| Notes |
- Stephen Schuyler Stedman was born about 15 March 1838 in New Marlboro, Massachusetts to Robert and Elvira (Dorman) Stedman.
As a small boy living in Lenoxdale, Massachusetts, he very often played hooky from school and would spend all day swimming in the nearby creeks. He had a great fondness for the water and perhaps this played an important part in saving his life in later years.
As a boy, Stephen assisted his father in driving loads of Charcoal from Otis and other nearby places to the iron works at Lenox Furnace (Lenoxdale). With his father's team in the lead, Stephen and his brother Lawrence each drove one of the other teams that followed. On the road to the charcoal pits, this meant starting at two o'clock in the morning and sleeping in the wagons as the teams followed each other.
While living in Lenoxdale, he performed another of his boyhood pranks. He assembled all the other boys in the neighborhood with their bob-tailed sleds. These they tied together so as to make a long string of sleds. They carried this train of sleds up the steep hill to the rear of the El Dorado Hotel. Stephen was to pilot them down the hill, but he had not foreseen that the added weight of the sleds and boys would create a problem in stopping at the foot of the hill. On the way down he realized what was happening and decide what to do. He could either head for a large tree at the side of the blacksmith shop or head for the open door of the shop. Knowing that the side of the shop would give way and the tree would not be so obliging, he steered the train with their occupants straight through the shop and took the rear wall of boards out with it on the way through. They landed in a snow bank in the creek at the rear of the shop. Not any of the children were seriously hurt, but they had all learned a good lesson in momentum.
It is thought that this creek is the one called Stedman Creek. When Bertha visited Lenoxdale in 1947, she talked with an old timer who said the Stedmans must have been an outstanding family in that district for there were so many places, creeks, bridges (both railroad and wagon road) named "Stedman." Also nearby the Lenox Glass Furnace there is a hill called Stedman Hill. The El Dorado Hotel acquired its Spanish name from the fact that Robert mined gold in El Dorado County. That name seems so out of place in Berkshire County!
In 1854, when Stephen was sixteen, Stephen went with his father Robert on Robert's second trip to California. Bertha can remember hearing her father tell of the beautifully colored birds (parrots and parakeets) talking and chattering on the trees when they came over the Isthmus of Panama by mule back. But the most memorable part of the voyage happened in a place described by Stephen as the Gulf of Georgia. (It is not clear where this is.)
A violent storm came up, and it was bitter cold. Robert put his outer coat on Stephen. In the storm, Stephen was washed overboard. They searched all night for him and found him at daybreak with both arms locked around the roots of a tree trunk that had been washed into the sea.
Stephen discarded the coat and other clothing. Stephen swam and floated until he found an old tree trunk. When he was found, he was unconscious but had his arms locked about the tree roots. As a boy, Stephen has not only learned to be an expert swimmer, but also he had acquired the art of being able to float on the water for hours at a time. He knew - and taught each of his children - the art of properly arching the back and setting the back muscles in a position that would enable them to float for long periods of time.
Robert always lamented the loss important papers and family pictures in the pocket of the coat that were lost.
Arriving in California, the father and son went first to Marysville on the American River where Robert had worked in the placer diggings in 1850.
Bertha relates a story Stephen told of another interesting episode where "Lady Luck" again smiled on him while they were mining gold in California. One day they were descending, or trying to descend, a steep hillside in a pine forest. The dried pine needles carpeting the ground gave them a very treacherous footing. Stephen got tired of slipping and sliding and thought it would be much more fun to slide down. The miner's frying pans in those days were some eighteen inches across with a handle about three feet long. This enabled the miner to cook over an open fire without much discomfort. Without saying anything to his father, Stephen proceeded to deposit himself in the pan with his luggage strapped to his back. His father was horrified when he saw what he was going to do and called him to stop. It was too late. Stephen had given his body a lurch forward, and he was on one of the wildest rides he ever took. Fortunately, the dried pine needles had piled up in back of each tree trunk. This formed just enough rise in the ground level to turn the sled frying pan in and out among the trees in its course down the hill. He often relate that he was scared to death, but there was nothing he could do except keep a firm grip on the handle and pray that he would reach the bottom safely. He said it was surely a quick ride, and he was none the worse for his adventure.
During the next fifteen years Stephen led an active and often adventurous life, up and down the Pacific Coast from California to British Columbia. In spite of being of small stature and light physique, Stephen survived the hardships and was strong and vigorous when, in the early summer of 1869, he started back to New England by the overland rail route.
Stephen's brother Byron told the story of this period:
"They landed in San Francisco on 5 January 1855 and located again at Marysville. Again they were not especially successful. Then came the excitement of the Frazer River gold discovery in British Columbia. Robert and his son were in a party of eighty who started overland, by foot, to reach the new diggings from Marysville. Only twenty of them survived the journey, the others perished from Indian attacks and hardships on the way. Neither father nor son was injured, but Stephen killed one Indian.
