Soon after leaving college Mr. Stevens came to Peoria, where he engaged in teaching for a couple of years--for the first year in the grammar school and the next in the Peoria High School--when he carried out a purpose, entertained in his college days, by entering upon the study of law, in the office of Alexander McCoy, a prominent attorney of that period. In June 1862, Mr. Stevens was admitted to the bar, and immediately entered into partnership with his preceptor, which was continued with various changes to its membership until 1870, when Mr. McCoy removed to Chicago. Others who were associated with the firm during this period were Judge Marion Williamson and Lorin G. Pratt.

On the dissolution of the firm of McCoy & Stevens in 1870, Mr. Stevens formed a partnership with Judge David McCulloch, which lasted until 1876, when without solicitation or agency on his part, the office of Postmaster of the city of Peoria was tendered to him, under the administration of President Grant, and accepted. During the next four years he gave his attention to the duties of this office, though not entirely withdrawing from the practice of his profession, as, during 186 he entered into partnership with the late Senator John S. Lee. Patrick W. Gallagher was also for a time a member of the firm. Walter S. Horton later became a partner in the firm, which took the name of Stevens, Lee & Horton. This firm continued until the death of Mr. Lee, and soon thereafter, by the admission of William T. Abbott, it became Stevens, Horton & Abbot, as it exists at the present time.

In June, 1868, Mr. Stevens was united in marriage with Miss Sarah M. Bartlett, a native of Peoria and daughter of the late Aaron P. Bartlett, who was, in his day, a prominent merchant and public-spirited citizen, as well as founder of one of the more highly respected families of Peoria. Mr. and Mrs. Stevens have had two children, both of whom died while quite young.

The estimation in which Mr. Stevens I held by members of the legal profession throughout the State is indicated by his position at the present time (1902) as President of the Illinois State Bar Association. Although a lifelong and earnest Republican, and frequently urged to allow the use of his name as a candidate for the Legislature, or some other office, he has been in no sense a seeker for office, preferring to devote his attention to his profession. Besides one term as Postmaster of the city of Peoria, which came to him unsought, the political positions held by him have been limited chiefly in membership in local and State Conventions, and upon the Republican State Central Committee, to which he was elected for the Peoria District at the time of the Republican State Convention of 1900. Liberal, patriotic and high-minded in his connection with State and National politics, he looks rather to the honor of his party and the welfare of the whole people than to selfish promotion or advancement. With an ambition to be a lawyer in the highest and most honorable acceptation of the term, he has advanced to the front rank of the profession, and is to-day in the enjoyment of as large a practice as any member of the profession in the city of Peoria or Central Illinois, representing, this section, besides numerous business firms. The following deserved tribute to his abilities and worth as a member of the legal profession is taken from “The Bench of the Bar of Illinois,” issued a few years since under the editorship of the late ex-Gov. John M. Palmer--a politician presumed to be especially suited to furnishing a just and discriminating estimate of those with whom characteristics, as lawyers, it had to deal: “Possessed of a mind of rare keenness of perception and of great powers of analysis, and having had the advantage of a good collegiate education, Mr. Stevens took up the study of law as a profound science, rooting itself in those fundamental principles of right which ought to govern in all the affairs of men. Having laid his foundation deep, he has by constant application of these great principles been able to practice his profession with such a degree of success as to have merited and gained the confidence of all who have known him. As a citizen he is highly esteemed, and his kindly impulses and cordiality of manner have rendered him exceedingly popular among all classes.”

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