- JAMES McEWAN. No name is more intimately associated with
the pioneer history of Milton,
- Rock County, than that of our subject. His brother Peter
left Scotland and in 1837 migrated from Canada to Wisconsin,
purchased the claims of two eighty-acre tracts of land, and claimed
several lots besides, including the site of the village. The
following year our subject, then a lad of fifteen years, made
the trip across the ocean from Scotland with his widowed mother
and her family.
- James McEWAN was born at Comrie, Perthshire, Scotland, May
8, 1823, son of William and
- Elizabeth (DOW) McEWAN. The grandfathers, John McEWAN and
John DOW, both died in Scotland. There too, about 1834, the
father of our subject died, and the widow, several years later,
came with her family to America. She was a relative of Newal
DOW, a famous musician, was a woman of strong character and deep
religious convictions. The family sailed from Greenock in the
"Lady of the Lake," a sailing vessel, which was nearly
two months in making the trip across the ocean; the entire passenger
list comprised Scotch people and their families, except one Englishman.
Landing at New York, the McEWANS, proceeded immediately to the
Wisconsin wilderness. The trip, strange as it appears today,
was typical of that time. The emigrants went by one of the new
steamers to Albany, and thence by rail to Schenectady, N.Y.,
the cars being drawn up the hill at Albany by a stationary engine,
the rails being simply strap-iron, and the speed very moderate.
From Schenectady the party proceeded by the Erie canal to Buffalo,
and then embarked on the passenger steamer "Gen. Wayne"
for Milwaukee, where a small steamer met the vessel and brought
the passengers up the river to the landing. There they lodged
at the "Cottage Inn," and next day were met by Peter,
the brother and son, and were conveyed by ox-team and wagon to
Milton, the trip requiring three days; the country was swampy
and the roads miserable until the Fox river was crossed. Then
the scenery became more beautiful to the eye, and cheered and
transpired the weary pilgrims.
- At Milton the family located in a house south of the present
residence of Mr. McEWAN. There
- was then only the one small house on the site of Milton,
and Peter McEWAN sold the first lot to a Mr. SPRAGUE, for a blacksmith
shop. Mr. McEWAN sold the south one of his eighty-acre tracts
to a Mr. GOODRICH, and soon after the sale of town lots became
more frequent. Here the widow resided with her family, and lived
to the age of eighty-one years. Of her eight children, four
sons and four daughters only two now survive: Catherine, widow
of James HOME, residing at Milton, and James, our subject.
- James McEWAN remained on the Milton farm for several years,
assisting his brother, and about
- 1840 went to Milwaukee, where he learned the carpenter trade.
Returning to Milton, he followed his trade for some years, also
engaging in contract work, there and at other places. He then
for some years engaged in mercantile business at Milton, finally
selling out to Mr. HOLMES, who is still engaged in business at
Milton. Since then Mr. McEWAN has lived retired, his home being
on a lot in section 34, Janesville avenue. He has owned for
many years a farm of 160 acres located one and a half miles northeast
of Milton, which he has greatly improved, and which he rents.
- In 1861 Mr. McEWAN married Miss Elizabeth McEWAN, daughter
of William and Mary
- (MARSHALL) McEWAN, and to them was born one child, Mary,
who is a graduate of Milton College, and is now the wife of William
ALEXANDER of Lima township. Mrs. McEWAN died Aug. 13, 1878 and
in 1881 he married, for his second wife, Miss Margaret YOUNG,
daughter of William and Ellen (SHEWAN) YOUNG, natives of Scotland.
Mr. and Mrs. McEWAN are Presbyterians in faith. In politics
he is independent. In his early years he was a Democrat and
Free-Soiler, but in later years has been a Republican, though
not in any sense a politician.
-
- Taken from "Commemorative Biographical Record of
the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Wisconsin"
(c) 1901, pp. 14-15.
-
- Courtesy of Carol
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