MARRIAGE: Bond dated 12/15/1768-Rowan Co.,NC
BIOGRAPHY: Joseph Stewart was born about 1740. He was the son of Samuel Stewart & Lydia Harrison Stewart. His father Samuel moved to Rowan Co., N.C. in 1757. Sometime about 1761 he was married to Sarah Gilbert in Rowan Co., N.C. Sarah was the daughter of William Gilbert & Lucy Conway. Joseph & Sarah were probably married in either Stokes Co. or Yadkin Co., NC. Stokes County is adjacent to Yadkin Co. Their 1st child, David, was born in Stokes Co. Joseph lived in Stokes Co., NC during 1750 and by 1751 he had moved back to Yadkin Co., NC. By 1768 he and his family had moved to Rowan Co., NC & in 1780 he was living in what ultimately became Washington Co., TN. Before TN became a state, the entire area was part of NC. By 1781 the county lines had been changed and where he lived was then in Overton Co., TN where his son Samuel was born on 3-15-1781. This area of TN is in the central part of the state just south of the current Kentucky border.
Joseph was one of the county's earliest settlers. The earliest mention of land ownership of Joseph in this area appears in a deed (E-415, Overton Co.,) recorded where Jesse Stewart, his son , sold 25 acres of land on the Roaring River to John Lea on 2-14-1824. The land was on Matthews Creek and described as follows: "Beginning at a hickory & red oak the NE corner of Samuel Stewart's tract of 50 acres, running thence north...including the plantation where said Stewart formerly lived, which land was granted to Joseph Stewart, deceased by the State of TN, No. 421, dated 3-9-1784, founded on warrant 360, & made over to Jesse Stewart by Will, all which will appear reference being has to the original grand & deed."
On 10-23-1782, Joseph received a grant for 285 acres in Washington Co., NC (now in TN). The price paid for the grant was 50 shillings for each 100 acres of the grant. On 9-20-1787, Joseph received a grant for 400 acres in Green Co., NC , on the waters of Bent & Mulberry Creeks.
The earliest known name for this area was Watuga. In 1776, the people of Wautaga Settlement petitioned to be annexed to the State of NC and the Legislature established Washington Co., in 1777 & it included all of present day Tennessee. The separate State of Tennessee was created in 1796 & Overton Co. was ultimately created in 1806. The two above listed grants were to ultimately be in Overton Co. During the early 1800s the Creek Indian War broke out & many of the pioneers of Overton Co. petitioned the State Assemblly for the right to raise a force of 500 mounted men to fight the various tribes of the Creeks. On 3-31-1813, 132 persons signed this petition and forwarded it to the State Assembly. David Stewart, one of Joseph's sons, was the 90th person to sign the petition. Shortly thereafter, David & a number of Overton mounted men from the County participated in the Creek Indian War.
The area where Joseph and Sarah lived included a church & cemetery sometimes called Twelve Corners. Joseph's name appears in the minutes of the Green River Assn. of Baptists which met at Dripping Springs Meeting House in Barren Co., KY, just to the north of Overton Co. as a messenger. This meeting on Saturday, July 25, 1801, included the Roaring River Church and messengers. The foundation of the old Roaring River Church can still be seen near the Roaring River Cem. It is not known exactly when Joseph died, but it is known that he died sometime before 1824. This is known because in the land sale to John Lea in Feb. 1824, Joseph Stewart is said to be deceased. When Jesse sold his father Joseph's land to John Lea in 2-1824, he states that he gained title by a Will but no such Will has been found. The Will could have been destroyed during the Civil War as many records were. It is presumed that Sarah also died in Overton Co., and both are buried in the Roaring River Cemetery.
Joseph's father in 1768 devised to him and his brother Benjamin the land he was living on. Benjamin sold 124 acres of this 508 acre tract to Matthew Brooks on 5/9/1775, leaving 384 acres. Four years later, 8/30/1779, Joseph, Sarah, Benjamin and his wife Elizabeth sold the remaining 384 acres to Brooks. Joseph and his family moved to TN, settling on Matthews Creek, a branch of Roaring River, in what is now Overton Co. Jesse G. Stewart conveyed 2/14/1824, 25 acres, that had been granted to his father Joseph in 1784.
Source: Stewart Clan Magazine, Rowan Co., NC Wills, Book A, Surry Co., NC Wills; 1759, 1761, 1768 taxables in Rowan Co., NC; Deeds of Rowan & Surry Co., NC; Marriage Records of Rowan Co., NC
Joseph and David May were witnesses to a deed by John Stewart, Jr. to Gabriel Turney, land in Surry Co.
Researcher: Lomagene Stewart Boehm, Joyce Lindstrom, and Mary Stewart Hicks
Thru extensive research, The Robertsons, the Boones and the Seviers knew each other at the Yadkin River, left together for the Holston River and Wautaga; for the French Lick, and the Illinois Country. They married each other's children, they moved to Overton Co., TN and to Arkansas and Texas together.
Nancy Stewart never married. After her death, her brother William's son, Urban Van Stewart, went to the temple and had a vicarious marriage done for her. She was sealed to Urban Van Stewart after her death.
CENSUS: The 1840 Census of Overton Co., Tn. lists Benjamin with 5 sons and 2 daughters.
BIOGRAPHY: Benjamin was a farmer & Baptist preacher and is mentioned several times in minutes of the old Spring Creek Baptist Church. He lived for awhile on land he had surveyed in the wilderness area. He had 12 children, 9 by his 1st wife. His Will is recorded in Overton Co. Deed K-333 July 1841 which was later proven in Nov. 1847, he left all his property to his wife, Polly, but deeds do not show how Polly disposed of the lands she received. None of the children were in the Will and to date their names are not know.