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- James Bell Stephenson was born either in Florida or Georgia. He came to Texas in 1826 with his father James, mother Amelia Bell, brother Thomas and three other children. His father James was granted a league of land in northern Austin County on Caney Creek where the family made its first home. As time passed, they sold this land and moved on to Grimes County. James was only 13 when the troubles with the Mexicans started in Texas. His father and older brother Thomas went off to fight but James Bell Stephenson stayed behind to take care of the family. It is said that in 1836 he did join up when Sam Houston marched to San Jacinto with the many other brave pioneer-soldiers of Austin County who fought to make Texas a country of its own. Regardless of whether he is recorded in history as having participated in that battle (many of the records were lost or inaccurately recorded) he did indeed participate in subsequent battles of the Republic.
When the Indians became hostile in central Texas, James was under the command of Captain John S. Bird in which Bird was killed at the Bird Creek Indian Fight. Nathan Brookshire became the commanding officer of this battle. In the spring of 1842 during the invasion of Texas by Mexico under General Vasques, James again appears in service under General Somerville and Captain Bogart. As the civil war pulled Texas into the struggle, James Bell Stephenson was elected Captain of the Grimes County Greys. He was a member of the masonic lodge at Courtney, Texas. In 1873, James was appointed by the Governor of the State of Texas to lay out a separate county from Austin County. That county became Waller County and James along with his brother-in-law William Maxwell served as the first commissioner of Waller County. James' wife Melissa died shortly after her twins Oliver & Olive were born in 1866. James died Sep 28, 1905 and was buried in a private cemetery on the land he owned in southern Grimes county near the Waller County line between Hwy 6 and FM 362 near County RD 2. This is a beautiful area of pine trees and high rolling hills. This remarkable man saw his father fight the Seminole Indian battles in Florida, traveled in a covered wagon headed for that promised land called Texas at age six, struggled with his family to carve a farm in the wilderness, witnessed the hardships caused by drought, famine, disease and hostile Indians, participated in the war for Independence with Mexico, the subsequent Indian wars with the Commanche and Wacos, the second invasion of Texas by Mexico, the Civil War, witnessed the invention of the motor car and just maybe he had heard of that remarkable flying machine and a couple of guys by the name of the Wright brothers before his death.
The small family plot is overgrown with weeds but if you push them aside, you can still see the confederate marker on his grave. A TRUE TEXAS PIONEER.
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1820 - 1905 (84 years)
