Researched by the authors of "The Smart-Daaf
Boys, The Inventors of Radio and Television and the
Life Style of Nathan B. Stubblefield" 1992;
"Disappointment s Are Great - Follow The
Money...the Internet! The Inventors of wireless
webcasting" 2003; "DDiaries - Nathan B.
Stubblfield, The Neglected Genius" 2004 -- Josie
Cory-Stubblefield / Troy Cory-Stubblefield.
FAMILY HISTORY OF THE STUBBLEFIELD, BOWMAN
& BUCHANAN FAMILY BY:
WILLIAM JEFFERSON STUBBLEFIELD (CAPT. "BILLY"),
War Diary, Autobiography and Will, written in
1862-1873; NATHAN B. STUBBLEFIELD (a brief history
of Stubblefield ancestry written by Nathan on May
10, 1923); MRS. N. B. STUBBLEFIELD (ADA, MAE
BUCHANAN) of Murray, Kentucky (Written by Ada Mae
at Little Rock Arkansas, 1936, two months before
her death on January 28, 1937 in Clarksdale, Miss);
Updates by VICTORIA STUBBLEFIELD, furnished to her
by her father, Nathan B. Stubblefield in the year
1924, and further updated and confirmed in the year
1964 in Jackson Mississippi; Updated and confirmed
by Troy Cory-Stubblefield 1967-1992. Updated and
confirmed from original archival documents by Josie
Cory in the years 1972-1992.
"Now tradition told me by the Stubblefields of
Washington D.C. say that the wife of John
Stubblefield was German and also that the name
Stubblefield was Stubenfeldt (German) originally.
According to Nathan B. Stubblefield there is a
great number of Stubblefields at Funk's grove and
McLainsborough, Illinois. Also there is a great
number of Stubblefields in all the states supposed
to be offsprings of the Three Puritan fathers,
John, William and Edward. " N.B.S. May 10,
1923.
Nathan was a stickler when it came to recording
and stated,
"Pin this away in your Bible, or Record it in
there, for your Children."-- N.B.S. May 10,
1923
Captain
Billy Stubblefield Capt.
"Billy's" Forefathers Originally Came From Germany
To England
Then To America
1766 - Three Stubblefield
Brothers emigrated to America from Westover Chapel
England
John Stubblefield
William Stubblefield
Edward Stubblefield
---
Son of William Stubblefield was
---
Richard Robert Stubblefield (wife was
a Coleman), settled in North Carolina
--- Son
of Edward Stubblefield was ---
John Robert Stubblefield, settled in
Virginia and wrote a book "The Memoirs
02 Beverly B.
Stubblefield, was the son of Richard
Robert Stubblefield of North Carolina; and father
of Capt. "Billy".---
Capt. Billy's
Father
was Beverly Stubblefield
who Married
Rebecca Wilson of North
Carolina
In 1835, they moved from North Carolina to
Kentucky, and settled in Concord. Had 2 sons,
William Jefferson Stubblefield and Alfonso A.
Stubblefield, and 2 daughters.
CHILDREN
OF BEVERLY AND REBECCA
STUBBLEFIELD:
William Stubblefield (Captain Billy), a lawyer
Alfonso Stubblefield, a lawyer
Lean, (married Jim Shelley)
Eliza Ann (married A. Bruce)
1830 - Born:
William Jefferson Stubblefield (Capt. Billy)
1830-1874
Son of Beverly B.
Stubblefield and Rebecca Wilson.
Capt. Billy was born August
4th 1830, in Reckoning County, N.C. Remained there
until 1835 when family moved to Calloway County,
Kentucky and settled in Concord.
First
Wife:Victoria
Bowman. Her father
(first name unknown) was raised in Delaware and his
wife, born a Williams was raised in
Philadelphia.
---
They had four children
(boys). Victoria Bowman died in 1869, at age 32 of
Scarlet Fever. Buried in Bowman cemetery founded by
her father.
