Generation 2: Civil War

Reubin Corbin and Parthenia Stuart would marry in 1879, at which point they had already moved to Butler County. Corbin, a veteran of the Union Army, was among the twenty-two Black residents of Butler County that had served in the American Civil War. By 1929, only three would remain. The union of Corbin and Stuart in 1879 would bring into the world a number of children, though not without tragedy. In 1899, their eldest daughter, Lucy, was found dead under conditions that suggest foul-play. 

Parthenia’s father, James Stewart, was siblings with one Mary L. Stewart, who would later marry Thomas Jefferson Suel. Mary and Thomas would also have many children, and among them was Clifford. Sometime in the 1930s, Clifford Suel would fall in love with Jennie McCoo. Jennie would adopt the Suel name in 1932, thereby linking her story to the multi-generational fight for racial justice.