Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 264.

GENERAL JOHN H. STEVENS

     As our subject came to Oregon in 1852, he is counted one of the pioneers of
the coast.  He was born in Jamaica, Windham county, Vermont, March 26, 1806, and
was there reared and went to school.  He later entered the academy at
Brattleboro, and then of Chester, until he was prepared, at the age of twenty,
to teach school.  His first experience was in a school where the teacher had
been turned out, as not being able to control the pupils, but he undertook to
finish the term at $10 a month and succeeded in building up a large school.
     As he had succeeded so well upon his first trial, our subject felt
encouraged to start out in search of a wider field, and selected the city of
Boston as a good place to begin.  Here he found a friend who proved the truth of
the old saying that a friend in need is a friend indeed, for as he was without
money he might have found it difficult to find boarding accommodations if this
good friend had not assisted him in that way.  Finally he found a position with
a Mr. Chandler for $80 a year, and he faithfully worked out his time there, at
the end of which he bought a grocery store.  After his beginning he consolidated
his stock with Mr. Chandler and went into full partnership with him in West
India goods, continuing for two years.  At the end of that time he sold his
interest to his partner and returned to Vermont.
     From there our subject went to Pennsylvania and engaged in the lumber
business and remained there about four years, shipping his lumber to Pittsburg.
>From Pittsburg he went to New York and purchased goods and returned to
Pennsylvania.  He then undertook a very perilous trip.  His grandfather and
grandmother wished to make a trip to Vermont, and he started with them in the
depth of winter, in a sleigh, to cross the mountains.  This proved a dreadful
journey, the old people almost freezing to death, only reaching a hotel in time
to save their lives, as they were then unconscious from the cold.
     The marriage of our subject was celebrated with Miss Mary Adams in 1830.
She was a native of the State of Pennsylvania.  After marriage our subject and
his young wife started to Michigan and bought a farm near Tecumseh, Michigan,
where they happily resided until his wife died in 1833, leaving two small
children, whom he took back to friends in Pennsylvania, and then returned to
Michigan and sold his farm.  He started for Chicago, but got no farther than
Coldwater, Michigan, where he rented a hotel in partnership with Mr. Taylor.
Here he was married to Miss Harriet M. Pierce, in 1835, a native of Vermont,
born in 1817.
     About this time the State militia was started and our subject was appointed
Colonel of the regiment, and soon after he received a commission from the
Governor as Brigadier-General of this brigade.  He then received the appointment
under the Sheriff as Under Sheriff, and was afterward elected Sheriff, serving
two terms, and after this served under Sheriff Arnold as Deputy.  At this time
our subject started the stage line from Coldwater, Michigan, to Marshall,
carrying the United States mail, and in 1852 he crossed the plains in company
with Green Arnold, he bringing thirteen men and women with him.  Mr. Stevens
worked in the mines in southern Oregon, and in 1854 he returned by water to
Michigan, for his family.  The second time he crossed the plains bringing his
family and that of Mr. Arnold, and they engaged in the hotel business in
Champoeg.
     Our subject was a member of the last Territorial Legislature in Oregon.  In
1863 he removed to La Grande, and was made Register of the land office under
President Grant and continued in it during Grant's administration.  Later our
subject went into farming and stock-raising, but he has long since retired, and
now has a pleasant home in La Grande, owning some 800 acres of fine land in
Powder river valley, near La Grande.  To Mr. and Mrs. Stevens five children have
been born, of whom three are yet living, as follows:  John, who is farming in
Idaho; Nettie, the wife of D. C. Kelley, living in La Grande, and Jasper,
married to Miss Anna M. Webb, a daughter of the late State Treasurer G. W. Webb.
The General and his wife are living in enjoyment of the comforts of life, at the
ripe old age of eighty-six and seventy-five years, and can tell many and
interesting tales of the early days on the western coast.
 

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in October 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.