Bowman
Family TimeLine SONS
OF CAPT. BILLY AND VICTORIA
BOWMAN:
Walter W. Stubblefield (married Virgie Hale, had 4
children; Terrel, Harry, Alfred (died at age 14),
and Nat)
Nathan Beverly (was 14 years old when his father
died) (married Ada Mae Buchanan)
James Franklin Stubblefield (married Ella Marks of
Seattle Washington, one Son Howard Stubblefield
)
William Victor Stubblefield. Born 1865, died in
1892, at the age of 27.
Second
Wife: Clarissa
(Clara Jones) Stubblefield, (married Capt. Billy in
1873
---
One daughter, Alene, born
Jan. 7. 1875, (6 mos after death of Capt.
Billy)
ABOUT
CAPT. BILLY
---
He was a Confederate
soldier, a lawyer and landowner, an educator and
one of the founders of the Murray Male and Female
Institute, Teleph-on-delgreen, later to become
Murray State University. Capt. Billy willed a
considerable large estate to his four sons, Walter,
Nathan Beverly, James Franklin and William Victor.
1850 - 1851 - Worked at his Father's saw mill.
1854 - Attended law school in Louisville, Ky.
1855 - Law License Feb. 2.
1855 - Practiced in Benton -1856
1856 - Formed law partnership with A. P.
Thompson. 1860 -
Nathan Beverly Stubblefield, Born: Nov. 27, in
Murray, Ky.
1861 - Capt. Billy entered Confederate Army for one
year, Oct. 10th, 1961 to Oct. 5th 1862.
1861 - Civil War diary Oct. 1861 - Sept. 1862.
1862 - Returned to Murray Civil War frontline --
Oct. 5.
1869 - Died: Victoria Francis Stubblefield (born
Bowman), first wife of Capt. Billy.
1871 - The Male and Female Institute purchased by
William Jefferson Stubblefield (Nathan's
father).
1873 - Marriage: Capt. Billy to Clara (Clarissa)
Jones.
1874 -
DIES of pneumonia.
1875 - Capt. Billy's and Clarissa's daughter,
Alene, born Jan. 7. (6 mos after death of
father)
Son of William Jefferson
Stubblefield (Capt. Billy) 1830-1874 and Victoria
Bowman. Victoria died at age 32 of Scarlet Fever.
Nathan is buried near his father and mother in the
Bowman cemetery founded by her father. CHILDREN
OF NATHAN B. STUBBLEFIELD AND ADA
MAE: 1883 Frederic (died 6
mos old 1884)
1885 Carrie F. / No Children
1887 Bernard Bowman
-- Died: Oct. 4, 1974 | Nickname:
Bernie / No
Children
1890 Pattie Lee / No Children
1892 Victoria Edison / No Children
1895 Nathan Franklin / No Children 1897
Oliver J. -- Nickname: RayJack
Father
of / Keith (Troy)
Stubblefield.
1901 Helen Joe / No Children
1905 William Tesla (died 17 mos old 1906)
GRANDCHILDREN
OF NATHAN B. STUBBLEFIELD AND ADA
MAE: Only
Oliver J. Stubblefield and Priscilla Alden:
Married:
Sept 22, 1921, Wichita, Kansas, had Children, They
are:
TROY CORY-STUBBLEFIELD FAMILY HISTORY OF THE
BUCHANAN FAMILY
BY MRS. N. B. STUBBLEFIELD (ADA MAE BUCHANAN),
written at Little Rock Arkansas, 1936, two months
before her death on January 28, 1937 in Clarksdale,
Miss.
1991 - TRANSCRIBED BY: Josie Cory-Stubblefield
from the original notes of Ada Mae Buchanan.
According to Victory Stubblefield, her mother
Ada Mae Buchanan, was the great-grandniece of
President James Buchanan.
JAMES BUCHANAN AND ELIZABETH
SPEER
1783 - emigrated from County Donegal,
Ireland. They had 10 children.
1791 - Born: James Buchanan, 15th President
of the United States, on April 23, the second of 11
children; died in 1868. Many people remember mainly
two things about him: that he was the only
president who never married; and that the Civil War
followed his administration.
---
Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791, in a
log cabin near the frontier settlement of Cove Gap,
Pennsylvania. His father, a Scotch-Irish immigrant,
had come to America in 1783.
