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Civic Engagement
Civic Engagement
Continuing the civic sprit demonstrated by Hoboken’s founder in war and peace, several descendents of Colonel John Stevens have had important roles in philanthropy and politics.
The Stevens family never served in elected offices in Hoboken, preferring other roles in civic life. Edwin Stevens served as tax commissioner, public works commissioner and trustee of the local Episcopal Church. He also served the State of New Jersey as chairman of the commission that established the Interstate Palisades Park, a green space just outside the busy New York City metro area that preserves the natural beauty of the Hudson shoreline.
Edwin’s wife, Martha Bayard Stevens, showed a generous hand to the city her family had founded. She commissioned the construction of compact row houses at Willow Terrace. They were patterned after similar workers’ homes she had seen on a trip to Scotland and were meant to be more appropriate living quarters for low-income families than were crowded tenements. The Church of the Holy Innocents, at Willow Avenue and Sixth Street, was completed in 1874. Unlike many churches of the time, it did not charge a pew fee to be seated.
The current building that houses the Hoboken Public Library, at the corner of Fifth Street and Park Avenue, sits on land donated by the Stevens family. Martha Bayard Stevens laid the cornerstone on April 20, 1896.
Richard Stevens, son of Edwin and Mary, was deeply interested in social service work. In 1896 he founded the first probation office in New Jersey, in a modest office on Newark Street in Hoboken. While the probation office had no legal standing at first, it was a powerful demonstration of a possible option in criminal justice. In 1900 New Jersey became the fourth state to establish probation as an adjunct to the courts, and Richard’s office was absorbed by the county government.
Caroline Bayard Stevens, the last surviving child of Edwin and Mary, was a lifelong social reformer. Caroline had taken the last name of Wittpenn from her second husband, a former mayor of Jersey City and naval officer of the Port of New York. Her 1932 death at Castle Point made local headlines, as Mrs. Wittpenn was not only the last Stevens to live in Hoboken, but was so well known for her civic work that Eleanor Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover sent telegrams mourning her passing.
In a December 15, 1932 article on Caroline’s life, the Jersey Observer declared that “Throughout her life she devoted herself to social welfare work and was recognized as one of the foremost women in this work in the United States.” She had been active in numerous civic organizations. During the First World War, she held important posts in the administration of Liberty Bonds and the Red Cross. She worked at an almshouse and led reforms of the poor relief system. Together with her brother Robert she successfully advocated the creation of separate courts for juvenile delinquents and a new reformatory system. In 1930 and 1931, President Hoover appointed her to represent the United States at an international conference on prison and crime. Her life’s work was recognized with a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Science.
At Caroline’s last birthday party she moved all the guests of the surprise affair by telling short anecdotes about their relationship. She may have summed up the Stevens spirit when she said “I have always been curious. I like to know how things are going on. Perhaps that’s why I have so many interests.”
Though the Stevens family moved out of Hoboken, one descendent with memories of Castle Point was Millicent Fenwick. Born Millicent Vernon Hammond in 1910, she was one of Edwin Stevens’ great grandchildren. Millicent worked briefly as a fashion model and had a successful career of writing for Vogue, but she was most well known for her life in politics. She stood out for her quick wit, her eccentric but dignified manner, and her championing of reforms. While serving in the United States Congress, she took a leading role in creating the commission to monitor the 1975 Helsinki accords on human rights. Though she would make her home in Bernardsville, New Jersey, she said in a 1974 interview that Castle Point had been a “focal point” that the family had been attached to and that Bernardsville was not too far to stretch the imagination. Almost two centuries after Colonel John Stevens had explored the old farm on the Hudson, Hoboken still mattered to his civic-minded descendant.
Sources
Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. Archive.org.
Bruce Lambert, “Millicent Fenwick, 82, Dies; Gave Character to Congress,” The New York Times. September 17, 1992.
