USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume III > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34
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50280 ARCHIVES
WESTCHESTER COUNTY IN HISTORY
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MANUAL AND CIVIL LIST PAST AND PRESENT
COUNTY HISTORY
TOWNS, HAMLETS, VILLAGES AND CITIES
TRULY THIS PEOPLE CAN SAY, WE HAVE MADE HISTORY =2d. ed. 3. 1
1683-1914
BY send HENRY T. SMITH Connected with County Journalism Forty-Five Years
VOLUME III
Containing specially prepared articles relative to the County; matters concerning the County's history; organization of Towns, Villages and Cities; population as shown by the various census enumerations, with other statistics and general facts of interest and value.
Also, containing the portraits and biographies of distinguished men connected with the County's early history, as well as of prominent officials of the present time.
White Plains, N. Y. HENRY T. SMITH, Publisher 1913
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Copyright by HENRY T. SMITH 1913
All rights reserved
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1912
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24.5.55
VOLUME THREE
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محسين
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Камисец Т. Дереus.
WESTCHESTER COUNTY NOTABLES. ASSOCIATED WITH COUNTY'S HISTORY.
(Continued from page 76, Volume 1.)
CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW, statesman, counsellor, orator, and man of the world, whose name is known every- where, was born in Peekskill, in this county, on April 23, 1834, of Huguenot and New England parentage. His father, Isaac Depew, a prominent citizen and merchant, was a lineal descend- ant of Francois Du Puy, a Huguenot, who fled from France during the religious persecutions of the seventeenth century.
The name Du Puy or De Puy is an ancient one, having been prominent as early as the eleventh century. Raphael Du Puy was an officer of rank in 1030 under Conrad II, of the Holy Roman Empire, and Hugues Du Puy, his son, distinguished him- self in the Crusades. The family was early in France, and its history is marked down the centuries by many noted names and titles both in Church and State. In the religious upheaval that culminated in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew part of the family became identified with the Genevan or Calvinistic party, which, under the name of Huguenot, became so powerful under Henry IV that it was granted freedom of worship in 1598 by the Edict of Nantes. After the capture of La Rochelle, the Huguenot headquarters, by Richelieu in 1628, many of the faith, despairing of attaining religious peace at home, migrated to England and the Low Countries, and many of them eventually to the New World, and some of them settling in New Rochelle, in this county.
Among those who thus left the land of their fathers were two brothers, Nicholas and Francois Du Puy, who escaped from Paris, tradition says, in 1651, on hearing of their threatened arrest, and went into the Netherlands. Some ten years later Francois, the younger, sailed for New Amsterdam in the New World, where he arrived three or four years before its occupa- tion by the English. Francois, who was followed by his brother Nicholas a year later, appears first in Breuckelen (Brooklyn), where he was married, September 26, 1661, to Geertje Willems,
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daughter of Willem Jacobs Van Boerum. He was living at this time in Bushwick, east of Brooklyn, but in 1677 is recorded a member of the Dutch Church at Flatbush. In 1687 he is at Haverstraw, now in Rockland County; in 1702 he crossed the Hudson river and came into Westchester County, and settled on a tract originally purchased from the Indians in 1685, under a license from Governor Dongan. Though this tract fell eventu- ally within the political limits of the Manor of Cortlandt, erected in 1697, its soil was held in fee by its proprietors, from one of whom it was named Ryke's Patent, Ryke being the Dutch abbreviation of Richard. Part of this Patent, on which the village of Peekskill was founded in 1764, belonged to Fran- cois Depew, and the last of his share was given in 1896 by Chauncey M. Depew to the village of Peekskill for a public park.
The surname Du Puy has masqueraded in many forms in its passage through Dutch into English, and we find it recorded as Dupuis, Dupui, Dupuy, Depee, Depuy, DePue, Depu, Depew, etc. Francois, grandson of the original Francois, who was baptized August 20 1700, in the old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow at Tarrytown, is generally recorded "Frans De Pew," and later the surname takes its present form Depew. Abraham Depew, grandson of this Frans, who was baptized at Tarrytown, April 5, 1752, married Catherine, daughter of Capt. James Cronkite, and became the great grandfather of Chauncey Mitchell Depew. He enlisted in 1777 in the Third Regiment of the Manor of Cortlandt, commanded by Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt and subsequently, on the election of Col. Van Cort- landt as Lieutenant-Governor of this State, by Col. Drake, and served until his discharge as a corporal in 1780, at the close of the war. From him and from Captain Cronkite, Mr. Depew derives his right as a son of the American Revolution.
