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Biography of Reverend Sigismund Stribling Ware
By Judy C. Ware ©2013
Sigismund (affectionately known as Sig or Sidge) Ware was the son of Josiah
William Ware of Berryville Virginia and his second wife, Edmonia Jaquelin Smith
Ware. Josiah’s first wife (Frances
Toy Glassell) had passed away suddenly in 1842 – leaving poor Josiah with five
young children to care for. He
remarried in 1845, and he and Edmonia (his new wife) added four more sons to the
family: (1) Jaquelin Smith Ware
(1846), (2) Sigismund Stribling Ware (1851), (3) Josiah William Jr. (1853), and
(4) Robert Macky Ware (1857). Of
this second set of children, Sig and Jo were the closest in age and affection. This was only natural since Jaque was
a full five years older than Sig, and Robert (the baby of the family) was six
years younger. With only a two-year
difference between Sig and Jo, the brothers were inseparable. This special closeness was only
enhanced by the Civil War which found Jaque going off to serve in the military,
and Sig suddenly the “man of the house” when his father was away. One can only imagine how life must
have changed for these two young boys during those horrible years of conflict.
Prior to 1861, life was pretty idyllic for the Wares on their beautiful family
plantation called Springfield. Their
father was
Josiah Ware was very active in the politics of the day and corresponded frequently with such influential men as John C. Calhoun, Daniel Webster, President John Tyler, President Zachary Taylor, Henry Clay, and especially President Rutherford B. Hayes and his wife, Lucy Ware Hayes - a cousin. In the 1830s, it was Josiah who played an important role in the formation of Clarke County for “throughout the controversy he was the most articulate and visible advocate of a new county.” (Ref. 48)
Sigismund grew up in a home frequently visited by such notable people. His brother Jo wrote in his memoir
that “when President Tyler was a guest at
Springfield, he was taken into the dining room where the decanters and wine
glasses were on the sideboard. The
‘saddle’ of mutton was brought in, and he was more enthusiastic over it than the
refreshments!” The snippets of
letters below are a sampling of the circle of friends the family knew.
In addition to politics, Josiah was known internationally for raising
prize-winning English Cotswold sheep and breeding fine thoroughbred race horses. By importing the highest quality
stock into northern Virginia, he helped establish the agricultural reputation of
the Shenandoah region. As his
granddaughter, Cornelia Ware Anker, wrote in a letter, Josiah “was president of the American
Agricultural Society for at least two years and founder of the Maryland and
Virginia Agricultural Association; this was the beginning of the U.S. Department
of Agriculture into which it merged.”
(Ref. 3)
Shortly before the war, Josiah was given the honor of being named Chairman of
the Judges for the United States Fair held in Cincinnati on Sept. 20, 1860.
THE UNITED STATES FAIR.; CINCINNATI, Thursday, Sept. 20, 1860.
If the Eighth National Fair has done nothing else
for the country, it has at least been productive of one remarkable discovery,
for which it, or rather one of its officers, has a fair chance of general
notoriety. Col. JOSIAH W. WARE, of Virginia, is an
old gentleman of high respectability and famous as a breeder of Cotswold sheep. He has also been, in his time, a
fancier of thorough-bred horses, it is said, but at any rate possesses such
qualifications, in that respect, as to have been deemed a proper person to make
Chairman of the Judges on thoroughbreds.
Josiah had built his home, Springfield, around 1827 - - shortly after his
marriage to Frances Glassell.
It was called
“one of the most beautiful of the valley houses.”
(Ref. 110, 195) According to his son, Reverend Jo W.
Ware, “Springfield was a stock farm
chiefly – thoroughbred horses and pure bred other stock.” He went on to say, “our house was large, and the rooms were
spacious, and there were, I’m sure, at least 20 servants on the place. The house was imposing in appearance;
lumber was seasoned for three years before being used.”
(Ref. 81)
It was in this home that
all of Josiah’s children were born.
Springfield Plantation
All of the Ware family attended Grace Episcopal Church in Berryville, and it was
probably here that the roots of faith were planted deeply for both Sig and Jo. Their father
“read the bible often – the Old Testament
once a year and the New Testament twice.”
(Ref. 840) Josiah felt strongly that religion
should play a large role in their lives and in the lives of anyone living on
Springfield – even the slaves. As Jo
wrote in his memoir, “Let it not be
thought that the welfare of the negroes in spiritual matters was overlooked by
their owners . . . I remember attending religious services for them at
Springfield on Sunday afternoons.”
(Ref. 84)
Both Sig and Jo had a clear
understanding of where their father stood on the issue of slavery. As Jo so eloquently wrote:
“I will give some
impression of father’s relations to his servants - - they were not spoken of as slaves. I wonder what proportion of labour
enjoy as great a degree of physical comforts as the negroes at Springfield did. (And I will here say that I am not
defending slavery, and I agree with the statement that the Emancipation
Proclamation emancipated more whites, rather the whites more than the blacks. No one unfamiliar with the actual
situation can realize what the owners of this unfortunate race experienced. And the history of legislation in the
South previous to 1862 shows what study they were giving to emancipation. It was the plight of the poor negro
which was their chief concern.
And, had the abolitionists been reasonable and patient, the South, the real
friend of the negro, would have evolved a solution more favorable to the negro
than the method adopted.”
Jo went on to add:
“As they became old,
light work was assigned or none.
They were comfortable and carefree.
How often I have seen the ‘retired’ ones sleeping in the sun. And how many of them, who had been
excused from ‘cradling’ in the harvest field or the heavier labour on the farm,
do the same work ten or fifteen years after the war! Father worked in the harvest field
until he was at least 65 years of age.
He raked the wheat into bundles, and was always just behind his cradler
-and if one had not been able to keep up, he would help such a one.”
Jo wrote about how his father refused to separate families and on one particular
occasion (when a gentleman requested to buy Bob, one of the head grooms on
Springfield), Josiah’s response was, “You
will have to get Bob’s consent.”
When Bob replied that “I won’t leave Marse Jo,” the gentleman persisted and offered all kinds of
incentives and promises to try and lure him away.
When he again pressured Josiah to give in, “his response was, ‘No Sir. Bob has closed all negotiation.’
And he had. He was never sold. The abolitionists would have found it
hard to believe such a relationship.”
The war years would influence all the Ware family members dramatically. When the fighting began in 1861, Sig
was only 10 years old and Jo was eight.
Even though Josiah was too old to fight in a military unit, he was
arrested and put in prison for being a southern sympathizer. He had been given a “pass” to travel
to town, but the Union army was highly agitated over the actions of Mosby’s
Rangers in the area, and they decided to ‘crack down’ on local civilians. Josiah was literally taken from his
home at night and as Jo wrote, “one can
only imagine what the suspense was until we heard of the whereabouts of Father. Mother said she lived in constant
expectation of hearing of the finding of his dead body. Finally we heard . . . he was kept in
prison, the old Carroll Prison, for seven months.” What a frightening time for the
boys!
[Carroll Prison was also known as Old Capital Prison.]
One day, there “was a flock of turkeys, about grown, in a field in sight of the house.” Sig’s mother told the servants to
shoo them closer in so the Yankees would not get them, but they were all too
afraid to do so. The servants told
her, “No, can’t let the Yankees shoot us!” In a humorous turn of events, Jo
writes, “Then what must Sig do but say,
‘Jo and I will get them.’ My heart sank
at the thought, and while I do not think that I am by nature brave, I have
always despised cowardice. And my
self-respect would not let me act the coward, so away we ran. To my surprise the soldiers, probably
because they respected the audacity of such small chaps, permitted us to drive
them off. While the turkeys were
making long strides for the house, a soldier followed us, unbeknown, and while
we were ‘double-quicking’ after our rescue (I suppose that we were about five
yards apart), a bullet buzzed between us and broke a turkey’s leg. Then followed a race - - we and the
Yank chasing the bird, and he racing for his life. But the soldier’s long legs won out
and he carried off the prize. He had
rested his gun against a tree for a sure shot.”
