George E Stevens

STEVENS

Posted By: County Coordinator (email)
Date: 5/14/2010 at 21:53:55

George E Stevens is spoken of as one of the giants of the Northwestern. A man six feet in height and weighing three hundred and twenty-five pounds, he is as big n spirit and interests as this stature, good natured, kindly and genial. These are the qualities which have made him popular and gained him favor among all with whom he has come in contact. His identification with the railway service covers a period of twenty-eight years, and for eighteen years of this time he has been a freight engineer.
Ohio claims, Mr Stevens as a native son, his birth having occurred in Toledo on January 19, 1864, but during his infancy he was brought to Iowa by his parents, Jacob and Lucretia (Brown) Stevens. The father was born in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, May 26, 1835, and spent his youth in that locality not far from Pittsburgh. He learned the butchering trade with his father and with him engaged in business as a cattle drover and butcher. They removed westward to Wooster, Ohio where they continued in the same business and later went to Toledo. As previously stated, Jacob Stevens brought is family to Iowa about 1865, and his death occurred in Boone, December 21, 1901, when he had reached the age of sixty-seven years. For about seven years he had survived his wife, who passed away in 1894. They were people of the highest respectability and during the period of their residence in this county gained the war regard of many friends. John Stevens, the grandfather of George E Stevens, passed away in Boone at the every venerable age of eighty-seven years. Unto Mr and Mrs Jacob Stevens were born the following children: Luella the wife of L D Sparks of Boone, Ida now Mrs J L Kail of Chicago, George E, Jacob deceased, Mrs Mary Manning who has also passed away and Daisy, the wife of W J Stangy of Chicago.
Reared in the city where he still makes his home, George E Stevens attended the pubic schools to the age of eighteen years, when he secured employment in a butcher shop. His after was the fist butcher in Boone and furnished the Northwestern railroad Company with at the time of the building of the road for State Center to Jefferson. He was go into Missouri with his partner, Mr Mackey and drive cattle from that state to Boone, where he would butcher and sell to the railroad company and to the general public. After working for a time George E Stevens, at the age of eighteen years, was sent to Hillsdale College in Michigan, where he continued his studies for a year, pursuing a business course. He entered the employ of he railroad company as a fireman, among his first trip wit Conductor Albert Bolitho between Boone and Missouri Valley. His fidelity and industry won him recognition and fate ten years he was promoted to the position of engineer, having acted in this capacity in connection with the freight service for eighteen years.
On May 26, 1886, in Boone, Mr Stevens was untied in marriage to Miss Mary E O’Connor, who was born in Clinton county, Iowa, March 17, 1865, and was educated in the convent school at Alliance, Iowa. Her parents were Patrick and Catherine (Flynn) O’Connor, both of whom were natives of Ireland but were married Quebec, Canada. They afterward came to the United States, settling in Clinton county, Iowa. Her father engaged in the operation of sawmills and was thus actively identifies with industrial interests in this state. He died in Boone in 1887, and his wife passed away in the same city in 1883. Their daughter Mr Stevens is a member of the Sacred Heart church, thus holding to the religious faith in which she was reared.
Unto Mr and Mrs Stevens have been born eight children: Mary L now deceased, Sadie R, Josephine deceased, Charles Le Gora, who is a brakeman on a passenger train of the Northwestern, Ida May at home, George Herbert, Jacob Leslie, and Margaret Helen.
Mr Stevens belongs to the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. His political endorsement is given to the republican party, which he ahs always supported since age conferred upon him the rights of franchise and citizenship. He ahs been practically a lifelong resident of Boone, where he is both widely and favorably known and that his has been a well spent life is indicated the fact that many who have known him from his youth to the present are numbered among this stanchest friends.

1914 Boone County History Book