Stevens family papers

The first series is the Alden Sprague Stevens Generation. Alden Sprague Stevens (Series I-A), born November 9th 1795, is the oldest major member of the collection. He was the eldest of nine sons of Archelaus Stevens, a New Hampshire farmer. Alden married Ascha Floyd Smith Stevens (Series I-B) in 1818. Alden was a teacher and a Deputy Sheriff, Crier of the Court, Deputy US Marshall, and judge of Genesee County (1835-1840). Alden helped get a charter for the continuation of a railroad from Batavia to Buffalo in 1836. He was Superintendent of Common Schools, and started the second Teacher's Institute in the United States. He was president of the Attica Collegiate Institute for 12 years. In 1857, Buchanan appointed him Special Agent for Indian Affairs, and he enumerated the Indians in Kansas. His lectures show that he was in favor of educating both sexes, and that he was pro-temperance and anti-corporal punishment. Three of Alden's brothers are included in this series: Robert Hastings Stevens (Series I-C), a lawyer from Buffalo, Frederick Plummer Stevens (Series I-D), who was mayor of Buffalo and shared a law practice with his brother Albert Gallatin Stevens (Series I-E). Albert's wife, Sarah Caroline Greene Stevens (Series I-F), is also included.

The second series is the Robert [Wadleigh] Smith Stevens Generation. It includes his elder sister Caroline Eliza Floyd Stevens Briggs and her husband Rufus Briggs (Series II-A). The largest amount of material belongs to Robert [Wadleigh] Smith Stevens (Series II-B). Though Robert dropped the name Wadleigh, the name or initial is often used in this collection to help distinguish him from the many other Roberts in the Stevens family. Robert had an illustrious career as a railroad builder and manager. He grew up in Attica, NY, where his father was an educator and also a railroad supporter. After working for an election campaign and helping Buchanan become President of the United States, Robert went west to Lecompton, Kansas, where after being financially ruined, he was appointed General Manager and supervised construction of the MK & T; Railroad (aka the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad; aka the Katy). He was renowned for the speed of the construction, and was able to repay all his debts and, in fact, accumulate a fortune. He and went next to St. Louis, Missouri, where he managed the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railway. He is also known for building state housing for Native Americans unsettled by US expansion. After retiring from the railroad business, he became a United States Congressman representing New York, and was a personal friend of President Grant. Also included are Robert's wife, Mary Proctor Smith Stevens (Series II-C), and two children of Albert Gallatin and Sarah Caroline Greene Stevens: Albert Clark Stevens (Series II-D) and his sister Cora Caroline Stevens Reynolds (Series II-E), who married John Reynolds.

The third series is the Frederick Charles Stevens Generation. Frederick Charles Stevens (Series III-A), son of Robert W. and Mary Proctor Smith Stevens, was born Charles Frederick. He was a businessman involved in everything from his father's railroads to banking to farming, importing and raising horses and cattle. He went to Cornell University, but did not graduate. He became a New York State senator, then a New York State Superintendent of Public Works, and then a Cornell trustee. He married Isabel "Belle" C. Stevens and was given the Maplewood Farm in Attica, NY as a wedding present from his father. Frederick was not particularly successful as a businessman in his lifetime, and the family did not consider him to be very accomplished. However, a contemporary author recognized his importation of Holstein cows as having had a far-reaching effect on cow and dairy farming in North America. Doris Reynolds May (Series III-B) is the daughter of Cora Caroline Stevens and John Reynolds. Not included in this series are the papers of Robert Hastings Stevens, M.D. (born 1907), son of Albert Clark Stevens. Like the donor, "Dr. Bob" is a genealogist, and his materials, which contain correspondence with the genealogist Winifred Lovering Holman, are in Series VI-B (the genealogy series).

The fourth series is the Robert Sproule Stevens Generation. It contains material on Robert Sproule Stevens (Series IV-A), son of Frederick and Belle, who was the Dean of Cornell's Law School from the late thirties until the mid-fifties. He was a Harvard graduate who taught corporation law especially well. He was on presidential assigment during WWII, in commissions on Uniform State Laws, Lend-Lease, and Foreign Economic Administration and lived in Washington, D.C. from 1942-45. Helen Pauline Croll Stevens (Series IV-B), who went by Pauline, was Robert's first wife. She grew up outside of Boston and had an outgoing twin sister, Grace. Pauline liked children, writing, and painting, and she joined her sister in theatrical activities. She toured Europe as a teen, and met Robert Sproule when he and his family went to their summer home in Manchester, MA, right across the street from Pauline's house. Pauline kept a diary as an adolescent, and also as the new mother of Robert Croll Stevens, and has many drawings, paintings, postcard and photograph albums. Pauline died in 1936, when her son was only 12. She had been taking medication which had been affecting her adversely, and she was depressed; one day she fell out of a window to her death. Robert Croll went away to Hackley almost immediately, and Robert Sproule did eventually marry again, to a childhood friend from Rochester, Eva Loomis Howe Stevens (Series IV-C), a vivacious and social woman who was able to bring her husband out of his shell. She took charge of entertaining her husband's colleagues and students at their house in Cayuga Heights, and became beloved in the law school. She was involved with philanthropy with the George Junior Republic, where they named a house after her. She got along very well with Robert Croll. Also included in the series are Robert Sproule's older sisters, Helen Lee Stevens Gregory (Series IV-D), who married George Gregory, and Marian Stevens (IV-E), whose materials include sketches, paintings, and other artwork.

