Salem Witchcraft Trials: List of Dead and Death Warrant

Salem Witchcraft Trials: List of Dead and Death Warrant: "Proctor"

Words to the wise.............

The world stritches widely before you
A field for your musles and brain.
The clouds may often float over you,
often come tempest and rain.
Be fearless of storms that o'er take you
push forward and through like a man,
good, for time will never forsake you
If you do as near right as you can.

Elizabeth Sloan Stewart

9-4-1885

235th Aniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord

Monday marks the 235th anniversary of the famous "shot heard 'round the world"....
One of our very own, James Sloan, made that famous march. He was a member of James Hosley's company, Minute-Men of Col. William Prescott's Regiment who marched to Cambridge.
source for this is the History of the Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Mass., from the Grant of Hathorn's Farm(1676-1878).
This James Sloan died August, 23, 1803...still looking through the Mass. Vital Records for more info on him. He was the father to Peter S. Sloan, who was married to Nancy Hill.
According to the Mass. Vital records James and his wife Molley(she was 2nd wife) had two sons named Peter Searles. The first one died by the time he was two years old.
James and Molley had three other children. They were Andrew and two daughters,Roccy and Maria.
I am still looking into who the first wife was and who were his parents.
If anyone is interested skippy doo on over to the following websites.
USgennet.org , Massachusetts Revolutionary War Soldiers (1775-1783). It is a free website. It is there that one can research for free and find names and limited info on ancestors who perhaps were at the famous battles.
Also, a great place for research is, The New England Historical and Genealogical Society or
newenglandancestors.org , this is not free, but if you have a curiosity about who we come from, then this is a good place to go. There are various levels at which one can join. The access to their data bases can help wade through the dust of history.
I know that James is not the only family member we have that participated on that day in Lexington and Concord... I am just checking out some facts first.

Fitchburg Sentinel...Friday, January 5, 1923

Miss Bessie Stewart who has been employed at the home of R.G. Fessenden for nine years, has left to enter into partnership with her sisters Misses Sadie and Lillian Stewart at the Main Street lunch rooms. Miss Lola Loveland has taken her place.
Who knew???

Arthur V. Sloan

Anyone want to venture a guess???
I was always under the impression that great grandmother Elizabeth Sloan Stewart(1865-1952) was the only surviving child of James Sloan(1830-1890).
Our Elizabeth's mother died when she was only 5 years old....James remarried to a woman a bit younger than himself and not to much older than Elizabeth...
According to the 1880 census, James was 50 years old, his new wife Laura was 22 and his son, Arthur was 2 years old.... Elizabeth, then, 15 was living in New Hampshire on a farm as a servant...Hmmmmm!!!!
Something I discovered that James and Elizabeth (Elliott) had two other children that did not survive childhood...and one was a son named Arthur.
So, yes, there were two Arthur's.
In the Fitchburg Sentinel is where I found Our Uncle Arthur and there will be more on him later
I was always told there were no other siblings for her...anyone else know something different?

Looking For Stewart Ancestors.......

So that is the name of this Blog.....the ancestors... the task of looking for and finding them is monumental. The last name of the families all associated through our grandparent lineage is extensive to say the very least. But where to start, what line to trace first, maternal or paternal? I just went to where I was able to trace back as far as possible without becoming to lost or unsure of the lineage.
The years of birth for those people span the years 1628 through 1652.... the ones going back the furthest that is....
If any one has any questions either email me or call me at home.
So...now for the names that are in the lineage through the marriage between Peter Sloan and Nancy Hill...all are in fact the names of our grandparent ancestors....
They are in no particular order as I am in no way OCD.
Hill, Holmes, Toothaker, Brewer, Jones, Lane, Whipple, Reyner, Brown, Cutter, Ruggles, Fowle, Clarke, Woodbridge, Dudley, Wheeler, Richardson, Baldwin,Potter, Bryan, Locke, Elliott and Miles.
Next time I will do another branch of the lineage.
I have been in touch with a fellow who lives in Manhattan who hails from the Hill family. He is a bit younger than me...he is in our cousin line through the Hill family. So I know for certain we do have others who share our ties and strains of DNA with us.

Nancy Hill (1795-1872)

Nancy Hill for most us of us is in our grandmother lineage...but who were her parents....and who were her siblings??? Well, Nancy's parents were Ralph Hill and Mary Jones..
Their children were in addition to Nancy are named as follows; Job, Polly, Brewer, Elijah, Betsey, Phebe, Emma, and Abigail.
And there will be more on all of them later.

