Stewart, Elias

Farmer

Birth: December 28, 1841, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio
Death: March 29, 1921, Vienna, Trumbull County, Ohio

Published Biography

From Harriet Taylor Upton, A Twentieth Century History of Trumbull County, Ohio, A Narrative Account of its Historical Progress, Its People, and Its Principal Interests (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1909), Volume 1, p 243:

ELIAS STEWART.- A substantial farmer of Vienna Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, Elias Stewart is a man who has seen life in many phases and in many sections of the United States, but has spent the last two decades in his native township, engaged in the honorable calling of his earlier years. Born in Vienna township, December 28, 1841, he is a son of Alexander and Margaret (Milford) Stewart, both of his parents being native to the picturesque country east of the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania. They migrated to Ohio during its pioneer period, Alexander being but a small boy when he came with uncle to Trumbull county on horseback. After his marriage Alexander Stewart and family resided in Liberty township for several years, and he then purchased a farm in Vienna township, residing thereon until his death in 1905, at the age of eighty-seven years. The mother had passed away about 1871, some thirty-four years before.

Elias Stewart, of this biography, obtained his only schooling from books within the walls of the old blockhouse in Vienna township, and remained at home until he was twenty-five years of age. With a seizure of the western fever he was induced to take a load of flour to Denver, remaining in that city about a year, after which he sought other interesting localities in the west, both from love of change and with the purpose of finding a location which was more to his liking than his old Ohio home. For a time he farmed and drove a stage in Iowa, and about the close of the Civil war retraced his steps to Trumbull County. His next experiment was a laborer in a Michigan sawmill, but a year of that work again converted him to the advantages and attractions of his home locality and, for about two years after his return, was engaged in drilling for coal. He next took charge of the old home farm in Vienna township and was thus employed until 1888, when he purchased the forty acres which he has since transformed into his present homestead, so expressive of substantial success and family comfort. in political belief he is a Democrat.

In 1872 Mr. Stewart married Miss Hannah Wolf, daughter of John and Hame (Cannon) Wolf, her father being a native of New Jersey and her mother of Vienna township, this county. At a very early day the Wolf family located in Hubbard township, from which Mrs. Stewart's father enlisted for service in the Civil war. At the end of his term of enlistment he returned to his old home in that township, where he died in 1898, the later years of his life being passed in total blindness. His wife had died fully a quarter of a century before.