(Ref. 84)
On another occasion, when Sig was only 12, he drove a carriage through enemy
lines to help bring a pair of boots to his older brother.
“At
times a soldier, when near enough to his home and when he could be spared, would
get a furlough to visit his home for a few days.
On one such occasion Jaque got as far as the east side of the river, then
he learned that the Union soldiers in the country were in such numbers that he
could not reach home. His
whereabouts became known through underground telegraph and Mother and ‘Sister
Anne’ Stribling started in the carriage with old blind ‘Queen’ and ‘Sig’ as
driver to ‘spend the day with a friend.’
Under her hoops Mother carried a pair of big cavalry boots . . .
suspended from her waist. In the
boots were, I am confident, some yarn socks and I do not know what else.”
(Ref. 84)
Cornelia Ware wrote that her father (Sigismund) remembered a day when a Union
soldier told his mother (Edmonia) “that
when he was going to have to fire the house, she was a very brave woman. She was standing with the two little
boys at her skirts. She showed not the slightest fear, even when smoke began
curling out from piles of straw placed around in the house.”
(Ref.84) Sig also said
“he’d never forget the smell of the burning straw the devils brought in and spread
in the house, and he almost fainted with the thought ‘everything else is gone,
and now the home is burning!”
(Ref. 40)
Before the war was over, all three of the youngest Ware sons would witness their
home looted and vandalized, their father’s prize-winning sheep slaughtered on
the front lawn, their gardens destroyed, and even their mother threatened for
her life when she vowed to ride and get help.
“When she stood in front of the
house, one of the skunks threatened to shoot her.
And she would have gone had not we held her. We thought then that he would
shoot her, as he raised his gun. How vividly I recall these experiences!”
(Ref. 84)
The once peaceful and prosperous life that the Ware boys had known as very young
children would never look the same.
By the summer and fall of 1864, General Grant decided that the fastest way to
end the war was to break the back of the South by any means possible. His policies now helped define a new
way of attaining victory, and his “war of attrition” left little doubt as to the
outcome. The “gloves were off” (so
to speak) and the South was to face not only the destruction of their soldiers;
but their livestock, their property, their food supplies, and their very homes.
“The scorched-earth policy, a radical
departure from the more or less gentlemanly type of war that had been waged by
both sides during the first three years, was now the way of convincing the
people of the South that war is certainly Hell.”
(Ref. 3)
What the enemy could not eat,
they destroyed, and the Wares found themselves almost facing starvation. As Edmonia wrote in a letter to her
stepdaughter, the Yankees “poured down on
the place like 40,000 thieves, broke into the meat house, poultry houses and
cellars in a moment’s time, carried off the horses which were left, killed hogs,
sheep and calves, destroyed the garden, cut up the harnesses, cut the curtains
from the small carriage which is the only one I have had since the war (Banks’
men having ruined the large one at their first invasion). So you may
imagine we are not far from starving. . . I am today alone with the children,
and as I sat in the vestibule this
morning and listened to the church bell,
the tears would flow in spite of all determination to bear up under my trials.”
(Ref. 19)
Jo mentioned the food situation in his memoirs as well.
“I wonder sometimes on what we lived when times were hardest. But if asked what tasted best, or I
had enjoyed most in the form of food, I might say ‘middling’. When the family had not tasted meat
of any kind or butter for so long, Mr. Province McCormick (more fortunate in
hiding some bacon) sent us a side of bacon (cured). How economically we used it! And then we shaved it!
And I remember how largely apples figured.
In summer we cut and dried them for winter use. Uncle William Smith used to tell us
children to eat dried apples, then drink plenty of water, and as the apple
swelled - we would have our stomachs full.”
When the war finally ended, Sigismund was now a very mature 14-year-old.
As with so
many other southern men of influence and property, his father had
“suffered the loss of his beautiful old home by the depreciation in property that
followed the financial panic of 1873.”
(Ref. 22) Sig’s daughter, Cornelia Ware Anker,
wrote that her grandfather (Josiah) “was a
very kind man and that his loss of property was not entirely the result of the
war but that he had been too generous to friends and relatives by going on their
notes. He regretted so deeply that
he could not give his second set of children the same advantages of education as
he had given his first. He often
spoke of this and felt that it was not fair, but it couldn’t be helped.
Springfield was sold shortly after the war to a northerner (Mr. Clagett), and
the family moved to Durham which was the farm Grandmother (Edmonia) had
inherited from her father. It was a
beautiful farm, and the house they built
at that time was a good, comfortable home; but none of the elegance of
Springfield.”
(Ref. 2)
Josiah still put great emphasis on education, however, and “Sizz, Joe, and Robert Ware were students
under Mr. Powers at his old location at Wycliffe during the years 1865, 1866,
and 1867. . . . Auburn school (a
select boarding and day school for Boys) opened in 1865 at the old Wycliffe
Academy building and was taught by Mr. Powers.
He moved this school to Auburn and continued it in operation until 1877
at which time he closed the Auburn school to become permanently associated with
the public schools of the county.”
(Ref. 717) There was also an Episcopal High School which was founded in 1839
just west of Alexandria, but immediately following Union occupation during the
war, it had been closed. When it
reopened in 1866, with Mr. Launcelot Minor Blackford as the principal;
“among the boys of this period at
Episcopal High School were Sigismund and J. W. Ware - both afterwards clergy and
devoted friends of Mr. Blackfords.”
(Ref. 838)
Clearly, the Episcopal faith meant a great deal to the Wares. Cornelia wrote of her grandmother,
Edmonia:
“When the War Between the States had
impoverished the family, as it did all southerners, she never lessened her
contribution to the church and continued her subscription to the “Southern
Churchman”. Father said he didn’t
know how she ever did it. I am sure
her life and teachings were the direct cause of Father and Uncle Jo entering the
ministry.”
According to
Cornelia, “when Father (Sigismund) was about 18 years old, he went to
Indianapolis and worked in Uncle Tousey’s store, a fine mercantile wholesale
business. He lived with the Tousey’s
- they were wealthy, with a lovely big home and Father was so fond of the
family. Aunt Lib was grandmother’s
sister. Later, Uncle Jo joined
Father, and they both decided to enter the ministry. They returned to Virginia and entered
the Theological Seminary, near Alexandria, Va.
As I have mentioned before, Father had done very well financially in
Indianapolis and was able to pay his own way through the seminary and also help
his younger brother with his education. . . . Uncle Jo and Father were always
the most devoted brothers and both of them spent their whole ministerial life in
Virginia.”
(Ref. 2)
On June 28, 1878, Sigismund Stribling Ware was ordained as a deacon at a ceremony at St. Paul’s Church in Alexandria, Virginia.
A year later, in the same church,
he was ordained as a priest in a beautiful ceremony performed by Bishop Whittle.
Article in The Seminarian announcing Sigismund’s ordination into
priesthood.
Class of 1878
Top row, standing, L-R: P. Parker Phillips,
Sigismund S. Ware, Henry Thomas, John
Henry Chesley, Josiah W. Ware,
William Byrd Lee, Arthur Powell Gray
On December
31, 1878, Rev. Sigismund Ware “married
Elizabeth Walker, the daughter of Cornelius Walker, a professor and afterwards
Dean of the Seminary.”
(Ref. 2384, 2392)
The announcement appeared in the
newsletter called the Seminarian, which was printed at his alma mater.
