Journal Volume 6

ARTICLES FROM VOLUME 6 (2000)

Journal of Clan Ewing

Go to Page: 402, 404, 405, 406, 407, 409, 411, 414, 415, 418, 419

419, 423, 424, 425, 426, 428, 429, 432, 433, 434,

453, 455, 456, 457, 462, 465, 466, 468, 471, 473

CONTENTS

Please note, the FIND can be used to search for any word or words. Also, the @ in all email addresses has been replaced with <at> therefore, you need to replace the @ if you try to email someone.

FEBRUARY JOURNAL

LETTERS & E-MAIL

CHANCELLOR’S MESSAGE

A CHAT WITH JILL

EDITOR’S FIRESIDE CHAT

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS

THE PICKLE JAR HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT

EWING FAMILY BIBLES

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

WILL OF JAMES EWING (1733-1825)

MAY JOURNAL

EDITOR’S FIRESIDE CHAT

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF ALBERT G. EWING (1804-1873)

HENRY EWING

THE EWING HOUSE

AGNEW ROSS EWING (1910-2000)

SEEING SCOTLAND...THE ROYAL BURGH OF STIRLING

AUGUST JOURNAL

EDITOR’S FIRESIDE CHAT

GEORGE EWING TO FAMILY MEMBERS IN MICHIGAN

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL-GANG

NOVEMBER JOURNAL

EDITOR’S FIRESIDE CHAT

OSCAR ROSS EWING (1889-1980)

AN 1808 LETTER FROM INDIAN JOHN EWING

NATHANIEL EWING (c1744-1817)

LETTER FROM GEORGE HENRY EWING

SAMUEL MUDD, A COUNTRY DOCTOR

TEE-NAMES IN NE SCOTLAND

QUERIES

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Page 402

Letters & E-mail

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Volume 6 Number 1, page 2)

Thanksgiving 1999 was quite a contrast to Thanksgiving 1945. Richard and I had just moved from our room in the Women’s Dormitory to a one room apartment in the West end and near the Jemez Mountains. I cooked on a two burner electric hot plate and had a very small sink and an “Ice Box”. I worked 8 hours a day in the IBM Electric Calculating Group. Two days before Thanksgiving I bought a small wrapped turkey at the Commissary and carried it home. I placed it, as was, in the ice box. I did not know how to cook and did not own a cookbook. The day before Thanksgiving Richard wanted to drive his second hand Ford (he owned one third) to view the site where the First Atomic Test was made. We looked at the greenish glass and Richard took my picture standing beside Jumbo. The next morning I unwrapped the turkey. I was horrified to discover that it had been frozen with its feathers and entrails inside. Richard proposed we build a fire in the sand near the high feet wire fence which enclosed Los Alamos and burn off the feathers while defrosting the bird. Among other problems was a lack of firewood. Later that afternoon all we had was a charred frozen turkey. I began to cry. I was hungry. Richard threw the mess in the garbage. We walked to the PX, but they had sold everything except hot dogs which we accepted gratefully.

Several years ago Ball State University Astronomy and Physics Professor Ruth H. Howes interviewed me about Los Alamos. Last week she sent me a copy of the book “Their Day in the Sun: Women of the Manhattan Project” by Ruth H. Howes and Caroline S. Herzenberg, published by Temple University Press. I recommend this book. It has the picture of Jumbo and me and Richard’s and my wedding picture. The unknowns of 1943-45 are clarified. Last names, backgrounds, and job descriptions are given for the women who worked on the Manhattan Project.

Richard and Eleanor Ehrlich

Gainesville, Florida

Ed. Note: The above is taken from a Christmas Letter and I thought it was too good not to share with you.

~~~~~

I am late reading my November, 1999 Clan Ewing publication, but I was really taken by the article quoting Nathaniel Ewing's 1844 letter in which he states that a large number of Ewings and Polks moved to the US from Scotland and Ireland.

I have finally, after a 20 year search, found the father of my great grandfather, John Polk Ewing. It made me wonder if John Polk Ewing might have been named after good friends, or even family, a generation or two back. I'd love to know anymore about the Polk/Ewing connection.

I'd also like to post the following query. [See query in query section.]

Roberta “Bobbi” Hawk

fryco<at>mcn.net

~~~~~

I want to congratulate you and the other committee members for a job well done, without your help my trip through the Ewing line would have been much harder.

I started this journey trying to find information on my great grandfather, William Ewing (1842-1879), having information on my grandfather, George W. Ewing (1863-1941) and knowing where he was born was a big help, checking the 1870 census was able to locate them in Rush County, Indiana. The rest was like being a detective, I found my gg grandfather James Ewing (1799-1882) and the census indicated he was born in Kentucky. Working back to my ggg grandfather, John Ewing of Pendleton County (1754-1832), with your help was able to determine his birth place as Virginia by the 1880 census which indicated where both parents were born.

John Ewing of Pendleton County, Kentucky was the son of William Ewing of Frederick County, Virginia (1711-1781) was born in Ireland and migrated to this country in 1729 with his family, including his father John Ewing of Carnshanagh (1648-1745)

We are looking forward to seeing you and all our cousins in Ohio in September 2000.

