Stewart, Mary Elizabeth (b. 31 JAN 1835, d. 21 NOV 1856)

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1900
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Note: BAILEY, Marilla M. Death date: 4/19/1923, Mahoning County
Volume #4153, Certificate #27981

1920 Census living with son Clyde and daughter-in-law

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1920
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Note: Civil War Service Records
about David Stewart
Name: David Stewart
Company: C
Unit: 11 Ohio Cavalry.
Rank - Induction: Private
Rank - Discharge: Corporal
Allegiance: Union
Notes: Steward, David

Occupation: Place: Tanner

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1900
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Coitsville, Mahoning, Ohio

Note: Enlisted in Co. A 105th O Vol 1 and died in camp.

Note: Dear Sir,
Samuel H. M'Bride has requested me to give you information in regard to pioneer life in Poland Township. I have put a few rambling thoughts on paper; some of the names and dates I have from others, and the rest from personal recollection. I have lived the most of my lifetime in this township. In January, 1836, I removed with my husband, Colonel John Stewart, to Coitsville Township. We remained there until 1854, and then returned. We brought with us six sons and one daughter, all alive at present except Isaac W., our oldest. In March, 1859, he engaged in the City Bank in Cleveland. Here he remained until September, 1860. On the 30th of that month he went out, as financial agent, to the gold regions, landing in San Francisco 27th of October. He remained there during the winter, waiting the arrival of machinery to be used in the mines, to come by the way of Cape Horn. In the spring of 1861 he crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains, making the trip with ox teams in twenty days. They located in Aurora, Esmeralda County, Nevada, in the fall of that year. Not being satisfied with the company, he left them, and, with a partner, located a ranch on Walker River, where he was quite successful in farming. In January, 1865, he and a companion, Robert Rabe, went to the Columbus, a distance of ninety miles, and located some silver mining claims. On their return trip they were waylaid, and both murdered by Indians at Walker Lake. Those two men were the first victims at that terrible outbreak of Indians in 1865. This account of our son's death is modern, but it shows what pioneer life has been in our country.

Jonathan Fowler, of Guilford, Connecticut, was the first white settler in Poland Township. He, with his wife and an infant daughter, arrived in this township May 29, 1799. The part of the journey from Beaver, then called Mackintosh, was made in a canoe. Turhand Kirtland and Jared Kirtland, brothers of Mrs. Fowler, came at the same time and located homes, but did not bring their families until 1802. Turhand was long and favorably known as a land agent and public spirited man. In 1804 Jerad Kirtland started a tavern in a large frame building, which remains standing on the high ground east of the creek. It was a first-class house in its time. Mr. Fowler and his wife lived in a cloth tent for six weeks on the west bank of Yellow Creek, near the present site of the flouring mill; They erected a substantial house, in which the first white child in the township was born, Rachel Fowler, who was married in 1820 to Thomas Riley;

She and her husband are still residing in the village. Mr. Fowler erected the stone tavern, a frame house, and a flouring mill in the village. He, Mr. Fowler, lost his life in 1806 by drowning in the Big Beaver while superintending the boating of merchandise destined for New Orleans. Dr. Chauncey Fowler, of Canfield, and Mrs. Riley, are the only survivors of the family.

John Struthers came from Washington County, Pennsylvania, and settled on the Struthers Farm, on which the village of Struthers is now situated. Mr. Struthers built a flouring mill on Yellow Creek, the first in the township, and one of the first on the Western Reserve. He was engaged with Mr. Montgomery in building and operating a blast furnace on Yellow Creek, a short distance from its mouth. The furnace continued running until the war of 1812. Of the family of Mr. Struthers but two are living. Lieutenant Alexander died at Detroit in the latter part of 1813 in the service of his country. John resides on a farm adjacent to the Struthers Farm. Ebenezer, the first white male child born in the township, born August, 1800, is now dead. The other survivor, Hon. Thomas Struthers, is well known in this community.

The year 1800, Mr. William Buck, Stephen Frazer, father of the late Mrs. Isaac Powers, John Jordan and Thomas Gordon, with their families, settled on or near the road leading to Youngstown. Patrick M' Keever, on the north side of the river, and James Patton, near the Pennsylvania line, were also early settlers in the course of a few years. John Truesdale, James Riley, Robert Smith, John Arrel, William, Joseph and T. P. Cowden, William Moore, Gilbert and Walter Buchanan, James and William Adair, William Guthrie, James Stewart, John M' Gill, and others not now remembered, came and settled in different parts of the township. James Stewart built the flouring mill on the north side of the Mahoning River, on the property where the village of Newport was laid out some years ago. The building, a substantial stone structure, was torn down by the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal Company. The head race and a small part of the dam can still be seen. Mr. M'Gill also built a flouring mill on the Mahoning River, around which has built up the village of Lowell.

