Stewart Seeds History

Welcome to Stewart Seeds . . . Here Is Some Information About Us And Our History !!

Arthur C. Stewart was born in Rush County, Indiana on September 23, 1888. At three years of age his parents moved to an 80 acre farm five miles northeast of Greensburg, Indiana which is the present location for Stewart Seeds, Inc.

Arthur sold his first seed corn to a few neighbors in 1918 and won his first major award at the State Corn Show, at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in 1923.

During the late 1920's and early 1930's, hybrid corn was discussed at corn shows and at educational meetings Gilman Stewart

sponsored by the Purdue Extension Service. Arthur had confidence in hybrid corn and produced 23 acres of hybrid seed corn in 1936. Every farmer who bought a bushel from him in the spring of 1936 was amazed at the standability of hybrid corn over open-pollinated corn plus yielding ten to thirteen bushels more per acre. Hence, farmers in Decatur County planted more of the hybrid seed in 1937 and by 1938 most of the corn planted in Decatur county was hybrid.

Arthur and Mary Stewart had five children including a baby girl that died at birth. The two sons, Gilman and John, spent three and a half years in the military service during World War II and upon their discharge they went back home and started farming with their father. Seed corn sales continued to increase and John Stewart by 1955 production had doubled from 1945.

Arthur Stewart died in January 1958. Gilman and John decided they should continue with the seed business. In 1955, a herd of purebred Angus cattle was purchased and used to produce seedstock for the cattle industry.

In 1974 the third generation of the Stewart Family started graduating from the Purdue University School of Agriculture and joined Gilman and John in the formation of Stewart Seeds, Inc. In the 1980's, Gilman and John retired from being active in the business and the third generation assumed the management and the ownership of the business. Presently Stewart Seeds is operated by Jim Stewart, Steve Gunn, and Tom Stewart.

The business has continued to grow. At the present time, Stewart Seeds has Stewart Seeds Inc. about fifty full-time employees which include five people involved in breeding corn, soybeans and wheat, a purebred cattle manager, a sales staff which covers Indiana and Ohio, and an experienced production and processing crew which are rated among the best in the corn belt. The operation has continued to expand within its target market area. Over the past 3 years, it acquired Enlow Seed Company of Oxford, Indiana and Leader Seed Company of Celina, Ohio. It has continued as a family operation and plans to do so in the future.