Sloss Genealogy
My dad was John Horton Sloss, and his father's line goes like this:
Alexander Coffee Sloss II - Anna Marie Hiller
Alexander Coffee Sloss I- Kate Horton
James Long Sloss II - Belle Blood
James Long Sloss I - Letitia (Outlaw) Campbell
Robert Sloss - Ann Long Sloss (Scotland/Northern Ireland)
John's mother was Anna Maria Hiller. I don't know much about her family other than her parents Karl and Marie Hiller farmed in Wisconson after immigrating from Austria. I think it is possible that their original name was von Huller, and family tradition is that Karl left Austria to avoid the military service expected of him.
Upon reflection, the two sides of the family were played out in John's life. As a young man he lived his father's heritage, joining the Sea Scouts, playing drum in the band, and when he was old enough, he entered World War II, serving on the front lines in Belgium. The war took its toll, he had sensitive feet the rest of his life due to them being burned when his scout vehicle was hit. But as I grew up, we were an anti-war family, we opposed the Korean war, went to ban the bomb demonstrations, and John and Mickey were both active in opposing the Vietnam war.I know a lot more about Grandpa Alex's side of the family, John's cousins in St. Louis passed along quite a few documents, leading me deeper into the family histories. The St. Louis line of our family has a lot of history, the Slosses. Bloods, Outlaws and Hortons were all pioneers in the early days of the United States.
The various internet genealogy forums have been helpful, and contain a lot of information on the Bloods, Outlaws, Whitfields,Cambells, and Hortons. The Sloss, Campbell, Outlaw, Whitfield line was involved in settling Virginia and North Carolina, and later Tennessee and Alabama along the Tennessee River Valley.
My direct male ancestor in the U.S. is Rev. James Long Sloss. I am not sure when he immigrated, or if he was born in this country, but he was licensed to preach by the Presbytery of South Carolina in November, 1817. He was married to Letitia Van Dyck Campbell. Her father was Judge David Campbell and her mother was Elizabeth Outlaw, great great grandaughter of Edward Outlaw I who came to Virginia in 1665. Her father, Captain Alexander Outlaw, fought at the Battles of Moore's Creek and King's Mountain, he was involved in the formation of the State of Franklin, and later, Tennessee, as was his son in law, Judge David Campbell.
The two sides of the family came together in St. Louis when my great-great-grandfather James Long Sloss II married Arabella Blood on November 8, 1858. Her father was Sullivan Blood, and her mother Sophie Hall, who were both both and bred in Vermont, and early residents of St. Louis, where they lived out their lives.
Sullivan's Blood-line, so to speak, goes back 7 generations, through 2 Revolutionary War veterens (Moses and his son Sewell), to James Blood, who arrived in Shirley MA in 1638, and whose son Richard Blood was one of the original petitioners of Groton, MA.
The Horton heritage comes from my great grandmother, Katherine Horton, who was the daughter of Benjamin Horton and Caroline Hart. Benjamin's family traces back to Barnabas Horton, the Puritan baker who moved his family (at age 40) to the Southhold, Long Island, at Horton Point. He owned the land on either side of the main street to the docks, served as constable, and was active in civic/religious life. The house he built was still standing in 1876, and was at the time the oldest continuously inhabited house in the U.S.