[p. 986]
a prominent member of the bar, of New
Castle, Pa., has been a resident of this city
since 1900. He was born in Scott Township,
Lawrence County, Pennsylvania,
July 25, 1867, son of James W. and Nancy
J. (McFarland) Stevenson. Both his parents
are natives of Lawrence County, and
both are now living, being residents of
Slippery Rock Township. His ancesters
were Scotch-Irish, and were very early
settlers in the State, west of the Allegheny
Mountains.
James W. Stevenson was born January 3, 1841, and since beginning industrial life has been engaged in agriculture in this county, except for the time he spent in his early manhood as a member of Company B, One Hundred and Thirty-fourth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, with which he served in the Civil War. He is a man of sterling character, highly respected in the community in which he resides, and at various times has served creditably in township office.
William W. Stevenson was born in a pioneer log cabin on the homestead in Scott Township, where his people were among the earliest pioneers, the family locating in Lawrence County about the year 1800. Soon after his birth his parents moved to Slippery Rock Township, where he was reared to maturity attending the common schools. Beginning his literary education in the Old Fox Schoolhouse, he was subsequently enrolled successively as a pupil in Rose Point Academy, Slippery Rock State Normal School, and Grove City College. In 1889 he began teaching an ungraded school in Slippery Rock Township, and he continued in the pedagogic profession for many years thereafter, rising gradually to positions of greater importance, and becoming principal ultimately of a number of advanced schools. For five years he was secretary of the Teachers' County Institute. He was successful as an educator and would no doubt have risen to still greater prominence in the profession had not his desires led him in other directions.
He accordingly began the study of law, reading in the office and under the preceptorship of Attorney H. K. Gregory, and has been engaged in the practice of law since his admission to the bar of Lawrence County. Opening an office in the L. S. & T. Building, in New Castle, he soon succeeded in establishing a remunerative practice, the more readily as he was well known personally to the residents of the city and county, and is noted for his energy, activity and promptness in the discharge of duty. A short time ago he moved his office to new and commodious quarters in the Dean Building.
An ardent Republican politically he has long taken an active and useful interest in the politics of the city and of the county, having served as secretary of the county organization, and also as chairman, which position he now holds. Being now in the prime of life with all his faculties at their highest point of efficiency, and with a record that will bear the closest scrutiny, he should not only prove successful but also make an ideal record for himself. It is evidence of his thorough Americanism that he takes a pardonable pride in his being in the best sense of the word, a "self-made man," although as approachable and unassuming as he was when a "Plow boy" on his father's farm; and this is a fact that should in no wise lessen his popularity, for in this republic notably, self-help has ever led to high achievement.
On August 21, 1895, Mr. Stevenson was united in marriage with Miss Anna Mary McM. Forbes, a daughter of John E. and Sarah M. (McMillin) Forbes, of Slippery Rock Township, Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, and they have one child, a son—George Waldo Stevenson, born July 20, 1896. Mr. Stevenson is past captain of Round Head Camp, No. 73, Sons of Veterans. Religiously he was raised a Presbyterian; he is now a member of the Second United Presbyterian Church of New Castle.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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