Staunton Township (OH) Pioneers

Joseph Coe's¹ family was one of the first to settle in Miami County, about 1799. He settled on the east side of the Miami river which was identified as section 19 of Staunton township when the county was organized in 1807. A number of Winans family members also settled in Staunton and Springcreek townships about then. Joseph Coe had a daughter Mary who married Joseph Stewart. Mary's older brother Joseph Jr. had married Benjamin Winans' daughter Sarah and ultimately moved to Iowa. Mary Stewart died leaving 4 children including the oldest son Watson Stewart.²

A must read is the Personal Memoirs of Watson Stewart in The Kansas Collection. Watson tells that his mother died when he was about 8 years old. His father married Ann who was a widow with 2 children, which made 6 children. His father then died Feb 9, 1840 leaving his stepmother to raise the children until she was married Oct 3, 1842 to John C. Winans who had 4 children, making a total of 10 children. Watson worked for his stepmother's new husband for about 3 years prior to exploring new ventures and experiencing more catastrophes in Kansas. I say that it is a must read, because of his total optimistic view of the future in his final years, in spite of so many of his lifetime catastrophes. It is uplifting and causes me to be optimistic at my present stage of life.

John C. Winans must have been a Judge, as his tombstone in Raper cemetery indicates. Beers' Miami County History relates that John C was elected Associate Judge, Miami County, Ohio in 1841. This is per Orin Winans author of Winans Family page 315. John C also must have been quite wealthy³ as Watson Stewart's memoirs indicate. John C had 11 land transactions to him in sections 13 and 14 of Staunton township between 1824 and 1855. He also had a tombstone business with Watson being a young business partner. Thus our Raper cemetery stone legibility complaints can be reported to our Judge John C or Watson. Watson also stated in his memoirs that John C had been a partner with Watson's father Joseph in a sawmill operation on the Miami River. He stated that John C lived on Spring Creek about a mile east of where he was raised near the Miami River in section 19.

The 1860 census shows an Ann in John C's household and that she was born in England. Watson sure enough claims in his memoirs that Ann was an English woman. Alice Winans Egy Wooley writes on page 14 of the Conrad line in Winans Family Genealogy that John Clawson Winans was b 2 Aug 1803 and d 25 Dec 1861. However her mention of a third wife must be in error. She shows his wife Mary Winans Clark d 6 Dec 1841 age 40.

The following tombstone photos were taken at Raper cemetery in 2004:

1. Judge J. C. Winans
2. Left to right:
   Judge J. C. Winans
   Mary, wife of J. C.
   John, son of J. C. & M. W. Winans, died Sept. 15, 1837, aged _____ months and 27 days⁴
3. 4 stones which read as follows:
   1. John (C or G is indistinguishable), Son of ____ Winans died ____ 1830 ?⁵
   2. eroded stone, not legible but could be Samuel Winans
   3. Jason, Son of S & P Winans, Born Jan. 3, 1853, Died Nov. 5. 1879
      
   4. Phebe, Wife of Samuel Winans Born Mar. 4.1812 Died Mar 24. 1899.
4. Hannah A. Winans (1825-1872).
5. Abner R. Winans, a native of Rahway, NJ. Died Jan. 12, 1873, in his 76 [?] year.⁶

Samuel Winans, whose tombstone may appear in the third photo above, is a brother of John C as is described on page 881 of Genealogical and Biographical Record of Miami County Ohio. Their mother Mary Woodruff Winans had married her cousin John Winans in New Jersey. She came with her parents Samuel and Hannah (Woodruff) Winans⁷ to Ohio after her husband John had died. Samuel and his son Richard each paid taxes on land owned in section 14 in 1821. It also states that Samuel died Feb 29, 1872 and that his remains were interred in the old WINANS CEMETERY, now the Raper cemetery.

The Hannah A. Winans buried in Raper cemetery is likely the wife of another John C. Winans age 45 as shown in the 1870 census. Miami County records show John C. Winans married Hannah A. Alston Oct 3, 1842. John Clark Winans is shown in the Hardin, Iowa, 1880 census, 52 years old, along with children Lincoln and Mary who also were in the 1870 Miami County census. John Clark Winans' parents were Lewis and Lydia Winans whose Raper cemetery tombstones can also be viewed on Chuck Carey's web site.

I am keenly interested in Watson Stewart and John C. Winans because they all lived near John Winans who I am convinced was a brother to my g-g-g grandfather Benjamin Winans, who lived in section 2 of Springcreek township in Miami county. Benjamin's daughter Lydia was married to her cousin Lewis Winans who had land (160 acres in NE corner of Sec 14) adjoining his father John and his son Moses 160 acres of land in the NW corner of section 8 in Staunton township. Other people living in those sections were George Carey⁸ and Samuel Winans as the 1820 census shows on page 103 that Chuck Carey has recently displayed on his web site. I have assembled a list of landowners paying taxes in 1821. These owners lived in sections 19, 20, 13, 14, and 8, which surrounds Raper cemetery which is in the very northeast corner of section 19. Land transfer records show Samuel Winans transferring land in section 20 to the Methodist Episcopal Church in Jan 1822.

