Eveready Letter and Advertising Service had one of the first, if not the first, electric typewriter in Nashville. It was an IBM Executive Electric Typewriter. Executives from some of Nashville’s leading companies such as Cain Sloan and Castner Knott sent letters to Eveready in the early 1950s to be typed by my Grandfather W.B. “Barry” Stevens. The proportional spacing and overall look was quite sharp and unique. The official name of our company still includes the phrase “Letter Service”.
W.B. had learned to type and excel in business skills at Draughon’s Business College in the early 1900s. His mother had died as a result of his birth and his father shortly thereafter as a result of being kicked in the stomach by a mule. He was raised on the family farm by his brother Burley Stevens , Burley’s wife Cora and W.B.’s older sister Zora. Burley was some 20 years older than W.B.
At sixteen he was given tuition money by brother Burley and a one way stage coach ticket from his birthplace, a farm near Liberty, Tennessee, to go to school in the big city – Nashville. At Draughon’s Business College W.B. was to learn typing, shorthand, business law, accounting and court reporter skills.At that time lower Broadway where the stage coach debarked on First Avenue at the Cumberland River was a dusty, unpaved hubbub of commercial activity. Burley had given young W.B a strong warning… “Proceed up Broadway to your school. Do not look to the left or to the right. Enroll in Draughon’s Business College and pay your tuition.” There were a string of raucous saloons lining lower Broad full of every big city temptation. W.B. made it safely up Broad to Eighth Avenue and entered his new school. We never knew if he looked to the left or to the right.
His first real job was as a court reporter. He took down each word in shorthand and transcribed the day’s proceedings each evening on a typewriter.
He could type 80-100 words a minute with very high accuracy.
W.B. Stevens was our founder and steady guide for half a century.
CMS
