Lt.Col. Mills Stephenson-- Part 8: Grandfather and Father

From the History of Adams County, Ohio.

Captain John Stephens, Mill's grandfather, commanded a sailing vessel running between Ireland and America's colonial Atlantic ports.  He lived in the colonies and his son William, Mills' father, ran away to avoid going to sea with his father.

William Stephenson moved to Pennsylvania, near York, where he married.  he joined the colonial army in the Revolution and served until the end.  He then moved his family to Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he lived for several years.

In 1793, he joined a group heading to live in Limestone, now Maysville, Kentucky.  One member of the group was a Mr. Kilpatrick, who had two motherless daughters.  Kilpatrick was killed along the way by a group of Indians and William Stephenson took charge of and cared for the orphan girls.  One of these girls eventually became the first wife of Mills Stephenson.

--Brock-Perry