(8 Nov.1826-13 June 1910), settler in North Dakota. (William E. “Squire” Stewart, Squire William Stewart, Squire) Born in Lochiel Township, GC. Parents: John Stewart and his wife Ann (Annie) McLaurin. He was married to Christina (Christy) McArthur (1827-1907). (eight children) He and his wife farmed in the Breadalbane and Dalkeith area of GC, on Lot 5 of the 7th Concession of Lochiel. In 1883, when he was aged about 57, he and his family went to the Dakotas (Dakota Territory), and homesteaded a mile south of the present city of Bottineau, in Bottineau County, North Dakota. (Bottineau County is on the Canadian border). Writing to the Glengarry News of 12 Feb. 1909, he spoke of Bottineau County as a place “where a few of us, all ex-Glengarrians have been residing.” He had settled there 25 years ago when it was an “unbroken prairie.”

     He is said to have been given his title of Squire because he had been a justice of peace both in Canada and in Bottineau County. The somewhat enigmatic entry for Stewart in the massive Bottineau County history of 1984, perhaps summarizing his own self-deprecating reflections on his role, says that “The ‘Squire’ never admitted to any hard work in Dakota. The boys did the work and he looked after his many business affairs. He enjoyed minor farm chores.” The same entry says that his wife, who died in 1903, “was a true pioneer housewife and a sweet person.” In 1910 he was honoured by the Bottineau community for his years of service in a celebration that was remembered years later in the county history and was reported, at the time, in the Glengarry News of 21 Jan. 1910. Probably while presiding over the settlement in the Dakotas of his children, Stewart provided for his neighbours the kinds of business, legal and “leadership” services so often provided in 19th-century GC by prominent citizens, such as Donald Cattanach (another “Squire”) and James R. McKenzie. Stewart caused the Hon. D.A. Macdonald embarrassment, though probably no complications more lasting than a red face, when certain remarks which Macdonald, in a letter to Stewart, had made about French-Canadian farmers settling in Ontario were quoted in the Bottineau Pioneer. (Glengarrian 14 Feb. 1890) William Stewart was a Baptist. He was a brother of Peter A. Stewart.

The People of Bottineau County (1984?) 284, also 283, 324, 620-621, with portraits * private information * Campbell (1990), 218-220 (under Stuart) * revisits GC, Cornwall Freeholder 5 March 1886, cited DTL Standard Freeholder 2 March 1946 * praises Glengarrian, Glengarrian 24 Jan. 1890 * son Arthur mentioned as pioneer of Amity Township, N.D., Cornwall Standard 28 Jan. 1932 * his daughter Mrs Maria McBain dies, Glengarry News 5 Jan. 1940