Elijah Stephens
Elijah Stephens was a blacksmith and trapper who was born in South Carolina. In 1844 he left Council Bluffs, Iowa as the captain of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains into Alta California. He then moved to Cupertino, California, in 1848. Stevens Creek is named after him.
In 1862, Stephens left the area, heading to Kern County in central California. A state historic plaque in that city marks the approximate site of his homestead. Stephens died in Bakersfield, California in 1887. He was buried in Union Cemetery. His gravesite was discovered in 2009 by members of the Kern County Genealogical Society. On May 1, 2010 the Oregon-California Trails Association California/Nevada Chapter in cooperation with the Kern County Historical Society installed a historical plaque at the gravesite of Elijah Stephens.