Enjoy the pictures and also Watson Stewart's Biography!

Glen Winans
31 Jan 2006

Thank you, Glen, for sharing your insights and information on these Winans, Coe, Stewart and Carey settlers with us. I've read the biography of Watson Stewart, for which you provided the address. I too found it a very interesting and inspiring account of the "early days" of our ancestors on the Ohio frontier, and of Watson's travels to Lafayette, IN, where he married Elizabeth Tipton, then on to Humboldt, in the Kansas Territory, where he and Elizabeth arrived just in time for the free state vs. slave state conflict and where they were enumerated in the 1860 census. In case "Humboldt, Kansas" rings a bell, some of our Perry relatives settled there a few years after the Stewarts moved on to Independence, Kansas. Humboldt was also the birthplace of one of the greatest pitchers in the history of baseball.

Our Thomas Carey page has information on another, possibly related, Stewart family which was also among the early settlers in Miami county, Ohio. Our Western Ohio page includes photos of the Raper cemetery graves, as well as other scenes in the area where our ancestors settled. Please visit it!

Orin Winans' book lists John C. Winans and his brother Samuel twice, on pp. 308-309 and 315-316, thanks to some convoluted Winans intermarriages which Glen mentions above. Each set of sketches contains different non-contradictory information which is combined here:

160 - 69 and 188 - 84. JOHN C.⁶ Winans (Same lineage as 159-69) [i.e., John⁵, James⁴, Jonathon³, Conrad², John¹ & 1st wife] and (Same lineage as 187-84) [i.e., Mary Woodruff⁵ [Winans] Winans, Samuel⁴, Jonathon³, Conrad², John¹ & 1st wife] Born Oct. 5, 1803; died Dec. 25, 1861. Epitaph on his tombstone, Raper Cemetery, Miami County, Ohio, indicates he was a Judge. Married (1st) on Sept. 11, or 16, 1825, in Miami County, Ohio, to Mary W. Clark, who died Dec. 6, 1841, age 40 years, is buried in Raper Cemetery, Miami County, Ohio; married (2nd) on Oct. 3, 1842, in Miami County, Ohio, to Ann Stewart. Beer's Miami County History relates that John C. was elected Associate Judge, Miami County, Ohio, in 1841. John⁶ and Mary's children are both also buried in Raper Chapel Cemetery. Incidentally, this Raper Chapel Cemetery is said to have been a Winans burying ground before it was Raper Chapel Cemetery.

Children of John⁶ and Mary:

334. JOHN⁷ Winans
335. SARAH⁷ Winans

161 - 69 and 189-84. SAMUEL⁶ Winans (Same lineage as 159-69) and (Same lineage as 187-84) Born Nov. 21, 1805, at Elizabethtown, New Jersey; died Feb. 29, 1872, in Miami County, Ohio; married on Sept. 26, 1833, in Miami County, Ohio, to Phoebe Ayres, who was born on Mar. 4, 1813, in Hamilton County, Ohio; died March 24, 1899, in Miami County, Ohio. She was daughter of Benajah and Susanna [Ferris] Ayres. Samuel, in 1827, walked to Cincinnati and entered 80 acres, east half of the N. W. quarter of Section eleven, Township one, Range eleven, between the Miami Rivers, signed by John Quincey Adams. Samuel, in 1831, again walked to Cincinnati and entered another 80 acres, this signed by Andrew Jackson. He built a house, made of brick, some quite soft and some very hard, thought to have been made of clay taken from the basement and burned on the farm. This house, plus additions and remodeling, still stood, and was still inhabited by his great-grandson and wife, in 1970's.

Seven children of Samuel⁶ and Phoebe:

336. ELIZABETH⁷ Winans
337. JOHN C.⁷ Winans
338. DARIUS⁷ Winans
339. DRUCILLA⁷ Winans
340. JAMES⁷ Winans
341. MARY C.⁷ Winans
342. JASON⁷ Winans

(Ref.: Joe Meyer, Ohio; & General Index of Miami Valley)

MVGI's list of "early tax records" shows nobody named Carey or Cary on the 1810 tax rolls for Miami county, but a George, a James and Thomas Carey on the 1816 rolls. Could James be a misprint for Jacob, or a child whose name didn't appear on any of these lists, or an unrelated or distantly related person? This list is an alphabetical index which doesn't indicate in which township the property was located, or where different properties were located relative to each other. The same index lists the following Clarks: David (two properties, including one with Sam Winans, Isaac (in both 1810 and 1816) and John, and the following Winans: Anthony, Lewis and Samuel (in 1810). And, there are these Corys, who may or may not really be misspelled Careys: Daniel (1810), James (1810) and Thomas (1810 and 1816).