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William E. Stewart was born near Belfast, Ireland on November 28, 1839. His father, John, was employed there briefly as part of his international travels as a salesman for a large linen merchant. Two township names near Belfast are listed in the family Bible – Parish Donaghadee and Newtonards – and these may likely be where William was born and baptized. William’s mother, Anne (Glover), had been born in Quebec City, Canada, where she had met and married John Stewart
. By 1841, the John Stewart family moved to Lanarkshire, Scotland, where John had been born. The June 6, 1841 Scotland Census lists William, age two and born in Ireland. The Stewart family is shown as living at a Norfolk address in the civil parish of Kirkfield (parish 644/2) within the County of Lanarkshire. This area is now part of the present city of Glasgow.
Before the winter of 1842, the John Stewart family left Glasgow, Scotland and moved to Quebec City to be near Anne Stewart’s birthplace and her family, the Glovers.
By April, 1843, the Stewart family had settled as farmers in Leeds Township in the Eastern Townships, Megantic County, which is about 50 miles west of Quebec City
. In the spring of 1851 when William was 12 years old, the family migrated to Clayton County, Iowa, which is about 1000 miles west of Leeds, Canada. By this time the family had grown to four sons. William later recalled that it was here in Clayton County that he mastered the essential features of agriculture and gained a practical education
. Six years later, on June 15, 1855, the US Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management records show that a William G Stewart purchased 40 acres of farmland in the Wagner township (Township 91-N; Range 4-W; 5th PM Meridian) of Clayton County, Iowa, and about 1 mile south of John Stewart’s acreage.
William was 21 on April 12, 1861 when the Civil War began. On September 23, 1861, William, oldest son of John and Ann Stewart, enlisted as a Private in the Fourth Iowa Veteran Volunteers, Cavalry Regiment, Company B.
“Stewart, William. (Veteran.) Enlistment age 22. Residence Clayton County, nativity Canada. Enlisted Oct. 26, 1861. Mustered Nov. 23, 1861. Promoted Fourth Corporal Aug. 1, 1862; Third Corporal Oct. 1, 1862; Second Corporal Jan. 1, 1863. Re-enlisted and re-mustered Dec. 12, 1863. Promoted Third Sergeant Dec. 15, 1864; company Commissary Sergeant May 1, 1865. Mustered out Aug. 8, 1865, Atlanta, Ga.” Roster and Record of Iowa Troops In the Rebellion, Vol. 4, by Guy E. Logan
The distinguished Fourth Iowa Cavalry Regiment was involved in almost non-stop skirmishes and full-out battles with the enemy throughout the four year Civil War timeframe, earning the highest of esteem and fear for leadership, skill, gallantry and bravery. They were selected to either lead the charge with their horses, or protect the retreat in major battles in Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia. Soldiers from the Civil War unit were later awarded 8 Congressional Medals of Honor, which is extremely unusual. Two quotes from wartime narratives written at the time are as follows:
"On arriving at Collierville, the men had been in the saddle fifty-four consecutive hours, fighting the greater part of the time without feed for their horses or provisions for themselves. The regiment arrived at Memphis, on the 14th instant, the men and horses being completely worn down by excessive labor performed on this march. The distance traveled was three hundred and fifty miles." “In the charge made on the 25th of October, 1864, near the Osage, the 4th Iowa Cavalry captured two hundred and thirty-five prisoners, and two stand of colors, and lost during the expedition four killed and twenty-six wounded.” “Lieutenant George W. Stamm, of the 3d Iowa Cavalry, who wields a good pen and I believe a good sword, says: "Immediately after we took possession of fortifications, the 4th Iowa Cavalry were mounted, and rushed on the flying foe with an impetuosity which nothing could withstand. Weary, out of breath and heated with our double-quick, we saw them pass us like a whirlwind, scattering death and confusion among the Johnnies, while the brass band that had boldly ventured to the front was playing the enlivening strains of 'Yankee Doodle,' in singular unison with the rattle of musketry and the shouts of victory." Thus Selma was captured, the great military store-house and manufacturing depot for the Confederates, in Alabama. The enemy lost many killed and wounded, and about two thousand prisoners.”
When William mustered out in Atlanta in 1865 at the end of the Civil War, no other soldier who had enlisted with him in 1861 in Clayton County remained in the unit. They had either died, were discharged for disability, or had failed to re-enlist to see the War through its end. Later records relate that although William saw a great deal of service in many of the most important campaigns of the war, and though he took part personally in numerous battles he was never once wounded nor sufficiently ill to be assigned to a general hospital except for a few days at a time in the regimental hospital comprising the sum of his absence from the post of duty.
