Captain Elisha Stephens

Captain Elisha Stephens was a skilled mountain man who participated in the northwest fur trade before embarking on an overland journey to Mexican Alta California with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party in 1844. Stephens was elected captain of the train and successfully led the party over the summit of the Sierra Nevada, opening up the floodgates of overland emigration to California. After serving in the Micheltorena War and Bear Flag Revolt, Stephens settled in San Jose and later moved to the Kern River country where he raised bees and chickens. He died in 1887 and was buried without a marker at Union Cemetery until the Kern County Genealogical Society discovered his family plot in 2009.

Bakersfield, California · United States