Richmond Roots: John & Betsey's Early Years
HISTORY OF FAMILY PIONEERS FROM VIRGINIA TO ALASKA TO CALIFORNIA
John and Betsey Stewart of Santa Barbara, California, have been married for 22 years and are Episcopalians. They were both born in Richmond, Virginia. John spent his first year in his grandfather and grandmother’s home at the Ampthill Plantation House in Richmond, Virginia. While his father was an M.D., John lived with his mom, Helen. His dad was a surgeon with the U.S. Army in Germany, Battle of the Bulge. John loved his Grandfather Hunsdon Cary and his grandmother Mary Cary's home very much, and he still remembers him using barbells each morning for exercise. Betsey spent her first two years of life in West Point, Virginia. Her mother, Sara, lived in her grandfather and grandmother Gooch, at their home on First Street in West Point, VA, on the York River. Her father, Richard Wood, was also with the U.S. Army and away in WWII. Winslow and Mildred Gooch were both so special to Betsey. John’s other childhood homes were in New Jersey, Juneau, Alaska, and Santa Barbara, California. His Father, Dr. John H. Stewart III, M.D., owned several medical practices and loved his patients.
John Henderson Stewart IV, Betsey’s husband, was blessed to live in beautiful homes and have the firm New Yorker direction of his strong father, Dr. Stewart, called “Dad”! The Stewarts, retired in Santa Barbara, California, love their city by the sea. John is 82, and Betsey is 78, and we enjoy our families and two grandchildren.
Ampthill Plantation: A Journey Through Time
STEWARTS LEGACY OF PIONEERS
Ampthill Plantation was in the Virginia Colony in Chesterfield County on the south bank of the James River, about four miles south of the head of navigation at modern-day Richmond, Virginia. Henry Cary, Jr. built Ampthill Plantation around 1730, just upstream of Falling Creek. Colonel Archibald Cary later owned the plantation and maintained a flour mill complex and iron forge in the nearby town of Warwick.
The Ampthill house moved to 211 Ampthill Rd, Richmond, VA, and the property became an industrial site. In 1929, they dismantled Ampthill House, the manor house of Ampthill Plantation, and moved it to a site on Cary Street Road in the West End of Richmond. They then reassembled it where it sits today. Although not open to the public, Ampthill House is a noteworthy local landmark marked by a Virginia Historical Marker. The Spruance Plant and the related industrial complex of the DuPont Company occupy the former plantation property on the James River near Falling Creek.
Family Ties:Generations at Ampthill
BY BETSEY GOOCH STEWART
"John's grandfather, Hunsdon Cary Sr., moved the Ampthill Plantation to its present brick-by-brick site after Henry Cary originally built it in 1730 on the James River - a significant piece of colonial history. John's mom, Helen, grew up in this home and hosted her wedding reception at Ampthill in 1940. After their marriage, John and Helen attended St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA. John was born a year later, on June 25, 1941, in Richmond, Virginia, at the same hospital where I was born in 1945, the Medical College of Virginia. As a baby, John went home to the Ampthill residence while his dad was away at war, serving as a surgeon at the Battle of the Bulge in WWII."
Echoes of Adventure: Tales from Juneau to Soapbox Derbies
GROWING UP IN JOHN'S BOYHOOD LOG HOME
Discovering the remarkable experiences of a boyhood spent amidst pristine nature,
log home comforts, and the thrill of crafting dreams on wheels.
John’s log home was in Juneau, Alaska, where his father had a medical practice and was a local surgeon. The years the Stewarts lived on Glacier Highway with a water and mountain view were 1950-1954, and they then moved to Santa Barbara, California, to a bigger home. This was a great home for young boys and the wilderness. The family were members of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Juneau.
The man who built the house for himself was to build log structures around Southeastern Alaska during the Depression. His name was Fromholz. When John was there, all the floors were wide plank wood floors. The counters were built to the proper height for the owner's wife, and the kitchen had cedar paneling. The house behind our house was not there in the 1950s; there were only woods and trees and the mountain behind us. John was there at age nine, and they left when he was 13. The Living Room stone wall and log mantle piece have stayed the same for 100 years. A little stream supplied his water in a private dam about 300 feet uphill from his house and flowed past the front door, over which the stream had a little bridge. The driveway went all the way around the house, and the garage in the rear had doors on both sides so his dad could drive his car through it. In 1953, a Pan American plane crashed into a glacier between Juneau and Anchorage, and John’s dad had to fly up and determine which bodies were alive and bring them back to Juneau. The only hospital in Juneau then was called St. Anne’s Catholic Hospital. Dr. Stewart performed some of the first heart surgeries in Alaska. John built his two soapbox derby cars in the garage.
From Snow to Palm Trees
JOHN LOVED SANTA BARBARA
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