George Swayne Stewart
George Swayne Stewart was born March 25, 1866, in Dubuque, Iowa, the youngest in the family of Gideon T. and Abby N. (Simmons) Stewart.
Our subject was raised to manhood in Norwalk, Ohio, whither, when he was an infant, his parents had removed. He was educated in the graded schools of the city, and graduated from the high school in 1884. Leaving the high school, he pursued a special course of studies at Oberlin College, Ohio, after which he took up the study of law in his father's office, and was admitted to the bar March 8, 1888, being then but twenty-one years of age. He then entered upon the practice of law with his father, continuing in the same for about two years, when he gave up his profession for the more active field of business life to which he seemed naturally inclined. He inherited a taste for agriculture from his mother, and on her farm near Norwalk his vacations were spent in early school life, and here his first business instincts were cultivated. From working a small area on shares, he grew to be manager of the farm, establishing a dairy and maintaining his interest in farming matters to the time of this sketch.
In 1890 he became interested in the C. W. Smith Co., manufactures of hardwood and furniture specialties, and as secretary and treasurer of this company helped to build it up into one of the successful and substantial business enterprises of the city, affording employment to nearly one hundred people. In addition to his manufacturing business, Mr. Stewart is also associated with W. H. Price, president of the Norwalk Savings Bank, in the manufacture of building brick, under the style of The Norwalk Brick Col, and, associated with other young men, is a dealer and contractor in stone and fire-brick, and has constructed extensive street-paving improvements in Sandusky, Elyria, Bellevue, Norwalk and other cities. Mr. Stewart is also director and stockholder in the Norwalk Savings Bank, and stockholder in the Archade Savings Bank of Cleveland.
Politically Mr. Stewart has never been identified with any party, but is independent, and, aside from being interested with his friends regardless of party, he takes no active part in politics. He has abandoned the practice of law, his attention being given to the many enterprises with which he is identified.
On January 10, 1893, Mr. Stewart was married to Cora Isabel Taber, of Norwalk, Ohio, daughter of B. C. Taber, of that city. They had enjoyed an extended wedding tour in Europe, and were comfortably settled in their pleasant home in Norwalk, with all the prospects of a happy married life before them, when the Angel of Death spread his somber wings over their happy home and took from it its chiefest blessing. Mrs. Stewart died September 28, in the year of her marriage, from the recurrence of a previous attack of peritonitis. She was the purest type of Christian character, and a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church of Norwalk, to which Mr. Stewart was also admitted to membership shortly after her death.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Huron and Lorain, Ohio, containing biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens, and of many of the early settled families, illustrated.
Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1894. pg. 29.
Go to the Biographies Index page
Go to the Biographies Home page