Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside.

Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery.

Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he found himself pulled into politics. He became a member of the state legislature. His anti-slavery and anti-Masonic views were not always the easiest road for Stevens to travel. In 1842, Stevens moved to Lancaster where he continued to practice law.

Stevens death notice as it appeared in the Daily Evening Express, Lancaster, PA.

Stevens died in Washington DC on 11 August 1868. He is buried at Shriener's Cemetery in Lancaster. He chose that particular cemetery since it did not discriminate among the races, as the public cemeteries in Lancaster did at that time. He left this burial lot as a place in the City for those who could not afford a place to be properly buried. His estate also founded an orphanage for children regardless of race.

Photo:
(Death Notice) Daily Evening Express (Lancaster, Pennsylvania) · 14 Aug 1868

(Portrait) Mathew Brady - Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Brady-Handy Photograph Collection, Public Domain.


Sources:
Ancestry.com. Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016.

Ancestry.com. Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mennonite Vital Records, 1750-2014 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.

Ancestry.com. Vermont, Vital Records, 1720-1908 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013.

(c) 2020, Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman