Stewart, W. H. (William Harding), 1816-

William Harding Stewart was born in Utica, N.Y., in 1816. He spent most of his adult life in the South as a traveling Campbellite Christian preacher based first in Louisiana and then in Texas.

W. H. Stewart was born near Utica, N.Y., 19 December 1816. He was raised as a Quaker in Mt. Gilead, Ohio. He attended Marietta College in Ohio and taught school in Kentucky and North Carolina after graduation. In 1837, he went to Arkansas, and it was there that he began his work as a traveling Campbellite Christian (Disciples of Christ) preacher. In March 1841, Stewart married Martha J. Smith, with whom he had five children. From 1845 to 1851, he divided his time between teaching school and traveling and evangelizing in Arkansas, southwest Missouri, and the Indian Nation (including the Cherokee Nation). In 1858, he settled with his family in Cheneyville, La., to work with a church there. He also continued to travel and preach, mostly in Kentucky and Mississippi. During his tenure at Cheneyville, Stewart suffered the loss of three of his children, whom he buried in the Old Christian Cemetery. He also indicated that he lost everything in the Civil War, because his home was ... in the great military thoroughfare... . From 1880 to the time the Reminiscences was published in 1894, Stewart lived and preached in Texas. During these last years, his wife died, in 1890, after 49 years of marriage.