 Adlai Ewing Stevenson was born in Christian County, Kentucky, on October 23, 1835, to John Turner and Eliza Ewing Stevenson, Wesleyans of Scots-Irish descent.The Stevenson family is first recorded (as the Stephensons) in Roxburghshire, Scotland, in the early 18th century.The family appears to have been of some wealth, as a private chapel in the Archdiocese of St Andrews bears their name.