Stevens (Family)

The genealogy of these families begins with John and Alice Atkins Stevens of Canterbury, England, in 1599. Their son, William Stevens, married Eliza­beth Bitfield. Their son, John Stevens, married Abigail Lord and they emigrated to Newbury, Massachusetts. Their son, John Stevens, migrated from Massachusetts to South Caro­lina, where he had received grants of land on the Ashley River. He received another grant of land on which Dorchester and the White Meeting House were established.

 

His son, John Stevens, received a grant of land in the Midway District in 1752 and relocated there the following year. It was he who gave the land on which the first Midway Church was built in 1754. He was married twice. His first wife was the ancestor of these Stevens family members. His second wife was Mary MacKay of Bryan County, Georgia. A child of this John Stevens and his first wife was John Stevens who married Margaret McCartney in 1770. Their son was John Stevens who married Amarintha Munro, granddaughter of Brigadier General Daniel Stewart.

 

Their son was Henry Munro Stevens who married Jeanette Thompson in 1828. Their son was William Maxwell Stevens who married Elizabeth Olivia Winn in 1862. Their son was William Maxwell Stevens Jr., who married Matilda Maxwell in 1890, and their children were William Maxwell Stevens III, John Porter Stevens, Allen Abial Stevens, Carroll Charles Stevens, Cecil Lockwood Stevens, Dana Stevens, Eliza Maxwell Stevens, Elizabeth Elliott Stevens, Fleming Winn Stevens, and Thomas Clay Stevens. Thomas Clay Stevens married Billie Brown, and their chil­dren are Faye Stevens and Thomas Clay Stevens Jr. Dana Stevens married Rubye Girardeau, and their children are John Leonard Stevens and Dana Stevens Jr. They resided at Springfield Plantation and then in a home at Dorchester until about 1956.

 

Emma Isabell Stevens, child of William Maxwell and Henrietta Stevens III, married William Barring­ton Guyn, and their children are Delores Elizabeth Guyn, Steven Barrington Guyn, and Clara Marie Guyn. William Barrington Guyn died in 1983. His widow was residing in Hinesville when this book was published. Allen Abial Stevens (1895-1965) married (1) Bertha Cole, and (2) Gertrude Jessop and resided at Sunbury. He had one child by his first wife and she is Alice Bertha Stevens, who married William Wade Fillingame, son of Samuel F. and Merle Wheeler Fil­lingame, and they reside at Sunbury. Their children are William Wade Fillingame Jr., Laura Alice Fillingame, and Allen Stevens Fillingame.

 

John Porter Stevens (1893-1969), who had homes in Savannah and on Springfield Plantation, married Martha Jefferson Randolph of Virginia, and their one surviving child is Laura Randolph Stevens. Her first marriage was to Frank K. Peeples of Savannah, and their children are Marla Randolph Peeples and Daryn Stewart Peeples. Her second marriage was to Donald A. Devendorf, and their one child is Meredith Randolph Devendorf. They owned and were residing on Springfield Plantation when this book was published. Elizabeth Elliott Stevens married Otis Alfred Amason (1896-1966), and their one child is Otis Alfred Amason Jr. He married Frances Bradford, and their children are Frances Elizabeth Amason, who married William Chakmak, and John Bradford Amason, who married Lisa Burmaster.

 

Otis Alfred Amason Jr. graduated from the University of Georgia and was commissioned a second lieu­tenant in the Reserve Officer Training Corps after attend­ing programs there and at Georgia Military College. He was called to active duty by the U.S. Army in 1951. After assignments and service schools at Camp Breckinridge, Ken­tucky, and Fort Benning, Georgia, he was assigned as platoon leader, and subsequently communications and executive officer, to Company B, 35th Infantry Regiment, 25th In­fantry Division, in the Republic of Korea during the Korean Conflict. He saw combat in the Chorwan Valley campaign. He returned to the U.S. in 1953 and was assigned to Fort Rucker, Alabama, and Fort Riley, Kansas, where he gradu­ated from the Combat, Intelligence, Photo Interpretation, and Interrogation Course. He was returned to reserve status in 1956, and after technical schooling was employed by a U.S. Firm as a simulator, missile simulators and electronic missiles instructor. He was a field engineering and factory representative for flight and missile simulators from 1959 to 1966 with the Chinese National Air Force on Taiwan, and the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa, West Germany, Libya, and Homestead Air Force Base, Florida. After 1969 until he retired he was senior reliability engineer in the production of C-5A aircraft mission flight simulators and training devices made by the Lockheed Corporation at Marietta, Georgia. He was residing at Stave Landing when this book was published.

