BIO: Prof. Henry Matthew STEPHENS, Cumberland County, PA

    Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Joe Patterson
    OCRed by Judy Banja

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    >From Biographical Annals of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania,
    Chicago: The Genealogical Publishing Co., 1905, pages 79-80
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    PROF. HENRY MATTHEW STEPHENS, A.M., B.S., Professor of Biology at Dickinson
  College, Carlisle, Cumberland county, has been connected with that institution
  as one of the instructors since 1892. He has filled his present chair since
  1899.
    Mr. Stephens comes of a race which has given Pennsylvania many of her best
  citizens, being a great-great-grandson of Rev. Matthew Stephens, a
  Presbyterian minister, and Scotch native of the North of Ireland, who came to
  America at an early day and made his home in Huntingdon county, Pa., where he
  passed the remainder of his life. William Stephens, son of the emigrant, was
  born in Huntingdon county, and he and his wife Hannah had a son Matthew, the
  Professor's grandfather, who was likewise born in Huntingdon county. He
  married Ann Gilliland, of that county, whose mother was an Alexander. Matthew
  Stephens died at the age of ninety years, in 1893, at Neosho, Missouri.
    William Alexander Stephens, D.D., father of Henry Matthew, was born on a
  farm in Huntingdon county, Pa., in 1835, and was reared at the place of his
  birth. He received his early education in the district schools, prepared for
  college in Bedford county, Pa., and entered Dickinson College in 1859. At the
  outbreak of the Civil war he left college to enter the Union service, being a
  member for a time of a regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers. At the close of
  his term of enlistment he commenced to read law in the office of John Scott,
  of Huntingdon, who was afterward attorney for the

    80  CUMBERLAND COUNTY.

  Pennsylvania Railroad, and in due time he was admitted to the Bar in
  Huntingdon county. Going West to the State of Missouri, he located at Neosho
  for practice, but after a few years decided to enter the ministry of the
  Methodist Episcopal Church, and completed his preparation within a short
  time. His first pastorate was at Carthage, Mo., and he also served charges at
  Sedalia and Butler, in that State. Then he was transferred to Ennisville, Pa.,
  in his native county, and he subsequently was located at various places in
  Pennsylvania - Jersey Shore, Renovo, Shamokin, Clearfield, and Bellefonte.
  For a term of six years he was presiding elder of the Williamsport district.
  Dr. Stephens was married, in Huntingdon, to Miss Letitia M. Africa, daughter
  of Jacob and Elizabeth (Zimmerman) Africa, and they are the parents of two
  children, Henry Matthew and Walter C., the latter a resident of Clearfield,
  Pennsylvania.
    Henry Matthew Stephens was born Jan. 4, 1868, in Neosho, Mo., and came East
  with the family in 1877 to Ennisville, Pa. His preliminary training was
  obtained in the public schools of the various places in which his father was
  located, at the high school of Renovo, and at Dickinson Seminary,
  Williamsport, Pa., from which latter institution he graduated in 1888. Then
  he entered Dickinson College, whence he graduated in 1892, and the same year
  he commenced his professional work, being elected as instructor in physiology
  and hygiene in his Alma Mater. He continued as such until 1895, in which year
  he was made adjunct professor in that branch, which position he filled until
  1897, when he was made adjunct professor of biology. In 1899 he became
  professor of biology, and has continued to fill that chair to the present
  time, having proved an acceptable addition to the Faculty. His studies did
  not cease after graduation. In 1894 he went to Leipsic, Germany, to further
  his knowledge in the line of his specialties, was subsequently a student at
  the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, and in 1897, 1898 and 1899
  studied at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor, on Long
  Island. Thus it will be seen that he had a thorough and elaborate preparation
  for the work he has undertaken, and that he has a gift for teaching is proved
  by his success with the pupils who have come under his care.
    Prof. Stephens was married in Carlisle, in 1900, to Miss Elizabeth Young
  Stuart, of that city, daughter of William P. and Elizabeth Graham (Young)
  Stuart, the former of whom is deceased. One child has come of this union,
  William Stuart, born Jan. 24, 1904. The Professor and his wife attend the M.
  E. Church, and fraternally he is connected with the Phi Delta Theta and the
  Phi Beta Kappa, the latter being an honor fraternity. In politics, he is
  independent, acting as his conscience and principles dictate.