Born in the
Beemerville section
Wantage Township, New Jersey, Stivers attended common and private schools and Mount Retirement Seminary in Wantage. He moved with his father to
Ridgebury, New York, in 1845 and completed his education. He taught school.
Career He engaged in mercantile pursuits in Ridgebury and later in
Middletown from 1855 to 1864. He served as clerk of Orange County 1864-1867 and resided in
Goshen, New York. He returned to Middletown and became proprietor of the Orange County Press in 1868 and was also one of the proprietors and editors of the Middletown Daily Press. He was appointed by President
Ulysses S. Grant as United States collector of internal revenue for the eleventh district of New York in 1869 and served until 1883. He served as delegate to the
Republican National Convention in
1880. He engaged in banking.
Congress He was an unsuccessful Republican candidate for election in 1884 to the
Forty-ninth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lewis Beach and for election in 1886 to the
Fiftieth Congress. Stivers was elected as a
Republican to the
Fifty-first Congress (March 4, 1889 – March 3, 1891). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1890.
Later career and death He then engaged in banking. He died in
Middletown, New York, on February 2, 1895, and was interred in
Hillside Cemetery. == Family ==