USA > New Jersey > Genealogical and memorial history of the state of New Jersey, Volume I > Part 40
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railroads for carrying coal had been in use in England for upwards of two hundred years, but there was not a steam locomotive or passen- ger car in the world. John Stevens's pamphlet, entitled "Documents tending to prove the su- perior advantages of railways and steam car- riages over canal navigation," ranks its author "even if he had failed, as he did not, in the field of invention, to be held in grateful remem- brance by his countrymen for his broad and statesmanlike views, keen perception, ardent patriotism, and a demonstration that was pro- phetic in its accuracy." His plans and esti- mates were definite; and his proposal was to build a passenger and freight railroad for gen- eral traffic from Albany to Lake Erie, having a double track, with wooden stringers capped with wrought plate rails resting on piles, and the motive power to be steam locomotives. He enumerates comprehensively the advantage of a general railroad system, naming many details that were afterwards found necessary, and putting the probable future speed at from twenty to thirty miles an hour, and possibly from forty to fifty. This indentical plan was successfully carried out between fifteen and twenty years later in the construction of the South Carolina railroad, commenced in 1829, which when completed in 1832 was the longest railway in the world, the first long railway in the United States, and a convincing proof of the accuracy of John Stevens's estimates. In spite of the commission's adverse report on his memoir, John Stevens was anxious to put his recommendations into practice. In 1814, there- fore, he applied for a charter, which he ob- tained February, 1815, from the state of New Jersey, "to build a railroad from the River Delaware, near Trenton, to the River Raritan, near New Brunswick." This was the earliest railroad charter granted in America, but no - tangible result followed it, because the scheme was regarded as wild and visionary. The introduction of the steamboat, coupled with the success of the Duke of Bridgewater in the introduction of canals abroad, had made these means of transportation more popular with capitalists than the untried railroad, and no money could be raised for that undertaking. John Stevens's interest in the subject of internal communication did not flag, however, on ac- count of this failure, for in 1823, through his exertions, acts were passed by the legislature of Pennsylvania for the incorporation of "The President, Directors and Company of the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company," who were to "make, erect and establish a railroad on the
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route laid out ( from Philadelphia to Columbia, Lancaster county), to be constructed on the plan and under the superintendence and di- rection of the said John Stevens." (Laws of Pennsylvania, 1823, Sec. 6, p. 252). Among the incorporators were Stephen Girard and Hon. Horace Binney, brother-in-law of John Stevens. October 23, 1824, John Stevens ob- tained a patent for his method of constructing a railroad ; and about two years later, in 1826, when seventy-six years old, he constructed at his own expense a locomotive with a multi- tubular boiler, which he operated for several years on his estate at Hoboken, on a circular track having a guage of five feet and a diame- ter of two hundred and twenty feet, and carry- ing half a dozen or more persons at a rate of over twelve miles an hour. A model of this locomotive, together with the original multi- tubular boiler which formed a part of it, is preserved in the United States National Mu- seum. It is the first locomotive in America driven by steam upon a track, of which there is a reliable record.
Colonel John Stevens was an excellent class- ical scholar, and not only a close student of natural philosophy but fond of metaphysical speculations ; and he has left behind him sev- eral philosophical treatises which have never been published. Throughout his life he was an enthusiastic botanist and amateur gardener. When he died, at the age of eighty-nine, he had seen the first steam engine erected on the western continent, at Belleville, New Jersey. During his lifetime Watt perfected the station- ary low pressure condensing steam engine. Within his memory the Duke of Bridgewater inaugurated the canal system of Great Britain ; Trevithick developed the high pressure steam engine into a commercial success and success- fully applied it to the locomotive; Nelson won the battle of Trafalgar; Fulton introduced steam navigation on the Hudson; steamboats began to ply on the Mississippi and the lakes ; Captain Rogers made the first experimental steam voyage across the Atlantic with the "Savannah;" steam was introduced into all the principal navies of the world; George and Robert Stephenson made their fame as locomo- tive constructors; and the railway systems at home and abroad were organized. Seven years before his death, the locomotive was put upon the Camden & Amboy railroad, connecting New York and Philadelphia, and on the first links of the Pennsylvania railroad, in advocat- ing the construction of both of which he had taken an active part twenty years before. On
the day of his death, the "Great Western" lay in the Thames receiving her finishing touches preparatory to making the initial voyage of the pioneer trans-Atlantic steamship line between England and New York. He was the copatriot of Washington during the New Jersey cam- paigns, the correspondent of Barlow and Franklin. Chancellor Livingston, after whom his second son was named, married his only sister, and although he was Fulton's rival in introducing the steamboat into America, they had been warm friends for several years be- fore the latter's death in 1815. Charles King, president of Columbia College, writing of him in 1852, says, "Born to affluence, his whole life was devoted to experiments at his own cost for the common good. He was a thor- oughly excited and an unwearied experimenter in the application of steam to locomotion on the water and subsequently on the land. Time has vindicated his claim to the character of a far-seeing, accurate, and skillful, practical ex- perimentalist and inventor. The thinker was ahead of his age."
