Adlai Ewing Stevenson

Stevenson was born in Christian County, Ky., October 23, 1835, and moved with his parents to Bloomington, Illinois, in 1852. In 1856, Stevenson enrolled at Centre College as a sophomore. His father's death in 1857 forced Stevenson to leave Centre and return home to Illinois to help with the family business. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1858, and began practice in Metamora, Woodford County, Illinois. Stevenson then began a career of public offices: master in chancery 1860-1864; presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1864; district attorney 1865-1868; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1875-March 3, 1877); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress; elected to the Forty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1879-March 3, 1881); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1880 to the Forty-seventh Congress; First Assistant Postmaster General 1885-1889; elected Vice President of the United States on the Democratic ticket headed by Grover Cleveland in 1892; was inaugurated March 4, 1893, and served until March 3, 1897; was an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for Vice President of the United States in 1900. Following his unsuccessful bid for governor of Illinois in 1908, Stevenson retired from public and political activities. Stevenson died on June 14, 1914.

In 1866 Stevenson married Letitia Green, whom he had met while a student at Centre. Letitia's father, Rev. Lewis Warner Green, president of the college, had not agreed to the marriage at that time, but following his death, Letitia and her mother had moved to Bloomington. Adlai and Letitia had three daughters and a son, Lewis G. Stevenson. Letitia helped establish the Daughters of the American Revolution as a way of healing the divisions between the North and South after the Civil War, and succeeded the wife of Benjamin Harrison as the DAR's second president-general.