My Genealogy Hound

Frank J. Stevens, the present postmaster of Cromwell and a prominent and influential citizen of Union county, wherein he has resided since 1882, is a native of Vermont. He was born December 31, 1851, a son of Joshua Stevens, a leading farmer of the Green Mountain state who was also prominent in political circles and wielded a wide influence in support of the republican party. He served for several years in the state legislature and suffered a stroke of paralysis while in the senate chamber at Montpelier. From this he never recovered and died at the age of fifty-six years. However, he left the impress of his individuality for good upon the public life and legislative history of the state and was a successful man when judged by the standard that he is most successful who does most for the world, not gets the most from it. In Vermont he was married to Abbie Walker, also a native of that state, and they were the parents of six children. One of the sons, John Stevens, is a prominent lawyer of Peoria, Illinois.

Frank J. Stevens, the youngest of the family, acquired an academic education at Peacham, Vermont, and at the age of seventeen years made his way westward to Illinois, finding employment in a drug store in Peoria, where he remained for a year. On the expiration of that period he went to Bureau county, Illinois, where he taught school for five years.

In that county, in 1873, Mr. Stevens was married to Loretta Munson, a native of Luzerne county, Pennsylvania, and a daughter of Walter Munson, a pioneer of Bureau county, Illinois, living near Buda. Following his marriage Mr. Stevens purchased eighty acres of land in Bureau county, developing and improving the tract, upon which he lived until 1882, when he sold his Illinois farm and came to Creston, Iowa. Soon after he invested in one hundred and sixty acres of land in Spaulding township, which he improved and made his home until 1895, when he sold that property and removed to Cromwell. He has since been engaged in buying, improving and trading farms and is well known as a representative of that department of business. He also has a nice residence property in Cromwell and a five-acre tract of land adjoining the town. In 1905 he was appointed postmaster of Cromwell and has held other local offices. He is, moreover, a director and stockholder in the Cromwell Savings Bank, with which he has thus been connected since its organization.

Unto Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have been born four children but they lost their eldest son, Harry, in 1894, when he was seventeen years of age. Abbie has been a school teacher for several years and makes her home with her parents. Zoa is assistant postmaster and Thad is at home. The parents and children are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, in which Mr. Stevens is a trustee, while in the Sunday school he is a most earnest, active and helpful worker. His political allegiance has always been given to the republican party where state and national questions are involved while at local elections he casts an independent ballot. He has been township trustee in Douglas township and also in Union township, Adams county, where he also farmed for several years. He has likewise been a delegate to several county conventions and is one of the prominent and influential representatives of the party in this section of the state. He is widely known both in Union and in Adams counties as a man of integrity and worth whose friends are legion.