Flora Stewart - Black History Month in Londonderry

Here is a selection of conflicting stories about Londonderry’s most famous black citizen of the 19th century. Flora Stewart’s photograph was published in 1867, but the stories that accompany her image vary from book to book. There doesn’t seem to be much in common with these myths. Even her age at death seems to be incorrectly recorded in the town records, just like Ginger Harvey, another black woman living in Londonderry at about the same time. (Please click here to read the post http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2010/09/ginger-harvey-of-londonderry.html for the story of Ginger Harvey, who died in 1865.)

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Stewart Clan Magazine, by the Clan Stewart Society in America, Inc, Volume II, No. 2 (August, 1923) page 56 has a short paragraph on Flora Stewart of Londonderry, New Hampshire, “…Flora Stewart of Londonderry, a negress, who died Aug. 17, 1868, at the age of 118. It is thus recorded in the published vital records of Londonderry, but few of us will believe it: she would have been 61 years old when her son George was born. This Flora Stuart was liberated from slavery about 1815 by some member of the Stuart family who had settled in Virginia, and with her pickaninnies Isaiah, George Washington and Salona sent for security to Londonderry, where they lived out their lives.”

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Londonderry, by the Londonderry Historical Society, Acadia Publishing, 2004, page 29

“ “Old Flora” Stewart came to live in Londonderry on Rockingham Road in 1810, when she was 60. She was said to have been freed from slavery by the Windham man who bought her. Gov. Fredrick Smyth invited her to his home in Manchester in 1867 and had her photographed in a studio. She was a faithful member of the Methodist Church and was loved by those who knew her. She died in 1868 at age 118 and is buried in Valley Cemetery.”

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History of the Town of Candia, Rockingham County, NH, by Jacob Bailey Moore, Manchester, NH: George W. Browne, 1893, pages 459 – 460.

“An Aged Colored Woman- Mrs. Flora Stewart, who lived several years in Candia as a servant for William Duncan the trader, was born a slave in Londonderry in the family of a man by the name of Wilson. She took the name of Wilson from her owner and lived with this family until her marriage with a colored man named Stewart. She had two sons who also lived with Mr. Duncan and worked upon his farm several years. After leaving Candia, about the year 1835, Mrs. Stewart returned to Londonderry where she resided until her death, nearly twenty years ago. From the circumstance that she was born on about the same day as that upon which a child of her master’s came into existence, it is known that she lived to a very remarkable old age. Many of the people of Londonderry and others who were well acquainted with her history are confident that she was about 118 years old when she died. A few years before she passed away she was brought to Manchester by John D. Patterson of that place and a photograph was taken of her form and features.”

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The New York Times, Published 19 May 1867, accessed by Google News Archives

“The Oldest Person in New Hampshire

A correspondent of the Manchester Mirror furnishes the following facts about FLORA STEWART, who has lived half a century beyond the allotted three score and ten. He says:

“In Londonderry, NH, about two miles northwest of Derry Village, near the line of the Manchester and Lawrence Railroad, resides FLORA STEWART, a negress, one the slave of the the grandfather of SAMUEL WILSON SIMPSON, now 80 years of age, whose mother at his birth was nursed by FLORA. She is reputed to be 120 years of age. Mr. SIMPSON has data proving it to be not less than 119. FLORA is full of vim, with remarkably retentive memory. She has been a long time a member of the Methodist Church, and on one of my visits to the lady I learned that she had just completed the rereading of the Testament. Mr. SIMPSON gave her a bill, and without spectacles she looked at it and said, “Why, WILSON, this is $5.” Her memory embraces the incidents of a century.” “

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Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 33, Number 5060, 15 June 1867, page 3

“A negress named Flora Stewart is living at Londonderry (N, H.) who is 120 years old. She was the slave of the grandfather of Samuel W. Simpson at that town, who has reliable data establishing her age. She is vigorous, and can read without the of; aid of spectacles, and her memory retains; with clearness the incidents and events of a century”

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To Cite/Link to this post:  Heather Wilkinson Rojo, "Flora Stewart -  Black History Month in Londonderry", Nutfield Genealogy, posted February 17, 2011, ( http://nutfieldgenealogy.blogspot.com/2011/02/flora-stewart-black-history-month-in.html: accessed [access date]).