Family:Nicholas Stansell and Margaret Featherly (1)

The Stansells & Featherlys

In May of 1789, a group of twelve people from the Mohawk Valley region of New York State arrived near the present site of Lyons to start a new life in the "West". The group consisted of William Stansell; his son, Nicholas, daughter-in-law, Margaret and their six children; John Featherly, his wife, Mary, and, perhaps, their son Frederick. William was about 64 years old and could be considered old for such an adventure. In fact, William is thought to have died in 1791 and buried without a tombstone in what was then the wilderness of Wayne County.

Nicholas Stansell had served in the American Revolution, and it is possible that he was part of the force which traveled through western New York Trying to destroy the Indians who sided with the British. Nicholas must have liked what he saw, because ten years later, he led his family west to their new home. About 1811, Nicholas moved his family to land near the present village of Newark where he died in 1819. His wife, Margaret, may have died about 1814, but there is no official record of her death. The children and grandchildren of Nicholas and Margaret Stansell continued to exhibit the pioneering spirit with some moving to Michigan, Ohio and Canada in the 1820s and 1830s.

John Featherly, the brother of Margaret Stansell, had also served in the American Revolution and may have been with Nicholas on the campaign against the Indians. He took up land near Alloway and lived there until after 1830. Sometime between 1830 and 1840, John Featherly and his wife moved to Rose, He died in 1843, and she died in 1840. They are both buried in York Cemetery in the town of Huron.

WARNING - This source contains some obvious factual errors.

See also [S4] from the same author.

I have learned that the Nicholas Stansell who early settled there was a noted man
in his day ; a companion of John Featherly, whose sister he married. These two men, with William Stansell, came to Lyons in 1789; the settlers whose coming entitled the county to a centennial in 1889. They located first on what was afterward the Dorsey farm, near Alloway. There was nothing in the way of hardship and privation that these pioneers did not suffer. William Stansell was with Sullivan in his expedition against the Indians in 1779, and the lay of the land charmed him then. He was the leader of the expedition. It is traditional in the family that Featherly was a soldier in the Revolution also. Restless as the waves of the sea, these
early hunters worked up into this section, and the name of Stansell is connected with this place, though it seems reasonable that he should have been before rather than after James Colborn, 1st."

WARNING - This source contains some obvious factual errors.

See also [S2] from the same author.

The first settlers in Lyons and the first in Wayne county were Nicholas and William Stansell, brothers, and John Featherly, their brother-in-law, with their families, numbering in all twelve persons. In the spring of 1789 they built and launched a boat on the Mohawk River, and with an Indian trader named Wemple as a pilot the party came the entire distance by water, arriving at the junction of Ganargwa Creek and Canandaigua outlet, the head of navigation and the site of Lyons village, in May, 1789. They settled on what is now the Dunn farm, and their first log house stood on the site of the present residence. They brought with them a number of swine, which were allowed to roam the forests and, becoming wild, were hunted as other game. Mr. Stansell, père, evidently comprised one of the party, for he soon died after their arrival and "was buried without funeral rites," which was doubtless the first white death in town. Nicholas Stansell is said to have been their leader. He was born in Springfield, Mass., September 11, 1755, and while a youth moved with his parents to the Mohawk valley. He was a noted hunter and a typical pioneer, being endowed by nature with a wonderful physique. Uniting their forces with three or four men who had settled in Phelps, Ontario county, a few months previously, they cut a road through the forests to the grist-mill at Waterloo. Nicholas Stansell was very prominent in the early settlement, and was one of the first trustees of the M. E. Church. He had ten children, and died December 11, 1819; his remains were interred in the Newark cemetery. John Featherly sold his farm to Daniel B. Westfall and moved to Rose, where he died in 1843, aged eighty years. Daniel Cole died August 25, 1855.