Andrew Stewart (c1758 – 1805)

In 1942 the Stewart Clan Magazine published this brief account of Andrew Stewart sandwiched between paragraphs dealing with his presumed father Moses and his own presumed sons Moses and Andrew:1

Andrew Stewart obtained a warrant on Mar. 11, 1786, for 300 acres of land in Westmoreland county. Andrew Stuard of Derry Township, Westmoreland county, bought Dec. 11, 1786, of William McKelvey of Mount Pleasant township for £75 100 acres in Ligonier valley, bounded south by James McCurdy, east by the widow Brown and Charles Griffith and west by James Porter and Joseph Porter. James Wallace of Harrison county, Ky. gave power-of-attorney May 9, 1786, to his trusty friend Andrew Stewart of Westmoreland county, Pa., to recover from Thomas Wilkins a certain tract of land in the forks of Blacklick and Conemaugh which Wilkins was in possession of but which belonged to the estate of Richard Wallace. We seem to find no Andrew Stewart as head of a family in Westmoreland county in 1790; perhaps he lived with a brother or sister. Andrew Stuart of Derry township bought Dec. 11, 1801, of Andrew Lowers 156 acres on Blacklick creek, in Indiana county but before that year in Westmoreland county.

We can now expand this biography significantly…

Probably a son of his father’s first marriage

Andrew Stewart’s birth date is uncertain, but it seems likely, at least plausible, that he was born sometime in the 1750s, making him a child of Moses Stewart’s first marriage to a daughter of Patrick Hanna rather than of his father’s second marriage in 1760 to the widow of Andrew Lowers.  Records of his Revolutionary service suggest that he was an adult by 1780, and it  seems plausible that Moses Stewart and Isabel Lowers, both with small children to raise, would have been attracted to combine their families.

Revolutionary Service

The first record of Andrew Stewart is his service in the Westmoreland County militia at multiple times during the period 1777-1783.  Pennsylvania’s Act of 17 March 1777 called for militia service by all men aged 18 to 53, who were capable of bearing arms, for two-month periods on a rotating basis.   Westmoreland County organized two battalions almost immediately.  The 7th Company of the 1st Battalion was commanded by Captain Andrew Lowers, and it seems likely that Andrew Stewart would have served with his step-brother.  (Note that this would place his birth prior to his father’s second marriage.)  Unfortunately, almost no records of the Westmoreland militia have survived.

The Pennsylvania Archives records the names of Westmoreland County “Soldiers Who Served as Rangers on the Frontiers 1778-1783”, distilled from pay certificates issued after the war ended.  Andrew Stewart’s name appears seven times, presumably reflecting different periods of service.2  No dates of service are noted, and in most cases no description of this service is offered.  However, Andrew Stewart is mentioned on one occasion as a member of a “Troop of Light Horse Company” and twice in companies commanded by Thomas Moore and Thomas Mason.3 Incidentally, there are records of only one Andrew Stewart in the county until the arrival of a second man of that name in the 1790s.

There also survives an accounting for a 1780 Pennsylvania volunteer “Company commanded by Capt’n Jeremiah Lochrey stationed in Westmoreland County for Defense of the Frontiers” on which Andrew Stewart’s name appears.4  It shows that Andrew Stewart served from 11 October through 15 December 1780. I note that Jeremiah Lochrey was a neighbor in Derry Township and William Lochrey was commander of the aforementioned Troop of Light Horse of the 1st Battalion organized in 1778.

In the Pennsylvania Archives are index cards, apparently drawn from the same source records, which list Andrew Stewart of Westmoreland County four times, receiving varying amounts of pay from  £3 to £6.  One of the index cards mentions service under “Lochrey” but it isn’t clear which Lockrey was intended. All pay certificates were issued after the war, and no dates of service are noted.

Interestingly, Moses Stewart was also paid £1:3:5 in 1785 for unspecified service in the Westmoreland militia during the war.5

Taxed as a single man through the 1780s

A few post-war tax lists survive for Westmoreland County.  Andrew “Steward” was taxed on 150 acres in the Derry township 1783 tax list.6  In 1784 he was listed there as a single man with a single dwelling.7  He was counted as a resident of Derry township in the Pennsylvania state census of 1786 — again listed as “Steward” under the heading of “single men” — and was taxed on 400 acres.8  In 1787 Andrew Stewart was taxed on 400 acres and in 1788 was again listed as a single man.9  During this period, an apparently unrelated man named Charles Stewart/Steward was also taxed in Derry Township without land or livestock — he may have been the same Charles Stewart who died intestate and in debt in 1815.

