Byam K. Stevens

Byam Kerby Stevens Jr. (January 5, 1836 – December 12, 1911) was an American banker who was prominent member of New York society during the Gilded Age.[1]

Byam K. Stevens
Born
Byam Kerby Stevens Jr.

(1836-01-05)January 5, 1836
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedDecember 12, 1911(1911-12-12) (aged 75)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse(s)
Elizabeth Langdon Wilks
​
(
his death 1911)
Parent(s)Byam Kerby Stevens
Frances Gallatin Stevens
RelativesAlexander Henry Stevens (brother)
Albert Gallatin (grandfather)
Ebenezer Stevens (grandfather)
John Austin Stevens (uncle)
Alexander H. Stevens (uncle)

Early life

Stevens was born on January 5, 1836 in New York City.[1] He was the son of banker Byam Kerby Stevens (1792–1870) and Frances (née Gallatin) Stevens (1803–1877).[2] His father inherited Stevens House, the historic home of his grandfather, Maj. Gen. Ebenezer Stevens.[3] His older brother was fellow banker Alexander Henry Stevens.[4]

His paternal grandfather was Albert Gallatin, the 4th U.S. Secretary of the Treasury who served as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom and France.[5] His maternal grandparents were Major General Ebenezer Stevens and Lucretia (née Ledyard) Sands Stevens.[4] From his grandmother's first marriage to Richardson Sands (younger brother of Joshua and Comfort Sands), she was the grandmother of fellow banker Samuel Stevens Sands.[6] Among his many prominent relatives were uncles John Austin Stevens, a banker with his father, and Alexander Hodgdon Stevens, a surgeon.[7] Among his first cousins were John Austin Stevens, founder of the Sons of the Revolution, and Lucretia Stevens (née Rhinelander) Jones, the mother of author Edith Wharton.[4]

Career

Stevens started working in the merchant business importing sugar from Cuba to New York.[1] He later became a member of the Gold Board of New York, formed shortly after the beginning of the American Civil War, the forerunner to the New York Stock Exchange, where he was an active figure holding a seat until his retirement from the exchange in 1883. After 1883, he invested his wealth in real estate,[1] particularly with buildings downtown.[8]

He also served as an editor of Town Topics and the Saturday Evening Post for a time.[9]

Society life

In 1892, both Stevens and his wife (and her brother Matthew Astor Wilks) were both included in Ward McAllister's "Four Hundred", purported to be an index of New York's best families, published in The New York Times.[10] Conveniently, 400 was the number of people that could fit into Mrs. Astor's ballroom.[11]

Stevens was a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Union Club of the City of New York, the Knickerbocker Club and the Metropolitan Club in Washington, D.C.[1]

Personal life

Stevens was married to Elizabeth Langdon Wilks (c. 1843–1930), who went by Eliza.[12] She was the sister of Matthew Astor Wilks and, through her mother, the great-granddaughter of America's first millionaire John Jacob Astor.[13] Among her first cousins were DeLancey Astor Kane, Woodbury Kane, S. Nicholson Kane, and John Jacob Astor IV.[14] Her father, Matthew Wilks,[15] was born in London and was the son of a reverend.[16]

In 1908, Stevens purchased property at 11 East 78th Street, not far from the Stuyvesant Fish mansion at the corner of 78th and Madison Avenue. They built a four-story Italian Renaissance townhouse that was completed in 1909.[17]

Around 1900, they also purchased a villa, known as "Sunnyhome", in Lenox, Massachusetts.[18] The Italianate style residence was originally built c. 1870 and was purchased from Elizabeth Bennett.[19]

Stevens died at his home in New York on December 12, 1911.[1] His funeral was held at Grace Church in Manhattan.[20] His widow died in June 1930, leaving a net estate of $1,606,456, the majority of which was in securities and real estate.[21]

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References
  1. "Byam Kerby Stevens" (PDF). The New York Times. December 13, 1911. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  2. "Mrs. Francis Gallatin Stevens". Pittsburgh Daily Post. December 3, 1877. p. 2. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  3. "THE OLD STEVENS HOUSE. | A Historian's Account of the Historical Mansion at Astoria". The Sun. January 26, 1903. p. 6. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  4. Stevens, Eugene Rolaz; Bacon, William Plumb (1914). Erasmus Stevens and his descendants. Tobias A. Wright. p. 16. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  5. May, Gregory (2018). Jefferson's Treasure: How Albert Gallatin Saved the New Nation from Debt. Simon and Schuster. p. 630. ISBN 9781621577645. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  6. "Samuel Stevens Sands" (PDF). New York Times. July 26, 1892. Retrieved 2009-07-23. Samuel Stevens Sands, who died on Sunday at his country place, Elmhurst, New-Hamburg, N. Y., was only one or two places from the head of the list of Stock Exchange members in point of length of connection with that institution. He joined it in 1854. For many years he was head of the firm of S.S. Sands Co., acting as a broker for many important financial interests, including the Astors'.
  7. 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.
  8. Real Estate Record and Builders' Guide. F. W. Dodge Corporation. 1890. p. 184. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  9. "Byam Kerby Stevens". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. December 13, 1911. p. 3. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  10. McAllister, Ward (16 February 1892). "THE ONLY FOUR HUNDRED | WARD M'ALLISTER GIVES OUT THE OFFICIAL LIST. HERE ARE THE NAMES, DON'T YOU KNOW, ON THE AUTHORITY OF THEIR GREAT LEADER, YOU UNDER- STAND, AND THEREFORE GENUINE, YOU SEE" (PDF). The New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  11. Keister, Lisa A. (2005). Getting Rich: America's New Rich and How They Got That Way. Cambridge University Press. p. 36. ISBN 9780521536677. Retrieved 20 October 2017.
  12. "MRS. BYAM KERBY STEVENS; New York Widow Dies at Her Lenox Villa in 88th Year" (PDF). The New York Times. June 1, 1930. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  13. "WILKS" (PDF). The New York Times. June 6, 1896. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  14. "COL. DE LANCEY KANE DIES OF PNEUMONIA; Noted Horseman and Astor's Great-Grandson Initiated Coaching in America. LONG A SOCIAL LEADER Graduate of West Point Who Inherited $10,000,000 Served in the Cavalry in Our Army". The New York Times. 5 April 1915. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  15. O'Connor, Harvey (1941). The Astors. A. A. Knopf. p. 314. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  16. "Matthew Wilks" (PDF). The New York Times. June 21, 1899. Retrieved 10 July 2018.
  17. Miller, Tom (28 March 2012). "The Italian Renaissance Stevens Mansion -- No. 11 East 78th STreet". Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  18. Social Register, Summer: Contains the Summer Addresses of Residents of New York, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston and Baltimore. Social Register Association. 1904. p. 357. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  19. "33 MAIN ST., ANDREW THOMPSON HOUSE – C.1870". Lenox History. September 9, 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  20. "BYAM KERBY STEVENS". New-York Tribune. December 13, 1911. p. 7. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  21. "MRS. STEVENS LEFT $1,606,456 ESTATE; Descendant of John J. Astor Willed Bulk of Property to Her Relatives. CHURCH AND ORPHANS AIDED" (PDF). The New York Times. December 12, 1930. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
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