Pennsylvania – iSeeAncestors

Horse Thief

Sep 052020

Is there a proverbial horse thief in your family tree? If you’re related to John Stewart (1821-1908), the answer is yes. John’s father was Major James Stewart, a well-respected member of the community, who served in the militia over forty years and was an elder of his church. He was also school director, tax collector, assessor, overseer of the poor, and justice of the peace.¹^,²

Continue reading »Footnotes

C. T. Arms and E. White, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania 1745-1880 (Newark, Ohio: John Alexander Caldwell, 1880), Page 541, Major James Stewart.
Joshua Thompson Stewart, Indiana County, Pennsylvania: Her People, Past and Present, 2 Volumes (Chicago, Illinois: J. H. Beers, 1913), Volume I, Pages 703, 706-707.

Russell Thomas Stewart: A Retrospective

No Responses »

Jul 142020

Russell Thomas Stewart was born September 16, 1889 in Buffington Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. He was a son of John Galbreath Stewart and Mary (McKee) Stewart. He was probably born on, or near, the Stewart homestead, a farm originally settled by his great great-grandparents, John and Margaret (McFarland) Stewart about 1796. When Russell was five years old his father died, and his mother moved the family to Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

Memorial Day Tribute

3 Responses »

May 252019

This is a Memorial Day tribute to Pfc. Russell T. Stewart, my mother’s uncle, who was killed in action in the woods northwest of Imécourt, France early on the morning of November 2, 1918. He served in Company M, 3^rd Battalion, 319^th Infantry, 160^th Brigade, 80^th Division. The Division earned the motto, “Only Moves Forward,” having fought in all three phases of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, from September through November, 1918.

Someone Will Remember For You

No Responses »

Nov 022018

Russell Stewart at Camp Lee, Virginia

Russell Thomas Stewart was my maternal granduncle. He served in the 80th Infantry Division during World War I and was killed in action November 2, 1918. I wanted to know exactly what happened to him, but I doubt anyone ever knew, or could know, precisely what happened that fateful day. In the confusion of battle, most details are never reported or recorded.¹ (Refer also to my earlier posts: Russell Stewart: Only Moves Forward and Corporal Pollock’s Account.)

I used Divisional, Regimental and Company histories to piece together his story. I can only estimate where Russell was based on the unit to which he was assigned. It is possible he was separated from his unit and temporarily attached to another unit. It is also possible he died the day before and he was not found until the next day.

Russell served in Company M, one of four companies in the 3rd Battalion of the 319th Infantry.² The 319th was part of the 160th Brigade in the 80th Infantry Division.

Continue reading »Footnotes

Photo from Dennis Stewart, MyHeritage.com, Robert M. Stewart Family (https://www.myheritage.com/site-148784861/robert-m-stewart-family : Downloaded 23 June 2016), Thomas Russell Stewart.
“Pennsylvania, WWI Veterans Service and Compensation Files, 1917-1919, 1934-1948,” database online, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com: Downloaded 6 July 2016), Stewart, Russell T; citing World War I Veterans Service and Compensation File, 1934–1948. RG 19, Series 19.91. Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

Refuge in the Wilderness

3 Responses »

Mar 112017

Western Pennsylvania and the vicinity of Pittsburgh was a wilderness frontier at the time of the Revolutionary War and for years afterward. The few settlers who ventured into this area not only endured the hardships of pioneer life, but they also had hostile encounters with Native Americans.

In his work, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania: 1745-1880, editor Walter F. Arms provides a map of the county.¹ He indicates the location of two blockhouses within Buffington Township.

Continue reading »Footnotes

Walter F. Arms, editor, History of Indiana County Pennsylvania: 1745-1880, (Newark, Ohio: J. A. Caldwell), 1880, frontispiece.

Corporal Pollock’s Account

No Responses »

Aug 032016

Cpl. Arthur Pollock

Corporal Arthur Nelan Pollock served in Company F, 320th Infantry Regiment, 80th Infantry Division during the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in World War I. Amazingly, he kept a diary. It so happens he got separated from his regiment and became attached to the 319th Infantry. This was the same regiment in which my granduncle Russell Stewart served, as I describe in a previous post.

