In the book's own words, not ours, with obvious scanning errors fixed. Families often supplied these stories to the publisher, so check key dates.
Born 1815, Girard county
From History of Boone County, Missouri (1882)
HON. JAMES L. STEPHENS.
[This passage is too damaged in the scanned book to reproduce. See the original book.]
956 HISTORY or boone county.
session in St. Louis in the fall of 1870, to confer his name upon it. In 1860, Mr. Stephens was the regular nominee of the Democratic party for State Senator and made the race to the satisfaction of his friends against ex-Gov. Chas. Hardin, receiving the full strength of the party, which was then a decided minority, causing his defeat by some 500 votes. Twenty years after, in 1880, he was again nominated by the Democrats of the Ninth senatorial district, composed of the counties of Audrain, Boone and Callaway, and elected by an overwhelming majority against the combined ticket of Republicans and Greenbackers. Mr. Stephens not only circulated the petition which obtained the largest number of names in aid of the railroad and the rock roads, which are of such incalculable value to Boone county, but his was the largest individual subscription in aid of those enterprises, amounting to $2,600. At the same time he was one of the heaviest taxpayers in the county.
As printed in History of Boone County, Missouri (1882). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.
Their biographies name James L. Stephens: J. M. Proctor (b. 1842)
The printed record stops around 1882. We trace your line from there down to you, with every source cited.