WILLIAM MARSHALL STEVENSON, librarian of the Carnegie free library, of Allegheny, was born in Johnston, Pa., November 30, 1855. He is of Scoth-Irish ancestry, and can trace his family history back to Robert Stevenson, who emigrated from Scotland to ireland in 1677, and was a very prominent man in his day. He is the son of Ross and Martha Ann (Harbison) Stevenson, the father born in Strabane, Ireland, Nov. 12, 1814, and died in Washington, Pa., Jan. 18, 1893, and the mother born at West Lebanon, Pa., in 1831, and is still living. The family consisted of six sons and one daughter: Lizzie Hurst, now Mrs. Jerome W. Potts; Matthew Harbison, a practicing attorney of the Pittsburg bar; Thomas John, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, Hannibal, Mo.; Robert Francis, a prominent business man of Washington, Pa.; Joseph Ross, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian church, New York city; Henry Patterson, who died May, 1892, and William Marshall, the subject of this sketch. Mr. Stevenson was graduated with honors from Washington and Jefferson college in 1876, having acted as tutor in mathematics in his alma mater during his senior year. For two years after his graduation he was instructor in ancient and modern languages in the Placerville academy, California, and for the next two years studied music and languages at the leading institutions of the continent, chiefly at the University of Leipsic, the conservatory of at Dresdan, and at the College de France, Paris. While there he was under the instruction of some noted scholars, among them being Breal, the philologist, and Renan, the great French critic. Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Stevenson was called to the chair of Greek and Latin in the Pittsburgh central high school, which position he held for four years, resigning to take up study of law. He entered the office of John D. Schaefer, was admitted to the bar one year later, and from 1885 to 1890 spent his time equally in the practice of law and journalism, in the latter case on the staff of the New York Tribune, and later, a writer for the Chicago Mail, the Chronicle Telegraph, the Times, and the Commercial Gazette, of Pittsburg. His connection with the Pittsburg newspapers was in the capacity of musical and dramatic editor and special reported on legal topics. In 1889 he again visited Europe, this time in the study of the Spanish language and literature, and shortly after his return, was elected librarian of the Carnegie free library, of Allegheny, the first public, tax-supported library founded by Mr. Carnegie. Mr. Stevenson came to his position when the library had not one volume on its shelves, with no one to help him in his task of organization, and now it contains 50,000 volumes catalogued and 10,000 pamphlets, documents and duplicates not catalogued. In 1899 he secured from Mr. Carnegie an additional gift of $25,000 for additions and improvements. Mr. Stevenson was a delegate to the international conference of librarians held in London in 1897, is a member of the American and Keystone state library commission, was first president of the West Pennsylvania library club, and honorary member of the Western Pennsylvania historical society and of the Deutscher Lese Verein. Mr. Stevenson is very versatile in his attainments, speaks German, French, Italian, Spanish and Russian fluently, reads Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Portuguese, modern Greek and Polish, with the aid of a dictionary, and has studied Sanskrit, Gothic, Turkish, Finnish, Arabic and Chinese. His literary work has been mostly contributions to periodicals and local histories, and in 1899 he published a sketch, "Mr. Carnegie and His Libraries," which me with very favorable and enthusiastic reception. In politics he is a republican, and in religion a Presbyterian. He has never married, but, as he expresses it, "is wedded to his work."

Memoirs of Allegheny County
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