John Calvin Stephenson was the fifth son of William Watson Stephenson and his wife, Melinda Johnston. At the time his picture was taken he was over eighty-two years of age. He is six feet high, weighs 165 pounds, wears Number 7⅛ hat, Number 16 collar, Number 10 shoes, Number 40 coat; pants, waist 40, legs 34. His complexion is fair and ruddy, hair dark when young, beard auburn, eyes blue, temperament mild. The first twenty-five years of his life were spent at hard work on a farm; the next twenty at school and teaching, in common schools, academies and colleges; the next twenty were passed while merchandising in Waco, Texas; the next eighteen years "in diversifying," as the farmer calls it. He was graduated from La Grange College, in 1850. He married Miss Mary Ann Curtis Napier, daughter of Dr. John S. Napier, of Alabama, in the year 1855. She was born January 20, 1835. She was in many respects an extraordinary woman. She was five feet seven inches tall, weighed 122 pounds. She had fair complexion dark hair, grayish blue eyes. She was symmetrical in form, and graceful in carriage. She was polite but reserved, was very modest and retiring, too prudent, if any one can be. She was graduated from Athens, Alabama, Female College. She was extraordinarily intelligent, but too modest to use her gifts. She was _4.png)
J. C. Stephenson. Chattanooga, Tennessee.very industrious and domestic in her habits, a great servant to her family. Her last years were spent in an invalid's bed, probably brought on by excessive hard labor during the war. She was intensely Southern. She was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Alice was our first child. She died when two-and-a-half years old. She is buried at LaGrange, Alabama. Mrs. Stephenson died at home, Waco, Texas, in 1903, and is buried in Oakwood Cemetery.
Our three children: now living are Edwin Napier, born July 3, 1860, in Alabama; Mary Johnie, born September 5, 1863, in Alabama; William Myatt, born August 14, 1865, in Alabama.
We went to Waco, Texas, in 1870.
Edwin N. married Miss Mattie Jones Baker, of Plantersville, Texas. They have now living four very nice, intelligent children, two sous and two daughters, Guy and Napier and Edna and Jean. They are living in Chicago, Illinois.
Mary Johnie married Judge Seth McKinny Walker, of Georgia, but now of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He is now Judge of the County Court of Hamilton County, Tennessee. He has been in the office ten years, and his present term will not expire until 1910. They have six very promising children: four daughters, Adelaide Mamie, Johnie Curtis, Frances Spurlock, and Edna Stephenson; and two sons, Seth McKinny, Jr., and Charles Evans. The children are all in school, except the four-year-old daughter, Edna. The older girls are well advanced in school. Judge Walker and family live on McCallie Avenue, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
William Myatt, youngest son of J. C. Stephenson, married Miss Lumpie Townsend, of Columbus, Texas. They live in Waco, Texas, and have three children—two sons, William Donald and Light Townsend, and one daughter, Alice; all good, intelligent children, very well advanced in school for their age.
I have thirteen grandchildren now living, seven girls and six boys. They are all sprightly, intelligent children, well equipped mentally and physically, for the contest set before them, for which I am thankful to our Heavenly Father. I have been for twenty years of my life a professional teacher in schools, academies and colleges, and passed out the same number of years in Waco, Texas, merchandising, and have passed a like number of years since, like the negro, "jes' waitin'." One hot summer day a passer-by saw a negro boy lying in the shade, over in a field, the weeds and grass about to take the crop, the sun shining very hot. "Hello," says the passer-by, "are you resting?" "No," said the negro, "I ain't restin'; I's jes' waitin' fur de sun to go down so I kin quit work."
The children of J. C. Stephenson and his wife have always been very kind, obedient and generous to their parents. Their mother died from the effects of rheumatism after having been confined as an invalid for ten years.
I will here give my wife's paternal ancestry. James Turner, Maryland, married in 1710 Kerenhappuch Norman, Maryland. Sarah Turner, daughter of James Turner and his wife, Kerenhappuch Norman, married James Smith, of England. Sarah Smith, daughter of James Smith and Sarah Turner, married John Champion Napier, of Virginia. Dr. John Smith Napier, son of John Champion. Napier and Sarah Smith, married Miss Mary Curtis Myatt, of Alabama. They were the parents of Mrs. Stephenson. Mary Ann Curtis Stephenson's great-grandmother's sister, Elizabeth Turner, married Joseph Morehead, and became the ancestor of Governor Morehead, of North Carolina; also of Governor Morehead, of Kentucky; also of Capt. Richmond Pearson Hobson, of Alabama. There is a monument at Greensboro, North Carolina, erected to the memory of Kerenhappuch Turner on account of patriotism shown by her at the battle of Guilford Courthouse, 1780. This is said to be the only monument erected to the memory of any woman of the American Revolution.
My wife's maternal ancestry is as follows: John Curtis, of Ireland, was born in 1740, married Ann Harris in 1759. Ann was born in 1740, in North Carolina. John Curtis, Jr., son of John Curtis, Sr., and his wife, Ann Harris, was born in 1760 in North Carolina. He married Mary Shaw, of North Carolina, and Mary Shaw was born in 1765, in North Carolina, and died in 1794. Ann Curtis, daughter of John Curtis, Jr., and his wife, Mary Shaw, was born in 1788, in North Carolina; she married Aldridge Myatt, of North Carolina. Mary Curtis Myatt, daughter of Aldridge Myatt, was born August 12, 1817, in North Carolina. She married Dr, John Smith Napier, and was the mother of Mary Ann Curtis Napier, my wife. Mrs. Napier and her husband are buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Waco, Texas.
My mother's maiden name was Johnston. She was a daughter of William Johnston and his wife, Elizabeth McGaughey. They came from Tennessee to Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1819. They were Cumberland Presbyterians. My grandmother Johnston, nee McGaughey, had several brothers. Maj. Samuel McGaughey, a Revolutionist, was, in his old age, proud of the sword he carried when he was a Major. James and Washington McGaughey, the other two brothers, settled in Alabama. One of these three brothers, Major Samuel, left a married son in Greeneville, East Tennessee, when he moved to Alabama. This son was John McGaughey. He reared a large and respectable family in Greeneville. Their descendants are quite numerous. One of his granddaughters, Mrs. Mary A. Hall, lives in comfort and ease in Waco, Texas. She is a noble Christian lady, and a devoted mother.