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House of ClarkClark Berry Stewart was the sixth son of Walter Stewart, Sr., his first child by his second wife, Isabel Bobo. He was born in 1813 in the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC. Clark's name has been a source of speculation in the family for years. "Berry" appears to come from his maternal grandmother, Nancy Berry (wife of Francis Spencer Bobo, Jr.). "Clark" is not so easy to identify. The name must have come from an unknown ancestor of his father's back in County Antrim. In 1824, when young Clark was about eleven years old, his parents left the Bethany community for Gwinnett County, Georgia, taking with them Clark, his six-year-old brother 7 David Bobo Stewart, and his older half-brother 4 James Stewart and his Bobo wife. Tradition says they went with several other families from Bethany, including some of Isabel's Bobo relatives. Walter settled his young second family on land not far from the Chattahoochee River, probably near the present town of Duluth some ten miles northeast of Atlanta. Here he died the next year, in 1825. Clark's mother was apparently illiterate, since she signed her name with an "X" mark on documents relating to her husband's estate. (Walter died without a will, and in later years she turned over her share of his modest estate to his sons.) However, she appears to have sent Clark to a school in Gwinnett County as a boy. Surviving in the family records is his hand-written arithmetic book from 1831, when he was eighteen years old. His book indicates that he was equipped to solve knotty arithmetic problems dealing with weights, measures, fractions, multiplication, division, and both English and American money. He listed some of his Gwinnett County friends in the book: James Weir, Nancy Culver, Mary Cobb, Jane Turner, John Dabbs, Tilman Bobo, David and George Templeton. Sometime during these years Clark's mother married a second time to a Henry Turner of Gwinnett County. Family tradition says that Clark and his younger brother David did not like their stepfather, and both left home early. However, in later years the two brothers and their half-brother James and their families often met at their stepfather's home for Christmas, until their mother's death about 1843. For whatever reason, Clark returned to South Carolina to the community where he was born. His granddaughter, 683 Maude S. Buford, says he was eighteen years old when he returned "with only a few clothes, 50 cents, and the pony he was riding." Two years later, in 1833, he became a charter member of Bethany Presbyterian Church. He earned a living as a schoolmaster, teaching at Bethany and Sandy Springs. Among his pupils - some of them almost as old as himself - were the numerous offspring of his half-brothers 1 Samuel, 2 John, 3 Robert, and 5 Walter, Jr. For some years he led a nomadic existence, boarding with neighbors closest to the school where he was teaching, and staying from time to time in the homes of tutors who helped him repair his own scanty education. His home, if he had one at all, was the large household of his half-brother John at Sandy Springs, where he often stayed between teaching terms. In 1836, at age 23, Clark served briefly in the Indian Wars, joining the Laurens Volunteers as First Corporal. The unit took part in some brief skirmishing in the Second Seminole Campaign in north Florida. It was during this experience that Clark began keeping the diary that he was to continue for fifty years. Clark returned to the Bethany community after his three-month hitch in the army, and again picked up his teaching career. His diary expanded to include lists of young ladies in the community whom he admired and sometimes escorted to church and social gatherings. Some he even assigned ratings: "delightful," "grand," or "serious." One whom he found merely "pleasant" was one of his teenage pupils at Sandy Springs, young Katharine Carson Hitch. Historian 6561 Goldie W. Stewart, who has studied Clark's journals extensively, has identified the incident that turned him toward the ministry. His best friend at this time was Henry Hitch, the 22-year-old son of Squire John and Katharine Hanna Hitch of Sandy Springs, and older brother of his pupil Katharine. Although Henry was two years younger than Clark and in somewhat more affluent circumstances, says Goldie, the two young men held each other in high esteem. One summer Sunday, a shocking event occurred:
This incident, says Goldie, precipitated a period of search for young Clark. Entries in his journal for the next year are sparse. He finished his teaching term at Sandy Springs, but in December of 1837 set out on an extended visit to Georgia. He stayed for a time with his younger brother 7 David Bobo Stewart in Cass County. He taught briefly, tried studying law under a local attorney, and rented a farm for a time. In December of 1838 he returned to Bethany and resumed teaching. He began making regular entries in his journal again, with many references to church attendance at Sandy Springs, Langstons, and Bethany. He had conversations with the Rev. Samuel B. Lewers, the charismatic minister of Bethany Presbyterian Church, and borrowed books from him. Finally he made his decision.
