One final contribution to women’s history month, as I look at the travels of four sisters, the traveling daughters of an adventurous man.

Elisha Pinkney Stout’s daughters, my 4th cousin, 3x removed, caught my eye because Ancestry showed me the passport of Edna Pinkney Stout. I thought I would write about Edna, but it turns out her sisters had stories to tell, also.

I have related the story of Elisha, as part of the story of his father Obadiah, a pioneer in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. Elisha, born in Ohio, traveled West and played a role in founding both Omaha and Denver, as well as seeking gold on Pike’s Peak. In his later life, he returned to Cincinnati where he became rich and successful.

The four traveling daughters, Mecia, Edna, Blanche and Florence, had one brother, William Kirk Stout, called by his middle name– his mother’s maiden name. He died young. I know that three of them had adequate means to live well, attended by servants and free to cruise the world. I know less about the fourth.

When I thought I had unearthed all the surprises I could about Edna and her sister, I found the best story of all. So I definitely have to include Elisha’s grand daughter, Margaret Moore, but I will save her for a separate article.

To put these women in perspective with my closer relatives. The sisters fall in the same generation as my great-grandmother, Hattie Stout. That means that Elisha’s grand daughter, Margaret Moore Hvenor (1891-1968) fell close to my grandmother, Vera Stout Anderson‘s age (1881-1964).

Margaret “Mecia” Stout Stearns

Edna’s older sister Margaret “Mecia” Stout Stearns (1861-1931) married and lived next door to her father’s estate in the village of Wyoming all of her life with her husband and three children. Wyoming, a northern suburb of Cincinnati presently houses about 8500 people. The Stearns family always list their address as 320 Reilly Road/Avenue and Elisha’s address continued as 420 Reilly Road/Avenue. This stability of address led me to the faulty assumption that Mecia was a stay-at-home. Her husband, William S. Stearns belonged to a family that owned a cotton mill, and Mecia and William’s household always include two or three servants.

Her traveling may have been delayed, but when she was 62, she and her husband began taking cruises every year. Although his passport lists his wife and children, I did not see their children’s names on any of the ship’s manifests, so they may not have gone along.

• 1922: In March, they returned from Alexandria Egypt
• 1923: They returned from Yokohama Japan. Since Edna returned on the same ship, it is possible they both were on the same lengthy cruise of the Far East. (See Edna)
• 1924: In March, they arrived back from Bermuda
• 1925: In September, they arrived from Southampton, England
• 1926: In March, they arrived in New York from Southampton again.
• 1927: in April, they arrived in New York after two months on a cruise that departed from New York and circled back.
• 1928: in September, they arrived in New York from Southampton, England.

Mecia surprised me one more time, when I learned that she died in 1931, not in Cincinnati, but while vacationing in Atlantic City. Traveler to the end.

Edna Pinkney Stout

The second of the traveling daughters, Edna Pinckney Stout ( 1862-1957) never married. For a time, I assumed that she was mentally or physically handicapped, since according to census reports, she lived with her parents until she was in her 50s.

Other than being listed as a postmistress at the Stout Post office–not far from Cincinnati–in 1899, census reports list no occupation for Edna. She lived with both her parents on their elaborate estate in Wyoming Village, until her mother died in 1909. Her younger sister, Florence, lived there until she married at the age of 32 in 1904. But Edna stayed on after their mother died. In the 1910 census, she is the only one still living with her father on the family estate.

Edna Leaves Ohio

Father Elisha died in 1913 in Los Angeles, where he was living with his youngest daughter Florence Stout Baker in Los Angeles. I learned that Edna was also in Los Angeles. In probate papers after Florence’s death in 1914, Florence’s husband listed Florence’s siblings. Edna Stout, living in the Hotel Pepper in Los Angeles.

Perhaps Edna had traveled to Los Angeles to help care for her father or for her sister when they were in a final illness. Edna must have returned to Ohio soon after her sister died because by 1920, she is back in Hamilton County, Ohio, living with her sister Mecia Stout Stearns and her husband. This part of her life is traditional. The unmarried sister, who lives with parents until they die, and then lives with various siblings.

In 1922, her brother-in-law, William Stearns helped her get a passport. Apparently, Edna prepared to leave on an extensive tour of the East early in 1923. Her November 1922 passport application shows she planned to visit Madeira (?), Gibraltar, Algiers, Egypt, India, Ceylon, ________Settlements, Dutch East Indies, _________ , Indonesia, Indo-China, Hong Kong, Macau, China and Japan. Even as an organized tour, or cruise, this itinerary exceeds the first-time travel of an ordinary sixty-year-old woman in the 1920s. She returned to New York, in May, 1923, making this a trip around the world. However, she may not have been traveling alone.

