Grandma Stewart Dies Sunday-Was Slave During Days of Civil War

Grandma Sarah Stewart died at her home just north of the city light plant last Sunday evening following an illness of but two weeks duration. She had not been in the best of health for the past few years but had been able to be out and around up until the 23rd of July.

Funeral Services were held from the Christian Church yesterday afternoon at 2:00 o’clock, the Rev. L. J. Moran, officiating, after which interment was made in the Blair Cemetery. Surviving her are a son, William Stewart, of Des Moines, Iowa; and two daughters, Mrs. Georgia Howe, of Bedford, Iowa, and Mrs. May Philson, of Duluth, Minn. A half brother at Garner, Iowa, also survives her.

Born in slavery in the south, the Civil War meant a great deal to Mrs. Stewart and for many years no more reverent hand laid a flower on the graves of old soldiers than this old colored lady’s. The following story of her life, as she knew it, was published in The Tribune on May 13, 1926, and will be of interest to Pilot-Tribune readers at the time:

Mrs. Stewart who had lived here more than fifty years, is unable to give her precise age, the family bible was lost to a fire but since she was a husky girl at seventeen or eighteen at the time of the war she reasons that she reasons that she might be eighty now. She was born into slavery on a large plantation near Lexington Kentucky, being one of a hundred slaves owned by a wealthy southerner. Unlike fictional slave owners, Mrs. Stewart’s master was kind, but her mistress was given to fits, of uncontrollable anger and practiced the most brutal punishment on the women and children. On occasion the mistress would order that the negroes be whipped and Mrs. Stewart recalls distinctly seeing groups of males tied to trees and bared to the waist and whipped with leather whips that had been dipped in buckets of salt water to give the lash a sting. Families were separated, she recalls, the fathers and mothers being sold individually, and the children being raised with no knowledge of their parents. Another of her early recollections is the fact that children were forced to eat their meals on the floor, not being allowed to eat at the slave's table.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War, Mrs. Stewart and her sister were given by their master, to his daughter, who was married, and moved to a plantation near Savannah, Missouri. There they worked in the fields with the men; hours were long, work was hard and food was coarse and scant. As the war became more serious, slaves were forced to the limit, were watched and guarded closely and punished severely for any indication that they desired their freedom. They were able to acquire only the most meager information as to the progress of the war, according to Mrs. Stewart and the first knowledge they had that the North had been victorious was the approach of a company of Union soldiers to the plantation. Preparations had already been made to transfer the slaves to Kentucky, the last state to become free, and upon learning this, Mrs. Stewart and her sister pleaded with the soldiers to aid them in escaping. It being necessary to travel in the dark, a plan was made whereby three soldiers were allowed to remain behind and when the two girls made a successful break from the cabin where the slaves were quartered, the soldiers, escorted them north during the night. At daybreak their progress was interrupted and a hole was dug in a haystack, into which the girls crept and remained until nightfall. They then resumed their journey northward and towards the end of the second day’s travel, arrived at a farm owned by a Union sympathizer. There they were left, to be joined some months later by their parents.

To the student of history, the war represents a battle for a principal, the struggle for an ideal in which was embodied one of the elementary principles of democracy. A consideration of the causes and effects many arouse noble sentiments, but to Mrs. Stewart the war was more than a matter of abstractions. To her it meant freedom of bondages and one accustomed to liberty can probably not conceive what freedom, after years of slavery, might mean. But though she lacks the power of eloquent self-expression, it appears even to a causal observer that in her eyes, as she tells the story and in her voice as she recounts the incidents leading up to her liberation, there is a humble, yet a deeper spirit of gratitude and sincerity than can be found in the polished oration of the most talented speaker.

#2-Published in the Enterprise August 8, 2019

In the death of Mrs. Sarah H. Stewart, of this city, one of the old landmarks of the town has passed to the great beyond.

She was born a slave on the plantation of one, Thomas Ashford, Jr. at Charleston, Kentucky about ninety-two years ago. Here she grew to womanhood in slavery, a house girl caring for the children and the housework.

During the Civil War and the releasing of the slaves, the master moved to Missouri and late to Clarinda, Iowa, taking her with the family. It was at this place she married James Stewart.

Nearly fifty years ago they moved to Blair and for the past forty-eight years lived in the residence on State Street where she died and where the husband died before her.

She has been failing for several years and on last Sunday evening at 10:30 o’clock she passed away.

Mrs. Stewart was an interesting character. Held in the highest esteem by all who knew her and loved for her patient, loving, ladylike manner, and her sincere devotion to the principles of right living, here memory will always remain in the hearts of her friends as a personality of true worth.

She leaves to mourn her three children, William, who has always claimed Blair as his home; Mrs. Georgia Howe of Bedford, Iowa, and Mrs. May Philson of Duluth, Minnesota; one brother, Andrew Ashford of Garner, Iowa, also five grandchildren.

A short funeral service was held at the home yesterday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock and at the Baptist Church at 2:30 and interment was made in the Blair Cemetery.

Obituary courtesy of the Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clipping on file at the Blair Public Library.

FindaGrave Memorial # 119604602