James Stephenson, twenty-one years a medical practitioner at Iroquois, County of Dundas, is a native of Augusta, Grenville County, Ontario, and was born November 19, 1834. His father, Isaiah Stephenson, a farmer, was a native of the County of Monaghan, Ireland, coming to Canada about 1820. His mother, whose maiden name was Sophia Martin, was born in Augusta, Ontario.
The subject of this brief sketch received his literary education at Victoria College, Cobourg, where he spent two years, not taking a full course, and his medical education at McGill College, Montreal, where he received his diploma in 1859. He immediately settled in Iroquois, where he has been in steady and successful practice since graduating, building up, years ago, a lucrative business. He has made medicine and surgery and collateral branches his life study, and no man of any profession in this county has attended more faithfully to his calling, turning out at all seasons of the year, in all kinds of weather, and at all hours of the night, to visit the sick, rich or poor, with or without the likelihood of compensation. He has ridden hundreds of miles to administer to the wants of destitute families, and has been their regular physician for five ten, and fifteen years, without asking for a dollar; finding his reward in relieving suffering and aiding in restoring health. He is a man of very kindly feeling and generous impulses.
Dr. Stephenson was Coroner of the County of Dundas several years ago, and resigned to accept the office of Reeve, which he held for seven consecutive years, and which, after an interval of two or three years, has again been thrust upon him. He was for some time chairman of the Examining Board for Teachers, and is alive to educational and other interests.
Dr. Stephenson is a prominent member of the Masonic Order; has been First Principal of Grenville Chapter, and is Past Grand Scribe N., and Past District Deputy Grand Superintendent of the Central District.
He is a member of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and of the St. Lawrence and Eastern Division Association, having an honorable standing among his medical brethren, as well as in the community.
The wife of Dr. Stephenson was Mary, elder daughter of James Keeler, Esq., of Spencerville, Township of Edwardsburg, their union being dated March 28, 1860. Her father was born in Augusta, Ontario, in 1810, and has always lived in this vicinity, being a descendant of a United Empire Loyalist. He has a thousandacre farm in Edwardsburg, and was for many years a lumber merchant near the village of Spencerville; has been a Justice of the Peace for more than thirty years; was a member of the Township Council for thirty-four years, and for twentyfive of those years was in the County Council, two of them warden of the County. His mother was Lizzette De Lorimer, whose father was a French officer, and fought under General Montcalm at Quebec. In November, 1838, Mr. Keeler was Acting Sergeant of Militia, and participated in the conflict at Prescott, aiding to capture 130 “Patriots” at the Windmill, on the 16th of that month. He still holds a captains commission under the old military system, prior to the Union.