Journal of Clan Ewing
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CONTENTS
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FEBRUARY JOURNAL
WESTWARD MIGRATION FROM IREDELL COUNTY (1800-1850)
EWING CEMETERY INFORMATION–IOWA
MAY JOURNAL
TIMES IN CECIL COUNTY AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
EWING HOME, ARCOLA, IL, NO LONGER OPEN AS MUSEUM
A REMINDER FOR FAMILY RESEARCHERS
EWING CEMETERY INFORMATION IN ILLINOIS
AUGUST JOURNAL
JAMES, WILLIAM, AND ENOCH: THE PATRIARCHS
DAVID McKINNEY TO HEAD FAMOUS MUSEUM
NOVEMBER JOURNAL
PEACEMAKER IN THE 18th CENTURY
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Page 282
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 2]
The Ewing Clan website is one of the best. Every time I have a spare moment I not only check Netscape, and AOL for interesting information. I have been checking the Ewing information, in fact I have never thought I was interested in a web site, until I have spent some time looking at the Ewing Clan. Now who knows, I all of a sudden have and interest, and maybe I'll break down and get a web site?
This last e-mail I clicked on the http and went through, great.
As soon as I have some additional time I'll look at the queries. I think I told you on the phone I had answered some queries I found, and no answer, but it was an offer to share info I had, not that I was wanting anything from them, so I guess they are the losers.
Any way thanks for the directions and the information, I will be in touch.
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In September, my husband and I stopped at the Hascall Cemetery, Montgomery County, Iowa (a country cemetery southeast of Emerson Iowa in the southwest portion of the state). We were looking for other families, but found some Ewing graves. In the interest of publicizing Ewing data, we are enclosing the information.
Attended the DAR grave marking of my ancestor Patrick Ewing 1737-1819. Met Hazel Daro who sponsored/hosted the affair. Her diligent efforts made the day a pleasant one in Colora, Maryland.
Newton, PA
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I like your idea for a loose network of William Ewing of Rockingham descendants. I would like to get a "dialogue" going on all of the various issues.
Regarding the burial site of Anne Shannon Ewing (and William is supposedly buried at her side), everything that I have seen says that they are buried in the churchyard of the New Erection Church, near their home in Rockingham County at the headwaters of Linville Creek. Rockingham County is only about an hour away from where I live, and I have tried on several occasions to locate the home-site and the New Erection Church.
As I think I've told you, I found the home-site a couple of years ago. William and Anne Shannon Ewing's grandson, also named William Ewing, built the house presently standing on the site, sometime about 1820. It is listed in a register of historical homes in Rockingham County, and it appears to be well kept today.
Two weeks ago, I found the New Erection Church. As I had suspected, they have changed the name. Today, it is Cooks Creek Presbyterian Church. (The original name stems from the fact that the congregation was originally established circa 1739 about 10 miles from the present site, but the original site was flooded to create a reservoir in the
1780s, so the congregation moved to the present site and called it the New Erection Church.) I walked through the cemetery at length, but the oldest headstones are severely weathered, and are almost if not totally illegible. I have written to the church office to see if they have any documentation of who is buried in the churchyard, and what was inscribed on the tombstones. I have not yet received a reply.
Again, thanks for your efforts to initiate the William Ewing connections.
petehamilton <at> hotmail.com
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Found your magazine at the Library. Also connected my husband’s family to Ewings that day!! Am anxious to correspond and exchange information.
Parkville, MO
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The November Journal of Clan Ewing arrived today, November 17, another great issue. I sat down and read it cover to cover as soon as I had some spare time.
I found the item at the bottom of page 28 [November 1998 issue] quite intriguing, “From the book Our Ewings in America, page 7", citing the letter written by Dr. Gilbert A. Ewing. I do not recall having seen or read that book. His statement strengthens my belief that James Ewing of Pocahontas is the James Ewing, son of John Ewing of Carnshanagh, based on my research in Frederick, Augusta, and Greenbrier Counties, Virginia.
It is my understanding that the cemetery Joshua Ewing willed for public use, located near Locust Creek on the Greenbrier, is now fenced–thanks to the effort spearheaded by Connie Matheny of the Bath County Historical Society. Time will tell how many will be given access to it; hopefully enough that stones which have been trampled under by livestock can be rescued and read. One is believed to be the stone of William Ewing, son of William Ewing of Frederick County, son of John Ewing of Carnshanagh.
I am excited that the next Ewing Clan Gathering will be in Lancaster, Ohio. My 2nd great grandfather Jacob Ream came there in 1809 and knew Thomas Ewing, according to Jacob’s pension deposition. Will be great to have the opportunity to do some more research there.
Jean McClure
Columbia, MO
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CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 4]
Greetings and Happy New Year from Clan Ewing in America. As we venture into the last (but one?) Year of the millennium, I cannot help but think of our forebears, who have left us with such rich traditions. Peggy and I are constantly amazed at the lengths (literally) our ancestors went to preserve their way of life and to keep in tough with family and friends.
Some of our Ewing (in the various versions of however the name was spelled then) ancestors probably moved from Ireland to Scotland in the wave of Scots who settled in the west of Scotland in the early years of the first millennium A.D. They may have spread out and grown into the highland MacEwen clan as well as formed the basis for the lowland families who, according to some, gave rise to the “William of Stirling” branch which includes quite a few of the Ewings in America today. In the 17th century a number of the lowland Ewings moved (back) to Ireland, from which some came to America a generation or two or more later. Then, the immigrants who were not content to settle on the seaboard moved on into the wilderness of the new continent and brought the name Ewing to all corners of it.
Recent reading on the life of the Scots in norther Ireland in the 17th century has given me new insight into their attitudes toward the British prior to and in our war for independence. The English had already tried all the same tricks on the Irish that they tried on their American colonists. The Scots here had left Ireland, in part, to escape the heavy hand of the monarchy and would not stand for all that again. In Ireland the English had laid heavy taxes on tea and document stamps, had quartered troops on the civilian population and had forbidden manufacturing and weaving. The American colonies, like Ireland, were to be producers of food and raw materials for the motherland and a market for its cloth and manufactured goods. With that experience behind them it is no wonder the Irish Scots were the leaders and backbone of the revolutionary spirit and efforts here in the new world.
Still no luck with my efforts to find any definite links between Ewing emigrants to America prior to 1776 and Scotland. Whenever I see or hear someone who claims descent from Scotland, I ask for the details, but so far nothing more than family tradition. I have even written to sources in Scotland to find out whether they have any such evidence from that end.
I hope to see all of you at our next Gathering in Ohio in September 2000--
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EWING WITH FRANCIS MARION
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 5]
Source: This article is taken from a letter to William M. Ewing, Tulsa, Oklahoma received from his son, Tom, dated 6 Aug 1997.
Well, I strolled over to the Kathleen Ewing Gallery today. Ms. Ewing was present. She wasn’t exactly effusive, but she did chat a bit. Her gallery is a photography gallery. Her area is 19th and 20th Century Photography. I don’t know if she takes any pictures or not. There was a book on display that she had written about another photographer, and all the pictures on her walls were by other people. Many were quite nice. I bought a couple of photo cards that she had of various Washington sites.
Anyway, she said that she had lived in the D.C. area most of her life, but that her father was from the Atlanta area. She said that he was named Marion Ewing because their Ewing ancestor supposedly was in Francis Marion’s outfit during the Revolution. You may recall that Francis Marion is known as “the Swamp Fox,” and was the subject of a popular Disney series in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Also, all of the towns around the country named Marion are name after him.
So, I’m not sure what branch of the family this makes her, but at least now we know that a Ewing was supposed to have fought in Francis Marion’s famous outfit. They were in South Carolina by the way.
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“My Dearest Life. . .”
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 7]
Kay is the great-great-granddaughter of Katharine Ewing Worrilow of Bethel Township, Pennsylvania; she was a descendant of David B. Ewing of Village Green, Pennsylvania and of two James Ewings and “Old Henry” Ewing 1701-1782. I do not yet know whether I am related to Katharine Ewing Hand and would appreciate hearing from any Clan Ewing members who can enlighten me. [Ed. Note: Later, Kay learned that she was a first cousin six times removed to Katharine Ewing Hand.]
The sources of this article are the History of Lancaster County, PA, by Ellis & Evans; the Lancaster County and the Western Pennsylvania Historical Societies; and publications of Rock Ford Plantation, Lancaster, PA.
Any mother who has ever hovered over a crib, desperate to know what to do for a feverish, miserably ill baby, can feel deepest empathy for a long-ago Ewing who had the same experience while her husband (a doctor) was away at war.
The letter written by “Kitty” Ewing Hand, wife of the Revolutionary War general, is gone, but her husband’s concerned reply from Hartford. Connecticut, on March 21, 1776, is still in existence. As quoted in a history of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, Dr. Edward Hand was replying to his wife’s letter saying that they had nearly lost “poor little Sally”, then three months old. She had been attended by a Dr. Kuhne, who was managing to take care of the citizens in Lancaster when both his son Dr. John Kuhne and Dr. Hand were off with the troops. The anxious father couldn’t refrain from advising his faraway colleague thus: “If he has no reason to contradict it, I think that Castor Oil (commonly called so) might be of great service to her. A small teaspoon full once or twice a day–you have some very fine in a pint bottle which Mr. Provost favored me with.” The general also voiced an opinion that he didn’t think Dr. Kuhne should inoculate little Sarah at that time.
The correspondence indicates that he didn’t hear from Kitty for some time at this period, and he wrote anxious letters to Jasper Yeates, her uncle and guardian, indicating that he felt worried about the baby and put out at his wife for not keeping him better informed. All was well, however, by May 1776 when Sally had recovered from smallpox in spite of the treatment, and he wrote to Kitty calling her “My Dearest Life” (could he have meant “wife”? My notes indicate an ‘L’.) During her illness, he also advised, “If Sally’s mouth should continue sore, purge her and use a gargle made of dry sage and red rose leaves, the latter is best with honey, and a very few drops of oil of vitriol or alum.”
“If it pleases God to spare us until the beginning of October,” wrote the discouraged husband and soldier, “I wish then to have her and the Blacks inoculated. . . You need not know be afraid of infection from Sally Yeates.”
Katharine Ewing Hand, who is buried with her husband in St. James’ Episcopal churchyard in Lancaster, was the daughter of James and Sarah Yeates Ewing, and Sally Yeates probably was her cousin. The Yeates family had come to Lancaster from Chester, Pennsylvania, and Katharine was named for her grandmother Catharine Sandelands Yeates, wife of Jasper Sr. The Sandelands family was one of the first ever to reside in the English colony at Chester, and Jasper Yeates had bought a building there in 1697 where he started a granary and bakery. (The first name of these women is spelled at various times with a ‘K’ and ‘C’ in the old records as it is today.)
Edward Hand was a lieutenant colonel when he married Katharine on March 13, 1775. Sally was born Dec. 8, 1775. He was later commissioned a brigadier general and fought with the Revolutionary Army until July 12, 1777, when he was sent to Fort Pitt, at the junction of the Monogahela and Allegheny rivers, to call the militia together to mobilize them against the Indians and Tories. He also served as surgeon to the garrison at the fort, and while there he purchased land along Chartiers Creek in what is now the Pittsburgh suburb of Crafton, just down the Ohio River from the fort. From there he wrote to Jasper Yeates: “The smallpox has crept into this place and am fitting my house on the creek for a hospital and shall inoculate those who have not already had the disease. “He later persuaded the Continental Congress to authorize a specially-constructed two-story log building which was the first Federal hospital built in America and for 69 years was the only medical institution west of the Alleghenies.
After the war. General Hand returned to Kitty and Sally and life in another country home–Rock Ford, which he built in 1792 on the southern edge of Lancaster, and which has been lovingly restored and is open to the public today.
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WESTWARD MIGRATION FROM IREDELL COUNTY 1800-1850
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 9]
Source: The following article was published in The North Carolina Historical Review, Volume XXX, Number 1, January 1953 and was submitted by Dr. William Steele Ewing. We appreciate receiving this article and having the opportunity of printing it.
At the midpoint of another century it may be worth while to look back at the causes and effects of the heavy migration from Iredell County between 1800 and 1850. Land records and wills indicate that the first migrants were influenced to some extent by receipt of military bounty lands in Tennessee and by land sales in Kentucky. The news of successful locations filtered back home by visitors and by letters. Much of the information was spread by the spoken word and by letters rather than printed matter. Several groups of families made the long journey by wagon and horseback and settled near each other in central and western Tennessee and in western Kentucky. Among these were settlements in Tipton County, Tennessee, and in Christian County, Kentucky. Later, some of these people, or their children, plus others from the home county, moved to Bellevue, Missouri, and to Bloomington, Illinois, and from there to other points in Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas, Wyoming, Utah, California, and other western states.
So great was the westward migration from the Southeast about 1845 that Calvin H. Wiley, State
Superintendent of Common Schools, declared that North Carolina sometimes seemed like “one
vast camping ground,” where people were only tented around campfires or in their covered
wagons for the night on their way to some new home far away. Apropos of their moving many
communities held services of prayer and song to bid the movers Godspeed the night before parties
set off by wagon for the long overland journey westward.
The movement from Iredell County from 1800 to 1850 is part of the great movement described
by Archibald D. Murphey in 1815 when he wrote that “within twenty-five years past more than
two hundred thousand of our inhabitants have removed to the waters of the Ohio, Tennessee, and
Mobile; . . .” and “In this state of things our agriculture is at a stand[still]; . . .”
After 1800 population pressure in many counties and lack of opportunities for land and employment prodded settlers westward. After the War of 1812 there began a heavy and persistent migration to Tennessee and Kentucky which, in the course of time, was stimulated more and more by opening of lands for settlement in Illinois,
This public sale of farm land and household property by Adlai Ewing in 1816, Iredell County, North Carolina, was held preparatory to moving to Christian County, Kentucky. Such sale notices customarily were posted at the nearest store, Mill, Post Office, and county courthouse. The Ewing farm was located about four miles north of Statesville on the North Branch of fourth Creek, and between the Chipley Ford and Wilkesboro Road.
Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas. The frontier and the West have been looked upon as almost synonymous in the history of the United States. The large migration to the West and Midwest from the southern Piedmont in the first half of the nineteenth century has been obscured by the political events of the times and the general movement of people from the Atlantic seaboard.
Trend Toward Commercial Farming
In the first decades after 1800 a rapidly expanding population led to occupancy of remaining vacant land in Iredell county and to creation of many new family-sized farms. The farmer and his family did all the work of carving out the first farms and in farming and other necessary occupations.
From 1820 to 1830 revolutionary changes in agriculture and type of farming had begun.
Commercialized cotton growing had jumped into prominence as a result of increased demand and
cheaper production and processing practices. By this time, farm lands had become less
productive, and this led to increased clearing of new lands and abandonment of old lands. Among
the widely discussed problems in the early decades of the nineteenth century were those that
centered about poor crop yields, declining productivity of the land, and poor markets.
Westward Migration 1800-1850
By 1840 abandoned farm lands and houses gave evidence of the downward trend in agriculture.
After the opening of lands in Tennessee, Kentucky, and other western states, many people left the
county for the new country. From 1800 to 1850, hundreds of families moved from the county to
the West.
The good soil of the Mississippi Valley and the prairies called and the hill country
farms were sold or abandoned. The county lost people and wealth or stood still, while the new
areas gained. With increase in commercial farming, cultivated land holdings were enlarged
somewhat in parts of the county.
Migration and New Lands
Probably a reason for the relative stability of tenure for the first fifty years in the county’s history was the fact that large acreages of good land lay just over the mountains to the west in Tennessee and Kentucky, and as this land was available almost for the taking by enterprising young people, there was no necessity for them to work long as wage hands or tenants on the lands of others. Family histories and correspondence show that from time to time in the early 1800's, every community in the county sent forth wagon trains bearing family and neighborhood groups westward to claim military bounty lands and state grants, to buy from land dealers, or otherwise to obtain public land. Lands granted Revolutionary War soldiers in Tennessee and Kentucky in many instances were not settled until the sons or grandsons came of age and growing families made it necessary to develop more farms.
The fact that a large company of men in addition to numerous individuals from Fourth Creek
community served in several battles of the Revolution indicates something of the probable volume
of military land grants available to the people of this one area. State lands also were bought, often
in advance of settlement across the mountains. Old wills show that some of these grants were
several hundred acres in extent and were divided between sons, grandsons, or other relatives of
the recipients.
Early migration to middle and west Tennessee undoubtedly was influenced by
receipt of these lands. This movement followed the frontier line as new territory was settled and
organized. For example, family records show settlement in middle Tennessee around 1800 and in
Tipton and other western Tennessee counties as late as the 1830's.
The story of this movement of farm people is by no means dead because of the passage of time. A number of communities across the country are rooted like trees in the lives of the people from the Carolina Piedmont frontier–a part of the first western frontier of American history. Iredell County is little different from other Piedmont counties. It is a typical county with Scotch-Irish and Pennsylvania Dutch backgrounds. Indeed, tracing the migration of many of its families first from the old countries to southeastern Pennsylvania, thence to the North Carolina Piedmont, and finally to the Midwest and West has much in common with tracing the westward growth and expansion of farming in the United States.
In the early years after these migrations, letters and visits were exchanged with the folks back
home. At various times from about 1810 to 1860 many families, either singly or in groups,
followed the early pioneers to the Midwest. Sometimes they settled in the same communities as
previous migrants. If going farther west, they visited relatives and acquaintances en route and
thereby obtained information about land and other matters of interest. Two letters are quoted
here written by Moses Stevenson and his wife, Ann Ewing Stevenson, in 1817, from Hopkinsville,
Kentucky, to William McClelland and wife, Jane Ewing McClelland, brother-in-law and sister
respectively, and to David Hampton, another brother-in-law.
These letters show how
information regarding new land was spread.
Hopkinsville, Kentucky
March 25th 1817
Iredell County North Carolina
Near Statesville
Dear Brother and Sister–
We all arrived here in good health–and with as much safety, as any set of travellers, that have ever travelled the road I suppose–We found our friends all well here–And we have all enjoyed very good health since here–except Bro. Jas. who has been complaining a little, as in Carolina.
All appear well pleased with our move since we came here–Sally Ewing–as we came out talked very frequently of the N. C. friends–but appears pretty well satisfied now.
We not being able to affect a pu[r]chase till very lately we have rented a farm of about one hundred acres, all fresh land, with every necessary building and an excellent spring on the place. The place lies one mile and a half east of Bros. Jas. Stevenson’s and ten miles from town.
We have lately purchased one thousand acres of land from Judge Broadnax–our choice of all the lands in this country–Bro. Wm. If I could have my wish–a part of it–would be–to have you situate about two miles west of us on a little river–where you could get lands plenty from Wm. Broadnax at three dollars per acre with an excellent mill seat on it–or for two thousand dollars you may purchase a mill ready built, about two miles further down the river in excellent neighborhood for custom. I do wish, if convenient, that you and Dvd. Hamton would come out his summer and see for yourselves–rest assured there are advantages here you know nothing about and if I was to tell you you could not believe it.
I have now a very fine beginning of stock–I have of grown cattle–twelve head and 6 or eight calves–and twelve sheep and 7 lambs–with a very good beginning of hogs–Our stock appears to thrive very well–Again I think we have as kind a set of neighbors, as far as we have made trial of them, as I would ever wish to settle beside–There is a friendship among neighbors here, that the people in Carolina know nothing about–Sir with reluctance I must here quit. I have wrote a number of letters to my friends (as I thought) in Carolina–but have not received a line from one of them yet. Please to remember me and my family to Grandpa if alive and tell him we think of him often and to all enquiring friends–This from your still affectionate.
Bro. and Sister M. and A. Stevenson
postage 25¢
Kentucky
Christian County
July the 17th 1817
North Carolina, Iredell County
Near Statesville
Dear Brothers and Sisters–
Having at present an opportunity of safe conveyance–I again take hold of my pen to let you know where we stopped at and where we rented and where we purchased–which you complain I have not done–(I mean Bro. Wm. McClelland) Sir I should have wrote more particularly on that subject–to you–only I thought you were sufficiently apprised of the state and county both in which I intended to stop in. However be it known to you now, that I have taken up my place of residence in Kentucky, Christian County on the waters of Little River ten miles South of Hopkinsville–I have purchased about the same distance from town on the same waters and about one mile and half South of Bro. Jas. Stevenson’s–and in the state and city Aforesaid.
