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Dr. A. W. Stephenson, late of Dyer, Tennessee.Alfred Washington, eldest son of Hodge Lawson Stephenson and his wife, Eliza P. Wasson, was born in Mount Hope, Lawrence County, Alabama, November 16, 1826. He was educated in Union Academy, Leighton, Alabama. He studied medicine under the tutelage of Dr. A. S. Johnson; was graduated in medicine at Louisville, Kentucky, taking high rank in scholarship and proficiency. He commenced the practice of medicine in Mount Hope in 1850. He was successful in his practice. He married Miss Adaline Harvey, of Mount Hope, 1852. His wife was a most excellent woman. She was intelligent, energetic and very industrious. She was a model housekeeper and one among the best cooks I ever saw. Her equal was hard to find in domestic duties and work. From Mount Hope he moved to LaGrange, Alabama, having been elected surgeon for the college at that place. This position he held until the college was closed on account of the war. In 1868 he went to Dyer, Gibson County, Tennessee, where he was an eminent and successful practicing physician till his death, which occurred December 26, 1896. There were born to him and his wife four children, three daughters and one son. Bell, the first born, died in childhood. Then Lena, Ella and Henry Harvey Stephenson were born.
Lena married Mr. Bobbitt. They have three children. She is a widow and keeps house for her brother, Henry, at the old homestead. Her oldest daughter, Minnie, married Professor Mount. They have a family and live at South McAlester, Indian Territory. Ben Bobbitt, her second son, is married. He is a conductor on a railroad and lives in Dyer, Tennessee. Guy, the youngest son, is in the army in the Philippine Islands. How they do scatter! I have but three children. They live nine hundred miles apart.
Ella, the third daughter of Dr. A. W. Stephenson and his wife, Adaline Harvey, married Mr. Berry. They have five children, three daughters and two boys. Sallie, the oldest daughter of Mr. Berry, and his wife, Ella Stephenson, live in the Indian Territory. Will Ella, the second daughter, is a trimmer and has a fine taste for the beautiful. She lives with her sister in the Territory. Lena, the third daughter, is in school in Jackson, Tennessee. Her two sons are at home with their mother. Henry Harvey, the only son of A. W. and Adaline Stephenson, is not married. He lives with his sister, Lena, in the old homestead.
Artemisia, oldest daughter of Hodge L. Stephenson and his wife, Eliza P. Wasson, was educated in the common schools. She was a very popular young lady. She joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church when a little girl. She married James D. Pickens, an industrious, well-to-do farmer in the Mount Hope neighborhood. They reared a large family of sons and daughters. Artemisia died before any of her children were married. Thomas Pickens, their oldest living son, lives on and owns the old farm. He has raised a respectable, nice family. The children are now mostly grown, some of them married and settled on farms in the old neighborhood.
America, the oldest daughter of James D. Pickens and his wife, Artemisia Stephenson, was for years under my tutelage. She was an interesting and an affectionate girl. She married Dick McClung. They reared a son and a daughter. The son is a Cumberland Presbyterian preacher; the daughter is an assistant teacher in the Mount Hope Wallace Institute. Some of the Pickens children went to Texas as they came to the years of maturity. They seem to have inherited that Stephenson characteristic of looking out for an independence. "The mere fact that a boy nearing the age of manhood desires to go away from a pleasant home and use his own resources is a good indication that he will get along. If he objects to being pampered, there is nothing to be gained by pampering him. To withhold from him the chance he craves might be a serious error. There is no disgrace in hard work, and there is no lasting hurt from hard knocks. The men who make the best record have not planned their career while resting on 'flowery beds of ease,' nor gone forth with the backing of a bank account piled up by somebody else. There is scant reason to fret about the boy who is eager to become a wageearner and selects arduous toil as his portion in the beginning." Others of the Pickens children remained in the old neighborhood believing in the truth of the Georgia doggerel that
Than there is in the land."
