Col. Samuel King Stivers
Col. Samuel King Stivers, eldest son of John Stivers, the pioneer, and Martha Neel, was born near the junction of the Youghiogheny and the Monongahela Rivers, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania February 18, 1787. In 1799, he came with his parents first to Bourbon County, Kentucky, and afterwards to Adams County, Ohio, settling on Brier Ridge. Here he helped his father to "clear out" a farm, earning some money himself by teaching school. At the beginning of the War of 1812, he volunteered as a Private in Captain Josiah Lockhart's Company of Colonel James Trimble's Regiment under General Duncan McArthur, and was surrendered to the British by General Hull, at Detroit, August 16, 1812. After his parole, he came home; but learning that his brother, James, had volunteered in a Kentucky regiment, he at once hastened to Maysville and re-enlisted in Captain Simmons' Com0pany of Colonel William E. Boswell's Regiment. He served under General Greene Clay in Harrison's Campaign, and commanded a "Spy Company" in Colonel Boswell's Regiment of Kentucky Militia at the battle of the "Rapids of the Maumee," May 5. 1813. He took part in the action under Colonel Dudley, and was made a prisoner of war after the latter's defeat and death. Knowing his certain fate should he be recognized by his former captors, he assumed the name of "Samuel Bradford" and was under that name discharged. He was one of the number that es0caped the tomahawks of the Indians through the timely arrival of Tecumseh, while confined in the blockhouse at Malden. After his release by the British, he returned to Adams County, and soon afterwards married Miss Mary Creed, a daughter of Mathew Creed, who had come from Monroe County, Virginia, to Rocky Fork, Highland County, Ohio, in 1804. About the time of his marriage he was elected a Justice of the Peace in Sprigg Township, which position he held until his removal from the county in 1818. He lived for a time on a farm near the residence of his father-in-law, and then removed to Russellville, Brown County, where he followed surveying and school teaching until 1829, when he settled on a farm of three hundred and fifty acres one mile north of the present village of Fincastle. Here he resided until his death, August 7, 1864. His widow survived until November, 1867, having been born in 1790. Samuel K. Stivers was widely known as a surveyor and civil engineer. He held the rank of Colonel, in the old State Militia, and had a large circle of warm political friends, among whom was Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, the peer of Tom Corwin in the field of political oratory. He was a Democrat of the old school, a Breckenridge Democrat in 1860, and lived and died a member of the "New Light" or Christian Church.
Among his warm personal friends were Gen. Nathaniel Beasley, Judge George Barrere, Colonel James Trimble and Dr. Lilly, and he named the four sons of his family, Beasley, Barrere, Trimble and Lilly. And his wife named the three daughters for her best friends, Amanda Carlisle, her cousin; Elizabeth Brockway, and Mary Creed, herself. He and his wife are buried in the old Earl Cemetery near Fincastle, Ohio.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900