---
President James Buchanan, had 10 brothers
and sisters. Ada Mae's grandfather James Buchanan
of Pennsylvania, was a descendant of one of the
children of the brothers of President James
Buchanan.
CHILDREN OF JAMES BUCHANAN AND BETTIE
ROWLET (grandfather and grandmother of Ada Mae)
They had 2 daughters.
---
Charley Buchanan, married a McKinney; had
child Mat, Joel and Jennie
---
(granddaughter, Jennie married a Ragon and
lived in Louisville, Kentucky)
---
William Buchanan, moved to
Kentucky
---
John Buchanan, lived in Virginia
---
Joseph Buchanan, lived in Pennsylvania and
moved to Kentucky
CHILDREN OF THE JONES's (grandfather and
grandmother of Ada Mae)
-----
Ada Mae's grandfather Jones married a widow,
Wadlington in Mississippi. She had one child Fred
Wadlington who was a half brother of my mother. She
died and he married the widow. She had three such
children, George, Molley and Casy , and they had 5
children:
---
Lee Jones, (married Ed Settle)
---
Laura Jones, (married Jeff
Crossland)
---
Addie Jones, (married Jack
Jonson)
---
Minnie Jones, (married Jeff
Wyath)
---
Charley Jones,
CHILDREN OF JOSEPH ROWLET BUCHANAN AND
ELIZABETH JONES
---
Joseph Buchanan was born and raised in
Virginia Halifax, Pennsylvania and came to Kentucky
when a young man and married Elizabeth Jones,
daughter of Harden Jones who was raised near
Hopkinsville, Ky. My mother's own sisters were
Georgia, brother was Stanley, who was killed in the
Revolutionary War of 1860. Georgia married a Gray.
There were five of us.
---
Ada Buchanan, great-grandniece of President
Buchanan (married Nathan B.
Stubblefield)
---
Stanley Buchanan (never married)
---
Milton Buchanan (married Hattie
Harrison)
---
Harden Buchanan (married Lou
Frazier)
---
Sallie Buchanan (married Frank
Kimbrough)
---
The Buchanan were of English descent. The
Stubblefields are of English descent too, but some
of the older ones married Germans. Tradition says
two Stubblefield brothers came over from England
and that all of the Stubblefields came from them.
Stubblefield is a German name and was formerly
called Stubenfield. There are lots of Jonses in
Hopkinsville and Kadiz that are related to my
mother but I don't know but a few of them as the
older ones are all dead.
--- By
Bernard Stubblefield: Ada Mae Stubblefield is
buried in the MacHendry Church yard burial ground,
near Mayfield, Kentucky besides her father and
mother as her last request.
--- My
father Nathan B. Stubblefield is buried in the
Bowman Graveyard North of Murray, Kentucky within
10' of the S.W. corner of the small iron inclosure
occupied by my grandfather, Billie Stubblefield
(Capt. Billy).
1881 - Marriage: Ada, Nathan
Dec. 29. Nathan was 21 yrs
1892 - First Public Wireless Demonstration in
Murray
1883 - Born: Frederic Stubblefield, Oct. 1. Died
April 9, 1984. (6 months old)
1884 - Died: Frederic, April 9.
1885 - Wireless Telephone Demonstration - 200 yards
from house. (Witness: Duncan Holt)
1885 - Born: Carrie F. Stubblefield, April 21. Died
November 26, 1885 (7 months old)
1886 - Nathan at age 26, wrote a poem describing
the travails of one who would choose a life of
scientific invention. "The Inventor and the
Crank".
1887 - Born: Bernard (Bernie) Bowman Stubblefield,
August 30. Died Oct. 4, 1973 (86 yrs)
1890 - Nathan B. Stubblefield landed on the farm.
Means to provide for his family and to finance
experimental work.
1890 - Born: Pattie Lee, March 21. Died June 24,
1967 (77 yrs).
1892 - First Public Wireless Atmospheric Telephone
Demonstration in Murray.
1892 - Born: Victoria Edison Stubblefield Nov. 11.
