A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 104

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

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with modern kings is of the slightest extent-a circle of congenial friends, friends having tastes similar to his own and whose conversa- tion, whose hobbies, whose pleasures, whose politics, whose fads, whose aspirations are more or less his or have his interest and his sympathy. Most of the Brooklyn clubs, even the most exclusive,, have this community of tastes as their foundation, and a sure and sturdy foundation it has amply proved to be. In the Union League Club, for instance, poli- tics is the crowning feature; in the Aurora Grata it is Free Masonry ; in the Germania it is the Fatherland.

Some of these social organizations are housed in buildings especially erected by or for them. The Hamilton Club possesses a build- ing which at once impresses one with an idea of internal comfort, while the remarkably beauti- ful statue of Alexander Hamilton, Washing- ton's finance minister and one of the founders of the Republic, shows that the members think on higher matters than mere personal case. The Union League's mansion is Romanesque in style and constructed of brick and brown- stone with medallions of Lincoln and Grant showing prominently in the facade, and an eagle and a bear form conspicuous features in the adornment. But the main attraction to vis- itors is the magnificent equestrian statue of General Grant which stands in front of the building and was unveiled in 1896. The sculp- tor was William Ordway Partridge. The pedestal of Quincy granite rises to a height of 16 feet and the statue itself is 15 feet 8 inches in height, so the whole assumes heroic propor- tions. General Grant's son-General F. D. Grant-General Horace Porter and others competent to speak have declared it to be the best portrait of the hero of the War of the Re- bellion yet set up in any public place. The Montauk Club house is a most ornate structure with a Greek frieze on the upper part of its front as well as several other architectural features well worthy of careful study. The home of the Riding and Driving Club was built

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THE SOCIAL WORLD OF LONG ISLAND.

for convenience rather than to develop any ar- chitectural ideals, but its internal arrange- ments are perfect. The Germania Club house, on the other hand, arrests the attention of every one passing it on Schermerhorn street by the rich Florentine design of its facade, a de- sign that has apparently been copied, in many respects, in several other club buildings as well as private homes in the borough. Then many clubs have altered and adopted a private house -sometimes have taken two adjoining build- ings and thrown them practically into one and so secured an abundance of elbow room even though the outward appearance does not give one any idea of the splendor of the interior. Perhaps the best specimen of an old dwelling developed into a modern club is the home of the Midwood at Flatbush, a grand old Colonial structure with great white columns in front, a style of mansion that used to be common in the neighborhood of both New York and Brook- lyn, but of which few specimens are now left.

One of the oldest, if not the oldest, of the aristocratic social organizations in Brooklyn is the Hamilton Club. It was originally intended to be a purely literary club and was so de- scribed in its first designation, the Young Men's Literary Association of Brooklyn, but the suggestion of calling it after the author of the Federalist-or the principal author- seemed to cover better the idea of the founders, and within a year the title was changed to the Hamilton Literary Club. It certainly gathered in its fold all the leading literary lights and reading men of Brooklyn at that date-Henry C. Murphy, Alden T. Spooner, Henry Silli- man, John H. Raymond, Edgar J. Bartow, Abiel L. Low, Joseph Howard, Francis P. Sanford. D. N. Schoonmaker, Josiah C. Dow, Thomas G. King. John T. Howan, George W. Dow, Horace H. Dow and John Jewett, among others. For many years the literary feature ·was fully maintained as the peculiar field of the club and its annual lecture course constituted an important detail in the social calendar of the city. In fact the association seems latterly

to have developed into simply a lecture-giving body, and with the decadence of that form of public instruction-that tribune of the people, as the lecture platform was titled in the palmy days of Wendell Phillips, Lloyd Garrison, Henry Ward Beecher and a score of others- Hamilton Literary Association appears to have lost its usefulness and its place in the public regard. In 1882 a reorganization was effected or rather the old association was practically wiped out and in its stead the Hamilton Club was evolved, a new organization with the mem- bers, library, pictures and other accessories of the old one, but better equipped with rules and regulations calculated to meet modern social wants and aspirations. It was a success from the first. In 1884 it was established in its pres- ent home, erected to meet its wants, at a cost exceeding $100,000. It is quite an aristocratic organization, that is to say, its membership is rather exclusive, and is itself regarded as a so- cial honor. Its art gallery is a particularly choice one and includes Huntington's famous painting of "The Republican Court," which was formerly one of the features of the won- derful collection in the mansion of A. T. Stew- art, Manhattan's merchant prince. Another possession that is highly treasured is a Sevres vase presented to the club by the French Gov- ernment as an acknowledgment of the hospital- ities showered upon M. Bartholdi and his com- patriots when the statue of Liberty was being placed in position on Bedlow's Island.

