Richard Stevens (lawyer)

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Richard Stevens
Born(1868-05-23)May 23, 1868
Paris, France
DiedMay 18, 1919(1919-05-18) (aged 50)
Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
EducationSt. Paul's School
Alma materColumbia College
Columbia Law School
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1893)​
Children4
Parent(s)Edwin Augustus Stevens
Martha Bayard Dod Stevens
RelativesEdwin A. Stevens Jr. (brother)
John Cox Stevens (uncle)
Robert L. Stevens (uncle)
John Stevens III (grandfather)
Albert Baldwin Dod (grandfather)
See Stevens family

Richard Stevens (May 23, 1868 – May 18, 1919)[1] was an attorney and real estate developer in Hoboken, New Jersey which his family owned all of at one time.

Early life[edit]

Steven's wife, Elizabeth Callendar Stevens, c. 1910
Steven's wife, Elizabeth Callendar Stevens, c. 1915.

Stevens was born in Paris, France on May 23, 1868. He was the son of Martha Bayard (née Dod) Stevens (1831–1899)[2] and Edwin Augustus Stevens (1795–1868), a well-known designer and founder of the Stevens Institute of Technology.[3] Among his siblings was Mary Picton Stevens (the wife of politician Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett and, later, Edward Parke Custis Lewis, U.S. Minister to Portugal); John Stevens IV (grandfather of Millicent Fenwick); and Edwin Augustus Stevens Jr., founder of the New York design firm Cox & Stevens.[4]

His paternal grandparents were Col. John Stevens III and Rachel (née Cox) Stevens. Among his large and prominent family were uncles Robert Livingston Stevens and John Cox Stevens, founder of the New York Yacht Club and a driving force in the design of the yacht America and the competition for the America's Cup. His maternal grandparents were Caroline Smith (née Bayard) Dod and Albert Baldwin Dod, the Presbyterian theologian and professor of mathematics at Princeton University.[5]

He first attended Stevens High School (from 1880 to 1881) and then the St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and then entered Columbia College, graduating with an A.B. degree in 1890, following by a J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 1892.[6]

Career[edit]

Following his graduation from Law School in 1892, he was admitted to the bar in 1893.[7] In 1898, he formed the law firm of Lewis, Besson & Stevens,[8] along with Edwin A. Lewis and Judge J. Rufus Besson.[9]

In 1896, Stevens was elected second vice president of Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, which represented the Stevens estate, later serving as its president.[7] His family at one time owned the entire city of what is today, Hoboken.[7]

For sixteen years, he served as "Probation Officer" for Hudson County. He also served as a director of the First National Bank of Hoboken and U.S. Commissioner of Jurors for the District of New Jersey. Stevens was a trustee of the New Jersey Industrial School, a trustee of the Stevens Institute of Technology, and a trustee of the Church of the Holy Innocents, which was built by his mother. In addition, he was the treasurer of Christ Hospital (associated with the Episcopal Diocese of Newark),[10] and president of the United Aid Society.[7]

Soon after the outbreak of World War I, Stevens offered, and the government accepted, the Stevens Mansion, a 40-room mansion which overlooked the Hudson River at Castle Point in Hoboken, for use as a home for convalescing soldiers.[9]

Personal life[edit]

Steven's eldest daughter, Elizabeth Callendar "Elsie" Stevens.

On November 11, 1893, Stevens was married to his first cousin, Elizabeth Callendar Stevens "Elsie" (1869–c. 1963) at St. Peter & St. Paul's Church in Hoboken.[11] Elizabeth, a prominent suffragist,[12] was the daughter of his paternal uncle, Francis Bowes Stevens,[13] and Elizabeth Callendar (née Harris) Stevens.[14][15] Together they were the parents of four children:

  • Elizabeth Callendar "Elsie" Stevens (1895–1920), who died unmarried at age 25.[16]
  • Caroline Bayard Stevens (1897–1971), who married Edward Beach Condon (d. 1942),[17] a son Thomas G. Condon of New York, in 1921.[18] They divorced in 1926.[19] After their divorce, he remarried to Mary McLeod (née Cameron) Mayer (a daughter of Duncan Ewen Cameron),[20] and Caroline remarried to stockbroker and rancher Jack Speiden.[21]
  • Dorothy Pintard Stevens,[22] who married architect Matthew Corry Fleming Jr., son of Matthew C. Fleming of 1060 Fifth Avenue, in 1929.[23][24]
  • Richard Stevens Jr. (1905–1985),[9][25] who studied at the University of Oxford in England.[26]

He was a member of the Union Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, and the New York Yacht Club.[9]

Stevens died at his home at Castle Point in Hoboken, New Jersey on May 18, 1919.[1] His estate, valued at $2,611,314,[27] was held in trust for the benefit of his children.[22]

After his death, his widow remarried "bohemian writer" and diplomat Josef Forman of Czechoslovakia in London in 1925.[16][28] The marriage did not last long, and in 1927 they divorced.[26][29] After her divorce by final decree in Paris in May 1927, she resumed the use of the name, Mrs. Stevens Stevens.[30]

Descendants[edit]

