Volume 10 , Issue 17

Once Upon A Warwick

Once upon a time very long ago, William Fechtig Warwick was born 11 August 1822 in Augusta County, Virginia to Robert Craig & Esther (Hull) Warwick.

Sometime in William Fechtig Warwick's early thirties, he meet and married a young girl from the Pray (Prey) family, Phoebe Anthea Pray. Phoebe was born 3 May 1833 and died 1 May 1905.

To the union of William F. & Phoebe Anthea Warwick eleven children were born: Amelia E., born 16 July 1853; Paul McNeel, born 1856; John Robert, born 9 April 1857, Frost (Dunmore), Pocahontas County, WV; Charles Fechtig, born 31 August 1865; Amanda Gabrielle "Gabie", born 1871, marr. John Landis; James, Louisa Catherine; Nelson Pray; Peter "Pete" Hull, born 1862, in Virginia; Sallie.

From the third offspring born, John Robert Warwick, begins our journey from the Virginia countryside to Oklahoma Territory. BUT... First, the 25-year-old John Robert from Pocahontas County, WV, meets and marries a 22 year old girl from Vanderpool, VA. Signora Belle "Sigga" Gwin and John Robert Warwick were married 16 January 1882 in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Around nine (9) months later in Monterey, Virginia, John and Signora Belle's oldest child, Constance Estella Warwick, came into the world, 20 October 1882. About five years later a second offspring, Robert Lee, made his debute 5 November 1887, in Monterey, VA.

Sometime between the second child (1887) and the third child (1895), in 1893, John & Signora Warwick made their trek westward towards Kansas with a ten (10) year old daughter and a five (5) year old son. They settled around the Coldwater, Kansas area where John Robert Warwick was a teacher for a brief time before they settled permanently in the Cherokee Strip Outlet, known as Oklahoma Territory.

Eight years after their second child, a third child (Wilbur "William" Warwick) was born 13 October 1895, in Alva, Oklahoma Territory. John Robert "JR" & Signora "Sigga" Belle's third offspring, Wilbur, died in infancy, 26 May 1896 and is buried in the Alva Cemetery, Block 08-028-08, Woods County, Oklahoma. Wilbur's lonely little grave is located on the South & West side of the cemetery while his parents and siblings are buried on the South & East side of the Alva cemetery.

Of John & Signora's remaining two childern, Constance Estella Warwick, continued the Gwin/Warwick lineage when Constance, age 28, married William Jacob (John) "Bill" McGill, age 30, 23 March 1910, Woods County, Oklahoma.

After four years of marriage, William & Contance's oldest son, Gene M. McGill was born 27 December 1914, Alva, OK. Two years later a second son, Robert Lee McGill, was born 23 August 1916, in Alva, OK.

The marriage of William J. McGill & Constance E. Warwick lasted 30 years when they divorced and went their separate ways in 1940. Constance never remarried, but W. J. "Bill" McGill married his second wife Blanche Rankin Miller in 1945.

Bill McGill died at the age of 79 years, 7 August 1959, Alva, OK. Constance Estella Warwick McGill died 19 August 1968, two months short of her 86 birthday, in Alva, OK.

The youngest son of Bill & Constance McGill, Robert Lee McGill, was married twice, but no offsprings were born of either marriage. After serving in WWII, Robert L. McGill died of lung cancer, 21 February 1954, at the age of 37 years, in Alva, OK, while he was married to his second wife, Dr. Mariam Felicia Monfort (marr. 21 June 1950 'til Bob's death Feb. 21, 1954). Bob and is first wife, Helen Louise Soper (marr. 1 June 1944), were divorced 22 June 1948.

That brings us to the four daughters of Gene M. McGill & Vada Eileen Paris. I was the third daughter of four. My name is Linda Kay McGill Wagner (a.k. a. NW Okie). That is me on the left with Dorthy in the middle and baby Amber on the right.
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