L. H. Stephens
The Doughty Settler with An Ax-Handle
from "Southeast Corner of Tarrant County Before the Civil War"
by Sallie Hodges McKnight
L. H. Stephens was commonly known as "long-headed." He possessed a remarkably keep mind, good judgment and executive ability. The boundary of his many acres of blackland was outlined and preserved from trespass on the part of man or beast by a bois d'arc hedge, the only form of fencing at that time. These hedges throughout the country were kept neat and impregnable by
experienced hedge-cutters who contrived a cumbersome piece of horse-drawn machinery which left little to be desired in the way of a thorny barrier.
Mr. Stephens was one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church, a factor in school building later on. He was a man of strict integrity, despised troublemakers, pugnaciously defended his
principles, and was known to drive a weak-minded neighbor off his premises with an ax-handle when the conversation dropped to the level of objectionable gossip.
These old settlers were, on the whole, a peaceful lot, rarely shooting each other over boundary disputes, and the greatest indignity that could have been offered to any one of them would have been a presumption that he was like anybody else under the sun.
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