Re: SITES - Grant Co., WV > Iroquois Co.
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In reply to:
SITES - Grant Co., WV > Iroquois Co., IL
Otis Slusher 11/08/00
You are in luck! I am a great-grandson of Martin Luther Sites
of Grant Co., WV. I have a book (by John V. Beck and Suzanne Sites
Gibson) containing so much information about his (our) cousin S.G.
Sites, I had to create a web page to answer your question! There
is a lot written about S.G. Sites, even a book written by his son
David Eston Sites, plus we have pictures of S.G. and Catherine (C.E.).
I have an extensive volume, printed in 1984, "Genealogical
Records of the Seitz/Sites Family" by John V. Beck and Suzanne
Sites Gibson. Their 1984 address was: Fine Print, 1112 S. Morton,
Bloomington, IN 47401.
There is a Sites reunion, for all descendents of George Sites,
at least every other year (even numbers...although it might be
every year, I'm not sure) on a Sunday in August, at the Dorcas
Elementary School in Dorcas (Petersburg), West Virginia.
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Benjamin Harvey Sites was born October 29, 1872 [8 in 1880 census]
-- another source says April 29, 1872 -- in West Virginia.
He died Feb. 22, 1956 near Watseka, Illinois; married Feb. 24, 1897
(Illinois) to Martha Harriet "Hattie" Judy (daughter of Tabitha M.
Rockhold Slusher and Jehu Judy), born March 26, 1873, WV, died
June 22 June 1950 in Illinois; he went to Illinois in July 1893;
three children, all probably born in Watseka, Illinois:
1) (infant) b. 1899
2) Alta Virginia Sites, b. Aug. 28, 1900
3) Erma Lois Sites, b. July 28, 1902, died March 8, 1948,
married Robert Rafuse, 1933, div., one son: Robert Wallace Rafuse,
b. Nov. 3, 1937
4) Alice Mildred Sites, b. Oct. 14, 1905
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Rev. S. G. Sites
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S.G. Sites is the Reverend Sampson Greenbrier Sites. He was
born May 3, 1843. He died in Hiser, WV, March 1, 1916, of heart
failure following "grippe", and is buried in a private family
cemetary on North Mill Creek, West Virginia.
He is the son of John Sites and Hannah Teter.
John is a descendent from George's son Jacob.
He married Catherine Elizabeth Simon January 24, 1864 in
Cumberland, Maryland. C.E. Simon is the daughter of George
Washington Simon and Clara Hinkle. She was born in May 1846.
She died in 1919, and is buried next to her husband
(S.G., on N. Mill Creek).
The home of S.G. Sites for a number of years was in the
mountains east of Rough Run. "He was a good carpenter,
mechanic, stone mason, and the best chimney builder in
the county" (David Eston Sites in his book "My First
Eighty Years" and in interviews by - and letters
- Suzanne Sites Gibson.)
Guy Mongold, Jr., says that "in his younger days, he had a still
in the gap beyond Nick Sites' Place, later was a stone mason and
preacher (Church of the Brethren) and laid the foundation for
Achim Sites' house."
Apparently during the Civial War, S.G. Sites, age 18, did distill
whiskey. Confederates would attempt to capture young men, and S.G.
was once captured, but an officer intervened on his behalf, saying
"he's too young." The officer enjoyed the liquor that S.G. made
and wanted him to continue in the business (David E. Sites).
David E. Sites also recalled an incident in which his mother,
Catherine E. (Simon), and her sister, went on horseback to a
grist mill on the South Fork for flour. On their way home, going
into the mountain, they were stopped by a group of horsemen and
were put in a farm home. However, her sister had a baby at home
and managed to convince the leader of the group that they ought
to let them take their horses and go back to their home (on the
mountain above Milan). As a rule, when it was heard that raiders
were in the area, the men ran for the caves in the mountains and
the girls hid the horses in the woods on the mountain side. At
the close of the Civil War, S.G. and "Kate" (Simon) Sites were
married. They could get a license no closer than sixty miles
away at Cumberland, Maryland. So Catherine's Grandfather,
Michael Simon, accompanied them on horsebafck. S.G. gave an
account of this trip at their Golden Wedding celebration
which was reported in the 1915 clipping (see link below).
The Sites' home was the place where Dunkard ministers from the
Shenandoah Valley would stay when visiting the Mill Creek area
in the summer, to hold revivals. During one of these monthly
visits, a Dunkard minister converted S.G. Sites; since it was
the custom of the Dunkard Church to elect their ministers from
the congregation, S.G. became the Rev. S.G. Sites. For the
next forthy years he preached almost eveyr Sunday at four or
five places in the mountains, and was never paid for preaching.
He travelled by horseback - sometimes as far as eighteen miles
- and was sometimes accompanied by his son, David E. Sites,
who recalls this information. At the 1983 Sites Reunion,
D.E. Sites (age 95) reminisced about hs boyhood on North Mill Creek.
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Pictures and other information can be found here:
http://www.lexpages.com/SitesFamily/SGsites.htmlhttp://www.lexpages.com/SitesFamily/SGsites.html
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