George William Ewing

Battle Creek, MI

~~~~~

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Page 404

CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 4 )

As I write this, I am about to leave for two days in Lancaster, Ohio to help Jill Spitler with the final arrangements for our Clan Gathering there this coming September 21-24. It is shaping up as a worthy successor to our previous meetings, beginning with Vincennes, Indiana, in 1988. In reporting on that Gathering in one of his inimitable “Dear Cousins” letters, our founder Ellsworth Ewing wrote, “What a WONDERFUL, WONDERFUL week end- -to meet all of you and to discover what lovely people you all are. . . .The Ewing Family is, indeed, a lovely Family! And the present generation measures up fully to its heritage and ancestry.”

Knowing what Jill has planned for us in the way of times for stories and discussions and review of extensive Family memorabilia mixed with visits to local Ewing landmarks in the Lancaster area, I am convinced that this Gathering will be another one to remember just as fondly. We will have plenty of opportunity to get to know each other better and to confirm that the Ewing Family really is made up of “lovely people”. An invitation letter, which will include all the details, will be coming to all Clan members (everyone on the mailing list, whether or not they pay dues) within the next few weeks – as soon as we have firmed up the agenda. Jill expects that we will be able to keep the meal and activity fee at the same $150.00 per person as the past two Gatherings. Those attending will make their own arrangements for rooms, for which we expect the rate to be about $70.00 per room at the Best Western Lancaster, where all the action will be.

Meanwhile, the other activities of the Clan go on. Of course, it would not be the same without Jim McMichael’s stellar job as Editor of this Journal, and he and Margaret Fife, as our Genealogists, have been busy answering the many inquiries we receive from people all over the country regarding their connections with other Ewings over the years. One such inquiry came recently from member Bobbi Hawk of Billings, Montana, referring to the middle name Polk borne by some of her Ewing ancestors and wondering whether there is any record of intermarriage between the Polks and the Ewings. Unfortunately, we have so far been unable to find one.

Also, we now have our own proprietary site on the World Wide Web at www.clanewing.org thanks to the careful attention of CarolSue Hair, our webmaster. Another member, Katrina Dorneman of California, has created a site listing Ewings involved in the American Revolution, and CarolSue will include that as one of the Ewing-related links from our website.

In other words, the beat goes on, and I hope to see many of you in Lancaster, Ohio, come September 21.

Joe (Neff) Ewing

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Page 405

A CHAT WITH JILL

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 5)

Dear Cousins,

Winter has hit with a vengeance here in Ohio. Temperature has been in single digits all week. Thank heaven for the summer mail order catalogues and thinking about spring.

The holidays are behind us and we are busy finalizing the reunion for September 2000. It is sure to be a good time. I was asked how many will we be planning on attending. Well, I say 80 to 200 (how can I miss). We’ll know next October when its all over. How many do you think?

We also need some ideas for the next reunion. It is usually talked about two to three years ahead. Send us any ideas you may come up with. The only thing I have heard from anyone was back to Cecil County Maryland.

Ewing history is our ideal, but family and togetherness has to count for a lot too. It would not matter where we would go but I would want to be there to see my family. And, I hope you would too.

Look for your reservation packet coming soon and spring is just around the corner.

Your O “Hi” O cousin,

Jill

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Page 406

Editor's Fireside Chat

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 6)

Yes, Clan Ewing has its own domain on the Internet. Since we are a family organization - .org appeared to be more appropriate than .com or .net. Our name is not case sensitive; therefore, it should be easier to find us. When CarolSue Hair sent out an e-mail notice telling our members who have e-mail about the new name for Clan Ewing on the Internet, she got back a number of message due to a bad address. We encourage you to send us your new e-mail address if it has changed recently. In a few weeks, I will be printing the a new mailing list and we would like to have all of the correct information for each person.

This journal is the first of volume 6 and I might ask “where do we go from here”? It is my conviction that we can produce a better journal and provide more information to our members as well as the unknown part of the family that may be just starting their research this year.

Over the past five years, we have published a lot of information about various individuals and families and I know that I do not have a good recall on when and where the information was published and the individuals names that were included. Someone might know of a method that would help us with recall so we could use the information when we try to answer queries.

In this issue, the information included is a little different. That is due in part to the information that I have when I start putting information together for a journal which is about six months before the date of the journal. It is really nice to have a good back log of articles especially some that are a few pages in length. That is something that I am short on at this time. Again, I encourage each of you to dig through some of those old storage places for items that can be used in the journal.

When my cousin, Ina Mae McGuire, died in late January, I came into the possession of a book that was typed in 1969 and most likely only a few copies were distributed. It is primarily the contents of about 400 letters that were written in the mid 1800s and were found in two or three places when family members started through some old items that were stored. The Ewings that are mentioned are not from my family. But, fortunately, I know of someone that is related to the Ewing family mentioned.

No doubt many of you are looking forward to the reunion in September and we hope to see many of you there. In the mean time, think about what we might do with the journal that will make us a better family organization. Jim McMichael

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Page 407

JAMES EWING OF POCAHONTAS

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 7)

Edited by Jim McMichael

Over the past few years, I have seen a good bit of correspondence and completed “What’s My Line?” forms that listed a wife for James Ewing of Pocahontas. However, some claim that the wife’s name of James is not known and some identify a wife by name.

About 60 years or so ago, a family researcher made a mistake in passing on information that he had received from someone else that identified the wife of James Ewing. He tried to recall his error, but as in many cases, the error continues to be used over and over and the truth is not accepted.

Recently, I received a copy of a 1939 letter from A. E. Ewing to R. O. McNiel and I think that the confession made by A. E. Ewing should be published. For those that are descendants of James Ewing, I hope the information in the following letter will be of some benefit to you. The emphases has been added. It is really important to get bad information corrected. A portion of the letter follows:

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Sept. 14, 1939

R.O. McNiel

Roanoke, VA

“NO, we have never found (to my later satisfaction, at least) who the Irish girl was who became the wife of James Ewing, the father of Swago Bill. Years ago, when I was still a greenhorn in the family history business, Dr. Gilbert A. Ewing of Jackson announced that the Irish girl’s name was Margaret Sargent. I accepted the statement, and had it so published in the Ewing sketch in Prince’s history. The doctor also announced that our James Ewing was a captain in the Revolution and received a grant of lands for his services. We went so far as to obtain from Richmond a copy of the grant (which I still have buried away somewhere in the attic) and it ran to James Ewing and a McNutt (James I think). The land described was on Indian Creek in Greenbrier County.

“Years after we had swallowed the error I came to know that Indian Creek is in present Monroe County, West Virginia (formerly Greenbrier) and that there was a family of Ewings and a family of McNutts living there. The Ewing family was, however, no relation of ours. There is a good 40 or 50 miles between the Swago and Indian Creeks, and we have not even a tradition that any of our Ewings ever lived on Indian. Moreover, the James Ewing of Indian Creek is accounted for as from the Staunton County, or farther east. So. ‘Captain James Ewing’ was eliminated from our records. There was another James Ewing from Prince Edward County. It is possible that some other James Ewing than ours married Margaret Sargent. I have never been able to find the name Sargent on any Virginia list. My grandfather did not know her name. Time and again I directed our conversation toward his grandfather James. When was he born----whom did he marry----where was he born----when did he come to Virginia----whom did he marry----was he in the Revolution----when and where did he die----the sum total of his answers was, “He come to Virginny in an arly day, a young man from the north of Ireland and soon after married an Irish girl.’

“Grandfather could have loaded me up with a great story had he been a ‘romancer.’ He would not go an inch beyond what he knew or believed to be true. James died as we know now five years before Grandfather was born (Enoch was born in 1799). Necessarily, all grandfather knew about him was what he had learned from family talk. He knew his Uncle John (Indian John) personally, as both John and William settled on the Little Raccoon in Gallia County, Ohio, only a few miles apart. Indian John Ewing was renowned for his prodigious memory, and it is very likely that grandfather learned much from his uncle, especially the story of the Clendennin Massacre in 1763. Grandfather had the names of his uncle and aunts at his tongue’s end, and also knew whom they married. He knew the birth dates of his own father and mother and mentioned that his father was double the age of Mary McNeill when he married her. Records I have since found verify his statements to the dot. He did not pretend to know much about the movements of the Ewings up to the time they appeared on Swago.”

A. E. Ewing

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Page 409

THE PICKLE JAR HAD A PROFOUND IMPACT

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 10)

By A.W. Cobbs

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL

Source: The Houston Chronicle, Saturday, July 31, 1999, Section E, page 8.

As far back as I can remember, the large pickle jar sat on the floor beside the dresser in my parents’ bedroom.

When he got ready for bed, Dad would empty his pockets and toss his coins into the jar. As a small boy, I was always fascinated at the sounds the coins made as they were dropped into the jar. They landed with a merry jingle when the jar was almost empty. Then the tones gradually muted to a dull thud as the jar was filled

I used to squat on the floor in front of the jar and admire the copper and silver circles that glinted like a pirate’s treasure when the sun poured through the bedroom window.

When the jar was filled, Dad would sit at the kitchen table and roll the coins before taking them to the bank. Taking the coins to the bank was always a big production. Stacked neatly in a small cardboard box, the coin rolls were placed between Dad and me on the seat of his old truck. Every time, as we drove to the bank, Dad would look at me hopefully.

“These coins are going to keep you out of the textile mill, son. You’re going to do better than me. This old mill town’s not going to hold you back,” he would say. As he’d slide the box of rolled coins across the counter at the bank toward the cashier, he would grin proudly. “These are for my son’s college fund. He’ll never work at the mill all his life like me.”

We would always celebrate each deposit by stopping for an ice-cream cone. I would always go for chocolate; Dad always got vanilla. When the clerk at the ice-cream parlor handed Dad his change, he would show me the few coins nestled in his palm. “When we get home, we’ll start filling the jar again.”

He always let me drop the first coins into the empty jar. As they rattled around with a brief, happy jingle, we grinned at each other. “You’ll get to college on pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters,” he would say, “but you’ll get there. I’ll see to that.”

The years passed, and I finished college and took a job in another town. Once, while visiting my parents, I used the phone in their bedroom and noticed that the pickle jar was gone. It had served its purpose and had been removed. A lump rose in my throat as I stared at the spot beside the dresser where the jar had always stood. My dad was a man of few words, and never lectured me on the values of determination, perseverance and faith. The pickle jar had taught me all the most flowery of words could have done.

When I married, I told my wife, Susan, about the significant part the lowly pickle jar had played in my life as a boy. In my mind it defined, more than anything else, how much my dad had loved me. No matter how rough things got at home, Dad doggedly continued to drop his coins into the jar.

Even the summer when Dad got laid off from the mill and Mama had to serve dried beans several times a week, not a single dime was taken from the jar. To the contrary, as Dad looked across the table at me, pouring ketchup over my beans to make them more palatable, he became more determined than ever to make a way out for me. “When you finish college, son,” he told me, his eyes glistening “you’ll never have to eat beans again unless you want to.”

The first Christmas after our daughter, Jessica, was born, we spent the holidays with my parents. After dinner, Mom and Dad sat next to each other on the sofa, taking turns cuddling their first grandchild. Jessica began to whimper softly, and Susan took her from Dad’s arms. “She probably needs to be changed,” she said and carried the baby into my parents’ bedroom to diaper her.

When Susan came back into the living room, there was a strange mist in her eyes. She handed Jessica back to Dad before taking my hand and quietly leading me into the bedroom. “Look,” she said softly, her eyes directing me to a spot on the floor beside the dresser. To my amazement, there, as if it had never been removed, stood the old pickle jar, and the bottom was already covered with coins.

I walked over to the pickle jar, dug down into my pocket and pulled out a fistful of coins. With a gamut of emotions choking me, I dropped the coins into the jar. I looked up and saw that Dad, who was carrying Jessica, had slipped quietly into the room. Our eyes locked, and I knew he was feeling the same emotions I felt. Neither one of us could speak.

King Features Syndicate

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Page 411

EWING FAMILY BIBLES

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 12)

Source: The following Bible information was sent by Wallace K. Ewing, Grand Haven, Michigan. The preparation of this information is really appreciated and a number of descendants will now know where some of the dates that have been published for these families came from.

The oldest Bible in my possession belonged to William Ewing and his wife, Mary McNeill. They were married in Greenbrier County, VA, in 1785. William, the son of James, was born in December, 1756, and Mary was 14 years younger, and thus only 14 when she married Swago Bill. Following is a list of the names entered in the Bible. Note that the family name is consistently spelled with an “s” on the end, indicating that someone out of the immediate family may have made the entries:

Elizabeth Ewings, Daughter of William Ewings and Mary his wife was Born febrauary the 15, 1787

Thomas Ewings Was Born July 30 1788

Jonathan Ewings was Born Agust the first 1790

William Ewings Was Born April the 3 1792

James Ewings Was Born December the 9 1793

John Ewings Was Born September the 9 1795

Sarah Ewings Was Born May the 23 1797

Enoch Ewings Was Born July the 31 1799

Jacob Ewings Was Born August the 17 1802

Abram McNeel Ewings Was Born October the thirteenth 1804

George Ewings Was Born Janauary the 21 1807

Andrew Ewings Was Born May the forth 1809

The Bible was printed in 1790 and my grandfather conjectured that it came into the Ewing family about five years later, while they were still living in what is now West Virginia. In 1810 the good book moved to Gallia County, OH. In 1854, 32 years after her husband died, Mary took it with her to Missouri, accompanied by Andrew.

Later Andrew moved to Iowa, and took the Bible with him. Then a daughter of his settled in North Dakota, and that’s where my grandfather, Alvin, acquired it, about 1900, in exchange (he wrote) for a new one. It came back to Michigan with Alvin, and then went to his daughter. When she died last year a tad short of her 100th birthday, I took possession. In 1930 Alvin wrote that the Bible “has been at several Ewing Family reunions.” It is extremely fragile, lacking covers, and missing a number of pages.

The second Bible is also fragile, but in much better condition. It belonged to Enoch Ewing, Swago Bill’s son, and Enoch’s wife, Susannah Radabaugh. After their deaths, daughter Charlotte Jenkins took it. Later she passed it on to her brother, Henry McKendree Ewing, my great-grandfather, had it in his home, then his son, Alvin, next Alvin’s daughter, and then me. Henry thought the book was in the Ewing family as early as 1821, the year Enoch and Susannah were married. These are the entries recorded in the bible:

PARENT’S RECORD

FATHER Enoch Ewing, Born July 31, 1799

MOTHER Susannah Ewing Born October 16th 1800

BIRTHS

Charlotte Ewing Born November 1st 1822

Isaac Ewing Born April 1st 1825

Jennetta Ewing Born June 8th 1827

John Ewing Born July 22nd 1829

William J. Ewing Born September 14th 1831

Andew Ewing Born Novembr 13th 1833

James Leander Ewing Born December 28th 1835

Elizabeth Ewing Born May 28th 1838

Henry Mc Ewing Born May 15th 1841

Emily J. Ewing Born August 23d 1844

Melvin R. Radabaugh was born Feb 19th 1850

Etna A. Radabaugh was born May 7 1851

Emily J. Ewing Died July 17th 1848 aged 3 years 11 Months and 22 Days We have a beautious Little girl Her age we cannot tell For they reckon not by Months and years In the Land Where She is gone to dwell

BIRTHS

Josiah Jenkins was borned November the 18th 1812

Charlotte Ewing was borned November 1 A. D. 1822

Martha J. Jenkins was borned October the 2nd 1841

Mary E. Jenkins was borned July the 13th 1848

Isabell S. Jenkins was borned February the 13th 1845

Nancy C. Jenkins was borned March the 31 8147

Isaac S. Jenkins was borned December the 6th 1848

Enoch M. Jenkins was borned August the 12th 1851

Josephus Mc Jenkins was borned June 16th 1854

Susan A. Jenkins was borned September the 18th 1856

Cassius M. F. Jenkins was borned September 13th 1858

William Edward Jenkins was borned June 12th 1862

U. S. Grant Jenkins was born April 17, 1864

The third Bible belonged to Henry McKendree Ewing and his wife Nancy Hanks. He paid $2.50 for it in 1864. It came to me by way of their son, Alvin, and Alvin’s daughter, Doris. Like the others, it is fragile and parts of it are missing. The entries are brief:

Henry Mc and Nancy A. Ewing was married Aprile 23rd 1862

Henry Mc Ewing was Born May 15th 1841

Nancy A. Ewing was Born June 10th 1840

BIRTHS

Loella J. Ewing was Born January 26th 1863

Alvin E. Ewing was Born Nov 10th 1864

John C. Ewing was Born January 28th 1867

Frank B. Ewing was Born July 28th 1869

The fourth and last Bible is in the best condition of them all, but still fragile and disintegrating. It belonged to William Jordan Ewing and his wife, Isabelle Virginia Hank. One of the pages has this certificate of Holy Matrimony:

William J. Ewing of Michigan and Isabell V. Hank of Jackson Ohio on October 12 1855 at Jackson [Ohio] by J. T. Holiday Jackson [Ohio] J. W. Ewing, Witness S. Cherrington, Witness

BIRTHS

William J. Ewing Born Sept 14 1837

Isabel V. Hank Born Jan 2 1838.

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Page 414

SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 15)

The first 3 digits of a person's Social Security Number, indicates the state in which the person resided when the number was assigned: (Perhaps useful in conjunction with the use of the Social Security Death Index.)

001-003 New Hampshire

004-007 Maine

008-009 Vermont

010-034 Mass.

135-158 New Jersey

035-039 Rhode Island

040-049 Conn.

050-134 New York

135-158 New Jersey

159- 211 Penn.

212-220 Maryland

221-222 Delaware

223-231 Virginia

232-236 West Virginia

237-246 North Carolina

247-251 South Carolina

252-260 Georgia

261-267 Florida

268-302 Ohio

303-317 Indiana

318-361 Illinois

362-386 Michigan

387-399 Wisconsin

400-407 Kentucky

408-415 Tennessee

416-424 Alabama

425-428 Mississippi

429-432 Arkansas

433-439 Louisiana

440-448 Oklahoma

449-467 Texas

468-477 Minnesota

478-485 Iowa

486-500 Missouri

501-502 North Dakota

503-504 South Dakota

505-508 Nebraska

509-515 Kansas

516-517 Montana

518-519 Idaho

520 Wyoming

521-524 Colorado

525 - 585 New Mexico

526-527 Arizona

528-529 Utah

530 Nevada

531-539 Washington

540-544 Oregon

545-573 California

574 Alaska

575-576 Hawaii

577-579 District of Columbia

580 Virgin Islands

581-585 P.R., Guam, Am. Samoa, Philippine Islands

700-729 Railroad

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Page 415

WILL OF JAMES EWING (1733-1825)

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 16)

Source: George Alan Morledge, Williamsburg, Virginia sent a typed copy of the will for James Ewing. Thanks George for sharing a copy of this information.

From Will Book III, p. 125, #69, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania

Will dated 23 September 1814

“In the name of God Amen I, James Ewing of Allegheny County, Robinson Township, State of Pennsylvania, Yeoman, being perfect in health of body and of sound mind, memory and understanding but considering the uncertainty of this transitory life, do make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following to with: Principally and first of all I commit my immortal soul into the hands of God who gave it and my body to the earth, to be buried in a decent and christian like manner at the discretion of my executors hereinafter named, and as to such worldly estate wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life, I give and dispose of the same in the following manner to wit: First, I will that all legal debts against my estate after my decease be fairly and faithfully discharged, together with all my funeral expenses. After which I will and bequeath unto my loving wife Mary her living during her natural life, the home plantation I now occupy together with all the movable property pertaining thereunto, the same to be her sole use during her natural life.

“I will and bequeath unto my oldest son William parcel of land on Montours Run adjoining David Smith, Wm. Hall and others, said parcel of land I hold by patent on which are a grist mill and saw mill, all which I will and bequeath to my son William, with all appurtenances and advantages whatever arising on the said property, comprehending my whole claim on the waters of Montours Run.

“Again I will and bequeath unto my second son Samuel the parcel of land he now occupies, which land I hold by patent, land adjoining Henry Sturgeon and Samuel Ewing, Senr. And others, land lying on the waters of Robinson Run.

“Again I will and bequeath to my third son Alexander the parcel of land he, said Alexander, now occupies adjoining John Campbell, dec^d, Col. Nevil and others, bounded on the east by Chartiers Creek which I hold by patent, said land to be divided from the tract of land I now live on, beginning at a post at the head of the steep hollow joining Col. Nevil, turning from there to the mouth of the lick run on Robinson Run, thence along a conditional line until it meets the head boundary line.

“Again I will and bequeath to my fourth son James a parcel of land purchased from Robert Boyd on which is a saw mill, bounded by Isaac Walker on the west and my home tract on the east and which I will and bequeath to my son James along with all my stills.

“Again I will and bequeath to my fifth son John the tract of land I now occupy with the grist mill now upon it and which I will to him after my decease.

“Again I will and bequeath to my four daughters to with: Ester, Elizabeth, Ann and Mary, to each one feather bed, one cow, and further I will and bequeath to them that tract of land willed to me by my brother Moses adjoining Gabriel Walker east, Isaac Walker on the north and John Taylor on the south, to be sold by my executors and equally divided by my four daughters at my decease.

“And further it is my will that if any of my sons dies leaving no heirs, that their part be equalli (sic) divided among my other sons above named.

“Again it is my will that at the decease of my widow that all my movable property be equally divided among my above named children. Except what money, notes or bank accounts may be after all my legal debts are discharged also to be divided among my above named sons.

“Again it is my will that my widow shall have my black girl Neuge her natural life and I leave it to my executors discretion, it she behaves well to set her free, likewise my two black boys Benn and Bill their time to be sold and divided between my above named children.

“And lastly I nominate, constitute and appoint my said wife and three oldest sons to wit: William, Samuel, and Alexander, to be the executors of this my last will and testament and I do hereby revoke all other wills legacees (sic) and bequeaths by me heretofore made and declaring this and no other to be my last will and testament. In witness where I set my hand and seal this twenty third day or September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, the same signed and sealed published and declared by the testator as his last will and testament in presence of us who in his presence and at his request have subscribed as witnesses.

s/Jonathan Phillips s/James Ewing seal

s/James Wagstaff

s/David Ewing

“Allegheny County, Pa. On the 11^th day of March A.D. 1826 personally appeared Johathan Phillips, James Wagstaff, and David Ewing, the three subscribing witnesses to the within will, who upon their solemn oath do depose and say they were present and did see and hear James Ewing, the testator, sign seal publish pronounce and declare the foregoing instrument of writing to be as and for his last will and testament and that at the time of so doing, he was of perfect and sound mind memory and understanding to the best of their knowledge observation and belief. Given under my hand at Pittsburgh the date aforesaid.

(Initials not legible)

“Be it remembered that on the 18^th day of March A.D. 1826 letters testamentary on the within will have been duly granted to William and Alexander Ewing, two of the executors therein named who were solemnly sworn to exhibit into the Register’s office at Pittsburgh within one month a true and perfect inventory of the personal estate of the said deceased and to settle the account of their administration within one year or when thereunto legally required. Given under my hand at Pittsburgh the date aforesaid.

s/M. Stewart Register

“(File cover of will)

James Ewing Deceased Last Will

Filed and Proven the 11 day of March 1826 by three witnesses. Recorded.”

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Page 418

ISAAC WALKER, III

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 19)

Source: George Alan Morledge, Williamsburg, Virginia sent a typed copy of the following information. Thanks George for sharing a copy of this information.

From Warner’s History of Alleghaney County, Pennsylvania, page 181.

“It is mentioned in this article that Will Hawkins escaped from the Indians and gave notice to the family of Isaac Walker and was taken to the fort. He was a bound boy - bound to the family of Gabriel Walker. He was a smart, keen, active Young Man as his escape from the Indians will prove.

“After the raid on the Walker family the settlers clubbed together. Eight or ten families went together to do the work on the different farms. They drove the cows with them to supply them with milk and armed men around the field to guard against Indians and insure safety.

“In the summer of 1783 the settlers were all on the farm of Isaac McMichal (sic) Esq. Engaged in harvesting wheat. With them the guard around the field and Harkins attending to the cows. At the dinner hour the men all went to dinner consequently were off their guard. Harkins drove the cows up to the house and sat down, keeping the cows between him and the house. He was making a powder horn. The Indians had been watching the house and when they saw the men go in they shot Harkins dead and dragging his body a short distance into a ravine they whipped off his scalp and in an instant made their escape. The men in the house were dumbfounded. They heard the shot and saw the Indians in the act of scalping but the cows were between them and the Indians __ All was the work of a moment. The whites were afraid of an ambush and being drawn into a trap but when they came to ceconnoitre they found there was only three or four Indians. This was the last of William Harkins who fell a victim to savage cruelty.

“This house stood on the farm lately owned by Henry Cowan and was strongly built and occupied as a block house being supplied with loop holes for a defence.(sic) It is now in Collier Township.

Supplied by

Sylvia Walker Caven

5 Oct 1950"

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Page 419

QUERIES

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 1 Feb 2000, page 27)

Looking for any information on William Ewing, b est 1800, d abt 1848 in Dearborn Co., IN. Married in 1841 to Timandra Sedwick, of VA. They had 3 children: Missouri Ewing, b abt 1843; John Polk Ewing, b 13 Sept 1844, prob in Dearborn Co., IN - died 13 January 1920; and Mississippi Ewing, b abt 1847, married to Joshua W. Henderson as his second wife in 1877, Ripley Co., IN. I have the original John Polk Ewing / Alice V Wells Bible and much information on his descendants to share. I am wondering if the middle name "Polk" is of significance, in light of the recently published 1844 letter from Nathaniel Ewing discussing the large colony of Ewings and Polks in Pennsylvania.

Bobbi Hawk, 4812 Rimrock Rd, Billings, MT 59106 e-mail: fryco<at>mcn.net

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Page 420

Letters & E-mail

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 2)

In my research of my Nathaniel EWING line I ran across an interesting file at http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb/ussearch.htm Query: EWING, Fayette County State: VA The file of interest is named: scems0001.txt It contains info on some small cemeteries in Fayette Co, PA. The file documents the grave sites plus others:

Mary

24 Mar 1774-12 Apr1846

w/o William Porter Ewing

William Ewing

1808-1867

William Ewing

1828-1832

William Ewing

25 Sep 1769-21 Oct 1827

Breading, James 1726

Breading, Ann Ewing

born at sea 1725 - 1809

d/o Nathaniel & Ewing

Jon P. EWING

Ed. Note: It is best that you visit the Internet site for the details as they are displayed.

