Robert William Stewart (1914)

BISSELL, HAKE, JUNKIN, STEWART

Posted By: Mary Welty Hart
Date: 7/15/2007 at 10:21:47

The Winterset Madisonian
Winterset, Iowa
Wednesday, July 29, 1914

Death of R. W. STEWART

On last Thursday, R. W. Stewart, one of Madison county's oldest and most energetic pioneers, passed away at his home in Jackson township.

He was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1837, was married to Miss Catherine Hake of the same county and state Dec. 23, 1858, and shortly afterward came to this county and state and located at the place where they have continuously resided.

But two other Jackson township pioneers, whose coming was contemporaneous, are left; they are Robert Duff and Andrew Spear.

Mr. Stewart was a blacksmith by trade and he brought with him his tools, and a quantity of Ohio coal suited for blacksmith work. He immediately set up a shop on his farm and from that time until a few years ago, when his health failed, he was one of the most useful citizens of that neighborhood. He was a first class mechanic, accommodating and liberal. It would be difficult to properly estimate the full value of his services in the opening up and beautifying of that then unsettled and uncultivated stretch of country.

Mr. Stewart was not only a mechanic, but an enterprising and industrious farmer. His first holding consisted of some hundreds of acres of Jackson township land, which was so well improved and cultivated, first by himself and then with the help of his boys, that the Stewart farm never suffered by comparison with the other well kept farms of that neighborhood.

Mr. Stewart began to fail in health some three years ago and for the last four or five months, was a great sufferer; he was entirely helpless, and required a nurse all the time.

The family consisted of the wife and six children, as follows, Will who resides in Lincoln township; Walter, who died in 1902; Etta, afterwards Mrs. Junkin, who died some twenty years ago; Oliver, who resides near Barney; Bert, still residing at the homestead; and Grace, now Mrs. E. E. Bissell, who resides in the neighborhood. One child died in infancy.

The funeral occurred at the home on last Saturday afternoon, conducted by Rev. Mr. Demaree of Earlham. The attendance was very large; half of the people who came to show their love and respect for the deceased, were unable to get into the house to hear the services. Interment was at the beautiful Penn Center cemetery, where a large representation of Earlham Masons had congregated to render their impressive burial ceremony. The deceased had been a worth member of that order for many years.

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