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Below is a family biography included in Portrait and Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio published by Chapman Bros., in 1890. These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary. Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more. There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.
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JAMES C. STEWART. The farming community of Xenia Township, recognizes in Mr. Stewart one of its leading representatives in point of honesty, reliability, and citizenship. At present he occupies forty acres, where he has a snug home and is surrounded by all the comforts of life. He is of Southern antecedents, a native of York County, S. C., and was born July 29, 1814. He is thus approaching the seventy-sixth year of his age, and has had a large experience of life, and without making any great stir in the world, has fulfilled his duty as an honest man and a good citizen, and earned the confidence and esteem of those around him.
The immediate progenitors of Mr. Stewart were Robert M. and Elizabeth (McElroy) Stewart, likewise natives of South Carolina, and the father was a soldier in the War of 1812. After laying aside his musket, he resumed his farming pursuits, to which he had been reared from boyhood, remaining in his native State until 1818. He then came to this county and settled four miles east of the present site of Xenia, where he spent the remainder of his days, dying March 6, 1867, at the age of seventy-nine years. The wife and mother had passed away prior to this time, at the age of sixty-five. Their six children were named respectively: Violet, Jennie, James C., William B., Samuel M., and Margaret. Three of these are living.
The paternal grandfather of our subject was William Stewart, a Revolutionary soldier, who was born in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, and who came to America during the Colonial days, when a young man of twenty years. He settled first in Pennsylvania, and later removed to South Carolina. He was married to a sister of Patrick Calhoun, who was the father of John C. Calhoun, and there were born to them two sons and seven daughters. Up to the election of Van Buren, he supported the Democratic party, but at that time he became a Whig, and later a Republican. He was in the early days a slaveholder. He died in 1830, at the advanced age of ninety-one years. He traced his ancestry to the royal Stuarts of Scotland. The family was first represented in this country by three brothers, the younger of whom was named William, and from whom it is supposed the forefathers of our subject descended.
The subject of this sketch obtained his education in the common schools of this county, to which he was brought when a lad of four years. After leaving school, he occupied himself as a teacher for twelve years, beginning at the age of nineteen. Aside from this he followed farming pursuits all his life. In 1863 he settled on his present place, and has become one of the old landmarks whose name will be held in kindly remembrance long after he has departed hence. He was first married in November, 1836, to Rebecca, daughter of David and Elizabeth Flopping, of Ohio, and there was born to them one child, a son, James, who was graduated from Miami University, and during the Civil War enlisted in the Union service as a member of the Ninety-fourth Ohio Infantry; he died in the army a year later. Mrs. Rebecca Stewart died at her home in Xenia Township, in May, 1838. Mr. Stewart was then married to Miss Lavina J. Brewster, who traced her ancestry to the Plymouth Colony; her parents were Samuel and Mary (Dinwiddie) Brewster, who spent their last years in Sugar Creek and Xenia Townships. Mr. Brewster occupied himself as a farmer, and was one of the earliest pioneers of this county. Of the second marriage of Mr. Stewart there were born four children: Mary E., the wife of M. W. Sears, of Dayton; Joanna, Mrs. Ira Townsley, of Iowa; Henrietta G., wife of the Rev. R. E. Lackey, of Pennsylvania; and Mattie R., who is at home. Mr. Stewart has for many years been a member of the United Presbyterian Church. In addition to the homestead where he resides, he owns one hundred and sixty acres of land in Ringgold County, Iowa. His great-grandfather was banished from Scotland on account of his religious views.
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This family biography is one of the many biographies included in Portrait and Biographical Album of Greene and Clark Counties, Ohio published by Chapman Bros., in 1890.
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