(d. 1882)
« return to database listAfter his father's death, James Owen Stedman and his brother John Madison Stedman were designated by his father's will as executors. He was requested to postpone his studies for the ministry for one year to help settle the family's affairs. He complied with his father's request before he undertook his studies at Princeton and married Margaretta Harbert of Philadelphia.
John Owen Steadman had an admirable career. The Rev. Stedman carried out some pastoral work in a community in North Carolina for a brief time but then took a position at a Presbyterian church in Tuscumbia, Alabama. The Stedmans lived there seven to eight years and appeared in the published life story of a slave named Peter Still. Peter was "rented" out by his master and worked for a year for the Stedmans, cutting wood for the household, carrying water, and doing a variety of other labors. Peter Still was treated with great kindness and fairness by the couple, and Mrs. Stedman told him about her home in Philadelphia where slavery was not practiced. This was one of the experiences that inspired Peter to work toward his freedom, which he achieved, and he eventually traveled to Philadelphia where Margaretta Harbert Stedman had lived. His story was told in a book published in 1856, The Kidnapped and Ransomed, Being the Personal Recollections of Peter Still and his Wife, "Vina" after 40 Years of Slavery, by Mrs. Kate E. R. Pickard. The Stedmans are mentioned with praise and affection several times throughout the book.
John and Margaretta Stedman left Alabama to take a position at the Presbyterian church in Wilmington, NC, but Mrs. Stedman's health declined after several years and her husband took her back to Pennsylvania in the early 1850's where he "supplied" a church in Chester, PA. The couple had no children. Margaretta Stedman died in 1853.
In 1855, John Owen Stedman married Mary Hayden of Connecticut. The couple moved to Memphis, TN where he "supplied" a Presbyterian church and helped to establish the Alabama Street Presbyterian Church in Memphis, which is no longer in existence. They had four children: Ellen Stedman, Mary Stedman, James Stedman and Stella Stedman. In the United States Census of 1880, a "niece," another Ellen Stedman, was living with the family.
John Owen Stedman was quite afflicted in his later years, left his post with the church when his health declined, and died "of paralysis" in Memphis in 1882 [1] [2] [3].
James died in 1882, of paralysis, and was buried in Memphis, TN.
(niece, b. 1838), Margaretta Harbert Stedman (niece), Mary O. Stedman (niece), Olivia Stedman (niece) and Susan W. Stedman (niece).