1857–1939

Introduction

Born: No­vem­ber 17, 1857, An­der­son Coun­ty, South Ca­ro­li­na.

Died: De­cem­ber 27, 1939, at his home in Con­cord, South Ca­ro­li­na. Con­cord is about 30 miles from Bow­man, Georg­ia, where the song I Can­not Go Alone (for which he wrote the mu­sic) was pub­lished in 1914.

Buried: Con­cord Bap­tist Church Ce­me­te­ry, An­der­son, South Ca­ro­li­na.

Biography

William was the son of Ro­bert Ste­ven­son and Sa­li­na Kay, and hus­band of Sa­rah Eli­za Smith (mar­ried 1880).

A far­mer by oc­cu­pa­tion, Ste­ven­son is per­haps best re­mem­bered as a mu­sic teach­er, Gos­pel song com­pos­er and song lead­er. For over 25 years, he was pre­si­dent of the An­derson Coun­ty Sing­ing As­so­ci­ation one of the larg­est and old­est groups of its kind, and was oft­en re­ferred to as Pro­fess­or Ste­ven­son.

He was al­so a dea­con and song lead­er at the Con­cord Bap­tist Church.

Sources

Music

  1. I Can­not Go Alone

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Ste­ven­son (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),