Twyman Clark Stewart

  Notes:

From "House of Clark":

Twyman Clark Stewart was the last child and fifth son of Katharine Carson Hitch and Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, founders of the House of Clark. He was born in 1863, during the Civil War, and grew up in the hard years following the war. He was the only one of Clark and Katharine Stewart’s children to be born in the old Clark Berry Stewart homeplace (“the brick house”) in the Fairview community near Fountain Inn, SC.

Twyman was only six years older than his oldest nephew, Eddie Stoddard (his sister 61 Amanda’s child). In 1879, when Twyman was sixteen years old, young Eddie “accidentally cut Twyman’s arm,” Clark reports in his journal. As a result, Twyman’s hand was crippled for the rest of his life.

As the youngest of his parents’ eight children, Twyman became the “errand boy” of the family, constantly sent hither and thither with the buggy to meet trains and fetch his older brothers and sisters about as they completed their education and set out on their various careers. Twyman finished the little school at Fairview at age 18. He attended another (name unknown) at “Grove Station” - Piedmont in nearby Anderson County, staying for a time with his older brother Calvin, who was a supply pastor for several small churches in the area. After a few months he returned to his parents’ home, where for several years he was his aging father’s trusted assistant in managing his estate.

In 1887, at age 24, Twyman married 20-year-old Malinda Abercrombie Babb, daughter of Jane Abercrombie and Thaddeus Babb of the Green Pond (or Babbtown) community near Fairview. After their marriage, Twyman and Malinda settled in West Pelzer (Anderson County) in a home not far from Twyman’s brother Calvin and his family. Twyman set up a general store in Pelzer, which he operated for many years. He and Malinda had a family of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. Only one of the eight - their son Ralph Berry Stewart - had issue.

After Malinda’s death in 1918, Twyman remained in Pelzer until his retirement, and then moved to Greer, SC (Greenville County) where his daughters Maude S. Buford and Mary Dell Stewart lived. He died there in 1945, and is buried with his wife Malinda at Fairview Presbyterian Church near his place of birth.

From The Christian Observer, publication of the Presbyterian Church, US:

On April 4, 1945, Twyman Clark Stewart received the call from the “Master of the House” to come up higher, after having served Him humbly and faithfully for eighty-two years. He was a scion of one of the oldest and most prominent families of the Fairview section of Greenville county, South Carolina, who for generations were staunch Presbyterians. He was laid to rest in the historic rock-walled church yard at old Fair­view, where his father, Rev. Clark Berry Stewart, served as pastor for thirty years. His mother was Catherine Carson Hitch.

On December 25, 1887, he was married to Malinda Babb and moved to the then new textile community of Pelzer, South Carolina, and entered the mercantile business which he pursued successfully for many years, retiring in 1929. He was made an elder in the Pelzer Presbyterian church in 1902, and served in that capacity faithfully and effectively until he moved his membership to Greer in 1939 ....

At his passing, a former pastor, Rev. I.E. Wallace, who had known him intimately for many years, very fittingly chose this text to characterize his life: “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” He adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour in every relation­ship of life.

Twyman married Malinda Abercrombie Babb, daughter of Thaddeus Babb and Jane Abercrombie, on 25 Dec 1887.^{1 2} (Malinda Abercrombie Babb was born on 13 Nov 1867 ² and died on 17 Dec 1918 ^{1 2}.)