the investigations. Robert Stephenson, Henry's son, will be designated as Robert Stephenson, 1st, and his son, Robert, as Robert Stephenson, 2d.
One noted characteristic of the Stephenson family is a lack of clannishness. They are possessed of an independent pioneering spirit. They have no desire for fame. The young men leave home when they become of age and "paddle their own canoes," neglecting their old homes and associates in too great a degree. Robert Stephenson, 1st, seems to have been that sort of a man, and his children possessed of the same disposition. The same traits attach to their descendants in America to this day. When Robert, 1st, grew to manhood he disappeared. He is next found near Ballymoney, in County Antrim, in the north part of Ireland. This was about 1743. He was then a young married man, and living on a small farm.
Circumstances indicate that the second son of Henry Stephenson, the shepherd, was James Stephenson, and that he settled on a little farm, near to his older brother, Robert, 1st, in Ireland. He reared a family there. James' descendants went to America about the year 1785. They settled in Fairfield County, South Carolina, near where their kinspeople had settled in 1772. There was a descendant of this James Stephenson, by name Robert Stephenson, living near Winnsboro, South Carolina. He was a very tall and strong man. He was six feet and nine inches high, and known as the strongest man in the country. He was a quiet, peaceable man. He was known in his neighborhood as Long Robert Stevenson. He was an exemplary man, and a very highly esteemed citizen. One of his sons, Robert Milton Stevenson, is an Associate Reformed Presbyterian minister. He
