Celia Ward

★ CELIA STEWART ★ is the proven daughter of JOHN STEWART and SUSANNAH TANNER and the wife of BENJAMIN WARD, son of RICHARD WARD and FRANCES WORSHAM, as documented through letters listed below. CELIA is also listed in various records as SELAH or CELEY or CELY WARD. She was born about 1755 probably in Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Virginia. Celia Stewart married Benjamin Ward on 16 April 1774 at Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and for a brief period they lived in the household of Benjamin's half-brother, Daniel Ward, then at Pittsylvania County. Sometime soon after the marriage they removed to western North Carolina and lived the lives of true pioneers on land grants in Ashe County in the area that is presently in Watauga County. Benjamin and Celia had ten known children, eight sons and three daughters: Duke, Daniel, Benjamin, James, Nicodemus, Kelly, William Avery, Jesse, Susan, and Selah. Selah and Benjamin had sixty-six known grandchildren who dispersed through the United States. The date and place of her death has not been discovered as of yet by this researcher. Their property is presently owned by a descendant named Ray Ward and the property is located in the area served by the Sugar Grove post office. CELIA was mother of ten children, eight sons and two daughters. One son, William, and one daughter, Susan, died in early adulthood. This researcher is a descendant of CELIA and BENJAMIN through their second-born son, DANIEL WARD and his wife ANNA CURTIS.

SIMON WARD grandson of BENJAMIN and SELAH WARD, identified SELAH as a daughter of JOHN STEWART. John Stewart is found residing next to a Benjamin Ward in Hugh Innes' 1774 tithe list in Pittsylvania Co., VA. (Source: Steve Jennings, a Ward researcher)

STEWART FAMILY LETTER-Pittsylvania County Copied from a letter owned by Mr. Joseph Ward of Watauga County, North Carolina (now deceased). Contributed by Betty Brown at bettembrown@@yahoo.com:

Mr. John Stewart Nottoway Parish Amelia County Virginia 6th May 1774
Dear Father John Davis brought your letter today and I write to tell you how pleased I am to hear from you as well as to share a few lines about your family here in Pittsylvania. Susanah as you know from brother John Kelly was very sickly and has been slow to mend. She is a good and dutiful wife and I must confess my fear was that she might never be any better. As for the children our Cely has taken to herself a husband since I wrote you Mr. Benjamin Ward. They stay with his brother Daniel Ward but talk much of going to Carolina. Jack tends to run wild much to the worry of his Mother and this does not help to better her poor state of health. Dan now stands as tall as brother Berry and is a favorite with the ladys. He is a fine son and in his conduct is much like brother Charles. Our Mary is a great comfort. Never was a girl more properly named for Mother being a most sensable girl and since Susanahs illness has taken charge of her Mothers dutys. It has been near five years since our Jesse left us and never is the day we do not think of our dear boy lost at such a tender age. As for myself I am in perfect health. I close with our respects to you and Mother and all the family. May God keep and bless you all. Your son John Stewart Pittsylvania County Virginia

Benjamin and Selah's son, Nicodemus Ward, named his youngest son by second wife, Nancy Isley, JOHN STEWART WARD (1847-1919). John Stewart Ward resided in Meigs County, TN. In 1774 Benjamin Ward appears next to a JOHN STEWART in the List of Tithables Taken by Hugh Jones for Pittsylvania Co.,, VA. John Stewart named a son, John Stewart, Jr. and a daughter, Obedience Ward.

In about 1777 BENJAMIN WARD was living with a wife (presumably Selah) and children in the Watauga settlement in the part of Washington County, NC/TN that became Ashe County, NC, then Watauga County, after the American Revolution.

Family lore has it that whenever Benjamin Ward left home for business or to go hunting that he lowered SELAH and their young children down into a cavern near the river to keep them safe from Indians, other strangers, and animals. Selah raised eleven children, eight sons and three daughters, in the mountains of Ashe County in what is present day Watauga County in the area of Cove Creek, Boone and Valle Crucis. The whereabouts of ten children have been traced. Court records in 1853 at Rutherford County, TN establish that Benjamin and Selah had a son named, William (William Avery Ward), for whom no record other than this one has been located to date. This probate record for Benjamin's brother, Dr. William Ward, states that William Ward, son of Benjamin Ward, had died, never married nor produced issue. Kelly (McCalab) Ward, son of Selah and Benjamin Ward, provided this data to the Rutherford County Court.. As William Avery Ward was not named in the will or property records of Benjamin Ward, he probably died before 1820.

