Ira K. Stephens

Ira Kendrick Stephens (1887–1956) was born in Chico, Texas. He attended Austin College starting in 1905, but dropped out for health reasons, and worked as a teacher from 1906-1911. He received his A.B. from Southwestern University in 1914, and was principal of Mart High School in McLennan County from 1914-1917, after which he enrolled in Southern Methodist University to obtain a Master’s Degree. In 1918–19 he served as a private in the Allied Expeditionary Forces in France, and married fellow teacher Irmine Hayes in 1920. Stephens completed his M.A. at Southwestern University in 1921 and began teaching there as an instructor of philosophy and psychology. He was promoted to the status of full professor after completing his Ph.D. at Harvard in 1926. Stephens was president of the Philosophical Society of Texas in 1936 and its director from 1936-1938, 1941-1945, and in 1948.

Stephens published several articles on critical philosophy in the Southwest Review, but his most famous work by far was The Hermit Philosopher of Liendo, his biography of Edmund Montgomery, published in 1951. As outlined at the beginning of the book, Stephens sought to “give an exposition of the life and labors of Dr. Montgomery and to show that his best claim to immortality is not the fact that he was Elisabet Ney’s husband”. Stephens performed extensive research into Montgomery’s origins, life experiences, and philosophy, gathering information from friends of Ney such as Bride Neill Taylor and engaging in extensive correspondence with Mrs. Willie B. Rutland, long-time curator of the Elisabet Ney Museum.

Ira Kendrick Stephens died in Dallas on March 16, 1956.

The "Storyteller of the Southwest", famed folklorist and writer James Frank Dobie wrote this about The Hermit Philosopher of Liendo:

"Well-conceived and well-written biography of Edmund Montgomery -- illegitimate son of a Scottish lord, husband of the sculptress Elisabet Ney -- who, after being educated in Germany and becoming a member of the Royal College of Physicians of London, came to Texas with his wife and sons and settled on Liendo Plantation, near Hempstead...His life was a drama of an elevated soul of complexities, far more tragic than any life associated with the lurid 'killings' around him."

Letters in the Archive

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on March 15, 1947, containing information about photographs of Liendo plantation and books at the Elisabet Ney Museum. Stephens writes: "I am trying to treat Miss Ney with honesty, in the light of her real talent and value. She has been so dreadfully and shamefully maligned by gossipers and searchers after the rediculous and the eccentric that I feel that some one should do her justice in terms of her real work."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on November 8, 1948, containing information regarding Waldemar Kuhlman, Edmund Montgomery, and Elisabet Ney. Stephens writes: "As I must have written you before, I now have a complete volume assigned to me for the treatment of Dr. Montgomery...I hope to have the thing ready for the publishers by the end of the Christmas holiday season."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on December 8, 1948, containing information about Edmund Montgomery and Elisabet Ney, as well as an upcoming research trip to San Antonio, Hempstead, and Austin. Stephens writes: "I am especially anxious to learn the facts about Miss Ney's contract for making the original statues of Austin and Houston for the Chicago Exposition..."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on December 21, 1948, containing information about the World's Columbian Exposition, and the statues of Austin and Houston. Stephens writes: "I gratefully acknowledge receipt of the little pamphlet containing a history of the organization and the activities of the Daughters of the Texas Republic which you recently sent me. Thank you for this thoughtful act."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on August 10, 1949, containing information regarding Hempstead and Edmund Montgomery. Stephens writes: "I am now writing on the final copy of the chapter on this period of Dr. Montgomery's life, and need all the materials I can get on his relations with Miss Ney during this time. If you can cite me to something relevant, I shall be very grateful to you for the tip."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on January 17, 1951, containing information about Edmund Montgomery, Nannie Huddle, Elisabet Ney, and more. Stephens writes: "I remember that the first time I talked with Mrs. Taylor she advised me rather emphatically that I get in touch with Mrs. Huddle, assuring me that Mrs. Huddle was much more intimate with the Doctor after Miss Ney's death than was any one else in that group of Miss Ney's friends."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on February 13, 1951, containing information regarding Edmund Montgomery, Cencie Simath, Nannie Huddle, and more. Stephens writes: "Thank you for your letter of Jan. 23, in which you express agreement with my interpretation of the mysterious Montgomery letter to "Dearest," and cite other facts to substantiate this interpretation. The following further evidence which I have recently assembled seem to be further confirmation of this interpretation."

Letter from Ira K. Stephens to Willie B. Rutland on April 23, 1951, containing information regarding "The Hermit Philosopher of Liendo" and the Elisabet Ney Museum. Stephens writes: "Some of these days, I hope to come to Austin and spend a day and, if you would like, autograph copies for all who would like to have such a copy. The autograph, of course, makes the book no better. It just so happened that some people think it does."