Edward S. Stephens

Edward S. Stephens (c. 1849 – September 30, 1909) was an educator in the United States in the late 19th century.^[1] He was the first principal of the Catholic Hill School,^[2] the first public school for African Americans in Asheville, North Carolina. During his time in Asheville, Stephens and other prominent African American citizens, with the support of heir and philanthropist George Washington Vanderbilt II, established the Young Men's Institute,^[3] modeled after the Young Men's Christian Association. Asheville's noted Stephens-Lee High School (now Stephens-Lee Recreation Center),^[4] the successor to the Catholic Hill School, which burned down in 1917,^[5] was partially named after Stephens.

Stephens and Elizabeth "Izie" Reddick, a teacher at Catholic Hill, moved to Topeka, Kansas, in 1895, where they married and started the Topeka Industrial Institute, which later became the Kansas Vocational Institute,^[6] with a campus ultimately comprising over 100 acres. It is now the site of the state's women's prison, the Topeka Correctional Facility.^[7]

The Stephenses moved to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1900, where they continued teaching. Edward died of tuberculosis September 30, 1909, and was buried in Mountain Grove Cemetery. Izie lived another 34 years. In her widowhood, she was active in Bridgeport's Phillis Wheatley branch of the Young Women's Christian Association.^[1]

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