Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/33

 STEVENS

STEVENS

connection with Prof,,W. B. Oleson of Honolulu, Picturesque Hawaii (posthumous, 1897), He died in Augusta, Maine, Feb. 7, 1895.

STEVENS, Lillian M. N., reformer, was born in Dover, Maine, March, 1, 1844 ; daughter of Nathaniel and Nancy (Parsons) Ames ; grand- daughter of Joshua and Sophia Ames, and of Joseph and Sarah Parsons. She attended Fox- croft academy, 1856 ; taught school, 1860-65, and was married, Oct. 15, 1865, to Michael, son of Tristram and Nancy (Chapman) Stevens, a mer- chant of Portland, Maine. She was influential in organizing the Maine W.C.T.U. in 1874, serv- ing as its treasurer, 1874-77, and as its president from the latter date ; was assistant recording secretary of the National W.C.T.U., 1880-92; recording secretary, 1893 ; vice-president, 1894- 98 ; elected president in the latter year, upon the death of Frances E. Willard (q.v.). and annually re-elected, visiting England, in her oflicial ca- pacity, 1897 and 1900-1903. She was the Maine representative in the National Conference of Cliarities and Correction, 1890-1903 ; vice-presi- dent at large of the World's W.C.T.U. in 1900 ; one of the founders of the Maine Industrial School for Girls ; a trustee of the school, and a manager of the Maine contribution to the World's Columbian exposition, 1892-93. She was residing in Portland, Maine, in 1903.

STEVENS, Robert Livingston, engineer, was born in New Hoboken, N.J., Oct. 18, 1787 ; son of John and Rachel Stevens. He was educated chiefly by private tutors and in the laboratory of his father, where he developed remarkable en- gineering skill at an early age. He was placed in cliarge of the Phoenix in the first sea voyage made by a steamboat, and he safely carried the vessel, built only for river navigation, from Hoboken. N.J., to Pliiladelpliia, Pa., in June, 1808. He built the steamboat Philadelpliia in 1815 with a speed of eight miles an hour, the fastest steamboat then in existence, and in 1832 his North Amer- ica developed a speed of fifteen miles an hour. He was the leading constructor of steamboats in the United States, 1815-40, and to him are due the inventions of the camboard cut-off ; the first use of steam expansively for navigation, 1818 ; the percussion shell adopted by the govern- ment in 1812 ; the modern ferryboat and ferry-

ship, spring piling and spring fenders. 1821 : the walking beam, 1821 ; the split water-wheel, 1826 ; the balance valve, 1831 ; the placing the boiler on the wheel guards over the water ; the marine tubular boiler, 1831, and the forced draft for steam vessels. He visited England to witness the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester railway in 1830, and on his return he introduced the Trail, since known as the " Stevens rail, "and imported the locomotive "John Bull," manufac- tured by John Stephenson and first operated on the Camdem and Amboy railroad, of which he was president and chief engineer ; his brother, Ed- win A. Stevens, being treasurer and general manager. He began the construction of the Stevens battery in 1842, under authority of con- gress for an iron clad steam vessel to be shot and shell proof, but as the solid shot from im- proved cannon penetrated four and a half inches of armor plating, he was obliged to increase the thickness of the armor and the tonnage of his vessel. The constantly increasing efficiency of projectiles completely upset the improved plans of construction and the battery was never ac- cepted, although it served as a model for all other armor-plated vessels, being the first iron-clad ever projected. It had twin screw engines and the boilers were in position, but steam was never raised. In 1853 Mr. Stevens built the sloop yacht Maria, and on a trial race defeated the America before that sloop sailed the race in the Solent and brought home the cup. In 1860 the Maria, then schooner rigged, was exhibited to the Prince of Wales and completely sailed around the fast U.S. revenue cutter Harriet Lane on board of which the English prince was a guest. The Maria was lost at sea in 1869. Commodore Stevens died in Hoboken, N.J., April 20, 1856.

STEVENS, Samuel, Jr., governor of Mary- land, was born in Talbot county, Md., in 1778; son of Samuel Stevens, and a descendant of the family that settled, in 1679, at " Stevens' plains," " Stevens' lott " and " Stevens." He was liberally educated, and was married, June 2, 1804, to Eliza May of Chester county. Pa. He was governor of Maryland, 1822-25, and while in office was in- fluential in establishing the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal company, and had the honor of welcoming Lafayette to Annapolis, on his return to the United States in 1824. He died near Trappe, Md., in 1860.

STEVENS, Thaddeus, representative, was born in Danville, Vt., April 4, 1793 ; son of Joshua (a shoemaker) and Sallie Stevens, who removed from Methuen. Mass., about 1786, and settled in Dan- ville. His father died while Thaddeus was a boy, leaving his family in extreme poverty. Thaddeus was sickly and unfitted for work, so his mother, notwithstanding her poverty, sent