Hello Jane, I am in Wilmington now, visiting my mother...My daughter's and I will be traveling to Southport by Ferry on Aug 4, 2004.......If any family members are interested in meeeting we would love to meet you there......We will start out about 12pm meeting at the welcome center there in Southport....Our cell number is 910-200-2106...Please call us and let's get together....Take care...Sheila

Amend my previous message....I put in the wrong date.. it's supposed to be August 5, 2004, that we will meet family members who are interested....Thanks....Sheila

Would like information about Ruarks - you say they probably came from Germany - info you have from Family Bible -
did you ever find where in Germany or what the name was originally?
Thank you for any help on Hanson Kelly Ruark, Sr.
who married Rebecca A. Woodside - NC

Hanson Kelly Ruark, Sr. (H.K. Ruark- not H. R. as reported in some documents) was also named Hanson Roward in some census records.
H.K. Ruark, Sr. was g.grandfather to my husband (now deceased).
He was Prices Creek lighthouse keeper in Smithville, NC (Now Southport, NC) during the Civil War and applied for compensation from the Southern Claims Commission in 1876, but his claim was denied. I would be most interested in the Bible records that you mentioned, and the fact that you believe the family orginally came from Germany. Most descendants believe the family to be from Ireland with various spellings. It is said that H.K.Ruark,Sr. family "came up from South Carolina" but I have never found any proof.
Until now, no one has found his parents names or his siblings. He did marry Rebecca Ann Woodside and had the large family you cited. Various records say he was born anywhere from 1808 - 1812 in North Carolina. The census records always mention NC as place of birth.

Mary Catherine Ruark, daughter of Hanson Kelly Ruark, Sr. married first a William E. Carr - a widower with children. He died and she and the children can be found in the 1880 US Census (LDS free site) living with her father and his family in Smithville, Brunswick County, NC. She second married Franklin James Anders, a widower with a large family. He was a farmer in Bladen County, NC and a Civil War Veteran. He was captured at Bentonville, NC and taken prisoner to Point Lookout Prison, MD, but survived and after a stay in a hospital was returned home. His widow Mary Carr Anders applied for a pension in Green Cove Springs, Clay County, Florida. It is unclear if she ever received a pension. She was living with a daughter and husband (Virginia Anders Dyson).

Mary Catherine Ruark was my husband's grandmother. His mother was Annie Mildred Anders (married Jamieson Olin Coleman (all now deceased).

Mary Catherine (Ruark, Carr) Anders and Franklin James Anders had three children together:

Virginia Anders
William Gladstone Anders
and Annie Mildred Anders

Mary Catherine Ruark saw the Battle of Ft. Fisher across the Cape Fear River during the Civil War. She was about 12 years old. The only remnant of the Prices Creek Lighthouse (the house had one light above it, another down by the River) is the lighthouse by the Cape Fear River, which can be seen from the Ferry from Southport to Ft. Fisher. The lighthouse was deactivated by the Federal Government.

Try using www.google.com
"Advanced search"
"exact phrase"
type in JAMES BUCHANAN RUARK

A wonderful site with lots of information about him and his Army Air Force career with pictures and bio info on parents and brother are there...clips from newspapers - including a birth announcement of his son James Whitfield RUARK, born Lincolnton, NC (home of wife Anne Lee Louder).

Enjoy!

Rena,

I am Joanne Ruark Juby, daughter of Joseph Cross Ruark. My gandfather, Joseph Waters Ruark was brother to your grandfather. I, too, am looking for any information that I can find. My first grandchild was born this year and I became interested in tracking family to pass on to my children. I have some information from my dad's sister, Marion, that I can send to you.

We were in Southport for the week after Easter. It was the first time that I had been down there in years and years. Had a wonderful time and "revisited" many fond memories.

I am Joanne Ruark Juby...Judge Ruark's ganddaughter. Yes, he and Joseph Waters Ruark are the same. If you are in Southport again, go in the gate (not the one on Moore St., but the gate on the side street) at the cemetery. The family plot is the second plot on the left. My grandfather is buried there along with several of the brothers.

Sheila, I hope you still have that family Bible. Please let us know what you found out about Hanson Kelly Ruark, Sr. or his descendants.