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/17/nyregion/millicent-fenwick-82-dies-gave-character-to-congress.html
“Famous Hobokenites: Millicent Fenwick,” Hoboken History, No. 24, 1999, 5. Hoboken Historical Museum Collections.
Interview Transcript, Millicent H. Fenwick, Mary Stevens Baird, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Stevens Alexander, Stevens Institute of Technology, December 12, 1974. Stevens Family Collection.
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts, 66-67.
Mary Stevens Baird Interviews & Transcripts, Stevens Family Collection.
“Mrs. Wittpenn Dies in Sleep.” Jersey Observer, December 5, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.
“Mrs. Wittpenn’s Death Had Its Historical Importance” Hudson Dispatch, December 8, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.
“Mrs. Wittpenn Death Deplored at White House” Hudson Dispatch, December 6, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.
“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum. Self-guided walking tours/points of interest
Stevens Institute of Technology
Stevens Institute of Technology
Appropriate for a family of pioneering engineers, the first college in America dedicated to mechanical engineering carries the Stevens name.
Edwin Augustus Stevens died in 1868, leaving a legacy of innovation and successful business management. His will provided for the establishment of a technical university, the first of its kind in America. In 1870, the Stevens Institute of Technology opened its doors to students. The university offered a rigorous course of study in engineering, scientific principles, and humanities leading to the degree of Mechanical Engineer.
Edwin A. Stevens Hall, facing Fifth Street at the corner of Hudson Street, was the main building on campus. The federally registered historic landmark was designed by Richard Upjohn. To commemorate the Institute’s 125th anniversary, a 40 foot spire was added to the center.
The Stevens Institute ensured that the family’s legacy of innovation would say grounded in Hoboken. The Institute has grown to a university hosting more than 6,100 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 350 faculty members.
Sources
Campus Guide, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu
History, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 42.
Pamela Mack, “Engineering Education in the 19th Century.” www.clemson.edu
The Castle
The Castle
The family built the Stevens Castle in the 1850s. The new family residence was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect of the time. It stood on the highest point in Hoboken, on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River.
The Castle contained numerous rooms for the many members of the Stevens family, as well as rooms for entertaining guests. Rooms were decorated with portraits of the family and ornate flourishes. A greenhouse was on the grounds as well. The floating staircase might be the best architectural demonstration of the family’s commitment to design.
A large domestic staff kept life at the Castle running smoothly. More than ten people filling a variety of roles from maid to doorman worked at the Castle. Among them was a man named Peter Lee. Peter was an African-American slave of the Stevenses who decided to return to work for the family after being emancipated. When Peter died in 1902 at nearly 100 years of age, the Stevens family agreed to have him buried in the family plot in North Bergen.
The gate house at the Sixth Street entrance to the Stevens Institute grounds is the original gateway through which guests would pass on their way to the Castle. It is built from rocks quarried on site, most likely the same rock noted for its green serpentine character in accounts of Henry Hudson’s first voyage on the river.
On May 27, 1911, Edwin Augustus Stevens II, son of the Institute’s founder, conveyed the Castle and its grounds to the Stevens Institute. Over the years the building would house dorm rooms, a student café, and various administrative offices. As the university grew, the Castle was seen as an outdated building lacking in capacity. In 1959, it was demolished to be replaced with the much larger Wesley J. Howe Center.
Sources
“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum. https://www.hobokenmuseum.org/self-guided-walking-tours/points-of-interest
Stevens Family Collection, Book: Castle Point, April 1899; Unordered Photographs.
Horticulture and Water Works
Horticulture and Water Works
Though their fame is primarily the result of work in other areas, the Stevens’ contributions to American horticulture and water supply infrastructure are fascinating examples of their broad interests.
Colonel John Stevens had a keen interest in horticulture. Early after clearing the land at Hoboken, he planted many fruit trees that were new to the region. In 1797 he imported the first red camellia from England to America, and in 1798 he imported the first chrysanthemum in the country. The Elysian Fields were thoughtfully landscaped with an eye for beauty. Colonel Stevens took passionate interest in getting new seeds and the latest publications on plants, often exchanging specimens with other plant collectors. He even experimented with different fertilizers and greenhouses.
