STEVENS, Mrs. Emily Pitt, educator and temperance worker, went to San Francisco, Cal., in 1865, and her life has been devoted to educational and temperance work on the Pacific coast. In 1865 she started an evening school for working girls, by permission of the superintendent of the city schools. The night school was popular and successful. During the first year the number of students grew to one-hundred-fifty. Miss Pitt became the wife of A. R. Stevens in 1871, and her happiness in her domestic relations intensified her desire to aid the less fortunate. She organized the Woman's Cooperative Printing Association and edited the "Pioneer," a woman's paper produced entirely by women, on the basis of equal pay for equal work. She was aided by prominent men in placing the stock of the company, and through it she exercised great influence in advancing the cause of woman in California. Ill-health forced her to suspend the paper. She is a gifted orator, and she is known throughout California as an earnest temperance worker. She lead in the defeat of the infamous "Holland bill." which was drawn to fasten the degradation of licensed prostitution on California. She lectured for three years for the Good Templars and was for two years grand vice-templar, always maintaining a full treasury and increasing the membership. Since the organization of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union in California she has labored earnestly in that society. She has contributed to the columns of the "Bulletin," "Pharos" and "Pacific Ensign," and has served as State lecturer. She joined the prohibition party in 1882, and she led the movement, in 1888, to induce the Woman's Christian Temperance Union to endorse that party. She is a member of the Presbyterian Church, and is active in the benevolent work done in the Silver Star House, in sewing-schools and in various societies. In 1874 she instituted the Seamen's League in San Francisco, with her husband as president and herself an officer. In 1875 the old seamen's hospital was donated by Congress to carry on the work, and the institution is now firmly established. She attended the Atlanta convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, as a delegate, and is now one of the national organizers.
STEVENS, Mrs. Lillian M. N., temperance lecturer and philanthropist, born in Dover, Me., 1st March, 1844. Her father, Nathaniel Ames, was born in Cornville, Me., and was a teacher of
considerable reputation. Her mother, Nancy Fowler Parsons Ames, was of Scotch descent and a woman of strong diameter. Mrs. Stevens inherited her father's teaching ability and her mother's executive power. When a child, she loved the woods, quiet haunts, a free life and plenty of books.
She was educated in Westbrook Seminary and Foxcroft Academy, and, after leaving school, was for several years engaged in teaching in the vicinity of Portland, Me. In 1857 she became the wife of M. Stevens, of Deering, Me., who is now a wholesale grain and salt merchant in Portland. They have one child, Gertrude Mary, the wife of William Leavitt, jr., of Portland. Mrs. Stevens was among
the first who heard the call from God to the women in the crusade days of 1873-74. She helped to organize the Maine Woman's Christian Temperance Union, in 1875, and was for the first three years its treasurer, and since 1878 has been its president. She has for ten years been one of the secretaries of the National Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She is corresponding secretary for Maine
of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, treasurer of the National Woman's Council of the United States and one of the commissioners of the World's Columbian Exposition. She is one of the founders of the Temporary Home for Women and Children, near Portland, one of the trustees of the Maine Industrial School