Alexander Stewart's kindly concern for children seems to have been a characteristic all his life. After his own children were grown, he helped children in the areas of his missionary work to stay in school (though just how he did this we do not know) and fostered or adopted a daughter. When she, too, was grown he wrote to grandchildren and delighted to see them in the summer.

Alexander's grandson Hugh was born in 1889 and so was a young child when his grandfather was spending summers at Dwight. His widow, Ethel Keats Stewart, wrote me recently:

[Hugh] spoke with great respect of "Grandfather" Stewart's work. One bit of childhood remembrance Hugh often told about was that "Grandfather often had peppermints in his pocket". Of course, "Hughie" was well aware of the treats and was never disappointed in enjoying them.

Great-grandson Gordon Matthews Stewart has written:

Fondly remembered, he was recalled by his grandsons as "a stocky little man who loved to take part in pillow fights and to rough-house in our bedroom".

A few letters to his Stewart grandsons have survived and also illustrate his loving and warm interest in them. They follow. Grandson Alexander was about 21 in 1898, Harold then about 16, and Arthur about 16 in 1900. [Additional letters discovered since this writing are included in the author's handwriting in another chapter].

The following letter in Alexander Stewart's handwriting

[Note: this letter is incomplete as it survives. Harold S. Stewart apparently edited it for use in the Family Background volume of the draft typescript of his The Stewarts of Dwight, by cutting apart the original with a scissors! Part of the section that was edited out was concealed on the back of what was pasted into the typescript, and is also reproduced here, as indicated -- JSA]

Durham, April the 26, '98

My dear grandson Harold,

I do sincerely thank you for your kind letter of March. I have many letters to answer and put of answering yours. I can only writ a little at one time.

[Missing part was here. Concealed part follows, in brackets -- JSA].

[I received a letter from Peter Col on Monday. Dear Ethel is geting Better But very weak. I hope She will get well and yesterday I had one from Stewart Grafttey. He is happy in the Lord.Oh what a Joy of Soul it is to me that So many of my grandchildren have given themselves to Jesus. Dear Harold your priviliges ar great. I hope you will improve them to glory of God. Trust in the Lord more and more. Dear Harold writ when you can find time. I feel lonsom at times One of my chief enjoyments is in Reading the letters I get from my children & grand Children.]

Give my best wishes to your brothers and lovely sister and to your Father and Mother. You will have cause to prais God throughout eternity for your lovely Christian mother. She is more like a mother to me than a daughter-in-law. I hope your Father is keeping well, his work is hard but honourable, the greatest work that God gives His children to do is to honour his Son and win souls to the glory of his grace. I hope you may be one much honourd in the work of the Lord is the prayer of your old grand Pa a poor sinner saved by grace.

Alexander Stewart

---

The following letter in Alexander Stewart's handwriting

Durham, Good Friday, 1899

My dear grandson Harold,

I sincerly thank for your last kind letter and regret that I have been so long in returning you an answer. Part of the time since I received your letter I have not been able to writ and my docter forbid me to read or writ and warnd me not to preach. But last week I felt better than I had don for some time and went ten miles from home and spok on Sunday and did not feel it much at the time but I feel it very much now. I am suffering with pain in my head and cannot writ much.

Dear Harold, I am pleasd and thankful that you are all geting along so well with your studys. I hope your mother may live to see one of her sons a Spurgon and one a Moody. I join with you in Thankfulness to the good Lord for the good mother the Lord gave you. I heard Mr. Moodie preach in Montreal one year ago last fall and one of the best things I heard him say that affecte me was that he was on his way to spend Thanksgiving day with his mother. It put me in mind of the words from the Cross: Behold thy mother. You are all much indebted to your mother and may the mantle of her wisdom fall upon each one of you.

