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La Salle
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Also see [ Railway Officials in America 1906
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James W. Stevenson, one of the early settlers of Otter Creek Township, was born in Warren County, N. J., April
30, 1827, a son of John and Hannah (Wilson) Stevenson, natives of the same State where they were also married.
They had a family of eight children of whom five survive - Joseph and Walter, of Oil City, Pa.; Wiliiam, of Sayre,
Pa.; and Daniel and James W., of La Salle County, Ill. Mr. Stevenson was an active and honest business man, and
was a member of the Society of Friends. He died in Warren County, N. J., in the spring of 1854. His widow came
to La Salle County, Ill., in 1863 where she has since resided with her son Daniel. She is also a member of the
Society of Friends. James W., our subject, was educated at the Friends' boarding school at Westtown, near Philadelphia,
Pa., and in the spring of 1849 he came to Ottawa, Ill., and later settled in Rutland Township, La Salle County,
where he engaged in farming. Re was married there in the spring of 1851 to Comfort A. Millikin, a daughter of Samuel
and Rebecca Millikin, the father born in Westmoreland County, Pa., in 1801, and the mother born in 1807 in Franklin
County, Ohio. They were early settlers of this county coming here and locating in South Ottawa Township in 1830,
and in1832 they moved to Rutland and engaged in farming. They were the parents of eleven children of whom nine
lived to maturity. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson are the parents of six children Emma, John (married Florence M. Garver
by whom he had one child), Edward, Byron, Ernest and Willie. Mr. Stevenson came to Illinois in limited circumstances,
having but $25 in money. He now has a fine farm of 240 acres which he has acquired by his own persevering economy
and industry, and has given his son eighty acres. His land is valued at $65 per acre. He was in early life an old
line Whig, casting his first vote for Zachary Taylor. He has been a Republican since the organization of that party.
He has served as Township Supervisor twelve terms, and has been School Trustee for twenty years, and has held other
local offices. He was on the Board of Supervisors at the time of the building of the new court house, and has always
taken an active interest in all enterprises for the benefit of the township in which he resides.
FROM:
History of La Salle County, Illinois
Inter-State Publishing Co.
Chicago 1886
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