While John’s sons were not known for following his interest in plants, it is notable that Edwin, with the assistance of his brother Robert, invented a new kind of cast-iron plow. It was curved so that soil would not stick to it and was designed to be less weighty. The model sold well for years.
Colonel John’s interest in improving land and living conditions brought him into the Manhattan Company, which was formed to supply fresh water to the growing population of New York City. Water would flow from the company’s wells through mains made of pine logs then into buildings through lead pipes. John was the engineer responsible for laying the mains and connecting them to the wells. The system eventually supplied two thousand homes through twenty five miles of mains. John Stevens was also involved in the company’s work to pump water for fire fighting and street cleaning.
Sources
Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. Gardening, 144-146; Water Supply 147-149. Archive.org.
George Iles, Leading American Inventors. Curved plow, 25. Archive.org.
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. First Chrysanthemum, 4.
Hoboken Grows
Hoboken Grows
As the Stevens family’s innovations and businesses continued to blossom, the town they founded grew.
Attracted in part by the efforts of the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, big European shipping companies began establishing docks in Hoboken in the 1840s. The town’s population swelled, in large part from German and Irish immigrants. In 1849, the township of Hoboken was formed and its boundaries separated from North Bergen. On March 28, 1855, Hoboken was incorporated as a city.
Between 1850 and 1860, the population jumped from 2,668 to 9,662. It again increased to 20,297 in 1870 and continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century.
Land sales and development plans were largely worked out at the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company’s offices at 1 Newark Street. The handsome building was designed by architect Charles Fall and features detailed brickwork on the outside. The Stevens family had requested the central staircase inside to resemble a ferry’s staircase. The HLI Co logo remains on the south side of the building in a design featuring a clock and sea motifs.
The HLI Co and the Stevens family donated land for public buildings, schools, and parks as the city grew. Over the course of the nineteenth century the Stevens family divested itself of much of the land they still personally held, which included areas between Washington Street and the Hudson River. By 1900 the family held only a parcel of land between seventh and tenth streets. While they had been enormously successful and influential in business, they never tried to make Hoboken into a company town, content to let others build flourishing enterprises on the lands they laid out and sold.
The Stevens family had launched the development of Hoboken, a city that within a century rose from a broken down old farm to a busy metropolis known internationally as a center of shipping.
Sources
History, Stevens Institute of Technology.
“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum.
Self-guided Walking Tours Points of interest
Header image: Hudson Square Park, Hoboken, ca. 1880.Hoboken Historical Museum Collections.
Naval Warfare
Naval Warfare
The pioneering work of Robert and Edwin Stevens in warship engineering was not as successful as the railroad, but it likely influenced advances in naval warfare in the mid nineteenth century. The Stevens Battery, an ironclad warship that was planned but never completed, demonstrated and likely inspired advances in warship construction.
The battery had a long history. During the War of 1812, Colonel John Stevens wrote a proposal for a circular iron-plated battery that would be anchored in a harbor. The battery would spin under the power of steam propellers and fire successive guns at the enemy. The battery and other ironclads John Stevens later proposed were not pursued by the Navy. In 1824, Robert Stevens wrote to the Navy advocating that they purchase long steel shells that he designed, as well as support the construction of a mobile “steam battery.” He cited the threats of European expansion and despotism, and noted that America’s military was weak compared to England and France.
In the 1840s, Congress began to show interest in the kind of warship construction that the Stevens family had advocated. In 1841 Congress sent a board of army and navy officers to observe Edwin’s experiments with iron armor. The layered iron plates that he had riveted together resisted shots from the most powerful guns in common use at the time. The next year, Congress passed the “Act Authorizing the Construction of a Steamer for Harbor Defense.” Robert Stevens was contracted to build an ironclad. The proposed design was changed multiple times over many years as construction was unable to keep pace with advances in naval armament. When Robert Stevens died in 1856, only the hull was completed and the project was already far over budget.
