GEORGE
STEVENSON,
farmer, post-office Kennard, was born August 22, 1832, in
Salem Township, this county, and is a son of
Findley Stevenson. James
Stevenson, the grandfather of our subject, was born October 18,
1760, in the County Down, Ireland, where he was reared, and married to Jane
Caughey on the 18th day of July, 1782. They immigrated to this
country in 1790, and settled in Chester County, Penn., and lived there and
in Westmoreland County until 1798, when they came to Salem Township,
Mercer County, and made a final settlement on the lands now owned by D.
M. Stevenson. James was a blacksmith, which occupation he followed
through life. There were three children born to them in Ireland: James,
William and Mary; one born to them in Chester County, Elizabeth,
wife of Benjamin Stokely, of Cool Spring
Township, and two born to them in Mercer County, John
and Findley. James died March 5, 1813,
aged fifty-three, and his widow in August, 1847, at the age of
eighty-seven, Finley, the father of our
subject, was born September 3, 1804. He was reared at home, and was
married June 29, 1826, to Elizabeth, daughter
of John and Nancy (Roberts) McGranahan. They
settled on the old homestead, where he and his brother John lived for over
twenty years, with all of their interests undivided. There were eleven
children born to Finley and Elizabeth Stevenson;
John, James E., George G., William, Robert (deceased),
Jane, wife of J. Wick; Margaret, widow
of G. Hunter; Findley (deceased), Nancy,
wife of H. Dick; David M., and Elizabeth
E., wife of E. A. Jones. In after
years, when their families grew to maturity, John
and Findley divided their interests with
perfect satisfaction to all concerned, each one remaining on their
respective portions until death. Politically Findley was a Whig, and
afterward an Abolitionist. He died September 28, 1847, aged forty-three,
and his widow October 17, 1887, in the eighty-first year of her age. Both
were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church from youth, and he had been
class-leader and Sabbath-school superintendent for many years. George
G., our subject, was married, June 22, 1852, to Martha
A., daughter of Leonard and Catherine (Frittz)
Watters. They located on a portion of the Bishop
Roberts farm of seventy acres, purchased by the father and deeded
to him, and to which our subject has added seventy more adjoining, where
they still live. To George G. Stevenson and Martha
A. (Watters) Stevenson there have been born eleven children: Almira
J., widow of Francis M. McDowell; John L. (deceased),
Ida T., wife of Robert
A. Christy; Findley R., Electa K. (deceased), Elda
E., Vista L., Alta A., Judson L., Adelbert G., Clyde C. Politically
our subject is a Republican. He was drafted in the last war and furnished
the means to procure a substitute.
History
of Mercer County,
1888, pages 1135-1136
