Richard Howard Stevenson

Richard Howard Stevenson of Fair Oaks, former purchasing agent for the Southern Pacific company.

Richard who was purchasing agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad Company for seventeen years and died at Menlo Park California in 1905.

Richard Howard Stevenson is said to have been a cousin of the writer Robert Louis Stevenson (Daphne Kitchen heard this from her granny Emelie Welhaven who visited his grave in Africa; the photo is in her scrapbook) and both families were from Scotland and/or Northern Ireland. Many family members were involved in engineering, railroads, oil, and other capitalist endeavors. http://www.robert-louis-stevenson.org/other-writing/166-rocords-of-...

Richard Howard Stevenson was from Northern Ireland. He married Elisabeth "Libbie" Derby whose parents were from Northern Ireland also. There are records of Stevenson and Derby families in Northern Ireland: in Belfast, County Antrim, Ulster and also County Down, Ulster.

About Belfast: Belfast blossomed as a commercial and industrial centre in the 18th and 19th centuries and became Ireland's pre-eminent industrial city. Industries thrived, including linen, rope-making, tobacco, heavy engineering and shipbuilding, and at the end of the 19th century, Belfast briefly overtook Dublin as the largest city in Ireland. The Harland and Wolff shipyards became one of the largest shipbuilders in the world, employing up to 35,000 workers.[28] In 1886 the city suffered intense riots over the issue of home rule, which had divided the city. In 1920–22, Belfast became the capital of the new entity of Northern Ireland, UK as the island of Ireland was partitioned. The accompanying conflict (the Irish War of Independence) cost up to 500 lives in Belfast, the bloodiest sectarian strife in the city until the "Troubles" of the late 1960s onwards.[29]

The genealogy is unclear.

Could either of these be relations?

1911 census for Stevenson No 32 Matilda Street Co Antrim http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911 Head of the house is William in his 30's with a son Richard aged 12 The house has many lodgers inc an Andrew Stevenson aged 70, but not marked as a relative.

[Richard Stevenson] Richard Stevenson, Son of William Stevenson and Frances Stevenson (Lancaster) Brother of Cicely Stevenson; William Stevenson; John Stevenson; Henry Stevenson and Thomas Stevenson