The Morristown gazette. [volume] (Morristown, Tenn.) 1867-1920, 1876-04-19
DEATH OF ALEXANDER n
STEWART.
The Largest Merchant i'm the
World.

L = ~~~ @NAOA SAAS&11I HI tAIa
World.
The telegraph brings the INTEL
gence of the sudden death of A. Il
Stewart, at his residence on Fiftl
avenue in New York. Mr.. Alexan
der Turner Stewart was the mos
successful of modern merchants. He
was born at Belfast, Ireland, in
1903. He received an excellent ed
ucation at Belfast and at Trinity
College. Dublin, where he graduated
in 1922. He proceeded to the Uni.
ted States about 1928. and at first
taught the classics at a private
school, but in 1927, having a cash
capital equal to 600 pounds sterling
(S3, ,OOO), he went into trade. At
first he resolved to have a partner
familiar with the business, but as
his friend declined when the time
came to go into business, he started
alone. He determined to have but
one price, and that as low as he
could afford the goods; to make no
misrepresentation in regard to
goods, to deal with all customers
alike. and to buy exclusively for
cash. His small capital, as we have
said. was about 600 pounds sterling,
and he had invested most Of II in
Irish linens and laoes. Starting on
this basis, bis career has been amaz-
ingly successful, perhaps beyond
precedent. He has now an inn
mense Wholesale establishments with
score or. more of warehouses at
New York. the largest retail dry
goods store in the world, its floors
having an area, it is said, of twenty
two acres. He has also branch
houses in other large cities of the
South and West, and bureaus and
warehouses in most of the large cit
les of Europe. His annual sales
range from sixty-nine to soventy-five
millions of dollars. and his profits
are reputed to range from three to
six millions. He is also a very large
owner of real estate, holding not less
than $25. 100000 in New York CITY.
and having within the past three
years purchased about half town
ship on Hampstead Plains, Long Is.
land, where he is building city,
and has already constructed a rail
road to connect it with New York.
Mr.. Stewart has nearly completed a
vast hotel for working women,
where, at an eHpens of not over two
dollars, or two doll ars and a quarter
per week, fifteen hundred can have
most of the substantial comforts of
home, together with well cooked
food, everything being furnished at
cost. He has also commenced q
similar hotel for working young
men. The cost of these two build
ings and the land will be about So
100000 (E1,000,000). In special
cases of suffering he gives largely.
as for example, shipload of provis-
ions to the Irish in the famine of
1847; shipload, costing him $50,
900, to the Lancashire sufferers in
1862. By the Chicago fire of Octo-
ber, 1871, Mr.. Stewart was a heavy
loser, but he gave at once $4,000
(lO,OOOO, and subsequently, it is
said, $4,000 mora for the relief OF
the sufferers.
1t will be remembered that Presi-
dent Grant, when first inauguratad,
offered him the position of Secretary
of the Treasury, but he failed to be
confirmed on account of his being
an importer. Mr.. S. offered to sur
render his entire mercantile busi-
ness to trustees, but the Senate
thought that this did not obviate
the difficulty. His death will create
profound sensation throughout the
civilized world, as, wherever bust.
ness was conducted, the name of A.
I. Stewart was known. He was,
without doubt, one of the richest, if
not the richest man in Am erica.
At the time of his death he was
perfecting grand charities for the
benefit of the working people.