Albert G. Stewart

STEWART, STONE, STILLWELL

Posted By: Allamakee co. Coordinator
Date: 3/4/2004 at 04:22:26

STEWART, Albert Gallatin, is a prominent attorney of Waukon; was also a soldier in the Spanish-American war, having served as captain of Company I., Forty-ninth Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry, from the opening of the war till May 13, 1899, when he was mustered out with the regiment and honorably discharged. He was connnected with the Iowa National Guard almost continuously from 1878 to the time of volunteering to the United States service in April, 1898. He entered the state service in 1878 as a private, was soon promoted to corporal, and then sergeant, and at the end of the first three years' service, immediately re-enlisted as a private, and in a few days was elected captain of the company and commissioned by the governor, continued as captain til November 28, 1885, when he was elected and commissioned as colonel of the regiment, it being the Fourth Regment Iowa National Guard. He served one term of five years, when he was unanimously relected for another term and served two years, when he resigned and was placed on the retired list with the rank of colonel, because of more than ten years of continuous service as an officer in the Iowa National Guard, as per General Order No. 52.

He was born on a farm near Albany, Green County, Wisconsin, March 1, 1854, where he remained till of age, working on the farm, attending country school and later teaching school and attending higher schools in neighboring towns, paying his expenses with his school wages. In 1875 he came to Waukon and began the study of law in the office of H.H. Stillwell, under the instruction of that gentleman and Hon. Charles T. Granger, late judge of the Iowa Supreme Court, and was admitted to practice in 1876. He then taught school in his old home in Wisconsin one winter to replenish his depleted exchequer. In 1877 he formed a partnership with C.S. Stillwell, and commenced the active practice of law in Waukon. This partnership continued for one year, when Stewart succeeded to the business and practiced alone till 1887, when a partnership was formed with his old instructor, H.H. Stillwell, which partnership continued till Mr. Stewart volunteered in the Spanish-American war. The firm of Stillwell Stewart had what was admittedly the largest practice in the county, both men being very stong as advisors and advocates. They got a part of all important business in that section. Mr. Stewart gained quite a reputation also as a public speaker on political and other subjects. He was born and raised a democrat, as was a necessity almost, descending from an old Virginia ancestry. After reaching his majority, he became a republican from conviction, and cast his first vote for the republican candidate for president in 1876. Since 1876 he has taken an active part in local, district and state politics. He has been president of the Waukon Business Men's Social Club for years till the present time; Past Chancellor of Bayard Lodge No. 121, Knights of Pythias and District Deputy G.C. of that order; Past Master of Waukon Lodge No. 154, A.F. & A.M.; High Priest of Markwell Chapter No. 0, R.A.M., since 1891. He is a Knight Templar in Beausant Commandery No. 12, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and a member of other fraternal and beneficiary societies, as well as some of the new organizations formed among the participants in the Spanish-American war, and the Iowa State Bar Association. He is not affiliated with any church.

He was married December 10, 1878, to May I. Stone, daughter of Martin Stone, and a true descendant of some of the "Green Mountain Boys, " through father and mother. She died April 14, 1887. Their children were: Albert Martin, born March 1, 1879; Warren Wayne, born January 15, 1881, and Lisle May, born April 30, 1883. The second, Warren Wayne, died in August 1890. The oldest, Albert M., became a member of the Iowa National Guard at sixteen, joining Company I of the First Regiment, his father's old company. He graduated from the high school at seventeen, and at the age of eighteen he responded to the call for volunteers for the war with Spain, and was mustered into the service as sergeant, Company I, of the Forty-ninth Iowa. He died August 25, 1898 at Jacksonville, Florida, the second victim in the regiment, and the first in his company to that terrible scourge of typho-malarial fever, which decimated the ranks of the whole army corps in the summer and fall of 1898. He had attained to no inconsiderable distinction and notice for his military spirit, noble character and soldierly bearing, before he succumbed to the foe that he could not meet in battle array, as he had hoped to meet the Spaniard.

Col. Stewart's father, Thomas Stewart, was born in Virginia, June 5, 1800. He was a great traveler in in early life, finely educated and later was steamboat captain on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and finally, in 1842, became a pioneer in Green County, Wisconsin. His father was Daniel Stewart, a captain in the War of 1812, who was in turn the son of Charles Stewart, a colonel in the Continental army in the Revolutionary War. The father of the latter was Captain Charles Stewart of the old colony of Virginia, and took part in the French and Indian war of his day. Through him the family claims descent from Sir Andrew Stewart of Scotland, the founder of the family in America. He settled in this country near where the city of Washington now stands about the year 1650.

-source: Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa, Leaders in Business, Politics and the Professions; 1899, Volume 2

-transcribed by S. Ferrall

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