Rev. Rome Pickens, son of James D. Pickens and his wife, Artemisia Stephenson, married Miss Lillie Bean, a niece of Miss Kate Bean. Miss Kate was a noble young lady; she was the belle of the country. She married Mr. Cochrell and settled in Texas. Rome did not have the advantage of a classical education, but he is industrious and intellectual. He is a Cumberland Presbyterian minister. He has been the pastor of Rock Spring congregation for eighteen years. The church has prospered and grown under his care. He has a very large and interesting family. The oldest two daughters are intelligent, smart girls; they are almost grown. Bonner, the oldest son of Rev. Rome Pickens and his wife, Lillie Bean, is a very well trained vocalist.
One of the daughters of James D. Pickens and Artemisia Stephenson married Mr. John Roberson, a farmer of good means in the neighborhood. They have a nice family of children.
Jane, daughter of James D. Pickens and his wife, Artemisia Stephenson, was well educated. She married George W. Jackson. George was a son of James D. Jackson, a scientific and practical farmer near Mount Hope, Alabama. George attended my school for several years. He was a man of great firmness and determination. He had a strong mind and retentive memory. He was honorable and honest. He was a member of the Baptist Church. He was liberal and judicious in his dealings with men. He was a successful merchant of Mount Hope. There were born to George Jackson and his wife, Jane Pickens, five children, two girls and three boys. Mr. Jackson died two years ago. Jane was left to manage and educate the children. She takes great care in governing them, and is giving them every benefit of an education. Mr. Jackson left her ample means.
William Argyle Stephenson, second son of Hodge L. Stephenson and his wife, Eliza P. Wasson, married Miss Mary A. Steenson. They reared a family of three children, two sons and one daughter. They moved to Dyer County, West Tennessee. Mort Stephenson, son of Argyle, is married; has a married son, Marvin. Mort is a merchant at Yorkville, Gibson County, Tennessee. Argyle's other son, Frank, is married and has a married son, Other. They are well-to-do farmers near Yorkville, Gibson County, Tennessee.
Harriet, the second daughter of H. L. Stephenson and his wife, was educated in the common schools of the country. When I think of her attending school under my tutelage in the year 1850, and then notice that she is now a great-grandmother, that fact inti mates that I am getting old. She married John Ewing Steenson, a clever, intelligent farmer near Mount Hope. They reared a large family of sons and daughters. The children are scattered and settled in different parts of Texas. Her husband was an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He was doing well on his farm, but sold it, moved to Texas, had much sickness in his family in Texas, and moved back to Alabama. When Mr. Steenson returned he was financially worsted. He died in Alabama. Harriet lives with her son, James Steenson, on a farm near Mount Hope, Alabama.
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James Monroe Stephenson, late of Mount Hope, Alabama.James Monroe, the youngest son of Hodge L. Stephenson and his wife, Eliza P. Wasson, was born in Lawrence County, near Mount Hope, Alabama, August 10, 1840. He was educated in the common schools. He was a very dutiful, industrious, good boy. He joined the Cumberland Presbyterian Church when quite young. About the time he arrived at the age of maturity, the Civil War came on. Monroe volunteered for the Confederate service. He made a brave and useful soldier. At the close of the war he actively took up farming and continued to Mount Hope, Alabama, farm successfully till his death, which occurred June 10, 1887. On January 3, 1871, he married Miss Laura Dukeminier, near Mount Hope, Alabama. Miss Dukeminier was a daughter of Alfred Dukeminier. Laura was a most estimable young woman. There were born of this union nine children, six sons and three daughters. They are all married except the youngest son, and all live in the community where they were brought up. Their names are as follows: Charles Michaux, Fredrick L., Russell E., Frank David, Edward Alfred, Deaton Monroe Stephenson. The girls are Lula B., Zula and Mollie Stephenson. At Monroe's death the widow was left with these nine children and a little farm. She, by hard work and good management, gave her children a support and a good common school education. The children were reared in respectability. They were a credit to their noble, sacrificing mother. After the children were grown and married, the widow very judiciously and prudently married Mr. Ches Roberson, a respectable farmer of good means. Mr. Roberson is a good farmer and a good citizen, and was quite fortunate in capturing the wary widow of eighteen years' widowhood.