Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-11-25
Mrs. A. Il. STEW ART.

Mrs. Cornelia NJ. Stewart. widow of
the merchant prince VINO died recently,
was prominently brought before the
public several times since her husbands
death by her labors in connection with
Garden City, which was one of her hus-
bands pet projects. The most prom
inent feature of the place is the memori-
al cathedral which she built The cor
ner-stone was laid Thursday. June Is,
1877, and The Cathedral of the Incarna-
ton, as it is called, was opened April s,
1885. Mrs. Stewards maiden name was
Cornelia NJ. Ciinch. She was born in this
city. She was the daughter of Jacob
Clinch, well-known shipchandler, and
her brother, Charles p Clinch, was ut
one time Assistant Customs Collector of
this port Mrs. Stewart was married to
the famous merchant in 1925. They
had three children, all of whom were
at rest in st. Marks churhyard before
Mr. Stewart died. April 10. 1876.
During Mr. Stewards long career as
businessman he frequently said that
Mrs. Stewart was his partner as well as
his wife.
1t is said to Mrs. Stewards keen bust
ness sense her husband owed much of his
success She saw as soon as he did
that mercantile prosperity lay uptown,
and together they selected the site of
the great store at Broadway, Fourth
avenue. Ninth and Tenth streets. The
building erected there cost about 49,
100000. As Mr.. Stewards fortune in
creased he made his domestic arrange
ments keep pace with it, and several
years before he died he made his home
in the palatial residence at Fifth avenue
and Thirty-fourth street. His fortune
at the time of his death was estimated
at from S40,000,000 to $4,000, 600.
Since her husbands death Mrs. Stewart
has lived very quietly in the mansion at
Fifth avenue and Thirty-fourth street,
and her name has not appeared fire.
quently in public prints Of late years.
Some prominence was given to it by the
mysterious disappearance of Mr.. Stew
arts body from its last resting-place,
and two Or three times her name has
been brought before the public in con-
nection with suits by claimants against
the estate. She always dreaded pub
licity or display, and the sensation and
comments caused by the grave robbery
were entirely distasteful to her. During
her closing years she was convinced
that her husbands body had been re-
covered and that her last resting-place
would be beside his.
1t used to be said that Mr.. Stewart
was displeased because his wife reared
finn no sons to share his name and
fortune; that his love for her had van
ished; that he had gone out to other
women and lavished his devotion and
wealth upon them; that children were
growing up that might claim HIM as
father, but not his wife rs mother, and
so on.
Those who knew the Stewards well
knew well that while the quiet, almost
grim, little old man was as cold as ice
and hard as flint in his business rela-
tons, and while to the world he showed
few sympathetic traits, toward his wife
his manner was always chivalrous, de-
voted, tender. Two days in every year
the anniversaries of their engage
ment and of their marriage-they never
to the end of their welded life failed to
remember and commemorate with ten
der love tokens. To the day of his
death he regarded her as the loveliest
of women, and to her last day she
thought of him only as the truest and
noblest of men, whose like she would
not seen again.
The death of her husband was ter
rible blow to Mrs Stewart. Having no
children, and but few kindred even of
remote degree, she felt herself alone in
the world. She gave up the remainder
of her life to two objects-to cherish his
memory and TO complete the work that
he had left unfinished. The former she
did with all her heart; the latter she
sadly failed to do, because she trusted
too much TO mai who has shown him