Maritime Monday – “Uncle Eddie” Stewart
At last I have some time to work with my family research after a few weeks of a very busy schedule! 
I had kept a little list over the past few weeks with the names of a few family members with mysterious stories attached to them that I wanted to work on as soon as I had the time, and Uncle Eddie was at the top of my list.
I had heard stories through the years, from my mother as well as my aunt, about their Uncle Eddie (George Edward Stewart, 1892-1931).
The only photo that I have of him is the following: great-uncle Eddie, front left, with his parents, my great-grandparents George and Catherine (Sutherland) Stewart, and his sister, my great-aunt Elizabeth (Stewart) Annis.
The George W. Stewart Family
The story of his tragic death in the waters of Hull Bay (in Massachusetts) was one that fascinated me when I was first told of it, but I only remembered bits and pieces of the story, as did my mother and aunt as it had occured decades before I was born.
Several weeks ago, in my post “The Untimely Death of Engineer Burnett”, I mentioned that I had tried to find a newspaper article about Uncle Eddie’s passing but was unsuccessful. Today, at last, I found two articles from the Boston Globe online archives:
Boston Globe, 4 Sep 1931
Note: A correction to the above article is the name of his sister, my great-aunt Elizabeth who was the wife of Arthur Campbell Annis, not George Annis as stated.
Boston Globe, 5 Sep 1931
It seems that there would be an earlier article as the first one appears to be relating to a story already published, but if so it didn’t come up in search results.
His body washed ashore in Hingham Harbor a few days after the date of the latest article posted above, and he was laid to rest in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Dorchester MA on September 10th. Uncle Eddie was a veteran of WWI.
Following is an image of Bumpkin Island, the long oval shaped island as it lies just north of Hull, MA with Hingham Harbor at the top.
Bumpkin Island, MA
Such a tragic story, and I remember how fond of him his nieces were who still grew sad and quiet when they spoke of him years after his death. I’m happy to have found the articles so that he will continue to be remembered through the years.
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Glad to see you back!!! It is a sad story…and a bit mysterious that the drowning wasn’t reported right away and that one of the parties was related to a public figure….have you seen the autopsy report? I wonder if that’s public record.
Thank you Claire, I’m happy to be back!
It is very tragic and mysterious and I believe that my great-aunt and the rest of the family felt very justified in questioning what had happened to him. My aunt recalled that at the time my great-aunt, Uncle Eddie’s sister, had come to stay with them in Boston for awhile to get away from the media, so I do believe that there may be other stories out there as well.
I’m going to call the town halls in Hingham and Hull (not sure which had jurisdiction) tomorrow to ask if there are any records or reports that I could see. I’ll update in the story if I find anything.