My friends I have nothing strange or new to communicate to you at present–Only that Grandpa slipt over the 17th of June to see how we were coming on–at a very unexpected moment to any of us. He had his health very well coming out–though somewhat fatigued–He has since had his health very well considering everything–as we all have had ever since we came here–Only Bro. Jas. Ewing who is still weakly though evidently better for some weeks past.
Bro. Wm. you say the situation of sister Jane with some other things will not admit your visiting this country soon–Sir I am truly sorry for that–You ought to come to this or some other new country where you could live more easy and more plentiful–You have invited us over and take a cup of coffee with you–As you have plenty–Well sir if health permits I will take you at your word but I believe I will wait a while to see if you get anything to eat with it–As you complain of grain being very scarce with you at present–but sir let me inform you that we have plenty of everything in this country (thanks to the Giver of all good).
I must now leave you and turn my attention to Bro. Hamton and family. Sister Nancy I congratulate you, on the birth of your son–May it be a fresh spur to move you towards Kentucky if you ever intend coming–as land is rising fast in this country you may be sure. Bro. David I would not begrudge five dollars you could see my corn fields this day–I am conscious you have no idea hardly how it grows–but I must here stop after entertaining myself as usual–Your still affectionate Bro. and Sister.
M and A Stevenson
Favored by Wm. Jacob Stevenson
The writer of the letters quoted above–Moses Stevenson–after his marriage to Ann Ewing lived in Iredell County for some years. His children were born there. He was willed a two-thirds interest in a farm of 527 acres by his father, William Stevenson, Sr., in 1809. In 1816 in company with his brother James Stevenson and his brothers-in-law, Adlai Ewing and Andrew McKenzie, and their families and a large party of other emigrants, he and his family crossed the mountains and settled in Christian County, Kentucky. Here he and the party established their homes, reared their families, and saw many of them move on to Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas.
Distinguished descendants of this group of settlers include Hon. Adlai Ewing Stevenson, Vice-President of the United States, 1893-1897; his grandson, Governor Adlai Ewing Stevenson,
Governor of Illinois, 1949-1953; and the Hon. Alben W. Barkley, Vice President, 1949-1953.
A brother, Robert Stevenson, his wife, and William Sloan and others had moved west in 1807. They stopped in Christian County, Kentucky, in the early fall. A party of men went on across the Mississippi River and explored for a site for settlement. Having found the beautiful Bellevue Valley in Missouri they returned and took their families over and founded a settlement there in 1808 that became a center of life for the area. Robert Stevenson was a member of the constitutional convention that framed the first constitution for Missouri.
Of the eleven children of William Stevenson, Sr., one of the early settlers of Iredell County, six
with their families moved west between 1807 and 1816. Only two sons settle permanently in the
home county, but a number of their descendants moved west. The eldest son, Thomas Stevenson,
was killed in the Revolutionary War, and one son died in infancy.
The Stevenson family history
is typical of that of many other first settlers. Some names of people, long residents, disappeared
entirely from the county because of migration of whole families.
Causes of Migration
The migration from the county and state in large numbers naturally raised the question, “Why did they go?” Anyone reviewing economic conditions in the county and region in this period will find them far from encouraging. Not only was the fertility of the land being exhausted but prices received for the low yields were small, considering the long hauls to markets and the costs of necessities that had to be bought. At times heavy products like grain and fruit were lost because of poor roads and want of markets. In order to sell their grain and fruit many farmers converted them to whiskey and brandy which was more easily hauled long distances and which had a ready market.
Population growth also began to press on the available resources and actual necessity forced many to migrate westward to find a place of livelihood. A comparison of the rural population of 10,000 to 15,000, dependent almost entirely on a hand-labor agriculture from 1800 to 1850, and the farm population of some 18,000 in 1950, and the greatly expanded, partly mechanized production of today shows in a measure the urgency our early farmers felt in migrating to new land areas.
This area, which was developed upon a grain-livestock self-sufficing type of farm economy, over the years gradually added more row crops like tobacco, cotton, and corn. Not only were acreages of cotton and tobacco increased, but silk was grown and other products were tried in order to find better sources of income. Moreover, erosion impoverished and washed the sandy loam and clay loam soils so that many acres once cleared and farmed were allowed to revert to forest growth. Fertile bottom-lands were farmed or in hay meadows and pastures in the early years, but they too were damaged by increasing floods and clay, sand, and gravel deposits as the stream channels became clogged with debris washed down from the hills. Thus many once productive acres went out of cultivation.
Settlement and cultivation from 1800 to 1850 brought profound changes in the original vegetation
and in the topsoil. Valleys and prairies were converted into farms. Much upland and hilly forest
land likewise was cleared for farming. The dense forests which so universally covered the steep
hill land were cut over and many acres were placed under cultivation. Erosion of topsoil was
rapid, with resultant abandonment and growth of brush fields and young stands of forest growth,
even in the early 1800's. Later many of these old fields were recleared and abandoned one or
more times. For these reasons there occurred a long-time rotation of forest and farm crops on
much land.
In addition to compelling economic reasons for migration there also were bothersome social questions. Disagreement between families and neighbors arose as to whether distilling grain and manufacture of liquor was right or wrong. Speculation in town lots and other ventures increased. Some people did this hoping to gain a profit and at the same time to build up market towns in the region. Slavery was a serious question, even though of slow growth in the county for years. Many people openly disapproved. They not only felt it morally wrong, but they also considered it a handicap to the community, dividing it sharply into two classes, slaveholders and non-slaveholders.
Prior to 1800 slavery was quite generally opposed. The Rowan County committees of safety in
the resolutions of 1774 evidently expressed the feeling of the people of the area on this subject by
stating that “. . . the slave trade is injurious to this colony and obstructs the population of it by
free men. . . .”
This view relative to slavery prevailed in the minds of numerous farmers even
after the beginning of more commercial types of farming. The family-type farmers by hard work,
careful management, and frugal living were able to continue farming even in competition with
slavery. Gradually, however, the small farmers who worked their own land lost in influence in the
county. Likewise the Piedmont counties, lacking as they were in wealth, were less influential in
public affairs in the state than other regions.
About 1800 according to Clark, “before its development was arrested by slavery,” the Piedmont
section of North Carolina promised to become a manufacturing region.
But between 1810 and
1830 when textile manufactures shifted largely from the fireside to the factory, the state lost in
textile production. The transition from household manufactures for home use to specialized
manufacturing was delayed longer in North Carolina than in the non-slaveholding states.
An unfortunate development for the Piedmont region was the increased emphasis on cotton
production by the use of slave labor.
A number of the larger farms in Iredell County were
shifted to slave labor and along with this a general social disfavor was placed on the independent
farmers who did not own slaves. Furthermore, wealth went into slaves and cotton land rather
than into improvement of farms and into machines and factories.
Coupled with these discouraging factors at home was the low cost for entry or purchase of western lands, and the speedy increase in their value because of the streams of people going west to possess and cultivate them. Not only were these lands believed to be very fertile but they also possessed advantages from location on navigable streams, and in growing communities with opportunities for productive employment.
This brief narrative shows that in this county, as elsewhere, one of the great quests of people is for stability. They strive for it in their surroundings, and in the things which will assure a fair standard of living, freedom from want, and a reasonable degree of comfort in old age. The large number of people moving westward from 1800 to 1850 and afterwards indicates that the economy of the Piedmont did not always provide that stability. Rapid strides have been made in the last generation toward obtaining a better understanding of the resources peculiar to the Piedmont. With this understanding, methods are being developed and put into practice for making better use of these resources.
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WILLIAM EWING (1826-
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 21]
[Source: Commemorative biographical Encyclopedia of The Juniata Valley, comprising the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania, 1897, Publishers, J.M. Runk & Co., Chambersburg, PA. This article was sent in by Eleanor Ewing Ehrlich, Saratoga, CA.]
William Ewing, Manor Hill, Huntingdon county, Pa., was born in Barree township, February 12, 1826, son of James and Elizabeth (Creswell) Ewing. The Ewing family is of English origin. The progenitors of its American branch were immigrants here during colonial times; some of them took an active part in the Revolution. Thomas Ewing, great-grandfather of William Ewing, was during that war a resident of West township, having removed to this vicinity from the southeastern part of the State. His descendants are found in different parts of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1782 his daughter Catherine, with a Miss McCormick, daughter of a neighboring farmer, was captured by Indians and taken to Montreal. She was restored to her family, but it was several months before she reached her home. She was afterwards married to Mr. Huston, of Centre county, Pa. The sons of Thomas Ewing were: Thomas; William; John; James; Alexander; and David. The father died in West township, about the year 1800. His second son, William, became a large land owner, farmer and stock-raiser in that township. He was a Democrat. He married Miss Anderson, of Scotch-Irish ancestry. Their children were: James Thomas; William; Mary; Margaret; Martha; and Elizabeth. William Ewing and his wife both died in Barree township. He was a member of the Presbyterian church. His eldest son, James Ewing, father of William Ewing (2) was educated in subscription schools, and grew up on the farm. He owned 160 acres in Barree township, which he partly cleared and improved, erecting dwelling, barn, etc. He was a farmer and stock raiser. James Ewing was a Democrat; he took an active interest in public affairs, and was elected to all township offices. He was one of those who, in 1840, promoted the establishment of the common school system. His wife, Elizabeth Creswell, who he married in Barree township, was a daughter of Robert Creswell, farmer. The Creswell family, like the Ewings, were among the original settler of this State. They are Scotch-Irish by descent, and belong to a class whose thrift, shrewd intelligence, laudable ambitions and steady perseverance have gone far to give character to this substantial and dignified Commonwealth. They further resemble the Ewings in having spread over various parts of the State. The children of Mr. and Mrs. James Ewing are: Robert, who died in Ohio; William; Elizabeth (Mrs. James Smith), of Wayne county, Ohio; and Mary (Mrs. John Oaks), of Huntingdon. Mr. Ewing was a Presbyterian. He died on the homestead; his wife died later, at the home of her son William.
With no greater opportunities that those afforded by the subscription schools and the common schools, kept for three winter months, in the old-fashioned log school house, William Ewing, by his own exertions, acquired a good education and much practical knowledge. He learned farming on the homestead, of which he took entire charge after the death of his father, and which he has ever since cultivated. He works some 125 acres; has planted an orchard of three acres with all varieties of fruit. He also owns three farms containing over 500 acres in Livingston county, Ill., partly cleared, and 80 acres in Newton country, Mo.; in the latter State he owns some town lots. Mr. Ewing has expended $4,000 in tiles, and has erected buildings to the same amount. He is a dealer in stock, as well as an experience breeder. Mr. Ewing's politics are Democratic; he has been elected to the offices of assessor, supervisor and tax collector in his township, besides serving three terms on the school board. He belongs to Grange No. 353, P. of H. Mr. Ewing has always been a thorough and persevering worker, to which fact he owes his excellent standing in the business world and in the community, his competence and his opportunities for usefulness.
William Ewing was married in Jackson township, in 1852, to Mary A., daughter of Abraham Henry, a farmer, of Scotch-Irish family. She was born in West township. Their children are: James, farmer, of Illinois; Mary; Fannie; Elizabeth (Mrs. John Henning), of Altoona, Pa.; Caroline; Idalette (Mrs. Robert Johnson), of West township; Henrietta; and one pair of twins, who died in early infancy; Margaret, died in childhood; and a son, unnamed, died in infancy. Mr Ewing adheres to the Presbyterian church.
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CIVIL WAR LETTER
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 23]
Source: The information for this article was taken from The Ewing Family Civil War Letter, John T. Greene, Editor, (Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 1994), pp, 1, 145-6. This book was given to Clan Ewing by Guy Ewing, Racine, WI. Thanks Guy for your contribution.
James M. Ewing enlisted in Company G of the Michigan 12 Infantry, 31 December 1861, at age eighteen, for three years. He was mustered 7 February 1862.
Having participated in skirmishes against Confederates near Middleburg, Tennessee, James Ewing takes advantage of the lull to assure his cousin, Susan, that while in the thick of the fighting, he is well, tough, and unscathed. On Christmas Eve all appeared to be quit. Earlier, however, the Confederates had attacked with a force James numbers at around five thousand. After a two-hour fight, the confederates withdrew hastily and, as of his 9 January 1863 writing, had not returned. The casualty list was not long.
Middleburge Tenne Jan. the 9/63
Dear Cosin
I will sit down to answer your letter that came at hand last night i was glad to here from you the
reson that I did not get it before was that the Railrode was torn up and the Bridge burnt
the
Rebels have been given us a nother call but thay wont want to call a gain. thay give no call the
day before crismas there was a bout five thousan a gaints us but we was whare thay couldent get
at us the fight lasted jest two hours and than thay left on doubel quick thay said that the yankeys
craled in a hoal we ___ of the deapot fix ___ we wonded ___ prisners a bout ___ thare was
onley a ___ twenty guns of ours thare was onely five companeys here and thare was ten men out
of each company gon to Bolvier at the time thare was four wounded of our men two out of
company y and one of the Boys shot himself and dide and two out of company D probley you will
see it in the Michigan
papers we have been on half rations for the last three weaks but it jest
site us for we can jahawk we have plenty of corn meal and fresh pork we went out yesterday and
killed two hogs and the chickens hast to rost high if we don’t catch them evry thing is plenty but
money we have got six months pay comming to us. I think that we will get pay this month if the
rebels keep clear of here I have ben writting to hellen to day she is well or was at the time she
write mother sent me her likeness it is a raining to day I suspose that you have had plenty slay
rides havent you it hasent ben cold a aneough to freeze ice as thick as a window glass now I
suppose that you like to know how I like your likeness well I will tell you I admire it. it is the
most butifull creature that I was beheld we have jest come from supper I will tell you what we
had to eat we have fresh pork stewed down and light bread and tea you may thing it pretty hard
living but I tell you it is good living for us and we don’t find any falt when we can get as good as
that to eat you wrote a bout sending me house wife. I wish that you would I havent got eny I
think you could put it in a paper and send me the paper you must write often and don’t wate fore
me give my love to all inquiring friends and have a good share yourself I remain your Feconate
cosin J. Ewing
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1834 LETTER
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 25]
Source: This letter was taken from a book Resolutions, Law, and Ordinances Relating to the . . . Officers and Soldiers of the Revolution, U.S. House of Representatives
Trenton, February 15, 1834
Dear Sir: Agreeably to your request, I have examined all the books and papers in the treasurer’s office in relation to the depreciation pay of individuals assumed by the United States’ Government, and paid to the State of New Jersey, and have entirely failed of success in reaching the object you wish. There are no papers nor accounts of any kind or description relating to that subject in the office. I have also made, and caused to be made, a search for the same information in the office of the secretary, but have also failed of success. There are, however, in the secretary’s office, two books containing charges against the United States for military services from 1775 up to 1785, amounting to a very large sum, (say several millions of dollars.) In them I do not find any thing charged as having been paid or due to Lord Stirling; and there is nothing to show that any of those claims were ever assumed or settled by the General Government.
I have been informed that James Ewing was the auditor of accounts in this State, through whose hands most of the accounts in which the State had an interest passed; and it is very probable that the papers relating to the settlement between the State and General Government were lodged with and filed by him; it appears probable that duplicates, as well of the particulars settle and accounted for as the general statement, were preserved and filed by both parties; as Mr. Ewing was very particular in preserving all papers coming into his hands, it may be that some satisfaction can be obtained from his files. The present James Ewing, in whose care all the papers of his grandfather are, has been absent from town all the week past, attending the Burlington court. As soon as he returns, I will cause a search to be made.
I do not consider my certificate necessary, as no trace of the information wanted can be found. You shall hear from me by Monday’s mail.
Yours &c.
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QUERIES
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 27]
Steven Robert Ewing, 1196 Pine Lake Dr., N. Ft. Myers, FL 33903, is seeking information for his ancestor Albert Ewing who married Rosamond Clark. Albert was born (estimated about 1870). Children of Albert: Edith m. Mac Orbaugh, Esther, Fred, Harry, Edmund (born 5 Aug 1900, Hillsboro, OH); Willard. Please contact Steven by mail or email 6sewing1243 <at> aol.com Edmund’s line also goes back to Scotland with a Benjamin Gillespie.
Karen (Murphy) Avery, 9731 Loch Linden Court, Fairfax, VA 22032 would like to make contact with anyone that had Ewings living in New York in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Needs info. On John Ewing, Sr. b. c 1789 NY d. c 1860 Chautauqua, NY married Laura b. c 1793 CT or VT d. aft 1860 Chautauqua, NY.
Charles Earl “Sandy” Ewing, III, 18847 St. Clare Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70810 is seeking info. for the family of Elijah Ewing, b. 1820, AR, d 18 Jun 1877, Abbeville, LA married Emeline Stansbury (1831-1902), children: Troy, William, Eliza, John, Mary Alice, Henry C., Robert, Emmette, Elijah.
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EWING CEMETERY INFORMATION – IOWA
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 1 -Feb 1999, page 27]
Source: Thanks to Margaret S. Anderson for sending the following information:
Hascall Cemetery, Montgomery County, Iowa, southeast of Emerson.
Stone 1
W. G. Ewing, died 23 Nov 1868, age 59 y 11 m 17 days. birth calculated 6 Dec 1808
Mary S., wife of W. G. died 26 July 1885, age 76 y 8 m 12 days, birth calc 14 Nov 1808
Finis E., son of G. W. and V. Sutton 18 Jan 1876, age 2 months
Mary J. Ewing, died 20 May 1898, age 68 y 10 m 27 days birth calculated 23 June 1829
J. J. Ewing, died 16 Jan 1865, age 22 y 2 m 16 days birth calculated 31 Oct 1842
J. B. Ewing, died 31 Oct 1864, age 20 y 4 m 5 days, birth calculated 26 June 1844
Stone 2
Samuel Ewing, 1831-1922, Co. K 84th IL Vol Inf
In same plot but no stone: Finnens, George O. died 30 Nov 1872, age 4 y 5 m 9 days
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LETTERS & E-MAIL
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 2]
Very interesting Web site, "Clan Ewing", even if I am on the other side of the water.
My branch of the Ewings come from Argyle/Stirling as far as we can find out and were part of the Clan McEwen with "Rivesco" (I grow again) as the motto, the oak tree as the emblem.
We have the distinction of having an ancestor who was a thread merchant in Glasgow and donated five guineas to the Wallace Memorial. Such thrift!
We do have a relative who emigrated to Canada, but do not know exactly where. Would love to tie up our tree with them. At the moment we have only gone back to 1700 on the Ewing side, but 1450 on my mothers side. If any members wish to e-mail general research enquiries, please let me know. Most will have to be restricted to English records (London) but I do get to Edinburgh at least four times a year.
Frozzbozz <at> BTINTERNET.COM
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CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 3]
The search for our Scottish forebears is, and will continue to be, I am sure, a never-ending quest. The more I read and study about the migration of the Scots from Ireland to Scotland and back to Ireland and thence to America the more I am convinced that little, if any, evidence exists to connect those of us of so-called Scotch-Irish descent back to Scotland itself. One of the problems is that some of the Protestants who came from Ireland to America began calling themselves Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) or just plain Scots in order to distinguish themselves from the Roman Catholic Irish immigrants, although their ancestors may not have actually lived in Scotland at all. Therefore, it is likely that research in Ireland would be more fruitful than in Scotland, except for the fact that many of the most relevant Ulster records were destroyed in a fire in Belfast some 75 years ago.
In 1994 and 1995 David Dobson of St. Andrews, Scotland, published two little pamphlets entitled Scots-Irish Links 1575-1725. In the Introduction to Part I, he speaks of the "up to 100,000 Scots settling permanently or temporarily in Ireland" during the 17th century and acknowledges that it is "notoriously difficult" to find any specific information identifying those immigrants and their places of origin in Scotland. "For many of their descendants [in America] it is generally difficult to make the trans-Atlantic connection but even more difficult to make the link to Scotland." His pamphlets were compiled largely from primary source material located in Scotland (such as Burgess Rolls and records in the Scottish Record Office) which show some connection between Scots and Ireland. They list some 1200 names and give the connection of each. Of particular interest to us is that there are references to only three persons who might be directly or remotely related to our Ewings; the entries for them (without citations) are:
EWIN, WILLIAM, an Irish student at Glasgow University, 1696
EWING, JOSHUA, a Scots-Irish student at Glasgow University, 1712
MCEWIN, DAVID, East Meath, 1680
And so, the beat goes on. I know that many of our Clan are building their records of the glorious achievements of the Ewings and Ewing descendants in America, and I urge you to share them with the rest of us as you do. Send copies to Jim McMichael for inclusion in the Journal and bring your materials to our next Gathering --- in Lancaster, Ohio in September 2000. I look forward to seeing you all there.
