Anson Phelps Stokes was a merchant, banker, publicist, Republican, philanthropist, and a multimillionaire. Born in New York City, he was the son of James Boulter and Caroline (Phelps) Stokes. One of his grandfathers was London merchant Thomas Stokes, one of the 13 founders of the London Missionary Society, and Anson Stokes later actively supported the American Bible Society, the American Tract Society and the American Peace Society. His other grandfather, Anson Greene Phelps, was a New York merchant, born in Connecticut and descended from an old Massachusetts family.

As a boy he started his career working in the family business, Phelps, Dodge & Company, a mercantile establishment founded by his grandfather Phelps and his uncle, William Earle Dodge, in the 1830s. The company began importing and trading in metal and eventually became a mining business. In 1861, he became a partner and also a member of the firm of Phelps, James & Company in Liverpool. In 1879, he organized Phelps, Stokes & Company, a bank.

Stokes married Helen Louisa, daughter of Isaac Newton Phelps, on October 17, 1865.

Phelps became involved in the mining interests of Phelps Dodge Corporation in the American West. In 1874 the Nevada legislature, after a bitter debate, approved a bond project to extend a railroad line to Austin, Nevada (the state senator sponsoring the bill was secretary for a mining company that needed the rail line). The legislature authorized Lander County to grant a $200,000 bond for the project, but the authorization would expire after five years. It wasn't until after Stokes came to Austin that the project got started 4 ½ years later. Stokes brought in General James H. Ledlie, a former Union officer in the Civil War, to direct the project, and crews went to work desperately, only to bring the line within 2 miles (3.2 km) of the Austin town limits with less than a day left before the deadline. An emergency meeting of the Austin Town Board extended the town limits by 2 miles (3.2 km), allowing the last rails to be laid just minutes before the deadline. The 92 miles (148 km) line from Battle Mountain to Austin became the Nevada Central Railroad.

Stokes and his family were prominent members of society, their names being on Mrs. Astor's 400, a list of New York City's elite. The entertained lavishly at their New York City residence, No. 230 Madison Avenue.

On Feb 25th, 1880 Phelps was appointed a Director of the Nevada Central Railroad.

In 1893, he built Shadowbrook, a 100 room Berkshire Cottage at Lenox, Massachusetts. Shadowbrook was so large that a family anecdote tells of Anson Phelps Stokes Jr. being told by his mother while playing outside one day that because there was a storm gathering he should come inside and bicycle in the attic. The Stokes family also had a summer house, or Great Camp, on Upper St. Regis Lake in the Adirondacks, where family members spend their summers to this day.

Anson lost one of his legs 15 years previously in a horse-riding accident, when he was thrown against a tree and his leg crushed. At his death on June 29, 1913, in New York City, Anson Stokes was survived by nine children: four sons and five daughters. His sons include Anson Phelps Stokes, an educator and clergyman, architect Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, and noted socialist James Graham Phelps Stokes.

His personal wealth was estimated at USD $250,000,000 at the time of his death, or about USD$ 5,878,787,879 in today's dollars.

(Bio By Tyler Hughes)