Mr. Depew's New England affiliations are derived from his mother, who was born Martha Mitchell, daughter of Chauncey Root and Ann (Johnstone) Mitchell. Chauncey Root Mitchell, a distinguished lawyer of Westchester County and afterwards of Delaware County, where he was until his death the partner of the famous lawyer and statesman, General Erastus Root, was noted for ability as an advocate and orator. Ann John- stone was the daughter of Judge Robert Johnstone of Putnam County, for many years State Senator and Judge. He was a large landed proprietor, owning Lake Mahopac and much of the country around it. Mrs. Depew's grandfather was the
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Rev. Justus Mitchell, a lineal descendant of Major Matthew Mitchell, who came to New England in 1633 from Halifax, Yorkshire. Rev. Justus Mitchell married Martha Sherman, daughter of Rev. Josiah and Martha (Minott) Sherman, and niece of Hon. Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Martha Sherman was fifth in descent from Captain John Sherman, who was born in Dedham, County Essex, England, in 1615, and who married Martha, daughter of William and Grace Palmer.
Mr. Depew's New England ancestry thus includes, besides the Mitchells and the Shermans, the blood of the Palmers, Win- ships, Wellingtons, Minotts, and Johnstones, all notable families in the New World. He is a descendant also of the Reverend Charles Chauncey, first President of Harvard College. His mother, from whom were derived many of the characteristics that have conduced to his success, was of marked personal beauty, varied accomplishments, and social prominence. She died in 1885.
Peekskill, Mr. Depew's natal place, named after Jan Peek, an early Dutch navigator, has now a population of more than fifteen thousand. The Depew homestead, a picturesque build- ing with a portico supported by Ionic columns, is still in pos- session of the family, and Mr. Depew, although his residence is in New York city, delights to call this house and Peekskill his home. The country around it is replete with historic and patriotic associations, especially those connected with the Arnold and André episode, treated so masterfully in one of his orations (referred to in volume 2), and doubtless had its influence in forming his character in youth.
The favorable situation of Peekskill on the east bank of the Hudson made it the market for the country back of it as far as the Connecticut State line, and the shipping-point of its produce to New York, from which it is distant about forty miles. The transportation of freight, wholly by the river, was con- trolled, almost entirely by Isaac Depew and his brother, both energetic farmers and merchants. There were no railroads in those days, but the New York and Albany steamboats, of rival lines, were always a subject of interest, attracting crowds to the bank as they passed up or down the river, often racing. Each boat had its partisans, and Vanderbilt and Drew, the prin- cipal owners, were popular heroes with the youth of the village, among whom young Depew was by no means backward. These boats and his father's business led him early to take interest in
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the transportation problem, to which in later years he devoted so much time and successful study.
The boy's first instruction was received from his mother, a lady of rare education and culture. He was next put in charge of Mrs. Westbrook, the wife of an able and well-informed clergyman, who had a small school for children under ten. Through the training thus received the apt pupil, who was also an omnivorous reader, became informed beyond his years on the events and political issues of the past and the present, and was often able to confound the village oracles who expounded their views at the postoffice, grocery, bank or drug store. Re- garded as a prodigy, he became a leader among his fellows, who looked up to him as one who gave unmistakable promise of future brilliancy and usefulness.
The period between his tenth and eighteenth years was passed at the Peekskill Academy, an old-fashioned institution designed primarily to prepare boys for a business career, and its stu- dents were expected to go out early into the world of work. Isaac Depew had placed his son there in the hope that he would join him in his business, but the youth, influenced probably by his mother and the instructions of Dr. Westbrook, had visions of a more ambitious career. Fortunately these visions were aided by the advice of Judge Thomas Nelson, son of the Hon. William Nelson, of Peekskill, who remarked to the elder Depew one evening: "You ought to send Chauncey to College." This was the entering wedge, and the father, after a season of de- liberation, concluded to take the judge's advice, though when Yale College was suggested, he interposed objections. An old- fashioned business man and a Jackson Democrat, he had the distrust of Yankees characteristic of a "Hudson River Dutch- man"' and a reader of Irving and Cooper. But the wishes of his wife, whose descent from New England progenitors naturally turned her preferences in that direction, finally prevailed, and Chauncey was sent to Yale.
