J. H. STEWART

 

J.H. Stewart was born in the town of Williamstown, Massachusetts, April 28, 1823, of Scotch parents. He learned the carpenter’s trade at Oswego, New York. In early manhood he married Miss Charlotte Woodworth, and made his home at Rockford, Illinois, until 1850, when he came to California. After remaining two years in the upper part of the State he went East for his family, and returned with them to his new home. Subsequently he removed to Cloverdale, Sonoma County, where his wife died, leaving him two sons, Clarence and Richard, who are now citizens of this county. In 1858 he married Miss Martha D. Kenfield, the good wife who for twenty-nine years, with incessant affection, has ministered to his every want during his abiding affection – paralysis of the lower limbs, rending him a cripple for life, unable to walk without aid – which came upon him in 1859, the effect of hardships endured in early manhood. In 1865 he came to San Bernardino and purchased a valuable property, and from that time has been one of the foremost workers in the advancement of the material interests of that county. He was one of the projectors of the Silk Center Association, by which the water of Santa Ana River was diverted upon the then barren plains of Jurupa at Riverside, where are now nestled among the orange groves thousands of happy homes. While acquiring for himself that competence he has enjoyed and now leaves to his family, he has at the same time enabled others to do that tending to their prosperity. As a friend he was steadfast and true in fair weather and foul; as he was tender in sympathy for the misfortunes of his neighbors, so was he cheerful in their prosperity. With him, in all the relations of husband, father and friend and brother, the whole flow of years has borne a uniform flow of affectionate regard and unselfish love.