Jesse Edwin Sturdevant was
the first Sturdevant in our direct line to be born outside of Connecticut. He was born in
El Reno, Oklahoma as first child of Arthur and Gertrude Sturdevant.
He grew up in El Reno, went to the University of Ilinois where he obtained a degree in
Civil Engineering, then worked for the Rock Island Line as surveyor.Jesse joined the Naval Reserve during World War II, and was called to active duty in 1943. He served in the 5th Naval Construction Battalion, the Seabees, building the road to Tokyo across the Pacific.
After the war, Jesse
joined the Bureau of Reclamation as surveyor and engineer. Transferred to Wyoming, he
moved his family first to Torrington, WY, and then to Casper, WY. His job was to lay out
the electrical transmission lines from the dams along the Platte river through Wyoming. He
later went to work in Seattle, Washington for the Washington Highway Department as an
engineer. 
Jesse married Alta Loraine Wright in 1935. She was a country girl from eastern Oklahoma, born 3/23/1908, and growing up near the Arkansas border. Jesse and Alta had three children, two born in El Reno, Oklahoma and the third born in Wyoming after the war. Jesse died in Seattle, Washington, and Alta died 2/12/1991 in California. They are both buried in the family plot in El Reno, Oklahoma.