Selah Ward was a true pioneer woman in every sense of the word. Though records indicate that Benjamin was a man of means, the area of the Watauga was mostly unsettled. The Cherokee Indians controlled this land at the time that Benjamin and Selah first arrived there in about 1778 or perhaps earlier. Benjamin Ward appears as a taxable in 1778 under Sheriff Valentine Sevier in the Washington County, Tennessee tax list (known at that time as Washington County, NC). Selah's brother-in-law, Dr. William Ward, appeared in the same tax list.

By 1790 both Ben Ward and his brother, Josh Ward, were listed as Heads of Families in the First Federal Census from the part of Wilkes County, North Carolina that became Ashe County in the year 1799. At that time his Ben Ward's household consisted of two free white males over age sixteen, four white males under age sixteen, three free white females (no ages indicated) and one slave. His brother, Josh, was listed as a free white male over age sixteen. Living with him were two free white males under sixteen and two free white females. By this time Selah's contacts had certainly grown as the numbers of children and family members in the vicinity increased.

The 1800 Census Records for Ashe County, North Carolina indicate that an adult female was enumerated with Benjamin Ward. She was listed as being age forty-five or older, placing her date of birth on or before 1755. Living in the household in 1800 were four male children under the age of ten, one male child of age sixteen to twenty-six, and one male age twenty-six to forty-five years old. Her husband, Benjamin Ward, was also listed as being over forty-five years. Benjamin owned one slave. Their son, Duke Ward, lived nearby with his family. Thomas Ward, relationship unknown, lived near the Ward family. (Thomas is probably Thompson Ward, Benjamin's nephew through his brother, James Ward.)

Benjamin and Selah owned a farm and a distillery, fully operational at his death. He owned considerable acreage that he sold to his children a few months before his death. Selah was named in the 1820 will of her husband, Benjamin Ward, at AShe County, NC. Benjamin left her five slaves to use for her lifetime in his will. These slaves were Jack, Efgine, Esther, Emelia, and Nancy. After her death, the slaves were to go to their son, Nicodemus Ward.

After Benjamin's death circa August 1820, Selah removed with her son, Nicodemus Ward, to Rhea (Meigs) County, Tennessee. In 1823 NICODEMUS WARD was a tithable in Rhea County, Tennessee, and in March 1824 returned to Ashe County, NC and sold his land, returning to Tennessee, probably with his mother.

In 1830 CELEY WARD was enumerated in Rhea Co., TN. The census record indicates that she was sixty to seventy years old being born between 1760 and 1770. (Note that she and Benjamin Ward were married 16 April 1774.) NICHOLAS WARD (presumably Nicodemus Ward), her son, lived with her. Nicodemus was age twenty to thirty years, born 1800-1810. Nicodemus was married at that time and his wife was twenty to thirty and they had a son under age five. Note that a Susan Ward, married Reuben Marlow on 13 December 1824 at Rhea County, Tennessee, so it is possible that Selah and her son, Nicodemus were in Rhea County by 1824.

In 1840 as NICHOLAS WARD, NICODEMUS WARD (son of BENJAMIN and CELIA WARD) was enumerated at Meigs County, Tennessee. Living with him was a female who was between eighty and ninety years of age, placing her birth date at 1750-1760. This record was probably that of Nicodemus Ward and the older female was most likely his mother, Selah Ward. He had one son and four daughters. For further information see the record of Nicodemus Ward, also known as Nick Ward.

Family tradition states that CELIA STEWART WARD lived to be one hundred and five years old, however no historial records have been found to document Selah "Celey" Ward after 1840 at Meigs County or living elsewhere with other relations. As no record appears for her after 1840, it is likely that she died before 1850. Supposing that she did die in 1850, then one could place her birth date at c 1745, meaning that she bore children until about age 55. It is believed that she was buried alongside Benjamin Ward on their property in Ashe (Watauga) County, NC and that when Benjamin's remains were moved to St. John's Church that Celia's remains were moved along with his. This would mean that she either died in Watauga County, NC, or that she was returned there for burial at some later date.

