Hazard Stevens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Hazard Stevens (1842–1918) was an American military officer, mountaineer, politician and writer. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the Union army in the American Civil War. Stevens and P.B. Van Trump made the first documented successful climb of Mount Rainier on August 17, 1870. ^{[1] [2]}

Contents 1 Early life and the Civil War 2 After the war and the ascent of Mount Rainier 3 Later life in Massachusetts 4 References

[edit] Early life and the Civil War

Stevens was born in Newport, Rhode Island on June 9, 1842, the son of Isaac I. Stevens and Margaret Hazard Stevens. In 1954 his father became the first governor of the new Washington Territory and the Stevens family moved to Olympia, Washington. Both father and son volunteered in the Union army during the Civil War and served in the 70th Highlanders of the New York Volunteers. Hazard was wounded and his father, by then a general, was killed in the Battle of Chantilly on September 1, 1862. Hazard recovered and became the youngest brigadier general of volunteers in the Union army in the Third Division of the 9th Corps under Getty. For his contribution to the capture of Fort Huger, Virginia, on April 19, 1863 Stevens received the Congressional Medal of Honor. ^{[1] [2]}

[edit] After the war and the ascent of Mount Rainier

After the war Stevens retuned to Washington to care for his widowed mother, working initially for the Oregon Steam Navigation Company and then as a federal revenue collector in 1868. He then met P.B. Van Trump, who was working as the private secretary to Marshall F. Moore, the seventh governor of the territory. Both men were interested in climbing Mount Rainier and on August 17, 1870 they completed the first documented ascent of the mountain.^[1][2][3][4]

The Stevens Van Trump Historic Monument along the Skyline Trail in Mount Rainier National Park was erected to commemorate the historic first ascent of the mountain. Nearby is the Stevens Canyon and Stevens Ridge, both named after him.

Stevens joined the bar in 1871, representing the Northern Pacific Railroad Company in their prosecution of limber theft cases. In 1874 Stevens investigated British clams on the San Juan Islands at the request of President Ulysses S. Grant.^[2]

[edit] Later life in Massachusetts

In 1874 Stevens moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts near Boston. He the entered the Massachusetts state legislature as a reformer in 1885. He successfully lobbied for the preservation of Boston's Old State House. He was unsuccessful in a run for the United States Congress. ^[2]

He kept a property at Cloverfields farm in Olympia which he returned to every year. The house is now on the National Historic Register. ^[2]

Stevens wrote "The Life of Isaac Ingalls Stevens", a noted biography of his father in addition to many papers on the Civil War. He died unmarried in 1918. ^[2]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c} Haines, Aubrey L. [1962] (1999). Mountain fever : historic conquests of Rainier. Original publisher: Oregon Historical Society; Republished by University of Washington. ISBN 0295978473. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Hazard Stevens photographs, c. 1840s-1918. University of Oregon Libraries Historic Photograph Collections. University of Oregon (March 2006). Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
3. ^ "Stevens and Van Trump", Mount Rainier Nature Notes, Vol. VIII, No. 3, Mount Rainier National Park, National Park Service, March, 1930. Retrieved on 2007-03-29.
4. ^ Chronology of Climbs of Mt. Rainier. Tacoma Public Library (2002). Retrieved on 2007-03-29.