James E. Stewart, a farmer of the Eleventh District of Lauderdale County, was
born in North Carolina, December 10, 1831, and is a son of Spencer and
Elizabeth (Hurley) Stewart. The father was born in 1804, and moved to McNairy
County, Tenn., in 1833, where he farmed until his death in 1845. The mother
was also a native of North Carolina, born in 1806, and died in 1873. Our
subject is of Scotch-Irish descent. He was raised on a farm, and continued
farming until 1857, when he became a traveling photographer until 1860; he
then began merchandising in McNairy County. When the war commenced he entered
the Confederate service as second lieutenant of Company H, Fifty Second
Tennessee Infantry; he remained with this company until May, 1862, and
returned home, staying until 1863, when he joined the Nineteenth Tennessee
Cavalry, Company E, and was appointed second lieutenant, and in 1864 was
promoted to captain of Company H, Nineteenth and Twenty-first Regiments. After
the war he returned home, and ran a saw and grist-mill in connection with his
farming until 1869. Since then he has given his attention entirely to
farming. December 10, 1852, he married Miss Emily Hendricks, of McNairy
County, and they had two children: Sophronia E., who died in infancy, and
Wilson A., who also died in infancy. Mrs. Stewart died in 1855, and
September 1, 1861, he married Margaret F. Bryant, and by this marriage had ten
children, six of whom are living: Charley E., Lula S. (the wife of I. H.
Johns), Lizzie Ann, Nannie Marvin, Pearl I. and Ollie Reed. Mr. Stewart is
now worth about &6,000, the result of his own efforts and good management. He
stands well socially, and is an upright man, and with his wife belongs to the
Methodist Episcopal Church, and is a sound Democrat.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN