
Edith Adams Stewart (b. Adams) (1867-1928) was born in Preston,
Lancashire, England, and died in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She was the daughter of Joseph A.
Adams, a student of Mary Baker Eddy who was active in establishing Christian Science in
Chicago, Illinois. When she was seven years old she immigrated with her family to the
United States, and they lived in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania. After her mother died
in 1877, she and four of her brothers, Wesley, Burton, Albert, and John Adams, were sent
to live and attend school in Oberlin, Ohio. By the late 1880s she had moved to Chicago,
where she assisted her father in selling and distributing
Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures. In 1890 she married James A. Stewart in
Racine, Wisconsin. He was a bookkeeper for an insurance company. After their marriage
they lived in Chicago until moving to Milwaukee in 1898. Considered a pioneer in the
dramatic uplift movement, Stewart became a nationally known dramatic reader, also
performing internationally. She organized and served as the first president of the Drama
Club of Milwaukee and founded and directed the Milwaukee Little Theater, which she later
transformed into the Bluebird Sailors' and Soldiers' Home Club. She was president of the
Milwaukee Women's Air Council and a member of the City Club.
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