Peter G. Stewart - Oregon Country

Oregon Country

Stewart arrived in the Oregon Country in 1843. After a short time in Oregon, Stewart volunteered to help rescue the Joel Palmer wagon train in 1845. In 1850 while living in Oregon City, Stewart purchased part of the townsite of Pacific City in what was then Lewis County from Elijah White. There he built an “iron house” and saw mill at this site near the entrance of the Columbia River to the Pacific Ocean and Cape Disappointment, near the present-day Ilwaco, Washington. By 1853 he was part owner of the Pacific Steam Saw Mill Company at that site. Later in 1853 the United States government took the property to use as a light house, and to use as military installation, Fort Canby. At that time the government did not pay Stewart as he only had squatter's rights to the land, but later at the age of 82 he petitioned the state of Washington who then sent a memorial to Congress to ask the Federal Government to appropriate funds for Stewart’s benefit. Oregon then did the same, and Oregon Senator John H. Mitchell introduced a bill to pay Stewart for the property in 1891. In 1899 Peter Stewart was then paid $7,500 for the loss of his property by the United States government.

After Pacific City, he returned to the jewelry and watch making business. Stewart plied this trade in Oregon City from 1854 to 1860. Then in 1861 he moved to Portland, Oregon where he and his business were burned out in 1862 and again in 1873. In between fires, Peter Stewart’s wife died in 1863, and he then re-married in 1872 to Eliza Rosecrans. Years later Peter Stewart moved to Tacoma, Washington where he died August 27, 1900, at the age of 90.