USA > Massachusetts > Genealogical and personal memoirs relating to the families of the state of Massachusetts, Volume IV > Part 71
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133
(V) Samuel Bartlett, son of Josialı (2) Foss, was born in Thetford, Vermont, April 20, 1799, and died November 2, 1878. He married (first) January 1, 1829, Amanda Bangs, born at Guilford, Vermont, February 12, 1802, died April 29, 1834; (second) Sep- tember 20, 1836, at New Haven, Vermont, Anna Grennell, born October 24, 1803, died May 17, 1850; (third) February 1I, 1851, Silvina McEntire, born June 19, 1804, died April 21, 1891. Child of first wife: I. George Edmund, mentioned below. Child of second wife: 2. Herman Grennell, born at Burke, New York, November 6, 1837, died June 8, 1864, in Richmond prison, Virginia, a prisoner of the civil war.
(VI) George Edmund, son of Samuel Bartlett Foss, was born in Derby, Vermont, June 1, 1830, and resides as Jamaica Plain. Massachusetts. He was educated in the pub- lic schools, and learned the trade of carpenter and housewright. He settled in Berkshire, Vermont, and later in St. Albans, Vermont. He was a commissioner on building the court house of Franklin county at St. Albans, in 1873, and superintendent of its construction. He was a Republican in politics, and held many positions of trust and honor. He was assessor of St. Albans. For a number of years he was manager of the St. Albans Manu- facturing Company, which had a special method of drying lumber. Mr. Foss is a de- vout Baptist in religion, and has served as dea- con in no less than seven different churches of this denomination since 1860. He now at- tends the Baptist church at Jamaica Plain. Boston, where he resides at 8 Everett street. He married. in Franklin, Vermont, February 21. 1856. Marcia Cordelia Noble, born in
Franklin, January 8, 1835, daughter of Syl- vester Campbell and Nancy (Chaplin) Noble. (See Noble, VI.) Children : Eugene Noble and Hon. George Edmund, both mentioned below.
(VII ) Eugene Noble, son of George Ed- mund Foss, was born in West Berkshire, Ver- mont, September 24, 1858. He spent his early childhood in his native town, two miles and a half from the Canadian line. When he was ten years old the family removed to St. Albans, where he attended the public schools and pre- pared for college. He was a student for two years in the University of Vermont at Burl- ington. At the end of his sophomore year he decided to follow a business career, and left college to accept a position as traveling sales- man for the patented device for drying lum- ber used by the company of which his father was then manager. At the age of twenty-one he went west to introduce this device among the lumber mills. In connection with this business he also represented B. F. Sturtevant, of Boston, manufacturer of mill machinery. and was so successful that Mr. Sturtevant sent for him, induced him to accept a more re- sponsible position in his business, and in a short time he was given the management of the concern. Since the death of Mr. Sturte- vant in 1890 he has been at the head of the business, which was incorporated as the B. F. Sturtevant Company, and from a compara- tively small concern has grown rapidly to large dimensions, one of the most extensive iron works in New England. Then there were about a hundred and fifty hands employed, now about one thousand five hundred. When Mr. Foss took charge the house had no for- eign trade, but now has a branch in London known as the Sturtevant Engineering Com- pany, and branches at Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris, and Johannesburg, South Africa, and the trade of the company extends to Japan, China, and the remotest sections of the earth. In1 1901 the old plant was partly destroyed by fire, and the business was removed from Jamaica Plain to Hyde Park, where a model plant was erected, one of the largest and finest in the country. Mr. Foss has faith in New England as a manufacturing country in the future, as he has demonstrated its possibili- ties in the past. The Sturtevant Company has eight buildings, varying in size from 45 by 100 to 170 by 350, with a floor spacing amount- ing in all to ten acres, equipped with the latest machinery and facilities, every convenience for the machinist, admirable facilities for
2463
MASSACHUSETTS.
transportation. The company manufactures blowers, engines, turbines, motors, econo- mizers, forges, etc. Mr. Foss believes in sup- plying foreign markets with goods made in American shops, and his influence has been exerted constantly and indefatigably to main- tain the position of New England as a manu- facturing center. He is at the head of the Becker Milling Machine Company, of Hyde Park, employing five hundred men. This company has four fine buildings, each three stories high, with power plant, all remodeled and refitted when Mr. Foss took charge. As a result of the combination of independent in- terests effected by Mr. Foss in 1901, the Becker concern now turns out the largest line of milling machines in the world. Mr. Foss is president and director of the Becker Ma- chine Company, and treasurer and general manager of the B. F. Sturtevant Company. Mr. Foss is also president of the Mead-Mor- rison Manufacturing Company, of Cambridge, Massachusetts. They employ five hundred men and manufacture coal conveying and hoisting machinery; also president of the Burgess Mills at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, large cotton mills, employing about twelve hundred people : also president of Maverick Cotton Mills of East Boston. He is also con- nected with many other manufacturing and transportation, mining and industrial corpora- tions, banks and other financial institutions. He is president and director of the Bridge- water Water Company; director of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company of New York; director of the Brooklyn Heights Railroad Company; director of the Brook- lyn Rapid Transit Company; director of the Chicago Junction Railways and Union Stock- yards Company; member of the executive committee and trustee of the Massachusetts Electric Companies; director of the Hyde Park National Bank of Hyde Park.
Mr. Foss has been for many years a con- spicuous figure in political life. He has al- ways been a Republican, and has been the fore- most advocate in New England of the doctrine of reciprocity first promulgated by Hon. James G. Blaine, whom Mr. Foss greatly admired. He was chairman of the Republican committee of ward 23, Boston, member of the Republican city committee and of the Republican congres- sional committee of the eleventh district. He was an active member and at one time a di- rector of the Home Market Club of Boston, an influential organization of Republicans and Protectionists. He began an active campaign
for reciprocity in 1902, when he was a candi- date for congress in his district, winning the Republican nomination on his platform of Ca- nadian reciprocity, free iron, free coal and free hides. He was defeated at the polls, partly through the growth of Democratic sentiment in the district, and partly through the hostility of certain Republicans, aroused by his plat- form. It was not a desire to secure political honors that made Mr. Foss a candidate. He felt that he had an important duty to perform. When his plant was burned, it was taken for granted by other manufacturers that he would remove the works to some locality where raw materials were cheaper, perhaps Pittsburg, or the South. "You surely will not stay here," said his friends ; "the conditions are all against successful manufacturing in New England." "Very well," replied Mr. Foss; "then we will try to change the conditions. Many of our employees have been with us for a generation. Their homes are scattered all through Boston. Their families and friends are here, their chil- dren are here. I will not uproot our whole organization and try to transplant it unless I am forced to do so. As a loyal son of New England, I would rather exert myself to im- prove conditions than desert New England. I will ask the people to stand by me." He was misunderstood at first, and roundly abused in many quarters, but with character- istic determination persisted in his purpose and met defeat cheerfully. He confined his fight within his own party, and grew stronger as his motives and policy became better under- stood. In 1904 he was again the nominee of his party for congress, and made a vigorous campaign, but was again defeated by a narrow margin. In 1906 he became a candidate for the Republican nomination for lieutenant-gov- ernor, upon the same platform, and fought one of the most strenuous and remarkable campaigns in the history of the commonwealth, against Eben S. Draper. It is the custom in Massachusetts to elect as governor the man who has been for two or three years previously lieutenant-governor, so the contest was virtu- ally for the governorship. Mr. Draper was successful, and in turn became governor, but the educational value of the campaign con- ducted by Mr. Foss is shown in the changing policy of the Republican party in relation to the tariff and the impending modification of the tariff for which a special session of con- gress has been called. The victory of his plat- form appears to be in sight.
