Joshua was accompanied or followed to "near Lexington" by two of his brothers-in-law, Joshua and Jonathan Humphreys. Here two of his sons left to find homes for themselves—David Humphreys, (10), who settled in Evansville, Indiana, and Silas, (14), who settled in Nashville, Tenn. Katie, (12), a daughter died in Kentucky at a tender age.
It was while in Kentucky that he knocked a Dutchman down for insulting his daughter Hannah, and dislocated his (Stephen's) thumb.
It must have been about 1798 when he decided to remove to near Chillicothe, Ohio, for that year his son, E. D. Stephens was fourteen years old, and was apprenticed to a tanner, which naturally was on his mother's death. This occured while they were on the Pickaway Plains, in Ohio. As they were travelling, the women of the party took off their shoes to walk on the cool grass on account of the heat. His wife was bitten by a copper-head snake, and shortly died, her body turning to the color of the snake.
JOSHUA STEPHENS, (6), was over six feet high, kept his face shaven smoothly, had blue eyes and dark hair, and was powerful physically, and kept a straight figure of his body until his death.—Statement of Joshua Stephens, (32).
JOSHUA STEPHENS, (6), a Revolutionary soldier and ancestor of the Stephens family, was born in Union Township, Berkes County, Penn., in 1733. John Stephens, (15), his son, father of Nancy Stephens Mitchell, was born in Chester County, Penn., Dec. 23, 1781. Union Township is separated from Amity and from Exeter Township by the Schuylkill River. In Exeter Township lived George Boone, A. D. 1717, ancestor of Daniel Boone, who intermarried with the Stephens. And in Amity Township lived Mordecai Lincoln, A. D. 1725, and probably also the Stephens. At an early date in his life, Joshua Stephens left Berkes County and settled in Chester County, not far from Valley Forge. His early life was spent on his father's farm in hunting. He was an expert rifleman, and his proficiency acquired for him considerable notoriety. In 1771, when he was thirty-eight years of age, he married Priscilla Humphreys, who was a Seventh-day Baptist. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War Joshua Stephens, (6), identified himself with the patriot cause, and was commissioned by General Washington as 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 from his farm to relieve their distress. On one occasion he was granted a furlough to return home during harvest.
A few years after the war he moved with his family to a place near Warm Springs, Virginia. After another few years to Lexington, Kentucky. While there, Daniel Boone was a frequent visitor and greeted him as "Cousin". About 1798, he decided to remove to near Chillicothe, Ohio, lived in either Ross County or Franklin County until about 1816, when he followed his two sons, John, (15), and E. D., (16), to Shelby County, where he lived with them on their farm near Hardin. His grand-children remember his old Revolutionary Army great coat and his stories of Revolutionary times. His love for the chase never forsook him. He attributes his longevity to his outdoor life. He was over six feet in height, kept his face smoothly shaved, had blue eyes and dark hair; was powerful physically and kept an erect figure till his death. He lived to be ninety years of age. He died in March, in 1823, on the farm of his son John, (15), near Hardin and was buried in the old Hardin graveyard.
JOSHUA STEPHENS, (6), lived in either Ross County or Franklin County until 1816, when he followed his two sons, John, (15), and E. D., (16), to Shelby County, where he lived with them on their farms near Hardin. His grand-children remember how the old gentlemen used to sit around the fire-place while they teased him by slyly pouring corn into the huge pockets of his old Revolutionary Army coat. Although over eighty years of age, the love of the chase never died, and he often took his old rifle and spectacles and sat by the old salt lick and waited for the deer which never came. (So said Richard Cannon, of Hardin, to me in 1886, who knew him well, and also spoke of his Revolutionary services). He died in March, 1823, on the farm of his son John, (15), near Hardin, and was buried in the old Hardin graveyard. The grave was identified to me in 1886, and marked by me then with a wooden head board. His children were:
FIFTH GENERATION
10. DAVID HUMPHREYS, born in Penn., m. Eliza Wing, A. D. 1843.