Stephenson Family 1818 - 1850

Posted By: Sylvia Stephenson Ross
Date: 28 March 2002

James Stephenson and his wife Ann Porter Stephenson migrated from Woodford County, KY to Greene Co., OH in about 1804. They had been married in 1797 in Woodford County and a certificate was issued there. After James' 1812 military service, they moved into Darke Co, Ohio where they are recorded as living there in 1819 in Beer's History. The first sermon preached in the county was given from James Stephenson's home. James is on the 1820 Census.

James and Ann's children were :
1.Susannah Stephenson Coppess born c.1799, who married first Isaac McFarland in Greene Co in 1817, then John Coppess
2.Josiah Elam Stephenson born c.1801, who married Eliza Buchanan 1823 and Susannah Kershner 1843
3.John Stephenson born c. 1803,who married Elizabeth Stahl 1825
4.James M. Stephenson born c.1806
5.Elizabeth Stephenson Teegarden born 6 March 1808 who married Abraham Teegarden
6.Andrew Porter Stephenson born 1 April 1810
7.Matilda Cole Robbins born 13 March 1812, married Benjamin Robbins 1844
8.Sarah Ann Stephenson Moffott b. 18 February 1815 m.John Moffott

James Stephenson was born in 1773 in Virginia, moved with his parents William and Susannah Wymore Stephenson to Lexington, Fayette Co. Ky as a small child and then moved again with his family to settle in Woodford Co. KY. He was married there and after a few years in Kentucky, he and his wife moved to Greene Co. Ohio where they lived adjacent to Ann Porter Stephenson's sister Sarah Elam. She was the wife of an early pioneer in Greene Co. named Josiah Elam. Their children were raised in Greene County and their oldest daughter, Susannah, was married there just prior to the Stephenson migrating to pioneer in Darke County.

A cabin stands in the pioneer village near Xenia, Ohio that was built for Ann Porter Stephenson's aged mother, Susannah McCreary Porter, by her brother in law, Josiah Elam. The Stephensons named their first son for Josiah, and he was obviously helpful to the establishment of the Stephenson family in Ohio. After the stay in Greene Co., the family moved to Darke County and established itself in Richland Township. Early family members are buried in the old Hartle-Miller Cemetery. Documentation can be found in the Garst Museum Vertical File and in the Common Pleas and Court Records 1817 - 1850 for Darke County. John Stephenson, the son of James and Ann eventually became a justice of the peace in Darke County. Josiah Elam Stephenson was murdered by his second wife in 1844 in one of the more notorious crimes in Ohio at that time.

Proof that James was the son of William Stephenson/Stevenson of Woodford County, KY and of William Stephenson/Stevenson's Revolutionary War service has been verified by the Daughters of the American Revolution in Washington D.C. Anyone descending from his son James of Darke County, Ohio is eligible for DAR or Sar under the file number NSDAR:789858+838.

For any more details on this family, contact Sylvia Stephenson Ross, thistles@ocsnet.net

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