Squire Stevens, as he was known to the village, by reason of his office of Justice of the Peace, was tall and of very erect carriage, with well shaped head, aquiline nose and thin lips which knew the value of silence. He possessed a quiet dignity which made its presence felt with people of all classes and was probably helpful in dealing with those less law-abiding members of the community with whom he came into contact as Town Magistrate. A suggestion of sternness about the face for which the thin lips were responsible was wholly belied by the smile which always lurked in the kindly brown eyes.

He was a man of few words with an almost Quaker-like distaste for strife of any sort and, a staunch advocate of the simple life, he neither smoke nor drank.

People of all sorts and kinds seem to have been as essential to his well-being as the air he breathed. Undoubtedly it was this intense interest in his kind that helped him to carry to a successful conclusion the affairs of the Industrial Home Association, and after that kept him an active participant in the life of the village – social, political and religious – for so many years.

At the time of his election to the presidency of the Association, Stevens had drawn up a paper entitled “Self Imposed Resolutions” for his own guidance in the work ahead. In that he says, “If animosity arise in my feelings toward a member for what I believe to be an unjust course that he has taken, I shall endeavor to check such feeling and strive to reconcile my mind to the belief that the member is sincere in the course he has taken, however opposite to my own.” Probably it was the quality of mind that made him an acceptable Justice of the Peace for twenty consecutive years, for a time holding court in his home before renting out space in Gould’s Hotel.

Always a staunch Democrat, he was for many years in close touch with the political life of the village. Election Day usually found him out of the house by five o’clock in the morning and the family did not see him again until midnight or later.

On their arrival from New York the family had become identified with St. Paul’s Church, Eastchester, and John Stevens was elected one of its vestrymen in 1852 and served continuously through 1865.