OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator. Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This material can not be included in any compilation, publication, collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ===================================================================== JUDGE W. C. STEVENS Vol. 3, p. 1230-1231 Judge W. C. Stevens was one of the pioneer settlers in the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma, and has been one of the leading lawyers in the western section of the state for twenty years or more. His home was in Kingfisher County until the opening of the Southwestern reservations in 1901, and now for nearly fifteen years he has been in active practice at Lawton. He has the distinction of having served as the first county attorney of Comanche County, from August, 1901, the date of the opening, until January, 1903. Governor Jenkins appointed him at that office. Walter C. Stevens was born at Lewiston, Maine, August 25, 1868. His father, C. P. Stevens, who is now engaged in the practice of law at Benicia, California, was born near Lewiston, Maine, in 1844, and in 1861, at the age of seventeen entered the Union army and saw four years of active service. He was with Company E of the Fifth Maine Volunteer Infantry. The chief incident of his career as a soldier came in the battle of Winchester, when he was thrice wounded in one day. He was struck in the head, on the leg, and his left arm was broken. All his service was in the Army of the Potomac. After the close of the war, and still only a young man in years, he lived in his native state for a time, and in 1869 became a settler on a farm in Iowa, and in 1871 moved to Beloit in Mitchell County, Kansas. After farming for some years he studied law and was a practicing attorney at Beloit, Kansas, for a number of years. In 1894 he moved out to Benicia, California, and is still engaged in practice in that city. He is a republican in politics and has long been active in church work, and a member of the Baptist Church. C. P. Stevens married Celeste SMALL, who was born at Lewiston, Maine, in 1851, and died at Benicia, California, in 1902. Judge Stevens is the first of their two children, and his sister is Sarah, wife of Walter Z. BANKIN, a merchant at Benicia, California. Judge Stevens spent his early youth chiefly at Beloit, Kansas, where he attended the public schools, graduating from high school with the class of 1884. In 1886 he graduated LL. B. from the Kansas State University, and was admitted to the bar at Lawrence on June 3 of that year. From his admission to the bar until 1893 he was in practice at Beloit, and then located in the newly opened Cherokee strip at Hennessey in Kingfisher County. He served as city attorney of Hennessey four years, and for two years was judge of probate of Kingfisher County. From that district he was also twice elected a member of the Territorial House of Representatives, serving four years, during the sessions of 1899-1900, and 1901-10, During his first term he was chairman of the judiciary committee, and a member of the committee on elections of others. In 1901-02 he was honored by election as speaker of the house. His record while a member of the Legislature is one of importance. He amended and prepared the codification of the Oklahoma Election Laws in 1899, and they remained on the statute books with little change until Oklahoma came into the Union. Judge Stevens was also author of the Cushion Monument Bill, providing a monument at Hennessey in Kingfisher County in honor of Roy CASHION, who was the first Oklahoma volunteer to be killed in the Spanish-American war. Roy enlisted from Hennessey, and the monument in his honor stand in that town. In August, 1901, Judge Stevens removed to Lawton, and has since looked after a large civil and criminal practice, with offices in the First National Bank Building. He is a member of the county and state bar association, and has always been a active republican. Curing his residence in Beloit, Kansas, he served two term as police judge. Fraternally Judge Stevens is a past noble grand of the Beloit Lodge of the Independent Order of Old Fellows and past chief patriarch of the Encampment of the same order; and is a member of the Lawton Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America and of the lodge of the Benevolent and protective order of Elks. He also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce. On September 11, 1889, at Beloit, Judge Stevens married Miss Alice E. CASLEY. Her father, the late Paul Casley, was for many years in the United States mail service, with headquarters at Beloit. Judge Stevens' only daughter, Laverne, is a graduate of the Lawton High School and the Ziegfeld College of Music at Chicago and is now the wife of Fred G. TROSPER, who has a fine dairy farm five miles west of Lawton. The Stevens family has been identified with New England for many generations, having lived originally in Massachusetts prior to the Revolutionary war, after which they removed to the State of Maine. Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, October 17, 1998.