Frederic William Stevens (September 19, 1839 – January 20, 1928) was an American lawyer and banker.
Early life
Stevens was born on September 19, 1839, in Manhattan. He was a son of Frances (née Gallatin) Stevens (1803–1877) and banker Byam Kerby Stevens (1792–1870), who inherited
Stevens House, the historic home of his grandfather.[1] Among his siblings were
Byam K. Stevens Jr. and Alexander Henry Stevens, both well-known bankers.[2][3]
After receiving preparatory training Richard P. Jenks, he attended
Yale, where he graduated seventh in the class of 1858.[7] While there, he was a member of
Psi Upsilon,
Skull and Bones, and
Phi Beta Kappa.[7]
Career
After graduating from Yale, he spent three years abroad mostly in Berlin, before returning to America to enter
Columbia Law School in October 1861. His studies were cut short as the
Civil War broke out and he volunteered as a Private in the
22nd New York Militia, serving from June to August 1862 during most of which he was stationed at
Harper's Ferry. After he was discharged, he spent ten months in Europe before reentering Columbia where he graduated in 1864.[7]
After passing the bar, he practiced law in New York City. He was also actively engaged in the management of his estate and was associated with various banks, including as a director of
Chemical National Bank from 1871 until his death in 1928 (of which members of his family had been stockholders for nearly all of its existence); director of
Gallatin National Bank (founded by his grandfather) from 1879 until it was taken over by the
Hanover National Bank in 1912; director of the Bank for Savings since 1886 (for which he served as First Vice President from 1902 to 1920); director of the
New York Gas Light Company from 1871 until it was absorbed into
Consolidated Gas Company in 1884; director of the
Eagle Fire Insurance Company in 1873; trustee of
Bank of New York and Trust Company (formerly
New York Life Insurance and Trust Company) from 1872 to 1922 (and then an honorary trustee until his death). At the time of his death, he was the longest serving director of a bank in the United States due to his fifty-seven years as a director of the Chemical National Bank.[7]
On October 8, 1862, Stevens was married to
Adele Livingston Sampson (1841–1912), a daughter of
Joseph Sampson and Adele (néeLivingston) Sampson.[8][9] Before their legal separation in 1886, they had a home on
Bellevue Avenue in Newport called "the Cedars",[9] were the parents of one son and three daughters, including:[7]
Joseph Sampson Stevens (1865–1935),[13] a
Rough Rider who married Clara Harriet (née Sherwood) Rollins (1869–1924), the daughter of William Keeler Sherwood and former wife of stockbroker Edward Warren
Rollins, in 1899.[14]
Frederic William Stevens Jr. (1867–1868), who died young.
Frances Gallatin Stevens (1868–1956), who married Count Charles Alexandre Gaston de Gallifet in 1890. After his death in 1905, she married Count Maurice des Monstiers de Mérinville (1867–1936) in 1914.[15]
Mabel Ledyard Stevens (1872–1959), who married Count Micislas Orlowski, a polish diplomat and soldier, in 1891.[16][17]
After their divorce, his wife remarried to the
Maurice, Marquis de Talleyrand-Périgord in 1887 (who was recently divorced from
Elizabeth Beers-Curtis, another American heiress).[18][19][20] They divorced in April 1903,[8][21] shortly before Stevens married Alice Caroline Seely in New York City on December 8, 1904. Alice was a daughter of Daniel James Seely and Charlotte Louise (née Vail) Seely of
Saint John, New Brunswick. They were the parents of one daughter:
Frederica Stevens (1907–2000),[22] who married John Hone Auerbach (1883–1962)[23] in 1927.[24] After their divorce in 1944,[25] she married French oil executive Philippe Roger Bérard (1893–1977), a grandson of American painter
William Parsons Winchester Dana, in 1949.[26]
Stevens died on January 20, 1928, at 925 Park Avenue, his residence in New York City.[7] After a funeral
St. James' Church, he was buried in the family vault at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[27] His widow received a life interest in his estate with most of the estate going to his youngest daughter Frederica.[28]
^Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John; Dick, Charles; Homans, James Edward; Fay, John William; Linen, Herbert M.; Dearborn, L. E. (1915).
The Cyclopædia of American Biography. Press Association Compilers, Incorporated. p. 26. Retrieved 7 November 2018.