Lavinia Carl Steward, 1848 ~ 1917. An Interesting Life In The Stars

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Lavinia Steward, about 1900.

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Hello! I'm Mr. Ed

Blog Created: 4-10-2024

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THANKS TO Pat Murphy for the following biography:

Lavinia Carl (also shown as Carle) was born in 1848, in Summit County, Ohio. She was one of three daughters (the oldest) and one son of Samuel P. Carl (1810-1874) and Mary Wadsworth (1820-1853), both born in Pennsylvania. Samuel had an earlier, and after Mary died, a later wife, resulting in Lavinia having a number of step-siblings. The family lived near Akron, Ohio when she was growing up.

Lavinia married Henry Benjamin Steward in 1870 in Akron. Henry was born in 1844 in England. As his father was a miller, Henry learned the mill trade before immigrating to America at age 23 and it became his life-long business. Henry and Lavinia had one child, who died at birth, but they raised two of Henry's nephews, Fred J. Steward and Clement J. Flower, after the deaths of his brother Edward in 1880 and his sister.

Henry and Lavinia moved to Peoria, Illinois where Henry and Joel E. Carter owned and operated the Peoria Oat Meal Mills. Henry's oat businesses were very successful and would eventually become a part of Quaker Oats.

Lavinia and Fred Steward came to Oracle, Arizona in 1895, possibly because Fred had tuberculosis. There she built a small two-story stucco adobe and used that as a home while building the Steward House in 1895, with orchards and ponds. Both still stand and are on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1900 Henry retired and moved to Oracle but died in 1902 of heart disease. Lavinia continued to live there for another 15 years, using her wealth for many worthwhile projects, such as building and stocking the Oracle library, and providing funds to many churches and organizations.

Lavinia was an amateur astronomer, and in 1916 decided to give the University of Arizona $60,000 ($1.3 million in 2016 dollars) “…to be used to buy a telescope of huge size.” She asked to remain anonymous. The first world war and the difficulty in building the largest mirror ever attempted in America delayed the construction of the 36-inch diameter Newtonian reflecting telescope until 1922, which Lavinia did not live to see. The telescope, and now world-class research UofA organization she helped found, is the Steward Observatory.

At the dedication, the Observatory Director Andrew Douglass said Lavinia Steward was ”a charming and lovely character, deeply interested in the arts and sciences. She had shown the wonders of the heavens to her grand-nephew and nieces. She had planned to do something for the University and felt a personal inclination towards providing some astronomical equipment. Thus all conditions were happily favorable for the beginning of the Steward Observatory.”

Lavinia died after more than a year of decline on August 10, 1917. She left her home and a significant portion of her wealth to be used "in perpetuity” for the benefit of indigent tuberculosis patients. Although used for many years by the Masons for treatment of TB patients, new drug treatments eventually resulted in the Steward home and endowment being used for other purposes.

Sources: Steward Observatory, Oracle Historical Society, Ancestry family trees, obituaries, and contemporary newspaper articles.

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THANKS TO Pat Murphy for the following obituary:

Henry Benjamin Steward ~ Lavinia's husband

Henry Steward, with nephews Fred J Steward (left) and Clement J Flower.

Henry Benjamin Steward was born March 25, 1844 in Hilborough, Norfolk, England. At 23 he immigrated to the US, arriving in New York May 20, 1867. He then moved to Akron, Ohio to take up his trade of grain milling. There he met and married Lavinia Carl in 1870. Their only child died in infancy.

Henry's older brother, Edward F. and his wife Louisa, born about 1843, had also immigrated from England and joined his brother in Akron. Edward was a mill engineer there, but died in 1880. Their son, Frederick James Steward, born Sept 24, 1874, moved in with Henry. (The fate of Louisa is not known). Another nephew, Clement James Flower, born in England in 1872 to Henry's younger sister Ester Elizabeth and her husband Clement Albert Flower, was sent to America at age nine in 1881 to also live with Henry and Lavinia. (Clement died Feb 1964 in San Diego). By 1881 both boys were living with Henry and Lavinia.

Henry and Lavinia moved to Peoria, Illinois in about 1883, where Henry and Joel E. Carter owned and operated the Carter & Steward oat meal mill. It burned down in March, 1883 in the "most stubborn fire the city had ever had", burning "13,000 bushels of oats, 300 barrels of meal, and a fine set of machinery", resulting in a $35,000 loss. In 1888, Carter, a married man of 47 with two children, eloped with the mill's 19 year old secretary. Two years later the secretary returned with the "offspring of her illicit alliance" and Carter's wife filed for divorce.

Henry, who became a U.S.citizen in 1884, continued to expand and prosper in the oats and oatmeal business, which was a growth industry in the late 1800's, and soon partnered with Flavel Granger Merriam to own and operate the Peoria Oat Meal Mills. Henry's two nephews worked as bookkeepers at the mill, located on north Main street, near the Ohio Canal.

Lavinia and Fred Steward visited Oracle, Arizona in 1895, possibly because Fred had tuberculosis. There she built a small two-story stucco adobe and used that as a home while building what became known as the Steward House. In 1900 Henry retired, after years of declining health, and permanently moved to Oracle, but his retirement was short-lived as he died at 57 of heart disease on December 16, 1901.

Oracle, Arizona. c1915.

In 1901 the Peoria Oat company joined the Great Western Cereal Company which would ultimately be merged with Quaker Oats. Lavinia continued to live in Oracle for another 15 years, using her wealth for many worthwhile projects, such as providing initial funding of the Steward Observatory at the University of Arizona, building and stocking the Oracle library, and providing funds to many churches and organizations in the area. Fred Steward became president of the Southern Arizona Bank and Trust company, and executor for the Steward estate. He married Amelia Brown in 1899.

Sources: Census reports, newspaper articles and Akron Daily Democrat obit., city directories, passenger lists, passport application, other Ancestry.com sources.

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THANKS TO Kathie Weigel for the following newspaper obituary:

Akron Daily Democrat, Wednesday, 18 December 1901:

PROMINENT In Akron Affairs Years Ago

Mr. Henry Stewart Died Monday in Arizona.

Mr. Henry B. Stewart, aged 65, formerly prominent in Akron affairs, where he was a partner in the firm of Carter & Stewart, millers, died in Phoenix, Ariz., Monday. Mr. Stewart had not been a resident of Akron for many years.

After leaving this place he went to Peoria, Ill., where he engaged in milling, and afterward disposed of his plant to the Great Western Cereal Co. Of late years, Mr. Stewart's health had given him much trouble and he was in Arizona seeking relief at the time of his death. A brother of the deceased is buried in Glendale cemetery, this city, and other relatives are still in Akron. The mill of Carter & Stewart in Akron was located on N. Main st., near the Ohio Canal. Mrs. Stewart has often visited here, and is well known in Akron. She still resides in Peoria.

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FROM THE AKRON CITY DIRECTORIES:

1875

Henry B. Steward, (Carter & Steward), home - ns Forge St., 2nd door east of Lincoln St.

Also from the 1875 Directory:

Carter & Steward, Akron Steam Mills, manufacturers of choice oatmeal, flour and feed, es Main St., between Market & Mill Sts.

1880

Henry B. Steward, (Carter & Steward), home - 211 S. Broadway St.

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Peter Carl ~ Lavinia's brother

Peter Carl was born to Samuel and Eve Carl about 1840 in East Liberty, Summit County, Ohio. In April 1861, he joined the Ohio Infantry and served until August.

Peter Carl, wounded in the Battle of Gettysburg. This daguerreotype was in his pocket at the time.

Peter married Lavina Kepler in August 1862 and then entered the service again. His son, Peter Carl, Jr. was born in March of 1863, and as far as is known, Peter Sr. never met his baby boy. Peter Sr. was shot in the thigh July 1, 1863 at the Battle of Gettysburg and died from his wounds about three months later in the military hospital at Davids' Island, New York.

Among his belongings recorded at his death was a "tintype." It was in his pocket during the Battle of Gettysburg and returned to his widow, Lavina Kepler Carl, after his death.

Ohio Roster of Civil War Soldiers, Volume I, page 400: Peter Carl, Company G, 15th Infantry, age 21, entered the service on 22 April 1861 for three months, mustered out with company on 31 August 1861.

Ohio Roster of Civil War Soldiers, Volume 7, page 655: Peter Carl, age 22, 107th Regiment, Corporal, entered service 11 August 1862 for three years. Died September 28, 1863, at McDougal Hospital, David's Island, New York Harbor of wounds received July 1, 1863 in battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

Ohio Roster of Civil War Soldiers, Volume 7, page 782: Peter Carl, Co. I, Corporal, died September 28, 1863, buried Long Island, New York. Died from wounds received July 1, 1863 in battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Interred in Cypress Hill Cemetery.

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Oracle, Arizona c1918.

Oracle, Arizona 1920.

Steward house in Oracle, Arizona about 1900.

The Steward house today.

Steward Observatory, 1928.

Ad for Carter & Steward mill.

Order to return Henry's body from Arizona to Ohio.

Lavinia and Henry are buried at Akron, Ohio's Glendale Cemetery.

Samuel Carl is buried at Greensburg Cemetery, Green, Ohio.

Mary is also buried at Greensburg Cemetery with husband Samuel.

Peter is buried at Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn, Kings County, New York.

William is buried at Saint Paul Cemetery, McDonaldsville, Stark County, Ohio

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Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were formally dedicated on April 23, 1923. It now operates, or is a partner in telescopes at five mountain-top locations in Arizona, one in New Mexico, one in Hawaii, and one in Chile. It has provided instruments for three different space telescopes and numerous terrestrial ones. Steward also has one of the few facilities in the world that can cast and figure the very large primary mirrors used in telescopes built in the early 21st century.

History ~

Steward Observatory owes its existence to the efforts of American astronomer and dendrochronologist Andrew Ellicott Douglass. In 1906, Douglass accepted a position as Assistant Professor of Physics and Geography at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. Almost immediately upon his arrival in Tucson, Douglass established astronomical research programs using an 8-inch refracting telescope on loan from the Harvard College Observatory and actively began to pursue funding to construct a large research-class telescope in Tucson. Over the next 10 years, all of Douglass’ efforts to secure funding from the University and the Arizona Territorial (and later State) Legislatures ended in failure. During this time period, Douglass served UArizona as Head of the Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Interim President, and finally Dean of the College of Letters, Arts, & Sciences.

Then on October 18, 1916, University President Rufus B. von KleinSmid announced that an anonymous donor had given the University $60,000 “…to be used to buy a telescope of huge size.” That donor was later revealed to be Mrs. Lavinia Steward of Oracle, Arizona. Mrs. Steward was a wealthy widow who had an interest in astronomy and a desire to memorialize her late husband, Mr. Henry Steward. Douglass made plans to use the Steward gift to construct a 36-inch diameter Newtonian reflecting telescope. The Warner & Swasey Company of Cleveland, Ohio was contracted to build the telescope, but the United States entry into World War I delayed the contract since Warner & Swasey had war contracts that took priority. The situation was further delayed by the fact that up until this time, the expertise in large telescope mirror making was in Europe. The war made it impossible to contract with a European company. So Douglass had to find an American glass company that was willing to develop this expertise. After a couple of failed castings, the Spencer Lens Co. of Buffalo, New York ultimately produced a 36-inch mirror for the Steward Telescope.

The telescope was finally installed in the observatory building in July 1922, and the Steward Observatory was officially dedicated on April 23, 1923. In his dedication address, Douglass recounted the trials and tribulations of establishing the observatory, then gave the following eloquent justification for the scientific endeavor:

"In concluding I wish to leave with you a more general view. This installation is to be devoted to scientific research. Scientific research is business foresight on a large scale. It is knowledge obtained before it is needed. Knowledge is power, but we cannot tell which fact in the domain of knowledge is the one which is going to give the power, and we therefore develop the idea of knowledge for its own sake, confident that some one fact or training will pay for all the effort. This I believe is the essence of education wherever such education is not strictly vocational. The student learns many facts and has much training. He can only dimly see which fact and which training will be of eminent use to him, but some special part of his education will take root in him and grow and pay for all of the effort which he and his friends have put into it. So it is with the research institutions. In this Observatory I sincerely hope and expect that the boundaries of human knowledge will be advanced along astronomical lines. Astronomy was the first science developed by our primitive ancestors thousands of years ago because it measured time. Performing that same function, it has played a vast part in human history, and today it is telling us facts, forever wonderful, about the size of our universe; perhaps tomorrow it will give us practical help in showing us how to predict climatic conditions in the future."

Observatories ~

Steward Observatory manages three different observing locations in southern Arizona: Mount Graham International Observatory (MGIO), Mount Lemmon Station, and Catalina Station on Mount Bigelow. It also operates telescopes at two additional important observatories: Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO) and Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins. Steward is a partner in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey-III, which is located in New Mexico at Apache Point Observatory. Steward used to maintain a student observatory on Tumamoc Hill approximately 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) west of the campus, but that is no longer in operation. The original observatory dome in Tucson now houses the Ray White Jr. 21-inch telescope and is used for public outreach and undergraduate education.

The Arizona Radio Observatory, a part (sub-unit) of Steward Observatory, operates the SMT 10m diameter millimeter-wavelength radio telescope on Mount Graham and UArizona 12m diameter millimeter-wavelength radio telescope on Kitt Peak.

Steward Observatory participates in many partnered projects. It is a full member in the twin Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory in northern Chile. It is also a member in organizations that originated two projects planned for same region: the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, now the Vera Rubin Observatory, and the Giant Magellan Telescope, a next generation extremely large telescope. The Richard F. Caris Mirror Laboratory completed the primary and tertiary mirrors for LSST and is fabricating the primary mirror segments, each 8.4m in diameter, for the GMT.

Research groups ~

The Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab, located under the east side of Arizona Stadium, has pioneered new techniques of large mirror production, including spin-casting lightweight honeycomb mirrors in a rotating furnace, and stressed-lap polishing. The Mirror Laboratory completed the second mirror for the Large Binocular Telescope in September, 2005. The Mirror Lab also cast the 8.4 meter diameter primary/tertiary mirror for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, and has cast the central mirror and five of the seven off-axis primary mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope.

The Infrared Detector Laboratory built the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) instrument for the Hubble Space Telescope and the Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instrument for the Spitzer Space Telescope. For the James Webb Space Telescope, Steward built the Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and helped build the Mid-IR Instrument (MIRI).

Other groups include the Center for Astronomical Adaptive Optics (CAAO), the Imaging Technology Laboratory (ITL), the Steward Observatory Radio Astronomy Laboratory (SORAL), the Earths in Other Solar Systems (EOS) group, and the Astrochemistry/Spectroscopy Laboratory.