John Quincy Adams Stewart, M. D., was born at West Point, Hardin county, Kentucky, on February 13, 1829. In 1831 his parents moved to Louisville. He was educated in the city schools, and graduated from the Louisville College under Professors John Harney and Noble Butler. In 1847 he commenced the study of law with attorneys Wilson and Wood, and graduated from the Law Department of the University of Louisville in 1849. The gold fever in California was at its height, and he, with two brothers, crossed the plains in a company of sixty men, commanded by Captain Reuben Maury. After many hardships and great privations, they arrived at Sutter's Fort, on the Sacramento river (now Sacramento City), one hundred and twenty-five days from the date of their departure from Independence, Missouri.
In California he engaged in the practice of law, also farming and mining, until March, 1857, when he returned to Louisville. He began the study of medicine in the office of Dr. David Cummins, and graduated from the Kentucky School of Medicine, after attending two courses of lectures.
He was married to Miss Mary Juliet Hall, daughter of Moses Hall, of Jefferson county, Kentucky, October 28, 1858, and in February, 1859, moved to Daviess county, and there and in Owensboro practiced his profession for nearly twenty years. They have had five children:
- Bettie Crawford, wife of Dr. W. L. Rodman, of Louisville;
- Eleanor T. (deceased), wife of Dr. H. M. Pusey, of Louisville;
- Rosalie, wife of J. McClelland van Derveer, Frankfort;
- Hall Stewart (deceased), and
- Dr. John P. Stewart, Frankfort.
February 26, 1878, he was appointed by Governor James B. McCreary, Superintendent of the Kentucky Institution for the Education and Training of Feeble-minded Children, where he has been ever since. Under his management the institution has grown to be one of the most useful of the State's charities; and it is to his credit that Kentucky was the first State in the Union to inaugurate a system of manual training for its pupils, enabling many of them to go out from the Institution fully equipped to earn a support for themselves. He has fully identified himself with this noble work, not only in this State, but in the United States, and is an active member of the American Association of Medical Officers for the Education and Training of Feeble-minded Children. This Association met at the Institution in Kentucky in the spring of 1891, and was largely attended by members from other States and from several foreign countries of economy for which there is no defense of rational plea, reduced the tax rate for general expenses from twenty to fifteen cents on the one hundred dollars of assessed property. The inevitable increase of expenses attendant on the Constitutional Convention, to convene in a few months, and the fact of an existing deficit of over two hundred thousand dollars in the treasury, had no effect to deter the body. By rare coincidence the sum of six hundred thousand dollars of direct tax money, expended by the State during the late war, was refunded by the Government in 1891. This was set apart by the Constitutional Convention for the benefit of the school fund, the State executing bond and paying the interest annually. The principal was put in the treasury for general State expenses. The relief from this source saved the Commonwealth from a serious embarrassment for a time ; but a result was that, in July, 1892, the Treasurer announced an exhausted treasury.
Few, if any, States in the Union have provided so munificently for their unfortunate citizens as Kentucky in proportion to her taxable property. The official reports for 1889 show that in the three insane asylumns, at Lexington, Anchorage and Hopkinsville, there were two thousand five hundred and sixty-three subjects of lunacy being cared for, and one hundred and eighty-five outside, at a cost to the treasury of $377,928.31. Of idiots not confined and distributed throughout the counties, there were one thousand four hundred and eighteen, for the support of whom the State paid in that year $100,021.88. There were beside these, one hundred and one inmates of the Blind Asylum, at a cost of $28,037.67 ; one hundred and sixty-eight in the Deaf and Dumb Institute, at $58,152.23, and one hundred and forty-six in the Feeble Minded Institute, at $29,170.69. Thus, it appears that four thousand five hundred and eighty-one dependent citizens were beneficiaries of the charities of the Commonwealth at a total cost to the treasury of $593,310.78, about one in every four hundred of the population. The cost per head of the insane in public charge is about $134; of the blind, $277; of the deaf and dumb, $346, and of the feeble minded, $200. These are the charges outside of the costs of the six handsome and commodious buildings erected by the State on the sites selected for the several institutions. The total disbursements of revenue from the treasury for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, were $3,811,248.32 ; of this amount near $1,530,000 was paid out for education in the schools of the State. Adding to the latter amount the sum expended for public charities, and together they make fifty-five per cent, of all the expenses of the Commonwealth.
It is to the credit of the management of the Feeble Minded Institute that the first successful efforts were here made to educate and train these unfortunates to labor and for self-help. Many have been thus returned to their families and homes capable of self-support. The successful work of Dr. Stewart, through years of experiment and patient training, has given the institution a reputation throughout this country and in Europe.