This mill was done away with by the canal, but afterward was rebuilt Nathaniel Walker, my grandfather, emigrated from Chester County, Pennsylvania, and settled on a farm in the northeast of the township. It is now owned by T. W. Kennedy. My father, Isaac Walker, was born in Chester County, Pennsylvania, August, 1780. My mother, Rachel, was born in Adams County, Pennsylvania, October 31, 1785. She came to this country on horseback in April, 1811, to visit her sister. They were married here in November of that year. In less than two years my mother made three trips across the Allegheny Mountains on horseback. They settled on my grandfather's farm, where I was born in 1813. In the Fall of 1812 my father was elected captain of a military company; on the 10th of February, 1813, started with his company for the seat of war. Soon after reaching Fort Stephenson, he was stricken down with the camp fever, which terminated his life on the 5th of April following. My mother remained in possession of the farm, and resided thereon until her death, March 20, 1870.


My first day's experience in attending school is strongly fixed in my memory. The school house was at the center, and two hundred acres of unbroken forest lay between our house and it, making it a serious undertaking for a child of six years. On the first morning of my attendance, May, 1819, my mother said she was going on horseback to the village, and that she would carry me on the horse behind her to the school house, which she did. On her return she brought me a Webster's spelling book, and made arrangement with the teacher to board with us, for some time, on my account. His name was James Campbell, an estimable young man, gone to his reward. The school house was built on the southeast corner of the crossroads; built of round logs, with clapboard roof held on by weight poles. I do not remember to have seen a nail about the premises. On the north side was a window of four lights of eight by ten. It was set high up above the reach of the smaller juveniles, a wise arrangement for the safety of the glass. It afforded sufficient light for the teacher's desk under it. On the other three sides of the house was a space made by cutting out a log, all except sufficient to hold up the corners. In this was a sash for eight by ten, one light high, but no glass. In the winter the sash was covered with writing paper, saturated with grease applied to it by a hot flat iron. These windows let in what was considered sufficient light for school purposes, and by the time the winter school was over there was but little of the paper left. The writing desks were large slabs, flat side up, supported by pins let in to the wall in holes made by a large auger. The seats were of narrower slabs, with supports made of dogwood saplings put into holes near the ends made by those same augers. There was a ten plate stove in the center of the room, inscribed on each of the side plates, Dan Eaton, Hopewell Furnace. The stove was set on blocks of wood, protected by one brick at each corner between the wood and iron. The cast iron supports made for it were hanging on a wooden pin, driven into the wall for want of sufficient iron to make two rods to hold them together. The stove pipe was formed of what was called "cot and clay" Its circumference was near that of a flour barrel, as it had several barrel staves around it which were held on by hoops that I suppose had once been on the ends of barrels.

This pipe ran through the upper floor, and the smoke had to find its way through the roof. In 1819 there was a small church standing a few rods south of the corners, owned by a congregation of Seceders' New Associate Church. They held their services in this house during the winter, and in the summer in the grove adjoining. There have been three pastors of this society: Revs. James Duncan, Robert Douglas, and David Goodwille. The latter is still living, but labors in a different charge. The old school house and the old church are gone. More pretentious buildings supply their places. The forest has given place to cultivated fields, meadows, and orchards. The old people are passing away and the young are taking their places, together with many strangers who know not of the school house, the old church, nor the many pioneers who have gone to their rest.

Yours truly, Mrs. John Stewart

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Sandy Creek, Mercer, Pennsylvania

Census: Date: 1900
Place: Lawrence Ward 2, Douglas, Kansas

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Lawrence Ward 2, Douglas, Kansas

Note: Census 1910 Oskaloosa Twp, Jefferson, Kansas, Lists Olive as a boarder, with an occupation of school teacher.

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Oskaloosa Twp, Jefferson, Kansas

Census: Date: 1900
Place: Lawrence Ward 2, Douglas, Kansas

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Lawrence Ward 2, Douglas, Kansas