McKissick Family Line

McKissick Line - Regions of Albany, NY

Source: Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York
and the Hudson River Valley; A Record of the Achievements of
Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the
Building of a Nation. Illustrated; Cuyler Reynolds; Page 168

In 1768, Zeblon and John McKissick, brothers, came to America from Scotland, settling in Maine, where Zebulon located himself in Limerick and John in Cornish. they married sisters named Bettis. Children of Zebulon McKissick: Zebadiah, Moses, born in Limerick, Maine, November 4,1781, see forward; Aaron, Molly, Eunice.

(II) Moses, son of Zebulon McKissick, was born November 4,1781, died July 31, 1823. In February, 1817, with Herod Otis of Boston, and two others, he founded the town of Jordan, Onondaga County, New York, clearing the land and laying out the place. The McKissick family were known as Free-will Baptists, pious and godly people. When Moses McKissick died, his bier was carried on the shoulders of his friends, in relays, to the burial ground in Jordan, so very greatly was he esteemed there.

He married Abigail, daughter of Samuel Stuart, of Scarborough, Maine, and she died at Jordan, New York, in 1837. Children: 1. Stuart, born November 27, 1807, see forward. 2. Aaron, married Elzina _____; died at Auburn, New York. 3. Moses, married Clara Stevens. 4. James M. married (first) Susan Carson; (second) Marion White. 5. Orrin. 6. Nancy, married Arza Blakeslee. 7. Abigail, married (first) _____DeFreest, and (second) _____Smith; died in 1875. 8. Caroline.

(III) Stuart, son of Moses and Abigail (Stuart) McKissick, was born at Saco, Maine, November 27, 1807, died at Albany, New York, August 29, 1882. When a lad he went with his parents to Jordan, New York, and there remained until about 1833, when he engaged in the running of a boat for a transportation line. In 1838 he came to Albany, and there established a transportation and produce commission business, in one or the other or both of which he was engaged until in 1873, when he retired from active work, by reason of his failing health. He was one of the members of the board appointed by the legislature to establish a free school in the city of Albany, and zealously advocated the building of the present high school in that city. He was president of the board of trade of Albany, New York, in 1849, and a member of the canal convention in 1868. He was a delegate to the national convention of the boards of trade in1863, and he served on many important committees of the local board. He was a director of the National Exchange Bank of Albany; a trustee of the Albany Exchange Savings Bank, and a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Albany.

He married (first) September, 1835, Julia Ann Norton, of Suffield, Connecticut; she died August 22, 1843, aged thirty-one years. Children: 1. Emily Espiranza, born at Jordan, New York, 1836; married, at Albany, 1858, Charles S. Cutler, of Albany. 2. Caroline Aldaretta, Jordan, New York, 1838; married, 1863, Hogan Gibbons at West Troy, New York, died January 12, 1875. 3. Stuart Eugene, Albany, 1839; died there December 13, 1842. 4. Frederick, Albany, April 26, 1842, died there April 30, 1842. Me married (second), September 10, 1844, Eliza McIntyre, of Northampton, Massachusetts, daughter of Jesse and Margaret (Pomeroy) McIntyre, by whom he had five children, all born at Albany, New York. Children: 5. Mary, born December 17, 1847, died March 24, 1864. 6. Julia Norton, January 11, 1849; married, January 25, 1884, Charles W. Shepard of Albany, New York. 7. Abby Stuart, May 18, 1851, see forward. 8. Edward Pomeroy, June 22,1854; married four times, viz.: Florence Paul, at Rockport, Massachusetts; Natalie Coffin at Boston, Carrie Packard at Boston and Rose Rockwell at Belgrade, Maine. 9. Jessie, August, 1857, died at Albany, June 17, 1860.

(IV) Abby Stuart, daughter of Stuart and Eliza (McIntyre ) McKissick, was born at Albany, New York, May 18, 1851. She married at Albany, January 22, 1873, Walter McEwan, of Albany, born at Glasgow Scotland, June 1, 1843, died at Loudonville, Albany County, New York, May 10, 1908, son of John McEwan, born in Sterling, Scotland, and Agnes Gordon (Lauder) McEwan, born in Glasgow, Scotland, both of whom died in Albany, New York. Walter McEwan came to Albany with his parents in 1849. He attended the public schools of that city, and on the completion of that course, when about seventeen years of age, entered the employ of the Hudson River Railroad Company. After ten years of service for them, he purchased an interest in the wholesale coffee and spice business, which for two years was conducted under the name of Bailey, Lord & McEwan. At he end of that period, and on March 15, 1872, he purchased his partners' interests and conducted the enterprise in his own name until March 15, 1905, when it was incorporated. He was a man much respected in the business and religious circles of Albany. He was president of the Walter McEwan Company, trustee and secretary of the Home Savings Bank, trustee and vice-president of B. Payn's Sons Tobacco Company, treasurer of the St. Andrews Society, and a member of several Masonic bodies. For many years he was an elder of the Third Presbyterian Church.

Mr. and Mrs. Walter McEwan, on their marriage, started housekeeping in Albany, but in 1885 removed to Loudonville, a suburb, where they continued to reside until his death. Children, born in Albany, New York: 1. Walter Stuart, born December 20, 1873; married, September 24, 1902, Mary C. Blakeslee, of Menands, New York. 2. Agnes Lauder, January 28, 1876; married September 20, 1899, Charles Sumner Stedman, of Albany, New York (see Stedman IX). 3. Jessie Ellis, June 16, 1878; married October 7, 1903, Henry Hunt Romer, of Brooklyn, New York. 4. George William, June 11, 1882; married, April 21, 1908, Gertrude Marsh Peck, of Albany. 5. Charles Bailey, June 1, 1884.