Researching Henry Stephenson

Stephenson was born in Cincinnati to Reuben Henry and Louise (Wright) Stephenson. He attended Woodward High School before gaining degrees from Ohio State University, Harvard University. and Indiana University. He spent a year doing research at the British Museum.

Stephenson joined the faculty of the English Department at Indiana University in 1895. In 1898, he took some time off to get a second bachelor's degree from Harvard University. Stephenson remained with the English department at IU until his retirement in 1940. From 1919-1921, he served as Chairman of the Department. Stephenson was a charter member of the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter at IU which began in 1910. Also in 1910, he was awarded an A.M. Privitam degree, which was created in order to confer alumni status on non-alumni faculty members who had a long service record or held a high rank. Stephenson was well-known as a teacher of Shakespeare. Stephenson published a number of fiction and non-fiction books whilst teaching English.

Stephenson died in 1957 at the age of 87.

The son of Major John Stephenson of the 6th Dragoon Guards, Stephenson was born at Portobello, near Edinburgh, and lived for some early years in Ireland before being privately educated at a school in Twickenham. In 1842, he became a student at the College for Civil Engineers in Putney (Sir Guilford Molesworth was among his fellow students). With Robert Monro Christie, he founded the Putney Club in 1854, which later became the Society of Engineers, serving as its chairman in 1856 and 1859.

Stephenson's early professional work mainly involved surveys for railway routes in Ireland, dock works (he worked on the extension of Sunderland docks under John Murray), design of iron railway bridges (working for two years in partnership with William Dredge, and later with Robert King), English railway projects (he was engineer to the Ware, Hadham and Buntingford Railway), and arbitration work. From 1858 he designed and managed several town gas lighting projects in Germany and Holland, later serving on the boards of several UK and overseas gas companies. Elected an associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1853, he became a full member in 1864.

Stephenson was born in Port Sorell, Tasmania, to Margaret (née Develin) and Frederick Wilkinson Stephenson. He spent his early life in Devonport, a larger town nearby, where he worked as a carpenter and later as a produce merchant. Stephenson served on the Devonport Town Council from 1891 to 1897, when he left for Western Australia. Settling in Perth, where he had his own business, he went on to serve two terms as president of the Perth Chamber of Commerce, and was also chairman of an insurance company and a coal prospecting firm. Stephenson was elected to parliament at the 1924 Legislative Council elections, replacing Harry Boan in Metropolitan-Suburban Province. He stood for re-election in 1930, but was defeated by another Nationalist candidate, James Macfarlane. Outside of politics, Stephenson had a keen interest in horse racing, owning several successful racehorses and serving on the committee of the Western Australian Turf Club. He died in Perth in December 1930 (aged 68), after a long illness. He had married Louisa Wood in 1884, with whom he had four children.