Compiled by Wayne D. Lanier

Sterling Lanier
                            1791 - 1870

                            “Sterling was left $2,250 in his father’s will.  He owned and
                        operated hotels in Macon, Ga., Montvale Springs, Tenn., and
                        Montgomery, Ala.   References to Sterling Lanier are frequent
                        in the two book length biographies of Sidney Lanier [one by Mims, 1905,
                        and one by Starke, 1933].  He married Sarah Vivian Fulwood
                        on 28 Sep. 1818 in Clarke County, Georgia, her home.  Their
                        golden wedding was made the subject of a poem ‘by their eldest
                        grandson’ [the Poet, in 1868]... Both Sterling and his wife are buried
                        in Rose Hill Cemetery, Macon.”

                There are more details in Wright’s** article.  He was an ardent Methodist
                and a passionate supporter of the Confederacy.  In Macon (which was more
                important than Atlanta at this time) he owned two hotels, The Floyd House
                in the 1840s & the Lanier House in the 1850s.  He also was part-owner
                of The Exchange in Montgomery, meeting place of the Alabama Secession
                Convention and the first Confederate Cabinet, as well as the La Farge Hotel
                in New York, which operated under that name from 1856 to 1866.  “The census
                of 1860, which found him at Montvale, valued his real estate assets at $88,400
                and his additional personal property $52,525... he combined the abilities of a
                business man and host.  On his staff...were a Swiss gardener [and] a French cook...”

                He and his brother Sampson Lanier [IV] came to Tennessee in 1856 to
                operate the Lamar House in Knoxville.  A year later he bought nearby resort at
                Montvale Springs with his son-in-law Abram P. Watt for $26, 673.  The beautiful
                hotel had 100 rooms, with porches running the full length of all three floors.  His family
                lived there for seven years until 1863, and he intended it to be their permanent home.
                In the happy days before the War, his family (three generations) summering at Montvale
                Springs sometimes numbered 25.  However,  the War changed their plans.  Although
                Tennessee left the Union, much of Eastern Tennessee remained loyal to the Union.  He
                sold Montvale Springs in 1863 for $40,000 and left for Montgomery.  The hotel later
                burned down.  The five years following the end of the War in 1865 were not
                happy days for Sterling Lanier.  His considerable wealth had  been converted
                into Confederate money.  His fortune disappeared with the end of the
                Confederate dream.  It was his sad fate to see President Jefferson Davis
                captured and held in the Lanier House in Macon.  Sterling died Jan. 31, 1870 in
                Montgomery, but wanted to be buried in Macon.  His autograph survives on an
                1866 letter to his widowed daughter-in-law in Jalapa, housed in an early 19th
                writing case.  His smiling face from happier times survives in an oil
                portrait, photographs of which were given me by Aunt Mary Munds.

                                                                                                                   ©~F. Lanier Graham

                Sterling lived in York County, South Carolina, for a time, before going on to
                Georgia.  There is a Catawba Indian land lease completed in 1819 made out
                to Sterling Lanier and James Perry.
                                                                                    (Courtesy of Louise Pettus)
 

               ( Two articles featuring Sterling Lanier are Lena E. Jackson & Aubrey Starke*,
                “New Light on the Ancestry of Sidney Lanier” in THE VIRGINIA MAGAZINE OF
                HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY, 1935, pp. 160-168 (which is the standard genealogical
                reference for this branch of the family), and Natalie Wright**, “Montvale Springs
                under the Proprietorship of Sterling Lanier” in THE EAST TENNESSEE HISTORICAL
                SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS, 1947, pp. 48-63.   His obituary:  Feb. 4, 1870 in
                GEORGIA WEEKLY TELEGRAPH & MESSENGER.)

8 Sterling Lanier                  1791 - 1870
   +Sarah Vivian Fulwood    1803 - 1877

                    Sarah was born in Clarke County, Georgia in 1803.  She married
                    Sterling Lanier in 1818.  Very little is known of her, except that she
                    was her husband’s life partner for over 50 years.  All their children
                    seem to have been educated in Southern colleges.  Her face survives
                    in an early miniature (c.1818?) attributed to Anna Peale, and an oil
                    portrait attributed to Sully.

                    In 1877 she died in Montgomery, their last home, but is buried in Rose Hill,
                    Macon, as are some of their children.  Their six children were Robert Sampson
                    (1819-93), Sidney Cooke (1821-66), William Brinton (1822-71), Jane (1824-79)
                    who married Mr. Watt, Clarke Payne (1826-53), & Wilhemina Ligon (1828-1904)
                    who married Mr. Eason.  Sarah was especially fond of Robert’s son, Sidney (1842-81)
                    who as a youth summered at Montvale Springs, there started his first book, TIGER LILIES,
                    and later became the “Poet Laureate” of the South.  Sidney the Poet wrote a
                    poem for their Golden Wedding anniversary in 1868.
                                                                                                      ©~F. Lanier Graham

       (This poem is on line at The Library of
          Southern Literature  Click here to access this page..  Go to Page 207.)

        9 Robert Sampson Lanier    1819 - 1893
           +R. A. W. Pringle        1837 -
*2nd Wife of Robert Sampson Lanier:
           +Mary Jane Anderson      1822 - 1865

           Bibliography
           10  Sidney Clopton Lanier   1842 - 1881         .(Click the book to read about Sidney Clopton Lanier)
                      +Mary Day              1844 - 1931

                        The South's beloved Poet.  Sidney's writings were
                        obscured by the time in which he lived. Sidney was
                        one of the finest poets that this country ever
                        produced;  because he lived in a time which
                        this nation was enduring a war between its
                        brothers, he has never been given his just
                        place in American Literature.

                                 11 Charles Day Lanier  1868-1945
                                      +May Field               1873-1962

                    Charles Day Lanier was the Publisher of the old American Review of Reviews.
                    He married May Field of Louisville, Kentucky.  She led a fight to preserve
                    and restore Stratford Hall, the home of the Lees in Virginia which was built
                    in 1729.  Mrs. Lanier and her group raised sufficient money to buy the mansion
                    and the thousand acres surrounding it.  This home is now a historic showplace
                    of Virginia.

                                                                                                                ~Louise Ingersoll

                                             12  Mary Alexander Lanier
                                                   +Irving Mead Day
                                              12  Elizabeth Day Lanier
                                                  +Robert H. Bolling
                                              12  Rebecca Lanier
                                              12  Sally Lanier
                                              12  Charles Day Lanier, Jr.

                                    11 Sidney Lanier                       1870 - 1918
                                        +Maud Elizabeth Masson        1868 - ????
                                    11 Henry Wysham Lanier            1873 - 1958
                                        +Josephine Ledyard Stevens    ???? - ????
                                    11 Robert Sampson Lanier II       1880 - 1912
                                        +Anna K. Goldsborough          ???? - ????

                        10 Clifford Anderson Lanier       1844 - 1908
                             +Wilhelmina Clopton             1848 - 1918
                        10 Gertrude Lanier                     1846 -

       9 Sidney Cooke Lanier 1821-1866
           +Mary Theodora Browne        1837-1908

                    Sidney Cooke Lanier was the second child of Sterling Lanier & Sara
                    Vivian Fulwood.  He was born in York County, South Carolina on
                    January  27, 1821 when his family was living there.  Little is known
                    of his early life, other than he traveled a good deal during the 1840s
                    in Europe where he formed a large collection of ancient and modern
                    coins (a collection I inherited).  He was involved in the cotton business
                    and was not in good health.  His T.B. had begun.

                    In 1859 he married a prominent New York City socialite named Mary
                    Theodora Browne.  They had two sons, Sterling Sidney Lanier I (1860-1917)
                    and A.D. Russel Lanier (1865-1933).

                    Just before the War, he spent time at Montvale Springs in 1860 & 1861
                    when it was owned by his father.  Their first son was born there in 1860,
                    but their primary home was Montgomery.  Not healthy enough to fight, he
                    funded an entire CSA regiment, and hosted meetings of the Confederate
                    government at the Exchange, the family hotel in Montgomery.  He closed
                    up that Montgomery hotel in 1863.  That much is documented.

                    What follows is oral history.  During the War, he was an active agent of the
                    Cotton Exchange, selling Southern cotton to Europeans.  He was captured
                    by the North and sentenced to death.  As he was married to the adopted
                    daughter of Judge A. D. Russel (of the Supreme Court of the State of New York),
                    the judge intervened to make the sentence exile.  The family moved to Jalapa,
                    Vera Cruz, Mexico where he continued working for the Southern Cause.  There
                    he died of T.B on Apr. 22, 1866.

                    The family became Catholic.  Two documents mark his death in Jalapa: his tombstone,
                    and a letter of condolence from his father to his widow (a letter I inherited).
                    His widow and their sons eventually returned to the US about 1870.  My
                    grandmother and Aunt Mary Munds gave me letters from Sidney Cooke Lanier to
                    his wife, his watch, and facsimiles of a Confederate bill, a CSA buckle, and a small
                    Mexican cabinet in which his keepsakes were housed.  His face is known from a
                    photograph given to me by Aunt Mary Munds. Sidney Cooke Lanier's brother,
                    Robert Sampson Lanier, a lawyer in Macon, was the father of the Poet who was
                    named for Sidney Cooke Lanier.  His widow remembered him to my Grandmother
                    (with whom she spent her last years) as “strong, generous, and gentle.”

                                                                                                                 . ~F. Lanier Graham
 

                    Mary Theodora Browne was the daughter of a Captain George Leonard Brun
                    (later Browne) who died in 1840 and Eliza Kirby Taylor (1816-1883)
                    of Richmond, daughter of Richard Kirby Taylor & Susan Green, and
                    a cousin of General Zachary Taylor.  Their oral history is from my
                    Grandmother.  Mary was born Sep. 16, 1837 and was their only
                    child.

                    Her second husband was Abram D’Lyon Russel  (a judge
                    on the Supreme Court of the State of New York).  She was deeply
                    devoted to the Southern Cause.  She even asked her good friend,
                    President Jefferson Davis, if she could join the Confederate Army,
                    and wore his picture in her locket all her life.  Having converted in
                    Mexico, she was a devout Catholic.  After the War, she spent some
                    time in Cuba, then visited with the Poet in New York where she was
                    trying to gain funds from some of the hotels her husband and his
                    father owned before the War.  She gathered enough money
                    ($10,000 or $20,000) to enable her two sons to start the Monro
                    Warrior Coal & Coke Company in Birmingham.  But she could not
                    maintain her glamourous life under reduced circumstances.  Having
                    been raised in a wealthy home, and having married the son of a wealthy
                    man, this was a matter of some unhappiness, as was living in what she
                    bitterly called “Yankee America.”

                    But she loved raising her sons, and put considerable creativity into composing
                    children’s stories for them and with them.  She spent her last years (1904-08) with
                    her son Abram D'Lyon Russel Lanier and his wife in South Pittsburgh, TN, where
                    she died on Aug. 31,1908, with both sons at her side.  Her obituary was published
                    in the BIRMINGHAM AGE HERALD Sep. 2, 1908.  Several photographs of her
                    and her relatives survive, along with a family album, a small relic of the iron-clad
                    Merrimac, a silver locket, a large twisted pearl necklace with a heart-shaped pendent,
                    her manuscript for THE BLACK CAT OF MAGIC LAKE illustrated by her son,
                    Russel, as well as a large hand-touched photograph of her mother, and military
                    papers of her step-brother Major Samuel A. Russel of New York, signed by
                    Lincoln (which I inherited), and an oil portrait of her step-father, A. D. Russel, said
                    to be by John Singer Sargent, which was acquired by the Birmingham Laniers.

                    Until the marriage of my grandparents, Mary was nursed by Aunt Mary Munds
                    (her granddaughter) in Birmingham where many family stories were told.  She was
                    buried in Birmingham at the Elmwood Cemetery.  Grandmother described her as
                    “tiny and vivacious, always cheerful, full of positivity.”
                                                                                                            .~F. Lanier Graham

                            10  Sterling Sidney Lanier    1860-1917
                                  +Mary Louise Bannister    1859-1947
                            10  Abram D'Lyon Russel Lanier        1865-1933
                                 +Alberta Benton Mankin               1880-1971

                        Abram D'Lyon Russel Lanier, the second son of Sidney C. Lanier
                        and Mary Theodora Lanier, was born Jun. 5, 1865.  That date is recorded
                        on his daughter’s birth certificate, in a book his mother gave him, and on the
                        silver cup given him at birth by his namesake A. D. Russel.  He was born in
                        Mexico & did not speak English for five years.  For political reasons, he listed
                        himself on some documents as born in the U.S.  The family returned to the U.S.
                        from Mexico in 1866 temporarily and permanently about 1870.  The first letters
                        mentioning him are dated 1867 and 1871 and were written by the Poet whom
                        they visited in New York.  They spent summers at Montvale Springs and Martha’s
                        Vineyard, where Russel fell in love with sailing.

                        The family moved to Birmingham in 1881.  He attended a military academy then
                        studied Civil Engineering at the University of Alabama, as did his brother.  He
                        practiced that profession the rest of his life.  Although he and his brother started
                        Monro Warrior Coal & Coke, he wanted to work outdoors not in an office; so
                        they parted ways.  He was associated with the Tennessee Coal, Iron, & Railroad
                        Co. as their Land Agent developing paths through mountains until it was sold to
                        U.S. Steel in 1901.  Then he managed all their land in Tennessee.  He spent much
                        of his time “in the timber.”  They had a small Mission Style bungalow on Signal
                        Mountain, and a large beautiful Mission Style house in Chattanooga on a golf course.

                        He died of arterial sclerosis shortly before his daughter’s wedding in 1933.
                        Grandmother said he was “brilliant, sweet, and helpful, and drew beautiful maps,”
                        and that he often spoke of the Poet.  She said he regarded “Cousin Sid” as a kind
                        of god.  Mother remembers him “quiet but delightful, and I never once heard him raise
                        his voice.  He was gentle but had a strong glow.”  He published a small book
                        called THE WAY OUT arguing for a national highway system to lift the nation
                        from The Depression.  Several photographs survive.  Many said he looked like
                        Woodrow Wilson.  He had a similar set of values: intellectual, peaceful,
                        innovative, & international.  The objects I inherited include photographs, his
                        silver cup, saucer & spoon, his watch and his mechanical drawing compass
                        (which I used reverently as a student of mechanical drawing in high school),
                        as well as a number of books from his very large library of history, religion,
                        philosophy, science, boating, & poetry.  My favorite is THE WORLD’S PARLIAMENT
                        OF RELIGIONS.  A deeply religious man, he was interested in Theosophy, because
                        (said Grandmother) “he felt God everywhere.” He and his wife are buried in
                        Birmingham.
.                                                                                                                        .~F. Lanier Graham
 
 

                        Alberta Benton Mankin (also called Bertie) was born September 14, 1880 in
                        Murfreesboro, TN (at 2 1/2 pounds).  All her family history is oral history as
                        told to me.  She was the only surviving child of John Wesley Mankin (c1852-1891)
                        and Martha Elizabeth Mankin (c1862-1886) - a distant cousin.

                        Her father was a gentleman of some means who raised thoroughbred
                        race horses in Murfreesboro, TN.  He was killed in 1891 in Murfreesboro
                        in a riding accident at the age of 39.  His wife died in 1886 at the age of 24
                        in childbirth.  One photograph of each of them survives.

                        Without parents, she spent her young years in boarding schools and
                        summers with relatives, especially the Sartans in Tracy City and South
                        Pittsburgh.  Those schools were All Souls College, Murfeesburo (1887-91),
                        and Fairmont Academy, Sawanee (1891-96).  Starting in 1898, her home
                        was with the Sartans in South Pittsburgh where she met her future husband.
                        There they married Dec. 21, 1904.  Their only child, Martha Elizabeth, was
                        born in 1909.  They were socially prominent in Chattanooga over the next
                        two decades.  Grandfather Russel died in 1933.

                        Bertie was a gifted hostess and did that professionally at the Signal
                        Mountain Club during the 1930s.  During World War II she joined
                        her daughter’s household where she remained until her death in Atlanta
                        Aug. 28, 1971.  She was a wonderful “nanny” to her grandchildren.
                        She too was “full of positivity.”  Highly spiritual, her room (anchored with
                        her richly carved ancestral bed inherited from her grandmother) was filled
                        with images of Madonnas by Angelico, Botticelli, Leonardo, & Raphael.
                        They became my favorite painters.  She left me many keepsakes and precious
                        feelings of unconditional love.

.                                                                                                                             .~F. Lanier Graham

                                        11  Martha Elizabeth Lanier
                                             +Lt. Col. Floyd Graham
                                                    12  Mary Katherine Graham
                                                         +Ronald Edsal Lowe   (divorced)
                                                    12  Floyd Lanier Graham

                            F. Lanier Graham  is the author of THE EARLIER LIFE & WORK
                            OF NICHOLAS LANIER (1588-1666): COLLECTOR OF PAINTINGS &
                            DRAWINGS, 1966, which has been the standard biography for
                             many years, and is the primary authority on the English Laniers.
                             Mrs. Ingersoll based her English entries on his research.  He is a
                             Historian of Art & Culture and the author of books & articles on
                             World Mythology, World Art, World Religions, and Modern Art,
                              including the widely acclaimed Rainbow Book that Joseph Campbell
                              called "really wonderful."  His specialty is Mythic Symbolism, Tribal to Present.
                              He is the former Curator at the following:
                              Museum of Modern Art, New York,
                              Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
                              Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
                             & Australian National Gallery, Canberra.
                             Also former Adjunct Faculty at Institute of Fine Arts, New York University,
                             University of California, Berkeley, University of San Francisco,
                             Naropa Institute, Boulder, Institute for Aesthetic Development, SF,
                             California Institute of Asian Studies, SF,
                             John F. Kennedy University, Orinda,
                             San Francisco State University, SF, and
                             California State University, Hayward.
                             He is now teaching at CSU Hayward and
                             over the Internet.
                                                                       Email: lgraham@csuhayward.edu

        9 William Brinton Lanier 1823 - 1871
           +Lucy Jane Billups 1827 - 1892
                10 Sarah L. Lanier 1847 -
                    +Capt. J. Tench Schley
                         11 John Tench Schley
                               +Elizabeth Donegan Mastin         ???? - 1909
                                     12  John Tench Schley, Jr.
                                     12  Edmund Mastin Schley
                                     12  William Lanier Schley
                                     12  Thomas Claiborne Schley     1893 - 1955
                                           +Aleen O'Connor                     1908 - 1999                 
                                                 13  Elizabeth Mastin Schley         1932 - 1998
                                                       +Henry Izard, Jr.                     1925 - 1982
                                                             14  Elizabeth Dantzler Izard        
                                                                   +Jim McCormick

                                        *2nd husband of Elizabeth Dantzler Izard:
                                                                   +George Brunswick

                                                 13  Mary Kathleen Schley          Private
                                                      +William Alvin Cottrell, Jr.     Private
                                                             14  Karen Winfield Cottrell        Private
                                                                   +[Unknown] Stephenson
                                                                            15  Morgan Stephenson        Private

                                                       *2nd husband of Karen Winfield Cottrell:
                                                                                  +John Zangrelli          Private

                                  *2nd husband of Mary Kathleen Schley:
                                                     +Scott Bosell

                                                 13  Claiborne Ann Schley          Private
                                                       +John Sebastian Walsh       Private
                                                                14  Aleen Lanier Walsh       Private
                                                                       +Jon Robert Momberger        Private
                                                                                15   John Claiborne Momberger           Private
                                                                                15   Carson Lynn Momberger                Private     
                                                                        
               *2nd wife of John Tench Schley:
                                +Nell Sharman                   Private

                            11  Lanier L. Schley
                            11  Lucy L. Schley
                            11  Robert Lee Schley

            (Information about the decendants of Captain J. Tench Schley was provided by provided by
              Claiborne Walsh.)                                       
            
                10 E. Lanier (son) 1849 -
                10 Sidney C. Lanier 1851 -
                10 Clarke Lanier 1855 -
                10 Jane Lanier 1857 -
                10 Infant son d. before Sep 16, 1865

       9 Jane Lanier 1824 - 1879
         +Mr. Watt
       9 Clarke Payne Lanier 1826 - 1853
       9 Wilhemina Ligon Lanier    1828 - 1904
         +Mr. Eason

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