On 11 March 1786 Andrew Stewart made a grant application for 300 acres “including an improvement on the north side of Conemaugh River adjoining Thoms Run on the east, Moses Stewart on the north and Thomas Wilky’s (sic) surveyed line and a white oak sick (sic).” On the original handwritten application is the note by two county justices that they “certify from information that the above deferred tract of land was improved in the year 1772.”10  The land was surveyed on 16 June 1789  as 310 acres, much of which overlapped a competing survey by Thomas Wilkins.  It isn’t clear how the overlapping applications were resolved, but no grant was made to Andrew Stewart — the land was eventually claimed in 1833 by a William Laughrey.11

He also bought 100 acres in the Ligonier valley of Fairfield Township on 11 December 1786 from William McKelvey.12. Why he bought this land and how he used it is unknown, but he was taxed on it in 1787 and 1788.  He may have abandoned it, for I found no record that he or his heirs ever sold the tract.

Married Abigail Shingledecker about 1789

Andrew Stewart was missing from the 1790 census although three other Stewarts were enumerated in Derry township.13  However, Jacob “Shinglemaker” was enumerated in Derry township with a household composition exactly matching Jacob Shingledecker’s known famikly but with an additional male over 16.14 It is likely that the extra male was Andrew Stewart, newly married to Abigail Shingledecker.

Jacob Shingledecker was a new arrival in Westmoreland County. He had been taxed in Bedford County, Pennsylvania from the 1770s through 1787, and did not appear in the Westmoreland County tax lists through 1788.  He must have arrived there within a year or two of 1790.  Since Andrew Stewart was still taxed as a single man in 1788, the marriage of Andrew Stewart and Abigail Shingledecker must have occured about 1789 or 1790.

The next available tax list was for 1798, and Andrew Stewart was missing from the list of “occupants” while two persons in Derry Township were listed as living on land belonging to Andrew Stewart:  Abner McMahan was living in a house on a 350-acre parcel and Lawrence Hanson was living in a house on a 250-acre parcel.   The former parcel was adjacent to the land of the above-mentioned Thomas Wilkins.  Andrew Stewart may already have been exploring lands in Ohio.

He was counted in both the state and federal censuses of 1800 as a resident of Derry township heading a household of nine, including five young males and one young female. 15  Apart from one male aged 16-26, perhaps an in-law, all the children were under ten, further suggesting a marriage about 1790.

On 11 December 1801 Andrew Stewart bought half of the Lowers tract adjoining his father’s grant on Blacklick Creek from Andrew Lowers, son of Robert Lowers, who had inherited it from his uncle Andrew Lowers.16 This gave Andrew Stewart roughly 450 acres on the south side of Blacklick Creek.

The land fell into Indiana County when it was carved out of northern Westmoreland County in 1803. Most or all of the portion of Derry Township that lay north of the Conemaugh River became Blacklick Township of Indiana County.

A Second Andrew Stewart in the Area

I note that by the late 1790s there was a second Andrew Stewart living in southern Westmoreland County, but none of the references above to “our” Andrew Stewart seem to apply to him.  He was taxed in 1798 on a grist mill and a saw mill in South Huntington township near the southern border of the county.  The 1800 census enumerated him heading a family of two females plus himself in South Huntington township, and listed as a miller in the state census.  In 1810 he was enumerated just south of South Huntington in adjacent Allegheny County.  According to the Stewart Clan Magazine he never married and left a will in 1827 naming a consort and several siblings. 17  The will helps to identify him as the Revolutionary officer who was the son of Andrew Stewart of Paxtang, Lancaster County.18

Andrew Stewart moves to Ohio and dies there

Andrew and his Shingledecker in-laws apparently moved to Ohio about 1803.  Andrew Stewart was still living in Pennsylvania on 20 June 1802 when he made bond as administrator of the estate of John Donohee.19  A year later he was among the earliest settlers of Greene County, Ohio, when he and Jacob Shingledecker were enumerated consecutively as two of 154 white males over 21 in Beaver Creek Township on 10 May 1803 just a few weeks after the county was created.20  21

Andrew Stewart died intestate in 1805 in Champaign County, Ohio which had been formed earlier that same year from parts of Greene and Franklin counties.  On 18 September 1805 Jacob Shingledecker and John Shingledecker, both of Greene County, Ohio, and Abigail “Stuart” of neighboring Champaign County posted an $8,000 bond for their administration of the estate of Andrew Stewart deceased.22  James Demint and Robert Boyce of Champaign County were also sureties.

