My Genealogy Hound

WALTER STUART. Soon after the formation of Cumberland county there came from the North of Ireland to America one Walter Stuart. According to tradition he located in what is now Dickinson township, near where afterward was the famous hotel known as the “Stone House.” Here he preempted land, built his cabin and lived alone, contentedly awaiting the development of the country. He wrote regularly home to his relatives, telling them of his possessions and of the advantages and opportunities of the new western world, but after a time his letters ceased to come. For several years his friends waited patiently and hopefully but heard nothing. Finally his brother Samuel came and made search for him, but only to find that he had died, and that without leaving data sufficient to give his heirs title to the land which he had pre-empted.

Samuel Stuart then remained in this country, and settled near where his brother Walter had taken up his abode when he first came. There he lived for five or six years, and acquired a considerable tract of land. In September, 1778, he purchased a house and lot on South Hanover street, Carlisle, and removing to it was for a period of about ten years a resident of the county seat, engaged in keeping hotel. In the year 1780 he was burned out, which misfortune compelled him to move to the opposite side of the street and there temporarily continue his business. While in the hotel business he at one time boarded some of the Hessians who were held at Carlisle as prisoners of war. In May, 1791, he purchased a farm in what is now Dickinson township, and moving to it lived there until the end of his days. He died Sept. 11, 1828, at the age of eighty-three years, and was buried in the Old Grave Yard in Carlisle. Samuel Stuart married Margaret Carson, and had children as follows: James, Mary, Margaret, Ann, Samuel, Walter and Martha.

Samuel Stuart, son of Samuel and Margaret, grew to manhood on his father’s farm in Dickinson township, receiving such education as the country schools of his day afforded. He engaged in farming as an occupation, and was long a member of the Dickinson Presbyterian Church, where his remains lie interred. He died Jan. 31, 1874, aged eighty-five years. He married Nancy Donaldson, whose father, William Donaldson, son of Andrew Donaldson, was also one of the early settlers of that part of the county in which the Stuarts first located. William Donaldson was a soldier in the war of the Revolution, a captain in the 2d Battalion of the Pennsylvania Militia that was called in August, 1780, and served under Washington in the vicinity of New York. Capt. Donaldson married Jane Ramsey, by whom he had the following children: Robert, Nancy, Jane and Martha. Robert Donaldson married Jane, daughter of William and Jane (Mackinson) Huston, and by her had issue as follows: Montgomery, Martha, Isabella, Elizabeth Sprout, and Agnes Caroline. Samuel and Nancv (Donaldson) Stuart had issue as follows Samuel, Walter and Jane Eliza.

Samuel Stuart, son of Samuel and Nancy, was raised on the farm and educated in the country school of the section in which he was born. He was an energetic and progressive citizen and much respected for his integrity and honesty of purpose. Being in the prime of young manhood when yet able-bodied citizens were required to muster and train for soldiers he became a captain in the militia. The title fitted the man, and it ever afterward clung to him. In his latter years he was universally known as Capt. Samuel Stuart, and was so remembered for a long time after his death. He was a member of the Dickinson Presbyterian Church, was long one of its ruling elders, and is buried alongside his father in the confines of its graveyard. He died May 3, 1873, at the age of fifty-five. Capt. Stuart married Elizabeth Sprout Donaldson, daughter of Robert and Jane (Huston) Donaldson. Though the Donaldsons were along the earliest citizens of Dickinson township they did not always live there.

About the year 1806 Robert Donaldson and his family removed to Franklin county, across the border from Middle Spring Church, where they lived almost thirty years, and then moved back to Dickinson. It was while living in Franklin county that most of Robert Donaldson’s children were born. Samuel and Elizabeth S. Stuart had the following children: James Alexander, born Nov. 9, 1849, died Aug. 26, 1862; Robert Donaldson, born July 10, 1851, died March 12, 1860: Samuel Carson, born Jan. 12, 1855, died Feb. 9, 1860; Walter was born July 27, 1856; Huston Kennedy, born Feb. 15, 1859, died March 8, 1860; and Elmer, born Jan. 16, 1862, died Oct. 6, 1867.

Walter Stuart, son of Samuel and Elizabeth S. Stuart, was born in Dickinson township. He was the only one of six children to live to adult age, the others all dying in childhood and early youth. In the spring of 1868 the Stuarts relinquished farming, and moved to Carlisle, where the boy Walter passed through the public schools and grew to man’s estate. He graduated from the Carlisle high school in 1875, and then took a course at one of the leading business colleges of the country. In January, 1880, he was appointed to a clerkship in the Farmers’ Bank of Carlisle and ever since has been connected with that institution, filling every position in it from the clerkship in which he began to the cashiership to which he succeeded on the death of J. C. Hoffer, in 1889. On the bank becoming merged into the Farmers’ Trust Company he became a member of its board of directors and a member of its executive committee, and was also made secretary and treasurer of the company. The Farmers’ Trust Company is the largest financial organization in the county, being capitalized at $150,000.

Though deeply absorbed in the banking business Mr. Stuart finds time for public duties. He has long been a member of the Carlisle school board, takes an active part in all its affairs, and has several times been president of the body. He is a Republican, but not a politician, and has convictions upon all questions with which the citizen is obliged to deal. His religious views he inherited from his Scotch-Irish ancestry and consequently is a Presbyterian and a communicant in the Second Presbyterian Church of Carlisle. On Dec. 21, 1882, he married Barbara Ellen, a daughter of George Peter and Martha (Stuart) Searight, and a descendant of two of the oldest and most prominent families of South Middleton township. Walter and Barbara E. Stuart had issue as follows: George Searight, born Oct. 23, 1883 (died Sept. 6, 1884); Samuel Donaldson, Dec. 30, 1884; Walter Searight, Sept. 22, 1886; and John Bruce, April 10, 1888.

Mrs. Barbara Ellen (Searight) Stuart was born in South Middleton, April 13, 1860, and at the time of her marriage lived in Carlisle. She died Feb. 19, 1900, and her remains are interred beside those of her first child, in the Old Grave Yard at Carlisle. Walter Stuart, his aged mother, and his three boys now constitute the Stuart household, and they live on South Hanover street, Carlisle, just one square from where Samuel Stuart long had his home 125 years ago.