October 17, 1782, Colonel John Stevens mar- ried Rachel, eldest daughter of Colonel John Cox, of "Bloomsbury," New Jersey, near Tren- ton, by his wife Esther, daughter of Francis Bowes, of Philadelphia, and Rachel, youngest daughter and child of Jean Le Chevalier, of the Huguenot colony in New York City, and his wife, Maria de la Plaine. Jean Le Cheva- lier was one of the most prominent of the French refugees of New York, and must not be confounded as he sometimes was with Jean, son of Pierre le Chevalier, of Philadelphia. Jean Le Chevalier, of New York, married Marie de la Plaine, in the Dutch Reformed Church, June 27, 1692, and had seven daughters but no sons. These children, all baptized in the French church, New York City, were: Marie, born June 6, 1693 ; Susanne, March 1I, 1695 ; Esther, February 18, 1696; Marie (2d), baptized May 14, 1699; Elizabeth, born August 26, 1702; Jeanne, baptized March 7, 1704 ; Rachelle, born February 16, 1707, baptized February 22 fol- lowing, married Francis Bowes, and after his death (second), as his second wife, John, son of Daniel and Elizabeth Sayre. The children of Francis Bowes and Rachel Chevalier were: Theodosius ; Samuel; Mary, born March 5, 1739, married, September 28, 1758, John, son of John Sayre, her stepfather; John; and Esther, born January 6, 1741, died February IO, 1814, married, November 16, 1760, Colonel John Cox, of Bloomsbury. Colonel Cox was son of William Cox and Catharine Longfeldt.
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the granddaughter of Admiral Longfeldt, who fought under Admiral Opdam in the naval en- gagement between the latter and Admiral Sir William Penn, the father of the celebrated Quaker colonist. Colonel Cox himself was one of the celebrated men of his day, and rendered good service to the Continental army as assist- ant quartermaster under General Greene, the latter having made the appointment of John Cox and Charles Pettit to serve under him a condition of his acceptance of the position of quartermaster-general. Not only did Colonel Cox help to provision the patriot army, he also supplied it with a large amount of ordnance from his foundry at Batisto, New Jersey. At his home, "Bloomsbury," now "Woodlawn," the Warren street home of Edward H. Stokes, General Washington had his headquarters, and was entertained when he made his triumphal entry into Trenton, two of Colonel Cox's daughter's, Rachel and Sarah, being among the thirteen young ladies who sang the ode, "Wel- come, mighty chief, once more," and another, Mary, being one of the six young girls who strewed flowers in the General's path over Trenton bridge. At "Bloomsbury," the Mar- quis de Lafayette and the Count de Rocham- beau enjoyed the hospitality of Colonel Cox, and had the pleasure of conversing in their own language with Mrs. Cox's French aunts, the Demoiselles Chevalier, the youngest daugh- ters of Jean Le Chevalier, referred to above. Children of Colonel John Cox and Esther Bowes: I. Rachel, born November 16, 1761; died December, 1839; married John Stevens (3). 2. Catharine, born July 27, 1764; mar- ried (first) Samuel Witham Stockton; (sec- ond) Nathaniel Sayre Harris. 3. Esther, born August 23, 1767 ; married Dr. Francis Barton. 4. John Bowes, born September 5, 1770; died November, 1772. 5. Mary, born March 22; died March 13, 1864; married Colonel James Chesnut, of "Mulberry," near Camden, South Carolina. 6. Sarah, born July 10, 1779; mar- ried John Redman Coxe, of Philadelphia (no relation however ). 7. Elizabeth, born January 22, 1783; married Hon. Horace Binney, of Philadelphia.
