“Stewart Store: Andrew Jackson Stewart Sr. built this adobe building on 500 West across the street from Pioneer Park. It served as a house, store and a place for civic meetings.” [7]
Laying out the City of Provo
Regarding the establishment of Provo City, the Utah County Centennial History states:
William M. Lemon came from Salt Lake City and began the survey of Provo in the summer of 1850. The first stake was placed in the center of what was to be the Public Square – now Pioneer Park. He was assisted by Peter W. Conover as chain bearer. The northwest quarter of the city was surveyed, and one hundred and sixty acres were laid off into city lots. The work was continued by Andrew J. Stewart, Sr., in the spring of 1851, when a ‘city plot one mile square was surveyed, running eleven blocks each way with the public square in the center. A block was twenty-four rods square and contained eight lots, each being six by twelve rods.’ [1]
Tullidge’s 1883 history of Provo says:
The Main street running north and south, and Center street running east and west, being 8 rods wide, and all the other streets 6 rods wide, the public square being in the center of the city. [2]
An 1890 map of showing Provo at the intersection of Main Street (now 500 West) and Center Street. The original center of Provo was the Public Square, now Pioneer Park. The main street shifted to Academy Avenue (now University Avenue) with the growth of Brigham Young Academy [3]
The 1884 Utah Gazetteer states:The town- site of Provo — in fact of nearly all the cities in Utah County — was surveyed by Mr. A. J. Stewart, and Provo became an incorporated city as early as February 6, 1851. [4]
Regarding the distribution of property, the Utah County Centennial History states:
In order that all might have a fair show in the selection of a city lot, after selecting the central location for the city public square and central school, the home lots were chosen by casting lots, all areas being numbered from one upward, written on slips of paper, shaken up in a box and drawn out. [5]
Tullidge’s 1883 History records:
The settlers soon commenced to build on their city lots, and during the fall many of them moved out of the fort into their own houses – the tier of blocks on the east side of Main street and from there west being the first ones improved. [6]
The Stewart Home
After completing the survey of Provo City in the spring of 1851, Andrew Jackson Stewart, Sr. obtained a lot adjacent to the Public Square. In an 1886 dictation, he states:
In the spring of 1851 I built the first house on the City Platt of Provo. [8]
The Provo Centennial History also records:
Jonathan Hoopes and Andrew J. Stewart, Sr., were among the first to build adobe houses of which a number were built in 1851. [9]
Another source, a manuscript history of Provo written on July 15, 1880 by Albert Jones states:
Ross R. Rogers built the first adobie house on the present site in the year 1851. [10]
Both claims may be correct, depending on what is meant to have “built the first house,” (i.e., the first house that started construction, the first one completed, etc.) but regardless, their houses were among the first twenty or so constructed in Provo, as documented in the Provo Centennial History:
By 1851 Provo began to wear the appearance of a town. One mile east of the Fort, about twenty homes were built, and in several of them private schools were being conducted. [11]
Andrew Jackson Stewart constructed his house, “across the street east from the Public Square (Provo Pioneer Park),” [12] and “next south to where Bullock’s hotel [stood].” [13]
1888 rotated map showing Bullock’s Hotel and the Stewart home. Left is North. The road at the bottom was Main Street, now 5th West, and the road at the left is Center Street. At the bottom is the Public Square. [14]
The house was built of adobe bricks and eventually became a “two-story adobe structure.” [15]Andrew’s daughter, Eunice Lestra Stewart Morrison (1853-1941) stated in a 1936 interview:
In Provo blue clay was used to make sun dried bricks. Lime mortar was used even from the first. My father, Andrew Jackson Stewart, built the first adobe house in both Payson and in Provo. [16]
According to his granddaughter Ida Christmas Stewart Peay (1874-1948), the house was “located at 55 South 5th West Street, Provo." [17]
A Surveying Office
Andrew built the structure as both a “house and office;” [18] using the office while serving as the first Utah County Surveyor (1850-1854) and for later surveying contracts. [19]
Tullidge’s 1883 History states:
A. J. Stewart had been sent by Governor Young to survey Utah County, and he received his commission as county surveyor December 20th, 1850. He commenced surveying at Battle Creek, and found some surveys there and at American Fork, by Surveyors Lemon and Ira Eldredge, which Stewart finished and platted. His next work of surveying was at Provo and Springville, commenced by J. H. Dame, which he also finished and platted. He did nearly all the surveying of the county, including Provo, Springville, Lehi, American Fork, Mountainville, Pleasant Grove, Payson, and Santaquin, and went out of office as county surveyor in 1854. [20]