Mr. Foss is an able and convincing public
2464
MASSACHUSETTS.
speaker and writer, a shrewd student of busi- ness and economical conditions. His record as an employer of skilled labor is not excelled. As a financier few have achieved greater suc- cess in New England, and no Boston man stands higher in the confidence and esteem of the capitalists of the country. It is not an ex- travagance to say that no other citizen of Mass- achusetts has used his wealth and influence with greater public spirit and wisdom. Where he has prospered, the community and his em- ployees alike have prospered also. He might have overcome the handicap that his business has suffered through the tariff by establishing manufacturing plants in other countries, but his policy has always been to keep his busi- ness in New England, and in the numerous enterprises with which he is connected he has used his influence to the same end. He has taken a lively interest not only in manufactur- ing and political life, but in educational affairs, and is a trustee of Vermont Academy, at Sax- ton River, and of the Newton Theological Sem- inary, trustee of Hebron Academy, Hebron, Maine, trustee of Colby University, Water- ville, Maine. He is a prominent member of the First Baptist Church of Jamaica Plain and is a trustee of the Boston Young Men's Christian Association. He is a member of the Boston Art Club, Algonquin Club, Coun- try Club, Jamaica Club, Exchange Club, and the Eliot Club.
He married, June 12, 1884, Lilla R. Sturte- vant, born in Boston, November 4, 1860, daughter of Benjamin Franklin and Phebe R. (Chamberlain) Sturtevant. Her father was an inventor and manufacturer of the Sturte- vant blowers, etc., born at Norridgewock, Maine, January 18, 1833, son of Seth and Hulda Sturtevant. He produced first the ma- chine for making ribbon shoe pegs, and next a small fan blower to remove by air current leather dust and waste from buffing machines, beginning the manufacture of his machines in Boston. The idea was rapidly extended, and the Sturtevant exhaust fans, engines, and spe- cial appliances for ventilation and forcing drafts found a demand in a multitude of in- (lustries. Mr. Sturtevant died at his home in Jamaica Plain, April 17, 1890. He left two daughters : Ella S., wife of W. V. Keller, and Lilla R., wife of Mr. Foss, and a widow, Phebe R. Sturtevant, who died April 17, 1903. Children: 1. Benjamin Sturtevant, born Oc- tober 9, 1886. 2. Noble, April 8, 1888. 3. and 4. Esther and Helen (twins), January 20, 1894.
(VII) George Edmund (2), son of George Edmund (I) Foss, was born in Berkshire, Vermont, July 2, 1863. He attended the pub- lic schools of St. Albans, Vermont, whither his father removed when he was a young child, and entered Harvard College, from which he was graduated in the class of 1885. He studied his profession in Union College, and received the degree of LL. B. in 1889, and the same year was admitted to the bar in Illi- nois. He has since then practiced law in Chi- cago. He was elected to congress from the Seventh Illinois district in 1895, and re-elected in 1897-99, and 1901. Since 1902 he has repre- sented the tenth district in congress. In 1900 he became chairman of the house committee on naval affairs, and has held that position to the present time. He is the youngest congress- man of equal length of service, and the young- est chairman of a great committee. He is an able speaker and ready debater, energetic, effi- cient and of high ideals and great attainments. His residence is at 47 Gordon Terrace, Buena Park, Chicago. He married, June 29, 1893. Georgie Louise Fritz, born in Chicago, Sep- tember 6, 1868. Children: Katherine, born May 25, 1896. Marcia and Constance (twins), November 4, 1901.
(The Noble Line).
(II) Mark, son of Thomas Noble (q. v.), was born in Westfield, about 1670, and died there April 16, 1741. He was a farmer, and was chosen in 1718 surveyor for the town and county roads; in 1720 constable ; in 1722 to seat the meeting; in 1725 tythingman. On April 8, 1741, a few days before his death, he executed a deed giving his property to his sons, John and Noah Noble. He married, in 1698, Mary (or Mercy ) Marshall, who died May 12, 1733, daughter of Samuel and Rebecca (New- berry) Marshall, of Northampton. She join- ed the Westfield church, December 23, 1703. Children, born in Westfield: 1. Noah, March 5, 1699 ; died October 7, 1703. 2. Mary, De- cember 20, 1701 ; married John Barber. 3. Abigail, July 7, 1704 ; married Jonathan Miller. 4. John, December 21, 1706; mentioned below. 5. Miriam, January 4, 1710 ; married Ebenezer Bush. 6. Noah, May 23, 1713 ; married Sarah Barber.
(III) John, son of Mark Noble, was born in Westfield, December 21, 1706, and died in Southwick, Massachusetts, March 3, 1776. He was one of the first settlers in that part of Westfield which became Southwick, removing there about 1734. He resided there in the
r
MASSACHUSETTS.
2465
village called Longyard, on the farm later occupied by his great-grandson, John Leroy Noble. He joined the Westfield church, April II, 1736, but becoming a "Separate" was cut off September 5, 1750. He afterward preach- ed to the "Separate" society in Westfield. Their meetinghouse was taken down about 1775, and he then joined the Baptist church at Suffield. Connecticut. His will was dated March 20. 1771. He married ( first ) July 10, 1735, Lydia Bush, born March 5, 1711, daughter of Eben- ezer Bush, of Westfield. She joined the West- field church, April 11, 1736. He married ( sec- ond) August 28, 1746, Elizabeth Remmington, born in Suffield, August 22, 1718, died Au- gust 2, 1791. daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Dudley ) Remmington. She married (sec- ond), 1778, Captain Jonathan Remmington, of Suffield. Children of first wife: I. Amos, born December 8, 1736; died March 20, 1753. 2. Josiah, November 19, 1737 ; married Olive Hill. 3. Eli, October 16. 1739: mentioned below. 4. John, May 24, 1743 : married ( first ) T. Curtis; (second) L. Pratt. Children of second wife: 5. Elizabeth, baptized July 10 1748: died young, accidentally scalded. 6. Elizabeth, born January 23, 1750; married Enos Loomis. 7. Eunice. about 1752; mar- ried Thomas Campbell. 8. Amos, April. 1756; married, May 10, 1780, Abigail Hanchett. 9. Timothy, April 8, 1758: married Sally Taylor.
(IV) Captain Eli, son of John Noble, was born in Southwick, October 16, 1739, and died in Pownal, Vermont, December, 1827. His gravestone states his death inaccurately. He was a soldier in the last French and Indian war, and was among those who surrendered at Fort William Henry. While others were being massacred, he was seized and led away by two Indians, who held him fast by the wrists. As he walked along without making trouble. he was soon left to the care of one Indian. Watching his opportunity, as they were about to pass a log. Noble permitted the Indian to go before him, and wrenching away. fled in the opposite direction, and reached his home in safety. In 1758 he was a soldier under Captain Selah Barnard. He removed as early as 1766 to Pownal, Vermont, and was selectman there in 1777. He is said to have held a commission at the battle of Bennington, though not to have been in the engagement. He was justice of the peace from 1778 for eighteen years; deputy to the general court in 1778. He was a farmer. In personal ap- pearance his eyes were blue and he was five feet. ten inches tall. His will was dated No-
vember 28, 1825, and proved April 2, 1828. He married (first) February 27, 1760, Ruth Campbell, who died December 24, 1783, aged forty-two, daughter of Robert and Mary Campbell ; (second) Mrs. Elizabeth Follett, born in Westfield, July 12, 1743, daughter of Martin and Elizabeth (Dewey) Dewey. Chil- dren, all by first wife : 1. Margaret, born 1760; married ( first) Joshua Carpenter ; (second ) D. Eldred. 2. Abner, December 26, 1761 ; mar- ried (first) E. Boltwood; (second) M. Downs. 3. Lydia, married Nathan Eldredge. 4. Asahel, married (first) P. Wallace; (second) H. Adams. 5. Polly, married John Blanchard. 6. Eli, married Eunice Wilcox. 7. Ruth, married Asahel Green ; died April 12, 1851, aged sev- enty-seven. 8. Hulda, married William John- son. 9. Susan, married Charles Bennett. 10. Eunice, married Joel White. 11. Ashbel, mar- ried Polly Scott. 12. John, born May 5, 1781 ; married Sally Stanton. 13. Robert, mentioned below.
