Descendants of

Children of WILLIAM STEWART and AUGUSTINE DOW are:

36. MARGARET ANN6 STEWART (MARYETTE BEEBE5 MUNN, LUCRETIA4 BEEBE, TIMOTHY3, TIMOTHY2, GIDEON1) was born 31 Oct 1842 in Switzerland Co. Indiana, and died 04 Sep 1917 in Indianapolis,Marion County, Indiana. She married MARCUS KILBURN RICKETTS 17 Jul 1859 in Switzerland Co., Indiana, son of ROBERT RICKETTS and ANNE LAREW. He was born 05 Nov 1827 in Moorefield, Switzerland, IN, USA, and died 23 Aug 1896 in New Albany, Floyd, IN, USA.
More About MARGARET ANN STEWART:
Burial: 06 Sep 1917, Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis
Residence: 1917, at time of death lived at 618 N. Alabama, copy of death certificate.
More About MARCUS RICKETTS and MARGARET STEWART:
Ceremony By: 17 Jul 1859, Rev. Abraham Adkinson
Divorce: Article in paper documents divorce, cruel treatment and failure to provide, are reasons
Marriage: 17 Jul 1859, Switzerland Co., Indiana
Married by: Rev. Abraham Adkinson

Children of MARGARET STEWART and MARCUS RICKETTS are:

37. AMELIA FRANCES6 STEWART (MARYETTE BEEBE5 MUNN, LUCRETIA4 BEEBE, TIMOTHY3, TIMOTHY2, GIDEON1) was born 01 Oct 1844 in Craig Township, Switzerland Co. Indiana, and died 04 Nov 1924 in Vevay, Switzerland Co. Indiana. She married FRANCIS MARION ROUS 03 Nov 1863, son of PERCY ROUS and MARY COLE. He was born 23 Sep 1839 in Vevay, Switzerland County, IN, and died 29 Apr 1922 in Vevay, Switzerland Co. Indiana.
More About AMELIA FRANCES STEWART:
Burial: Vevay Cemetery, Vevay. Switzerland County, IN., Row 9
Notes for FRANCIS MARION ROUS:
Obituary as published in Vevay Newspaper:

Obituary Francis M. Rous

Francis M. Rous, the eldest son of Captain and Mrs. Mary P. Roous, was born in Vevay on Sept. 23, 1839 and died April 29, 1922. He lacked but a few days of rounding out 83 years of life. He boyhood was spent in this city and all his life within the confines of the county. He bacame a Mason in 1862, joining the lodge at Bennington and remained a member until his death, being one of the county's oldest Masons in point of years of service. In early manhood he joined the Methodist Church and loyally kept the faith thence-forward On November 3, 1862 he married Amelia F. Stewart and she with two children, Louis P. Rous, of Vevay and Mrs. India V. Hizer of Aurora survive him. Another daughter Nannie E. died some years ago. In the presence of death words are futile things if they are used only to extol the virtues of the departed or give expression of a grief which is at once natural and universal. But if we draw a lesson for the living from the records of the dead then, and then only, do we find justification for what may be uttered here. What makes up the sum total of true manhood?Is it place or power? Pomp or show?

Nay, none of these. Faith, Kindliness, Forbearance, Industry, Incorruptible honesty. Devotion to vamily and friends. A willingness to share uncomplainingly all the vicissitudes of life--from the cradle to the grave--these are the things that make a man. And measured by all these tests Francis M. Rous was a man. He lived close to nature and there he learned, as it is nowhere else to be learned, fixedness of purpose, serenity of soul, and a superb and supreme confidence in the beauty and righteousness of life altogether.

He did not rail at fate, nor question that his place in life was what he chose to make it. When he came to man's estate he gladly accepted a man's duties and a man's responsibilities, completely performed a man's work and was content with its rewards. How much more can be said of any human being. True, some mens lives are cast in places where responsibility to their fellow men give varying degrees of opportunity for public service, but within the boson of his family one man may be as truly a nobleman and gentleman as another. Cast in a mold of true gentility, trained to respect the right and opinions of others, our friend was none the less tenacious of his own. He believed and lived by the docrine of the square deal. It is doubtful if he had an enemy in all the world and when we can say this with truth of a man who has lived in the full light of day for more than four score years within a circumscribed locality, what greater tribute can we pay him? Here a man's weaknesses and a man's faults, if he has any will find him out. Not only do they find him out but it is a lamentable trait of humanity to magnify and multiply them. The record of human frailities is almost always unfair to the subject.

Therefore, it is worthy of remark that it is sometimes possible, as is the case here, for a man to live fully and leave naught of bitterness behind. And when the end shall come--as it must come to each and all--no greater boon can be vouchsafed to any man that that he shall lie down and die in the bosom of his family, that his eyes shall vision for their last conscious sight the old familiar scenes, the spots which in infancy, manhood and old age, he has known and loved. When a man goes to "Join the innumerable caravan" there is no port from which he can more safely sail than from under his own roof, sheltered by the branches of his own trees and with farwells nodded to him by his own flowers.

