| Notes |
- "Samuel grew up in Colrain and Shelburne, Massachusetts, and he and Elizabeth moved to Royalton, Ohio, in 1816. Severance does not have any further information on their son John Stewart and John's descendants." (Jared Olar)
Note: Severence actually has little detail on most of Samuel's children.
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Samuel/ (Samuel,4 John,3 Robert,2 Walter,1) b. in Londonderry, N. H., Feb. 23, 1749, came to Colrain with the family when an infant. He was a resident of Shelburne prior to 1773, settling there not far from 1770 and was first occupant of lot No. 23y which was divided by quite a stream, afterward called Stewart Brook, and the following poem was written in commemoration.
Stewart Brook.
1770.
Upon Bel Eden's wind-kissed height,
Just over in Colrain, A rather high and hilly town,
But not unknown to fame,
A little streamlet gushes forth
Fresh, pure, from crystal fountains,
And gaily gambols down the hills And through the distant mountains.
The graceful deer from out the wood
Feed on its grassy brink, The muskrat scampers up the bank
Pursued by gamey mink.
Fierce panthers scream along its course,
The wolves reply with howls, The bears on mischief ever bent
Re-echo back with growls.
Upon a meadow near this brook,
Mid Nature's solitude, Young Stewart built a cabin strong,
A building small and rude.
Here in the forest's deep recess,
His axe rings sharp and clear, Swung by the cordy sinews of
This sturdy pioneer.
1904.
How changed the scene wild nature tamed
Along this silvery stream, The forest's giant trees are gone
The past seems but a dream.
White clover blossoms on the hills,
Cows graze upon the plain And on the nearby hillside slopes
Are fields of grass and grain.
The wild rose opes its petals sweet,
The last wild flower of spring, The golden rod's bright yellow plume
Nods to the wild wind's wing.
The lily lifts its painted cup
Along these flower-strewn banks, The gentian too of heavenly blue
Springs up in stately ranks.
Old maples stand on either shore,
Their branches softly meet, Neath which these joyous waters flow,
With music glad and sweet.
Rush onward in thy course, sweet brook,
Swift through the tangled sod, And in the sweetest melody
Sing praises to thy God.
- B. F. S.
He was a soldier in the Revolution and tradition says he was at one time taken prisoner in that war. His name appears first on a muster roll in Capt. Hugh McClellan's Co., Col. Samuel Williams's Regt. which marched for Boston on the Lexington Alarm ; re-enlisted while there, May 1, 1775, in Capt. Robert Oliver's Co., Col. Ephraim Dolittle's Regt. ; served eight months, his name appearing on a company returned of the above regiment dated Winter Hill, Oct. 6, 1775; his name also appearing among the signatures to an order for bounty coat or its equivalent in money due for the eight months' service in 1775 in the above company and regiment dated Winter Hill Dec. 23, 1775. From Hemenway's Vermont Historical Gazetteer we find he fought at Bunker Hill, went with Arnold in his detachment that penetrated the wilderness by the way of Kennebec River. Charles Knowles Bolton in speaking of that expedition in " The Private Soldier under Washington " says ; " The men many a night lay down without food. Several became very weak from hunger, and at last a captain gave them his pet dog. The soldiers carried the poor creature away and ate every part of his flesh, not excepting his entrails. Two other dogs were eaten the same day. When exposure and hunger had prepared the way, a fourth or a third of the men in some of the regiments died of smallpox. A day's march was frequently as little as ten miles. " After the assault on Quebec and the fall of Montgomery, his term of service having expired, he returned home. (The old tinder-box which he carried at Quebec is a valued relic in the possession of his descendants.) February 23, 1777, he enlisted with the rank of sergeant in Capt. Lawrence Kemp's Co., Col. Leonard's Regt. for service at Ticonderoga ; discharged April 10, 1777. He removed from Colrain to Salem, N. Y., from there to Whitehall, and from there to Bristol, Vt., where he continued to reside until 18 16. He was one of the first board of selectmen at Bristol, and was a bold and resolute man. In the fall of 18 16 he set out to seek a better fortune in Ohio, locating at Royalton in that state. He was among the earliest applicants for a pension but passed away before receiving it. He m. Elizabeth Abbott of Pawlet, Vt., b. in Salisbury, Conn., Oct. 21, 1759. He d. at Royalton Aug. 28, 1827, and was buried with military honors in recognition of his Revolutionary service. His wife survived him nearly nine years. Like her husband she was a born pioneer and possessed an equal amount of daring and resolution for which the following incident, related by a granddaughter, gives her credit. During the Revolution and at the time of the battle of Bennington in 1777, her parents were living near the battlefield ; her father and brothers had gone to the scene of action. It was in the days of New England slavery, and her father owned a slave. Some of the family were sick with the measles, but hearing the roar of the terrible conflict, they sought safety in flight. Yoking the oxen hastily and putting a few valuables in the cart, she bade the slave drive the oxen while she harnessed the horses ; placed a bed in the wagon, helped her feeble mother and sick sister in and they were off. As they came in sight of the raging battle, their path diverged and led them down into a deep, marshy gutter, which held the wheels of the cart fast in the mud. The slave, angry because he had not been allowed to drive the horses, refused to help his young mistress in this trying predicament. Dauntless, she alighted, and seiz-ing some rails near by she laid them pontoon fashion, hitched the horses in front of the oxen, and with one long, hard pull they were extricated and on their way to safety. She d. at Royalton, Ohio, Feb. 4, 1836.
(Severence)
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1749 - 1827 (78 years)