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SAMUEL EWING FAMILY HISTORY
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 6]
The information in this article supplements the information found in Ewing in Early America by Margaret Ewing Fife, pages 301-302.
Samuel and Rebecca (George) Ewing had:
1. Samuel Ewing b. ca 1741, d. 22 Feb 1794 in Fayette Twp, Allegheny Co., Pa. He married, prior to 1776, Mary Oldham, daughter of Richard . . .
Samuel and Mary (Oldham) Ewing had:
. . .
C. Samuel Ewing b. ca 1781, 3rd child . . . said to have worked in a foundry in Pittsburgh. We have not located him for sure.
Following is what I, Guy Ewing, have learned about this Samuel whom I’m calling Samuel Ewing, III.
Samuel Ewing, Jr. and wife Mary Oldham Ewing started out in Cecil County, Maryland. One source says they “removed to Redstone, south of Pittsburgh.” When did they move? Perhaps they moved in 1785 after Mary inherited the land in Allegheny county. But they may have moved in steps, stopping in Redstone, Fayette County, near Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
I believe one of the keys is the family relationship to the Quaker Church. Samuel, Jr’s. Mother, Rebecca George, was a Quaker. His [Samuel Ewing] marriage in 1740 at the First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia upset the Presbyterian Ewings, because Rebecca was a Quaker.
The Quaker mother church in Philadelphia established a “Monthly Meeting” (referred to as MM) in Redstone, Fayette County. Later, Redstone established the Darby MM in Logan County, near Zanesville, Ohio, and the New Garden MM in Columbiana County, Ohio.
Now, we return to Samuel Ewing, III, born about 1781. He moved with his family from Maryland to Redstone where there was a Quaker MM. Then, they moved to North Fayette Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, sometime after 1785. According to Margaret Fife (p. 301), Samuel and Mary Ewing sold part of CANADY’S ADVENTURE on 20 October 1793. So between 1785 and 1793 they had arrived in Allegheny County.
At the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh), I found The Warrantee Atlas of Allegheny County. On page 28, the map of North Fayette Township shows a farm of 418 acres just north of present day Oakdale with the following inscription:
418 As 27 Ps & Allowances
Warrant dated July 27, 1785
Surveyed April 15, 1796
“Community”
Just southeast on the next farm is that of James Ewing assigned to William Levily, surveyed in 1786, patented 1790, “The Park”. And, ½ mile east is the 437 acre farm of Isaac & Gabriel Walker with a warrant of 1785, patented to William Ewing 1814, “Partnership”.
Was the Samuel Ewing who received the patent April 15, 1796 our Samuel Ewing, Jr.? But, on page 301 (Fife), we note that our Samuel died 22 Feb 1794 in Fayette Township. Did they assign the Patent in 1796 to Samuel Ewing’s estate because his sons Amos (1776), William (1778), and Samuel (1781) were too young and the estate had not been divided?
Was the James Ewing who received “The Park” on 9 Sept 1790 a relative? Was the Samuel Ewing, Jr. estate probated so the three brothers received money used to buy land elsewhere?
Finally, I located the following in the Warrantee Atlas on page 27, the map of Findley Township:
(This is in the Western corner of Allegheny county
very near the northeast corner of Washington County, Pennsylvania.)
Saml Ewings
175 As 148 Ps & All
Warrant Feb 22, 1786
Survd Sep 4, 1788, Patd Mch 2, 1815
to Jas Ewing, Ext in trust
N. 12. 417
“Ewington”
Did Samuel Ewing, III sell this land to a cousin, James, in 1815 when he decided to locate in Columbiana County, Ohio?
The records of the Steubenville Land Office are now located in the Ohio State Historical Society, Columbus, Ohio. I had the pleasure of viewing the documents signed by Samuel Ewing, III, but the folowing data is from OHIO LANDS; STEUBENFILLE LAND OFFICE, 1810-1820 by Carol Bell, C.G.
Proprietor Date Cert. # Residence Range/Twp/Section
Ewing, Samuel 6 July 1813 4318 Jeff. Co. Oh 2-8-29
Ewing, Samuel 26 Feb 1814 4696 Jeff. Co. Oh 2-8-29
Ewings, Samuel 3 May 1817 6737 Philadelphia 5-15-10
(Note: 2-8 = Jeff: Saline/Knox
5-15 = Carroll: Augusta
Augusta Township was removed from Columbiana County to form Carroll County, Ohio.)
According to the Marriage Record Book of Columbiana County, Ohio at the Courthouse, Lisbon, Samuel Ewing, III married Nancy Ann Franks on July 21, 1818. In the Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, I found the Encyclopedia of Quaker Genealogy. Samuel Ewing, III belonged to the Darby MM where he received a membership certificate on 27 Jan 1781. Darby MM transferred Samuel to the New Garden MM in Columbiana County, Ohio on 26 November 1818.
Then something happened. The Quakers found out that Samuel was married in July 1818. The New Garden MM took a stern action. Samuel Ewing “was disowned for getting married contrary to discipline.”
I did much investigation of the Franks family. They were German Lutherans, prominent in Pennsylvania, including Redstone. There was a Franks family six farms away from Samuel Ewing’s farm in Augusta Township, Columbiana County. From the 1820 Census: Samuel Ewing, one male “45 or older”. That could be “26-45" if the census taker checked the wrong column. One female between “26-45" that was Nancy Ann. And, one female “under 5" that was baby Margaret, born 1820.
Samuel Ewing, III, father, husband, farmer, died in August 1822, while lifting a huge stone in raising a barn. Nancy had a son, Samuel IV, born in May 1822. So, Nancy was widowed with two tiny children.
Samuel Ewing, IV was born May 1822 and died April 19, 1890 in Wayne Township, Columbiana County, Ohio per Death Record #3, Columbiana County, Ohio. Either, Samuel IV didn’t know his father’s name or did not tell his son, John Otis Ewing (1858-1950).
In December 1823, widow Nancy Ewing married widower William Morgan. He was quite well to do. She had a child, Nancy, by William Morgan in 1826. Samuel Ewing, IV was brought up by his stepfather. The Morgans were a patriotic family whose males fought in every war. They looked down on Quakers for refusing to bear arms.
I think the Morgans with Nancy’s approval covered up the fact that Samuel Ewing, IV was the son of a Quaker. When I interviewed my grandfather, John Otis Ewing, in the 1940s, he simply did not know his grandfather’s first name. I located Wills and Estates of Ohio before 1850 by Carol Bell, C.G. at the Wisconsin State Historical Society. It listed the Estate of a Samuel Ewing, Columbiana County, 1822. The County Courthouse, Lisbon, had no records of estates that far back. I wrote to the Mormons and they sent me copies of six pages about the Estate Sale (Sept 1822) and a commission appointed in 1823 “to care for the legal affairs of Margaret Ewing (3) and Samuel (1).”
William Morgan died in 1839. I located his grave in Gavers, Ohio. In Marriage Record Book #4, there is a record that Samuel Ewing married Elizabeth Patterson 17 January 1850. Nancy Morgan lived with Samuel and Elizabeth Ewing until her death 15 March 1870. The Death Record shows her place of birth as Philadelphia. And, the Land Office Record listed Samuel Ewing’s residence in 1817 as Philadelphia! Did Samuel meet Nancy Ann Franks in Philadelphia?
Samuel Ewing, IV and wife Elizabeth Patterson Ewing had Frank (1853-1875), Ida, John (1858-1950), Nancy, James (1863-1950). John Otis Ewing married Eva Burbick in 1888. They had Roy, Guy, and Nannie. Guy R. Ewing, Sr. (1893-1955) married Helen Forbes in 1921. They had Thomas (1923), Guy, Jr. (1925), and Richard (1928). Guy R. Ewing, Jr. (author) married Patricia F. Williams (1928). We have Susan (Kyle), Jennifer (Orr), Kathryn, David, and Malcolm.
Genealogy is never ended and corrections may occur. However, we believe our research into the life of Samuel Ewing (c. 1781-1822) established our descent from Samuel Ewing and Rebecca George. Our hats are off to Margaret Ewing Fife for her truly magnificent work, Ewing in Early America.
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WILLIAM EWING OF ROCKINGHAM
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 11]
A group of descendants of William Ewing are having an e-mail discussion of their ancestors trying to sort out some of the differences in the information for some of the older families. A question raised by Pete Hamilton concerns the religious faith of Andrew Ewing and of his father William Ewing.
Andrew's tombstone stated that he was "Educated in the Quaker Persuasion" and William's grave is located in the cemetery of a Presbyterian Church.
A response from Billie Ewing Ronk. Here's my guess: America attracted those who had dissented else where (in their faith) and perhaps would dissent again. Untamed, unclaimed land promised room for diverse consciences and convictions. At the time of Andrew's birth,1740, America was going through a time of intense religious revival known as The First Great Awakening, 1730's through 1740's. In the Presbyterian Church sides were chosen between parishes and individuals who frowned on or approved of the awakening. The deepest concern of The Great Awakening was a preoccupation with order; personal order in terms of repentance and morality. It had it's inspiration in the federal theology of Puritan New England. William Penn had a Quaker Colony in Pennsylvania. Perhaps there was some "friendly persuasion" done on William Ewing, thus his son Andrew "educated in the Quaker Persuasion". Then perhaps when William Ewing moved to Rockingham, VA... he dissented again back to the Presbyterian Church. I'm sure that the chaotic, lonely struggle of the wilderness would be enough for him to attach to an "available" church, at least.
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Glasgow Cathedral
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 13]
In the fifth century St. Ninian came from Ireland and dedicated a Christian burial ground at Cathures (the site of modern Glasgow) in the Kingdom of Strathclyde. In the following century Kentigern, popularly called Mungo, came to this same spot to bury the corpse of a holy man named Fergus. It is said that the Blacader Aisle in the Lower Church today was the site of that burial.
Later Kentigern was chosen by the king, clergy and people to be their bishop, and he founded a monastic community and built a church on the site, where, reputedly, St Columba came to visit him. The date of Kentigern's death is given as 13 January 603, and his tomb is in the Lower Church, probably on the site of his grave. According to The Book of Glasgow Cathedral, edited by George Eyre-Todd, 1898, Kentigern's father has been variously identified as Ewen, son of Erwengende; Ewen, son of Ulien (king); Owen, son of Urien; and Ywien, son of Urien Reged. The website of St. Mungo's Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, says that it could have been Urien himself, prince of a territory covering present-day Cumbria and Dumfriesshire. All of those names are phonetic forms of a name which could well have been that of an early Ewing.
However, before we Ewings become too possessive of Kentigern, it should be remembered that most sources say he was illegitimate, although the circumstances of his conception are lost in the mists of time. The website of St. Mungo's Episcopal Church describes it as the result of a lovers' tryst; but a small pamphlet on the life of St. Mungo published by Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries says that his birth occurred as the result of his mother's rape by a suitor chosen for her by her father whom she had rejected.
We have no details of the church buildings which stood on the site of Glasgow Cathedral before the early part of the twelfth century, when the first stone building was consecrated in 1136 in the presence of King David I and his Court. That building was destroyed or severely damaged by fire and was replaced by a larger one which was consecrated in 1197. At various times in the 800 years since then the building has been rebuilt, extended and altered, giving us the church as we see it today. Also, since the fifth century the site has been used by various Christian denominations from its Roman Catholic beginnings to its present use by the Church of Scotland. During one period for 200 years or so different parts of the church were used by three different denominations simultaneously.
[Ed. Note: The widow and coat-of-arms were omitted from this document.]
In the 1860s an elaborate series of painted glass windows was installed in the nave of the church, and particular recognition was given to the persons who contributed the money for them. One set of three windows was donated by four Scotsmen named Crum in memory of their uncle James Ewing, Esq. of Strathleven, who had died in 1862, and the coat of arms of James Ewing was included in the bottom panel of the three. That set of windows is depicted on the previous page as photocopied by me from The Painted Windows of Glasgow Cathedral by Thomas Annan, 1867. Unfortunately for us today, all those 19th century windows were removed after World War II because they were beginning to deteriorate and fade and because it was felt not to be appropriate to have windows made in Germany in the Glasgow Cathedral. They were replaced by plain leaded glass, and the Ewing coat of arms is in the center panel of the same three windows, with an explanatory inscription at the bottom, as shown on the previous page from photographs taken by me last year.
The Glasgow Cathedral, founded by a Ewing who is buried below its basement, with the Ewing coat of arms prominently displayed in the nave, is well worth a visit by anyone visiting the area.
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TIMES IN CECIL COUNTY AFTER THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 17]
Source: From the History of Cecil County, Maryland by George Johnston, Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., pp 356-360.
During the year 1783, three persons were convicted of felony, each of whom was sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on the bare back, well laid on by the sheriff at the public market-house. The next year one James Campbell, alias Williams, was convicted of robbery and sentenced to be hanged. During part of the time that Charlestown was the seat of justice, a public ferry was maintained between that place and Elk Neck, in order to accommodate persons from the lower part of the county having business at Charlestown. The Elk ferry at Court-house Point and the Bohemia ferry being in operation, it was much easier for persons in the lower part of the county to reach Charlestown by land than it is at this time. The great highway between the North and South then, as now, led through this county, and the stage coaches, which carried the first mails of the youthful Republic, then loosely held together by the articles of confederation, for some time crossed over this ferry, the main road at that time leading from near the landing place in Elk Neck through the southern part of the village of North East, and thence, a considerable distance south of where the road is at present located, until it intersected the Elk neck road near Mill Creek.
During the five years that Charlestown was the seat of justice, and for some years afterwards, society was in a bad condition. A spirit of lawlessness and insubordination seems to have pervaded it. This was produced by the demoralization incident to the Revolutionary war and the disorganization consequent upon the transition from one form of government to another. An illustrative of the history and jurisprudence of the county, during this period, the reader’s attention is directed to a homicide which is notable because the perpetrator of it was tried at Charlestown, and also on account of several other circumstances connected with it.
Stephen Porter, a lawyer of some distinction, and the father of Margaret Aurelia Porter, a maiden lady that many persons of middle age will recollect as a person of extraordinarily strong intellectual ability, lived at Porter’s Bridge, on the Octoraro Creek, in 1784, and sometime previous to the harvest of that year employed one Thomas Dunn, who seems to have been a large and powerful man, but a person of bad repute and somewhat of a bully withal. The depositions of several witnesses, taken before the jury of inquest, show that Dunn, who had left the employ of Porter sometime before, returned to the neighborhood, on the 6th of July, ostensibly to settle with Porter, who owed him a trifling balance, but really it would seem for the purpose and with the intention of provoking a quarrel with him. Dunn met one Stephen Herd, who lived in Lancaster County, and was an entire stranger to him, on the road, near Captain William Ewing’s, a neighbor of Porter’s, and asked him to accompany him to Ewing’s, for the purpose of acting as an arbitrator in adjusting the dispute between Porter and himself. The parties pledged themselves to abide by the award which was made by the arbitrators, but soon after it was disclosed, Dunn flew into a passion and began to abuse Porter and malign his wife, and finally spit in Porter’s face. Those present used their best endeavors to quiet the enraged bully, but without avail. After enduring Dunn’s abuse for some time, Porter, accompanied by Benjamin Brearley, a miller, who occupied a house not far from Porter’s mill, started to go to their homes. Dunn followed them, notwithstanding they besought him to desist and take another road. Brearley and Dunn stopped at the house of the former, where Dunn had some clothes which Brearley was desirous he should take away with him, while Porter continued on to his own dwelling, and procured an old bayonet, and hastening back towards Brearley’s house, encountered Dunn, who stooped down, as the witness who saw him testified, to pick up a stone, whereupon Porter stabbed him, from the effect of which he almost instantly expired.
The next day, Samuel Maffit, who was then one of the coroners of the county, empaneled jury of inquest, consisting of eighteen of the good and lawful men of the county, who, after hearing the testimony, rendered a verdict that the said Porter “then & there feloniously killed & murdered the said Dunn,” and Porter was straightway incarcerated in the little stone jail in Charlestown. By common law the property of those convicted of capital offences was forfeited to the State. The coroner therefore returned an inventory of all and singular the lands and tenements, rights, and chattels of Stephen Porter, as appraised by Patrick Ewing, Samuel Scott, John Crawford, and James Egan. The inventory is as follows: One plantation of two hundred acres of land together with one merchant mill, £700; one mare, one horse and two colts, £20; three cow, £9; two small hogs, £1 5s.; six or eight sheep, £2 5s.; sundries, household furniture, £50; total, £782 10s.; whereupon Porter, who was a lawyer, conveyed his property to his wife and one of his friends, in order, if possible, to secure it for the benefit of the former.
Some time after Porter was imprisoned, some of his friends provided themselves with a fleet-footed horse and visited the jail, taking with them a supply of whiskey, with which they succeeded in making the jailer drunk, and getting up a sham-fight, kicked Porter, who had been informed of the effort they intended to make in his behalf, out of the door. Porter lost no time in mounting the horse, and made good his escape to the Octoraro hills, and bidding good-by to his friends, proceeded across the Alleghany Mountains to Washington County, Pennsylvania, then a frontier settlement, where he is said to have betrayed himself by the knowledge he exhibited of the law, during a discussion he engaged in with some others in a public house.
The papers in the case show that Porter had a hearing before two of the justices of the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County, Pennsylvania, on the 6th of October, he having been arrested on suspicion of having murdered a man in Cecil County, and that he confessed the murder and narrated the attending circumstances and manner of his escape, all of which are briefly set forth in one of the papers. This paper is a most extraordinary legal document, and seems to have been given to the persons in whose custody Porter was, to enable them to conduct him safely on his way towards this county; for on the 13th of October, he had another hearing before Robert Galbraith, a justice of peace of Bedford County, Pennsylvania, who gave the posse in whose custody he was, a somewhat similar, though more sensible document, in which the facts of the murder and escape are set forth, and they are commanded to deliver the prisoner to the sheriff of Franklin County, in order that he might be safely conveyed to the sheriff of Cecil County, which was done in due time, and early in the next December a commission was issued by the governor to five of the justices of the county, authorizing and commanding them to hold a special term of court for his trial. It is worthy of remark, that this special commission was sent to Joseph Gilpin, who was designated as presiding justice, and that he notified the others and designated Baruch Williams as a suitable person to act as clerk. The court met at Charlestown on the 7th of December, 1784, and Timothy Kirk being unable to attend, the other justices, John Leach Knight, Stephen Hyland, and John Dockery Thompson, opened the court and proceeded to business. The next day the grand jury returned a true bill against Porter for murder, and on the following day he was arraigned and the same day convicted of manslaughter, the verdict of the jury being “not guilty of murder, as specified in the indictment, but guilty of manslaughter.” The court thereupon ordered that the prisoner enter security for his appearance on Friday, the 16th, to hear their judgment, and he was recognized in the sum of £500 for his appearance from day to day until the court would pass judgment, Patrick Ewing becoming his surety in that sum. The tardiness of the court in passing judgment probably gave offence to some of the friends of Dunn. At all events, George Cather and John Robinson were tried and convicted of insulting the court and jury sometime during the trial. The nature of the insult is not stated, but inasmuch as several witnesses were examined, it is probable that it consisted in using disrespectful language in reference to the manner of conducting the trial. They were each sentenced to pay a trifling fine and the costs, in default of the payment of which they were sent to jail. The record does not state whether the court met and adjourned from day to day until the 16th, but upon that day it rendered judgment “that the prisoner be discharged, the statute not being extended.”
The indictment under which Porter was convicted contained two counts, one of which was for murder, under the common law; the other one was for manslaughter, under the statute of James I., chapter I., section 8; which was made on account of the frequent quarrels and stabbings with daggers between the Scotch and English, and which was of a temporary nature, and was not in force in Maryland at that time, it not having been extended thereto, as stated in the judgment of the court, by the action of the State convention which, in 1776, had adopted the common law of England, and extended certain parts of the statute law of that country to the State of Maryland.
During a period of ten or twelve years, just after the close of the Revolutionary war, three other persons met with violent deaths at Porter’s Bridge and in that immediate vicinity.
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Ewing Home, Arcola, Ill., No Longer Open As Museum
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 21]
by Sallie Bristow, Matton, Illinois
Source: The following article was published in the Tri State Trader, April 1, 1972. This article was submitted by Mrs. Georgia Morgan. We appreciate receiving the article and having the opportunity of printing it. Thanks Georgia.
