OBITUARIES, AMERICAN. (STANFORD SJEPHENSON.) 



571 



on a coaster; developed unusual nautical ability for 

 one of Jus yours; ami, after sailing t<> the principal 

 i.ort.-, '. n tlii' Atlantic and I'acitic coasts, and to the 

 \N c.-t Indies ami < 'li'ma, lircuiuu captain of a tuirk 

 when t\\cnty-two yuara old. lie commanded in turn 

 the - Fanny," 1 "Hound," "Samuel Willctts," and 

 " Mary 1.. Button "; was one of the tirst sailing mas- 

 ters to ij,ke advantage of tliu compulsory opening of 

 the j Kills of .Japan to trade; commanded the Federal 

 t rails] M .it " Victor" in the early part of tlie civil 

 war; was for some time in charge of the steamships 

 of the Mallorys, of M \stic, Conn., and after the war 

 hccaine a I'uriiur in" the firm. On the death of 

 C'liarlcs 11. .Mai lory, Captain Spicer became the head 

 of the tinn, and President of the New York and Texas 

 Steamship Company, an office he held at his death. 

 Captain hpicer was a man of large generosity. Dur- 

 ing his lifetime he presented the Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute of Brooklyn with a valuable library as a memo- 

 rial to his son; erected a public library in Mystic, 

 Conn. ; and gave the town of Groton, Conn., a valu- 

 able farm with suitable buildings for the benefit of 

 its poor; and he bequeathed $5,000 for the support 

 of the Groton farm, $10,000 to the Spicer Library in 

 the I'olytechnic Institute, $10,000 to No. 11 School 

 in the Noauk district, and $25,000 to the Spicer 

 Library in Mvstic. 



Stanford, Leland, pliilanthropist, born in Watervliet, 

 N. Y., March 9, 1824 ; died in Palo Alto, Cal., June 

 20, 1893. He was brouglit up on a farm, was admitted 

 to the bar in 1849, removed to Port Washington, Wis., 

 to practice, and made 

 the overland trip to 

 California and engaged 

 in gold mining in 1852. 

 In 1856 he settled in 

 San Francisco and es- 

 tablished a commercial 

 house, in which he ac- 

 quired a large fortune, 

 lie became actively in- 

 terested in the agricult- 

 ural and manufacturing 

 development of Califor- 

 nia, and early in his 

 residence there was con- 

 vinced both of the desi- 

 rability and the practi- 

 cability of a transconti- 

 nental"railway. In I860 

 he entered public life 

 as a delegate to the Re- 

 publican National Convention, and in the following 

 year he was elected Governor of California. In 1^61 

 also he was elected president of the newly organized 

 Central Pacific Railroad Company, formed for tlie 

 purpose of building a railway across the Sierra Ne- 

 vada mountains. With him were associated Charles 

 Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Collis P. Huntington. 

