Sarah “Sadie” C. Stillwell née Wilson, (1858-1941)    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 16 June 1858,  Zanesville, Muskingum, Ohio, USA          

Death: 16 May 1941, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington,USA

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Margaret Stout née Stillwell, Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Wilson née Woodruff, Mary Bell Selby,  Lloyd M. Selby, Alice Hite née Wilson, Joseph S. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Sarah “Sadie” Stillwell née Wilson was born on June 16, 1858, in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, to Dempsey Wilson, a Civil War veteran, and Margaret Woodruff. Sarah was the third of the Wilsons’ five daughters.

She likely grew up in Summerfield, Ohio, attending school and helping her mother at home. Her father worked as a saddle maker and produced other leather goods to support the family.

On November 23, 1880, at the age of twenty-two, Sarah married Elias Henry Stillwell, a thirty-six-year-old Civil War veteran who had also grown up in Summerfield. When Elias was about twenty, he enlisted in the Union Army and served in the 92nd Ohio Infantry, Company D. He later served under Ohio native William T. Sherman in every major campaign, including Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea,” during which Union forces caused an estimated $100 million in property damage all through the state of Georgia. After the war, Elias suffered from lingering health problems, but by the time of his marriage to Sarah, he was successful in the timber business and owned several parcels of land.

In 1881, Sarah and Elias welcomed their first daughter, Mary Lucretia Stillwell, in Troy, Miami County, Ohio, where the family had settled. Their second daughter, Margaret S. Stillwell, was born in 1885.

In 1888, Elias was charged by the State of Ohio with battery, assault, and “using obscene language in the presence of females.” He was fined for the offense.

Elias’s health declined rapidly, and was unable to work. By 1889 he was drawing from his war pension and classified as an “invalid.” On June 30, 1890, Elias died at the family home in Troy. Sarah was thirty-two, and her daughters were eight and four years old.

To support her family, Sarah relied on Elias’s pension and gradually sold portions of his timber land. By 1900, she and her daughters were still living in their Troy home on the income from the pension and land sales.

That same year, Sarah’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Alva Collins at the Stillwell home in Troy. With sixty guests in attendance, the Buckeye newspaper described it as one of the “most notable society events of the season.” After their honeymoon in Cincinnati, Mary and Alva returned to live with Sarah.

By 1904, Sarah had moved to Columbus, Ohio, likely to be closer to her younger daughter, Margaret, who was attending Ohio State University. Margaret later married and relocated to Texas.

Although living alone, Sarah remained involved in her family’s lives. In 1914 and 1915, she cared for her granddaughter Margaret Eva Collins after Mary’s husband passed away. Mary had two daughters—Margaret Eva and Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth stayed with her grandmother Collins in Troy, while Margaret Eva lived with Sarah.

In 1918, Sarah moved west to Crosby, Washington, to be near her sister Alice Hite and other family members living in Seattle. She purchased her own farmhouse on Seabeck Road, where she lived independently but close to the Hite family. In 1921, her granddaughter Margaret Eva moved west to join her after graduating high school in Troy. The younger granddaughter, Mary, also eventually joined them in Washington.

In 1923, Sarah received the heartbreaking news that her eldest daughter, Mary—who had remarried a man named Jack Wilcox—had died in Chicago at the age of forty-one. Her cause of death is unknown.

In 1923 and 1924, both of Sarah’s granddaughters married. They settled in Seattle and Seabeck before eventually moving to the San Francisco and Oakland areas in California.

By 1930, Sarah was still living in Crosby. Her daughter Margaret returned to live with her, likely due to marital estrangement. Sarah’s great-granddaughter, Coline Chilson, was also staying with her, probably because her parents were separated at the time.

Sarah was remembered as a kind woman with many friends in Crosby. She continued to support herself through income from land sales and her husband’s pension. But sorrow struck again: in 1932, her last surviving child, Margaret, died suddenly in the hospital. The community expressed deep sympathy and sent many flowers in recognition of Sarah’s devastating loss.

Sarah remained in Crosby, surrounded by her nieces and great-grandnieces. Her great-granddaughter Coline eventually went to live in Oakland with her mother, Mary, but Sarah made trips to California to visit her granddaughters and great-granddaughter. After returning from one such visit in 1939, she contracted a severe case of pneumonia but recovered.

By 1940, Sarah had a live-in nurse to assist with her care. On May 16, 1941, she died of heart failure at her home when she was eighty-two years old. Her health had been poor for several years. Her obituary described her as having a “very kindly nature” and noted that she had many friends who attended her funeral. Her remains were cremated and placed atop her mother Margaret Wilson’s grave, alongside her daughter Margaret’s cremated remains. 

Sarah likely descends from several Revolutionary War patriots, though both her parents’ ancestral lines are difficult to trace beyond her grandparents. While there are potential connections, further genealogical research is needed to confirm these links.