The home was 99 years old in 1970, but will not live to see 100 as a museum of beauty. The Ewing Home at 406 East main in Arcola, Ill., was sold, along with all the contents in a four-day auction sale that brought antique buyers from everywhere.
The home was a ‘museum’ of treasures, of the Victorian era of the 1800s. From the furniture, to the art work; from the knick-knacks to the statues and lamps, the house was authentically furnished by a Mr. And Mrs. Dick Smith of Tuscola. After buying the home from the Ewing family, the Smiths scoured the country to find furnishings of the Victorian era. Mr. Smith was a follower of Lincoln, and had a desk, high in structure, that was the kind Lincoln liked to use. One pair of curtains in the home was 100 years old. Though many of the statues were reproductions, they were so authentic they were a delight to collectors.
There was an old pump organ; and a huge piano, and even a Harp. In the Library were books, quite rare and old, to attract a collector’s fancy. Elaborate gilt mirrors, crystal chandeliers, and hardwood furniture were sold in the auction. Rare pieces of china and silver went to the highest bidder.
Then when the elaborate furnishings were sold, the house was sold, no longer to be opened to the public as a museum.
On Aug 27, 1883, Governor Ogelby, Governor of the State of Illinois spoke in the small town of Arcola. The occasion was the Soldiers Reunion for 600 Civil War Veterans, who had gone to the fight from the Arcola area. Ten thousand people crowded the small town that day and an elaborate banquet was planned to honor the Governor. The Ewing House boasted a lamp that had been used on that occasion. A glass lamp with teardrops that sparkled in the glow of the candles it had once held.
A walk through the house was an experience of walking into another world. All items had been kept in place, from the marble top table, to the completely furnished children’s room with rare old toys. A big Four Poster Bed could be seen in the master bedroom, a treasure from London, made in 1791.
Throughout the house were examples of Victorian bric-a-brac, silver, china, and paintings from the Victorian era. Even the rugs were original and brightly colored to blend in with the furnishings.
The hostess who guided people through the house pointed out many interesting things, like the ‘Hair Pictures’. Scrolls and designs were framed under glass, with the actual subject made of human hair from a departed relative or friend. It was kept as a remembrance of the departed loved one, and in those days the period of mourning went on for weeks, months, and even years.
One of the items in the home was a bust Statue of Abraham Lincoln. Not uncommon to find in an old home, but this one was unique in the fact that Lincoln was wearing the white Masonic emblem, though he was not a Mason. The organization made Lincoln an Honorary Member.
Another item in the home was a mirror placed beneath a table. This was referred to as a ‘Petticoat Mirror’, so the ladies could see if their petticoats were in order. Door mirrors were not common in homes.
An old scale not only weighed in whole figures, but also in fractions.
Uncle Joe Cannon was a figure of renown in the area, and carried a traveling Secretary with him. Not a female type; but a small box affair that had a handle to carry from place to place when he transacted his business, and kept his papers, notes, pen and ink ready for immediate use.
On the wall in the dining room was a framed recipe. Not an ordinary recipe, but a recipe the Queen of England gave to an Episcopal Church Bazaar to be sold for one dollar. Here is the recipe for Queen Anne Cake:
First pour one cup boiling water over chopped dates and one teaspoon soda. Grease a 9 by 12 cake pan; line with wax paper. Mix one cup sugar; one beaten egg; one teaspoon vanilla; one and one-third cups sifted flour; one teaspoon soda; one-third teaspoon salt; one third cup ground pecans; mix and add to date mixture. Bake 30 to 40 minutes at 325 degrees.
Frosting–5 tablespoons brown sugar; 5 tablespoons thick cream; 2 tablespoons butter. Boil 3 minutes in heavy pan. Spread over top of cake, then sprinkle with fresh coconut and pecans.
Though the Ewing Home is no longer open as a public museum, the many items have new homes throughout the area. A huge tent was placed in the front yard of the home, and the rare items went on the auction block in 1971 in a four-day sale. Bidders from many states came to view and buy the treasures so lovingly collected for this home.
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JOHN8 HAMILTON (Susan7 Gordon, Milbrey6 Ewing, Albert5, Orville4, Nathan3, Andrew2, William1 [of Rockingham]
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 23]
Source: Joshua “Pete” Hamilton sent the following article that ran in Saturday's (April 17th) Charlotte (NC) Observer. Pete writes: “John is my younger brother. Needless to say, I'm quite proud of him!”
Hamilton nominated as Peru envoy
Observer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- John Hamilton, a Charlotte native and 29-year veteran of the Foreign Service, was nominated Friday by President Clinton to be U.S. ambassador to Peru.
Hamilton, 55, now serves as principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the bureau of Western Hemisphere affairs, which makes him one of the key advisors to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on a region stretching from Canada to Patagonia. Earlier in his career, he served as political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Lima, Peru.
``It's a deep privilege to represent your country abroad and rather humbling news to get,'' Hamilton said Friday. ``Peru is a fascinating country.''
Hamilton joined the Foreign Service in 1970. He has a bachelor's degree from UNC Chapel Hill and a master's degree from Stanford University. He's a 1962 graduate of South Mecklenburg High School, and his mother still lives in Charlotte.
His wife, Donna Hamilton, is the principal deputy assistant secretary in the bureau of consular affairs. They have two daughters: Kathryn, a senior at the University of Virginia; and Erin, a sophomore at Rice.
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A REMINDER FOR FAMILY RESEARCHERS
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 24]
In the March 1999, National Genealogical Society Quarterly on page 31 is an article “Genealogical Treasure in an Account Book: The Identification of Francisco Xavier de Lomba by Claire Mire Bettag, CGRS that is about the identification of a person. The opening paragraph of that article is a good reminder of what should be followed when doing family research.
With the Ewing family, the comments are quite appropriate since we have so many men with the same names. If we get in too big of a hurry, we could get into the incorrect family. The article in this journal about Samuel Ewing is a good example of a person that was placed into the wrong family. But, with continued research, it appears that Guy Ewing has properly identified where his Samuel Ewing belongs.
The following is from the article in NGS journal:
Over and again, genealogical educators emphasize the absolute necessity of thorough research. The now-classic Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy plainly advises: “You search every available source,
and you analyze your evidence with great care.”
Editors of the almost-encyclopedic tome The Source point
out: “All genealogical conclusions must be based on accurately recorded, carefully documented, and
exhaustively analyzed records. No possible clue should be ignored, no stone left unturned.”
The newest
guide to the analysis of records, Evidence!, cautions: “All known records should be used and a thorough
effort made to identify unknown materials. . . . A reliable analysis cannot be made from partial evidence.
Any pertinent record or collection or repository that goes unconsulted is a silent bomb waiting to explode
our premature theories.”
To change the metaphor somewhat: even if the unconsulted record is not a bomb waiting to explode, it may be a gold mine waiting to be excavated.
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EWING CEMETERY INFORMATION IN ILLINOIS
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 25]
ELVASTON CEMETERY, Prairie Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
EWING:
John C., 14 Jan 1798 - 6 Mar 1878, age 80 yr 1 mo 24 da, born in KY
John W., 9 Aug 1828 - 5 Feb 1892, ( son of Enoch (Swago Bill’s son)
Lee, (no dates)
Mary T., 6 Aug 1836 - 15 Jan 1910, wife of John W. Ewing
Isabel, 1 Apr 1803 - 7 Dec 1874, wife of John C. Ewing
John C., d. 28 Jan 1867, age 7 days, son of R. W. & E. J. Ewing
McKAY CEMETERY, Pilot Grove Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
EWING:
Edward Grover, d. 13 Jan 1938, age 55 yr 8 mo 12 da (no stone)
Eliza, d. 21 June 1882, age 43 yrs 9 mo
Hettie, 1857-1 Apr 1946, age 88 y 3 mo 4 da
Jacob, [17 Aug] 1802-25 Feb 1878, (son of Swago Bill & Mary McNeil Ewing)
William Randall, 1851-15 Apr 1924, age 72 yr 4 mo 9 da, (son of Charles & Angeline Baccus Ewing)
NOTE: Many other Ewings are buried in McKay Cemetary that are not on this list.
PONTOOSUC CEMETERY, Pontoosuc Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
EWING:
Margaret, 1862-1946, wife of George W. Ewing
TULL CEMETERY, Pontoosuc Township, Hancock County, Illinois.
EWING:
Maggie M., 25 Nov 1867 - 9 Mar 1897
Ruth T., 21 Mar 1888 - 1 Jun 1888, (dau of Emma B. & John H. Ewing)
WEBSTER CEMETERY, Ft. Green Township, Hancock County, Illinois
McCUMBER:
Mary A., 12 Dec 1819 - 23 Jan 1874, (wife of W. H. McCumber & dau of Jonathan Ewing)
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QUERIES
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 2 -May 1999, page 26]
Doris Pace Resner, 3124 17th St., Sacramento, CA 95818 asks: What relationship of Julia Ann Ewing to Catherine Cogle Ewing? Julia was b. 14 June 1832 in KY and married Isaac Edward Pendley 8 Feb 1849 in Hopkins Co., KY. Catherine was born c. 1809 and married John Levi Pendley in Jan 1833 in Muhlenberg Co., KY. Any information about either or both of these ladies and their parents and siblings would be greatly appreciated.
Bobbi Hawk, 4812 Rimrock Rd., Billings, MT 59106, E-mail: fryco <at> mcn.net is seeking any information on John Polk Ewing (1844, Hamilton Co., OH-1920, Delaware, OH), sister Mississippi (1844, Hamilton Co., OH--) & bro. John b. near Hamilton Co., OH, sister Missouri EWING was born in Ripley County, IN where the unknown father (d. C1848) & mother, Timandra P. Ewing (c1815-1910), had moved. Timandra P. EWING remarried Benjamin DEAN and they had 4 children, George, Fanny, Leona, and Ida. John Polk EWING married Alice V. WELLS (1851-1910) in 1868 in Ripley Co., IN. children: Addie L. EWING (b 1869), Guy Franklin EWING (1878-1952), and Harry Walter EWING (1886-1962). John swore in writing that he was never told the name of his father. He does not ever record the maiden name of his mother. Any information on John's parents or family would be greatly appreciated. Will share information.
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LETTERS & E-MAIL
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 2]
The information on our James Ewing has yet to be proven. I am still working on trying to find more. The information I received from Dr. Louis Lehman is from his research. The information is also found in Margaret Fife’s book Chapter XXXVII. I also found some of the same information while searching the Scottish Church Records found at the LDS library here. According to the records James Ewing Chr. 26 Nov 1721 at Kilmarnock, Ayr Scotland was the son of James Ewing Chr. 1 Sep 1689 and his wife Helen Gebby Chr. 19 Mar 1693/94. They had nine children and James was the third child of nine. Dr. Lehman states that his connection is their son Hugh Ewing who is the father of his immigrant. He feels that this may be our James and this is who we are looking for but we need to search land records and Wills at Edinburgh, Scotland.
According to the record we found James who was Chr., 1693 was the son of Robert Ewing who married Barbara Smith 24 Nov 1681. It maybe that some of the family we found in New Jersey are of the Hugh Ewing line as one of his sons., James, who was Chr 27 Mar 1755 died 17 May 1806 in New York and was buried at Hopewell R., New Jersey. So for now we can not claim this information has not been proven. It does make sense as this is some of the area we were told that some of our family were from.
I do feel we maybe are getting closer to finding some more of our missing information.
Cabot, Arkansas
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Thank You very much for forwarding to me the information from Margaret Fife’s book and the included research on Jean/Jane Ewing. It is very interesting and I have given it to my father who is especially well versed on our family history.
I look forward to going to the mentioned locations in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware as I often visit relatives down the road in Annapolis.
As well, I’ve learned that a cousin is marrying a Ewing whose family is in Indiana. She will be moving to my cousin’s town of Arlington, Texas. After I introduce myself to her, I shall introduce her to the Clan Ewing.
My many thanks to you for your help. Once I’ve a bit more time I will revisit the acquired research. We spent a day in the Royal Library in Edinburgh looking at other family references though sadly not in pursuit of Ewing. So we will happily require another trip to Scotland in the future.
I commend you on all of your leadership, work, & support for the Ewing name.
New York, NY
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Subject: Church, In: The Funk of Ages
Photo taken when my cousin Glynda Carson Carpenter and I headed up the Natchez Trace to find our roots. We stopped and took photo of historical marker "An Early Presbyterian Church in Texas, organized as Bethel Presbyterian Church at Goodlaw School house by the Rev. Hugh Wilson 2 June 1838 with the following charter members: James, Isabella, Joseph, Martha Sharp (rels of John Sharp); H.G., Peggy, James and Elam Alexander; John, Synta, and Amanda Polk (this is James Knox Polk's rel); Robert and Margaret Tibbets, Elizabeth Ewing, Mary McIver; Polly Nicholson, Elizabeth Dunham, Catherine Dart, Adeline Stoddart, Ann McKnight, and Jack and Hanna Sharp (colored).
My g.g.g.grandfather, Rev. James McDonnold pointed out in an issue of the Texas Presbyterian newspaper that one place the churches were not being responsive was to the single women left to fend for themselves after the Revolution. They had no money to tithe; hence were often unwelcome/unworthy as church members. Looks like there were a few widows in this group.
FTht98 <at> aol.com
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Thanks so much for your quick reply. I am a Florence Porter, whose daughter, Mary/Polly, married Elijah Halsell. As you may or may not know, the Ewing name has figured fairly prominently in parts of the Halsell line - One of Elijah's and Mary's sons, William, named one son John Ewing Halsell, and he was a prominent attorney, judge, mayor, and U.S. Representative from Bowling Green, KY. William's brother, Elijah M., named a son William Ewing Halsell; William Ewing was a very prominent rancher in Texas and Oklahoma, as was his son, Ewing. Ewing Halsell became very wealthy, and a philanthropic organization bearing his name and run by his descendants is located in San Antonio, TX. I wish I was more closely related to his branch of the Halsells, but unfortunately, I am descended from William Halsell instead.
Although I do have other questions regarding the Ewing and related families, I'll save all except one for another message, after I get my questions together. For now, I'm curious about whether there are any fairly reliable and complete histories of the Porter family online. I noticed in the Clan Ewing website how often the Porter name came up, and it seems that a substantial number of Porter descendants followed the Ewings into Kentucky. I would like to see how Florence Porter's father, John, fits in with the Porters that are shown on the Clan Ewing site. I also have a Carrie Porter on down the line that was the third wife of John Ewing Halsell.
Thanks again for your reply, as well as thanks in advance for the material you are sending me.
Twin Falls, ID
ghalsell <at> magiclink.com
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Thanks for note. Pete [Hamilton] is right that I am not a Ewing descendant myself, as far as I know, but the Polks(Pollocks) and Ewings apparently were quite close in early Scotch Irish settlements in this area. I asked Pete the question because I recently was given a copy of letter from a Nathaniel Ewing written to Presidential candidate James K. Polk in 1844 in which Ewing describes the shared family history - how his predecessors had arrived at New Castle in
1727 along with Polks (Pollocks), Porters and Gillespies. They settled initially in Cecil County MD and then moved on to Carlisle in Cumberland Co, PA and later to parts South. Ewing states that this included the great-grand father of JKP, which contradicts the standard Polk family account that JKP's ancestors had arrived earlier (c.1683) to Somerset County and later migrated to Carlisle area of Cumberland County PA in 1720's. The Ewings and Polks stayed together in Cecil and Cumberland, but diverged as they went further South. Ewing mentions that his branch of Ewing family was scattered from Prince Edward Co VA to Knoxville, with a good contingent along New River in Cripple Creek VA. He himself was living in Vincennes Indiana at the time.
This letter can be found in Volume 8 of the Correspondence of JKP (Knoxville; U. of TN Press, 1993). I will send you a copy if you provide mailing address.
I live right next to Cecil County but have not done much checking into Polk records there because I had not thought it was significant before now. My concentration has been on Somerset County. There are not many Polk land records for Cecil, but what I have seen are for tracts located in Octararo area. There were certainly a lot of Scotch -Irish in the area and some of them such as McKnitts, Alexanders, Brevards (Hugenots via Ulster) and Wallaces trace back to an earlier arrival in Somerset, at the time when Rev Francis Makemie brought the first organized Presbyterian church to America. I am sure there were family connections between the earlier Somerset County contingent and those that arrived in 1720's.
The names of the boats that you mentioned have a curious interest - the "Eagle Wing" was the same name of ship used in a very early (1636) attempt by the few Presbyterians ministers then in Ulster, and some of their followers, to leave their conflicts behind and head for America. They were driven back by storms and forced back to Scotland, later to return to Ireland and re-establish Presbyterian faith there. "Rising Sun" is of course the name of a town in Cecil county right in the area of the Nottingham Acres where many Scotch Irish settled - I have never heard about where the name came from but will definitely ask. There were Ewings, Porters and Gillespies in this area - per History of Cecil County by Johnston.
I would be very glad to find out more about the Ewing and the other families in the Cecil County settlements. If you have details or references that you could point me towards I would be most grateful. I go every Saturday to MD Archives to research the original colonial records and will look into whatever I can find relative to this issue. If you need me to check into something for you, please let me know.
I will look for copy of "Clan Ewing of Scotland" at MD Historical Society when I get there next. If you could possibly send a copy of the relevant pages about the 1727 arrival I would be very grateful.
908 Lapidum Rd
Havre de Grace, MD 21078
Apolk <at> aol.com
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Your letter (which included a photocopy from the Colonial Williamsburg catalog) of June 24th was referred to me. The house which you indicated is indeed the Ewing House. It was owned by Ebenezer Ewing in the late 18th century. As the property records do not survive, I am unable to be more specific. We know that Ewing was a Scotsman and died in 1795. A transcription of Ewing's will shows that he left the house to his wife, Elizabeth Ashton and his son, Thomas.I can send you photocopies from the Ewing House Historical Report ($1 per page up to 25 pages) or you can borrow the book (in microfiche format) from us through your local library using interlibrary loan. The report was written in 1965 by Mary Stephenson, CW Research Report 1024.
If you would like to purchase a photograph of the house, contact Marianne Martin, Visual Resources Librarian (mmartin <at> cwf.org, 757-565-8540) for more information.
If I can be of any more assistance, please let me know.
Public Services Librarian
John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Williamsburg, Virginia 23815-1776
jclark <at> cwf.org
[Editor’s Note: I received a page from a catalog that was advertising the small houses, and one of the houses was identified as a Ewing house. The above explains which Ewing house it is. I do not have any information about Ebenezer Ewing. Can anyone shed any light on this family?]
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MESSAGE FROM THE CHANCELLOR
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 5]
Greetings from the rock-bound coast of Maine. Peggy and I are enjoying the cool (well, cooler than the sweltering heat inland) sea breezes and various members of our family and friends who are in the area or come to visit.
While here I have been catching up on some of my Clan studies and Ewing reading and have been increasingly impressed by the latest of our Clan-member literary endeavors, Jim McMichael’s new work Alexander Ewing (1676/7-1738) & Descendants: Ireland to America in 1727. It is 647 pages of concentrated names, dates, facts, and extensive stories and photographs regarding the background, family and descendants of Jim’s immigrant ancestor Alexander, including 54, 3-column, pages of index to all the persons covered in the book. It is a most worthy addition to the recent excellent works by our former Chancellor Margaret Fife and by Betty Carson and Doris Wooley.
My own efforts are pale in comparison to theirs. I have been trying to find a connection back to Scotland for any of the Ewings who came to America before 1776 either directly from Scotland or from Ireland, and I have been trying to make sense of the origin of our name. With regard to the latter, my present opinion is best exemplified by a short article in the Summer 1999 Newsletter of the Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society by its Editor Edna Stark, which discusses the name SINCLAIR. It mentions that clan books always state that the name comes from the east of Scotland, but that many Sinclairs come from Argyll in the west and have no connection whatever with the east coast Sinclairs. Apparently the name of those in the west is an Anglicization of a Gaelic name.
Similarly, the existence of separate lines of Highland and Lowland Ewings may be explained by the Anglicization of the names Ewen, Ewan, etc. as the members of Clan Ewen scattered across Scotland (from Argyll) after the breakup of their clan in the 15th century. The name Ewing was known in the Lowlands long prior to then, and as the writing and spelling of names became more standardized many which sounded like Ewing were given that familiar spelling, although the carriers of those names may not have descended from the same stock as the earlier Ewings at all. (Citing the research done in Scotland for Clan Ewing, Jim McMichael gives a good example in his book (p. 5) of the flexibility in the spelling of names in the olden days. In November 1603 the Stirling Council Minutes recorded the name of Thomas Ewing, while on the same day his name was spelled Zoung [pronounced then as Young] in the Guildry Minutes.)