John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens had thir- teen children. The first two died in infancy. John Cox Stevens, Robert Livingston Stevens and James Alexander Stevens are referred to below. Richard, fifth child, born February 16, 1792; died unmarried, October 7, 1835 ; grad- uated from Columbia University, 1810, and re- ceiving his M. D. degree. Francis Bowes, sixth child, born June 5, 1793 ; died unmarried,
in 1812; graduated with his elder brother from Columbia University, in 1810, as valedictorian of his class. Edwin Augustus Stevens, sev- enth child, is referred to elsewhere. Elizabeth Juliana, eighth child, and eldest daughter of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens born April 18, 1797; married, July 31, 1821, Thomas Anderson Conover, Commodore U. S. N., son of James and Margaretta (Anderson) Cono- ver ; grandson of Peter and Hannah (Forman) Conover ; great-grandson of Elias and Will- empje ( Wall) van Cowenhoven ; 2-great-grand- son of Pieter and Patience ( Davis) van Cowen- hoven ; 3-great-grandson of Willem and Jan- netje (Montfort) van Cowenhoven, a second marriage; 4-great-grandson of Gerrit and Aeltje (Cool) van Cowenhoven ; and 5-great- grandson of Wolfert Gerritsse van Cowen- hoven, emigrant from Amoorsfort, near Ut- recht, in 1630, to Rensellaerwyck, New Amster- dam, and finally settled in Flatlands, Long Island. Children of Commodore Thomas Anderson and Elizabeth Juliana (Stevens) Conover: Francis Stevens Conover, married Helen, daughter of Richard Stockton and Mary (Ritchie) Field; Mary Rachel Conover, mar- ried Rev. Lewis Carter Baker, of Princeton ; Caroline Conover, died May 13, 1875, unmar- ried ; Richard Stevens Conover, married Sarah Jones, daughter of James and Sarah Jones (Grime's ) Potter ; and Sophia Conover. Mary, ninth child and second daughter of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, born August 7, 1799; died in 1825; became first wife of Joshua R. Sands, admiral, U. S. N., and bore him one child, John Stevens Sands, who died in Hobo- ken, in 1826. After her death, Admiral Sands. married (second), 1830, Harriet, tenth child of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, sister to, his first wife, born December 29, 1801, died 1844, after bearing her husband seven chil- dren : Joshua Sands, died 1832; Mary Ste- vens Sands; Matilda Caroline Sands, married John Garniss Brown; Anne Ayscough Sands, married Robert Livingston Clarkson; Harriet Stevens Sands, married George W. Wetmore; John Stevens Sands, married Eliza Miller ; Joshua Sands, married widow Louisa Lewis ; and Samuel Sands. After the death of his sec- ond wife, Admiral Sands married a third time and had two more children. Esther Bowes and Catharine Sophia van Cortlandt Stevens, the- eleventh and twelfth children of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, born respectively Au- gust 6, 1804, and May 27, 1806, both lived to. an advanced age, but never married. They have the honor of being the first individuals to,
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offer aid to the government at the outbreak of the civil war, as each of them placed, April 29, 1861, $1,000 at the disposal of the governor of New Jersey.
(IV) John Cox, eldest child to reach matu- rity of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, was born at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, September 24, 1785, and died in New York City, June 13, 1857. Graduating from Colum- bia University in 1803, he spent the early part of his life on his estates at Livingston Manor and later in New York City. From his youth he was an ardent sportsman, and one of his horses was the famous American "Eclipse," sired by Sir Archy, and grandsired by "Diomed," the Derby winner of the Byerly Turk blood, and by "Darley Barb," a descend- ant of the Arab brought into England for breeding purposes by King James I. Mr. Ste- vens was also a devoted yachtsman, and was one of the organizers and founders of the New York Yacht Club, of which he was the first commodore. The "America," the winner of the famous race in the Solent, and of the cup ever since known as the America's Cup, was built under his direction, and sailed by him in the famous race. He was one of the organizers and the first president of the Union Club of New York. December 27, 1809, John Cox Stevens married Maria C. Livingston, daughter of Robert and Elsie Swift Livingston, but there was no issue from the marriage.
(IV) Robert Livingston, fourth child and son of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, was born October 18, 1787, at Hoboken, and died there April 20, 1856. He was educated chiefly by private tutors and in his father's laboratory. Of all his brothers he had perhaps the strongest engineering bias. When he helped his father to build the first twin-screw boat he was but seventeen years old, and when he took the "Phoenix" from New York to Philadelphia he was barely twenty-one. At the death of Fulton, in 1815, the speed of steamboats was under seven miles an hour. The "Philadel- phia," built by Robert L. Stevens, had a speed of eight miles; and he succeeded in increasing the speed of each successive boat that he built until in 1832 the "North America," the finest vessel of her day, attained fifteen miles. For twenty-five years after 1815, Robert Livings- ton Stevens stood at the head of his pro- fession as a constructor of steam vessels. In 1821 he originated the form of ferry-boats and ferry-slips now in general use, constructing the slips with spring piling and fenders. In 1818 he invented the cam board cut-off, and applied
it to the steamboat "Philadelphia," on the Del- aware, this being the first application of the expansive action of steam to navigation. In 1821 he adopted the working (or walking) beam, and improved it by making it of wrought iron strap with a cast-iron centre ; and in 1829 he adopted the shape now universally used in this country. He invented the split water-wheel in 1826, and in 1831 the balance valve which is now always used on the beam engine. He was the first to place the boilers on the wheel guards over the water ; he adopted the Stevens cut-off, and finally left the American working (or walking) beam engine in its present form. Beginning with a pressure of two pounds to the square inch, he increased the strength of his boilers until fifty pounds could be safely carried. He made the first marine tubular boiler in 1831. He reduced the vibration of the hull and added greatly to the strength by the overhead truss frame of masts and rods now used.
