Martha Lowry Stewart

Aunt_Martie in Montana

• Death Notes
  • 
    Obituaries:
    MRS. PROCTOR, DALLASITE, 91, DIES IN MAINE
    
    Mrs. William C. Proctor, 91, a prominent Dallas woman and widow of a business executive, died Saturday night at her summer home in Waterford, Me.
    Services in Dallas will be held at 2:30 p.m. July 6 at Sparkman's Funeral Home on Ross Avenue.  Services will be conducted at the Congregational Church Waterford, Tuesday.
    Mrs. Proctor, who lived at the Maple Terrace Hotel, was born in Philadelphia.  Her husband, vice president and treasurer of Magnolia Pipe Line Co., died in 1937.
    She was active in a number of Dallas clubs and organizations.  A past president of the Dallas YWCA, she also belonged to the Shakespeare Club, the Women's Club, the Mary Scruggs Garden Club, the Dallas Council on World Affairs, the women's auxiliary of the Dallas County Hospital District, the Dallas Symphony League and the Canterbury's Garden and Service Guild of St. Alban.
    Survivors include two brothers, James B. Stewart of Denver, Colo., and Edwin F. Stewart of Colmar, Penn.; three sisters, Mrs. Rhoda Culpeper of Charleston, S.C.; Mrs. Dorothy Stockwell of Waterford, Me., and Mrs. Mary Stewart Gibbons of Boston, and many nieces and nephews.
    Burial will be in Oakland Cemetery.
    Memorials may be sent to the United Presbyterian Homes in Waxahachie.----Dallas Morning News,  July, 1965.
    
    SERVICES SET TUESDAY FOR MRS. PROCTOR
    
    Memorial Services for Mrs. Martha Stewart Proctor, 91, or Maple Terrace Apartments, longtime Dallas resident, will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday in Sparkman's Funeral Chapel, 2115 Ross.
    Mrs. Proctor, a native of Philadelphia, Pa., died June 26 in Waterford, Me.  She had been a resident here since 1920.
    Her husband, W. C. Proctor died in 1937.  He was vice-president of the Magnolia Petroleum Co.
    Mrs. Proctor was a former president of the Young Women's Christian Association here and served on its board of directors for many years.  Proctor Hall is named for her and her husband.
    Mrs. Proctor also was a member of the United Presbyterian Church (?), the Dallas Shakespeare Club, the Marianne Scruggs Garden Club, the Dallas Woman's Club, the Dallas Symphony League, and the Dallas Council of World Affairs.
    Survivors:  Two brothers, the Hon. James B. Stewart of Denver, Colo., and Edwin F. Stewart of Colmar, Pa., and three sisters, Mrs. Mary S. Gibbons of Boston, Mass., Mrs. Rhoda Culpeper of Charleston, S.C., and Mrs. Dorothy Stockwell of Waterford, Me.
    
    

• General Notes
  • July 1894:  Principal/ High School, Philadelphia/
    
    Principal/ High School, Philadelphia/ Jenks died in 1895May 11, 1898: Supervising principalship/Martha L. Stewart
    
    1899, Election of Teachers: Martha Stewart/ Jenks School/newspaper article
    
    1902 - Principals Talk:  on Value of punctuality by Martha L. Stewart/ A. S. Jenks School
    
    1905 Teachers Petition Signed: Martha L. Stewart/ A. S. Jenks School
    
    Affianced:  Mr. Black, chicken farmer, Philadelphia, PA
    
    Census 1920: 6124 Columbia AVe/ Phila, Pa./ age45/ supervising principal
    
    Census 1930: Dallas, Tx Wife, age 52, age 42 at first marriage, father born in Irish Free State, mother in PA,
    