 In the division of the preliminary work Mr. Stanford 

 had charge of all that related to legislation, and he se- 

 cured the passage of a bill by Congress in 1862, ac- 

 cording to which, on the construction and equipment 

 of 40 miles of the road and the establishment of a tele- 

 graph service for that distance, the Government would 

 issue bonds to aid the company, at the rate of $1(5,000 

 a mile to the foot of the mountains, and $48,000 a mile 

 over and through them. Each of the four men agreed 

 to pay personally the cost of construction of a fourth 

 part of the road, and Mr. Stanford's section was that 

 over the mountains. Under liis personal supervision 

 r>.'!0 miles were built in two hundred and ninety-three 

 days. The road of the Central Pacific Company ex- 

 tended from San Francisco to Ogden, and that of the 

 Union Pacific Company from < i^den to Omaha. Tlie 

 Central Pacific completed its work on May 10,1866, 

 and three years afterward Mr. Stanford drove the last 

 spike at Promontory Point, Utah, which connected the 

 rails of the two companies. The construction of the 

 road across the mountains was a marvel of engineer- 

 ing, because of the natural obstacles, and more than 



$20,000,000 were spent on a stretch of roadway of 100 

 miles. In 1*S4 and IV.iO Mr. Stanford wa eleeted 

 Tinted States Senator,and at the time of Jiis deatli he 

 was chairman of the Committee on Public Buildings 

 and Grounds, and a meml>er of the Committee on 

 Civil Service and Retrenchment, on Education and 

 Labor, on Fisheries, and on Naval Affaire. From the 

 beginning of his business prosperity lie was noted 

 for large and quietly bestowed gills to deserving puli- 

 lic purposes. The death of his only son in 1885 led 

 him to concentrate his future benefactions in an edu- 

 cational institution, to be open to both sexes and to 

 provide tlie highest possible university training. With 

 his wife, he deeded to trustees, for tne establishment 

 of the I. eland Stanford Junior University, his Gridley 

 farm of 21,000 acres, witli a market value of $1,500,- 

 000, his Vina farm of 55,000 acres, market value $1,800,- 

 000, his Palo Alto farm of 7,000 acres, market value 

 $2,100,000, and other property representing on aggre- 

 gate value of $20,000,000. The corner stone of tlie 

 first building was laid May 14, 1887, and the institu- 

 tion was formally opened Oct. 1, 1891. His great gift 

 to the university was supplemented by a bequest of 

 $2,500,000. Everything that Senator Stanford did was 

 on a remarkably large scale. His Vina farm was the 

 largest vineyard in the world ; his love of horses 

 made him unapproachable as a breeder; and the uni- 

 versity lias the largest individual endowment of any 

 public institution in existence. 



Storey, Alfred Butler, editor and author, born in 

 Nottingham, Eng., Aug. 2, 1853 ; died in New York 

 city, Aug. 7, 1893. lie studied at Exeter College, 

 Oxford, and was graduated in 1873. Shortly after 

 leaving college he came to this country and was a 

 private tutor for several years. The sliort stories for 

 children which he wrote at this time were so well re- 

 ceived that he was encouraged to choose literature as 

 a profession. He was introduced to the house of 

 Harper & Brothers by letters from England, and en- 

 tered their employ in 1878. His ability was im- 

 mediately recognized, and lie was promoted rapidly 

 through various departments, until, in 1885, he was 

 made editor of " Harper's Young People," which place 

 he retained until his deatli. While still serving in 

 his clerical capacity with the Harpers lie entered the 

 lists under an assumed name, and with his " Sword 

 of Hildebrand" won the prize offered for the best 

 children's story submitted. His editorial work dur- 

 ing the last seven years of his life completely ab- 

 sorbed him, and he wrote but little, ior several 

 years Mr. Starey was secretary of the National Tennis 

 Association, and his love of outdoor sports made him a 

 ready sympathizer with like tastes in the young, and 

 led him to make many innovations in the magazine. 

 He was also a member, and at one time secretary, of 

 the Authors Club. He never married. 



Stearns, Oakman Sprague, educator, born in Bath, 

 Me., Oct. 27, 1^17; died in Newton Center, Mass., 

 April 20, 1893. He was graduated at Waterville Col- 

 lege iu 1840, and at Newton Theological Seminary in 

 1846; was instructor in Hebrew in the latter institu- 

 tion in 1846-'47; pastor of Baptist churches in South 

 bridge, Mass., in 1847-'54, in Newark, N. J., in 1854- 

 '55, and iu Newton Center in 1855-'68 ; and had been 

 Professor of Old Testament Interpretation in the 

 Newton Seminary since 1868. He received the de- 

 gree of D.D. from Colby University in 1863. Dr. 

 Stearns was regarded as tlie leading authority among 

 Baptists in the United States on the Old Testament: 

 had translated Sartorius's " The Person and Word 

 of Christ" (Boston, 1848): and among numerous 

 writings had published u A Syllabus of the Messianic 

 Passages iii the old Testament" (1884). 



Stephenson. John, manufacturer, born in County Ar- 

 magli. Ireland, July 4, 1809; died in New Rochelle, 

 N. Y.. July SI, 1891. He accompanied his parents to 

 New York city in 1811, was educated in the old 

 Wesleyan Seminary there, and, finding mercantile 

 life uncongenial, was apprenticed to a coachmaker. 

 In 1831 he establislied a similar business for himself. 

 Soon afterward he built the first omnibus ever seen 



