Early Life
Stevens was born in Bristol, England and immigrated to Canada with his family at the age of nine. His family settled in Peterborough, Ontario where his widowed father and he and his three brothers and sisters were raised. The family moved to Vernon, British Columbia in 1894 and Stevens found his first job as a grocery clerk at the age of 16. He then went to northern British Columbia to work in the mining camps before working as a firefighter on the Canadian Pacific Railway and later as a stagecoach driver. In 1899, he joined the United States Army and travelled to the Philippines and then to China where he was present during the Boxer Rebellion before returning to British Columbia in 1901 where he found work again in the grocery business and then as an accountant. He became active in politics after a high profile anti-crime crusade. Vancouver was rife with opium dens, saloons and illegal gambling halls and Stevens would visit these places each night and then publish the names of the establishments and what he witnessed there in the press the next day. His campaign forced the resignation of the chief of police and won Stevens a seat on the Vancouver city council in 1910.
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