(The following biographical sketch of Isaac Newton Stephens Sr. and his wife, Mary Boals/Bowles, appeared in "Some Descendants of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens of Baltimore County, Maryland, 1745-2005" by Edmund G. Fisher, 2005. It is reprinted with the author's permission.)
Isaac Stephens, the son of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens, was reared on his father's plantations in Maryland and Virginia. As a young man he traveled with his elder brother, Emmor Stephens, to western Virginia. There the two brothers worked for a time as barge tenders along the Ohio River, and afterward sharecropped on the lavish Harman Blennerhassett plantation on an island near the present day city of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
On July 31, 1800, in Pennsylvania or Virginia, Isaac married Mary Boals/Bowles, whose sister, Elizabeth, later became the wife of Isaac's brother, Emmor Stephens. Mary was born in Pennsylvania or Virginia. The sisters are traditionally believed to have been descendants of the large Boal family of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties, Pennsylvania. The family name is spelled, variously, as Boal, Boals, or Bowles. According to some historians, the Boal clan's ancestors were Ulstermen from County Derry, Ireland, while others claim the family's antecedents were Dutchmen. In any case, Elizabeth and Mary's immediate forebears probably lived either in Washington County, Pennsylvania, or in what is now Brooke County, West Virginia. Their mother is believed to have been born with the maiden surname of Fulton, a theory that is supported by one family chronicle claiming that Robert Fulton (1765-1815), the Lancaster County native who achieved international fame as the inventor of the steamboat, was a first cousin to Elizabeth and Mary Boals. They likely had siblings, but only one other sister is known from existing records.
The couple lived on Blennerhassett Island until 1818 when they moved to newly platted Indianapolis, Indiana. Eight years later, in 1826, they settled on a rented farm near Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois, a small agricultural enclave near the banks of the Mississippi River several miles west of the larger town of Carthage. Isaac and Mary's children are traditionally believed to have attended the pioneer schools in nearby Nauvoo, Illinois, a place marked by history as an early settlement site for the rapidly expanding Mormon community.
By trade Isaac was a tiller of the soil, but he was by no means exclusively occupied with agricultural pursuits while residing in Hancock County, Illinois. Exhibiting a flair for frontier commerce, he entered the ferry business with a small, hand hewn transport which he used to convey passengers and goods across the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. At about the same time he also engaged in the merchant trade with the local Indians, an activity he supported with substantial purchases of gunpowder, alcohol, and other products from a supplier in Hamilton, Illinois.
Long standing family tradition held that Isaac Stephens was buried with other relatives in Spring Creek Cemetery near Burlington, Iowa, or “Flint Hills” as it was known at its founding in 1834. However, Isaac’s death late in 1833 in Hancock County, Illinois, makes it unlikely that he ever had a personal connection to the Mississippi River port town that was to play an important role in the residential histories of many of his descendants. Isaac is possibly buried in or near Hamilton, Illinois. The widowed Mary Stephens, who outlived her husband by about fifteen years, probably spent her final days in the home of her eldest son, Samuel F. Stephens, in Union Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, near Burlington. As with her husband, her burial place is not documented.
Isaac Stephens, the son of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens, was reared on his father's plantations in Maryland and Virginia. As a young man he traveled with his elder brother, Emmor Stephens, to western Virginia. There the two brothers worked for a time as barge tenders along the Ohio River, and afterward sharecropped on the lavish Harman Blennerhassett plantation on an island near the present day city of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
On July 31, 1800, in Pennsylvania or Virginia, Isaac married Mary Boals/Bowles, whose sister, Elizabeth, later became the wife of Isaac's brother, Emmor Stephens. Mary was born in Pennsylvania or Virginia. The sisters are traditionally believed to have been descendants of the large Boal family of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties, Pennsylvania. The family name is spelled, variously, as Boal, Boals, or Bowles. According to some historians, the Boal clan's ancestors were Ulstermen from County Derry, Ireland, while others claim the family's antecedents were Dutchmen. In any case, Elizabeth and Mary's immediate forebears probably lived either in Washington County, Pennsylvania, or in what is now Brooke County, West Virginia. Their mother is believed to have been born with the maiden surname of Fulton, a theory that is supported by one family chronicle claiming that Robert Fulton (1765-1815), the Lancaster County native who achieved international fame as the inventor of the steamboat, was a first cousin to Elizabeth and Mary Boals. They likely had siblings, but only one other sister is known from existing records.
