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Part 4 of Ware Connection to Grace Episcopal Church Elizabeth Alexander Ware (Britton) (McGuire)
The following is a dedication
written on the inside cover of a book entitled The Poetical Works of John
Milton which was presented to Elizabeth Ware as an award “for attention to study and amiable
deportment.”
Elizabeth went to visit her brother James in Texas around 1858. While there, she met and fell in love
with Dr. Edward Wharton Britton, a prominent physician in Galveston. They were married on
March 10, 1864. By the end of that
year, Elizabeth (often called Bessie, Kee, or Key) had delivered a baby boy whom
the couple named after her beloved father.
Sadly, little Josiah Ware Britton was destined to live only one year.
Since Dr. Britton had to be
gone so much during the war, he wanted his wife and child to be safe with her
family. According to her niece,
Cornelia Ware Anker:
“He put them on a boat at Corpus Christi
and they ran the blockade. She
showed me, probably 65 years later, a little purse which he had handed her when
he told her goodbye. In it was 200
dollars in gold. He told her not to
use it except in case of emergency.
She never used it. I remember
figuring what she had lost in interest by keeping it for sentimental reasons. She arrived home to Springfield and
shortly thereafter her baby died, and on that same day she received the news of
the death of her husband of yellow fever.”
(Ref. 2) Elizabeth buried her son in the graveyard adjoining Grace Church.
The inscription on his tombstone reads:
Sacred
to the memory of
JOSIAH WARE
Son of
Dr. Edward and Bessie Britton
of Texas
Died November 1865
“Aged one year”
“On the other side he waiteth”
J. W. B.
There is a tiny foot-stone with his initials right behind this marker
Photos taken by James and Judy Ware 1998
Elizabeth Ware Britton stayed in Virginia for approximately a year. When her sister, Lucy Balmain Ware
Lewis, died in 1866 at the birth of her only surviving child, Elizabeth “took the baby
[named Lucie Lewis] and cared for her til her father
remarried, about four years. They
both went to Texas in this time where Aunt Key
[Elizabeth]
was governess for the King children on the famous King Ranch”
(Ref. 2, 420) After young Lucie
went back to her father and new stepmother, Elizabeth traveled to Pennsylvania
to visit with some of her mother’s family.
She stayed with the Josiah Eno family in Luzerne County for some time. In 1878, she received a note from the
White House where her cousin, Mrs. Lucy Ware Hayes, was now residing. It was an offer for her to work at
the Treasury Department. Although the writing is incredibly faded, the transcription is included below as follows: Original letter owned by James and Judy Ware
MONOGRAM FOR
LUCY WARE WEBB HAYES
“My Dear Mrs. Britton
At the time I wrote to you last, Aunt
Luc did not know that the place in the Treasury would be left open until the
first of December, neither did she know of your engagements. She agrees with you about the
necessity of fulfilling one’s engagements but wishes me to say, if your term
expires before the first of Dec. you can still have the place or if, within the
next year you should wish a position in the Treasury, if you will let her know
of it she will do what she can.”
(Ref. 17)
On April 30, 1884, at the home of her
aunt and uncle in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Alexander Ware Britton
became the wife of Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire. Dr. McGuire was already well known to
the family. His father, Rev. John
Peyton McGuire, had been the “Rector of
the Episcopal High School in Alexandria”
(Ref. 2312) and in 1864, the good doctor had
married Elizabeth’s cousin, Betty Holmes McGuire, daughter of Dr. William D.
McGuire and her Aunt Lucy Catherine Ware.
(See page 15) When she married for the second time, Elizabeth was in her 40’s and Dr. McGuire (born April 20, 1833) was in his early 50’s. (Ref. 838) Reverend Edward Hayden, who would later write a large book on genealogy for the family, officiated at the wedding. He actually dedicated his genealogical work to Elizabeth.
Although Elizabeth never bore any more children of her own, when she wed
Dr. McGuire, she “made a home for his children; besides she
took the Campbell children to rear.
Their parents had been her friends and after their deaths, she took them, five
of them, and Palmer a baby. They
were devoted to her.”
(Ref. 2)
Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire and
Elizabeth Alexander Ware
There is a large marker in the Grace Cemetery for Dr. McGuire, his first
wife, Betty, and some of their six children.
There are many names on the same stone. On
the front:
Dr. James McGuire CSA Elizabeth Holmes McGuire John Peyton
McGuire
On the back of the stone
William David McGuire James M. G.
McGuire William David McGuire
It is of interest to note that
John Peyton McGuire died by drowning in the New River in West Virginia while
saving a child.
“Brave and faithful to the last ~ true to the unselfish nature which had endeared him
to the hearts of all who knew him, he died the death of a hero, giving his life
that another might live. He now
sleeps by his mother in Grace Churchyard, Berryville, Virginia.”
(Ref. 557)
Of the other two children of Dr. McGuire, Charles Fenton McGuire (born May 19, 1871) wed Margaretta Holmes McCormick, the daughter of Marshall McCormick. Charles died in 1917. Even though he was living in Hoboken at the time of his death, “his remains were brought to Berryville and internment made in the McGuire lot in the church yard of Grace church.” (Ref. 557) His sister, Maria Garnett McGuire (born 1867) married William Travers Lewis.
