James Stewart & Sarah (Sally) Jane Stewart

James Stewart
James was born on February 17th, 1843 in Killymuck Glebe, Tamlaght O'Crilly Parish, Co. Londonderry, Ireland and his baptism took place on March 23rd, 1843 in Churchtown Presbyterian Church conducted by Reverend Torrens.¹ 

• Birth Notes
  • Baptism: March 23, 1843, Churchtown Presbyterian Church, Tamlaght, Co. Londonderry, Ireland (Source: Churchtown Presbyterian Church records, Tamlaght, Co Londonderry.)
    
    Family letters state that James was born in the year 1845, however, no record of his birth or baptism is found in that year. Although it is
    possible that he was born in 1845 (and the child born
    in 1843 died) and his baptism was not recorded in the
    Churchtown Presbyterian Church, I believe the 1843
    date is accurate and for whatever reason he  chose to say he was born in 1845. Other souces give his year of birth as 1847.
    

He died at the age of 77 on November 6th, 1920 in Pinebrook Farm, Colmar, Pennsylvania.  His burial was on November 9th, 1920 in Lot 647 Everglade,West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala-Cynwyd, PA.

• Death Notes
  • (Obituary)
    (Headline)  James Stewart Dies at Colmar--Was Director of Public Health and Charities in Mayor Fitler's Administration--Once a Power Downtown--Born in Ireland, He came to Philadelphia 60 Years Ago.  Funeral Tuesday.
    
    James Stewart, director of the Department of Public Health and Charities under Mayor Fitler, and for many years a member of the old Board of Guardians of the Poor, died yesterday, the second anniversary of the death of his wife.  Death came at the farm of his son, Edwin Fitler Stewart, near Colmar, Bucks County, where he had made his home for the past year.
    In his old home at Fifth and Greenwich streets, Mr. Stewart was long a political power in the First ward before the ascendancy of the Vare brothers.  He was a thirty-second degree Mason, member of Washington Lodge, a Knight Templar, and for thirty-five years of the Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church.
    Born in County Derry, Ireland, he came to Philadelphia sixty years ago, and has lived here nearly all the time since then.  Ten of his twelve children reached maturity.  Nine are married.  They are Dr. William T. Stewart, Camden, S.C.; Mrs. William C. Proctor, Dallas, Tex.; Mrs. Henry J. Gibbons, Cynwyd; Mrs. George E. Bean, of Cynwyd; James Bolton Stewart, United States consul at Chihuahua, Mexico; Mrs. Nathaniel Gildersleeve, Lansdowne; Edwin Fitler Stewart,  of Colmar; Miss Nancy R. Stewart, Norfolk, Va.; Mrs. Henry A. Hoyt, Fallon, Nev.; and Mrs. Howard A. Stockwell, Belmont, Mass.
    Funeral services will be held Tuesday at the home of Mrs. Bean, 330 Bryn Mawr road, Cynwyd.  Dr. J. Gray Bolton, Mr. Stewart's cousin, and the Rev. Victor Lukens, pastor of the Old Pine Street Church, will be in charge of the services.----Philadelphia Inquirer, November 7, 1920
    
    

Sarah (Sally) Jane Stewart
Sarah, known as Sally, was born on February 20th, 1852 in Philadelphia, PA.  She died  due to Nephritis at the age of 66 on November 6th, 1918 in Philadelphia, PA.  Her burial was on November 9th, 1918 in Lot 647 Everglade, West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala- Cynwyd, PA.

• Death Notes
  • Burial: Lot 647 Everglade, West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Bala- Cynwyd, PA (Source: (1) West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA., (2)
    
    (Obituary)
    A MOTHER OF TWELVE
    
    Tradition has it that there lies sleeping in the churchyard of Old Pine Street a mother of twenty-one children; but in these days of small families, we marvel at a mother of twelve, ten of whom have passed the age of twenty-one and seven have married and given her thirteen grandchildren.  Such was Sarah Jane Stewart, wife of James Stewart, who smilingly faced the beautiful adventure and peacefully closed for the last time her weary eyelids on November 6th.  No one ever lived with such serenity or bestowed with such a prodigal hand the bounties of her love.  Service to her was not only an ideal, but a joyful reality, to which she devoted without stint her whole existence; and her family is her monument.
    Two weeks prior to the end of this noble life, which was begun in this city in 1852, Mr. and Mrs. Stewart moved into the new home purchased by their daughter, Martha, at 6124 Columbia Avenue, and with them went the mother's aunt and valiant right arm, Margaret Lowry, who is bright and vigorous after eighty-three summers.  Now this large family of former days, which occupied two pews at church, is reduced to three, for the others all live elsewhere.
    One of four children who reached maturity, Mrs. Stewart was the oldest daughter of John and Martha Lowry Stewart, and was reared in the old Union Presbyterian Church on Thirteenth Street above Pine.  One sister survives her, Lillian Craig Stewart, a member of Bethany Temple.  More than thirty years ago Mr. and Mrs. Stewart brought their letters from the South Church, then at Third and Redwood Streets, to Old Pine Street, where Dr. Gibbons received into the church the four oldest children and baptized the six youngest.
    With the growth of her family, Mrs. Stewart became more and more absorbed in her home life, until it became difficult to persuade her to leave it even to visit those of her children who had married.
    Except for the seven additional sons and daughters who married into the family and were received by her always with every affection bestowed upon her own, very few were able therefore to appreciate and enjoy the unusual loveliness of her personality.  But the exquisite sweetness of her character and the silent force of her example pervaded the home life and influenced profoundly those whom she saw frequently.  The writer in twenty years of intimate association with her never once heard an unkind word or unjust judgement come from her lips.  When talking her face was wont to light up and she died as she lived with a smile.
    At her funeral were two who had seen her married--her aunt, Margaret, and a cousin of Mr. Stewart's, Rev. J. Gray Bolton, D.D., who assisted Mr Lukens in the service and spoke most fittingly and with personal knowledge of her wonderful life.
    Of her children, only two now live in the city--Martha L. Stewart and Edwin F. Stewart.
    The others are Dr. William T., James B. and Nancy Rhoda Stewart, Mrs. Henry J. Gibbons, Mrs. George E. Bean, Mrs. Nathaniel Gildersleeve, Mrs. Henry A. Hoyt and Mrs. Howard A. Stockwell.
    
    (Obituary written by her son in law, Henry Johns Gibbons, the Old Pine Street News, Philadelphia, Pa., December 1918.)
    
    Death Notice:  STEWART: of 6124 Columbia Ave, Nov 6, Sarah Jane, wife of James Stewart.  Services and int private. - Philadelphia Inquirer, Nov 9, 1918