One of the town characters of the early 1900s was King or Professor Stewart, seen here standing, sword in hand, on Commercial Street in the present vicinity of Sherman's Bookstore about 1915. Lester Barter, born 1906, told me that Stewart lived in the loft of Merrill Perkins's barn on West Street and took care of Merrill's horses. Lester played with Merrill's nephew Ted often, and the first time Lester saw Stewart, he was standing in the barn's hayloft door. When Stewart saw the boys he said, "You boys wait, I'll show you my medals." He soon came down decked out with more medals than are in this photo, as well as a military hat and a sword. The hat is shown in another photo we have of him. Stewart told the boys he'd been awarded the medals he wore.

Years ago I believed Stewart was from Barters Island, and grew up at the Barter-Stewart property up on the east side of the island. However the write-up in the October 6, 1922 Boothbay Register after his death named his birthplace as Gloucester, Massachusetts, but added that his family moved here soon after his birth. Asa Tupper, born 1898, told me his first name was Johnny and Asa said he was also called Professor. Johnny lingered in front of Charlie Kenniston's Commercial Street store and thus became a familiar figure to all. People gave him the pins he wore, and Asa remembers his favorite expression was "by mighty," that he had gold shoes which he took great pride in, and he always had a cigar, or as Asa said, "He put fire in his mouth." The 1922 write-up related that Stewart “was a noted ventriloquist and imitator and partly by his harmless amusements earned a living.”

Asa was a child in the horse-drawn era and remembered many of the stable men like Johnny Stewart, some eccentric, who tended the horses of men like Len McKown who raced his on West Harbor Pond, and those of Sherman's stable on Commercial Street (Ed Bailey, Bob Marea) and Jim Kenney's stable (Herbie Hutchins).

Before Stewart lived in the Perkins barn, Asa told me he lived under the attic of Simpson & Perkins store on Commercial Street, and it was assumed when the place burned that Stewart's smoking was the cause. A true eccentric, Asa said boys would tease him and he would respond by chasing them with an ax. You don't hear much about that sort of thing anymore.

Johnny died late in September 1922 at the Home of the Poor (location unknown). The Register speculated he was about 70. I believe that institution was some distance from Boothbay Harbor since Johnny rarely visited after going there.