He entered college in 1852, and was graduated in 1856, in a class that became known as the "Famous Class of 1856," partly on account of the general good standing of its members in the various professions and especially because it had two repre- sentatives on the Bench of United States Supreme Court at Washington, Henry Billings Brown and David Josiah Brewer. In this class, consisting of some one hundred and twenty-five men, Depew soon made his mark, winning his way to the front
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largely through personal attractions, but particularly by his gift as a speaker which made him the orator of the class. He seldom lost an opportunity to enter into a debate and always acquitted himself creditably. His classmates still remember with pride his effort in the debate between the two societies, Linonia and Brothers of Unity, in which he appeared as the champion of the former with Wayne MacVeagh of the Class of 1853.
Depew's personal appearance at this period was striking. He was taller than many of his classmates and had sharp well chiselled features marked by the prominent aquiline nose still characteristic of him. His abundant yellow hair was worn long, in the fashion of the time, nearly reaching his shoulders. He always dressed well, exhibiting a penchant for elaborately tied cravats decorated with the pin of his secret society.
Depew came to College a Democrat. Like his father and other members of the family, he belonged to the conservative wing of the party willing to leave the slavery question in abey- ance, nicknamed in New York State "Old Hunkers" to dis- tinguish them from the "Barnburners," or "Free Soil" Demo- crats, who were opposed to any further extension of slavery into the Territories. There were three Presidential candidates in the field in Depew's first year in College, in 1852; Franklin Pierce; the nominee of the National Democratic Party, Gen. Winfield Scott of the Whig Party, and John P. Hale of the Free Soil Democrats. In the frequent debates on the campus, in which the old topics of Tariff, Internal Improvements, and National Bank had given place to the more burning questions of the day, the Fugitive Slave Law, Personal Liberty Bills, and the extension of Slavery, Depew at first upheld the' traditional politics of his family, but with the trend of events his prin- ciples gradually underwent a change. In 1853 the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill caused the disintegration of the old parties and a formation on new lines in relation to the slavery ques- tion. The eloquent discussions of the many phases of these questions by the Rev. Dr. Bacon from the pulpit of the Centre Church, and of Wendell Phillips, George William Curtis, Wil- liam Lloyd Garrison, and other famous anti-slavery orators from public platforms in New Haven, aroused in Depew a conscious- ness that he was on the wrong side of the great questions of the day and finally caused him to repudiate the principles in which he had been educated and to cast his lot with the "Anti-
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Nebraska Men." When early in 1856 the Anti-Nebraska Men adopted the name Republican Party, later characterized by Democrats with a contemptuous addition as "Black Republi- can," Depew transferred his allegiance to the new party; and when, in June, John Charles Fremont, of California, whose ex- plorations in the West had won him the title of the "Path- finder," was made the Republican standard bearer, Depew en- listed and became an enthusiastic supporter.
Depew had scarcely received his degree when he threw him- self heart and soul in the canvass in support of Fremont and Dayton, making speeches in their behalf and beginning his political career which made him so prominent a figure in every succeeding Presidential campaign. As he has himself recorded, his defection from parental principles nearly broke his father's heart and caused him to shed tears of mortification when his son first appeared on a Republican platform in his native village.
After leaving Yale College Depew entered the law office of the Hon. William Nelson as a student, in 1858 was admitted to the Bar, and in the following year began in Peekskill the practice of his profession, in which he soon demonstrated his ability. But his early interest in politics did not desert him and seemed for a time destined to interfere seriously with his business. In 1858 he was elected a delegate to the Republican State Convention, and has been elected to every State Conven- tion, with but few exceptions, since; he was one of the four Delegates-at-Large from this State to the Republican National Conventions of 1888, 1892, 1896, 1900, 1904, and a delegate in 1908 and 1912.