Matters moved rapidly after that. His term of teaching at Bethany came to an end on October 2. Two days later his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Lewers, presented him to the fall meeting of the Presbytery of South Carolina for a grueling examination on his "knowledge of religion." He was found satisfactory, and was received as a beneficiary under the care of Presbytery, which ordered him to the Laurensville Male Academy in nearby Laurens for two years to obtain a classical education in preparation for attending Columbia Theological Seminary. While attending the Academy he was to board with the family of Dr. John Wistar Simpson, one of the founding citizens of Laurens and later head of the Academy. Clark spent a happy two years in Laurens studying Latin and Greek and living with the Simpson family. In the fall of 1841 he entered Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Here his education expanded to include social life in the capital city, but ties with the old Bethany community remained strong. On October 5, 1843, he married 20-year-old Katharine Hitch, his former pupil. The ceremony was performed in the Hitch home by his old mentor, the Rev. S.B. Lewers. Clark returned to Columbia to finish his studies, and on April 27, 1844, at age 31, he was ordained at Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Abbeville District, SC. Says historian Goldie:
Clark and Katharine Hitch Stewart - herself the granddaughter of Revolutionary soldier Robert Hanna - had three children who married descendants of the Peden family who were the chief founders of Fairview Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest in upper South Carolina. The three Peden descendants were Lou Anderson (married 62 Wistar Stewart), Martha Eugenia Peden (married 65 Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart), and Adam Stenhouse Peden (married 67 Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart). All three were first cousins, grandchildren of Rebecca Martin and Alexander Peden of the Fairview community. Alexander (founder of the Peden House of Alexander) was the son of original settlers Peggy McDill and John Peden, who came to the area before the Revolution from County Antrim, Ireland. The Peden family has held reunions at Fairview Church since 1899. The picture of 65 Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and his family on a preceding page is said to have been made at the first Peden reunion in 1899.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Margaret Amanda Stewart was the oldest child of Katharine Hitch and Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. Amanda, as she was called, was born in 1845 at the old Hitch homeplace in the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County. Amanda was six years old when her parents moved to upper Laurens County near the present town of Fountain Inn, SC. When she was nine years old she entered a private academy in Laurens - probably the old Laurensville Female Academy taught by her father's friend J.B. Hillhouse. She stayed with the Hillhouse family for a time. As a young woman Amanda married James Lewis Stoddard. Lewis was the son of Elizabeth Owings and William Stoddard, charter members of New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn (and also grandparents of Rebecca Stoddard, wife of 31 Squire Bill Stewart of the Durbin community near Fountain Inn). Before marrying Amanda, Lewis served in the Civil War as a private in "The Laurens Briars" Company G, 3rd Regiment, SC Infantry (Kershaw's Brigade). During the war he wrote long letters home to his parents, some of which still survive in the family records. In one letter Lewis mentions a surprise meeting with his future father-in-law "Reverant Mr. Stewart" near the front lines in Virginia. Lewis was wounded in action near Richmond, Virginia, and after some recovery was transferred to the medical corps. He spent the remainder of the war serving in army hospitals and with medical units, where he was in a position to relay first-hand news of the wounded and dead to anxious families in his home community.
Camp of 3rd S.C. Reg't Lewis came back safely to the Harmony community after the war. His unmarried brother William had died in the war, as well as his brother David, whose widow Fannie Harrison Stoddard later married 37 Walter Clark Stewart of the House of Robert. Lewis himself returned to the normal pursuits of a young single male. In the due course of time 6 Clark Berry Stewart made a wry observation in his journal, and then more or less gracefully resigned himself to the inevitable:
Lewis and Amanda settled in the Fairview community on a farm adjacent to her parents and lived there the rest of their lives. They had two children, Eddie and Cannie - the latter named after her mother's young sister who died at age 17. Eddie never married. Cannie's husband, Thomas Chalmers Babb, died not long after they were married. Eddie and Cannie lived at their parents' homeplace for many years and like them, are buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church near their home. Lewis and Amanda Stoddard were respected members of the Fairview community for many years. After Lewis' death in 1917, the Session of Fairview Church entered a memorial to him in its Minutes:
6 Clark Berry Stewart John Wistar Simpson Stewart was the second child of Katharine Carson Hitch and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1846 in the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County. He was five years old when his parents moved to the Fountain Inn area. As a young man, Wistar married Margaret Louise Anderson, daughter of Rachel Stennis and James Anderson of the Fairview community. Lou (as she was called) was a great-granddaughter of John and Peggy McDill Peden, who immigrated to the Fairview community from County Antrim, Ireland. Wistar and Lou settled in the Fairview community and had a family of three children: Leila, Catherine Rachel and Anderson Hitch Stewart. Not long after the birth of their third child, Lou developed symptoms of "consumption" (tuberculosis) and died a lingering death in spite of the best medical attention her family could procure. After Lou's death Wistar and his three young children moved in with his parents for a time, and a few years later he married Nancy Williams. Wistar and Nancy lived in the Fairview community for the remainder of their lives, in later years living at the old Clark Berry Stewart homeplace. Wistar and both his wives are buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church. At the time of his death in 1914, Wistar was the second Chief of the Walter Stewart Clan. A memorial read at the next Stewart reunion gave this description of his life (probably written by his younger cousin, 373 Walt Stewart, secretary).
