Samuel Cottingham Stevenson

There was no man to whom the success of Canadian expositions and exhibitions was more largely attributable than to Samuel C. Stevenson, who as a commissioner, represented his province and country in connection with a number of leading affairs of this kind on the continent. He was born in Montreal in 1848 and came of Scotch ancestry, being a son of James Stevenson, a native of Scotland, who after his arrival in Canada was identified with shipping interests, owning a number of boats. His wife was, in her maidenhood, Miss Elizabeth Cottingham.

Their son, Samuel C. Stevenson, pursued a high-school course and in 1872 was granted his Bachelor of Arts degree at McGill. He was assistant secretary to the first large provincial exhibition and was identified with all the expositions of the province from that time until his death. When the first one was held at Mile End, he was given entire charge of the industrial department. In 1876 he was appointed a commissioner of the province of Quebec to the great Centennial Exposition held in Philadelphia and in 1877 when a permanent exposition committee was appointed for the province, he was made its secretary for the industrial department and held that position until the organization of the Montreal Exposition Company in 1889. He was chief organizer and manager of all the important expositions that were held in Montreal from 1886 until his demise and he represented the Canadian interests as commissioner for the province of Quebec at the Colonial and Industrial Exhibition in London, in 1886. In 1892 he was appointed a member and secretary of the provincial commission in connection with the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and was secretary of the council of arts and manufacture of the province of Quebec. His long experience enabled him to know adequately just what was most attractive for exhibition purposes and how to assemble such, and the success of Canada’s exhibits, both provincial and at the international expositions in the United States, was due in large measure to his efforts. He was a corresponding member of the Industrial Education Association of New York and a director of the Great Northern Railway of Canada.

Mr. Stevenson’s military experience began in his youth. When a boy he belonged to the High School Cadets and afterward joined the Victoria Rifles, going to the front with his regiment at the time of the Fenian raid of 1866. Later he received a commission in the Prince of Wales regiment and was a subaltern in the company of that corps which was sent to the relief of the force that engaged the Fenians at Eccles Hill. He remained in the corps until 1881, when he retired with the rank of major. Mr. Stevenson’s interests and activities aside from those already indicated were manifest from his membership in the Art Association and in the Crescent Street church.

At Saugerties, New York, in 1878 Mr. Stevenson was married to Mrs. Gertrude (Caldwell) Bennett, a representative of a southern family, that lived in Virginia until the time of the Civil war and then removed to New York. Mr. and Mrs. Stevenson had three children: James Corliss; Elizabeth Lois, the wife of Herbert Yuile; and Gladys Arnold, the wife of J. Hal Pangman.

Such is the record of Samuel C. Stevenson, who passed away January 2, 1898. As a public-spirited citizen he was widely known. None questioned his fidelity. He responded to every appeal when it was needed for the benefit of the general good; to build up rather than to destroy was his policy and he attacked everything with a contagious enthusiasm.