Word: headsman
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ancestry: Paternal grandfather was Adlai Ewing Stevenson, a staunch Democrat who became known as "the headsman" because he swept some 40,000 Republican postmasters off the payroll as First Assistant Postmaster General during Grover Cleveland's first term; was Vice President during Cleveland's second term. Maternal great-grandfather: Jesse W. Fell, an Illinois pioneer, a staunch Republican, close friend of Abraham Lincoln. Jesse Fell sponsored the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Father Lewis Green Stevenson, a Democrat, was Illinois' secretary of state...
...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...
...purely hypothetical race of men with an average weight of 98 pounds and an average height of 5 ft. ½ in. A normal man cannot stand in one without getting his hat knocked off, or assuming a stooped posture, not unlike that of an Oriental criminal awaiting the headsman...
...most puissant law firms, veteran of innumerable international congresses, No. 1 Presbyterian layman, and chairman of the Commission for a Just & Durable Peace of the Federal Council of Churches. ¶Adlai Ewing Stevenson, 46, able Illinois lawyer, grandson of Democratic Vice President Adlai ("The Headsman") Stevenson (who distinguished himself by discreetly purging some 40,000 Republican postmasters when Grover Cleveland became President). Young Stevenson entered public service as Assistant General-Counsel to the Federal Alcoholic Control Administration, subsequently became assistant to Secretaries Knox, Hull, Stettinius...