Born: Mercer County, Illinois, 1867.Died: 1939.
Born: Mercer County, Illinois, 1867.
Died: 1939.
Grew up on the farm. Graduated from Woodhull High School and from Eureka College in 1890. Evangelist in Illinois three years and served as pastor of the church at Mackinaw. Was a leader of the Illinois Christian Endeavor Union. In 1896 he became actively identified with the Prohibition party, and since then he has given himself almost exclusively to this work. In 1902 he was elected from the Hyde Park District in Chicago to the State Legislature, where he served with unusual efficiency.
Of one of his speeches there, Senator L. Y. Sherman said. "It was the finest and most eloquent speech I ever heard in an Illinois Assembly." Mr. Stewart is the ablest advocate of Prohibition principles who has graced the rostrum in twenty years. He is sane and sensible, wise and witty, persuasive and practical. His frank fairness, irresistible logic of facts, superior vocabulary, fluency of utterance and fine presence unite in making him a most interesting and persuasive orator.
At the national convention of the party at Indianapolis in 1904, a circular on the subject of the candidacy of Gen. Nelson A. Miles was distributed. Among others, the names of James A. Tate and Oliver W. Stewart were signed. Both of these are members of the Christian Church. The Voice, which was then controlled by John G. Woolley, called the document a "Campbellite" circular. It was a gratuitous insult. Seven years thereafter, Mr. Woolley ate his own words on Prohibition in a most shameless degree and thereby became "the lost leader." No one has found occasion to question Mr. Stewart's loyalty to the principles of the purest patriotism.