Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 1

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650

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PROMINENT FAMILIES OF NEW YORK

BEING AN ACCOUNT IN BIOGRAPHICAL FORM OF INDIVIDUALS AND FAMILIES DISTINGUISHED AS REPRESENTATIVES OF THE SOCIAL, PROFESSIONAL AND CIVIC LIFE OF NEW YORK CITY

M-DCCC-XC-VII

THE HISTORICAL COMPANY

Margs

NEW YORK

11140 €

NICOLL & ROY COMPANY PRINTERS AND BINDERS 16 DEY STREET, NEW YORK

PREFACE

F OR several years the work incident to the production of this volume has engaged the services of a large staff of editors and contributors. The result of these labors is now laid before subscribers and the general public. Unique in conception and treatment, it constitutes one of the most original and most valuable contributions ever made to the social history of an American community. It arrays in a proper and dignified manner the important facts regarding the ancestry, personal careers and matrimonial alliances of those who, in each generation, have been accorded leading positions in the social, professional and business life of the metropolis. At the same time an additional interest attaches to the book from the fact, that while dealing primarily with New York City, its scope has not been limited to that locality alone. Owing to the wide distribution of the old New York families throughout the country and the constant absorption of representatives of other sections into this metropolitan com- munity, the authentic and popular account here presented of the constituent elements of social New York, past and present, assumes a national importance. In the special field which it occupies, the volume is, to a considerable extent, a history of the entire country, since here in the metropolis have at all times assembled representatives of the historic families of the United States. Upon this particular point an exhibit is made in the following pages that will probably be surprising even to those who are most familiar with this side of New York's contemporaneous citizenship.

The records of the families of which the book treats have been arranged in a series of genealogical and biographical articles, relating to their lineal heads or most conspicuous repre- sentatives in the present generation. The adoption of this method of treatment has been fully justified by the results thus secured. The dry and unattractive manner in which genealogical facts have been hitherto almost universally presented, has been carefully avoided, and with the past thus linked to the present, the exhibition of lines of descent and the history of distin- guished individual ancestors have acquired a more striking character than they might otherwise possess, and have been infused with an absorbing personal interest. Taken as a whole, the book constitutes an important page in the annals of this community and country.

From the beginning the editors have not lost sight of the fact that the fundamental plan of PROMINENT FAMILIES OF NEW YORK has contemplated an enduring and reliable historical record. With this end in view, the researches involved in the preparation and completion of the volume have been painstaking and thorough. They have included careful investigation of all accessible genealogical and historical records that bear upon the subject, and have also called for extensive labor in obtaining and collating a mass of heretofore unpublished data. In addition, a careful search has been conducted among genealogical records in Great Britain, France, Holland and other countries.

The comprehensiveness and accuracy of this work is in no small measure due to the interest which many individuals, whose names will be found in the sketches devoted to their families, have shown in its progress and to their keen appreciation of its important character. Members of families represented herein have placed at the service of the compilers valuable pri- vate and personal records. By this generous cooperation the stamp of authenticity has been placed upon the book and has aided in making it a permanent and reliable authority upon

CHARLES STEADMAN ABERCROMBIE

O NE of the oldest and most distinguished families of Scotland is that of Abercrombie, of which the Pennsylvania family of the name is a branch. In Burke's History of the Com- moners of Great Britain and Ireland, the record of the family begins with Thomas Aber- crombie, of the time of James Il., of Scotland, who was one of the Lords of Session, or as it was then called, the Committee of Parliament. Humphrey de Abercrombie, who, about 1315, obtained a charter of lands from Robert Bruce, was the father of Alexander de Abercrombie, who acquired a half portion of the lands of Ardhuien. His son, Alexander de Abercrombie, of Pittmadden, was the father of the third Alexander de Abercrombie, who was living in 1454. In the next generation, the estate was inherited by James Abercrombie, who married Margaret Ogilvie, daughter of Sir James Ogilvie, of Findlater, and who is supposed to have fallen upon the field of Flodden. His son, George Abercrombie, had a son, James Abercrombie, who was living in 1527 and married Marjory Hay, daughter of William Hay, Earl of Errol.

