William E. Stevenson

William Erskine Stevenson (born March 18, 1820 in Warren , Warren County , Pennsylvania , † November 29, 1883 in Parkersburg , West Virginia ) was an American politician and from 1869 to 1871 the third governor of the state of West Virginia.

Early years and political advancement

Stevenson grew up in Pennsylvania and was elected to the House of Representatives there in 1856 . After buying a farm in Wood County , Virginia , he moved there. Stevenson was an opponent of slavery and a supporter of the Republican Party . In May 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican National Convention , where Abraham Lincoln was nominated as a candidate for president. In Virginia, meanwhile, he was considered a traitor and was wanted with an arrest warrant. In the following years he was involved in the political processes in connection with the separation or establishment of the state of West Virginia. In 1861 he was a delegate to the new state's Constituent Assembly and served in the West Virginia Senate from 1863 to 1868 . In 1868 he was elected as the new governor of the state as a Republican.

West Virginia Governor

Stevenson began his two-year term on March 4, 1869. During this time he campaigned for better care for the civil war victims and their families. Governor Stevenson also supported the claim of the black population to equal schooling and promoted the expansion of infrastructure and industry. He supported immigration to West Virginia and lifted Governor Arthur I. Boreman’s ban on former members of the Confederation on the right to vote. This was exactly what was to cost him his re-election in 1870. This group consisted largely of the supporters of the Democratic Party ; they therefore voted out Stevenson. No Republican would become governor of West Virginia until 1896.

Another résumé

After his tenure in March 1871, he was co-editor of a newspaper called "Parkersburg State Journal". He was also the head of the West Virginia Oil Land Company . William Stevenson died in 1883. He was married to Sara Clothworthy, with whom he had two children.

Web links

• William E. Stevenson in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of West Virginia (English)
• William E. Stevenson in the database of Find a Grave (English)