Elias Sleeper Stover (November 22, 1836 – February 3, 1927) was an American businessman, politician, and university president.

He served in the Kansas legislature for three sessions, in 1867 in the House and in 1871 and 1872 in the Senate.

Stover moved to New Mexico in 1876 and continued his political career there, serving as County Commissioner of Bernalillo County 1881-3 and a member of a constitutional convention in 1889.

[1] In Kansas, Stover was one of the founders of the First National Bank of Council Grove.

Stover and fellow Albuquerque merchants Franz Huning and William Hazeldine formed the New Mexico Town Company as a subsidiary of the railroad and quietly bought up 3.1 square miles of land about two miles from the existing town center.