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.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
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.
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)
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