It is enlightening to read Corporal Pollock’s account of the battle. Since both men were then in the same regiment, this is very likely what Russell Stewart also experienced. Here is an excerpt of Corporal Pollock’s account from September 26 to October 2, 1918. It was originally published in the Pittsburgh Press, April 20, 1919 and continued on May 18, 1919. This excerpt was transcribed by Lynn Beatty and the full text is found at the Allegheny County, Pennsylvania USGenWeb.¹

Continue reading »Footnotes

Pennsylvania, USGenWeb Archives, Allegheny County, Military, World War I, (http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/military/wpa-ww1/chapter-16.htm : 3 August 2016.)

Call of the Wild

No Responses »

Jul 232016

What motivated my fourth great-grandparents John and Margaret (McFarland) Stewart to settle in the wilderness of western Pennsylvania near the end of the Revolutionary War? There may be a very simple explanation: They saw a newspaper ad.

Pinpointing the Stewart Homestead

4 Responses »

Apr 022013

My fourth great-grandparents, John and Margaret Stewart, were two of the first settlers in what would eventually become Buffington Township, Indiana County, Pennsylvania. John Stewart married Margaret McFarland in 1788 and by 1796 they had a son, my third great-grandfather, James Stewart.

I describe here how I used records available at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC)¹ and Google Earth to pinpoint the location of the original Stewart homestead.

Footnotes

Pennsylvania, “Copied Surveys, 1681-1912,” database and digital images, Pennsylvania State Archives, Land Records (http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/state_archives/2887 : downloaded 9 December 2009), RG-17, Series #17.114, Copied Survey Book C-206, Page 221 and reverse, John Stewart, http://www.phmc.state.pa.us/bah/dam/rg/di/r17-114CopiedSurveyBooks/Books%20C1-C234/Book%20C206/Book%20C-206%20pg%20441.pdf; Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Bureau of Archives and History.

Overlays Make Old Maps New Again

No Responses »

Mar 262013

google-earth-00 In a past posting I described how I located the homestead of my great-grandparents Albert and Mary Pohl near Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. I’ve since found that Google Earth is another tool to further visualize the location. It is helpful in modernizing old maps to better understand where my ancestors lived.

What I did is add an overlay of an old map to the modern world shown in Google Earth. This allows you to see precisely where a road, building or property once stood in relation to what’s there now.

Hopeful Peace after World War II

No Responses »

May 182012

I found a scrap of paper on which my mother, Ruth (Stewart) Voisin, wrote a poem. In December 1945, World War II had finally ended. Ruth was only 18 years old. She had just left home and moved to Philadelphia to enroll at the Franklin School of Science and Arts. This was against her father’s wishes, who said college was no place for women. Her mother had died two years prior. With no financial help from her father, she began her way in the world.

She always loved poetry and transcribed many famous poems in her notebooks. She also wrote her own poems. In this one, I can envision her sitting in her room at the YWCA looking out her window to the street below: A young woman on her own, and filled with a sense of peace and hopefulness about the future.

Grandmother was a Taper

No Responses »

Apr 242012

Ida (Pohl) Stewart, about 1909

The 1910 Federal Census lists the occupation of my grandmother Adelheid T. (Pohl) Stewart as a Taper at the Electric Works. She was 19 then, just prior to her marriage with John Galbreath Stewart later that year.

I’ve been curious for some time. What was a Taper? No doubt the “Electric Works” was Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a short distance from Turtle Creek, where my grandmother lived.

Through the wonders of the Internet I happened upon a short video clip produced in 1904 that explains a lot.

Animated Pennsylvania Counties

No Responses »

Jul 092011

Those researching their ancestors in Pennsylvania know that county boundaries changed frequently in the years since 1682. To make these boundary changes easier to see, I animated them.

I used portions of the “Genealogical Map of the Counties” available at the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. I simply snipped the individual images in their sequence of state maps that show county boundaries and made a short flash animation.

Unfortunately these maps do not show cities and towns, but if you know the county you are interested in, you can see when it was created and how it changed over the years.

View an animated history of Pennsylvania Counties.