Alexander Abercrombie, of Birkenbog, next of the line, married Elizabeth, daughter of Leslie, of Pitcaple. Their son, Alexander Abercrombie, of Birkenbog, succeeded his father, and married Margaret Leslie, daughter of William Leslie, of Balquan. The second son of this marriage was Alexander Abercrombie, of Fitterneir, whose son, Alexander Abercrombie, was the father of Francis Abercrombie, of Fitterneir, created by James VII., Lord Glassford, for life, and of Patrick Abercrombie, M. D., author of Martial Achievements of the Scottish Nation. The eldest son of Alexander Abercrombie and his wife, Margaret Leslie, was James Abercrombie, who was suc- ceeded by his son, Alexander Abercrombie, of Birkenbog, Grand Falconer to Charles 1.

The wife of this last Alexander Abercrombie was Elizabeth Bethune, daughter of Bethune of Balfour, by whom he had a daughter and three sons. The daughter married Robert Grant, of Dalvy. The eldest son and heir, Alexander Abercrombie, was created first baronet of Birkenbog, in 1636. General Sir Ralph Abercrombie, of the British Army, who commanded the army sent to drive the French from Egypt, and was slain after victory at Aboukir in 1801, descended from the second son of the first baronet. The present peerage of Baron Abercrombie was bestowed upon the family of Lord Ralph Abercrombie. John Abercrombie, of Glasshaugh, the second son of Alexander Abercrombie and Elizabeth Bethune, was the ancestor of the American branch of the family. His son, Thomas Abercrombie, of Dundee, married Agnes Aikman, and their son, James Abercrombie, of Dundee, who was born in 1693, was the father of James Abercrombie, an officer of the Royal Navy. The latter was the first of the name in America, coming to Philadelphia about 1750. He was lost at sea about 1759.

The Reverend James Abercrombie, D. D., son of James Abercrombie, of the Royal Navy, and grandfather of Mr. Charles Steadman Abercrombie, was born in Philadelphia in 1758 and died there in 1841. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1776, he studied theology. Being ordained to the Protestant Episcopal ministry, he was installed as one of the rectors of Christ and St. Peter's churches, Philadelphia, in 1793. He retired from the ministry in 1833. He was an able writer, principally upon religious subjects. Among his published works were Lectures upon the Catechism and several sermons. For nearly ten years he was principal of the Philadelphia Academy. His sons were James Abercrombie and Charles Steadman Abercrombie, M. D., of Rose- land, Tenn. A son of the former, the Reverend James Abercrombie, D. D., died in 1889.

Mr. Charles Steadman Abercrombie, of New York, is the surviving son of James Aber- crombie and grandson of the Reverend James Abercrombie, D. D., of Philadelphia. He was born in Baltimore, Md., and has long been a resident of New York. He married Nancy Osgood and his residence is in Madison Square, North. He is a member of the Metropolitan and the Field and Turf clubs. The arms of the Abercrombie family are: Argent, a fess engrailed, gules, between three boars' heads, couped, azure. The crest is a bee, volant, proper. Above the shield is the motto, Vive ut vivas. Under the shield is the motto, Mens in arduis aequa.

FRANKLIN ACKER

T HE ancestors of the Acker family were of Dutch origin and came to this country early in the seventeenth century, settling in northern New Jersey. The name has been thoroughly identified with that section ever since, and various members of the family have obtained considerable prominence, while they have been always numbered among the stable and responsible citizens of the State and have contracted alliances with many other families of corresponding standing and noteworthy descent. In the present century, however, the branch to which attention is now directed became identified with the large commercial interests of New York, and attained prominence here.

David de Peyster Acker, father of Mr. Franklin Acker, was born in Bergen County, N. J., in 1822. At an early age, he entered upon a business career in New York City, spent a number of years in subordinate employment, though constantly rising, and finally became, in 1857, a partner and head of the establishment in which he had originally served, and which, largely on account of his ability, energy and probity, became one of the most important of its kind, having connections and branches in various foreign countries. He was possessed of great executive ability and far-sighted enterprise, and secured and retained throughout his life the confidence and respect of all with whom he was brought in contact, either in business or socially.

