James Stuart
Excerpted from website Green City News for later reference
A city colleague who successfully answered the question also unearthed a recent exchange between a correspondent for the Medford Mail Tribune and a writer in the Beaufort Gazette, South Carolina, regarding the final resting place for James Stuart (Cullum 1310). Bill Miller’s article in the Mail-Tribune on May 6, 2007, and a column in the Beaufort Gazette by Gerhard Spieler on June 17, 2007, both giving details on Stuart’s original burial in Phoenix, Oregon, and his permanent burial spot at St. Helena’s Episcopal Churchyard in Beaufort, South Carolina. Apparently the burial location was not known in Southern Oregon about 155 years, but was the subject of a 1974 article by Spieler in South Carolina, and confirmed in column earlier this month.
Stuart was born in Beaufort, S. C. on July 12, 1825, the son of John A. and Claudia S. Stuart. At his request, he was buried next to his grandmother in St. Helena’s Churchyard, Beaufort, S.C. He was a graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, NY in 1846, and while a Lieutenant was the first American to enter Mexico City during the Mexican War. After returning to South Carolina briefly, he traveled with his regiment to Oregon in 1849, and then help construct Fort Vancouver. In 1851 the regiment was ordered home, and they rode south, reaching Douglas County, Oregon, and learned of Indian attacks in the Rogue River Valley. Near Shady Cove, Stuart was mortally wounded, and died the next day (June 17, 1851) in a temporary camp near Phoenix, Oregon, that was called Camp Stuart (1), 24 days short of his 26th birthday. General George McClellan (who later became a commander of Union forces during the Civil War) was Stuart’s close friend and roommate during the Mexican War. On September 20, 1853, while exploring central Washington during the Pacific Railroad Surveys, McClellan named Mt. Stuart in his friend’s honor.
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