A South Carolina-born blacksmith, Stephens led the first successful passage of wagons over the Sierra Nevada in 1844, without a single casualty. Stephens homesteaded 160 acres in what is now Cupertino, California. Eventually, his Blackberry Farm was sold to George McCauley and William McClellan. At the time Stephens wanted to leave because he felt the area was “too durn civilized”.
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Published by Hamilton Historical Records
I'm a Virginia historian and legal expert who is related to individuals who rode on the Mayflower ship, American founding father George Mason IV, three Union veterans from the U.S. Civil War, two of whom marched with General Sherman to Atlanta, two Confederate veterans, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s and Franklin Roosevelt’s family.
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