Stephen N. Stillwell was born on 3. Jun. 1799 at Gravesend, Kings County, New York. He was the son of
Nicholas J. Stillwell and
Aeltie Hubbard. Stephen N. Stillwell was baptized on 21. Jun. 1799 at Dutch Reformed Church, Gravesend, Kings County, New York. He married
Ann Voorhees, daughter of
Alver Voorhees and
Ida Stillwell, on 29. Sep. 1831.
Stephen N. Stillwell appeared on the census of 2. Jun. 1870; a clerk, county building.
Stephen N. Stillwell appeared on the census of 2. Jun. 1870 at Gravesend, Kings County, New York; real estate value 8,000.00, personal property 500.00. He died on 15. Feb. 1880 at at his daughter Catherine's home, Gravesend, Kings County, New York, at age 80.
Mr. Stillwell received an elementary education in the village school, at Gravesend Neck, and early was placed in mercantile life. After an apprenticeship as clerk in several prominent business houses, he commenced business on his own account, as a manufacturer of hats at 291 Water Street, New York City, with branches at Mobile, Ala., and St. Mary’s, Florida. In visiting his branch store it was his custom to go by sailing vessel to the latter place, and thence overland on horseback, through an unbroken forest to the former. In making his trips he passed Cape Hatteras fourteen times, and often remarked that he never sailed by it, except during a violent thunder shower. His agent in Mobile died, and little or nothing was realized from the business, which compelled him to close out his other houses, and go into bankruptcy; but nothing daunted, he settled with his creditors, and again started, this time with a partner, one George M. Cummings. They would charter a vessel, load her with goods for Kingston, Jamaica; dispose of them, and with the profits invest in local commodities, and sail for the “Spanish Main,” as Yucatan and Campeachy were then called. Here the new cargo was dis¬posed of, and they returned to New York laden with logwood, mahogany, etc. The net result of the last of these operations is perhaps best indicated by the bonds of G. W. Cummings, still held by the descendants of Mr. Stillwell, as curiosities.
He then went into mercantile life in his own town; later to Brooklyn, and still later turned to the ancestral farm in Gravesend, where he devoted himself to agriculture. He 1840, his wife died.
When the office of Town Superintendent of Schools was created, he was unanimously chosen to fill it in the vifiage of Gravesend, and succeeded himself in that position several years.
He was commissioned by Gov. Throop, Quarter-Master of the First Regiment, New York State Infantry.
In 1845, the Board of Supervisors appointed him one of the Superintendents of the Poor, to which position he was elected by the people of the county the succeeding term, and at the expiration of his second term was made their Clerk. When the “Superintendents” were suc¬ceeded by the “Commissioners of Charities,” he was continued as Secretary, a position he held through various changes of administration until his death.
At a special meeting of the Commissioners of Charities, held at 444 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, Feb. 26, 1880, the following preamble and resolutions were adopted:
“Whereas Stephen N. Stillwell, Secretary of this Board departed this life on the 22d day of February instant, in the full maturity of an octogenarian and
Whereas his whole service of thirty-three years was uniformly distinguished for his prompt and zealous attention to and performance of every duty in a thoroughly intelligent and business-like manner, combined with his very marked reticence and integrity in his rela¬tions to his official superiors and business associates in public trust; therefore
Resolved That it is eminently proper that this Board should make public Record of the virtues of its deceased Secretary, as also of its regret at the all-wise decree which has dissolved their earthly relations with him, as a just tribute to his memory, and in the ho,~ that his life and virtues may be copied by public subordinates of lesser years as a marl J example for their emulation;
Resolved That this preamble and Resolution be spread in full on the minutes of the Board and that a copy thereof be presented to the family of the deceased.
Wm M. SHIPMAN, Prest
CHARLES J. Henry
ANDREW ZEISER
GIDEON OSTRANDER JAMES RYAN
Secretary pro tern. HARMON V. STORM Commissioners.”
Though past eighty years of age Mr. Stillwell was a man of remarkable vigor, both mentally and physically. For thirty years, during his long office as Secretary to the Charities’ Department, he was wont to arrive daily at half past six A.M. at the Alms House in Flatbush. He drove over from Gravesend along Parkson Ave., and people living on that route are said to have set their clocks and watches frequently by his chronometric regularity.