House of James

James R. Stewart was the fourth surviving son of Walter Stewart, Sr., founder of the Walter Stewart Family, and his first wife, Mary Ross. He was born about 1795 in the Bethany community in Laurens County, SC. His mother died when he was a child.

James was one of the two "Georgia" brothers among the seven Stewart sons. (The other was his younger half-brother, 7 David Bobo Stewart.) Our information about him comes from several different sources, and not all of it meshes neatly when put together. However, the account below appears to be an at least plausible summary of the available information.

James left the Bethany community as a young man, joining the group of families who set out in 1824 for newly opened land in Gwinnett County, Georgia, some 40 miles north of the trading post that later became Atlanta. Also in the group was James' father, who took with him his second wife Isabel Bobo and their two young sons, 6 Clark Berry Stewart and 7 David Bobo Stewart. Other members of the Bobo family appear to have been in the group as well.

Family tradition says that James took a wife with him to Georgia. According to the best available information, she was 16-year-old Scynthia Bobo, a young niece of his stepmother, Isabel Bobo Stewart. The name of her parents is not known.

Walter Stewart, Sr. settled in northwest Gwinnett County, near the present town of Duluth, Georgia. James appears to have settled some 20 miles away in east Gwinnett County, at the headwaters of the Alcovy River near Hog Mountain. (The name comes from the Cherokee word for the opossum, or "woods hog," hunted in the area - later shortened to "Hog" Mountain.) In 1982, the Hog Mountain community is found about eight miles northeast of Lawrenceville on Highway 124.

It was probably at Hog Mountain that most of James and Scynthia's 13 children were born. James' half-brother, 6 Clark Berry Stewart, notes in his journal that he visited them here from time to time until his mother's death about 1843. The last child in the family, little James, was born about 1849.

According to 1850 Georgia Census records, James and his family lived at that time in Forsyth County, just north of Gwinnett County. They were close neighbors of a Tilmon (Tillman?) B. Bobo, age 60, and his wife Catharine. They appear to have moved again after 1850, about 40 miles west to Cass County (later Bartow County), where James' younger half-brother David had lived some years earlier. One account says they lived on the "Altoona" (probably Allatoona) River. Here, according to an old letter in the family records, James and four of the children died within a few days of each other in June 1853. The children who died ranged in age from five to 17, with two of them buried in the same grave. Tradition says they died of the flu.

From the bits and pieces of information available, it appears likely that James' widow Scynthia and two or three of her remaining nine children joined her Bobo parents after this tragedy. She may have gone to old Campbell County (later Douglas County) about 15 miles west of Atlanta. She died in 1858 at about age 50, when her youngest child was nine years old, and is said to be buried in the same place as several other Bobo relatives, including her father (exact location uncertain, but she had a brother living in Campbell County). An old story in the family says that James' two oldest children (41 Catherine and 42 Walter) were taken to Campbell County and reared by their Bobo grandfather. This story appears a bit unlikely, since the two children were married and had babies of their own at the time. However, 42 Walter enlisted for Civil War service from Campbell County a few years later, and apparently had been living there for some time before he enlisted. There is some evidence that one or two of his sisters lived nearby also.

Several of James' daughters may have been married at the time of his death. Four of them (43 Emaline, 45 Sarah, 46 Nancy, and 49 Linia) appear to have married men who enlisted for Civil War service from Cherokee County, just east of Cass County where James and his children died. In the years after the Civil War, most of the daughters appear to have settled in Atlanta. As a group they do not appear to have had many children, and not much is known of their descendants.

The fate of baby James Stewart, about four years old when his father died, is uncertain. By one account, he was still alive and well in 1876, at about age 27, but we have no further record of him.

According to later descendants, little James' oldest brother 42 Walter Washington Stewart was the only surviving son in the family. After many thrilling adventures during the Fall of Atlanta in the Civil War, he and his family eventually settled in northeast Alabama, from where the children and grandchildren spread to Texas, Oklahoma, and elsewhere. Most of the known descendants in the House of James are descended from 42 Walter and his two wives.

An old letter in the family records supplies some of the oldest information we have on James R. Stewart and his family. The letter was written to 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart of Fountain Inn, SC by John S. Bobo of Douglasville, Georgia (Douglas County, part of which was Campbell County until 1870). John S. Bobo (name of parents not known) is thought to be a grandson of Nancy Berry and Francis Spencer Bobo, Jr. and Clark's first cousin. He also appears to be a brother of Scynthia Bobo, James Stewart's wife. Excerpts from the letter are shown below. (For an earlier letter by J.S. Bobo, see 111 John Pinckney McKelvey.)

Douglasville, Georgia

Nov. 30, 1876

Mr. C.B. Stewart

Dear Cousin, your lines in answer to my letter has come to hand, which I was truly glad to Receive and know that you were living and in good health, it is under the most Sadest Time of my life while I inform you that it had pleased our heavenly father to Seperate me and my wife by her death. She died on the first of this mo., was unwell when I mailed my letter to you. She was Sick but 7 days died with congestion of the Stomach. I had no thought of her death until three or four hours before it taken place although she died in the Tryumph of a living faith and her acceptance with her God. Still trouble & Sorrow has got the upper hand of me and I am nearly heart broken, I never knew her worth nor the affection until She has been taken from me....We lacked one month and 2 days living together 41 years. May God choose our ways and direct us for good. I was more than glad to here you had a promising family, and that you was comfortable Situated. My Mother is at William Arnolds, Pollys husband, and is well considering her age. She was borned 1788, has been blind near 30 years. She lives among her children that is with Polly Rhoda and me, father has been ded 6 years. Scynthia died in 1858. James and four of the children died in Cass county all in 7 or 8 days 2 of the children were put in one grave from the 8th to the middle of June 1853. The age of the children was from 5 to 17 years old, Catherine the oldest daughter died some 8 years back leaving a husband and several children. Sarah Refugeed and died perhaps in Louisville, Kentucky. Emaline died in Atlanta 2 years back leaving 3 children one an infant, ps Sarah had no children but was married. I here of late that Walter is ded he lived near Rome. If true, there is but 3 left out of some 13 Nancy Linia and James. Father Scynthia Betsy and one of our daughters and four of our grandchildren are all buried at one place...All my family belongs to the Methodist Church, not North, but South...We have but one Son living and he is quiet Steady and in public, praying, Clark I am trying to get to Heaven. I have my trials and temptations and doubts, do pray for me that I may be faithful and not overcome. May it be all of our happy lots to meet on that Eternal Shore, where troubles are no more....
Yours affectionately,

J.S. Bobo

ps this was wrote after night please pardon mistakes

NOTE: 4 James Stewart's wife is listed as Scynthia Bobo. The source of this information is (1) J.S. Bobo's letter above, and (2) 1850 Census records for Forsyth County, Georgia - also the source of information for James' children listed by initials and last name only.

The earliest records of the Stewart family, compiled in 1901 by 61 Wistar Stewart, give Lida Bobo as the name of James Stewart's wife (see Introduction, page 9). The original source of this information is not known. It is not likely that either Wistar or his cousin 31 Squire Bill Stewart had any first-hand knowledge of 4 James Stewart's wife - or possibly wives. James moved to Georgia with his father before Wistar and Squire Bill were born, and we have no indication that he ever returned to South Carolina.

The Bobo family history, Bobo Cousins by the Dozen, also lists Lida Bobo as the wife of James Stewart. This Lida Bobo, born in 1774, is said to be a daughter of Nancy Berry and Francis Spencer Bobo, Jr. and a younger sister of Isabel Bobo, wife of Walter Stewart, Sr. The information on the two sisters' husbands appears to have come from 683 Maude Stewart Buford, Wistar's niece and one of the early historians of the Walter Stewart family. Maude's information, in turn, was almost certainly derived from Wistar's original data.

The Lida Bobo of the Bobo family records (the only source of information on the date of her birth) was said to be born in 1774. She would have been about 53 years old on January 11, 1827, when the first of James Stewart's thirteen children was born. James himself was about 32 years old at the time. Because of the manifest difficulties presented by these dates, we have listed only Scynthia Bobo as James' wife, pending further information on the mysterious Lida Bobo.

The following excerpt from Bobo Cousins by the Dozen, by Herbert M. Newell, Jr. and Jeanie Patterson Newell of Fayette, Alabama, shows their listing of the family of Nancy Berry and Francis Spencer Bobo, Jr.

FRANCIS SPENCER BOBO, JR., b. 1739, Culpepper Co., Va.?, son of Francis Spencer and Mary Judith (Mason) Bobo, m. Nancy Berry, b. Va. Following are believed children of above couple:

1. Absalom Bobo, Rev. Soldier, b. 1764, Albermarle Co., Va.

2. Tillman Bobo, b. Mar. 13, 1766, union or Spartanburg Co., S.C., d. Feb. 23, 1844, buried Cross Keys, S.C., m. Bulah or Beulah Yarbrough, b. Feb. 29, 1781, d. Nov. 10, 1840, buried Cross Keys, Union Co., S.C.

3. Sampson Bobo, b. 1768.

4. John T. Bobo, b. 1770.

5. Isabel Bobo, b. 1772, S.C. m. 1st. 1812 to Walter Stewart, b. Ireland. m. 2nd. Henry Turner. Isabel d. 1842, Gwinnette Co., Ga.

6. Lida Bobo, b. 1774, d. 1852, m. James Stewart, son of above Walter Stewart by former marriage.

7. Mollie Bobo, b. 1776, m. Henry Campbell.

(This is not proven completely with public records, but has been recorded from facts accumulated over many years. Please take it for what it is worth to each of you in your particular problem.)


4 James R. Stewart

41 Catherine Elizabeth Stewart

Catherine Ann Stewart was the oldest child of James R. Stewart and Scynthia Bobo, Founders of the House of James. She was born in 1827 in Gwinnett County, Georgia, possibly in the Hog Mountain community.

Catherine was already married and had a child of her own by the time her father James and several of his younger children died of the flu in 1853. In 1849 she married young James Bunyan Scarborough, parents not known. Family tradition says he was descended from one of three Scarborough brothers (first names unknown) who came to America from England. One brother settled in North Carolina, another in lower South Carolina, and another in Georgia. James is said to be descended from the brother who settled in Georgia.

Very little is known about where Catherine and James Scarborough lived; probably Georgia, since their two children with issue were later found living in Bowman County in northeast Georgia and in nearby Anderson County in South Carolina.

James Scarborough was 36 years old when the Civil War began in 1861, but no Confederate military record could be located for a James Scarborough of Georgia. It is possible that he is the "Uncle James" who "had rheumatism in time of war and couldn't go," according to 422 Synthia Stewart, who later remembered him as a noncombatant civilian refugee during the Civil War (see 42 Walter Washington Stewart).

Catherine and James Scarborough had seven children, only two of whom had issue. The oldest records in the family, compiled at about the time of the first Stewart reunion in 1907, list the five younger children as deceased. Catherine died in 1868 at age 41. Her husband James survived her by many years and died in 1901 at age 76.


4 James R. Stewart

41 Catherine Elizabeth Stewart

411 Robert Francis Scarborough

Robert Francis Scarborough was the oldest child of Catherine Ann Stewart and James Scarborough. He was born in 1851, probably in Georgia, exact location not known.

It is possible that Robert F. Scarborough was one of the two young sons of "Uncle James" later recalled by 422 Synthia Stewart, who was "refugeed" with them in Louisville, Kentucky in 1865 late in the Civil War (see 42 Walter Washington Stewart).

When he was 18 years old, Robert married Sarah J. Fortson, by whom he had seven children. They named their oldest son Walter Washington, apparently after his great-uncle 42 Walter Washington Stewart, who survived the Battle of Atlanta, was twice taken prisoner by the Yankees, and survived to come home to his family after the Civil War.

The oldest records of the Stewart family, dating from about 1907, give this family's address as Route 1, Bowman, Georgia (Elbert County in northeast Georgia). Very little more is known of the family.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

Walter Washington Stewart was the second child of James R. Stewart and Scynthia Bobo, founders of the House of James. He was born in 1828 in Gwinnett County, Georgia, possibly in the Hog Mountain community where his parents lived for a number of years.

At age 21, Walter is listed in the 1850 Census as a farmer and a member of his father's household in Forsyth County, just north of Gwinnett County.

In 1851, at age 22, Walter married 15-year-old Charlotte Elizabeth Russell (Lizzie), the daughter of a widow named Elizabeth Webb Russell (husband's name unknown). In the years after their marriage Walter and Lizzie appear to have moved to the Factory Shoals area of Campbell County, Georgia (later northeastern Douglas County) on Sweetwater Creek, a short distance upstream from where it flows into the Chattahoochee River. (In 1982, the area is fifteen miles west of downtown Atlanta.)

Here, according to later descendants, Walter was "a boss man in a mill," probably the old Sweet Water Manufacturing Company, organized in 1849 and one of the earliest large textile mills in the state. The Rev. George White gave this early description of the mill:

...building five stories high, 48 by 120 feet. Designed for 6,000 spindles, 90 looms. Capital, $50,000....number of hands employed, 60. Manufacturers yarn only, at the rate of 750 lbs per day...About two hundred persons reside within one mile of the factory.

The ruins of the five-story plant still stand on the site, now Sweetwater Creek State Park.

Walter was 32 years old when the Civil War started in 1861. His Confederate military record states that he enlisted in Campbell County on March 4, 1862 in Company K (Campbell Saltsprings Guards), 41st Regiment, Georgia Infantry. He was captured at Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863 and was later parolled (signed a statement saying he would not fight with the Confederate forces again). He returned to his unit, was later promoted to Sergeant, and was captured again on August 3, 1864 during the Battle of Atlanta. He was sent briefly to the Union Military Prison in Louisville, Kentucky and then on to Camp Chase just across the Ohio River in Ohio. Here he applied for parole again in October 1864, and safely rejoined his family at or near the end of the war.

Walter's wife and children, unfortunately, lived squarely in the path of ShermanÕs troops who advanced on Atlanta late in the Civil War. During the first week of July, 1864, the highly successful Union forces occupied the area from Sweet Water Town to Roswell, the site of another early textile center. As Sherman prepared to cross the Chattahoochee to seize Atlanta, he gave some orders about factories in general and about those at Sweet Water and Roswell in particular:

I repeat my orders that you arrest all people, male and female, connected with those factories, no matter what the clamor, and let them foot it, under guard, to Marietta, whence I will send them by cars (railroad) to the North. Destroy and make the same disposition of all mills save small flouring mills manifestly for local use, but all saw-mills and factories dispose of effectually, and useful laborers, excused by reason of their skill as manufacturers from conscription are as much prisoners as if armed. The poor women will make a howl. Let them take along their children and clothing, providing they have the means of hauling or you can spare them.

House of James Historian 42262 Lucille S. Jones has in her possession recordings of the memories of Walter and Lizzie's daughter 422 Synthia Stewart Boyd and their granddaughter 4225 Pearl Boyd Bruce of how Sherman's orders affected the family:

Daughter Synthia:

Well, I was seven years old when the Civil War began - or six. We lived in a little place called Factory Town...

Granddaughter Pearl:

When Grandpa learned that there would be a war, he quit his job as a boss man at the mill and went out and bought a farm near the factory town, so Grandma would have a way to make a living. He thought that she would work in the factory, but she never did. Her mother who lived with them told her that she had never done anything like that and for her to work at home and sell piece goods. She did this, excepting that she went to the factory at the close of each day to count, check, and make a record of the work done by the other women for the government, because she was so well educated.

Daughter Synthia:

All the men, all the old men, you know, went to the army first. Well, after that, about the third or fourth year, it began to get scarce of men. They'd killed them or taken them prisoner and there weren't so many old men left and they wanted the boys...So they had a little fight, two states met at a little place about thirty miles from Atlanta and they had a fight and they killed a good many of both sides and took the rest of them prisoners, you know, and they took my father prisoner and sent him north...

We took a big pitcher and filled it full of silverware, it was a big old water pitcher, and set it down in a hollow stump. We couldn't put any dishes in it, so we just put the dishes around the edge, and covered them up with trash and went on and left them. Well, they stayed there until after the War was all over with, and when the people got back home, why, then they went and gathered up the things that they had left that way, you know. But they never did get anything that was left in the house. That was all gone.

The next day there came a crowd of northern soldiers. Before they came through, Grandma said, "Well, Lizzie, let's cook the children one more meal of victuals." We had lots of chickens, but we had nothing else much though to go with them, so they cooked the chickens and fixed dinner. before we could get through, why, the yard was full of men, looked like. They just come on down, and we children walked to the door, and they said, "Well, we're just in time." They didn't ask if they could or not, they just walked in and sat down at the table and ate up all the dinner we had cooked, so we didn't have anything more left to cook another day. And then they set the factory afire and burned that up.

The northern men told the women in the factory to get themselves home and get them a little tad of clothes, some for the children and themselves...Not to try to take anything else out of the house, only just what they could carry...

So they took those people that they'd carried to the bridge and carried them across the creek, carried them to Marietta and left them there. And there was a big tabernacle and people could get under that, you know, for shade or out of the weather...they carried them on to Louisville, Kentucky and turned them loose in a big old hospital house. And they had an enclosure around the house so that nobody could come in or go on - only just what they sent in. They called them prisoners...

Uncle James had two children - two boys, and Ma had two girls. We just fooled around, you know, and wanted to get outside and they wouldn't let us. And we heard a band coming and we wanted to get out then, sure enough! Well, after awhile we begged and cut up so that they got ashamed of us and let us go out. If Uncle James would stand out with us on the street and not let anything bother us, you know, well we could stand there until the band passed across the street. They were going to carry it over the street to a place called the barracks. It was just a whole lot of southern prisoners that they were going to keep until the next morning and send them across the Ohio River. Well, we got out there and the band passed and just as it passed, why, the first man behind the band was PA. We thought he was dead, you know, didnÕt know we ever would see him any more.

We stayed there then - they carried him across the river and put him in Camp Chase, Ohio in a prison. We stayed there in Louisville, got us a place, and we children went to school and did the best we could and Ma worked for the government to make her some money. And finally they turned him loose. The teacher came to us one day and said that our father was coming home that day. We didn't know how she'd know if it was our father because she was a northern lady. She said, "Well, I was at the wharf looking for the boat to come across. I saw some soldiers standing there and I went up and talked to one of them and asked him what his name was and he said his name was Stewart." And I said, "Well, I have two little girls going to school to me and their name is Stewart, and they are just like you, and I know that they are your children." So that's how come that, you know, to know that we were his children.

They put him in a prison and he stayed there six months, and then came home, came to Louisville, Kentucky. We lived there then a good while, and he worked to make money to come back home to Atlanta.

And when we went back home, why, everything was torn up, there wasn't anything growing, only just wild, you know, and believe it or not, but the whole fields, they didn't have a fence around them or nothing growing on them, and they came up in STRAWBERRIES. We had thousands and thousands of strawberries, and we gathered those strawberries and carried them to Atlanta and sold them and made money to live on, with what Pa was making...A lady who didn't have to refugee, why she had a little handful of peas and she gave Ma the handful of peas. She planted them and we had several messes off of those peas...we never did have any strawberries any more. That was God's work, you know, He gave us Holy Manna to eat while we didn't have anything else.

Walter and Lizzie and their children appear to have lived in the Atlanta area for a number of years after the Civil War. Family tradition says they lived on old Peachtree Street in Atlanta.

In later years Walter and Lizzie and their family moved to Gaylesville in northeast Alabama (Cherokee County) between Gadsden and the Georgia line. Their oldest surviving child, 422 Synthia, married there in 1878. Later Walter settled at his last home in the nearby Liberty community of the Lookout Mountain area in DeKalb County near Collbran, Alabama. Lizzie died in 1887 at age 51 and is buried at Old Mt. Vernon Cemetery five miles from Collinsville, Alabama. The family appears to have belonged to the Methodist church.

Four of Walter and Lizzie's seven children died without issue. The remaining three (422 Synthia S. Boyd, 423 James Buchanan Stewart, and 427 Robert Allen Stewart) removed to Texas, where they have numerous descendants.

After Lizzie's death, Walter married a second time to Mrs. Martha Alabama Taylor Coffman. Martha, thought to have been born in or near Nashville, Tennessee, was the 33-year-old daughter of Steve and Celia Taylor of Cassville, Georgia (Cass County, later Bartow County). She was the widow of James David Coffman, Sr. She and her young son James Coffman, Jr. (born March 27, 1877) were living with her Coffman in-laws on Lookout Mountain when she met Walter Stewart, her second husband. Walter and Martha are known to have been members of old Liberty Church (now McNutt Memorial Methodist Church) in the Liberty community on Lookout Mountain. Four sons were born to this marriage, with known descendants of the three with issue (428 Walter Taylor Stewart, 429 Henry Lester Stewart, and 42.11. Clarence Howard Stewart) living chiefly in Alabama and nearby states. 42.10. Herbert J. Stewart was killed in WW1 in Argonne Forest, France. He was buried first at Flanders; later his body was brought back to Alabama and reinterred at Old Mt. Vernon Cemetery near his home.

The extended Stewart family appears to have "lost track" of Walter and his family for many years, although contact has been reestablished in recent years through the efforts of 42262 Lucille S. Jones, their historian. An old letter dated 1876 from John S. Bobo of Georgia reports him as dead (see 5 James R. Stewart). Another letter dated 1890 from Walter's uncle, 7 David Bobo Stewart of Alabama, says he was Òrun over by the Oxford dummeyÓ (a street car) and killed (see 7 David Bobo Stewart). However, Walter had just embarked on his second marriage in 1890 and was far from dead. He survived until 1904, died at age 75, and is buried with his two wives at Old Mt. Vernon Cemetery on Lookout Mountain in Alabama. His second wife Martha outlived him by many years and died at the old Walter Stewart homeplace on Lookout Mountain in 1948. In her last years she was joined by her son 428 Walter Taylor Stewart and his wife Vennie Kemp.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

422 Synthia Catherine Stewart

Synthia Catherine Stewart was the second child of Walter Washington Stewart and his first wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Russell (Lizzie). She was born in 1854, probably in Campbell County (later northeast Douglas County) near Atlanta, Georgia.

Synthia was apparently named after her grandfather James Stewart's second wife, Scynthia Bobo Stewart. The old family Bible lists her name as "Scynthia" Catherine Stewart. Presumably she simplified the spelling to "Synthia" in later years.

Synthia grew up in the Atlanta area in the hard years after the Civil War. In 1878 she married young Ephraim David Bass Boyd (David), the son of Mary Vashti Mobley and Archibald David Jerry Boyd. David was born in Smyrna, Georgia (Cobb County), just north of Atlanta. He and Synthia were married at her parents' home after the family moved to Gaylesville in northeast Alabama (Cherokee County) Their old Bible record notes that 100 guests were present.

David and Synthia settled at Portersville, Alabama in the Lookout Mountain area of nearby DeKalb County, where their nine children were born. David's parents died not long after their marriage. In addition to their own growing family, he and Synthia reared his six younger brothers and sisters.

In 1903, when their youngest child was seven years old, David and Synthia "went West" to Texas with their large family. They settled in Comanche County in central Texas, about 100 miles southwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. (The family of Synthia's older cousin 72 Clark Berry Stewart, originally of Gadsden, Alabama, lived about 50 miles away in north Erath County, but we have no indication that the two families knew anything about each other.) David and Synthia and their family lived in the Indian Creek area and on the old Huff Ranch for two years, and then settled at Sidney, a few miles northwest of the town of Comanche, the county seat of Comanche County. David died here in 1928 at age 71. He is buried at Pendergrass Cemetery in Sidney, where Synthia was later buried.

Synthia outlived her husband David by many years and died in 1951 a few days before her 97th birthday. Her obituary in The Comanche Chief described her long and interesting life. Excerpts:

Mrs. E.D. (Grannie) Boyd, 97, a resident of Comanche County 48 years, passed away at her home in Sidney October 2, 1951...

"Grannie" Boyd had a keen mind stored full of memories gleaned through the years. When she shared them with her family and friends they were held enthralled with the romance of Civil War times...As the family fled from home each member grabbed some beloved possession to carry away. Synthia Stewart chose her Bible. A Northern soldier snatched it away from her...She (later) recognized the soldier and made such an outcry that she attracted the attention of General Sherman. He questioned the soldier who admitted his guilt and the general ordered him to restore it to her. It is still in the old home. From burned Atlanta the family was moved by the Yankees to Louisville, Ky. Her father, a prisoner of the North, was in a prison camp in Ohio. After the war, the family lived in Kentucky for several years, then returned to Atlanta, Ga.

Through her long and interesting live she was the heart of her home and her family centered closely about her. One of the last gentlewomen of the Old South and its traditions has fallen asleep. The vividness of her life will keep a glow burning in the hearts of her loved ones.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

423 James Buchanan Stewart

James Buchanan Stewart (Jim) was the third child and oldest son of Walter Washington Stewart and his first wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Russell (Lizzie). He was born in 1857, probably in Campbell County (later Douglas County) near Atlanta, Georgia.

Jim was five years old when his father left to serve in the Civil War, leaving his young family in a house he had built near "Factory Town" so his wife Lizzie could work in the mill and support herself and the children while he was gone. (This is thought to be old Sweetwater textile mill, the ruins of which still stand in 1982 at Sweetwater Creek State Park near Atlanta.) The mill was burned by Sherman's troops in 1864, after which young Jim and his family were "refugeed" to Louisville, Kentucky where they were rejoined by Jim's father after his release from a Yankee prisoner of war camp nearby.

Jim and his family returned to the Atlanta area after the war, and in later years settled in the Lookout Mountain area of DeKalb County in northeast Alabama, near the community of Porterville. In 1876, when he was 19 years old, Jim married 17-year-old Josiphy P. White (Josie) of Alabama. Their first child, a little boy named Edward Antenas Stewart, was born in 1878 and died at age three. Jim and Josie had four more children, and Josie died in 1897 at age 28, when her youngest child was less than two years old. Her place of burial is not known; probably near Collinsville, Alabama (DeKalb County), where she and her husband are thought to have lived.

Not long after Josie's death Jim married young Sarah Frances Anderson. Sally, as she was called, was born in Alabama, the daughter of Sarah Lawson and Marcus Calhoun Anderson. Jim and his second wife Sally had five children, three of whom died as infants or children.

About 1894, Jim took his family to the Oklahoma Territory, which had been opened for homesteading in 1889. They lived for a year or two in the Eufalala community near Seminole in central Oklahoma (now Seminole County), and then moved to Texas. Here they settled just across the Oklahoma line near the communities of Ladonia and Pecan Gap in northeast Texas (county name uncertain, since the area is at the intersection of four counties). Jim and Sally's last child, a little boy named Joseph who died not survive, was born here in 1896.

A year later, in 1897, Jim died at age 38, leaving Sally with six children and stepchildren, the eldest of whom was 18 years old. The oldest records in the family say that Jim is buried in Pecan Gap, Texas (Delta County). Another account says he is buried at Ladonia, Texas (Fannin County), seven miles away. The name of the cemetery is not known. Like his brothers and sisters, he belonged to the Methodist church.

After Jim's death, his widow Sally married G.T. Smith, a widower who lived in Pecan Gap. About 1901 she and her children went back with him to the Oklahoma Territory, where they homesteaded near the community of Alfalfa in southwest Oklahoma (now Washita County). Sally and G.T. Smith lived here for many years, until both were killed in a car wreck in 1940. Sally is buried at the Alfalfa Cemetery near their home.

All of James Buchanan Stewart's surviving children settled in Oklahoma with the exception of his sons Henry Washington Stewart and James Homer Stewart (no known descendants), who moved to Long Beach in southern California. They are both said to be buried in Long Beach.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

427 Robert Allen Stewart

Robert Allen Stewart was the seventh and youngest child of Walter Washington Stewart and his first wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Russell (Lizzie). Robert was born in 1868, in the unsettled years just after the Civil War.

It is not certain where Robert was born; probably near Atlanta, Georgia (either Fulton or Campbell Counties) after the family returned from Louisville, Kentucky where his mother and her young children were "refugeed" during the Civil War. Robert's older sister 422 Synthia Stewart Boyd later indicated that the family returned to their home in Campbell County in the years after the war, where the fields "came up in strawberries" that they picked and sold in Atlanta. In later years the family moved to DeKalb County, Alabama, where they settled in the Lookout Mountain area near Portersville. Robert's mother, Lizzie Russell Stewart, died there in 1887 when he was a young man of 19.

Robert appears to have left home about this time. He lived for a time in Louisiana, where in 1890 he married Martha Eula Walker, the daughter of Mollie Mae Payne and William Henry Harrison Walker. Mollie was born in Old Athens in Bossier Parish in northwest Louisiana, where her parents lived. She and Robert settled for a time in Old Athens, where the first three of their six children were born. About 1898 they packed up their young family and "went West" to Texas and the Indian Territory, eventually settling in Wichita County in north central Texas near the Oklahoma line. Their youngest daughter-in-law, 4276 Ardelta P. Stewart of Boyd, Texas, remembers this about them:

Robert Stewart is said to have left home at an early age and seldom spoke of his life there. He married Eula Walker in Louisiana, where they lived for a few years. They came to Shelby County, Texas where Robert bought and operated a sawmill and possibly did some farming. He sold out and moved to Comanche County, Texas about 1910 and bought land at Sidney. He sold this land about 1914 or 1915 and moved to Oscar, Oklahoma near the Red River and rented land, first near Oscar and later near Grady, Oklahoma. For a short time they moved across the river to Spanish Fort, Texas and back to Grady, Oklahoma. From there they moved to Iowa Park, Texas in Wichita County and rented land in two or three areas near Iowa Park, where Robert died.

Robert's wife Eula Walker was born in northwest Louisiana and lived near Minden. She was reared in very comfortable circumstances, one of five children. Her father Billy Walker served a long time in the Civil War but his rank is not known. He was a school teacher, and the family had a fair share of land which could have come from Eula's mother's family, who were Paynes. Eula lived with us for many years and often talked of her childhood and her Negro mammy, the house help and the yard help, so we know her early life was better than later. She was a highly intelligent person, was organist in the church, taught Sunday school and was an active person in the community. When she was about 50 she went blind but five years later had surgery which restored about 20% vision to one eye.

Robert and Eula Stewart were charter members in more than one Methodist church, and were charter members in the Masonic Lodge and Eastern Star at Spanish Fort, Texas. Robert was a very outgoing person remembered with love and respect by all who knew him.

Robert Stewart died in 1931 at age 62 and is buried at Highland Cemetery in Iowa Park, Texas (Wichita County). His wife Eula, who died in 1958 at age 89, is also buried there.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

428 Walter Taylor Stewart

Walter Taylor Stewart, born in 1889, was the first of the four children of Walter Washington Stewart and his second wife, Martha Alabama Taylor Coffman. Like his three younger brothers, Walter Taylor Stewart was born in the Lookout Mountain area near Collbran, Alabama (DeKalb County in northeast Alabama).

Young Walter married Mary Lou Vennie Kemp, the daughter of Robert Kemp and his first wife (name unknown) of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Walter and Vennie were the parents of one son, Robert Elwin Stewart, who married Helen McClung.

Walter worked for the Alabama Great Southern Railroad for many years, spending most of his life in south Alabama. At retirement he and Vennie moved back to the old homeplace on Lookout Mountain in DeKalb County to care for Walter's elderly mother, Martha Taylor Coffman Stewart. Walter died there suddenly in 1844 at age 54. Vennie continued to live at Lookout Mountain and cared for her mother-in-law until the latter's death in 1948. She then moved about 25 miles south to Gadsden, Alabama (Etowah County), where she lived with her son Robert and his family for several years. In 1960 she went to Tuscaloosa in west Alabama to live with and care for her widowed sister, Augie Kemp King, and in 1978 returned to Gadsden. She died there in 1979 at age 90, and is buried with her husband Walter Taylor Stewart at Old Mt. Vernon Cemetery near Collbran.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

429 Henry Lester Stewart

Henry Lester Stewart, born in 1891, was the second child of Walter Washington Stewart and his second wife, Martha Alabama Taylor Coffman. Like his three full brothers, he was born and reared in the Lookout Mountain area near Collbran, Alabama (DeKalb County).

As a young man Lester, as he was called, married Dana Mae McReynolds, who was also born in Collbran. She was the daughter of Ida Mae Cannon and John McReynolds. Lester and Dana Mae lived for a number of years in Collbran, where their first four children were born. Their fifth and last child, Martha Ida Stewart, was born in nearby Gaylesville, Alabama in Cherokee County.

Lester Stewart and his wife Dana Mae are buried at Resthaven Memorial Cemetery, Decatur, Georgia near Atlanta. They were members of the Methodist church.


4 James R. Stewart

42 Walter Washington Stewart

42.11. Clarence Howard Stewart

Clarence Howard Stewart, born in 1896, was the eleventh and last child of Walter Washington Stewart, his fourth child by his second wife, Martha Alabama Taylor Coffman. Like his three older brothers, he was born in the Lookout Mountain area of DeKalb County in northeast Alabama. His father died at age 68, when young Clarence was seven years old.

Not much is known of Clarence and his family. His first wife was Leba Young of Selma, Alabama. His second wife Berta (last name unknown) married W.H. Givens of Baker, Florida (Okaloosa County) after Clarence's death.

Clarence became a Methodist minister, later a Church of Christ minister. He died in 1965 at age 68 at Crestview, Florida in Okaloosa County; his residence was Baker, Florida in the same county. He is buried at Selma, Alabama (Dallas County).

Clarence and his first wife Leba Young had one son, called Toby Stewart.


4 James R. Stewart

43 Emaline Stewart

44 Malinda Stewart

45 Sarah E. Stewart

46 Nancy Stewart

49 Linia Stewart

These were the five younger daughters of James R. Stewart, Founder of the House of James, who lived to reach maturity. Family tradition says that four other young children died of the flu in north Georgia at the same time as their father.

Not much is known of these five daughters. They were all born between about 1833 and 1844, probably near the Hog Mountain community in Gwinnett County about 80 miles northeast of Atlanta, where their half-uncle 6 Rev. Clark Berry Stewart visited the family from time to time. According to the 1876 John S. Bobo letter (see 4 James Stewart), the family was living in Cass County (later Bartow County) in north Georgia when the father died in 1853. In the years after the Civil War, most of the remaining children appear to have settled in Atlanta for a time.

Most of our information on these five daughters comes from the memories of their grandniece, 4225 Jessie Pearl Boyd Bruce of Loraine, Texas (Mitchell County). The relevant passages are shown below.

Aunt Sarah Stewart married John Reeves, and they lived in Atlanta, Georgia. Aunt Nancy Stewart married Thomas White.

Aunt Emaline Stewart married George Smith, an Englishman. George Smith was educated in music. When he played the violin, he expected people to listen. If they did not listen, he would quit playing. Aunt Emaline Smith and Uncle George Smith had one boy, James Smith, whom they called Jim.

Aunt Malinda Stewart married David W. Blocker. They lived in Atlanta. They had a daughter named Ida Blocker and a son named Oscar Blocker. Oscar Blocker married Mattie Dickenson (Dixon?) who had a sister named Edna. Oscar Blocker and Mattie came to see us. Oscar and Mattie Blocker had a daughter named Ruby.

Aunt Linia Stewart married George Gardner. They had a girl who was adopted from Dr. Baren. They called the baby Berns. When Aunt Linia died, she gave the baby to Jinney Gardner. Jinney Gardner's husband called the baby Bertie. When Zoe and I went to visit in Atlanta, Aunt Rowena kept telling Daviddie to take us to see the Gardners. Our Aunt Linia Stewart Gardner was deceased, but Uncle George Gardner and Bertie still lived in the old home. Bertie never married.

(NOTE: 4222 Zoe Dorilla Boyd was Jessie Pearl Boyd's sister; 42271 Daviddie Boyd was her niece.)

Civil War records may have been found for four of the five younger daughters' husbands: 43 George Smith, 45 John Reeves, 46 Thomas White, and 49 George Gardner. Four men by these names enlisted in or were drafted into Confederate service in Cherokee County, Georgia, about 30 miles north of Atlanta. It is not certain that these Confederate soldiers were the husbands of 4 James R. Stewart's younger daughters, but family records indicate that these were the names of their husbands. Two of the men (45 John Reeves and 46 Thomas White) enlisted on the same day and served in the same unit, and a third (43 George Smith) enlisted a month later, but also served in the same unit.

In summary, all of James Stewart's five younger daughters married. The two older of the daughters, 43 Emaline and 44 Malinda, may have been already married by 1850, as they are not found as members of their father's household in the 1850 Census for Forsyth County. When their father died in 1853, the three younger daughters (45 Sarah, 46 Nancy, and 49 Linia) were about 13, 18, and 20 years old respectively. Three of the daughters left one or more children, but very little is known of their descendants.