    Residences:5110 Live Oak St., Stoneleigh Hotel, & Maple Terrace, Dallas TX
    
    (Memoir)
    MARTHA STEWART PROCTOR
    
    by Joyce  Hoyt Robinson
    
    The person on Hank's side of the family who had the most profound influence on the entire family was his Mother's eldest sister, Aunt Martha Stewart Proctor.  Although she had no children of her own, she became the matriarch of that very large family.  She had been a teacher and principal of an elementary school in Philadelphia, and had an intense interest in education.  In various ways, she helped her many nieces and nephews to obtain college educations.  Several Stockwells went to Dartmouth, and at least one, "E", Elizabeth Bean, went to Swarthmore.  Nat became a medical doctor.  Others went to college in various parts of the U.S.  Hank went to the University  of California at Berkeley.
    She had 3 brothers and 6 sisters.  Some said she "bossed" the younger ones. She was more conservative than Margaret and Mary.  She was the intellectual one of the family, also the organizer and the administrator.
    When she was 46 she married William Custer Proctor (6-15-20), a friend of her brother Will.  Will Proctor was a wealthy man, the treasurer of Socony Oil (the predecessor of Magnolia Petroleum Co.), who had been married twice before, one wife and child both dying in childbirth.  He was generous with his money.  After they were married, Aunt Martie joined him in Dallas, Texas where they lived a "swish" life with Aunt Martie joining many charitable and cultural activities.  Cousin "E" told about a visit to Aunt Martie's lovely home at 5110 Live Oak Street in Dallas at her mother's insistence.  She remembered a big Packard car with a black chauffeur, also a cook, server, and a maid.  Apparently she did not like the visit because Aunt Martie would not allow her to open the windows as it might get the curtains dirty.
    Mary and Martie began to go to Waterford, Maine for the summers in the late 1890's.  Later Aunt Martie and Will Proctor bought a large house, Tam Glen, in Center Lovell, Maine.  They spent most of the summer in Maine, and many of the family visited them.  Hank used to love to go there.  Cousin "E" spoke about a long series of trains and boat rides that Aunt Martie, etc. had to take from Dallas to get to Maine in the early days.  Will Proctor died in 1937.  Later, Aunt Martie would fly from Dallas to Philadelphia and someone would drive her up to Maine from there.  By the time Hank and I were married Aunt Dottie, cousin "E", Peg and of course Aunt Martie had moved their summer places to Waterford on Lake Keoka.  For many years we rented cabins there for our vacations.  Then we bought land on the lake which I gave to my children when Hank died and they sold it to a cousin.  When we went to Waterford, I remember that we always "called on" Aunt Martie as soon as we arrived.  She would take turns inviting the various families to dinner on Sundays at the Senator Pike's Restaurant in the village.
    For years, starting in 1921, she had her sisters Mary and Margaret living with her.  She frequently helped her brothers and sisters financially.  Occasionally she would send us 100 shares of Socony stock.  This was always a wonderful and unexpected windfall which came at the most opportune times.
    She sometimes visited her family, and once in 1954 she came to Washington to visit us.  She was elderly at the time, and she wanted to take a nap as soon as she arrived.
    Aunt Martie left all her money to her brothers and sisters or their children.  As Hank's mother had died, he inherited his share.  He immediately put half of it in the names of our children for their college educations.  Several years later he died, and that money paid for their education with a little left over.
    Hank admired Aunt Martie greatly for keeping the family together and for educating all of them.  She was an inspiration to me also, and I am doing my best to see that the Hoyt family stays together and hopefully that my grandchildren have an opportunity to attend college.---  by Joyce Lownes Hoyt Robinson
    
    "Martie Stewart married Will Proctor.  After his death she was so generous to relatives on both sides (his and hers) that she seemed like a fairy god-mother." (Elizabeth Lindsay)
    

Click here for details of Martha's family with William Custer Proctor

¹ Stewart Tree done by Rhoda Stewart Culpeper in the 1960's

---

This page is within a frameset. View the entire genealogy report of Stewart families, or surname index of Stewart pedigrees or report summary of Stewart heritage from "Lowrys of Drumcrow and Stewarts of Killymuck".
Genogram Examples.

---

© 2006 GenoPro Inc. All Rights Reserved.