Leonard Stephens Letter, 12 Sep 1839
Beech Woods, Campbell County, Ky., 12th Sept. 1839
Dear Brother William,
I have seated myself for the purpose of giving you some melancholy intelligence. You will recollect that in my last letter I stated that Father was in a very feeble condition. I now have to inform you, painful as the task is, that he is no more. He breathed his last on Saturday morning last a few minuetts after sunrise. He has been gradually declining for a considerable time. Indeed I may say from the time you left us, for he never went from home after you moved. The walk to your house the evening before you started was the last he ever undertook unless it was a little about the yard, for I believe he never ventured much farther. He had for several months become so much enfeebled that he had to lifted in & out of the bed & required some person to be always near him, & for the last four or five weeks we kept Kit constantly by him. For ten or twelve days before he died he did not eat as much as would have filled a teacup & that of a liquid nature. On the Thursday evening before he died we took him up to make up his bed and to put dry cloths under him, he had appeared to be in a sound sleep all day & had not attempted to speak a while before day of that morning, which was the last time he ever spoke. Taking him up did not seem to rouse or wake him untill just as we were about to lay him down when he fainted & I believed he would never revive but after being bathed in camphire he revived & immediately appeared to drop into a sound sleep and continued in that situation untill he died having never opened his eyes but once & that was just before he went off. He seemed to suffer very much toward the last as his breathings were very hard & quick. He took the rattle about ten o'clock on Friday night and seemed to be very much troubled with phlegm.
He was buried on Sunday evening about 5 o'clock after a sermon had been preached by Mr. Hume from the 2nd of Paul to Timothy 4th chapter & 5th & 6th verses. The evening was very rainy yet there was a considerable concourse of people. The connexions were nearly all present. Our brothers and sisters in this country were all present. Father as you will recollect to have heard had made a will before you left this country which he never altered & that of course [is] to govern. There can be nothing done however untill after our October County Court as our next court is Circuit Court & the will you know must first be proved & the executors qualify before any thing can legally be done. We shall then have a sale as soon after court as sufficient notice can be given. The will requires all the property to be sold & the proceeds equally divided among all the legatees. As soon as the sale is over I will write to you again & give you a statement of the amount. Brother William you know I had lived with Father always & altho it was entirely obvious for several months before he died that he must very soon depart yet I never dreamed it would occasion me the distress and frustration of mind it has done. I feel entirely at a loss. You have no idea how much I miss him. I am continually thinking about him & have seen no satisfaction since. Brother William your moving away was the severest trial I had experienced up to that time & Father's death is the hardest trial I have experienced since. It seems to me that if you were only here now I could bear up under it but as it is the Lord knows how I shall get along. I trust, however, the great giver of every good & perfect gift will reconcile me to this last severe affliction & enable me to bear up under it. O God support me. Father died the 7th of Sept., being 85 years, 4 months & 22 days old having been born the 15th of April 1754.
Mr. John Hughes , Napoleon's father in law, is also dead. He died on the 5th & old Mr. Swindle is dead; he died about two weeks before Father. On the 14th of last month (August) I put a letter in the post office for you containing a check on the Missouri Bank for 200$ dollars which Fountain Riddell has paid me for you. ———— letter I hope you have received it. I have been looking for an answer but as yet none has come to hand. I have no further information to give you in relation to your business here. I had an interview with Mr. Respess the other evening & he stated that Doct. Corlis was then in Ohio for the purpose of selling land to raise money for you. ——[tear]—— [He stated that] it would certainly be ready by the 1st of October. If I get I will immediately apprise you of it. I have not collected the interest due you in Bourbon as yet altho I have written twice to the individual who has to pay it. I shall spare no pain to collect that & all your other monies in this country, but how I may succeed I cannot tell for really there is more complaining about money being scarce than I ever heard before. Wheat is nominal at 62½ cents, for —— cents be had for it at all at present . I send my love to sister Bettey & all your children . My best regards to Cousin Tom Nelson & his family, also to Albert & Minerva , Americus & R. H. Perry . Jackson has been here and is gone again. I did not see him as he only staid one day.
I am your loving affectionate brother till death,
Leonard Stephens
[Address] Mr. William Stephens 25¢
Middle Grove
Monroe County
Missouri
Father's Death
[From:] Florence, Ky.
Sept. 17th
Notes:
Kit was apparently one of the household servants. She is named in Benjamin's will. Return.
William Hume (1786-1849), who was pastor of five Primitive Baptist churches near the Boone-Kenton county line, including Dry Creek, where Leonard was a member. "Uncle Billy" died of cholera three days after he had preached "the funeral sermon of one who died of the dread disease." See W. H. Perrin, et al., History of Kentucky (Edition 7), 823-824. Return.
2 Timothy 4:5-6. "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." Return.
The will was recorded in Campbell Wills B: 47-49. Return.
John Hughes (1778-1839), and his wife, Mary Patterson (1782-1859), had three children marry into the Stephens family. Besides Napoleon's wife, Rebecca Patterson (1822-1901), there were Alexander Frank (1820-1872), whose first wife was Napoleon's sister, Lucy Waller Stephens (1823-1847), and Rachel Campbell (1812-1879), who married Waller Stephens Herndon (1807-1874), their cousin. John and Mary are buried in the family graveyard near Walton in southern Boone County. Return.
John Swindle (1746?-1839), from Culpeper, Virginia, had died 20 Aug. He was the grandfather of two of William's daughters-in-law; see below. See Hetty Swindall Sutherland, et al., Swindall and Austin Families of Virginia and North Carolina (Clintwood, VA: [author], 1995). Return.
James Fountain Riddell (1805?-1875) had married in 1827 Eliza Ann Herndon (1809-1870), who was the daughter of Leonard's sister, Mary Waller Stephens, and Benjamin Herndon. Some of the Riddell children settled in Chariton County, Missouri, not far from William Stephens. Fountain had purchased on 10 Oct 1837 from William and Elizabeth Stephens 400 acres on Mud Lick Creek in southern Boone County. The purchase price was $3,000. Boone Deeds L: 100. Return.
John Corlis (1767-1839), a resident of Bourbon County who had migrated from Rhode Island, had purchased two tracts from William and Elizabeth, totaling 441 and a half acres. The larger tract of 263 acres straddled the Boone-Campbell line on the waters of Bank Lick Creek, adjoining the land of their father, Benjamin, now owned by Leonard Stephens and Polly Herndon, et al. A second tract of 177 acres on Gunpowder Creek in Boone included 20 acres in Campbell. The deeds were signed 16 Oct 1837, but not recorded until 10 Jan 1838. The total purchase price was $7,000. Boone Deeds L: 72, 74. However, the buyer died 12 Jun 1839, throwing into question the Corlis family's ability to honor the sale contract. Doctor Corlis was one of John's sons, either John Corlis, Jr. (1797-1867) or George William Russell Corlis (1790-1841), both of whom had connections with Boone County. The elder John Corlis' first wife, Susannah Conde Russell, had died in 1824; a dozen years later he remarried, to Evalina A. C. Respess, the sister of his son-in-law, William Machen Respess. See following letters. Return.
Until the creation of greenbacks during the Civil War, the United States economy was hobbled by lack of an acceptable national currency, and at this time the country was still recovering from the Panic of 1837. Return.
Sic. Return.
William and Elizabeth's children included Agnes Nelson (1804-1871), who married her first cousin, William Robinson Stephens (1802-1865); Thomas Nelson (1808-1886), who married Mary Ann Swindell (1817-1895); Lewis Lunsford (1813-1843), who married Emily Swindell (1820?- —); and Absalom Waller (1815-1889), who married Eliza Jane Hull (1820?- —). Return.
Probably a cousin of William's wife, Elizabeth. As will be seen, the Nelsons had many ties to the Stephens family. A Thomas Nelson was listed in 1840 in Monroe County not far from the Stephens families. (He was not the Thomas Haydon Nelson (1808- —), who remained in Northern Kentucky.) Return.
Albert Stephens (1813-1892), son of John Stephens, married in 1839 Minerva E. Bailey (1820?- —). Return.
Americus Stephens(1818-1860), also a son of John, married in 1858 Susan B. Finnell (1837-1863). He married late and died early. Return.
Robert Houston Perry (1809-1885), who was usually known by his middle name, had married in 1831 Leonard's niece, Catherine Sanford Stephens (1812-1887), daughter of Nancy Jane Waller Stephens and Thomas Sanford. Young Catherine was named for her aunt, Leonard's wife, Caty. Return.
Jackson W. Stephens (1815-1890), yet another son of John Stephens, married Mary Green. Return.
