Education
Stevens graduated from Columbia University in 1803.
Stevens graduated from Columbia University in 1803.
The sporting son in the family, he built a series of yachts. In 1844, on board his yacht, Gimcrack, he was named Commodore of the New York Yacht Club which he and nine others had just proposed forming. Stevens once served as president of The Jockey Club and set up the 1823 Great North-South Match.
The race stoked sectional tensions when the Northern horse, "American Eclipse", defeated the southern colt, "Sir Henry".
The northern victory encouraged a northern enthusiasm for horse racing but embarrassed southerners with their pretensions of superiority in breeding, training, and racing horses. He introduced cricket to the United States.
He ran the company that had the first steam ferry between Hoboken, New Jersey and New York City. His father, Colonel John Stevens, was a revolutionary war veteran, pioneer in steamboats, and purchaser of what is now Hoboken.
His mother was Rachel Cox from New Brunswick, New Jersey.
He was the eldest son. Another brother, Edwin Augustus Stevens, founded Stevens Institute of Technology, and later was also a Commodore at the NYCC.
He was also a founding member of New York"s oldest gentlemen"s society, the Union Club.