Biography

"Charles Samuel Stewart, born the son of Samuel
Robert Stewart, on 16 October 1795 at what available records
consistently list as “Flemington, New Jersey”. There is
insufficient evidence found to determine the actual birthplace. He graduated from the
College of New Jersey (Princeton) in 1815. While there, he
was swept up in the great revival movement in 1814-1815
and joined its Presbyterian Church in the latter year. He went
on to law school in Litchfield, Connecticut, but felt called by
religion and returned to Princeton to enter the Theological
Seminary there. Whether it was a search for adventure or a
sincere wish to enter missionary work, he sailed with his new
wife, Harriet B. Tiffany, in 1822 from New Haven bound
for the Sandwich Isles (Hawaii). The illness of his wife
forced their return three years later but not the abandonment
of his work. For several years he toured the northern states
advocating support of the foreign missions until he gained
an appointment as a Navy chaplain in November of 1828
aboard the frigate Guerriere at New York. From June 1829
until June 1830 he was aboard the sloop Vincennes as it sailed
westward around the Horn and became the first U.S. naval
ship to circumnavigate the globe. Subsequent assignments
included the 74 gun ship-of-the-line Delaware in 1834,
the frigate United States in 1835 and the New York Naval
Shipyard in 1836. Over the ensuing years he was stationed at
Annapolis and at various Navy Yards such as New York and
Philadelphia where he had many friends."

"Harriet B. Tiffany, the chaplain’s first wife had died by the
early 1830s. Their children had been Charles S. 
and two unmarried daughters who had
died as young adults. On 24 September 1835 the chaplain had
married his third cousin, Mrs. Sarah A. Stewart Skillman, the
widow of John Skillman. This second marriage took place
at Cooperstown, N.Y., and that may explain the family move
to Cooperstown. She and her former husband had had two
young children, both of whom the chaplain legally adopted.
The chaplain’s own son, Charles Seaforth Stewart, was
born on 11 April 1823 at sea during his parents’ missionary
travels. He graduated first in his class from West Point
in 1846, ahead of classmate and future great, George
McClellan, who ranked second. "

"Stewart died on
15 December 1870 at Cooperstown, New York. Burial was in
the Christ Church cemetery there overlooking Lake Otsego
and near the monument of fellow New Jersey native, writer
James Fenimore Cooper, with whom Stewart was acquainted
and had corresponded in the past. "