James Garfield Stewart (November 17, 1880 – April 3, 1959)[1] was an American Republican politician from Cincinnati, Ohio. He served as mayor of Cincinnati from 1938 to 1947 and then as justice on the Ohio Supreme Court from 1947 to 1959. Stewart's son Potter (1915 - 1985) was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Another son, Zeph Stewart, was the master of Lowell House and head of the Classics department at Harvard. His daughter was Irene Potter Stewart Taylor, of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Life and career
Stewart was born in Springfield, Ohio, the son of Mary Emily (Durbin) and James Eli Stewart,[2] and graduated from Kenyon College in 1902. He graduated from Cincinnati Law School and was admitted to the bar in 1905.[1] He opened a private practice in Springfield for three years before joining Hugh L. Nichols' firm in Cincinnati in 1908. He was elected to City Council in 1934, and was Mayor 1938-1947.[1]
In 1944, Stewart won the Republican nomination for Ohio Governor by just 2,200 votes over Attorney General Thomas Herbert. He lost the general election to Frank Lausche.[3]
March 5, 1947, Governor Thomas J. Herbert appointed Stewart to the seat on the Ohio Supreme Court vacated by the resignation of Charles S. Bell. He was elected in 1948, and re-elected in 1952 and 1958. He died April 3, 1959 after giving a speech in Kentucky. His funeral was at Christ Church in Cincinnati, with burial in Springfield.[1]
Stewart and Harriet L. Potter were married in 1911, and later divorced.[1]
References
- ^ a b c d e The Supreme Court of Ohio and The Ohio Judicial System - James Garfield Stewart
- ^ "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time". 1967.
- ^ "OHIO GOVERNOR ELECTION RESULTS 1930-1958". OhioPoliticals.com. Retrieved January 11, 2024.