Our President Jill Spitler and her hard-working committee are putting together a great program of group discussion and story-telling time combined with an introduction to the significance of southern Ohio in the lives of our Ewing forebears for our Family Gathering next year, so I hope that all of you are setting aside September 21-24, 2000 to join us in Lancaster, Ohio. Plan to arrive a couple of days early if you want to exchange research findings with other Clan members and examine some of the local genealogical information which will be available. I hope to greet many of you there. Remember, it is not necessary to be a dues-paying member of the Clan to attend our Gatherings, so encourage all of your relatives who may be interested to come as well. Registration materials will be sent out next spring to all on our mailing list and to anyone else requesting them.
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PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY COURT BOOKLET
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 7]
Source: Virginia Public Claims - Prince Edward County, complied and transcribed by Janice L. Abercrombie, Iberian Publishing Company, Athens, Georgia. Thanks to Pearle C. Woods for sending the this information.
The following are the specie prices settled by the court of Prince Edward County on certificates for property impressed or taken for public use. [for Continental use unless otherwise specified]
Stud horse not to exceed £100
geldings not to exceed £100
work and common riding horses for £5 to £35
waggon teams and driver found by the public per 2s
do. Found by the owner per 12s-6
waggon without team per day 2s-6
cart and oxen per day 10s
bacon per # 1s
pork per # 3p
grass beef per hundred weight £1
stalled beef per hundred weigh £1-13-4
wheat per bushel 4s
flower per hundred weight 16s-8
Indian corn per barrel 10s
oats per bushes [bushel?] 1s-6
corn, fodder, and hay per hundred weight 3s
brandy per gallon 3s
whiskey per gallon 6s
muskets and rifle guns from 50s to £6
flower barrels each 2s
collectors and drovers of public beaves each day 5s
pasturage public beaves per day 1p
salted pork per # 8p
Frans. Watkins DC
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Editor's Fireside Chat
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 8]
Over the past year or so since I have been on the Internet, I have received a lot of correspondence by e-mail. Many of those messages have contained genealogical information. Some help and some confuse the situation or the information about a certain family. Some of the information that I receive needs to be passed on to our members. Therefore, in the future, I will be putting more of the messages that contain genealogical and family information in the journal. Hopefully, the information will help some and will stir the interest in some that will produce more results from their research efforts.
I continue to get correspondence that deals with the Ewing and Porter families. With the small amount of research that I have done on the Porter family, I think that I can safely say that a number of Porter families lived close to the Ewing families and we do not really know where all of the Porters are from. A question that comes to mind every so often is “does the Porter family hold some of the solutions to some of the Ewing families?”
Also, as evidenced by the e-mail message from John Polk, printed on above, indicates that family is closely associated with the Ewing family. The letter mentioned in that message will be printed in the November journal. This message indicates to me that we never know where we might find Ewing information.
In the past, we have given information about where some of the files of John Gillespie Ewing are stored. Most likely there are files of other Ewing researchers or researchers in general stored in places that we do not know about but are accessible.
To solve some of the questions that can be raised about the overall Ewing family, we will need every piece of information that is stored in that unknown box of information or roll of microfilm.
How can we uncover some of the lost information without it being a burden on one, two, or three people. Since e-mail allows contact with any number of people with one message, let me challenge you to discuss with your friends, relatives, fellow researchers, about ways that some of the unknown information may be discovered and made available to our members.
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WORRIES ABOUT THE WEB
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 9]
My father was wont to say, "Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you read." While that statement was somewhat of an exaggeration, there is a warning in it for all of us, particularly where the World Wide Web and the Internet are concerned. There is a lot of garbage floating around in cyberspace, and as much of it is in the genealogy area as in any other. Anyone with a modem and a server can publish whatever he or she wants and put it into circulation. There is no central control, not even in Washington, of the accuracy of anything that is on the net.
Example - One of my ancestral lines is a Massachusetts family by the name of Badger, and I have been doing some research on it in the New England Historic and Genealogical Society as well as on the Internet. According to a book written by a Badger in 1909 Giles Badger and His Descendants and various primary sources, that Giles1 Badger (abt 1620-1647) had a son John (1643-1691) who was married twice and had ten children. According to one Internet site ("Ben Noffsinger's Genealogy Page") the original Giles1 had two sons John and Giles2 who were born on the same day, married the same two women in the same order on the same days, and died on the same day; and that Internet site attributes all the ten children to Giles2!
We make every effort to be sure Clan Ewing's Website and the links which are attached to it are accurate, but anyone who has been involved for any length of time in genealogical research knows full well that the further back you get in time the more indefinite and conflicting the information is and the more likely it is that further research or a different interpretation of the same information will show earlier assumptions to have been mistaken.
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JAMES, WILLIAM, AND ENOCH: THE PATRIARCHS
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 10]
By Wallace K. “Wally” Ewing, Ph.D.
[Ed. Note: This is a portion of a brief history of a Ewing family written in four segments and each segment can be read separately. This narrative is based primarily on the journals, diaries, and plentiful correspondence that the family maintained over the decades. Enoch Ewing is the son of William and William is a son of James Ewing of Pocahontas.]
Very little is known of the earliest Ewings, although it is clear that James Ewing emigrated to America from northern Ireland in about 1740, probably at the age of 18 or 20. Possibly he was born in northern Ireland, or he may have grown up in Scotland and later moved to Ireland, and then to his home in the new world. In Scotland the family name was MacEwen, a clan that lived north of the Firth of Clyde and about 35 miles west of Glasgow. However, as early as 1513 the MacEwen lands were ceded by royal edict to the Campbell Clan, and the MacEwens dispersed to other areas.
Any comments about James Ewing’s origin would be pure speculation. Even his port of arrival in America cannot be ascertained, nor do we know whom he married. There is concrete evidence that in April, 1746 James had a survey done of 245 acres of land where the Muddy Run Creek flows into the Jackson River near Warm Springs, Bath County, Virginia. It is probable, though not definite, that all of James Ewing’s children were born on this site. Legend says that James remarked, upon seeing American corn for the first time, “’Tis a fine straight stalk, but cruel light grain.” Although James was a hunter and trapper, he also undoubtedly raised corn and other crops and had livestock.
James married after he arrived in America. The couple’s first-born child was Jeanet Ann, called Jennie or Ann, in 1740 or 1741, followed in 1745 by another daughter, Susan Jean (or Susan Jane), then John on December 27, 1747, a third daughter sometime after that, and finally a second son, William, born on December 24, 1756. There are hints of a fourth daughter, but nothing conclusive has been found to verify her existence.
On occasion James’s hunting expeditions took him west into the Allegheny Mountains, and he liked what he saw there. About 1760 James sold his land on the Jackson River, now grown to 254 acres, and moved his family deep into the mountainous area around Marlinton, Pocahontas County, in present-day West Virginia. The family settled on land bordered by Ewing’s Creek, later renamed Knapp’s Creek, which flowed into the larger Greenbrier River.
West Virginia separated from Virginia in 1863, when a majority of the residents living there sided with the North and voted to form their own state. It was at this site that James had an adventure which has survived the years. One day two men stopped at the Ewing cabin and asked for something to eat. James’s wife was happy to oblige, hospitality being part of the frontier spirit. James had left earlier in the day for some apparently routine business, leaving behind his wife and his prized flintlock. While the visitors were eating one of them spotted the flintlock and decided he would like to have it for his own—without payment. Mrs Ewing protested, but there was little she could do to stop men who were not above taking advantage of her friendliness and openness. When James returned later that day and learned of the theft, he concluded quickly that the two men probably were part of the notorious “Shockley Gang,” which had been rustling cattle, thieving, and generally terrorizing the mountainside. James loaded his shotgun with buckshot and used his hunting experience and familiarity with the mountain trails to follow and find the thieves. Toward evening he overtook them as they were preparing camp for the night, convinced they were safe from pursuit. Quietly James re-primed his shotgun, to ensure a clean shot, and stepping up to the campsite he demanded his flintlock. Shockley responded by raising the stolen gun to his shoulder and aiming it at James, who just as quickly brought his shotgun to firing position. James’s gun discharged, but Shockley’s weapon misfired and he fell dead with a charge of buckshot in his chest. The two men were so close to each other that Shockley’s neck cloth was burned by the powder from the shot that killed him. James’s appearance and the gun fight happened so quickly that the second thief did not have time to get to a gun, but instead he jumped on James, who found himself in a hand-to-hand battle of survival. James ended the fight by using his hunting knife to cause a fatal wound to the man’s neck. He gathered his two firearms, called it a day, and returned to his cabin. There are conflicting stories about whether or not James collected the reward of several hundred dollars that had been on Shockley’s head. One version says he did, the other says he declared it was reward enough to retrieve his gun and get rid of the two “pesky varmints.”
From 1770 to 1791 there is no record of James’s life. In 1791 he received a grant of 1,000 acres of land, possibly as a reward for military service. If so, a record of his service has not been uncovered. In any event, some years later James sold the acreage for $400 to James Searight of Augusta County. Unfortunately James had to sue to get his money, and by 1799 he had two other law suits pending. The cause of each is unknown, but both were dismissed by the court, although the same litigants were named two years later as having accounts outstanding against the estate of James Ewing, in addition to similar claims against Mr Searight and a John Duffield.
James did not leave a will, but since his estate was inventoried on July 14, 1801, it’s reasonable to say he died at least a few months before that date. The complete inventory consisted of:
One bay horse
One saddle
One shot gun and bag
Drawing knife
Hand saw
Fur hat
Ax
Buttons
Great coat
Two shirts
One pair overalls
Cloth coat and jacket
One pair blankets
One pack handkerchiefs
Total value: 26.29 pounds
No record has been found regarding the death of James’s wife. She remains a mystery.
When James’s son John was 15, he visited his married sister, Jennie Ann Clendenin, at the family’s cabin, about one-half mile west of [current day] Lewisburg, West Virginia. There, on July 15, 1763, five months after the formal conclusion of the French and Indian War, he was captured by Indians during a Shawnee raid, led by Chief Cornstalk, as part of Pontiac’s War. Cornstalk was chief of the Shawnee tribe whose principal villages were on the Scioto River in Ohio. In that summer month, Cornstalk’s band crossed the Ohio River, sank their canoes at the mouth of the Kanawha River near Point Pleasant, and traveled by foot approximately 160 miles across present-day West Virginia, and came upon the settlements at Muddy Creek. There the Indians began their raids, killing some of the settlers, selecting desirable household items, and making prisoners of the women and children. The next day they came upon the Clendenin land. Clendenins had not heard of troubles with the Indians, and Archibald considered their visit a friendly one, although his wife claimed to be suspicious of their motives because their paint was different from what she had seen before. Her husband assured her that there was no danger. The Clendenin cabin, under a scaffolding to protect her from the hot July sun, Ann was boiling meat and bones from her husband’s recent successful hunt. As she took a plateful of the meat to the Indians for their meal, she heard Archie exclaim, “Lord have mercy on me.” She turned and saw one of the Indians with her husband’s scalp, shaking the blood from it. Ann rushed at the brave, and in a frenzy begged him to kill her, and spit in his face as further provocation. [In] the meantime, John Ewing and two of the Clendenins’ hired hands had been working in the cornfield. Noticing the visitors, the three of them left their work and went to the cabin. John got there just in time to witness his brother-in-law being scalped and to see Ann’s attack on the Indian. As the Indian raised his tomahawk to kill her, John cried out, “Never mind her! She is only a woman.” “Yes,” agreed the Indian, “and she damn fool, too.” But he did release her.
The Indians plundered the cabin, set fire to it, and departed with Ann, her two children, and John. A day or two later Ann escaped from the single-file procession by running off to the side of the trail at an appropriate spot and hiding behind a large rock. Before long the Indians noticed her absence and shouted, “Make the calf bawl and the cow will come.” The baby was killed, but Ann remained hidden and unresponsive, possibly too far away to hear the infant’s cries.
She traveled at night, concealing herself by day. By the second night she was back at her cabin, and in the fading light saw again the bloody desolation. She returned to the safety of the woods and rested until morning, when she found her husband’s body and tried to cover it with earth. Weak from hunger and exhaustion, she was unable to complete the task. Ann continued her walk, living on very little, and eventually met a group of white men about 10 miles from Lewisburg who gave her some food. She finally arrived at the settlement where her parents lived, and stayed with them until she married a John Rodgers a few years later. When the two of them returned to the site of the massacre, she found the meat dish where she had dropped it on that fateful July day.
John and his six-year old niece continued with their Indian captors, hiking to the mouth of the Kanawha River. There the canoes were raised and the party crossed the Ohio River, and in the middle of August they arrived at an Indian village near a salt lick on the Scioto River, about three miles below the present city of Circleville. This village became the captive home for John and the niece. John was adopted by the mother of Wabawasena, or White Otter, the warrior who had taken him prisoner. John had high regard for his captor, who was a young war chief, and considered him “highly intellectual,” and one of the most upright, honest, and honorable men John ever knew. John was given the Indian name “Petercob.” John said that the months of his captivity were as enjoyable as circumstances allowed. He and Pla-Waugh (Turkey), who was John’s age, played together as much as they could. They filched melons, cookies, and sugar, and generally gave the squaws a headache or two. One time his adopted mother accused John of stealing a melon from her patch. He denied it, but was caught in his lie when she took him to the patch and pointed to his tracks, and then to his four-toed foot. As a boy he had lost a toe in an unexplained accident, and thereafter left a distinctive footprint. Being proven a liar and a thief was punishment enough, and that episode ended John’s days as a petty thief.
John was an apt learner and quickly picked up the Shawnee language. One day he was asked to explain the Bible to Thobqueb (Hole-in the-Day), a council chief. Thobqueb was said to be over 100 years old and reputed to be wise and eloquent. When told that God created man, Thobqueb asked whether it was a red man or a white man. John replied that it probably was a white, to which Thobqueb exclaimed, “I don’t believe the Great Spirit made the poor, ignorant white man before he did the red man!” John also had difficulty explaining the great flood. He used the Shawnee word “canoe” for “ark,” giving its size and the number of people and animals put on board. The old chief remarked, “Now you know that’s a lie. There never was a tree big enough to make such a canoe as that.”
A Bible wasn’t all the Indians obtained from the white settlement. They also had their first experience with small pox. John’s adopted mother and sister were among the victims. When John felt he was coming down with the disease, he went a short distance from the village, cut down a large hickory tree, made a fire from it, and wrapped himself in a buffalo robe and blanket. Feeding on roasted squash and cold spring water, he passed the critical period with scarcely a mark to mar his features. He said he never found a better remedy for small pox.
Nearly two years after his capture, John was returned to a white settlement at Fort Pitt, now the location of Pittsburgh. When he discovered his niece Jane was not among the returned captives, he went back to Ohio and the Indian village where she had been sent. The Indians teased him on his return, saying he preferred Indian life to the white man’s ways. John found Jane, sitting on a pile of bearskins, plump, tanned, and content with her Indian life. She later said she would have been just as happy if her uncle had left her with the Indians.
On April 22, 1774, John married 23-year old Ann Smith, a native of Ireland. John and Ann settled on 195 acres of land on Stony Creek near Marlinton, West Virginia, and they raised 10 children. John was always known as “Indian John” after his return from captivity. Frontier nicknames, such as “Indian John” and “Swago Bill,” were useful in distinguishing people with identical names, which wasn’t uncommon then.
That same year, 1774, William obtained by “tomahawk” rights 745 acres on Swago Creek, not far from his brother. The pioneers claimed land by walking the perimeter of the acreage they wanted and marking—presumably with a tomahawk—appropriate trees on the boundaries. After living on the land ten years and never being asked to leave, the settlers could consider the land their own. A later survey and grant of the land, dated January 1, 1795, and signed by Robert Brooke, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, gave official title to William. He became known as “Swago Bill,” for the creek which flowed over the land. William built a small cabin near the foot of the Swago. He married, and as his family increased he built a second home, this one a larger, two-story structure about a mile away. The land was considered good for farming, with some rough, hilly topography, including limestone cliffs and scattered rocks.
On October 10, 1774 William participated in the Battle of Point Pleasant. Sometimes regarded as the first fight of the Revolutionary War, the successful outcome of the battle subdued the Indians along the outlying settlements for at least two years. It was part of a larger undertaking called Lord Dunmore’s War. Lord Dunmore at this time was governor of the Colony of Virginia. Concerned about the increasingly defiant spirit of the colonists, Lord Dunmore looked for a distraction by declaring war on the Indians. Two militia units were formed. One, under the command of Colonel Andrew Lewis, marched along the Kanawha River in present-day West Virginia to its juncture with the Ohio River, not far from Point Pleasant, there to wait for Lord Dunmore and his unit. Together the two units would cross the Ohio and march into Indian territory.
Swago Bill, only 17 years old, enlisted in Captain Stuart’s company, part of the regiment commanded by Colonel Lewis. The company formed at Camp Union, not far from the site of the Clendenin Massacre, near Lewisburg. Except for a few of the officers, the men wore no uniforms. Instead, they wore the hunting shirts, leather leggings, and fur caps typical of the pioneers. They carried either flintlocks or muskets, bullet pouches, hunting knives, and tomahawks.
As Lewis’s unit waited for Lord Dunmore’s arrival approximately 1,000 Indians, under the leadership of Chief Cornstalk, began to mass unseen on the other side of the Ohio, and were able to cross the river without being detected. They were discovered only by accident when two militiamen were out foraging and happened upon the Indians’ encampment. One of the two militiamen was killed in the shots that ensued, but the other was able to return to his post near sunrise. About 150 of Lewis’s troops went out in search of their enemy, but before they had gone a half mile from camp they were attacked by a much larger force of Indians. The American forces fought in Indian fashion, keeping as much as possible behind trees, logs, or anything that provided protection. William was behind a tree when another soldier, rushing for cover, pushed him from his position and took it for himself. Instantaneously the soldier fell dead, shot through the head by an Indian bullet. William would have received the shot if he had not so unceremoniously been shoved aside. Under the impression that Lord Dunmore’s troops had arrived on the battle scene, the Indians retreated to the other side of the Ohio River. By the end of the battle, eighty-one Americans were killed, and, according to one estimate, 233 Indians. Because of the battle, Lewis had to delay his excursion into Indian country for a week. During that delay the Indians approached Lord Dunmore seeking peace. Among the terms of the treaty was a stipulation that no white people should be allowed to hunt on the north side of the Ohio River. Most of the militiamen, including Swago Bill, returned to their homes immediately following the treaty.
Three years later he was back at Point Pleasant, a member of Captain Matthew Arbuckle’s company of militiamen. Arbuckle and his troops had been ordered to Point Pleasant, to police the frontier in that area and to construct a fort, replacing Fort Blair, which had burned down for unknown reasons. The Revolutionary War was well underway, and the Indians, including Chief Cornstalk, were recruited easily by the British. On November 10, subsequent to an attack on a small contingent of militia men, the chief, his son, and two other Indians, who earlier had been taken prisoner, were being held at the fort. William was guarding the prisoners when a mob of angry soldiers rushed the fort with the intent of avenging the death of one of their comrades, and they threatened to kill William, too, if he interfered. Swago Bill protested the impending massacre, but was unsuccessful. Three of the captives were shot to death and, according to the report, one was “mangled.” The soldiers who had a hand in the murders were brought to trial, but all were acquitted.
It appears that William’s two years at Point Pleasant comprised the extent of his Revolutionary War experiences. Neither family folklore nor written records place him anywhere else. However, in 1783 he had another experience with the Indians, who were trying one last time to stem the flow of whites into the Greenbrier Valley, home to the Ewings and many other settlers in West Virginia. Still a bachelor, William got word that Indians were in the vicinity. He left the work he was doing and took himself and his team to the fort, six or eight miles away. A day or two went by with no incidents, and Swago Bill decided to return to his home to see if everything was in order. He retrieved the plow he had left in the field, and headed to his cabin when he heard some menacing noises. Looking up, he saw three gun barrels pointed at him and heard three clicks in rapid succession. Each gun had misfired. William dropped the plow and ran as fast as he could, with the Indians in close pursuit. After going over a crest of a hill, he veered off the path, dodged into the woods a short distance, and hid behind a benevolent tree. The Indians ran by his hiding place, and never were the wiser. Swago Bill continued through the woods on his journey to the fort, where he stayed for a few more days. The Indian threat seemed to evaporate, and the settlers returned to their homes.
By now the Greenbrier River area was becoming well populated. Among the Ewings’ neighbors was the McNeill family, including little Mary. Born on Christmas Day, 1771, Mary was not quite 14 years old and William was five weeks short of 29 when they were wedded in nearby Lewisburg, West Virginia on November 16, 1785. They set up housekeeping at William’s cabin on the Swago Creek, and 15 months later their first born arrived, a daughter they named Elizabeth. By 1807 William and Mary had ten sons and two daughters, two more children than Indian John and his wife, Ann Smith, could claim. Among William and Mary’s children was Enoch, born on July 31, 1799 at the Ewing home on Swago Creek, near Buckeye, West Virginia, where all of their children were born. Enoch took his Christian name from the McNeill side of the family. Elizabeth, 12 years older than Enoch, acted as a second mother to him and the other young ones. Almost every farm within a five mile radius was owned by a relative of Enoch.
Alvin E. Ewing (“AE”) visited the West Virginia homestead in 1903 and described his grandfather’s early environment this way:
When Enoch was old enough to study the world from the outside of the cabin, he found the front door opening toward the noon sun. In front ran a ravine, from the banks of which, not 10 rods (165') away, bubbled a beautiful spring of water. He saw a well-beaten path leading to and from this spring of water, and he was accustomed to seeing his mother and older brothers and sisters carry water to the house. There was a mill house close by. Surrounding the cabin was a large clearing and fields were cultivated, for the father had lived there some 25 years before Enoch’s arrival. Enoch could see the mountains on nearly all sides and it became an early fixed ambition to see the top of them. There was only one direction the family could go without climbing a mountain and that was the way to the mill. The ravine in front of the cabin led to the valley of Swago, a little creek emptying into the Greenbrier (River) half a mile away. On the banks of the Swago, near Greenbrier, was the mill of Enoch’s Uncle Jonathan McNeill, who was also a weaver and maker of powder.
Enoch received only two terms of formal schooling, and that was in West Virginia when he attended a private subscription school, where parents paid a teacher so much per pupil per term. In addition, AE noted, it was common for ministers to assist young people in learning how to read and write. Whatever the means, both Enoch and Susannah learned their ABCs.
AE was nearly twenty-two years old when his grandfather Enoch died, and he had vivid memories of the man. A.E. continued:
As a boy Enoch learned to handle the rifle, and even did some hunting with his father and older brothers. But above all, he learned the lesson of industry. He knew the utility of the hoe in maturing a crop of corn, and he never, to his dying day, forgot it. It was hoe, hoe, hoe. I have seen him at 80 years old laboriously attack a bunch of weeds in a corn patch after the corn was matured and ready for the stock. It was not so much that he loved the corn, but that he hated the weeds on general principles. I have worked many a day with him simply because I was ashamed not to. I could not bear the looks of my own laziness sitting in the shade while Grandfather worked so hard in the hot sun. But he was as enduring on a cold day as on a hot one, and we boys used to husk corn with him late in the fall when our fingers were literally numb with cold rather than see him do the work alone, for no argument was strong enough to induce him to quit as long as there was anything to be done.
Enoch also told his grandson about a childhood event which took place when he was four years old. While he and his sister Elizabeth were walking to the barn on the Swago Creek homestead to milk the cows, Enoch saw in a fence corner a yellowish object, which he thought was a bunch of dried leaves. He was about to pick up the colorful posy when Elizabeth realized it was a coiled rattlesnake. Alert to the danger, she jerked Enoch away, placed one hand on the top rail of the fence, jumped over, found a piece of wood to use as a club, leaped back over the fence, and dispatched the snake.
The Ordinance of 1787, establishing the Northwest Territory and encompassing six eventual states, had been implemented and the westward expansion of the United States was well underway. In the spring of 1810 Swago Bill and Mary decided to join Indian John and his family and many of their neighbors who had moved nine years earlier to the western part of Gallia County, across the Ohio River from Point Pleasant, where government land could be bought for $2.00 an acre. William’s aim was to get out of the mountains and procure more arable land for his ever-growing family.
The Ewing train covering the difficult 160 miles consisted of three covered wagons fitted out with living quarters, 12 horses, and several head of sheep, swine, and cows. They carried the provisions necessary for the trail, as well as the equipment and tools they would need to build a new home. They built rafts at Point Pleasant and made several trips to ferry their train across the Ohio. The journey was not over when they regrouped on the northern shore, since their final destination was a bend on the Raccoon River in Section 11 of Huntington Township, about 20 miles farther north. At home there, Enoch once again was surrounded by Ewings, McNeill, Radabaughs, and other family members, including his best friend, William McNeill. Billy, the son of Enoch’s uncle Gabriel McNeill, was four months older than Enoch. As boys, they played together on Swago Creek and continued their friendship after both families moved to Ohio.
Gabriel, an interesting and enterprising fellow in his own right, was a self-trained medical doctor, minister, Jackson County’s first surveyor, and dabbler in many other enterprises. He often was referred to as Doctor McNeill. He and his family settled in Madison Township, not far from the Ewing farm. The McNeills sometimes spelled their last name McNeil, McNeal, or McNeel.
William and Mary had left their home on the Swago without selling it, but on December 1, 1812 it passed into the hands of Sampson Matthews for “$1,200 current money of the State of Virginia.” Two pieces of red sandstone from the chimney of the house on Swago Creek remain in the Ewing family today. Swago Bill and his family were settled in by early July, 1810, the date of the first election of the newly formed Huntington Township, which William and his son Thomas attended.
William had bought the entire northeast quarter of Section 11, 160 acres in all, at $2.00 an acre, payable at a rate of $80 down and $80 a year until paid. On July 22, 1817 he received a grant, signed by President James Monroe, which acknowledged payment in full. Son Thomas bought an adjoining 80 acres. The task that faced William and Thomas was awesome, but typical for the frontier settlers: to convert to farmland 240 acres of dense woods. Trees were cut, stumps pulled, brush burned, and the job was done. They fashioned the trees into usable lumber for home, outbuildings, and fences. The land became meadow, crops were planted, and the house was ready for occupancy by the spring of 1812, allowing the family to vacate the temporary structure they had lived in for two years. The permanent structure was a two-story building, made of hewn logs and with a stone chimney. It was on this site, Section 11 of Huntington Township, Gallia County, that Enoch spent his formative years, close to many relatives and friends.
Like his older brothers, Enoch worked at Keystone Furnace just over the line in neighboring Jackson County, chopping wood to be made into charcoal for the smelting furnaces. He also had a job working for Major John Cantrell. As a grandson of Charles Clendenin, after whom Charleston, West Virginia was named, Cantrell was related also to Archibald Clendenin, Charles’s brother, who was killed in the Clendenin Massacre of 1763. The major lived on the Point Pleasant side of the Kanawha River in present-day West Virginia. He had a large estate, with plenty of slaves and hired hands working for him.
One day Cantrell sent Enoch and a young slave to the other side of the Kanawha for a special task that required their attention. When they reached the middle of the Kanawha, a sizeable river, the Negro threw down his oar and refused to paddle any more. That violated Enoch’s sense of fair play, and he swung his paddle at the African-American, knocking him overboard. Enoch rescued the man, who then applied himself diligently to the job of rowing, but swore to tell Major Cantrell of Enoch’s actions, causing the young Ewing to fear he might lose his job. When Enoch and his partner returned to the Cantrell farm, the Major was the first person they met, and he soon learned from the black man what Enoch had done. When Enoch started to explain his side of the story, Major Cantrell said, “No explanation necessary. I saw the whole performance, and you did just the right thing. I would have done the same.”
By 1819 or 1820, barely 20 years old, Enoch had left his parents’ homestead and owned some land of his own, including a house and lot, three calves, and some cattle, in addition to the two horses. About the same time records show that he was taxed for his personal goods at the rate of 30 cents the first year for one horse and an undisclosed amount the second year for two horses, evidently the only possessions subject to the levy.
Two years later, on October 7, 1822, Swago Bill died, leaving 120 acres of land back on the
Swago to Enoch. His wife, Mary, continued to run the farm, but in 1840 she left her home of 28
years and moved in with son Andrew and his wife. In 1852, at age 81, Mary pulled stakes
completely and moved with Andrew and his family by wagon train to Iowa and five years later to
Missouri. There, at age 86, Mary McNeill Ewing died in June, 1858. In 1913 A.E. Ewing, a
great-grandson, started a campaign
to raise money for a memorial to “the greatest little
grandmother.” The granite monument was placed next to her husband’s on the nearby Thomas
Ewing farm in Ohio. The town of Ewington, Ohio was named for Swago Bill. Indian John died in
the same geographic area on December 23, 1824.
The many neighbors surrounding the Ewing lands was the Radabaugh family. Henry and Catherine Radabaugh had 11 children, including Susannah, who was born in West Virginia and was about Enoch’s age. Enoch and Susanna had known each other since they were 13, but it wasn’t until Enoch was about 20 years old that their acquaintance deepened into something more. On one occasion Enoch was on horseback traveling the main road to visit the McNeill home in Madison Township. As he was riding, a dog came into his path, barking, growling, and threatening the horse and rider that were invading its territory. Enoch’s horse reared up, throwing the young man from his saddle. Luckily Enoch wasn’t seriously injured, but he had to be carried to the nearest house where he was put to bed and nursed. That house happened to be the home of the widow Catherine Radabaugh, and Enoch’s nurse was the young Susannah. Enoch began to think the fall wasn’t altogether a bad thing.
Susannah’s ancestors had resided in the Palatinate, an area on the west side of the Rhine River. They may have been Hugenots. Heinrich Radabaugh, with his wife and one-year old son Adam, left Rotterdam aboard the Glasgow and disembarked at Philadelphia on September 9, 1738. The young family settled in Berks County, outside of Philadelphia, where Adam grew up. About 1757 Adam married Barbara, last name unknown, and a few years later he and his wife followed other German colonists to present day West Virginia. Their land was on the South Fork of the South Branch River, seven or eight miles east of Petersburg, West Virginia, in what eventually became Hardy County. Radabaugh Run in that vicinity was named for him.
Between 1758 and 1772 Adam and Barbara had eight children, including a son named Henry. The exact date isn’t known, but it appears that Henry married Catherine Buzzard in about 1780, when Henry was 20 and Catherine 19. Catherine was the daughter of Henry Buzzard and Elizabeth Alt. The newly weds settled on land near Catherine’s parents, close to North Mill Creek in Hampshire County, West Virginia, where they are listed in the census of 1782. In 1785 Catherine and Henry stayed with her parents when they moved to Highland County, Virginia. Catherine’s father died about 1790, and ten years later she and Henry were located on Anthony’s Creek in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. There Henry and Catherine had their eighth child, a girl they named Susannah, born on October 22, 1800. Two more children were born after Susannah.
Henry and Catherine moved a bit westward to Sinking Creek. There they met the families of Joseph Horton and Azariah Jenkins. Evidently all three families moved to Jackson County, West Virginia at the same time. In 1811 the three families made their final move, ending up in Jackson County, Ohio. There Henry Radabaugh bought 84 acres, the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 3, Madison Township, perhaps ten or twelve miles from the Ewing homestead in adjacent Huntington Township. Henry died at his new home about 1820, or perhaps a year earlier, and Catherine became the head of the household, with at least four children still at home. She died on July 20, 1851 at age 90.
That was the situation in 1820 when Enoch was taken into the Radabaugh house to heal. After a few days of nursing he was able to leave, but he continued to call on Susannah from time to time. They were married in Jackson County by Uncle Gabe on December 20, 1821. The bride and groom probably resided with her mother until 1827, when Enoch began to think about building a place of his own. He had not forgotten the 120 acres in West Virginia which he had inherited from his father. He returned there in 1826 to see about selling it, and found a willing buyer in William McNeill at $1.00 per acre. Enoch took a gun valued at $15.00 as part payment. Billy described the land as “one mile up and three miles back.” That same year Enoch and Catherine and the other Radabaugh heirs sold their interest in her father’s land in Madison Township to Catherine’s oldest brother, Henry, Jr. On April 16, 1827 Enoch was able to buy 80 acres in Section 2, Jefferson Township, just east of Madison Township, from Samuel Radabaugh, who had bought a larger piece from the government. Immediately, Enoch began construction of a house on a hill, very close to Franklin Township. As the family grew, the house was enlarged, so that the last three children never were sure in which township they were born.
In 1836 Enoch added 40 acres to the north end of his original plat, and not long afterward he bought an additional 40 acres of government land north of that. Enoch had heard that a neighbor was interested in this latter parcel. One day he set out for what appeared to be a casual stroll, but instead he walked the entire 30 or 40 miles to the land office in Chillicothe to make his claim. There he was informed by the agent that a technicality prevented him from buying the land in his own name, so he used the name of his first-born son, and for the price of $50.41. Isaac became [a] landowner before the neighbor knew what happened. By the time that transaction was completed, Enoch had a parcel of land a mile long and a quarter of a mile wide, amounting to160 acres, or a quarter section, in all. Isaac deeded the land back to his father on September 20, 1852. Enoch was a hunter, as were all the early mountain settlers. One day he was hunting with his brother-in-law, George Dodrill, husband of William and Mary’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth. George and Enoch had taken separate but proximate trails, when Enoch heard a gun shot and knew that George had found game. In a moment or two he heard a call from George appealing for help. Enoch rushed to George’s side, where he found his brother-in-law wrestling with a wounded deer. George thought he had made the kill. Laying down his gun he took out his hunting knife and prepared to complete the kill. As George was reaching for the deer’s throat, it suddenly reared up and began to fight for its life. George’s shot had only stunned the deer, not killed it. With a swipe of one hoof the deer had disarmed Dodrill of his hunting knife and almost sliced the hunter in two. George was barely able to hold down the buck, and certainly could not let go. Enoch was able to put an end to the matter by quick use of his hunting knife, and George got his venison.
Enoch and Susannah’s ten children were born between 1822 and 1844. Charlotte was the first, born on November 1, 1822; then Isaac on April 1, 1825; Jenetta on June 8, 1827, John Wilson July 22, 1828; William Jordan on September 14, 1831; Andrew Adam on November 13, 1833; James Leander on December 28, 1835; Elizabeth Parilla on May 28, 1838; and Henry McKendree on May 15, 1841. The last child, Emily Jane, died in 1848 at the age of four.
Religion was an important part of life to Enoch and Susannah. In Jackson County, Ohio, Enoch had started a Sunday School for all the young people in the neighborhood. He was secretary of the church, and his account ledger covering the years 1833 to 1849 includes many familiar names, many of them linked to the Ewings: McNeel/McNeill, Radabaugh, Jenkins, Arthur, Ewing, Yeager, and Cherington.
Enoch and Susannah’s religious convictions were felt at home, too, and included a ban on dancing, which was considered frivolous and the devil’s work. One night, when Mack was 18 years old, he left the house to visit a friend who lived nearby. It got rather late and Enoch suspected his youngest son might be yielding to worldly curiosity, so he went in search of him. As he reached the neighbor’s house a violin was squeaking out a quadrille. Enoch heard the music and the scrape of boots and shoes as the young people danced to a lively rendition of “The Devil’s Dream” or some other equally sinful tune. Enoch opened the barn door, stuck his head inside, and saw Mack dancing with the rest of them. Mack caught a glimpse of his father, who said nothing, but simply closed the door and returned to his house. For Mack the dance was over. He felt deeply the shame he had caused his father and sheepishly followed him home. Enoch never mentioned the incident, but Mack said he never danced again.
Wilson Ewing was the first of Enoch’s children to leave Ohio. In 1836 and 1837 uncles Henry, Jr. and Samuel Radabaugh bought land in Williams County, Ohio, just south of the Michigan border. Catherine Radabaugh, at age 87, made the move in 1848 with her daughter and son-in-law, Margaret and James Jenkins, and her grandson, John. Catherine, then 87 years old, rode the entire distance on horseback. John reported, “She rode her own horse and handled him well, she being in good health and unusually spry for one of her age.” Catherine died three years later, on July 20, 1848. A wagon train was formed which included Isaac and John, who had returned to Jackson, Ohio. Isaac settled in Williams County permanently, and six years later for $479.82 he bought a quarter section in Mill Creek Township, next to the Michigan line. Enoch’s friend and cousin, Billy McNeill, had bought 175 acres not far from Isaac’s property four years earlier. Then, in 1852, John W. Ewing, who seemed to divide his time between Williams County and Jackson County, headed north again and became the first Ewing to buy land in Michigan, the south half of the southwest quarter of Section 20, Woodbridge Township, Hillsdale County, 80 acres in all. John intended to live on the land with his wife, Jane Berry Hank, but she died on Christmas Day that same year, 1852, seventeen days after giving birth to a girl.
Enoch decided it was time to take his family to Michigan, too, and on March 25, 1853 he sold his 160 acres and prepared to move. The group got underway on September 7, 1853, forming a wagon train to make the long trek north. John was with them, and a week after their start his infant girl succumbed to illness. She was buried in a cemetery along the way. After getting comfortably settled in Michigan, John married Mary Ann Fitzsimmons on April 18, 1855. The Fitzsimmons family, originally from New York, were neighbors to the Ewings in Woodbridge Township.
The wagon train continued on its way, Mack, Andy, William, and James driving the cattle as they rode horseback. Among the group was his sister Janetta, her husband Benjamin White, and their two children, who settled on 240 acres in the south half of Section 30 of Woodbridge Township, where Ben set up a sawmill. Enoch had bought the southeast quarter of Section 20, which adjoined his son John’s land, and another 80 acres across Camden Road in Section 29. In the last month of 1853, their Jackson County son-in-law and neighbor, Josiah Jenkins, bought the north half of Section 20. To the east, across Cambria Road, lived De Witt Clinton Cherington (“DC”) and his wife, Mack’s sister Elizabeth. Son William and his wife, Isabelle Hank, lived in Section 31, across the road from the Cheringtons. When the dust settled, Enoch had all his family nearby, with Isaac being the farthest away, about 15 miles or so south. No wonder Woodbridge Township became known in family circles as Ewington North.
By 1855 all of Enoch and Susannah’s children, except for the two youngest boys, Lea and Mack, had married and moved into places of their own. In 1858 Lea married Elizabeth Smith, sister of Andy’s wife, Emily, and was given the land between John and Enoch, and another house went up on Camden Road. The last son, Mack, married Nancy Hank on April 23, 1862. They moved in with Enoch and Susannah, and some twelve years later, when Enoch was unable to continue farming, Mack took title to the remaining 110 acres. His parents continued to live in their home until 1880. Then they lived for a short time with daughter Janetta and her husband, and a few years after that they moved in with another daughter, Charlotte, widow of Josiah Jenkins, who had died in 1871.
Enoch’s first house was made of logs, cleared from the land he now owned. A permanent frame house wasn’t erected until 1867 or 1868. The new house had two fireplaces, a winding staircase, a wide porch across the front, and two porches on each side. It was moved in 1876 or so to make room for a new barn, which was completed in 1882. After their arrival in Woodbridge, Enoch and Susannah started a school. Called District 5, Union School, it was built on Camden Road on 10 acres of land donated by the two older Ewings. They also formed the First Methodist Episcopal Church soon after their arrival, and eventually they contributed an acre of land for a building site. Services for residents of Woodbridge and Cambria Townships at first were held in the small log schoolhouse, but in 1879 Mack gave an acre of land for a church building at the corner of Cambria and Camden Roads. When Mack and Nan retired from farming in 1908, the church building was moved south to Austin in Amboy Township, where it may still stand today. A membership quilt, made by the Ladies Auxiliary in 1928, contains Enoch and Susannah’s name, along with the names of many other Ewings who attended the church.
AE knew that his grandfather, a staunch Republican, had firm political beliefs and a strict sense of fair play. He recalled one story told by Hiram Powers, a Woodbridge neighbor and friend of the Ewings. At the election of 1864 some of the soldiers were at home and entitled to vote, regardless of their age. Also present at the polling booths were a number of Copperheads, northerners who sympathized with the south and were opposed to the Lincoln administration. One of them challenged the vote of a soldier home on leave, Henry Smith, because he was not yet 21. It looked as if it might result in a fight, but the soldier voted. Enoch Ewing stood immediately behind Smith with clenched fist. Asked afterward if he intended to hit anyone, he said, “No, but if any copperhead had struck a blow, I lowed to strike the next.”
