Barnwell Pickins Stephenson (1861-1947)

From the History of Bee County, 1939.

  One can always count on the Lonestar State to field an interestingly named political figure, and that is precisely the case with the recent discovery of Barnwell Pickins Stephenson, a leading citizen of Beeville, Texas who was elected as that city's mayor in the early 1910s. Born in Beeville on June 14, 1861, Barnwell Pickins "B.P." Stephenson was one of several children born to Hugh John and Martha Ann Elizabeth (Hollan) Stephenson. 

  Recorded as the second white child to have been born in Beeville, young Barnwell removed with his family to the neighboring town of Yoakum while still a child, and grew to adulthood in that town. His residency in Yoakum saw him emerge as a leading cotton buyer in the vicinity, as well as a "dealer in general merchandise". In the early 1890s, Stephenson owned and operated the Yoakum Opera House, was an organizer of the Yoakum Masonic Lodge, and was an early stockholder in the First National Bank of Yoakum, which had been established in 1890. 

   Barnwell P. Stephenson married his first wife, Elizabeth Josiah Cleaveland (1861-1916), sometime in the early 1880s, and the couple's marriage saw the births of at least three children, Tena, William B., and Hugh. Following her death in 1916 Stephenson remarried in December 1918 to Alice Ainsworth, who preceded him in death in 1933. He remarried for a third time in April 1937 to a Mrs. E.M. Baggett, who survived Stephenson upon his death in 1947. 

   Stephenson began his political career in Yoakum with his service as a notary public, and from 1898-99 served as Mayor of Yoakum for one term. In 1905 he removed with his family back to Beeville where he continued in cotton buying, and in 1913 was elected as Beeville's mayor, defeating his opponent C.A. Heldenfels by a vote of 214 to 70. His term extended two years and several years after leaving office joined with his son Hugh in establishing a grocery store, operating under the firm name of B.P. Stephenson and Son. Stephenson himself would lose interest in the business and by 1923 had his portion of the business purchased by his son, who continued to operate it alone.

  B.P. Stephenson returned to cotton buying after leaving the aforementioned business, finally retiring in the late 1930s. He remained active well into his eighties, being a church deacon and Masonic lodge member. Late in his life, Stephenson was awarded a life membership in the Yoakum Masonic Lodge, which he had helped to organize decades before. On January 7, 1947, Stephenson died at his Beeville home, aged 85, and was shortly thereafter interred at the Glenwood Cemetery in that city. 

From the January 9, 1947 Beeville Bee-Picayune.