No further record of the estate have survived in Ohio, but records exist in Indiana County, Pennsylvania that identify the children — see below.

Was his wife Abigail Shingledecker?

This administration bond adds to the plausibility that Abigail Stewart was a sister of the Shingledeckers. A biographical statement published in 1896 mentions that Jacob Shingledecker (1774-1849) and John Shingledecker (1784-1871) were two sons of Jacob Shingledecker Sr. (1736-1828) and Abigail Longstreth (1753-?) with whom I speculate that Andrew Stewart was living in 1790 (see above).  ((A. W. Bowen, A Portrait and Biographical Record of Mercer and Van Wert Counties, Ohio, Part 1 (Published 1896), page 531.))  According to the same source Jacob and Abigail Shingledecker had four sons named Jacob, John, Abraham, and Isaac and four daughters, none of whom were identified.  One of the daughters may have been Abigail Stewart.

There is a plausible argument for this theory.  Both Andrew Stewart and the Shingledeckers lived in Derry Township of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania about the time Andrew Stewart must have married.   The ages of the presumed children suggest a marriage about 1789 or 1790.  Jacob Shingledecker had liven and been taxed in Bedford County as late as 1787 but had moved into Westmoreland County in time to be counted in the 1790 census of Derry Township.  Andrew Stewart, despite being a large landowner, was notably absent from that census — but Jacob “Shinglemaker” was enumerated with an extra male in the “over 16” column, was was probably Andrew Stewart.23  Further, an 1889 biography of Jerome Shingledecker tells us that that his grandfather “Jacob Shingledecker [meaning Junior] was a native of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania and was of German ancestry; he was a soldier of the war of 1812, with the rank of Captain.”24

Abigail Stewart remarries to Elisha Chambers in 1807

The widow Abigail Stewart remarried in 1807 to Elisha Chambers, also a former resident of Indiana County, in Greene County, Ohio.25  The 1810 census of Ohio is lost, but in 1820 Elisha Chambers was enumerated in Beaver Creek township of Greene County consecutively with Andrew Stewart and Moses Stewart.  ((Listed consecutively in Beaver Creek, Greene County, Ohio — Elisha Chambers: 011301-21001; Andrew Stewart: 100010-101; Moses Stewart: 000010-201))  His household apparently included four younger Stewart male children and perhaps a female Stewart in addition to two young females born after the marriage.

Estate records in Indiana County

On 3 November 1817, Jacob Shingledecker, acting as administrator of the estate of Andrew Stewart, gave a power of attorney to Moses Stewart and Andrew Stewart, both of Greene County, Ohio, to recover from George Armstrong and John Shaver of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania anything “belonging or coming to the estate of said Andrew Stewart dec’d…”26. Moses and Andrew evidently traveled to Indiana County for this task and married sisters there.

A few months later on 18 February 1818 Moses Stewart and Teresa his wife and Andrew Stewart and Lavinia his wife, “which said Moses and Andrew are two of the children and heirs at law of Andrew Stewart, formerly of Blacklick Township now Indiana County deceased”, sold to George Mulhollum Jr (sic), for $2,000, “two undivided eighth parts of two adjoining tracts of land situate in Black Lick Township, Indiana County, late the estate of Andrew Stewart dec’d… containing in the whole 561 acres.”27

On 23 February 1820, fifteen years after Andrew Stewart’s death, Elisha Chambers and his wife Abigail of Beaver Creek township sold to George Mulhollan Jr. of Indiana County, Pennsylvania “all the right which Abegal (sic) hath to dower… of and in six hundred acres of land (be the same more or less) whereof her late husband Andrew Stewart late of the state of Ohio died seized said land situate in the Township of Blacklick, county of Indiana, State of Pennsylvania…”28