~~~~~

Jim - wanted you to be aware of the Bible that was shown on HGTV's Appraisal Fair. [This is an edited copy of a message to another person.]

Good evening [10 Feb 2000] from Pahrump, Nevada. Tom and I have been playing "snowbirds" for over a month now and will be gone from Newman until the middle OF March.

This evening on APPRAISAL FAIR on the Home and Garden TV Network a woman took a Bible in for an appraisal. She found it in a closet when her family moved into a home/apartment. Appraisal Fair is televised from Chicago. The name on the Bible wasn't HANKS. I believe she mentioned a name like Beckworth? I wasn't really paying attention. Anyway they talked about the owner of the Bible being related to Lincoln. As the Appraiser turned the pages to the page with written family records - there was noted Nancy HANKS and several Ewing names were recognizable. I was not able to see clearly the first names. They also showed an Obituary of (I believe) Stephen Hanks, I think it said he was a Colonel and died in Kentucky. Everything went so fast as I tried to take in all that was being shown - I know that some of the information is wrong. But it definitely is some of your family history recorded there.

I'm going to send this information to you in the morning, but we must go to the office in the R.V. Park. You might be able to get some of the information on www.HGTV.com on the program shown this evening. I'm going to call in the morning to see if I can get the name of the woman that has the Bible. Her name wasn't given. She said that she was going to keep it for future generations. The Bible was appraised for $200 - $300. I am going to try to get her name and address and ask for copies of the written pages.

You may wish to try to get some information from your end also.

-This just might be one of the Bibles that Nancy had been searching for!

-Notice that I have a new e-mail address

-I'd call, but can't get directory assistance on the cell phone and my telephone numbers are at home.

Thursday A.M. - After three phone calls I was given the phone number of the Appraisal Fair Production Company who had the information needed. Of course they must protect their people. I told the receptionist what I wanted and that the information in the Bible was important in Ewing/Hanks Genealogy.

She was going to contact the woman that has the Bible and give her MY name, address, phone number, cell phone number, and e-mail address. I told her that I wouldn't be back in Newman until the middle of March, but that I do pick up my e-mail frequently. Now all we do is wait.

Thursday P.M. - we still haven't gotten our e-mail sent off - and just as well. I just received a phone call from Cal Olsen, Bolingbrook, IL. He and his wife had the Bible and have donated it to the Village of Bolingbrook Historical Society. It is the Bible of Stephen Beck Hanks, of Whiteside County, Illinois, a Riverboat Captain on the Mississippi River. It was found when Dorothy Olsen was 19 years old in an apartment closet in Glenellen, Illinois. It has been in their basement for the past 25 years. Carol Penning, Village Clerk, will be sending me copies of all that was in the Bible. Not only was there the Obituary, but cards as well. After all these years, Isn't it great?

Cal stated that there were about thirty entries in the Family Record Section of the Bible. I can hardly wait to get the papers, and of course, copies will go to the both of you.

Barbara Powell

~~~~~

I’m now State Registrar for Wisconsin Son’s of the American Revolution. I must approve all new applications for membership. Much genealogy. Any Clan member interested can turn to me. I’ll help

Guy Ewing

Racine, Wisconsin

~~~~~

Another success with the latest edition of the Journal! I especially enjoyed reading the "confessional" letter from my grandfather to R. O. McNiel. I have inherited A.E.'s correspondence, but that particular letter of Sept. 14, 1939 is missing. I now will add it to my collection. A.E. (Alvin Enoch) tried hard to dispell the misinformation, and it is amazing that 55 years after his death, the myth lives on.

Wally Ewing

wkewing<at>novagate.com

~~~~~

I am very proud of our Clan Ewing publication. It always makes the rounds up at our Country Club in Chaddsford, PA. We have several Scottish members who originally came from the area of our ancestors. Your ears must “burn” constantly as at coctail parties I am continually bragging about our Clan Ewing and especially our publication (which is you!). I would like to thank you for all of your outstanding efforts in organizing our “Clan Ewing”.

Due to Mom’s illness and my schedule, I have been unable to complete several research projects that I have started re: the Ewings in Delaware County Pennsylvania.

Hope to see you and the rest of the gang in Ohio this fall. Give my best to everyone. People like you make me very proud of my Ewing heritage.

Best wishes and God bless,

Joey Ewing Glick

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Page 423

CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 5)

As we come up to another Family Gathering of the Clan, we can be well satisfied with our accomplishments, while at the same time looking forward to moving ahead in the years to come. Our “management team” has performed admirably over the past two years, and each of them can be proud of the progress we have made.

The heart of our Clan consists of almost 600 members (every Ewing or Ewing descendant or spouse on the mailing list according to our bylaws). About half of those are current in the payment of their annual dues each year, and about three-quarters of the 600 have paid dues at some time during the past 7 years. We look forward to hearing from any of you at any time and to greeting many of you at our Gatherings held every two or three years.

We are held together in large part by this fine Journal so ably edited by Jim McMichael, who welcomes all contributions of articles, inquiries or other interesting Ewing-related items. Jim wears other Clan caps as well. He handles our finances (which are in good shape) as Clan Treasurer, and he is Clan Genealogist with Margaret Fife. Both recently have written outstanding books on their, and many other, Ewing lines, and they try their best to answer all questions that come up from our members and others regarding Ewing ancestry and connections.

Bob Johnson is our Secretary, membership guru and purveyor of our Clan merchandise – caps, golf shirts, sweat shirts, mugs etc. He has developed all our membership material, including the membership certificate, Clan brochure and other forms.

Our excellent website at www.clanewing.org was composed, and is maintained, by CarolSue Hair, and I urge all of you with Internet access to visit it. It contains information about the Clan, a history of the Ewing name and early years, some family lines, links to many other sites of value and interest to all of us, and an area for visitors to leave inquiries and items of interest to other Ewing descendants.

All that and more is going on behind the scenes in your Clan, and any suggestions anyone may have on our future organizational makeup or activities will be most welcome. Anyone who wants to become a part of any of our operations or to lead us into any new areas will be heartily welcomed as well. Just keep in touch, as they say.

I hope to greet many of you in Lancaster, Ohio, September 21.

Joe (Neff) Ewing

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Page 424

A CHAT WITH JILL

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 6)

Hi all,

Well, family, the letters are written, the plans are processed as far as we can, the registration forms are out and we did the best we could. My admiration to those who did this job before me has grown by leaps and bounds for the great job setting up the former reunions. What a job they did!

It will be worth it all if you will come and share the reunion with us. I look forward to seeing all of you. We have lots of good things planned and already some registrations in. Please send yours in soon and help us know how many to plan for.

We will gather for supper and to get-acquainted as people arrive Thursday evening for supper. We will hear from Margaret Ewing Fife about her early Ewing's to this area and an update on her new book. We will be using buses to tour Margaret’s ancestors home and grounds on Friday morning. While half the group goes there the other half will go to the famous Square 13 to tour "the Sherman House" and "The Georgian". Then they will switch. Lunch will be on your own with free time after lunch. We will have Bar-B-Que Friday evening around the pool, weather permitting. On Saturday we will have several interesting programs, one by Joseph Hoch “Joe” Ewing from Maryland on his Ewing descendants from that area, another by Albert Harter about Ewing interests in the surrounding area, and one about our Web page. We want to hear your stories too.

In the evening we will return to Square 13 for the evening meal, the place hasn't been finalized yet, and tour of the downstairs of Senator Thomas Ewing home and spend some time there for desert and enjoy the books, scrapbooks, and pictures the family who own the house now will share with us. We will have to break into groups and will probably visit another house or two as we can't all fit in at the same time. Again we have to have a figure to work with.

We will close Sunday morning with a business meeting to elect officers, discuss the next reunion, and how to change our by-laws. Please bring your ideas. Where would you like the next reunion to be held?

Sincerely,

Jill

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Page 425

Editor's Fireside Chat

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 7)

"Ideas won't keep: something must be done about them:" - Alfred North Whitehead

This journal and your family organization needs your ideas and help as to how we can make this the best family organization around. Some families have an organization and they just have an annual picnic type lunch for one day and other just have a newsletter. And, some go by the wayside in two or three years. We have been quite fortunate to have had the success that we have had for seven years and some discussion for a 2003 reunion is going on.

However, we have not grown much in membership over the past three years. Our attendance at the reunions have not been the numbers that I thought we would have.

It is my belief that we are going to need to shift gears and do something a little different to attract more members. One of the things that I think would help us is to have more people involved with Clan Ewing. We need to get more people in a position to take on the operation of Clan Ewing when some of the current people step down or their health, and I hope that does not occur, prevents them from continuing in their current duties or what they might do in the future.

We have about four months until we meet for the reunion. Between now and then, let me encourage each of you to consider this family organization and ask yourself “what am i willing to do to keep Clan Ewing in business.

Also, when we meet in Lancaster, it will be time to decide if we are going to have another reunion or not. If we do, who is willing or wants to take on that responsibility. Think about it.

Jim McMichael

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Page 426

Biographical Sketch of Albert G. Ewing (1804-1873)

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 8)

Text from Elmira J. Dickinson, (chairperson of publication committee), A History of Eureka College, with Biographical Sketches and Reminiscences, St. Louis: Christian Publishing Company, 1894. Pages 124-127.This online edition © 1998, James L. McMillan.

A. G. Ewing was born in Nashville, Tennessee, February 28th, 1804. His parents were natives of Scotland. It was a tradition in his father's family that their ancestors were of the same family as that most famous of Scottish heroes, Sir William Wallace.

[page 125] His parents were among the earliest settlers of Nashville. His father gave his six sons the best opportunities in the way of education that that day afforded, and they all became prominent men in a worldly way except Albert, the subject of this sketch; his life was even more energetic and earnest than theirs, but his chief ambition was to serve his God and save his fellowmen. He graduated in Cumberland College when only sixteen years old. Was a good Greek scholar, and throughout his life his Greek Bible was nearly as often in his hand as his well-worn English Bible.

Gen. Jackson's name is appended to his diploma as one of the college trustees. The noted General was known and admired by the youthful student. Soon after Albert graduated, he was honored by a partnership with the then celebrated Dr. Welsh in a drug-store; he gained a good knowledge of medicine at this time. Alexander Campbell preached in Nashville when Albert was nineteen, and his parents and himself were among the first converts Campbell made there. The reformer and his young convert loved each other. Albert gave up fine prospects of earthly honor and riches and followed the then persecuted Campbell to Bethany, became a student under him, traveled with him on some of his extensive preaching tours, and finally married Campbell's eldest daughter. She died [page 126] young, like all of Campbell's first family of gifted and beautiful daughters.

In 1837 Mr. Ewing married Miss Mary J. Marsilliot of Wheeling, Virginia, and removed to a farm on the Ohio River near the village of Clarington. She outlived him fifteen years. Farming and the building and managing of a large steam flouring and saw-mill enabled him to give employment to a number of men. He chose this river locality for his home, because religious and educational work was sadly needed there. During the twenty years of his life there all that he had and was, was freely given to educate and Christianize the people. He met with opposition and persecution for a time, but also had good success, and came to be much beloved.

He preached, made converts and organized churches in a number of places, built the church house for his home church with very little aid, and was its pastor for sixteen years. He made the same mistake others of our pioneer preachers made, he required too little of others and caused them to depend too much on him. Finally his health failed and he was crippled financially.

He brought his family to Eureka, Illinois, in 1858. Although broken in health and mental power by a long illness occurring shortly before his coming West, his life in his new home was not useless; he soon became a working elder in the church. His active eldership in Ohio and Illinois covered [page 127] a period of forty years. He was a trustee of Bethany College for a number of years before he came to Illinois. He was President of the Board of Trustees of Eureka College for eleven years before his death, and was deeply interested in its welfare.

President Everest once said of him, that of all men he had come in contact with, he had the least admixture of selfishness. The good of The Cause was always first with him. Another who knew him well said, when notified of his death, "If ever the words which Christ applied to Nathaniel applied to any other man they did to A. G. Ewing. He was an Israelite indeed in whom there was no guile." He fell asleep on August 28th, 1873, at his home in Eureka, Illinois.

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Page 428

HENRY EWING

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 10)

Joshua “Pete” Hamilton of Buena Vista, Virginia, and I have discussed his Ewing family using e-mail. Recently, I asked him a question about Henry Ewing, the son of William Ewing of Rockingham County, since the information that I had received from different sources were in conflict.

Henry has been reported as moving to Kentucky. However, Henry was the clerk in Rockingham County and it appears that he may have died while he was recording a document. Katherine W. Ewing made reference to Henry’s death in her manuscript. Pete replies:

“Regarding your question, the person in question was Henry Ewing, a brother of my 4-great grandfather, Andrew Ewing. Henry and Andrew were sons of William Ewing of Rockingham. In her manuscript, "Clerk Andrew Ewing, His Book", Katherine W. Ewing has the following (p. 15):

"One of the preserved books in its original binding is Judgments and Orders No. 3, which is only half-filled with Clerk Henry Ewin's entries, the last of which is incomplete, stopping in mid-sentence. All of the remaining pages of the book are bare.

"The next succeeding volume is Judgements and Orders No. 4. On page one: ""At a Court held for Rockingham County at the Court House Monday the 22nd Day of October in the year of Our Lord 1792 and in the 17th Year of Our foundation "Present . . . John Ewen . . . Gentlemen Justices "Ordered that Samuel W. Williams be appointed CLERK of the County Court of Rockingham IN STEAD OF HENRY EWEN DECEASED . . ."

“The next entry in the same book deals with the presentation to the court of the last will and testament of Henry Ewen, deceased.”

Jim, I believe that this answers your questions. Apparently Katherine Ewing visited Rockingham County in 1971 and the above observations were made at that time.

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Page 429

THE EWING HOUSE

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 12)

by Mary Ewing Gosline

At 406 East Main Street in Arcola, Illinois, there stands a stately twelve room house known as the “Ewing House”. According to newspaper articles, the house was built in 1872 on Lots 7 and 8 in McClelland’s Addition. My great-grandfather, Joseph Henry Ewing, paid $3,500 for the house when he bought it from Samuel D. Lloyd on August 16, 1902. Joseph and his wife, Ann Louisa McDonald Ewing, had lived on a farm east of Arcola but moved to town because Joseph’s eyesight was failing. After Ann’s death, their youngest son George, along with his wife Eula and daughter Elizabeth Ann, moved into the Ewing house to help care for Joseph. They continued to live there for many years, even after Joseph’s death. Although I have many recollections about the house, Elizabeth Ann (Ewing) Read and my father, Thomas Newell Ewing, have been very helpful in providing detailed descriptions.

My great-aunt, Mary Florence Ewing, moved into the Ewing House after her retirement. She shared her home with my family and me for several months while my parents looked for a place to live in Champaign. In the years following, we often returned to Arcola to visit her. A highlight of some of those visits was seeing extended family who had traveled from all over Illinois to attend big Memorial Day dinners or family reunions. My memories include meeting great-aunts, great-uncles, and second cousins, listening to Aunt Mary report on family members who lived near and far, and sitting in the library with my cousins while we read about our great-grandfather’s experiences in the Civil War. My interest in family history was “born” in the Ewing House.

Stretching across the front of the old Victorian home is a wide front porch. Folks enjoyed sitting on the swing at the west end of the porch where they could visit while the children played on the floor with their cars and trucks. The spacious side lawn was the scene of many fun-filled croquet games. Nearby, a swing hanging from a towering tree was popular with folks of all ages. A back porch overlooked the large garden which contained vegetables, flowers, and a grape arbor. In later years, after there were sidewalks, the children rode their tricycles around the corner, up the alley, past the east side of the house, and up the front walk, making a complete loop around the house.

From the front porch, one entered the house through double doors with fancy brass doorknobs and beveled, etched glass panels. The beautiful doors, narrower than the double doors of today, led into the front foyer where one immediately noticed the lovely massive newel post of the open walnut staircase. The hallway to the right of the staircase led to the library, dining room, and kitchen. Under the staircase was an open area with several hooks for hanging coats.

To the right of the foyer were doors to the front parlor where an impressive black marble fireplace dominated the west wall. It was in this room that the 50^th wedding anniversary photo of my great-grandparents was taken in 1915. A fancy Brussels carpet was bought for that special occasion. An old piano once sat in the parlor, but no one remembers who played it.

At the back of the parlor were pocket (or sliding) doors opening into the sitting room with its deep bay windows. On special occasions, the family gathered in this room to talk after dinner. Tucked behind sliding curtains at the back of the sitting room was a bedroom.

Opposite the sitting room, on the east side of the house, was the library with windows that always seemed sunny and inviting. The light fixture suspended from a carved ceiling medallion was similar to one in the sitting room. The library had another marble fireplace and a built-in cupboard with drawers in the lower half. Aunt Mary, a devoted English teacher, always kept a supply of coloring books, crayons, magazines, and scissors for her young visitors. The built-in cupboard in the library backed up to another built-in cupboard in the dining room where there was a huge table that seated at least twenty people.

At the back of the house, on the south side, were the back stairs and a sunny kitchen. A big black stovepipe extended from a huge wood-burning stove. Steps led out to the covered side porch, a favorite place for my generation to play. Across the sidewalk was the two-room washhouse. Its front room had a coal-burning stove used for washing clothes, since white clothes were actually boiled in those days. Hard and soft coal and corncobs for starting fires were stored in the back room of the washhouse.

The back stairs of the main house led to an upstairs hallway, five bedrooms, and a storage room. To a small child, the stairs seemed very narrow and steep. The upstairs hallway ran the length of the house. Two bedrooms were on the east side over the library and dining room. Two additional bedrooms and the storage room were on the west side of the hall, and the fifth bedroom was at the back of the house. The number of closets and doors was amazing! All but one of the bedrooms had closets, an unusual feature for houses built at that time.

According to a letter Aunt Mary wrote to her brother Frank, the Ewing House had double walls and a double roof. After his death in 1965, it was sold to Mr. Richard Smith, an antique dealer. He refurbished the house, redecorated it in the Victorian style, and maintained it as a museum until his death. At that time the Ewing House became a private residence once more.

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Page 432

Agnew Ross Ewing (1910-2000)

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 17)

Agnew R. Ewing died February 29, 2000 in Naples, Florida, at the age of 90. He had been a country doctor in West Grove, Chester County, Pennsylvania, who made house calls for 50 years. He was mayor of that borough for 16 years during the 1950s and 1960s while maintaining his medical practice.

Dr. Agnew was born in West Grove and graduated from Lafayette College in 1932 and from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1932. After college he taught for two years at the Iolani Boys School in Honolulu, and after medical school he spent two years as visiting physician at the Grenfell Mission in Labrador. During World War II, he served in the Army Medical Corps in the South Pacific. Afterwards he returned to West Grove and assumed the practice of his uncle William B. Ewing.

He retired in 1989 after the death of his wife of 48 years, Margaret Honneger Ewing, whom he had met in the army. He was active in the promotion of recreational activities in his community, as well as in Avalon, New Jersey, his summer home.

According to the best information we have at the present time, Dr. Ewing was descended from John Ewing of Carnshanagh. He is survived by two daughters Jacqueline and Sheila Stewart, a sister, and two granddaughters. He was buried at the Oxford Cemetery, Oxford, Pennsylvania.

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Page 433

SEEING SCOTLAND . . . THE ROYAL BURGH OF STIRLING

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 21)

Source: Lois E. Mitchell, Moline, Illinois sent in the following article. It was published in the Scottish American Society of Quad Cities Newsletter for May 1997. Thanks Lois for sharing this article with us and for taking the time to send it to us.

Approaching Stirling from the south or east one’s first view of Stirling is Stirling Castle which looms over the countryside and the town. Circling around to the west the National Wallace Monument is an impressive sight. Sir William Wallace (1267-1305) was Scotland’s greatest freedom fighter. The tower was erected by public subscription and was opened in 1869. The tower sits on a small rise and reaches 220 feet. The top is reached by 246 steps. Located in one of the levels is Wallace’s famous double handed broadsword.

Stirling has been called the “Key to the Kingdom.” Whoever held Stirling controlled the nation. To the west lay treacherous marshes, to the east was the widening Firth of forth, which was difficult to cross below Stirling Bridge. Hence all north = south routes came through Stirling, placed high on its cliff and in an ideal place to control the narrow “waist” of Scotland. So it was that Stirling came to be known as the brooch or clasp of Scotland - “the Key to the Kingdom.” The great battles for Scottish independence took place around Stirling, at Stirling Bridge in 1297 and Bannockburn in 1314 (two miles south on the Dumbarton Road) where King Robert the Bruce won his greatest victory and secured Scotland’s independence for over 300 years.

Stirling Castle - strategic military key to the Kingdom, particularly during the 13^th and 14^th century Wars of Independence and the favorite residences of many Stuart monarchs. The castle site dates back to the 11^th century, but much of the present Castle, including the Palace, Chapel Royal, and Great Parliament Hall is magnificence renaissance architecture, with strong French influence. The Castle also offers various imaginative historical displays, guided tours and the superb Regimental Museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders.

Church of the Holy rude Stirling’s principal church for 500 years. King James IV was crowned here. Within the church various craft guilds formerly maintained an altar to its patron saint and wealthy burgesses built their own chapels.

The Beheading Stone - Scene of many gruesome executions, most notable Murdoch, Duke of Albany and former Regent of Scotland, in 1425. Two of his sons and his father-in-law, the Earl of Lennox, perished with him as King James I took his revenge for Albany’s misuse of power during James’ minority.

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Page 434

BOOK

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 2 May 2000, page 23)

Wally Ewing has compiled and edited 87 Ewing family letters written between 1856 and 1865. The main correspondents were his great-grandfather, Henry "Mack" Ewing, and Mack's wife, Nancy Hank. They are supplemented by many letters written by their friends and relatives. At the time of the Civil War these descendants of "Pocahontas James" lived in southern Michigan. The letters reveal what it was like to grow up in this period, conditions at home, and life on the front lines. When he was almost 24, Mack and several of his close relatives enlisted in the army in April, 1864 and were sent immediately to the front lines in Virginia. Mack was wounded at the Siege of Petersburg in December that year, so his later letters tell us something of hospital life as well. The book is called The Civil War Letters of Mack and Nan Ewing, 1856-1965 and sells for $15, plus $2.00 for mailing. Orders for the collection of letters can be sent directly to Wally by U.S. mail at 17007 Lincoln Street, Grand Haven, MI 49417, or email to him at: wkewing<at>novagate.com

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Page 435

Letters & E-mail

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 2)

Dear Bill,

Your box of Myrtle Roe’s genealogical material arrived on Tuesday afternoon, in good condition. Thanks. I did open the box that night and spread out the material on a table for a quick glance.

Our days are busy here with family and community and church duties, but I will try to assay the material, piece by piece, as soon as I can. A quick glance at the McAfee book and another told me there is some excellent material for researchers.

My first reaction is to go through the material and write up an inventory, as a means of somewhat organizing the material. Also, this could help to decide what to do with the material, in the long run, to benefit many.

I will send you such an inventory when I am farther along. Am sending a copy of this letter to Jim McMichael and will also send him the inventory when completed.

Jean R. McClure

Columbia, MO

Ed. Note: Recently Bill Ewing of Orlando, Florida offered a box of Ewing research material that he needed to get rid of since he was moving. The above letter indicates that Jean McClure accepted the material. Let me remind each of you to check your storage area for genealogical material that might be helpful with someone’s problem. If you can not work it, maybe we can find someone that can. Also, identify all of your pictures so the next generation will know who the people are.