The outbreak of the Civil War and Confederate experiments with ironclad warships led to more agitation to complete the Stevens Battery. An article in Scientific American noted that luxurious passenger steamers had cost more money than had been spent on the Battery. Edwin Stevens lobbied for its completion. Funding was appropriated, but in July 1862 the Secretary of the Navy vetoed the funding and the battery was given to heirs of Robert Stevens. By 1863 other ironclads had been built and the Navy did not think the Stevens Battery could fill any need they had.
In 1868 Edwin died and he willed the Battery to the State of New Jersey along with a million dollars to complete it. The money was not spent effectively and the hull was finally scrapped in 1881.
The design and purpose of the Battery changed over time. Robert originally intended it to be a mobile gun battery for the defense of New York harbor. Later it was changed to be an ocean-going cruiser. The iron hull was 420 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 23.5 ft deep. Plans called for ballast tanks so that much of the hull could be submerged during battle. The use of screws instead of paddlewheels meant that the entire propulsion system would be underwater. The ship would be outfitted with turreted guns that could be trained in any direction.
If completed, the Battery would have been faster than other ironclads and effectively armed. However, it had little use in the Civil War, as it had too deep a draught to navigate shallow Southern waterways and had limited range and survivability on the open ocean. The experiments and designs of the Stevens brothers likely influenced French warship designers who put slow steaming ironclads to use during the Crimean War in 1854. The Stevens Battery, though it was not successful, did inspire later innovation.
Sources
J. Elfreth Watkins, “John Stevens and His Sons,” 10-11. Stevens Family Collection.
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 21-22
Michael Orth, “The Stevens Battery,” Stevens Indicator, 1967. Stevens Family Collection.
Robert Stevens Letters, Stevens Family Collection.
Racing Yachts
Racing Yachts
The Stevens family had a strong influence on the development of American yachting. On July 30, 1844, John Cox Stevens hosted the organizational meeting of the New York Yacht Club on his yacht Gimcrack. He would serve as First Commodore of the club until 1854. Despite the name, the club met in Hoboken. A clubhouse was built on Stevens family land just north of Castle Point.
The NYYC’s ship America would soon sail to worldwide fame and become the namesake of the America’s Cup. In 1851 the America sailed to England to compete in a 60 mile race around the Isle of Wight, held on August 22. John Cox and Edwin Augustus were on board as the America dominated the race, beating the closest British competitor by 18 minutes. The victory was a clear sign that American shipbuilding and sailing were to be taken seriously.
The trophy for the race, an elegant silver cup, was returned to the clubhouse in Hoboken. The New York Yacht Club decided to offer the cup as a trophy in a recurring yacht race between top worldwide competitors, and the America’s Cup was born. Yet the skill of the New York Yacht Club was so advanced that it took many challenges before a rival was able to take home the cup. Today, the clubhouse is no longer in Hoboken, but a historic marker commemorates its place in maritime history.
Sources
History, Stevens Institute of Technology. http://www.stevens.edu/sit/about/history.cfm
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 26-27, 33.
Mary Stevens Baird Recollections, Stevens Family Collection. VII.
First Family in American Railroading
First Family in American Railroading
The railroads that stretch out of Hoboken and across the country are in large part the fruit of the brilliant minds of John Stevens and his son Robert.
John Stevens was a visionary advocate of steam-powered railroads at a time when few could even imagine how they would work. Around 1810 he turned the steamboat operations over to his capable sons and devoted himself to improving overland transportation. In 1811 he applied for a railroad charter but the state rejected it, regarding the idea as fantastic.
In 1812, shortly before the start of a war with England that would make sea transport hazardous and overland transport tremendously costly, Stevens issued a pamphlet arguing for railroads. The descriptively titled “Documents Tending to Prove the Superior Advantages of Rail-ways and Steam Carriages over Canal Navigation” was incredibly forward thinking in its advocacy of rail travel. There were no steam-powered locomotives in existence in 1812. Railroads at the time were mere wooden planks topped with iron sheets, on which carriages would be pulled by horses. They were short and their applications were limited.
