Person Page - 655

     Sarah Elizabeth Swift married James Alexander Tyler, son of Willett Tyler and Rachel Montgomery.

     John Wright was born on 22 February 1743 at Wethersfield, Hartford Co., CT.¹ He married Sarah Case, daughter of Asahel Case and Dorothy Phelps, on 24 March 1774 at Norfolk, Litchfield Co., CT.¹ John Wright died on 29 July 1825 at Talmadge, Summit Co., OH, at age 82.^1,2

     Rachel Montgomery married Willett Tyler, son of Robert Tyler and Sarah Pritchard.

     Luman Beach was born on 18 March 1778 at Norfolk, Litchfield Co., CT.¹ He married Lydia Wright, daughter of John Wright and Sarah Case, circa 1792 at CT.¹ Luman Beach died on 29 December 1837 at Wadsworth, Medina Co., OH, at age 59.¹

     Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was born on 17 January 1964 at Chicago, Cook Co., IL.¹ She was the daughter of Fraser Robinson III and Marian Lois Shields. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson married President Barack Hussein Obama II, son of Barack Hussein Obama Ph.D. and Stanley Ann Dunham, on 3 October 1992 at Chicago, Cook Co., IL.¹

     Elmer John Ragan Jr. was born on 5 November 1928 at Cement, OK.^1,2 He was the son of Elmer John Samuel Ragan Sr. and Minnie Elnora Farrow.¹

     Stanley Ann Dunham was born on 29 November 1942 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS.¹ She was the daughter of Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne.² Stanley Ann Dunham married Barack Hussein Obama Ph.D. on 2 February 1961 at Maui, HI.¹ Stanley Ann Dunham filed for divorce from Barack Hussein Obama Ph.D. in January 1964 at Honolulu, Honolulu Co., HI.³ Stanley Ann Dunham died on 7 November 1995 at Honolulu, Honolulu, HI, at age 52.¹

     Madelyn Lee Payne was born on 26 October 1922 at Peru, KS.¹ She was the daughter of Rolla Charles Payne and Leona B. McCurry.² Madelyn Lee Payne married Stanley Armour Dunham, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. and Ruth Lucille Armour, on 4 May 1940 at El Dorado, Butler Co., KS.² Madelyn Lee Payne died on 2 November 2008 at Honolulu, Honolulu Co., HI, at age 86.²

     Austin Ellsworth was born circa 1828 at PA.¹ He was the son of Henry Ellsworth and Lucy Price Van Winkle.¹

     Ruth Lucille Armour was born on 1 September 1900 at IL.¹ She was the daughter of Harry Ellington Armour and Gabriella Clark.¹ Ruth Lucille Armour married Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr., son of Jacob William Dunham and Mary Ann Kearney, on 3 October 1915 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS.¹ Ruth Lucille Armour died on 25 November 1926 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS, at age 26; suicide by strychnine.^1,2

     Willard Ellsworth was born circa 1839 at PA.¹ He was the son of Henry Ellsworth and Lucy Price Van Winkle.¹

     Mary Ann Kearney was born on 19 September 1869 at Tipton Co., IN.¹ She was the daughter of Falmouth Kearney and Charlotte Holloway.² Mary Ann Kearney married Jacob William Dunham, son of Jacob Mackey Dunham and Louise Eliza Stroup, on 1 March 1890.¹ Mary Ann Kearney died on 13 August 1936 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS, at age 66.¹

     Chauncy W. Hawley married Betsy Adeline Ellsworth, daughter of Henry Ellsworth and Lucy Price Van Winkle.¹ Chauncy W. Hawley died on 14 July 1862 at St. Louis, MO.¹

     Gabriella Clark was born in June 1877 at MO.¹ She was the daughter of Christopher Columbus Clark and Susan C. Overall.¹ Gabriella Clark married Harry Ellington Armour, son of George W. Armour and Nancy Ann Childress, in 1899.¹

     Barack Hussein Obama Ph.D. was born in 1936 at Alego, Kenya.¹ He married Stanley Ann Dunham, daughter of Stanley Armour Dunham and Madelyn Lee Payne, on 2 February 1961 at Maui, HI.² Stanley Ann Dunham filed for divorce from Barack Hussein Obama Ph.D. in January 1964 at Honolulu, Honolulu Co., HI.³ He died in 1982 at Nairobi, Kenya.¹

