My Genealogy Hound

JOSHUA STEPHENSON, retired, post office Mansfield Valley, was born in the county of Durham, England, in 1816. In 1818 his father, Joseph Stephenson, with his wife and four children, came to America, and soon after their arrival settled in Pittsburgh, then a town of eight thousand people. Joseph was a butcher in America, and his high appreciation of our American government and the advantages offered to willing people were ably set forth in his letters to friends across the ocean. He died in Pittsburgh in 1822. His widow later became the wife of Charles J. Naylor, who had been a slaveholder in Jamaica, West Indies, later in life a farmer, and who came to America in 1821. He was proficient in several languages. Joshua Stephenson, the subject of this memoir, was but seven years old when his father died. He received most of his education at home under the able instruction of his stepfather, and at eighteen he learned the trade of blacksmith, which he followed for ten years. He then engaged in farming in Scott township, and since 1850 has led a retired life. Mr. Stephenson married Ellen Bell, and by her he had two children, one yet living, John W. His second marriage was with Mary E. Hoffman, daughter of P. N. and Elizabeth Hoffman, of Martinsburg, Va., and one daughter, Adele H., has blessed their union. Mr. Stephenson is independent in politics, but upon national issues he supports the republican candidates.