Wilbur Lee Stephens (1879-1941)

Charts | Marriage | Child_Died | Death| Burial | Census

Son of Lafayette Stephens and Margaret Dove √
Husband of Edna Inez Stratton √

Facts (with source information): Narrative Report

What's so bad about these records?
Arrrg! The only census in which we would expect to see him with his first wife and her children is missing! (1910 census) Oh well. At least we have other records that are informative. And if you look at that circle chart, you can see that while his ancestors on his father’s side are unknown, he has a lot of history on his mother’s side.

Charts:

1900 Marriage to Edna Inez Stratton

Clayton, St. Louis County, Missouri
He is called Lee W. Stephens

1911 Death of Daughter Anna Margaret

Wellston, St. Louis County, Missouri
He is called Lee Stephens and his place of birth is correct.
Informant is his 1st wife, Edna Stratton Stephens.

1941 Death

Clayton, St. Louis County, Missouri
Names his parents correctly, but is wrong about the place of his birth.
He is called Wilbur Stephens. But she had Lee Stephens carved on his tombstone.
Informant is his 2nd wife.

Burial

He is buried at St. Patrick of Armagh, Catawissa, Missouri. His second wife and her family were members of that parish. And he did a lot of work to maintain the church building.

The church is closed, but you can still visit the cemetery. There used to be a group that took care of the cemetery, and they held a picnic every summer. People would hear Mass, have lunch, and take care of the graves. After Mass, when the blessed sacrament had been removed, we children would play with the organ. It had a bellows that was pumped by hand to force air through the pipes. That’s how organs worked before they became electric instruments.
1941Burial

Census Records

Bad luck! He appears in 5 censuses, none of them with his first wife. They should have appeared in the 1910 census, but I cannot find it. (Notice how his name and place of birth are shown.)

1880 Census

Richland, Fountain County, Indiana
Wilbur L. Stephens, infant, born in Indiana
lines 32-36

1900 Census, page 1, bottom

St. Louis, Missouri
lines 49-50

1900 Census, page 2, top

St. Louis, Missouri
Wilbur Lee Stephens, born in Indiana
lines 51-52

1920 Census

St. Louis, Missouri
Willard Stevens, born in Indiana
lines 59-60

1930 Census

Brentwood, St. Louis County, Missouri
Wilbert L. Stephens, born in Indiana
lines 28-31

1940 Census

Valley Park, St. Louis County, Missouri
Wilbur Stephens, born in Missouri
lines 57-58