HISTORY OF GREEN COUNTY. 
 
assistance, and his deeds bore testimony to his 
sincerity. His life was filled with interesting 
incidents and pleasant reminiscences and so 
thoroughly identified was he with the growth 
and progress of Green county, and the State, 
that its history is in part his own epitaph. 
Many have come and gone from among this 
community, and children have grown up to 
manhood's estate, knowing him and respecting 
him for his many noble qualities, so many to- 
day mourn with his bereaved family, and loss 
of one of the noblest of mankind. 
Mr. Gardner died near Monroe, on the 3d day 
of February, 1879.   His funeral took place 
from  the residence in Monroe, on the 5th day 
of February, 1879, at 2 o'clock P. m., and was 
attended by a large concourse of relatives and 
friends. Rev. D. R. Howe, in an appropriate 
and impressive manner, led the services. The 
Masonic fraternity took charge of the. funeral. 
Johm IF. Stewart. 
It is sonietimes a valuable service to the con- 
munity and the piublic at large to call attention 
to strong, able and practical men of the more 
retiring kind whose example, services, and pos- 
sibly leadership, it would be much better to 
have in demand than that of the more forward. 
kind. A man of this retiring kind, strong, able 
and practical, is Hon. John W. Stewart, for- 
inerly of Monroe, now of Chicago. Few men in 
Chicago are better known among its active 
citizenship and leading spirits. A man of ster- 
ling character, thor'oughly acquainted with the 
ways of men, the public wants, governmental 
methods and machinery, active, resolute and 
progressive, men say of him: here is a man 
who would make a capital head official for 
almost any important department of public af- 
fairs-nationl, State or municipal.  All the 
while such men quietly attending to their own 
business well out of official range. It is, how- 
ever, as ha; just been intimated, well worth 
while for the public to turn its attention to 
them ; even if in so doing, attention is entirely 
withdrawn from other directions. Something 
 
about a man like John W. Stewart is in order 
and interesting. 
The son of Rev. John Stewart, a Methodist 
minister, who was for fifty years a member of 
the Ohio conference. Mr. Stewart was born at 
Vincenies, Ind., in 1822.  He is of Scotch 
blood, pure enough to be a Scotcbman, although 
three generations of his family preceding him 
were born in this country. On account of the 
itineracy of his father his early childhood was 
spent in various places; but what was thus lost 
was compensated for by quickened powers of 
perception and observation. At the age of 
twelve lie earnestly solicited the privilege of 
learning the art of printing. Entering the office 
of the Times at Troy, Ohio, he remained there 
for two years, gaining a large amount of practi- 
cal knowledge, and laying the foundation for 
his subsequent useful life. After leaving the 
printing and newspaper office lie entered the 
preparatory department of the Ohio University 
at Athens, Ohio, and subsequently entered 
Augusta College, Kentucky, where he was a 
student for three years. In the winter of 1840-1 
he obtained permission of his parents to come 
into the great undeveloped northwest. Arriving 
at Prairie du Chien by steamer, by way of the 
Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the spring of 
1841, he immediately found new friends at Lan- 
caster, in Grant Co., Wis., and entered the office 
of Messrs. Barber & Dewey for the purpose of 
studying law. Shortly afterwards lie was ap- 
pointed deputy clerk of the United States dis- 
trict court. Soon after this he was appointed 
postmaster of Lancaster, which office he held 
for one year, when lie located at Monroe, Green 
Co., Wis. Here he was admitted to the bar and 
entered on the practice of law. He also com- 
menced in this place in May, 1851, the publica- 
tion of a weekly newspaper, the Monroe Senti- 
nel, which he disposed of before the close of 
the first volume. The paper is still one of the 
leading papers of the State. But Mr. Stewart 
had formed a distaste for close office work; he 
had become interested in laud speculations 
 
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