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Stevens was born on July 28, 1795 at Castle Point, Hoboken, New Jersey, United States, the son of Colonel John Stevens III (1749-1838) and his wife Rachel Cox (1761-1839). He was the sixth of eleven children, and among his older brothers were John Cox Stevens and Robert Livingston Stevens.
After receiving his education under private tutors, he engaged in the experiments and business enterprises of his father and older brothers until he was twenty-five, developing, meanwhile, a keen business sense and unusual organizing ability.
Stevens came to be regarded, in fact, as the family "fly-wheel, " and in 1820, by family agreement, his father made him trustee of practically the whole of his estate. Although the responsibility was great for so young a man, he succeeded admirably and, in addition, occasionally assisted both his father and his brother Robert L. Stevens in their engineering work. With the latter, he invented and patented, August 23, 1821, a plow which was extensively used for years.
In 1825 he took charge of the Union Line, which operated freight and passenger stages between New York and Philadelphia. Two years later it became the property of himself and his brothers Robert and John Cox, Edwin continuing as business manager.
When, in 1830, the Camden & Amboy Railroad & Transportation Company was chartered, he was made treasurer and manager. With his great business and organizing ability this first railroad project in New Jersey succeeded in an incredibly short time, and during the whole of his management, extending over thirty-five years, the stock of the company constantly appreciated in value and no dividend was passed. Occasionally, Stevens would try his hand at invention.
For example, he designed a wagon body with removable sides, extensively used for many years in New York for hauling refuse and known as the "two horse dump wagon"; he also helped his brother Robert in designing the "closed fire-room" system of forced draft, patented April 1, 1842, and first applied on Robert's steamboat North America.
As early as 1814 Stevens had become interested with his father and brother in armored naval vessels and had carried on experiments in which projectiles from a six-pounder cannon were fired against iron plating. Little public interest could be aroused at that time, however. The prospect of serious trouble with Great Britain in 1841 prompted Edwin to conduct a new series of experiments at Bordentown.
He then applied to the United States Navy Department for permission to build an armored vessel, the design to be largely that of his brother Robert, and on April 14, 1842, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Navy to enter into a contract with him.
His struggle to build the Stevens Battery, as it was called, was of some years' duration, chiefly because of changes in Navy administration and improvements in ordnance. Not until 1854 were the ship's floor timbers actually laid, and two years later Robert, the leader in the undertaking, died. Edwin then assumed the whole burden, although he realized that the Navy Department had little belief that iron-clad vessels would ever come into general use.
He met with small success in arousing any real interest until 1861, when, influenced by newspaper and periodical suggestions, the navy board condescended to make an examination of the Stevens plans. Its report to Congress was adverse, however.
Undaunted, Stevens built, at his own expense, a small ironclad, twin-screw steamer, the Naugatuck, to demonstrate the practicality of his plans. Even though this vessel saw considerable service in and about Hampton Roads and proved the feasibility of the novel features it contained, the government's attitude remained unchanged. Stevens bequeathed it to the state of New Jersey together with one million dollars for its completion.
The money was spent in 1869 and 1870 without finishing the vessel, and in 1881 it was dismantled and sold for junk. Stevens' father had always hoped that some of his estate might be devoted to founding an "academy" for teaching fundamental subjects and science.
Edwin kept this purpose always before him and particularly after he inherited much of his brother Robert's fortune. Accordingly, in his will he bequeathed both land and money sufficient to establish the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken.
Stevens' death occurred on August 7, 1868 in Paris, France.
Edwin Augustus Stevens and his brother Robert were known for their work on a commission from the United States government to construct the nation's first ironclad naval vessel. After conducting tests to determine the amount of armor a vessel needed to defend itself against naval guns, the two brothers constructed a huge vessel known as the Stevens Battery. Though the craft was never fully completed, it nevertheless laid the groundwork for the modern armored warship. Stevens was part of the syndicate from the New York Yacht Club that built and raced the schooner-yacht America.
He was twice married: first, in 1836, to Mary B. Picton of West Point, New York, who died in 1841; second, August 22, 1854, to Martha Bayard Dod of Princeton, New Jersey, daughter of Prof. Albert Dod. By his first wife he had two children, and by the second, seven. His daughter Mary Picton Stevens became the wife of Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett. With Martha he had seven children: John Stevens IV, grandfather of Millicent Fenwick; Edwin Augustus Stevens, Jr. ; Caroline Bayard Stevens, who married Archibald Alexander and then H. Otto Wittpenn.
