Stewart, William Morris

(1827–1909) lawyer, public official; born in Goshen, N.Y. He dropped out of Yale to join the California gold rush (1850), and after a period of prospecting, he settled down to practice law. He made a fortune in legal fees by representing the successful claimants to the Comstock Lode in Nevada in 1859, and went on to serve as Republican U.S. senator from Nevada (1864–75, 1887–1905). Always at the service of the silver interests, he endorsed Democrat William Jennings Bryan for president in 1896 on the basis of Bryan's support of a silver standard for currency. He was an early supporter of federal aid to reclaim arid lands for agriculture.

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