Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1888-05-02
MRS. PARAN STEVENS.

Mrs. Paran Stevens history, says
the New York Graphic, is a strange
one, and reads like romance, and
her life is q remarkable example Of the
change in position and fortune tina,
often comes to American women.
She lived up in Lowell, Mass where
she was waiter-girl in restaurant.
She was pretty, peachy-faced young
woman, and as Minnetta Read, which
was her maiden name, had hosts OF
admirers. Indeed, she was one Of the
acknowledged bellies among the pretty
shop and mill girls that crowded that
manufacturing city.
Old Paran Stevens had started in
life as stable boy in a country hotel
up in New Hampshire. He was a
genuine Yankee. and not a dollar of
his scanty earnings ever slipped
through his fingers in an unnoticed
way. He had a little wayside re-
sort OF his own pretty soon, and kept
on in his thrifty economical ways.
Then he went down to Boston and
started coffee house, saved his mon
ey, lived closely, and in the course of
ten or twelve years got an interest in
the Revere House, finally became its
solo owner. and then bought the Tre-
mont House. In the management of
these two hotels he made most OF the
$5,000,O 900 OF $4,000, 900 that has been
causing all the strife since his death.
In 1861 Mr.. Stevens built and opened.
the Continental Hotel in Philadelphia,
and under his management it became
one OF The best among the great hotels
In the country, reputation which has
not beea lessened in these latter DAYS.
lie was then managing at tho same
uae the fremont House in Boston,
the Fifth Avenue in New York, and
the Continental in Philadelphia.
lie was q connoisseur in wines and
liquors, and the stock with which he
filled the cellars Of these hotels was
never equalled in America, and has
kept up the reputation of their brands
tn this day. Indeed, the famous
"Steyens sherry. which cheers the
hearts of the lovers of that wine, can
be found nowhere else now than in
the cellars of those three hotels, where
sld Paran Stevens stored it years ago.
When he grew rich his first wife
died, and Minnctta Read, the Lowell
shop-girl, tripped down to Boston and
married the already millionaire hotel
keeper, while the people there raised
theft, eyes in half wonder and astonish-
ment. He educated her and she
proved an apt pupil, and when she
found herself mentally equipped to
push her way among the blue bloods
of that city she began the social fight
that she carried to New York aud
which has been the sole occupation of
her life almost ever since.
Of course Boston society sat down
on her very promptly, and when her
husband died she made her home in
this city and transferred the struggle
to the house on Fifth avenue, near
Twenty-eighth street. Her daughter
Minnie inherited the good looks of the
Lowell shop-girl, but no American
would suit the ambitious mother for
son-in-law, so the charming, bright
faced girl was hawed about Europe
until the American papers we're filled
witt, the histories of the mothers
struggles among the nobility for IT,
tied husband to suit her own tastes.
She did notsucceed very we'll, and
was finally compelled to content her.
self with a son of Sir Alfred Paget,
whose family was.as poor as church
mouse, but who belonged to what is
known in England as the Prince Of
Wales set"
Luckily Paget has turned out to be
pretty good fellow, and been kindly
sort Of 4 husband. but the marriage
did not aid Mrs. Stevens in her efforts
60 touch elbows with the Astors, the
Vanderbilts, the Livingstons, the Stuy-
vesants or any of the other people who
pride themselves on being 100 years
away from the time when their fore
fathers had to work for living.
As she grows older Mrs. Stevens be-
comes more determined to make her.
self known and felt in New York So
ciety, and of course the doors are
being more sedulously bolted against
her entrance. Yet she gives some Of
the finest dinners; her wines are of
the best; her chef has few superiors,
and her hospitality is unbounded. She
lie worth "a. 900. 900 or 5000. 900, and
besides being the owner of the Victoria
Hotel she has large interest in the
management OF the Fifth Avenue. Of
which her husband was before his
death . part proprietor
Mr.. Henry Norman OF the Pail Nall