Died June 24, 1967 (75 yrs).
1892 - Died: William Victor, brother of N.B.
Stubblefield, at age 27.
1895 - Born: Nathan Franklin Stubblefield, May 28.
Died February 10, 1970 (75 yrs). 1897 -
Born: Oliver J. (RayJack) Stubblefield, December
27. Died June 6, 1962 (65
yrs).
1901 - Born: Helen J. Stubblefield, September 12.
Died March 21, 1989 (88 yrs).
1902 - Radio Demonstration Washington on March 20,
on Potomac River, Steamer Bartholdi.
1902 - Public Radio Demonstration January 1,
Townsquare in Murray.
1902 - Reporter meets Nathan for private
demonstration, on January 10.
1902 - Wireless telephone demonstration in
Philadelphia, on May 30.
1902 - Wireless telephone demonstration in New
York, took place between June 11 - July 11, at
Manhattan's Battery Parks.
1905 - Born: William Tesla Stubblefield, May 7.
Died October 14, 1906 (17 months old).
1906 - Died: William Tesla Stubblefield, Oct.
14.
1907 - Nathan B. Stubblefield Wireless telephone
Enterprise formed with the "Big Six" 1907 -
Teleph-on-delgreen Industrial School estab. on
Sept. 4. Change from Nathan Stubblefield Industrial
School
1907 - Trip to Washington Jan. 14 - April 20,
1907.
1907 - Wireless Telephone Patent Application Filed,
April 5. Serial No. 366,544 - Room 109.
1907 - Con Linn and Nathan in Washington to secure
original patent May 1. Returned to Murray June
8. 1907 -
Patent Letter, October 16. Patent filed 4/5/07
examined and ALLOWED. (Patent to expire May 12,
1925). 1908 -
Patent Expires: Thomas A. Edison's Antenna - 1891
Wireless Telegraphy Patent.
1910 0624 - Congress approved "Act to
require apparatus and operators for radio
communication on certain ocean steamers" An act
approved July 23, 1912.
1911 - N. B. Stubblefield arrives in Washington, DC
with Miss Pattie on May 18, 1911. Nathan meets with
Gen. George Squier, prior to Squier's plans to turn
over certain patent rights to the People of the
United States. In exchange for certain transfers,
Nathan agrees to accept Squier's offer for the
patent to the aircraft and wireless radio system.
See 1912 -
Flying Machine Patent, May 15. (Filed Jan. 19)
GRANTED Dec. 10.
1911 - 0101 -GEORGE O. SQUIER - PATENTS -
(Patents Expire 1928) - All of his discoveries and
inventions -- some shared with Stubblefield, worth
millions -- were patented in the name of the people
of the United States on January 1,
1911.
1911 - COLLINS INDICTED - December 1911.
Four officers of the Continental Co. excepting
Walter Massie were indicted for using the mails to
defraud in selling worthless stock.
1911 - CONN LINN - RESIGNS FROM THE KENTUCKY
SENATE, and leaves Murray Kentucky, for Oklahoma.
DeForest's RADIO TELEPHONE COMPANY - BANKRUPT IN
1911, when it expired owing to DeForest's inability
to raise further funds.
1911 - DeForest's RADIO TELEPHONE COMPANY -
BANKRUPT IN 1911, when it expired owing to
DeForest's inability to raise further funds.
1911 - GEORGE O. SQUIER, PATENTS - (Patent
Expire 1928) - All of his discoveries and
inventions -- some shared with Stubblefield, worth
millions -- were patented in the name of the people
of the Untied States on January 1,
1911.
1911 05 -United Wireless Trial - May 17,
1911 - Bogart pleads guilty.
1911 0723 -United Wireless -Bankrupt. On
July 23, 1911, United Wireless was adjudicated
bankrupt in the Courts of Maine, and on September
15, 1911, Trustees in Bankruptcy were
appointed.
1912 03 - A Warrant Was Served DeForest For
His Arrest In March, 1912 - on a federal indictment
charging him with use of the mails to defraud in
connection with sales of stock in the most recent
four of his radio telephone companies.
