James Azle Steward

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'll give it to you straight as the stone does. There's a town out here called Azle, and if you've ever wondered whose name you've been driving through, well, pull up a chair. James Azle Steward came out of Tennessee and made it to Texas sometime before 1860.

He brought his wife, Mary E. Fowler Steward, with him, and together they planted themselves among the early settlers of this stretch of North Texas. Now, Steward wasn't a rancher or a land speculator; he was a physician, and by all accounts a well-known and respected one.

In a frontier settlement, a doctor like that wasn't just a convenience. He was the difference between making it and not. The settlement itself had been drifting through names for years; one of those places that hadn't quite decided what to call itself.

Then in 1883, Dr. Steward made a decision that settled the question for good. He gave land for a townsite, and when the dust cleared, the place was renamed Azle, his middle name, carved into the map of Texas.

But the land-giving didn't stop there. The Azle Christian Church was built on ground the Doctor donated. He was also instrumental in establishing Ash Creek Cemetery, the kind of place a frontier community needs almost as soon as it needs a church.

And when James Azle Steward's own time came, that cemetery received him too. A Mason, he was buried in Ash Creek Cemetery, on land that, like so much of what surrounds it, exists in its present form because of him. The town carries his name.

The church stands on his ground. The cemetery holds his bones. Not a bad legacy for a Tennessee boy who showed up before 1860 with a medical bag and a piece of land he was willing to share.

What the marker says

Tennessee native James Azle Steward came to Texas prior to 1860. He and his wife, Mary E. Fowler Steward, were among the early settlers of this area. Steward was a well-known, respected pioneer physician. The settlement, which had been known by several different names at various times, was renamed Azle when Dr. Steward gave land for a townsite in 1883. He was also instrumental in the establishment of Ash Creek Cemetery. Azle Christian Church was built on land donated by the Doctor. A Mason, he was buried in Ash Creek Cemetery.