Stewart, Daniel (1761-1829)
STEWART, Daniel (1761-1829) – John and Jerusha Stewart, grandparents of Daniel Stewart, emigrated from England to South Carolina early in the eighteenth century and settled at Dorchester. Their son, John Stewart Jr., married Susannah Bacon of Dorchester, received a grant of land in the Midway District in 1752, and four years later he and his wife and parents relocated on his property where he established Tranquil Plantation.
Jerusha Stewart died in 1762. Her husband died the following year. John and Susannah Bacon Stewart had six children. Ann Stewart died in 1759. Mary Stewart died in 1766. Susannah Bacon Stewart died in 1766 and her son, John Stewart III, died in 1767. All of them probably died of malaria fever. John Stewart Jr. was left with three children, and they were Sarah Stewart, born in 1750, Susannah Stewart, born in 1758, and Daniel Stewart, born on December 20, 1761. Sarah Stewart was born in Dorchester, while the other two were born in Georgia. He remained a widower for nearly ten years and reared his children alone. That all changed for the better when John Stewart Jr. married Sarah Nickols on August 7, 1769. Their one child was Elizabeth Stewart, born in 1774. John Stewart Jr. was an officer in the general militia when he died on September 6, 1776.
It was that year (1776) that Daniel Stewart enlisted in the general militia at the age of 15. From 1776 to 1778 he was a member of an organization commanded by Colonel John Baker of Liberty County which took part in the first of two unsuccessful attempts by American forces to drive the British from East Florida. By late 1778, Daniel Stewart was a member of an organization which fought in the defense of Charleston, South Carolina. He was wounded, captured, and put aboard a prison ship in the Charleston harbor. He and other prisoners escaped by swimming ashore. He made his way to the home of relatives in Dorchester, South Carolina, met Martha Pender, they were married, and about a year later she died giving birth to their only child, John Stewart.
Daniel Stewart organized a brigade of cavalry, was promoted to the rank of colonel, and later commanded the Minutemen of Georgia. He returned home after the war and established a home on property near that of his stepmother, Sarah Nickols Stewart. He called it Cedar Hill Plantation. He married Sarah Susannah Oswald of Liberty County in 1785. He then brought his son, John Stewart, from Dorchester, South Carolina, to live with them.
During the closing years of the eighteenth century, Daniel Stewart was almost constantly involved in military and diplomatic efforts having to do with the Creek Indian Wars. He also served as state representative from 1785 to 1787. His surviving children by Sarah Oswald were Daniel McLachlan Stewart, born in 1791, and Martha (“Patsy”) Stewart, born in 1799.
Daniel Stewart was sheriff of Liberty County from 1795 to 1797, and served as state senator from 1802 to 1811. He was a member of a three-man committee which in 1807 operated a subscription and arranged for the construction of a brick wall around the Midway Church cemetery. Sarah Susannah Oswald Stewart died on Christmas Day 1807. Daniel Stewart was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Georgia Militia in 1809. It was on March 6, 1810, that he married Sarah Hines Lewis (see Charlton Hines in the appendix). Records of Midway Church indicate that they had two children, Sarah Caroline Stewart (1813-1815) and Georgia Drusilla Stewart (1814-1820).
Daniel Stewart, during the War of 1812, was commander of a brigade of cavalry of the Georgia Militia. John Stevens III was his aide-de-camp. He was one of the commissioners of Sunbury Academy when it was incorporated by the General Assembly in 1823. He was active in Masonic affairs, and attended many meetings of war veterans at Riceboro. He had a summer home at Walthourville. His winter home was at Cedar Hill Plantation, where he died May 17, 1829. He is buried in the Midway Church cemetery, where the U.S. Congress erected a monument to him and Brigadier General James Screven. Fort Stewart, Georgia, and Stewart County, Georgia, were both named in his honor.
From “Sweet Land of Liberty, A History of Liberty County, Georgia” by Robert Long Groover; Page(s) 234; Used by the permission of the Liberty County Commissioners Office
Burial Record
