Daniel Stewart was considered by some to have been the youngest "full-time" soldier of the Revolutionary War. When he ran away from home and enlisted in the service of Connecticut (Captain Abraham Bradley's Company, Colonel Enos's Regiment) he was fifteen years old. He was discharged in January, 1778.

He re-enlisted, the following spring, in the Continental Army at Nelson's Point (Colonel Meig's Regiment, General Pearson's Brigade). During this hitch, he helped build the fort at West Point, New York. He was eventually discharged for ill health.

Upon regaining his health, Daniel was engaged as a "substitute" for one Nehemiah Marvin in the Company of Captain John Ensine, Colonel Herman's Regiment. He rejoined the army at West Point and was discharged in September, 1778.

In the spring of 1779, he enlisted, once again, in the Company of Captain Abraham Bradley, Colonel Zebulon Butler's Second Connecticut Regiment of Foot. He was discharged in January, 1780.

In 1780, he enlisted for nine months in the Continental Army and returned to General Pearson's Brigade. He was again discharged on January 15, 1781. Later that year, he enlisted in Captain Miles' "Ranger Company", Major Humphrey's Battalion. Here he served until the cessation of hostilities following the battle at Yorktown.

When peace finally came, Daniel Stewart had been a soldier for five years and was not yet twenty years old.

In May, 1781, Daniel married Olive Scovil in Middlesex County, Connecticut. During this marriage two children were born:
Phebe (disputed)
Andrew, b. 1788, d. bef 1852, Athens County, Ohio

In 1788, Daniel married Ruth Arnold Fulford in Litchfield County, Connecticut. He moved to Sussex County, New Jersey, and six more children were born there:
William, b. 1790, d. 1882, Fort Madison, Iowa
Charles, b. 1793, d. 1824, Athens County, Ohio
John, b. 1795, d. 1876, Monroe, Wisconsin
Susanna, b. 1796, d. 1801, Sussex, N. Jersey
Ezra, b. 1798, d. 1858, Athens County, Ohio
Lois, b. 1800, d. 1887, Shiloh, Edgar, Ill.

In 1801, Daniel purchased 3000 acres in the Ohio Country and moved his family west. First by wagon across Pennsylvania to Pittsburg and then by flatboat down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Hocking. Making their way up the Hocking, the family reached the mouth of Federal Creek, which marked the edge of their new property.

Eight more children were born in Rome Twp., Athens County, Ohio:
George, b. 1802, d. 1827, Muskingum, Ohio
Sarah, b. 1804, d. 1865, Henry County, Iowa
Alexander, b. 1806, d. 1858, Athens County, Ohio
Mary, b. 1809, d. 1851, Athens County, Ohio
Lucinda, b. 1810, d. 1836, Athens County, Ohio
Daniel Bertine, b. 1812, d. 1902, Athens County, Ohio
Hiram, b. 1815, d. 1880, Springfield, Clark, Ohio
Harriet, b. 1817, d. 1860, Athens County, Ohio

Daniel became one of the richest, most powerful men in Athens County. He was an early county commissioner and an assessor of the new Ohio University, the first college established in the Northwest Territory. He helped found more than fifty churches and the town of Stewart, founded by his son Daniel Bertine, stands on his original homestead. He died at the age of ninety-six in the home he had built there.

Charles Byron, a descendant and cousin of my grandmother, published the book "Saga of the Hocking", in which he recounted many of Daniel's adventures. Some, I have found, are based more on family legend than on historical fact.

One legend I find particularly intriguing.

In 1778, while campaigning in New Jersey, a shoeless Daniel encountered a badly wounded British officer. He dragged the man to a farmhouse where they were given shelter and treatment. When Daniel left, he took the British officer's boots and thought no further about his fate.

In December, 1801, Daniel and family were floating down the Ohio River from Pittsburg. It was night and the river was in flood stage. Hearing screams in the darkness and seeing a light, Daniel, his son William and his brother Archelaus launched their boat and investigated. They found a wrecked flatboat. All on board had perished except one young lady clinging to the branch of a tree. They rescued her and continued their journey to Marietta. When they arrived, the girl's father was waiting at the dock. She had been travelling with other family members. To say the least, the reunion was joyous. Daniel and the father talked long into the night and as veterans will, the talk turned toward the late war. The man had been a British officer who had chosen to stay in this country after he was wounded and saved by a young boy somewhere in New Jersey who stole his boots.

Did it happen? I don't know, but I wish it had.

One story I'm quite sure is true. One visitor (and there were many) at Daniel's cabin along Federal Creek was a strange and very eccentric character named John Chapman, born in Massachusetts. Daniel's mother was a Chapman and Daniel was sure that they were related. The man is known to us as Johnny Appleseed and while my own research indicates that they weren't related, it's been fun to think about.

Daniel Stewart was a small wiry man of incredible energy whose shadow was much larger than his physical presence. He was opinionated and irascible. In short, he was the perfect stereotype of the pioneer ideal. In his honor, my own branch of the family has given one from each of the last five generations the middle name of Stewart, the most recent being my grandson, born in 2001.