Edmond Barron Stephens was born around 1820 in Georgia to Solomon Stephens and Sarah Barron. His father was a farmer who owned $1,350 of real estate in 1850. Stephens grew up in Upson County, Georgia. He travelled to Pilot Hill, California, around 1849 to mine gold, and by 1850, he owned $500 of real estate. He settled in Randolph County, Alabama, sometime in the 1850s and began work as a farmer. By 1860, he owned $150 of real estate and $5,000 of personal property. He enlisted in the Confederate army in May 1864 and mustered in as a private Hardie’s Alabama Cavalry Battalion. He may have been captured toward the end of the Civil War, and he was paroled in Talladega, Alabama, on May 19, 1865.

 

Stephens married Mary Ann Hamner on November 24, 1864. They had at least six children: Doras, born around 1865; Burrell, born around 1869; Charles, born around 1872; Mary, born around 1876; William, born around 1880; and Georgia, born around 1883. By 1870, they were living in Clay County, Alabama, and Stephens was working as a farmer. He owned $800 of real estate and $794 of personal property. He remained there for the rest of his life, and he died there in January 1896.

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