Bio: Stephens, Silas T. (History - 1831)

Contact: Janet Schwarze

Surnames: STEPHENS NICHOLAS TIMMERMAN SCOTT BARNETT

----Source: 1891 Biographical History of Clark Jackson Counties Wisconsin

Silas T. Stephens (1831)
 

Silas T. Stephens, of section 8, Mayville Township, was born in Schoharie County, New York, March 8, 1831, the son of Perry C. (deceased) and Betsey (Nicholas) Stephens, both natives of New York. The father was a soldier in the War of 1812, under Captain Dominie, and was at the battle of Plattsburg, New York. The parents had ten children, seven of whom survive: Betsey A., Mercy, Silas, Phoebe, Lydia, Louis, and Martha. Their two eldest were burned to death when their house was destroyed by fire, and the other, a grown daughter, died after marriage, leaving a family of four children.

Silas T., our subject, was reared to farm life, and educated in the common schools. In 1852 he came to Wisconsin, settling in the woods of Fond du Lac County, where he was surrounded by wild animals and Indians, and where he also cleared a farm. He was a soldier in the late war, in Company H, Thirty-second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and served nearly three years participating in the battles of Salt Hatch's Swamp, siege of Atlanta, North Edisto River, Bentonville and others. After the war Mr. Stephens returned to Fond du Lac, where he worked in a flouring-mill three years, and then engaged in farming in that county until 1873. In that year he came to this county, bringing his family all the way in an ox wagon. He homesteaded 160 acres, his present farm, then in a heavy woods, his nearest neighbors being two miles distant, and the nearest post office was Colby, ten miles distant. At that time there were no roads, and he carried his flour and groceries on his back. He now owns 120 acres, twenty-two of which is cleared. The first five or six years here he worked in the woods in the winters, and during the summer cleared and worked on his farm.

Mr. Stephens was married July 31, 1853, to Melissa Timmerman, a daughter of Benjamin and Lany (Scott) Timmerman, both deceased. The parents had eleven children, five now living, namely: Alfred, Diantha, Amelia, Chancy and Melissa. The mother had two children by a former marriage, only one of whom still survives- Henry Barnett. Mr. And Mrs. Stephens have had five children, four now living: Emma J., Josephine, William S. and Ella M. One daughter, Lydia M. died when six years of age. Mr. Stephens has served several years as a clerk of the school board. Socially he is a member of the G.A.R. post, and politically a Republican.

STEPHENS NICHOLAS TIMMERMAN SCOTT BARNETT