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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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