Military Monday: Youngest of the D.A.R. (Ewell)

Charleston News and Courier (South Carolina)
January 4, 1903

YOUNGEST OF THE D.A.R.

Miss Carrie Ewell of Kentucky Enjoys an Odd Distinction
[From the Chicago Chronicle]

Lexington, KY, December 25 -- Possibly the youngest member of the Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution is Miss Carrie Ewell, of Paducah.  Miss Ewell is but 22 and her father, who died twelve years ago, was one of the nineteen surviving Sons of the Revolution.  She was born 120 years after her grandfather, who was Major Charles Ewell, of Prince William County, Virginia, a distinguished soldier of the Revolution.

Miss Ewell's father was the child of a second marriage of his father late in life and Miss Ewell is the child of a similar marriage of her father.

Her grandfather was born in Prince William County, Virginia, September 29, 1760.  For his services in the War for Independence he was given a military warrant from the Legislature of Virginia for land in what is now Ballard County, in Western Kentucky, while Kentucky was still a part of the territory of Virginia.  He moved to this claim in 1826 and lived there the remainder of his days.

Before leaving Virginia Major Ewell was married for the second time, to Miss Matria D. Craik, in 1818, when she was 30 and he was 58 years old.  A year later their oldest son John Ewell was born.  Mrs. Craik was the widow of George Washington Craik, who was a son of Dr. John Craik, Washington's family physician.  Dr. Craik's wife was Marianna Ewell, Major Ewell's own cousin.

A grandson of Mrs. Ewell by her first marriage is the Rev. Charles Craik, pastor of Christ's Episcopal Church, in Louisville, Ky.  In the Rev. Mr. Craik's possession is a quaint old desk which was given to his grandfather by Gen. Washington.   It was shown in the Kentucky building at the World's Fair in Chicago.

Major Ewell died in Ballard County and was buried there in 1830.  Twenty-four years later his widow and son, John Ewell, moved to Paducah.  John Ewell raised a large family of children both by his first and second marriage.  Miss Carrie Ewell is the youngest child of the last marriage.  She has lived in Paducah all her life and is a pretty, charming and popular young woman.