     Louise Eliza Stroup was born on 8 October 1837 at Madison Co., OH.¹ She married Jacob Mackey Dunham, son of Jacob Dunham and Catherine Goodnight, on 21 July 1853 at Tipton Co., IN.¹ Louise Eliza Stroup died on 26 October 1901 at Wellston, Oklahoma Territory, at age 64.¹

     Charles Ellsworth was born circa 1833 at PA.¹ He was the son of Henry Ellsworth and Lucy Price Van Winkle.¹

     Nancy Ann Childress was born on 10 September 1848 at Clark Co., MO.¹ She was the daughter of John Milton Childress and Nancy Conyers.¹ Nancy Ann Childress married George W. Armour on 12 November 1871 at Canton, MO.¹ Nancy Ann Childress died on 7 May 1924 at MO at age 75.¹

     Charles Wallace Hawley was born on 14 September 1858 at Susquehanna Co., PA.¹ He was the son of Chauncy W. Hawley and Betsy Adeline Ellsworth.¹ Charles Wallace Hawley married Rebecca Crick on 31 August 1882 at Ottawa, La Salle Co., IL.¹ Charles Wallace Hawley died on 4 June 1949 at Grundy Center, IA, at age 90.¹

     Susan C. Overall was born in 1849 at Nelson Co., KY.¹ She was the daughter of George Washington Overall and Louisiana Duvall.¹ Susan C. Overall married Christopher Columbus Clark on 6 January 1870 at Nelson Co., KY.¹ Susan C. Overall died before 1920.¹

     Carroll Wilson Butler Sr. was born on 25 December 1881 at Washburn, IL.^1,2 He married Jennie Vera Marie Hawley, daughter of Charles Wallace Hawley and Rebecca Crick, on 17 September 1910 at Ottawa, La Salle Co., IL.¹ Carroll Wilson Butler Sr. died on 14 February 1964 at Grundy Center, IA, at age 82.^1,2

     Catherine Goodnight was baptized on 18 November 1792 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church, North Wales Twp., Montgomery Co., PA.¹ She married Jacob Dunham, son of Samuel Dunham and Hannah (?), on 21 October 1819 at Berkeley Co., VA (Now WV).¹ Catherine Goodnight died after 1870 at Tipton, IN.¹

     Carroll Wilson Butler Jr. was born on 25 May 1912 at Chicago, Cook Co., IL.^1,2 He was the son of Carroll Wilson Butler Sr. and Jennie Vera Marie Hawley.¹ Carroll Wilson Butler Jr. married Katherine Mary Shepherd on 10 June 1938 at Des Moines, Polk Co., IA.¹ Carroll Wilson Butler Jr. died on 4 January 1991 at Grundy Center, IA, at age 78.^1,2

     Nancy Conyers was born on 12 April 1823 at KY.¹ She married John Milton Childress, son of John P. Childress and Catherine Ament, on 1 September 1839 at Waterloo, Clark Co., MO.¹ Nancy Conyers died on 29 September 1860 at Fairmont, MO, at age 37.¹

     Kenneth Barnes was born on 23 November 1932 at Grand Forks Co., ND.^1,2 He died on 27 March 2007 at Kingsland, Llano Co., TX, at age 74.^1,2

     Louisiana Duvall was born on 26 March 1826 at Nelson Co., KY.¹ She was the daughter of Gabriel Duvall and Mary Grable.¹ Louisiana Duvall married George Washington Overall, son of Robert Overall and Annie Browning, on 21 December 1841 at Nelson Co., KY.¹ Louisiana Duvall died on 18 December 1855 at Nelson Co., KY, at age 29.¹

     Jerry Lynn Vinton was born on 30 June 1942 at Eldora, IA.^1,2 He died on 15 December 1989 at age 47.^1,2

     Mary Parker Frankau was born circa 1908.¹ She was the daughter of Louis Griswold Frankau and Mary Anna Parker.

     Jesse Holmes married Ann Drusilla Tyler, daughter of Robert Tyler and Margaret (?).

     Margaret Elizabeth Wardrop was born on 2 March 1921.¹ She married Louis Griswold Frankau, son of Louis Griswold Frankau and Mary Anna Parker. Margaret Elizabeth Wardrop died on 29 November 1991 at age 70.¹

     Robert Tyler was born on 19 August 1751 at Frederick Co., VA.¹ He was the son of Edward Tyler Jr. and Ann Langley.¹ Robert Tyler married Margaret (?) circa 1772.¹ Robert Tyler died on 6 April 1815 at Shelby Co., KY, at age 63.¹

     James Alexander Tyler was the son of Willett Tyler and Rachel Montgomery. James Alexander Tyler married Sarah Elizabeth Swift.