The fifth series is the Robert Croll Stevens Generation. Robert Croll Stevens (Series V-A), the donor of the collection, was born January 3rd, 1924. He grew up in Ithaca and attended Harvard. He worked in Rochester as a purchasing agent for Stromberg-Carlson, and retired early to become an author. He has several published volumes on his family's history (which are catalogued in this collection as Series X). The series also contains some material belonging to his wife, Jane Eleanor Knauss Stevens (Series V-B). Born September 7th, 1925, Jane grew up in Poughkeepsie, NY and attended Cornell. Her brother Bill, who was friends with Robert Croll from their years at Phillips Academy, also went to Cornell and graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering (1945). After Jane graduated in from Cornell in 1945, she worked for a year in her father and uncles' meat packing business. She came back to Cornell to become the only female in the first class of thirty-three students in the School of Business and Public Administration (now the Johnson Graduate School of Management), and was the first woman to receive an MBA from Cornell, in 1948. Her brother Bill was also in that first class and graduated with an MBA in 1948. Jane met Robert Croll when he came to Cornell to visit her brother Bill while they were in graduate school. Jane and Robert were married in the summer of 1948, and she became a professional volunteer. She has been active in Rochester Republican party activities, child abuse awareness, public radio and television, and Cornell alumni activities. The couple has three daughters and one son.

Other materials include Robert Croll Stevens' and Dr. Robert Hasting Stevens' research about the family's genealogy (Series VI), maps and regional history (Series VII), photographs and postcard collections (Series VIII), audio/visual materials (Series IX), and books on family history (Series X). Transcriptions of much of the correspondence have been undertaken and are available for researchers (Series XI). Published materials have been separated from the collection and are listed in Appendix A.

Series I. Alden Sprague Stevens Generation

Alden Sprague Stevens (1795-1874)

Personal Papers

Business Papers

Ascha Floyd (Smith) Stevens (1796-1882)

Robert Hastings Stevens (1802-1889)

Frederick Plummer Stevens (1810-1866)

Albert Gallatin Stevens (1818-1872)

Sarah Caroline (Greene) Stevens (1833-1875)

Series II. Robert (Wadleigh) Smith Stevens Generation

Caroline Eliza Floyd (Stevens) Briggs (1821-1893) and Rufus Briggs (1820-1892)

Robert (Wadleigh) Smith Stevens (1824-1893)

Personal Papers

Business Correspondence (non-railroad)

Business Papers (non-railroad)

Railroad Papers

Mary Proctor (Smith) Stevens (1828-1917)

Albert Clark Stevens (1854-1919)

Personal Papers

Business Papers

Fraternal Organizations

Cora Caroline (Stevens) Reynolds (1856-1936)

Series III. Frederick Charles Stevens Generation

Frederick Charles Stevens (formerly Charles Frederick) (1856-1916)

Business Correspondence

Financial Documents/Business Documents

Personal Papers

Doris Reynolds May (1887-1974)

Series IV. Robert Sproule Stevens Generation

Robert Sproule Stevens (1888-1968)

Cornell Law School Papers

Federal Employment Papers

The Telechrometer Company, The Telephone Improvement Company, and the North Electric Company

Personal Papers

(Helen) Pauline Croll Stevens (1885-1936)

Personal Papers and Writings

Estate Papers

Eva Loomis Howe Stevens (1892-1988)

Personal Papers

Charitable Donations

Estate Papers

Helen Lee Stevens Gregory (1880-1953)

Marian Stevens (1885-1974)

Papers

Artwork

Series V. Robert Croll Stevens Generation

Robert Croll Stevens (b. 1924)

Personal and Academic Papers

Correspondence

Business Records

Financial Papers

Jane Knauss Stevens (b. 1925)

Series VI. Genealogy Research and Allied Families

Robert Croll Stevens Research Files

Robert Hastings Stevens (b. 1907) Research Files

Stevens Family

Stevens Family

Flood (Floyd) Family

Green(e) Family

Knight Family

Olney-Whipple Family

Smith-Achilles-Allen Family

Sproule Family

Knauss Family

Croll Family

Croll Family

Blackburne-Sharpe Family

Knowles Family

Series VII. Regional History: Maps and Articles

Kansas

New York

(For railroad maps, see Series II-B, Boxes 63, 75-76)

Series VIII. Photographs

People

Family Homes and Other Locations

Frederick C. Stevens Vacation Photographs

Robert C. Stevens Snapshots

Photograph Albums

Postcard Collections

Other Images: Gravestones, Engravings, Prints

(For railroad photographs, see Series II-B, Boxes 63, 72)

Series IX. Audio/Visual Materials

A/V Records of the Trip Around The World 1935-36; VHS Videocassette Tapes; Audio Cassette Tapes; CD's/DVD's; Other Formats (recording tape, microfilm, museum items)

Series X. Books Related To The Family

Ancestry Of The Children Of Robert Croll Stevens And Jane Eleanor (Knauss) Stevens. Compiled by Robert Croll Stevens, Pittsford, New York, 1982-2001. 6 Volumes.

The Life and Times of Alden Sprague Stevens, 1795-1874. Edited by Robert C. Stevens, 1975.

Robert Sproule Stevens, 1888-1968: Transcript of Interview (July 6-10, 1965). Compiled by Robert Croll Stevens, n.d.

Journals and Poems of [Helen] Pauline Croll Stevens. Edited by Robert Croll Stevens, 1993. 3 Volumes.

Series XI. Transcriptions

Alden Sprague Stevens Generation

Robert (Wadleigh) Smith Stevens Generation

Frederick Charles Stevens Generation

Robert Sproule Stevens Generation

Robert Croll Stevens Generation

Genealogy