52 Ancestors - Week 22

AT THE CEMETERY

Collins-Francis Gravestone, Metairie Cemetery
New Orleans, Louisiana

Who is Capt. Aleck McVay and what is he doing in my Grandma Booksh's grave?

Sometimes when you do cemetery research you find as many questions as answers. When I found this photo on findagrave.com I recognized the names of Emma Louise Chalfant Collins, my 2nd Great-Grandmother, and Emma Francis Booksh, my paternal Grandmother. I knew that Charles Alfred Francis and Anna Belle Collins Francis were my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother and that John McCaleb Francis was their son. But I had never heard any family mention of Captain McVay.

It didn't take long to find his obituaty at Genealogy Bank. It was on page 3 of the New Orleans Times-Picayune on Friday, March 05, 1897:

CAPTAIN ALEXANDER Mc VAY

Death of a Veteran Steamboatman and Soldier

   Captain Alexander McVay, another of the old river men, made his last trip yesterday and is now receiving the reward which comes to all men when their limit has expired. Captain McVay was a man of sixty-five years, and was one of the best known men on the river from Cincinnati to New Orleans, and while his death was not a surprise to those who were intimately acquainted with him, it was nevertheless a shock for they did not think that the end was so near. He had been a victim of Bright's disease for a long time, but about two weeks ago was forced to take to his bed, from which he never arose, dying peacefully yesterday morning at 6 o'clock, at his residence, 1523 Washington avenue. 

   Captain McVay was born in Florida about sixty-five years ago, and began his river career when quite a young man, plying as clerk on the Mohican, Cherokee, Choctaw and Time steamboats, which at that time were running from the Tennessee river to New Orleans. In 1850 he became clerk of the Louisville and New Orleans packet Fanny Buillit, and a few months later was engaged on the New Orleans and Vicksburg and Bayou Sara trades, and has served as clerk or captain on such boats as the Robert E. Lee, Ed. Richardson, J. M. White, Thompson Dean, Natchez, Pargoud, and other great packets which are no longer seen on the river. His last service was as clerk of the Bayou Sara packet Saint John, on which he served as clerk up to a few weeks ago. He was a man who exercised great care in his work, and ranked as one of the best and most popular on the river.

   He also saw some war service, enlisting in the Army of the Tennessee and serving under General Joe Johnston.

  He was married to Miss Belle Chalfant, a niece of John Chalfant New, the famous Indianapolis editor, who was consul general to London under the Harrison administration. Mrs. McVay's immediate family resided in Point Coupee parish. She survives her devoted husband.

   The funeral took place yesterday afternon at 4 o'clock, the services being conducted in St. Paul's church, of which he was a devout member. The flags of all the steamboats in port were at half mast ysterday in honor to his memory.

   The pallbearers were: Captains J. R. Woods, Frank Beck, M. N. Wood, P. J. O'Reilly, J. C. Libano and John H. Hanes.

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  Captain McVay's wife, Isabella "Belle" Chalfant, was my 2nd Great Grand Aunt, sister of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Emma Louise Chalfant Collins. Belle was born about 1844 in Amite County, Mississippi, daughter of Nathaniel Chalfant and Drucilla Caroline Burrows. The family later moved to China Grove Plantation in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana. She and Alex McVay were married 27 April 1866 in Warren County, Mississippi. After Alex died Belle remarried Harry M. Isaacson on 17 July 1901 in New Orleans. She died 1 March 1922 in New Orleans at age 78.

    The John Chalfant New mentioned in the obituary was the husband of her father's sister, Maria Chalfant.