Stephen Benton Elkins

Infobox US Cabinet official
name=Stephen Benton Elkins


order=38th
title=United States Secretary of War
term_start=December 17, 1891
term_end=March 4, 1893
president=Benjamin Harrison
predecessor=Redfield Proctor
successor=Daniel S. Lamont
birth_date=birth date|1841|9|26|mf=y
birth_place=New Lexington, Ohio, U.S.
death_date=death date and age|1911|1|4|1841|9|26
death_place=Washington, D.C., U.S.
party=Republican
spouse=Sarah Jacobs
Hallie Davis
profession=Politician, Lawyer

Stephen Benton Elkins (September 26, 1841 – January 4, 1911) was an American industrialist and political figure. He served as the Secretary of War between 1891 and 1893. He served in the Congress as a Delegate from the Territory of New Mexico and a Senator from West Virginia.

Biography

Early life

Elkins was born near New Lexington, Ohio and moved with his family to Westport, Missouri (now part of Kansas City) in the mid-1840s to Philip Duncan Elkins and Sarah Pickett Withers. He attended the Masonic College in Lexington, Missouri in the 1850's, and graduated from the University of Missouri in Columbia in 1860. After graduation, he briefly taught school in Cass County, Missouri. Among his pupils was future James-Younger Gang member Cole Younger. [http://books.google.com/books?id=3cHhY4qAvdcC&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=%22emory+s+foster%22+born&source=web&ots=7blmcGFDYi&sig=QNhk87iw8iNrWoHJvNMnotia2DM#PPA162,M1 Jesse James Was His Name; or, Fact and Fiction concerning the Careers of the Notorious James Brothers of Missouri by William Settle - Bison Books - 1977] ISBN 0803258607]

Civil War

In the American Civil War Elkins' father and brother joined the Confederate Army under Sterling Price and he joined the Union Army. Before he joined the Union Army he was to encounter Quantrill's Raiders twice and was spared from being killed because of his father and brother. He noted::They marched me along and we got to Quantrill's camp. There I saw Cole Younger, Dick Yager and George M. Todd, and several others afterward known for desperate deeds. Those I have mentioned were farmers' sons around where I lived. They identified me and said: Here comes Steve Elkins. All the way along I had been afraid that those fellows who had captured me would shoot me in the back, for I had on the watch which I am carrying now in the office of the secretary of war. [cite book
title=Centennial History of Missouri
author=Walter Barlow Stevens
year=1921
publisher=The S. J. Clarke publishing company
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jw1ExqwyW-4C&pg=PA629&lpg=PA629&dq=%22emory+s+foster%22+pdf&source=web&ots=eoMkdiTb3E&sig=m7RdI2XSOhP-Upf3L2YSURFIXo0#PPA630,M1]

Elkins entered the Union Army as a captain of militia in the 77th Missouri Infantry. He served under Kersey Coates and only saw action once in the Battle of Lone Jack which he said filled him with disgust over war. Elkins noting that his good fortune of being protected by Quantrill to a fear of being butchered by Quantrill for becoming a Union soldier as Quantrill's raiders were thought to be present at the battle.

:Foster thought the Confederates were the guerrilla hands who raised the black flag, and never gave any quarter. So he refused to surrender, and every one of his officers was picked off. The guerrillas were victorious. I went over the battlefield afterward, the blood, the cries for water and death, the naked bodies stripped of their clothing, the dead horses which served for ramparts, gave me a disgust for war, which makes it seem strange that I am here at the head of the war department of this great government. [cite book
title=Centennial History of Missouri
author=Walter Barlow Stevens
year=1921
publisher=The S. J. Clarke publishing company
isbn=
url=http://books.google.com/books?id=jw1ExqwyW-4C&pg=PA629&lpg=PA629&dq=%22emory+s+foster%22+pdf&source=web&ots=eoMkdiTb3E&sig=m7RdI2XSOhP-Upf3L2YSURFIXo0#PPA630,M1]

Elkins and Foster from the Lone Jack Battle were to argue for a pardon for Younger following his conviction in the Northfield, Minnesota bank robbery (Younger had rescued Foster from Quantrills Raider execution in the battle).

New Mexico

He entered the practice of law at Mesilla, New Mexico, and was elected to the territorial legislature in 1864 and 1865. He was appointed territorial district attorney for a term from 1866 to 1867. It was at this time, on June 10, 1866, that he married his first wife Sarah Simms Jacobs.

In 1867, Elkins served as attorney general of the territory and later as U.S. district attorney from 1867 to 1870. He was elected territorial delegate to the U.S. Congress in 1872, and reelected in 1874, serving from March 4, 1873 to March 3, 1877. In 1875, he met and married his second wife, Hallie Davis, and continued to practice law. He founded and was president of the Santa Fe National Bank, and pursued broad business interests in land, rail, mining, and finance including president of the massive Maxwell Land Grant Company. [http://www.sangres.com/history/maxwelllandgrant.htm] In attempting to evict squattors from the Land Grant he would be accused of being part of the Santa Fe Ring.

West Virginia

Around 1890, he moved to Elkins, West Virginia, a town he had founded earlier, to pursue coal and rail interests. By 1892, the Davis Coal and Coke Company, a partnership between Elkins and his father-in-law, Senator Henry G. Davis, was among the largest coal companies in the world.

ecretary of War

Elkins served as Secretary of War in the Benjamin Harrison administration from December 17 1891 to March 5 1893. Amongst his goals were that the rank of lieutenant general be revived, and also that noncommissioned officers receive higher pay to improve the quality of the service. He also broadened the intelligence functions of the Division of Military Information.

U.S. Senator

After his service as Secretary, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1895, serving the state of West Virginia, and was re-elected twice. In the Senate, he held the positions of chairman of the Committee on the Geological Survey (Fifty-sixth and Fifty-ninth Congresses), and of member of the Committee on Interstate Commerce (Fifty-seventh through Sixty-first Congresses). Elkins served as Senator until his death in Washington, D.C. in 1911, and is interred in Maplewood Cemetery of Elkins, West Virginia.

ee also

*Davis and Elkins College, in Elkins, WV; named for Senators Elkins and Davis

References

*CongBio|E000110
* [http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/sw-sa/Elkins.htm Army biography]