6 Clark Berry Stewart Catherine Rachel Stewart was the second child of Lou Anderson and John Wistar S. Stewart. She was born in 1878 in the Fairview community in lower Greenville County near Fountain Inn, SC, probably while her parents were living near a grist mill on South Rabun Creek which her father operated for a time. Cathy, as she was called, was not quite four years old when her mother died of tuberculosis. Her widowed father took her, five-year-old Leila, and baby Anderson back to the large Fairview community home of his parents, Katharine and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart. The children grew up under the care of their grandmother and later their stepmother, Nancy A. Williams Stewart, Wistar's second wife. Cathy's husband, Charles Lindsey Peden, was a descendant of the "Fairview Pedens" who were the original settlers of the community. He was the son of Mary Dorroh and John Thomas Peden of nearby Gray Court (upper Laurens County). Family tradition says he fell in love with Cathy while working as an overseer for her father. Cathy and Charles Peden lived for many years at the old Stewart homeplace of her father and her grandfather, where they had one daughter, Catherine Charles Peden. They are buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Anderson Hitch Stewart was the third child of Lou Anderson and Wistar Stewart. He was born in 1880 in the Fairview community in lower Greenville County near Fountain Inn, SC. As a young man Anderson attended Presbyterian College in Clinton, SC for a time, and then returned to the Fairview community. He married a young local teacher at Fairview, Lucinda Hopkins Sprouse (Cinnie). Cinnie was the daughter of Martha McKittrick and Warren Hill Sprouse of the Hillside community between Fairview and nearby Simpsonville in lower Greenville County. (Cinnie was also an aunt of 3.13.224 Broadus Steedly Coleman of the House of Robert.) Cinnie was a graduate of Asheville Normal School in Asheville, NC, which at the time prepared many young women of the Fountain Inn community for business and teaching careers. Anderson and Cinnie Stewart settled on a farm in the Fairview community, where they had a family of four sons and a daughter. In 1923, when their youngest child was two years old, Anderson died at the age of 42. He is buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church. In later years Anderson's widow Cinnie married a second time to Clarence Gideon Thomason of the Fountain Inn area. At the time of her death at age 84 in 1970, she lived at 101 Gault Street in Fountain Inn. Like her first husband Anderson Stewart, she is buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church, where they were both lifelong members.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Calvin Lewers Stewart was the fourth child of Katharine Carson Hitch and Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1851 at the old Hitch homeplace in the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County, a few months before his parents moved to the Fountain Inn area in upper Laurens County. He was probably named after the Rev. Samuel B. Lewers, the Presbyterian evangelist who inspired the organization of Bethany Presbyterian Church (see 5 Walter Stewart, Jr.). Calvin's father left a characteristically brief account of his son's birth in his journal. Two neighborhood women had been engaged to serve as midwives, and all due preparations had been made. But little Calvin arrived unexpectedly one morning, with no one in the house but Katharine's sister and their elderly mother, Mrs. Hitch, who had lost the use of one arm but not her old expertise. Reported Clark:
Young Calvin followed his father into the ministry. Not long after his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, he married Lida Frances Todd, daughter of Jane McClintock and James Rogers Todd of Due West, SC. Calvin served as supply pastor at New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn for a time. In 1882, about the time he and Lida were married, he accepted a call to serve half time at the Pelzer Presbyterian Church in nearby Anderson County. Pelzer, on the Saluda River twelve miles west of the Fairview community, was the site of a flourishing new cotton mill, founded in 1881. Soon another call came to serve also as the part time first pastor of nearby Lickville Presbyterian Church, founded in 1882. The Lickville church was said to be named after a salt lick frequented by deer in the area. The church originated from small group meetings held in a one-room school on the farm of Dr. J.L. Woodside. The twenty charter members had just built their first house of worship on property donated by W.A. McKelvey. Calvin and Lida had a family of three children. They lived for many years in West Pelzer not far from Calvin's brother, 68 Twyman Clark Stewart and his wife Malinda Babb. They were also neighbors and close friends of Calvin's cousin, 323 Mary Rachel Stewart and her husband John Marion Garrett. After Calvin's death in 1921 at age 70, Piedmont Presbytery entered the following memorial to him in its Minutes:
Calvin and his wife Lida are buried in the Williamston Cemetery a few miles from their home in Pelzer.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Henry Todd Stewart was the oldest child of Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart and his wife Lida Todd. He was born in 1883, a few months after his father became the first pastor of new Lickville Presbyterian Church a few miles west of the old Clark Berry Stewart homeplace in the Fairview community. In later years ToddÕs parents settled in nearby West Pelzer in Anderson County. In 1907, young Todd married 20-year-old Lillie Belle Murphy, daughter of Emma Scott and Charles Jackson Murphy of the Mountain Springs section of Anderson County. Lillie was a graduate of Greenville Female College and was a teacher in Anderson County. Todd and Lillie lived in Pelzer for a number of years, where Todd was in the mercantile business. Lillie taught school in addition to being a homemaker and mother of their six children - five daughters and a son. Around 1939, when their youngest child was about eleven years old, Todd and Lillie moved to Woodford, South Carolina in upper Orangeburg County. Here Todd served as town clerk and Lillie as school principal. After several years of declining health Todd died in 1841 at age 57 of a heart attack while on his way to visit relatives in Greenville. He is buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Orangeburg, SC. Although a Presbyterian deacon and elder for many years, he had joined the Methodist church in Woodford, there being no Presbyterian church there. After Todd's death Lillie married a childhood friend, Magistrate Walter T. Earle of Central, SC (Pickens County). She lived in Central until her death in 1961, and is buried near her first husband Todd Stewart in Memorial Park Cemetery in Orangeburg.
6 Clark Berry Stewart James Clark Stewart was the third and youngest child of Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart and his wife Lida Todd. He was born in 1890 in West Pelzer, SC (Anderson County) a few years after his father became supply pastor of several small Presbyterian churches under the care of Piedmont Presbytery. Clark, as he was called, grew up at his parents' homeplace in West Pelzer. As a young man Clark moved to nearby Anderson, SC, where he took a job in a bank. He later became one of its executives. In 1925, at age 35, he married 34-year-old Katie Scott. A year later their only child was born, Edwin Lewers Stewart. In later years Clark became the general manager of old Pelham Manufacturing Company, a cotton mill in the village of Pelham between Greenville and Spartanburg, SC. The mill closed during the Great Depression years of the 1930s. After a period of declining health, Clark died in 1942 at age 52. At the time of his death, he lived at 202 West Faris Road in Greenville. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Greenville. James Clark Stewart is buried in upper Laurens County at Lickville Presbyterian Church near the community of Ware Place, where his father served as the first pastor of the church after its organization in 1882.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart was the fifth child and third son of Katharine Carson Hitch and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1855 in upper Laurens County on Big Durbin Creek near Fountain Inn, where his parents moved in 1851 from the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County. His place of birth, known as "the old Mock place," is located just to the north of the site of 2 John Stewart's sawmill (see Fountain Inn-Harmony map). His parents moved to the Fairview community near Fountain Inn in 1858, when he was about three years old. "Bordie," as he was called, was named after Dr. Henry A. Boardman, pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and a well known minister of the times. Bordie's father heard him preach at the 1854 Presbyterian General Assembly in Buffalo, New York. As a young man, Bordie attended the Atlanta Medical College (now Emory University Medical School), graduated in 1879, and returned to serve the Fairview community for sixty-five years as its highly esteemed "country doctor." In 1880, Bordie married young Martha Eugenia Peden, daughter of Nancy Smith and John McVey Peden of the Fairview community. Dr. Bordie and Eugenia had a family of five sons and four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. They celebrated their long-remembered 50th wedding anniversary on March 4, 1930, throwing open their home to the entire community. Not long after this occasion their old friend and neighbor W.M. Nash paid this tribute to them in a local paper (name not certain):
In 1918 Dr. Bordie was elected fourth Chief of the Walter Stewart Clan and served in this capacity until his death in 1947 at age 92. His 29-year term was the longest of any of the six Stewart descendants to serve as head of the Clan to date. His wife Eugenia died in 1932 at age 73. Both are buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church. In 1929, Dr. Bordie donated a famous monument to Fairview Presbyterian Church which can still be seen in the church cemetery. The monument is a stone carving of a doctor's bag, engraved with this epitaph:
