WILLIAM McALVIS STEWART, MD

   William Stewart was the epitome of a country doctor.  Records indicate that, unlike most physicians of his era, Dr. Stewart did not limit his practice to a single town or community.  He traveled to all areas of Kaufman, Henderson and Rockwall Counties to treat his patients - Kaufman, Mabank, Terrell and the places without doctors located in between - Abner, Prairieville, Chisholm, etc.  Family lore states that when times were tough for his patients he was paid with fresh vegetables, chickens and any other commodity available to his patients and needed by his family.

   Dr. Stewart was born to James Larden Stewart & Darthula Snider on May 5, 1870 in Simpson County KY.  He graduated in the first class at the prestigious Vanderbuilt University Medical School, previously the Nashville Medical School, and upon receiving his credentials came to Texas to begin his medical practice.

   After arriving in Kaufman County, circa 1893, he met Catherine Laura "Katie" Harr (Dec.  3, 1875 - Mar 4, 1918), daughter of Kaufman pioneers Charles Leonard Harr and Elizabeth Virginia Stinson.  William and Katie married April 1, 1894, and to them the following children were born: Lillian May (born and deceased in 1895), James Leonard (b 1896), William Charles (b 1899), Austin Howard (b 1901), Jewel Virginia (b 1904), George Andrew (b 1906), Opal Obenia (b 1909), Ruby Amelia (b 1911), Ronalda Ruth (b 1914), and Catherine LaNelle (b 1918).

   William lived the remainder of his life in Kaufman County.  He died at St. Paul Hospital in Dallas on September 14, 1940, and is buried in the same plot with Katie at College Mound Cemetery.

• Kaufman County's Medical History