~~~~~

It was with great interest that I read the biographical sketch of Albert G. Ewing (1804-1873) in the May issue of the Journal. Rev. Albert G. Ewing was an uncle (and the namesake) for my great grandfather, Albert Gallatin Ewing. There are several statements in the write-up that appear incomplete or misleading; this is to offer my comments. All my comments are based on the manuscript by Katherine Ewing (Mrs. Albert Gallatin Ewing III)
entitled "Clerk Andrew Ewing, His Book".

The sketch does not say what the "G" in his name stood for --- it was Gallatin.

The sketch says that his parents were natives of Scotland. This is not exactly accurate. His father was Nathan Ewing, who was born in 1776 in what is today Rockingham County (it was at the time part of Augusta County), VA, son of Andrew Ewing and his wife, Susannah Shannon. Andrew Ewing was the son of William Ewing of Rockingham, the immigrant in my Ewing line. Rev. Albert G. Ewing's mother was Sarah Hill, daughter of Daniel Hill and his wife, Martha Hickman. Daniel Hill was born in 1756 in Caroline County, VA, and Martha Hickman was born in 1758 in Albemarle Co, VA. Both trace their lines back for several generations in VA. (The Hickmans descend from the same Conway family of Eleanor Conway Madison, mother of President James Madison.) Thus the statement that Rev. Albert G. Ewing's parents were natives of Scotland is off by several generations, and there was Irish and English blood, as well as Scottish blood, in his veins. Rev. Albert G. Ewing's first wife, as stated in the sketch, was Jane Caroline Campbell, daughter of Rev. Alexander Campbell. They had three children: Margaret, Sarah Elizabeth, and Henry Ewing. Jane Campbell Ewing died 24 June 1834.

His second wife, again as stated in the article, was Mary Jane Marsilliot, daughter of Jacob and Sarah Ann McClure Marsilliot. They had five children: Jane C., Annie L., Rowena, Edwin and (difficult to read, but it looks like) Albertine.

Jim, my line is from the younger brother of Rev. Albert G. Ewing, Orville Ewing. I don't know if there are any descendants (or others) out there who are interested in this line, but I have quite a bit of information on the ancestors of Rev. Albert G. Ewing, and I'll be happy to share with anyone who is interested. They can contact me at:

Peter Hamilton

petehamilton<at>hotmail.com
Or 68 Log Cabin Lane, Buena Vista, VA 24416
~~~~~

I am a descendant of W.Y.C. Ewing and am interested in learning more about his parents Urban and Polly Ewing. I enjoyed the article about the Arnold Cemetery. I visited that cemetery in search of Livesays many years ago, and didn't realize how many ancestors of mine were buried there. Thanks for the good information. I am sending my dues to join the clan and look forward to more Ewing discoveries.

[Editor’s note: The above comment was taken form the Clan Ewing web page. It is an indication of the results of someone taking the time to send information to this Family organization. It is great to know that someone has benefitted from the information published in this journal.]

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Page 437

CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 4)

There is a tradition in some of our families that our immigrant ancestors came to America from Ireland in the 1720s in a ship called Eagle Wing. In some versions the ship is purported to have been owned by a Ewing and to have been named in memory of the tale about the rescue of a young child from the talons of an eagle in a mountain near Loch Lomond. (Some even speculate that the rescuer’s family was thereafter known as the Eagle Wing clan and that the name Ewing is a shortening of that clan name.)

The earliest record of which I am aware of a ship named Eagle Wing concerns a ship built in Belfast, Ireland, in 1635-1636 for a group of Presbyterian ministers ousted from Ireland who planned to take a group of their followers to America. The name of the ship was taken from the passage in Exodus 19.4, “I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.” (It was probably 150 tons burden and about 90 feet long.) The Eagle Wing set sail from Belfast Lough on September 9, 1636, with 140 passengers and was detained in Loch Ryan, Scotland, by the winds and then in the Kyles of Bute by other troubles. Finally, after traveling more than halfway to America, the ship was severely damaged by tremendous storms and forced to turn back. It arrived again in Belfast Lough with its 140 passengers November 3, 1636.

It has been said that the Eagle Wing which brought some Ewings to America in the 18^th century was the same ship as the one built in Belfast in the previous century but, given that they were built of wood and the stormy, violent, and uncertain nature of ocean travel in those days, I sincerely doubt that it was.

Anyway, this is something else we can discuss at our Clan Gathering in Lancaster, Ohio, next month – along with the usual exchange of interesting Ewing stories and the never-ending comparisons of family trees. It will be great to see many of you again and it is always a surprise and a pleasure to meet and greet new “cousins”. If you have mislaid the registration materials, just contact Jill Spitler or me – or as a last resort, write Jim McMichael at the Clan address. Remember, September 1 is the deadline for getting a room at our special rate at the Best Western Lancaster Inn.

Hope to see you there,

Joe (Neff) Ewing

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Page 438

A CHAT WITH JILL

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 5)

Dear Cousin,

This is so exciting hearing from all of you and handling registration. We are going to have a good size group; 50 some already [early July] and lots of time for the rest of you to register. Please make your plans and come join us in Ohio. These Ewings are a jolly bunch and we will have a good time. Maybe Joey Glick will even play the spoons for us again.

I left off the agenda we will be stopping at Senator Thomas Ewing’s grave site to see his tombstone.

The place for the Saturday evening meal has been finalized and we will use the Mumaw House straight across the street from the Senator Thomas Ewing’s house. The FOUR REASONS Restaurant will cater us a meal there. There is a Memorial Park at the back porch of the house so we can be outside or in. A bag piper will be entertaining us and desert will be served at the Ewing House a short walk across the street.

New bus arrangements have been made and we are now able to offer shuttle to and from the airport Thursday and Sunday. The bus will have FUN BUS on the side in two foot letters! We will have to group some together and hope not to make you wait too long. We need to know flight numbers and arrival times ASAP to coordinate trips. If anyone is coming early we might be able to get you by car or the taxi is $40 from the airport. We plan to be there on Tuesday and check in with us when you arrive. We want to welcome you.

We have two adjoining rooms at the back of the motel for research and hospitality. Parking just outside of rooms. Bring pictures and research to share with new family you might meet. Joe will be bringing Ellsworth’s boxes of collected research and family histories. There will be a copier there for your use. Ohio University is also bringing Ewing History to the Lancaster Branch for our use.

I want to apologize to a few of you for my mistakes. I had too much hit me at once and had to move just as registration started. Things are straightening out now and life is turning right side up again. I’m looking forward to a nice rest of the summer and wishing you all the same. Hurry up fall especially September 21 thru 24.

Your O’Hi”O cousin,

Jill

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Page 439

Editor's Fireside Chat

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 6)

During the reunion at Lancaster, Ohio, September 21-24, 2000, we will be transacting some business for this family organization. We were organized into the basic format we use at the reunion in San Antonio, Texas in 1993.

Quite often, I reflect back over the past few years and think about what we have accomplished as an organization. I think in one vain, we could say that some good has been done and our members as well as some non-members have benefitted from the information that has been published in the journal over the past seven years and what is available on the Internet.

On the other hand, we have seen our membership stay at about the same level for the past four or five years. We gain a number of new members each year but we lose about as many as we gain. The attendance at the reunions in 1995 and 1998 were not as good as we might hope. However, we had a good reunion in Malvern and Nashville.

What lies ahead for our organization? To express a point, I am taking the easy way out and reprinting the information from an earlier “Fireside Chat” article:

“We might look at Clan Ewing in America like we might look at a two hundred car freight train. The engine has just begun to move and it will be awhile before the last car of the train moves. Which car represents you? Are you one of the first cars that moves or the last car? As the train begins to go west from the east coast and it hits the mountains, it will need the help of another engine or two in order for it to climb the grade of the mountain. As the train rolls along, it will go through towns where additional cars will be on the sidings. Some cars will be switched from the main train to the siding and other cars will be moved from the siding to the main train.

“As we dig deeper into the records that contain information on the Ewing family, we will find information that prove some beliefs or information about a family as now being incorrect or different. Some information will help prove that a family fits in with a Ewing line and they are no longer an "orphan" family. Therefore, their car can be switched from the rail siding to the train on the main line. Some information will only take a person back so far but they can not get back to their immigrant or get hooked on to the train.

“One of the best things that we can do is to share the information that we have. Over the next few years, we would like to publish information on the Ewing immigrants. That does not mean that the immigrant or who you might think is an immigrant has to be identified with a Ewing family in Ireland or Scotland. You may not have been able to have made that identification, but with more people sharing information some additional identifications may be made. We will not be able to publish all of the descendants for an immigrant; but, we can publish about four generations counting the immigrant as the first generation. If we can publish the descendants of three generations for an immigrant, it would most likely include people that would be living in 1850 and later.

“Starting with the 1850 census, the census records listed each person in each household. Now, an index has been published for the census' taken before 1900. A person starting to do genealogy research today can most likely get their line back to 1850 or earlier without too much difficulty. Now, if we had been publishing immigrant information for the past five years and that information was in a number of libraries, a person might locate that information and locate another three or four generations of their Ewing family.”

Let me ask a couple of questions:

What have we done with your family?

Could information about your family help others doing research?

Should we try to make information available to the membership and others?

Let me encourage those that will be attending the reunion to come prepared with information and ideas that will help Clan Ewing in America be the organization that you would like for it to be. For those that cannot attend, we would like to hear your comments and suggestions.

Also, we need to get more involvement of our membership. As mentioned in my articles of the past, a number of people doing a small portion of the work will allow a lot to be accomplished.

The information that is on hand for future journals is very limited. Therefore, it is a must that we obtain more information for the journals of the future.

Maybe a question should be asked, do we want to continue with the journal as we have in the past. If so, it is going to take the participation of a number of members digging into the trunks, boxes, and etc. to find Ewing related material for the journal.

In the past, to a good extent, we have published articles about Ewings that lived before 1850. No doubt there is a lot more information that could be published about the families and individuals that lived in that period. But, we have a lot of families that lived after 1850, that information should be shared.

At this time, I will not get into making a list of items that can and should be in the journal, but, if you will look back through the journals you have received, you will find that a different variety of articles and columns have appeared.

The reunion will be just a few days after you receive this journal. We hope you have made your plans to attend. So, prepare yourself for a good time in Lancaster, Ohio.

Jim McMichael

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Page 441

GEORGE EWING TO FAMILY MEMBERS IN MICHIGAN

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 9)

Source: Thanks to Wally Ewing, Grand Haven, Michigan, for sending a copy of the following letters. George Ewing is a son of William “Swago Bill” Ewing and a grandson of James Ewing of Pocahontas.

Cities and towns in eastern and southern Ohio were subject to John Morgan’s raids, and in July, 1863, his men went into the state at least as far as Ewington, about 18 miles from the Ohio River.

In a fragment of a letter, George Ewing, Enoch’s brother, gave a first-hand account of one of the raids:

“citizens [gave] them [Morgan’s men] food and drink, fed out whole fields of wheat which had just been harvested standing in shock then Captured a guide and struck of[f] towards the Ohio river. it was then 10 oclock at night. they went 6 or 7 miles and campt for the rest of the night. the Union Cavelry was not more than 2 hours be hind them some 18000 strong in hot persuit Morgan struck for the eightmile Island where he expected to affect a Crossing but the gun Boats were there as well as an endless host of union Cavilry, Militia and the 91^st Regmt O.V.I. [Ohio Volunteer Infantry] they had quite a skirmish and Morgan failed the[n] he struck out through the Country some five of six miles and then struck for Buffingtons Island [near Portland, Ohio]. he was defeated there with the loss of 300 of his men killd and over 1000 prisners his remaining forces scattered and fled, a few straglers succeeded in geting over the River while a portion of his troops struck out through the Country a short distance and then struck down the River and were Captured while they were attempting to Cross the River a short distance a bove [indecipherable word], an other portion of them 6 or 8 hundred strong st[r]uck down the River to the mouth of Campaign Creek thence up Campaign to the Town of Porter they captured the Town put there pickets, staid there allnight sacked and plundered as at Vinton Next morning being the 21^st of July about 7 oclock in the morning they made a dash on Ewington. there were 200 militia in Ewington at the time Morgan made a demand of surrender which was granted without firing a gun the Militia were all from Scioto County under Col Sontag who surrendered our County Militia haveing been ordered to Gallipolis two or three day previous thus you see I have been a prisner under the notable gurrilla John Morgan. they stole all the horses in the neighborhood of Ewington which was the principle mischief they did they were so hotly pursued that they had no time to tarry they carried all the provision the people had cooked but did not want to wait to have any more cooked they took nothing from me except what they eat and that was in a hurry”

On July 19 the larger part of Morgan’s force–820 in all–was killed, wounded, and captured at Blennehsasset Island, in the Ohio River. The remainder, with Morgan himself, surrendered July 26^th near New Lisbon Ohio.

Ewington O. April 25^th 63

Respected friend I take this opportunity to write a few lines to you to let you know that we are still on the land among the living and enjoying our usual good health and I hope these lines will find you all enjoying the same Blessing I want you to answer this letter as soon as you read it. I want to hear from Michigan once more if possible. I want you to tell me whether Enoch Ewing lives there yet, or has he mooved to some distant land, or is he dead, or what has become of him. I have wrote some ten or twelve letters to him since I got any from him. if so, tell what it is if he has moved tell me where he went to, or if he is dead tell me when he died, or has he gone to war. I want to find out his whereabouts so I can write to him it may be that he has got too rich and has forgotten his poor kin, but let it be as it may I want you to tell me the Start of it. I have no particular news to tell you at this time the war news you have as a matter of Course so it is useless for me to say any thing about it times is hard here at this time al tho provisions are plenty every thing is high Wheat is $1.40 Cents per Bushel Corn is worth 90 Cents hay is worth $10 dollars per tun every thing else in proportion there was a battle at the mouth of the Ranheway at point pleasant on the 30^th of March the rebbles made a dash on that place a bout 500 strong and took the place for a short time but the troops at Gallipolis rushed to there rescue with what artilery they had and whipt the rebbles out of the union lost one man killed and two wounded. the rebs had 40 killed, there wounded no known as they took them off with them our men took over 100 Rebs prisner we Could hear the cannon verry distinctly I think they will not try it again the rebs burnt 5000 dollars worth of Government Stores at point pleasant and sacked the town to some extent before our forces got there don’t forget to answer my letter

your affectionate uncle

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Page 443

HOLE-IN-THE-WALL-GANG

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 12)

Source: The article was sent in by Walter E. Dantzler, Holland, TX. The article is a chapter taken from Wind River Adventure by Edward J. Farlow (1861- ), High Plains Press, Gelendo, Wyoming, 1998.

Editor’s note: If anyone can identify the Ewing mentioned in this article, I would like to hear from you.

This little town which Dr. Schuelke had named Thermopolis was located four miles down the river from the famous hot springs, where the town of Thermopolis now stands. At this time a man by the name of Ben Hanson had a homestead at the mouth of Owl Creek and had platted 40 acres into town lots and had sold some. Enderly had started a little store. Higgins, Bird and McGrath had started to build a storeroom, and Neil Cunningham had built a log cabin and started a saloon. Another man (I don’t remember his name) had started a blacksmith shop. Just across the river on the east side, Henry Sheard had operated a saloon for more than a year. There were not many settlers in the Big Horn Basin at this time.

I am telling you all this because at the time the hot springs area was the headquarters for the Hole-In-The-Wall gang. It was not unusual to see five or six of these men in one of the saloons at night, drinking and gambling. I was on intimate terms and very well acquainted with all of them and knew their business.

While I was there, two of them returned from a trip and stated they had cleaned up about $6,000. They were spending money very freely.

I had been there about a week when a young man by the name of William Ewing drove up to the blacksmith shop to have his team shod. I was sitting outside Enderly’s store and saw him drive up. I noticed he had a very nice team of gray horses and I walked over to the shop and entered into a conversation with him. He said that he had been up to the hot springs for five days just resting up and was now starting for his home in the Black Hills.

Ewing left about 5 o’clock p. m. and I bid him good luck. He said he was going to camp about five miles down the river and make about thirty miles the next day. Then, he said, he was going to push his horses for four days and try to reach home, a distance of 275 miles.

He made his short drive the second day and the next morning, after he had gone but a few miles, a masked man raised up out of a dry gulch at the side of the road and said, “Hold ‘em up.” The sudden sight of the outlaw frightened the team and they sprang forward and turned sharply to the left. The outlaw’s gun cracked just as Ewing was turned sideways and the bullet, which was from a .45-90 Sharps rifle fired at a distance of 22 steps, struck Ewing in the right arm one inch below the elbow. The bullet broke the arm and tore a great hole in it, passed across Ewing’s front tearing a great gash across his stomach which exposed his entrails, and then entered his left arm. The left arm was broken, too, so Ewing could not control the team.

