The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 418

HUGH STUART.

Hugh Stuart has passed the seventy-first milestone on life's journey but is
still actively identified with horticultural interests in Yakima county. He was
born in Ontario, Canada, November 10, 1847, a son of Alexander and Margaret
(Crawford) Stuart, the latter a native of Ontario, while the former was born in
Ireland but was of Scotch parentage. He crossed the Atlantic to Canada in 1830
and resided for more than a third of a century in that country. In 1864,
however, he became a resident of Michigan, where he followed the carpenter's
trade, being busily identified with building operations in that state to the
time of his death. His wife passed away in Ontario.

Hugh Stuart acquired a public school education and in early life learned the
carpenter's trade with his father. Through the winter months he worked in the
logging camps, and advancing in that connection, became a logging contractor. He
devoted his energies to that pursuit until 1891, when he made his way to the
northwest. On reaching the Yakima valley he entered the employ of the Sunnyside
Ditch Company and afterward wisely invested his earnings in land. He first
bought ten acres on the Moxee, which he planted to hops, but that proved an
unprofitable venture. He then again took up carpentering and bridge building
and later he planted some hop vineyards but in that undertaking lost three
hundred and fifty dollars. Undiscouraged, however, he tried again, renting
twenty-six acres of land, and on this occasion his losses amounted to three
thousand dollars. He was by this time convinced that hop-raising was not the
vocation for which nature intended him. Again he followed carpentering and
bridge building, taking contract work until 1907, when he proved up on a
homestead in Stevens county, Washington, which he sold in 1907. In 1901 he had
purchased eighty acres of land two and a half miles east of Yakima before the
water was on it. In 1902 the Selah-Moxee canal was built and his ranch was then
well irrigated. He improved the tract of eighty acres, bringing it to a high
point of productivity, and later he sold sixty acres. He has planted eighteen
acres of the remainder to fruit and upon the place has built a fine home.

In 1871 Mr. Stuart was married to Miss Margaret McKay, a native of England but
of Scotch parentage. She is a daughter of John McKay, who served in the
Ninety-second Highlanders for twenty-one years. To Mr. and Mrs. Stuart have been
born five children, namely: Elizabeth, the wife of W. C. Stayt, a resident of
Yakima county; W. A., an attorney residing in Chicago, Illinois; Edith Alberta,
who died at the age of two years; John E., at home; and Eva May, the wife of J.
H. Campbell.

In politics Mr. Stuart maintains an independent course, nor has he ever sought
or desired office, preferring to give his undivided attention to his business
affairs. Although obstacles and difficulties have at times confronted him in his
career he has steadily worked his way upward and is now the owner of an
excellent fruit ranch in the Yakima valley.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.