Finding aid for the Kenyon Stevenson Genealogical Collection

Biography of Kenyon Stevenson

Kenyon Stevenson (1895-1957) was the son of Charles Astor Stevenson and Viola Lane, both of Union Township, Boone County, Indiana. Stevenson was born on May 31, 1895, in Union Township, Boone County, Indiana. He was one of three children. His siblings were Fayette Pearl Carr and Hazel Frances Acherman. He was a graduate of Lebanon High School, Lebanon, Indiana, in 1912.

Kenyon Stevenson was a Second Lieutenant with the 21st Field Artillery and Fifth Division, United States Army, during World War I. He saw action in France and in Luxembourg. On the front, his unit saw some of the heaviest fighting towards the end of the war. The unit was highly commended and Kenyon Stevenson was among those officers who were later awarded the Army of the Occupation of Germany Medal. He wrote two army unit histories, History of the Fifth Division and History of the 21st Field Artillery.

Upon his return stateside, Kenyon Stevenson attended Indiana University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1920. He was also a member of the Sigma Delta Chi journalism fraternity. After graduation he married Bertha Louise Hervey (1896-1996) on June 1, 1920.

Louise Hervey was born on March 2, 1896, in Logansport, Indiana. She was the daughter of David Francis Hervey and Jessie Amanda James, also both of Logansport, Indiana. She died on December 12, 1996. She graduated from Indiana University in 1918, and then did graduate work at the University of Chicago. During this time she participated in the suffragist movement. She briefly became a social worker in Illinois after her graduation. After their marriage, they removed to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Kenyon Stevenson began work with Armstrong Cork Company as a copywriter. By 1930, he was the director of advertising.

Three of the Stevenson's four children were born in Pennsylvania; Mildred Louise (b.1921), Kenyon Jr. (1924-1992), and James David (b. 1925). The fourth child, Frances Jane (b. 1933), was born in Ohio. As a result of the Great Depression, corporate downsizing and reorganization, Stevenson was forced to either accept a lower paying position or resign. He resigned in about February 1932. He soon found work as a sales manager for the Goodyear Tire Company in Akron, Ohio. He lived in Akron for one year before finally moving to Hudson, Ohio, in 1933. He was a sales manager from 1933 until 1940 when he became an advertising executive for the Griswold-Echleman Company in Cleveland, Ohio.

From 1940 until his death on August 30, 1957, Kenyon Stevenson was a group leader and supervised a number of major accounts for Griswold-Echleman. He taught an advertising course at the Cleveland Advertising Club for five years. He was a member of that club, and also of the American Marketing Association, the National Industrial Advertisers Association, the Advertising Men's Post of the American Legion, Indiana Historical Society, Society of Indiana Planters, Hudson Historical Society, and the Sons of the American Revolution. He was a long time member of the Society of the Fifth Division (Red Diamond). Kenyon Stevenson served as the organization's national historian for many years, as well as serving a term as national president.

Scope and Content

The Kenyon Stevenson Papers, 1646-1963, consists of genealogical correspondence; compiled genealogies, including connections to several famous historical figures; photocopies of old deeds, indentures, and wills; abstracts and transcripts of vital records, deeds, indentures, letters of reference, church parish records, and wills taken from sources across the United States and the world; books, pamphlets, and articles relating to the Stevenson family ancestry and allied families; newspaper clippings of various historical properties connected with the Stevenson ancestry and allied families, including historical events, reunions, obituaries, and related vital records; lineage records related to the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution; census records; tax lists; transcribed narratives of the American Revolution and the Civil War eras; biographies; state and county histories; land grant and petition lists; tombstone transcriptions; militia and muster rolls; Quaker and Baptist records; lawsuits and court case transcripts; and slave vital records and names in various documents. Kenyon Stevenson's personal papers consist of family business and personal correspondence; report cards; college application letters; newsletters; certificates of membership or recognition; diaries; daybooks; sketches; and many organizational records and personal correspondence from the Society of the Fifth Division (Red Diamonds).

This collection is of value to historians and genealogical researchers of the names listed alphabetically in Appendix A. The scope of the collection is national and international in its genealogical and historical content. The bulk of the collection contains material related to the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and World Wars I and II. Historians of the colonial era Scottish and English immigration to America will find several photocopied letters from the 1760s through the 1790s describing the Waugh family's arrival in the South. In addition, there is mention of an attempted and failed British colony on Providence Island, just off the northeastern coast of South America in the mid-1690s. There are also photocopied letters dated mid-1700s from Jamaica describing British colonial life there. Historians and genealogical researchers of the Revolutionary War era will find militia and muster rolls, Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution membership and lineage contribution notes and guidelines, and personal narratives and biographies of Revolutionary War patriots and British Loyalists. Richard Clough Anderson was a witness to the Boston Tea Party. He joined a Virginia regiment, and after the war retired to Ohio and built the first Masonic Lodge west of the Alleghenies. William Skeels was an officer in the British Army who was sent to fight against the American colonists for King George III. He was so inspired by them that he deserted and joined George Washington's forces. Historians studying the Founding Fathers will find personal narratives describing General George Washington and the feelings of the men who served with him. In addition, there are genealogical records, notes, and magazine articles that link families to Patrick Henry and President Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. Historians and genealogical researchers of the Civil War era will find some militia and muster rolls, and personal narratives and biographies of Civil War veterans from Union and Confederate camps to be of interest. Information on the genealogical background and migration of President Abraham Lincoln's ancestors from New England to Kentucky and Illinois is included. There are transcribed accounts of the conditions that Confederate prisoners of war endured on Johnson's Island in Ohio. Historians and genealogical researchers of World War I will find hand drawn battlefield and camp maps of the front along the Meuse River bordering France and Germany, United States War Department policy memos, descriptions of various medals, veteran newsletters, and correspondence. Kenyon Stevenson was the national historian and later served a term as national president of the Society of the Fifth Division (Red Diamonds) United States Army. His reports include meetings, receipts, budgets, proposed bills to the United States Senate, and personal narratives through correspondence. There are lists of veteran members of the society across the United States and those stationed in Europe after World War I and during World War II. Historians and sociologists will find opposing viewpoints of veterans from World War I and World War II.

Historians and sociological researchers will find the personal reactions and daily lives of a typical family during the World War II and post-war eras to be of special interest. Kenyon Stevenson Jr. was recruited directly out of college from Yale University as an engineer to work on the Manhattan Project at the Oak Ridge Laboratory in Tennessee. Personal correspondence between Kenyon Stevenson and his son are of special interest in that they show the complete secrecy in which the atomic bomb was developed. Kenyon Stevenson Sr.'s second son, James David Stevenson, served with the 87th Infantry Division in 1944 through the Battle of the Bestogne Salient and the division's advance across Germany. His correspondence describes his divisions's experiences as it advanced across Europe. Photographs of the front in France are contained in PG. 516 Kenyon Stephenson Photographs.

African American historians and genealogical researchers will find transcribed eighteenth century vital records from the Shelton family to be of special interest. They describe details of births, deaths, and marriages alongside descriptions of family relationships. Throughout the collection, African American genealogists will find records of slaves and their relationships mentioned within the transcripts and photocopies of the actual wills of various Southern plantation owners. In addition, African American and Civil War historians will find a map of the Underground Railroad in Indiana.

Native American historians and genealogical researchers will find the notes, biographies, diary transcripts, and genealogies of the capture and story of Chief Blue Jacket (a.k.a. Marmaduke Swearingen) of the Shawnee Turtle Clan to be of special interest. Descendants in Kansas and Oklahoma are mentioned through family historian accounts. In addition, there are detailed articles, notes and genealogies related to the ancestry and descendants of Pocahontas in North America and Great Britain. There are numerous descriptions of early settler encounters with Native Americans. Historians of astronomy will find a photocopied letter from David Gregory, a highly esteemed Scottish professor of mathematics and astronomy, dated January 28, 1696/97, describing various mathematical and astronomical phenomena. There is mention of his professional relationship with Sir Edmund Halley.

Historians of the Baptist church and Quaker movement in America will find many records of church minutes, vital records, meetings, and biographies of prominent early ministers in colonial and post-colonial era America to be of interest.

Genealogists researching the Bunker family of North and South Carolina will find the notes, magazine articles, and genealogy describing their descent from the original Siamese twins, Cheng and Eng "Bunker," of P.T. Barnum fame in the nineteenth century to be of interest. Historians and sociologists will also find accounts of Cheng and Eng Bunker's adjustments to fame and to daily life in nineteenth century America. Historians and researchers will find other information of value. A letter dated April 13, 1849, tells of the Finney family accompanying other Ohioans on a journey to California to search for gold. There is a letter dated June 25, 1954, associated with the Lambert Lane family. In this letter there is mention of the beginnings of the Case Institute of Technology, later Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. The Case family has no ancestral connections to the Stevensons. Political science historians will find two election ballots from Indiana dated 1896 and Kansas dated 1954 to be of interest. Historians and sociologists of the Great Depression will find that the Stevenson correspondence provides a view of a typical family's struggles during the 1930s. In addition, genealogists and family historians will find many of Kenyon Stevenson's rough drafts and transcripts of genealogical articles and books that he wrote to be of interest. They show the creative process and development of genealogical writing and scholarship.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

Photographs have been removed to PG 516 Kenyon Stevenson Genealogical Collection Photographs.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 4847 Kenyon Stevenson Genealogical Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

James David Stevenson, 1990

Processing Information

Processed by Richard B. Robertson in 2000

Other Finding Aid

A very detailed finding aid describing the documents contained in each folder is available in the Western Reserve Historical Society Research Center Reading Room.

Detailed Description of The Collection