©2003 Brigham Young University. All rights reserved.
This collection was donated to the L. Tom Perry Special Collections in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University by R. Stanley Hall, a relative of the Stevens family, in December of 1997.
This collection is open to the public.
It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.
Permission to publish material from the Missionary Journal (1896-1898) and Family Newsletter (1978) of Edward F. Stevens (1874-1944) must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.
Edward Franklin Stevens was born on 14 November 1874, in Holden, Millard County, Utah, the first son of Edward Stevens and Mettie Johanna Stephenson. As a child, he went to school and was known as something of a cowboy. He attended Brigham Young Academy in Provo, Utah, registered in the School of Business. His cousin, David, described him as being very bashful around girls, and he did not mix well with them while in Provo. Despite this shyness, however, he quickly became interested in a girl from Scipio, named Emma Maud(e) Robins, who often came to Holden to visit her uncle who lived there.
Edward left Utah on 25 June 1895 to serve in the Southern States Mission (for the LDS Church), which included Alabama and Mississippi, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was one of the first younger men to be called to serve a mission, as most missionaries had previously been older men. He served for 38 months. Soon after he returned home to Utah, he married Emma Robins, who had waited for him while he served his mission. They were married in the LDS Salt Lake Temple on 14 September 1898. Together they had eight children.
Edward took a position teaching school in Holden with a salary of $45 a month. During the summers he farmed with his father, and in 1915, his father divided his farm land among his three sons and Edward received the southern portion of Whitebush Farm. He also served as Justice of the Peace for several years, as well as president of the first town board of Holden, along with many other positions within the town.
Edward’s health began to fail him when he contracted a severe disease that affected the Whitebush cattle herd in the winter of 1943-44. Edward Stevens died on 27 April 1944.
This collection consists of three folders, the journal of Edward F. Stevens, who served as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), a photocopy of the journal, and a copy of the Stevens’s family newsletter. The newsletter has a descriptive biographical sketch of Edward F. Stevens.