Robert A. Stewart (1857-1946)

STEWART

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 8/16/2022 at 17:07:58

Robert A. Stewart
(December 27, 1857 - April 18, 1946)

In taking up the personal history of Robert A. Stewart we present to our readers the life record of one who is and has for a number of years been a prominent factor in business circles in this state as a representative of industrial and manufacturing interests. He is today connected with the lumber trade in Pomeroy and his keen sagacity and unfaltering diligence have won for him a place among the substantial citizens of Calhoun County. Mr. Stewart is a native of Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, his birth having there occurred on the 27th of December, 1857. His father, McDonald Stewart, was also a native of the Keystone state, born on the 26th of May, 1833, and after arriving at years of maturity he married Amelia Catherine Anspach, who was born in 1836. Her parents were natives of Pennsylvania and her grandfather was one of the valiant soldiers of the Revolutionary war who espoused the cause of the colonists and fought for American liberty. He was scalped in the Wyoming valley in the massacre which occurred in that district when men, women and children were ruthlessly slaughtered by the red men. At the time of the Civil war Dr. David Stewart, an uncle of our subject, became the captain of a company belonging to the Twenty-eighth Iowa Infantry, and was promoted to the position of regimental surgeon with the rank of major. His son, Jonathan, also entered the army and the mother of our subject had several brothers who served in the Union Army throughout the struggle between the north and the south. The parents of our subject were married in Pennsylvania and unto them were born four children: Howard J., of Coffeyville. Kansas; Robert A., of this review; Katie, who died at the age of four years; and W. M., a resident of Waterloo, Iowa. The father was a contractor and builder, and for seven years after his marriage remained in the Keystone state, removing thence to Johnson county, Iowa, on the 4th of October, 1864. There he took up his abode upon a farm and engaged in the tilling of the soil until the spring of 1883, when he removed to Coffeyville, Kansas. He also bought a tract of land in that locality and continued to engage in agricultural pursuits.
His wife died December 19, 1898, in Solon, Iowa, while on the way to visit her youngest son, in Waterloo, Iowa. The father still resides in Coffeyville. Robert A. Stewart was a lad of only seven years when he accompanied his parents to Johnson county, Iowa, and in the public schools there he obtained his elementary education, which was supplemented by a course in the McLain Academy. Thus well qualified to perform the requirements of a business career, he started out for himself and learned the paper-making trade in Iowa City, following that pursuit for six years, although not all of the time in this state. He was employed in that way in Bloomington and in Quincy, Illinois, and became an expert workman in that line. In 1881 he became identified with the first glucose sugar manufactory of the state, the enterprise being located in Iowa City. In the fall of that year he went to Aurelia, Cherokee County, Iowa, where he entered the employ of the Wisconsin Lumber Company, but after a short period he began dealing in lumber for that firm by opening a lumber yard at Patterson, Clay County, Iowa, having the management of the enterprise until the spring of 1887. He then removed his family to Osborne City, Kansas, and made that point his headquarters while he traveled for a year for a lumber company doing business at Atchison, Kansas. In 1888 he took charge of the yards of the Chicago Lumber Company, at Burroak, Kansas, where he remained for three years. Again he became connected with the Wisconsin Lumber Company on the 1st of April, 1891, when he assumed the management of its lumber yards in Pomeroy. He thoroughly understands the business, is an excellent judge of lumber, is conversant with its values and is well known in lumber circles throughout this and the Sunflower state. That he resumed his connection with the Wisconsin Company is an unmistakable proof of the confidence reposed in him and of his ability in the line of his chosen vocation.
On the I2th of March. 1884, Mr. Stewart was united in marriage in Patterson, Iowa, to Miss Minnie Wells, a daughter of L. E. Wells, who is in the employ of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway Company. Her parents were natives of New York, but she was born in Minnesota. Two children grace the marriage of our subject and his wife : Cecil McDonald and William Carl. The parents are members of the Methodist church, and are deeply interested in all that pertains to the upbuilding of the cause. They were residing in Pomeroy at the time of the great storm whose cyclonic force destroyed so much of this city. The house in which they were then living was partially destroyed. The wife and children took refuge in the cellar of Dr. Wright's house, but the Doctor and our subject were up stairs. Mr. Stewart is an exemplary member of Solar Lodge, No. 475, F. & A. M., and also has membership relations with the Modern Woodmen of America. In politics he has been a stalwart Republican since attaining his right of franchise. He served as a member of the board of county supervisors in Clay County, Iowa, and for five years he has been a member of the city council of Pomeroy, while for two years he has been honored with the office of mayor, filling the latter position at the present time. His official career is above the shadow of reproach. He fully understands the obligations devolving upon him and falters not in the performance of duty, and as the chief executive of Pomeroy his labors have been both practical and progressive, resulting to the direct benefit of the city. Since starting out in life for himself at the age of seventeen years he determined to place his faith in the substantial qualities of industry and perseverance, and when one examines his life record to find the secret of his success they will find that those have been the salient features in his career. [Source – Biographical Record of Calhoun County, Iowa, by S. J. Clarke, 1902, p.315]