Yolo County
Biographies
JOSEPH J. STEPHENS
Few if any families have been more intimately associated with the
development of Yolo county, and especially with the
progress of Woodland, than the one which is represented by the capitalist and
landowner whose name introduces this narrative. In every respect he is worthy
of the honored name he bears, the prestige of which his own successful and
honorable life has deepened. Coming to California from Missouri in an early
period, he has since been a resident of Yolo county
and identified with numerous activities contributory to local progress and the
development of material resources. While at this writing he has to a large
degree retired from business, making his home in his commodious residence in
Woodland, he still maintains a general supervision of his interests, including
his home farm of two hundred and forty acres in Yolo county, and his large
ranch in Fresno county, of eight hundred acres, which is devoted to alfalfa,
grain and stock, with the exception of about forty-five acres in vineyard.
Near Bunceton,
Cooper county, Mo., Joseph J. Stephens was born
October 25, 1836, a son of James Madison and Mary A. (Adams) Stephens, the
former a prominent cattleman and farmer of his locality. Schools were few in
those days, yet he had the advantage of attending private schools and obtained
the foundation of the education which later years of self-culture and
observation provided. While yet a boy he became interested in California
through reports concerning its climate and possibilities received from his
uncles, pioneers of the far west. With one of these uncles, John Adams, he left
home April 9, 1854, with ox-teams and the further equipment necessary for an
overland journey. He assisted in driving cattle across the plains and walked
much of the distance from his old home to the new. On his arrival he at once
settled in Yolo county, where he worked industriously
and economically hoarded his earnings in order to save enough to set up
housekeeping. In 1856, in company with about twenty citizens from Missouri, he
returned via Panama and New Orleans to St. Louis, Mo. From there he went to
Cooper county, where he married Miss Elizabeth Betty
Davis, daughter of John Davis and a native of Tennessee. With his bride in 1857
he started across the plains. This time, as before, he drove a herd of cattle
to California. After reaching his destination he and his
brother, Lawrence D., who had come west in 1852, embarked in the stock-raising
business in Yolo county. The country then was peculiarly adapted for
that industry, as pasturage was abundant and fences had not yet been built. In
a short time they purchased five hundred and twenty-two acres near Cottonwood
(now Madison) and there they conducted a prosperous business until the drought
of 1864. The pasturage becoming exhausted, they removed the cattle to the Coast
Range Mountains and the sheep to the foothills of Placer county
east of Lincoln, where the feed was excellent. However, there they suffered
from an exceedingly cold, wet winter, and on returning to Yolo county in 1865
had only one cow and twenty-four sheep left.
While J. J. Stephens was conducting the stock ranch, his brother went to
the mines, but returned a year later and they continued general farming until
1873, when they added a grain business to their other interests. In 1876 they
built a grain warehouse in Woodland, where they handled vast quantities of
grain. In 1881, with J. H. Harlan, they bought three thousand acres ten miles
south of Fresno, Cal., and engaged in general farming and stock raising on that vast tract, the three continuing together
until 1894, when, the banking interests requiring the entire attention of
Lawrence D., the property was divided. In fraternal relations J. J. Stephens
became a Mason in early life and has always been a believer in the high
principles and philanthropies of that fraternity. As business interests require
less time than in former years, he has the leisure he desires for participation
in movements for the benefit of the town, also for keeping posted concerning the
principal national issues of the age. Perhaps his happiest hours are those
spent in his home. This residence, which stands on the corner of Elm and
Lincoln streets, forms an ideal abode, with its charming interior furnishings
and its environment of well-kept lawn with flowers, tropical fruits and palms.
His first wife, who was born March 5, 1837, died at Woodland in 1891, and later
he married Sallie Lucas, a native of Andrew County, Mo., and the daughter of
George J. Lucas, a pioneer of 1868 in Yolo county. In
his family there are the following-named children: Mary F., who is the wife of
R. B. Butler, of San Francisco; Lewis Oliver, the present mayor of Fresno,
Cal.; William A., a former recorder of Yolo county, but now living at Hanford;
Charles, a farmer living at Grangeville, Kings county, Cal.; James M., who died
at eleven years of age; Isabelle, who died in infancy; Kate N., who is married
to W. A. Porter, of Woodland, and Bettie Ora, who
resides with her father in Woodland.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
391-392.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget Library's Yolo
County Biographies