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Archiver > STEWART > 1999-02 > 0918467764


From: Mary Stewart Kyritsis <>
Subject: Killinchy, Co. Down Stewarts -- book
Date: Mon, 08 Feb 1999 11:56:04 +0200


Hello all,

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> Date: Fri, 05 Feb 1999 08:10:05 -0800
> From: linda Merle <>
> To:
> Subject: "American Elegy" - STEWART (Killinchy, Co Down)
>
> Hi, has any one else read this book, by Jeffrey Simpson? Jeffrey is the last of his line -- the
> final descendent of a number of pioneer families who settled in Western PA. Specifically the
> area around Parnassus, in Westermoreland County. He was born in the same hospital as
> myself, a few years earlier, and his family largely lived in Parnassus, or achieving success,
> Pittsburgh, while we have lived in the hills since....well...since we got there. We are the
> "country cousins".
>
> The people in his family -- they were all older than him, mostly maiden aunts and great aunts
> -- could have been mine and they might have known mine.
>
> In the twentieth century, it is more likely they may have passed my paternal grandmother, the
> wife of a coal miner, who lived in Parnassus. The book talks about the coal mine where my
> grandfather works and the tenement where all the miners lived -- The Titanic. He says the
> mine was owned by a family surnamed West. My grandfather moved there from Ohio because
> his brother was also part owner. He killed himself when the stock market crashed. The book
> really captures these people.
>
> It also ID's that the one family came from Killinchy, Co Down (I assume.. it's the only
> Killinchy I can find). The story (pp166-7) is that two brothers came to America -- James and
> John, in the 1770's. The family kept in touch. In the 1820's we have the parents gone and
> Mary, a sister, left alone on the family farm. The book describes some letters that Mary wrote
> to her nephew Captain Samuel Stewart, regarding the visit of another American cousin, named
> Samuel Stewart as well. The latter Samuel became the "designated heir" to the family farm
> in Ireland. He had returned to provide the old lady with companionship and to farm. However
> he didn't like it much and ended up leaving. Of interest to ourselves is he objected to the
> Tithes most particularly. This Samuel is the son of her brother John.
>
> Samuel, the heir apparent, arrived July 3, 1823. The differences between Western PA and
> Ireland are described here. One thing that has gotten lost in the "smog of time" is that farms
> in Co Down in 1823 grew quite a diverse number of vegetables -- all of which fetched a good
> price in the markets. It was not hard to get the produce to market. Western PA, on the other
> hand, was hundreds of miles away from its market, Philadelphia -- or others even further
> afield. You couldn't do much more than subsistence farming.
>
> On page 170 he mentions a Pittsburgh bookseller, Zadock Cramer, who published an annual
> almanac and guide to the rivers called The Navigator. It noted in 1808 that the Monongahela
> area produced wheat, rye, barley, etc, etc,. Their flour fetched the highest price of any flour
> --- in NEW ORLEANS. And they made the best and greatest quantity of rye whiskey --
> because it was the only way to get the rye to market. I must find these almanacs. I suspect
> they also would help to locate migrating ancestors would move up and down the rivers.
>
> There was also a sister Jane and a Nancy in the original family group, and an invalid sister
> Jean. Mary had a hired man named Mathew FULTON, and a Catholic maidservant.
>
> The letters also mention a James MARCHALL who is in America, whose cousin Robert
> MARCHALL (MARSHALL) died 1 March 1826. By this time the nephew has left, refusing
> to haul back to America a large, bulky quilt and a box of pamplets of the books of the New
> Testament.
>
> The Captain Stewart whom she writes to is the son of the late James Stewart and a captain
> of the local militia as well as a church elder and land owner in the Parnassus area -- Puckety
> Creek. Lots of detail on the Irish-English they still speak (and his country cousins still speak
> it too....Oddly, in her letters to Captain Stewart, Mary spelled phonetically and you could see
> how she pronounced "were" for example as "ware". And it is still pronounced that way today
> in the hills of Western PA.
>
> It is Massey Harbison territory -- and Jeffrey inherited some artifacts from that family as well.
>
> The book is published by Penguin, first printed 1997. ISBN 0-525-94122-3 for hardback,
> 0-452-27629-2 for paperback.
>
> The book is a vivid description of life in the early days and of the descendents of these
> people. The other name is DINSMORE.
>
> Linda Merle

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