STEWART, Freborn E.

STEWART, SWEET, SPRAGUE, CADY, COLLINS

Posted By: Jennifer Gunderson (email)
Date: 3/13/2021 at 16:32:06

F. E. Stewart, of Clear Lake, Iowa, belongs to the fast thinning ranks of Civil war veterans. As such and as a representative citizen of Cerro Gordo county, a sketch of his life is of interest in this work, and, briefly, is as follows:

F. E. Stewart was born in St. Marion, Ogle county, Illinois, August 15, 1841, son of Samuel F. and Mary (Sweet) Stewart. Samuel F. Stewart, born September 1, 1803, was a native of Massachusetts, and his father, Jonathan, was born in Scotland and spent the first sixteen years of his life there. He traced his genealogy back to King James Stuart and to Mary Queen of Scots. In Massachusetts S. F. Stewart grew to manhood and married, April 11, 1837, and he made Illinois his home until 1842, when he moved to Dane county, Wisconsin, where he was engaged in farming the rest of his life. He died there in 1876, at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, born November 5, 1807, in Oneida county, New York, died about 1872. In their family were three sons and two daughters, of whom two are deceased, those living being James and Charlotte, of Milton Junction, Wisconsin, and F. E., the subject of this sketch.

F. E. Stewart was reared in Dane county, Wisconsin, and was just emerging from his teens when Civil war was inaugurated. In answer to the ninety day call he enlisted his services and at the end of that time re-enlisted for three years, as a member of Company F, Thirteenth Wisconsin Infantry, with which command he participated in numerous engagements, including those of Franklin, Decatur, Nashville and Lookout Mountain, at first with the Twentieth Army Corps and later with the Fourth. He was mustered out December 19, 1865, at San Antonio, Texas, following a siege of typhoid fever in a field hospital.

Returning to Wisconsin at the close of his army service, he made his home there until about 1877, when he came to Iowa and settled in Cerro Gordo county. He owned and operated a farm in Lincoln township, subsequently selling it and buying another there; and after selling the second one came to Clear Lake township and invested in land near the county line. This last farm he also sold and has since lived retired.

Mr. Stewart married, in Wisconsin, March 27, 1866, Miss Lucinda A. Sprague, a native of Milton, Rock county, that state, born July 19, 1846, a daughter of Orrin and Amelia (Cady) Sprague, the former born in Otsego county, New York, and the latter in Pennsylvania. They went to Rock county, Wisconsin in an early day, and came to Howard county, Iowa, in 1852. Mr. Sprague was a blacksmith, and he died at Clear Lake, July 12, 1887, his wife dying February 25, 1878.

Mr. Sprague was one of the pioneers of Wisconsin, and he came to Iowa in 1852, as above stated. To him belongs the distinction of having built the first sawmill in Chickasaw county, Iowa. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are the parents of three sons and one daughter; John H., Ira E. and David L., all of Clear Lake, the last two being partners in the transfer and ice business; and Nelia May, wife of W. F. Collins, also of Clear Lake. In his political views Mr. Stewart is independent, and fraternally he is identified with the Masonic Order. Mrs. Stewart is a member of the Eastern Star and Relief Corps and attends the Methodist Episcopal church.

Source: History of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa. Transcribed by Jennifer Gunderson (Mar 2021).