James Azle Steward
Azle, Tarrant County, Texas
Marker Inscription
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.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
A Tennessee-born physician, James Azle Steward reached this part of North Texas before 1860 and became one of its most respected pioneers. When he donated land for a townsite in 1883, the settlement — which had gone by several names — took his middle name and became Azle. He also gave ground for Ash Creek Cemetery and the Azle Christian Church, weaving himself into the community's civic and spiritual life.
Why it matters
Azle's story is the classic Texas pattern of a single pioneer doctor whose land gifts founded a town, its churches, and its institutions.
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Related people
- · James Azle Steward
- · Mary E. Fowler Steward
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
First Methodist Church of Azle
Azle, TX
The Rev. Will A. Stephens and fifteen charter members organized this Methodist congregation in 1895, buying a building from the United Brethren Church and securing a parsonage. The church called its first full-time minister in 1942, and membership more than doubled by 1946, prompting a new education building and a brick sanctuary. A 1968 denominational merger gave it the name First United Methodist Church.
Ash Creek Baptist Church
Azle, TX
On September 9, 1871, the Rev. J.C. Powers gathered 48 charter members to organize the Ash Creek Missionary Baptist Church on the still-dangerous Texas frontier, where he was said to preach with a gun beside his Bible while men kept rifles across their knees. A meeting house rose here in 1891, and in summers the congregation built brush arbors for prayer meetings on the grounds. The women famously set aside every egg laid on Sundays to fund Sunday school literature.
Azle Schools
Azle, TX
By local tradition, schooling in the Azle area began in the 1850s in log cabins and a Baptist church, persisting despite the disruptions of frontier raids and the Civil War. Over the decades the school grew by absorbing a string of tiny neighboring districts with names like Promised Land, Liberty, and Bluff Springs. That steady consolidation turned scattered pioneer schools into a single modern district.
Ash Creek Cemetery
Azle, TX
The oldest known graves in this Azle burial ground belong to Dave Morrison and W. P. Gregg, both of whom died in 1874. The land was given in two one-acre parcels by Dr. James Azle Stewart, for whom the town of Azle is named, and by John Giles Reynolds, an early grist mill operator, and both men are buried here. A cemetery association formed in 1922 to keep records and care for the grounds, later adding land and a tabernacle, and the cemetery now holds more than 2,000 graves.