JOSEPH M. STEPHENS. The Stephens Sanitarium of Hastings is the best known medical and surgical institution of Jefferson county. It was founded and has
since been managed by one of the earliest physicians of the town, Dr. Joseph M. Stephens, who possesses professional prominence and also a well marked position in the citizenship of his community. On moving to Hastings in 1902 he soon acquired an excellent practice and in the following years established his sanitarium. His friends warned him that such an institution in this locality would prove financially disastrous, however much it might be a credit to the profession of medicine, but he proceeded to carry out his plans undeterred. Within eighteent months from the opening of the sanitarium its patronage had repaid its original cost. The institution has become a popular one, and in it are treated all diseases except the contagious, surgery being the doctor's specialty. Besides his professional interests, Dr. Stephens is a partner in the Ostrander drug firm, is owner of the National Hotel building, and is a director of the First National Bank of Hastings. A Democrat in politics, and thoroughly public spirited in his citizenship, he is serving as city health officer and also as a member of the citv council.
     Dr. Stephens was bom in Denton county, Texas, February 1, 1872. His grandfather, Joseph, a native of Virginia, migrated to Kentucky when a young man, later settled the land on which stands the town of Bunceton, Missouri, and spent the remainder of his life in Pettis county, Missouri. His children wereThomas Benton, Andrew J., George, John D. and Sallie (the latter being the mother of Judge Wolfe of Sherman, Texas). Dr. Stephens' father was Andrew J., who moved to Denton county, Texas, during the Civil war, engaged in the stock business there, and continued it until the influx of settlement shut off the range, and then purchased a large ranch on the boundary lines of Knox, Baylor and King counties, where he carried on his successful enterprises until his death in 1901, when seventy-four years of age. He was a man of unusual business ability, had been a Confederate soldier, was a thorough Democrat, and as a strong friend of Governor Throckmorton had been offered political position, but declined. Andrew J. Stephensmarried Alla, daughter of John Holford, a Presbyterian minister who spent his life near Sherman, Texas, where their marriage took place. Mrs. Stephens still resides at Aurora, Texas. Her children are: George, of Chandler, Texas; Lula, wife of John L. Slimp, of Amarillo, Texas; Walter L., who was killed at Fort Worth when nineteen; Dr. Joseph M.; Hattie, wife of R. Pink Boyd, of Boyd, Texas; and Thomas, of Rhome, Texas.
     Dr. Stephens attended Trinity University at Tehuacana, Texas, where, he graduated wifh the B. S. degree in 1889, and at once began preparing for his profession in the College of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis. On finishing his course in 1893, he began practice at Denison, Texas, later located in Decatur, Texas, and from there came to Hastings in 1902. Dr. Stephens was married in St. Louis, Missouri, August 3, 1902, to Miss Bertha Bickley, daughter of Mrs. Minerva E. Bickley. They have one son, Earl W.