Henry George Stebbins

Col. Henry George Stebbins (September 15, 1811 – December 9, 1881) was a U.S. Representative from New York, a prominent New York financier, and a civic leader who played a notable role in the city’s political and cultural life in the mid-nineteenth century. He served one term in Congress during the latter half of the American Civil War and was long associated with the New York Stock Exchange, major railroad enterprises, and the development of New York’s public parks and cultural institutions.

Stebbins was born on September 15, 1811, in Ridgefield, Connecticut, to John Stebbins (1783–1834) and Mary Largin Stebbins (1783–1874). His father later became president of the North River Bank in New York, and the family’s move to the city placed Henry in the midst of its growing commercial and financial world. He was part of a family that produced several notable figures in the arts: his sister, Emma Stebbins, became a distinguished sculptor, and another sister, Mary Stebbins Garland, later documented Emma’s life and work in a posthumous biography and scrapbook, Notes on the Art Life of Emma Stebbins (1888), which assembled images of Emma’s works created between 1857 and 1870. After relocating to New York, Henry George Stebbins married Sarah Augusta Weston (1808–1893) on October 8, 1831. The couple had five children: Henry Gerald Stebbins (1832–1832), who died in infancy; Fanny Juliet Stebbins (1834–1907), who married Timothy Fitzgerald Noble (b. 1827); Mary Emma Stebbins (1837–1865), who married Charles Alfred Grymes (1829–1905), son of John Randolph Grymes (1786–1854); Cora Stebbins (b. 1839), who married William Pickering Talboys (b. 1829), son of David Alphonso Talboys (c. 1790–1840); and Charles Henry Stebbins (b. 1841), who married Minerva Cook Vail (b. 1846), daughter of Henry F. Vail (1812–1881), president of the National Bank of Commerce.

Stebbins’s professional life was rooted in finance and public service from an early age. In 1833 he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, initially representing the firm S. Jaudan & Co. Over the ensuing decades he emerged as one of the Exchange’s leading figures, serving as its president in three separate periods: 1851–1852, 1858–1859, and 1863–1864. In 1859 he founded his own brokerage firm, Henry G. Stebbins & Son, further consolidating his position in the financial community. Parallel to his financial career, Stebbins pursued a military role in the New York State militia. In September 1847 he was elected colonel of the Twelfth Regiment, a commission he did not formally accept until May 15, 1848. As commander of the regiment he played a prominent part in the Astor Place Riot of 1849, when militia units were called out to quell civil disorder in New York City. He continued in command until his resignation in 1855.

As a member of the Democratic Party representing New York, Stebbins entered national politics during the Civil War. He was elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-eighth Congress and served from March 4, 1863, until his resignation on October 24, 1864. His single term in the U.S. House of Representatives coincided with a critical phase of the conflict, and he served on the influential Committee on Ways and Means, which oversaw taxation, tariffs, and financial measures essential to the Union war effort. During his congressional service, Stebbins stated that he “favored a vigorous prosecution of the war, until the authority of the Government should be reestablished over every part of the United States,” aligning himself with a pro-war Democratic stance at a time when his party was divided over the conduct of the conflict. In this capacity he contributed to the legislative process during a significant period in American history, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his New York constituents.

After leaving Congress, Stebbins returned to private enterprise and civic affairs, particularly in the rapidly expanding railroad industry. On January 7, 1868, he was elected president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railway, reflecting his growing prominence in transportation finance. He also served at one time as vice president of the Texas Pacific Railroad. By the end of his life he was a director and real estate agent of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroads, helping to manage and develop the extensive properties associated with that system. His leadership roles in these companies placed him at the center of the postwar expansion of rail networks that linked New York to the rest of the country.

Stebbins was equally active in New York’s municipal reform and park development movements. In 1871 he took an active part in the effort to oust William M. “Boss” Tweed and the Tammany Hall ring from power, and he was chosen chairman of the Committee of Seventy, a citizens’ reform group organized to challenge Tweed’s dominance in city government. He held this position for several months before resigning to accept an appointment as Commissioner of the Department of Public Parks. In that capacity he was appointed president of the Central Park Commission, overseeing aspects of the administration and development of New York’s park system. In 1872 he temporarily resigned as Commissioner so that he could travel to England on urgent private business, during which time he was temporarily succeeded by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted. Stebbins fully resigned from the presidency of the park commission in 1873. When he was again proposed for the position of Park Commissioner in 1877, Tammany Hall rejected his nomination in favor of Henry D. Purroy, reflecting the continuing political tensions between reformers and the Tammany organization.

Beyond politics and finance, Stebbins was a prominent figure in New York’s social, cultural, and recreational life. He served as Commodore of the New York Yacht Club from 1863 to 1870, during which time he owned the schooner-yacht Phantom. Under his leadership the club grew in prestige, and in 1870 he was succeeded as commodore by James Gordon Bennett Jr. He was also a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and held leading positions in several cultural and social organizations, serving as president of the Arcadian Club, the Dramatic Fund Association, and the Academy of Music. His club affiliations included membership in the Union Club, the Union League, and the Manhattan Club, institutions that drew many of the city’s political, business, and professional elites. In the late 1870s and early 1880s he became involved in the proposed World’s Fair of 1883 and served as vice president of the United States International Commission. When General Ulysses S. Grant resigned from the presidency of that commission in March 1881, Stebbins succeeded him as president, underscoring his national stature in civic and promotional endeavors.

Stebbins’s family continued his legacy in finance and the arts into the twentieth century. His grandson Henry George Stebbins Noble (1859–1946) followed him into the securities business and became president of the New York Stock Exchange from 1914 to 1919, guiding the institution through the challenges of World War I. Another grandson, Rowland Stebbins (1882–1948), was a stockbroker and stage producer who achieved notable success in the theater, winning a Pulitzer Prize for the play The Green Pastures, from which he reportedly realized profits of $500,000. Rowland Stebbins married Marion Lyman in 1907, and they had three children: Rowland Stebbins Jr., H. Lyman Stebbins, and Marion Stebbins (Heidt), extending the family’s influence in business and cultural circles.

Henry George Stebbins died on December 9, 1881, at his residence at No. 2 West 16th Street in New York City. At the time of his death he was the oldest member on the roll of the New York Stock Exchange, a testament to his long and continuous association with that institution. He was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York, a resting place for many of the city’s leading nineteenth-century figures. His career encompassed service in Congress, leadership in finance and railroads, participation in municipal reform, and active support of New York’s parks, cultural institutions, and civic organizations.