Stephen McPherson was born in Chaumont, New York, on 5 March 1839, the son of William McPherson (1797-1883) and his first wife, Jane Forsythe (1808-1844). He attended Belleville Academy and the Jefferson County Institute at Watertown, New York, and graduated from the Bryant and Stratton Commercial College at Buffalo, New York. Following this, he taught school two years in Paint Township, Fayette County, Ohio. In 1862, he followed his younger brother, Robert (1841-1917), and his elder sister, Naomi (1832-1912), to California by way of Panama. He settled first in Santa Clara County, and followed his profession as a school teacher. He also engaged in mercantile ventures with his brother. In 1872, he settled in the Westminster Colony, in what is now Orange County, and taught the first term of the Orange public school (then known as Richland). In the following decade he also taught at Newport, San Gabriel, El Monte, Santa Monica, and the city of Los Angeles. In addition to teaching, McPherson was a pioneer in Southern California viticulture. In 1872, shortly after his arrival in Southern California, he, together with his brother, purchased 220 acres east of the Santiago Creek, on which they planted the first raisin vineyard in Southern California. By the mid-1880s, their partnership, McPherson Brothers, was the largest raisin business in California. In 1887, the brothers sought to take advantage of the Southern California land boom by establishing the town of McPherson, tearing out most of their vines to make way for housing lots and streets. They were almost ruined the following year when the boom collapsed and a disease killed off the remaining grape vines. Stephen was able to rescue 23 acres of mortgaged land, on which he pursued other lines of farming, in particular citrus growing. He died at his home in Orange on 21 August 1917.