Seminole County FlArchives Biographies.....Stevens, Ralph E. February 7, 1891 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 February 25, 2014, 4:05 pm Source: Vol. II, pg. 17-18 The Lewis Publishing Co., 1923 Author: History of Florida, Past and Present STEVENS, RALPH E. M. D. Spending part of his boyhood at Sanford until he went away to college and university, Doctor Stevens returned for a brief time to engage in private practice and then answered the call of patriotic duty and went into the army as a medical officer and was in the service two years. He made a distinguished record while in France, and since his return to this country has resumed practice, largely in surgery, at Sanford. Doctor Stevens was born at Susquehanna in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1891, a son of HARRY R. and REBECCA (BLACK) STEVENS. His parents were natives of Pennsylvania, his father of English and his mother of Irish ancestry. HARRY R. STEVENS for the past twenty years has had his home at Sanford, Florida, where he is master mechanic for the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. RALPH E. STEVENS was about eleven years of age when the family came to Florida, and he finished his public school education in Sanford. He was a member of the first graduating class from the high school in 1909. During 1909- 10 he attended the Stetson University at De Land, and then for three years was a student in the University of North Carolina. Doctor Stevens completed his medical training in the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, where he graduated in 1915. For one year he was attached to the Delaware Hospital at Wilmington, Delaware, and after this thorough preparation he returned to Sanford and began practice. Soon after America declared war on Germany he volunteered his services, and in June, 1917, was commissioned first lieutenant in the Army Medical Corps. For some weeks he was engaged in examination work at Miami and West Palm Beach, and in August was ordered to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, and then to Camp Lee at Petersburg, Virginia, where he was attached to the Three Hundred Fifth Engineers in the Eightieth Division. In February, 1918, he was promoted to captain, and in May went overseas with the Three Hundred and Fifth Engineers. His first service was on the British front in the Somme offensive, and was then with the American Forces during the St. Mihiel drive and the Argonne offensive. He was on duty in three major actions, September 26, October 4, and November 1, and received a citation for distinguished and exceptional gallantry on November 1, 1918. This was awarded on March 22, 1919, by General Pershing. The citation made special mention of his faithfulness in caring for wounded soldiers at that date. From December, 1918, to June, 1919, he held the rank of regimental surgeon for the Three Hundred and Fifth Engineers. He was returned to the United States in June, 1919, and was discharged at Camp Dix. He is now a major in reserve of the Medical Corps, and is also regimental surgeon of the One Hundred and Fifty-Fourth Infantry in the Florida National Guard. Doctor Stevens resumed practice at Sanford in July, 1919. He has been an active member and post surgeon of the Campbell-Lossing Post of the American Legion at Sanford. He was president in 1922 of the Orange County Medical Society, and is a member of the Florida State, Southern and American Medical associations. He is a Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, a member of the Elks, the Country Club, Rod and Gun Club, is a Rotarian and a Presbyterian. Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/seminole/photos/bios/stevens77bs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/seminole/bios/stevens77bs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/flfiles/ File size: 4.1 Kb