| Mr. Stevens (deceased) was born in
Eufield, Grafton county, N.H., March 1st 1819. He came to
Dansville in 1840 or 1841, and immediately began studying law with
B. F. Harwood. He was admitted to the bar May 14th, 1847.
He never left his profession, but soon commenced buying wild lands.
In 1850 he, with his brother Halsey R. Stevens, bought nearly four
thousand acres on the Pennsylvania line. They built a large
mill in what is now Alma, costing $100,000. Mr. Stevens, after
surveying for a plank road, built a tramway directly through the
forest twelve miles, employing a great many men. Quite a
number of residents of Wellsville and Alma came from Canada and
different parts of this State to work for him. At first this
road, leading through Pikeville, did more than any other thing to
open the way for those away from railroads to get out to market, and
was a great stimulus to business in Wellsville, to which place Mr.
Stevens removed from Dansville in 1852.
Mr. Stevens was mustered in July 1863, as a captain in the
13th heavy artillery, having raised a company by enlistment of
almost one hundred and seventy men. After being in Fort
Hamilton two months he went to the defenses of Norfolk and
Portsmouth, Va., and was at different points within ten miles of the
navy yard until the close of the war. From the nature of the
service he rarely had a superior officer in his camp. Soon his
legal experience gave him detached work, such as court martials,
etc. A paper which he prepared on one of these occasions
coming to the eye of the general, he sent for him, saying he wanted
the writer of it for a judge. He then made a judicial district
of eastern Virginia, with Mr. Stevens at the head, his duties
embracing those of a justice of the peace, a surrogate and a supreme
court judge. In the summer of 1865 this arrangement was
abolished and Mr. Stevens was made provost judge, until he went to
Washington, the last of August, followed by two petitions, one from
the black and one from the white citizens of Norfolk, to have him
returned to them, "as under him they always had justice." His
health, however, was such that he was anxious to be at home.
He was mustered out of service September 3rd, 1865, and came
directly to Elmira for advice. He continued under medical
treatment, which he had been obliged to have since suffering from a
fever in the fall of 1864. He never was able to do any
business after coming to Wellsville. As the last resort he was
taken back to the water cure in Elmira in May, 1867. He was
never able to be brought away, and died there August 28th, 1867. |
