The following is from "The John Stewart Family, Oregon Pioneers of 1853" by Leah C. Menefee. It was printed in the "Lane County Historian" Vol. IX - No. 2 Eugene, Oregon, August 1964.
"Before he came to America, John Stewart, born in Dundee, Scotland on May 20, 1785, had served a five year term in the Forfar and Kincardine Regiment of Malitia. He was discharged on December 1, 1807 from this regiment commanded by Col. Archibald Douglas. At this time, his discharge, which is owned in Lane county by one of his descendants, stated that he was 24 years old, five feet seven and a half inches tall, with black hair and a 'fresh' complexion. He was from the parish of Munro, County Forfar, Scotland. He was a shoemaker by trade.
In 1815 John Stewart married for the first time. His wife was Annie Black and they were married in Dundee. They had one daughter, Annie, born February 16, 1816. In 1817 Annie Black Stewart died and on June 20th, 1820, John Stewart married Janet Smilie (Smiley) also in Dundee.
John Stewart and his second wife, Janet, had a daughter, Elizabeth Young Stewart, born in 1822. Her birth was followed by that of a son, born 1824 and died the same year, and by a daughter Mary A. born in 1826.
At this point, plans for coming to the United States came to fruition and these descendants of Scottish Covenanters--with their worldly goods and their Bibles--crossed the ocean in either 1826 or 1827."