Death under these circumstances is sublime.

Beyond sublimity we may not go.

Children of AMELIA STEWART and FRANCIS ROUS are:

38. THEOFIELD MARTIN6 STEWART (MARYETTE BEEBE5 MUNN, LUCRETIA4 BEEBE, TIMOTHY3, TIMOTHY2, GIDEON1) was born 20 Mar 1847 in Switzerland Co. Indiana, and died 21 Oct 1903 in Alexandria, Indiana Death Records 1882-1920. He married (1) MARY E. MCKAY 12 Feb 1873 in Switzerland County, Indiana, daughter of DANIEL MCKAY and GAZELL MCKAY. She was born 22 Jan 1853 in Switzerland County, Indiana, and died 1888 in Switzerland Co. Indiana. He married (2) EMMA F. MCMAHAN 31 Jul 1889, daughter of UNKNOWN MCMAHAN and UNKNOWN. She was born Sep 1857.
More About THEOFIELD MARTIN STEWART:
Burial: Oddfellows Cemetery, Alexandria, Madison CO. Indiana
Census: 1870, Listed as farmhand living in Sigmon house with his brother John L.
Residence: 1900, Living in the City of Alexandria, Monroe Township, Madison County Indiana
Notes for MARY E. MCKAY:
Their Tombstone reads Frank son of M.E. and T.M., Mary E. wife of T.M., Della daughter of M.E. and T.M.
It looks like they all died in the same year 1888-----WHAT HAPPENED?

More About MARY E. MCKAY:
Burial: Mt.Zion Cemetery, Craig Township, Switzerland Co. Indiana
Residence: 1880, Craig, Switzerland, Indiana, United States
More About THEOFIELD STEWART and MARY MCKAY:
Marriage: 12 Feb 1873, Switzerland County, Indiana
More About EMMA F. MCMAHAN:
Census: 1920, Alexandria, Monroe Township, Madison County, Indiana
Occupation: 1920, Nurse in a Private Home
Residence: 1920, Living with her sister Mary J. and her Husband William R. Perry.
More About THEOFIELD STEWART and EMMA MCMAHAN:
Marriage: 31 Jul 1889

Children of THEOFIELD STEWART and MARY MCKAY are:

39. SIMEON6 STEWART (MARYETTE BEEBE5 MUNN, LUCRETIA4 BEEBE, TIMOTHY3, TIMOTHY2, GIDEON1) was born 29 Jul 1849 in Switzerland Co., Indiana, and died 24 Feb 1925 in Paris, Jennings Co., Indiana. He married (1) EMMA FLORENCE ABRAMS 25 Aug 1869 in Switzerland Co., Indiana, daughter of WILLIAM ABRAMS and MARGARET. She was born 1848, and died 1877 in Switzerland Co., Indiana. He married (2) GENEVA AGNES AYERS 23 Mar 1879, daughter of JOSEPH AYERS and HARRIET ZENER. She was born 25 Sep 1852 in Jefferson County, Indiana, and died 26 Jul 1940 in Paris, Jennings Co., Indiana.
More About SIMEON STEWART:
Burial: Paris, Jennings Co., Indiana
Census: 1880, Living on the home place with his mother
Occupation: 1900, In census lists himself as a Painter
Residence: 1880, Craig, Switzerland, Indiana, United States
More About EMMA FLORENCE ABRAMS:
Census: 1860, Living with family of Watson Weir in Mount Pleasant Township, Deleware County, Indiana, Post Office, Yourktown.
More About SIMEON STEWART and EMMA ABRAMS:
Marriage: 25 Aug 1869, Switzerland Co., Indiana
Notes for GENEVA AGNES AYERS:
Written by Geneva (Stewart) Ayers and read at her funeral by Rev. McCoy

When on these lines in future years, You cast your smiles, Perhaps your tears.
Let thoughts of me your mind engage and think of me who wrote this page.
Remember me when death shall close, My eyelids in their last repose.
and evening breezes gently wave, The long green grass over my grave.

From They Say and Do In The Country , by Charles E. Heberhart, Madison Courier, June 28, 1938.

Some time ago a paragraph in an historical note on Jefferson County piques the curiosity of the writer. It was an invitation to his speculative imagination. It envisioned things so exotic that it seemed fantastic.

This paragraph simply stated that along about 100 years ago silk worms had been grown, thread spun from their cocoons, fabric woven for dress materials and quite an industry developed. Though short lived. In the village of Paris on the northwestern border of this county. Also that a certain individual, one Dr.-----Foster, initials and address omitted , had a piece of this cloth.