"They operated a mine in Caribou, British Columbia, in the summers. In winter they went down to Vancouver Island and made shingles by hand, also hunting deer for the market. They sold their shingles and venison in Victoria. After doing this for several years without getting ahead, they sold the claim to an English firm who went a little deeper and struck it rich.
"Stephen then worked for a mining company on Williams Creek, Caribou, and Byron Stedman has a nugget of gold taken from a pot in this mine. (This nugget was given to Byron at Christmas, 1869 - worth $6.47 - and was still being worn by Byron in the 1920s.)
"Robert went to Marin County, California, in the redwoods, on White's Ranch. The present railway station is called Lagunitas. Just below the home were the Pacific Powder Mills. Robert operated for himself making shingles, shakes, and pickets for sale in the neighborhood to the ranchmen, who were all dairymen. Robert built his own cabin and lived alone until Stephen joined him.
"Stephen, after working a short time on Williams Creek, went into the fur trade with a partner named Douglas. The operated a sloop northward toward Sitka. The Hudson Bay Company controlled the fur trade in this region. However, not having suitable goods to trade to the Indians for furs, the captain of a Hudson Bay trading steamer told Stephen and his partner to load up with blankets and trinkets and proceed to a certain district where there were furs to be had. On the way up the coast the sloop was becalmed and a canoe put out containing twenty-four Indians. Two other canoes followed, each containing the same number of Indians. The first one came alongside and said that, if they would surrender the sloop, they would be put ashore so that they could make their way back to Victoria. (This was evidently along the coast of Vancouver Island.) In the boat with Stephen and his partner was one man who worked for them and also an Indian who was taking passage.
"Stephen understood seven different Indian dialects. He told the spokesman in the canoe that they would do the same with them that the Indians did to Jack Knight about a week before. This Jack Knight was another trader whose boat was scuttled, goods confiscated and whole party killed. The leader of the Indians in the canoe alongside turned and told his men to open fire. But he Springfield muskets belonging to the Indians were covered up in the end of their canoe. These were guns of the pattern used in 1861. Stephen understood the order, and, being armed with two revolvers, he opened fire immediately, along with his partner.
"They cleaned every man out of the canoe. Then they commenced on the second canoe that was firing volleys at the sloop. At each volley Stephen called "Drop" and his party would drop to the deck. But one volley caught them too soon. Stephen got one minie ball in the thigh, breaking his hip, and eleven buckshot in his liver, one across the neck by his windpipe, and two in his arm. Also, one minie ball struck him in the back between the shoulders. Douglas got one minie ball in the chest. Stephen and his partner killed all the Indians in the second canoe, though both were put out of action.
"The third canoe started to paddle away and the man who stood behind a boat in the davits commenced to pick off the remaining Indians with a Martin-Henry repeating rifle, until only four were left. The boat that he stood behind had ninety holes in it, but this man did not get a scratch.
'The Indian passenger came up from the cabin in the midst of the fracas, picked up a muzzle-loading rifle, shot it toward one of the canoes, then ran back to cover in the cabin. This same muzzle-loading rifle was made in Hudson, New York, by a man named Stevens, and was sent to California by Robert Stedman, costing $150. This rifle was later in the possession of Byron Stedman, who killed at least forty deer with it. As of 1921, it is in the possession of Robert Stedman, son of Stephen, of Sebastopol, California.
"The remaining four Indians in the third canoe escaped. The man who was unhurt sailed the sloop across the Sound to Fort Wrangell to get help to take the wounded men to Victoria. At the latter place there was a British fleet. Stephen Stedman was taken under the care of the surgeon of the Admiral's flagship. Stephen suffered greatly and had spasms. The surgeon advised him to go to his father in Marin County and then eat all of the wild honey and drink all of the milk he could. Being unable to travel alone, Stephen engaged a man to go all the way with him. Whenever the spasms came over him, Stephen imagined that he was fighting the battle with the Indians over again.
"The fight took place in the early summer of 1869. On the 7th of August, after visiting his father and recovering somewhat, Stephen started for the East, on the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railways, being on the first through train eastward to see how quick time could be made from San Francisco to Boston. By arranging relays of engines, this trip was actually made in just seven days.
"Stephen's purpose in coming East was to marry and also to bring his younger brother back to California. Douglas, Stephen's partner, also married, and later visited Stephen in California about 1872."