After their
honeymoon, Sigismund and his new wife set up housekeeping at his first parish in
Antrim, Halifax County, Virginia.
They were there from 1878-79. They
next served from 1879 to 1888 in Shelburne Parish, Hamilton, Virginia.
(Ref. 2)
It was during these years that Rev. Sig
was sometimes in contact with another cousin – Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes.
President
Hayes took office in the White House in March 1877. His wife, Lucy Ware Webb Hayes, was a
cousin of Josiah’s. They were
related through two of the many children of James Ware II and his wife, Caty
Todd Ware, who moved to Kentucky in the late 1700s. One of the daughters of James
and Caty (named Lucy) married Isaac Webb, and their son (James Webb) was the
father of Lucy Hayes. One of the
sons of James and Caty (James Ware III) came to Kentucky with the family but
moved back to Virginia because of his health.
He married Elizabeth Alexander, and they were the parents of Josiah. Lucy Webb and Josiah kept up devoted
correspondence over the years, and he was so delighted when Hays was elected to
the presidency. Even though they had
stood on opposite sides during the Civil War, it never dimmed their affection
for one another. Josiah visited the
White House many times, and some of his fondest memories in his declining years
were from spending time with Lucy and Rutherford.
Rev. Jo Ware actually sent Lucy a thank-you note for being so kind to his
father.
It is easy to
see the family resemblance between the two cousins.
The Hayes
couple had visited Springfield shortly before Josiah had to sell it. Reverend Sig told his daughter,
Cornelia, that he remembered how “the
Berryville Band ensconced on this balcony [at Springfield]
played lustily when President Rutherford B. Hayes was a guest there.”
(Ref. 3)
Apparently, Mrs. Hayes must have sent some
flowers to Sigismund and Lizzie in 1880, because the good Reverend wrote a most
charming thank-you note to her.
Transcribed by Judy C. Ware
Cornelia Ware Anker wrote, “Father had three charges – Halifax County, Hamilton, & Port Royal, where he moved when I was a baby.” (Ref. 2) Indeed, in 1888, Reverend and Mrs. Ware moved to Port Royal, Virginia, where “The Rev. Sigismund (Sidge) Stribling Ware became Rector of St. Peter’s church and of Grace Church, October 15, 1888; he resigned the latter church after 15 years, June 26, 1903, and resigned from St. Peter’s Church after 30 years, October 15, 1918.” (Ref. 2384)
According to
Hidden Village, Port Royal, Virginia 1744-1981, written by Ralph Emmett
Fall, “The Ware family lived in the
Rectory on Lot 4 in Port Royal for 30 years, where the Rector kept a garden
toward the river.” (Ref. 2384) It was in
this home that Sigismund and Lizzie raised their children, although only one
child would live to see adulthood; Cornelia Ware Anker. On August 18, 1892, the couple
welcomed a son named Edward Jaquelin Ware, but he died at the young age of four
on November 3, 1896. He was buried
in St. Peter’s Churchyard.
Rev. Sig’s
father passed away one year after the birth of Edward - in 1883. Josiah, sadly, did not live long
enough to see any of his grandchildren by Sig and Lizzie. When their next baby arrived, it must
have been a comfort to Sig’s mother to have her granddaughter named after her. Tragically, however, tiny Edmonia
Jaquelin Ware did not survive infancy.
This child was buried in Grace Episcopal Church Cemetery in Berryville -
close to the grandmother for whom she was named.
Her little tombstone sits beside another tiny one - for Josiah’s
namesake, the baby of Elizabeth Ware Britton, Sig’s stepsister.
Edmonia J.
Cornelia Ware
Anker was the only child of Sig and Lizzie to reach adulthood. Given the name of Margaret Cornelia
Ware, she came into the world on May 22, 1887.
She married John Anker and became
“a statistician for the U.S. Government.
