Information Sheet

 

 

R         Stevens, James A., 1859-1897.

192                  Journal, 1878-1884.

                                    One folder, photocopies.

 

 

 

This is a journal of a missionary for the American Sunday School Union in southeast­ern Mis­souri.  Stevens promoted and organized Sunday school classes in Butler, Madison, St. Fran­cois, and Wayne counties from a base in Fredericktown.

 

James A. Stevens was born in Warwickshire, England, on Christmas Day, 1859.  His family moved to the United States soon after the Civil War, and by 1878 were established in Edina, Knox County, Missouri.  Several months after marrying Margaret Herriott of Knox County in 1881, Ste­vens was persuaded to become a missionary for the American Sunday School Un­ion.  The Un­ion was a church-planting, home mission group founded at Philadelphia in 1817.  It is still active today as the American Missionary Fellowship.  Stevens was accepted by the Union and spent several years in southeastern Missouri pursuing its work.  After leaving the mission field, Stevens moved his family to Rolla, where he operated a photographic studio.  He died of a cerebral hem­orrhage in 1897 at Rolla.

 

Stevens’s journal begins with a few entries for 1878 which note events on the family farm at Edina.  There are no further entries until his marriage to Maggie Herriott on 6 Febru­ary 1881.  Regular entries follow thereafter through March 1884, then sporadic notes through November 1884.

 

Most of the entries in the journal are short, generally concerning his travels for the Union.  Most of his time seems to have been spent seeking out “destitute parts” in which to plant Sunday schools.  Usually he would arrive days in advance at a rural school or church, leaving “appoint­ments” which announced his speaking at a later date.  He had his best results in Madison and Wayne counties, where he established flourishing schools at Mine La Motte, Syenite, Patter­son, Gads Hill, and Williamsville.  Newspaper clippings, tipped-in at the front and rear of the journal, provide annual summaries of the work.

 

 

r215                       5 April 1984                         Lucile C. Kauffman                             Loaned for photocopying

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