My Genealogy Hound

James E. Stewart, a farmer of the Eleventh District of Lauderdale County, was born in North Carolina, December 10, 1831, and is a son of Spencer and Elizabeth (Hurley) Stewart. The father was born in 1804, and moved to McNairy County, Tenn., in 1833, where he farmed until his death in 1845. The mother was also a native of North Carolina, born in 1806, and died in 1873. Our subject is of Scotch-Irish descent. He was raised on a farm, and continued farming until 1857, when he became a traveling photographer until 1860; he then began merchandising in McNairy County. When the war commenced he entered the Confederate service as second lieutenant of Company H, Fifty Second Tennessee Infantry; he remained with this company until May, 1862, and returned home, staying until April, 1863, when he joined the Nineteenth Tennessee Cavalry, Company E, and was appointed second lieutenant, and in 1864 was promoted to captain of Company H, Nineteenth and Twenty-first Regiments. After the war he returned home, and ran a saw and grist-mill in connection with his farming until 1869. Since then he has given his attention entirely to farming. December 10, 1852, he married Miss Emily Hendricks, of McNairy County, and they had two children: Sophronia E., who died in infancy, and Wilson A., who also died in infancy. Mrs. Stewart died in 1855, and September 1, 1861, he married Margaret F. Bryant, and by this marriage had ten children, six of whom are living: Charley E., Lula S. (the wife of I. H. Johns), Lizzie Ann, Nannie Marvin, Pearl I. and Ollie Reed. Mr. Stewart is now worth about $6,000, the result of his own efforts and good management. He stands well socially, and is an upright man, and with his wife belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a sound Democrat.