The Laurens Advertiser (Laurens, SC) summarized Dr. Bordie's career at his death on September 15, 1947:
6 Clark Berry Stewart Clifford Calhoun Stewart, born in 1888, was the fourth child of Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and Martha Eugenia Peden. He was born and reared in the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC (lower Greenville County). Clifford was a public school teacher and administrator all his adult life. He graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1914, and began his career as a teacher in Orangeburg County. In 1916 he married Flora Edwards, who was born in the Regan community of Dillon County, SC. Flora was the daughter of Benjamin Franklin Edwards and Sarah James Mills of Dillon. Like her husband, Flora was also a teacher. Clifford and Flora had a family of two daughters, Eugenia and Grace Stewart. They are both buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn. At the time of his death in 1953, Clifford had retired from teaching and was postmaster of Abbeville, SC (Abbeville County). He was an elder in the Presbyterian church for many years and was active in the Rotary and Lions Clubs, as well as professional educational organizations. In the family records is the following summary of his career, originally found in Wallace's Biographical Volume of the History of South Carolina (date uncertain).
6 Clark Berry Stewart Hoke Howe Stewart was the sixth child of Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and Martha Eugenia Peden. He was born in 1894 in the Fairview community in lower Greenville County near Fountain Inn, SC. Like most of his brothers and sisters, young Hoke went to the one-room school in the Fairview community and graduated from Fork Shoals High School in the Fork Shoals community seven miles south of his home. He attended Clemson College, and then returned to the Fairview community. A few years later he married young Cora Lee League, daughter of Florence Estelle Bolt and Berry Dennis League, who are buried at Rabon Baptist Church near Hickory Tavern (upper Laurens County). Cora's grandfather was Nathan League, the ancestor of many Leagues in the Fountain Inn area. Hoke and Cora lived on a farm just across the road from Hoke's parents, where they had a family of two sons and two daughters. When the Second World War started in 1941, Hoke took a job with the Civil Service. In 1942 he moved his young family to the town of Summerville, SC, in Charleston County on the coast. Here he worked in the Charleston Naval Yard during the war. He died in 1947 at age 52, and is buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church, where he had been a deacon. He also served as a deacon in the Summerville Presbyterian Church. Hoke's widow Cora, age 83 in 1982, makes her home with her daughter Miriam and her husband Mouzon Murray in Summerville.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Rosa Ross Stewart was the seventh child of Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and Martha Eugenia Peden. She was born in 1895 in the Fairview community in lower Greenville County near Fountain Inn, SC. As a young woman Rosa married Charles Eugene Cason, son of Mary Louise Sullivan and Charles G. Cason of Greenville County. Rosa and Charles lived at 118 Randall Street in Greenville. They had a family of three daughters. For some years, Charles was a salesman with Thackston Chevrolet Company in Greenville, and then operated his own real estate, insurance and rental agency, Charles E. Cason Realty Company of 106 West Washington Street in Greenville. After his death in 1958, Rosa continued to operate the business herself for some years. She and Charles are buried at Woodlawn Memorial Park in Greenville. Charles and Rosa were active in the Bible Presbyterian Church and the Augusta Street Presbyterian Church in Greenville. Charles was an outstanding horseman and had shown in the horse shows of the section. He served as vice president of the Greenville Horse Show and Fair Association.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Dr. Calvin Boardman Stewart, born in 1898, is the son of Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and Martha Eugenia Peden of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC. He is one of the few living great-grandchildren of Walter Stewart, Sr., founder of the Walter Stewart family. He is married to Virginia Pearl Buchanan (Perk), daughter of Bernice Elizabeth Taylor and Robert Henry Buchanan. They have two children and five grandchildren. Having lived in Atlanta for many years, they are retired now and live in Franklin, Tennessee. Mary Lou S. Garrett, Co-historian for the House of Clark, persuaded Dr. Calvin to describe his life and experiences. He obligingly produced this interesting account:
6 Clark Berry Stewart David Dantzler Stewart was the ninth and last child of Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and Martha Eugenia Peden. He was born in the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC in 1900. David, like several of his older brothers, attended the University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC. He returned to the Fairview community and settled on a farm directly across the road from his parents. As time when on he took over the farming of his father's estate, and in 1930 he married Fannie Parkins. They had one child, Frances Fair Stewart. David and Fannie lived in the Fairview community for many years, where they were members of Fairview Presbyterian Church. In later years, after the death of David's parents, he and Fannie moved into their old home. Fannie died in 1973 and is buried at Fairview Church. After her death, David married a second time to Carolyn Wood, and at his death in 1978 was also buried at Fairview, where he was a deacon for many years. The old H.B. Stewart homeplace is now occupied by his daughter, Fair S. Gallman.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart was the seventh child and third daughter of Katharine Carson Hitch and the Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. She was born in 1858, the first of their children to be born in the Fairview community near the present town of Fountain Inn, SC. The family had just moved to the community from their first home in the area, near 2 John Stewart's sawmill about eight miles northeast of Fairview toward the Clear Springs community. One of their new neighbors in the Fairview community, Mrs. Adam Stenhouse, was the midwife when little Nancy was born. Said her father in his journal:
The midwife's grandson and little Nancy's future husband, Adam Stenhouse Peden, was baptized in the same church - Fairview Presbyterian just the year before, among the first group of babies to be baptized in the new church building (still standing in 1982). Baby Adam's parents, Betsy Mooney Stenhouse and James Scipio Peden, returned the Clark Stewarts' compliment to their family by naming their next child Stewart Peden - born June 20, 1859. (See 3733 John Taylor Stenhouse Peden, son of Stewart.) Nannie graduated from Erskine College in Due West, SC and taught school there for a time. In 1882, at age 24, she came back closer to home and boarded with the David Templeton family for a time, not far from the school at New Harmony Presbyterian Church, where she taught for some months. In 1883 she married Adam Stenhouse Peden. Nannie and Adam Peden lived in the village of Fountain Inn at 507 North Main Street for many years, where they reared a family of two daughters and a son. Adam Peden was an early Fountain Inn merchant and served as one of the town's first mayors. He was one of the founders of the Fountain Inn Oil Mill in 1891 (later Smith and Brooks Co.). After Nannie's death in 1913 at age 54, Adam Peden married a second time to Mamie J. Ballentine (born 1879), a teacher in Fountain Inn. At his death in 1930, he was buried in the old Fountain Inn Cemetery, as was his first wife Nannie Stewart.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Bessie Belle Peden was the oldest child of Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart and Adam Stenhouse Peden. She was born in 1885 in or near Fountain Inn, SC a few years before her father became one of the founding partners of the Fountain Inn Oil Mill Company. (The "oil mill" operated a cotton gin which bought the cotton seed from farmers who had cotton ginned there. The seeds were pressed to obtain oil which was sold to paint manufacturers and other processors. The residue or "meal" was sold as cattle feed.) Bessie grew up at her parents' home at 507 North Main Street in the little village of Fountain Inn. As a young woman she married John Edgar Maroney (Ed), the son of Samuel Maroney, an early carpenter in Fountain Inn, and his wife Sallie Watson of Anderson, SC. According to Caroline S. Coleman and B.C. Givens' History of Fountain Inn, Ed Maroney was one of the early telephone switchboard operators in Fountain Inn. He was a "popular, happy-go-lucky fellow" who served as mayor of Fountain Inn some years after his father-in-law, Adam S. Peden. Unfortunately, Ed's wife Bess was plagued with asthma. In an effort to ease her condition, Ed Maroney moved his family to Florida, where he ran a hotel in Clearwater for a time; then to Montreat, North Carolina, where he was the gatekeeper for the Presbyterian retreat there. He died of a stroke on August 23, 1933, at age 49. His wife Bess died two months later, at age 48. Both are buried at old Fountain Inn Cemetery. Ed and Bess Maroney left a family of two sons and two daughters, ranging in age from 10 to 20 years. The eldest son, John Edgar, Jr. (Jack), settled in Greenville, SC. Josef Peden Maroney (Bill), the second son, moved to Massachusetts in later years. The two youngest, Nancy and little Bess Maroney, went to live with their mother's cousin, 651 Frennie Fair Stewart and her husband William Twyman Coleman of the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, who had no children of their own. They eventually married and remained in South Carolina.