     Robert Tyler was the son of Robert Tyler and Margaret (?) Robert Tyler married Sarah Pritchard.

     Nancy Dennis was born on 28 July 1782 at Adams Co., PA.¹ She married Alexander Barber, son of Ezekiel Barber and Elizabeth Goddard, in 1800 at Marietta, Washington Co., OH.¹ Nancy Dennis died on 2 February 1841 at Rockwood, Randolph Co., IL, at age 58.¹

     Willett Tyler was the son of Robert Tyler and Sarah Pritchard. Willett Tyler married Rachel Montgomery.

     Magdalen Knox married Alexander Barber, son of Ezekiel Barber and Elizabeth Goddard, on 1 January 1843 at Randolph Co., IL.¹

     Stanley Armour Dunham was born on 23 March 1918 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS.^2,3 He was the son of Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. and Ruth Lucille Armour.¹ Stanley Armour Dunham married Madelyn Lee Payne, daughter of Rolla Charles Payne and Leona B. McCurry, on 4 May 1940 at El Dorado, Butler Co., KS.² Stanley Armour Dunham died on 8 February 1992 at Honolulu, Honolulu Co., HI, at age 73.^1,3

from the Associated Press:

Surely, Stanley Dunham was gazing skyward 65 years ago, on D-Day.

Dunham, the man whom Barack Obama would one day call Gramps, was a 26-year-old supply sergeant stationed near the English Channel with the U.S. Army Air Forces when the invasion of Normandy at last began. Six weeks later, he crossed the Channel, too, and followed the Allied front across France. A year later, he was on track to fight in Japan when the atom bomb sent him home instead. Dunham, who died 17 years ago, was the Kansas-born grandfather with the outsized personality who helped to fill the hole in the future president's life created by the absence of Obama's Kenyan father. Sgt. Dunham's war years have been something of a mystery, the details of dates and places lost with the passage of time. The units that he served in were unknown even to the White House. But a life-size portrait emerges from interviews and records unearthed by The Associated Press. On D-Day, documents place him at Stoney Cross, England, in the 1830th Ordnance Supply and Maintenance Co., Aviation. "This was the day we had all been waiting for," Dunham's commanding officer wrote the night of June 6 from their base near the English Channel. "Planes by the hundreds took off and landed at our field from dusk until dawn." His company supported the 9th Air Force as it prepared for the assault on Normandy and took part in the drive that carried the Allies across France. Dunham and the men of the 1830th came across six weeks after the initial Normandy invasion and followed the front through France, servicing airfields known by numbers — A-2, A-44, A-71, and more — in places such as Brucheville, Cricqueville, St.-Jean-de-Daye, Peray, Clastres, Juvincourt and Saint-Dizier.

Cricqueville was where young American pilots from the 354th Fighter Group used a grassy meadow as an advance landing strip for several months until the German Army folded back and the front moved on. Stanley served with an Army aviation maintenance unit that helped keep the strip running.

To the 75 men of Dunham's company, he was a good guy to have around. For one thing, he taught the men how to use their new gas masks. He also came up with a radio, games and books for a day room that Dunham's commanding officer described as "a swell place to spend an evening." And when the 1830th had a party in the gym three days after D-Day, they had Dunham to thank for it. On May 31, 1944, payday, Dunham had taken up a collection of 35 British pounds — about $150 in today's dollars — to finance the event. He lined up a convoy of girls from Southampton who, the men hoped, would be "simply smashing," as his commanding officer, Frederick Maloof, wrote in his diary. "The party was a huge success, except that the beer ran out about 10:30 p.m.," 1st Lt. Maloof later reported. "All agreed that the orchestra was good. A few of the die-hards were still crooning over the empty beer barrels at an early morning hour."

For all the good times, the strains of war were ever present for Dunham and his fellow soldiers. On the evening after D-Day, Dunham's unit dug 27 foxholes. "This was done in case of a retaliation by the Germans," Maloof wrote. On June 11, the first hospital ships returned from France, bringing tales of the "hardships encountered on invasion day." That same day, Maloof wrote that "our mail has not been reaching home, and the wives and sweethearts are beginning to wonder if we have gone across the channel on the first wave." The wives included Madelyn Dunham, back home in Wichita, Kan., with Stanley Ann, a toddler who would grow up to be Obama's mother. Madelyn, the beloved grandmother known as "Toot" who helped raise the future president, did her part for the war effort, working the night shift as a supervisor on the B-29 bomber assembly line at the Boeing plant. Her brother is part of the war story, too. Charles Payne, Obama's great-uncle, in 1945 helped liberate a sub-camp of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald.

