Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/42

 STEWART

STEWART

1825; son of Ira and Elizabeth (llubbell) Stewart; grandson of Capt. Jolm Stewart of Londonderry, N.H., a member of Rogers" Rangers and a Rev- olutionary soldier, and a descendant of Robert Stuart of Edinburgh, Scotland, whose son, Samuel, emigrated lirst to Londonderry, Ireland, and thence to Londonderry, N.H., in the early part of the eighteeutii century, John W. Stewart prepared for college in the Middlebury academy and was graduated from Middlebury coUege.Vt., A.B., 1846. A.M., 1849. He studied law under Horatio Seymour; was admitted to the bar in Addison county, 1850, and practised independently in Middlebury until 1854, and thereafter with Samuel S. Phelps, until the latter's death in April, 1855. He was state's at- torney, 1852-54; was a representative in the state legislature, 1856-57, 1864-67 and 1876, serving as speaker of the house, 1865-67 and 1876; a state senator, 1801-62. and was governor of Vermont, 1870-72. He was a Republi- can representative from the first Vermont district in the 48th-51st congresses, 1883- 91, after which he resumed the practice of law. He was married, Nov. 21, 1860, to Emma, daughter of Philip and Emma Hart (Seymour) Battell of Middle- bury. Vt., and granddaughter of Horatio Sey- mour, and they had five children. He was secre- tary of the board of trustees of Middlebury col- lege, 1851-58; trustee from 1858, and received from there the honorary degree of LL.D., in 1876. In 1903 he was residing in Middlebury, Vt.

STEWART, Robert Mercellus, governor of Missouri, was born in Truxton, Cortland county, N.Y., March 12, 1815. He taught school, 1832-36, in the meantime moving to Kentucky, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1837, commencing practice at Louisville. He settled at Bloomington, Mo., in 1839, removed soon after to St. Josej)h, where he formed a partnership with Judge Solomon Leonard, and at a later period with Lawrence Archer; was a delegate to the State constitutional convention in 1845, in which he took an active part as a debater, and served as state senator, 1846-57. In 1847, during the Mexican war. he raised and organized the "Ore- gon Battalion," of which he was made captain, but was compelled to resign on account of ill- health. In 1848 he was appointed register of the land oflBce at Savannah, Andrew county, Mo., but soon resigned to take charge of the survey of the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad, becoming legal adviser of the company. He was also largely influential in the construction of other railroads in the state. lie was elected in 1857 by the Democratic party, governor of Missouri to

fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Gov. Trusten Polk, serving until 1861, in which jear lie was a delegate to the constitutional con- vention. He was an advocate of liberal legisla- tion, and during the civil war was a staunch sup- porter of the Union. He was never married. He died in St. Jose])]),:\ro., Sept. 21, 1871.

STEWART, William Horris, senator, was born in Lyons, N.Y., Aug. 9, 1827. His paternal grandfather, a Revolutionary soldier, removed from I\Iassachusetts to Vermont. His father settled in the vicinity of Lyons, N.Y., and in

1833 in Mesopotamia

township, Trumbull county, Ohio, where William Morris Stew- art worked on the farm, attended the common schools and Farmington acad- emy. He taught school at Hampden, Ohio; returned to Lyons, N.Y.; at- tended, and also taught mathematics, in Union academy, until 1848, and was a student in Yale col- lege, 1848-49. In the latter year he migrated to California, where he engaged in mining and in the construction of canals, one of which, twenty miles in length, was built in Nevada county, Cal. He studied law, 1852; was admitted to the bar, 1853; served as district attorney of Nevada county, 1853, and as attorney-general of Califor- nia, 1854, remo^■ing to San Francisco. He was married in 1855, to Annie E., daughter of Henry Stuart Foote (q.v.). He continued his practice in Downieville, Cal., 1856-60, and in the lat- ter j-ear removed to Virginia city, Nev., where he was engaged in the famous " Comstock lode " litigation; was a member of tiie territorial legis- lature, 1861; of the constitutional convention of 1863, and with Gov. James AV. Nye was elected as a Republican one of the first U.S. senators from Nevada, drawing the long term and serving. 1865- 69. He was re-elected in 1869. .serving until 1875; resumed the practice of law and his mining inter- ests in California and Nevada, 1875-87, and was again elected U.S. senator from Nevada in 1887, 1893 and 1899, his last term to expire, March 3, 1905. During his first term in the senate Mr. Stewart was a member of the joint committee on reconstruction and the judiciary committee, in the latter capacity effecting the fifteenth amend- ment to the constitution, and originated tiie ex- isting national mining laws. On his return to the senate he became a prominent advocate of