1912 0325 - United Wireless Co. - In March,
1912, United Wireless Pleaded No contest - and was
taken over by the British Marconi Co. for the
payment of $700,000. The company was immediately
sold to American Marconi.
1912 0813 - "Act to regulate state by state radio
communication" (Public 264)(S. 6412); approved Aug.
13, 1912. 1912 1210 - PATENT: Stubblefield
Flying Machines U.S. Patent, #1046895, December 10,
1912; Click to Go To US Patent Office -- then Click
Full Text to refresh page. Letters Patent granted
Stubblefield for 17 years from December 10, 1912
(expired Dec. 10, 1929).
1912 - Patent Application for Flying Machine filed
Jan. 19 in the name of son Bernard. 1912 -
Dissolution of Teleph-on-delgreen. Public Notice,
May 6. 1912 -
Flying Machine Patent ALLOWED, May 15. (Filed Jan.
19) GRANTED Dec. 10.
1913 - Nathan Lawsuit against children.
1913 - Warranty Deed to Bernard Stubblefield, Aug.
8. for Lot 220 & 221, Central Ave., Murray.
1913 - Retainer of Atty. A. D. Thompson by Bernard,
in Case N. B. Stubblefield vs. B. B. Stubblefield,
Victoria Stubblefield, Pattie L. Stubblefield.
1913 - Rainey T. Wells on Oct. 29. appointed
attorney for Nathan B. Stubblefield in pending
case. 85 acre tract of land, Nathan wants $3,430.00
and 1 acre of the land from the children.
1913 - Nathan B. Stubblefield as a writer, defines
crow's feet as follows: "Those picturesque, lovely,
time made dimply, furrowy, marks of venerableness,
that carry the sadness of life away from the sunny
slopes of childhood's lustrous innocencies.
1914 - Marconi's 1897 Wireless Telegraphy Patent
Expires.
1915 - Patent Expires: for Stubblefield's
Electrolyte Battery and Radio Voice Detector and
Transmitter.
1917 - Ada May leaves Nathan on Jan. 5. Helen
marries and moves to Tennessee.
1917 - Nathan's Will to Victoria on May 14
(handwritten original).
1919 - Nathan's Letter Re: Journal, on May 23
(Handwritten original).
1921 -
Oliver J. Stubblefield and Priscilla Alden:
Married: Sept 22nd, Wichita, Kansas. First child
born, December 25, 1923. Jacqueline, Natalie Ada
Mae, Keith (Troy). 1923 -
First Grandchild born: Jacqueline, then Natalie
Olive Mae, then Keith (Troy). 1926 - Rainey T.
Wells became president o Murray State college.
1928 - Nathan B Stubblefield Died March 28, buried
March 31 Bowman Cemetery.
1930 - March 28. Murray State honored Nathan B
Stubblefield with Headstone where the Wireless
Telephone was invented and demonstrated. Rainey T.
Wells headed the ceremony.
1937 - Died: Ada Mae Stubblefield, Jan. 29, at
Clarksdale, Miss.
1939 - Died: Walter Stubblefield, brother of N.B.
Stubblefield.
1957 -
Keith Stubblefield takes show-biz name of Troy Cory
prior to signing
pending recording, movie contracts. Signed with
Specialty Records, (1957) - Mercury Records (1960),
Cinema Prize (1968). BBC (1971) (VRA 1972-present).
Sonny Bono, Nat Goodman, Bob Sherman, Dick Sherman,
Bob Roberts, Art Rupe, Sylvester Levy, Muff Merfin,
and Ambros Seelos were Troy Cory's producers.
1962 - Died: June 6. Oliver Stubblefield, son of
Nathan B. Stubblefield and father of
Troy
Cory-Stubblefield, was
sometimes referred by his close friends and two
wives, Priscilla and Elma as "RayJack" or just
plaint "Jack". Oliver was living with son Troy at
the time of his death. Troy Cory-Stubblefield and
first wife Dorothy
Karen took remains of his
father, a veteran of World War I and II, to
Jackson, Miss. to attend burial.
