Stephenson, James White, Dd

Stephenson, James White, D.D., a Presbyterian divine, was born in Augusta County, Va., in 1756. He was educated at Mt. Zion College, Winnsborough, S.C.; principal, for three years, of a classical school near the old Waxhaw Church, in Lancaster District. S.C.; studied theology privately; was licensed by the Presbytery of South Carolina in 1789; ordained and installed pastor of the Bethel and Indiantown churches, in Williamsburg District, in 1790. March 3,1808, with about twenty families, he migrated to Maury County, Tenn., jointly purchased a tract of land, and organized what was afterwards known as the "Frierson Settlement" — a Christian colony which long maintained an enviable reputation, particularly for its faithful private and public instruction of the blacks. He died Jan. 6, 1832. Dr. Stephenson published two or three sermons. As a preacher he was solid and instructive. In 1815, South Carolina College conferred upon him the degree of D.D. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pulpit, 3, A550; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v. (J.L.S.)