John Stephens was at school at Princeton or near there at the time the Revolutionary War began, and with others from his neighborhood enlisted for three years. He served as private and was one of fifty heroes who reenlisted in 1779 and went with his companions to join General Greene in North Carolina where he fought in the concluding battles of the struggle. He was mustered out at Camden, SC in 1782. He then returned to Virginia and married Sarah Purnell. After several years she died. No known issue of the marriage. "In 1793 he had a land grant from the state of North Carolina, which he located at Salisbury the same year. In 1800 he married Nancy Annis Twomey and lived at Salisbury and Flat Rock in that state. "In 1819 he sold his land in North Carolina to his brother William, and with a party of others from his locality moved to Tennessee. Knoxville was then the capitol of the state. They settled near there at what is now called Kincaid. The first winter they lived in a cabin and a little son sickened and died. The next spring he put up a house of four rooms, which was quite pretentious for that day and place. He planted an orchard which contained among others a fig tree, which he covered with a big hay stack in the winter. He also had bees from the honey of which they made a drink called metheglin. He subscribed for four children to the nearest school though but two were old enough to go. He didn't live long enough to enjoy the fruits of his labor. He was buried in the family grave yard now called Walnut Hill, in a beautiful grove on a brow of a gentle elevation. No internments have been made there since 1864, but a rock wall surrounds the lot, and a handsome monument to the family Stephens has been placed in it by a nephew, Mr. W. A. Stephens of Ash Grove, MO.
