John C. Stewart
John C. Stewart
| Died | 1864-06-17 Petersburg, VA |
John C. Stewart was a Billerica farm laborer who served nearly three years in the 29th Massachusetts Infantry and was killed before Petersburg, Virginia, in June 1864. His name is cut on the Soldiers' Monument on the Common, the white granite shaft crowned with the figure of a soldier that the town dedicated on October 8, 1873, and later lists of the names give it as John G. Steward.
He was born about 1826, a son of William Stewart, a Billerica farmer born about 1781, and his wife Ann or Anna. In 1850 he was a laborer of 24 living on his father's farm with his brothers James, Simeon, King D. and Alanson and his sister Cynthia; his brother Philip, a farmer, lived next door with his wife Mary and son James P., and Stephen Parker's farm adjoined. His father's estate was settled in 1857 and his mother's in 1863.
He was mustered into Company B of the 29th Massachusetts Infantry on August 26, 1861. On May 11, 1864, "being about to depart for active service in the twenty ninth Massachusetts Volunteers", he made his will at Billerica, naming his brother Philip executor and leaving all his goods and estate to Philip and Alanson in equal parts. He was killed at Petersburg on June 17, 1864, after 34 months in the army. He left no wife or children; his heirs were his brothers Simeon S. Stewart of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Philip, Alanson and William Henry Stewart of Billerica, King D. Stewart of Suncook, New Hampshire, and Jerome B. Stewart of California, and his sister Cynthia, wife of John H. Osgood of Suncook. The will was proved at Cambridge on December 27, 1864, with an estate of less than $2,000.