James I. Stephenson
James I. Stephenson, president of the Cincinnati Iron and Steel Company, whose plant is located at Front street and Freeman avenue, is one of the best known among the younger iron and steel men of the city. He was born at Piqua, Ohio, July 11, 1874, a son of Rev. James Stephenson, for many years a prominent minister of the Methodist Episcopal church. The father of our subject was one of the founders of the first Methodist church of Avondale and was its first pastor and also served as pastor at Walnut Hills. He continued laboring in behalf of the cause to which he devoted his best energies until the very close of his life, dropping dead in his pulpit at Springfield, Ohio, in 1897, at the age of sixty-five years. He was a man off fine oratorical powers, of great determination and energy, and one who sincerely believed what he preached, thus carrying conviction to his hearers and influencing many lives for good.
James I. Stephenson spent his boyhood days in various towns and cities of Ohio where his father was called to preach. At the age of fourteen, impelled by the restless spirit of youth, he ran away from home and came to Cincinnati and secured employment as office boy under W. B. Shattuc, who was then general passenger agent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, now the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. He continued in the employ of the railway company for about five years and also studied diligently to improve himself for business life. His next employment was with the Carnegie Steel Company’s district office in Cincinnati as stenographer. He discharged his duties so acceptably that he was promoted until he became assistant manager of sales for the Cincinnati district. In the fall of 1904 he resigned to become vice president of the Cincinnati Iron and Steel Company, also having charge of its sales department. After the death of E. H. Busch, president of the company in October, 1910, Mr. Stephenson was elected to fill the vacancy, the other officers being: H. C. Busch, vice president; and James A. Sebastiani, secretary and treasurer. The company was organized in November 1900, by E. H. Busch and James A. Sebastiani and others, with a capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars. It is now capitalized at three hundred thousand dollars and has become one of the leading organizations of the kind in this part of the country. The house does an extensive iron and steel jobbing business, a large iron and steel brokerage business and is largely engaged in the manufacture of machine tools, employment being furnished to from fifty to sixty men. Mr. Stephenson is also vice president of the Nugget Tool Company of Cincinnati and president of the Cincinnati metal Products Company.
In 1899 Mr. Stephenson was married to Miss Artemesia M. Spence, of Knoxville, Tennessee, and they occupy a beautiful home at No 687 South Crescent avenue, Avondale. Enterprising and energetic in business, Mr. Stephenson has gained a reputation as a safe and progressive manager whose future gives promise of many years of increasing responsibility. In every sense of the word a gentleman, he possesses the confidence of his associates and the respect of a constantly widening circle of friends and acquaintances.
From Cincinnati, The Queen City, Volume III, by Rev. Charles Frederic Goss, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912