Untitled Surnames: Melrose, Butler, Crooks, Holloway, Mitchell, Farnsworth, Morrow, Stevens, Walker, King, Healey

From Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin, publ. 1901 - page 244-245

GEORGE STEWART, of Lancaster, Grant county, a retired farmer, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1822, came to America when fourteen years old, and has been a resident of Grant county since 1856.

Thomas STEWART, father of George, married Anna MELROSE, who died when her son was a mere child. The father, however, survived until he was eighty-eight years old, and died in Scotland in 1874. George STEWART, father of Thomas, and after whom George our subject, was named, took charge of the latter at his mother's death, and cared for him until he came to America. The grandfather married Catherine BUTLER, five of whose uncles fought in the famous battle of Culloden, in which they all lost their lives. The grandfather was called away when eighty-seven years old.

George STEWART, whose name opens this biographical review, came to America in company with several others in the brig "Fermonia," Capt. Grant, of Glasgow, landing in Montreal, Canada, after a voyage of eight weeks. From Montreal the young man proceeded by steamer to Kingston, and thence to Hamilton, where the companions separated, all of them save Mr. STEWART returning soon afterward to Scotland, without having intimated their intentions to Mr. STEWART, who was thus left alone among strangers. However, he soon secured employment with a wealthy Scotchman named CROOKS, who lived near Hamilton, and assisted about the house at a compensation of $6 per month. Mr. STEWART next went to Toronto, where he worked in a brickyard two years, then returned to Hamilton, and remained in that vicinity three years, thence going to Rochester, Monroe Co., N.Y., and to York, Livingston Co., same State, where many of his countrymen resided. He passed nine years in York, and vicinity, and during the latter part of this period worked for J. C. HOLLOWAY, with whom he came to Grant county, Wis. Here he worked on Mr. HOLLOWAY's large farm for seven years, and by this time had saved a few hundred dollars and purchased an eighty-acre tract of land about two miles south of Lancaster, in Boyce Prairie. This land he occupied seven years, then sold and bought a 400-acre farm of Lewis HOLLOWAY, for which he paid $16,000; subsequently he bought twenty acres within the corporation limits of Lancaster. After residing on his large farm for fourteen years Mr. STEWART sold to great advantage to Shrack MITCHELL and purchased what was known as the FARNSWORTH farm, on which he lived five years, at the end of that time disposing of it and retiring from active responsibility as a farmer. He repurchased ten acres of the twenty-acre tract he had previously sold in Lancaster, and here erected his elegant mansion, although he has disposed of a portion of the ten acres.

Mr. STEART was married, in Rochester, N.Y., to Miss Eliza MORROW, a native of Ireland, and to this union have been born five daughters and one son, namely: Jane, wife of John STEVENS, of Lancaster; Robert, who lives near Mason City, Iowa; Nellie, wife of Darius WALKER, also residing near Mason City; Catherine, wife of Harrison R. KING; Mary, who is married to Frank J. HEALEY, of Iowa; and Lucy, still at the parental home.

Mr. STEWART has made his own way through the world bravely, being possessed of sound sense and judgment and all the characteristics inherent to the natives of Scotland - indefatigable perseverance, indomitable courage, quick observation, untiring industry and economical habits. He has found time to cross the Atlantic ocean several times since he first reached the Western continent, visiting, among other places, the city of his birth.

In politics Mr. STEWART is independent of party ties, and votes in accordance with his personal views touching the issue before the public, but generally for the men whom he thinks best qualified to fill local positions of either responsibility or trust. In religion he and family are Methodists, and are worthy and devout members of that church; socially their standing is elevated and desirable, if not enviable.



This biography generously submitted by Carol Holmbeck