At the suggestion of Robert L. Stevens, president and chief engineer of the road, the broad of directors of the Camden & Amboy railroad, shortly after the surveys for the road were completed, authorized Mr. Stevens to obtain the particular kind of rails he advocated, which was an all iron rail, instead of a wooden rail or stone stringer with strap iron, the one then commonly used. At that time no rolling mill in America could roll T-rails ; so, early in October, 1830, Mr. Stevens sailed for England in order to obtain what he required. During the voyage he whiled away the hours by whit- tling thin wood into shapes of rail-sections until he finally decided which was best suited to the needs of the new road. Seeing that the Birkenshaw, the best English rail then laid, required an expensive chair to hold it in place, he dispensed with the chair by adding the base to the T-rail, designing at the same time the "hook-headed" spike, substantially the railroad spike of to-day; the iron tongue, which has been developed into the fish-bar ; and the bolts and nuts to complete the joint. Eighty years have elapsed since this rail was adopted by the Camden & Amboy company, and with the ex- ception of slight alterations in the proportions incident to increased weight, no radical change has been made in the "Stevens rail," which is now in use on every road in America, and noth- ing has yet been found to take the place of the "hooked-headed" railroad spike Robert L. Ste- vens designed. Mr. Stevens spent a great deal of time while abroad in examining the English locomotives. The Liverpool & Manchester rail-
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way had then been in use for over a year. The "Planet," the "Rocket's" successor, built by the Stephensons, had just been tested with satisfac- tory results, and Mr. Stevens ordered a locomo- time of similar construction from the same manufacturers. This locomotive, called the "John Bull," was put into service in 1831, and is the prototype of those now in general use. It is now preserved in the United States National Museum.
Toward the close of the war of 1812, Robert Livingston Stevens was engaged in making a bomb that could be fired from a cannon instead of from a mortar, in order that it might be applied to naval warfare. He succeeded in producing a successful percussion shell which was adopted by the United States government, who purchased a large quantity, together with the secret of its construction. As Mr. Ste- vens's labors upon armored ships are too closely interwoven with those of his brothers, espe- cially, Edwin Augustus Stevens, to be treated separately, this part of Robert L. Stevens's life will be found treated in the biography of his brother last named.
In 1850, Robert L. Stevens designed and built the "Maria," the fastest sailing vessel of her day. It was this yacht that defeated the "America" in New York harbor, a few months before the latter won the memorable race on the Solent, when Her Majesty, Queen Vic- toria, having asked her favorite skipper who was first and second in the race, received for a reply, "The 'America' leads, there is no sec- ond." Mr. Richard Fowler Stevens ( see below) has a picture representing Commodore John C. Stevens assisting on board of the "America," as his guests, Her Majesty and the Prince. The "Maria" was lost at sea in 1869.
Robert Livingston Stevens died unmarried. "He will be remembered as the greatest Amer- ican mechanical engineer of his day, a most intelligent naval architect, to whom the world is indebted for the commencement of the mightiest revolution in the methods of modern naval warfare."
(IV) James Alexander, fourth son and child of John and Rachel (Cox) Stevens, was born January 29, 1790, at No. 7 Broadway, New York City, and died October 7, 1873. He studied under private tutors and entered Columbia College, from which he graduated in 1808 at the head of his class as primus and salutatorian. He studied law with Chancellor James Kent, of New York, but never practiced. Together with Thomas Gibbons he established the Union steamboat line- which ran between
New York and Albany, and led to the famous suit of Ogden vs. Gibbons, which did away with the old method of granting state monop- olies of navigable streams and rivers, and re- sulted in the memorable decision that placed all of the navigable waters of the United States under the jurisdiction of the federal govern- ment.
February II, 1812, James Alexander Ste- vens married Maria, daughter of Major Theo- dosius Fowler (who was treasurer of the Soci- ety of the Cincinnati, when Washington was president ) and Mary (Steele) Fowler, and granddaughter of Jonathan Fowler and his wife Ann Seymour, an aunt of Governor Horatio Seymour, of New York. Her mother was the daughter of Stephen Steele and Cath- arine Schureman, and she was the youngest of two children, the other child, her brother, being Hon. William Steele, who married Mary, daughter of Dr. Jonathan Dayton, of Spring- field, New Jersey. Stephen Steele was born September 28, 1739, and was the son of John Steele, who came to America, and was made a freeman of New York in 1744. His son Ste- phen was an active Whig during the revolu- tionary war, and being obliged to abandon his house and much valuable property in New York City when the British took possession, he removed himself and his family to New Jersey. Children of James Alexander and Maria (Fowler) Stevens :
I. Juliana Stevens, born June 30, 1813; be- came second wife of Rev. Nathaniel Sayre Harris, the only child of Nathaniel Harris and Catharine, daughter of Colonel John Cox, of Bloomsbury, New Jersey, whose sister Rachel married John Stevens (3), and widow of Sam- uel Witham Stockton, the brother of Richard Stockton, the signer of the Declaration of In- dependence. Nathaniel Sayre Harris was a graduate of West Point, 1825; resigned from the army, 1835; 1837, graduated from General Theological Seminary, New York; 1842-47, secretary and general agent of domestic mis- sion ; 1866-71, rector of St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal Church, Hoboken; died in Trenton, April 22, 1886. He married (first) Elizabeth Callender (Andrews) ; children : John An- drews Harris, rector of St. Paul's Church, Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, since 1864; Eliza- beth Callender Harris, born December 11, 1839, married Francis Bowes Stevens, brother to her father's second wife; and Henry Leavenworth Harris, now Colonel U. S. A. By his second wife, Juliana Stevens, referred to above, Na- thaniel Sayre Harris had two children : Theo-
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dosius Fowler Harris, born August 31, 1848, died March 7. 1850; and Julian Sayre Harris, born January 1, 1851, entered Columbia Col- lege, but left 1870, in his junior year, on ac- count of ill-health, and died at Bern, Switzer- land, January 27, 1875.
2. Francis Bowes Stevens, eldest son, born at Trenton, October 16, 1814; died in Hoboken, May 22, 1908. He graduated as civil engineer from New York University ; superintended the construction of a section of the Camden & Amboy railroad, with his uncle, Robert Liv- ingston Stevens (see above) ; developed a num- ber of patents, among them the Stevens cut-off, and for a number of years was superintendent of the steamboats, tugs and vessels of the United Companies of New Jersey. In 1865 he married Elizabeth Callender Harris (see pre- ceding paragraph ) ; children : Alexander Bowes Stevens : Francis Bowes Stevens, born 1868, died May 28, 1908, married Adele Horwitz; Elizabeth Callender Stevens, now Mrs. Rich- ard Stevens, of the Cliffs, Castle Point, Hobo- ken (see Richard (V), Edwin Augustus (IV) ) ; Meta, born July, 1872, died August 7, 1873; and Theodosius.
3. James Alexander Stevens, Jr., see sketch.
4. Catharine Maria Stevens, married Rev. Dudley Atkins Tyng, son of Rev. Stephen Higginson Tyng, and Anne, daughter of Right Rev. Alexander Griswold, Bishop of Eastern Diocese, and grandson of Dudley Atkins, who assumed the name of Tyng, and married Sarah, daughter of Stephen Higginson. Dudley At- kins "Tyng" was descended from Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Dudley, born 1576, emi- grated to America, 1630, and became governor of Massachusetts Bay, 1634-35. The Rev. Dudley Atkins and Catharine Maria (Stevens) Tyng had children : Anne Griswold Tyng, died young ; Theodosius Stevens Tyng, mar- ried Ida Drake, descendant of Sir Francis Drake ; Maria Fowler Tyng; Anne Griswold Tyng (2d) ; James Alexander Tyng.
5. John Stevens, died young.
6. John G. Stevens, born 1820; was a civil engineer, superintendent of Delaware & Rari- tan Canal Company, and in 1872 president of United Railroad of New Jersey. He married Theodosia Woods, daughter of Joseph Hig- bee ; children : Virginia Higbee Stevens ; Cath- arine Maria Stevens, married James Walter Vroom; Francis Bowes Stevens, died young ; Francis Bowes Stevens (2d) ; Mary Randolph Stevens ; Charlotte McIntosh Stevens.
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