AE described his grandfather as a man about 5’ 9” tall and who weighed between 165 and 170 pounds, considerably smaller than AE himself. Pictures of Enoch in his mature years show him with a full and frizzy beard, which once had been red, and rimless eyeglasses, resting firmly on the famous straight and generous Ewing nose. Susannah was short and round, her grandson remembered, and more easily irritated than her husband. She was known for smoking a clay pipe and reading to herself in a whisper. She lisped, and every “s” she pronounced could be heard throughout the room. In the evening Enoch often read Bible passages aloud, Susannah puffing on her pipe and listening to the words, while her husband chewed his wad of “killdad.” Both Enoch and Susannah abhorred idleness, and they kept busy until their final days. They called each other “Pap” and “Muz.”
Sunday was the day Muz took Pap in hand to scrub his neck and ears, wash his face with soap, trim his beard, comb his hair, and pull a clean shirt over his head. Their grandson, AE, later wrote, “She enjoyed putting Pap in order, and he bore the ordeal with Christian patience.” After the grooming, Pap was ready to meet the Sunday company.
Enoch died on December 19, 1885, over 86 years old. Susannah had died about a year and half earlier, on May 17, 1884, a bit short of 85 years. They had 45 grandchildren, and their long lives enabled them to know them all. Their great grandchildren numbered 119.
A celebration of Enoch’s 80th birthday, with 210 family and friends in attendance, the patriarch reflected on his life, as recorded in the local newspaper:
“I have lived a long time. I have seen a great many hard times, but I could always see my way through, better than I can now, if I should try to make a speech. But my heart is full of rejoicing, and I welcome you all to this beautiful grove today.
“When I started out in life I was full of ambition. I stuck my stakes with a resolution that someone should be benefitted by my life after I was gone. I have done a great deal to advance education and to support Sunday Schools and help carry forward the churches. I feel as though my work is almost done here, and I am waiting patiently the call of my Master.”
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DAVID McKINNEY SELECTED TO HELM FAMOUS MUSEUM
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 27]
[Source: The following article was sent in by William R. Ewing, Cleveland, TN.]
SWEETWATER [TN] Sweetwater native David [Ewing] McKinney has ascended to a premier position of leadership at an internationally revered institution of art and culture. McKinney was elected president of New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art in November of 1998.
A 1956 graduate of UT-Knoxville with a degree in business. McKinney began his professional career as a sales representative with IBM rising in later years to the positions of president of IBM World trade Americas/Far East Corporation, and chief executive officer of the IBM World Trade Europe/Middle East/Africa Corporation.
Recently McKinney has served as executive secretary of the charitable Thomas J. Watson Foundation and the director of the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. The Watson Foundation seeks to encourage foreign study among graduates of small liberal arts colleges annually.
McKinney will command the Met’s yearly budget of $116 million while seeking to uphold the storied institution’s legacy of artistic excellence to its five and a half million annual visitors.
The Met president-elect currently resides in Westport, Conn. With his wife Nancy.
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FOUR MEN IN A CAVE
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 29]
GRUESOME FIND EXPLAINS A MYSTERY OF 32 YEARS STANDING
Source: Wytheville [Virginia] Dispatch, Friday February 28, 1896. This article written more than 103 years ago was sent to us by Pearle C. Woods with a note “This is a very poor copy, but I believe you’ll get the very tragic story.” This is indeed a tragic story, but, it gives us a small glimpse of what times were like during the Civil War and it expresses to some degree how the men felt about the war.
Colliers, W. Va., Feb 24 [1896] – People are much excited in this vicinity over a recent find, which, it is believed clears up a mystery of thirty-two years standing, the remains of four human beings having been discovered in an abandoned coal mine a mile east of here.
David Snyder has explored the old mine which has not been worked since the 60's [1860's], and discovered the human bones. One of the skeletons was sitting upright against a ledge. Beside this skeleton was found a flask containing a note that explained the mysterious disappearance of John Ewing, Ben Ayers, Tom Acklelson and Joe Obney thirty-two years ago. The notes were written in pencil, but well preserved. They read as follows:
November 2, 1863. Should this ever reach the outside world let it be known that we (giving names) is here owing to the caving in of the mine. We are deserters and were in hiding here when the mine caved in, food and water all gone. We are damned as no one outside is aware of our whereabouts. This is about the eighth day of imprisonment.
“November 4 John Ewing and Ben Ackelsen have just killed Ben Ayers and are eating him. I have already eaten my boot leg. The water in the mine is terrible. Our oil is getting scarce, air becoming foul. I only know the day of the month by my watch.”
“November 6 Ewing has just killed Ackelsen cut off one of his feet and is eating it and dancing around and flashing his dirk knife like a maniac.
“November 7 I am now alone with the dead. I had to kill Ewing in self defense. I have just eaten my other leg am sleepy. Good bye. I enclose this note in the flask to preserve it if possible so that if ever found our sad fate will be known.
Joseph Obney”
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QUERIES
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 3 -August1999, page 30]
Cheryl Endicott, 765 N.W. 1st , Moore, OK 73160 is seeking info on Mary A. Ewing, b. 24 Feb 1837 in Jackson Co., TN, d. 22 Mar 1923 in Lamar, Johnson Co., AR. She married John Wesley Owen on 12 Nov 1854 in Douglas Co., MO. Mary’s father was John Ewing, born in TN, her mother was Rebecca Jones, born in TN. Any help would be appreciated.
William R. “Bill” Ewing, 2355 Harris Circle NW, Cleveland, TN 37312-1339 is seeking info on a James Ewing b. 1776 Ireland, came to VA about 1798. His first son Jacob b. 15 Mar 1802, in TN; d. 9 Jun 1871, in TN. He married Anna Matheny b. 22 Dec 1800 d 9 May 1880. She is the daughter of Elijah and Mary Ann Matheny. Jacob, Anna, Elijah, & Mary Ann are buried in the Shiloh Church Cemetery, Roane Co., TN.
Harry E. Ewing, 608 Quailbrush Dr., NW, Albuquerque, NM 87121 is seeking information about the family & parents of James Ewing b. 1816 in Wayne Co., Il. & d.1844 in Wayne Co. He married Jane Corder on 13 Mar 1835 in Wayne Co. She was b. 1818 in Wayne Co., d. 1874 in Wayne Co. Children: Emily, William James, Robert Kelso, & Abigail.
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LETTERS & E-MAIL
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 2]
I was recently in communication with Margaret Ewing Fife,9 and she asked me to relay to you my time with my now departed cousin Ed Alton Ewing of Charleston, WV.
I learned about Ed when I first went to Little Levels to investigate the cemetery of my ancestor Joshua Ewing which I had been told from Don Strong was near the Greenbrier River outside of Hillsboro. Without much help from the present owner of the land, but with his permission. I eventually pinned down the location right by the present Bed and Breakfast, which was nestled in a group of mature trees. At that time I was pursued by cattle who were wanting to be fed. At the higher elevation it was misty, muddy, and wet. A calf even slid on a stone and fell on top of it while I was there. I couldn't believe this was happening to such a sacred place. I reported it to Connie Metheny at the Bath County Historical Society and told her of the stones I had recorded while there. Little known to me at the time, but others had been searching for, and I had stumbled across the stone of the man determined to be that of William Ewing, the person many consider to be the Uncle of our ancestor Joshua.
This work put me in touch with a man that I came to call my cousin and friend, Ed Ewing. He called me on several occasions and we exchanged much information, both verbally and written. He told me that he had tried to take action on the same issue with the cemetery in 1979, but he feels he ran into too much local political resistance to complete the project. He strongly desired to bring this issue to a close before he met his maker, and apparently my contact with Connie enabled this issue to be far enough away that local politics would not as easily play into it. I considered him to be a "Southern Country Gentleman", very proper, respectful, and wise in his Stetson hat. Although he was twice my age, we grew to know each other over time.
Before long another opportunity came up for me to travel across country courtesy of my US Navy. I asked Ed if he would mind a visit, and in his standard country charm he graciously invited me to stay. Ed served in both the Marine Corp and Army Airborne in both WWII and Korea. We would sit for hours and he would tell me stories of his days of glory, past and present. I enjoyed his early stories of the Airborne the most, because it had not been around a long time, and Airborne soldiers had a certain arrogance about them that put them into many a brawl. When I would tell him of the research I had completed on paper that day. He would tell me about his research which was more of what he called "recon". He would scope the layout of the land, check the trees to see how old they were, and relate present conditions to what our ancestors went through. He told me stories of his days as a youth also.
I am a sharecroppers son, so he and I swapped many farm-boy stories. My land in Iowa being all flat and rich. His land was in the hills of WV where "bottom-land" was strongly desired, and the rest of the hills were planted with corn, except for the very top where a group of trees was left.
He learned more about his Scottish roots, from what I had learned. But his Scottish roots were already firmly planted in his mind. He could recite poetry from memory, sing songs of glory, and enjoyed his favorite beverages as any good Scotsman would. He had even gone to lengths to plan his own funeral. He showed me his stone and those of his ancestors. He had already gotten the services of the local bagpipers arranged, which included his own musical selections. His favorite I believe being "Cock of the North" since he would throw out his chest and grin at the mere mention of it. The completion of the fencing of the cemetery by Mr. Taylor, Ed Ewing, and Connie Metheny is a tribute to all of the family. A lasting memory that I hope others will someday come to appreciate. I know the 8th lineal direct descendant Edward Alton Ewing will rest peacefully knowing it was completed. Thanks for your time, Have many specific stories of him if you want more info, just let me know.
Kent Gossman
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CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 4]
The last Journal of the 1000s! The last Journal of the 1900s. How long will it take us to get used to starting off the year with “20 . . .”? It has been hard enough remembering to change just the last one or two digits each January 1.
Just last week I was privileged to see an original copy of a pamphlet entitled Record of the Family of Thomas Ewing, who emigrated from Ireland to America in 1718. It was written in 1858 by Robert Patterson Du Bois and was printed in only 150 copies “for the use of the family connexion [sic] only.” This pamphlet is an account of the families and descendants of Thomas Ewing and his wife Mary Maskell. According to its Introduction it was one of a set of three “distinct yet united productions, in which [was] attempted a record of the families of Robert Patterson, Thomas Ewing and Louis Du Bois, all emigrants from Europe to America, which families were connected” by marriage.
In Clan Ewing of Scotland (1922), William R. Ewing quoted at length from these works, beginning at page 148, and went on to point out (page 151) that Du Bois was incorrect in the footnote which attributes to the immigrant Alexander the children who the records show were actually Nathaniel’s. Margaret Ewing Fife in her Ewing in Early America (1995) also refers (page 24) to that mistake by Du Bois. The mistake was purportedly based on information given to Du Bois by Amos Ewing, Esq. of Cecil County, MD, but as Jim McMichael has pointed out (beginning at page 175) in his Alexander Ewing (1676/7-1738) & Descendants; Ireland to America in 1727 (1999), Amos Ewing was the root of a lot of confusion about the early Ewings. That confusion extended even to Lucy E. Lee Ewing, the great-granddaughter of the Reverend Dr. John Ewing, Provost of the University of Pennsylvania, etc. etc., who wrote in her Dr. John Ewing and some of his noted connections (1924) that her subject and his siblings were all the sons of Alexander.
It just goes to show how and why we probably will never be able to definitively outline our ancestry, especially when there were so many Johns, Alexanders, Williams, Samuels, Jameses etc. in the same generations. E.W.R. Ewing said in his book that he saw the Du Bois pamphlets in the New York Historical Association Library. I have heard from other sources that that library is a treasure trove for the genealogist and have in mind a trip there when time allows. Meanwhile I will try to acquire the one I have seen for the Clan’s archives — and bring it to Ohio next September.
Best wishes to all of you for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the millennial New Year! I look forward to a better and more peaceful world — and to seeing all of you in Lancaster, Ohio for our Clan Gathering in
September.
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A CHAT WITH JILL
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 5]
Dear Cousins,
I can't believe we are down to a year till the reunion. So much has been going on in my life. With two very active grandchildren and 4-H horse shows , I am glad to see a quieter life for the winter arrive even if snow had to come with it this week. I have been doing a lot of research and reading about the early Ewings to Lancaster, Ohio. We will be touring the home of Margaret Ewing Fife's early ancestors to the area. It is a beautiful place and was a wholesale grocery in the area. It is amazing what you find when you start remodeling an old home. I'm sure you will enjoy the tour
and meeting these fine folks.
Joseph “Joe” Ewing from Maryland called the other day to make sure he was still to do a program about Senator Thomas Ewing, (who's home we hope to tour) and William Tecumseh Sherman who was raised by the Ewings and later married Ellen B. Ewing, Thomas's daughter. Joe wrote a book about Sherman and went to Lancaster for the dedication and was entertained by the good doctor and his wife who now own the home. We will be touring and eating part of our dinner in the Sherman home which is a museum and owned by the city of Lancaster for meetings and such. It stands beside the Ewing home.
Albert Harter is busy getting a program together on the local Ewing history in the area as time won't allow us to visit it all. He has a real feel for the town being raised there and family and neighbors as Ewings.
I hope all of you are making plans to attend this gathering, each one has been better than the prior one for me, seeing and meeting new cousins has been a highlight of my life. Keep the letters and e-mail's coming and any ideas for future reunions would be appreciated. We want to do what you want to do. Have a good holiday season.
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Editor's Fireside Chat
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 6]
This issue of the journal brings up a point that I would like to comment on and that is the location of information about our early Ewing families.
The Nathaniel Ewing letter has a few nice bits of information and it was “buried” in a book about one of our former Presidents. Then, we have the longer article about Colonel Robert Ewing which was taken from a thesis. I would never have thought about checking at a college for a thesis about a Ewing.
In the Colonel Robert Ewing article, we learn that his father James Lindsay Ewing was born in Scotland and came to America in 1840. In correspondence with James L. Ewing, IV, we learned that Robert Ewing was from the Loch Lomond area in Scotland. Does Loch Lomond “ring a bell”?
The middle name “Lindsay” is quite interesting to me since the immigrant is from the Loch Lomond and our earlier Ewing families are suppose to have been from that area. But, when we look at the early Ewing families and the next generation or two in America, we find someone by the name Lindsay getting married to a Ewing. Is it possible that a Lindsay family also came to America with some of the earlier Ewings?
As I have mentioned in the past, I do not really know a lot about what I am trying to do as the editor for the journal. When I received the thesis for Colonel Robert Ewing, I did not really know how to approach presenting the information in the journal. Therefore, I just decided to take the portion presented in this journal as it was in the thesis and not try to do any editing.
This issue of the journal ends the sixth year of publication. After the 1993 reunion in San Antonio, we starting doing a newsletter and then changed it to a journal. Over the years you have been very helpful and generous about sending information for the journal. We have had enough articles to allow a good variety of articles over the past six years.
I am making a PLEA for more information that can be used in the journal. Based on the number of pages we publish with each journal, we need a good bit of information for the journals we publish each year. Therefore, I am asking that each of you consider digging through some of your old files for articles and information that can be used in the journals in the future.
We have not generally used a lot of pure genealogy research material where a lot of names, dates, and places make up the article. However, there is a place for some of that to be presented in our journals.
It is possible to make a list of the types of articles that would be of interest to members, but I do not want to do that in fear of it not including something you think should be included.
Over the past few years, I have had a lot of correspondence that indicates research is being done. Some of that research has to about some of the older generations where information was missing. Some people have proven their Ewing line connected to another Ewing line. It is most likely that someone else is trying to prove that same connection. Sometimes documents are found in a location or county that no one would have visualized that person being in that location.
The bottom line is that we need to document some of those findings so others may find the correction connection for their Ewing ancestors. Remember that our journal goes to over eight libraries and societies, and we have no idea how many people read those journals each year when they are searching for their ancestors.
The date for our next reunion will be here before long. If you haven’t already, marked the date down on your calendar for September 2000. I am expecting a good reunion and a good attendance. I am not involved with any of the program, but I believe that we will have an excellent program.
In a way, I think this next reunion may be a test for us. The attendance has been somewhere close to the same number at each reunion. We need to break through the barrier and have about 200 or so at the next reunion.
The average life of a family organization that publishes a newsletter is three years. So far, we have doubled that period of time. Over the next few months, we all need to do a little soul searching and ask ourselves “what am I willing to do to keep Clan Ewing in America a thriving organization.?”
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NATHANIEL EWING 1844 LETTER
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 8]
[Source: Correspondence of James K. Polk, Volume 8 (Knoxville University of Tennessee Press, 1993) pp. 9-12. Thanks to John F. Polk, Harve de Grace, Maryland, a Polk family researcher, for sending a copy of this letter. This article is a quote from the published letter including all of the foot notes.]
Dear Sir Vincennes I[ndiana] Sept. 3d 1844
A scetch of your biography happening to fall into my hands, I find that I am better acquainted with the early history of your family than perhaps any of your immediate relatives now alive.
Your forefathers and mine emigrated together in the same ship from the North of Ireland in the
year seventeen hundred an twenty seven, landed at Newcastel & settled together in the upper part
of Cecil County adjoining the Pennsylvania line and Lancaster County.
There was a large
colony composed principally of Ewings Porters Gillespies & Polks. Your great grandfather and
two Grand Uncles were of the number. Of your great grandfather and one of his brothers I have
no recollection. They with some of my relatives of the names of Gillespie & Porter had removed
to Cumberland County near Carlisle before my time.
One of the brothers John Polk remained
where he first settled until he died which was about the year seventeen hundred eighty three.
Him I well recollect as his Land & that of both my Grandfathers joined, and a constant friendly
intercourse alway subsisted between the families, during their lives. On his land was the place
selected by the emigrants on their first arrival for a burying ground and in it is inter’d both my
Grand fathers & grandmothers my Father & Mother with Uncles Aunts & cousins without
number. John Polk & his family also lie there.
In the year seventeen hundred & eighty eight I found living on Cripple Creek one of the head
branches of New River a numerous band of my relatives desendants of those who had removed
from Cumberland County Pa. and from the old settlement in Cecil Co. Md. I understood the
Polks had settled further south in Carolina. In this tour I found my relatives scattered from Prince
Edward Co. Va. through Bortitort Wythe Washington and down to Knoxville,
all the
descendants of the emigrants of seventeen hundred & twenty seven. I have this date from record.
One of my aunts was born on sea on their passage to America & this is the recorded year of hir
birth. Here ends my knowledge of the family of the Polks except the grandsons of John Polk by
his daughter Isabella who maried Thomas Grubb.
With those I was raised and schooled three of
whome are still alive all living in Pennsylvania one in Franklin Co. & ten [this should be two] in
Erie Co near the Town of that name. One of the latter Judge Grubb
is a man of six feet four &
half inches high of good proportions. About ten years ago I visited the anciant site of the
Emigants
after an absense of more than forty years. I was much surprised to find so little
alteration in the superficial appearance of the country. The lands were unaltered the woodland
but little deminished the only and great change was in the improvement of the soil. The fields
which I had left in the most decay state of poverty I found covered with luxurient crops of clover
& wheat. The tracts of land which were originally large I found divided into small ones not much
exceeding one hundred acres on each of which were fine brick houses & barns and every
conveniance necessary for a neat farm.
In the year seventeen hundred & seventy nine there was one of your family living at Natches,
placed there by the State of Virginia as their agent to accept & pay the bills of Genl. Clark when
carrying on his expedition against the british forts at Kaskaskia & Vincennes.
Thus I have given
you my recollections & traditions of your family from their first landing in America. Your family
like mine were originally from Scotlant & emigrated from that Country during the Protectorship
of Cromwell.
As to our politicks in this State the parties are verry warm. I never saw the democrats so active & determined. The whigs obtained a majority in the house or representatives but that was measurably owing to the manner the districts are laid off. The democrats have the popular vote. There are also a great many who voted for whig representatives who will not vote the Clay ticket. The most of the Presbiterians are whigs but the moral charater of Clay is rather more than they can digest. The Texas question altho but little understood is a new thing and as the mass is always delighted with novelty it takes well with them, and I have no doubt of the democrats taking this State.
I have always though and still think that the Globe & Thos. Benton
has done the democratic
cause more injury than the partizens of Clay–their violence against Mr. Tyler disgusted many for
say what place against him.
The thinking & honest democrats will always feel greatfull for the
servises he tendered the party by his firmness in placing his veto on the bill creating a U.S. Bank
with such powers to render a representation of the people a perfect farse.
Instead of
representing those who sent them they would become the panders of the moneyed power.
This judging harshly of my fellow citizens but in justifycation of my opinion we have only to recur
to the conduct of congress at the time. The Bank obtained a recharter as far as they had power to
give it and to the legislature or Pennsylvania when that same Bank obtained its charter as a bank
of that State. As to this last I have some personal knowledge, I was in Pennsylvania during the
canvass for Governor when Ritner was elected.
He lived in Washington Co. which had always
before then been a democratic county untill the Bank of the U.S. under the cloak of subscribing to
a turnpike Road between Washington & Pittsburgh (a road which will never yeald toll to keep
itself in repair) gave them fifty thousand dollars which compleatly changed the political
complextion of the county & gave it to the Whigs. I am sorry some of my relatives had a hand in
this business. John Sergeant of Philadelphia
as the head he acted as agent for the Bank in
negotiating the business. The papers from all quarters give cheering news as it regards the
Presidental election. For my part I have never doubted our success. Twenty years ago I made a
bet with a friend who is now dead that Henry Clay never would be president of the U.S. This
Election will determine it.
P.S. You will excuse my writing you on so immeterial a subject but it may perhaps tend to relieve your mind from too intense an application to politicks.
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Editor’s note: This letter identifies the port where the Ewing family landed in America as New Castle, Delaware. When we attended the reunion in 1990, we visited New Castle and it was pointed out that was possibly the port of entry. Also, the year of birth of the third child of Nathaniel & Rachel Porter Ewing is identified as being the year 1727. Since the third child of Nathaniel & Rachel was born at sea and that is a fact that is generally accepted by all researchers, lends support to 1727 being the year that Rachel & Nathaniel came to America
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COLONEL ROBERT EWING
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 13]
Source: The information for this article was taken from a thesis that James L. Ewing, IV found about his ancestor. Thanks Jim for making this information available for use in our journal.
AN INTRODUCTION
Robert Ewing, Louisiana journalist during the period 1900-1931, was an editor who wrote with the power of ownership, a man whose papers were widely respected throughout the south. Ewing was reared in the Southern tradition of ease and pleasure, and his family was left penniless as a result of the Civil War. With no material assets, Robert Ewing began working as a messenger boy at the age of twelve and died at the age of seventy-two, the owner of four newspapers. He started at the bottom in the fullest sense of the phrase and by sheer hard work rose to the top. His is an American success story.
Robert Ewing was born in Mobile, Alabama, September 27, 1859 in a nation about to be split by sectional controversy. The war Between the States deprived him of a legacy of security. He would not attend gala balls, nor the college of his choice; he would not follow his father’s footsteps into the business world. Instead, at the age of twelve he ventured into the world to earn his living.
Robert Ewing’s father, Scottish-born James Lindsay Ewing,
came to America in 1840 from
Edinburgh, where he had graduated from high school and attended the University of Edinburgh.
He emigrated to the United States where he soon became a prominent Mobile cotton merchant.
After losing everything in the Civil War, James L. Ewing died in 1866, in the midst of
reconstruction, leaving his family destitute.
Martha Ann Hunter was the mother of the future Louisiana newspaper giant. She was a member
of the Toulmin family of Alabama. Her grandfather, Henry Toulmin, came to the United States
from Chorobert, Lancashire, in England in 1793 to escape religious discrimination.
He was a
judge, minister, lawyer, and a member of the Alabama Constitutional Convention of 1819. A
non-conformist clergyman, he was president of Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky for
four years, Secretary of State in Kentucky, and author of the first codification of the laws of
Kentucky.
Young Ewing attended private schools until 1871 when he was forced to seek employment. After
a short period of working as a runner in his uncle’s bank, Robert began working as a messenger,
telegraph operator and manager of a Mobile telegraph operation, known as the American Union
Telegraph company, which he helped found at the age of nineteen.
When the operation merged
with Western Union, Ewing remained as an Associated Press operator, becoming one of the most
competent in the service.
He demonstrated his executive and organizational ability early, when, at the age of twenty-four, he was elected one of seven members of the National Executive Committee of the Order of Telegraphers. He represented the entire South from Virginia to Mexico.
Robert Ewing helped start the great telegraph strike of 1883 which cost him his job and
subsequently put him into the newspaper business. Colonel John Tucker,
Shreveport, Louisiana,
Attorney, stated that Ewing told him that when Jay Gould obtained Western Union, he “bounced”
Ewing to give his job to a Gould relative. The impetuous young telegraph operator went to New
York “to tell Gould off” and started the strike. When the strike failed, he could no longer get a
job as a telegraph operator with Western Union because he was black-listed. Eventually, the
young man turned to commercial pursuits in Texas and St. Louis.
In 1885, Robert Ewing was named manager of the newly established Baltimore and Ohio Company. He moved to new Orleans with the company. When the Baltimore and Ohio company was absorbed by Western Union, he became manager of the Morning Chronicle, a paper owned by The New Orleans States – thus began his career in the newspaper business.
His first political office, an appointive one, came in 1888, after the Young Men’s Democratic Association’s victorious campaign. The Daily States had supported the Association and, owing to Ewing’s part in the fight, he was appointed to the position of and given the ostentatious title of New Orleans City Electrician and Superintendent of the Fire Alarm and Police Telegraph System.
Robert Ewing’s political and journalistic careers began at approximately the same time and were parallel for forty-six years– years which would see the future Colonel offered a presidential cabinet post, fight a dictator and become publisher of four newspapers.
When the political appointment expired in 1893, he became telegraph editor of The New Orleans States. In 1893, Ewing’s job changed to assistant business manager. Subsequently, Ewing was controlling owner, publisher and proprietor of the States.
On November 17, 1888, Robert Ewing gained a partner when he married Miss May Dunbrack of Meaghers Grant, Nova Scotia. The marriage was cut short when his wife died in 1904 after bearing her husband six children. Their offspring included five sons and one daughter: Toulmin Hunter, Robert Jr., John D., Wilson, James L., and Ester (Mrs. E. G. Brown). Robert Ewing Jr. is the sole surviving child. He is chairman of the Board of the Times Publishing Company, Ltd. and lives in New Orleans.
Ewing remarried September 1, 1917, choosing as his second wife Grace Nolan Mackay of Kansas City, Missouri.
EWING MEETS NEW ORLEANS AND THE DAILY STATES
“His newspaper life began in the 1880's when newspapering was a hazardous business with its
success largely reserved for the strong and resolute. Ewing proved his fitness under these
conditions.
The era of personal journalism was declining as Ewing’s work with the Fourth Estate began, but as Joseph Pulitzer was the New York World and Charles Dana dominated the New York Sun and Henry Wattersonn’s name was synonymous with the Louisville Courier-Journal, so Robert Ewing was the pulse of the Daily States. As William Randolph Hearst, in the era of “Yellow Journalism,” knew every employee from the editor to copy boy and was “boss” of his enterprises, Ewing, on a smaller scale was head – the dominant personality of his papers.
In comparing him to Hearst and Pulitzer, Will Branan, one-time reporter on the States, and editor
of Oil magazine, New Orleans, said, “His personality was definitely injected into the running of
the office – his personality was so forceful – but whether he could be compared to Hearst or
Pulitzer is questionable. New Orleans was not New York and the States was not the World or
Journal.”
Don Ewing, associate editor in charge of administering policies of The Shreveport Times, who knew Robert Ewing, though they were not related (and who worked for Hearst at one time), commented.
They were of the same type, but Hearst had an empire while Ewing had only four papers. Both were dominant heads of their papers, knowing what was going on at all times. Both were always watching, though they delegated power.
There was one major difference in the two men. Hearst could and would reverse
an opinion in twenty seconds for various reasons. Ewing would not change his
mind in a moment. They were vastly different in this.
In agreeing with Ewing and Branan, John Tims, president of The Times-Picayune Publishing company, said of his old friend,
Ewing and Hearst were comparable in some ways, but in others they were not.
Hearst was always in charge of his newspapers. Ewing was in charge of his. In
this era of personal journalism there was one dominant head of the newspaper
which Hearst owned; in Ewing’s organization there was one dominant
head–Colonel Robert Ewing.
.
Robert Ewing’s city editor, James E. Crown, said, “When newspapermen thought of New
Orleans, they pictured Colonel Robert Ewing, just as when men thought of the Louisville
Courier-Journal, they thought of Marse Henry Watterson; the New York World, Joseph Pulitzer;
New York Times, Adolph Ochs; Hearst papers, William Randolph Hearst and Arthur Brisbane.”
Describing him as the prototype of an old Southern Colonel, Bascom N. Timmons, head of The
Shreveport Times Washington, D.C. bureau, said, “. . . He was less than medium height, stout and
he looked like a Colonel. I think I would have called [him] that even if it was not the title by
which he [was] addressed by everyone.”
Pictures of the Colonel depict a short, stout man with a handlebar mustache. A neat dresser, he usually wore a black planter’s hat and a flower in his lapel. He carried a can and at times, wore pince-nes glasses.
At the time of Ewing’s beginning in the revered field, New Orleans was in the midst of what has
been termed “two-gun journalism.” The period appears to be so-named because of the pioneer
editors who were often promoted printers. They were men of action, ready to back their opinion
with pistol as with the pen, though they were not merely gun thugs, for “many had a delicate
sense of honor, and even the worst lived up to the code of their day, never killing an adversary
except in duel or after due notice given of an intention to shoot on sight.”
It was a period when
the gun was as important as the pen in journalism – the pen wrote the controversial opinion and
the gun backed the opinion.
Ewing’s predecessor, the founder of the Daily States, was Major H. J. Hearsey. He had formerly
organized The Shreveport Times, and the Marshall (Texas) East Texas Bulletin; he had also been
editor of a New Orleans anti-lottery paper, the Democrat. After losing that paper to a member of
the lottery crowd, Major Edward A. Burke (after the loans were called on warrants Hearsey had
deposited as collateral and Hearsey had to sell), Major Hearsey started the Daily States.
Colonel Ewing later changed the name to The New Orleans States so as to bring it closer to the
town.
The first home of the newspaper was 90 Camp Street, on the second floor of an auction mart, where a job printing office put out the paper. Office space included a desk in the shop, a business office in the hallway and a tiny room above the shop which served as the editorial office.
The first editions of the States were tiny four-page sheets printed on an old-fashioned flat-bed press which was hand-turned by an aged blind Negro.
Robert Ewing’s sphere of influence in Louisiana journalism began when Hearsey hired the shrewd young businessman. A current publication said of him,
The States is under the business management of Mr. Robert Ewing, and much of
the recent financial success which it has met is due to his energy, his resourceful
executive ability, his initiative and his quick grasp of those features which go to
make a live afternoon paper attractive to the people among who it circulates.
Ewing secured the New Orleans contract for municipal printing. This was a major accomplishment in light of the fact that there was strong competition among the press of New Orleans. The paper later proved its courage by attacking the political ring that had awarded it the printing plum.
At this point in his career in the city of “two-gun journalism,” Robert Ewing was challenged to a duel.
An opposing paper edited by “shoestring journalist” Peter J. Kernan, came out with an editorial concerning a court hearing on the awarding of the city’s printing contract. Kernan’s most polite remark about the States’ business manager was “white-livered coward.” The story continues:
Ewing countered by sending word he’d shoot on sight and spent the next two days gunning for Kernan, but that wily gentleman walked to and from his office with his wife on his arm and as, she sat beside his desk all day, Ewing’s only chance was a duel. He appointed as his seconds, Thomas Marshall, a journalist, and John C. Wycliffe, an attorney who regarded the rules of the code as far more binding upon a gentleman’s conduct than the ten commandments.
When Kernan received the challenge, he replied he would have to think the matter over, but that, if he did fight, he would insist on sawed off shotguns at twelve paces.
Of course, Ewing realized that these conditions could only spell a quick end for both parties, but nevertheless he told his seconds to accept them, for he knew that even if he died, he would at least have the satisfaction of taking Kernan with him.
When Marshall and Wycliffe, looking very impressive in his perennial frock coat, returned for an answer, Kernan announced stubbornly that he wouldn’t fight.
“What reason do you give sir? My principal is surely a gentleman and a man of honor?”
“I don’t think it’s right to fight,” replied Kernan.
“Why not sir? asked Wycliffe, honestly amazed at the enormity of such a statement.
“None of your damn business,” burst out Kernan, exasperated.
“But, sir,” urged Wycliffe, “I feel forced to tell you for your own good that this is not in accord with the code.”
“To hell with the code!” was all his answer.
While Wycliffe urged Kernan to fight, Marshall kept pulling his coattails, trying to make him leave before Kernan could change his mind, but Wycliffe paid no attention. Ewing’s life meant nothing compared with the importance of having every detail of the precious code complied with, and he continued to press the point.
“But, my dear sir,” he insisted, “you must realize we will be forced to publish your refusal in fairness to our principal, and that you will be deserted by your friends, sir, branded a coward, sir, be spat upon by all decent men, sir,” etc., etc., at great length. But the stubborn man was impervious to argument and the fight never occurred.
Kernan came off best in the end for some years later he sold a paper to Ewing for
forty thousand dollars and agreed not to engage in the newspaper business for five
years. The day before Ewing was to take possession, Kernan looted the whole
building and carried off everything that could be moved, even the electric wiring.
Only an old press, too big to be budged, was left. Then Kernan had the gall to
open a new paper across the street in the name of a dummy and was very
successful in stealing the old paper’s circulation.
In the broadest sense of the world Ewing was a part of the “two-gun journalism” which was a part of the New Orleans he gained entry to as a young man.
Ewing was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1898 which met at Tulane Hall in New Orleans, a body which sought to disfranchise part of its citizenry by use of the “grandfather clause,” annual poll tax, property qualifications and literacy test. The Colonel originated and pressed to final passage the ordinance providing free books to poor children in New Orleans – one of the most popular and generally satisfactory features of the new Constitution, Article 261:
all pupils in the primary grades in the public schools through out the Parish of
Orleans unable to provide themselves with the requisite books, . . . shall be
furnished with the necessary books, freed of expense, to be paid for out of the
school fund of said parish; and the School Board of the Parish of Orleans is hereby
directed to appropriate annually not less than $2,000 for the purpose named,
provided such amount be needed.
This was later the basis for a governor’s platform, and the foundation of the free school book system in Louisiana.
Elected by a large majority of his constituents, he was member of three important constitutional Committee – Federal Relations, Contingent Expense, and City Affairs. Because of his broad knowledge and understanding of public affairs, he rendered valuable assistance to the Committee of City Affairs; through his efforts several provisions benefitting New Orleans were passed. Other provisions provided by that constitution included establishment of a segregated school system a State Board of Health, set up of State Banks, and a commission to oversee railroads, telephones and telegraphs.
New Orleans (1890) saw the end of the Louisiana lottery when Congress passed a bill prohibiting the lottery’s use of the mails.
The present New Orleans library system began under the administration of Mayor John Fitzpatrick (1892-1896). During his term the city began to develop an interest in a drainage system and electrification of the city railroads.
His term was marred by the impeachment proceedings brought against him and labor race riots.
In 1896 a new political organization appeared: The citizen’s League was non-partisan, had no
interest in state politics, and was organized for the sole purpose of electing new city officials and
overturning of the system which had long dominated the administration of local affairs. Walter C.
Flower, the League’s candidate, was elected mayor. After publishing a simple letter accepting the
nomination, Flower said, “I shall know no class distinctions. The interests of the laboring man
will be as much the object of solicitude as those of the better circumstanced. My study will be to
act as will best conduce to the general welfare.”
His term was occupied with the re-organization of the city government, a change in the running of the police and the putting of wires underground in the commercial district.
In 1898 the New Orleans Board of Health was created.
Comus returned to Mardi Gras in 1890, after a five-year leave of absence and the ‘90's saw the end of the Louisiana lottery due to a law forbidding use of the mails for lottery material.
The New Orleans to which the young Ewing came in the 1880's was a city just freed from the hated carpetbag rule; it was an impetuous city, just as Ewing was impetuous. It was a city of paradoxes – culturally rich since its founding, it made a martyr of George Cable, called the first writer of the modern South. Famous men of the city included the writer, Lafacadio Hearn, the famed medical man, Dr. Rudolph Matas, and the educator, James B. Aswell.
Just as “the Flower Administration was a turning point in the history of New Orleans,”
so 1900
was the beginning of Robert Ewing’s importance as a powerful politician and journalist. The
1880's and 1890's had been a training period politically as well as journalistically. A new century
began and also a new chapter in the life of the former messenger boy. The ensuing years would
be important to young Ewing as he worked and fought for issues within New Orleans, as he
became a national figure.
As the city matured, so Ewing matured; and as New Orleans grew more important as a port, so Ewing became important nationally, statewide and in the city.
At the age of forty-one, he had “by dint of perseverance and a show of good sense and rare ability
as a manager, worked his way up to the top and purchased a controlling interest in the States.”
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PEACEMAKER IN THE 18TH CENTURY
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 24]
Those Ewings who claim an affiliation with the MacLachlan Clan will be particularly interested in the story which originated in the Old Statistical Account Kilfinan (1793) and was related in the Autumn 1995 Newsletter of the Glasgow & West of Scotland Family History Society.
Archibald McLaughlane, a native of Otter [the home territory of Clan McEwen], and who died in the Kerry, near 30 years ago, was 118 years of age; and in the harvest immediately before he died, was reckoned the best hay cutter upon the farm of Kilfinan, of which he occupied a part. When young, he was a man of such known bodily strength, that, although he was not quarrelsome himself, whenever a squabble ensued near him, which at that time was frequently the case in the churchyard of Kilfinan, at marriages and funerals, whenever he got notice he immediately repaired to the spot, and his presence never failed to strike such terror, that both parties were very glad to cease from the strife. On this account, he was often called, as a by-name Craobh na fiochaidh, i.e. the peace-maker.
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Constance Juliet Ewing
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 25]
Source: This is an e-mail that I received. [Editor]
Thank you so much for a look through your records and a reply to my request. My great, great uncle, William G. Ewing, was a merchant on the Texas gulf coast prior to Texas becoming a state. I have quite a lot of information about him and have located his grave in Port Lavaca, Texas. Although I told myself all I really wanted was to document the families up to time of immigration, when I found the Irish links, I just couldn't resist posting an inquiry.
Because you've been so kind to reply, and just because it's fun, I'm sending you the best family story. It is about my great, great, grandmother, Constance Juliet Ewing, Watts, Stanton, Fretwell (William G. Ewings sister). She and her husband Capt. Watts immigrated to South Texas (to Lindville where her brother William lived) as newly weds. They had been in Texas, staying at a boarding house while finding housing and settling in when the Comanche Indians from central Texas made the last raid (Comanche Raid of 1840) against the settlers along the coast. Juliet and her husband, Capt. Watts attempted to get to a ship out in the bay, like everyone else in town, when Capt Watts discovered he left a gold watch on the table next to their bed and turned around to retrieve it. They were captured by the Comanches and Capt Watts was killed with Juliet being captured along with other women and children from town. The hostages were kept for three days while the Comanches made their way back north. The men in the Lindville area organized and started after the Indians and hostages. On the third day the settlers caught up and the Indians began killing the hostages to reduce the load and make a get away. Constance Juliet was shot with an arrow and left for dead with the other hostages. Some of the settlers found her soon after and a stay from her corset had deflected the arrow enough to allow removal and she did survive. She lived on in the area eventually marrying my great, great grandfather, James May Stanton. For whatever reason this marriage produced only my great grandfather and in 1847, Juliet filed for the first divorce in the new State of Texas (statehood in 1845). She then married a Dr. Fretwell and lived a long life in the Port Lavaca area. Somehow the stubborn resolve and resilience of this woman make me extremely curious about this side of the family before their arrival in the US. Maybe someday I'll make a connection.
Happy hunting and thanks again.
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QUERIES
[Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol 5 No. 4 -Dec 1999, page 27]
Jesse L. Snyder, 2836 Arroyita Drive, Bakersfield, CA 93305, is seeking information for his birth name, Ray Sherman Ewing, Jr.. Ray, Sr. was born about 1920 in Canada and was a Naval Officer. Ray, Sr.’s parents were Oscar Dane Ewing & Elizabeth Rachel Newman. “Since “Sherman” was retained as a family middle name, am assuming it was honoring W.T. and therefore roots might go back to Thomas Ewing, Jr. and Ellen (Eleanor).”
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