STEVENSON FAMILY of Washington county. Among tho first settlers of Somerset township, this county, were two families named Stevenson, the one of English, the other of Irish descent. Of the latter, Joseph Stevenson and Margaret, his wife, emigrated from Ireland and settled in Letterkenny township, Franklin Co., Penn., at an early period in its history. They had two sons. The elder one of the two was killed by the Indians, along with several others, whilst harvesting his wheat, and his two children, with a hired girl named Jennie Harper, were taken prisoners. The younger of the two children, a son, was afterward murdered, having his brains dashed out against a tree; the other, with the hired girl, was taken to Canada, but afterward exchanged and returned home. She was married to Zachariah Spriggs, and they removed to a farm near to West Liberty, Ohio Co., W. Va. Afterward they made their home in Wheeling, where she and her husband died. The "Spriggs House" in Wheeling was named for her husband, and the proprietors, the Yarnell Brothers, were her grandsons. John Stevenson, the other son of Joseph Stevenson, was born in 1729, and for many years made his home in Cumberland county, Penn., where he was married, first to a Miss Mitchell, by which union he had two sons, named Joseph and George. His second wife was Jean McCombs, and their children were Mary, Robert, John, James, Margaret, Elizabeth, Jane and Anne. In 1781 he removed to Somerset township, Washington Co., Penn., and settled on a tract of land bought from Philip Whitten, containing 320 acres. He lived on the part of the farm now owned by Samuel B. Weir. Afterward selling this farm, he purchased the tract of land now owned by Andrew McCarrell, and the heirs of Hon. Thomas McCarrell in Mt. Pleasant township, this county. Having divided this farm among his children, he removed to one he owned near Cross Creek village, and which is now in the possession of Hon. J. S. Duncan and John S. Lee. He died at the age of ninety years, and is buried in the cemetery at Cross Creek village, where his second wife is also buried, having departed this life at the age of eighty-six years.
Joseph Stevenson, the eldest son in this family, was in the Revolutionary army under Gen. Washington, and was with him the night he crossed the Delaware river in the ice with his army, and fought the battle of Trenton the following morning. He married Miss Mary Espy, and removed to Washington county some years after his father had come out. He made his home in Canonsburg, where he died, and he is buried in the cemetery at Chartiers Church. His children were as follows: Josiah Espy (who was a physician for many years at Kittanning, Armstrong Co., Penn.), Joseph, Marrianne, Maria, George Espy and John Mitchell. Rev. A. Russell Stevenson, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Schenectady, N. Y., is a great-grandson of Joseph Stevenson.
George Stevenson, the second son, was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, serving under Gen. Washington at the battle of Brandywine. At the close of the struggle he came to the home of Zachariah Spriggs, near West Liberty, W. Va., and whilst in the field plowing corn he was taken prisoner by the Indians under the leadership of that renegade white man, Simon Girty. He was compelled to carry a heavy iron kettle, lashed to his bare back, all the way to Canada. He was also at the same time suffering from a severe gash in the forehead, made by an Indian striking him with a tomahawk at the time of his capture. Three years and five months passed before he was exchanged as a prisoner of war. He married Catharine McCombs, and lived for a time at what is now known as Hunter's Mill, on Harmon's creek in Hanover township. He afterward removed to Knox county, Ohio, where he died. The names of his children are as follows: John, George, Martha, Thomas, Eliza and Jane. Rev. George Graham, of Clarksville, Iowa, is his grandson.
Mary Stevenson, the eldest child by the second marriage, was twice married, first to Joseph Nelson, by whom she had two sons, James and John; after the death of this husband she was married to Rev. John McPherrin, who for many years was the pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Butler, Penn. Their children were as follows: Amelia, Samuel, William, Clark, Ebenezer, John, Anderson, Josiah and Mary, of whom Amelia was married to Hon. Walter Lowrie, for many years secretary of the board of foreign missions of the Presbyterian Church, and Rev. John C. Lowrie, D. D., LL. D., the senior secretary of the same board, and Rev. Walter M. Lowrie, and Rev. Reuben Post Lowrie, both missionaries to China (now deceased) were her sons.
Capt. Robert Stevenson, the eldest son of John Stevenson, Sr., by his second marriage, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and belonged to a company commanded by Capt. McConnell, of Cumberland county, Penn.; he was also in the war of 1812, as captain of a company; he assisted in the building of "Fort Stevenson" near Sandusky, Ohio, and the fort was named in his honor; he married Miss Mary Teeters, and came to Washington county at the close of the Revolutionary war; afterward he moved to near Salem, Columbiana Co., Ohio, where he died; he was a member of the Legislature of that State at the time of his death. John Stevenson, Jr., son of John, Sr., was also a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and a member of the company commanded by Capt. McConnell: he settled first in Somerset township, this county, on a farm now owned by the Whitely heirs, afterward in Mt. Pleasant township, on a farm now owned by James Buchanan, Esq., and lastly in Cross Creek township, on part of a farm now owned by Hon. John S. Duncan; he packed on horseback over the mountains to the first store in Washington its first lot of goods; he died June 13, 1817, aged eighty-six years, and is buried in the cemetery at Cross Creek village; his wife was Mary McCombs, and their children were: John, Margaret, Joan, Mary and Malcom McCombs, all of whom died unmarried except Mary, who married Robert Marquis, and she leaves to survive her two sons: Rev. J. S. Marquis, D. D., who for many years was pastor of Pigeon Creek Church (of which his grandfather had been one of its members at an early date of its history), and Robert Marquis, now of Caldwell county, Mo.
James Stevenson died young and unmarried, and is buried in Pigeon Creek cemetery. Margaret Stevenson married John Cratty, and became the mother of two children: Keziah and John Stevenson; Keziah married Robert Curry; a grandson, Robert Curry, Jr., Ph. D., was the founder of "Curry University " at Pittsburgh, was for a time assistant State superintendent of public schools in Pennsylvania, and afterward State superintendent of public schools in Nebraska. Elizabeth Stevenson married John Stevenson, a son of the Stevenson family who were of English descent, of Somerset township; they lived on a farm now owned by the McCorkle heirs near to Pigeon Creek Presbyterian church; their children were Jane, Joseph, John, Maria, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, Emily, Frances and James Edgar, who became a Presbyterian minister, and died at Tallahassee, Florida.
Jane Stevenson married John Graham, of Cross Creek, and their children were Henry, Robert, John, Mary, James, Ebenezer Stevenson, Margery, Elizabeth, Joseph, Thomas Smith and Anne; Ebenezer Stevenson Graham became a Presbyterian minister, and was for some years pastor of Pigeon Creek Presbyterian Church; he died at Tampa Bay, Fla. Anne Stevenson, the youngest member of this family, married Col. John Vance, of Cross Creek, and her children were John, Anne, David, Jane, Joseph and Julia A.; her son Joseph was a lawyer by profession, and was a member of the bar at Mt. Vernon, Knox Co., Ohio; in the Civil war he was the colonel of a regiment in the army of Gen. Banks, and was killed in the battle of Red River, Louisiana.
Text taken from page 184 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed January 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]