Robert S. Stevens (March 27, 1824 – February 23, 1893) was a 19th-century American politician, bank president, railroad executive, lawyer, Kansas State Senator and U.S. Representative from New York, serving one term from 1883 to 1885.
Early life Robert Wadleigh Smith Stevens was born in Attica, Wyoming County, New York, on March 27, 1824. The only son of Judge Alden Sprague and Achsa (Smith) Stevens, he was initially educated in preparation to attend college, but his formal schooling was ended when his family went through a period of financial hardship.Kansas Historical Society, Robert S. Stevens Collection, 1856–1875, Biography of Robert S. Stevens, 2013
Stevens continued to study on his own while working as a clerk at an auction house and a local post office, and he achieved certification as a teacher in 1844. While teaching he read law with the Wyoming County District Attorney, and he was admitted to the bar in 1846.American Genealogical Research Institute, The Stevens Family, 1972, page 107
Career As a lawyer, Stevens practiced in Attica and became involved in several business ventures. He became friendly with Governor Wilson Shannon, and in 1856 Stevens moved to Kansas Territory, where he practiced law with Shannon, and subsequently became involved in real estate development, coal mining, and constructing and operating railroads.
Early political activity A Democrat, Stevens was a supporter of James Buchanan for President in 1856. After winning the presidential election, Buchanan appointed Stevens as a special commissioner, and in this capacity Stevens arranged the sale of land ceded to the United States in 1854 by the Kaskaskia, Peoria, Piankeshaw and Wea tribes.
Stevens served as Mayor of Lecompton in 1858,Buffalo Courier, Admission of Kansas, March 31, 1858 and served in the Kansas State Senate from 1862 to 1863.William G. Cutler, History of the State of Kansas, Douglas County, Part 3: County Organization and Official Roster], 1883 While in the Senate he was a target of the effort to remove Governor Charles L. Robinson. Robinson was accused of selling state bonds to Stevens at a discount, with Stevens re-selling the bonds at a profit and splitting the proceeds with Robinson.Chicago Tribune, A $20,000 Fraud on the State Treasury of Kansas, February 12, 1862Chicago Tribune, , February 25, 1862 The state legislature attempted to impeach Robinson, but he was acquitted.
Business losses and move to Lawrence Stevens was later involved in a federally sanctioned venture to commercially develop Sac and Fox reservations. The project, which included wood houses, sawmills, and small factories was looked on with disfavor by the Native American residents, who preferred to keep to their traditional ways of life. Stevens lost much of his fortune in this effort, and the federal government failed to reimburse him as called for in Stevens's contract, so it took him 20 years to retire the debt.
Stevens moved to Lawrence in 1862 and became president of a local bank. During the Lawrence massacre he intervened with Quantrill's Raiders in an effort to have them end their attack.
In 1869 Stevens won the contract to supervise construction of the Missouri–Kansas–Texas Railroad, nicknamed M-K-T or Katy, the first railroad to reach Indian Territory (now Oklahoma), after which it continued into Texas. As head of construction, and later the railroad's general manager, Stevens was responsible for the founding of Parsons in Kansas, Denison in Texas, and other towns along the route. Several of these towns have streets named after Stevens. He left the railroad during the period when Jay Gould controlled it.New York Times, A Railroad Manager Dismissed, February 2, 1878 The Katy became profitable after construction, and Stevens became wealthy while in its employ, enabling him pay back his creditors in full by the end of the 1870s.
Retirement In 1879 Stevens retired and returned to Attica, where he lived in retirement as a gentleman farmer and also invested in local businesses, including railroads.New York Times, Another Cantilever Planned, December 27, 1883 He also became involved in several civic and charitable causes, including constructing a library which was named for him,Library Journal, Library Economy and History, April, 1894, page 139 modernizing and expanding local schools and rebuilding the Attica Presbyterian Church.
Congress In 1880 Stevens was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress.New York Times, The New-York Campaign, October 20, 1880 Stevens was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress and served in the United States House of Representatives as United States Representative for the Thirty-first Congressional District of New York from March 4, 1883, to March 3, 1885. He was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1884.New York Times, Nominated for Congress, October 8, 1884
Death Stevens died in Attica on February 23, 1893 at the age of 68.Thomas William Herringshaw, Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography, 1914, page 337 He is interred at Forest Hill Cemetery.Thomas E. Spencer, Where They're Buried, 1998, page 253
Family life In 1852 Stevens married Mary Proctor Smith, a distant cousin whose family operated a successful lumber business in Manchester, Massachusetts.Wyoming County Historian, Historical Wyoming, Volumes 13–16, 1959, page 41 Their son Frederick C. Stevens served in the New York State Senate and as the state Superintendent of Public Works.Lewis Randolph Hamersly, John William Leonard, Frank R. Holmes, Who's Who in New York City and State, Volume 4, 1909, page 1234
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