My father claimed that any person named Sloan who was a Protestant from Northern Ireland would be related to us. There happen to be several famous persons in that category. Alfred P. Sloan was essentially the founder in its present form of the General Motors Corporation and took that company from being a minor ball bearing manufacturing company to being the largest industrial corporation in the world in a brief period from about 1913 to about 1923. There was also a Samuel Sloan who was the famous architect of Philadelphia in the mid-1800s, and who wrote a book in 1852 which is still in print entitled "Sloan's Victorian Houses", and yet another Samuel Sloan who was one of the richest men in America and the President of the Delaware Lackawanna Erie Railroad in about 1880 and died in about 1904. There is a statute of that Samuel Sloan near the PATH train station and the harbor square in Hoboken, New Jersey. All of these men were Protestants from Northern Ireland. This is the reason that the Sloan Kettering Cancer Institute, the Sloan School of Business, the Sloan Baby Hospital in New York City (a division of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital) and many other prestigious institutions bear the name of Sloan.
Naturally, I want to find out if I am related to these people. Unfortunately, my branch of the family did not keep any family records, or at least I do not have those records, so here is all that I have been able to find out:
My father's father name was Howard Creighton Sloan. He was born on March 18, 1873. There were stock certificates registered in that name which had been left lying around the house. My father was named Leroy Bayfield Sloan. He was born in Cook Country, Chicago on May 2, 1910 and died in Lynchburg, Virginia on January 19, 1986. He had two older brothers, Edward Sloan and Harold Sloan. His mother was Emily Bayfield.
The 1920 Census Report, which I found in the National Archives, shows on Vol. 97, E.D. 1719, Sheet 13, Line 24 that the Sloan family lived on 2052 Bingham Street in Chicago. The family consisted of:
Howard Sloan, White, 46, Born in Pennsylvania, Father Irish, born in Ireland, mother born in Pennsylvania, occupation stockkeeper, electrical industry.
Emily Sloan, wife, white, 40, born Illinois, father English, born in England, mother Swedish, born in Sweden, occupation none.
Edward Sloan, son, age 15, born Illinois.
Harold Sloan, son, age 13, born Illinois.
Leroy Sloan, son, age 9, born Illinois.
Also residing in the household, Anna Bayfield, sister-in-law, female, white, 34, born Illinois, occupation, draper in a store. This indicates that my grandmother, Emily, had a younger sister named Anna.
The date of this census was January 9, 1920. My grandfather, Howard Creighton Sloan, was born in Pennsylvania on March 18, 1873. My grandmother, Emily Bayfield, was born in Illinois on April 26, 1879.
The 1910 census provides a revelation of which I was not previously aware. This is to be found in reel 273, T624, Vol. 090, E.D. 1236, Visit # 0196. It shows three additional members of the household. These are William Sloan, son, age 20, born Illinois, Gerdrud Sloan, daughter, age 17, born Illinois and Albert Sloan, son, age 14, born Illinois.
From this it appears at least possible that my grandfather was married twice and that William, Gerdrud and Albert Sloan were children from a previous marriage. In that case, by the time he was 17, he was already married and the father of a child. This is the first time I have ever heard about anything like this. However, I can recall that when I was a boy, my parents took me to Chicago and sometimes introduced me to other relatives who clearly were not the children of my father's brother, Harold. I was not much interested in this subject at the time and if my father had had any half-brothers and sisters, I might not have noted it.
Unfortunately, I can not find any record of either my grandfather or my grandmother in the 1900 census or in the 1880 census. All the 1890 federal census records were burned in a fire.
As a result, I am at a dead end. I have been unable to find the names of the parents of my grandfather. I do know that my grandfather looked very much like the famous painter and cartoonist, John Sloan, who was born two years earlier. I have been told that the father of Howard Creighton Sloan was John Sloan from Stewartstown, which is in Northern Ireland, and that he came to America by way of Philadelphia before 1850. On January 1, 1850, John Sloan sent a letter to his wife asking her to come to America to join him. However, that wife would not be my great grandmother unless she was more than 40 years old when she gave birth to my grandfather. If that John Sloan really is my great grandfather, then he probably re-married and fathered a child at a late age.
My grandmother, Emily Bayfield Sloan, divorced my grandfather, Howard Creighton Sloan, and married Arthur E. Lemieux. Her address in 1943 was Mrs. Arthur E. Lemieux, Box 164, Wauchula, Florida. She died on June 15, 1966. Her name was recently added to the Social Security Death Index (it was not there before). It shows: Name EMILY LEMIEUX, born 26 Apr 1879, died 15 Jun 1966, Residence 60634 (Chicago, Cook, IL), Last benefit (No Location Given), Social Security Number 338-44-2340, Issuing State, Illinois, issued 1966.
This indicates that she was issued a social security number at or just before the time of her death.
After my grandparents were divorced, the family split. Harold sided with his mother and took care of her until she died. Later, Harold himself died in Schaumburg, Illinois. My father sided with his father. As a result, my mother took care of my grandfather, who was her father-in-law, during his final illness, until he died in about 1938. Edward Sloan, the eldest brother, simply disappeared. My brother, Creighton Wesley Sloan, found him living in Ottomwa, Iowa in the late-1960s.
The name of Edward Sloan appears in the Social Security Death Index, as Name E SLOAN, born 20 Jun 1904, died June 1978, Residence 52501 (Bladensburg, Wapello, IA), Last benefit (No Location Given), Social Security Number 356-03-6688, Issuing State, Illinois, issued Before 1951.
Edward Sloan was in the Marines and served in Iwo Jima.
The name of Harold "Ham" Sloan appears in the Social Security Death Index as Name HAROLD SLOAN Born 14 May 1906 Died Apr 1982 Residence 60193 (Schaumburg, IL) Last Benefit (No Location Given) SSN 708-07-4217 Issuing State Railroad Retirement Issued Before 1951.
Note that the "issuing state" for Harold Sloan is "Railroad Retirement".
He worked most of his life for the railroad.
The houses at 2052 and 2050 Bingham Street in Chicago were personally built by Mr. Bayfield, the father of my grandmother. Her maiden name was Emily Bayfield. A search of the building records of Chicago should yield the first name of this Mr. Bayfield, who was my great-grandfather, and perhaps other information about him. I know nothing about him, except that his name was Bayfield.
Any help anybody might be able to give in finding more about my family history would be appreciated.
Samuel Howard Sloan
Here is the answer to a question I am often asked: Why is the Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute Named After Me?
Here are links:
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