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from my perspective . . . July 25, 2011 Now on to the Stephens story . . .
Since Mary and her husband Ray (Mayor of Etna from 1998-2002) live in her family home on Main Street, it was just a short jaunt to their house for a Sunday afternoon chat. This is such an interesting story that you might want to fix yourself a cup of tea and just settle in for awhile! This first information is taken from notes transcribed by Mary from a tape recording her father, Joseph Clifford Stephens (known as 'Cliff' to most people) made in 1986 at the age of 96! "Joseph Enor Stephens (hereafter referred to as Dad) was born in Cornwall, England in 1846 and with his family, came to Munroe Point, Wisconsin when he was two years old. In 1866, when he was 20 yrs. old he left Wisconsin and sailed through the Isthmus of Panama and went to Los Angeles, Nevada and Idaho. He went down the Snake River in a rowboat. Dad went to Black Bear in the late 1860's or early '70's. While there, he had a store, hotel and livery stable. He married Elizabeth Casey when he was 32 yrs. old and she was 17. At some time he owned the Turf Club in San Francisco and his brother Harry ran it. He and his brother Jimmy built the tunnel through the Siskiyou Mountains. In 1891 or 1892 he built the road from Russian Creek to Jumpoff Joe on Salmon Mountain." (Mary
told me that he had the contract to that point and someone else
had the rest of the way. Back to the tape: " Dad enjoyed horses and racing. He entered horses at tracks from Oakland to Montana, mostly steeplechases.Wildoats held the record at the Oakland racecourse (and Daddy thinks it still stands in 1986!) (Mary
told me she recently found an old ledger " Dad had 8 to 10 work horses used to haul supplies as far as Trinity Center. One time, the driver took a load of butter and cheese over there (which could have been the butter and cheese from Eb's ancestors, the Walkers of the Cheeseville Creamery!!!!), collected the $5,000 due and left the country, possibly to Arizona where the law couldn't touch him. The money was never recovered. One night after work, Dad walked to Sawyers Bar and got in a poker game with a card sharp from San Francisco and won $1700 from him. Dad used that to start his business in Black Bear, sold that to Bennett Company and then bought the store in Etna for $30,000. This included the building and the stock. He was a good poker player."
and
this wonderful painting that Mary has framed in her home
"Elizabeth Casey (his wife) was born in 1860 in Blackbear. She was raised by Aunt Ellen because when she was a baby her parents moved to Yamhill, Oregon. She was too little to go with them. She didn't see them again until she was 22 after she was married. Dad had work horses for hauling freight and making local deliveries. One of the last was Old Maude. After they bought a pickup truck for deliveries, Old Maude, who had learned to let herself out of the barn would go uptown at one o'clock and stand in front of the store, ready to do her part until 5 o'clock, at which time she would go home." Joseph Enor Stephens ran the store until his death in 1926. Elizabeth Casey Stephens, his wife lived in Etna most of her life, moving after Joe died, to the Native Daughters of the Golden West Home on Baker Street in San Francisco where she died in 1937. Mary also provided this information: Cliff (Mary's father) was born in 1890, was raised in Etna and spent all his life there, except for time in the army and at college. He managed the Stephens Store after his father's death in 1926 and in 1937 his mother turned the store over to him before her death. He continued to run it until he closed it in 1961.
Cliff played outfield on the Etna semi-pro baseball team for several years, served on the Etna Town Council, was one of the founders of the Etna Lions Club and at one time was a member of the volunteer fire department. In his early years he drove the delivery wagon for his father's store, traveling as far as Sawyer's Bar. He rode horseback extensively in the Marble Mountain and Salmon River country. On December 11, 1925 he married Lydia Harris, (whose mother was a Finley). Lydia was better known as 'Heppie'. Mary said when her mother was a little girl, she would be asked, 'Are you happy?' and she would reply, 'Yes, I'm heppie' . . . and that's how she got that name! To be continued . . . In joy! Che'usa
Photos
courtesy of:
Thanks
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