(V) Robert, son of Captain Eli Noble, was born in Pownal, Vermont, July 8, 1783, and died in East Franklin. Vermont, July 24, 1860. He removed to West Berkshire, Vermont, where he bought a farm which he owned the remainder of his life, although in 1850 he re- moved to East Franklin, an adjoining town. He married (first) February 18, 1808, Sarah Phelps, born June 15. 1786, died February 23, 1844, daughter of William and Sarah ( Phelps ) Phelps, of Rupert, Vermont. He married (second) October 1, 1848, Mrs. Eliza Scofield, born in Hancock, Massachusetts, January 6. 1793, died in Dunham, Canada East, Septem- ber 24. 1866, daughter of Captain Simeon and Esther ( Mason) Martin, and widow of Jesse Scofield. Children, all by first wife, born in Berkshire: 1. Sylvester Campbell, November 13. 1808: mentioned below. 2. Sarah Maria. April 23, 1810; married Horam Darling. 3. Son (twin ), born and died April 12, 1812. 4. Daughter (twin), born and died April 12. 1812. 5. Jane, December 28, 1813: married Harvey Olmstead. 6. Ruth L., April 24, 1816; married Charles A. Leavens. 7. Mary Ann Reynolds. September 28, 1819: married Nel- son Vincent. 8. Willis, December 28, 1821 ; killed November 15, 1839, by caving in of a sand bank. 9. Julia Ann, December 10, 1823 : married, October 15. 1848, Aaron Demoing. IO. William Phelps, April 23, 1828; married Marcia E. Fletcher.
(VI) Sylvester Campbell, son of Robert Noble, was born in Berkshire, Vermont, No- vember 13, 1808. and died in St. Albans, Sep.
2466
MASSACHUSETTS.
tember 19, 1870. He was a farmer in Frank- lin, Vermont, until January, 1863, when he re- moved to St. Albans, where he was in busi- ness as a wholesale flour and grain merchant until his death. He married, April 15, 1832, Nancy Chaplin, born in Berkshire, March 9, 1813, daughter of Aaron and Martha (Hale) Chaplin. Children, born in Franklin: I. Or- celia Maria, February 25, 1833; married, Sep- tember 13, 1866, George William Barnes. 2. Marcia Cordelia, January 8, 1835; married, February 21, 1856, George Edmund Foss (see Foss, VI). 3. Happylonia, March 9, 1837; married, March 13, 1862, Malcolm Locton Chandler ; died August 28, 1863. 4. Guy Chap- lin, October 9, 1839; married Jerusha H. Dewey. 5. Nancy Miranda, September 4, 1843; died February 24, 1845. 6. Sylvester Camp- bell, February 6, 1846. 7. Willis Robert, Au- gust 16, 1852 ; died January 28, 1856. 8. Sarah Eliza, February 7, 1855. 9. Charles Phelps, May 6, 1858.
The Stevens family, whose STEVENS first representative was in Massachusetts Bay Colony when that colony was but little more than a decade of years old, has grown in numbers and in the strength and influence of its in- dividual members from the early days of New England to the present time. Colonel Thomas Stevens, of London, came originally from Devonshire, England. He was a member of the company chartered for the settlement of Massachusetts Bay, which in 1628 sent out John Endicott and others to plant a colony at Salem, Massachusetts. Colonel Thomas Ste- vens was an armorer, and he furnished the colony with a supply of arms. He did not emigrate himself but he contributed fifty pounds sterling to the stock of the company, and "sent three sons and his daughter Mary as his adventure to our cause." There were numerous other immigrants bearing this name, who settled very early in New England, being located in Gloucester, Newbury, Salisbury and Amesbury, as well as in Plymouth.
(1) Thomas Stevens, a baker, was an early inhabitant of Boston, locating as early as 1648. His wife's name was Elizabeth, and they had born in Boston, John, May 15, 1648; Thomas, ( died young ) ; Jonas, October 27, 1653 ; Aaron, February 28, 1655: Sarah, died young ; Thomas, May 20, 1658 ; Moses, April 22, 1659 ; Joseph, April 17, 1661 : Sarah, February 8, 1663. It is quite possible that he had other children born before his arrival in Boston, and
it is a fair inference that Erasmus Stevens was their son.
(II) Erasmus Stevens, the first of this line of whom positive knowledge is obtainable, was born before 1650, and was probably an inn- keeper in Boston. The records show that a refugee who had escaped from pirates was re- ferred by Edward Randolph, Esq., to Erasmus Stevens for board and lodging, and ran up a bill of forty shillings. Erasmus Stevens' wife bore the baptismal name of Elizabeth, and they had children born in Boston: John, Au- gust 16, 1671; Mary, 1673. The mutilation of the records makes impossible a further list of their children, but there can be little doubt that the next mentioned was their son.
(III) Erasmus (2), undobtedly a son of Erasmus (I) and Elizabeth Stevens, was born about 1680, and resided in Boston. He mar- ried there September 25, 1707, Peirsis ( Persis) Bridge, born March 30, 1683, daughter of Samuel and Hannah Bridge, of Boston, and they were the parents of Peirsis (died young) ; Samuel, born December 15, 1709; Peirsis, No- vember 21, 17II; Erasmus (died young) ; John, November 8, 1715; Eliza, August 15, 1717: Erasmus (died young) ; Erasmus, De- cember 18. 1721; Benjamin and Ebenezer (twins), October 21, 1726.
(IV) Ebenezer, youngest child of Erasmus (2) and Peirsis (Bridge) Stevens, born Octo- ber 21, 1726, resided in Boston, where he mar- ried, May 8, 1750, Elizabeth Weld, of Rox- bury, and the births of two children are record- ed in Boston, namely: Ebenezer, August 12, 1751, and Benjamin, mentioned below.
(V) Benjamin, second son of Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Weld) Stevens, was born March 29, 1753, in Boston, and was married in that city. December 16, 1783, to Anna Brazier, whose birth is not recorded in that city. He lived for a time in Braintree, but probably re- turned to Boston.
(VI) Benjamin (2), son of Benjamin ( I) and Anna ( Brazier) Stevens, was born in 1790, in Boston, and was a prominent citizen in his day. For some years he was engaged in mercantile business in Boston, and served as a member of the common council in 1828, and of the house of representatives from 1833 to 1835. In 1836 he was appointed sergeant-at-arms of the legis- lature, and continued to fill that responsible position for a period of twenty-three years. He was affiliated with the Masonic fraternity. For some time his residence was at the corner of Washington ( then Orange ) and Pine streets. He later resided on Pinkney street, where he
2467
MASSACHUSETTS.
died February 10, 1865, in his seventy-fifth year. In religious belief he was a Unitarian. He married Matilda, fifth daughter of Sam- uel and Joanna (Thayer) Sprague, born No- vember 18, 1796, in Boston ; died there Octo- ber 27, 1881 (see Sprague, VII).
(VII) Benjamin Franklin, son of Benja- min (2) Stevens, was born March 6, 1824, in Boston, with which city he was prominently identified during a long and useful life. As a child he attended school four years at the. corner of Washington and Castle streets, where the Columbia Theatre now stands, his teacher at this time being a lady named Taft. Until 1835 he attended various public schools at the South End, and when the family removed to the West End, he became a pupil at the May- hew school on Hawkins street, from which he graduated in 1836. Three years later he grad- uated from English high school, situated on Pinkney street. His teacher at this time was Thomas Sherwin, who subsequently became distinguished as an educator, being thirty-two years at the head of this school. On leaving school he entered the hardware store of Hos- mer & Tappan, and continued with this firm and its head, Zelote Hosmer, who continued the business for a period of four years. He thus secured a business training which was of great value to him throughout the remainder of his life. This establishment was located on Milk street, within a short distance of the fine building which Mr. Stevens had his office in during the last thirty-five years of his life. In 1843 he accepted a clerical position in the United States navy, and was attached to the frigate, "Constitution," as clerk to Captain John Purcival, with whom he sailed around the world. His voyages covered over fifty thous- and miles during the three years term of ser- vice. The famous old war-ship visited Brazil, Madagascar, East Africa, Sumatra, Borneo, China, The Sandwich Islands, and California. Early in the year 1846 the vessel arrived at San Francisco, then a small village belonging to Mexico, and subsequently remained three months at Monterey, a Mexican port, in antici- pation of service during the Mexican war. Thence it sailed to Chili, and around Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro, where news was re- ceived of the beginning of hostilities.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.