When Lyman Stewart dropped out of school at age 11 to become a tanner's apprentice, few who knew him then would have predicted the enduring mark he would make on Los Angeles' business, religious and civic life.
And many Angelenos would be surprised to know that he was the driving force behind many of the institutions that dot the landscape here and beyond: Union 76 gas stations, with their bright orange and blue emblems, the Union Rescue Mission -- long a beacon of hope on downtown's skid row -- and Biola University, whose neon "Jesus Saves" signs have been a downtown landmark for decades.
A great philanthropist, Los Angeles pioneer and Civil War veteran, Stewart helped to dig the oil wells that powered the company that would become Unocal Corp. and, in 1891, founded the mission that today is one of the largest private homeless shelters in the nation.
Born in Pennsylvania in 1840, Stewart at a young age displayed a religious bent that was to guide his life. While working as a tanner's apprentice, he saved up the then-princely sum of $125 in hopes of becoming a missionary. But he lost every cent to what became another calling when he invested in an oil well that soon went bust. When the Civil War started, he joined the Union Army.
Returning home after the war, he was caught up again in oil fever. In the early 1880s, after some success in Pennsylvania's oil fields, he came to California and began drilling in the Newhall and later Santa Paula areas, according to Times accounts and the Biola University website.
The Hardison and Stewart Oil Co. helped to dig the wells that were incorporated in 1890 as Union Oil Co. Stewart became its president. The following year, Stewart, who had seen the poor on L.A.'s streets during his trips to the city, started what was then called the Pacific Gospel Union, which held revival meetings in tents. With Stewart's money, preachers and singers took to the streets in horse-drawn "gospel wagons," offering food, clothing and salvation.
From its first home on North Main Street, the site of today's City Hall, the organization eventually took up residence on South Main, where it remained for 80 years. In 1994, it moved to a five-story building in the heart of skid row.
"He cared about people, especially the downtrodden," said Carol Hawkins, a Biola board member who is Stewart's great-great-niece.
"His oil wealth helped him support what he loved so much," Hawkins said in a recent interview.