The present officers are: President, James McKeen ; secretary, William A. Taylor ; treas- urer. Theodore B. Brown.

The Brooklyn Club, organized in 1865, was for many years the most fashionable of the so- cial organizations of Brooklyn, and has enter- tained in its rooms such guests as General Grant, Admiral Farragut, General Sherman, Grand Duke Alexis of Russia, Professor Tyn- dall, the world-renowned scientist, and Henry M. Stanley, the New York reporter who dis- covered Dr. Livingston in the recesses of the Dark Continent, and who has since become a

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND

social lion in London, having been knighted by the late Queen Victoria, elected to membership in the House of Commons and marrying into a family noted for brains as well as for social prominence. The club was housed very soon after its organization in a building at the cor- ner of Clinton and Pierrepont streets. In 1883 an adjoining house was bought and three years later the two buildings were practically recon- structed and the present commodious club- house was the result. For twenty years-from 1870 to 1890-the club was presided over by Mr. B. D. Silliman, one of the most representa- tive of the citizens of Brooklyn and of whom an extended biography is given in another chapter of this work. He was succeeded by Mr. David M. Stone, editor of the New York Journal of Commerce, who served for but a single term and was followed by General Ben- jamin F. Tracy, then probably the most active member of the legal fraternity in the city.

Although his energies are now directed elsewhere and he is regarded as belonging rather to Manhattan than to Brooklyn, General Tracy played too prominent a part in the affairs of the latter borough-was for too many years identified with its progress, not to be regarded with affectionate pride by every citizen of the present day. He was born at Owego, New York, April 26, 1830, and studied law in an office in that village. In 1851 he was admitted to the bar and three years later was elected District Attorney of Tioga County on the Whig ticket, although the constituency was strongly Democratic, and at the expiration of his term he was re-elected in spite of a deter- mined effort to bring about his defeat. In 1861 he was elected a member of Assembly, and during his short service at Albany won golden opinions for his common-sense views on all topics, his short, clear-cut, pithy speeches and his devotion to the advancement of public business. He served but one term and then re- turned to his law practice in Owego. But he was not long permitted to devote himself to his private business. The war cloud had settled

on the land and the Nation was engaged in the most gigantic of modern armed conflicts. Re- garding his war record one authority writes as follows :

"In the spring of 1862, still remembered as a period of alarm to the friends of the Union cause, new levies were imperative for the Fed- eral army, and Governor Morgan at once ap- pointed a committee in each Senatorial district to organize a general recruiting effort. Tracy was one of the committee for Broome, Tioga and Tompkins counties. He accepted the charge, and, in addition to general service as a member, he received a commission from the Governor, and personally recruited two regi- ments, the One Hundred and Ninth and the One Hundred and Thirty-seventh, making his headquarters in Binghamton. The active work was completed in thirty days, and Tracy was appointed colonel of the One Hundred and Ninth, with which he reported to General Wool, at Baltimore, in whose department it re- mained until transferred to that of Washing- ton. In the spring of 1864 the regiment was ordered to join the Ninth (Burnside) Corps, then a part of Grant's advance. Colonel Tracy led his regiment with great gallantry in the battle of the Wilderness, when its loss, on Fri- day, May 6th, was upwards of eighty killed and wounded. Near the close of the fighting on that day, he fell exhausted, and was carried from the field. Urged by the staff of his com- manding officer to go to hospital, he refused, but resumed the lead of his regiment, and held it through three days of the fighting at Spot- sylvania, where he completely broke down, and was compelled to surrender the command to the lieutenant-colonel.

"As soon as he became satisfied that months must elapse before he could again join the army, and not liking military service in a hos- pital, he tendered his resignation, and came North to recruit his health. In the following. September, without solicitation on his part, Secretary Stanton tendered him the appoint- ment of Colonel of the One Hundred and

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THIE SOCIAL WORLD OF LONG ISLAND.

