Mrs. J. H. Stephens. As president of the City Federation of Women’s Clubs, an active factor in the Current Club and a member of the Carnegie Library Board, at Coffeyville, Mrs. J. H. Stephens occupies a prominent position in the social, civic and intellectual life that has made this city one of the centers of cultural interests in the state.
Mrs. Stephens (Esther Logan) comes of an old colonial family of English origin. The Logans were pioneers in Kentucky, in which state Mrs. Stephens’ grandfather was born and died. Her father, G. H. Logan, was born in Somerset County, Kentucky, January 6, 1840. In early manhood he accompanied his widowed mother when she removed to Nodaway County, Missouri, where he later engaged in merchandising. In 1889 he went to Oklahoma and was the pioneer merchant at Kingfisher and continued there until 1906 when he came to Kansas and is the senior member of the Logan-Stephens Mercantile Company at Coffeyville. He married Julia Bradford, who was born August 25, 1849, in Missouri, and died at Coffeyville in March, 1914. They had one child, Esther, who became the wife of J. H. Stephens.
J. H. Stephens was born in Linn County, Missouri, December 18, 1871, and was educated in the public schools. He entered business at Linneus, in his native county. For several years he was a cashier in the employ of the New York Life Insurance Company and for three years was a merchant at Kingfisher, Oklahoma. In 1904 he came to Coffeyville and entered the mercantile business being now the junior member of the firm of the Logan-Stephens Mercantile Company located on Ninth Street, one of the largest establishments of its kind in this city. In his political sentiments he is a democrat.
In 1900 Mr. Stephens was united in marriage with Miss Esther Logan, who was born at Burlington Junction, Nodaway County, Missouri. Mrs. Stephens attended the public schools of Lexington, Missouri, and later had the superior educational advantages offered by the Lexington Female Seminary. Mr. and Mrs. Stephens have two children, a son and daughter: John Logan, who is a student in the city high school, and Julia Virginia, who is yet in the grade school. Mrs. Stephens is an active member of the Presbyterian Church in which she was reared.
Perhaps it is because Mrs. Stephens exemplifies the womanly attributes which have ever adorned her sex, as well as that she possesses the wide vision and high ideals of the intellectual modern progressive woman, that she has been selected for the presidency of such a representative body as the City Federation of Women’s Clubs. She has the personality that creates admiration and wins esteem.