Ralph Edward STEVENS

                   NOTES:
    Historical information included in notes.

Ralph Edward STEVENS homesteaded 80 acres in 1876 and built part of the house in 1878. My grandfather, Homer, was due to be born in the fall of that year and Ralph's folks, Samuel and Jane, were going to move from Illinois so they were working hard. (The house still stands, no one lives in it, and it is in very poor condition. - June, 1994) 
The runaway that Ralph was hurt in, happened south of the house to the corner and west a little ways on a small hill. Homer told me his Dad had a young horse that he was breaking and had it teamed with an older one. Somehow they run away and upset the wagon in the ditch, Ralph ended up with a broken leg. My mother, Glee MOORE, remembers going in to see her grandpa. They had his leg supported up and a piece of cord tied to the foot and this run over, like a pulley, with a pail tied on to it with rocks in it to keep the leg straight. He must of had a blood clot that hit a vital place. Sounds crude in this day and age. 
Grandmother Nancy continued living on the farm until 1918 when she sold the farm to her son Walter X. STEVENS, for $138.00 per acre, on March 1, 1918. Nancy built a new house in Diagonal (second house south of the Methodist church, still being lived in now, 1996) and lived there until her death April. 11, 1927. 
Walter's wife Ola lived on the farm until her death December 1972. She was the last of the STEVENS family to own it. It passed to her nephew, Gail BERRY, and he sold it to Roland YOUNG for $275.00 per acre, The YOUNG family still own it today (1996). 
The Presbyterian church in Diagonal celebrated its 50th anniversary on Sunday, June 16, 1940. It was founded in Goshen, then a village two miles west of Diagonal, in 1877 with fifteen charter members. Mr. an Mrs. James CORNES, Mr. and Mrs. George MORRISON, Mr. and Mrs. Ralph STEVENS, Mrs. D. I. WILEY, Mr. and Mrs. George MOFFET, Mr. and Mrs. J. B. GLENDENNING, Mr. and Mrs. John G. FOSTER, Mr. and Mrs. Alexander B. LINDSLEY. Services were held in the Methodist church in Goshen for a time. The present church was built in Diagonal in 1890. The Homer STEVENS funeral was held in this church in September 1973 and it was torn down a year or so later. Glee MOORE told me the STEVENS and WILEYS bought the church bell when the new church was built in Diagonal. - Notes by Claude Dale Moore, Jr. 
Ralph and Nancy STEVENS provided the foundation and then the building blocks for the family development in Ringgold County. The values associated with hard work, love of family and friends, and commitment to the church were passed on to their descendants. - Ramon L. Bear