The Ankers lived for 35 years in McLean, Virginia. When Anker retired, the couple worked
for the Episcopal Church in the Blue Ridge Mountains for three years and in
missions in Gloucester County Va.
John Anker died in 1962 leaving no children.
Mrs. Anker moved into Goodwin House, Alexandria and died in 1978. From her will she gave her father’s
leather-bound volume of sermon-manuscripts to the writer who presented them to
St. Peter’s Church.”
(Ref. 2384) It is through the wonderful old
family letters, which Cornelia lovingly saved and passed on, that we can learn
so much about the Ware family history.
Over the
years, Sig and Jo visited each other as much as possible and attended many
meetings and reunions together.
Shortly after
Sig and Lizzie settled in Port Royal, they heard the sad news of the passing of
Lucy Ware Webb Hayes. Reverend Sig
wrote a very touching letter of condolence to Rutherford.
In 1914,
Lizzie died “after a long and painful
illness.”
(Ref. 161)
According to author Ralph Emmett Fall,
Lizzie “was buried in St. Peter’s
Churchyard beside their son who died in 1896.
Much of the present shrubbery at the Rectory, including the large
mock-orange tree in the driveway was planted by Mrs. Ware during the 26 years
she occupied the Rectory. Her
husband and daughter lived there another four years.”
(Ref. 2384)
A year after the death of his wife, Sig
went back to Berryville to visit his stepsister, Elizabeth. She wrote in a letter to Lena Ware
congratulating her on the birth of her son named ‘James’, and she added
“Your Uncle Sig expresses great
gratification at the name of your new boy.
He lost his boy and it was a terrible blow to him. He has only one child – a grown and
very attractive girl, but he [Sig]
looks like an old man.”
(Ref. 161)
Sig took losing his wife very hard.
Grave of Elizabeth Montgomery Walker Ware
On October 15, 1918, Reverend Sig Ware resigned as Rector of St. Peter’s Church. He was presented with a
silver-plated loving-cup inscribed on one side, “Rev. S. S. Ware, Rector of St. Peter’s Church, Port Royal, Va., 1888-1918,”
and on the reverse side:
“In grateful recognition of his faithful
ministry by the Community of Port Royal.”
The Vestry
inscribed in the minutes, “We reluctantly
accept the resignation of the Rev. S. S. Ware, but we cannot refrain from
expressing our deep regret that the pleasant and cordial relations existing
between us, as Vestrymen and individuals, for 30 years shall now be severed, and
we will ever gratefully remember the faithfulness and earnestness with which he
ministered to us as a congregation and as a community.”
(Ref. 2384)
The author of Hidden Village – Port Royal, Virginia 1744-1981 wrote the following
about Reverend Sigismund Ware: “Fifty years later, citizens both black
and white still remembered Ware with affection.
A photograph of Ware is seen in the church’s sacristy. The credence shelf
in the church sanctuary holds a brass tablet as a memorial to Ware.
(Ref. 2384)
When Sigismund retired, he moved out of the rectory and returned to Berryville
where he resided with his older sister, Elizabeth (Key) Alexander Ware McGuire.
(Ref. 2, 3) His daughter, Cornelia, who had
served as the organist at his church in Port Royal, later wrote,
“Father lived with my husband (John Anker) and me the last eight years of his life. He came to us when Aunt Key died. Mother died Nov. 18, 1914 and Father,
Nov. 4, 1934.”
(Ref. 2)
The Reverend
Sigismund Stribling Ware “was buried in
Grace Churchyard, Berryville, Clarke County, Va.”
(Ref. #2) His tombstone sits directly behind
that of his mother, Edmonia Jaqueline Ware.
Sigismund’s grave is the gray one in the middle
Ware section in the Cemeterytery
Sigismund was
a devoted son, a loving husband, a caring father, and a hero of a brother. Yet, one cannot help but think that
he would most like to be remembered as
“Good and Faithful Servant of God.”
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