Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 454-455.

CHARLES STEWART

	CHARLES STEWART, of Hillsboro, Oregon, one of the honored pioneers of Oregon
of 1846, was born in St. Charles County, Missouri, April 9, 1818.  His
grandfather, Thomas Stewart, was an early settler of Kentucky, and served in the
Revolutionary War, and his father, Benjamin Stewart, was born in Kentucky, where
he married Miss Elizabeth Wood,a native of Virginia.  They had a family of six
children, and in 1846 crossed the plains to Oregon, three of the children then
being married, and they with their wives and children joined the party.  They
came to Polk county, where the father purchased land and settled upon the Dove
donation claim, on the Rickreall. He had 640 acres of land, and after remaining
upon this one year he came to Oregon [City -ed.] and worked at his trade of
blacksmith, on the Clackamas river.
	At this time he removed to a farm of 640 acres of timber land, three miles
east of Oregon City, and in 1849 removed to the Hazelwitch farm in Washington
county, where he resided until the time of his death, which occurred May 19,
1856, when he was in his seventy-seventh year.  He was an honest Democrat, a
good Baptist and a hard-working, honest man. Charles Stewart, who is the subject
of this sketch, served in the Florida war in 1835, and was in his twenty-seventh
year when he came to Oregon. He had married in Missouri, Miss Martha Ann Wood, a
native of Boone county, Missouri, born in 1826.  They brought with them their
first born son William [Mathias Stewart, their actual first born, had previously
passed away in Missouri -ed.], who now resides in California.  The journey
across the plains was a long and tedious one of eight months, and they suffered
many privations, and had the misfortune to lose by death the only sister, Nancy.
They buried her in Umpqua valley, and pen cannot describe their sadness of such
a bereavement and burial.  After crossing the Coast Range of mountains, on their
coming to Oregon, they landed at the head of the Willamette valley.  They left
their worn-out teams, and were so nearly starved that they hired the French to
pack them to the French settlement, a distance of 150 miles.  They crossed the
three forks of the Willamette river on ponies, Mrs. Stewart holding her child in
her arms, while the ponies were swimming.  The whole distance was traveled, and
nothing to eat only the game that was killed.  It was snowing and raining all
the time, and very cold.  The 23rd day of December, 1846, in the Willamette
valley, was the first they slept in a house for eight months.
	Our subject took a claim near his father's land in Washington county, at the
time 640 acres of wild land, and upon this he built the log house of the
pioneer.  The family had but little in the way of furniture, and not much
variety in their food, living principally on boiled wheat and milk, but they all
grew fat, healthy and strong.  Here he and his good pioneer wife lived, working
hard, and when they prospered she rejoiced, and here they reared a family of ten
children.  The oldest child [the oldest who was born in Oregon -ed.], Sarah, was
born in Oregon.  She married Mr. John Thomas, but died in her twenty-third year.
Mary Adeline became the wife of John Simpson, and resides near Hillsboro on a
farm; Martha Jane married Mr. Andrew Jack, and resides near Farmington,
Washington county; Susan married Mr. George Fuller, and they reside in Spokane.
They own a farm near.  John Benjamin is a farmer, and lives three miles south of
Hillsboro [the John Benjamin Stewart farm was immediately west of the John and
Mary Adeline Stewart Simpson farm -ed.]; George resides in Portland; Emma
married Mr. James McClarkin, and resides in Washington county; Charles resides
with his parents; Effie married Mr. James D. Atley [DeAtley -ed.}, and resides
in East Portland.
	Mr. and Mrs. Stewart resided on the farm thirty-six years, making a valuable
property of it, then sold the place and retired to Hillsboro, where they
purchased lots and built a nice residence.  Here these worthy pioneers are
spending the evening of a well-spent life, with their large family of nine
children [two of their children, Mathias and Sarah, are already deceased -ed.]
living within a short distance, at the farthest but a day's journey. She
possesses a cheerful disposition, and is a leading member of the Christian
Church.
	Mr. Stewart is a good Democrat in his political belief.  His seventy-four
years of hard industry has left him a stout man, and they both look backward
with pleasure to those pioneer days in Oregon, when they started with nothing
but hope and a big stock of industry, and they say that those were the happiest
days of their lives.  It is not necessary to add that Mr. and Mrs. Stewart are
well known and that they have a host of friends, for such things always follow
such faithful lives as theirs have been.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in January 2007 by L. Renee Briggs,
lrbriggs at gorge dot net.  The transcriber's comments are shown in brackets
above.