Robert Ewing
Robert Ewing, an old and influential citizen of this township, is so well and favorably known that he scarcely needs an introduction to the readers of this volume to-day; but the work is for the future, when the men of yesterday and to-day will live in recorded history, and there his name must be enrolled. The son of Thomas and Fannie (Stewart) Ewing, he was born in County Donegal, Ireland, on the 17th of March, 1805. While in his childhood his mother died, and he was then taken in charge by his maternal relatives—the Stewarts—with whom he lived until the year 1821, when he came to America with his uncle, Anthony Stewart. On their arrival in the United States they proceeded to Newark, Maryland, where they located, and Robert, then sixteen years of age, entered school for the first time as a pupil. Here he continued his attendance about two or three months each winter during the next five years, which is the full measure of his school life. Still his education must not be measured by the same rule, for he was ever a student at home, where he lived in the midst of books, of which he made constant and close companions. By his perseverance in this direction he acquired more than the ordinary common school education of that day, although, perhaps, never attending school a greater period than a year in his whole life. With this start he went early in 1828 to New London Cross Roads, in Chester County, Pa., where he secured a position as clerk in a store. The same year he cast his first presidential vote for General Jackson, an act of which he is still proud. He continued his clerkship until 1830, when he resigned, and coming to Ohio visited Perry County, where he purchased a farm, and gave his attention to its improvement and cultivation during the next six years with a success hardly to be expected of one of his previous inexperience. In 1836 he sold his farm, and coming to Piqua entered into partnership with Dr. D. Ashton in the drug trade, under the firm name of Ashton & Ewing. About 1842 the firm bought a farm near Lockington, in Washington Township, this county. This farm contained a sawmill and woollen factory on the bank of Loramie Creek, and these mills were operated by the proprietors in connection with their drug trade in Piqua. In 1843 the partnership was dissolved by mutual consent, Mr. Ashton retaining the drug store and Mr. Ewing taking the mill property at Lockingtou. In 1843 Mr. Ewing began the erection of a flouring mill near his other mills, the country being at that time greatly in need of such an institution. This mill was completed and put in operation some time the next year, and Mr. Ewing at once moved from Piqua to the property which he was then operating. So it was, that for several years his attention was given to the varied interests and demands of the farm, the woollen mills, the flouring and sawmills except for a. short period, during which be rented his mills and gave his whole attention to his farm. In 1858 he moved to a farm previously purchased, which was situated in south half of section 21, Turtle Creek Township, but the next year found him back at his old Lockington home. In 1862 he again returned to his Turtle Creek farm, which he has constituted his home since that date, and where he now resides. In 1848 he married Miss Harriet E., daughter of William and Jane Mellinger, one of the pioneer families of the county. Miss Harriet was born in Washington Township June 11, 1821, and after eighteen years of married life fell into that dreamless sleep called death, on the 18th of March, 1866. Her loss was deeply mourned by a husband and seven children, besides a large number of devoted friends who knew her but to esteem her. The children were named Sarah J., Margaret F., Laura A., William R., Ella N., Emma E., and Wallace, all of whom are still living except Margaret, whose death occurred September 5, 1876.
Mr. Ewing after something of an eventful life, now well advanced in years, finds himself surrounded by all the comforts of life, which perseverance, industry, and energy can reap. Summed up, his life is a proof of the maxim that “labor overcomes all things,” and that the banner of life should bear upon its face the word "pluck," and not "luck," for the former is a hero, the latter a coward. Labor, mental and physical, is the all in all of genius, the all in all of success, and the life before our contemplation knew no such word as fail, for to that life labor was omnipotent.
From History of Shelby County, Ohio; R. Sutton & Co, Philadelphia PA, 1883