Huston, Stewart, 1898-1971

Stewart Huston was born in Coatesville, Pa., on May 9, 1898, the son of Charles Lukens and Annie Stewart Huston. He attended Haverford College and Lehigh University, where he studied metallurgical engineering. Between 1917 and 1919 he served with the American Expeditionary Force in France. From 1923 to 1932 he worked as a metallurgist at the family's Lukens Steel Company in Coatesville. He was corporate secretary from 1928 to 1963 and vice president from 1951 until his death on August 27, 1971. Huston was active in steel industry professional organizations and civic affairs in Coatesville.

Stewart Huston (1898-1971) was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, the son of Charles L. and Annie Nan (Stewart) Huston. Annie (Stewart) Huston was the daughter of James Turner and Eliza Miller (Reid) Stewart of Savannah, Georgia. His full name was James Stewart Huston, but he seldom used the first name. At the time of his death he was vice-president and director of the Lukens Steel Company, of Coatesville, the fifth generation in the family steel business. John Armour (d. 1800) was a mason in Savannah. In 1793 he married Ruth Erwin Eirick (1754-1827). Ruth was the widow of Alexander Eirick, the son of Adam and Catherine Eirick, early settlers of Savannah. They had one child named Ruth Erwin Eirick. She married Francis Harvey Welman (1780-1861), a native of Bermuda. Welman was a merchant in Savannah. In the 1850s he was the Savannah agent for Lloyd's of London. Ruth Erwin Welman (1811-1898), daughter of Francis Harvey and Ruth Welman, married John Hope Reid (1800-1848), a native of Scotland and merchant in Savannah. Their daughter, Eliza Miller Reid married James Turner Stewart (1834-1901), a cotton broker in Savannah. Papers of many of the above are in the collection. Murray McGregor Stewart (1868-1928), cotton merchant and Mayor of Savannah, and Ruth Stewart, uncle and aunt of Stewart Huston are also represented in the collection. Ruth Stewart married in 1894 William Ridgely Leaken (1861-1918), a lawyer in Savannah. Leaken was one of the electors from Georgia for President McKinley in 1896. He was Assistant U.S. District Attorney, April 1898-March 1906, and was appointed Collector of the Port of Savannah by President Taft, a position which he held until 1913. His papers consist of his personal and legal correspondence and those pertaining to his positions as Assistant U.S. District Attorney and Collector of the Port of Savannah. Mrs. Leaken was a prominent clubwoman, served as State Chairman of the Women's Committee of the Liberty Loan Bond drives in World War I and took a prominent part in the Women's Suffrage Movement. She married, second, William Duncan Judkins of Virginia. After his death she spent the remainder of her life in Savannah.