Background
Helen was born in Springfield, Illinois. Her father was a prospector who moved his family to Sacramento, California, where she attended school.
Helen was born in Springfield, Illinois. Her father was a prospector who moved his family to Sacramento, California, where she attended school.
Stewart Avenue in Downtown Las Vegas is dedicated to her. The Stewarts" first three children, William James (1874), Hiram Richard (1876), and Flora Eliza Jane (known as Tiza) (1879), were born in the Pioche area. The Stewarts" fourth child, Evaline Louisiana Vega, was born in the Las Vegas Valley in 1882.
With the help of her father, Hiram Wiser, she ran the ranch and began to purchase adjacent properties in anticipation of a railroad being built through the area.
Helen Stewart eventually became the largest landowner in Lincoln County, Nevada. In 1893, she became the first postmaster of Las Vegas (though the name was spelled “Los Vegas” until 1903).
In 1902, Stewart sold 1,834 acres of the ranch, including the water rights, to the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad for $55,000.00. This land was established as the city of Las Vegas in 1905.
In 1903, Helen married Frank Stewart (no relation to Archibald Stewart), who had been hired at the Las Vegas Ranch in 1886.
Helen moved into a new home in the growing community of Las Vegas and became an important part of social, political, and business circles. In 1916, Helen Stewart became the first woman elected to the Clark County School District"s Board of Trustees. She donated land in 1922 for the Las Vegas Grammar School, which was built in the following year.
lieutenant was the first public school attended by Native American students from the Southern Paiute Indian Colony.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. Stewart died in Las Vegas in 1926.