Stanley Dunham's older brother Ralph, another great-uncle to Obama, also is a branch in the wartime family tree. Ralph was called up after Stanley enlisted. He landed at Normandy's Omaha Easy Red beach on D-Day plus four, then worked his way through France, Italy and Germany as an assignment and personnel officer. In the months before the invasion, the brothers met up twice in England while on leave. Once, they came across each other by happenstance in London, where Ralph was staying at the Russell Hotel. "I walked down the steps and there was my brother sitting on a settee," 92-year-old Ralph Dunham said in interview with the AP. It turned out that Stanley's hotel had run out of rations and he was sent to the Russell in search of food. The two Kansas boys — each 6-foot-2, by Ralph's recollection — spent the rest of their leave together, touring the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace and other sites with a helpful taxi driver. At night, they sampled the London theater offerings. Ralph remembers they saw "Hamlet." The brothers had a double portrait snapped to send home — after Stanley borrowed a jacket from a fellow member of the 9th Air Force so they'd both be in uniform. The February 1944 portrait is one that Ralph still treasures.

Late in July, six weeks after D-Day, Stanley Dunham's unit crossed the English Channel and landed at Omaha Beach. "After looking over the Atlantic wall, with its pill boxes, we all agreed it was a miracle that the Allies were able to land," Maloof wrote. In his autobiography, Obama reports that during the war his grandfather was "sloshing around in the mud of France, part of Patton's Army." That's right, at least for a few months. In February 1945, at Saint-Dizier, Dunham's unit was assigned to Patton's 3rd Army, and Dunham remained in that company until early April. Prior to February, Dunham's unit had supported 1st Army operations.

Obama sketches Dunham as a man with a wild streak early on who settled down to sell furniture and life insurance. By the time he joined the Army, he already had lived large. He'd been thrown out of his high school in El Dorado, Kan., for punching the principal in the nose. For three years he'd lived off odd jobs, "hopping rail cars to Chicago, then California, then back again, dabbling in moonshine, cards and women," Obama wrote in his autobiography, "Dreams from My Father." Dunham had also fallen in love with a woman from the other side of the tracks — the good side — and married her. He eloped with Madelyn Payne just before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, on Dec. 7, 1941, and he was quick to enlist after the Japanese attack. "He was really gung-ho," remembers Ralph. "He didn't have to go because he was married. He could have held off." He was inducted at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., on Jan. 15, 1942.

That November, while Dunham still was stationed stateside, he got leave to come home to Kansas when his daughter, Stanley Ann, was born at Fort Leavenworth. Her unusual name, Obama wrote, was "one of Gramps' less judicious ideas — he had wanted a son." The family called her Stannie. Later, she would be known as Ann. In December 1942, weeks-old Stanley Ann makes her appearance as a dependent on Dunham's pay records. (He's earning $22 a month, with $6.70 deducted for life insurance.) Dunham spent the first year and a half of his war service stateside, part of it in the 1802nd Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company, Aviation, at Baer Field in Indiana, now Fort Wayne International Airport. He transferred to the 1830th in March 1943, and the unit shipped out to England on the HMS Mauretania that October. "All officers and enlisted men alike tumbled out of bunks and hammocks to get the last view of the good old U.S.A. as it disappeared beyond the horizon," Maloof wrote. The rhythms of life for Dunham and the men of the 1830th emerge in the weekly unit histories recorded by Maloof. Men transfer in and out. There is field training. There is a lecture on mines and booby-traps, another on "sex morality." Typhus shots are administered. The company drills on the use of the carbine. The men take a 3-mile hike and bivouacked overnight. Time and again, they move on from one airfield to the next, supporting the front lines.