Dear Harold, I am very lonsom at times. If I feel strong enough when the weather gets warm I will leave home. A few weeks change alway agreed with me when weakly. I received a letter from Peter this week. Some one brok the glass in the front of his stor a few nights ago. I was told yesterday that Marrion McKenzie is going to be married in June. We had a severe snow storm this week but the weather is fine this day. Mrs. Stewart has been poorly but geting better.

Your grandpa, sincerely with love to all,

Alex^r Stewart

I will writ to Arthur and Stew [Likely Stewart Grafftey -- JSA] next.

---

The following letter in Alexander Stewart's handwriting

Durham, June the 8th, 1899

My dear grandson Harold,

I sincerely thank you for your very kind letter of the first inst. and thank God for the health and strength of body and mind bestowed on you and also for your success in preparing for future life. I hope your lives will honour the Lord. It is all of his mercyfull kindnes that you have been so highly favourd with the advantages of an education and I have no doubt but you feel thankful for it.

I feelt poorly during the past winter and weak during the spring but feelt anxious to attend our anual convention at Toronto on the 24 of last month. I feelt so weak at the time I left hom that I was doutful that I would not be able to get to Toronto the day befor I left home. But feelt anxious to see old friends for the last time so I left home trusting in the Lord. Feelt weak but nive [i.e., "never" -- JSA] had a better time. Probably no other one had mor attention given to them than was given to me at the convention, also at Jarves St. and Bloore Street churches. Among many occurrences one old lady at the close of an evening meeting took hold of my hand and held it with weping eys and sobing hart looking me in the face asked "don't you know me?" My reply was "no". "Don't you know me?" "No". "You Baptized me fifty years ago." She was the first woman that I Baptize and I had not seen her in forty years. The same woman may be cald the mother of four Baptist churches.

I invited the two familys to come from Montreal this summer and make me a visit but the last letter I received it is doubtful if they come. And now I have writen all that I am able to writ at present.

The Lord be with you all. Your grandpa lovingly and love to all. I do wish to visit your dear mother, my lovely daughter-in-law, once mor but I do not know if I will be able. Give kind regards to J. Humphry.

Alexander Stewart

---

Durham, March the 12th, 1900

Dear grandson Arthur,

I thank you for your last kind letter and the good news it containd. I am always pleasd to hear from Rochester and will be while I live. I am shore your dear mother had a good time in Montreal and I have no doubt but it will do her much good. I am thankful to know that you ar all well and dowing well. Surely the Lord has been good to you as a family in many ways. You have been blesst with advantages unknown to many and it is a great pleasure to me to know that you as a family are improving them so as to qualify you to be useful in the world.

I have great cause to be thankful for the health I enjoy at present. I was so poorly six weeks that I would not have been surprised if the end had come and one docter told me I would not get well. But my health is all that I can expect considering my age but I feel weak. Notwithstanding, I belive that the Lord has somthng for me to do and I am willing to do anything the Lord gives me to do. I, by the grace of God, have been the means of keeping four fatherless boys and three girles at school this winter.

Oh, dear Arthur, I cannot tell how good the Lord was and is to me. May God be your close companion all your days. Love to all, mutch to yourself.

Your grandpa Stewart

---

After Alexander's second wife died at the end of 1900, daughter Augusta, then 39, came back to Durham. She had been a missionary in Chicago, had lived with various relatives in turn, and now spent the rest of her father's life with him. She was "an ardent worker in Band of Hope and WCTU circles" (anti-alcohol movements) and "a faithful friend to every good cause" in Durham, according to newspaper articles.

On 22 February 1904 Alexander Stewart's long life came to an end. The Durham Review of February 25th and March 4th reported as follows:

[From 25 February 1904] Monday last about 8 in the morning, peacefully and without pain the above patriarchal gentleman breathed his last in the presence of his two daughters, and in the town where his life work chiefly lay and where he is best known.

For a month or two back his familiar form has not been seen on our streets and it became known that the veteran preacher, the esteemed citizen and neighbor, the godly and lovable man was not likely to be seen there again. He had kept his place among men for over 90 years, he had been given health and vigor far beyond the average lot of man, but to him at last came the grim reaper with the inexorable message, rather, let us say, the Angel of Death opened the portal of the world to come to allow the entering of one of earth's choicest spirits after a long and honorable career in the service of his master and for the good of his race.