In 1860 he took the stump for Lincoln and Hamlin, making many speeches in many sections of the country. He was then only twenty-six years old, but his skill as an orator, and his careful analysis of the great questions at issue showed that his ability and judgment were in advance of his years. In 1861 he was elected a member of the New York Assembly from the Third Westchester District, in which the Democrats had usually had a good working majority, a high compliment to his personal popularity. In this position he exhibited such intelligence, in- dustry, and tact, and watched so carefully over the interests of his constituents that he was re-elected in 1862; at the com- mencement of the Legislative Session of 1863 he was named in caucus as his party's candidate for speaker. That year the Assembly was evenly divided politically; by Mr. Depew with-
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drawing as a candidate, his party friends voted for the suc- cessful candidate who classified himself as an "Independent Democrat." Depew acted as Speaker pro tem. during part of session, was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, as such leader of the majority on the floor, and received other honors unusual for one so young in years and experience.
In 1863 Mr. Depew was put on the Republican State ticket as candidate for Secretary of State. In the previous election the Democrats had won a signal victory under their standard bearer, Horatio Seymour, one of the purest and ablest states- men New York has produced, and in order to insure success the Republicans were obliged not only to exercise care in the selection of candidates but also to put forth their most earnest efforts to overcome the prestige of Governor Seymour's popu- larity. But Mr. Depew was equal to the occasion. He won a notable victory, with a majority of thirty thousand. He declined a renomination for this office owing to business interests.
When Andrew Johnson succeeded to the Presidency on the death of President Lincoln, one of his earliest acts was to reward Mr. Depew for his services to the party. He made out his commission as Collector of the Port of New York, then one of the most lucrative gifts within the President's bestowal; but before he had sent it to the Senate for confirmation he became incensed against Edwin D. Morgan, then United States Senator from New York, because he refused to vote to sustain his veto of the Civil Rights Bill, and angrily tore up the document. Later in President Johnson's administration, William H. Seward, then Secretary of State, secured the appointment of Mr. Depew as United States Minister to Japan, and it was con- firmed by the Senate, but after holding the matter under advisement for a month, the position was declined for family reasons.
While thus apparently turning his back on a career that offered the most flattering prospects, Mr. Depew felt it his duty to withdraw from politics and to devote himself assiduously to his chosen profession, the law. This he was enabled to do with a greater promise of success than in his earlier days, for the experience won in his political career had brought with it a confidence in himself and his resources and a matured knowledge of men and of affairs that made him the equal of any among his contemporaries, even of his superiors in years. About this time he attracted the attention of Cornelius Vanderbilt, whose
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success in steamboat navigation had won him the popular sobriquet of "Commodore," and who had already laid founda- tion of the great railway system afterwards known as the "Van- derbilt System." Mr. Depew, who had won the friendship of the Commodore's son, William H. Vanderbilt, was surprised one day by an offer of a position in the railway service.
"Politics don't pay, Chauncey," said the Commodore. "The business of the future in this country is railroading."
This settled the question of Mr. Depew's future and he at once accepted the offer and applied himself to the study of railroad transportation in which he won so signal a success. In 1866 he became attorney for the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, and in 1869, when this road was consoli- dated with the New York Central Railroad with Commodore Vanderbilt at its head, Mr. Depew was chosen attorney for the new corporation and later a member of its Board of Directors. As the Vanderbilt system expanded Mr. Depew's interests and duties increased in a corresponding degree, and in 1875 he was appointed General Counsel for the entire system and elected a Director in each of the roads of which it was composed.
In 1872, at the earnest solicitation of Horace Greeley, Mr. Depew permitted the use of his name as a candidate for Lieu- tenant-Governor on the Liberal Republican or Greeley ticket, and shared, as he had probably expected, in the defeat of that party. He acted with the Republican party the next year, and has acted with that party every year since.
Two years later he was chosen by the Legislature as a Regent of the State University, and also as one of the Commissioners to build the State Capitol at Albany.
In 1881, when the famous quarrel with President Garfield was followed by the resignations from the United States Senate of Roscoe Conkling and Thomas C. Platt, Mr. Depew was a favorite candidate for the succession to the unexpired term of Mr. Platt and would probably have won if the assassination of President Garfield had not thrilled the nation with horror and brought about a termination of the long struggle. In with- drawing his name, Mr. Depew issued a statement urging that selections be made without further conflict and in harmony, that "Neither the State nor the party can afford to have New York unrepresented in the National Councils. A great crime has plunged the Nation into sorrow, and in the midst of the prayers and the tears of the whole people, supplicating for the recovery
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and weeping over the wound of the President, this partisan strife should cease."
Five years later, when his Party controlled a majority of the State Legislature, he was the Party choice for the United States Senatorship. Many business and professional duties obliged him to decline the honor.
The resignation of William H. Vanderbilt from the presi- dency of the New York Central had led meanwhile to a re- organization of the company, in which Mr. James H. Rutter was made president and Mr. Depew was made second vice-president ; in 1885, on the death of President Rutter, Mr. Depew was elevated to the presidency, which latter office he held for thirteen years, acting also as president over most of the com- panies allied to the Vanderbilt system; was also a director in twenty-eight additional lines. On his resignation of the presi- dency in 1898, he was made chairman of the Board of Directors of the entire Vanderbilt system of railroads, a position he still holds.
In 1888, when Mr. Depew was a Delegate-at-Large from this State to the Republican National Convention, he received the seventy votes from the State of New York for the Presidency. On subsequent ballots the vote was increased. It was at his urgent request that his name was withdrawn, and his friends supported Benjamin Harrison, who was finally nominated. After election Mr. Harrison tendered to Mr. Depew any place in his Cabinet except Secretary of State which had been prom- ised to Mr. James G. Blaine, but Mr. Depew felt obligated to decline.
In 1892, at the Republican National Convention, held at Minneapolis, when most of the national leaders of, the party were opposed to the renomination of President Harrison, Mr. Depew stood loyal and made many speeches in that city, pre- ceding sessions of the Convention, to create opinion favorable to Harrison's renomination, and in the Convention he spoke most eloquently advocating the renomination. President Har- rison attributed his success in the Convention in a great part to Mr. Depew. To show his appreciation the President invited Mr. Depew to accept the place in his Cabinet of Secretary of State, made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Blaine. Again, Mr. Depew for business reasons was obliged to decline this new and great honor.
In addition to his railway and political engagements, exacting
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enough to occupy the entire time of a less active man, Mr. Depew has numerous social and semi-social duties. He is a director of many financial, fiduciary, and other corporations and trusts, and a member of societies, too numerous to mention here. Among the many may be named the following: In New York, the Huguenot Society, the Society of the Cincinnati, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Union League, the Metropolitan Club, the Century Club, the Holland Society, the New England Society, the Colonial Wars Society, Kane Lodge, Masons, and 33rd degree in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the St. Nicholas Society, the American Bar Association, the New York Bar Association, the Westchester County Bar Association, the Republican Club, the Lotos Club, the Players' Club, the Transportation Club, the University Club, the Phi Beta Kappa Club, the Psi Upsilon Club, Lafayette Post, New York Chamber of Commerce. He was for many years in succession elected President of the Yale Alumni Association, declining a re- election after a decade of service, and was for twelve years a member of the Yale Corporation; for seven successive years, too, he was President of the Union League Club, a longer term than ever held by any other, and on declining further election was made an honorary life member; he is also a prominent member of the New York Chamber of Commerce.
In Washington, D. C., he is a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Chevy Chase Club, the Country Club, the Alibi Club, and the University Club.
In 1899 Mr. Depew was elected a United States Senator representing the State of New York, being the unanimous choice of the Republican majority in the Legislature; in 1905 he was re-elected. In all he served in the Senate twelve years; at the end of the last term his Party friends in the Legislature of 1912, voted unanimously in favor of giving him a third term, but it so happened that his Party did not have the necessary majority in the Legislature that year-though the intention was good, the votes were lacking, and the honor went to another, of oppo- site political faith. Mr. Depew as a candidate for United States Senator has received the ballots of the members of his Party in the State Legislature more often than any other citizen of the United States-namely sixty ballots, one each day for sixty days in 1881, and sixty-four during forty-five days in 1911.
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