Stephenson, Andrew J. (1831-1903)

STEPHENSON

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/22/2019 at 21:50:09

Andrew J. Stephenson
Sep 21, 1831 - Mar 10, 1903

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.445)
A. J. STEPHENSON, City Clerk and Clerk of the Superior Court of Council Bluffs, is a native of Jackson County, Ohio, born in 1831, son of Andrew and Elizabeth (McGEE) STEPHENSON, of Virginia and North Carolina. His parents were of English and Scotch ancestry. Both are deceased, his father having died when A. J. was a small child. Mr. STEPHENSON was about eleven years old when he left Ohio and went to Indiana with an uncle. He was reared on a farm and educated in the public schools of that State. At sixteen he started out for himself, remaining in Indiana and being variously employed for a number of years. He first clerked in a dry-goods store, then for four years was employed in a railroad office in Elkhart. At the end of that time he invested his earnings in a stock of general merchandise and opened a store at Leesburgh. From there he removed to Warsaw, where he continued his business for several years. While at Leesburgh he was married, in 1856 to Miss Eliza FELKNER, a native of Indiana.

In 1868 Mr. STEPHENSON sold his business at Warsaw, left Indiana, and came to Council Bluff, Iowa, where he engaged in the hardware business. When the panic of 1873 came on he met with heavy losses and discontinued business. After that he was employed for five years in the interest of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad. Then he opened an office of his own in the real-estate line, and in this he has since been engaged, and continues to do a realty business although Clerk of the city. Mr. STEPHENSON affiliates with the Republican party, being a hearty supporter of the same.

He and his wife are the parents of five children: Victor, at home, a telegrapher; Lulu, wife of M. E. MEADER, of Goshen, Indiana; Chester F., a graduate of Iowa City Law school, is now in a real-estate office in Goshen, Indiana; Mary J. and Ada E., at home.