Thirty-eight-year-old William Stevens died this date, April 5th, in 1848 of Hectic Fever and was buried at Bethel Burying Ground. Hectic Fever was characteristic of typhoid fever or typhus, although commonly seen in bacterial endocarditis, tuberculosis, and bacterial pneumonia.
Mr. Stevens, a waiter, was married to Lucy Stevens who worked as a laundress and was 38 years old at the time of her husband’s death. She was born in Delaware, according to the 1847 Philadelphia African American Census. They had three children. William was 16 in 1848 and was born in Delaware. While Emma (10) and Faisby (6) were born in Pennsylvania. Ms. Stevens was pregnant with twins when her husband’s died. The twins were named Francis and Mary, according to the 1850 Federal Census.
The 1850 Census reported that Ms. Stevens was no longer working and that William, now 18 years old and working as a laborer, was supporting his family. They lived at 27 Washington Street which was between 11th and 12th Streets and Lombard and South Streets.
Lucy Stevens never remarried and died at eighty years old in 1890 of heart and kidney problems. She was working as a cook, according to her death certificate. Ms. Stevens was buried at Olive Cemetery and later was reinterred in Eden Memorial Cemetery in Collingdale, Delaware County, Pennsylvania.
At the time of Mr. Stevens’ death, over one-third of the Black families in Philadelphia were headed by single women.
Bethel Burying Ground Project 