Steven Beckwith Ayres

Steven Beckwith Ayres (October 27, 1861 – June 1, 1929) was an American politician and a U.S. representative from New York.

Biography Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, Ayres was the son of Stephen and Artemisia (Dunlap) Ayres. He moved with his parents to Elmira, New York, in 1866, where he attended grammar school. He moved to Penn Yan, New York, in 1873, and attended the Penn Yan Academy. Ayres later graduated from Syracuse University in 1882.

He married his first wife, Harriet Margaret Bowers of Penn Yann, NY, in 1884. They had one son, Malcolm Beckwith Ayres (b.1886). His second wife, Helen Ayres (b.1869), was one of the founders of the Woman's National Democratic League (est.1896) in New York City. It was the first permanent national political organization exclusively established for and by women. They had one daughter, Janette. In 1912 he was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection to the Sixty-third Congress.

Ayres wrote several books and many history articles, and lectured at the New York University Summer School in 1914.

He engaged in the cultivation of oranges at Clearwater, Florida, in winter and in the real estate business at Woodstock, New York, during the summer.

Death Steven Beckwith Ayres died on June 1, 1929, in Manhattan's Park West Hospital. He is interred at Clearwater Cemetery in Clearwater, Florida.