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Essay Biography of Edwin Stephenson

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The life of Edwin Stephenson could be considered pretty typical to a person who lived from the late 1800’s to the mid 1900’s. During the 57 years that Stephenson lived, from 1887 to 1945, he would have lived through some of the most important events in United States history. A few of these events include World War 1, World War2, and the Great Depression. So a typical life of someone who lived during this time period would be very eventful and different from someone who lived during another time period in history. Edwin Stephenson was born on October 8, 1887, and according to death records I found on familysearch.org, he was born in Stromsburg, Nebraska, to two Swedish immigrants Caroline and Charles Stephenson (church). This …show more content…

I did in fact find a little bit of information on his entrance into the military. I again used familysearch.org to find Stephenson’s World War 1 draft registration. Edwin was 29 at the time that he registered for the draft. He was still living in Galva, Illinois and he was employed as an agent for Express Co., according to his death records, this was a company that collected taxes. He was single at the time and listed his mother as his only dependent (church). So at this time, Edwin was a full grown, 29 year old man, with what appears to be a decent job. This is would be a part of his life that would not be considered typical. Although World War I’s selective service act recruited millions of men, it is not very typical to be involved in such a historically significant war, or any war for that matter. I’m sure that Stephenson was affected by this war from the time he signed that draft registration card, all the way up until the time of his death. After the war in Europe was over and Stephenson was sent home, Stephenson would have to face the hardships of coming home and getting his job back at Express Co. Anyone who has taken a history class covering the early 1900’s knows women and minorities were given the opportunity to fill the jobs, the men who were drafted, had to leave when they were sent to fight in the war, and when the men returned home from the war, the women and

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