Passed Vice Presidents - # 23 – Adlai Stevenson

Grave of Adlai Stevenson (15 July 2023)

Served under Grover Cleveland

4 March 1893 – 4 March 1897

Preceded by # 22 – Levi P. Morton

Succeeded by # 24 – Garret Hobart

Born – 23 October 1835

Died – 14 June 1914 (Age 78)

Buried – Evergreen Cemetery, Bloomington, IL

Date Visited – 15 July 2023

Adlai Stevenson was born in Kentucky. After his family moved to central Illinois when he was a teenager, he became a lawyer and engaged in state politics at the same time Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas rose to prominence in the mid-1850’s. Like the Tafts in Ohio and the Kennedys in Massachusetts, he began the most prominent political family in the state’s history. Four generations excelled in public life. His son was Secretary of State. His grandson was Governor and United Nations Ambassador. His great grandson was a U.S. Senator.

The Stevenson Family Plots,

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

After a couple of terms as U. S. congressman, Stevenson accepted the position of Assistant Postmaster General in the first Grover Cleveland administration. Despite the civil service reforms that had begun at the time, the postal system remained a spoils hotbed and Stevenson fired thousands of Republican postmasters in favor of Democrat replacements. At the end of Cleveland’s term, he nominated Stevenson to a judicial position, but the Republican majority Senate would have none of it and he returned to Illinois.

Vice President Adlai E. Stevenson

Four years later, Cleveland won the presidency again, this time with Adlai as his running mate. Stevenson can be included on the list of ‘Almost President’ since Cleveland’s oral cancer was successfully treated in secret in 1893. Even the vice president was kept in the dark about the surgery.

The Footstones of Vice President Adlai Stevenson and His Wife

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Although Stevenson wanted to be promoted in the next presidential election, the 1896 Democrats were smitten by the mercurial William Jennings Bryan but lost to the McKinley/Hobart ticket. In 1900, Stevenson agreed to be Bryan’s running mate and lost the election to McKinley/Roosevelt. He would have joined George Clinton and John C. Calhoun as the only VPs to serve under two presidents.

Sign Identifying the Grave of Vice President

Adlai Stevenson I, Bloomington Cemetery,

Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Some cemeteries are rather discreet when it comes to promoting

the location of residents with any notoriety. I think Evergreen

Cemetery’s approach allows interested visitors to locate graves

of the famous without traipsing about over the dearly departed.

Sign Identifying the Grave of Adlai Stevenson II,

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Also interred with the family is the vice president’s grandson and namesake, who rose to prominence in the 1950’s as a two-time losing Democrat Party nominee for president. The former governor of Illinois could not carry his own state in the 1952 and 1956 elections as Dwight Eisenhower steam-rolled him on both contests.

Stump Sculpture of ‘Old Hoss’

Bloomington Cemetery, Bloomington, IL (15 July 2023)

Another interesting feature of this cemetery is the chainsaw sculptures that were made on a couple of dying trees on the grounds. One is close to the grave of a Hall of Fame pitcher, Charles ‘Old Hoss’ Radbourn. His 1884 season was mind-blowing compared to what pitchers do now. Last season (2024 - 162 games), the leading pitching stats in major league baseball were 208 innings thrown, 228 strikeouts, 18 wins and an earned run average of 2.38. In 1884 (a 112-game season), Old Hoss threw 678 innings, struck out 441 batters and won 60 games with an ERA of 1.38. Those were the days.