The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-08-17
DEATH OF JAMES McEWEN, ESQ
FOURTH District, Aug. 9th 1872.


homing Register, published in Youngstown
Ohio, dated July 25th, 1872, and as the sub
ject of the notice has many relations Twin,
in Cecil county and elsewhere, who viii
probably never see an Ohio paper, but VIII,
do read The Wig, you will oblise them b,
inserting this notice in your columns will
my remarks either as preface or appendix
DEATH OF JAMES McEwEN, Eso.-Or
Wednesday evening last, one OF the oldest
citizens of our city breathed his last, after
lingering sickness of six months.Jas.
McEwen, Esq, one of the Oldest residents
of our city who has been prominently iden-
TIED with its progress for the last thirty
yyrs. The death of such prominent
c Gil deserves more thana passing notice
ne ircumstances of the life and the es-
tiil'ate character, of the deceased, make
us ueeh an event to be mourned by n
large CHE of friends and acquaintance.
Oh M .I,e 9M1oofsed, and his family;
Mr. MchAen was born in Elkton, Cecil
county, Man land, March II, 1893. He
grew t,v up w hood there, and at the age
OF twenty-!hie removed to Western
rennsy sa al ths nnput fifteen years later
ne came en 70 rns p' t. small village then,
atrn aa n Of the P9perintend the con-
s Saue, NJ ~ cEweHSylvania and Ohio
lanai aiod MI ;+h Ht ,hs vo, life was closely
now fallen into disuse, VIZ fnr u, although
great instrumentality in ,yalon Hy years
resources of this section of Teaoping the
He acted in the capacity OF Ell uun'ry.-
the canal was finished. WE'el until
opened he was appointed the Suit was
ent. which position, he held until
He was then elected President of th8o.-
pany, and held that position up tom
day of his death. We
In 1889 he was married to Mrs. Mart
Bentley of this city. His wife was a lad,
of estimable character, who died at an ad
vanced age three years ago.
Mr.. McEwen was man universally re-
spected by all who knew him. In the
prominent positions that he held, no shad
ow of reproach was ever cast upon his
character. He was regarded by every one
as valuable citizen, for his Integrity, pub.
lie spirit and ability, which he showed in
all his public and private relations. In
politics he was an extreme Democrat, of the
breckenridge school, and held a prominent
position in the party. In 1868 he received
the Democratic nomination for Congress,
in the 10Th District, against General Gar
field, and although defeated by a large
majority, polled the full vote of the party.
His funeral took place on Thursday
afternoon of last week, at his late resi-
dence on Wick Avenue. 1t was largely
attended by the many friends of the fani-
w. The services were brief but very ap-
propriate to the occasion. The Rev. Sam'l
Maxwell read the burial services of the
Episcopal Church, after which the Rev.
D. H. Evans made few very appropriate
remarks upon the lessons of the OCCASION
the public and private character of the
deceased. After prayer by the Rev. W.
NJ. Ingersoll, an opportunity was given to
the friends of the deceased to view the re-
mains, and the procession was formed to
the cemetery. Services were held at the
grave, and the remains were deposited then
of another of the old men who have been
so prominent in making our city what it is
One by one they are passing away from us'
Such men as Rayen, Tod and McEwen,
whose ability and character are matter of
our past history, are one by one closing
their long and useful lives, and we must
look to tho present generation to fill their
they held in the public estimation.
Mr.. McEwen was not born in Elkton, but
in the 4th District, in house which stood
in a field now owned by Isaac Gray. He
lived in the Fourth District till he quilted
the county for the West. Mrs. S. Melon
nell, of this District, is his sister; another
sister was the wife of David Beck, who
also lived in the Fourth and died here,
leaving large family, all of whom have
left the county. John Deviney, his broth
| ers and one sister are his cousins. The
above and their descendants are all his near
relatives I know of, except his own chill
dren, one daughter and two sons, in
Youngstown.
Mr.. McEwen was distinguished for his
benevolence. He supported an invalid
sister in this District until her death, and
he was constantly assisting others in need
but notwithstanding his generous benevo-
lence and his early poverty, he leaves an
estate worth from thirty to forty thousand
dollars. He frequently visited his friends
and early acquaintance in Cecil. At his
last visit, two years ago, he said it would
be his last. When he was last here, he
sported hickory cane, cut by General
jackson, in his woods on the Hermitage
farm, in Tennessee; its silver head bore the
inscription: presented by Andrew Jack
son to Judge Rayen, of Ohio" one of the
Generals Executors. Judge Raven left
Mr.. McEwen his Executor and also left him
the cane, with an appropriate inscription.
1t would be so manifestly proper for this
cane to descend, properly inscribed, to Mr..
McEwen's Executor, that have no doubt
it was so disposed of.
The Register states that Mr.. McEwen was
an extreme Democrat of the Breckenridge
school. This is quite likely; for he was
brought up Federalist of the most ultra
type and refined into Henry Clay High
Tariff Wing, and along with many Of the
Silver Grays of that party, when the Wing
party went down, faced right about and
marched in the opposite direction. Not
withstanding their devotion to Henry Clay
they rushed into the arms of his slanderer,
and in spite of their Tariff professions they
went over in a body to the Free Trade
camp. When such men got SO Tar aseray
as to support James Buchanan no one
need be surprised at anything else they die
for they never saw the lightasa lrefer
to the politics Of Mr.. McEwen lest some
persons might conclude from the Rsg'ster
remarks that he had always been Demo
crat; but his early history shows that he
was quiet, industrious, sober intelligent
moral young man, and therefore not likely
to grow up Democrat
In all the relations of husband parent
friend, he was an upright, honest man
worthy of the epitaph of Burns for his
father:
of there's another world, he lives in bliss
If there is none, he made the best OF this.