STEBBINS, Henry Alfred

STEBBINS, DANCER, COCHRAN, ROGERS, SELLON, FLETCHER, CRAMER

Posted By: Sharon R Becker (email)
Date: 2/14/2014 at 14:29:32

History of Decatur County Iowa and Its People
Illustrated, Volumne II.

Prof. J. M. Howell and Heman C. Smith
Supervising Editors

The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. Pp. 176-80. Chicago. 1915.

HENRY ALFRED STEBBINS

Henry A. Stebbins, of Lamoni, has been highly honored by his church — the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints — and has held many important offices in that denomination, while for forty-eight years he was active in its ministry. He was born at Toledo, Ohio, on the 28th of January, 1844, a son of Charles and Julia E. Stebbins. There were five sons and a daughter in the family, the subject of this review being the youngest. When in 1846 the father died the daughter was taken by an aunt and all of the Sons went to work with exception of Henry A., who continued with his mother. In 1851 his brother George was instrumental in securing the removal of the family to Wisconsin, the greater part of the journey being made by lake. The mother and our subject settled at Newark, Rock county, but subsequently removed about eight miles to the southeast of Beloit. In 1856 our subject accompanied his brother George on his removal to Pecatonica, Winnebago county, Illinois, and there continued his education. When not in school he clerked in stores and thus provided for his own support. In July, 1860, he began to learn the wagon-maker’s trade but before his term of apprenticeship was ended the Civil war broke out and be put aside all personal interests and aims, joining the Union army when eighteen years of age. He became a corporal in Company B, Seventy-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, and went with his command to the south. Many of his comrades died from exposure and sickness and he himself was eventually discharged because of disability due to illness.

While in the army and in the hospital Mr. Stebbins thought much on religious matters and on the 23d of August, 1863, was baptized in the Church of Latter Day Saints by Elder Samuel Powers, who at the time signified that Mr. Stebbins would be called upon to preach the Gospel. The following year, 1864, our subject visited his brothers, who were in business at Atchison, Kansas, and when he informed them that he intended to devote his life to religious work they refused to have anything more to do with him as they believed that he was throwing his life, away. They would not even correspond with him and for thirty-five years he did not see his oldest brother, and another brother he did not see for twenty-eight years, but while on a visit to Denver in 1902 he saw them both after their long separation. The eldest died in. 1904, when seventy-five years of age, leaving an estate valued at a quarter of a million dollars, but he gave nothing to his brother Henry.

Henry A. Stebbins followed the trade of wagon-making at Pecatonica, Illinois, when his health permitted but did not give up his desire to preach the Gospel and on the 20th of July, 1865, was ordained an elder by Elder Powers. The nearest congregation of the Latter Day Saints was at Marengo, Illinois, and in 1867 and again in 1868 he visited the church there. In April of the latter year he offered his name at Piano, Illinois, and was appointed to labor in Michigan under Elder E. C. Briggs, who was also associated with Elder David H. Smith; He bore his own expenses and traveled much on foot, but all of the time he was gaining confidence in himself and obtaining knowledge. Upon recovering from an attack of chills and fever in the spring of 1869 he was assigned to a mission in Wisconsin and preached in Rock county and at Prairie Du Chien. In August and September of that year he preached at Hudson, Wisconsin, and at Stillwater, Minnesota. His labors in these fields resulted in the baptism of four persons and in October he baptized four more converts in Dunn county. He continued to preach at various places during the winter of 1869-70, which he spent at the home of 0. N. Dutton, near Janesville. In April, 1870, he attended conference at Piano, and he and William H. Garrett acted as the secretaries of that body. In June of that year Mr. Stebbins was chosen president of the northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin district and for six years, or until June, 1876, he traveled almost continuously among the twelve branches. In 1874 he preached in Chicago, his sermons being the first ever given there by a minister of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints. In April, 1876, he was chosen one of the board of publication and assistant editor of the Herald, which was then and still is the official paper of the church, Lamoni, Iowa, being since 1881 the place of publication. In 1880 Mr. Stebbins resigned as assistant editor and removed to Lamoni, where he engaged in the grain and lumber business in connection with David Dancer and A. S. Cochran. However, his heart was still with the work of the church and after a short time he withdrew from his business connections and again gave his undivided attention to promoting the interests of religion. For forty-eight years he was active in the ministry of his church and during that time preached in Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, California and Utah. His labors resulted in the baptism of about five hundred people and he is widely known, among the members of the Reorganized Church.

Mr. Stebbins was general church recorder for thirty-two years, from 1874 to 1906, and held the office of church secretary from 1875 until 1895. For twenty-one years he was secretary of the Quorum of High Priests, serving in that office from April, 1882, to April, 1903, and from 1871 to 1882 he was bookkeeper and secretary for Bishop Israel L. Rogers. In 1875 he was made secretary and counselor of the First Quorum of Elders and held that office for four years. For five years, from 1870 to 1875, he was secretary and book keeper of the First United Order of Enoch and in 1879 he was ordained as a high priest. In 1901 be was made one of the Lamoni Stake Council and held that position until 1907, when he resigned on account of increasing deafness. He served as one of the board of location appointed to decide on a site for the Herald office and for the church headquarters and with others was instrumental in securing the removal from Plano to Lamoni in 1880. For two or three years he was president of the Lamoni branch and for eight years was president of the Decatur district, now known as the Lamoni stake, and for some time in 1882 was president of the Nauvoo and String Prairie district.

At Burlington, Iowa, on the 7th of October, 1879, Mr. Stebbins was united in marriage to Miss Clara B. Sellon. Three children were born to them, all of whom, however, have passed away. The birth of Mrs. Stebbins occurred in Shiawassee county, Michigan, on the 13th of December, 1858, and her parents were William R. and Alma Sophia (Fletcher) Sellon. Her parental grandfather, Rev. John Sellon, was an Episcopal clergyman of New England and was a force for good in his community. Her father, William R. Sellon, served in the Mexican war and in the Civil war, holding the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Union army in the latter conflict. He was a native of New York and his wife’s birth occurred in Pennsylvania. They were married in Pittsfield, Pike county, Illinois, and subsequently removed to Michigan, where the father taught school for a number of years. In 1862 the family home was established at Burlington, Iowa, and the father was successively a bookkeeper, superintendent of schools of Des Moines county and court reporter. He was a highly educated man and took his college work at Columbia University. For some time he lived in California and served as court reporter while a resident of Riverside, that state, but eventually returned to Burling ton, where he died in May, 1906, at the age of eighty-two years, as he was born in 1824. He was a member of the Reorganized Church of Latter Day Saints, as was his wife, who passed away in 1890, at the age of sixty-four. Mrs. Stebbins is the fifth in the family of eight children, of whom another daughter, Mrs. H. S. Cramer, of Denver, Colorado, and a son, Brodie R. Sellon, who is presumably living in California, also survive. A relative of the family, Sir Benjamin Brodie, was a noted chemist and was surgeon to Queen Victoria and prominent in his profession. Merle d’Aubigné, the distinguished Swiss Protestant church historian, married a great aunt of Mrs. Stebbins and on her mother’s side she is descended from Governor Bradford, of Massachusetts. She is also related to the Webster family, of which Noah Webster, the great lexicographer, was a representative.

Mrs. Stebbins has been a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints since 1875 and has taught in the Sunday school the greater part of the time during the years that have since elapsed. In 1890 she began editing the domestic department in Autumn Leaves and later had charge of the Daughters of Zion department and still later the Ladies’ Auxiliary department. She is at present writing for the Woman’s Auxiliary, her articles appearing in the home column of the Herald, which is published in Lamoni. For many years she has been superintendent of the primary department in the Sunday school at Lamoni and is at present a member of the board of trustees and has served as secretary of the admission and dismission committee of the Children’s Home maintained by the church. She is also a member of the education and clothing committees. Until recently she was a member of the advisory board of the Woman’s Auxiliary for Social Service and for many years has been president of’ the local Woman’s Auxiliary and is making that department an active force for good.

Mr. Stebbins gives his support to the republican party but has never taken much part in political affairs, although he has been at all times willing to aid in promoting the welfare of the community. His paternal grandfather fought in the Revolutionary war and his maternal grandfather was a soldier of the War of 1812. Mr. Stebbins has never been found lacking in commendable public spirit. His life work, however, has been the preaching of the Gospel and the spread of the influence of his church and in those lines he has accomplished much.

NOTE: Henry died September 8, 1920. Clara B. (Sellon) Stebbins died in 1958. They were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery, Lamoni IA.

Transcription and note by Sharon R. Becker, February of 2014