Biography:
Captain John Stevenson

Capt. John Stevenson, the man who selected the first car ferry to be used at the Straits of Mackinac, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1854. At the age of 12, he went to work as a blacksmith's helper while attending school. A bright youngster, he soon found himself teaching the younger grades, while he continued his studies in more advanced courses. In 1870, his uncle, William "Sailor Bill" Livingston, invited him to come to Detroit, where Livingston operated a freight forwarding business from the foot of Randolph Street.

Stevenson joined the firm as a clerk in 1871, when he was 17, yet continued studies at a local business college. In April, 1880, he married Helen Downie of Detroit, in a ceremony in his Uncle's home. The marriage would last more than 50 years, during which the couple would rear one daughter.

In 1882, when his uncle was appointed Detroit's Collector of Customs, Stevenson was given charge of the forwarding business. Under "Capt. John" as he came to be called, it grew to represent as many as 56 steamships. Stevenson also began to operate boats of his own between Detroit and Chatham and other Canadian ports, and for awhile ran the little Hattie between Randolph Street and Wolf's resort, a popular dining and entertainment destination above Belle Isle in Canada. He led the company until 1920 when the property lease was sold to the city for an extension of a power plant. By then, automobiles had begun to take business away from steamboats, so Capt. John opened a garage to serve auto owners on Jefferson Street, in the area known as Indian Village, just a stone's throw from the river.

But Stevenson wasn't only a businessman. He was also a wellrespected Republican politician. First elected to the State Legislature in 1909, the year Michigan adopted its new constitution, he had served in Lansing for six terms, and had become an influential member of that body. So his name was well known to politicians in Lansing in 1923, when the state entered the ferryboat business. With his experience in shipping and politics, he was the logical choice to take the reins of Michigan's fledgling ferry operation.

But Stevenson's fate was not at the Straits. He sold his garage in 1924 and resigned from the State Ferry command to enter the Detroit Common Council, a race he'd won after his friends entered his name, allegedly without his knowledge. Three years later, he would become Detroit's legislative agent back in Lansing. He also served four terms as a member of the Wayne County Board of Supervisors, made an unsuccessful attempt to be County Treasurer, and served on numerous boards, committees and commissions. As a politician, he was proud of his record of never missing a day of work, or being overly late for any of the many meetings for which he was scheduled

Stevenson lived until the age of 82. He died following a brief illness and surgery in January, 1937.