1.  ... STEVENS was born Abt. 1800(?) in Pennsylvania (?). He married possibly a  MASON  or LESTER(?). She was born Abt. 1804 in Maryland (?).

Notes for ... STEVENS:

Family story relates that Nathan's father lived to be over 100 years old and that as on old man he married a widow he met while he was walking to Fort Wayne on the Fort Wayne Trace. He asked for lodging for the night and afterward married her.  He supposedly had two families one with this woman and one with an earlier wife.

Another family story relates that he brought his family through the Cumberland Gap during a flood in the Cumberland River.  He had a wife and several children at the time.  At the river, he was challenged by other men to top a tree.  He took the bet and had his wife and older children row him out in the boat to the tree that was in the water.  The family steadied the boat for him while he cut the tree, and he won the bet.

He had relatives named Isaac born Oct. 16, 1777, and Martha born April 11, 1784, and a relative Sarah born May 12, 1829;

from "Pioneers & Patriots of Bradford County" [Pennsylvania] by Heverly, vol. II:

'Stevens family is of English origin...'

Child of ... STEVENS is:

Notes for NATHAN LESTER STEVENS:

Family story relates that Nathan Lester took (1850-1) his immediate family and relatives on the Oregon Trail (well, close to it). While traveling to Iowa, one of his children [Delphene] died; "[they] buried her along the road."  Later, two of his brothers died--frozen to death while drunk--and Nathan said that they had left better land [in Indiana] than what they found so they returned to Indiana [before 1880].

According to 1880 census for Kokomo, Howard Co., IN, son John, living with parents, is twenty-two and born in Iowa.

Nathan may have had sister named Sarah born May 12, 1829;

More About NATHAN LESTER STEVENS:

Burial: sec. 15, lot 1 Crown Point Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard Co., IN

Fact 1: 1880 census Kokomo, Howard County, IN; 1900 census Ervin Twp., Howard Co., IN; 1910 census Clay Twp., Carroll Co., IN;

Fact 2: occupation: farm laborer;

Fact 3: 1850 census for Richland Twp., Fountain Co., IN, with wife Mary; [Because Nathan, aged 24, and wife Mary are living in Richland Twp., Fountain Co., IN, in 1850, soon after they were married, it is my contention that Nathan is related to the very large Stevens/Stephens family living in or near that township.  In spite of family story, he may be the son of James Stevens, born in Pennsylvania 1777, who has several unknown children listed by genealogists and who did marry twice.  James had a daughter Lillis/Lillie A.--a name not found in any other Stevens/Stephens family in that area--born in 1846, listed on the 1850 census.  She is not listed on the 1860 census presumably because she has died.  It is my working theory that our great-grandmother Lilly Anne, born 1867,  daughter of Nathan Lester and Mary Woods, was named for this supposed sister of Nathan.]

Fact 4: on 1851 census Page Co., IA, next to father-in-law Joseph Woods; 1854 census Page Co., IA, with father-in-law Joseph Woods and brother-in-law John Griffith; 1860 census records for Page Co., IA with Mary, daughter Frances Jane, son John William, next to mother-in-law Sarah Woods and her son George; also near John Griffith and Massa/Massey; not found on 1870 census anywhere;

Nathan Stevens and wife Mary Alice Woods Stevens are both buried at Crown Point Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard Co., IN.  At left, descendant John Summers stands with cemetery custodian at the site of Mary's unmarked grave in section 12 lot 119.  At right, John stands at the site of g-grandfather Nathan's unmarked grave in section 15 lot 1. Nathan is buried next to daughter Frances Stevens Gray and husband Robert.

Fact 5: death certificate states cause of death: senile dementia; Grimm and Sons is funeral home; age 88; Crown Point Cemetery in Kokomo, IN;

Fact 6: marriage listed on Indiana State Library Genealogy Database;

Fact 7: on 1900 census for Ervin Twp., Howard Co., IN--father from VA, mother from MD; living with "Edith" Stevens, granddaughter; she's daughter of Calvin and Rachel Hosier Stevens;

Fact 8: on 1910 census Clay Twp., Carroll Co., IN, living with granddaughter Edith Stevens Trader, husband William Trader, son of Jacob--father from MD, mother from VA;

Notes for MARY ALICE WOODS:

family story: MARY had relative Joshua Woods who was a pony express rider (?).

More About MARY ALICE WOODS:

Fact 1: grandparents were from Virginia and of German heritage;

Fact 2:  burial in sec. 12, lot 119, Crown Point Cemetery, Kokomo, Howard Co., IN;

Children of NATHAN STEVENS and MARY WOODS are:

The David Decker family and home in Dundee, Madison County, IN, "Gobbler's Knob."  At left with fan Cenia, Lois sitting, David in doorway, Paul in front, Lily to right of David, Mary and Lucy to right of Lily.

Notes for LILLIAN ANN STEVENS:

from Dot Allen's Memories, an unpublished manuscript by Dot Stephens Allen who was daughter of Mary Agnes Decker and John Stephens:

       "My Grandpa & Grandma Decker [David Oliver and Lillian Ann Stevens Decker] lived on a farm near Elwood, Indiana. I don't remember the first time I was there. About the first thing I do remember was the house. It was part log cabin. I has a very large living & dining room; one bedroom, and a tiny little kitchen. A huge rock fireplace with hooks that swing out to hold large kettles for cooking and boiling water. The dining room was at least 18 feet long, and a long table. In the middle covered with a cloth, was all kinds of jelly, jam butter, catsup, pickles, relish, mustard, oil, vinegar, pepper and salt. This stayed on the table; no refrigerator, no ice box. When we were ready to eat, Gramma would say 'everybody...flies.' Someone had gotten tree limbs, papers, and towels. One kid held the door open and everyone started in the living room swishing the flies toward the dining room. Someone in the kitchen swished to the dining room. The kid opened the door wide when the flies almost all were out. Then we ate. No spray, nothing. The kitchen was tiny, just big enough for a wood cook stove and a cabinet called a pie safe; it has windows on the doors and the sides were covered with screen to store pies, cakes, and other food away from flies, and to cool. We called this house Gobblers Knob. It set up on top of a hill. The large barn was also on top of a hill. It has a large corn crib, smokehouse, and out-house. The whole family would meet here very Sunday while we were growing up. I had aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, mother, father, grandpa & grandma on my mothers side.

       "...Aunt Cenia [Cenia Dell Decker] always made chicken & noodles and cakes. Grandma always made the pies, and killed the chickens. Mom [Mary Agnes Decker] would help her clean and cook. Lear [Lois Lear Decker] would help clean up (cause they had no sink, no icebox, no refrigerator, and an old wood stove). Just to wash clothes, you had to build a pit of rocks, then set a tub or broiler on top of the rocks. Then you had to carry water to pour from the well into the tub to heat up; next, you had to dip it out and into another tub where there was a washboard. The white clothes (don't remember if they had any) were always washed first and put in the clean water to rinse. Some things had to be boiled to get clean. The soap took the skin off your knuckles. One of the first things I remember was a large sugar pear tree at the corner of the house...

        "The Knob also had a smokehouse for curing hams, and bacon. They raised chickens and had 2 or 3 milk cows.

        "The farm my Grandpa farmed was maybe 200 acres. There was a lane leading to a stream (a small river). The lane from the house to the road went north from the barn about 2 city blocks, turned west about two more blocks to the road from Muck Sock or Dundee (they called both names) [Dundee was on SR 28, at a crossroads, 1--1 1/2 miles west of Orestes.] The Husker wagon came once a week. Granny would gather her eggs, butter, chickens, etc., and go through the field to the road and trade for flour, sugar, baking needs, coal oil, sewing notions, medicines, etc. Grandpa took aspiring then; it came in a little paper folded over (powder form). Aspirin had been around a long time...

        "A few more things about Gobblers Knob. My dear Granny Lilly Decker had all kinds of metaphors. When she'd see someone waste something, she would say "waste not, want not." When she'd find someone that wouldn't say anything, and they were quiet and silent, she would say "just remember that still water runs deep." ...

       "Grandma made cottage cheese; they called it smear case then. Didn't have an icebox or refrigerator then. The milk would sour sooner. She'd heat the clabbered milk, maybe let it come to almost a boiling point, then pour it in a clean cloth bag and hang it on the clothes line and let all the whey drain out. Then she would pour on rich cream, salt and pepper it.

        "Aunt Lear would make hominy with white or yellow corn. Soak the corn, in lye water until the hulls came off, then wash & rinse in clear water several times. Then her kids Roberta, John & Peggy sold it.

