Comments on letters written by Samuel Stewart to family members.
Source:
Stewarts of Bright
1. Samuel Stewart's brother John Stewart wrote to his mother in 1815 requesting that Samuel and three of his brothers be sent to America (New York) so that he (John) could help them get apprenticeships and learn a trade.
2. In October 1834 Samuel wrote from New Orleans to his brother Alexander at Bright (Ireland) a short note chiding the folks at home from not writing. Samuel says he had fever for five weeks and has been convalescing for three months. He refers to himself as a builder but whether he served his time as an apprentice there is no evidence. In a pos-script he nonchalantly adds "I have partly concludd on getting married to a lady of this State, (Louisiana), speaking French and Spanish only and I very little but English."
3. In June of 1840 the brother of Robert Stewart, Samuel Stewart, wrote from New Orleans a long letter to his brother George at Marshallstown. He mentions meeting a Mr. Riley at the wharf waiting for a steamer to St. Louis. Mr. Riley gave him news of his brother Robert and said he was very prosperous with a splendid farm 100 miles north of S. Louis on the Mississippi river. Mr. Riley gave Samuel a letter wich convinced him that Robert was alive; previously Samuel thought his brother Robert, was dead because he read an account in a newspaper that a R. Stewart had been drowned in a steamboat on Lake Erie. Robert had apparently written to Samuel several times but getting no replies he had concluded that Samuel had died in a yellow fever or cholera epidemic. Later, Samuel and Robert would reconnect.
4. James Stewart wrote from New Orleans to his parents (Charles and Maria) in Ireland November 17, 1842. He tells them that he and his brother William were recovering from yellow fever. He extols his ucle Samuel's virtues; how kind he was to them when they were ill. He mentions Samuel's growing family and his second son James who is at a French school. When James, Samuel's second son, is quizzed he evidently insisted he was a Frenchman; probably a result of his mother's influence. He described the weather as very bad and the workmen unable to work; too many immigrants from Europe who can't get work. Three ship-loads, six to seven hundred were landed at New Orleans in one day.