Stevens’ pamphlet was impressively accurate in its predictions and civic-minded in its arguments. The visionary included letters in which he argued that building a railroad with steam locomotives would be a better use of resources than building the Erie Canal. He hoped the federal government would take note and establish railroads in all directions to “embrace and unite every section of this extensive empire. It might then, indeed, be truly said, that these States would constitute one family, intimately connected, and held together in indissoluble bonds of union.” He considered commercial, financial, military, political ramifications, calculated costs, and addressed common objections.
Stevens’ pamphlet did not gain much support for railroads, but he pressed on. In 1815 he obtained the first railroad charter in America. The route, from the Delaware River near Trenton, to the Raritan River near New Brunswick, where passengers could then board ferry boats, was not built for years, as Stevens had trouble attracting investors.
Colonel Stevens knew he had to do something to create more enthusiasm for railroads. In 1825 he built a circular railroad track on his land in Hoboken. He also constructed the first locomotive built in America, which was 16 feet long and 4ft, 2.5 inches wide. Power went to a gear that linked into a cog midway between the rails. The circular track was about 200 feet in diameter. One side was made 30 feet higher than the other to disprove a common belief that steam railways would need to be level.
In May of 1826, the experiment was ready. To the numerous observers visiting his land, Stevens demonstrated the locomotive. Its first trials were taken at 6 mph, but it later was able to achieve 12 mph carrying 6 passengers. The circular railroad generated considerable attention and most observers became enthusiastic about railroads as a new means of transportation.
While John Stevens more than anyone brought the railroad into American discussion, it was his son Robert who determined the shape that railroads would take.
In 1830, Robert Stevens was president of the new Camden and Amboy Railroad. At that time, the few railroads in existence used wooden rails with iron straps along the top surface that contacted the wheel. Some railroads in England used a metal T-shaped rail that was expensive and difficult to produce.
Robert Stevens advocated all-iron rails and travelled to England to procure them. On the trip, he designed a new T-shaped rail that did not require complicated iron working to seat. Robert’s design, which featured a continuous base running the length of each rail, would make it more cost-effective to lay long lengths of rail, especially in the American countryside where iron workers were scarce. He also created the hook-headed spike that is essentially the same as the railroad spike used today and designed the nuts and bolts to hold everything together. Rails today are the same shape as Robert designed, with only slight changes in proportionate dimensions. In another innovation, it was under Robert’s direction that the Camden and Amboy railroad began using wooden ties with crushed stone ballast between them for the rail bed, which was found to work even better than the stone rail bed previously used.
Just as his father had opened America’s eyes to the possibility of steam locomotives, Robert Stevens brought America the first locomotive to be used commercially in the country. While in England he became friendly with the Stephenson family, important builders of steam locomotives. He watched demonstrations of their work, and ordered a similar engine to be shipped to America. The new locomotive, the John Bull, was assembled by the C&A master mechanic. A tender, water tank and hose was added and the John Bull was ready to go.
On November 12, 1831, the first public trial of the John Bull was held on a thousand feet of track laid out in Bordentown, New Jersey. Members of the state legislature were the first to ride the train. Following the successful tests, locomotive shops were set up in Hoboken, where three engines were produced over the next two years. One of the improvements devised by Robert was a set of pilot wheels attached to the front of the locomotive to help it safely travel sharp curves. This device would later become known as the “cow catcher.”
The Camden and Amboy Railroad had required serious lobbying efforts to obtain an effective charter. From 1828 to 1829 the Stevens brothers successfully petitioned the legislature to change the family’s old charter. The charter now called for a railway from a point opposite Philadelphia to point on the Raritan Bay, which would allow for more reliable and safer steamboat connections. Beginning with Robert Stevens as president, Edwin Stevens as treasurer, and Robert Stockton as a leading political operative, the C&A would become a significant force in New Jersey politics as it pioneered rail travel.
The Camden and Amboy management forged close links to the state government. While the Stevens family held the main financial interests in the C&A, Robert Stockton built a political machine that allowed the company to exercise a powerful influence in the state government on all matters of transport across the state. The railroad gave the state shares of stock, paid duties on passengers and freight, and guaranteed a minimal annual contribution of $30,000 to the state treasury. In return they were legally guaranteed a monopoly on rail transit across the state between New York and Philadelphia. The deal would be forfeit if competition was allowed.
In 1836 the C&A management offered to sell the railroad at cost to the state. The rejection of the deal may have made the railroad’s management seek more political influence. Legislators were given free riding passes and newspapers were bought or created. Economic development in some areas of the state was hindered as the C&A prevented the construction of railroads that they believed would compete with their Philadelphia-New York duties. With monopoly came higher transport prices than existed in states that allowed competing lines.
Yet the Camden and Amboy management held that their operation benefitted New Jersey. While there were some disputes over payment, the railroad did contribute a significant amount of money to the state treasury each year, meaning that state taxes were very low. Stockton argued that important local railroads had not been impeded, but only speculative schemes for railroads across the state that would primarily benefit investors from outside the state.
After years of political battles it became clear that the time of monopoly would end. In 1854 the Legislature declared that the Camden and Amboy’s monopoly privileges would end in 1869.
While the Camden and Amboy Railroad came to exercise a level of political power that many recognized as inappropriate, it launched a new era in rapid transit and interstate travel. The railroad’s innovations and hard-won success establish the Stevens family as pioneers in American railroading. The vision, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship of the Stevens family made them central figures in the creation of a modern, effective transportation network for a growing country.
Sources
History, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 16.
John Stevens, “Documents Tending to prove the Superior Advantages of Rail-ways and Steam Carriages Over Canal Navigation.” Archive.org.
J. Elfreth Watkins, “John Stevens and His Sons,” 5, 7. Stevens Family Collection.
Mary Stevens Baird Recollections, Stevens Family Collection. VI.
“New York World’s Fair Bulletin,” Hoboken Chamber of Commerce. 2. Stevens Family Collection.
Wheaton J. Lane, From Indian Trail to Iron Horse. Inventions, 281-283, 286-288; John Bull, 287-288; C&A Politics, 284-286, 289-303, 307, 318, 325-337, 343, 357-359.
Steamboat Innovation
Steamboat Innovation
According to legend, Colonel Stevens was riding near the Delaware River in 1787 when he happened to see John Fitch’s experimental steamboat travelling up the river. He was so intrigued he followed the boat to its dock and thoroughly investigated it. Whether this chance meeting happened, or if it was regular correspondence with other learned men that sparked Stevens’ interest in steam power, by the late 1780s he was driven to work on the steam engine’s applications for transportation.
John Stevens conducted his own experiments in steam power. He corresponded with John Fitch and James Rumsey, who had been experimenting with steam power for boats. In 1789 he applied unsuccessfully to the New York Legislature for exclusive rights to operate steamboats in the state. In 1790 he persuaded Congress to pass the first American patent law and on August 26, 1791, he received one of first patents for an application of steam power.
Stevens’ experimental boats pioneered steam navigation in America and attracted modest but significant attention. As early as 1798, he demonstrated the Polacca, a steamboat that carried passengers from Belleville, New Jersey, to New York City. Speed estimates ranged between 3 and 5.5 mph. The experimental craft was driven by a wheel in the stern. Though the Polacca demonstrated the possibility of steam propulsion, its piping and seams were broken open from the vibration of the engine and it was not yet a practical means of transportation.
