John I. Steward, one of Lauderdale’s substantial farmers, was born in North
Carolina January 21, 1827, and came with his parents to Tennessee in 1834, and
settled in McNairy County. He is the second of a family of seven sons and two
daughters born to Spencer and Elizabeth (Hurley) Stewart. The father was
born in North Carolina and came to Tennessee when about thirty-five years of
age, and died in McNairy County September 5, 1845. The mother was born in the
same State, and died in Arkansas. Our subject has always been a farmer. He
married in McNairy County August 19, 1847, Miss Elizabeth Dillon, a daughter
of Andrew Dillon, a farmer. Of the nine children born to this marriage seven
are living: Andrew N., Rebecca A., John A., Rachel O., Iverson L., Byron C.,
and Joseph H. The mother of this family was born in North Carolina and died
in Lauderdale County, July 7, 1885. Mr. Stewart was again married, in this
county, July 21, 1886, to Mrs. Ella Jordan, who was born in Lauderdale County
July 28, 1856. He is a Democrat and adheres strictly to the old Jeffersonian
principles, and is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. He
enlisted in the Confederate Army, belonging to the Sixteenth Tennessee
Cavalry, under Col. Wilson; was in several battles in Mississippi and in
Hood’s campaign in Tennessee, but owing to a wound received in Giles County,
at Campbellsville, was left on the way. He was wounded prior to this at
Okolona, Miss., and the battle of Harrisburg, Miss, from a piece of exploded
shell. The wound received at Campbellsville disabled him from active service.
Mr. Stewart owns 262 acres of land, on which he raises cotton and stock, but
makes grain his chief market product. The farm is only one and a half miles
north of Ripley, and is a valuable place. Mr. Stewart is widely known and
greatly esteemed.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN