Shelby  County,  Indiana
Biographies

Joseph  R.  Stewart

           Joseph R. Stewart was born in Mercer County, Penn., January 6, 1831.  He is the son of  David M. and  Lucia (Bierce) Stewart, and is of Irish-English origin.  His father was born in New Jersey in 1767, and died in Shelbyville, December 25, 1874.  The paternal grandfather of Mr. Stewart was born in County Donegal, Ireland, and emigrated to America, and died in Mercer County, Penn.  The mother of Mr. Stewart was born in New York, November 29, 1810, and is yet living.  Joseph R. Stewart came to Shelbyville in December, 1851.  He received a fair common school education.  He began to do for himself in 1852, at which time he engaged in the planing mill business.  Since 1861, he has constantly been occupied in that occupation. For the last four years, he has added a lumber and coal yard to his other business, and has taken a partner,  Mr. Will E. Blakely, his son-in-law.  Mr. Stewart was married in October, 1852, to  Miss Ann A. Evans, a native of Pennsylvania, born October 30, 1830.  They have only one child, a daughter,  Mrs. Elizabeth Blakely.  Mr. Stewart was formerly an old line Whig, but is now an ardent Republican.  He has been elected a member of the Common Council of the City of Shelbyville five terms, serving in all ten years.  He belongs to the A. O. U. W., and he and family are Presbyterians, save Mrs. Stewart, who is a Baptist.  Mr. Stewart was Chorister of the Presbyterian Church choir for thirty-four years.  He is also one of the city's most valiant firemen, and for a long while was Chief of the Fire Department. Shelbyville has few better men than Joe Stewart.  There is no one more universally popular than he.  He is sociable, big-hearted and generous.  He is always in the lead of enterprises to suppress or avert public calamities.
History of Shelby County, Indiana, Brant & Fuller, pages 537-538, "Shelbyville Sketches".
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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