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.