STEVENSON, HENRY S., a prominent farmer and stockman of Morgan County, residing at No. 1050 College Avenue, Jacksonville, was born four miles southeast of the city July 1, 1846, the son of William C. and Cassandra (Staley) Stevenson, the former a native of Scott County, Ky., and the latter of Middletown Valley, Frederick County, Md. In 1829 William C. Stevenson, the father (also named William C.), six brothers and a sister, and the entire family settled down to farming on the Briar Fork of the Mauvaisterre. William C., Jr., at that time was a lad of fifteen or sixteen years, and he made farming his lifelong vocation, with the exception of four or five years, when he was engaged in the hardware business in Jacksonville. He retired from business cares in 1862 or 1863, after which he made his home in the city until his death, July 28, 1898, at which time his post office address had been Jacksonville for nearly seventy years. Formerly a Whig, he became a Republican, and took an active interest in general politics, and was successful both as a farmer and business man. His wife, and the mother of the subject of this sketch, died September 14, 1903.

Henry S. Stevenson attended the country school until he was ten years of age, when his parents moved to Jacksonville. In 1864 he enlisted in Company C One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry (a 100 days' regiment), in which he served nearly seven months. He then attended Illinois College into his junior year, after which he engaged permanently in farming and the feeding of stock, in which lines he has been very successful. He owns a fine farm of 250 acres, upon which he has built two substantial residences. In 1872 Mr. Stevenson and family took up their residence in Freeport, Ill., where he engaged in the manufacture of beet sugar, C. H. Rosentiel, his wife's father, being at the head of the enterprise. The enterprise did not prove a financial success, and eight years later he returned to Morgan County and resumed farming.

Mr. Stevenson was married November 8, 1871, to Louisa Rosentiel, daughter of C. H. and Hannah (Gilman) Rosentiel, and of their family five children survive, viz.: William H., a professor in an Agricultural College in Iowa, and who married Daisy Scott, of Champaign, Ill.; Edward R., a farmer in Morgan County, who married Gertrude Cleary; Claire S.; Hannah L., and Charles Howard. Mrs. Henry S. Stevenson died October 20, 1900. Mr. Stevenson is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic.