[Note 1] By 1838 the father had made sufficient money to retire and move with his wife, Nancy Stiles, to Philadelphia.

He was educated in Philadelphia and later New York before starting business, first in a junior position with Samuel Perry, and later in partnership with Jenks Budlong, manufacturing and selling cheese.

Another provider of funds was a "silent partner", James Fisk, who operated the Erie Railroad and had a secret arrangement with Stokes to discount freight charges for the refinery.

He also took over the refinery by force and obtained injunctions to prevent Stokes and his mother, who owned the site, from entering the premises.

On January 6, 1872, Fisk was visiting the Grand Central Hotel, in lower Broadway, when Stokes met him on the stairs and shot him twice, in the abdomen and one arm.

He claimed he shot in self-defence, and a gun later found in a sofa at the hotel gave credibility to his assertion that Fisk had a weapon.