Stephen Hyatt Pelham Pell
Stephen Hyatt Pelham Pell (1874-1950) was the grandson of William Ferris Pell. In 1883, according to family lore, 9-year old Stephen found a bronze flint tinder box in the ruins of Fort Ticonderoga and pledged that he would restore the Fort someday. During the Spanish American War (1898) he served in the U.S. Navy. In1899, he formed S.H.P. Pell & Company, a Wall Street coffee, cotton, and stock brokerage firm.
On September 2, 1908 he attended the Press Clambake hosted by the Ticonderoga Historical Society to arouse interest in a campaign to have the Federal Government purchase the Fort Ticonderoga Garrison Grounds from the Pell family. On his return to New York City he enlisted the aid of his wife, Sarah Gibbs Thompson Pell, and her father, Colonel Robert M. Thompson, to buy the other family members’ interests in the Garrison Grounds and thereby begin the restoration of the Fort.
In late July1914, the worldwide collapse of the cotton market due to the start of World War I forced his firm into receivership. In 1917, Pell enlisted in the French Army’s ambulance corps. After America entered the war in April of that year, he was transferred to the American Army’s ambulance corps and was wounded in action in August 1918. From his return to the United States in 1919 to his death in 1950, Pell dedicated his time to the management of the Fort and its continuing restoration. Stephen Pell is buried in the family plot just below his beloved Fort.