In 1850 CELIA WARD's son, KELLY WARD lived in Overton County, Tennessee with his wife and children. CELIA (SELAH) was not enumerated in 1850 in Kelly's household; nor with her son, DANIEL WARD, who lived with his children in Lee County, Virginia; nor with TARLTON ADAMS and his children at Jefferson, Green County, Wisconsin.; nor with the NANCY ISLEY WARD, widow of NICODEMUS WARD at Rhea County in 1850. Her eldest son, DUKE WARD, had died twenty years earlier in 1830 in Clinton County, Illinois. Her son, BENJAMIN WARD III had died c1837 at Caryville, Campbell County, Tennessee. To date this researcher has not been able to place CELIA (SELAH) in the homes of her children or grandchildren or elsewhere after 1840.

The following record is of interest as it further ties the Ward and Stewart families to gether: JOSEPH WARD, brother of RICHARD WARD, grandfather of BENJAMIN WARD who married SELAH STEWART, left a will: JOSEPH WARD of Henrico County, VA; dated February 19, 1741 and probated 1743. He disposed of more than 2,600 acres of land in Henrico, Amelia, and Brunswick (now Charlotte) Counties, Virginia. He directed that debts and funeral charges first be paid and made the following bequests. The original probate records were lost; his will was recorded again on 6 December 1802. To son JOSEPH WARD, 254 acres on south side of Appomattox River below Saylor's Creek in Amelia County; To son, SETH WARD 500 acres on Staunton River in Brunswick County; To son, LEONARD WARD, 500 acres on Staunton River in Brunswick County, and directs that this tract of land ( whole tract on Staunton River) whether more or less that 1500 acres be equally divided between the three brothers, viz: SETH, JOHN & LEONARD; son WILLIAM WARD, all remainder of 730 acres on Little Roanoke in Brunswick County which shall remain unsold after the testator's death; wife and children shall each have an equal part of moveable estate; wife named whole and sole executrix. Witnesses: JOHN STEWART, ARTHUR GILES, MARY STEWART. Executrix: SARAH WARD. The William Ward Bible was given by Doctor William Ward to his nephew, William Avery Ward son of Benjamin Ward & his wife Celia Stewart. Willilam Ward copied information from the Bible, that being a common practice. When William Avery Ward died in 1810, the Bible reverted back to Doctor William Ward and when he died in 1835 at Rutherford County, TN, the Bible was given by his widow, Mary Robertson Ward to William's half-nephew, PETER MARCUM, who gave it to his son WILLIAM MARCUM, who owned it at the time JOHN B. HANSARD transcribed it for his mother MARY ANN MARCUM HANSARD in her preservation of their own family history and that of their local community. JOHN B. HANSARD's daughter, MARY LORENA HANSARD WILSON, gave a copy of the transcript to JACK WARD, 2nd great-grandson of NICODEMUS WARD, brother of Dr. WILLIAM WARD. JACK WARD provided a copy to historian REBA BAYLESS BOYER who deposited her genealogical correspondence at the E. G. Fisher Library in Athens, Tennessee. Mrs. Boyer's file did not have a copy of her replay to Jack Ward, if she in fact replied. Jack Ward died about one year after compising his letter to Mrs. Boyer. The William Ward Bible establishes the following facts: 1. The identity of JOHN STEWART's wife as SUSANNAH TANNER, daughter of JOSEPH TANNER. 2. The identity of BENJAMIN WARD's first wife as MARTHA BRANCH. 3. That SELAH STEWART, wife of BENJAMIN WARD, II of Ashe Co., NC was actually named CELIA STEWART. (Researched by CHARLES WARD, descendant of Nicodemus Ward, of Tennessee)

• ✶ https://wc.rootsweb.com/trees/110177/I1562/-/individual ✶

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✶ Memorial with her original headstone:

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/202731123/celia-ward

✶ Her cenotaph:

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/26581003/selah_celia-stewart

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A family record found in a Bible published in 1803, originally owned by William Ward, a son of Benjamin Ward and Celia (Stewart) Ward, and copied from an older Bible (transcript on file at the E. G. Fisher Public Library in Athens, Tennessee), states the following:

"John Stewart was married unto Susannah eldest daughter of Joseph Tanner in the year of our Lord 1753 on May the 12th day in Dale Parish Chesterfield County and was blessed with 3 sons and 2 daughters viz John Daniel Jesse Celia and Mary Bowman all born in Nottoway Parish Amelia County"

Celia Stewart was born in Nottoway Parish, Amelia County, Virginia. Nottoway Parish became its own county in 1788. So, although she was born in present-day Nottoway County, at the time of her birth it was Amelia County.

The aforementioned family record states:

"Benjamin Ward and Celia Stewart were married April 16th 1774"

A letter has been preserved by Celia (Stewart) Ward's descendants. It was written by her father, John Stewart, around the time of her marriage to Benjamin Ward. It states:

"Mr. John Stewart
Nottoway Parish Amelia County Virginia
6th May 1774

Dear Father John Davis brought your letter today and I write to tell you how pleased I am to hear from you as well as to share a few lines about your family here in Pittsylvania. Susanah as you know from brother John Kelly was very sickly and has been slow to mend. She is a good and dutyful wife and I must confess my fear was that she might never be any better. As for the children our Cely has taken to herself a husband since I wrote you Mr. Benjamin Ward. They stay with his brother Daniel Ward but talk much of going to Carolina. Jack tends to run wild much to the worry of his Mother and this does not help to better her poor state of health. Dan now stands as tall as brother Berry and is a favorite with the ladys. He is a fine son and in his conduct is much like brother Charles. Our Mary is a great comfort. Never was a girl more properly named for Mother being a most sensable girl and since Susanahs illness has taken charge of her Mothers dutys. It has been near five years since our Jesse left us and never is the day we do not think of our dear boy lost at such a tender age. As for myself I am in perfect health. I close with our respects to you and Mother and all the family. May God keep and bless you all.

Your son
John Stewart
Pittsylvania County Virginia"

(The above transcript was copied from a letter owned by Mr. Joseph Ward, of Watauga County, North Carolina, now deceased.)

Celia and her husband, Benjamin Ward, settled in Ashe County, North Carolina, in present-day Watauga County. Benjamin Ward died in 1820 leaving a will in which he provided generously for Celia from his estate (Ashe County, North Carolina Wills, volume 1, pages 20-21; executed 18 Apr 1820, proven August, 1820). The bequests left to her in the form of a life estate went to their son, Nicodemus Ward, upon her decease, with the condition that he pay the other legatees a stipulated sum.

Nicodemus Ward sold his property in Ashe County, consisting of fifty acres on the bank of Cove Creek, to Noah Mast (Ashe County North Carolina Deeds, Book E, page 300; executed 23 Mar 1824, proved May 1825). He settled soon thereafter in East Tennessee and is enumerated in Rhea County in the 1830 census, residing in the portion of the county that became Meigs County upon its creation in 1836 (he is incorrectly listed as Nicholas Ward in this census, but county records confirm it was Nicodemus). Celia accompanied her son in his move to East Tennessee and is found as the head of her own household in the 1830 census, her name given as Celey Ward, residing in Rhea County, listed adjacent to her son, Nicodemus Ward.

Although Celia is not named in the 1840 census enumeration, she is almost certainly the female aged 80 to 90 years old identified in the household of Nicodemus Ward, residing in Meigs County, Tennessee.

Celia (Stewart) Ward was identified by her great-granddaughter, Laura (Ward) Edgemon (1877-1965), as being buried in Pisgah Cemetery in Meigs County, Tennessee. She identified the burial site as being near that of Nancy (Isley) Ward, the second wife of Nicodemus Ward. Although a marker once marked the spot and stood during the early adulthood of Laura (Ward) Edgemon, it no longer stands intact.

View Cenotaph HERE.* Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 16 2023, 16:12:03 UTC