[The epic story of Stephen's fight with the Indians should be re-read in order to sense what transpired. The great war canoes used by the natives of Puget Sound and the Alaska coast were vastly different from the birch bark skiffs of the history books. They were dugouts made from giant trees and propelled by rows of paddlers on each side. One of these canoes, complete with life size figures of its crew, is to be seen in the American Museum of Natural History in New York. For four men in a sailboat to engage three such craft, manned by a total of seventy-two Indians, was a terrifying experience, and it seems incredible that the three white men who bore the brunt of the fighting were not overwhelmed by sheer weight of numbers. Byron Stedman first heard this recital from Stephen when the latter arrived in Massachusetts in 1869. No doubt he heard it repeated many times, for every detail was clear in his mind when he dictated it to me at Mechanicville half a century later. - J. J. DeMott]
Bertha Stedman Rothwell relates some additional details:
"In the Indian attack, while the two canoes were engaged in the fighting on one side of the sloop, the third came up from behind and started an attack from the opposite side of the vessel. On the sloop was a large Newfoundland dog and as each Indian attempted to climb over the side, the dog would attack them and back they would fall into the water. After disposing of the two canoes full of Indians, they then turned on the third canoe. This last attack was when they were all hurt so badly. The dog was so wounded that it had to be killed. Stephen said that he fought as desperately as any of the people on board.
"Stephen's partner who owned the sloop was Dudley Warren. (I do not know if they knew one another in the East.) Dudley Warren was not hurt badly. He continued later to operate the sloop, buying furs from the Indians. The government seized the sloop as a rumrunner. Later, he proved that he had no liquor on board and they accepted their mistake. Dudley Warren received payment from the government for the vessel. I do not know if it was the United States or the Canadian government. He never gave Stephen his half of the money received. He knew that Stephen had recovered and was living in California for he and his wife came down to visit him. Warren invested the entire amount in acreage in Vancouver, BC. When the town later grew, he sold his holdings as building lots and amassed a great fortune. Friends of ours visiting us in 1900 knew him in Victoria and said he died a millionaire. Stephen would never ask anyone for money owed him. He died financially a poor man but rich in the friendship and esteem of everyone who him.
"In later life when the Indians who attacked the boat heard that Stephen was living in Marin County, they sent him a gift of friendship: a cane with an eel's head carved in its handle. They sent with the cane a verbal message that they were his friends and only wanted the vessel, but they did not know how to get the boat any other way but to kill all on board. The eel could never harm anyone and that was their testimonial of peace. They said that they were sorry that they hurt him. They felt sure that, if he were alive, he must have to walk with a cane from the wounds they had given him. They asked that it be their cane that he used, as they had nothing but a friendly feeling for him and their dealing with him. Bertha had the cane in her possession in 1951.
"The doctors in Victoria did not tell Stephen to eat honey. They sent him down to his father weighing only 96 pounds. They told him to eat all the milk he could drink and live outside as much as possible. He had no appetite and could not seem to retain anything that he ate. Robert cut down a redwood tree, and there was a hive of bees in the top of it. Robert brought the honey home. When Stephen saw the wild honey, he started to eat it and it seemed to agree with him. He put on weight and recovered. I can recall that, when buckshot in Stephen's body would work to the surface, Stephen would go to the doctor and have it cut out. Some of these shot he took to his grave.
"Stephen, while mining, once found a large nugget of gold. It was over one inch in length and was similar in shape to South America. This he made into a pin that he used to wear as a shirt stud. Later his wife wore it and at Stephen's death, it passed to his oldest daughter Elodia. At her death, it went to her daughter Hazel. Its value is a little over $30.00."
When he arrived back in Berkshire County, Stephen naturally was somewhat in the limelight as a man of thirty-one, fresh from the fabulous Gold Regions and the equally fabulous Northwest. At Monterey he met Lucy Jane Hall and, after a short courtship, the wedding took place on 23 September 1869 in West Stockbridge, officiated by the Rev. Charles Bradley. Three weeks later, 14 October 1869, the bride and groom, together with Stephen's young brother Byron, set out for the West. For Stephen it was a final farewell, for he never returned and from that time on his family was identified with the California scene. Lucy Jane, together with her daughter Julia Ann, did come back for a visit many years later. Byron Stedman remained in California five years and then returned to settle in Massachusetts and New York State.
Bertha related the following story of how Stephen and Lucy met: "When he went back East in 1869, he went direct to Monterey, Mass. At that time his sister, Julia Ann and her husband LeRoy Kellogg owned a store in that town. They knew Lucy Jane hall, the daughter of Luke Miner hall, a prosperous farmer of Monterey. Julia Ann wanted Stephen to meet this beautiful girl. They planned with her mother to trick Lucy into going to the store. Grandma Hall was supposed to need something very badly from the store that night and Lucy was to be sent for it. Lucy at that time was working in the paper mill. She was a calendar girl and fed the paper through the calendars to put extra gloss on it. When she reached home, she was very tired and could not see why it was important for her to go on the errand for her mother. Finally, very reluctantly, she left for the store. Lucy was introduced by Julia Ann to Stephen. Jubilantly, she returned home to tell her family, 'I have just met the millionaire from California.' Little did she know at the time that the trap was set, and she fell into it. She was interested in California at that time for her only brother, John Alvin Hall and his family were living at Maryville, California. The next day, Stephen, whose mind was quite made up about Lucy, visited the mill where she was working. Lucy said to the other girls working with her, 'Watch me, I am going to catch that millionaire from California. I shall soon leave for California and see my brother.'
