The Search for the Parents of Martha Stillwell

"Bazil whose love gave him confidence boldly asked consent of Martha's to their marriage.  Her father liked his frank and kindly ways and favored the match, but dame Stillwell had higher aspirations for her daughter.  She wished her to wed the possessor of broad acres and not a penniless man.  Besides how could she spare her daughter yet?  No, she would not give her consent.  Grieved were the lovers at this decision, but by no means obedient of her stern mother.  In clandestine interviews they renewed their pledges of attention, and encouraged by Martha's father, planned an elopement.  Indeed, we suspect Mr. Stillwell was chief the conspirator, and most efficient aid did he render.  The day was set, but the suspicious mother kept close watch on her daughter.  How to arrange her wedding outfit without the mother's knowledge puzzled the three conspirators.  The simple trousseau was mostly made by stealth, in Martha's own room at night, she receiving assistance from a sister also in the secret, but she happened to be entirely out of shoes, for it was in March and young ladies then were not ashamed to be seen in their bare feet while in the house and very crude brogans when the weather made covering for the feet necessary.  But the etiquette of Greencastle, in 1790, did not permit a bride to appear shoeless and slipperless at her wedding.  Ready made shoes were unknown in the town, and the needed articles must be made to measure.  Several plans failed, and her father was compelled to move cautiously, because of the fact that Dame Stillwell was somewhat suspicious.  The matter was delayed for a favorable opportunity, until the day before the wedding when further procrastination being out of the question, the father invented a plan to accomplish the object.  In the forenoon of the last day of grace, he went into the weaving room where mother and daughters were at work at the loom, and shortly began to joke Martha on the size of her feet.  Picking up a shingle (carefully placed within reach beforehand for the purpose) he drew a diagram of measurement of her pedal extremities, the dimensions of which he laughed immoderately about with his wife and then carelessly threw the shingle out the window.  Fifteen minutes after, that shingle measure was in shoemaker Wilkins' shop and that worthy cobbler worked half the night to finish the pumps in which the runaway bride was to stand at her wedding on the morrow.    The next day at dinner time Martha slipped away, and with her father for a witness, she and Bazil were made one by the village justice.”

    If indeed the couple did elope with the assistance of “Mr. Stillwell”, to Greencastle, Pennsylvania, and a Justice of the Peace married them, a record of the marriage will probably never be found.  There were no statutes which dictated that those records be recorded by the State.  From a pamphlet titled “A Town Grows in Antrim”, by W.P. Conrad, published in 1977, …“William Henderson was the Justice of the Peace, appointed in 1788, he succeeded Humphrey Fullerton”.  William Henderson probably performed the ceremony.  William Henderson, Esq. appears on the 1790 Federal Census of Franklin County, Pennsylvania as well as some early county tax lists.  The “worthy cobbler” Wilkins is a more difficult gentleman to find, there were several Wilkins/Wilkens listed in the Bedford County Census.

The parents of Martha Stillwell have long been a mystery.  There were several Stillwell families in Southern Central Pennsylvania, and Maryland in 1790.  The most likely and notable of these families is the extended family of Elias and Mariam (Eddy) Stillwell in Bedford County, Pennsylvania.  Elias Stillwell was truly a pioneer and much like Bazel Harrison in Kalamazoo County, one of the original settlers of what later would become Bedford County.
 

The 1790 Federal Census of Pennsylvania listed the following Stillwells’ as head of households:
 
 
 

Household	Males 16 and  older	Males under 16	Females	Others	Slaves
Stillwell, Richard Bucks County	2	0	1	1	2
Stillwell, Elias Washington County	1	2	3	0	0
Stillwell, Elies [sic, Elias] Bedford County	2	1	2	0	0
Stillwell, John Bedford County	3	4	4	0	0
Stillwell, Joseph Fayette County	1	0	0	0	0
Stillwell, Daniel Bucks County	3	2	2	0	0
Stillwell, Elijah Fayette County	1	0	0	0	0
Stilwell, Ann Fayette County	1	1	2	0	0
Stilwell, Daniel Fayette	1	1	1	0	0
Stelwell, Shadrick Fayette County	1	0	1	0	0

Additionally there were also Stillwell Families in Maryland.  The 1790 Federal Census of Washington County, Maryland listed the following Stillwells’ as head of households:
 
 

Household	Males 16 and  older	Males under 16	Females	Others	Slaves
Stillwell, Jeremiah	2	4	5	0	0

No mention of a Martha Stillwell has been found to date in any of the the Bedford/Fulton County Stillwell families.

From the biography of Bazel Harrison published by James H. Stone:

"Bazil and his wife remained in Franklin county for three or four years when they moved across the Alleghanies into Washington county, where they lived until 1810...."

To complicate matters, Martha Stillwell birth has been estimated as 1774 from the statement in Stone's biography:

"He [Bazel} was nearly 19 and she three years his junior."

"Martha wife Bazzel [Died] Jun 7 1857 80y 4m 3d"

This web page is authored by Scott Duncan.  All information listed without a reference should be verified.  Any additions, questions, or comments should be sent to:

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