         "Grandma always made mince meat for pies... Granny put chopped boiled beef, chopped apples, cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and chopped suet (the fatty tissues on the loins & kidneys or beef). Grandpa also raised sugar cane and had it made into sorghum. The canes' juices had to be extracted and the juice (saccharine) made into syrup. He also raised bees.

       "While at the Knob, over the years...I always got poison ivy. I had it so bad when I was four that my Grandma had to put Nightshade on me. She made me dozens of muslin panties. Each day, she put on a new poultice and threw the old messed-up panties away...

        "Grandma wore long calico dresses and knotted her hair at the back of her head. Grandpa had a long white beard and so did his brother (Uncle Nute [Newton J. Decker])...

        "The Knob had a creek approximately one mile from the house. They let us go down to the water but we could not go in past our ankles. Someone was always with us that knew how to swim. They were afraid we might hit a whirlpool or something; no one had taught us to swim...

       "Ironing clothes, all cotton or wools. No wash & wear. The first one Grandma had was all iron. Shaped like they are now except the handle was also iron. You put it on the stove to heat. Maybe three or four irons. When it got hot, you had a heavy pad to pick up by the handle. The next iron invented was much lighter in weight... Even in the hot summer, you had to have a fire in the cook stove. The first washer after the wash board (copper tub to boil the clothes, and rock fire to heat the water) was a round bowl-like tub on legs with wash-board-like-ribbing on the inside and bottom of the tub. Inside of the tub you have a cradle with a handle. You put the clothes in with P&G soap or Fels Naptha and add water. Set the cradle on top and work the handle back & forth forcing the clothes back & forth against the ribs in the tub...

       "Grandma and Grandpa Decker still lived at the Knob when I was almost eleven.

       "Over the years at Gobbler's Knob, we had lots of little brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles around. Mom [Mary Agnes Decker] had five kids smaller than I. Aunt Cenia had Harold who was four or five years older. Aunt Naomi was three years older... Aunt Lear and Uncle Carl [Summers] had Roberta, John, and Peggy and then later, Mark...

        "The Hukster Wagon came once a week. We would watch for him. He had a wagon that all the sides and back lifted up, and he had one or two of everything a person would need. He had stuff hanging from everywhere on the wagon. Coal oil for our lamps, wicks, globes, dress and shirt material...pots, pans and buckets hanging on the outside. Penny candy and gum, too. granny would walk down about one quarter of a mile down to the road with her eggs and butter and trade with him.

       "Grandpa always butchered pigs, and had a smokehouse outside of the house where we hung the hams and bacon. One night, he heard a noise and got up to see; taking his shotgun with him. He didn't see a thing. The next morning, though, a ham was missing but he found a twenty dollar gold piece on the floor.

       "When at the knob, Grandma would take Naomi and me to Elwood to Leison's store. It was long and narrow, but had counter space down one side with stools to sit on and everything was in the open with the smells of spice, coffee and pickles, etc. It always smelled so good; if you wanted calico0 or dress goods, they'd bring it to you. Hats, pants, lanterns, things they could hang on walls. It was great...With rice beans, coffee, that you ground yourself after you got home.

       "The Knob had a large living room with an extra large dining room. We had our feather ticks all-around the walls for us kids to sleep on. Only one bedroom, though, with two beds...

       "I think every kid should have a Knob to grow up with. It was only a mile or so from Dunndee; all of my brothers, sisters, aunts with uncles and their families came over every weekend. We played house and store, took care of the little kids and then later maybe would hit a tin can or play hide 'n seek. We made our own fun...

        "Every kid should have a Gobblers Knob, a Grandma & Grandpa..."

More About LILLIAN ANN STEVENS:

Burial: Frankton, K.O.O.P. Cemetery, IN

Fact 1: picture;

Fact 2: described in Dot Allen's Memoirs, unpublished manuscript; Dot is granddaughter;

Fact 3: a note says that she went to school in Clarenda, IA, and Missouri in first grades; this counters family story that she was born in Curtisville, Tipton Co., IN.

