Nancy Antrim McKay Clippings
See her family record.
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(From The Warren Sentinel, date unknown)
DEATH OF MRS. NANNIE
ANTRAM RUST
Mrs. Nannie Antram Rust died of pneumonia at her home at Haymarket, Virginia, on Sunday, December 7th, 1924, and was buried at Haymarket on December 9th.
Mrs. Rust was the wife of the late Capt. John R. Rust, Captain of Co. I, 12th Virginia Cavalry, C. S. A., the Laurel Brigade.
Mrs. Rust was a direct descendant of Robert McKay, who with Joist Hite, were the earliest settlers of the Valley of Virginia, having received their grant of 100,000 acres of land from the King of England in 1732. She lived upon this original grant until she moved to Haymarket, Prince William County, in 1901. She was the daughter of Joshua McKay and Esther Ann McKay of Warren County, Virginia. She was also a direct descendant of John Antram who came over with William Penn.
She is survived by one daughter, Mrs. Charles J. Gilliss of Haymarket, Virginia, and three sons, Robert Antram Rust and Albert B. Rust of Haymarket, Virginia, and John W. Rust of Fairfax, Virginia.
Mrs. Rust was a noble Christian woman and much beloved by all who knew her, and her death was a great loss to the community in which she lived. She was of the Presbyterian Faith.
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Reconstructed John Robert Rust Website
This website embedded within this link which was originally created by Cousin John Williams to display a collection of photos, letters and other documents pertaining to the branch of Nannie McKay Rust had long since expired from the internet. I had been in the process of restoring it here and so far I only have part of the information. I am still missing some of the letters, Civil War docs, Other docs, Links, Lineage and Comments sections. Hopefully I will one day be able to restore all of it. |
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(From the Southern Historical Society Papers
(VOLUME XIII JANUARY TO DECEMBER, 1885. pages 430-433.)
NANCY A. (NANNIE) MC KAY
AND THE BATTLE OF FRONT ROYAL
MAY 23-24, 1862.
(Here is a narrative done by Tom Blumer of the Warren Heritage Society based on the account by Cousin Nannie McKay Rust on the captured Yankee flag that she was entrusted with.)
I was 12 years old when Virginia seceded from the union. The war started shortly after. We were filled with hope for independence. All the promising boys of Warren County enlisted in the Confederate States Army. It was pretty quiet around home for a while. I was too young for boys to come courting.
The management of all business was left to women, us children, and those men who were too old to fight. My papa, Joshua McKay, was 50 years old. He managed the McKay orchards with the help of my mom, Ann, and a few hired hands when he could get help. I did the best I could. My brother Joshua who was 10 worked like a man. The apple harvest of 1862 looked to be a good one until the Battle of Front Royal.
May 23, 1862, was a day I will never forget as long as the Good Lord gives me breath. We always got up with the birds. We expected nothing unusual to happen that day, though we had heard that Stonewall Jackson's men were camped between Overall and
Asbury Chapel, just south of Front Royal. While we wanted to believe the rumor, no one was ever certain as to Stonewall's location. We had also grown tired of an expected fight since the Yankees had occupied Front Royal.
The Battle of Front Royal came crashing down on us like an avalanche. Mom and I were on our porch shelling peas when a bunch of boys came running through the orchard with the news. Seeing their frantic faces, we expected them to sound the usual alarm, "The Yankees are coming!" The unexpected cry brought tears of joy to our eyes, "Stonewall is here! He will liberate Front Royal!" My heart pounded, and I ran to fetch a Confederate flag I had been sewing of an evening, after chores. Mama remained on the porch wringing her hands and praying. We knew not what to expect. The Yankees had already stripped our home of everything of value. Our few silver utensils lay safely buried in the orchard.
Our shock and bliss was so great, no one thought to harness my ten-year-old brother Joshua. Before we could stop him, he joined the youthful crowd of fellow chaps and dashed away. They ran to spread the news to other nearby farms. I can still hear mama cry out to him, "Joshua! Come back! You hear your mother!" Joshua was gone.
My flag in hand, I dashed into the parlor where papa was reading. Weeping with joy, I cried, "Stonewall is coming!"
We spent the rest of the day waiting. Eventually we could hear musket shots and cannons from Front Royal. Soon after we saw columns of smoke. The Yankees had set our twin bridges afire to stop the Southern advance. We soon learned that, though the Yankees had set the bridges on fire, Stonewall's men had saved the bridges. Stonewall pursued the fleeing Yankee army up Winchester Pike toward our home.
The Battle of Front Royal reached our farm late in the afternoon. Yankee stragglers began to show up. The first was a group of twenty or so men from the First Federal Maryland. No sooner had these men been captured when a Yankee officer tried to rally his troops. He drew his men up in a line right across our orchard. In the process of the ensuing battle, our orchard was left a shambles and the Maryland Confederates held the day. They captured the First Maryland Federal flag. One of the Maryland Confederates entrusted the flag to me. I returned the flag to Maryland in 1880.
Not long after I took possession of the captured Yankee flag, mama went to the cellar and found a Yankee from Pennsylvania hiding there. He was so bewildered and frightened by his state of affairs that he surrendered to mama. She came away with his two ivory-mounted pistols as a trophy. He even offered mama money, if she would allow him to escape, something she would not do. Like Belle Boyd, mama had her very own Yankee prisoner.
The Yankees took their last stand in our orchard, but our mighty Stonewall was too much for them. I watched 700 of them surrender their arms and be marched off captive by our triumphant boys in grey. We were mighty proud, but our orchard was ruined. When he returned home from spreading the news, my little brother Joshua sat on a stump in the yard and took everything in.
The next day, we got news that Stonewall was coming up the Wincherst Pike, right past our home. We hoped we would get a glimpse of our hero, Stonewall Jackson. Everyone in those parts stood on the side of the road to cheer him. I waved my half sewn Confederate flay and mama, papa and Joshua waved table linens. Even my little four year old brother Francis waved a hanky with great gusto. To tell you the truth, I could not imagine a more majestic figure on a horse. I will never forget those two days. I, just a young thing, had taken part in our War of Independence.
Nannie McKay
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