The couple lived on Blennerhassett Island until 1818 when they moved to newly platted Indianapolis, Indiana. Eight years later, in 1826, they settled on a rented farm near Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois, a small agricultural enclave near the banks of the Mississippi River several miles west of the larger town of Carthage. Isaac and Mary's children are traditionally believed to have attended the pioneer schools in nearby Nauvoo, Illinois, a place marked by history as an early settlement site for the rapidly expanding Mormon community.
By trade Isaac was a tiller of the soil, but he was by no means exclusively occupied with agricultural pursuits while residing in Hancock County, Illinois. Exhibiting a flair for frontier commerce, he entered the ferry business with a small, hand hewn transport which he used to convey passengers and goods across the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. At about the same time he also engaged in the merchant trade with the local Indians, an activity he supported with substantial purchases of gunpowder, alcohol, and other products from a supplier in Hamilton, Illinois.
Long standing family tradition held that Isaac Stephens was buried with other relatives in Spring Creek Cemetery near Burlington, Iowa, or “Flint Hills” as it was known at its founding in 1834. However, Isaac’s death late in 1833 in Hancock County, Illinois, makes it unlikely that he ever had a personal connection to the Mississippi River port town that was to play an important role in the residential histories of many of his descendants. Isaac is possibly buried in or near Hamilton, Illinois. The widowed Mary Stephens, who outlived her husband by about fifteen years, probably spent her final days in the home of her eldest son, Samuel F. Stephens, in Union Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, near Burlington. As with her husband, her burial place is not documented.
(The following biographical sketch of Isaac Newton Stephens Sr. and his wife, Mary Boals/Bowles, appeared in "Some Descendants of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens of Baltimore County, Maryland, 1745-2005" by Edmund G. Fisher, 2005. It is reprinted with the author's permission.)
Isaac Stephens, the son of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens, was reared on his father's plantations in Maryland and Virginia. As a young man he traveled with his elder brother, Emmor Stephens, to western Virginia. There the two brothers worked for a time as barge tenders along the Ohio River, and afterward sharecropped on the lavish Harman Blennerhassett plantation on an island near the present day city of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
On July 31, 1800, in Pennsylvania or Virginia, Isaac married Mary Boals/Bowles, whose sister, Elizabeth, later became the wife of Isaac's brother, Emmor Stephens. Mary was born in Pennsylvania or Virginia. The sisters are traditionally believed to have been descendants of the large Boal family of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties, Pennsylvania. The family name is spelled, variously, as Boal, Boals, or Bowles. According to some historians, the Boal clan's ancestors were Ulstermen from County Derry, Ireland, while others claim the family's antecedents were Dutchmen. In any case, Elizabeth and Mary's immediate forebears probably lived either in Washington County, Pennsylvania, or in what is now Brooke County, West Virginia. Their mother is believed to have been born with the maiden surname of Fulton, a theory that is supported by one family chronicle claiming that Robert Fulton (1765-1815), the Lancaster County native who achieved international fame as the inventor of the steamboat, was a first cousin to Elizabeth and Mary Boals. They likely had siblings, but only one other sister is known from existing records.
The couple lived on Blennerhassett Island until 1818 when they moved to newly platted Indianapolis, Indiana. Eight years later, in 1826, they settled on a rented farm near Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois, a small agricultural enclave near the banks of the Mississippi River several miles west of the larger town of Carthage. Isaac and Mary's children are traditionally believed to have attended the pioneer schools in nearby Nauvoo, Illinois, a place marked by history as an early settlement site for the rapidly expanding Mormon community.
