Nancy Stewart
Nancy Stewart

By Spessard Stone




The life of Nancy Stewart epitomizes the courage and hardships endured by many of our pioneer families.

Nancy Hartford Webb was born August 12, 1829 in Philadelphia, Georgia. Pat Grice Gugle, a descendant, on November 21, 2009 emailed that she had found a reference: "Nancy Hartford Webb,� b. August 12, 1829 in Phildelphia, GA, d. 10/20/1890 who married William Bright Stewart, b. July 7, 1825 and died in the Union prison in Elmira, NY on� November 5, 1864, was the daughter of Samuel Bozeman Webb, b. 06/20/1803 in NC or GA and d. 05/29/1870 in Amite Co., MS and his second wife, Delphia R. Lawson, b. c1798, Wilkes Co., GA and d. 04/20/1830 in Pulaski Co., GA. Samuel Bozeman Webb's parents were Nancy Bozeman, b. 09/18/1785, who married Jesse Webb, b. 02/12/1778, in NC and d. 12/19/1842. Her parents Meady Bozeman, b. 1745 and died Jan 1809 in Twiggs Co., GA. He married Chloe Nelson, who died October 11, 1821. His father was James Edward Bozeman, b. c1705 in Maryland and his father was Nathan Bozeman, b. before 1670 in Holland."

Phil Stewart, a descendant, in an email [email protected], dated July 20, 2002, related, "I have seen the old family bible and found that Nancy Hartford Webb Stewart's father was Samuel B Webb, a prominent person for many reasons."

About 1849, Nancy married William Bright Stewart, born July 7, 1825 in Georgia. They lived in Decatur County, Georgia where William was a farmer.

During the Civil War, William B. Stewart enlisted on August 31, 1863 as a private in Co. D, 64th Regiment, Georgia Infantry, C. S. A. Captured at Petersburg, Virginia on June 16, 1864, he was transferred to the Union prisoner-of-war camp at Elmira, New York. There Private William Bright Stewart died on November 5, 1864 and was buried in the Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira.

On July 20, 2002, Phil Stewart commented: �I don't know if I have all of his CSA record. But I do know this: He was captured at the battle of Petersburg and died in POW camp, buried in Elmira NY. His grave is listed as 830 but he's buried in grave 700+-. I have the exact details in a file somewhere. We have recently moved and don't have them handy now. His personal effects consisted of 2 pairs trousers and 1 shirt, no blanket. Died a Private. He enlisted in the 64th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Family history says he got a letter out to his family 'sell the farm, get a boat and move by night south down the river to escape capture by Sherman.� Don't think they followed his advice since they were in Spring creek from at least 1860 until they left for Florida in 1874.�

Phil Stewart further related: "Family left from Spring Creek area west of Bainbridge, just south of Iron City, in October of 1874. Arrived in Ft Meade in Dec of '74.. 200 acres was sold for $200.00 before they left....Don't know who Nancy's Mother is . And, don't know much about WBS. Did find out that on the 1860 census his birth place listed as NC. Later, in 1870 census it was shown as Ga. Guessed that name Bright was Mother's maiden name. Found Bright and Stewart families in Anson county NC but never found link..."

Eliza Stewart Allen, daughter of William and Nancy, later reminisced:

"It was hard to make a living in Georgia then. My father died in the war just before it was over, and we never got a pension. I began to hire out when I was eight years old and worked out the first pair of shoes I ever had. We never got paid in money for our work. Mother would walk two or three miles and work hard all day, and only get some beef cracklins, or a piece of tallow, or maybe a dried hogshead. We lived mostly on corn bread. Some days we didn't sit down at all. We didn't have anything but cold corn bread, and Ma kept it in the table drawer. Whenever any of us got hungry enough to eat it we would go get us a piece. Sometimes we would have a little milk. We didn't have syrup, because we couldn't get a start of seed for the cane. If we got flour, we saved it to cook when we had blackberries. Our mule died, and we had to farm with hoes until Brother John's mother-in-law gave him a yearling steer. Then we would plow for us after he did his own plowing.
"We never had candy for Christmas and didn't even know that people were even supposed to give Christmas presents. A neighbor, Old Man Clark and Aunt Jennie, used to give us a quarter beef once in a while. We dug up dirt in the smoke house, where Father used to hang his meat and smoked it in water to get the salt. Folks might think this is a lie, but we did it. Ma loved coffee and needed it for her headaches. Once in a while somebody she worked for would give her half a cup of green coffee. You know we used to roast it and grind it for ourselves. She tried all kinds of things for substitutes - parched corn, beans and peas, bran out of meal and even sweet potatoes dried out in the oven.
"We made our own clothes. We got hold of some cotton seed, and John opened the furrows for us with the yearling. We dropped the seed by hand and covered it with hoes. We did everything ourselves. After we raised the cotton, we picked it, got the seeds out, carded and spun it, then wove it into cloth, and cut the cloths, and sewed them with our fingers. We made our thread to sew with too. Everyone of us could card, spin, and weave. I could do it today if I had card, spinning wheel and loom. Ma would sit up at night and weave after working hard all day. Then she would make a dress or suit for the one that was the nearest naked."

