Born October 11, 1826, in Russell County, Virginia. He was the son of Stephen Gose and Boedicia (Dicey) Jessee. In 1831, when he was five years old, the family moved to Boone County, Indiana. He passed his young life on a farm in the Boone County area of Indiana. In the year 1849, at the age of 23 and ambitious to make himself a home and a name in the then distant West, Stephen moved to Iowa. He settled first in the Fort Des Moines area of Polk County, and then in 1854 he moved to Marion County where he became a merchant in the town of Wheeling. During the winter of 1863 and 1864, he was selected to represent Marion County in the lower house of the Iowa State Legislature. The duties of his office were performed to the grateful satisfaction of his constituents and with credit to himself. Besides having been a representative, he was a member, and for some time the chairman, of the Board of Supervisors of Marion County. Stephen was married first to Martha Miller who died in 1874. He then married Margaret A. Cart in late 1875.