In 1804, Robert, then 17, and his brother John, assisted their father in constructing the first boat propelled by twin screw propellers. The Little Juliana, a 32 foot boat with a boiler designed by Stevens, successfully navigated the Hudson River and amazed onlookers by travelling without a visible means of propulsion. However, screw propulsion would require high pressure steam to be efficient, and engineering methods of the time were not advanced enough to successfully make high pressure boilers.
In 1805 Colonel John received a British patent for a new kind of boiler for steam engines. Unlike earlier models that contained one large tube for heating water, John’s design heated water in multiple smaller tubes. It was more expensive to produce than earlier models but was significantly more efficient.
The Stevenses built two more experimental steamboats in 1806 and 1807. Their next steamboat, the Phoenix, would enter history as the first steam-powered vessel to complete an ocean voyage, and the first commercially successful steamboat built entirely in America. It would also launch a dispute with Robert Fulton and the Livingston family.
Robert R. Livingston had worked with John Stevens on his early steamboat experiments, but left for France on government business in 1801. There he met Robert Fulton, who was also interested in steamboats. Livingston gave financial and technical aid to Fulton, but more importantly he had legal knowledge and influence in New York politics. In 1798 Livingston had obtained a monopoly of the right to navigate steamboats in New York after his own experiments, a monopoly that he would soon exercise in partnership with Fulton.
In the summer of 1807, Fulton’s Clermont steamed from New York City to Albany in 32 hours. The trip established Fulton’s place in history as the designer of the first successful steamboat. News of his voyage spread quickly.
Meanwhile the Stevens family continued their engineering work, and the Phoenix was launched in the spring of 1808. Propelled by paddlewheels on its sides, the Phoenix averaged over five miles per hour. Its 100 foot hull was designed by Robert Stevens, then twenty years old. Like many early steamships, the Phoenix included masts for sails to be used when the wind was favorable. Unlike the Clermont, for which Fulton and Livingston had acquired a British steam engine, the Phoenix was designed and built entirely in America, the first successful steamship to be entirely American in origin.
In the first decade of the 1800s, large-scale transportation infrastructure, including major roads, was typically built by private partnerships who would then operate under grants of monopoly from state governments. Steamboat service to New York, despite the Stevens’ protests, would operate on the same principle. While Livingston was inclined to compromise with his relative and former associate, Fulton was determined to make the most out of the grant of monopoly. Livingston offered Stevens a partnership in the monopoly, which Stevens rejected. The two men engaged in a lengthy correspondence over the constitutionality of the monopoly grant.
Stevens tried to ignore or outmaneuver the monopoly the best he could. Realizing that the Phoenix would be seized if he tried to operate it on the Hudson, he instead had the boat travel a route between New York and New Brunswick, New Jersey. Fulton and Livingston were determined to crush this competition and set one of their new steamboats, the Raritan, to run the same route as the Phoenix. The Raritan at first operated at a loss at first but later returned a modest income. With less money to lose on a rate war, John Stevens decided to withdraw his boat from servicing New York.
On June 10, 1809, John Stevens sent the Phoenix to Philadelphia under the charge of Robert, then 21 years old. At a time when it was thought steamboats were only safe in calm waters, Robert Stevens took the Phoenix out on the Atlantic Ocean. A schooner accompanied the Phoenix when the winds were favorable, but there were days when the steamer traveled alone. Robert braved rough seas, high winds, and storms on the voyage, occasionally waiting out especially treacherous weather at port. The Phoenix arrived at Philadelphia thirteen days after the journey began. The steamship would make successful business on the Delaware River, even partnering with Fulton and stagecoach companies in 1810 to for travel packages between New York and Philadelphia.
On September 11, 1811 a pier lease from the City of New York allowed the Stevens family to launch a steam-ferry service from Hoboken to Manhattan, but this was shut down by pressure from Livingston in 1813.
