Cal Stewart was a
comedian from the very late 19th and early 20th century. He made many, many records for Edison, Columbia and other record companies from 1895 to his death in 1919.
He is best known among collectors of old records for his comic monologues as a feisty old New England man named "Uncle" Josh Weathersby. Typically, he tells anecdotes about either incidents in his fictional home town of Pumpkin Center or his misadventures with new-fangled technology in New York.
His most distinctive mannerism is his hearty laugh when he laughs at his own jokes, though that doesn't stop the listener from laughing along with him. Some may find his humor rather old-fashioned and dull, but personally I find most of his jokes to be pretty clever and amusing. Some of his jokes are even pretty OFFBEAT for the time period. I'm not sure just why I like him so much, but I do. Kind of a jé né sais quoi situation.
Cal Stewart's records are frequently available on eBay.
Stewart was born in Virginia in 1856 and died in 1919. A few Uncle Josh records were released posthumously up to 1921. He was very popular with record-buyers of the period and was Thomas Edison's favorite comedian.