FOURTH GENERATION
JOSHUA STEPHENS, Sr., (3), the name now being changed, lived in what is now Berkes County, and probably in Union Township, near the David Stephens above mentioned. His children were:
6. JOSHUA, born in 1733, the immediate ancester of the family, and with whom the certain history of the family begins.
7. JOHN }
8. STEPHENS } Of these two brothers nothing is further known than that from a family tradition they "went South", whatever that means: "South" being an indefinite term from a standpoint in Berkes County. John was a tory during the Revolution. The existence of Stephens depends upon the testimony of Joshua Bowen Stephens of Hardin, Ohio, in a conversation with me there in 1886. To these three brothers Dr. John Wesley Stephens of State Line, Indiana, added a sister, in a letter to me, (182):
9. HETTY "who married a rich man named Humphrey, had liveried servants," etc. If so, they probably lived in Philadelphia.
JOSHUA STEPHENS, Jr., (6), was the founder of that particular line of the family of which we have any definite knowledge. His father was Joshua Stephens, (3), the immigrant ancestor, who settled in what is now Berkes County, Pennsylvania.
Berkes was then a "howling wilderness" full of Indians and wild beasts. It was here in 1733, that Joshua Stephens, Jr., was born. Neighbors were like Angel's visits, "few and far between". In Amity Township on the east lived Mordecai Lincoln, in A. D. 1725, the ancestor of the illustrious President. In Exeter Township to the north-east lived George Boone, in A. D. 1717, the ancestor of Daniel Boone, the celebrated pioneer of Kentucky. Our family tradition is that the Stephens and the Boones were intermarried, and it is known that the Boones and Lincolns formed such alliances. (See Century Magazine for November, 1886). Joshua became an expert in the use of the rifle. His early life was spent on his father's farm and in hunting, in which he became very proficient and for which he acquired considerable notoriety. Schools were scarce in those days and his literary education was probably poor. No writings of his are known to be in existence to-day. To his out-door life must be attributed the cause of his longevity, extending to a period of ninety years. He did not marry until he was 38 years of age. In 1771 he married Priscilla Humphreys. The fact that she was a member of the Seventh-day Baptist Church, who were then quite numerous in Chester County to the South of Berkes, and that his son E. D. Stephens was born in Chester, suggests that at an early date in his life Joshua left Berkes and settled in Chester, which he did at any rate, and lived not far from Valley Forge. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War he identified himself with the patriot cause, and, according to the statement of his son, E. D. Stephens, was commissioned Captain of a Company of sharpshooters. During the famine of the American army in the winter of 1777-8 at Valley Forge, he hauled corn to relieve their distress. On one occasion he obtained a furlough to return home during harvest. With a Quaker and his brother John he was in the orchard gathering apples. The Quaker was up in the apple tree, picking fruit, and improved the opportunity to expostulate with Joshua over the wickedness of war, and arguing that Joshua should stay at home like his brother John, the tory. In the midst of his argument the Quaker fell out of the tree, and striking the ground violently, broke his neck, and was picked up dead. This was regarded as an act of Divine Judgment in favor of the war, and probably went far toward encouraging the despairing hearts of the patriots about them.
A few years after the war he moved with his family to a place "near the Warm Springs, Virginia," said E. D. Stephens. Whether this was the Warm Springs in Bath County, is hard to determine. "And then in a few years" said the same person, "to near LEXINGTON, (Carlisle) Kentucky." These residences are indefinitely located. "The Warm Springs" may have been in what is now KENAWHA County, West Virginia for there are such there, and according to Mr. Jordan, above quoted, they lived "near a river, in the vicinity of the residence of Daniel Boone," who lived in KENAWHA. (See Hale's "Trans-Allegheny Pioneers"). It was while here, said Jordan, that Boone was a frequent visitor to the place of Joshua, whom he invariably greeted as "Cousin." Just what the relationship was is unknown, but it undoubtedly existed. One evening Boone came to the Stephens' place, weary, and said "Twenty-one less." They understood from this laconic remark, that he referred to the number of Indians he had killed that day.