Alzina Stevens
| Alzina Parsons Stevens | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | Alzina Parsons May 27, 1849 Parsonsfield, Maine, U.S. |
| Died | June 3, 1900 (aged 51) |
| Occupation | labor leader, industrial reformer, journalist, suffragist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | U.S. |
| Spouse | Mr. Stevens (m. 1876) |
Alzina Stevens (née Parsons; May 27, 1849 – June 3, 1900) was an American labor leader, industrial reformer, journalist, and suffragist from Maine, active in Hull House. She was one of the representative women in the order of the Knights of Labor, and her history was, in some of its phases, a cornerstone of woman's work in the U.S. labor movement in the last decades of the 19th century. Stevens was an ardent advocate of equal suffrage. For several years, she served on the editorial staff of the Toledo Bee; she was also half owner and editor of the Vanguard, an organ of the People's Party. Although her marriage to Mr. Stevens in 1876 or 1877, ended in divorce soon after, she kept her husband's name.
Alzina Ann Parsons was born in Parsonsfield, Maine, May 27, 1849. Her parents were Enoch Parsons and Louise Page. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812, while her two brothers served in the American Civil War in the 7th New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. Her grandfather was Colonel Thomas Parsons, who commanded a Massachusetts regiment in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
At the age of 13, she began self-support as a weaver in a cotton factory, where she lost her right index finger in an accident. Stevens saw her missing finger as a constant reminder of the need to improve working conditions and regulate child labour. She attended high school in Somersworth, New Hampshire.
In 1867, Stevens moved to Chicago and found work in the printing trade, serving as typesetter, compositor, proof-reader, correspondent and editor.
Stevens became active in the trade unions, notably as one of the leaders of the Knights of Labor in Chicago. In 1877 she organized the Working Woman's Union, No. 1, of Chicago, and was its first president. Removing from that city to Toledo, Ohio, she threw herself into the movement there and was soon one of the leading forces of the Knights of Labor. She was again instrumental in organizing a woman's society, the Joan of Arc Assembly Knights of Labor, and was its first master workman and a delegate from that body to the district assembly. In the district, she was zealous and energetic, serving as a member of the executive board, organizer, judge, and for a number of years, recording and financial secretary. In 1890, she was elected district master workman, becoming the chief officer of a district of 22 local assemblies of knights. She represented the district in the general assemblies of the order in the conventions held in Atlanta, Georgia, Denver, Colorado, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Toledo, Ohio.
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