Captain
Holloway L. Stephens was born in Orange county, N. Y., May 3, 1824, his father in the same place in 1801. The Stephens family came from the New England States and were of English descent. His mother, Mary (Ball), born in 1803, in New Jersey, was a Scotch lady, and his grandmother was of Scotch-Irish descent.
Our subject received a good English education and graduated at Ridgeberry Academy in 1841. He then for four years successfully followed the teacher's profession, in the meantime learning surveying. In 1848 he came to Wayne county, Penn., with his father, settling at Hawley, where his father was engaged in the butchering business. Here
he assisted his father and followed surveying. In a few years he was elected county surveyor of Wayne county, and before his term expired was elected representative for 1857 and 1859. Here his mental capacity and fitness for a legislator were fully put to the test, and his speech made on Equal Taxation, in the Session of 1859, will live in history as one of the ablest productions ever made on that subject at Harrisburg, which graphically displayed the history of corporate usurpations upon the rights of the people, and foretold intuitively what would take place in the future if we did not have a law sentinel upon the Statute books to guard the rights of the people.
On December 31, 1860, Mr. Stephens was married to Miss Ellen S. Seamen, of Wayne county, daughter of Charles B. and Roxanna Seamen, prominent citizens of said county. Shortly after the war of the Rebellion broke out, he believed it a needless one and that it should have been settled by the Peace Congress, "had they acted," he says, "the
same as the delegates that formed the Constitution of the United States acted. When they could not agree and all seemed to be lost, Benjamin Franklin proposed prayer; they acquiesced, God heard them, and our present Constitution was the result. Had the Peace Congress done the same, the war would have been averted." He was drafted in the army in
1862, but his friends procured a substitute. He refused, however, saying: "My country, right or wrong! I believe in obeying the powers that be." He was elected captain of Company D, 179th P. V. I., by the drafted men; served his time out honorably, and at its close, Lee having
invaded Pennsylvania, through his unaided influence, the 179th Regiment re-enlisted and served until Lee was driven out of Pennsylvania. Thus Mr. Stephens went into the service as a drafted man and came out a volunteer. On returning home he settled in Honesdale, where he was engaged the most of his time in surveying and the real estate business for eleven years. From there he moved to Starrucca, where he engaged in lumbering, farming and surveying; thence went to Winwood, his present residence, where he is engaged in surveying.
Capt. and Mrs. Stephens have four children: Charles, born in 1861, lives at Lorain, Ohio; Bruce, born in 1864, lives in Colorado; Johnson A., born in 1866, lives at Starrucca; and William M. lives with his father at Winwood; he possesses much natural talent as an artist, and has executed some very fine drawings. Our subject's father died in
1877, his mother in 1842. Their children were: Henry B. (now deceased), born in 1822, was a prominent physician at Hawley; Holloway L., the subject of this memoir, comes next; John H., born in 1826, lives in New York City; Mary E. (now deceased), born in 1836, was the wife of John W. Seamen, of Honesdale; Esther F., born in 1838, is single and lives at Honesdale; Charlotte H. (now deceased), born in 1840, was the wife of William Muir, superintendent of the D. & H. C. Co.'s works at Honesdale; Hannah J., Amy M., Eliphalet and Elephalet (2) all died in childhood or infancy. The children were all born in Orange county, N.
Y..
The Democratic party always finds in Capt. Stephens a stanch supporter, a natural-born leader of men, and a true and trusted director of public opinions. He has done much to advance its interests wherever he has lived. His motto has ever been: "Equal rights, equal
privileges, equal protection and equal taxation." As a citizen he ever stands ready to discharge every duty devolving upon him, and the part he has taken in the development of the county has impressed his name indelibly on its record. Religiously he is a worthy and prominent member of the Baptist Church.
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