By trade Isaac was a tiller of the soil, but he was by no means exclusively occupied with agricultural pursuits while residing in Hancock County, Illinois. Exhibiting a flair for frontier commerce, he entered the ferry business with a small, hand hewn transport which he used to convey passengers and goods across the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. At about the same time he also engaged in the merchant trade with the local Indians, an activity he supported with substantial purchases of gunpowder, alcohol, and other products from a supplier in Hamilton, Illinois.
Long standing family tradition held that Isaac Stephens was buried with other relatives in Spring Creek Cemetery near Burlington, Iowa, or “Flint Hills” as it was known at its founding in 1834. However, Isaac’s death late in 1833 in Hancock County, Illinois, makes it unlikely that he ever had a personal connection to the Mississippi River port town that was to play an important role in the residential histories of many of his descendants. Isaac is possibly buried in or near Hamilton, Illinois. The widowed Mary Stephens, who outlived her husband by about fifteen years, probably spent her final days in the home of her eldest son, Samuel F. Stephens, in Union Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, near Burlington. As with her husband, her burial place is not documented.
Isaac Stephens, the son of Thomas and Jane (Jefferson) Stephens, was reared on his father's plantations in Maryland and Virginia. As a young man he traveled with his elder brother, Emmor Stephens, to western Virginia. There the two brothers worked for a time as barge tenders along the Ohio River, and afterward sharecropped on the lavish Harman Blennerhassett plantation on an island near the present day city of Parkersburg, West Virginia.
On July 31, 1800, in Pennsylvania or Virginia, Isaac married Mary Boals/Bowles, whose sister, Elizabeth, later became the wife of Isaac's brother, Emmor Stephens. Mary was born in Pennsylvania or Virginia. The sisters are traditionally believed to have been descendants of the large Boal family of Lancaster and Dauphin Counties, Pennsylvania. The family name is spelled, variously, as Boal, Boals, or Bowles. According to some historians, the Boal clan's ancestors were Ulstermen from County Derry, Ireland, while others claim the family's antecedents were Dutchmen. In any case, Elizabeth and Mary's immediate forebears probably lived either in Washington County, Pennsylvania, or in what is now Brooke County, West Virginia. Their mother is believed to have been born with the maiden surname of Fulton, a theory that is supported by one family chronicle claiming that Robert Fulton (1765-1815), the Lancaster County native who achieved international fame as the inventor of the steamboat, was a first cousin to Elizabeth and Mary Boals. They likely had siblings, but only one other sister is known from existing records.
The couple lived on Blennerhassett Island until 1818 when they moved to newly platted Indianapolis, Indiana. Eight years later, in 1826, they settled on a rented farm near Hamilton, Hancock County, Illinois, a small agricultural enclave near the banks of the Mississippi River several miles west of the larger town of Carthage. Isaac and Mary's children are traditionally believed to have attended the pioneer schools in nearby Nauvoo, Illinois, a place marked by history as an early settlement site for the rapidly expanding Mormon community.
By trade Isaac was a tiller of the soil, but he was by no means exclusively occupied with agricultural pursuits while residing in Hancock County, Illinois. Exhibiting a flair for frontier commerce, he entered the ferry business with a small, hand hewn transport which he used to convey passengers and goods across the Mississippi River between Illinois and Iowa. At about the same time he also engaged in the merchant trade with the local Indians, an activity he supported with substantial purchases of gunpowder, alcohol, and other products from a supplier in Hamilton, Illinois.
Long standing family tradition held that Isaac Stephens was buried with other relatives in Spring Creek Cemetery near Burlington, Iowa, or “Flint Hills” as it was known at its founding in 1834. However, Isaac’s death late in 1833 in Hancock County, Illinois, makes it unlikely that he ever had a personal connection to the Mississippi River port town that was to play an important role in the residential histories of many of his descendants. Isaac is possibly buried in or near Hamilton, Illinois. The widowed Mary Stephens, who outlived her husband by about fifteen years, probably spent her final days in the home of her eldest son, Samuel F. Stephens, in Union Township, Des Moines County, Iowa, near Burlington. As with her husband, her burial place is not documented.
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