The Tale of Three Stewarts

Looking back on the last few generations of my family I discovered that there were three boys name Stewart, three generations in a row, each with decidedly different fates. 

The first Stewart was the 9th child to be born to John C. Feero (1821-1911) and Emeline (Way) Feero (1831-1881) in York, New Brunswick. John and Emeline would eventually end up having 11 children in total but poor Stewart died only 10 and a half months after being born in 1870. John and Emeline also lost another son at an early age when Miles died when he was 2 and a half in 1874. 

The second Stewart was born in Maine in 1885. He was the son of John E. Feero (who was the son of John C.) and Emma (Babcock) Feero. He was one of the older brothers of my great grandmother, Edith Feero. Unfortunately, Stewart also met with a tragic ending at a young age when he died at the age of 10. 

Stewart (in front right, smiling) with his siblings.

Here is how my great grandmother Edith described what happened to her brother when reflecting on her early childhood in Tacoma before moving to Skagway, Alaska for the gold rush. 

"Mother and Father got a chance to take over a farm for half of everything they could raise. Which might have been fine except the owner had been in an asylum twice and we found out he was ready to go again. We had real bad luck on that place. We lost my brother Stewart there. He was out with the men falling trees to make fence rails. One tree fell against another and a branch of the other tree broke off and hit Stewart in the forehead. He died the next morning at 3 am."

I was beginning to think that the name Stewart was cursed but perhaps the third time was indeed the charm. When Edith grew up, married Karl Larson, and started a family of her own she named her first child Stewart. Perhaps she was honoring her lost brother with her choice of a name. Thankfully, this Stewart avoided the tragedy of his preceding namesakes. Born in Skagway in 1908, Stewart would live to see the 21st century, passing away in 2002 in Washington state. He certainly made up his predecessors, living a full life which found him marrying three times (Virginia Van Dyk, Velma Fish and Helene Stoops) and having three children (Leila, Jim, Carolee). (Jim was adopted by Stewart when he was 14 years old.)

(Probably) Stewart operating a mini-steam locomotive at a fair.

I was never able to meet my great uncle Stewart but I was able to get some details about him from his son Jim's wife Jo-Ann (both now residing in Calgary). According to her, Stewart loved to play cribbage and lived to dance (he went dancing just 3 weeks after getting a new hip!). Like many in the family, he was a railroad man, having worked for Northern Pacific Railroad. He was also a bellhop at the Golden North Inn in Skagway. He was fun-loving with a sweet tooth for ice cream and an appreciation for poetry (Robert Service and Wadsworth were favorites). Later in life, he volunteered to drive cancer patients. His third wife Helene, unfortunately, died from brain cancer. 

"He lived thru the century change in 2000. But did not want to live to be 100 because he missed having a girlfriend/wife to snuggle with." 

It's nice to know that the third Stewart on the family tree had a happy ending.