Mr. Acker acquired great wealth in his years of devotion to business, and in the latter part of his life fully enjoyed the pleasures which well-earned leisure brought him. He was a frequenter of Saratoga Springs for many years, had a country seat at Fairlawn, near Paterson, N. J., where he spent every spring and autumn, and was a frequent visitor to Florida during the winter months. Political honors were offered him on several occasions, but public life failed to attract him and he refused even a nomination to Congress, though admirably fitted for such duties. He was a member of the Produce Exchange and the Chamber of Commerce, vice-president of the National Exchange Bank, a member of the Holland Society, and a member of St. Thomas' Protestant Episcopal Church. Throughout his life he was notably, though unostentatiously, benevolent and considerate in his disposition. He was survived by his widow, who was Julia Whitney, and seven children.

Mr. Franklin Acker, son of the late David de Peyster Acker, was born in New York, February 16th, 1853. His early education was received in the local schools and he was then sent to an academy in Weston, Conn., and fitted for a commercial life. When he was seventeen years old, in 1870, he entered the employ of the business house his father had founded, and in 1888 was admitted to a partnership in the firm. He retired from active participation in business in 1892.

In 1884, Mr. Acker married Emma Brinckerhoff, daughter of former State Senator James J. Brinckerhoff, of New Jersey, one of a family that has been conspicuously identified with the business and public interests of the State of New Jersey, for several generations, and which is, like the Ackers, derived from notable Dutch ancestry, going back to the early days of the New Netherland, members of it having been, in many successive generations, people of social prominence in the city and State. Mr. and Mrs. Acker have two sons, David de Peyster and Irving Fairchild Acker. They live in West Seventy-seventh Street. Mr. Acker is now a director of the David D. Acker Company, of New York, and of the Fiberite Company, of Mechanicsville. He belongs to the Holland Society, and to the Colonial and Hardware clubs.

A brother of Mr. Acker was the late Charles Livingston Acker, who was born in New York in 1846, and died in 1891. He was one of the junior partners of the firm that his father established, vice-president of the Hudson River Bank, treasurer of several other corporations, and a member of the Holland Society. His wife was Helena Brinckerhoff, sister of the wife of his brother, Mr. Franklin Acker, and he left a son, Charles Livingston Acker, Jr., and three daughters, Ella M., Louisa and Adele Acker.

CHARLES HENRY ADAMS

I N the eighth generation, Mr. Charles Henry Adams is descended from Henry Adams, of Braintree, the founder of the Adams family, that has borne so conspicuous a part in the public life of the United States. The pioneer came from England in 1634 and obtained a grant of land at Mt. Wollaston, afterwards Braintree, and now Quincy, Mass. Henry Adams, second of the name, was born in England in 1614, and married, in 1643, Elizabeth Paine, daughter of Moses Paine. He was the first town clerk of Medfield, Mass., was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, in 1652, and a representative to the General Court, 1659-65 and 1674-75. He was a Lieutenant in the militia, and was killed by the Indians in 1676 during King Philip's War.

The line of descent from Henry Adams, of Braintree, is through Peter Adams; John Adams, who married Michal Bloyse, daughter of Richard and Michal (Jennison) Bloyse, of Watertown, Mass .; isaac Adams; Joshua Adams, of Egremont, Mass .; Dr. Peter Charles Adams, and Dr. Henry Adams. The father of Mr. Charles Henry Adams, Dr. Henry Adams, was born in 1787, and died on the anniversary of his birth, at the age of seventy years. He was a soldier in the War of 1812. His wife was Agnes Egberts, daughter of Anthony Egberts, a paymaster in the Revolutionary War, who married Evau Van der Zee. Dr. Peter Charles Adams, born in 1763, and the father of Dr. Henry Adams, was sheriff of Greene County, N. Y., and a State Senator. His wife was Christina Van Bergen, daughter of Henry Van Bergen and Nellie Salisbury. The ancestor of Nellie Salisbury was Captain Sylvester Salisbury, who came to New Amsterdam from England in 1664, was in command of Fort Orange in the early history of that outpost, was sheriff of Rens- selaerwyck in 1673 and, in association with Henry Van Bergen, obtained a patent of land in Greene County. Henry Van 'Bergen was a grandson of Martin Gerrtisen Van Bergen, one of the early settlers of Albany. Through his mother, Mr. Charles Henry Adams is descended from the Egberts, one of whom married a granddaughter of Rip Van Dam, acting Colonial Governor of New York.