Fact 4: moved in covered wagon;

More About DAVID OLIVER DECKER:

Burial: Frankton, K.O.O.P. Cemetery, Madison Co., IN

Fact 1: lived on "Gobblers Knob," 75 acre farm between Frankton/Orestes, IN, as recorded by granddaughter Dorothy Allen in Dot Allen's Memories, an unpublished manuscript;

Fact 2: occupation: laborer; bee-keeper;

Fact 3: 1880 census shows David Decker living with sister Syntha A. and brother-in-law Addison Dwiggins in Windfall, Tipton County, IN;

Fact 4: cause of death: pneumonia;

Children of LILLIAN STEVENS and DAVID DECKER are:

Notes for LOIS LEAR DECKER:

Obituary in Anderson newspaper:

"LOIS AND HER HUSBAND CARL WERE REMODELING THEIR RESIDENCE, 4 MILES EAST AND 1 1/2 MILES SOUTH OF ALEXANDRIA (NEAR GILMAN), AND HAD JUST FINISHED COMPLETELY VARNISHING A NEW FLOOR, WHEN TRAGEDY STRUCK. CARL HAD LEFT TO GET A NEW DOOR AND LOIS WAS CLEANING UP DEBRIS. SHE IS SAID TO HAVE THROWN SOME LEFT-OVER VARNISH IN THE STOVE WHICH CAUSED AN EXPLOSION. SHE MANAGED TO DRAG HERSELF TO THE BACKYARD AND EXTINGUISH THE BURNING CLOTHING. THE HOUSE WAS A TOTAL LOSS AND LOIS WAS TAKEN TO ST. JOHN'S HOSPITAL WHERE SHE DIED THE NEXT DAY OF SEVERE BURNS OVER MOST OF HER BODY.

Lois Lear Decker with mother Lilly Stevens Decker at left; as a young woman at right.

THE BODY LIED IN STATE AT HER DAUGHTER'S, DOROTHY AYERS, HOUSE - 2800 FAIRVIEW ON JANUARY 3RD. THE FUNERAL WAS ON THE 4TH AT PILGRIM HOLINESS CHURCH, 24TH DELAWARE, WITH REV. G.R.BATEMAN, PASTOR, AND REV. FLOYD GOING, DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT, IN CHARGE. THE BURIAL WAS AT THE ODD FELLOWS CEMETERY IN FRANKTON."

|from Lois Lear's cousin Daisy Dwiggins Field in Sept. 4, 1978 letter:

       "Uncle Dave (Jr.) and his family resided in the community (Frankton) also and I spent quite a bit of time visiting with them in my youth. Although most of the children were much older than I, there were some nearer my age and Lear and I hit it off well. In those happy days of childhood there were no shadows to presage her tragic death by fire in later years."

More About LOIS LEAR DECKER:

Burial: Frankton, K.O.O.P. Cemetery, IN

Fact 1: killed in fire at home in kitchen; loved to read;

Fact 2: picture;

More About CARL MCKINLEY SUMMERS:

Burial: Frankton, K.O.O.P. Cemetery, IN

Fact 1: operated harvest store on SR 9 south of Anderson, Madison Co., IN;

Fact 2: picture; occupation: molder in foundry; part-time house painter;

Fact 3: cause of death; pneumonia followed by heart attack;

Fact 4: 2nd wife Alpha Canterbury;

Children of LOIS DECKER and CARL SUMMERS are:

Children of MARY DECKER and JOHN STEPHENS are:

Children of NAOMI DECKER and GEORGE BISHOP are:

More About JOHN PHILLIP SUMMERS:

Fact 1: in Army Air Corps during WWII; in African & Italian campaigns;

Fact 2: reconnaissance and tail gunner;

Fact 3: tool maker at Delco Remy for 31 years; learned to fly and owned Cessna;

Fact 4: in retirement, locally famous painter in water colors;

Fact 5: president of Del-Ray Toast Masters, Valley Grove PTA, Highland Band Boasters;

Fact 6: tour host for Educational Opportunities (travel company);

Fact 7: lay-minister at South Meridian Church of God;

Fact 8: pictures;

More About KATHERINE VIRGINIA DILTS:

Fact 1: studied music at Anderson College, nursing at Ball State before marrying;

Fact 2: attended & graduated from Anderson University after she was 60 years old;

Fact 3: she and John have been on European vacations 20+ times & 5 times to Israel;

Fact 4: taught piano in home; homemaker;

Fact 5: pictures;

Children of JOHN SUMMERS and KATHERINE DILTS are:

Children of DOROTHY SUMMERS and GERALD AYERS are:

More About CENIA JEAN SUMMERS:

Fact 1: teacher;

More About MELVIN (TONY) FRAZIER:

Fact 1: college professor;

Child of CENIA SUMMERS and MELVIN FRAZIER is: