November 23, 1915 was a slow news day, so I am taking up a subject I have long been curious about -- the place called Stevensonville. It was built by and named for two men: William W Stevenson and J B Stevenson, owners of the coal mine that laid under the same location. I had been told that it was like other work towns built by business men like Henry Ford in that workers were required to shop at the company store and that the owner owned all the houses.
The building of Stevensonville started sometime around March of 1881. By May, it was announced that 36 houses had been built and that the owners intended to build 25 more before the building season was over. In 1882 the Stevenson's donated land to the YMCA for the purposes of building a Sunday School there. An article in November 1882 indicated that Stevenson was building a grocery store, which may disprove the story that employees were required to shop at the company store, since there was no store before.
In 1883 Stevensonville asked to be annexed to the city. The residents wanted to have a school and proper access to the city conveniences. The Pantagraph described the village as a rural place, in an old grove. The city resisted this request until 1885 when Stevensonville was finally annexed. Those urging annexation pointed to the inadequate access given on Front Street and the fact that the residents of Stevensonville contributed to the city economy to the tune of at least $50,000 because they shopped in the city stores. In support of this retail traffic, some of the merchants even kept Swedish clerks on staff. For indeed, most of the residents of Stevensonville were Swedish. Stevensonville laid between Grove and Oakland Streets west of the railroad tracks, where the two Swedish churches were located. There were 26 different property owners in Stevensonville, representing about $4000 in property taxes. But opponents estimated that the cost of annexing Stevensonville would cost at least $15,000 -- for building a school, improving the roads, opening up Olive street and other infrastructure and employee costs.
The population in 1885 was about 400 with about 100 schoolchildren, who a letter writer to the editor claimed were prepared quite well for entry into the city high school (entrance was by examination). There was just one grocery in the village and one church. As the letter writer said, the residents wanted "something" but not they "didn't want the earth."
Raymond School was built in 1887 on Grove Street and the people of Stevensonville finally had a modern schoolhouse.