Word: headsman
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Headsman." Meanwhile, Stevenson's paternal grandfather was busy campaigning against Lincoln. Grandfather Adlai Ewing Stevenson, who walked into Illinois beside a wagon in 1852, was also a lawyer, but an avid Democrat. As Grover Cleveland's First Assistant Postmaster General, he became known as "the headsman" when he swept some 40,000 Republican postmasters off the payroll. In Cleveland's second term, he was Vice President. Lewis Green Stevenson, his son, was Illinois' secretary of state in 1914-16. (Another relative in politics: Vice President Alben Barkley, whose grandmother was Grandfather Adlai's first cousin...
...succeeded by his son, who was in turn officially succeeded by his seven-year-old son. Young Charles III had already shown an enthusiastic talent for his inherited role by hanging tight to the legs of many unwilling clients while his father whacked away at their necks. A temporary headsman was appointed to act as regent until Charlie's arms grew strong enough to swing an ax. By the time he reached h's majority, the Sanson dynasty had become a kind of headsman's peerage. Brother Nicolas became chief executioner at Rheims and was followed...