After her marriage to Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire, Elizabeth and her new husband moved back to Berryville and she became very active in Grace Episcopal Church. A newspaper clipping from the “Clarke Courier” in 1902 mentioned the fact that she was the President of the Ladies Aid Society.
In 1903, a year after the above article appeared in the local paper, Elizabeth
became a widow for the second time.
After sharing 19 years of marriage, Dr. James McGuire passed away suddenly at
their home. He had been resting
peacefully on a couch when the heart disease, which had weakened him for several
months, took its’ toll. His obituary
provided great insight into how beloved he was to all who knew him. Elizabeth would live another 22 years
before her own death in 1925.
Obituary for Dr. McGuire
Dr. James M. G. McGuire
On Saturday last, at his home in Berryville, Dr. J.M.G. McGuire
died very suddenly. He had been in
feeble health for some months,
but his death came as a great shock to the host of people with whom
he was acquainted. Shortly after one
o’clock, the members of his
family left him in his room, resting on a couch, reading a newspaper.
A few minutes later Dr. J. Edward Harris, who was staying at the
same house, went to the room to speak to him and found that the end
had come swiftly and painlessly.
Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire, son of Rev. John Peyton McGuire
and Maria Mercer Garnett, was born at the home of his grandfather,
Hon. James Mercer Garnett, “Elmwood” in Essex County, Va. on
April 20, 1833. He grew up
at “The Parsonage,” in Essex County,
leaving there in 1852, when his father became the Rector of the
Episcopal High School, near Alexandria, Va.
He was educated at the
University of Virginia, afterward studying medicine with his Kinsman,
Dr. Hugh Holmes McGuire of Winchester, and completing his medical
education at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He
married first, February 26, 1864, his cousin, Miss Betty Holmes
McGuire, daughter of Dr. Wm. D. McGuire, of “Norwood,” Clarke
County, Va. Mrs. McGuire died May 4,
1874, leaving seven children,
of whom two – Mrs. William T. Lewis, of Berryville, and Charles F.M.
McGuire, of Hoboken, N. J., - are still living.
He practiced his
profession with great success in and around Alexandria until the war.
He then entered the army as First Lieutenant of the Alexandria
Artillary Company, but very soon, by the advice of his friends and
believing that he could in that way render more valuable service to his
state, he became a Surgeon and served in the Stonewall Brigade until
the close of the war. He was with his
command from Manassas to
Appomattox, except for several months spent in a Northern prison
awaiting an exchange, and took part in the consultation over General
Jackson when he was wounded. After the
war, he taught school in
Richmond for several years with his brother, Mr. John P. McGuire, and
then removed to this county where he farmed and practiced his profession
until his sudden death from heart disease last Saturday.
Dr. McGuire married a second time – April 30, 1884, Mrs. Elizabeth (Key)
Ware Britton, daughter of Col. Josiah Ware, of Clarke County, who survives
him. He leaves, in addition to his wife
and children, one brother,
Mr. John P. McGuire, of Richmond, and three sisters, Mrs. John Johns, of
Baltimore, Mrs. Kinloch Nelson, of Ellicott City, Md., and Mrs. Philip W. Nelson,
of Albermarle County, Va. He was
respected and beloved by all who knew
him, and was a gentleman of courtly and
polished manners.
The funeral took place yesterday at 12 o’clock, from Grace Episcopal
Church, and the internment was made in the church cemetery. A large
concourse of friends and relatives of the deceased gathered from all parts
of the county, as well as from points in Virginia and Maryland, and listened
with bowed heads and aching hearts while the Rector, Rev. Edward Wall,
spoke the few simple words over their beloved one.
The pallbearers were: Active – R.
Powell Page, Chas M. Broun, J. S. Ware,
Louis Welton, J. W. Bell, and Frank Galloway.
Honorary – Conrad Kownslar,
Marshal McCormick, Province McCormick, S. K. Harris, Judge S.J.C. Moore,
Gen. Chas Thurman, Burwell McGuire, and H. W. Baker
On March 29, 1925,
Elizabeth Alexander Ware Britton McGuire
died of influenza at the age of 87.
Her death occurred on a Sunday morning at 10:00.
(Ref. 58) Funeral services were held in
Grace Episcopal Church and she was buried in the cemetery there.
Ware section of the cemetery – photo owned by James and Judy Ware
Obituary for Elizabeth Ware McGuire - property of James and Judy Ware
The beautiful stained glass window pictured below is located in the foyer
of Grace Episcopal Church. It was
dedicated to
Elizabeth Ware McGuire and her husband. The inscription appears toward the
bottom, above the blue square.
Photos taken by James &
Judy Ware 1986 2006
With sunlight shining
through
“To the glory of God and in loving memory of
Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire and his wife,
Elizabeth Alexander Ware McGuire”
Dedicated to
Dr. James Mercer Garnett McGuire and his wife,
Elizabeth Alexander Ware McGuire |
This site maintained by John Reagan and last updated