By this time the team had become thoroughly frightened and had turned around and was heading back up the road in the direction from which they had come. Ewing later said he glanced over his shoulder and saw that the outlaw seemed to be having trouble with his gun. He was jerking on the lever that extracts the shell. No sooner had Ewing turned back than the gun cracked again and he felt a bullet graze his neck.

By this time the team was sending up a cloud of dust and Ewing realized he was still alive and had a chance to get away. So he began to shout at the team to urge them on.

This shooting occurred about forty miles down the Big Horn River from the present town of Thermopolis on the south side of the river. There is a big flat there that stretches for a distance of eight or nine miles and the road across this flat was very good. Had it not been for the good road, the team would have turned the buggy over. As it was, they stayed in the road and ran until they were exhausted.

In telling it later, Ewing said, “When the horses first stopped running they walked for a short distance and got their wind. Then they started off running again. But each time they would slow down a little sooner and soon they were plodding along the road on a slow walk.” He would scold them and swear at them and sometimes they would trot for a short distance.

Not a house or habitation or person did he see that day until at 5 o’clock his team walked up in front of Henry Sheard’s saloon, the road going right by the saloon.

He said “whoa” to the team. An old man by the name of Knapp and a boy were sitting outside.

Ewing said, “I am hurt, will you help me out?”

They came up to him and he was a sight. He was all covered with blood. His hands were swollen as big as hams, his face was flushed and burning, and the man was all [done] in. They helped him into a little cabin nearby and the old man sent the boy across the river after me.

He came riding at a lope to where I was sitting and said, “They want you to come over there right away; there is a man all shot to pieces.”

At once I thought the outlaws had had a row among themselves.

Taking some bandages and medicine the doctor had left for me, I went over and there lay the young man I had seen at the blacksmith shop two days before. When I looked at him I thought, “He is a dead man, sure.”

I had some experience in treating wounds and there being no one else there to do it, I rolled up my sleeves and started in on him, stripping the bloody clothes off him. I found the bullet–a big lump on the outside of the left elbow. Taking a razor of Henry Sheard’s, I took just one stroke and I had the bullet out. Ewing fainted away at this, but we sprinkled cold water in his face and bathed his head for a short time and he came out of it alright.

I was about two hours bandaging and washing his wounds. After I had him fixed up the best I could I sat down beside his bed and asked him if he had any idea who fired the shots.

He said, “Yes, I knew him. I recognized him by his clothes, his build and his voice. I met him up at the springs and he tried to get me into a game of cards with him.”

We found $165 in cash in his clothes and I gave it to a woman by the name of Mrs. Stead to keep for him.

Now, to show you the spirit of these outlaws here.

The man wanted a doctor and Schuelke at Lander was the nearest. Dusty Jim, a very common sort of a chap who was once of the gang said, “I will go for a doctor.”

Mounting his horse he started at about 8 o’clock and the next day was in Lander, a distance of 100 miles, on one horse. I had ridden it by way of Embar, 130 miles, on three horses, and thought I had done wonders.

The next day he started back with Schuelke in a buggy, leading the horse behind.

On the third day we had a doctor who, after examining Ewing, said “Hell, Farlow, he is doing alright.” So Dr. Schuelke gave some instructions, dressed the wounds once, returned to Lander, and charged the man $125.

In reply to my question as to who shot him, Ewing said it was Slick Nard, a desperado who had been hanging around there for a couple of weeks. I was not sure if he was one of the gang or not.

About this time Slick Nard came riding up to the saloon from the opposite direction. Soon Henry Sheard came to me and said, “Ed, I believe I have the man that did this job.”

I asked him who and he named Slick. I told him that was the man Ewing named.

Sheard said “What shall we do?”

I said, “Keep still until morning and we will grab him.”

Johnson County had just been organized and Charley Anderson, a rancher about a mile down the creek, had been appointed a Justice of the Peace. So the next morning we got a warrant for Slick Nard, charging him with felonious assault. Henry Sheard and another husky young fellow there who was not in sympathy with the gang were deputized to arrest him. I told them not to take a chance, “If he makes a move, begin shooting.”

Slick had gone up to the springs (where the present city of Thermopolis stands) while we were getting the papers so it was necessary for them to go up there after him, a distance of about four miles. Arriving there they discovered Slick’s horse tied near a tent that was open at both ends. Riding up quietly, they dismounted and one of them arrived at each end of the tent at the same time with their guns in their hands.

They told Slick to stick them up, which he did, at the same time asking, “What the hell is the matter with you fellows?”

When they told him they wanted him for the shooting of Ewing he replied with a confident air, “If that’s all you want, I can explain that all right as I was at the Birdseye Ranch on the other side of the mountains and stayed all night with Dave Hanks.”

They brought Nard down to Sheard’s saloon. As we had no place to hold him, Sheldon, the other deputy, herded him.

When I came over from the other side that evening to dress Ewing’s wounds I saw the men around the saloon with their guns on their hips. Slick was walking around and talking with them. Sheldon was watching him. I told Sheard that in an unguarded moment Slick would grab a gun and kill the guard and go.

I went back across the river and got a trace chain from a set of chain harness and sent it over with a padlock. They knocked the chinking out between the logs in a little cabin there and, the chain have a ring in one end, they looped it around the log in the cabin. It took just three links to reach around Slick’s ankle. They snapped the padlock in and had him solid.

When he saw what they were going to do he begged of them to not chain him up and promised to obey and follow them like a “yaller dog,” as he put it. But they locked him up just the same. Then he cursed them to everything he could think of, and he knew all the words.

I had been Justice of the Peace and U.S. Commissioner at Lander for some time and had a number of cases before me. And I will say here that I also had a number of Indians brought before me for offenses of various kinds. So, with my experience in the Justice Court, I acted as adviser for the court and also for Slick. I told Slick he would be allowed to subpoena any witness he wanted to testify on his behalf. If he wanted Dave Hanks brought over, an officer would go after him.

Now the Birdseye Ranch he named was south of the scene of the shooting about sixty miles. It would have been impossible for him to have been at the shooting that morning if he had been at the Birdseye Ranch all night and took breakfast with Old Dry (that was the nickname for Dave Hanks). But when we offered to send for Hanks, Nard said it would be of no use as Hanks was going to go to Lander that day and would be gone for a week. And when he refused to send for Hanks we knew he had not been there.

The next day three men went down to the scene of the shooting. There had been no one else along that way and no wind so the tracks were as plain as when they were first made. The men found where the bandit had his horse tied to a tree, out of sight. From the tracks, it looked as if he had waited for his victim all night. He had led his horse down to the Big Horn River to water. The water level was falling so the bandit’s tracks and the horse’s tracks were as plain in the wet sand as it was possible for tracks to be. They could count the tacks in the soles of his boots. The horse had lost a shoe and had a badly broken hoof. It was twenty-two steps from where they picked up the shells of the gun to where Ewing’s team had turned out of the road and made the short turn around. The tracks showed the team was running at good speed when it came into the road after turning around. The shells lying around had been hit by a firing pin that was square and homemade.

Slick had borrowed Henry Sheard’s Sharps rifle, a .45-90. Henry had earlier made a firing pin for it out of the end of a nail. Henry also loaded his own shells and made his own bullets. He had worked his bullet molds over and was using a two-ring bullet. All the regular Sharps ammunition used a three-ring bullet.

A date three days after the shooting was set for the hearing. Anderson and I thought the state had sufficient evidence to hold Nard for trial. It was a nice warm day in August and the case was called in Justice Anderson’s court for 2 p.m. In this case the court was brought to the defendant and as Anderson, the two deputies and myself went to the cabin where Slick was chained. We brought him out in front of Sheard’s saloon and the complaint was read to him very solemnly by the court. Again he pleaded “Not guilty.”

All of this seemed to Anderson, Sheard and myself the greatest farce that had ever been enacted, for there was at that time in that immediate vicinity the most desperate gang of outlaws the West had ever known. There was Butch Cassidy, Al Hainer, Bob McCoy, Jakey Snyder, Dusty Jim, Mike Brown, Tom Horn, Jim McCloud, Kise Eads and one or two lesser lights. I knew all these men and knew what their business was. And I was well acquainted with and on easy and friendly terms with all of them. Here were half a dozen of us law abiding citizens trying to enforce the law in the midst of this gang. They were in the majority and more than once I asked Anderson, “How long will they let this thing go on.” I fully expected at any time some of them would pull their guns and walk up to us or our deputy and say, “Turn him loose.” And it would have been done.

Slick evidently had some previous experience in court for he seemed well informed. He waived examination and said he believed we had sufficient evidence to hold him. He was very meek and asked the Honorable Court to fix his appearance bond as light as possible. He made no showing at this time but said he could easily clear himself in the District Court which was to be held in Buffalo in November.

Anderson asked me what I thought was reasonable and I replied, “Ewing is liable to die at any time and this man will then be charged with murder and no bond is allowed. I suggest you hold this man without bond.”

He did and Slick gave me such a look I shall never forget.

The court then instructed the two deputies to get ready to start for Buffalo with their prisoner early in the morning.

Everything was prepared the evening before. About 9 o’clock I rode over to Sheard’s saloon to see if they were alright. Sheard had gone to the corral in back of the saloon some little distance and I went there. I told him to get his horses ready and get down the road a few hundred yards. Sheldon would bring Slick over to the saloon to get a drink and give him a chance to say good-bye to the rest of them. Afterwards, instead of going back to the cabin, they would walk right by the cabin in the dark and come on down to where Sheard was waiting. They were to mount and go immediately in an effort to elude the gang. We thought surely they would not let us take him away.

At the hearing there were six or eight of these outlaw sitting around. Some of them were on their horses, all of them had guns on. They never said a word except, perhaps, when they were joking about something. To say we felt small is putting it mild.

On the east side of the river lived Ed Enderly and his wife, Tom Bird and his wife, Mrs. Stead and her daughter (who ran a little eating house), Neil Cunningham ( who ran a saloon), Ben Hanson (who owned the town), the blacksmith, Ed Sheldon, and Henry Sheard. One or two others lived on the east side. My brother Zeke was in Enderly’s house with a broken leg and Ewing was in a cabin on the east side with both arms broken and a bad wound in the stomach. This was the population as near as I can recall it at this time, aside from the gang.

In the morning there was a little excitement when I came over to dress Ewing’s wounds. Slick and the deputies were gone and no one knew just how. Several of the boys were at the saloon talking about it. When I rode up they told me Slick had gone.

I said, “Yes, I know it. He should be on the top of Ten Sleep Mountain now on his way to Buffalo.”

Mike Brown spoke up and asked what was the big idea.

I told him straight. “We did not know how soon you fellows would say ‘turn him loose.’”

Mike replied, “Turn that son of a bitch loose? If you had said the word we would have helped you hang him. I want you to know this, Farlow. We may rob a bank, or hold up a stage or a railroad pay car now and then, but we are not killing working men for their money. We are not that damn low yet.”

We found that Slick was playing a lone hand in this and did not let anyone know his plans. If he had succeeded in killing his man and had, perhaps, thrown the body in the river, no one would have ever known.

I stayed there about two weeks after this and, having sent to Lander for my team and buggy, took Zeke home to Lander.

Slick Nard was tried before Judge Metz at Buffalo and found guilty. The judge, in sentencing him, said “The legislature of this state has been too lenient for offenses of this kind; they have fixed the extreme penalty at fourteen years. I will sentence you to fourteen years imprisonment and, you scoundrel, I am sorry I cannot give you more.”

Ewing got well, but I never saw him again.

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Page 450

OHIO LANDS

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 21)

Source: George Alan Moreledge, Williamsburg, Virginia sent the following information that was published in Ohio Lands A Short History, prepared for the citizens of Ohio by Thomas E. Ferguson, Auditor of State, pp 17-18.

Special Reservations and Tracts

“Two-Mile Reservation (1805). This piece of land, two miles square, located at the lower rapids of the Sandusky river, was deeded by the Indians to the United States by the Greenville Treaty, and has since been known as the Two-Mile Square Reserve.

“The Two-mile Square Reserve is now covered by the city of Fremont, in Sandusky County. It surrounded Fort Stephenson. This government reservation was at first cut into four sections by William Ewing in 1807, acting under the law of 1805, the sections being numbered clock-wise beginning with 1 in the northeast corner. In 1816, that portion of Section 1 east of the river was subdivided into 310 inlots and 63 outlots to form the town of Croghanville. Later the town was called Lower Sandusky, and afterward Fremont, its present name.” (Ed. Note: We may be hearing some more about Salt at the reunion.)

Salt Reservations and Swamp Lands.

“In order to insure that the state’s natural resources and transportation networks operated in the public interest, tracts of land were designated by the Federal government for these purposes.

“Salt Reservation (1824). Salt, now one of the cheapest of the necessaries of life, was so expensive to early settlers that it was considered a luxury. Much of it was brought over the mountains on pack animals and sold at from five to ten dollars per bushel. There were several salt springs in Ohio which were considered of such great value to all that three were reserved the national government to prevent monopoly in this necessity.

“These Salt Spring Reservations were as follows: one township (23,040 acres) including the present town of Jackson in Jackson County, 4000 acres in Brown township in Delaware County, two sections (one Salt Creek township) in Muskingum County and one in Wayne township. Part of the latter section is now in Brush Creek township and this part, which is on the west side of the Muskingum River, contained the Salt Spring.

“It was stipulated by Congress in the act of May 18, 1796, that these salt reservations should never be sold, but in 1816, Congress authorized the sell of . . . .”

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Page 452

EWING AUTOMOBILE?

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 3 Aug 2000, page 23)

From a letter to William R. Ewing, Tulsa, Oklahoma from his brother, Tom, dated 3 Mar 1997.

While waiting for Carol to give blood, I was reading the May 1996 issue of Popular Mechanics and ran across the most interesting article on page 49. Back in 1908 a Billy Duran created the General Motors Corp.

Billy bought Buick in 1904 and built it into a powerhouse. By 1908 Buick was selling more cars than either Ford or Cadillac. So he bought up Oldsmobile, Oakland, Cadillac, Elmore, Carter, “Ewing”, Welch - 25 companies in all to form General Motors. The story goes on and on, but I found it very interesting to note that there was a Ewing Car Co.

In the article this was the only mention of Ewing. Wouldn’t it be something to locate an old Ewing Car!!!! Or at least find out some information about it. Just thought you would enjoy hearing about this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Page 453

Letters & E-mail

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 2)

No sooner had I clicked send did my husband come home with mail in hand and there was your envelope. I saw where this publication had Lucinda as my great grandmother, which would make sense, as my grandmother's name was Margret McGavock. However, her brothers were, William Milton Ewing Jr. died 11/3/1972, and Thomas Sims died 10/28/1931. I have their obituaries so I know this information is true. My grandmother was born 1892 so that's close enough. And I know for fact her mother was Margaret Mills. And of course her father was William Milton Ewing. Gosh I wish I had paid more attention when I was a little girl. Thanks so much for your prompt response. If you or any of the clan come through Atlanta, please contact me, I'd love to meet and have some one go over these pictures with me.

Thanks

Billie Ewing ruach<at>mindspring.com

