Rev. Clark Berry Stewart

"A Hitch Orchard" states, "Rev. C.B. Stewart was a pastor of a Presbyterian church at Fairview, SC for 30 years. His fortune dwindled after the Civil War. Was not able for that reason to help educate his sons as much as he would have liked but they were able to do for themselves. One was a minister, one was a doctor and one was a lawyer."

The following is a biographical rendition from "House of Clark" by _________.

Clark Berry Stewart was the sixth son of Walter Stewart, Sr., his first child by his second wife, Isabel Bobo. He was born in 1813 in the Bethany community in lower Laurens County, SC.

Clark’s name has been a source of speculation in the family for years. “Berry” appears to come from his maternal grandmother, Nancy Berry (wife of Francis Spencer Bobo, Jr.). “Clark” is not so easy to identify. The name must have come from an unknown ancestor of his father’s back in County Antrim.

In 1824, when young Clark was about eleven years old, his parents left the Bethany community for Gwinnett County, Georgia, taking with them Clark, his six-year-old brother 7 David Bobo Stewart, and his older half-brother 4 James Stewart and his Bobo wife. Tradition says they went with several other families from Bethany, including some of Isabel’s Bobo relatives. Walter settled his young second family on land not far from the Chattahoochee River, probably near the present town of Duluth some ten miles north­east of Atlanta. Here he died the next year, in 1825.

Clark’s mother was apparently illiterate, since she signed her name with an “X” mark on documents relating to her husband’s estate. (Walter died without a will, and in later years she turned over her share of his modest estate to his sons.) However, she appears to have sent Clark to a school in Gwinnett County as a boy. Surviving in the family records is his hand-written arithmetic book from 1831, when he was eighteen years old. His book indicates that he was equipped to solve knotty arithmetic problems dealing with weights, measures, fractions, multiplication, division, and both English and American money. He listed some of his Gwinnett County friends in the book: James Weir, Nancy Culver, Mary Cobb, Jane Turner, John Dabbs, Tilman Bobo, David and George Templeton.

Sometime during these years Clark’s mother married a second time to a Henry Turner of Gwinnett County. Family tradition says that Clark and his younger brother David did not like their stepfather, and both left home early. However, in later years the two brothers and their half-brother James and their families often met at their stepfather’s home for Christmas, until their mother’s death about 1843.

For whatever reason, Clark returned to South Carolina to the community where he was born. His granddaughter, 683 Maude S. Buford, says he was eighteen years old when he returned “with only a few clothes, 50 cents, and the pony he was riding.” Two years later, in 1833, he became a charter member of Bethany Presbyterian Church. He earned a living as a schoolmaster, teaching at Bethany and Sandy Springs. Among his pupils - some of them almost as old as himself - were the numerous offspring of his half-brothers 1 Samuel, 2 John, 3 Robert, and 5 Walter, Jr. For some years he led a nomadic existence, boarding with neighbors closest to the school where he was teaching, and staying from time to time in the homes of tutors who helped him repair his own scanty education. His home, if he had one at all, was the large household of his half-brother John at Sandy Springs, where he often stayed between teaching terms.

In 1836, at age 23, Clark served briefly in the Indian Wars, joining the Laurens Volunteers as First Corporal. The unit took part in some brief skirmishing in the Second Seminole Campaign in north Florida. It was during this experience that Clark began keeping the diary that he was to continue for fifty years.

Clark returned to the Bethany community after his three-month hitch in the army, and again picked up his teaching career. His diary expanded to include lists of young ladies in the community whom he admired and sometimes escorted to church and social gatherings. Some he even assigned ratings: “delightful,” “grand,” or “serious.” One whom he found merely “pleasant” was one of his teenage pupils at Sandy Springs, young Katharine Carson Hitch.

Historian 6561 Goldie W. Stewart, who has studied Clark’s journals extensively, has identified the incident that turned him toward the ministry. His best friend at this time was Henry Hitch, the 22-year-old son of Squire John and Katharine Hanna Hitch of Sandy Springs, and older brother of his pupil Katharine. Although Henry was two years younger than Clark and in somewhat more affluent circumstances, says Goldie, the two young men held each other in high esteem. One summer Sunday, a shocking event occurred:

August 27, 1837. Sunday. Went to Meeting to Bethany in the Evening when I returned home I heard that my friend Henry Hitch had hung himself dead upon a Dogwood tree!!!!!!

This incident, says Goldie, precipitated a period of search for young Clark. Entries in his journal for the next year are sparse. He finished his teaching term at Sandy Springs, but in December of 1837 set out on an extended visit to Georgia. He stayed for a time with his younger brother 7 David Bobo Stewart in Cass County. He taught briefly, tried studying law under a local attorney, and rented a farm for a time. In December of 1838 he returned to Bethany and resumed teaching. He began making regu­lar entries in his journal again, with many references to church attendance at Sandy Springs, Langstons, and Bethany. He had conversations with the Rev. Samuel B. Lewers, the charismatic minister of Bethany Presbyterian Church, and borrowed books from him. Finally he made his decision.

June 5, 1839. Mr. J.H. Byrds funeral was preached at Sandy Spring by the Rev. Baronet Smith from Genesis 3rd Ch 24”. In the afternoon was at Prayer Meeting had a fine meeting came to a determination to endeavor by the help of God to find out by prayer and meditation, if any part of the Great Work of converting the world to righteousness belongs to me-

Matters moved rapidly after that. His term of teaching at Bethany came to an end on October 2. Two days later his spiritual mentor, the Rev. Lewers, presented him to the fall meeting of the Presbytery of South Carolina for a grueling examination on his “knowledge of religion.” He was found satisfactory, and was received as a beneficiary under the care of Presbytery, which ordered him to the Laurensville Male Academy in nearby Laurens for two years to obtain a classical education in preparation for attending Columbia Theological Seminary. While attending the Academy he was to board with the family of Dr. John Wistar Simpson, one of the founding citizens of Laurens and later head of the Academy.

Clark spent a happy two years in Laurens studying Latin and Greek and living with the Simpson family. In the fall of 1841 he entered Columbia Theological Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina. Here his education expanded to include social life in the capital city, but ties with the old Bethany community remained strong. On October 5, 1843, he married 20-year-old Katharine Hitch, his former pupil. The ceremony was performed in the Hitch home by his old mentor, the Rev. S.B. Lewers. Clark returned to Columbia to finish his studies, and on April 27, 1844, at age 31, he was ordained at Rocky River Presbyterian Church in Abbeville District, SC. Says historian Goldie:

After graduation from Columbia Theological Seminary, the newly ordained servant of the Church returned to Laurens County and the plantation of John Hitch, where he lived with his family while serving as a domestic missionary for the Presbytery. With a salary of $400.00 per year, his territory encompassed Laurens, Greenville and Spartanburg Counties. Much of his time at home was spent helping his father-in-law with the management and work of the plantation. In 1847, he was called to be the pastor of nearby Rocky Springs Church, and (in 1851) managed to purchase his own small farm some seven miles northeast of Fountain Inn, South Carolina.

In 1855, Reverend Stewart accepted a pastorate that he was to serve for his remaining active years, Fairview Presbyterian Church in lower Greenville County. This church, established in 1786, was in the midst of a very prosperous farming area and was rapidly outgrowing its limited facilities. In 1858, Clark joined the dedication of a new and larger building, complete with two galleries for the dusky slaves of his flock. This building continues to serve today. By 1859, the pastor felt the need to be closer to his field of ministry, so he sold his small farm and bought a large two story brick home with about 500 acres of land three miles from the church. This house also survives, overlooked by Sherman’s Army by only two miles, and, at present, is being restored to its original simple elegance after forty years of neglect. The detached kitchen-servant quarters with its four beautiful fireplaces remains only a ghostly shell, a mute reminder of a different way of life.

Clark Stewart’s meager ministerial salary could hardly support such a life. His interest in education had continued, and almost from the time of his graduation, he had returned to the classroom, first with his own private classes, and much later as a certified teacher in the state public schools. After the War, he joined in the effort to educate the former slaves, and the evidence is almost conclusive that several of his students were his own former bondsmen, now his sharecroppers.

This patriotic Southerner could not sit idly by in 1861 as his friends and neighbors left the comfort of their homes and families, though he revealed no great zeal for the cause itself. He was first appointed a missionary to the sick and wounded soldiers, and traveled across the South to visit the front lines and hospitals, most of which he rated as inadequate or deplo­rable.

And this nineteenth century American had yet another career. He never abandoned his love of farming and always managed to find some time to work in the fields in spite of other pressing commitments…When his own sons were old enough to assume some responsibility, he assigned them a portion of the farm, and they, in reality, sharecropped until they went away to school. This man of many facets was interested in the latest farming methods, and not only read a great deal on farm topics, but wrote for county and farm papers, especially for the Southern Cultivator under the nom-de-plume of “The Late Beginner.” He advocated advanced intensive agriculture, deep preparation and shallow cultivation, a liberal supply of humus, rotation of crops. He was perhaps the first man in his area to use guano, and brought into his section of the country improved breeds of cattle and hogs… Never a man of great wealth, he did remain in comfortable circumstances, due in part to his farming...

Clark and Katharine were the parents of three girls (one of whom died at the age of sixteen) and five boys (one of whom died at three months). Realizing the importance of education, their father provided them with every opportunity, from the time he taught them in his own private classes, through boarding schools and colleges. At the same time, he allowed them the pleasure of choosing their own destinies, as he had done.

In 1883, Reverend Stewart, suffering from years of health problems and the infirmities of old age, was forced to resign from his pastoral duties, though, with the help of (his son) Wistar, he continued to farm. Seven years later, on April 30, 1890, he answered his final call. He rests among his friends, both black and white, in the shadow of the church he served so long, Fairview.

Clark and Katharine Hitch Stewart - herself the granddaughter of Revolutionary soldier Robert Hanna - had three children who married descendants of the Peden family who were the chief founders of Fairview Presbyterian Church, one of the oldest in upper South Carolina. The three Peden descendants were Lou Anderson (married 62 Wistar Stewart), Martha Eugenia Peden (married 65 Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart), and Adam Stenhouse Peden (married 67 Nancy Ann Stenhouse Stewart). All three were first cousins, grandchildren of Rebecca Martin and Alexander Peden of the Fairview community. Alexan­der (founder of the Peden House of Alexander) was the son of original settlers Peggy McDill and John Peden, who came to the area before the Revolution from County Antrim, Ireland. The Peden family has held reunions at Fairview Church since 1899. The picture of 65 Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart and his family on a preceding page is said to have been made at the first Peden reunion in 1899.

Clark married Katherine Carson Hitch, daughter of John Hitch and Katherine Hanna, on 05 Oct 1843 in Laurens Co., SC.^{1 2} (Katherine Carson Hitch was born on 18 Mar 1823 in Laurens Co., SC,^{1 5} died on 25 Oct 1898 in Laurens Co., SC ^{1 4} and was buried about 28 Oct 1898 in Fairview Church Cemetery, Laurens Co., SC ⁴.)

According to Daisy Hitch Davies in "A Hitch Orchard" (1931), "Rev. C.B. Stewart was pastor of a Presbyterian church at Fairview, SC for 30 years. His fortune dwindled after the Civil War. Was not able for that reason to help educate his sons as much as he would have liked but they have been able to do for themselves. One was a minister, one was a doctor and one was a lawyer."