Dr. James Armstrong and Mary Stevenson

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Husband Dr. James Armstrong ^{1 2}

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           Born: 1749 - Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1828 2 4
         Buried:  - Carlisle, Cumberland Co, PA

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         Father: Gen. John Armstrong (1720-1795) 5 6
         Mother: Rebecca Lyon (      -      ) 7

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       Marriage: Abt 1789

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Wife Mary Stevenson ⁸

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 

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         Father: Hon. George Stevenson, LL.D. (1718-1783) 9 10 11
         Mother: Mary Thompson (      -1791) 12

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Children

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1 M Alfred Armstrong ⁴

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1879
         Buried: 

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2 F Catharine Armstrong ⁴

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1879
         Buried: 

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3 M Dr. John Armstrong ⁴

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           Born: 1799 4
     Christened: 
           Died: Abt 1871 - Princeton, Mercer Co, NJ
         Buried: 

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General Notes: Husband - Dr. James Armstrong

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His distinguished father, having a high appreciation of learning, secured for him the best teachers that could be obtained at this early day, on the frontier; and when old enough sent him to Nassau Hall, at Princeton (later the College of New Jersey), where he completed his academic studies. Having a desire to study medicine, he consented to an arrangement with Dr. John Morgan, of Philadelphia, one of the founders of the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, by which he was apprenticed to him for the period of four years, as was the custom in England and in the Colonies in those days. At the close of his term of study and service and attendance upon lectures, he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine, in the University, in 1769, and selected Virginia as the field of his future career. Accordingly he located in Winchester, which had become the centre of an intelligent and spirited population. But for some reason or other he became discouraged, and having a desire to visit Europe, as other distinguished practitioners had done, he set out for London, where he spent several years in the further prosecution of professional studies. On his return to Carlisle, and when he was forty years of age, he married and soon after removed to Kishacoquillas Valley, then almost a wilderness, and there became the owner of a large tract of land, on which he lived nearly twelve years. During this time he was elected to represent the people of the Third district of Pennsylvania, in Congress; but after the expiration of his term of office he retired to private life, which he greatly preferred. He was elected trustee of Dickinson College in 1796, and held this position until near the close of his life, being President of the Board sixteen years. In 1801 he purchased a tract of land six miles west of Carlisle, and returned to his native county. Eight years after this he moved into town and took possession of the old homestead that his father had left him, in order that his children might more conveniently embrace the advantages of education. In the same year, 1808, he was appointed Associate Judge in the county of Cumberland. He was a Presbyterian, and in 1813 was elected a trustee in the old church in Carlisle, in which his father was a ruling elder for many years; he continued in the old mansion during the remainder of life, practising his profession and entertaining a large circle of friends and, it is said, died in the same house in which he was born.
Dr. Armstrong inherited many of the traits of his illustrious father\emdash a vigorous intellect, a strong will, a love of freedom, a high sense of honor. He had a retentive memory, and was fluent in conversation. He had a great fondness for horses. His son spoke of him as an excellent horseman. "He always rode with whip and spur, and vaulted into the saddle with dignity and grace." One can imagine the Doctor on horseback, tall and straight as an arrow, with wig and cue done up in artistic style, setting out from Carlisle on his annual tour across the Alleghenies to collect the revenues from the estates which his father had left him, a distance of nearly 200 miles, and in a few days returning apparently without the least fatigue. [HCC1879, 185]

He had nine children, three of whom died in early life, and two were still living in 1879.

1 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 99, 160, 185.

2 J. Simpson Africa, The History of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: Louis H. Everts, 1883), Pg 19.

3 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 185.

4 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 186.

5 —, History of the Susquehanna and Juniata Valleys (Philadelphia, PA: Everts, Peck & Richards, 1886), Pg 760.

6 Alfred Nevin, D.D., LL.D., Men of Mark of the Cumberland Valley, Pa. 1776-1876 (Philadelphia, PA: Fulton Publishing Co., 1876), Pg 75.

7 William Henry Egle, M.D., M.A., Pennsylvania Genealogies; Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German (Harrisburg, PA: Harrisburg Publishing Co., 1896), Pg 383.

8 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 160, 185.

9 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 89, 159, 183.

10 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. III (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 2.

11 John W. Jordan, LL.D, A Century and a Half of Pittsburg and Her People, Vol. IV (New York: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1908), Pg 246.

12 Conway P. Wing, D.D., History of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations (Philadelphia, PA: James D. Scott, 1879), Pg 160, 183.