Hi, Nancy, some records may confuse STEPHEN, STEPHENS, AND STEVENS. sTEPHENVILLE WAS NAMED FOR THE STEPHEN FAMILY, NOT THE STEPHENS FAMILY. I am descended from REV. B.T.STEVENS of Shipley (Pine Mountain- Calloway Gardens, Ga. ) He and wife and 2 daughters and son in law, Great Great Grandad Dr. William Pinckney Hatchett are buried in the Selden (Hatchett) cemetery on the Wyly dairy on the Duffau Creek, Erath County, Texas Marilyn Giesike Mills in her Three Way PTA project, 1995, quotes from the Feb. 1970 Texas Parade- article - RETURN TO PANTHER CAVE, a Chalk Mountain cave where CLIFF AND CAVE, STEPHEN TWINS, were born, 1872, in the cave overhang their dad had found in a blinding blizzard. The lead Ox jerked back and kept him from falling over the cliff into the cave. under the cliff they survived the storm He took the ox team downstream on Hill creek and led them under the cliff .. He had a Government freight contract for Freight to Fort Graham and Fort Belknap. His dad, , Madison Stephen joined Stephen F Austin colony in 1829. at San Felipe De Austin. Madison Stephen had 2 brothers- one boutht 2000 acres for $150.00 and one once owned land in downtown Waco area. They settled in Stephenville about 1850. Homer Stephen, local philosopher, trader, an d writer, was the son of one. Cave Stephen visited Panther Cave at age 93 with his family and Emerson Rhodes met them there. The story of the bulldog and Mrs. Stephen's muzzle loader saving the twins from a panther is hair curling & too long for here. . He said once, as a boy, they went to Stephenville to see his first cousin but they weren't home. The cave was the sight of all night dances and festivals on holidays. One man even set up a horse drawn merry go round. Records of this period wpuld be in SanFelepe De Austin, Cameron, Waco, and later, Meridian and Stephenville or in the Austin Texas State library. . GAIL STEPHENS LIVED ACROSS THE PASTURE FROM THE HISTORIC TOM ARENDELLcabin and grave. He and his wife M.E. Johnson lived near my dad all his life. He was a Primitive Baptist lay minister. I attended school with several of their sons. Willie Gail , the oldest , had worked i Fort Worth and I used to see him at State VICA and ICT teacher's summer State workshops- he from Stephenville High and I from West and Midway High Schools. STEPHENVILLE, SOMETIMES MISSPELLED AS sTEPHENSVILLE, WAS NOT NAMED FOR A sTEPHENS FAMILY, BUT one or more of the Spanish Colonists with Stephen Austin named STEPHEN, NOT STEPHENS. PRESTON was a respected name is Selden and Indian Creek. As a kid I knew them when they looked 50 or more to me. Their neighbors in Erath County were Ogan, Fleming, & Moxley (My ancestors) who came from Missouri in coverred wagons to escape the punishment the Yankee carpetbaggers tried to hand out. To my knowledge they did not come via Mexico as some from Chalk Mountain and Pony Creek who had ridden with Quantrill or Jesse James or the Youngers. Selden Baptist Centenial book and church minutes has some on Prestons- Indian Creek was a forerunner of Pleasand Hill Methodist and Selden Baptist, as was the Crockett School.Mrs. Ruby Eades Kay, past 90, could tell you a lot if she feels up to it. She was church clerk and cemetery association treasurer for 2 or 3 generations. Tell me which name you want more info on. Thanks, Charles Wyly ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]