My Genealogy Hound

Thomas Stephens, one of the earliest settlers of Moniteau County, was born in South Carolina, September 18, 1800. His father died when he was a child but six or seven years of age, and the mother with four small children removed to Tennessee, where our subject remained until the spring of 1819, when, in company with about eighty others, they traveled on a flat boat to a place in Southeastern Missouri called Tywappity Bottom. In the fall of the same year Thomas Stephens made his way to what is now Cooper County, and worked over the country at whatever he could find to do until 1827, when he entered eighty acres of land in Moniteau County, and was one of the first settlers there. He had charge of the salt works, near where Sedalia is located, in 1820-21, and sometime after went to Potosi, now in Washington County, and worked in the lead mines for a while; he then engaged in the butchering business for a time, and returning to the vicinity where he now lives purchased a lot of horses and mules which with corn and bacon he loaded on a flat-boat and took to New Orleans; in all he made twenty-one trips to New Orleans with stock and provisions, and was thus enabled to purchase his small farm in 1827. In July, 1828, he married Sarah Williams, who was born in Tennessee in 1809, and was a daughter of James Williams, who came to Missouri with his family in an early day. In the fall after their marriage our subject and wife settled on the farm where he has ever since lived; he has been an enterprising farmer and has been very successful, owning at one time over 600 acres of good land; he still owns 439 acres, all of which is well under cultivation. His wife died March 27, 1852, the mother of twelve children, five of whom are now living, viz.: Reuben R., Elizabeth, Campas W., Susie and Newton W. Mr. Stephens next married Mrs. Rebecca (Hatcher) Renfrow, widow of Jesse Renfrow; she was born March 8, 1809, and died January 14, 1886, a member of the Baptist Church and the mother of a large family by her first husband. Mr. Stephens has been a member of the Baptist Church for nearly three-score years, and has contributed liberally to its support as well as to all worthy enterprises. Though well advanced in years he is still active and continues to manage his farm. He is honored and respected by all who know him. His descendents are many, his grandchildren numbering about eighty and his great-grandchildren twenty-eight.