Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-09-29
Death of Prof. VIM. VI. stewart.

l AOAs CACn etAt Was OOEn DIT IL Illld-
delphia in March, 1903. Anecdotes
of his childhood exhibit him as the
observant student of nature even at
that early period. He is spoken of
as devOting his spare time as early
as the age of ten to observing and
making collections of insects and
shell fish. This tendency received
a strong additional impulse when,
at twelve years old, he was sent for
his health on voyage to the West
Indies, where his powers of obser-
walton were exercised on an inn
mensely enlarged field of study.
In 1882 he came to Tennessee, his
first residence being at Lafayette
Furnace. His great scientific ac-
quirements largely promoted his
successful prosecution of the iron
business, in which during twenty
years he accumulated a considerable
fortune, and in 1852 he moved to
GlenwoOd, his present residence,
about two and half miles from
GAINESVILLE, where iii a happy
and respected seclusion he de-
voted himself to the scientific
pursuits which have been his
leading occupation nearly down
to the day of his death. The studies
of his childhood prefgured those of
his manhood and old age, and his
| collection of the bivalve mollusca of
the Cumberland river now in the
museum of the Southwestern Uni
versity is probably unequalled for
its completeness.
When the meteorological discOv-
cries of Lieut.. Maury (another dis
tinguished saUdat of Tennessee) had
OccasiOned that elaborate system of
observations extending over the in
habitable world and reported at the
Smithsonian institute, which has
established meteorOlogy as a science
of most important practical applica-
ton, Prof. Steward was among the
first of the Scientific men employed
in these observations, and records of
his long continued labOrs in this de-
partment are almost unique in their
value, being one out of only three
such series which were prosecuted
uninterruptedly in the Southern
States during the war. These were
only discontinued about six months
before his death.
Some years before the war, when
| the establishment of a college at
! GAINESVILLE was set on foot, Prof.
Stewart was an eager promoter of
the enterprise, and both with money
and labor contributed essentially to
its success. For several years he
and the late DIR. F. B. Haskins gave
| their gratituitOus services to the in
situations as Professors in the chairs
of geology and chemistry respec-
! lively, and so high was the recOgni-
ton of his ability and zeal in the
matter that the infant institution
was named in his honor, Stewart
College.
The war severely tried his for
titude in many respects, his rela-
tiOns to both sections of the country
| being such as to render the ordinary
SORROWS of civil strife peculiarly
painful in his case; and at the close
/ of the war he found his fortune i'm
paired as well as his feelings lacera-
ted. Christian resignation sOftened
these Affections, and the patient
prosecution of his scientific labOrs
diverted his mind from them. This
was the period at which the present
writer first had the privilege of his
acquaintance. He found him in
every respect one whom it was hap
piness to know; his clear intelIi-
gence and abundant information on
every subject to which conversation
could be directed rendered his socie-
ty always profitable, and the sub
dued cheerfulnesS and highbred
courtesy of his manner made it as
delightful as it was profitable. His
was the best manner of Philadelphia
society of fifty years ago; he had
the grace of Chesterfield without
his chill, the heartiness of the West
ern man without his roughness.
For two years before his death
the infirmities of age began to tell
OminOusly on frame Originally.del-
icate, and his friends began to feel
that the happiness derived from his
society could not last long. About
six months ago he was compelled to
/ turn over his meteorological inStru-
ments to Prof. Caldwell, of the
Southwestern University, being no
| longer able to prosecute the Obser-
vatiOns which had so long cOnsti-
| tuted the leading occupation of his
/ life. 1t is our belief that nothing
contributed so much to hasten his
death as this sacrifice, very few
knew what a sacrifice it was. When
he could no longer prosecute that
which had so long been his leading
object of interest in this life, it
seemed as if ne looked exclusively
to a future state as the object of his
aspirations, and one Of the last SEN
fences we heard from his lips was,
" 1t is not much for me to say | am
resigned to death; it is more that /
am resigned to living until God
shall be pleased to relieve me-"
1t is not then for him, but for our
selves that we mourn.
s.Vex not his ghost; On let him pass he
hates him
That would, upon the rack of this rough
world,
Stretch him out longer
PUBLIC MEETING.
As soon as the death of Prof. VIM.
NJ. Stewart became known, the
Mayor announced Il public meeting
by printed proclamation for the pur-