Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 336 - 339

HOMER STEPHENSON is familiarly known to the people of Valley Center Township as the possessor of one of the finest homesteads within its limits, a view of which we take pleasure in giving on the opposite page. He is successfully carrying on farming and stock-raising, keeping from eighty to 100 head of Short-horn cattle, a stable of valuable Clydesdale horses, and feeding annually from fifty to sixty head of Berkshire swine. To the latter he has given particular attention, and has been in the habit of carrying off the blue ribbons at the county fairs. For the care and accommodation of these and the raising of grain and hay, he operates 320 acres of choice land, which is valued at $75 per acre.

     The subject of this sketch was born in Trumbull County, Ohio, March 27, 1844. His parents, Decatur and Phebe M. (Webb) Stephenson, were natives respectively of New York and Connecticut. They were married Jan. 9. 1840. In 1881 they crossed the Mississippi, becoming residents of Valley Center Township, where the death of the father took place in that year, when he was sixty-two years old. The mother is still living, making her home with her son, our subject, and is now sixty-three years old. Decatur Stephenson was a man of excellent business capacities, enterprising and industrious, a man of decided views and opinions, and a stanch adherent of the Democratic party.

     The parental family of our subject included three sons and one daughter, of whom Homer is the sole survivor. Delos, the firstborn son, died when about two years old; Adelaide also died in early childhood, when two and one-half years of age; Decatur, a bright and promising young man, was stricken down at the early age of twenty-four years, his death occurring in Stark County, Ohio, about 1875; he had been for some time a student at Mt. Union College, and was just about to enter the senior class, when he was seized with congestive chills, which terminated fatally by going to the brain about two weeks after the first attack.

     The subject of our sketch was about seventeen years of age upon the breaking out of the late Rebellion, and in 1862, there being no immediate prospect of its termination, enlisted in the 105th Ohio Infantry, and served until the close of the war, being mustered out in June, 1865. He met the enemy in many of the principal battles of that memorable conflict, and was present in the engagement at Perryville, Ky., where it was estimated that the loss exceeded that of any regiment in the field and during which 240 men were cut down in five minutes' time. Subsequently he fought in the battles of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and went all through the Atlanta campaign, joining in the famous march of Sherman to the sea. Upon leaving the Southeast the troops went up through the Carolinas to Richmond, Va., from there to Washington City. This was one of the last important engagements of the war, and young Stephenson was mustered out at Washington City. His father, in 1862, also entered the ranks, enlisting in the 6th Ohio Cavalry, and was mustered out of service about the same time as his son. His regiment operated around Petersburg and Richmond. Mr. S. enlisted as a private, was promoted to Corporal, and frequently performed the duties of Captain of a company of picked men to rout the enemy in places where they could not well be approached by the regular troops. The Stephenson Post at Sedgwick was named in honor of him.

     The subject of our sketch upon receiving his discharge from the army returned to his old home in Ohio, and entered upon a course of study in the Normal Institute at Ashtabula, where he remained two years, and then engaged as a teacher in the schools of Trumbull County. In 1869 he left his native State and took up his residence ten miles from Aurora, Kane Co., Ill., where he remained twelve months, then crossed the Mississippi and determined to locate in this county. He purchased eighty acres of land in Valley Center Township, and for some time taught school in Sedgwick City and four winters in Valley Center Township.

     Mr. Stephenson was one of the first settlers in the northern part of this county, his residence here dating from the 3d of July, 1870. After being released from his last winter of school teaching, he commenced in earnest the improvement and cultivation of his land, and at the time of his marriage was enabled to invite his bride to a home of which any man might well be proud. Taking into account the fact that the county was in the first stages of its settlement, the home of which Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson took possession was all that could reasonably be desired. The wife of our subject was in her girlhood Miss Dora Morgan, and they were wedded on the 18th of May, 1876, at the home of the bride in Valley Center Township. Mrs. Stephenson was born in Shelby County, Ohio, Aug. 27, 1857, and is the daughter of Montfort and Rebecca (Mulford) Morgan, who were of New England birth and parentage. The father followed farming all his life, and with his estimable wife spent his last years in this county, where he died at a good old age, the mother having died in Ohio. The family consisted of three sons and three daughters, namely: Milton, Hymeneus, Elbert, Rebecca, Marilla and Dora. Of these all are living, and residents mostly of Kansas.

     Mr. and Mrs. Stephenson are also the parents of six children, one of whom, the second born, died in 1880, when about one year old. The others are named respectively: Stella, Decatur (named after his grandfather), Laura, Bruce and one unnamed. Mr. Stephenson gives his attention principally to his farming interests, but when called upon to perform the duties of an American citizen at the polls, votes with the Republicans. He is a member of the G. A. R., belonging to Stephenson Post, at Sedgwick City.

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