in arms,
her mother, husband and two
other surviving children at Devil's Den
on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
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