Varney Stephens


details

Unknown Unknown po0682pa.jpg Kelly & Stephens Family Collection, MS-244 B&W 1700-0682-0001 po0682pa Photo Card Print 4x5 Manuscript Collections 1890s Reproduction requires permission. Digital images property of SHM Library & Archives

Description

Varney Andrews Stephens (b. 1820 - d. 1904) was born on May 16, 1820 in Kentucky. His father was born in Virginia and his mother was born in Kentucky, their names and birth dates unknown. He moved with his parents to Missouri. Varney married Nancy A. Ball there, where their first child, Elizabeth, was born in 1848. They had four other children: Martina (b. 1853), Josephine (b. 1854), Martha (b. 1855), and John C. (b. 1860). By 1860, they had moved to Lewisville in Denty County, Texas.

Varney was one of the earliest pioneers in Prescott, Arizona. He and his wife, Nancy A. Ball, arrived in Prescott 1864 and remained there for the rest of their lives. They had three daughters and one son. The Stephens family adopted a Native American girl named Joan/Jo Ann, also known as Blossom, in 1865, who was baptized in Tucson after a group of soldiers killed 22 Native Americans, of which only the girl was spared.

Initially, Varney started with ranching but moved to other businesses. In 1870 he helped establish the business of Kelly & Stephens with William Needham Kelly, another 1864 pioneer, in Prescott. (William married Varney's daughter Martina). The business was first engaged in freighting, then in stationery and they finally added clothing. The Prescott Fire of 1900 consumed their store and entire stock. Varney also had mining interests in several mines and owned interests in the Lone Star, Nevada, and Gazelle mining groups on Groom Creek.

Varney died on September 21, 1904 in Prescott and he is buried at the Masonic Cemetery there.

Handwriting on back of photograph reads "Varney Stephens."

Sources: findagrave.com; US Census 1880, 1900; The Weekly Journal-Miner 9-25-1869.

 

 

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