Biography of Peter Grant Stewart, 1899, State of Oregon
Surnames: Stewart, Cason, Rosecrans
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Transcribed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
W. David Samuelsen - December 2001
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Oregon Native Son, Vol. 1, May 1899, page 48-49

PETER GRANT STEWART

Peter G. Stewart was born in Stanford, Delaware county, N. Y., September 6,
1809. When 8 years of age he moved to Jefferson, Scohane county, where he
received a common school education, and learned the trade of watchmaker, which
occupation he followed in Middlebury until the spring of 1838, when he started
on a tour of the West and South, from which he returned in poor health. On
September 1, 1842, he married Miss Rebecca R. Cason. During that year he was
appointed brigade paymaster by General Smith. In April, 1843, he left
Springfield, Mo., for Oregon, and crossed the plains in company with J. W.
Nesmith, Marcus Whitman, Jesse Applegate and others. At The Dalles Mr.
Stewart, F. C. Cason (his father-in-law) and their families secured the
services of Indians and their canoes, and in this manner came down the
Columbia and up the Willamette to Oregon City, where they arrived on the
6th of November, having been seven months on the journey.

In May, 1844, he was elected one of the executive committee of the provisional
government. In 1845 he was elected by the legislative committee first judge of
the district court for Clackamas county. In 1850 he became interested in the
townsite of Pacific City, at the mouth of the Columbia, where he lived nearly
three years, when the government reserved the land for military purposes, and,
although thousands of dollars had been spent improving it, he was refused any
compensation whatever, until within the last month, and was not even permitted
to take up another donation land claim in its stead, the result of which was
that he was left in destitute circumstances. It seemed like mockery, in 1853,
to be appointed by President Pierce surveyor and inspector of the revenue for
the port of Pacific City, as the revenues were not sufficient to provide the
barest necessities of life. In 1861 he moved to Portland where, in October,
1863, his wife died, leaving him with a family of five children to mourn her
loss. His business in Portland proved fairly prosperous until the big fire of
December, 1872, when nearly everything was swept away in a few minutes. Again,
the following August, when the business portion of the city was destroyed, the
fire fiend visited him, and swept away the remnant of his possessions. In
September, 1876, he again married, this time the widow of Dr. Rosecrans, of
Butteville, and located at Gervais, where he served as city recorder for three
years. Mr. Stewart is an honored member of the Masonic fraternity. He was a
charter member of Multnomah lodge No. 1, the first fraternal order established
on the Pacific coast.