GEN. R. M. STEVENSON. About twenty years previous to the outbreak of the war of independence, George Stevenson, Edward Shippen and John Armstrong were appointed His Most Gracious Majesty George the Second's Judges of the Courts of Quarter Sessions, and general jail delivery for the counties of York, Lancaster and Cumberland, in the province of Pennsylvania. George Stevenson, an Irish barrister, and an LL.D. of Dublin University, was the great-grandfather of the subject of the present sketch, and the first of the family who settled in America. When the colonies threw off their allegiance to the British Crown, Judge Stevenson, then a resident of Carlisle, Penn., became an ardent patriot, was Chairman of the Committee of Safety in his section, and was marked by the British Government as on arch rebel. His son, George Stevenson, Jr., became an officer in the Revolutionary army, and served during the entire war. During the whisky insurrection in Western Pennsylvania, about the close of the last century, George Stevenson left his home in Carlisle, in that State, as Major of a regiment of State troops sent there to restore order. He foresaw the coming greatness of Pittsburgh, and settled there; was President of a branch of the Bank of the United States located at that point for many years, and was also Chief Burgess and first Mayor of the city. His son, Thomas Collins Stevenson, M. D., returned to Carlisle, at which town Raymond M. Stevenson was born, March 4, 1840. At the age of sixteen, he commenced his career as a journalist, his first work in the profession being a report of a political meeting in the campaign of 1856. He was educated at Dickinson College, in his native town, and after trying several other professions, returned to his first love, and settled down to journalism. After serving in the quartermaster's department of the army during the early years of the war, he was obliged to return home with a constitution badly shattered by typhoid fever. In 1863, he was appointed by President Lincoln Vice Consul at Sheffield, England, where he remained until 1866. Resigning his position, he returned to the United States and to journalism. In the summer of 1868, the attractions of Colorado became too strong to be resisted, and the subject of our sketch joined the army of emigrants bound for the Rocky Mountain region. After remaining in Denver for a few months, he removed to Pueblo, and was connected with the Colorado Chieftain for nearly twelve years (with the exception of a few brief interruptions), the last six years as managing editor. In 1879, he was appointed by Gov. Pitkin one of the Commissioners of the State Insane Asylum at Pueblo, which position he resigned in April, 1880, to accept that of Private Secretary to the Governor. The latter position he resigned in the fall of the same year to take a situation on the Denver Tribune, which he was obliged to resign on account of illness. Upon the meeting of the General Assembly of the State in January, 1881, he was unanimously elected Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, and at the close of the session appointed Adjutant General of the State. Gen. Stevenson was married in Pueblo, in 1871, to Susan C., eldest daughter of Rev. Samuel Edwardes, then Rector of St. Peter's Church in that city.  

Written by R. M. Stevenson (1881)
Source: History of the Arkansas Valley, Colorado by J. Harrison Mills.  Chicago: O. L. Baskin & Co., 1881.

Submitted by Joy Fisher (Dec08)