After joining Robert Stedman in Marin County, the family lived in a cabin outside of the woods, while Robert rebuilt his old cabin into a house. Here the group remained until 1874 when Byron returned to the East. A year later Robert died, leaving Stephen and his wife and babies in the home at Lagunitas.
After Robert's death, Stephen continued to live in Lagunitas and carried on the wood business. He operated a lumber business on the Maillard estate near Lagunitas. In his later years he was Superintendent of the Shafter-Howard Timber Tract a few miles from Lagunitas with thousands of acres of virgin redwood forests. He was holding this position at the time of his death. He was also the Fire Warden. There was a forest fire and he had been with a crew of men for two weeks out fighting the fire by back-firing. It was under control, and he told the firefighters eating their supper in the camp, "The fire is under control, do exactly as I have ordered for tonight and it will be alright. I am going home, Good Night."
He had chronic catarrh and asthma, and it is unknown if he took a coughing spell or not, but he was found not 100 feet from where he called to the men. He had rolled down the trail on the railroad track. Fearing the cars of loaded wood would burn, the Railroad Company sent an engine from the night passenger train up into the spur track to pull the cars out. In turning a bend, they ran onto Stephen before they could stop. It immediately amputated his legs. There was no blood, and the doctors verdict was that he had died of a heart attack and had been dead all of two hours before he was struck. The two hours coincided with the time that he was last known to be alive.
His funeral was one of the largest ever held in Marin County. It was over a mile in length. He was one of the best-loved and respected citizens of the county during his lifetime. I think this tribute paid by an old neighbor told more than can be written. "There was no man in Marin County who made more money than your father did, and there never was any man in Marin County who gave more money away." Stephen's wife Lucy used to always try to tell him that people had no intention of paying him back and still, if anyone wanted money or anything he had, he would give it to them.
These notes on Robert Stedman's family have been compiled and edited primarily from manuscripts deposited at the Berkshire Athenaeum by John J. DeMott, Byron Stedman, Bertha Stedman Rothwell, Julia Ann Stedman Sturtevant, and Eloise Stedman Myers who have all been indefatigable in the preservation of family data.
The Marin Journal, Thursday, August 22, 1901, page 11
STEPHEN STEDMAN's Death
The death of STEPHEN STEDMAN was announced Friday morning. From information gathered at the inquest and from other sources, it is learned that Mr. Stedman died suddenly of heart disease, and fell upon the railroad track in Lagunitas canyon, about a mile from the Junction a few minutes before 8 o'clock Thursday evening.
There had been a large brush fire in Lagunitas canyon and Stedman was out fighting it. A number of flat cars loaded with wood were in the canyon and to save these from destruction, an engine was sent in to get them. It was this engine which struck Mr. Stedman, and was at first supposed to have caused his death. He had been up the canyon looking after the fire, and was returning home when death overtook him.
At the inquest held by Coroner Eden, Dr. Wickman, who carefully examined the body of Stephen Stedman, stated that in his opinion Mr. Stedman died of heart disease before the car struck his body. There was but little blood on the track where the body was found. The verdict of the jury was to the effect that the death was the result of heart disease.
Stephen Stedman was born at New Marlborough, Mass., March 15, 1838. His ancestors settled in Massachusetts with the early colonists. He was a second cousin of Commodore Perry. He came to California, arriving at San Francisco on January 5, 1851; engaged in mining in the northern part of the state and later went north to Alaska and Vancouver where he traded with the Indians, and was owner and captain of the sloop Thornton. He was badly shot by the Indians but was brought to San Francisco where he recovered his health.
In 1869 he returned to his home in Mass., but remained there only 3 weeks and while there married Lucy Hall. He and his bride returned immediately to California and settled at Lagunitas in Marin County where he entered the wood business with his father. He ran the wood claim on the Mailliard tract for many years, but of late years he has been foreman of the Shafter wood claim, which position he held at the time of his death.
He leaves a widow and 6 children; Mrs. Clifford De Jardin, Mrs. Sturtevant, Mrs. George MacDonald, Robert Stedman, and Bertha and Edna Stedman.
The funeral services were held from his home at Camp Taylor, Sunday, August 18, at 10:30 o'clock, thence to Mt. Tamalpais Cemetery where he was laid to rest by his father's side. The pallbearers were Joseph Codoni, George Longly, Edward Cornwall, Thomas Estey, William Dickson, and Charles Lane.
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1838 - 1901 (63 years)
