Stewart/Stillman Family

Abstracted from HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF SANGAMON COUNTY, ILLINOIS; JOHN CARROLL POWER, ASSISTED BY HIS WIFE, MRS. S. A. POWER SPRINGFIELD, ILL.: EDWIN A. WILSON & CO. 1876.

STEWART, JAMES, was born Sept. 28, 1777, at Fort Ann, Washington county, New York. That was in the very height of the conflict for American Independence, and at times all the families in the neighborhood were compelled to take refuge in the fort. On one occasion, when the men had gone for provisions, Indians entered the fort and found the subject of this sketch at his mother's breast, as she lay sick in bed. One of them took him by the heels and was about to dash his brains out, when she made the savages believe that she was in the act of summoning the white men. He dropped the infant and fled. James Stewart grew to manhood in that region, and followed the business of a lumberman on the Hudson river. He was married in 1803 in Bloomfield, Ontario county, to Roxana Stillman, and in 1806 moved to Buffalo, in the same State. In 1810 Mr. Stewart moved his family back to Bloomfield, thence to Junius, Seneca county. They had six living children in New York.
Children:

JANE C., born Oct. 2, 1804, in New York, married in Sangamon county to Oramel Clark.

BENJAMIN H., born March 22, 1806, at Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, married Margery Morgan, and had four children. Mrs. Margery Stewart died, and he married Nancy Hall. They had three children.

WILLIAM A., born May 24, 1809, in Buffalo, N. Y. He was brought by his parents to Sangamon county in the spring of 1820.

ABIGAIL C., born May 16, 1811, in New York, married to Ossian Stone.

MARY M., born April 6, 1813, at Junius, New York, married in Sangamon county to Nathan E. Constant. Mr. Constant died August 25, 1843, and his widow married Miletus W. Ellis.

ROXANA, born Sept. 8, 1818, in Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, married in Sangamon county, Jan. 30, 1873, to Ira Knights, a native of St. Lawrence county, New York.

MARTHA B., born March 10, 1821, in Sangamon county, married George W. Constant.

JAMES O., born Oct. 20, 1822, in Sangamon county, died June 6, 1849, at Paducah, Kentucky, of cholera, and was brought home for interment.

JOSEPH B., born July 4, 1825, died in the 22d year of his age.

STILLMAN, Mrs. ABIGAIL, widow of Benjamin Stillman, came to Sangamon county, Ill., arriving in the spring of 1820, in what is now Williams township, accompanied by three sons and three daughters, all unmarried. She had a son and daughter married, the daughter came with the family, being the wife of James Stewart. The son came two years later. The descendants of Benjamin and Abigail Stillman do not know where they were born or married, but they lived in Massachusetts until four children were born. They moved in 1793 to Bloomfield, Ontario county, N. Y., where four children were born, and Mr. Stillman died there. The family moved to Morganfield, Union county, Ky., where Philo Beers became acquainted with the family. They moved from there to Sangamon county, Ill. Of their eight children--

STEPHEN, born in Massachusetts, came with the family to Sangamon county.

JOSEPH B., born in Massachusetts, came with his mother to Sangamon county, and soon after went to the West India islands, and died there in 1825. He was a physician.

ROXANA, born March 22, 1786, in Massachusetts, married James Stewart.

ISAIAH, born in Massachusetts, married in New York State to Hannah Sherwood, came to Sangamon county, about 1822.

MARY, born in New York, died unmarried at Tremont, Ill., in 1862 or '3.

MARTHA, born in Bloomfield, New York, and came with her mother to Sangamon county. She was married Nov. 2, 1820, to Philo Beers.

HENRY, born in New York, married in St. Louis, and died at Peoria, between 1860 and '65.

CAROLINE, born in New York, married in Peoria to Peter Menard. Both died at Tremont, Ill., leaving four children.

Mrs. Abigail Stillman moved with three of her children to Peoria in 1828, and died there in 1830.

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