Calvin Lewers Stewart

From "House of Clark":

Calvin Lewers Stewart was the fourth child of Katharine Carson Hitch and Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1851 at the old Hitch homeplace in the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County, a few months before his parents moved to the Fountain Inn area in upper Laurens County. He was probably named after the Rev. Samuel B. Lewers, the Presbyterian evangelist who inspired the organization of Bethany Presbyterian Church (see 5 Walter Stewart, Jr.).

Calvin’s father left a characteristically brief account of his son’s birth in his journal. Two neighborhood women had been engaged to serve as midwives, and all due preparations had been made. But little Calvin arrived unexpectedly one morning, with no one in the house but Katharine’s sister and their elderly mother, Mrs. Hitch, who had lost the use of one arm but not her old expertise. Reported Clark:

June 5, 1851. at 6 in the A.M. Katharine gave birth to a fine son; no one present but Isabella H her sister Mrs. officiated with her with only one hand -

Young Calvin followed his father into the ministry. Not long after his ordination as a Presbyterian minister, he married Lida Frances Todd, daughter of Jane McClintock and James Rogers Todd of Due West, SC. Calvin served as supply pastor at New Harmony Presbyterian Church near Fountain Inn for a time. In 1882, about the time he and Lida were married, he accepted a call to serve half time at the Pelzer Presbyterian Church in nearby Anderson County. Pelzer, on the Saluda River twelve miles west of the Fair­view community, was the site of a flourishing new cotton mill, founded in 1881. Soon another call came to serve also as the part time first pastor of nearby Lickville Presbyterian Church, founded in 1882. The Lickville church was said to be named after a salt lick frequented by deer in the area. The church originated from small group meetings held in a one-room school on the farm of Dr. J.L. Woodside. The twenty charter members had just built their first house of worship on property donated by W.A. McKelvey.

Calvin and Lida had a family of three children. They lived for many years in West Pelzer not far from Calvin’s brother, 68 Twyman Clark Stewart and his wife Malinda Babb. They were also neighbors and close friends of Calvin’s cousin, 323 Mary Rachel Stewart and her husband John Marion Garrett.

After Calvin’s death in 1921 at age 70, Piedmont Presbytery entered the following memorial to him in its Minutes:

Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart, the subject of this sketch was born near Rocky Springs Church in Laurens County, South Carolina, June 5th, 1851, and died at his home in Pelzer, S.C., November 9th, 1921, at the age of 70 years, five months and four days. He was the second son of Rev. Clark Berry and Katharine Carson Hitch Stewart.

He was prepared for college in the day schools of Fairview, Slabtown (Anderson, SC) and Reidville, S.C.; entered Davidson College as a Freshman in the fall of 1873 and was graduated in June, 1877. He became a student in Columbia Theological Seminary in the fall of 1877, and was graduated in May, 1880. On October 16th, 1880, he was ordained at Rocky Springs Church, the first church that his honored father served from 1846 to 1856.

Rev. Calvin Lewers Stewart served the following churches as pastor or stated supply for forty-one years, to-wit: New Harmony, Piedmont, Lickville, Belton, Honea Path, Pelzer and Williamston. He resigned the pastorate of Pelzer and Lickville on October 16th, 1921.

He was married to Miss Lyda Todd of Due West, S.C., in 1882, and two sons and one daughter, Henry Todd and Clark and Katy, were born of this union. He was faithful in his domestic relations. He was elected by the alumni of Davidson College to deliver the oration on one commencement occasion. He was a man of many sterling traits of character, had excellent antecedents, and was not only a faithful preacher of the gospel, but was not satisfied with anything but the best that could be produced in the field, garden, stable, pasture or pen.

Calvin and his wife Lida are buried in the Williamston Cemetery a few miles from their home in Pelzer.

Calvin married Lida F. Todd, daughter of James Rogers Todd and Jane McClintock, in 1881.¹