William James Stewart was born to Green Stewart and Priscilla Gary Stewart in Columbus, Mississippi around 1894. By 1917, he was married to Lucy Shaw Stewart and living in Memphis, Tennessee, where daughter Lucy Priscilla was born. Soon after her birth, the family migrated to St. Louis where William found work as a porter with Brauer Brothers Manufacturing Co. Apparently, he had either attended or graduated from college, and he soon landed a position as a clerk, and later deputy clerk, at the Circuit Court. A photograph of his workplace shows him as the only African American in an office of a dozen or so white men, which may suggest that he may have had some political connections as well. His residence on Finney Avenue and then West Belle also reflected his middle-class standing in Black St. Louis.

By 1932, Stewart was an assistant pastor at the Weatherford Spiritual Union Christian Church located on West Belle. The church was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1925 by two American men with a membership of only twenty-two individuals. By 1937, it had expanded to 13 congregations in six states, with two churches in St. Louis and one in East St. Louis. It eventually became the largest Black Spiritualist church in the nation, and the only one to have overseas congregations.

Stewart rose rapidly in the church. He seems to have become solely devoted to pastoring beginning in 1932 as the city directory was no longer listing his occupation as clerk at the Circuit Court. By 1937 he was elevated to Bishop, which is documented in Lucy’s scrapbook. His career was cut short two years later in 1939, with his untimely death at the age of 45. He died of heart disease and pneumonia en route to Homer G. Phillips Hospital, and he was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.