Through his daughter, he was the grandfather of Richard Stevens Condon,[31] who married actress Anne Gerety,[32] and Edward Beach Condon Jr., who married Elizabeth Guest, the sister of Andy Guest and daughter of U.S. Ambassador to Ireland Raymond R. Guest, in 1958.[33] They divorced and she married George Stevens, Jr. in 1965.[34]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "RICHARD STEVENS DIES AT CASTLE POINT HOME Had Been, Since Brother's Death, the Head of Family That Once Owned Hoboken" (PDF). The New York Times. May 19, 1919. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  2. ^ "Mrs. Martha B. Stevens Dead. She Passes Away at Her Home, "Castle Point," Hoboken". The New York Times. 2 April 1899. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  3. ^ Allen, Oliver E. "The First Family of Inventors" Archived 2010-01-13 at the Wayback Machine, Invention & Technology Magazine, Fall 1987.
  4. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. J.T. White. 1894. p. 342. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Nancy Squire Dod". librarycollections.stevens.edu. Stevens Digital Collections. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  6. ^ Officers and Graduates of Columbia College, Originally the College of the Province of New York Known as King's College: General Catalogue 1754-1900. Columbia University. 1900. p. 562. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d "Stevens, Richard". hoboken.pastperfectonline.com. Hoboken Historical Museum. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  8. ^ The New Jersey Law Journal. Honeyman & Rowe. 1919. p. 192. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  9. ^ a b c d Stevens Indicator. Alumni Association of Stevens Institute of Technology. 1919. pp. 207–208. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  10. ^ "Our History". Retrieved 2011-11-12. Christ Hospital was founded in 1872 with a radical mission ...
  11. ^ Stevens Indicator. Alumni and Undergraduates of Stevens Institute of Technology. 1894. p. 58. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  12. ^ Neuman, Johanna (2017). Gilded Suffragists: The New York Socialites who Fought for Women's Right to Vote. NYU Press. p. 111. ISBN 9781479818280. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  13. ^ "Francis Bowes Stevens". librarycollections.stevens.edu. Stevens Institute of Technology. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  14. ^ Banta, Theodore Melvin (1901). Sayre Family: Lineage of Thomas Sayre, a Founder of Southampton. De Vinne Press. p. 127. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  15. ^ The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. 1880. p. 120. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  16. ^ a b "MRS. STEVENS WEDS BOHEMIAN AUTHOR; Eleven Drive in Decorated Cars to Registry Office for Her Marriage to Josef Forman. RECEPTION AT HER HOME Bride, Widow of Richard Stevens of Castle Point, and Bridegroom Leave for the Continent" (PDF). The New York Times. October 13, 1925. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  17. ^ "EDWARD B. CONDON; New York Stock Broker Dies in Phoenix, Ariz" (PDF). The New York Times. April 9, 1942. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  18. ^ "MISS STEVENS WEDS EDWARD B. CONDON Daughter of Mrs. Richard Stevens of Castle Point a Bride in Bernardsville" (PDF). The New York Times. July 1, 1921. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  19. ^ "DIVORCE GRANTED WIFE OF B.H. WARBURTON JR.; Paris Suit Charged Wanamaker's Grandson With Desertion -- Mrs. E.B. Condon Gets Decree" (PDF). The New York Times. August 14, 1926. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  20. ^ "MRS. EDWARD B. CONDON" (PDF). The New York Times. August 19, 1943. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  21. ^ "JOHN G. F. SPEIDEN, ARIZONA RANCHMAN". New York Times. August 8, 1970. Retrieved February 18, 2017.
  22. ^ a b "STEVENS WILL PROVED. Children's Shares in Estate Not to be Paid Till They Are Forty" (PDF). The New York Times. June 6, 1919. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  23. ^ "DOROTHY STEVENS ENGAGED TO MARRY; Daughter of Mrs. R. Stevens of Castle Point, Hoboken, to Wed M.C. Fleming Jr. MISS ALEXANDER'S TROTH Debutante of This Winter to Marry Roswell C. Dunn of Baltimore --Other Engagements" (PDF). The New York Times. February 9, 1929. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  24. ^ "DOROTHY FLEMING WED IN PRINCETON; Member of the Stevens Family of Hoboken Married to E. M. Clorman, Former Ensign" (PDF). The New York Times. May 15, 1949. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  25. ^ Lee, Francis Bazley (1910). Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey ... Lewis historical Publishing Company. pp. 199, 202. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  26. ^ a b "Mrs. Elsie Stevens Forman Obtains Divorce From Second Husband, London Cable Reveals" (PDF). The New York Times. February 22, 1927. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  27. ^ "RICHARD STEVENS ESTATE.; Total Assets $2,611,314 In Final Accounting of Executors" (PDF). The New York Times. March 28, 1925. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  28. ^ "Mrs. Richard Stevens". www.loc.gov. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  29. ^ "Mrs. Richard Stevens (ca. 1870-ca. 1963)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  30. ^ "MRS. FORMAN GETS FINAL DIVORCE DECREE; Cable Brings News From Paris Will Take Her Former Name, Mrs. Stevens Stevens" (PDF). The New York Times. May 4, 1927. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  31. ^ "ADRIAN G. JOHNS IS MARRIED HERE; Wears Gown of Ivory Italian Silk Satin at Wedding to Richard Stevens Condon" (PDF). The New York Times. January 6, 1957. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  32. ^ "Eliza Bergman Bride Of Michael S. Condon, Restaurant Consultant". The New York Times. 28 May 1978. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  33. ^ "ELIZABETH GUEST IS WED IN CAPITAL; Escorted by Her Father at Marriage to Edward Beach Condon, T.W.A. Official" (PDF). The New York Times. March 8, 1958. Retrieved 2 February 2019.
  34. ^ Times, Special To The New York (6 July 1965). "Mrs. Elizabeth Guest Condon Married to George Stevens Jr". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

Further reading[edit]

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