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In 1894, William Stebens left his birthplace at Davenport, Iowa and took his team and covered wagon westward to take up land between Deerfield and Lakin, Kansas. Born in 1859, he lived with his parents in Gaines Street, and later Brown Street, Davenport. In Davenport, he worked as a teamster. Once settled on his 193 acres beside a small lake, he grew sugar beets. He married a young Russian-German emigre from the Volga lands, Barbara Ingenthron, and they produced 10 children. The water from the lake was reticulated to other farmers nearby by ditch, and Bill was the overseer responsible for the allocation of water quotas. When he died he was 95 years old, this being the current record for the oldest male of the entire Stebens Family. (Sylvia Morrison, age 100 years, living in Tauranga, New Zealand is the oldest woman of the family.) After Bill's death, his widow moved to California to reside with their daughter. The farmstead that Bill built, in its derelict state makes for a nostalgic image for the local paper. [LINEAGE: William Stebens s/o Franz H Stäben s/o Joachim H Staeben s/o Frantz Hinrich Stebens; Anna Barbara Ingenthron d/o Johannes Ingenthron s/o Johannes Ingenthron; Sylvia Quarrie Morrison d/o Minnie Stebens d/o Wilhelm Stäben s/o Detlef Staeben s/o Frantz Hinrich Stebens] (PHOTO courtesy Larry Irsik, Denver)
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