On 30 December 1824 Archibald Stewart and his wife Elizabeth of Franklin County, Indiana sold to Isaac Stewart of Greene County Ohio, “all that portion of land left to the said Archibald Stewart by the death of his father Andrew Stewart dec’d of Blacklick Township, Indiana County, State of Pennsylvania…”  ((Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 5, page 581)).  Less than three months later, on 19 March 1825, Isaac Stewart of Greene County, Ohio sold to John Nimerick “all that portion of land left to the said Isaac Stewart and Archibald Stewart by the death of their father Andrew Stewart dec’d of Blacklikck township, Indiana County and State of Pennsylvania which land lies situate between Blacklick and Connemaugh Rivers in the township of Blacklick…”.29

Two years later, on 20 October 1826,  John Nimerick of Greene County, Ohio sold to Daniel Smith of Indiana County  “…a certain equal undivided fourth part of all that certain tract of land… late the property of Andrew Stewart dec’d and by Jacob Stewart and Abijah Stewart sons and heirs of the (sic) Andrew Stewart dec’d conveyed to the said John Neimerick by their deeds by their deeds the 17th of October 1826 and 23rd of September 1826…”  ((Indiana County, PA Deed Book 6, page 461.))  I could find no sign of the referenced deeds in either Greene County or Indiana County, so I have no idea where these two sons of Andrew Stewart were living at the time.

On 10 March 1827 Moses and Andrew Stewart transferred to John Nimerick and Isaac Wilson their claims on the moneys due to them from George Mulholland.30

A few months later on 1 October 1827 Thomas Howard and his wife Margaretta C., and Prosper K. Howard and his wife Cecilia, all of Indiana County, sold their interests in “certain lands in Blacklick Township of Indiana Count surveyed in the names of Moses Stewart and Andrew Stewart amounting to about 520 acres consisting of two tracts…” to Daniel Smith and George Mulhollan Jr.31. How they acquired an interest in this land is mysterious.  There are no deeds recorded in Indiana County to or from the Howards, suggesting that they acquired their interests either in a different county or by a means other than purchase.  Although we might infer that Margaretta C. Howard and Cecilia Howard were daughters of Andrew Stewart, that is evidently not the case.  According to a number of reputable sources, Margaretta C. Howard was the daughter of James McLain.

Daniel Smith and George Mulhollan Jr. thus each acquired half (four eighths)  of the land of Andrew Stewart.  Smith and Mulhollan later agreed to partition the property between them.32

Children

The 1800 census implies that Andrew Stewart and Abigail had six children by 1800, and the 1818 and 1826 deeds (see above) suggest that there were eight children altogether. The above Indiana County deeds identify six of them, all males.