Civil war records show that William returned to Clayton County and his family in late 1865. He later related in a newspaper article that upon returning from 4 years of war he immediately resumed his former farming labors and also ran a threshing machine during the season. Threshing machines separated grain from straw by a blower, and removed the chaff from the grain in a single operation. 1865 era threshers were often steam operated as depicted below.
William’s father, John Stewart, died in 1866. In 1869, William left the state of Iowa and his mother and brothers, and headed alone southwest toward Kansas, which had become a new state in 1861.
In 1869 in Butler County, Kansas, William Stewart pre-empted a homestead and proceeded to improve the property. The Homestead Act provided a pre-emptive process for soldiers of the Union Army to acquire land whereby time served was credited as part of 5 years required to be spent on newly opened land in the western states in order for it to be deeded to the veteran. This would be done by the veteran with a copy of his discharge, a certificate of the Adjutant General of the State in which he enlisted, or the affidavit of three disinterested witnesses stating the date of his enlistment, date of his discharge and the company and regiment in which he served. The land office fees for filing a homestead declaratory statement was $2.00. Final proof on a soldier's homestead could be made at any time after the time resided upon the homestead where together with the time served in the army, would total five years, provided one year's residence had been made upon the land.
The Osage Native American Tribe had been granted ownership by the US Government to a portion of land in Kansas which included much of Butler County. During the Civil War, a strip of land within the boundaries of the Osage land was taken (ceded) from the tribe by the US Government and designated for pre-emption. In 1869, William satisfied the pre-emption legal requirement and secured part of the 4-mile strip as his claimed land.
“When the first settlement was made in Butler County, the land south of the Fifth Standard parallel, which runs at the north line of the present city of El Dorado, was largely Indian property. Just south of this line lay what was known as the four-mile strip extending completely across the county from east to west, and open to entry and pre-emption. Next south lay the twenty-mile strip, the property of the Osage tribe. This, at the time of earliest settlement, Indian land, was ceded to the Government by the Little Osages on September 29, 1863, and was held as trust land.”
To the archaeologist, the area that William Stewart selected for his homestead presents an interesting field. Nearby are ruins of an ancient city.
“Here are evidences of ancient races of people and fragments of pottery as ancient as the pyramids of Egypt. Fragments of rock used in the manufacture of tools, which are not found this side of Lake Superior or the Rocky Mountains; hand mills for the grinding of grain, manufactured from stone not found in this vicinity. Here is represented the highest skill, evidencing a civilization far above the American Indian.
This location was selected for its commercial advantages as well as for strategic reasons. The three sides of this—to the east, north and west, define a wall almost perpendicular, ranging from 25 to 50 feet high, at the foot of which runs the deep channel of the Walnut, making an attack from this direction, with ancient weapons, almost impossible. Here large springs furnish ample water supply of the best kind. The Indian says that many bloody battles were fought to gain and hold this important point. Doubtless this was the best hunting ground in the mid-continent. Here are the first timbered protection and the first permanent water for the game and animal life which must have sought shelter from the blizzards which swept the plains, and the drought which parched the great American desert. Here the rich valleys afforded game for the primeval inhabitants.
According to Indian tradition, the last great battle was fought in the low grounds between the present site of Augusta and the Whitewater and Walnut rivers. If Indian tradition can be relied upon, many thousand braves in hand encounter battled and perished in the last great struggle for this stronghold. Whatever may have transpired before the present civilization conquered this territory is largely conjecture. One civilization succeeding another of different type, one race of people succeeding another, different in character, has been the history of all time. Doubtless it is true of this locality.” (Butler County's First 80 Years - By N. A. Yeager, 1916) By the 1870’s, this southern stretch of Kansas east to west had become the very epicenter of the wild, Wild West. Cattle were being driven north on the Chisholm Trail from the Red River Valley of Texas through Oklahoma Territory to just past the Kansas border where newly lain train tracks shipped the cattle east to the Chicago stockyards.
The southern Kansas homestead William settled was right between Dodge City, Kansas, to the west and Wichita, Kansas to the east. Dodge City had been organized in 1870, and Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp were its first marshals. To the east toward Wichita, settlers fenced some of the prairie for farming, thereby closing the Chisholm Trail. Henceforth, Dodge City gloried in gunfights and hangings as the infamous “cattle city,” and Wichita became the more civilized farm trade and milling center.
On July 3, 1872, age 33, William married Harriet Ellen Reed, age 18, in Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas. Harriet had been born on March 29, 1854 in Noble Count, Indiana, and was the daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Skidgel) Reed. The Reeds had moved from Indiana to Wichita in 1870. Sedgwick County had been organized in 1870, and the population by 1872 was about 1000.
