Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Stephen, David S 1836 - 
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Author: Portrait & Biographical Album, 1890

DAVID S. STEPHEN. 

This gentleman occupies a prominent position among the business men of 
Frankfort Station, being proprietor of the Frankfort machine shop, a dealer in 
engines, machines, pumps, pipes, etc., and also occupying the official station 
of Justice of the Peace. He is a son of Joseph and Jane (Garden) Stephen, both 
of whom were born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Joseph Stephen studied for the 
ministry, and during his college life was a classmate of the famous Lord 
Byron. He began his ministerial labors in his native shire, as pastor of a 
Baptist Church, abandoning his field of labor there in 1843, when he crossed 
the Atlantic and located in Canada. There he engaged as clerk for a Mr. 
Barnet, a contractor on the Welland Canal. After sojourning in the Dominion a 
year, Mr. Stephen came to the United States, accompanying his employer to 
Lockport, this county, where he died not long after. The disease which caused 
his death was bilious fever, and he was then sixty-three years old. He was an 
ardent Abolitionist, preaching the doctrine from the pulpit and writing upon 
the question of slavery for the public press. During his boyhood he had become 
proficient as a mechanic, having inherited a taste for handicraft from his 
father, William Stephen, a native of Wales, and a practical mechanic, who had 
served for a time in the English army. After the death of her first husband, 
Mrs. Jane Stephen became the wife of James Logan, and they are living at 
Frankfort Station. By her first union she became the mother of five children, 
viz.: Jane, Mrs. Bruce, who died in Lockport Township; David S., our subject; 
E. C., who is running a planing, saw and feed mill, and manufacturing general 
wood work in Frankfort; Joseph S., a machinist in Chicago; George W., who died 
when eleven years old. Joseph S. served in the Twentieth Illinois Infantry 
three months, and re-enlisted in another regiment, serving until discharged on 
account of physical disability. When sufficiently recovered he enlisted again, 
continuing to act in defense of his country until honorably discharged at the 
close of the war. The second union of the mother of our subject was blest by 
the birth of one child, William H. Logan, now constable in Frankfort. The 
birthplace of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch was 
St. Fergus, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and his natal day March 14, 1836. Until 
he was five years old he was reared in his native village, and he then went to 
live with his grandfather at Almouth, where he remained until his parents 
removed to America, when he accompanied them hither. He traveled by steam to 
Edinburg, thence by rail to Glasgow, where the family embarked on 
the "Naverina." After a tedious voyage of ten weeks, landing was made in New 
York City, whence they went to St. Catharines, Canada, and then to Thorwald, 
seven miles from Niagara Falls, whose roar they could distinctly hear. The 
removal to Illinois was made by a steamer to Chicago, which was then but a 
village, and by team to Lockport. A home was made on the Barnet farm, in the 
township of Homer, and the lad began his attendance at the common schools. 
Previous to this time he had been instructed entirely by his parents, and he 
was able to begin his school life in the Third Reader class. The Indians had 
left this region not long before and the country was an almost unbroken 
prairie, neighbors were few and far between, and all the surroundings were of 
a primitive nature. Some four or five years later he of whom we write, and his 
brother, E. C., walked to Frankfort Township, where their stepfather bought a 
farm, on which our subject lived until his eighteenth birthday. During his 
early years David Stephen was occupied in farm pursuits, but when eighteen he 
began working as a millwright and carpenter finding employment in Joliet and 
Lockport. He also engaged somewhat in jobbing and repairing, all handicraft 
coming naturally to him as an inheritance from his mechanical ancestors. Not 
only had his father and grandfather Stephen been excellent mechanics, but his 
grandfather Garden was also a fine workman as a millwright and plowwright, and 
the efficient proprietor of a general implement shop in Aberdeenshire. Young 
Stephen drilled during the late war and volunteered, but was rejected by the 
examining physician. In 1863 our subject and his brother, E. C., opened a 
machine and repair shop in Frankfort, the connection continuing three years, 
after which the older brother retired, and spent three years in Kalamazoo 
County, Mich. In 1874 the partnership was resumed, and the firm of D. S. & E. 
C. Stephen built a machine shop, feed mill, sawmill and other edifices, 
continuing in partnership until 1889, when the connection was again dissolved. 
Since that time our subject has been carrying on his present business, having 
a fine set of machinery for working iron, and doing a large trade in repairing 
engines and other machines, and manufacturing a double-force pump of the 
Stephen Bros' invention. He has manifested an unusual degree of enterprise, 
and has a reputation for mechanical skill which is unexcelled. At the home of 
the bride in Frankfort, in November, 1867, the rites of wedlock were 
celebrated between Mr. Stephen and Addie C. Bathrick. The bride was born in 
Ashtabula County, Ohio, was educated in Buffalo, N. Y., and was for a time 
engaged in teaching, a profession for which her culture, tact and fine 
character well fitted her. She is a daughter of the Rev. Stephen Bathrick, a 
Free Will Baptist minister and also a practicing homeopathic physician. He 
labored in various States—New York, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, etc.— ably 
advancing the cause of Christianity for years. He entered into rest in 
Frankfort, this county, in 1880. To Mr. and Mrs. Stephen two children have 
been born, named respectively Marian F. and Edwin L. Mr. Stephen is now 
serving his third term as Justice of the Peace, and his second term as a 
member of the Board of Village Trustees. A man of ripe intelligence, good 
judgment and firm principles, he proves an efficient worker for the prosperity 
and order of the town. He belongs to Joliet Lodge, No. 42, F. & A. M. He is a 
stanch Republican, politically, and has frequently been sent as a delegate to 
county conventions. 

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

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