Stewart & Sons Surveying Firm
In 1890 to 1895 [Andrew Jackson Stewart Jr.] carried on a general engineering and surveying business with this sons, Scott P. and John R., under the firm name of Stewart and Sons.[2]
Andrew Jackson Stewart Jr (lower left) surveying party with sons Scott Pease Stewart and John Riggs Stewart [3]
Field Notes of Stewart and Sons in which they recorded North Fork Water Measurements and Survey of Flume Line, beginning August 7, 1903[4]
Upon returning from his mission, Andy spent 2 or 3 years assisted by his son Scott Pease, surveying “the public lands in the mountains east of Provo, in the mountain areas between Salt Lake and Tooele valleys and east of Sandy and Draper.”[5] Following their fieldwork, they made maps of the surveys in Andy’s office in Provo. After Scott became a U. S. Deputy Surveyor in 1897, he assisted Andy with “government contracts for public land surveys in Utah, Juab, and Sanpete Counties. From 1898 until about 1912, these annual surveying parties, conducted by the firm Stewart and Sons, and later by Stewart and Stewart ([Scott] and his brother, John, who also became a U. S. Deputy Surveyor), were one of the principal sources of remunerative employment open to young men of the community and the jobs were greatly sought after, especially by the Brigham Young Academy students.”[6] Their letterhead from a 1907 letter advertises Stewart & Sons as “Civil & Mining Engineers,” with Andy shown as a U. S. Deputy Mineral Surveyor and Public Notary. After the Knight Block was constructed in Provo in 1900, Andy leased an office in Room 11 for the firm.
For many years Mr. Stewart was a United States deputy mineral surveyor and surveyed a large part of the public domain of Utah. He also was surveyor for Utah county and the city of Provo for a long period.[7]
The next two or three years, he assisted his father, A.J. Stewart, Jr., in the surveying of public lands in the mountains east of Provo, in the mountain areas between Salt Lake and Tooele valleys and east of Sandy and Draper, as a chainman and general helper. Following the field work, he assisted his father with the office work and mapmaking of these surveys at their office in Provo. [8]
In 1897, he was appointed US Deputy Surveyor and was associated with his father in government contracts for public land surveys in Utah, Juab, and Sanpete Counties. From 1898 until about 1912, these annual summer surveying parties, conducted by the firm of Stewart and Sons, and later by Stewart and Stewart (he and his brother, John), were one of the principal sources of remunerative employment open to young men of the community and the jobs were greatly sought after, especially by the Brigham Young Academy students. [9]
He surveyed lands in various counties, including Uintah, Duchesne, and Tooele Counties (1899); Juab and Sanpete Counties (1900); Grand County (1903), and Wasatch County (1904).
During this time, Andrew’s half-brother Otto Ren Stewart assisted him with government surveys. Ren’s daughter Roselle Stewart Judkins writes:
Dad had learned to cook, in the meantime. He taught school, and in the summers he would move back to the farm, he and mother, and then he would go and help his older brother, Andrew Jackson Jr. who was older than my dad’s mother. He was a Surveyor for the U. S. Government, and they would go down in St. George, and all around those mountains, and survey all of the territory. Their surveys were so accurate that they never needed to change them. My dad would go down, and he was the youngest, probably, so he did most of the cooking. But if anybody complained about the cooking, they was the next cook, so they didn’t do much complaining. He said they cooked lots and lots of beans. He said that the sand on the beans was about a half an inch thick on the bottom of the beans. They probably had very unhandy kind of cooking utensils. Dad would mix bread, and he’d go out and shoot a deer for their meat, and so he was proficient at doing this. [10]
Andrew’s son Quinby Stewart recounted two stories of their survey trips:
Bear story
Bear rug with head – someone wore it
Don’t worry about the bears, sometimes known
They climb the tree, the bear curls up at the base of the tree and falls asleep
Uinta mountains, near timberline –
Would like to have some fresh meats – something instead of canned tomatoes and dry beans. Couldn’t find any deer. So Uncle Ren pulled another shenangigan. (Says – we’ll get some fish.) Couple boys stand in stream, holding net on each end (made out of dish towels). Rest of us will go up stream and beat ‘em down – and you boys catch in. (Ren and the rest went to bed – no fish in glaciers). [11]
Colton, Utah Indian Reservation - Postum Story
Dad wouldn’t allow tobacco, tea, coffee – in camp. But he would allow postum. So Ren went to Colton to do monthly purchase – and knowing most men would like coffee. So Ren bot coffee and postum and switched packages. Dad drank coffee for 6 months and told the boys Uncle Ren make best postum of any boy in the world. [12]
Knight Block; the firm “Stewart and Sons” leased Room 11[13]
University of Utah Special Collections
[2] Biography by Daugher Ida Christmas Peay Stewart.
[3] University of Utah Special Collections P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, Slide 016.
[3] Source: Stewartkin Newsletter.
[4] P1309, Box 1, Folder 1, Slide 002.
[5] “Scott Pease Stewart”, Before Sundance: Ray Stewart and Timp Haven
[6] “Scott Pease Stewart”, Before Sundance: Ray Stewart and Timp Haven
[7] From his Obituary.
[8] Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart
[9] Biography of Scott Pease Stewart by his son Ray Stewart
[10] Excerpts from the Memoirs of Granddaughter Roselle Judkins (1912-2015).
[11] Source: Letter dated May 24, 1956 from Quinby Stewart of Burbank, California to Mrs. B. F? Larson President, Emeritus Club BYU. “Ora Pate Stewart Papers,” BYU Special Collections.
[12] Source: Letter dated May 24, 1956 from Quinby Stewart of Burbank, California to Mrs. B. F? Larson President, Emeritus Club BYU. “Ora Pate Stewart Papers,” BYU Special Collections.