Mr. Charles Henry Adams was born in Coxsackie, Greene County, N. Y. He was educated at the Albany Academy, and studied law in the office of Cagger & Stevens, of Albany. He applied himself to the practice of law until 1850, when he gave up professional life to engage in the woolen manufacturing business at Cohoes, N. Y. For a long time he was trustee and president of the Water Board of Cohoes, and was elected the first Mayor of the city after its incorporation. In 1851, he was an aide, with rank of Colonel, on the staff of Governor Hunt; was elected to the State Assembly in 1857, and was a State Senator, 1872-73. He was a presidential elector in 1872, United States Commissioner to the Vienna Exposition in 1873, and a member of Congress in 1876. In 1859, he was elected a director of the Bank of Cohoes, and in 1869, became its president. In recent years, he has been a resident of New York City.

Mr. Adams has been twice married. His first wife, whom he married in 1853, was Elizabeth Platt, of Rhinebeck, and by her he had two children, Mary Egberts and William Platt Adams. In 1877, he married Judith Crittenden Coleman, whose grandfather was John Jordan Crittenden, 1787- 1863, of Kentucky, a son of Major Crittenden, of the Continental Army, and a graduate of William and Mary's College in 1807. The children of Mr. Adams by his second wife are, Agnes Ethel Critten- den and Judith Charles Berlina Adams. The city residence of Mr. Adams is in East Sixty-seventh Street, his summer home being Mount Wollaston, East Hampton, Long Island. He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution and of the St. Nicholas Society, as well as of the Metropolitan Club, the American Geographical Society and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and is a director of the Maidstone Club, of East Hampton. His eldest daughter, Mary Egberts Adams, became the wife of Robert Johnston, and has one son, Robert Johnston, Jr. His only son, William Platt Adams, married Katherine Elseffer, of Red Hook, and has two children, Elizabeth Platt and Katherine Elseffer Adams.

EDWARD DEAN ADAMS

M R. EDWARD D. ADAMS comes of good old Puritan ancestors, his family being among the earliest settlers of New England and prominent in the affairs of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. His father, Adoniram Judson Adams, is a well known citizen of Boston.

Born in Boston, April 9, 1846, Mr. Edward D. Adams was educated in the Chauncey Hall School, the noted private school for boys in Boston, and then went to Norwich Universty, at Norwich, Vt., where he was graduated as a Bachelor of Science in 1864. After spending two years in travel and study in Europe, he returned to Boston in 1866, and entered the office of a firm of bankers and brokers, where he remained three years as bookkeeper and cashier. In 1870, he assisted in organizing the Boston banking firm of Richardson, Hill & Co., and was a partner in that house until 1878. He then removed to New York City and became a partner in the house of Winslow, Lanier & Co., a connection that he maintained until 1893.

During his active business career as a banker, he took a prominent and influential part in many of the largest and most important financial transactions of the period. He is particularly con- spicuous for his successful work in the reconstruction and reorganization of corporations. Some of his achievements in this line are part of the most brilliant pages of recent financial history.

In 1882-3, he organized the Northern Pacific Terminal Company, became its president, raised the capital for building the plant at Portland, Ore., and superintended the work of construction. In 1883, he organized the St. Paul & Northern Pacific Railway Company, raised the capital for it, and became its vice-president. Two years later, he organized and constructed the New Jersey Junction Railroad Company, and leased it to the New York Central Railroad. In 1885, he planned and carried out the reorganization of the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, the New York, Ontario & Western Railroad, and the West Shore & Ontario Terminal Company. This was an exceedingly embarrassing and difficult undertaking, and the manner in which the work was carried out by Mr. Adams evoked the admiration of financial circles and the approval of those most directly interested in the properties. For this Mr. Adams was personally and officially thanked by the Honorable Chauncey M. Depew, and Messrs. Drexel, Morgan & Co.

The Central Railroad of New Jersey was saved from being thrown into the hands of a receiver in 1887 by the reorganization, conceived by and carried out under the direction of Mr. Adams, and in 18,0 he reorganized the American Cotton Oil Co., which was then severely embarrassed. In 1888, he assisted in marketing the bond issue of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and for this the special thanks of the board of directors of the road was voted him. He became early interested in the problem of utilizing the power of Niagara Falls, and was elected president of the Cataract Con- struction Company. In this capacity he was successful in solving, not only the financial, but also the engineering difficulties, to which he specially addressed himself. In 1893 the German bond- holders of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company requested him to look after their interests, and he was chairman of the reorganization committee that straightened out the affairs of that company. Mr. Adams still retains connection with many of the corporations which he has organized or recon- structed. He is chairman of the board of directors of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, a director of the American Cotton Oil Company, president of the Cataract Construction Company, vice-president of the Central & Southern American Telegraph Company, a director of the West Shore Railroad, and a director of the Mercantile Trust Company, and numerous other companies.

Mr. Adams married Fannie A. Gutterson, daughter of William E. Gutterson, of Boston, in 1872. He has two children, Ernest K. Adams, a graduate from Yale and Columbia Colleges, and Ruth Adams. He lives on Madison Avenue, and belongs to the Tuxedo, Metropolitan, Union League, Players, Riding, Grolier and other clubs, is a member of the New England Society, a fellow in perpetuity of the National Academy of Design, a patron of the American Museum of Natural History, a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and a trustee of the gift fund of the American Fine Arts Society.

JOHN GIRAUD AGAR

S EVERAL families distinguished in the early history of the Southern States are among the ancestors of Mr. John Giraud Agar. His father, William Agar, was a native of Ireland, belonging to one of the ancient families of County Carlow. When young in years, William Agar came from his native land to this country and settled in New Orleans. Possessed of great natural ability, he soon took a foremost position in business in the Southern metropolis. He married Theresa Price, of Louisville, Ky., descended from one of the early settlers of that State.

Born in New Orleans, June 3d, 1856, Mr. John G. Agar was a boy not yet in his teens when the Civil War was raging. Instructed by private tutors, in 1869 he was sent to the preparatory school of the University of Georgetown, D. C., to continue his studies, and in 1872 matriculated at the University, and was graduated in 1876 with the degree of B. A. Immediately he went abroad, and for two years studied in the Roman Catholic University of Kensington, London, devoting himself especially to biology and moral and mental science.

Returning to this country in 1878, he settled in New York and took a two years' course in Columbia College Law School, graduating in 1880 with the degree of LL. B. Admitted to practice at the bar of the State of New York, he soon won a leading position in his profession by the soundness of his legal attainments and by his eloquence as a public speaker. By birth, instinct and training a Democrat, and devoted to Democratic principles, his political affiliations have always been with that party, but he has stood for independence in political action and for honesty in the administration of public affairs. In 1881, his prominence as a lawyer and his thorough inde- pendence in politics led President James A. Garfield to appoint him Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Official position had little attraction for him, however, and he resigned his office after a year of service and returned to private practice, as the senior member of the law firm of Agar, Ely & Fulton, which connection he still maintains.

The cause of reform in municipal administration early enlisted the support of Mr. Agar, who has been one of the most energetic advocates of those measures leading to uprightness in the management of the city business that have characterized the political activity of New York during the last decade. One of the earliest and most prominent members of the People's Municipal League, he has contributed valuable service to the cause supported by that organization. He was also one of the first advocates of the State naval militia, and in 1891 Governor David B. Hill commissioned him as a Lieutenant of the First Battalion of the Naval Reserve of Artillery of the State of New York and acting paymaster. In the State campaign of 1891, he was chairman of the executive committee of the People's Municipal League, and it was largely due to his untiring efforts that the measure for the adoption of the Australian system of voting by blanket ballot was ultimately passed by the Legislature of the State. In October, 1896, he was appointed a com- missioner of Public Schools by Mayor W. L. Strong; and as a member of the Reform majority of the Board ot Education, he was largely instrumental in procuring from the State Legislature adequate appropriations for the greatly needed increase in public school accommodations.

In 1888, Mr. Agar received the degree of M. A., from the University of Georgetown, and the degree of Ph. D. from the same institution in 1889. His wife was Agnes Louise Macdonough, whom he married in 1892 at Washington, D. C. Mrs. Agar's father was Joseph Macdonough, of San Francisco, one of the earliest American settlers in California. Her mother was Catherine O'Brien, a sister of William S. O'Brien, of San Francisco, the noted financier. Mr. and Mrs. Agar have two children, John Giraud, Jr., and William Macdonough Agar. The residence of the family is in West Forty-eighth Street and they have a country place in Westchester County. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, University, Lawyers', Reform, City, Players, Racquet, Catholic, Commonwealth, New York Yacht and Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Metro- politan Club of Washington, the Country Club of Westchester County, the Bar Association and the American Geographical Society.

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Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 1

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York, The Historical company Number of Pages: 650

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650