Yesterday the writer went to Paris, Old Paris, if you please, to do a little verifying. The historical paragraph was written quite a few years back and the job promised to be difficult. The reward was greater than the writer had any right to expect.

In the first place he found still living the granddaughter and the grandson of the maker of the silk who had first hand knowledge of how it was done. In the second he got a picture of life in the early days of the last century that is both interesting and informative. In the third place he found the family tied in with the beginnings of river navigation by steamboat and brings to light a chapter in the history of one branch of the Roosevelt family that is vaguely known, if known at all.

The two central figures in this experience yesterday are Mrs. Jennie Stewart (Grandmother Stewart) 86 years old and her brother, Leonidas Zener Ayers, 78. Mrs. Stewart lived a few years of her life in West Madison, while Mr. Ayers has spent almost all his days in Paris.

Paris itself is quaint and intriguing. Its streets stand unchanged except to be improved since the early part of the 19th century. Down the main road of the town Gen John H. Morgan's flankers and part of his main army rode 75 years ago next month and only one house that is new since then has changed the view Morgans men must have had that day.

In a little brick house off the main road lives Mrs. Stewart. She was doing some canning when the writer dropped in on her yesterday. Despite her advanced years she is active, cheerful and as such in tune with today as any of those sixty years her junior.

Mrs. Stewart smiled kindly at the writer and invited him in. She gave a final check on proceedings in the kitchen and then with a cheerful smile and gesture, as much as to say "fire-away", sat down for a chat,

"Yes, it's true silk cloth was made here", she said. It was before my day but it was in the family and my aunts were among those who wore dresses out of our homemade product."

"The weaving of the silk cloth, also the spinning and the dyeing were done by my grandmother, Mrs. David Zener. This was back in 1829. My grandfather, David Zener, planted a long line of Mulberry Trees, known as the Monte Carlo variety, along the property east of town now belonging to John Ray. Later he brought in silk worms. They had great difficulty getting them. They were fed on the leaves of the mulberry and the silk gathered in their cocoons later.

"They apparently quite prolific for the industry grew very rapidly. My grandmother made the row. the cloth coming about--here she spread her hands to indicate the size, which was about 14 inches--so wide."

"She made her own dyes to dye the material with. These dyes were generally good for woollen materials she also made. For one color of red she grew 'Madder' and for another red she used 'cochineal those little red insects, you know, dissolving the bugs in muriatic acid and using a few drops of the drained off acid to set the dye. For blue, she used indigo, making a solution that she set with a kind of yeast. Yellow she made from the bark of a sweet apple tree. By putting the yellow and blue together she got her green.

"And let me say the dyes were permanent, as well as beautiful. I have seen much of the fabric that was existent when I was a girl and it was fresh and unfaded for years after it was made."

"My grandmother had seven daughters,--Lydia, Elizabeth, Sarah, Harriet(my mother), Malinda, Catherine and Betsy(Magdaline). She, among other things made a silk dress for each of the sisters. They were known as 'Changeable silk and very pretty. When Elizabeth got married she made a special dress for her and for the skirt alone, it took six widths. (This would be about 64 or so inches).

"My grandmother made the silk cloth for years on her looms for which special steel parts had to be imported. Then came the products of the large silk mills and ended that business. The silk was widely known and the materials were very beautiful."

From Mrs. Stewart's description the material was much like what is known as shantung, slightly coarse and heavy. She said the panels of Elizabeth's wedding dress were later distributed among her sisters as keepsakes. Mrs. Stewart in turn, has given her section to her grand-children by whom it is very cherished.

"Probably one of the most difficult things Grandmother did" said Mrs. Stewart, "was the making of plaid silks and woolens, this called for great skill in setting up the frames. For the woolen goods, the fleece of the Marino sheep imported by Grandfather was used. All of the girls had beautiful woolen dresses, as well as silk and a certain type of flannel dress goods my Grandmother made."

Mrs. Stewarts' Grandmother enjoys probably a unique place in state history, as well as her Grandfather, for originating the idea, so far as it is known, they were the first and only ones in the west then to raise silkworms, spin the thread and weave it into cloth.

1st Sat April, 1879, Coffee Creek Baptist Church Records: Church met and discourse by Bro. Wm. MONROE, a letter was granted to Sister Jennie STEWARD formerly FLOOD. Adjourned.
Frank Phillips, clerk
Wm. Monroe, moderator
Jennie Flood baptism 1878 letter 1879

More About GENEVA AGNES AYERS:
Burial: Paris, Jennings Co., Indiana

More About SIMEON STEWART and GENEVA AYERS:
Marriage: 23 Mar 1879

Children of SIMEON STEWART and EMMA ABRAMS are:

Children of SIMEON STEWART and GENEVA AYERS are: