Author: Robert Lee Knott Jr
William was born Dec 24, 1756 on Ewing Creek, known today as Knapp’s Creek, Pocahontas Co., West Virginia. He died 7 Oct 1822
His father was James Ewing.
Sisters: Jeanet; Ann Elizabeth; Jane
Brother: John
William was only 17 when the call to arms came in August of 1774. There may have been many inducements offered to make enlistment a glowing thing, such as promise of adventure or a grant of land, but the main thing among these incensed frontiersmen was the prospect of a march into enemy territory, having at the scoundrels who were making life so miserable, and being done with them once and for all. William had an incentive to as well against the old Chief who had murdered and held captive much of his family during the Clendenin Massacre that had occurred years before. Swago Bill enlisted in Captain Stewart's company, part of the regiment commanded by General Andrew Lewis. The company formed at Camp Union, not far from the site of the Clendenin Massacre, near Lewisburg. Some of the officers wore the regular military uniforms, however the enlisted men wore no uniforms most were in the distinctive dress of the borderer...hunting shirt, leather leggings, breeches of domestic make, and caps made from the skins of wild animals or knit from wool, typical of the pioneers. In November 1785 William
marries a daughter of one of his neighbors the McNeils. Mary was just a month short of being 14 years old but she was about the healthiest specimen of girlhood that ever grew up on the Blue Ridge. William was already a man just five weeks short of 29 when they were wed in nearby Lewisburg, West Virginia on November 16, 1785 the fact is recorded at Lewisburg, WV. They set up housekeeping at William's cabin on the Swago Creek. William and Mary had ten sons and two daughters. In time they would have 81 grandchildren. I descend from their youngest son Andrew born 1809. In the spring of 1810 Swago Bill and Mary decided to join many of their neighbors who had moved years earlier to the western part of Gallia County, OH, across the Ohio River from Point Pleasant, where government land could be bought for $2.00 an acre. William's aim was to get out of the mountains and procure more arable land for his ever-growing family. William had bought the entire northeast quarter of Section 11, 160 acres in all. It was in 1812 that Swago Bill Ewing built a two- story cabin of hewn logs the first in the north- western part of
Gallia County. Among William's other credits was that he served as a Justice of the Peace most of the time he lived in Gallia County. In 1820 the only children left at home were Sarah, Jacob, Abram, George and Andrew; by that time Swago Bill was 63 and apparently ailing. He drew up his will on 8 January 1820. He started it with “being weak in body”. The will however lie on a shelf for almost three years. William turned 65 on Christmas Eve, 1821. He lingered on through to the early fall of 1822. It was on 7 October 1822 – just three days short of the 48th anniversary of the Battle of Point Pleasant - that William Ewing closed his eyes for the eternal rest. In later years the DAR caused a flag to be placed on his grave as testimony to William Ewing’s service in the Revolution. He is buried on the family Grave site in Ewington, OH.