The Fulton-Livingston monopoly finally ended when it was declared unconstitutional in the landmark 1824 Supreme Court decision Gibbons v. Ogden. Aaron Ogden was a New Jersey politician and ferry operator. He was able to put enough political pressure on the Livingston-Fulton monopoly that they decided to sell him a license to operate in New York for a reasonable price. Ogden was a former business partner of Gibbons who competed bitterly after their less-than-amicable split. After John Marshall’s decision, states could no longer grant monopolies to steamship companies and the ports became free for competition.
Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, the Stevens family made numerous contributions to steamship design. Improvements included advances in boilers, hulls, and pressure valves. In 1822 Robert Stevens designed the ferry slip for the Hoboken Steamboat Ferry Company. Long piles were driven into the river bed and hardwood fenders were attached to them. This design made it simpler for ferries to dock in strong tides, and was widely adopted. In 1823 the family launched the first double-ended ferry boat.
Robert would build numerous steam ferries, increasing the speed of each successive craft from 8 miles per hour in 1815 to 15 mph in 1832. Robert’s New Philadelphia, with an innovative bow that cut through water efficiently, was able to complete the trip from Albany to New York City between dawn and dusk. Edwin Augustus Stevens patented the air-tight fire room in 1842. He also developed the first double-ended propeller-driven ferryboat, the Bergen, which made paddlewheel boats obsolete.
Sources
Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. 100-108, 185, 208, 261-280. Archive.org.
Charles King, Preface to Stevens, “Documents Tending to prove the Superior Advantages of Rail-ways and Steam Carriages Over Canal Navigation.” iv, v. Archive.org.
George Iles, Leading American Inventors. 11-13, 16. Archive.org.
J. Elfreth Watkins, “John Stevens and His Sons.” 8. Stevens Family Collection.
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 4-6, 11, 15, 56.
“New York World’s Fair Bulletin,” Hoboken Chamber of Commerce. 1-4. Stevens Family Collection.
Wheaton J. Lane, From Indian Trail to Iron Horse. Steamboats, 175-184; Gibbons v. Ogden, 184-194.
Building Hoboken
Building Hoboken
While living in Manhattan with his wife, Colonel John Stevens became interested in building an estate. In 1783 he explored some land across the river. William Bayard’s farm had stood there, but it was confiscated by the colonial government of New Jersey because Bayard sided with the British Crown. On May 1, 1784 Stevens bought Bayard’s old farm from the State of New Jersey for 18,340 Pounds sterling, or about $90,000. He settled on the name Hoboken, a closer approximation to the Lenape word for the area than Hoebuck, as Bayard’s farm had been known.
In the early days John farmed and cleared trees at Hoboken, but he had other improvements in mind. He built a house on Castle Point, cleared land for development, laid out a partial street grid and had attractive landscaping done on what would become gardens and pleasure grounds. In 1794, Stevens successfully lobbied the New Jersey State Legislature to authorize a road to be laid out to Hoboken, which would compete with a chartered toll road from Newark to Paulus Hook in Jersey City.
Stevens soon brought more people to Hoboken. He began to sell lots in 1804. Until 1814 the family lived at Hoboken only in the summer, spending much of the year at the family home in Manhattan. John found the river crossing to be unsatisfactory and soon bought out a ferry company, which further added to his land holdings. The Stevens ferry and lands, including the Elysian Fields and River Walk Promenade, brought thousands of visitors to Hoboken from the 1820s to the 1850s. In first half of the nineteenth century, the Elysian Fields, north of Castle Point, was one of the most frequented pleasure grounds in the country, and could host as many as 20,000 visitors in a day.
The family sold more land in the 1830s. On February 21, 1838, the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company was incorporated. The Stevens brothers John Cox, Robert, James, and Edwin were among the six partners. The HLI Co was empowered to improve lands they owned (primarily north of Fourth Street) by dividing it into lots, grading and leveling land, constructing buildings, installing infrastructure, and renting or selling land.
Sources
Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. 80-88, 96, 180
Christina A Ziegler-McPherson, Immigrants in Hoboken. 27-29.
History, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu/
Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 112-115.
Wheaton J. Lane, From Indian Trail to Iron Horse. 124.