6 Clark Berry Stewart James Clark Peden was the third and youngest child of Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart and her husband Adam Stenhouse Peden. He was born in or near Fountain Inn, SC in 1889. Not a great deal is known about James Clark Peden and his descendants. He became a medical doctor, probably about the time his mother died in 1913. It is not known where he received his training. The old family records say that his first wife was Ernestine Morrison "daughter of Gov. Morrison of North Carolina." The marriage had no issue. Dr. James Clark Peden married a second time, apparently in the late 1920s, to Susan Freeland, by whom he had a son, James Clark Peden, Jr., born in 1929. James Clark Peden, Jr. also became a medical doctor. At the time of his son's marriage in 1960, Dr. James Clark Peden, Sr. and his wife were living at 3855 Utica Street in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He died in 1971 at age 82 and is said to be buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn.
6 Clark Berry Stewart Twyman Clark Stewart was the last child and fifth son of Katharine Carson Hitch and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1863, during the Civil War, and grew up in the hard years following the war. He was the only one of Clark and Katharine Stewart's children to be born in the old Clark Berry Stewart homeplace ("the brick house") in the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC. Twyman was only six years older than his oldest nephew, Eddie Stoddard (his sister 61 Amanda's child). In 1879, when Twyman was sixteen years old, young Eddie "accidentally cut Twyman's arm," Clark reports in his journal. As a result, Twyman's hand was crippled for the rest of his life. As the youngest of his parents' eight children, Twyman became the "errand boy" of the family, constantly sent hither and thither with the buggy to meet trains and fetch his older brothers and sisters about as they completed their education and set out on their various careers. Twyman finished the little school at Fairview at age 18. He attended another (name unknown) at "Grove Station" - Piedmont in nearby Anderson County, staying for a time with his older brother Calvin, who was a supply pastor for several small churches in the area. After a few months he returned to his parents' home, where for several years he was his aging father's trusted assistant in managing his estate. In 1887, at age 24, Twyman married 20-year-old Malinda Abercrombie Babb, daughter of Jane Abercrombie and Thaddeus Babb of the Green Pond (or Babbtown) community near Fairview. After their marriage, Twyman and Malinda settled in West Pelzer (Anderson County) in a home not far from Twyman's brother Calvin and his family. Twyman set up a general store in Pelzer, which he operated for many years. He and Malinda had a family of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Only one of the eight - their son Ralph Berry Stewart - had issue. After Malinda's death in 1918, Twyman remained in Pelzer until his retirement, and then moved to Greer, SC (Greenville County) where his daughters Maude S. Buford and Mary Dell Stewart lived. He died there in 1945, and is buried with his wife Malinda at Fairview Presbyterian Church near his place of birth. From The Christian Observer, publication of the Presbyterian Church, US:
6 Clark Berry Stewart Ralph Berry Stewart was the fourth child of Twyman Clark Stewart and his wife Malinda Abercrombie. He was born in 1894 in West Pelzer, SC (Anderson County), where his father owned and operated a general store. Ralph grew up in West Pelzer with his brothers and sisters and his first cousins, the children of his father's brother 64 Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart and his wife Lida Todd. Also neighbors and close friends of the family were his father's relatives the Garretts, who had several young children about Ralph's age. (See 323 Mary Rachel Stewart and John Marion Garrett, House of Robert.) Ralph graduated from Clemson College in 1915 with a degree in electrical engineering. He received an advanced degree from Cornell University three years later, and a law degree from George Washington University in 1923. He married young Jessie Isabelle Dee in Brooklyn, New York. In later years Ralph and Jessie lived in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and they both became patent attorneys in nearby Washington, DC. They had a family of one son and one daughter. Ralph was a charter member of the National Lawyer's Club, a member of the American Patent Law Association, and an elder in the Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church. He served in the First World War. He and his wife Jessie are buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. |