History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with
Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious,
Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons
and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co.,
Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 964, Woodland Township
John R. Stevens, agriculturist, was born in Coshocton Co., O.,
in 1825. His father, Matthew Stevens, was born in Pa., where he
followed the occupation of tanner and farmer. Married Mary Beal, by
whom he had 9 children. John R., the 7th child, grew up in the Buckeye
State, where he received a liberal education. In 1856 Mr. Stevens
located in Woodland tp., where he purchased 91 acres of land. During
the autumn of ’63 he enlisted in the war, and as honorably discharged
at the close, returning to his old home in this tp., where he has since
resided. Their children are: Francis M., Jas., John M., Mary, Allen,
Wm. R. (deceased), Aaron and Viola J.
