In 1849 Dr. Sadosa S. Stevens, father of Judge William K. Stevens, opened a drug store in Reading, Pennsylvania, and for half a century, continued a successful business. In 1884 his son, William K. Stevens, was admitted to the bar of Berks county, and in Reading, the city of his birth, he has since practiced his profession, with the exception of two years, which he spent upon the county bench as judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Thirty-eight years have elapsed since he was admitted to the bar, the professional life of the father and son now totalling seventy-three years, 1849-1922.
The Stephens family were originally settled in Gloucestershire, England, whence they removed to Leicestershire, where Thomas Stephens, who emigrated to America, was born. Thomas Stephens and his family arrived in this country at the port of Philadelphia in June, 1777, where their son George was born August 21 of the same year, two months after the arrival of his parents. Shortly, thereafter, Thomas Stephens settled in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, where he became an important woolen manufacturer. George Stevens, who changed the spelling of the family name to Stevens, succeeded his father in business and lived to become a nonagenarian. He was an enlisted soldier in the War of 1812, and a man of strong character. In 1797 he married Margaret Clendenin and they were the parents of John C. and Thomas Jefferson Stevens, the last-named the grandfather of Judge William K. Stevens, of Reading.
Thomas Jefferson Stevens was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1800, and succeeded his father as a manufacturer of woolens. He was a man of high literary culture, a connoiseur in art, and very fond of music. He was an intimate friend of D.C. Spencer Baird, a famous scientist and long superintendent of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. He died in 1884.
Sadosa S. Stevens, son of Thomas Jefferson Stevens, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and died in Reading, Pennsylvania, April 17, 1900. After completing secular study, he began a long and successful career as a pharmacist, becoming a drug store worker at the age of fifteen. He began his business career in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, was for several years, until 1849, in a drug store in Philadelphia, then came to Reading, Pennsylvania, where in 1849 he opened a drug store under his own name, continuing until his passing, fifty-one years later. He was a member of the first Board of Health organized in Reading, and served from 1874 until 1882.
Dr. Stevens married, in 1852, Eleanora B. Kerper, daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth (Boyer) Kerper, all of Reading. Dr. and Mrs. Stevens were the parents of two children, who survived childhood: William Kerper, whose career is herein reviewed; and Bessie Kerper, who married Rev. William P. Taylor, an Episcopal clergyman.
William Kerper Stevens was born in Reading, Pennsylvania and there completed college preparatory study in the grade and high schools. He then entered Yale University, whence he was graduated А.В., class of 1883. Choosing the law as his profession, he studied under the direction of the eminent Isaac Hiester, and on November 10, 1884, was admitted to the Berks county bar. In 1887 he was admitted to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, and for several years practiced alone, then entered into partnership with Garret B. Stevens, they practicing very successfully until September 10, 1908, when Stevens & Stevens dissolved, William K. Stevens having been appointed additional law judge for Berks county, comprising the Twenty-third Judicial District of the State of Pennsylvania. The vacancy which Judge Stevens was appointed to fill expired January 1, 1910, when he retired from the bench and resumed practice at the bar, his office at No. 536 Washington street, Reading, Pennsylvania. As a lawyer he has always borne high rank, his experience as a jurist, although limited to a period of two years, proved his learning, sound judgment, and fairness to be fully equal to the place he was unexpectedly called upon to fill.
In the business world Judge Stevens holds an important position. He aided in organizing the Reading National Bank in 1893, performed the same offices for the Berks County Trust Company in 1900, and the American Casualty Company in 1903. He resigned as a director upon accepting the judicial position in 1908, but upon returning to private practice, became, as at present, director and counsel of the Reading National Bank, and since April, 1918, has been president of the People's Trust Company of Wyomissing, Pennsylvania. He was formerly a member of the board of trustees of the Keystone Normal School; is president of the board of trustees of St. Joseph's Hospital, Reading; member of the board of trustees of the Reading Public Library; and was a member of the Commission on Constitutional Amendment and Revision for the State of Pennsylvania.
In politics Judge Stevens is a Republican of lifetime standing. Upon coming to the bar he identified himself with that party, becoming an active worker and popular speaker. He was appointed solicitor to the school board in 1892-1894, inclusive; elected city solicitor in 1895; was chairman of the county committee several years; and a member of the State Central Committee. In 1901 he was the nominee of his party for Congress from the Reading District, and upon the death of Judge Ermentrout in 1908, he was appointed to fill the vacancy this caused as judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Berks county, comprising the Twenty- third Pennsylvania Judicial District. Upon the expiration of his term, January 1, 1910, Judge Stevens resumed the practice of law in Reading, and so continues.
Judge Stevens is a member of the Wyomissing and Berkshire County clubs of Reading, and the University Club of Philadelphia. In religious faith, he is an Episcopalian, connected in membership with Christ Church of Reading.
Judge Stevens married, in Reading, November 23, 1887, Mary DePuy Davis, daughter of Colonel J. DePuy and Mary A. Davis. Judge and Mrs. Stevens are the parents of a son, Frederick William, born October 29, 1889.
Frank M. Eastman. Courts and Lawyers of Pennsylvania: A History, 1623-1923. New York: American Historical Society, Inc. 1922, pp. 181-183.
Contributed by: Nancy.