1963 - Died: Pattie Lee Stubblefield, daughter of
N. B Stubblefield.
1967 - Died: Victory Edison Stubblefield, daughter
of N. B Stubblefield. Nephew Troy
Cory-Stubblefield, flies to Jackson, Miss. to
attend burial and inherits trunk with many archival
documents of inventor grandfather, Nathan B.
Stubblefield.
1973 - Died: Bernard B. Stubblefield, son of Nathan
B. Stubblefield. Bernard, called "Bernie" by his
close friends, wills trunk with diaries,
inventions, archival documents and personal papers
to his nephew, Troy
Cory-Stubblefield, who
with second wife Josie, travel to Jackson, Miss.
for burial. Troy
opens Trunk, containing archival documents for
first time on local CBS tv station in Jackson,
Miss.
1989 - Died: March 21, Helen Stubblefield, daughter
of N. B. Stubblefield. Troy
Cory- Stubblefield
flew back to Oklahoma with his mother Priscilla
Alden Stubblefield to attend funeral. Aunt Helen
willed trunk with archival documents and personal
papers to her nephew Troy.
Rainey
T. Wells Kentucky
"Big Six" 1902 NATHAN
STUBBLEFIELD AND HIS KENTUCKY "BIG SIX" WIRELESS
PATENT HOLDERS
All of Murray, Kentucky
Senator Conn Linn
B. F. Schroader
R. Downs
J. D. Roulett
Geo. C. McLarin
John P. McElrath
[Samuel E. Bynum]
Rainey T. Wells
3.
Editor's Note
/ NATHAN
B. STUBBLEFIELD -- (1860-1928)
Wireless Telephony -- AM radio Firewire -
1892 -- 1902 All-in-One Radio Patent --
1908 Nine
Years Before Smart-Daaf Boys Marconi and
Deforest
mastered sending Dit Dahs around the family home
in Italy, and DeForest finished his studies at
Yale, Nathan Stubblefield was the patent holder and
owner of his own mechanical telephone, telephone
company and telephone system. By 1892, Nathan's
vibrating phone could transmit voice without wires
from grounded electromagnetic wave energy, then
through the atmosphere to a companion receiver. It
was the 17-year-old Rainey T. Wells (b. Dec. 25,
1875, d. June 15, 1958) who attentively heard his
first words over a wireless telephone in 1892, at
Teléph-on-délgreen, now Murray State
University.
Fifteen
years later, Rainey, now a judge in the Kentucky
Calloway Court system, opened his 1907 Christmas
Day birthday toast with the truism that most legal
scholars quote on the first day in law school, to
keep a step or two ahead of the freshman. "De
minimis non curat lex" ("The law does not concern
itself with trifles").
-----By 1898, Nathan's
portable telephone could transmit voice as far as
one mile through the atmosphere &endash; by means
of his newly patented firewire, "electrolytic coil
aerial" and a special loop antenna connected to his
transmitter.
-----But
So What!
Shortly
after receiving his earth electrolytic
battery patent, (1898) -- Nathan commenced
selling franchises to various investors, to help
finance and market his wireless demonstrations held
in Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., in
1902. He used the orchards around his
Teléph-on-délgreen Industrial School,
and the lawn surrounding of the Court house in
Murray to display different uses for his telephone
and wireless system. *(See Footnote.) * .
-----By leaving a
remote wireless receiver on overnight, sitting in
the barn, the unit operated as a wireless
microphone and listening surveillance system. The
electricity being emitted from the earth was an
unlimited free flowing uni-directional stream of
electricity, which never switched off and did not
diminish with the time of day or length of use.
These little coils had the ability to convert an
electric current into alternating radio-frequency
waves when passing through a field of action
created by the human voice. *(See
Footnote, John Hopi.)
-----These series of
pulses which varied in strength, (amplitude)
&endash; could then be transmitted through the
atmosphere by a coil aerial placed near the field
of action, to one or more companion wireless
systems. One unit was designed with output sockets
to connect to the local Murray telephone exchange
for wired online broadcasting. (See
Chapter 05, "The Phony Craze" -- for more
details.)
