California
HISTORY AND GENEALOGY RESEARCH


Hart/McNally Family
by Velma Tarver

Left to Right, Standing Back Row:
Lawrence Lee (Bud) Hart, Henry John McNally, Charles Clay Hart, Minnie McNally (Pierce), Raymond C.
McNally, Margaret McNally (Gibbs), Alberta Birdie
McNally (Walter's wife),
Seated:
David Hart, David C. McNally, Susan Hart McNally,
Walter D. McNally  - Little Girl Standing is Irene
Williams, daughter of William and Katherine McNally
Williams.

I am a native of Mariposa and my family line goes back quite a few years.  David Hart was my great grandfather.  He was born in 1825 in Jacksboro, Anderson County, Tennessee.  He died July 30, 1903 at the Hart Ranch, Big Spring Hill, Sebastopol Flats Mariposa County,  He married Nancy Bruce, daughter of Daniel Bruce and Mary Brenner, also of Jacksboro, Tennessee.  They are buried in Anderson County, TN, along with many of the brothers and sisters of David. 

David made several trips to California on horseback, the first time being about 1848.  He originally mined along the American River, but eventually came to Mariposa County where he discovered a placer gold deposit on Big Spring Hill.  Sometime between 1853-1858, he moved his family to Missouri where he formed a wagon train to California in 1857.  He financed his own wagon train and the families were to work off the debt.  He settled at the top of Big Spring Hill and named their town Sebastopol Flats, in honor of an uncle who died at Sebastopol, Russia while fighting in the Crimean War.  At one time there were as many as 14 buildings in the town site.  He donated the property and the building for the first Sebastopol school, which was in use many years until the new Sebastopol School was built on Bootjack Road.  I started first grade in the new school the first year it opened.

David and Nancy had fourteen children, the eldest was Mary Elizabeth, born in Tennessee, 10/22/1847, died 1931 in California, married Ruggles Sylvester Cochran 1/20/1871 in Mariposa.  William C. Hart was born 1849 in Tennessee, married Nancy Jane Bolton 10/9/1880.  He was shot and killed by his brother Charles Clay, 1/7/1885.

Charles Clay was born in Tennessee in 1851 and died in Mariposa 3/4/1915.  My father, Henry McNally used to tell us children stories about Charlie, which we devoured with great interest.  He told us that my mother, Dora , was very afraid of Charlie, but that he would not harm a hair on her head.  He also told us that he befriended Charlie and when he spent time in prison for killing Bill, that he took care of his horses.  When Charlie got out of prison, he would come by my parents house, and my Dad would find a strange horse in the barn, and another gone, and a box of groceries on the porch.  That is sometimes the only way that he knew that Charlie was there.

Susan, my grandmother was born in Tennessee in 1852 and died in 1929 at Seaside, California.  She married David Christopher McNally 11/29/1872 in Mariposa.  Escen Samuel was born in Tennessee 1853 and died 5/13/1921 in Madera County.   Margaret Catherine was born in Missouri 9/25/1854.  She died 9/12/1937 in Hornitos.  She married John Johnson Lord 4/7/1880.  Martha Isabella was born 6/14/1857 at Morman Station, Utah Territory (now Genoa, Nevada)  She married Alfred Cannon 11/4/1879 at  Hornitos.

Eliza Ann was born in California in 1859.  She married Wm. Scott Burford, Sept. 18, 1881 at Fresno Flats.  She lived in Tonopah, Nevada in 1906, but don’t know when she died.  Thomas was born in California in 1850, married Delila Bays, date of death unknown.  Amanda L. was born 1/30/1861, died 3/30/1944 Tuolumne County,  She married (1) G. Bryant (2) John Monroe Ellis.  Lawrence Lee (Bud) was born in California in 1863, died 1/2/1939 Mariposa County, married Myrtle Lowrie 12/24/1910.

Joseph Sevier Hart, born Mariposa County 22 Sep 1865 and died 26 May 1946 in Calaveras County.  He was married to Janine Armaninto Guidion.

Malinda was born 1866 in California.  She died 1870 at the age if 4 years in a house fire at the Big Spring Ranch.  The youngest, Edward was born 1868 in California and died 8/17/1957 at  Sacramento, California.  He married a (?) Maxwell.


David Hart supported his family by mining and cattle ranching.  My grandmother, Susan, married David McNally.  He was born in Scotland.  His family was from Ireland, but moved to Scotland during the  potato famine and then migrated to Toronto, Canada.  David and his brother Daniel came to California by ship around the horn.  They left two sisters in Toronto.  David and Susan made their home in the Red Mountain Area and later lived at Bootjack, which he named because the road forked right there and looked like a boot jack.  David McNally mined and ranched, sometimes in partnership with his father-in-law.  He developed the Silver Bar Mine, at that time was the only silver mine in Mariposa County.  Susan and David had 6 children:  Nancy Kathryn born 9/17/1874, died 5/8/1935 in Fresno, married William Williams 9/11/1900 Bear Valley; Walter David born 4/18/1875 Sebastopol, died 2/20/1957, married Alberta (Birdie) Lewis (no relation to my mother); Margaret was born 1878, died 11/17/1934, married Carl S. Gibbs 12/19/1904 Bootjack.  Henry John (my father) was born 12/18/1879 , died 11/18/1954 married Dora Ethel Lewis 1/1/1907 at Mt. Bullion.  They made their home on Indian Peak Road,( then it was called Raymond Road),  all 10 of the McNally children were born there.

Henry had a varied career of miner, carpenter, bar keeper (at my grandfather’s sawdust floor saloon at Bootjack).  He was a school bus driver and for quite a few years was fire lookout for U.S. Forest Service at Signal Peak Lookout Station.

Minnie McNally was born 8/16/1880 and died 1/16/1963.  She married Spencer Pierce and lived in Fresno for quite a few years, then moved to my grandparents old place at Bootjack when grandmother died.
Raymond was the youngest.  He married Minnie Kenyon in San Jose, California. [1-7-1909]

I have the history of the Hart Family from Thomas in England, and it does include many names important in history of the United States.  To name a few, Daniel Boone, Henry Clay whose wife was Lucretia Hart, early settlers in Boonsboro.  Captain David Hart, ( my GGGgrandfather) and Nathaniel Hart assisted in the rescue of Jemima Boone when she and two Callaway children were kidnapped by the Indians.  There are other connections, but will not mention them at this time.
Velma Tarver