Eight years later, the 1880 Census shows William and family living on his “Osage” homestead. A new town had sprung up nearby called Bruno Township. The Census shows he was employed as a farmer on land he owned and which he had begun farming in 1869. Wife Harriet is age 26. Daughters include Gennet, age 6, Ida, age 4, Zoah, age 3, and Jennie, age 1. A younger brother of Harriet, James A. Reed, age 18, is living on the farm with the Stewart family. William is shown on the Census as born in Ireland, his father, John, born in Scotland, and mother, Anne, born in Canada.
On March 7, 1883, son Scott Walter was born. He later can be found in US Census and other records as “W. Scott,” Walter Scott,” and “Walter S.”
In 1886, portions of Oklahoma Territory which had been settled by the Creek and Seminole tribes during the 1820s and 1830s were designated by the US Government as Unassigned Lands as part of the Civil War Reconstruction Treaties of 1866. A rationale was that these tribes had supported the Confederate States of America during the Civil War.
On March 2, 1889 the US Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Bill, proclaiming that the Unassigned Lands of Oklahoma Territory of the Creeks and Seminoles were now part of the public domain. Hearing this, William Stewart, now age 50, left the family homestead he had farmed for 20 years and became personally involved in the great land-rush of Oklahoma Territory. Apparently his brother-in-law, James Reed, age 29, joined William.
On April 22, 1889, people who gathered on the Arkansas and Texas borders of Oklahoma could seek a parcel of unclaimed land and file for ownership. Most of these people were from Kansas and Missouri, but people from all over the country participated. Buglers were stationed at intervals around the perimeters of the region and they announced the opening of the new land at noon. Newspaper photos recorded people bursting westward in droves in covered wagons and on horseback, with riders on horseback bursting ahead. One cannot help but speculate and visualize Civil War Cavalry veteran William Stewart leading the charge.
William Stewart and James Reed headed toward what is now Logan County in the center of the Oklahoma Territory, about 35 miles north of Oklahoma City. One mile square parcels of land were available to those who could first lay claim. Stewart/ Reed did well.
When laid out in 1889-90 by its founders, Logan County was divided into sections as shown above. William Stewart staked his land claim in “Seward,” and James Reed staked his very nearby in “Springer.” Seward today remains an un-incorporated part of the county, about 7 miles from the nearest town, Guthrie.
William Stewart's homestead is shown in the upper right portion of the map above as an “X.” The location is on the west edge of Seward, and between the small town and the railroad. More specifically, the homestead was deeded as the southwest corner of Section 11, township 15, range 3 west. He later described that for a period he resided in a tent, and later a box-house served as a shelter for two years. This was superseded by a substantial log house which was his home for the remainder of his life.
The above map and the following narrative were kindly provided in January 2013 as part of a personal note by Billie Walsh of the Oklahoma Genweb:
“The land is rapidly suburbanizing farmland. In the twenty years I've lived here more and more people have moved into the area. The land is rolling hills but just a few miles west and it turns into flat prairie. This is the boundary between the hill country in eastern Oklahoma and the flat prairie to the west. Seward sits on the bank of Cottonwood Creek. There's not much of Seward left these days … a few houses and another building or two. There are two cemeteries just east of "town" at the intersection. The one to the south-west is a black cemetery and the one to the north-east is the white cemetery. Both are fairly well maintained and used from time to time.”
The first Territorial Census of Oklahoma dated June 5, 1890 shows the Stewart family living in Township 15 of Logan County on their new homestead. William is shown as naturalized from Canada, a military veteran, and able to read and write. Family members include wife Harriett and children Gennet, age 16, Ida, age 14, Zoah, age 13, Jennie age 10, and Scott, age 7.
Additionally, a Special Schedule of Civil War Veterans of the Civil War published in 1890 lists those currently living in Oklahoma. William Stewart with reference to his Cavalry Unit and length of service is posted as living in Seward, Oklahoma. Included is reference to a disability of rheumatism and very baggy (“pilent”) eyes.
William became a member in Seward of the William Watts Post No.40, Grand Army of the Republic, (G.A.R.) subsequent to its establishment on August 7, 1890.
The 1900 Census shows William and family living in Springer, Logan County, Oklahoma as fallows: William, age 59, Ellen H age 46, Ida, age 24, and Scott W. Stewart, age 17.
Wife Harriet Ellen died on Nov 1, 1905 in Logan County, OK.
The 1910 Census shows William, age 70, widowed, living on his farm in Logan County, Oklahoma, with daughter, Ida, age 34.
William died April 28, 1920 in Logan County, and is buried along with his wife, Harriet, at the Seward Cemetery, Seward, Logan County, Oklahoma.
A remarkable newspaper article (possibly a Guthrie, OK newspaper) published in about 1900 is based on an interview with William and provides an exceptional biographical sketch of his life.
“WILLIAM STEWART. A special place of honor in the annals of this country is reserved for the heroes of the Civil war – those who placed their lives and all personal ambitions and plans on the alter of their beloved land. The army record of William Stewart is of such a character that he and his posterity may well be proud of it, and in the quiet walks if private life he ever has endeavored to perform his duty as a citizen.
His father, John Stewart, as his name plainly indicates, came from the stalwart old Scottish stock, and his birth occurred in the land of the thistle and heather. He was employed as a salesman for a large linen merchant for several years, and in the course of his travels, came to this continent. He met and married a lady in Canada. Miss Ann Glover, a native of that dominion, and later took her to Ireland, whither his business affairs called him. Subsequently they went to Scotland, and then to Canada, and finally they became permanent residents of Clayton County, Iowa. The father bought a small farm there and devoted his attention to its cultivation during the remainder of his life, which came to an end in 1866.
William Stewart was born November 28, 1840, during his parents’ residence in Belfast, Ireland, but was quite young when they re-crossed the Atlantic, and here he grew to manhood. He was 16 years old when the family located in Iowa, and there he mastered the essential features of agriculture and gained a practical education. In the fall of 1861 he enlisted in Company B, Fourth Regiment of Iowa Cavalry, and was assigned to duty in Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. He saw a great deal of service in many of the most important campaigns of the war, and though he took part in numerous battles never was wounded nor sufficiently ill to be assigned to a general hospital, a few days at a time in the regimental hospital comprising the sum of his absence from the post of duty. He veteranized and returned to the ranks, and served, altogether, about four years, receiving the commendation of his superior officers.
When the clouds of war were rolling away William Stewart resumed his former labors in Iowa, and also ran a threshing machine during the season. In 1869 he came to Butler County, Kansas, where he pre-empted a homestead and proceeded to improve the property. It was not until the spring of 1889 that he came to Oklahoma, and at that time he located his present farm on the southwest quarter of section 11, township 15, range 3 west. For a period he resided in a tent, and later a box-house served as a shelter for two years, this being superseded by the substantial log house of the present. Many good improvements have been instituted by the owner of the place, which now is accounted a valuable tract of land.
In Butler County Mr. Stewart was married July 3, 1872, to Harriet E. Reed, a native of Noble County, Indiana, and daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Skidgel) Reed, who located in Kansas in 1870. The eldest-born of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart is Mrs. Jeannette Aaron, who is the mother of three children. She and her sister, Mrs. Zoe Bennett, who has two children, are residents of Sedwick County, Kansas. Mrs. Jennie Crosley, whose home is in Seward, has one child. Ida and Walter Scott are yet at home with their parents.
In 1864 Mr. voted for Lincoln, and in 1868 cast his ballot for Seymour and for Peter Cooper. Later, when a candidate, he voted for Butler, and of late years has been identified with the Populists. Fraternally he is a member of William Watts Post No. 40, G.A.R., of Seward, and has occupied several offices in the same. He was appointed township clerk in 1890 and served in that capacity acceptably.”
Oldest daughter of William and Harriett Stewart, Gennet (“Nettie”), born 1874, later married a Simon Aaron. Following is a biographical sketch (found in Ancestry.com) of a portion of their lives and the tough times they endured:
“Simon Aaron came with his parents to Garden Plain, Kansas as a young man. He went to work for Dold Packing Company in Wichita. While there he met Nettie Stewart, and they were married in Augusta, Kansas in 1890. Three children were born to them: Allie Aaron, William Aaron, and Raymond J. Aaron. Simon later went into business with his brother Joseph in Norwich, Kansas, where they ran a livery stable. In about 1905, Simon and Nettie with their three children moved to No Man's Land, later known as Beaver County, Oklahoma Territory. A year earlier he had gone to the area and filed on 160 acres of sod land to be proved up. He took a covered wagon, two mules, a cow, and a plow to get started with. He then sent for his family, and they came to Englewood, Kansas from Wichita. It was a two day trip, a distance of 40 miles, in a covered wagon to meet the family. On the way home they camped over night near the Cimmaron River. A strong wind storm came up in the night and blew the wagon over, and son William got his leg broken. A settler living near by helped them by setting the leg. Simon had built a half dug out house with a dirt floor before going for the family, but there was no water well. The Abe Dooley's had moved to the area the year before, and had a water well, so Simon had only to haul water across the road for his family needs.
The children grew up on the land, and had many hardships. They burned cow chips for cooking and heating on a Topsy stove. They also raised maize to burn, as there was no market for the crop. But corn was raised for a money crop.
The family moved to Beaver, Oklahoma to send the children to school, and they lived there until there was a country school built near their farm. While in Beaver, Simon carried mail from Beaver to Faris, Oklahoma, and back, using a buggy and a team of horses.
Time went by and their three children married. Simon's and Nettie's last years of life were spent on the farm.”
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