House of Clark
Clark 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:
August 27, 1837. Sunday. Went to Meeting to Bethany in the Evening when I returned home I heard that my friend Henry Hitch had hung himself dead upon a Dogwood tree!!!!!!
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.
June 5, 1839. Mr. J.H. Byrds funeral was preached at Sandy Spring by the Rev. Baronet Smith from Genesis 3rd Ch 24". In the afternoon was at Prayer Meeting had a fine meeting came to a determination to endeavor by the help of God to find out by prayer and meditation, if any part of the Great Work of converting the world to righteousness belongs to me-
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:
After graduation from Columbia Theological Seminary, the newly ordained servant of the Church returned to Laurens County and the plantation of John Hitch, where he lived with his family while serving as a domestic missionary for the Presbytery. With a salary of $400.00 per year, his territory encompassed Laurens, Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Much of his time at home was spent helping his father-in-law with the management and work of the plantation. In 1847, he was called to be the pastor of nearby Rocky Springs Church, and (in 1851) managed to purchase his own small farm some seven miles northeast of Fountain Inn, South Carolina.
In 1855, Reverend Stewart accepted a pastorate that he was to serve for his remaining active years, Fairview Presbyterian Church in lower Greenville County. This church, established in 1786, was in the midst of a very prosperous farming area and was rapidly outgrowing its limited facilities. In 1858, Clark joined the dedication of a new and larger building, complete with two galleries for the dusky slaves of his flock. This building continues to serve today. By 1859, the pastor felt the need to be closer to his field of ministry, so he sold his small farm and bought a large two story brick home with about 500 acres of land three miles from the church. This house also survives, overlooked by Sherman's Army by only two miles, and, at present, is being restored to its original simple elegance after forty years of neglect. The detached kitchen-servant quarters with its four beautiful fireplaces remains only a ghostly shell, a mute reminder of a different way of life.
Clark Stewart's meager ministerial salary could hardly support such a life. His interest in education had continued, and almost from the time of his graduation, he had returned to the classroom, first with his own private classes, and much later as a certified teacher in the state public schools. After the War, he joined in the effort to educate the former slaves, and the evidence is almost conclusive that several of his students were his own former bondsmen, now his sharecroppers.
This patriotic Southerner could not sit idly by in 1861 as his friends and neighbors left the comfort of their homes and families, though he revealed no great zeal for the cause itself. He was first appointed a missionary to the sick and wounded soldiers, and traveled across the South to visit the front lines and hospitals, most of which he rated as inadequate or deplorable.
And this nineteenth century American had yet another career. He never abandoned his love of farming and always managed to find some time to work in the fields in spite of other pressing commitmentsÉWhen his own sons were old enough to assume some responsibility, he assigned them a portion of the farm, and they, in reality, sharecropped until they went away to school. This man of many facets was interested in the latest farming methods, and not only read a great deal on farm topics, but wrote for county and farm papers, especially for the Southern Cultivator under the nom-de-plume of "The Late Beginner." He advocated advanced intensive agriculture, deep preparation and shallow cultivation, a liberal supply of humus, rotation of crops. He was perhaps the first man in his area to use guano, and brought into his section of the country improved breeds of cattle and hogs...Never a man of great wealth, he did remain in comfortable circumstances, due in part to his farming...
Clark and Katharine were the parents of three girls (one of whom died at the age of sixteen) and five boys (one of whom died at three months). Realizing the importance of education, their father provided them with every opportunity, from the time he taught them in his own private classes, through boarding schools and colleges. At the same time, he allowed them the pleasure of choosing their own destinies, as he had done.
In 1883, Reverend Stewart, suffering from years of health problems and the infirmities of old age, was forced to resign from his pastoral duties, though, with the help of (his son) Wistar, he continued to farm. Seven years later, on April 30, 1890, he answered his final call. He rests among his friends, both black and white, in the shadow of the church he served so long, Fairview.
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
61 Margaret Amanda 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
August 1, 1864
Dear father and Mother
I seat my self this morning to let you know my whear abouts we are now not far from Petersburg in a very warm fine old field we have bin marching very hard and fighting some since I last wrote you we left Petersburg the 23rd July for what is called deep Bottom not far from Malvern Hill whear we had a little fight and was shelled very heavly from the Enemys Gun Boats allso land Battrys the Gun Boats throwed Several 2 hundred Pounders over amongst us we had one man killed from the Briars their was a shell truck our orderly Sergt. in the Breast Bursting at the same time tearing him literly to pieces the poor fellow never knew what struck him. they have had a fight at petersburg but you will get the particulars before this reaches you we have had a hard time this Campaign Shure I am still on the field with the Assistant Surgt. it amuses me to see the Drs. dodging when the minees & shells begins to fly Drs are very Scarry people...I saw R.J. Stoddard day before yesterday he was well I was with him only a few minutes as his Regt was marching Ham Owings is supposed to be mortaly wounded the Neighbor Boys are all well I believe I am out of news I will have to stop for want of something to wright tell Fannie to wait patiently I will answer her letter as soon as I can I hope non of you will wait for me to write though becaus when we have to march so hard when we stop I am obliged to rest and when we stop we have no assurance of staying an hour the weather is very warm and but little rain I will close remaining your affectionate son til death
J.L. Stoddard
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:
September 2, 1866. Lewis Stoddard came Home with Wistar He may have some important design -
January 21, 1867. Lewis Stoddard ask.d me to approve a contract between he and M.A. Stewart of marriage, Amen. May God enable all parties to act for his glory
February 5, 1867. Repairing Garden west End # at 1/2 past 6 P.M. Amanda & James L. Stoddard was united in The Bonds of matrimony
February 6, 1867. My Eldest child and her Husband & Party left for His Mothers to attend an Infair Dinner. Miss I.H. Stenhous Cousin Sarah Stewart, Calvin, Boardman, Robert Stoddard, Jane Stoddard & Lewis offered me money as compensation Fee. I refused to accept. May God bless, keep and prosper them. Amen
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:
He was ordained as an elder in New Harmony Presbyterian church in 1875, and made a good record in that church. He, with his family transferred this connection to Fairview church in 1892, and he filled the same office here from his admission until his death...For thirty years he was chaplain of Fairview Agriculture and Mechanical Association. After the death of his devoted wife in 1913, he never recovered from the sad bereavement, his face lost its pleasant smile, and sorrow and sadness were shown in all his actions. As the Shadows of night were gathering on October 15, 1921, his spirit took its flight.
6 Clark Berry Stewart
62 John Wistar Simpson 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).
John Wistar Simpson Stewart was the first son of Rev. Clark B. & Katharine C. (Hitch) Stewart, born at the old Hitch home in Laurens Co., on Dec. 24, 1846. Named for his father's devoted friend Dr. John Wistar Simpson of Laurens. He also received his early training in Laurens Co. Some years later his father bought a farm 3 miles south of Fairview Church in Greenville Co. So the most of our noble manÕs life was spent in Greenville Co. around old Fairview Church Community. After he was old enough to attend college his father sent him to Williamston, S.C. - winning a scholarship to the Arsenal in Columbia, S.C. he reported there on Jan. 1st 1863, at the age of 17. In a few months the cruel fate of War closed this institution for 17 years. He, like many young men of his age, had to lay down a much coveted education and take up the fight to defend his country during the last strenuous months of the Confederate War. For 6 months he was on Post Duty on James Island. After the close of the War he came home and taught school for a few months. Then he took up farming and also surveying, for his main life work. In both lines of occupation his equal was hard to find, as a surveyor he was noted for his honesty and accuracy. Farm after farm in Laurens and Greenville Countys, were surveyed out by Squire Stewart, as he was called by so many friends.
There were other lines of publick works that he carried on that was of great assistance to his neighbors & friends. He was a merchant for several years, he thrashed their grain, a little later he operated a grist-mill, saw-mill, and cotton-gin. He was big hearted & broadminded, ever ready to help a friend of which he had many...He was a member of Fairview Presbyterian Church and for several years filled the office of deacon.
J. Wistar Stewart had a splendid record of serve in the county, both as a private citizen and in official capacities. He was magistrate of Fairview township for several years, and was a leader in all public affairs that would be for the betterment of his county and State. After his health failed so that he had to give up active farm work he spent many pleasant hours reading and writing. And he enjoyed having his friends visit him and take a meal with him, for he was a good provider and all the good things that were placed on that table came from his own farm except the coffee, rice, sugar, and salt and he had two of the best cooks in the country, Miss Nancy, his wife and Cathie, his daughter.
A few years before his work was finished on this earth, he decided to introduce and organize a Stewart Reunion for he was proud of his name Stewart, so he went to work, selected a committee who agreed with his ideas, he wrote out the constitution and by laws of this Walter Stewart Clan, and was made sub chief of the House of Clark Berry Stewart, for he richly deserved the honor. He spent many pleasant and tireless hours day and night for weeks until all plans were completed for this reunion and was the noble sub chief of this House till his death on Dec. 19, 1914.
6 Clark Berry Stewart
62 John Wistar Simpson Stewart
622 Catherine Rachel 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
62 John Wistar Simpson Stewart
623 Anderson Hitch 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
64 Calvin Lewers 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:
June 5, 1851. at 6 in the A.M. Katharine gave birth to a fine son; no one present but Isabella H her sister Mrs. officiated with her with only one hand -
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:
Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart, the subject of this sketch was born near Rocky Springs Church in Laurens County, South Carolina, June 5th, 1851, and died at his home in Pelzer, S.C., November 9th, 1921, at the age of 70 years, five months and four days. He was the second son of Rev. Clark Berry and Katharine Carson Hitch Stewart.
He was prepared for college in the day schools of Fairview, Slabtown (Anderson, SC) and Reidville, S.C.; entered Davidson College as a Freshman in the fall of 1873 and was graduated in June, 1877. He became a student in Columbia Theological Seminary in the fall of 1877, and was graduated in May, 1880. On October 16th, 1880, he was ordained at Rocky Springs Church, the first church that his honored father served from 1846 to 1856.
Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart served the following churches as pastor or stated supply for forty-one years, to-wit: New Harmony, Piedmont, Lickville, Belton, Honea Path, Pelzer and Williamston. He resigned the pastorate of Pelzer and Lickville on October 16th, 1921.
He was married to Miss Lyda Todd of Due West, S.C., in 1882, and two sons and one daughter, Henry Todd and Clark and Katy, were born of this union. He was faithful in his domestic relations. He was elected by the alumni of Davidson College to deliver the oration on one commencement occasion. He was a man of many sterling traits of character, had excellent antecedents, and was not only a faithful preacher of the gospel, but was not satisfied with anything but the best that could be produced in the field, garden, stable, pasture or pen.
Calvin and his wife Lida are buried in the Williamston Cemetery a few miles from their home in Pelzer.
6 Clark Berry Stewart
64 Calvin Lewers Stewart
641 Henry Todd 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
64 Calvin Lewers Stewart
643 James Clark 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
65 Henry Boardman 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 attempting to write of the life and character of Dr. H. Bordie Stewart, I do so with an emotional feeling, for I know that I am speaking of a man who stands well up in the minds and hearts of many people. Doctor and Mrs. Stewart recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, and they entertained their many friends in a very appropriate way, and to the enjoyment of all.
Dr. Stewart has been a prominent daily figure among us for more than fifty years. In sunshine, in shadow, in summer's hot sun, in winter's cold blasts he has ever pursued his practice. Never too hot, never too cold, never too late, never too early, he has always been there...A more consistent man could not be found. We knew him when he rode the horse and he always rode a good horse, fat and well groomed with plenty of life and spirit and he always handled that horse in so consistent a manner that he never rode the spirit out of the horse.
In all these long years and continued big practice, he always made his rounds on Sunday morning in time to be back at old Fairview for Sunday School and church. He has been there with that same consistency that characterized itself in his practice. He always took an active interest in Sunday School and church and music.
It should be said for the encouragement of those coming after that the doctor started life not any too strong in health but by that same persistency and consistency of life and living and practice he overcame a considerable weakness and came to be a strong man of good physique and appearance...
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:
Dedicated to the memory of the family physician and the memory of those who keep the home fires burning during the doctor's absence on his errands of mercy.
The Laurens Advertiser (Laurens, SC) summarized Dr. Bordie's career at his death on September 15, 1947:
Dr. Stewart practiced medicine continuously in lower Greenville and upper Laurens counties for a period of 65 years or until 1944 when he had to retire because of injuries received in a fall. Since that date he had been practically an invalid at his home. For 67 years he was a ruling elder of Fairview Presbyterian church and for 62 years officiated as superintendent of the Sunday school.
Interested in livestock and progressive farming of every kind, he was one of the founders of the Fairview Stock Show and was one of the prime forces behind its successful operation throughout his life. Present at every one of them until his injury, he was a familiar figure as he directed the program from horseback.
"I started out in life with two aims," Dr. Stewart once stated. "One was to give my children a better education than I had. In this I have succeeded. The other was to offer my best services to my fellowmen, and it has been my experience that if you 'Give to the world the best you have, the best will come back to you.'"
6 Clark Berry Stewart
65 Henry Boardman Stewart
654 Clifford Calhoun 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).
For more than a decade and a half, Clifford Calhoun Stewart has been engaged in the teaching profession, and for 12 years of that period has been connected at different times with public schools of the State. As administrator in the public school, he is performing an excellent service in carrying forward the educational policies of South Carolina. He is a former president of Abbeville County Teacher's Association and a member of the South Carolina State Teachers' Association.
Mr. Stewart was born in Fountain Inn, S.C. December 29, 1888, a son of Dr. Henry Boardman and Mattie Eugenia (Peden) Stewart, his father a country physician who has a large following in the territory he professionally serves. The son, Clifford Calhoun, attended the Fairview School and the High School at Fork Shoals and took his college course at the University of South Carolina, which gave him his Bachelor of Arts Degree at graduation in the Class of 1914. He has taken work on his Master's degree at Peabody in 1921 and at the University of South Carolina in 1916, 1928, 1929 and 1930.
He entered upon his teaching career at Cope, Orangeburg County, in 1914, the year he left the University, and all his professional life has been connected with faculties of schools in his native state. His association as teacher in Sharon school has been very pleasant and of constructive value since he settled there some years ago. On March 30, 1932, Mr. Stewart was elected superintendent of Ninety-Six public school for 1932-1933. He was president of Greenwood County Educational Association for 1933-34.
6 Clark Berry Stewart
65 Henry Boardman Stewart
656 Hoke Howe 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
65 Henry Boardman Stewart
657 Rosa Ross 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
65 Henry Boardman Stewart
658 Calvin Boardman 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:
My education began in a one-room rural school at Fairview, S.C. On to Fork Shoals High, graduating as the only boy in the Class of 1915.
Entered the University of South Carolina following two brothers who had finished with honors. During my third year I volunteered for officers' training at Plattsburg, New York. Returned to U.S.C. in the fall of '18 and was in the Students' Army Training Corps. Was graduated in 1919 with a BS degree.
Was accepted for med school at Emory and South Carolina. Elected to go to Charleston (S.C.). During my third year I was selected for a student internship at Baker Sanatorium. Was graduated in 1923 with a degree of MD.
Joined Doctor R.B. Steedly who was operating in Spartanburg and Greenville (S.C.). At his suggestion I went to New York to the (cancer) Memorial Hospital in preparation to join him at the newly formed Steiner (cancer) Clinic in Atlanta. Dr. Steedly was the director; I was the resident surgeon. With time I became chief of radium treatment and surgeon for the Head and Neck Services. In 1931 studied at the Curie Clinic in Paris and the Radcion Hemmett in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1939 I took the examination given by the American Board of Radiation Therapy with success. Later was honored with a membership in the American College of Surgery without examination.
In 1949 after a mild heart attack I resigned from the Steiner Clinic, being then the director. My medical career continued in private practice in Atlanta plus my work as consultant at the VA Hospital and associate professor of surgery at Emory University.
At 77 I retired rather apologetically, since my father retired at 90 years of age. Perk and I moved to Franklin, Tenn. to be near our son and his young family. The people here have been so very cordial that it has helped to fill the void left from retiring.
Calvin B. Stewart, BS, MD, FACS
6 Clark Berry Stewart
65 Henry Boardman Stewart
659 David Dantzler 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
67 Nancy Ann Stenhouse 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:
October 7, 1858. Thursday, 1:30 A.M. Katharine gave birth to a girl child; large size, Weighing 11 1/2 lb Hard Case in Labour
Mrs. Adam Stenhouse (Midwife)
No fee!! May the Lord Bless her in her office
May 1, 1859 Sunday. Had our Infant daughter Baptized by Holmes.
Called her "Nancy Ann Stenhouse."
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
67 Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart
671 Bessie Belle Peden
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
67 Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart
673 James Clark Peden
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
68 Twyman Clark 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:
On April 4, 1945, Twyman Clark Stewart received the call from the "Master of the House" to come up higher, after having served Him humbly and faithfully for eighty-two years. He was a scion of one of the oldest and most prominent families of the Fairview section of Greenville county, South Carolina, who for generations were staunch Presbyterians. He was laid to rest in the historic rock-walled church yard at old Fairview, where his father, Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, served as pastor for thirty years. His mother was Catherine Carson Hitch.
On December 25, 1887, he was married to Malinda Babb and moved to the then new textile community of Pelzer, South Carolina, and entered the mercantile business which he pursued successfully for many years, retiring in 1929. He was made an elder in the Pelzer Presbyterian church in 1902, and served in that capacity faithfully and effectively until he moved his membership to Greer in 1939...
At his passing, a former pastor, Rev. I.E. Wallace, who had known him intimately for many years, very fittingly chose this text to characterize his life: "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." He adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour in every relationship of life.
6 Clark Berry Stewart
68 Twyman Clark Stewart
684 Ralph 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.