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Stephen Mitchell Chester
Gender:
Male
Born:
October 18, 1793
Died:
April 14, 1862
Home Town:
Wethersfield, CT
Later Residences:
New York, NY
Wethersfield, CT
Wethersfield, CT
Biographical Notes:
Stephen Mitchell Chester was the son of Stephen and Elizabeth (Mitchell) Chester. His father was a Yale graduate and the Sheriff of Hartford County. Stephen prepared for college by studying with Rev. Azel Backus, a Yale graduate of 1787. After attending the Litchfield Law School, Chester spent his life as a businessman rather than a lawyer. The first nine years after graduation, he engaged in business pursuits in North Carolina. Chester then moved to New York City, where he worked in a carpet business with his cousins for many years. Their firm was named W.W. & T.L. Chester. Chester was noted for his fine literary tastes, his efforts to improve church choirs, and his collection of fine paintings by old masters. He lived the last five years of his life in his hometown of Wethersfield, CT.
Education
Years at LLS:
1813
Other Education:
Graduated from Yale College in 1813.
Profession / Service
Profession:
Business
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
- Elizabeth Mitchell Chester
Mother - Stephen Chester
Father
The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation. Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Catalogue of the Litchfield Law School Hartford, CT: Press of Case, Tiffany and Company, 1849.
Secondary Sources:
Dexter, Franklin Bowditch. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of College History, Vol. 6. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1912.
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