BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF PHILANDER BARRETT STEWART & SARAH SCOTT
By Eunice Polly Stewart Harris
From the earliest colonial days, history has mentioned Stewarts in different activities, so just at this time, it is difficult to determine just who was the first pioneer of the Stewarts in America. At different periods of political disturbances in Scotland, many people from both the highlands and the lowlands sought refuge in other countries. Some went to England, some to America, and some to the North of Ireland, in what is known as the Ulster District.
Just who was the pioneer ancester of our branch of the great Stewart family in America is not known. The earliest record we have of Alexander Stewart, born about 1670, and his wife, Margaret Dixon Stewart and their family, who left Ballymena, Antrim Co., Ireland, in 1719 with the Scotsh-Irish emegration to seek homes on the new world. They first settled in New London, Conn., but soon after removed to East Hadden, Conn.
Alexander and Margaret had eight children--seven sons and one daughter; James the sixth child being my great great grand father. He was a child, only about four years old when they left Ireland. The record stated that Alexander, the eldest child, was probably born in Scotland.
Alexander and Margaret must have been spiritual-minded people. They belonged to the church in Ireland, and when they came to America, they brought a recommend from the home church--The First Christ Church (Congregational).
In 1737, when James was about 22 years of age, he married Keziah Scoville the granddaughter of John Scoville, the pioneer ancester of the Scovilles in Conn. Seven children were born to them--four sons and three daughters; my great grandfather, being the sixth.
James Stewart died in Conn. about 1784. The record does not state just when his family left Conn. and scattered through different states, neither does it tell if they all went at the same time, but they all did move away. Some went to Vermont, some to New York, and some to Mass., but it must have been about the time of his marriage to Mary Hendricks, daughter of Daniel Hendricks, for Philander Barrett, their eldest child, was born there January 10, 1776, the year the Declaration of Independence was signed. Williamstown was a shoe manufacturing town and Samuel, by profession was a shoe maker. Samuel and Mary had eight children born to them, with names according to age as follows: Philander, Barrattt, Ambrose, Salome, Philena, Philemon, Samuel, and Minerva. About 1790, Samuel married Mary Hendricks, and later, after the death of Mary, married Jerusha Judd. Two children, Hyrum and Harry, came from this marriage. Philander grew to manhood in Williamstown. At this time there lived in this place, Stephen Scott and his wife, Elizabeth Cook Scott, with their family consisting of eight children as follows: Sarah, Stephen, Fanny, James, Ira, Betsey, John and Polly; Sarah, the eldest being my grandmother. She was born March 9, 1786.
The Scott Family kept a boarding house for students attending William and Mary College, which was located there. We do not know just when the Scotts emigrated to America, but it is supposed that all of the children were born here. They must have come from the Highlands of Scotland, for there is a tradition in the family that when Stephen first came to America he dressed in kilteers--the Scotch Highlanders Costume. Sarah, the eldest child was born here.
In the year 1800 the Scott family moved to West Virginia and settled on the Ohio River. As Philander Stewart loved their daughter Sarah, he accompanied them, and May 10, 1801, the Stewart and Scott families were united by the marriage of Philander B. and Sarah, she being just past fifteen years of age.
A year later the two families crossed the Ohio river, and settled in Jackson Monroe Co, Ohio, opposite the Patten Island, at the head of the longest straight place on the river. Later they were joined by the greatest number of the Stewart family. Here Philander B. and Sarah lived happily together for twenty-four years and here their twelve children, four sons and eight daughters were born. The children,were: Samuel, Mary, Elizabeth, Minerva, Lucinda, RufuS, Putman, Marinda, Salome, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson, Minerva (second), and Lovina. There was a custom in the neighborhood that when one child died, the next child born was given the same name. Philander had a favorite sister named Minerva, so when their daughter Minerva died, they gave the next girl born the same name.
The family was greatly blessed in a financial way, for that early pioneer country, having a well improved farm and a mill. Philander B. went security on a note for $2,000 to set his brother Ambrose, up in business. His brother failed and left Philander to pay the note.