A number of men go AWOL. Others are charged with drunkenness and disorderly conduct. Dunham's name turns up with surprising frequency, but his conduct generates nothing but praise. "Sgt. Dunham has been doing a good job as Special Service noncom," Maloof takes time to report in September 1944. At Clastres in France, stoves are issued to each tent "as the weather at this base has been very cold." French classes are offered. At Juvincourt, it is worthy of note when a small shower is installed, heated by a boiler found in the ruins of an old building. "It is the best bathing facilities we have had since coming to France," the unit history states. In October 1944, as the front presses forward, the men attend a compulsory lecture in the 367th Fighter Group area on "What to Expect When Stationed in Germany." It turns out Dunham could have skipped that one. On April 7, 1945, one week before the 1830th moves on to Germany and three weeks before Hitler commits suicide, Dunham is transferred "to the infantry," the unit history shows. Further digging reveals he was assigned to the 12th Reinforcement Depot, based in Tidworth, England, where replacements were being trained for depleted combat units. The war was winding down in Europe by then, with air superiority achieved and the Luftwaffe not a major threat. Ralph Dunham says his brother was sent back to the states to prepare for possible transfer to Japan in the infantry. Were it not for V-J Day in August 1945, "he would've been fighting in Japan," says Ralph.

Stanley Dunham's military personnel file was destroyed, along with millions of others, in a 1973 fire at the Military Personnel Records center in St. Louis. The AP pieced together Dunham's war years from other records at the Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama and the St. Louis center, and with help from historian David Spires at the University of Colorado. The richest details, however, come from Ralph Dunham and the private papers of Maloof, who died in 2005. Maloof's granddaughter, Tamara Maloof Ryman in Houston, searched through page after page to pry out details about Dunham for the AP. Four months after he transferred out of the 1830th, Stanley Dunham was discharged from the Army on Aug. 30, 1945, at Fort Leavenworth. Obama tells the rest of the story in his autobiography. "Gramps returned from the war never having seen real combat, and the family headed to California, where he enrolled at Berkeley under the GI Bill," Obama wrote. "But the classroom couldn't contain his ambitions, his restlessness, and so the family moved again, first back to Kansas, then through a series of small Texas towns, then finally to Seattle, where they stayed long enough for my mother to finish high school."


Wanderlust sent the family on to Hawaii, where Dunham and his wife would be central figures in the life of their grandson after Obama's father left the family. Madelyn died last year at age 86, two days before Obama was elected president.
Stanley, who called his grandson "Bar," died in 1992 at age 73. His ashes are inurned at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, commonly known as Punchbowl. "It was a small ceremony with a few of his bridge and golf partners in attendance, a three-gun salute, and a bugle playing taps," Obama wrote.

     Jinsey Crain married Alexander Barber, son of Alexander Barber and Nancy Dennis.¹

     Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. was born on 25 December 1894 at Argonia, Sumner Co, KS.^1,2 He was the son of Jacob William Dunham and Mary Ann Kearney.¹ Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. married Ruth Lucille Armour, daughter of Harry Ellington Armour and Gabriella Clark, on 3 October 1915 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS.¹ Ralph Waldo Emerson Dunham Sr. died on 4 October 1970 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS, at age 75.^1,2

     Caroline Harrison was born in 1823 at TN.¹ She married Alexander Barber, son of Alexander Barber and Nancy Dennis.¹

     Jacob William Dunham was born on 7 February 1863 at Kempton, IN.¹ He was the son of Jacob Mackey Dunham and Louise Eliza Stroup.¹ Jacob William Dunham married Mary Ann Kearney, daughter of Falmouth Kearney and Charlotte Holloway, on 1 March 1890.¹ Jacob William Dunham died on 13 August 1936 at Wichita, Sedgwick Co., KS, at age 73.¹

     Theodocia McCormack was born on 15 August 1842 at near Chester, Randolph Co., IL.¹ She married Alexander Barber, son of Alexander Barber and Caroline Harrison, on 11 November 1869.¹ Theodocia McCormack died in 1921 at Edwardsville, Madison Co., IL.

     Jacob Dunham was born on 1 June 1795 at Berkeley Co., VA (Now WV).¹ He was the son of Samuel Dunham and Hannah (?)¹ Jacob Dunham married Catherine Goodnight on 21 October 1819 at Berkeley Co., VA (Now WV).¹ Jacob Dunham died on 30 July 1865 at Tipton Co., IN, at age 70.¹

     Gertie Logan Barber was born on 15 May 1879.¹ She was the daughter of Alexander Barber and Theodocia McCormack.¹ Gertie Logan Barber married Alfred Lawder in 1896.

     Harry Ellington Armour was born on 10 January 1874 at IL.¹ He was the son of George W. Armour and Nancy Ann Childress.¹ Harry Ellington Armour married Gabriella Clark, daughter of Christopher Columbus Clark and Susan C. Overall, in 1899.¹