Elias B. Stewart, planter, is a native of Jefferson County, Ala., born November 3, 1832, the fifth of a family of mine children born to Elias and Elcy (Neighbors) Stewart. The parents were married in Alabama, and in 1835 came to Tennessee and settled in Hardeman County, where they spent the remainder of their lives. The father was born in 1801 in Middle Tennessee, was a farmer, and a Democrat, and died in 1854. The mother was a native of Jefferson County, Ala., and died in 1866. Elias B. secured good educational advantages in youth, and began farming at an early age. When an infant, he came with his parents to Hardeman County, and has ever since made it his home with the exception of four years, when he was in the Confederate Army. In 1862, he enlisted with the South and was received into Forrest’s cavalry, participating at Shiloh and Chickamauga and several other important engagements. He was honorably discharged in the spring of 1865 in Mississippi, and then returned home to resume farming. In 1873, he purchased the farm where he now lives, eleven miles west of Bolivar, and has made life a success, owning at present 1,280 acres of good land, besides owning a steam cotton-gin and grist-mill. January 27, 1859, Mr. Stewart married Miss Lucy M. Farris, a native of Hardeman County, born in 1836, and an estimable lady. They are the parents of eight children, six of whom are living. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Mrs. Stewart and five children are members of the same church.
Source: “The Goodspeed Publishing Co., History of Tennessee, 1886”