In the fall of 1874, a company of six or seven covered wagons, oxen-drawn, and some two-wheeled carts left Decatur County for South Florida. Besides Nancy Stewart and her unmarried children, the party consisted of the families of John W. and Joan Stewart, John and Elvira Swain, Alfred R. and Evaline Rich, Charlie and Nancy Bryant, Martha Rich (mother of Elvira, Nancy, Joan, and Alfred), Nancy Phillips (the Richs' aunt), and Josh Proctor.

Eliza Allen's narrative continues:

The men rode horses, the women and babies rode in the wagons and we children walked. We had our furniture on the wagons, our bedding, dishes, clothes and cooking vessels.
"About the middle of the day we would stop along the road and cook dinner. We made a fire on the ground and cooked in long handled iron vessels with short legs and iron lids. We called them spiders. We never stopped long enough to build a cook scaffold. We cooked supper and breakfast at the place where we camped for the night. We always picked a place where there was plenty of water for ourselves and the oxen too. If they got thirsty and smelled water, they would break and run for it. On day an ox-team of Brother John's ran away with nobody but Aunt Nancy Phillips in the cart. It finally pulled loose and dropped down in the road and the oxen ran on. Aunt Nancy's arm was broken but not a dish or another thing.
"Two weeks before we got to our journey's end, my mother's money ran out. She didn't get the money for the things we left in Georgia, nor my father's pension, nor she never did get it. When people on the road found out there was a widow along without anything to go on, most of them were good to give her things. Sometimes it was a half bushel of sweet potatoes, or a big bundle of dried meat; sometimes grits or corn meal, and we managed to make it through.
"We were six weeks on the road and got to Manatee County some time in December. Manatee County was much larger then than it is now. There was a church house close to Fort Meade and Jesse Durrance and Offie Hill gave us permission to shelter in it until we could find homes. By that time several of our company had already stopped somewhere else so there were not as many of us as had started out. We were glad to get to stay in a house again."

The families settled principally in Fort Green, Castalia, and New Zion in present-day Hardee County, and the Rye (Bethany) area of Manatee County.

The 1880 census of Manatee County listed Nancy Stewart in the Pine Level precinct, which included Castalia and New Zion. Nancy's neighbors included the families of: Benjamin Stephens, William McLeod, Joseph B. Stephens, and W. D. Payne. The census listed her son, Andrew J., as living with her, and two others, whose names appear to be Eliza Ann and Johnson B., the latter of whose identity is unknown. Eliza Allen in her "When We Came to Florida" referred to a crippled little half-sister, Little Jo, who lived to be thirteen years old, and conceivably, Jo is "Johnson."

Nancy Stewart lived later with her daughter, "Lizzie" Albritton, at Paynes Creek, and son, Andrew. Nancy Stewart died October 20, 1890 and was buried in an unmarked grave in a small Stewart burial place, South Paynes Creek Cemetery, on the south side of Paynes Creek at Torrey, near Bowling Green, Florida.

Issue of William B. and Nancy Stewart:

1. Mary Frances Stewart, born May 17, 1850; died 1851.

2. John Wesley Stewart, born July 17, 1851; died December 19, 1924; married on November 11, 1869 in Decatur Co., Ga. Joan Rich, daughter of Alfred and Martha Rich.

3. Mary Evaline Stewart, born July 29, 1856; died December 3, 1912; married on March 1, 1874 in Decatur Co., Ga. Alfred R. "Doc" Rich, son of Alfred and Martha Rich.

4. Matildann Elizabeth Stewart, born November 1, 1857; died April 29, 1923; married on November 29, 1877 in Manatee Co. John Harley Albritton.

5. William Alexander Stewart, born January 19, 1859; married Eliza ______.

6. Andrew Jackson Stewart, born August 8, 1860; died February 8, 1941; married (1) Katie Hendricks McClain, January 1, 1885, Manatee Co.; (2) Theodosia Stephens, June 28, 1891.

7. Sarah Ann T. Stewart, born April 19, 1862; died on October 17, 1939; married on April 18, 1880 in Manatee Co. William Henry Albritton.

8. Eliza Ann Stewart, born March 24, 1864; died on March 30, 1955; married William Henry Allen.


References: Phil Stewart, e-mail of July 20, 2002; Eliza Allen, "When We Came to Florida," courtesy of Mrs. Vera Dupree of Myakka City; Clyde S. Stephens, Stephens Ancestors and Pioneer Relatives, July 1982, pp. 109-111; Bethany Baptist Church obituaries of Charlie and Nancy Bryant, Alfred and Mary E. Rich, John and Elvira Swain, courtesy of Mrs. Vera Dupree.

This profile is adapted from an earlier version published in The Herald-Advocate (Wauchula, Fla.) of April 2, 1987.

January 18, 2001, November 21, 2009.