Thomas A. Stevens Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1508-1509 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	THOMAS A. STEVENS, the popular postmaster at Chamberlain, was born 
in the city of Elgin, Illinois, on the 26th of January, 1840, being a 
son of Josiah and Sarah (Rowley) Stevens, of whose eight children he is 
the younger of the two surviving, his sister, Caroline, being now the 
wife of Jacob Ebersole, of Fredericktown, Ohio. The parents of the 
subject were both born in the village of Painted Post, New York, and the 
genealogy in the paternal line is traced back to ancestors who came from 
Liverpool, England, to America, in 1654, and the subject has in his 
possession a valued heirloom in the form of a cane which was brought 
over to the new world by the founder of his family, the name and date 
being carved on the cane, while he himself bears the full patronymic of 
his colonial ancestor, while the cane has been handed down from 
generation to generation to persons thus bearing the name of their first 
American progenitor. The maternal ancestry is of Irish extraction, and 
the name has likewise been identified with the annals of our national 
history from the colonial epoch. 

	In 1834 Josiah Stevens emigrated from New York to Illinois, making 
the long overland trip with wagons, and he took up a claim of government 
land lying within the present corporate limits of the great city of 
Chicago. A year later he traded this land for a team of horses and 
removed to Elgin, that state, being one of its early settlers, and 
thereafter he was engaged in railroad work for several years. About 1853 
he removed to Rockford, and later to Pecatonica, Illinois, where he was 
railroad station agent up to the time of his retirement from active 
work, about the year 1860, while his death there occurred in 1872, at 
the age of seventy years. He was a Democrat up to the time of the 
formation of the Republican party, when his anti-slavery views led him 
to espouse the cause of the new party, of whose principles he ever 
afterward continued a staunch advocate, while he was one of the early 
members of the Masonic fraternity in Illinois and active in its work. 

	Thomas A. Stevens received a common-school education in his native 
state. On the outbreak of the Civil war he was among the first to tender 
his services in defense of the Union. On April 17, 1861, the day after 
President Lincoln issued his first call for volunteers, he enlisted as a 
private in the Rockford Zouaves, being the first person in the town of 
Pecatonica to enter the service. The zouaves were mustered in as Company 
D, Eleventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry, on the 1st of May, and the 
command was one of the first to pass through Chicago enroute to the 
front. He served with this regiment during his three-months term of 
enlistment and after being mustered out assisted in raising a company 
which became Company K, First Illinois Cavalry, and of which he was made 
first lieutenant, in which capacity he served until Jam1ary 1, 1864. In 
July of that year he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Forty-sixth 
Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with which he served as first lieutenant 
until August 1, 1865, when he was mustered out, receiving his honorable 
discharge. 

	After the close of the war Mr. Stevens, in May, 1866, started from 
Illinois for the west, making the trip overland with team and wagon. 
Upon reaching Fort Riley, Kansas, he found that there was an uprising of 
Indians, and he returned to Omaha, whence he proceeded by steamboat up 
the Missouri river to Fort Benton, Montana, whence he proceeded by stage 
to Helena, now the capital of that great state. In that locality he 
engaged in prospecting for gold and in general contracting, in which he 
continued until the fall of 1868, when he returned to his home town in 
Illinois, where he established himself in the grocery business. In the 
spring of 1872, just after the great fire in that city, he went to 
Chicago, where he entered the employ of the Adams Express Company, in 
whose service he there continued until March 1, 1882. when he started 
for Chamberlain, South Dakota, his brother Erastus C. having come to 
this territory in 1878, as a pioneer settler, and having come to 
Chamberlain in 1881, as a contractor and builder, his arrival here being 
simultaneous with that of the railroad. He erected a number of the first 
buildings in the town. After the subject's advent in the town he became 
associated with his brother in the contracting business, to which he 
devoted his attention about three years. In 1885 he was appointed deputy 
register of deeds, serving about four years. In 1889 he was elected 
register of deeds, serving one term and being defeated in the ensuing 
election by reason of the Populistic wave which swept over the west in 
that campaign. In 1892, under the administration of President Harrison, 
he was appointed clerk at the Crow Creek Indian agency, in which 
capacity he served until June 1, 1894, when he was removed by President 
Cleveland, by reason of his political views. He then came to Chamberlain 
and established himself in the abstract business and also became a 
prominent figure in political affairs, being made chairman of the 
Republican county central committee. On the 8th of March, 1898, Mr. 
Stevens was appointed postmaster at Chamberlain, under President 
McKinley, and on the 6th of March, 1902, he was re-appointed, under 
President Roosevelt. Both appointments came as the result of popular 
endorsement in the community. 

	Mr. Stevens has been an uncompromising Republican from the time of 
attaining his majority, having cast his first presidential vote for 
Lincoln, as did he also his second, having been at that time a soldier 
in the field and making the trip from New Orleans to his home in 
Illinois for the purpose of thus exercising his franchise. He is one of 
the charter members of McKinzie Post, No. 340, Grand Army of the 
Republic, and is also affiliated with Chamberlain Lodge, No. 56, Free 
and Accepted Masons. 

	On the 23d of August, 1865, Mr. Stevens was united in marriage to 
Miss Emily Elliott, of Pecatonica, Illinois, and her death occurred, at 
Crow Creek agency, in April, 1893. Of the five children of this union 
four are living; Lucy, who remains at the paternal home; Elizabeth, who 
is the wife of Ray Gooder, of Iona, this state; Harry, who is at the 
paternal home; and Erastus C., who is deputy postmaster under his 
father.