Taliaferro County Georgia Bio Alexander Stephens File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Barbara Winge Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/taliaferro.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS Alexander Hamilton Stephens, of Crawfordville, who represents the Eighth Congressional District of Georgia in the Congress of the United States, without doubt, taken all in all-- physically morally, and intellectually-- may very justly be regarded as one of the most remarkable men of this country and age. The grandfather of Mr. Stephens, and the founder of the American branch of the family, was an Englishman by birth and a strong opponent of the House of Hanover, which was represented by George III, at the time of the Revolution. During the pre-Revolutionary Indian troubles Mr. Stephens served under General Braddock, and was with Colonel [afterwards General] Washington, in another expedition. He took an active part in the war for Independence fighting on the Colonial side, and gained the rank of Captain. At this time his home was in Pennsylvania, but in 1795 he settled in Georgia, living first in Elbert County, and then on Kettle Creek, in Wilkes County, till 1805, when he again changed his residence to that part of Wilkes which was afterward cut off, forming a part of Taliaferro County. Andrew B. Stephens, the father, and Alexander Stephens, the grandfather of our Representive, both died in that place. Alexander Hamilton Stephens was born February 11, 1812, and was named Alexander for his grandfather; the middle name, Hamilton, he took from love and respect for his greatest benefactor, Rev. Alexander Hamilton Webster, of Wilkes County, afterwards his preceptor, and who was a favorite preacher in Georgia. His father was a farmer of moderate means, industrious, just, and upright, and his death, in May, 1826, deprived the boy of the care and example of a most excellent man His mother, Margaret Grier, who was a sister of the author of the famous Grier's Almanac, and a distant relative of Justice Grier, of the United States Supreme Court, died when he was an infant, proving, perhaps his greatest loss. His own brother and sister both are dead, but of two half-brothers and a sister, by his father's second marriage, one, the Hon. Linton Stephens of Sparta, Georgia, late Judge of the State Supreme Court, survives. Left an orphan at the age of fourteen, the "solicitude and nourishment which would have made a strong boy of him were debarred in childhood, and that directing care which moulds the youth into a man was lost in boyhood." [This is an extremely long biography but full of wonderful information.] Ref: Headley, P. C., PUBLIC MEN OF TO-DAY, 1882, S. S. Scranton & Company, Hartford, pp. 579-588. [Contributed by Barbara Walker Winge, barbarawinge@yahoo.com] ======================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for FREE access. ==============