 

Genealogy of the Amason families in Liberty County com­mences with Green A. Amason of Washington County, Geor­gia. He was married twice. His first wife was Frances Ashmore, a widow, and two of her children were C.W. Ashmore and J. Strong Ashmore, who became citizens and elected officials of Liberty County. John Quincy Amason and Thomas Ama­son, brothers of Green A. Amason, both married and had children. At least two of the children of Green A. and Fran­ces Ashmore Amason were John T. Amason and Robert Sloeman Amason. The latter child migrated to Liberty Coun­ty before the end of the nineteenth century and married Mary C. Jackson, daughter of Joseph and Mary A. Jackson of Liberty County. Their children were Otis Alfred Amason, Eddie V. Amason, Robert S. Amason, Mary C. Amason, R. Frank Amason, William Amason, John A. Amason, Mary A. Amason, J. Sloeman Amason, Ernest C. Amason, Louise Estelle Amason, A. Louise Amason, and Ola Eunice Amason. Otis Alfred Amason was the only one of these children to remain in Liberty County. Elizabeth Elliott Stevens Amason owned and resided at Stave Landing in Liberty County when this book was published. Her son and his family resided nearby.

 

Three sons of Thomas Stevens, brother of the first John Stevens in Liberty County, reared their families in Liberty County. Thomas Stevens Jr. married Sarah Spencer and their one surviving child was Thomas Stevens (1780- 1817), who was a physician, married Mary G. Graves, and their surviving children were Susannah Rebecca Stevens, William Stevens, Sarah Elizabeth Stevens, Mary Graves Stevens, and John Samuel Stevens. Joseph Stevens, brother of Thomas Stevens Jr., married Ann Spencer, sister of Sarah Spencer Stevens, and their one surviving child was Ann Stevens. Samuel Stevens, brother of Joseph and Thomas Stevens Jr., married Elizabeth Baker, and their children were Thomas Stevens, Eliza Stevens, Elizabeth Stevens, and Wil­liam Baker Stevens. Edward and Oliver Stevens migrated to Liberty County from Massachusetts or New Hampshire, or both, and were probably related to the Stevens families of South Carolina.

 

It was Edward Stevens Jr. and his wife, Sarah, along with Oliver Stevens, who perished in a shipwreck at sea in 1801. Other Liberty Countians who lost their lives in the same shipwreck were Lathrop and Sarah Holmes, Ann Sumner, James Stacy, and William and Mary Ross, children of Francis Ross. Oliver and Eliza Winn Stevens Jr. had four children residing at home in 1850, according to the U.S. Census of Liberty County that year. They were Josiah Ste­vens, a physician, Ann L. Stevens, Eliza F. Stevens, and Walter F. Stevens. Louise Stevens was also their child, but she married Edwin H. Bacon in 1832 and they established their own household. They had nine surviving children, and one of their descendents when this book was published was Mrs. Charles Perot Whiting of Albany, Georgia. Oliver W. and Mary A. Stevens had four children living at home in 1850, and they were Lucy A. Stevens, Edward G. Stevens, Harriet L. Stevens, and Caroline R. Stevens.

 

John Porter Stevens, son of William Maxwell and Eliza Maxwell Stevens Jr., was one of the most successful businessmen ever reared in Liberty County. He was an officer in the U.S. Army during World War I, vice president and general manager of the South Atlantic Maritime Corporation in Savannah, Georgia, presi­dent of the Stevens Contractors Supply Company, also in Savannah, and in 1930 founded the Stevens Shipping Com­pany, which in 1965 became the Stevens Shipping and Ter­minal Company when the Kerr Shipping Company bought an interest in the company with John Porter Stevens as chair­man of its board of directors. He was an alderman of the City of Savannah, a director of the Hinesville Bank, and a Select Man of the Midway Society. He acquired Springfield Planta­tion and built a residence adjacent to the old family home.