Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1860-02-02

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From tho Troy IN. I Arena.
Phi.O p. stewart; InventOry ReOnBmIst and
PhllantbrOpist.
Every community has its distinctive charac.
ters, undoubted y,-mOre or less ont ofthe usu-
al run of mankind Troy of course has its quo
ia Of them, deViating from the great centre line
OF ordinary impulse aud ordinary action in vari
Gus degrees, but were we to single out the pc Z.
euliar man Of the town we would be inclined to
take the benevolent faced, scaRtly -heshed, griz
ely goalteed gentleman of about sixty,hve. who
makes the regular diuTnal journey between Fifth
Street aud the Clinton Foundry Few, perhaps
who see him, ara aware of the fact, yet faith
ful history of that mans life, with an accurate
description of his peculiarities Of character,
would have some Of the most attractive features
of romance, while they would strikingly illus
trate, for the benefit ofthe young, an example
of success based upon an uneor querable perse
veranee, and an unfinching determination to do
tue greatest possible good to his fellow men.
His modesty prevents him from furnishing the
data for q biography, yet regarding the exam
pie and history Of a man like him as public pro-
perty, we take the liberty of referring to some
of the prominent incidents Of his life, as under
stood by his personal friends.
PHILo PENFIELD STEWART was born in Fairfield
| County, Connecticut, probably not far from I795
As child his physical development was not promN
ising, and he has in fact never enjoyed robust
health He was not proficient at school, OF
very useful at boyish work. and he was by gene
raj consent voted to be the most useless mems
ber of the family Of children. Philo fully en-.
dorsed this estimation of himself, although at
this time he was constantly at work with his
| jaek>knife making miniature water>wheels and
| pOughs, which, although they might have been
taken as indicating an inventive mind, ere
kicked about or out as the results of childish
nonsense. AT about 10 years of ags Philo
found himself with grandfather, up at Pitts.
ford, Vermont, where he went through the
double process of manual labor schooling, and
full apprenticeship to the saddle and harness.
making business He seems to have been reli-
giously and benevolertly inclined from boyhood
for he obtained his instruction with the especial
idea of entering the service of the A. B. Of Com
missioners. He taugh hit school in one Of the
| Washington County districts, boarding a.
round, ;" and agreeing to take his pay in grain
in the Spring, though he fortunately got the
money when he came to be "paid off" Natural
| ly ''accumuIative," or perhaps penuriou5, he
at first hesitated over the 'grain pay" offer, bu
he could not resist the opportunity for doing
good afforded him in 'boarding round" in ] u
meTous families. From this time he made Relig'
| ion his Business, and his Business r eligion.
He received, about 1918, his credentials from
Mr. Evarts, the Secretary of the American
Board, as Missionary teacher among the Choc.
| tav Indianf,-th condition Of his engagement
being that be was to labor for his subsistence
and nothing more. Mr.. EVarts gave him an al
lowsnee of S75 to pay his expenses, but by his
peculiar method of getting along" he went the
whole distance, 1900 miles, on hors ,bsek, at a
cost of only $40, having made it point to
stop among c hristiansAnd sympathizers when.
! ever possible. His ChOctaw mission labors ran
throu. b ten years, but during that period he
visited the East once in 1925, in consequence
Of i'll health, and the reception of instructions
to enlist some female labOrers for service in the
missionary field. He did enlist several such
| laborers, one of whom subsequently became,
while among the Choctaws, Mrs. Stewart. At
the end of the ten years, i'll health forced him
back, and the next things we find on his hands
are q planning machine patent in embryo, and a
project for building up an institution IN the
wilderness for the adpeation Of Missionary
teachers of both sexes, on his peculiar ideas of
dress and diet His principle of dress was
amazingly simple. and his notions of regimen
excluded tea, coffee and Tobacco, while it gTas
ciously admitted under restrictions, the vege>
tarin system of diet
Sympathizing in this educational project, was
J. g. shipherd of Washington county, a brother
of Fayette Shipherd, formerly Poster Of the
d IL, Il nf altu Innn
than $500 in the world, both together, Though
Stewart expected to realize considerable from
his planning machine invention the two started
off to Ohio TO lay the foundation of an enter
prise which has since become historical. They
went out on the "W esterl ReseVe," 0W9od by
''the New Haven Company" aud male some
unsuccessful efforts to collect funds for their
project. The settlers were too poor or too in
different, to furnish ''the ready" although the
| Christign portion of them syampathiZed and
| afforded them free entertainment. On one of
these collecting expeditions Stewart and Ship
herd were out two weeks on horseback, st an
aggregate expense of 65 l-2 cents They carris
ed bread in their saddle>bags, and when they
could not reach Christian house, they would
stop at a tavern, feed their horses, and then af
ter starting out, feed themselves from their
stores on the road.
Finally bargain was struck With the "Re-
serve" company for 5000 acres of land, at 81, so
per acre-500 acres to be a gift to the insIitu-
ton, provided 4,5O0 should be expended in
buildings within three yeara- Collections
were made, the lands were sold at Gn advance
Of dollar or more on the acre, the buildings
were erected according to agreement, the school
or college inaugurated. This was the co u
mencement of ObeIlin, a name now very fami,
/ 1. ~, ~ a
tion Of five years services of himself and wife.
The time was faithfully served out, for nothing;
except that he had the satisfaction of seeing
his scheme in partial operation. Tea, coffee
and tlbaco were eschewed, but it was not so
easy to keep the female pupils under proper re-
straint, after the big>seeVsi wives Of the Pros
fessOrs made their appearance.
At about 1888 we find Mr.. Stewart in New
York city endesyoring to bring out bis planning
machine invention These endeayors proving
unsuccessful, and being without money, he had
abundant opportunities while lodging in an attic,
for pushing his peculiar notions on domestic
economy to the incest point of Perfection
While practcing on this system Of living, he
found il necessary to eXtemporise q stove for
his own use, and while extempOrising he bit
upon the principle of the "Slewart stove" now
so popular and famous --it-ls
Not long after this time Arthur Tappan and
other New York philanthrOpists, started the
scheme of raising hundred thousand dollars
endowment for Oberlin, which if carried out
would establish its Permanency beyond question.
The condition of the subscription was that no
subscription was to be binding unless the entire
500, ,O0O should be subscribed. SIS, 900 were
subscribed, and there it stopped. Stewart saw
the list-saz that the whole effort mnst fail,
unless the other S25, 900 were subscribed. He
feared that his darling scheme would be crush
ed, and that bis five years labor would be lost.
BE took pen pen and instantly wrote, ''PhilO
P. Stewart, $4,000. The trustees sneered at
the subscription as useless, and struck it off,
So the elOO, 600 went overheard. Said Mr.
Stewart. afterward, "I was moneyIess when /