Reverend Almon Odell Stevens
(1868-1938)
Almon Odell Stevens
(1868–1938)
Served the Church as Assistant Pastor from May 19, 1921 until June 18, 1923 when, at the death of Dr. Briggs, he became pastor. until July 1925.
Biographical Sketch
Acknowledgement: All photographs were generously provided by Ginny Gordon Miller, a descendant of Almon's father's brother, Charles.
Reverend Almon Odell Stevens (1868-1938) was the assistant who became pastor on Dr. Briggs’ death on June 18, 1923. His degrees included AB, AM, and BD.
Almon was born in Clifford, Susquehanna, PA on April 21, 1868, to Charles H. and Maria Licey Stevens. His siblings included Rosabell, Anna Estell and Ralph Henry.
Almon graduated from Keystone Academy in 1887. He attended Cozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania during 1891–1892 and the University of Chicago during 1892–1893. He received his AB at Bucknell in 1894. At Bucknell, he was awarded Second Herbert Tustin Prize, “...two prizes, in the proportion of fifteen dollars for the First Prize, and of ten dollars for the Second Prize, to the two students of the Senior Class who shall have attained the highest and the second highest standing in Psychology and Ethics (under such regulations for the pursuit of these studies as the Faculty of the College shall prescribe from time to time), and whose conduct for the last two years of their course in College shall have been without exception." He was also a member of the Bucknell Pioneer Tennis club in 1891.
In 1894, he also received a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Chicago. He was ordained July 24, 1894, in Algona, Iowa, where he served as pastor 1894–95. His next church, 1896–97, was Rochester, Minnesota; there he united with the Congregational Church. His remaining churches were Oakland, CA, 1897–99; Pontiac, MI, 1899–1904; Anamosa, Iowa, 1905–06; Elkhorn, WI, 1906–13; Beloit, WI, 1914–23. Other pastorates were in Austin, TX and Kentucky.
He married Laura B. Waters in Columbia, Boone County, MO, on May 6, 1896. Laura was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her parents were William T. Waters (b. Boone County, MO) and Emarintha Willis (born Spottsylvania County, VA) Almon and his wife, Laura (1867–1948), had four children, daughter Lucia C. Pelikan of Chicago (1901–75) and sons, Theophilus, Ralph Waters of New York, (1897–1935) and John M., of Austin, TX, (1904–29). A wedding announcement from the Algona Upper Des Moines newspaper(Algona, Iowa), May 20, 1896, is shown at right.
In 1919, Reverend Stevens, along with 15,000 other Protestant ministers and Catholic priests signed a petition for the independence of Integral Armenia. The petition, seen below, was submitted to President Woodrow Wilson.
The Bucknell Alumni Monthly in October 1920 says,
"1894 Graduate,
The Rev. Almon O. Stevens, who is a Congregational pastor in Beloit, Wis., is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Congregational Conference."
He resigned from Austin church on July 1, 1924 because of ill health. Apparently, his health improved, as he served a church in Stearns, KY in 1930. Rev. Stevens and his wife wrote poetry; below are examples of their poems which won prizes in Beloit.
Rev. Stevens died at the age of 70 on July 30, 1938, in Clifford, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the Clifford Cemetery. Laura died in Jefferson, KY, December 11, 1948, at the Masonic Widows and Orphans Home.
Many thanks to Linda Willis for sharing her information about the Stevens family.
Keystone Academy where Rev. Stevens attended.
Below is a last sermon preached by Rev. A. O. Stevens from pulpit of first church on Nineth and Colorado Street. This sermon was on February 25, 1923 and reported the next day in newspaper.
People mentioned in article: John Hardeman and Mary Frances Caldwell Pope. John Hardaman Pope (1827–1903): Birth Oglethorpe, Georgia, Death Austin, Travis, Texas, Mary Frances Pope (1838-1918) Birth Bastrop, Texas. Mary Frances' brother-in-law was architect Arthur Osborne Watson who designed the new church.The Pope's were farmers. They are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, TX.
POEMS BY REVEREND ALMON O. and LAURA STEVENS
The Pilgrims
by Rev. A. O. Stevens
December 21, 1920, The Beloit Daily News
Beloit, Wisconsin
First Prize Poem
Their dear English homeland they left,
The land of their love and their pride;
The land of the thatched-roof cottage,
And rose-garden smiling beside;
The land of the deep English grasses,
And sweet-smelling violets blue;
The land where their fathers were sleeping
Under the shade of the yew.
Over the pitiless seas they came,
Sailing an uncharted way.
And black was the wave, and black the sky,
And cold the salt sea spray.
And frail was their bark, and close its walls,
Like the narrow house of death.
And the storm came down with its fury unleashed,
And chilled with its icy breath.
Hither they came, and moored their bark,
But ’twas not in a haven of peace.
They found not a land of flowers and fruit
And birds and leafy trees;
But a land of want and hunger and cold,
And forests white with snow
Where the panther crept and the savage stalked,
And Winter and Fever and Famine walked,
And the graves on the lonely hill-side told
Their tale of bitter woe.
And here they stood, and yielded not
To fever and famine and want;
They had made the venture and pledged their all;
Their spirits had answered the heavenly call;
And nothing their hearts could daunt;
When the sails, were set, and the anchor weighed,
And homeward the Mayflower sped,
Not a Pilgrim sire, nor a Pilgrim dame,
Nor a Pilgrim lad, nor a Pilgrim maid
Recalled the vows they had said.
Pilgrims were they, and Pilgrims shall be,
Ever in quest of truth,
Ever sailing an uncharted sea
In the courage and hope of youth;
Ever traveling an untried way
Which leads to an untrod shore;
Ever hearing the voice of Him
Whose Spirit has gone before;
Strong in the sense that God is their guide,
And truth their beacon light;
Venturing boldly into the deep
Of God and Truth and Right.
Plymouth
by Mrs. A. O. “Laura” Stevens
December 21, 1920, The Beloit Daily News
Beloit, Wisconsin
Third Prize Poem
Thrice blessed spot! quaint little town,
No spot more sacred since
Bethlehem of old cradled our Lord.
Thy kindly circling arm
Gave refuge to the tiny bark
Long tossed on angry seas.
Thy rock-bound coasts
Became an altar where the heroic band
Praised God for voyage ended
And new life begun.
Thy purling streams sang tender songs of welcome;
Thy deep dark forest added deeper tone.
Thou bidst the dusky savage spare
This fairer band, bearing aloft
The sacred fires to altars yet unkindled.
The stubborn soil, coax’d by thy hand,
Yielded the yellow maize,
Driving gaunt Famine back to his forest lair.
Thou bidst the starry hosts of Heaven
Keep solemn watch o’er lonely burial mound;
Invoked High God stay the hand of pestilence
And spare the precious remnant.
Three hundred cycles old, their mission still fulfilling,
Plymouth, to Thee the eyes of all the earth are turned.
The birthday of our Lord draws near;
No star in all the cloudy firmament
Guides to the manger babe.
The strife goes on; man grips the throat of brother;
A thousand voices bold prolong the warfare’s din.
Be thou the star! Illume the pathway dark!
And guide the weary, stumbling world back to the feet of God!