. History of Steuben County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von, 1730-1794. ALANSON STEPHENS, the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Hornellsville, this county, Dec. 8, 1820. The Stephens family in this county is descended from Elijah Stephens, his grandfather, who settled in the town of Canisteo in the year 1789; he, with some six others, coming from the Wyoming Valley after the great massacre there, by the way of the Susque- hanna, Chemung, and Canisteo Ri
. History of Steuben County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. Steuben, Friedrich Wilhelm Ludolf Gerhard Augustin, Baron von, 1730-1794. ALANSON STEPHENS, the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Hornellsville, this county, Dec. 8, 1820. The Stephens family in this county is descended from Elijah Stephens, his grandfather, who settled in the town of Canisteo in the year 1789; he, with some six others, coming from the Wyoming Valley after the great massacre there, by the way of the Susque- hanna, Chemung, and Canisteo Rivers in boats, stopping awhile at Newtown (now Elmira), being the first white inhabitants in the Canisteo Valley. Elijah Stephens became a large land owner, owning several tiers of lots through the town. He met the trials of a wilderness life and of early settlement with that resolution which overcame difficulties, and paved the way for the prosperity of his progeny, which became quite numerous. He died at the age of about eighty, in the year 1840, leaving three sons and six daughters. His father, Benjamin Stephens, was second child of this family, was a farmer by occupation and in his day figured in the early settlement of the town; he was married to Arthusa Hamilton, of the town of Howard. Her father, Alexander Hamilton, was a Revo lutionary soldier, was a pensioner, and lived to a very advanced age. Of this union were born five sons and two daughters, of whom the subject of this notice was the eldest. His father died in 1835, having been born in 1800. His mother died about 1840, at the age of forty. Mr. Stephens spent his early life as a carpenter and joiner, and as early as at the age of fifteen engaged in rafting lumber down the Susquehanna River to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Port Deposit, which he carried on quite extensively, sometimes reaching as high a figure as one million feet in a year. His entire stock of lumber was cut and sawed in the town of Hornellsville, and
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Keywords: ., bookauthorclaytonw, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookyear1879
