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biography
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Stevenson, William Marshall, librarian for the Carnegie Free Library of
Allegheny County, was born in Johnstown, Penna, November 30, 1855. He is
of Scotch Irish ancestry and can trace his family history back to Robert
Stevenson, who emigrated from Scotland to Ireland in 1677, and was a very
prominent man in his day. He is the son of Ross Stevenson and Martha Ann
Harbison Stevenson, the father born in Strabane, Ireland, November 12,
1814, and died in Washington, Penna, January 10, 1893, and the mother
born at West Lebanon, Penna, in 1831 and is still living.
The family consisted of six sons and one daughter: Lizzie Hurst
Stevenson, now Mrs Jerome W Potts; Matthew Harbison Stevenson, a
practicing attorney of the Pittsburgh bar; Thomas John Stevenson, pastor
of the First Presbyterian Church, Hannibal, Missouri; Robert Francis
Stevenson, a prominent businessman of Washington, Penna; Henry Patterson
Stevenson who died May, 1892; and William Marshall Stevenson, the subject
of this sketch.
Mr Stevenson was graduated with honors from Washington and Jefferson
College in 1876, having acted as a tutor in mathematics in his alma mater
during his senior year. For two years after his graduation he was
instructor in ancient and modern languages in the Placerville Academy, in
California, and for the next two years studied music and languages at the
leading institutions of the continent, chiefly at the University of
Leipsic, the Conservatory at Dresden, and the College of France, Paris.
While there he was under the instruction of some of the noted scholars,
among them being Breal, the philologist, and Renan, the great French critic.
Upon his return to the United States, Mr Stevenson was called to the
chair of Greek and Latin at the Pittsburgh Central High School which
position he held for four years, resigning to take up the study of law.
He entered the office of John D Schafer, was admitted to the bar one year
later, and from 1885 to 1890 spent his time equally in the practice of
law and in journalism, in the latter case on the staff of the New York
Tribune, and later a writer for the Chicago Mail, the Chronicle
Telegraph, the Times, and the Commercial Gazette, of Pittsburgh. His
connection with the Pittsburg newspapers was in the capacity of musical
and dramatic editor and special reporter on legal topics. In 1889 he
again visited Europe, this time in the study of the Spanish language and
literature, and shortly after his return was elected librarian of the
Carnegie Free Library of Allegheny, the first public, tax-supported
library founded by Mr Carnegie.
Mr Stevenson came to his position when the library had not one volume on
its shelves and with noone to help him in his task of organization, and
it now contains 50,000 volumes catalogued, and 10,000 pamphlets,
documents, and duplicates not catalogued. In 1899 he secured from Mr
Carnegie an additional gift of $25,000 for additions and improvements.
Mr Stevenson was a delegate to the international conference of librarians
held in London in 1897, is a member of the American and Keystone state
library associations, the Pennsylvania free library commission, was first
president of the West Pennsylvania library club, an honorary member of the
Western Pennsylvania historical society, and of the Deutscher Lese Verein.
Mr Stevenson is very versatile in his attainments, speaks German, French,
Italian, Spanish, and Russian fluently, reads Dutch, Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Modern Greek and Polish, with the aid of a
dictionary, and has studied Sanskrit, Gothic, Turkish, Finnish, Arabic
and Chinese. His literary work has been mostly contributions to
periodicals and local histories, and in 1899 he published a sketch, "Mr
Carnegie and his Libraries," which met with very favorable and
enthusiastic reception. In politics he is a republican and in religion a
Presbyterian. He has never married, but, as he expresses it, "is wedded
to his work."
Memoirs of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; personal and genealogical. Vol. 1
Contributed by Marta Burns.
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