Henry Boardman Stewart

From "House of Clark":

Dr. Henry Boardman Stewart was the fifth child and third son of Katharine Carson Hitch and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1855 in upper Laurens County on Big Durbin Creek near Fountain Inn, where his parents moved in 1851 from the Sandy Springs community in lower Laurens County. His place of birth, known as “the old Mock place,” is located just to the north of the site of 2 John Stewart’s sawmill (see Fountain Inn-Harmony map). His parents moved to the Fairview community near Fountain Inn in 1858, when he was about three years old.

“Bordie,” as he was called, was named after Dr. Henry A. Boardman, pastor of the Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and a well known minister of the times. Bordie’s father heard him preach at the 1854 Presbyterian General Assembly in Buffalo, New York.

As a young man, Bordie attended the Atlanta Medical College (now Emory University Medical School), graduated in 1879, and returned to serve the Fairview community for sixty-five years as its highly esteemed “country doctor.”

In 1880, Bordie married young Martha Eugenia Peden, daughter of Nancy Smith and John McVey Peden of the Fairview community. Dr. Bordie and Eugenia had a family of five sons and four daughters, one of whom died in infancy. They celebrated their long-remembered 50th wedding anniversary on March 4, 1930, throwing open their home to the entire community. Not long after this occasion their old friend and neighbor W.M. Nash paid this tribute to them in a local paper (name not certain):

In attempting to write of the life and character of Dr. H. Bordie Stewart, I do so with an emotional feeling, for I know that I am speaking of a man who stands well up in the minds and hearts of many people. Doctor and Mrs. Stewart recently celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage, and they entertained their many friends in a very appropriate way, and to the enjoyment of all.

Dr. Stewart has been a prominent daily figure among us for more than fifty years. In sunshine, in shadow, in summer’s hot sun, in winter’s cold blasts he has ever pursued his practice. Never too hot, never too cold, never too late, never too early, he has always been there .... A more consistent man could not be found. We knew him when he rode the horse and he always rode a good horse, fat and well groomed with plenty of life and spirit and he always handled that horse in so consistent a manner that he never rode the spirit out of the horse.

In all these long years and continued big practice, he always made his rounds on Sunday morning in time to be back at old Fairview for Sunday School and church. He has been there with that same consistency that characterized itself in his practice. He always took an active interest in Sunday School and church and music.

It should be said for the encouragement of those coming after that the doctor started life not any too strong in health but by that same persistency and consistency of life and living and practice he overcame a considerable weakness and came to be a strong man of good physique and appearance ....

In 1918 Dr. Bordie was elected fourth Chief of the Walter Stewart Clan and served in this capacity until his death in 1947 at age 92. His 29-year term was the longest of any of the six Stewart descendants to serve as head of the Clan to date. His wife Eugenia died in 1932 at age 73. Both are buried at Fairview Presbyterian Church.

In 1929, Dr. Bordie donated a famous monument to Fairview Presbyterian Church which can still be seen in the church cemetery. The monument is a stone carving of a doctor’s bag, engraved with this epitaph:

Dedicated to the memory of the family physician and the memory of those who keep the home fires burning during the doctor’s absence on his errands of mercy.

The Laurens Advertiser (Laurens, SC) summarized Dr. Bordie’s career at his death on September 15, 1947:

Dr. Stewart practiced medicine continuously in lower Greenville and upper Laurens counties for a period of 65 years or until 1944 when he had to retire because of injuries received in a fall. Since that date he had been practically an invalid at his home. For 67 years he was a ruling elder of Fairview Presbyterian church and for 62 years officiated as superintendent of the Sunday school.

Interested in livestock and progressive farming of every kind, he was one of the founders of the Fairview Stock Show and was one of the prime forces behind its successful operation throughout his life. Present at every one of them until his injury, he was a familiar figure as he directed the program from horseback.

“I started out in life with two aims,” Dr. Stewart once stated. “One was to give my children a better education than I had. In this I have succeeded. The other was to offer my best services to my fellowmen, and it has been my experience that if you ‘Give to the world the best you have, the best will come back to you.’“

Henry married Martha Eugenia Peden, daughter of John McVea Peden and Nancy Smith, on 04 Mar 1880.¹ (Martha Eugenia Peden was born on 03 Oct 1858 in Greenville Co., SC and died on 03 Jun 1932 in Greenville Co., SC.)