Escambia County AlArchives Biographies.....Stevens, Thomas M. July 31 1866 - living in 1893
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Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 23, 2004, 5:16 am

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
    THOMAS M. STEVENS, a prominent member of the Brewton bar, and one of the
rising young lawyers of southern Alabama, was born at Perdue Hill, Monroe
county, July 31, 1866, the son of Thomas J. and Lydia A. Stevens. Mr. Stevens
received his early educational training in the schools of Monroeville, where he
spent the first fourteen years of his life, and at the age of seventeen entered
the State university at Tuscaloosa, in which he completed the full classical
course, graduating, in 1888, with a class of exceptionally bright young men, a
number of whom have already achieved a large measure of success in the various
learned professions. The university is a military school, and as the honors are
chiefly conferred on cadet officers, young Stevens, at the time of his
graduation, was captain of company B, a position which entitled him to especial
favors in the distribution of honors. His school course was marked by an
earnestness of purpose and a laudable ambition to succeed, and before its
conclusion he was the recipient of several prizes, among which was the one known
as the "Ready Writer's prize," for which the entire senior class of forty
members contested. On leaving school, Mr. Stevens, for about one year, acted as
deputy United States marshal for the southern district of Alabama, with
headquarters at Brewton, and in the fall of 1889 entered the law department of
the State university, where he pursued his legal studies until his graduation in
June of the following year, at which time he opened an office in Brewton. In
July, 1891, he effected a co-partnership with M. A. Rabb, one of the leading
lawyers of Brewton and Escambia county under the firm name of Rabb & Stevens,
which does an extensive business in Brewton, beside practicing in all the courts
of many other parts of the state. November, 1890, Mr. Stevens received the
appointment of deputy solicitor for Escambia county, which office he still
holds. Professionally Mr. Stevens has already taken high rank among the
successful attorneys of the Brewton bar, and few young lawyers possess in a so
eminent a degree the esteem and confidence of the public. His career thus far
presents a series of brilliant successes, and, being a man of integrity and
spotless reputation, a close and intelligent student, he has before him a future
of great usefulness. In politics Mr. Stevens is a supporter of the democratic
party, and socially belongs to the Pythian fraternity, in the local lodge of
which he holds an important official position. Thomas J. Stevens, father of
Thomas M. Stevens, was born in Monroeville, Monroe county, Ala., in the year
1830, and is by occupation a contractor and builder. He was for some years
engaged in merchandising, and at one time was sheriff of Monroe county, and also
served as tax collector, beside holding several minor positions. He served in
the Civil war, enlisting in 1862 in company F, Fifty-third, Alabama cavalry,
commanded by Col. Harmon, and participated in a number of battles, including the
last engagement of the war, fought at Statesboro, Ala., in 1865. In October,
1860, he contracted a matrimonial alliance with Lydia A. McCarvey, which has
resulted in the birth of four children, namely: Thomas M.; William C., deceased;
Annie M. and Chalmers M. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens and their two youngest children
have a pleasant home in Brewton. The Stevens family is of Scotch descent; but
moved to Alabama from South Carolina, of which latter state Matthew P. Stevens,
father of Thomas J., was a native. The McCarveys are also of Scotch origin, and
emigrated from their native country to America in the time of the colonies. The
father of Mrs. Stevens was Murdock McCarvey, an early resident of Monroeville,
and a soldier in the Creek war. He was a man of fine mental endowments, a
teacher and planter, and for three successive sessions served Monroe county as
probate judge. At the conclusion of his last official term he taught school in
Monroeville, and taught the same until his death, which occurred in 1875. His
son, Thomas C. McCarvey, is a distinguished educator, at this time filling the
chair of mental and moral philosophy in the State university at Tuscaloosa.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 1004-1005
Published by
Brant & Fuller (1893)
Madison, WI

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