Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1912-05-28

liam Wallace and Robert Bruce the
Scotch have ever contended for free
dom from oppression and for personal
liberty and the rights of man. And
among the names that history has re-
corded, that of Stewart is notable in
the land of the Scots, as the title of a
clan of brave men and noble women
1t was from such stock and the
Moodys, another old Scotch family,
that Alexander Stewart sprang, and
that he inherited the indomitable will
and determination to sIrmouRt all OBJ
stacles that is characteristic of his
race has been demonstrated by his
successful career. While a reference
to his ancestry is something that Mr..
Stewart has hardly ever been known
to make, yet in writing of him it is
but just to give credit to those in
herited influences that tend to shape
life's course.
Mr.. Stewards father was born and
reared on his native heath in Scot
land, as his father and grandfathers
were before him, but when a young
man he migrated to the new world
with his wife, NJ. Stewards mother,
who was d Moody, and settled in the
province of New Brunswick, on a
farm in York county. 1t was there,
on September u, 1929, that Alexander
Stewart was born. He received fair
schooling such as he could get at
spare moments, and his boyhood days
were spent IN the pine and spruce
forests, where he learned to log and
drive logs in the Merrimac river while
he was yet in his teens. When but
twenty years of age he came to the
United States, to what was then the
far west, and after short sojourn at
Blackberry, ILL.,, longing for the pine
forests OF his earlier days, he driited
north to the then little settlement on
the "old Wisconse," now Wausau.
That was in May, 1S49. There were
no railroads north of Chicago in those
days, and to reach Wausau one had to
go by boat up the Wisconsin river or
by OK team through the virgin forests.
A few years later there was developed
an extensive navigation on the Wis
consin river, RATS oflumber going down
loaded with lath and shingles into
the Mississippi, and to the settlements
along that mighty artery of commerce
as far south as st. Louis, and in this
development Mr.. Stewart was an i'm
portant factor. Mr.. Stewart was
joined by his brother, John Stewart,
who has ever since been associated
with him in lumber enterprises, al
though now retired from active bust
ness life and living quietly and happi-
ly on his large farm at Elburn, Ill.
In the early fifties the firm of j. &
A. Stewart was formed and continued
unchanged for twenty years. In this
way the two brothers engaged in log
ging and buying lumber and rafting
it down the river to market. From a
woodsman, with a strong Scotch con-
stitution and muscle, with an AK over
his shoulder or a canthoOk in his
hand, Mr.. Stewart developed into a
large operator, and in 1872 the firm
was changed to j. & A. Stewart & Co.
by the admission of Walter Alexander.
Men achieve success not only bv
their own energy and foresight, but
also by their ability n the selection
of their lieutenants, and so Mr.. Stew
art is deserving of the greatest credit
in associating with himself Walter
Alexander, who in later years has
proven himself to be one of the ablest
and best lumbermen and business
men in the northern country. In
that year a mill was purchased in
this city of w. d. McIndoe, an uncle
OF Mr.. Alexander, and for several
yeas the firm cut 100000 feet of
lumber annually, which was consid-
cred large for those days. In 1884 the
firm was changed to the Alexander
Stewart L1mber Company, with Alex
ander Stewart president, John Stew
art vice president, and Walter Alex
ander secretary and treasurer. The
then manufactured about IT,
Oo0. 900 feet of lumber annually, but of
later years the output was 10000. 900
feet a year.
The mill of the company was one of
the oldest in the Wisconsin River
Valley above Grand Rapids. y was
built in 1889 by Geo Stevens, VINO
had acquired the title of the water
power at that point. The mill had.
been rebuilt several times
since that date. and aoout all that
of the old pinery mill is its
site. The evolution of the old mill
was slow, and from very small affair
Of manufacturing 10000 or 1900 a