BIO: Alexander Stewart, Cumberland County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Bookwalter

Copyright 2010.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/
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History of Cumberland and Adams Counties, Pennsylvania.
Containing History of the Counties, Their Townships, Towns, Villages, 
Schools, Churches, Industries, Etc.; Portraits of Early Settlers and 
Prominent Men; Biographies; History of Pennsylvania; Statistical and 
Miscellaneous Matter, Etc., Etc.  Illustrated.  Chicago: Warner, Beers 
& Co., 1886.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/cumberland/beers/beers.htm
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                                PART II.

             HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND COUNTY. PENNSYLVANIA.

                               CHAPTER XL.

                        BOROUGH OF SHIPPENSBURG. 

445  BOROUGH OF SHIPPENSBURG.

  DR. ALEXANDER STEWART, retired physician, Shippensburg, Penn., was 
born in Frederick County, Md., September 28, 1809, son of John and 
Rosana (Sheeler) Stewart, natives of Maryland, of Scotch-Irish descent.  
He is the eldest of a family of nine children - only two of whom 
survive - and bears the name of his grandfather, Alexander Stewart, who 
emigrated from the County Antrim, Ireland, in 1773, and settled in 
Frederick County, Md.  His father, John Stewart, was an only son and 
became a successful business man and farmer.  Through a long life he 
enjoyed the respect and esteem of his community.  Himself a man of more 
than ordinary acquirements, he gave to his children whatever 
educational advantages he could command.  Dr. Stewart was educated at 
Mount St. Mary's College, and at the age of nineteen years commenced 
the study of medicine at Emmittsburg.  His professional course was 
completed at Washington Medical College, Baltimore, Md., from which 
institution he was graduated in 1831.  The same year he began the 
practice of his profession in Shippensburg, where he has continued to 
reside uninterruptedly until the present time.  His skill as a 
physician was early recognized and appreciated and he soon acquired an 
extensive practice.  For nearly half a century he devoted himself 
untiringly, or, to a large degree, unselfishly, to the most exacting of 
all professions.  During all these years, his was a familiar and 
welcome presence in most of the homes in Shippensburg and the 
surrounding country, in many cases through several successive 
generations.  It was only when impaired vision interfered with the 
active discharge of his professional duties, that he ceased from his 
labors.  To his medical skill he added a personal character which made 
him conspicuous and beloved, and now in the retirement of a serene old 
age he enjoys the affectionate regard of his fellow-men.  Dr. Stewart 
was married, in 1832, to Miss Margaret Grabill, of Frederick County, 
Md., who died in May, 1835, without issue:  he then married in 1836, 
Elizabeth Hamill, daughter of Capt. George Hamill, of Shippensburg.  
She died April 24, 1853.  By this marriage there were seven children, 
six of whom survive:  George H. (who resides in Shippensburg and is 
engaged in business as a grain merchant), John (an attorney at law, 
residing in Chambersburg), Alexander (farmer and grain dealer of 
Scotland, in Franklin County), Robert C. (a practicing physician in 
Shippensburg), Mary Augusta (wife of James E. McLean of Shippensburg), 
and Charlotte Louisa (wife of John H. Craig, of Reading, Penn).  In 
1858, Dr. Stewart was married to Miss Eunice G. Wilson, of Vermont, his 
present wife.  Because 

446  BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES:

of advanced age he has renounced all business cares and 
responsibilities except the presidency of the First National Bank of 
Shippensburg, which position he has held for twenty-one years, being 
the first and only president.