My Genealogy Hound

JOHN B. STEWART. The subject of this notice is a worthy representative of the pioneer Stewart family of which there are now three branches in this part of Ohio. The Stewarts have made a good record, being people uniformly well-to-do, upright and honest as citizens, progressive in their ideas, and always casting their influence on the side of progress and reform. They were mostly engaged as tillers of the soil, and transmitted to their descendants their healthful frames and persevering dispositions by which they maintained their independence, and acquired each one, almost without exception, a fair share of this world’s goods.

In noting the antecedents of the subject of this sketch, we find that he is the son of James B. Stewart, who was born in 1785, in Dauphin County, Pa. The latter learned the hatter’s trade in his youth, but afterward turned his attention to the more congenial pursuits of farm life. When a young man of twenty-one years, he left his native State, coming to Ohio in the fall of 1806, and took up a tract of land on section 6, Green Township, Clark County. With the aid of four of his neighbors, he put up a log house and lived in it all that first winter with no floor but mother earth. Indians and wild animals were plentiful, and the wolves frequently howled at night around his cabin home. His young wife, who in her girlhood was Miss Ann Baty, had come to this State from Kentucky, where she was born in 1797. After many years of arduous labor, the father transformed a portion of the wilderness into a good farm, and died March 25, 1828, at the early age of forty-three years. The mother survived her husband for the long period of twenty-eight years, remaining a widow, and departed this life in Green Township, September 12, 1856. There had been born to them six children, three of whom are living, namely: Susan, Mrs. Cozier, a resident of Springfield; Margaret, Mrs. Casey, who lives in Council Bluffs, Iowa; and John B., of this sketch.

The subject of this notice was the fourth child of his parents, and was born in the log house on the old homestead, November 8, 1814. He had very little opportunity for attending school, and after the death of his father, remained with his mother, assisting her in the care of the younger children until twenty-two years old, when he started out for himself. He continued at farm work, and when feeling that he was in a condition to establish a home of his own, took unto himself a wife and helpmate, Miss Eliza McKinney, to whom he was married February 28, 1837. After marriage the newly wedded pair settled upon the old homestead where they have since lived. No children have been born of their union, They, however, assumed the care of a boy, William H. Coon, who during the late Civil War enlisted as a Union soldier in the Forty-fifth Ohio Infantry. On account of failing health, army life proved very severe but he remained at his post of service until the expiration of his term of enlistment, and then received an honorable discharge; he is now living on a small tract of land deeded him by our subject.

Mrs. Stewart was born December 10, 1813, in Montgomery County, this State, and is a daughter of John and Rachel (Shaw) McKinney. Mrs. McKinney was a native of Maryland, the father’s nativity is unknown. Her parents came to Ohio at a very early day, settling first in Montgomery County, but in 1815 removed to Clark County, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The father died in Green Township, and the mother in 1879, at the residence of our subject. The parental household was completed by the birth of eight children, only two of whom are living: Mrs. Stewart and her sister Clarinda Trousdale, who is a resident of this township.

From early manhood Mr. Stewart has taken an active part in politics. During the old slavery days he was a pronounced Abolitionist, and assisted many a fugitive to freedom by the underground railway. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War, he warmly championed the Union cause, openly declaring his sentiments to the effect that he hoped the war would never end until the blot of slavery should disappear, and gave freely of his means to assist in the success of the Union Army. He voted with the Republicans until the conflict had ended, and then becoming interested in the temperance movement allied himself with the Prohibitionists. Both he and his estimable wife are members in good standing of the Free Baptist Church in which Mr. Stewart has been a Trustee since early manhood, officiated as Treasurer for a period of twenty-five years, and as a Deacon for fifteen years. When a parsonage was required to be built, he deeded the ground for this purpose, and has otherwise contributed to the prosperity of the church.

Mr. Stewart’s farm comprises seventy-nine acres of choice land, all under good cultivation, and improved with substantial buildings. He is a thorough and skillful farmer, an honest and upright citizen, and is one whose name will be remembered long after he has departed hence.