ALANSON STEPHENS, 



the subject of this sketch, was born in the town of Hornellsville, 

 this county, Dec. 8, 1820. 



The Stephens family in this county is descended from Elijah 

 Stephens, his grandfather, who settled in the town of Canisteo in 

 the year 1789 ; he, with some six others, coming from the Wyoming 

 Valley after the great massacre there, by the way of the Susque- 

 hanna, Chemung, and Canisteo Rivers in boats, stopping awhile at 

 Newtown (now Elmira), being the first white inhabitants in the 

 Canisteo Valley. Elijah Stephens became a large land owner, 

 owning several tiers of lots through the town. He met the trials 

 of a wilderness life and of early settlement with that resolution 

 which overcame difficulties, and paved the way for the prosperity 

 of his progeny, which became quite numerous. He died at the 

 age of about eighty, in the year 1840, leaving three sons and six 

 daughters. 



His father, Benjamin Stephens, was second child of this family, 

 was a farmer by occupation and in his day figured in the early 

 settlement of the town ; he was married to Arthusa Hamilton, of the 

 town of Howard. Her father, Alexander Hamilton, was a Revo 

 lutionary soldier, was a pensioner, and lived to a very advanced 

 age. Of this union were born five sons and two daughters, of whom 

 the subject of this notice was the eldest. His father died in 1835, 

 having been born in 1800. His mother died about 1840, at the 

 age of forty. 



Mr. Stephens spent his early life as a carpenter and joiner, and 

 as early as at the age of fifteen engaged in rafting lumber down the 

 Susquehanna River to Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Port Deposit, 

 which he carried on quite extensively, sometimes reaching as high 

 a figure as one million feet in a year. His entire stock of lumber 

 was cut and sawed in the town of Hornellsville, and for some ten 



years and until the beginning of the war he operated on a large 

 scale in this business ; since which time he has continued the same, 

 but not so extensively. A part of the time he was in partnership 

 with Mr. Barnard, of Albany, who owned some seventeen hundred 

 acres of timber land in the town of Hornellsville. Mr. Stephens' 

 principal occupation now is farming. 



In early life he was, through necessity, denied the opportunities 

 of an education from books (as in those times a pecuniary value 

 was often set upon the time of children), and hence during his subse- 

 quent life he, feeling the need of the same, has done very much to 

 confer upon others this great gift. In the Fifth Ward may be seen 

 a fine school edifice built by him, and afterwards accepted by the 

 people of that ward : and it may be said that nearly all of the school 

 edifices of the village of Hornellsville bear the imprint of his 

 hand in their construction. In this work Mr. Stephens always 

 felt well repaid that such opportunities might be given the rising 

 generation for an education, and never consented to receive any 

 remuneration for his services. Valuing Mr. Stephens' experience, 

 and knowing his warm interest in school work, for the past twelve 

 years he has been elected President of the Board of Education of 

 Hornellsville, and for some twelve years prior was connected with 

 the Fifth Ward school as trustee. 



In his early years Mr. Stephens was a Democrat, but subse- 

 quently has regarded principles above party, and independently 

 favors the man who represents the principles of sound doctrine and 

 reform. For two years he has represented his town as supervisor. 

 In the y^ar 1842 he married Catherine, daughter of Christopher 

 Doty, of Hornellsville. His wife died in 1866, leaving four sons, — 

 Christopher B., Thaddeus A., Walter, and William B., and one 

 daughter, Mrs. Paul Lord. 



