This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/BUB.2ACI/6010 Message Board Post: DR. CHARLES M. STEWART Dr. Charles M. STEWART of Hume died at his home Sunday morning, Sept. 11, 1932. His funeral was held at the home Tuesday, Sept. 13th, and was attended by such a crowd of people as his long and useful life rendered fitting. Rev. Dean BEDFORD of Rochester officiated in the ceremonies at the house, while the ceremonies at the cemetery were conducted by Oriona Lodge F. & A.M., of which organization he had been a member for many years. Burial was at the Alger Cemetery beside the graves of the other members of the family who have passed away. Dr. STEWART was born in the village of Hume, within a stone's throw of the place where he died. With the exception of a few years passed in Belfast, Buffalo, and N. Dakota, he lived in Hume all his life. His father was Dr. Azariah BLANCHARD STEWART, born in Homer, Cortland County, N.Y., Feb. 28, 1826. As was the practice of those far-off days, Dr. "Blanch" STEWART as he was known during his life, read medicine in the office of another physician Dr. WEBSTER, of Homer. His general education was obtained at Homer Academy. After leaving Dr. WEBSTER's office, he attended lectures at a medical college, long since passed away, in Geneva, N.Y. He also received an honorary degree from the medical school of the University of the City of New York. He located in Hume and engaged in the practice of medicine there in 1844. He was in active practice in Hume until his death which occurred Sept. 24th, 1878. In 1848 he was united in marriage to Elissif L. MILLS, daughter of Webster MILLS, a member of one of the oldest and best known families in the town. Three children of this marriage grew to manhood and womanhood, Dr. Charles M. STEWART, Mary STEWART FISH, of West Valley, N.Y., and Dr. Allan B. STEWART of Owatonna, Minn. The latter two still survive. Dr. Charles Mills STEWART was born in Hume April 19, 1850, in a house still standing, almost across the village main street from the school house. He attended the Hume village school, Pike Seminary and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary at Lima, N.Y. He read medicine with his father and with Dr. H.H. LYMAN, who had located in Hume in 1850. He attended the medical school of the University of Buffalo, from which he was graduated in the spring of 1870. He practiced in Hume one year, in Belfast for two years, and then returned to Hume, where for the balance of his long life, with short absences, he lived and practiced his profession. On Oct. 11, 1872, he was married at Brockport, N.Y., to Annie M., daughter of Mortimer and Maria KETCH of Sweden, Monroe County, N.Y. Mrs. Stewart died several years ago. To Dr. Charles and Annie STEWART were born three Children, Dr. Edith STEWART, who died in 1920; Nina, who survives him, and one son Lynn, who died in 1894, at 14 years of age. Dr. STEWART was engaged in the active practice of medicine for almost 60 years. He made countless thousands of miles, over roads choked with snow or deep in mud, in the cold of winter and the heat of summer. He was exposed to most of the storms that raged during those 60 years. The physical toil involved in 60 years of an active country physician is great. None but a strong man could sustain such toil, yet the physical labor was not as heavy a load as the care and responsibility involved in dealing with human life, with suffering and disease. The man to whom his training and the law have given power to deal with human illness and pain, with life and death, has as great a care and responsibility as any human being ever has. This sense of responsibility was ever present with Dr. STEWART. The financial side of his profession never appealed to him, the human and emotional side was what he saw. He was one of the most sympathetic of men. A hundred times I have seen him shed tears at human suffering. He was no cold hearted scientific observer, but rather a sympathetic human heart that observed his patient's sorrow and suffering. Humor appealed to him. He loved funny stories of which he had a hundred that he loved to tell. No one who knew him will ever forget his stories or the inimitable laugh which came with them. Kindness, good humor and human sympathy were the dominant traits of his character. If a man have those what more does he need to fit him for the practice of medicine. Add to these traits a strong, enduring body and 57 years of opportunity and you have Dr. STEWART's life outlined. He had his sorrow and his frailties but now that it is all over, when we look at the completed record of his life, when we think of the suffering he has relieved, the lives he has saved, the comfort and the sympathy he has brought into thousands of lives and the cheery sunshine that he spread around him during his 82 years, we must say that he deserved, as he possessed, the love and respect of the people among whom he lived. Obituary written by A.H. LYMAN, M.D. [Northern Allegany Observer obituary, transcribed by Louise Y. Mills, 2003, from Cora Lahr's scrapbooks, Fillmore, NY]