The photo was made around 1912 in front of one of the water towers at the Gordon depot. The man in the center is John Franklin Stevens (Uncle Jack), who was Bob Byington's grandfather. Of the two children standing in front of Jack, the boy on the left is Bob Byington, and the girl on the right is his sister, Lottie Byington. The boy on the far left is Bob's brother, John Byington, and the woman next to him is his sister Sally Byington. The girl on the far right is Pearl Byington, another sister.
The woman standing next to Sallie is Patty Barfield, and the woman next to her is Ritchie Owen Evans. The four children in the rear between Pearl and Jack I cannot identify by first names, but they are the Perkins children, who were grandchildren of Davey Solomon.

Uncle Jack Stevens worked for 40 years pumping water at the Gordon depot. He lost his left leg in the Civil War - he took a bullet in the leg during the battle of Chancellorsville in May of 1863. He was much liked and respected, and the accounts I have read of him in newspapers always comment on his character. He is buried in the Gordon cemetery just a few yards away from the house he lived in. Next to him is his wife Ann Willis, and their daughter Bethany Stevens, and her husband Amos M. Byington (who built the Gordon depot in 1885). Also in this plot are Sally Byington and her husband, Sam O'Connor, Bob Byington and wife Lucille Hooker, and Lottie Byington. A number of Amos Byington's descendents had markers put
on five of these graves last year.

-Mark Byington
copyright 2005-2006