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- A Territorial Arkansas Pioneer: Joseph Stillwell
by Robert W. Dhonau, Little Rock, Arkansas
Joseph Stillwell came from far away New Jersey and made two other stops before coming to the frontier country in Arkansas about 1798. It was truly in frontier country then because it was part of the Louisiana Purchase obtained from France in 1803. All travel was by steamboat or horseback and communication was very slow. A census of 1798 showed only 368 people in Arkansas.
The fourth generation of his family in America, he was born March 3, 1752 in Monmouth County, New Jersey, at Middletown. His parents were Sarah Shepherd and Joseph Stillwell, whose forefathers came from Surrey County, England, to Virginia about 1638. Joseph Stillwell saw action in the Revolutionary War as a private in the First Regiment of the Monmouth County Militia of New Jersey. Reports show that he was taken prisoner by the British on February 13, 1777, near the Lighthouse on the Highlands. From later service he was discharged as an Ensign on May 1, 1784.
Prior to this time, Joseph married Sarah Winters and their first child, Harold, was born on May 3, 1783. He then took his young family to Kentucky to join relatives, Elisha Winters and his sons, William and Gabriel. Together they went to New Orleans and began the manufacture of cotton rope.
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Bassett Family Association Database
d. 10 Sep 1822, Arkansas