Rev. Mr. Stewart was born in May 1813, in the parish of Mortlach, Banffshire, Scotland, the youngest son of Wm. Stewart, a small farmer in lowly circumstances. In early boyhood he assisted in the herding of cattle and he has told us how he remembers while he was so engaged, seeing the stage go past draped in mourning for King Geo. III. His own earnings were employed in giving him an elementary education, but his school days were few, and he was a notable example of a self-taught man.

He came to Canada in 1832 landing in Quebec after a 7-week's voyage with threepence in his pocket, but with vigor and determination in his brain. He got employment in a grocery store in Quebec, spent a few months there, a little longer in Montreal, and then came to the then wild upper province, settling in Norfolk Co., and for a time having charge of two saw mills. It was our privilege a few years ago to have long talks with him of these olden times: startling almost to converse with one who took part in the Clergy Reserve struggle. To him, Wm. Lyon McKenzie, Bishop Strachan and others were more than historical personages. The burning of the Parliament Buildings, the rotten-egging of Lord Elgin took place in his prime, and the mental activities stirred in him by the temper of those times never forsook him, for he was, even over his 90th birthday, a reader and a student of public affairs. But he never lost his interest in the gospel story, and only last June preached in the Presbyterian church and his last pulpit utterance was in the Church of his choice, the Baptist church, in Durham, in August last. There he will long be remembered, and his portrait in the memorial window, fittingly commemorates its first pastor, and one of the most devoted clergymen that ever labored between the lakes.

The long hard walks of the 50s and 60s, over rough roads, through blazed bush, can best be told by those now getting advanced in years, at whose log huts he called to minister and to cheer, or to preach the gospel. Not a few of all denominations took the marriage vows before him. Many whom he married and whom he baptized did he also see placed in the silent grave, and now, the ripest of them all, he is gathered to his fathers, leaving the memory of a useful life, an honored name, and heroic Christian character as a benison to his family, and an example to all who knew him.

He was first married in 1842 to Esther Wilson, who proved a worthy helpmeet, and whose memory their children keep ever green. His son Joseph, in Rochester, has long been a prominent preacher and professor in the Baptist denomination. His daughters, Mrs. A. C. McKenzie, Montreal, and Mrs. Cole preceded him a few years ago and besides these, there are Mrs. Grafftey and Miss Stewart left to cherish his memory. The occasion calls not for grief and to the family it is congratulation rather than condolence that should be offered for "a life well lived a fight well fought".

At the date of writing, funeral arrangements are not known, blocked railroads preventing assurance of the arrival of friends who are on the way here. Next week we may add a few extracts from a sketch by his son made in 1886.

Later -- Deceased's son and son-in-law came Tuesday evening and the funeral is taking place today, Wednesday.

[From 4 March 1904] FUNERAL OF REV. ALEX. STEWART. This took place on Wednesday, Feb. 24 and though on very short notice, a large number turned out to pay the last tribute of respect. Had another day elapsed allowing the news to spread, many more from country points would have attended.

Promptly at 2 p.m. the remains were taken to the Baptist Church, where a service was held, Pastor Newton presiding. He spoke very warmly of the strong points in deceased's character, but dwelt especially on how God had honored him with a long life, a fruitful life, and an appreciated life.

Deceased's son, Rev. Joseph Stewart, now a Professor in a College at Rochester, was invited to speak. He did so, and the occasion will long be remembered as touchingly pathetic, the devoted son speaking in eloquent words of the worth of a loving father who had seen a "beautiful old age." To the speaker the occasion was unique and was one that can never be duplicated in his experience. Here, in his old home, where a few rods to the west his father half a century ago, built his first log shanty, where a few rods to the east, about the same time, he held summer services in a grove, and where around him a sprinkling of those who remembered the labors of the pioneer pastor, whose portrait embellishes the chief window of the church and whose remains were in his son's presence, here he could speak with a full heart. He outlined in vivid style the courageous spirit of the deceased, how he surmounted early educational disadvantages, how he conducted his work largely of a house to house nature, how his "great big heart" won friends, and spread sunshine in the path of many, how his wonderful physical vigour enabled him to supply, on foot, points, widely separated, and drew many lessons from the wonderful life. He took occasion to thank warmly Durham friends and neighbors for all acts of kindness and consideration to the deceased.

Rev. Messrs Smith and Farquharson took part in the services, and the choir.

Alexander Stewart had made out his will during the month before he died. After the usual preamble, his bequests were as follows:

I give devise and bequeath unto my daughter Augusta Henrietta Eva my house and that part of lot number twelve east of Garafraxa Street in the Town of Durham having a frontage on Lambton Street of fifty seven and one half (57½) and running the full depth of the lot and lying east of and adjoining the land at present owned by one Archibald Hunter.

I give devise and bequeath to my said daughter Augusta all my household goods, chattels and furniture of every description and it shall be optional with her to give to any of my other children any article which may be desired by them.

I give and bequeath unto my grandson Fredrick McKenzie the sum of one hundred dollars.

I give and bequeath unto my son Joseph William Alexander Stewart my watch and chain, my fur overcoat, and all other wearing apparel.

I order and direct my executors hereinafter named to pay the interest or dividends on the sum of two thousand dollars invested by me in the Montreal Lumber Company Limited to my daughter Augusta for a period of five years; provided always that my executors shall have the privilege of calling in and reinvesting the said sum at any time during the said term of five after my decease.

I order and direct that all the rest residue and remainder of my estate both real and personal not herinbefore disposed of shall be divided into four equal shares by my executors and given as follows: one share to go to my daughter Dana Nancy Grafftey, one share to go to my daughter Augusta, one share to go to my son Joseph W. A. Stewart and the other share which would have gone to my daughter Mary Esther McKenzie had she lived, to go to my granddaughters Florence McKenzie and Marion McKenzie share and share alike.

The family of my deceased daughter Annie, wife of Peter Cole of Flint, Michigan, do not mention in this will for the reason that Peter Cole has already received the share which would naturally have gone to my daughter Annie had she lived.

And I nominate and appoint my son-in-law William K. Grafftey of the City of Montreal and my daughter Augusta Stewart of the Town of Durham to be executors of this my last will and testament.

I direct that my body be enclosed in a plain box covered with inexpensive cloth and conveyed to the cemetery in a plain wagon and not in a hearse.

In witness thereof I have hereunto set my hand the day and year first above written.

It is interesting to note that his original acre of land had been reduced. Presumably he had sold part of his lot in the center of a busy commercial town in order to live on the invested proceeds.

The Durham Review of March 3rd and 10th contained articles stating that Miss Augusta Stewart had sold the residue of the family's property "long known as Stewart's corner" and would go to Montreal "to spend a restful time with her sister Mrs. Grafftey, after a lengthened period of looking after her father". "Honours" and "the best of good wishes" were expressed to her for "her devotion to her father" and "her own sterling character".

Isabella Cranston McGibb wrote a eulogy, saying:

He found the homes where God dwelt, and shared his companionship with them... He was constantly introducing his Master to those who knew Him not, and only eternity will reveal the result of the sowing of the good seed by this cheerful giver.

His son later wrote:

He loved life... He also had a strong will and was not easily discouraged... He held religious services in twenty-eight places where there was no church. At one time he baptized four entire households; at another time three households; twice he baptized three generations at the same time and place; the oldest person he baptized was eighty-five. He never left a chapel in debt, the building of which he had encouraged. Once he had a dirk pointed at his heart; another time a pistol was levelled at him, twice he was stoned, once threatened with a club, because he preached the truth . ...

In a memorial article in the 1904 Canadian Baptist Register his son JWAS wrote:

REV. ALEXANDER STEWART This servant of God and lover of man departed this life February 22, 1904. Had he lived three months longer he would have reached the age of ninety-one years. At three different times the story of his life and work, in outline, has been given in The Canadian Baptist, and therefore that story need not be repeated here. Born in Dufftown [actually, the village of Dufftown did not yet exist when Alexander was born], Banffshire, Scotland, reared in a lowly home, of school privileges enjoying almost none, inured to toil and physical endurance from his earliest years, he came to Canada at the age of nineteen. For nearly twenty years of his life in Canada he worked with his hands at different occupations. Meantime, he was married, converted to God, baptized. He began to use his gifts as a servant of Christ in a public way, and soon his brethren assembled, and set him apart to the work of the ministry. Of his labors and successes as a pioneer minister in the counties of Grey, Wellington, Bruce, and of his work among the Indians, I shall not write specifically. Rather let me point out some of the marked characteristics of the man and his work.

He loved God. He believed in Christ with His whole heart. He believed in redeeming mercy. He gloried in the cross of Christ. He himself bowed as a penitent at the feet of Christ. Salvation through Christ was to him the profoundest personal concern. Jesus was his Saviour. His theology was rooted in his own experience of redeeming love. Here too, was the inspiration of his work. That wonderful Saviour who loved him and died for him, he never could praise and serve enough. What mattered toil and penury and hardship, when he remembered Christ and His cross! He loved man. I do not know exactly how it came about, how much of it was nature and how much of it grace, but I have seldom met anyone who so unqualifiedly loved his fellow-men. He drew no lines of distinction. He loved men, women and children, rich and poor, learned and illiterate, black and white. He loved human nature. A human being, no matter why or where, always attracted him as a magnet attracts steel. He loved the sinner. More than one habitual drunkard was his friend. There was no Pharisaism in his type of goodness. The bad as well as the good would turn to him, unbelievers as well as believers. This love of man was shown in many ways, in increasing friendliness and accessibility, in hospitality, which sometimes strained the domestic resources, in kindness to the needy, in bearing others' burdens, in fondness for children and young people, and, above all, in the endeavor to bring to all classes the Gospel of Christ. The story of his kindness to the poor would make an interesting chapter, and some of the material for that chapter I could easily supply. He was possessed of courage. He had both physical courage and moral courage, and seemed to fear neither man nor beast. More than once he had need of his courage in face of wild beast or wrathful man. More than once his life was threatened, but he never hesitated. I remember him at a public sale, rebuking the auctioneer for his profanity. I remember him going on with his work in face of opposition, continually. To journey scores and hundreds of miles on foot, to face the storms and endure the biting cold of vigorous winters -- that was comparatively easy. In a sense deep with meaning, he could say, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ". He had power of will -- it would be a mistake to leave this out, without it, his work could not have been done. Even yet, I am almost amazed when I recall the way he kept his appointments, and went on with his work. He was just a little impatient with some of us younger men of these easier days. He thought we were not quite as good soldiers of Christ as we might be, we do not readily enough endure hardness. We too much ask for favorable conditions, he would take conditions as they came and conquer them. He was not an easy man to dissuade when he had an appointment to preach or hold a prayer-meeting or perform any duty. And this will power remained with him to old age; only the infirmity of age at last restrained him. I ought to speak of the way he adapted himself to the most trying conditions in going about among the people in the earlier years, of his patient plodding in the use of the humblest means and most limited opportunities, of the way he never forgot his friends, of his never failing gratitude to those who showed him kindness. He was not without imperfection and sin, no one knew this so well as himself; but God's grace saved him, and that same grace enabled him to do something for the blessing of others.

Later JWAS added:

To a friend who called on him when he was near the end and who said, "You are an old man, Father Stewart, you will be glad to pass on", he replied,

"Not at all. I have enjoyed life very much. I would like to stay on."