Andrew states in an 1886 dictation:
I was their County Surveyor and put this building up for an office. This office I held for five years. [21]
Land certificate issued to John B. Fairbanks by Andrew J. Stewart, Utah County Surveyor, for land in the Peteetneet survey, April 23, 1853. [22]
In later years after the railroad was built in 1871-1872, one history records:
Stewart often walked [from Payson] to his office in the county seat at Provo by following the railroad tracks to that city. [23]
The First Store in Provo
Andrew and Eunice previously operated a small store in Keg Creek, Iowa which they used to outfit pioneers for the journey west under the direction of Brigham Young. [24]
After becoming established in Provo, they began using their home as a store as early as 1853. [25]
Andrew was “the first merchant in Provo City,”[26] and “assisted by his wife, Eunice Stewart, he operated the first store on the town site.” [27]
The Stewarts employed a number of women, and Mrs. Stewart supervised them in the spinning and weaving of counterpane-bedspreads, blankets, table linen, and other articles which were sold over the counter to townspeople unable to spin and weave for themselves. [28]
A scarf woven by Eunice Pease Stewart, wife of A. J. Stewart in Provo on a hand loom ca. 1852. [29]
The children were involved with running the store. Andrew and Eunice’s daughter Eunice Lestra Stewart Morrison (1853-1941) recalled:We ran a store. The first store in Provo. [30]
A manuscript history of Provo written on July 15, 1880 by Albert Jones states:
Thomas Williams built the first store in Provo City. [31]
These claims may be consistent with each other since the sources state that Andrew was the first merchant and opened the first store in his house in Provo, but that Thomas Williams may have built the first building dedicated to being a store. Andrew didn’t build a separate building as a store until 1860, so Thomas must have build a store sometime between 1853 and 1860.
In 1855, Andrew was called to serve a mission to Carson Valley, Nevada with Elder Orson Hyde of the Council of the Twelve Apostles. After returning from this mission later that year, he was called to serve as a missionary in the Australasian Mission, where he served from 1856-1858.
His wife, Eunice…carried on the business while he was away on two missions for the Church. She managed so well she was able to add five rooms to their home during her husband’s absence. [32]
Her journal entry dated November 23, 1856 describes building an addition to the house with “adobies,” clay bricks used in construction:
In October I sold my old cook stove to Thomas King for five thousand adobies and Br. Da. Carter sent John Miksell and Andrew Colton to lay up the adobies. The Brethren done their work very well. They began to [lay] the foundation on Thursday the sixth day of November and got done 15 day of November. Their work cost me 53 ½ in all besides the tenders or hands that waited on them.
The final documented evidence of the use of the Stewart home as a store before Andrew built a new building for the store was during the Pioneer Day celebrations in Provo on July 24, 1860:
Flags were also displayed from the stores of A.J. & B.F. Stewart, H. L. Southworth, Bullock’s hotel, and various parts of the city. [33]
A Meeting Place
One June 10, 1855, Elder George A. Smith, of the Council of the Twelve Apostles, and the Presiding Elder of the settlement at Provo, approached Eunice Pease Quinby Stewart for permission to use the home as a meeting place for the High Council of Provo. Eunice’s journal states:
Br. G. A. Smith and Br. _____ (sic) came in to see us and wanted our prayer room for to hold prayer in. I told Br. Smith that we would be glad to have the brethren meet in our house.
Another journal entry from June 17, 1855 records:
The Brothers holding to the prayer circle met this evening and Br. Snow and dedicated our south room for prayer and expect to meet every Sabbath.
Jonathan Oldham Duke, a resident of Provo, wrote on July 16, 1855:
This evening met in Council with the Prest. Snow and the Bishops in our regular Prayer quorum at the home of Br. A. Jackson Stewart which quorum was formed nearly 2 years ago by Prest. G. A. Smith. [34]
Eunice’s journal entry from July 21, 1857 states:
The Second Seventies met at our house 21 day of July ’57.
With the occupation of the Utah Territory by the US Army under the command of General Albert S. Johnston, Elder Wilford Woodruff of the Council of Twelve Apostles moved into the Stewart home in 1858. Eunice’s final journal entry states:
Br. Wilford Woodruff moved a part of his family in our house on the sixth day of April and the rest on the 21 of May. He has 4 of the largest rooms. [35]
[3] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4344pm.g088851890/?sp=7&r=-0.414,0.461,1.739,0.679,0
[4] https://archive.org/stream/utah1884/utah1884_djvu.txt
[5] Memories that live: Utah County Centennial History, p. 317)
[6] Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, Volume 3.
