Stevens Family Papers (NJHS), 1663 - 1959

From NJHS: John Stevens (ca. 1682-1737) was the founder of the Stevens family in New Jersey. His son, generally known as Hon. John Stevens (1715-1792), grew to prominence as a sea captain and merchant, a member of the New Jersey Assembly and later of the Continental Congress. As a member of the Board of General Proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey, and its president in 1783, Hon. John Stevens was involved in land speculation. His papers shed light on the Elizabethtown Bill in Chancery, and both the East-West Jersey and the New York-New Jersey boundary disputes. Among his brothers were Campbell Stevens (1714-1770), commander of a company at Louisburg in the French and Indian War, and Richard Stevens (1723-1802), sea captain and merchant in Perth Amboy and Philadelphia who engaged in trade with the West Indies. Perhaps the best-known family member was Col. John Stevens (1749-1838), a lawyer, inventor, and founder of the town of Hoboken. He was the builder of the first ocean-going steamship in the world, the Phoenix, and later designed and constructed the first American-built steam locomotive, which he operated on his Hoboken estate. His sons Robert and Edwin A. Stevens were founders of the Camden and Amboy Railroad and Transportation Company. John Cox Stevens was a horse-breeder and yachtsman. The collection includes: materials on the Revolutionary War, the Fulton-Stevens ferry controversy, steamboats, public transportation, and technology; family genealogy and photographs; records of the East Jersey and West Jersey Proprietors, the Rocky Hill and Pluckemin mines, the Hoboken Ferry Company, and the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, ca. 1831-1946; estate papers of James and Mary Alexander, Fenwick Lyell, Robert Hunter Morris, and various members of the Stevens family.