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jelliott@stlnet.comAccording to Robert McIntire, ancient traditions hold that the name means thumb carpenter or carpenters son. Tradition also holds that McIntyres are a sept of the MacDonalds of Sleat Skye. McIntyres of Glen Noe have been the clan chiefs. Note: In historical and census records, the spellings of McIntire and McIntyre have been used alternatively.
Our story starts with Philip McIntyre. He was one of the Scot soldiers who fought against Oliver Cromwell at Dunbar in 1649. He was among the 150 Scot prisoners transported to Boston on board the Unity. Sixty of them were sold as indentured servants to the proprietors of the Saugus Iron Works. This facility has been restored by the US Park Service. Phyllis and I visited this site north east of Boston and watched as bog iron was made into nails. There is no record of the actual disposition of the 150 men, but I like to think my ancestor worked at the iron works I visited.
Robert McIntire describes the battle of Dunbar with emphasis on our ancestor, Philip McIntire, on pages 11-13 of his Descendants of Philip McIntire. You can read more about the Saugus Iron works in the book Ironworks on The Saugus by E. N. Hartley.
Philip Mcintyre married Mary in Reading, MA in 1666. Our line
continues as follows:
John McIntire born 1679 in Reading.
Samuel McIntire born about 1715 in Needham, MA
John McIntire born 1757 in Needham.
John Jr. born ? in Needham.
John McIntire 111 born 1832 in Needham
John H McIntire born 1836
Annie McIntire born 1872 near St. Joseph, MO
May Needham born 1898 in Wales, IA
James Elliott born 1928 in Red Oak, IA
The McIntires prospered in the Boston area after the indenture period ended. Many of them left wills to dispose of their estates. Some of them are mentioned as contributors to the local church. John enlisted in the Army during the Revolutionary War. For some reason, John H McIntyre is not mentioned in Robert McIntires book but he appears in the 1850 census as the son of John and Caroline Frost. After John 111 died, Caroline married John Hudson. The 1889 census for St. Joseph, MO lists John H. McIntyre age 44 with his mother Caroline Hudson living with him.
John H McIntyre is a skeleton in our closet. My grandmother, Annie Needham said he was a river boat gambler. He would sometimes return home with clothes from New Orleans. He also operated a fruit farm, and made wooden toys. The History of Holt County, MO 1882 tells about the gold mine he promoted on his farm. It was described by a 1875 visitor as two tunnels 230 and 95 feet in length. Grandma remembered shiny metal supposedly taken from the mine. It was not successful and the farm was sold. A man in the courthouse gave us directions to the mine, but we only found an embankment that may have been at one time the entrance. My guess is that any gold taken from the mine had been placed there by McIntyre.
About 1880. John H. McIntyre abandoned his wife Sarah Jane Harris and children. My Uncle Ben Needham said he was told that one day John H arrived home with a strange lady in his buggy. He went in, packed his belongings and left forever. The family was left in desperate straits. Grandma tells of walking along the rail tracks to pick up coal for heating. They were taken in by Sarah’s father, Robert Cross Harris, a truck gardener lining in a cabin near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Life was difficult there because there were already several Harris children there.
Sarah Jane suffered from the falling sickness, so described by my aunt Harriet. She was sent to Iowa’s insane asylum at Mt. Pleasant. Grandma remembered her mother getting in the buggy to leave, showing no apparent emotion. I wrote to the asylum and was told she was diagnosed with epilepsy. She was later released to a hospital in Davenport, Iowa. The records from that hospital had been destroyed so we don’t know the details of her death.
Grandma Annie McIntyre was adopted by a Mrs. Durham whose only comment was “I’ll take the blue eyed one”. Grandma worked hard and there was severe discipline, but in the end she was treated well. The Durhams sent her to a Normal School and later when they died, Grandma and her children shared in the estate.
Grandma Annie McIntyre married George Needham, a widower and Civil war veteran. He held priesthood in the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. My mother, May Needham was born in 1898 in Wales, Iowa. The Needham’s later moved to Lamoni, Iowa; a gathering place for RLDS. They had 7 acres. Grandma made candy and George sold it in town from a cart.
George Needham died in 1918, just as WW1 ended. Grandma raised her 7 children with the help of an Iowa pension and a Civil War pension. She incubated chickens, and used trap nests to be able to keep records of their production. When they slowed down, they became Sunday dinner. I trace my vegetarianism to seeing her chop off the heads of the chickens on the stump in the back yard. I was not about to eat the chicken when it appeared on the table next day.
My mother, May Needham, worked in the Herald Publishing House in Lamoni and later was able to enter Graceland College after being given a $60 loan. She had to promise to be a good RLDS all her life in order to get the loan. At college, she met Frederick Victor Elliott, an instructor. They married and were soon sent as missionaries to the Society Islands in the Pacific. See the article on Elliotts for additional information.
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