Sheriff Edward Alexander Stevens Bexar County Sheriff

Sheriff Edward Alexander Stevens
Bexar County Sheriff's Department, TX

Cause of Death: Gunfire
End of Watch: November 7, 1885
Date of Incident: 1881
Age: 58
Tour of Duty: 25 years
Suspect Info: deceased horse thief Gillespie
Weapon Used: Unknown gun

The Officer Down Memorial Page, Inc.

Bexar County Sheriff Edward Alexander Stevens died as a result of an infection from his left arm being amputated. The amputation was a result of an on-duty gunfight while serving as a deputy for Bexar County Sheriff Thomas McCall. Stevens was severely wounded in the left arm during a gunfight near Luling, TX , while pursuing horse thieves. During the gunfight, Gillespie, a well known horse thief, was shot to death.

Edwards A. Stevens was a veteran of the U.S.-Mexican War and served in 1855 as a member of a company of Texas Rangers. Stevens was first elected Sheriff of Bexar County and served from August 1, 1864, and served until August 11, 1865. Stevens was replaced after the end of the Civil War by an appointee (James Fisk) of provisional Governor H.J. Hamilton. (During Reconstruction, Radical Republicans in Congress pressed for "fairly sweeping disenfranchisement of former Confederates," says the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, edited by Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris. Southerners were asked to sign loyalty oaths to the United States to hold even the most minor local government post. In 1866, Stevens served as City Marshal of San Antonio. He later became a Deputy Sheriff for Bexar County and served in that capacity under Sheriff Thomas McCall.

In 1884, he was elected Sheriff of Bexar County for a 2nd time. Stevens took office on November 4, 1884, and remained as Sheriff until he succumbed to the infection in his left arm on November 7, 1885. Sheriff Edward Alexander Stevens was born at Harper's Ferry, VA. He was married on June 30, 1862, in San Antonio, Texas, to Elise Fromentier from Paris, France. They had 7 children; Virginia, Louise, Adella, Charles, Lizza, Oliver, Charles Stevens and Edward Oliver Stevens. He is buried with his wife at the San Antonio City Cemetery #2 in San Antonio, Texas.

The above information was obtained from the Bexar County Sheriff's Office web site which used sources from newspaper stories, history books and Bexar County records..