Shortly after this, he was drowned in the Ohio River, while trying to rescue others. It seems death will find it's victims in the most isolated places; in two years Sarah lost five children. One was an infant, and the others grown--their four oldest. Lucinda, a girl sixteen was the oldest child left and Rufus, a boy fourteen, was the oldest son left for her to depend upon. The youngest was an infant two months old. Philander died before the money lost by having: signed on the note was paid, and Sarah had to sacrifice her property to pay the debt.
The law took all but one-third of her property. Many less courageous and less resourceful women would have been completely crushed under this triple calamity, not so with the ambitious, heroic, and energetic Sarah. These virtues, in connection with her will power sustained her and gave her hope and strength. She kept her family of seven children on the proerty she had left. With the help of her brother she managed the farm for four years, when she sold her property and turned her face to the west to seek a new home and to try to build a new fortune for her family.
She and two of her brothers united in building a flat boat, and early in May, 1828, the three families, numbering, twenty persons, floated one thousand miles down the Ohio River, stopping at the principal cities to see the sights. At Shawnee, Illinois, they left the boat and traveled overland to Beardstown, Morgan Co, Ill. A distance of two hundred miles, where Polly Carr, Sarah's sister was living. They had but one wagon, so most of the company walked. Sarah was then forty-two years and shw walked the entire distance. The hardships, privations, and trials this frail sorrow-stricken woman endured will never be known. Her indomitable will power sustained her until she reached the end of her journey, when the strain and over-fatigue overpowered her and she had a very severe illness. They were a month enroute from Monroe Co, Ohio, to Beardstown. Most of her money was spent, but land was more plentiful and she homesteaded a quarter section and began making improvements. Before they could earn money enough to buy it from the government, a wealthy man, who pretended to be their friend, bout the land from the government. The feeling of indignation by the people against him was so high that he was forced to leave. Her daughter Lucinda, was married to John Wilson two years after their arrival in Beardstown, and a year leter, in 1831, Marinda married Otha Wells. Franklin and Polly Richardson were married June 14, 1837.
The Family had now lived in Beardstown nine years and during all this time, Sarah had been in delicate health. She decided to change locations. In July 1837, she, accompanied by all of her family, moved to Iowa and settled on the Fox River, Van Buren Co., Fifty miles from Nauvoo, the headquarters of the Mormon Church. She was baptised into the Mormon Church in 1842, and the rest of the family, except Lucinda, were baptised in 1844. None of her family united with the church in Nauvoo. Andrew Jackson and Unice Pease were married Jan. 1, 1844. Sarah lived with Jackson and his family until 1850, when she and all of her family who had joined the church, came to Utah in 1850, end assisted in the founding of Payson. Sorrow and death seemed to follow in her wake. Two years after she arrived in Utah, in 1852, death claimed two of her married children--Rufus Putman and Lovina Richardson, both leaving families behind. Sarah cared for Lovina's family until her husband married again.
Two years later, in 1854, two of her daughters, Marinda Martin and Salome Wills, with their families, moved to California and helped in the founding of San Bernardino.
Sarah was quite large in stature, in her middle life weighing about one hundred and seventy-five pounds when she was well. She was blond in complexion, having blue eyes and light hair, and she was very pleasing to look at. She was always very particular about her personal appearance.
In her later life all old ladies on the frontier wore white caps and hers had to be spotless. Wi th all her poverty, her sorrow, and her hardships, she was a proud spirited woman with a great love for the beautiful. In the early pioneer days of Utah, nice things were hard to get and she often had to wear things that were galling to her pride.
Sarah Scott Stewart in her later life was not physically strong and robust. Her life was filled with trials, hardships, and sorrows, but it came to a peaceful end at the home of her son, Benjamin Franklin, at Payson, in 1862, in the seventy-sixth year of her age. I am proud of her record and tharucful for her energy, her courage, and her strength of character.