An article in the 1913 April issue of the Stephenville Tribune noted that John M. Stephen moved an un-named black family to the present Stephenville square in 1854 and left them there for a year to establish friendly relations with the local Indians. The store traded for deer-skin bags of honey, hides, and buffalo hams, earning the trust of Comanches, Anadarkos, and other Indians. A year later Stephen returned with the first thirty Anglo emigrants. It was only a couple of years before Stephenville men ruined the relations with the Natives, the Choctaw Tom Massacre in 1857 being a prime example.

The graves of the black family, and other African-American people were removed from the Stephenville cemetery in 1922 during a decade of demagoguery and Culture Wars.