Source: Information from records of Dr. E.M. Stewart, 1871-1943

    Phillip Shroyer [1761-?], had served in the Continental Army during the American Revolution. He was a youth of 15 in Pennsylvania when the war broke out. Though it is recorded that he served, what he did and what rank he held in the war are not.

    Philip Shroyer later settled in Pennsylvania and married Maria Sturtz of Somerset Co., in south-central Pennsylvania. Maria's father, Christian Sturtz, had been born in Wuerttemberg, Germany in 1737. Both of Christian's parents died aboard the sailing ship on which they were bound for America. On arrival in Philadelphia, Christian was sold as an indentured servant to reimburse the ship owners for cost of his passage. He completed his servitude and settled in Pennsylvania. In 1762 he married Catharine Hahn of Somerset Co. Their daughter Maria was 18 when she married Philip Shroyer in 1783.

    In 1805 Philip and Maria sold their farm in Somerset Co. to her father. The Shroyers then set out for Ohio, in a wagon drawn by a team of horses and a yoke of oxen. Once in Ohio, they found there was no road from Madison Township to their chosen land in northeastern Salem Township. With axes and saws, Phillip and his sons created five miles of wagon road through the forest.

    The first year, they cleared an acre of ground, cutting trees and burning and grubbing out stumps. They sowed the acre in turnips, as they had arrived too late in the planting season to put in a full garden. Through the years that followed they cleared and planted more land. It was there on their farm, carved from the wilderness, that Phillip and Maria raised eight sons and three daughters.

    Some of that land, the first land cleared in Salem Township, is still [2001] held by a descendant. Phillip left Ohio to serve in the War of 1812, possibly taking his wife back to Loudoun County, Virginia, during his absence. He was among 43 friends and townsmen from Salem Township went off to that war, including Phillip's brother-in-law, Jacob Sturtz. Phillip and Maria returned to Ohio in 1816.

    Phillip and Maria's fifth son, Christian Shroyer, had been eight years old when his parents first moved to Salem Township. A farm boy, he grew up accustomed to hard work. Christian later married Catherine Werts. Christian and Catherine's sixth child was Mary Ann Shroyer, "Molly" [1845-1927] who married Nixon Stewart [1842-1908].

    Nixon Stewart's grandparents, James and Mary Oliver Stewart, had settled on land in Adams township in 1826, as had their son John. James [1770-1833], Mary [1777-1850] and John [1803-1876] were born in Fermanagh Co., Ireland. Ohio townships are set up along survey lines, each township encompassing 36 square miles. In Muskingum County, Adams Township adjoins Salem Township on the north.

    James' grave was the first in the Fairview Cemetery.

submitted by Bob Stewart, Carson City, NV