Untitled Document

MRS. MARY STEPHENS

Mrs. George Stephens was a woman of distinguished ancestry, noble character and tender heart. Mary A. Gardner was born near Utica, N. Y., March 14, 1830, a daughter of Ebenezer and Mary (Wilkinson) Gardner, her mother being a member of the Wilkinson family, founders of Providence, R. I. She was also a descendent of Stephens Hopkins, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and of Ezek Hopkins, the founder of the American Navy.

The family came west when Mrs. Stephens was a young girl, settling in Rock Island county, Ill., but very soon removed to California. When not quite seventeen years of age, she was married, on November 4, 1846, to George Stephens, then a competent and industrious young millwright. Possibly his experience with this kind of work gave him and his wife a comprehension of the difficulties of working people that made them both so full of sympathy for those who were toiling day after day, and gave them the rare tact that endeared them to those who had been less fortunate than they in amassing wealth.

Mrs. Stephens was known as an ideal wife and mother, giving to each member of her large family all the helpful counsel and loving care which they needed, but her generous nature could not be satisfied with simply meeting the demands of those in the home circle.

Throughout the comumnity she was recognized as an angel of mercy to those in need, to those in sorrow or to those suffering from any cause. She was a woman of sterling character, was of a religious nature, yet held the broadest and most tolerant views, and she endeavored to imbue the minds of her children with the ideals and ambition for the highest things. Her sweet face and sunny smile, her rare judgment and sincere sympathy made her most beloved, the friend alike of the rich and the poor.

She was truly mourned when on February 4, 1888, her gentle spirit passed away. For eighteen months she had been seriously ill, suffering greatly from heart trouble. Although her loving presence is no longer the inspiration of the home life, still she lives in the hearts of her children, who cherish her memory, and in the thoughts of her neighbors and friends.

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois

Submitted by W. Caudell

Illinois Ancestors

112006BMKF