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JAMES C. STEWART, M. D. Many of the physicians and surgeons of today are devoting their energies to certain special lines, believing that in this way they accomplish much more good than if they spread their efforts over a wider field. One of the men who has achieved success in his chosen walks of life and has made his name a representative one in the profession of medicine, is Dr. James C. Stewart, who is engaged in practice at Anna, Illinois, and makes a specialty of diseases of the eye. Dr. Stewart was born at Buncombe, Johnson county, Illinois, in 1866, and is a son of Thomas B. and Sarah J. (Lovelace) Stewart, retired farming people of Illinois, who now make their home in St. Louis.
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James C. Stewart received his early education in the common schools of Johnson county, after leaving which he entered the Southern Illinois Normal University, at Carbondale, which he was compelled to leave on account of ill health six months before graduating. During the next four years he was engaged in teaching in the public schools of Johnson county, in the meantime diligently pursuing his medical studies, and he then entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons, at St. Louis, from which he was graduated in 1891. Subsequently he took a general post-graduate course at the Illinois Post-graduate Medical School, Chicago, from which he graduated in 1900, having given special study on diseases of the eye, and in 1891 he began practice at Goreville, Johnson county. After seven years of successful practice at that place, Dr. Stewart came to Anna, where he has since built up a large clientele. He has retained the confidence of a large body of patients through his success in a number of complicated cases, is a close and careful student, a steady-handed surgeon and a sympathetic friend and advisor, and keeps himself well posted on the latest discoveries in his profession by subscription to numerous medical journals. He is a member of the Union County Medical Society, the Illinois and Southern Illinois Medical Societies and the American Medical Association, has been connected with the American Association of Railway Surgeons for some years, and also belongs to the Joint Association of Surgeons of the Illinois Central, Yazoo and Mississippi Valley and Indiana Southern Railway Companies. Fraternally, the doctor is connected with the local lodge of Masons, No. 520. He and his wife are consistent members of the Presbyterian church, in which he now acts as a member of the board of trustees. Dr. Stewart is one of Anna's most public-spirited citizens, and can always be found in the front rank of any movement which will prove of benefit to his profession, to the cause of education, or to his adopted city.
In 1892 Dr. Stewart was married to Miss Ada P. May, of Marion, Illinois, and four children have been born to this union, namely: Don B., who was born October 25, 1896, and is now attending the Union Academy, at Anna; Beryl J., who died at the age of ten years; Victor, who died when ten years old; and Fay, who passed away when an infant of eighteen months. Dr. Stewart has a well-appointed suite of offices in Anna, where he is also the owner of a modern residence property.