Los Angeles County, CA, Biographies

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


COLUMBUS CECIL STEPHENS 
 
was born December 29, 1840, in Hardin, Shelby County, Ohio, and with his parents 
removed to Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri, in 1855. In 1857 he came to 
California from Missouri overland with ox teams, being six months on the trip, 
with his father's family, from St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1859 he returned East 
and entered college, and remained till the spring of 1861; then started to drive 
an ox team from Nebraska City to Pike's Peak, but grew tired of the job, and 
started afoot for California, and walked the entire distance�over 1,200 miles�in 
a few days over three months. He then taught school, and soon entered the 
University of the Pacific at Santa Clara, California, from which he graduated in 
1865. Then he read law, and was admitted to practice in 1867. He married Miss 
Flora B. Williams in Pine Grove, Esmeralda County, Nevada, in December, 1867. He 
practiced law in San Jose, California, till the spring of 1881, when he removed 
to Tucson, Arizona, his wife dying shortly afterward, leaving him four children. 
In February, 1883, he married at Tucson, Miss Mary E. Pearson. In the fall of 
1884 he was elected joint councilman from the Southern district of Arizona to 
the Upper House of the Territorial Legislature. In that Legislature he 
introduced and carried through an act abolishing the common law doctrine of 
riparian rights, a bill founding and establishing the University of Arizona, a 
complete judicial system for the Territory, an insolvent act, a mechanics' lien 
act, an act for the repression of the Mormon element, and much other important 
legislation. From 1882�'87 he was the attorney of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Company in Arizona. In 1887 he removed to Los Angeles, where he has since 
resided, engaged in the practice of his profession.
 
An Illustrated History of Los Angeles County, California �  Chicago, The Lewis 
Publishing Company, 1889   Page 648
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler