Gone But Not Forgotten

G O N E   B U T   N O T   F O R G O T T E N!

A STRONG RESPECTED VICTORIAN SPINSTER

By

Onetta Latimer Boyton

Queen Thompson Byrd

Paul Hendricks

Vernon M. Herron

John A. McCarroll

Miss Hannah Guion Stewart 

b.d. 13 Dec.1868

d.d 8 Oct. 1963

                                                      

We remember that on December 1868, Hannah G. Stewart was born. Teachers at Second Ward High School were great teachers because they gave the best of themselves. We remember two of them today. Even though they are deceased, they are not forgotten.

 

Most Charlotteans,  at least seventy years of age or older, would remember “Miss Hannah Stewart” who lived at 700 East Boundary Street in the Second Ward/Brooklyn section of Charlotte. It was this strong, respected, Victorian, dynamic spinster who made indelible impressions on all who had contact with her as a school teacher, a disciplinarian in community relations or in economic prudence.

 

Miss Hannah Guion Stewart was born c1868 and died 1963 at the age of 95. She was the oldest African American female who taught in the Charlotte Mecklenburg Public School system for 37 years. She was the second child of Randall and Elsie (Walton) Stewart who lived from 1848 to 1879 and from 1846 to 1918 respectively. According to anecdotal records, she grew up in the “Jonesville” section of Charlotte and later attended Grace AMEZ Church. When Urban Renewal started in 1961 and later confiscated her home, Miss Stewart went to New York City to live and shortly died there on 6 October 1963. She was buried October 12, 1963 in Charlotte at the 9^th Street- Pinewood Cemetery in Charlotte. (Section A Lot 3f)

It is noted that Miss Hannah had two siblings, a brother Randall Stewart who lived to be 83 years of age and a sister, Patsey Stewart Rencher who lived to be 67 years of age.

North Carolina made no provision for public school education prior to the Civil War. Blacks had to attend Church schools or travel out of town to obtain a high school diploma. Such opportunities were provided by the Rosenwald Funds for schools, Biddle School for boys at Charlotte, Scotia College for the girls at Concord and Livingstone at Salisbury, etc. Miss Hannah received her high school and formal training at Livingstone College at Salisbury where she received an A. B. degree.

 

According to the city directories, Hannah G. Stewart was a pioneer teacher at Myers Street School, having taught there for at least 21 years under the principalships of Mrs. Isabella Wyche, Professor Samuel B. Pride, Mrs. Jessie Pride, Mr. J. N. Brown,  Mr. William Stinson and Miss Mary Wyche.

 

When the new Second Ward School opened in 1923, it grew out of Myers Street School, which had been in existence for 41 years. Second Ward School, with its first principal, William Stinson, opened with a capacity to accommodate six hundred students in grades six through eleven. It was not a standardized four year high school. Students came from Myers Street School in grades six through eight. Miss Hannah G. Stewart transferred from Myers Street School to Second Ward two years after it opened, where she taught history for 16 years. She was noted as a “strict disciplinarian.”  Her greeting words to all new students were “my name is Hannah Stewart. I live at 700 East Boundary Street. If I say something your mammy doesn’t like, she can come see me.”

When students did not use good judgment, Miss Stewart would say “children, you may have all the book learning in the world, but if you don’t have mother-wit, you may as well be dead!” On another occasion, returning to her classroom and finding students “acting up” and being noisy and boisterous, she would declare, “just look at you, acting just like Dick Moss’ cows! Now what did Dick Moss’ cows do?” The class having heard the phrase many times, would exclaim, “They jumped the fence when the gate was opened”.

 

As the oldest faculty member, Miss Stewart taught more than the subject course. She taught character building, personal hygiene and moral persuasion. Even though Principal J. E. Grigsby gave Miss Stewart faculty assistance in filing state and school district mandated reports, she never failed to work toward the cultivation of the whole person.

 

Even though a spinster, Miss Stewart was a thrifty business entrepreneur. She moved from a roomer/renter at 202 and 216 E. Boundary Street to a home owner at 700 E. Boundary. At the latter address, many “up start” teachers and laymen were roomers and boarders. In addition to teaching, she engaged in laundry and grocery services.  She was the major financial investor in the Oscar Harris Café located on South McDowell Street at First Street where she served as a culinarian. She demonstrated that pennies make dollars. Hannah Guion Stewart is gone but not forgotten.