Family of Peter S. Sloan(1795-1873) and Nancy Hill(1795-1872)

These two folks were the parents of James Sloan, he was the father of Elizabeth Stewart. James built the home on Fitchburg Road in Townsend.
They had a good sized family..the children were named as follows: Mary(1822-1823), Betsey, Nancy, John Franklin, and Mary(1835-1895).. the rest I will fill in with years later on.
My information has been gotten through census reports, documents from the history of Townsend and records of vital statistics in Mass. Plus the newspapers...love that Sentinel.
more on these folks real soon.........

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel...Monday November 4, 1918

Miss Mabel Stewart has gone to Belmont where she is employed in a family near her sister, Miss Sadie Stewart.

Fitchburg Daily Sentinel Thursday August 29, 1918

Safe arrival in France of Privates S. Johnson, V. Powell and W.J. Stewart Jr.

Sometimes the things I find about the family are just short 2-3 lines
but all the things I am finding are really coming together telling the story of the family.

Fitchburg Sentinel...Friday, November 18, 1918

Miss Flora Stewart has gone to Manchester, NH. where she is employed by the McElwain Shoe Comapany..

I found this in my scouring of the newspapers

Fitchburg Sentinel....Saturday December 6, 1924

here is a story I found in the paper while doing some research...

Miss Sadie Stewart has returned from two weeks stay in Rochester, NY., where she took a course in the educational department of the Eastman Kodak Company, in developing, printing and enlarging negatives. Some of her work is on exhibition in the window of the Fesseden Store on Main Street.

Just a little tidbit about our Aunt Sadie.

The Famous Shay's Rebellion....

I have been doing quite a bit of researching. It seems as though one of ancestors was an active participant in the Shay's Rebellion. James Sloan is the one listed in the rolls of those from Townsend who marched with many others in the rebellion. This can be found in the book written by Ithmar Sawtelle, The History of The Town of Townsend, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, from the grant of Hathorn's Farm, 1676-1878.
In my researching my ancestral roots, I discovered some very interesting connections. There was a large family of Spauldings in Townsend..They bear no relationship to my mother's side of the family. They come from my father's side on his mother's side of the family. There also many Spauldings who also marched with the "Shayites" in rebellion with hundreds of other poor farmers in protest against taxes and foreclosures.
The Spauldings that my ancestral ties go back to eventually produced the men who went on to become governors in New Hampshire and donated the Spaulding Memorial School to Townsend.
So the James Sloan who took up with the Shay's Rebellion would be the father to Peter S. Sloan, Peter being father to the James Sloan who was the father to Elizabeth Sloan Stewart.
All of this is most interesting to me as my ancestors from both sides of my family knew each other for a long time before the bloodlines and DNA started to mix and mingle.

The small child in the photo looking at the ducks is Lillian Stewart....the woman kneeling down and petting the cat is Elizabeth Sloan Stewart.

The birds is the field appear to be Peafowl...I do not know how many cows the family had...in another photo there is a calf roaming free under the laundry line.

The Stewart Children of Townsend, Mass.

Starting in the center with the youngest and going clockwise....Lillian, Bessie, John Jr., Sadie, Flora and Mabel.

Bessie and John were born in Waltham and the rest were born in Townsend.

No date for the photo....but this is William John Stewart and Elizabeth Sloan Stewart.

Originally this home was built by Elizabeth Sloan Stewart's family prior to the Civil War. Elizabeth was born in this home. In 1870, when Elizabeth was 5 years of age her mother died. According to Census report information from 1880 Elizabeth was then 15 years of age and residing in New Hampshire..apparently working on someone else's farm as a household worker. Her father had remarried and now had a new wife hardly any older than herself. All the checking I did through the Census reports show that the new wife had a child by James Sloan. The baby did not survive childhood for very long. By 1890 James Sloan is dead and now Elizabeth comes into sole ownership of the homestead, as she is the only surviving child of James Sloan.

On The Hunt For Ancestral Family

Looking for some Stewarts.....
Once upon a time there were three brothers...Samuel, James and John. James and Samuel went off the the gold fields of California during the "gold rush" to seek their fortune...and they found it. James went back to Massachusetts and it seems that Samuel stayed in California. Eventually, James went to Ireland and bought back a bride, a Sarah Lamont (or perhaps Lamon). They settled in Waltham, Mass. and raised a good sized family. One of James and Sarah's sons was my Great Grandfather...William John Stewart. (W.J.) W.J. married a woman named Elizabeth Sloan from Townsend, Mass. Eventually they moved to Townsend to live on a farm that was built by Elizabeth's Grandfather...Peter Sloan. So began the history of the Townsend Stewarts.....and now the time has come to begin to gather the new history of the clan and fit it together with the past.
So if anyone out there stumbles upon this blog and you know some Stewarts please point them in this direction...maybe they know something the rest should know.

In the photo above L-R are Mabel Stewart, Unknown soldier, Elizabeth Sloan Stewart, Flora Stewart. taken on the Stewart farm in Townsend, Mass. (WWI era)