~~~~~

Unfortunately, due to Mary Helen’s poor health at this time [Aug 15, 2000], we will not be attending the Clan Gathering in Lancaster, Ohio, next month. Our daughter, Maryann will not be attending either as she is expecting a newborn in October. Yes, she and Jim Ewing will be the proud parents of another Ewing whose name will be dutifully entered into the Ewing Clan Roles in due course of time. Their romance commenced at the last Ewing Clan Gathering. It isn’t often the Gathering has such a romantic twist, but it should be known that some find it a romantic interlude as well as interesting.

We appreciate the work that goes into the administration of this organization and wish to use this opportunity to thank all who make this possible.

Hugh F. Ewing

Lafayette, CA

~~~~~

I have numerous copies of documents; Personal property, trusts, wills, and a very interesting document. In this interesting document, Joseph E. Roseborough, is committing his mother, Jane Ewing Roseborough, in the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum. This document was dated (August 27th, 186??) after her second husband, James McClelland, died. I also have a copy of Margaret Ewing's will, if you want a copy of that.

I am more than willing to share any information that I have, and if you want to, forward this to any Ewing family member that would have interest in it. I am interested in sitting down with a Ewing close to where I live in Ohio and kinda getting some details of my family. I will also make copies of records at request. If anyone wants to view these documents I have in my possession, then have them contact me. I am more than willing to share.

Katie Roseborough
1456 Morgan Way
Streetsboro, OH 44241
(330) 626-2322

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Page 455

CHANCELLOR'S MESSAGE

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 3)

Your Clan has just completed a very successful Family Gathering (its sixth) in Lancaster, Ohio, and we are busy planning for the future. Organized by Jill Spitler, the Gathering was enjoyed immensely by about 85 of our number. We visited two of our ancestral Ewing homes, the house where General Sherman (who was adopted by a Ewing and who married a Ewing) was born, and several other landmarks in the area. Half of the group paid a call on Senator Thomas Ewing at his grave site, but the rest of us missed that treat because of a tornado warning, which kept us in the hotel one evening for forty minutes beyond our scheduled leaving time.

The programs featured several very interesting and timely speakers. Joe Hoch Ewing, who has written a book on General Sherman, outlined some of the highlights of Senator Thomas Ewing’s life, and Al Harter and his cousin Tom Ewing filled in many of the details. A surprise treat was the talk by Candida Ewing Steel, a lawyer and great-great-granddaughter of Senator Thomas Ewing. She is carrying on the fight begun by her great-grandfather General Thomas Ewing to clear the name of Dr. Samuel Mudd, who was convicted of participating in the conspiracy which led to the assassination of President Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. [A more detailed explanation by Candida of this proceeding follows in this issue of the Journal.]

From a business standpoint, yours truly was re-elected as Chancellor, and Jim McMichael, Jill Spitler and Bob Johnson were re-elected as directors. Margaret Fife (as immediate past Chancellor) and I (as present Chancellor) will join them on the Board. Jill will continue as Chairman of the Board, Bob as Secretary, and Jim as Treasurer/Journal Editor/Genealogist(with Margaret Fife). We are actively seeking additional directors, and I urge anyone who is interested in serving in that capacity to contact me. The duties are not onerous, and we hope to appoint two or three more before the year is out.

Plans are well under way for the next Family Gathering to be held in Missouri in the fall of 2002, and we are looking at Louisville for 2004 or 2005. Also, member Barbara McGuinness is firming up for the Clan an eight or nine day trip to Scotland for late September next year (2001) with, possibly, a brief add-on to northern Ireland. Members will receive the details (dates, places, prices, etc.) as they become available.

On a more somber note – Dorothy Ewing, wife of Harold, the brother of our founder and first Chancellor, Ellsworth Ewing, died September 25 after a long illness.

Happy Holidays to all – and may the Lord bless us with peace and some respite from all this turmoil in the new year.

Joe (Neff) Ewing

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Page 456

Editor's Fireside Chat

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 4)

The weather for the gathering in Lancaster, Ohio was very kind to us. We had to wait out a little thunder storm one evening, but it was by us in a few minutes. It was good seeing all that attended and meeting a number of members that were attending for the first time. We missed a number of you that have attended in the past and we hope that all of you are planning on attending the next reunion.

After attending the reunion, we made a little side to Alabama for a few days on our way home. Tried to do some research. But as luck would have it, the main records I needed in Calhoun County, Alabama had recently been filed by the LDS and the records had not been released for research while we were there.

I did get a chance to start reading a book about Abraham Lincoln. As I read some of the early pages, I find the name Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abe Lincoln, and that rang a bell since there is a Nancy Hanks, a different person, in the Ewing family that did a lot of research on her James Ewing of Pocahontas family.

The Hanks and Lincolns moved to Illinois a few miles west of Decatur. After living there for a few years, the Lincolns moved without Abe to Coles County, Illinois. Coles County is another area were Ewings lived.

As I was reading the first few pages a number of items were mentioned about the early life in America. And, from those statements, I have a number of ideas about articles that could be used in the journal. I have often wondered if our members have thoughts similar to what I have when I read.

I would like to ask that you try to do two things, one being for your family. When I went to my 50^th class reunion in 1999, I was asked to write down some the things that had happened since 1949. With my trusty word processor, I typed out several pages and plan to expand on what I have written so my children and grandchildren will be able to read about some things that they may have never heard about otherwise. You can do the same for your children and grandchildren. My sister Zoe did a great writeup about our mother two years before Zoe died. Next, hopefully, you will have an idea at times about something interesting that you are reading that could be included in a journal. You may have to do a little work on it. Your are capable. We are in need of material for the upcoming journals. If we do not have the stories and etc., we are going to be hard pressed to have a good journal that is interesting to read.

Jim McMichael

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Page 457

OSCAR ROSS EWING (1889-1980)

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 5)

Leading Architect of Truman’s “Fair Deal” Program

by Joseph Neff Ewing, Jr.

(From articles prepared for or by George M. and James D. Ewing and from obituaries in the Washington Post, the New York Times, and The Chapel Hill Newspaper.)

Jack (he hated the name Oscar) Ewing was born in 1889, in Greensburg, Indiana. He was a descendant of the immigrant Joshua Ewing (Joshua¹, Patrick², Putnam³, Patrick⁴, George McClellan⁵). He died in 1980 at the age of 90, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after a long, productive, and illustrious career in law, politics, and government.

At the age of 16 Jack was secretary of his county Democratic committee, and he never let up thereafter. He received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University, where he was class valedictorian, and his degree in law from Harvard Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. In World War I he became a captain in the Air Service.

After the war Jack joined the law firm in New York headed by Charles Evans Hughes, who was later Chief Justice of the United States. Later, he and several fellow partners left to start their own firm, Hughes, Hubbard and Ewing. In 1942 he was appointed a special assistant to the U.S. Attorney General, in which capacity he successfully prosecuted two important sedition and treason cases.

Jack’s prominence on the national political scene began with his backing of Paul McNutt, a friend and former Indiana governor, for the presidency in 1940, when it was generally thought that Franklin D. Roosevelt would not run for a third term. When Roosevelt decided to run, Jack was appointed assistant vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and later vice chairman. At the Democrats’ national convention in 1944 Jack successfully backed the candidacy of Harry S. Truman for the vice presidential nomination.

After Truman succeeded to the presidency on Roosevelt’s death and the Republicans took over control of congress from the Democrats in 1946, Jack Ewing formed an informal strategy group to advise Truman on policy matters, out of which emerged the “Fair Deal” reform program which advocated bold civil rights initiatives, expanded social security, unification of the armed forces, and a government housing program, programs which became pivotal to the President’s 1948 election victory. In August 1947 the President appointed Jack to be administrator of the Federal Security Agency, which was the predecessor of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Upon that appointment Jack was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Jack’s chief objective was to overhaul America’s health delivery system, and he strongly advocated national health insurance, as did President Truman. However, the medical profession mounted a massive public relations and lobbying campaign to see that the necessary legislation never got out of the congressional committees at that time, and Ewing, who had been tagged “Mr. Socialized Medicine”by the American Medical Association, had to wait until July 1965, when he was invited to accompany President Lyndon B. Johnson to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri for the signing of the Medicare bill into law, to see the realization of his long-time dream.

While Ewing’s health reform promotion had aroused violent opposition at the time, it drew public attention to America’s health needs and led to expanded federal involvement in health over the years.

After leaving the government in 1953 Jack moved to Chapel Hill and later became active in the development of the hugely successful Research Triangle Park, a 5200-acre complex of Federal, state and industrial laboratories and research groups associated with Duke University, The University of North Carolina, and North Carolina State University.

In 1915 Jack married Helen Eliza Dennis, the sister of one of his law school classmates, and they had two sons, James D. and George M., both of whom became newspaper publishers. She died in 1953, and in 1955 he married Mary Whiting MacKay, who survived him but has since died.

In 1959 Clark Clifford, formerly special counsel to President Truman and, later, Secretary of Defense, wrote Jack Ewing on the occasion of Jack’s 70^th birthday, “If I had to select the outstanding service you have rendered in your notable career, I would choose the contributions you made to the Truman Administration as the organizer and leader of the policy group that played such an important part in those exciting years. The influence you had on the men around President Truman was of inestimable value to him and will be remembered always by all of us.”

When Ewing died in 1980, the caption over his obituary in the Washington Post read, “Oscar Ewing Dies; Leading Architect of ‘Fair Deal’ Program for Truman”

The following is taken from an

Oral History Interview with OSCAR R. EWING

At Chapel Hill, North Carolina on April 29, 1969

by J.R. Fuchs, Harry S. Truman Library

FUCHS: Mr. Ewing, I wonder if you would mind beginning with a statement of your background, when and where you were born, your education and anything else that you think might be of interest to history.

EWING: Well, I was born in Greensburg, Indiana on March 8, 1889. My father was a merchant. His name was George M. Ewing, and he was one of fifteen children. His father and mother migrated from Kentucky to Indiana in 1826.

The Ewing family, so far as we know their story, began in about 1665. A William Ewing, who had been born in that year near Stirling Castle, Scotland, as a young man migrated to Londonderry, Ireland, where he was married to a Scottish girl living in Ireland. We know that this William Ewing fought in the battle of Londonderry, which I believe was about 1689.

In about 1725, two or three of the sons of William Ewing migrated together to America. [Ed. The William who was the father of the immigrants was probably one or two generations removed from the ancestor who went to Ireland from Scotland.] One of these sons was Joshua Ewing, who settled in Cecil County, Maryland, near Elkton.

Joshua Ewing had a number of sons and daughters. One of these was my ancestor, Captain Patrick Ewing. The youngest son of Joshua Ewing was Nathaniel Ewing. He was the grandfather of Adlai Ewing Stevenson, who was Vice President of the United States from 1893 to 1897 and the great, great grandfather of Adlai Ewing Stevenson who was the Democratic candidate for President in 1952 and 1956.

My ancestor, Captain Patrick Ewing, lived in Cecil County, Maryland and was a soldier in the Revolution. The story is that he was commissary general under Washington when his army was at Valley Forge. [Ed. Patrick was in the Revolutionary War, but there is no record of his having served in this capacity.] I used to boast a good deal about that until I realized that the American Army at Valley Forge had nearly starved to death, so I stopped bragging about this ancestor.

Captain Patrick Ewing had a large number of children. The son through whom I trace my ancestry was named Putnam Ewing. He married a Jane McClellan from the adjoining county, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Jane McClellan Ewing was, by tradition, a woman of great beauty and fine intellect. In our family it was for a long time thought that she was closely related to General George B. McClellan, a commander of the Union Army of the Potomac in the Civil War. I mentioned this to General McClellan’s son, the former Mayor of New York, George B. McClellan, Jr., when I sat beside him at a lunch back in the 1920s. He said the relationship must be rather remote. He explained that originally there were three McClellan brothers who had migrated from Ireland to America. One settled in Maine, one in Connecticut and one in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Mayor McClellan said that his branch of the family was descended from the brother who settled in Connecticut while Jane McClellan Ewing, being from Chester County, Pennsylvania, was undoubtedly descended from the brother who had settled in that county.

Putnam Ewing and his wife had two sons born in Maryland. One of these was my grandfather, Patrick Ewing, born July 28, 1803. Shortly after his birth the family migrated to Bath County, Kentucky, where Patrick grew to manhood amidst nine brothers and sisters.

On September 5, 1826 Patrick was married to Lydia Morgan. About a year after their marriage they migrated to Decatur County, Indiana where they thereafter resided.

Lydia Morgan Ewing had an interesting family background. Edward Morgan, his wife and two children, shortly after 1700, crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Wales and settled near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The older child was a son, David, who was grandmother Lydia Morgan’s ancestor. The other child was a daughter, Sarah, who in 1720 married Squire Boone and was mother of Daniel Boone.

In “Annals of North Carolina” (Petree, 1804), Squire Boone is reported to have stated that his wife had another brother, Daniel, who was one of the great American generals in the Revolutionary War. In the first battle of Saratoga, as a colonel commanding a regiment of sharpshooters, Daniel Morgan had ordered his men to pick out the Redcoats wearing epaulets (officers). As a result so many of Burgoyne’s officers were killed that he could not handle his troops adequately during the second Saratoga battle, which contributed much to that great American victory in October 1777. Subsequently, Daniel Morgan retired from the army being piqued by the promotion of certain officers over him whom he felt less deserving.

After the fall of Charleston, South Carolina on May 12, 1780, Congress passed a resolution calling on Morgan to join the Southern Army then commanded by General Horatio Gates under whom Morgan had served at Saratoga. At Gates’ urging Congress made Morgan a Brigadier General and he was made head of a Special Service. After Gates’ defeat in the battle of Camden, South Carolina, August 16, 1780, he was replaced as Commander of the Southern Army by Nathaniel Greene. Greene gave Morgan an independent command and with these troops he battled a British force under Lt. Col. Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens, South Carolina on January 17, 1781 and won one of the most brilliant American victories of the Revolution. Out of some 1,100 men the British losses were 600 prisoners and over 200 killed and wounded while the American losses were 72 killed and wounded out of less than 1,000 troops.

As before stated, my grandfather Patrick Ewing and his wife, Lydia Morgan Ewing, migrated from Kentucky to Indiana in 1826. Grandfather had walked from Bath County, Kentucky to Cincinnati where he crossed the Ohio River, then from Cincinnati out to Decatur County, Indiana and there he entered 80 acres of Government land. He paid a dollar and a quarter an acre. He chose this particular land because a half uncle, David Douglas, had already entered an adjoining tract of land. David Douglas was a farmer and a part-time preacher.

FUCHS: Is that near a settlement with a name?

EWING: Yes, it was quite near Greensburg, Indiana, about five miles west of Greensburg, and was very good black land. Having chosen his land Grandfather started on a return trip going first to Brookville, Indiana, where the Government land office was located and there paid his $100, and formally entered the land. From Brookville Grandfather walked back to Cincinnati, re-crossed the Ohio River and walked back to Bath County. A Bath County neighbor loaned him a horse for the trip back to Indiana. Grandmother rode the horse holding one child. Grandfather led the horse. These were, as I calculated, about a hundred and sixty-five mile trips. They got back to Decatur County, Indiana somewhat late in the fall so that Grandfather only had time to build a three-sided log cabin before winter really set in. The family spent that first winter in that three-sided log cabin with the south side open and exposed to the sun. In the spring Grandfather rode the horse back to Bath County and then walked back to his new land in Decatur County.

Grandfather and Grandmother had fifteen children. Every one of them lived to have children of their own. At one time I had fifty-four first cousins, two on my mother’s side and fifty-two on the Ewing side.

FUCHS: Isn’t that amazing?

EWING: Yes, it is. My father was one of the younger sons. He was the twelfth child. He left the farm rather early and went into Greensburg and became a merchant. He had a farm, also, a little way out from Greensburg; and he continued as a merchant. It was sort of a general grocery store and hardware and almost everything. Then he sold that out when I was quite young and went into farmer’s supply business. That continued until his death.

FUCHS: Did you live on the farm any?

EWING: No. Father and mother had gone to housekeeping in a little house in Greensburg that her father had given them, and that’s been in the family ever since. My sister lives in it now. I was born in that house and so was she.

FUCHS: Who did your father marry?

EWING: Father married Jeanette Ross. She was a local girl in Greensburg and really a very superior woman. She had had one year at Western College in Oxford, Ohio, and was really a woman of fine literary tastes and just a thoroughly fine person.

FUCHS: You say that was Western College?

EWING: The Western College, that was a ladies college at Oxford, Ohio

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Page 462

AN 1808 LETTER FROM INDIAN JOHN EWING

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 12)

Source: Jean McClure transcribed the 1808 letter and her letter of transmittal follows:

To: Wallace K. Ewing, PHD

Jim McMichael

Sorry, I have not been able to transcribe “Indian John” Ewing’s letter sooner. I have tried to carefully transcribe as written. Only one word I could not decipher from his writing style. He did not use periods so I attempted to leave spaces to get the thought and give a transition. I marvel at how well-read Indian John appeared to be considering how he always lived on the frontier and any “schooling” must have been difficult to attain.

The loose court papers which included this letter have the following sequence:

August term 1807, Bath County: Case of John Ewing vs. Isaac Jones filed

28 Aug 1811: Case continues

26 July 1820: land involved 195 acres

24 June 1823, by chancery decree: John Ewing was granted title of 190 acres on Stony Creek patented to Isaac Jones on 26 July 1794

9 Oct 1823: John Ewing of Gallia Co., OH, deeded 195 acres on Stony Creek in Pocahontas County to William Ewing of Pocahontas Co., pat. To Isaac Jones 1794

Pocahontas DB 1-70: in 1850 William and Sarah Ewing sold to John and Jane Moore 5 acres on Stony Creek, p/o survey gtd Isaac Jones in 1794, adj. To land Aaron Moore purchased from Ewing.

Pocahontas DB 5-291: William Ewing’s will, 1858, Pocahontas Co., was dated 1858; wife Sarah

(William Ewing was, I think, the only child of Indian John who remained in Virginia.) The reference in the above letter to John Collins, telling that Buckley is about trying to recover that bond on Searight, concerns Pocahontas James Ewing’s land on Dry Fork of Elk River. James Ewing gave Joshua Buckley (we have reason from research to believe related to James) poa [power of attorney] to collect from Searight. And, of course, my Joshua Ewing had two daughters who married John Collins, a father and a son.

The P.S. is interesting: Is Indian John informing William, his son, that John’s mother and sister have died since John last communicated with his son? John’s mother would have been Pocahontas James’ wife; which sister would he have been referring to?

Do you know who has the home-made, leather-bound, notebook in which Indian John recorded information? A grandson of his mentioned the existence of such a notebook.

You mentioned two possible dates, Wally, for the marriage of Moses Moore and Jane/Susan Ewing. Augusta County records show they were married 11 April 1786, records of Rev. Samuel Shannon. I believe this was Moses Moore, Jr who was born 8 Feb 1769. Moses Moore, Sr. is shown on the McAllister Lists with 44 acres on Ewing’s/Knapp Creek in 1769.

Hope You enjoy reading the letter by Indian John Ewing.

~~~~~~

Gallia Cty

State of Ohio June 15^th 1808

(Dear Sons) This comes with my good Wishes to you and I hope it may find you well as Wee are all now at presents thanks be to heaven for the same Wee Received your letter of the 25 May Greatly to our Satisfaction having heard nothing from their since we left you I have nothing Very material to acquaint you with that you will want to know Our Family is Growing less as you have heard already by your letter Nancy was Married the Second day of March to Benjamin Mills and lives four miles from us Stephen is living on Rackoon Creek and Samuel Holcom Likewise about twelve miles distant Each of them has bought land there Levi Howel and his family has Removed to the South Side of Rackoon to a branch Called Clay lick this much you perhaps might want to know your brother Andrew did not seem willing to Come into Greenbrier as he lost his young mare and did not wish to go without one he has left me Also and Refuses to Stay at home without any Material Cause and is living with Sam’l Holcom all this Summer We have had a Very Easy Winter and a fine Season this Spring and A good Appearance of Crops as Corn flax wheat & Seems to look well and our Son Samuel is now Abroad at School I Wrote you in a former Letter to Enquire into the State of that matter of the Land on Naps Creek you say in your Letter you are not Authorized to proceed) to which I Answer that if I have any Right to Enquire into the Business of my Hereditary Right I give you the Same that I might do Were I personally present the Great Distance I am from you Renders it Inconvenient for me for mee to attend being far Advanced in life and not Very Able to travel I trust your fidelity and Commit the Business into your Care if there is a Vacancy Say in my Claim and this shall be your Warrant from mee take the best advice you can and find the last purchaser get from him by What Right he holds the conveyance as for the Record that it was Surveyed for your Granfather in Augusta County I might Suppose to be in Mr. John Poague his office Send me a more particular Account in your Next letter and I will Come in myself if it appears to be necessary I understand Major Searigh has left an Agent to act for him in his absence I wish the business Could be Settled Thus I send you the power Isaac Jones left with Mr Charles Buck by the hand of John Johnson Jr if I see him Again before he Leaves these parts Make application for yourself in my name for I have heard Jones is dead and Mr Buck Refuses to Act) (John Collins tells me Buckley is about trying to Recover that Bond on Searight) Wee should be Glad if you Could Come down this fall and Spend the Winter With us as our family is Growing Small Wee would be Glad of your company. Remember my love to Brother William and his Family tell him he could do better here than there if he is able to purchase)

(?) & your Father friend Welwishes

Mother

John & Ann Ewing

PS Daughter Janey has another son Februry last

I am Alas My Mother and sister is no More

Please to give our compliments to our Brother John Smith

To his Wife Children and all our Neighbours and Enquiring friends

We Desire that he will send us a letter Concerning his health and the

Affairs of his Family wee Shall take as Singular Favour

(This letter, on one page, was addressed on the back to: Mr William Ewing Bath County Virginia Greenbrier)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Page 465

NATHANIEL EWING (c1744 -1817)

From the Winchester Patriot

Reprinted 10 Feb 1818

in the Knoxville Register

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 15)

EWING

Died on 28 Dec 1817 in Winchester, Col.

