Levi Stewart

Early years

Bishop Levi Stewart was born in Edwardsville, Illinois Birth 28 April 1812 West Edwardsvill, Madison, IL Death 14 June 1878, age 66

He married his (1st) cousin Melinda Howard on 7 February 1833, and moved to Vandalia, Illinois.

Conversion. Missions, Mormon Migration

In 1837 they were visited by Mormon missionaries. 1st wife (1st cousin) Melinda Howard Stewart was quickly converted to the faith. Levi traveled to Far West, Missouri to learn more. There he was baptized by Jefferson Hunt.

Stewart and his family moved to Ambrosia, Missouri in 1838. Later that year Governor Boggs of Missouri issued an Extermination Order for Mormons in that state. The Stewarts returned to Illinois in early 1839.

From April to October 1839 Stewart served a mission with his boyhood friend John D. Lee as his companion. Lee’s own conversion to Mormonism was greatly influenced by Stewart, as Lee would later reveal in his autobiography. Together they preached in Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and they baptized a number of people into the Mormon faith.

Stewart moved his family to Nauvoo, Illinois in early 1840. There he was a member of the Nauvoo Legion, and he helped to construct the Nauvoo Temple. He took part in the School of the Prophets and developed a friendship with Joseph Smith.

Stewart was called on a mission to Gallatin County, Illinois, together with James Pace in 1843. Again in 1844, he was called to be a missionary in Illinois and also to secure electors to vote for Joseph Smith for President of the United States. Smith was murdered that June.

Stewart entered into the practice of polygamy, when he took a second wife, Charity Holdaway, in January 1846. The marriage quickly dissolved when Charity decided that she could not support that lifestyle.

A few months later the Stewarts were forced from their home by a mob, and they relocated to Winter Quarters, Nebraska. They remained encamped in that general vicinity for two years. During that time Levi served as a courier, delivering mail between the Mormon encampments and Nauvoo.

The following spring, the Stewart family traveled to Salt Lake City, Utah as members of the Brigham Young Company, arriving in September 1848.

Years in Salt Lake Area

Stewart was granted a prime lot in central Salt Lake where he set up a home and a successful mercantile business.

He took another wife, Margery Wilkerson, in 1852. His first wife, Melinda, died in 1853 due to complications of child birth after delivering twins. In 1854 he also married Margery’s sister, Artemacy Wilkerson.

At Brigham Young's request, Levi moved to Mills Creek in the Big Cottonwood Canyon to set up a paper mill in 1865.

He took a contract for grading a section of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1868, which became part of the First Transcontinental Railroad the following year. He employed 100 men for this task.

Kanab Years

In the winter of 1869, he accompanied Brigham Young to southern Utah to seek out locations for new Mormon settlement. In 1870, Young directed him to form a settlement at the abandoned outpost of Kanab. Stewart arrived in June. He led a number of families to the area. Levi Stewart became the first Mormon Bishop of Kanab, Utah in September 1870. Over the next several years he directed the construction of dams and roads in the area, and he helped build a good relationship with the local Indians.

On December 14, 1870, his wife Margery, and 5 of his children, were killed in a fire. Stewart’s good friend Brigham Young traveled to Kanab to offer his condolences.

John Wesley Powell and fellow explorers passed through Kanab in 1872, and Stewart furnished them with food and supplies. His daughter, Eliza, telegraphed news of the expedition to Washington, DC.

Bishop Stewart took a final wife, Susan Eager, in 1874, but the marriage was short-lived.

The last of Stewart's 29 children was born in April 1878. A few months later, Stewart died of a stroke while traveling to Salt Lake City to buy supplies for his mercantile business. His death was mourned by Mormons and Indians alike.

Legacy

A statue of Stewart now stands in central Kanab on the site of the fort fire that killed his wife and children.

His noteworthy descendants include: