This vise manufacturer was in business as A.P. & M. Stephens & Co. (after brothers Anson Parsons Stephens and Melvin Stephens) by 1870. By 1873 the name had changed to the Stephens Patent Vise Co. According to an article in Hardware in 1900, Stephens vises were first manufactured by themselves, then by "Cook of Hartford," then by W. E. Snediker and National Vise and Tool Works. Tower & Lyon, a prominent New York City hardware firm, had the agency for Stephens vises in the 1890s. Another large New York City firm, Peter A. Frasse & Co., had sold Stephens vises in the mid-1870s. An 1884 ad for Stephens' vises says "Melvin Stephens, Proprietor." In 1906-07 it briefly owned its own vise factory, which it sold to G. M. Yost Manufacturing Co. in early 1907. Yost then manufactured its own Stephens Patent Automatic or Self Closing Jewelers’ Vises.

Anson and Melvin's father was Nathan Stephens, who owned buildings at 71 William Street and 41 Dey Street in Manhattan, and both locations were used by the vise business at one time or another. All three men were granted patents, over two dozen in total with a half dozen related to vises. Most of the rest were related to the manufacture of cement-lined metal pipe which we suspect was the original family business.

When Nathan Stephens died in August 1885, he left behind a will leaving the two buildings to Anson, who already held a 1/4 share of the vise business, as his share of the estate. For reasons unknown, Anson seems to have moved to the west coast, leaving Melvin to run both the vise business and the cement-lined pipe business. When Anson died in San Diego in 1912 he did not have a wife or children, and a complicated legal battle ensued over one of the buildings; the lawsuit provides some insight into the intertwined family business, although there is much that remains unexplained.

Information Sources

• Hardware, Vol. 22, No. 1, Oct. 10, 1900, Pg. 28.
• Archived articles by Todd Werts (ToolArchives.com) A. P. & M. Stephens & Co. and Stephens Patent Vise Co.
• 1883 J. A. Berly's British, American and Continental Electrical Directory and Advertiser lists "Stephens & Kellam, iron pipe manufacturers, 93 William st., New York."
• The lawsuit Mutual Life Insurance v. Melvin Stephens, Clarence Stephens and Grace E. B. Underwood and especially its appeal provide background on the Nathan, Anson P., and Melvin Stephens.
• Findagrave.com pages on Nathan Stephens and Anson Parsons Stephens provide information on birth/death dates and some of the family connections. As of this writing, Anson's entry is not linked to Nathan's entry, but we know the relationship between them from the above-mentioned lawsuit.