  1. Moses Stewart (10 September 1792 – 29 November 1874) who married Teresa Cannan.  See the separate page.
  2. Andrew Stewart (c1792 – 1830s?)  He and Moses Stewart married sisters on the same day.  Andrew married Lavinia Cannan in Indiana County on 15 September 1818 not long after he and Moses Stewart were given a power of attorney to recover monies due to their father’s estate in Indiana County..  He may have been a twin to Moses Stewart. I did not track him, but his wife later applied for a widow’s pension for Andrew Stewart’s service in the War of 1812.  See the Cannan page.
  3. Jacob Stewart (c1790s – ?) No information other than the deed of 17 October 1826 referred to by John Nimerick in his deed above.  The deed was not recorded in either Greene County, Ohio or in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Where it was executed is unknown.
  4. Abijah Stewart (c1790s – ?) No information other than the deed of 23 September 1826 referred to by John Nimerick in his deed above.  The deed was not recorded in Greene County, Ohio or in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Where it was executed is unknown.
  5. Archibald Stewart (c1800 – aft1860). On 30 December 1824 Archibald Stewart and his wife Elizabeth of Franklin County, Indiana sold to Isaac Stewart of Greene County Ohio, “all that portion of land left to the said Archibald Stewart by the death of his father Andrew Stewart dec’d of Blacklick Township, Indiana County, State of Pennsylvania…”  ((Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 5, page 58)) (See also the deed from Isaac Stewart below.) Archibald Stewart had married Elizabeth Montgomery in Franklin County on 18 February 1822 and was enumerated there in the censuses of 1830, 1840, and 1850 – apparently with as many as eight children.  The 1850 census household included children named Abigail, Chatfield, Mary, Nancy, Joseph, Rebecca, and Eliza. Find-a-Grave identifies another child as Sarah, wife of Aaron Updike, with whom Archibald was living in 1860 in adjacent Decatur County, Indiana. His age was given as 50 in 1850 and 60 (perhaps 69) in 1860.
  6. Isaac Stewart (c1800 – ?) After buying his brother Archibald’s interest (see above), Isaac Stewart of Greene County, Ohio sold their combined interest to John Nimerick as “all that portion of land left to the said Isaac Stewart and Archibald Stewart by the death of their father Andrew Stewart dec’d of Blacklikck township, Indiana County and State of Pennsylvania…”33. He styled himself as a resident of Greene County, Ohio in each of these deeds, but I did not find further record of him there. I do not know what became of him.
  1. Stewart Clan Magazine, Vol. XIX, No. 9, page 252-3. []
  2. Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. XXIII, pages 223, 224, 287, 318, 322, 324, 329. []
  3. Ibid., pages 318, 322 and 329 respectively. []
  4. Pennsylvania Archives, Sixth Series, Vol. II, Part 2, page 331. []
  5. Certificate #7811 issued 10 Dec 1785 and recorded in Pay Records Vol A, page 245. []
  6. Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. XXII, page 396 and  397. []
  7. Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. XXII, page 303. []
  8. Pennsylvania Archives, Third Series, Vol. XXII, page 527pp, and also Pennsylvania, U.S., Tax and Exoneration, 1768-1801, database at ancestry.com. []
  9. Pennsylvania, U.S., Tax and Exoneration, 1768-1801, database at ancestry.com, images 22, 23, and 87. []
  10. Pennsylvania Land Warrants Volume H-31, page 392. []
  11. Pennsylvania Survey Book Vol. H-31, page 392. []
  12. Westmoreland County, PA, Deed Book B, page 203. []
  13. James Stewart 1-2-3-0-0, William Stewart 2-2-4-0-0, and William Stewart 1-3-3-0-0 were the only Stewarts listed in Derry township. []
  14. 1790 Derry Township census: Jacob Shinglemaker: 2-4-5-0-0.  We know that Jacob Shingledecker had four sons and four daughters; the 1790 household included six rather than five, males and five females. []
  15. He was listed in the federal census on page 1224: Andrew “Stewert” —  50101-10010. []
  16. Westmoreland County, PA Deed Book 6, page 170. []
  17. Stewart Clan Magazine, Vol. XIV, No. 10 (April 1937), page 238. []
  18. Ibid., page 238. []
  19. Westmoreland County Will Book 1, page 66.] []
  20. George F. Robinson, History of Greene County, Ohio (S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1902), page 24. []
  21. I note that there was a second Andrew Stewart later in the area  — a different Andrew Stewart “of Beaver Creek township” died unmarried and childless in 1815.  His will dated 16 March 1815 left his estate to his brother-in-law James Buchannon and Buchannon’s two children.  [See Greene County Wills, etc. Book A-F, pages 136, 144, 149, 389.]  The modest inventory and estate sale proceeds suggest that he may have been too young to have been taxable twelve years earlier, and do not suggest any connection to the other Andrew Stewart.  The loss of Ohio’s 1810 census records denies us proof of that man’s age. []
  22. Champaign County Administrator’s Bonds, etc. 1804-1860, page 11. []
  23. Jacob Shingledecker’s household included his four sons under 16 and five females. []
  24. Biographical History of Shelby and Audubon Counties, Iowa (W. S. Dunbar & Company, 1889), page 724.  This biographical statement also gives Jacob Shingledecker’s wife “the mother of Isaac Shingledecker” as Mary Ann Rue “a native of West Virginia”.  Jerome’s parents are identified as Isaac A. Shingledecker (born 20 February 1818 in Miami County, Ohio) and Barbara Ann Hain (married on 14 March 1844.)  Isaac A. Shingledecker was married in Ohio, removed to Michigan, and came to Iowa in 1875. []
  25. The marriage record omits the day and month, and spells the groom’s name as “Elijah” Chambers. []
  26. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 3, page 188. []
  27. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 3, page 205. []
  28. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 4, page 359.  Also recorded in Greene County, Ohio, Deed Book 7, page 418. []
  29. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 5, page 582 []
  30. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 6, page 475. []
  31. Indiana County Deed Book 6, page459-460. []
  32. Indiana County, PA Deed Book 7, page 411-412. []
  33. Indiana County, PA, Deed Book 5, page 582 []