[7] The Daily Herald, Sunday, February 29, 2004. file:///C:/Users/stans/Downloads/ab3ee6ac44ada02c848c9e644ae06ea9149209d9.pdf
[8] Dictation, Andrew Jackson Stewart. Benjamin, Utah, 1886. MS 8305. Bancroft Collection PF-56. Church History Library. UC Berkeley.
[9] Memories That Live: Utah County Centennial History, Daughters of Utah Pioneers of Utah County, 1947 p. 58. https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/28183/dvm_LocHist012132-00029-0/53?backurl=&ssrc=&backlabel=Return&rc=1744,650,1994,702;1416,649,1677,713;957,1398,1219,1453;1285,1400,1542,1453[10] Utah Sketches: ms., 1880, Call Number BANC MSS P-F 10 v.1, pp. 53-64: “Provo County, Utah” by Albert Jones. July 15, 1880. UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.
[11] Memories that live: Utah County Centennial History p. 74
[12] Source: Heart Throbs of the West, Vol. 3 by Kate B. Carter, p. 265. 1948
[13] Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, No. I, Volume III, October 1883, “History of Provo,” p. 252.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Tullidge_s_Quarterly_Magazine.html?id=lBXZAAAAMAAJ
[14] https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6ks72r2
[15] The Daily Herald, Sunday, February 29, 2004. file:///C:/Users/stans/Downloads/ab3ee6ac44ada02c848c9e644ae06ea9149209d9.pdf
[16] Interview of Mrs. Eunice Lestra Morrison (1853-1941). Utah Works Progress Administration. Historical Records Survey. Fechser-Utah-Pioneer Interview. Nov. 1, 1936. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=698127
[17] Ida Christmas Stewart Peay biography of her father, Andrew Jackson Stewart, Jr.
Note: Even by 1890 the address 55 would have been the next block down from Bullock’s hotel!!!
According to his great-grandson Ray Stewart, the adobe house was located at 3rd South and 5th West but he may have confused it with his grandfather’s house, the Stewart Mansion.[18] Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, No. I, Volume III, October 1883, “History of Provo,” p. 252.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Tullidge_s_Quarterly_Magazine.html?id=lBXZAAAAMAAJ
[19] (The Latter-day Saint Biographical Encyclopedia , page 308).
[20] Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, Volume 3.
[21] Dictation, Andrew Jackson Stewart. Benjamin, Utah, 1886. MS 8305. Bancroft Collection PF-56. Church History Library. UC Berkeley.
[22] John B. Fairbanks Land Certificate, 1853 April 23. Church History Library, MS 8795. https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/record?id=6f2ffb8f-8838-4850-a323-012230d9325f&view=browse&subView=arrangement
[23] Tales of Old Peteetneet by Madoline Cloward Dixon.
[24] Excerpts from the Memoirs of Granddaughter Roselle Judkins (1912-2015).
[25] Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine, No. I, Volume III, October 1883, “History of Provo,” p. 252.
https://books.google.com/books/about/Tullidge_s_Quarterly_Magazine.html?id=lBXZAAAAMAAJ
[26] History of Provo, Jensen, p.304.
Memories that live: Utah County Centennial History p. 125
[27] Source: Heart Throbs of the West, Vol. 3 by Kate B. Carter, p. 265. 1948
[28] Memories that live: Utah County Centennial History p. 125
[29] Peteetneet School Museum.
[30] Interview of Mrs. Eunice Lestra Morrison (1853-1941). Utah Works Progress Administration. Historical Records Survey. Fechser-Utah-Pioneer Interview. Nov. 1, 1936. https://collections.lib.utah.edu/details?id=698127
[31] Utah Sketches: ms., 1880, Call Number BANC MSS P-F 10 v.1, pp. 53-64: “Provo County, Utah” by Albert Jones. July 15, 1880. UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.
[32] Memories that live: Utah County Centennial History p. 125
[33] https://catalog.lds.org/assets?id=1fbfc81d-d75e-4f61-a1b2-cc048381c0e3&crate=0&index=75
[34] https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/Diaries/id/3612/rec/2
[35] https://hickmansfamily.homestead.com/EuniceStewart.html
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