Morgan County AlArchives Biographies.....Church, Stewart 1845 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 January 6, 2012, 9:00 pm Source: See below Author: Smith & De Land, publishers STEWART CHURCH, Superintendent of the Decatur Charcoal and Chemical Works, was born in Monroe County, N. Y., September l9, 1845. His parents were Dennis and Mary (Stewart) Church. Dennis Church was a native of Monroe County, N. Y., and a son of Elihu Church, who came from Berkshire, Mass., in 1806, and became the first settler in Monroe County. He served several terms in the New York Legislature. The ancestors of this family were English, and landed at Plymouth Rock about 1640. Stewart Church received a common-school education. About the age of seventeen, he became a salesman in a woolen house in New York City. In 1868, he engaged in the dry goods business at Bay City, Mich. In 1870, he returned to his home, and worked one of his father's farms until 1878, when he engaged in the manufacture of charcoal and the bi-product of wood alcohol and acetate of lime, with Dr. H. M. Pierce, the patentee of that process, at Bangor, Mich. In 1880, the Elk Rapids Iron Company, Michigan, erected the same kind of works, and Mr. Church, as superintendent, remained with them until January, 1887, when he removed to Decatur, and supervised the construction of the Decatur Charcoal and Chemical Works, the second enterprise of this kind in Alabama. (The first one is at Calera.) These works have a capacity of forty thousand cords of wood per year. They were begun in 1886. Their officers are: Colonel S. A. Champion, president: M. A. Spurr, treasurer; and J. A. Bishop, secretary. Stewart Church was married in May, 1872, to Miss Anna, daughter of Henry Gustin, merchant, at Bay City, Mich. They have four children, viz.: Dennis, Anna, William Stewart, and Frederick. Mr. Church is a member of the Knights of Honor and the Masonic fraternity. Additional Comments: Extracted from: Northern Alabama: Historical and Biographical Birmingham, Ala.: Smith and De Land 1888 PART IV. MONOGRAPHS OF THE PRINCIPAL CITIES AND TOWNS IN NORTHERN AND CENTRAL ALABAMA, TOGETHER WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF MANY OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE PEOPLE. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/morgan/bios/church997gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 2.7 Kb