The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1907-11-07
], |. STEVENS DEAD
One Of the Original Settlers Of
Kenosha County Died at His
Home Tuesday Night
DEATH ENDS NOTABLE CAREER
Deceased Came to Kenosha County in
1885 and Was the Oldest COntinu-
Gus Resident of County-Death
Comes With Little Warning

|
one Of the original settlers of Keno.
sha county, and the sole surviving
member of the colony which came tc
this county from the East in 1885,
died at his home on Prairie avenue
| just after 10 O'Clock Tuesday evening.
The close of the long and active life
| of Mr.. Stevens came with little warn.
ing. Up to last Saturday Mr.. Stevens
had been in fairly good health, but on
Saturday morning he fell down a
stairway and the shock was too great
for his rapidly failing constitution.
Early Tuesday morning he sank into
a stupor and from chat time to the
time of his death he remained uncon-
scious. His one son, J. L. Stevens,
Jr., and his niece, Mrs. Isabelle
Leach, were with him when the end
came.
John L. Stevens was a native of
New York and was born at Westfeld,
Chautauqua county, March 8, 1914,
Barlow Stevens. The ancestors of
Mr.. Stevens had emigrated to New
York from Vermont four years before
his birth. The family was famous in
Revolutionary times, Mr.. Stevens
father having served for many years
in the Revolutionary army.
Mr.. Stevens was one of the mem
bers Of the famous party which came
to Southport in 1885. The members
of the party had started from New
York in December of the preceding
year. There were twenty-one mem
bers in the party and the long trip
was made in a wagon. Some of the
members of the party stopped at
Joliet, others at old Fort Dearborn,
and Mr.. Stevens and his family and
port.
Mr.. Stevens, when he reached Ke-
nosha, took up a hundred and sixty
acres of land in the town of Pleasant
Prairie and he worked on the farm
while his father operated black
smith shop. Mr.. Stevens had the
honor of being Que of the first, if not
the first manufacturer of Kenosha
county, as in 1886 the old blacksmith
shop in the town of Pleasant Prairie
began the manufacture of plows.
These were the first breaking plows
manufactured in this part of the
country. Mr.. Stevens gave up the
farm in 1869 and removed to Kenosha
where he went into the grocery BUSH
ness for a time. This business was
later sold out and Mr.. Stevens went
into the feed business and he con-
tinued in this business for many
years.
Mr.. Stevens was always most active
IN the business life of the city. In
politicsshe was a Jacksonian Demo-
crat, butSwith the birth of the Re-
publican party he espoused its prin-
ciples and he was most ardent in the
support of them up to the time of his
death. Notwithstanding the fact that
he had lived for more than seventy
years in the county, Mr.. Stevens had
never sought public office. His in
terest in the political affairs of the
city, state and nation, however, never
waned and in the declining years of
his life he had always insisted in
walking to the polls and casting his
vote. 1t is claimed that he never
missed an election during his long
life in the county.
Mr.. Stevens was a member of the
Southport Club of 1887 and he was al
ways one of the features of the
reunions of the old settlers of the
county. He had been an observing
man and his stories of the interesting
events in the history of the county
and of the trials of the pioneer settlers
were always of greatest interest.
Mr.. Stevens was married at Pleas
ant Prairie on April s, 1910, to Isabel
Derbyshire. Mrs. Stevens died in
1887. Five children were born to
them but only one survives, j. L.
Stevens, the son, who was for years
associated with his father in business
in Kenosha, is now living at the old
home OIL Prairie avenue.
The funeral services will be held at
ESQ Friday afternoon from the resi-
dn~ono