The Stearns returned on the same ship from Japan to New York. However, since I do not have ship’s manifests that show either Edna or her sister and brother-in-law leaving on this tour, I cannot say for sure if they all took the extensive far Eastern tour.

If Edna traveled in the next seven years, I do not have a ship’s manifest to prove where she went. But in 1930, she apparently went on another cruise. In April, the census caught her living in a boarding house/hotel in Los Angeles. She left the port of Wilmington, California (Los Angeles Port) in May, 1930, and arrived in Honolulu seven days later. Her return trip in August, 1930, brought her back to Los Angeles. I rather doubt that she was lying on a beach in Hawaii for two and a half months. Perhaps this cruise took her to some exotic Pacific locations.

Although I did not find her father Elisha’s will, I know from the information in the probate of the estate of her sister Florence, that although unmarried and unemployed, Edna had no money worries. Her father’s estate, reported to be about $80,500 (which would be worth $1, 046,500 today), had been divided three ways–Edna, her sister Florence, and her sister Mecia. (The only son in the family, William “Kirk” Stout, had died in 1890 at the age of 14.)

Blanche Stout Moore

Blanche (1865-1937) provides a different story. In 1890, at the age of 24, she married Edward E. Moore, a cotton merchant, and moved to New York. Like Mecia’s family, this family always had multiple servants. Their residence changed from Hackensack, New Jersey to finally living in the tony Scarsdale area of New York.

But the thing that puzzles me–why did Florence’s husband say his father-in-law’s estate was divided between three daughters. When Elisha died, there were four daughters. So why was the estate not divided in four? Was Blanche shunned by the family for some reason? He knew Edna, whom he listed by name, but Mecia and Blanch were “two other sisters, who live, he believes in Ohio.” He got it right for Mecia, but not for Blanch.

Edna, who lived with both her other sisters, never lived with Blanche, her husband and children which also tends to make me think Blanche separated from the family.

In 1893, Edward Moore applied for a passport–one of those that included the wife, Blanche. (See section on Passports below).

Although we do not get a photograph, Blanche’s husband is described as 6′ tall. He has a high forehead, black eyes, a prominent nose, large mouth, long chin, black hair and dark skin.

16 Apr, 1910, Blanche sailed from London to New York without any other family members.

16 Sept, 1914, Blanche arrived from visiting England again. This time she was accompanied by her daughter Margaret and son Kirk and also Emma B. Moore and Perry E. Moore. (It is a good guess that these are a sister-in-law and nephew.)

Blanche’s travel seems modest, however, taking her daughter Margaret abroad apparently had an effect. (See separate article).

Florence Stout Baker

Florence Stout Baker (1872-1914), the youngest daughter, lived with her parents until she married at the ripe old age of 32. Then she and her husband, Henry A. Baker, a pharmacist, moved to Los Angeles.

I am speculating that not long after her mother died, Edna’s father sold the Cincinnati estate. He then moved to Los Angeles with Florence Stout Baker and her husband. But I cannot locate a records for Florence and her husband that will tell me when Florence moved to L. A. In fact every detail about Florence’s life after her marriage eludes me.

I thought she was not a traveler, until I found her probate record. I have not found any trace of Florence on ship’s manifests, and very little other information about her or her husband. However, like her sister Mecia, she did not die at home. Her probate papers and death certificate show that she died in Hammond Louisiana, north of New Orleans. Why Hammond? Who knows?

Passports

I learned a lot about passports while gathering information about the adventurous daughters. Did you know that in the mid-19th century, women traveling with their husbands did not have their own passport? The husband’s passport lists his name, hers, and if they are along–the children. A woman traveling alone, however, might have a passport listing herself and any children traveling with her.

Notice I said “might”, that’s because–surprise number two–laws did not require U. S. Citizens to have a passport until June 1941. Two exceptions–if they traveled abroad during the Civil War or during World War I, they must carry a passport.

In the mid 19th century, men made 95% of trips abroad. However, by the late 19th century, women comprised 40% of passport applicants. I got all this information about passports from the very helpful National Archives site in their section on Passport Applications.

I hope this article on the traveling Stout sisters may encourage someone else to seek out ship’s manifests and passports to track the travels of the traveling daughters in their family tree.