John Stephenson was William and Valentine Crawford’s half brother. After the death of the Crawfords’ father, their mother, Onora Grimes Crawford (d. 1776), married Richard Stephenson, by whom she had five sons and one daughter (butterfield [1] description begins C. W. Butterfield, ed. The Washington-Crawford Letters. Being the Correspondence between George Washington and William Crawford, from 1767 to 1781, Concerning Western Lands. Cincinnati, 1877. description ends , 93). John Stephenson had served in the French and Indian War and settled in the vicinity of the Great Crossing of the Youghiogheny about 1768. He was involved from time to time in the Crawfords’ land activities.