    
MAJOR BENJAMIN F. STEPHENSON Major Benjamin F. Stephenson, son of James and Margaret Stephenson, was born in Wayne County, Illinois, October 3, 1823. He graduated from Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1850, and began the practice of his profession at Petersburg. He married Barbara Moore, of Springfield, Ill., formerly of Kentucky, March 30, 1855. He enlisted in the Civil War in 1861 and acted as Surgeon in the war. He was the founder of the Grand Army of the Republic in 1866. Because of failing health he gave up his practice and removed to Rock Creek, where he died August 30, 1871, and was buried in the Rock Creek Cemetery. The G.A.R. removed his remains from here August 29, 1882, and reinterred them in Rose Hill Cemetery, Petersburg, Ill., and erected a fitting monument. The children of Benjamin F. and Barbara Stephenson are: Mary H., Carrie A. and Benjamin M., a Prominent physician in Peoria, Ill. Source for the picture: Mary Harriet Stephenson. Dr. B. F. Stephenson, Founder Of The Grand Army Of The Republic. A Memoir, By His Daughter. Springfield: The H. W. Rokker Printing House. 1894.
|