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1907 Past and Present Biographies

John Stevenson

John Stevenson, serving for the third term as clerk of the district court at Jefferson, his oflicial record being characterized by all that is commendable in one in the public service, was born in County Armagh, Ireland, on the 6th of February, 1845. His parents were William and Jane (Mills) Stevenson, who were also natives of County Armagh. In the year 1854 the father brought his family to the United Stetes and settled in New York city. He was a shoemaker by trade and in the eastern metropolis conducted a shoe business until 1872, when he came to Greene county, Iowa, locating on section 34, Willow township. He owned there two hundred and forty acres of rich and productive land. He had previously been very successful in his business operations as a merchant and lived practically retired after coming to Greene county, although he gave his supervision to the farm, leaving the active work of the fields, however, to others. He held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church and took a leading and active part in church work in the county. He served as steward and trustee of the church and was a liberal contributor to its support, doing all in his power for its growth, upbuilding and the extension of its influence. Upon the inception of the republican party he joined its ranks and continued one of its ardent supporters throughout its remaining days. He did not aspire to oflice, however, although he served as a trustee of Willow township for a number of years. He was a man of very strong convictions in regard to both his political and religious views and in fact he was never known to swerve from a course which he believed to be right. His position was never an equivocal one, so that his neighbors knew always where to find him upon any question. He was also charitably disposed and those who needed assistance found in him a friend. He died in the year 1899 in his eighty-eighth year, after a most honorable, upright life, while his wife passed away December 6, 1906, at the home of her son John. She was then in her ninety-second year. She, too, was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and was a most earnest and faithful Christian woman.

In their family were twelve children, eight of whom reached years of maturity, namely: James, who died in 1897; Margaret, who is the widow of William Livingston and resides in New York city; John, of this review; Thomas, who is a storekeeper for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company at Berkeley, California; William, who is presiding elder for the Atlantic, Iowa, district and at one time was pastor of the First Methodist Episcopal church at Jefferson; Richard, who was purchasing agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company for seventeen years and died at Menlo Park, California, in 1905; Matthew M., who was connected with the great Roebling Bridge Company and died at San Jose, California, in 1897; and Edward A., who is with the telephone company at Berkeley, California.

John Stevenson, whose name introduces this review, was about nine years of age when he accompanied his parents on their emigration to the new world. He afterward attended the public schools of New York city and in 1868 he came to Iowa, being at that time a young man of about twenty-three years. He located in Scott county, where he worked on a farm by the month for two years, and in 1870 he came to Willow township, Greene county, where he assisted in improving his father’s land. He operated this farm until 1897, when he came to Jefferson and accepted the position of deputy clerk under E. S. Young, filling the position for six years, on the expiration of which period he was elected clerk of the district court and is now serving for his third term, discharging his duties so capably that his re-election has been assured.

In 1864 occurred the marriage of Mr. Stevenson and Miss Sarah Barclay, who was born in New York city in 1846, and is a daughter of Samuel and Sarah (Hunter) Barclay. Her father was in the employ of the Manhattan Gas Company, and both he and his wife died in New York city. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson have been born ten children. Samuel, of the Iowa Brick & Tile Company of Des Moines, is married and has four children. Jennie is the wife of Albert D. Ochiltree, a barber of Bayard, Iowa, and they have six children. Margaret is now serving as deputy clerk. Mary is the wife of Herbert Cain, a resident farmer of Willow township, and they have two children. Florence became the wife of Harry Kloss, a farmer of Highland township, and died March 6, 1907, at the age of thirty-one years. Nellie is the wife of Cecil Barclay, a farmer of Jefferson township, and has one child. Katherine is a teacher in the Churdan school. Sarah is the wife of James L. Luther, an auctioneer of Jefferson. John is living in Jefferson and is married and has one child. Viola Rhea completes the family.

The parents are members of the Methodist Episcopal church and take a very active and helpful interest in church work. Mr. Stevenson was superintendent of the Sunday school at Bayard for ten years. He belongs to the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar degree, and he is also a member of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he is a republican and for twenty-two years he acceptably filled the oflice of justice of the peace in Willow township, his decisions being strictly fair and impartial, so that he won “golden opinions” in recognition of his capability. In 1895-6 he was county supervisor, but resigned that position to become deputy clerk. In 1902 he was elected clerk of the district court, was re-elected in 1904 and again in 1906, so that he is now serving for a third term - a fact which is conclusive proof of his capability and trustworthiness. He represented the tenth district on the republican state central committee in 1905-6 and for a number of years has been chairman of the republican county central committee. He has also been a delegate to county and state conventions and is recognized as one of the most prominent and influential representatives of the republican party in this part of the state.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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