Nathaniel Ewing in the 73^rd year of his age after a

lingering illness. He was one among many who

stepped forward in the Revolutionary struggle for

Independence, entering as a lieutenant in the U.S.

Army and continuing till the end of the war in 1783

during which time he obtained the grade of colonel.

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Page 466

LETTER FROM GEORGE HENRY EWING

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 16)

Source: The following letter is the first letter published in The Ewing Family Civil War Letters, by John T. Greene, Editor, Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, 1994, p. 11-12. George Henry Ewing (1842-1863) is the son of Leah A. King and George W. Ewing (1820-1897).

“As a part of the Army of the Potomac, the Michigan 20^th Infantry, Company K, was assigned duties around Washington, D.C. George Ewing’s regiment was transferred there from a staging area in Jackson, Michigan through Detroit and from there they probably traveled by river boat steamer to Cleveland, Ohio, by troop train to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then to a camp in Pleasant Valley, Virginia. At this time, George Ewing thinks that a battle is imminent.”

Vergina Sept 7, 1862

Dear Father and Mother and Sisters. I am well at presant. I rote a letter wensday to you but found out that thay would not let us send it by male. the Captain is going to send them by a man going to Mishigan and he is a going to male them. we have march sence I rote the first time. we march about 10 miles from the petomac a rond about corse we are not more than 2 miles from thare now South west. the contry is baren of most every thing thay is not eny thing more than corn and potatos and the boys had took them most all. we have not had eny thing to ete sence we left Jackson but hard bread and pork only as we bought it. we lay on the grown with out eny thing over us but our blankits I have seen two of the boys from the first Redgment Boyl Stevans and Heerbil Seeet. thay are her now but are a going to leve to day I beleve. thay is not eny Burds of eny kinda her. link wood and James Wood was her yesday thay are not more than two miles from us we can her them play on thare horns. camps are as thick as can be. Convenitly thay is a fort about 40 rods from us and another about half mile one more in site about 2 miles fromes us thay are all in site so you see that we are well garded in that line. I bought anew par of Boots and sent my shoes home by freman Ensign from Jackson. I gave three Dolars for them. we are camp in plasant Valley* I did not no till about five minets a go. I expect that we Schal have some fighting to do fore grate while sooner the beter. for me be caus i do want to see it throw with a soon as posable if it is my lot to fall so be it. I must bring my letter to a close for my breakfast is ready if i don’t i shant get eny. I don’t no whare to tell you to write to me but I guest that you direct them to George H. Ewing Washington d c Mishigan 20 Infentry CO K. writ as soon as possible. I remane your son. George H. Ewing

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*The day prior to this letter, Frederick, Maryland was occupied by Confederate forces. From the 20^th through the 30^th (inclusive) the battles of Manassas had been fought with disastrous results for Federal forces. The situation was understandably tense: General Lee was expected to cross the Potomac. Although he does not mention it, George is writing this letter from Fort Lyons, just south of Alexandria, Virginia in what was called “Cow Hollow.”

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Page 468

SAMUEL MUDD, A COUNTRY DOCTOR

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 18)

It was a pleasure to attend the Clan Ewing reunion in Lancaster, Ohio in September. Joe Neff was kind enough to ask me to speak about my representation of Dr. Samuel Mudd at the reunion, and it was such a pleasure preaching to the choir, I'd like to tell more Ewing cousins about it!

As most of you probably know, Dr. Samuel Mudd was a country doctor in Southern Maryland who was charged with participating in the Lincoln assassination because he answered a knock at his door at 4 in the morning and set the broken leg of the assassin of the President, John Wilkes Booth. The Mudds have always maintained, including by affidavit from Dr. Mudd's wife, Sarah Dyer Mudd, that Booth was disguised, and Dr. Sam did not know that it was Booth or that he had just killed the President. Nevertheless, four days later, Dr. Mudd was arrested by the military, and brought to Washington to stand trial with the other alleged conspirators by a military commission, the Hunter Commission.

What you might not know is that Dr. Mudd's lawyer was an illustrious Ewing ancestor of mine, General Thomas Ewing Jr., who was the son of Senator Thomas Ewing of Lancaster, and who before the Civil War had been the first Chief Justice of the new State of Kansas' Supreme Court. General Ewing was probably contacted because his sisters had known various Mudds in school. He was retained by Dr. Mudd (as well as Samuel Arnold and Edmund Spangler) the day after the military commission trial began, on May 10, 1865. He immediately objected that the military was trying civilian citizens who should be tried instead in the open and functioning civil courts. The Hunter commission overruled his objection, and the trial continued for two months. Dr. Mudd, Arnold and Spangler were convicted of aiding and abetting the assassin Booth, but were given life sentences. Four of the other alleged conspirators (including the first U.S. woman to be executed, Mary Surratt) were sentenced to hang immediately. On July 7, 1865, the day the sentences were handed down, General Ewing wrote to his father Senator Ewing (who as a lawyer had also advised his son during the trial), " I feel profoundly thankful to have saved my clients from gallows built for them before trial". Though he also tried to help Mary Surratt by preparing a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf, the President refused to honor the writ, and she was hanged the same day.

Dr. Samuel Mudd was sent to prison in the Dry Tortugas, islands off of Florida, while General Ewing worked on getting him released. Finally, in 1869, Ewing persuaded President Andrew Johnson to pardon Dr. Mudd, who had been instrumental in treating many prisoners and guards during a yellow fever epidemic in the Dry Tortugas. Dr. Mudd returned home, and lived another 15 years, dying at the age of 49.

I had read about General Ewing's representation of Dr. Mudd, so in 1990, when I was a trial lawyer in the District of Columbia representing a plaintiff in a divorce case, I was amused to learn that my opposing counsel was named Richard Mudd. I asked if he was related to Dr. Sam, and he turned out to be a great-nephew. I told him I was General Ewing's great great granddaughter, and he said he would tell his family of the connection. I was delighted a few weeks later to get a letter from Dr. Richard Mudd, grandson of Dr. Sam, asking if I would represent the Mudd family before the Army Board for Correction of Military Records (ABCMR). The Army had just agreed to consider whether it had properly taken jurisdiction over Dr. Mudd.

So, I happily entered my appearance, (as co-counsel with my great-great grandfathers in the same case!) and made a presentation to the ABCMR. I relied heavily on the arguments made by General Ewing in the original hearing. I also was privileged to have the assistance of Dr. Jan Horbaly, an expert witness who testified that Dr. Mudd should not have been tried by the military commission because he was a civilian citizen of a Union State, and the civil courts were opening and functioning. He cited in Re Milligan, a case decided in the Supreme Court in 1866, saying just that. We also provided the Board with a brief that set forth cases since the Civil War which supported our position that Dr. Mudd's trial had been illegal.

The ABCMR agreed with us, finding that Dr. Mudd should not have been tried by a military commission, and recommending that the record of his conviction by the Commission be amended to reflect this determination. Unfortunately, the Army brass refused to adopt the Board's recommendation, so the tale was just beginning. In 1993, on Lincoln's birthday, Professor John Paul Jones of the University of Richmond put together a moot court on the question. He proposed a hearing before a court of appeals in 1867 on the validity of the original conviction, and asked me and F. Lee Bailey to represent Dr. Mudd. Two admirals represented the government, and we had three sterling federal military judges as our panel, Judge Cox, Judge Re, and Judge Everett. All three judges found in favor of Dr. Mudd.

Unfortunately, the Army was not persuaded by their collective wisdom, and we asked that the original decision denying the ABCMR recommendation be reconsidered. It was, and in 1996, Assistant Secretary Sara Lister again refused to adopt the Board's recommendation, stating she did not believe the commission lacked jurisdiction because the assassination was an offense against the law of war, and that Dr. Mudd had failed to secure remedies from the Courts ostensibly available to him in 1865. Phil Gagner and I, on behalf of Dr. Sam Mudd and his grandson Dr. Richard Mudd, filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking review by Judge Paul L. Friedman of Ms. Lister's decision under the Administrative Procedure Act in October 1998, Judge Friedman disagreed with her, finding that she was arbitrary and capricious in her failure to consider valid arguments made by Plaintiff (in particular her failure to address our argument that the fact that Dr. Mudd was a civilian citizen meant that he had to be tried by a civil court), and in her erroneous finding that Dr. Mudd had decided not to challenge jurisdiction during his lifetime. He remanded the case to the Army for review not inconsistent with his opinion.

The Mudd family waited another 1 ½ years for the Army to make a decision. Assistant Secretary Patrick Henry refused to adopt the Board's recommendation to set aside the conviction based on a case called In Re Quirin, involving German saboteurs who invaded this country during World War II. Since one of the saboteurs had allegedly been the son of a naturalized citizen, the Army found that Quirin stood for the proposition that the military could try civilians if it chose. Since we strongly believe this is an incorrect reading of the Quirin case, particularly in light of its companion cases, we again filed a motion for summary judgment in U.S. District Court asking Judge Friedman to find that Asst. Secretary Patrick is also arbitrary and capricious, and acting contrary to law, in his refusal to adopt the Board's recommendation. Oral Argument was held on October 2, 2000, with my friend and colleague Phil Gagner arguing (on his 50th birthday!). Dr. Richard Mudd is now nearly 100 years old, so we are hopeful that the Judge will rule quickly. In the meantime, I have taken a job with the Department of the Interior as an Administrative Judge, where my great great great grandfather Thomas Ewing served as the First Secretary in 1849! Unfortunately, if I continue to represent a party against the United States, I could be fined $10,000, so I have "suspended" my representation pending receiving some kind of a waiver. One possibility would be to secure permission to represent Dr. Mudd by Act of Congress! If Judge Friedman rules in our favor, and the Army doesn't appeal, there will be no need for a waiver, but if there is an appeal, we'll see what we can do, since I would dearly love to finish what my grandfathers started!

Please cross your fingers that Judge Friedman quickly rules in our favor!

Candida Ewing Steel

For more information about this case, see http://www.ewing-steel.com.

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Page 471

TEE-NAMES IN NE Scotland

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 22)

The following article is from The Murray Clan Society of North America publication Aitionn by Marvin R. Murray, VA. Thanks to Peggy and Joe Ewing for sending us this article.

In 1973, I had the opportunity to attend the British Armed Forces Joint Warfare Establishment at Old Sarum, England. I decided that on this trip to the U.K. I would visit Scotland and see the area that my grandparents had left. I knew that they had last lived in Lossiemouth on the Firth of Moray very near Elgin in Morayshire. I also knew that their last address was on Kinneddar Street, a house that my grandfather had built next door to one of his brothers. The trip to Aberdeen was by overnight train that was much more comfortable than is the Florida Amtrak overnight train. Renting a car in Aberdeen, I proceeded to drive to Lossiemouth that normally takes about an hour, but because this was my first time there and I seemed unable to find any road signs, the trip took much longer. However, it was well worth the trouble. Driving into Lossiemouth, I understood why my grandparents had settled on the coast of Washington State. The beach and the scenery were very similar.

One of the major purposes of my visit to Lossie was to find any relatives who might still live there. Arriving in town, I stopped at a pub and asked about the “Murrays of Kinneddar Street.” The answer was “what is their tee-name”? That stumped me. I had never heard of a tee-name. It was patiently explained to me that because so many people had the same name, families were identified by tee-name. Fortunately, these same helpful people aided me in finding some cousins of my father and this particular trip was successful and was the first of what have become annual visits to Scotland.

That first trip also piqued my interest in tee-names. Exactly what was a tee-name, where were they used, and how did they originate? Reading the old local newspapers, researching records at the library and talking to the volunteers at the local museums verified the use of tee-names as a means of identification in the fishing villages of the Firth. In documents and printed material, tee-names were added after the surname and usually written with inverted commas. In Scottish legal matters, use of the tee-names was mandatory if an individual had one.

Tee-names are going out of use in these modern times due to the wider dispersion of the population, they use middle names which makes them less necessary, and the view of the younger people that tee-names are out of style. A query about the current use of tee-names in official records at the Buckie town records office was met with a return question from the clerk who was obviously of the younger generation, “what is a tee-name?” Good question.

A tee-name is not a nickname or a bye-name although sometimes they are called nicknames in error. James Slater’s booklet, “Bonnie Portsoy - A Village History,” distinguishes between a tee-name and a nickname: “A tee-name was used to distinguish between families who bore the same surname; while a nick-name could be more personal, describing a certain trait or characteristic in the person concerned.” I have read in other articles that addressing a person by tee-name was socially acceptable, while using a nickname could result in violent physical confrontation.

There also exists a useful paper written by Wilma Aiken titled “Too Many Smiths in Portessie.” She traces the use of tee-names to the idea that “Fishermen in the North East have been for many generations a distinct body, marrying to a great extent within their own community.” She gives some clue into when tee-names came into use with the observation that: “As the population of Scotland increased more quickly than ever before in the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries difficulties clearly would have arisen in identifying people....” She also notes that “A common feature of tee-names is that it is seldom obvious how the name first arose.”

A few years ago, I asked about tee-names at the Buckie Fishing Heritage Museum. I mentioned that apparently, the use of tee-names was going out of fashion and I was interested in doing some research. The friendly volunteers who run this organization became very interested and have begun a project of recording and preserving tee-names. The tee-names which have so far been identified as belonging to Murray families in Buckle and area are: Ah, Awe, Baron, Bodge, Burd, Chap, Con, Costie, Costie Bird, Costie Budge, Costie Prince, Chap, Curly, DAT, Deadly, Drain, Dottie, Duncan Farmer, Gyke, Gout, George, Lock, Prince, Smacker, Sootier, Torii, and Torry.

I have a copy of the September 8, 1898 Banffshire Advertiser which has a picture of my great grandfather (the 90 years old), his son William and three more generations of the family. They are further identified by our tee-name “Farmer” (which also is engraved above the door of William’s house....) When I was small, one or my father’s cousins used to say “farmer by name but not by trade”. This now makes sense to me. True to Wilma Aki’s observation, I have no idea how this tee-name came about. However, several of the family fishing boats have been named the “Corn Rig” which we know is a row of barleycorn in the field - thus an interesting tie to the tee-name of Farmer.

If anyone has further information or sources concerning the origin and use of tee-names, I would be very much interested in hearing from them.

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Page 473

QUERIES

(Journal of Clan Ewing, Vol. 6 No. 4 Nov 2000, page 27)

Please contact E. J. “Ted” Ewing, 7377 Regina Royale, Sarasota, FL 34238, e-mail Tedewing<at>juno.com if you can help identify the parents of Milton Ewing, b. 6 Jan 1844, Peru. Indiana, d. 12 April 1928, Winamac, Indiana. He married Lavine Wertz (Moore). Children: Edward Joseph, William, Otto, and Ralph.

Diana Tyler, 9532 Drury St. Apt 301, Kansas City, MO 64137 or email surfingdi1<at>aol.com is seeking the death date of George Neandar Ewing, b. 1801, & his wife Lucinda Rubey, b. 1808, they died in Carroll, County, Missouri. George is the son of Urban Ewing (1767-1824 ) & Urban's father is Robert Ewing (1715/18-1787) from Logan County Kentucky, the immigrant from Scotland. Urban migrated to Missouri about 1821 to Cooper County. George moved to Lafayette Co., Mo. and is buried in Adkins cemetery in Carroll Co., Mo. near. Wakenda, Mo. There is no stone & I can find no death record in the library.

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