Twenty-seventh United States Colored Troops, which he accepted. Subsequently, he was or- dered to the command of the military post at Elmira, including the prison camp and the draft rendezvous for Western New York. This was a large and important command. In the prison camp there were at one time as many as 10,000 prisoners.

"The treatment of prisoners of war was long a subject of extended and bitter contro- versy between the North and the South. That there was much suffering and great mortality at Elmira is not denied, because these are in- separable from large military prisons ; but that either can be attributed to cruelty or neglect is positively denied. Nothing that could be rea- sonably done to alleviate the suffering of the prisoners was omitted. The very best of food was supplied in large quantities, while the bar- racks were large and commodious-nearly all new and built expressly for the prisoners ; the accommodations and supplies furnished them being in all respects the same as those supplied. to the Federal troops on guard, and to the vol- unteers received at the draft rendezvous."

There are a class of men who achieve dis- tinction that seem to resemble the mechanic who forms his calculations and fashions his machinery upon the abstract considerations of the mechanical powers, making no allowance for friction, the resistance of the air, or strength of his materials. This was not the case with Judge Tracy. He exerts a quick, careful examination of every circumstance by which he is surrounded, even though sprung upon him instantaneously. Perhaps nothing in his life more strongly illustrates his ability to overcome sudden difficulties than the triumph- ant manner in which he repelled the dastardly attack made by Hill, of Georgia, in the House of Representatives, March, 1876, upon the treatment of rebel prisoners at Elmira. It was virtually an attack upon General Tracy, and took place in a once celebrated debate between Hill and Blaine, in which the former, incensed by the representations of the latter of the hor-

rors at Andersonville, referred bitterly to the Elmira camp, charging upon its management cruelties quite equal to those recorded of the Southern prisons.

General Tracy was at home at this time, and it was by mere accident that he learned the nature of the debate in progress at Wash- ington, and of General Hill's charges. This occurred at a time when the General was deep- ly engaged in an absorbing and important mat- ter. One morning, while rapidly glancing over a New York daily, his attention was arrested by the heading of a column, as follows: "Hill, of Georgia, on the Elmira Prison ; he alleges that the rebel prisoners confined in it during the war were treated with great inhumanity," etc. After reading it carefully, burning with indignation, he hastened to telegraph Mr. Platt, member from the Twenty-eighth district, a full, well-worded reply to Hill. This reached Mr. Platt in the House, while the debate on the subject of the prison at Elmira was still in progress. Immediately arising to a question of privilege, he sent the remarkable telegram to the clerk, by whom it was read to the House. It commanded profound silence, falling upon Hill and his Southern friends like a sudden clap of thunder. Hardly was the reading con- cluded when Hon. C. C. Walker, a member from the Elmira district, an intense Democrat, sprang to his feet, and, in a few glowing and effectual words, fully sustained General Tra- cy's telegram ; alleging that, to his own knowl- edge, every word of it was true. This ended the debate, completely refuting the charges made by Hill.

On resuming civil life General Tracy be- came a member of the New York law firm of Benedict, Burr & Benedict, and so continued until appointed United States District Attor- ney for the Eastern District of New York. This office he resigned in 1873 and entered upon the practice of law in Brooklyn, quickly becoming recognized as one of the leaders of the local bar and one of the most active work- ers in the local ranks of the Republican party.

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In 188r he was offered the nomination for the mayoralty but declined in favor of Mr. Seth Low.

Before the close of that year, however, he was appointed to a seat on the bench of the Court of Appeals, which he held for over a year, and then resumed private practice, and along with Mr. Silas B. Dutcher was the rec- ognized leader of the Republican forces in the city. In 1889 General Tracy entered the cab- inet of President Harrison as Secretary of the Navy, and with his acceptance of that office his connection with Brooklyn may be said to have closed. His career in the Navy Depart- ment at Washington won for him the heartiest commendation of all classes of citizens, regard- less of party affiliations and he is credited with being the real builder of the "New Navy." which rendered the country such heroic and brilliant service when the time came to practi- cally test its value and efficiency. His resi- dence at the Capital, however, was clouded by a terrible affliction. In a fire which destroyed his residence his wife and his youngest daugh- ter were burned to death, and for several days his own condition was regarded as critical. He calmly resumed his official cares, apparent- ly finding relief from his own sorrows. in the rush of business, and continued in the official harness to the close of his term. Then he left Washington, entered upon the practice of law in Manhattan, and so continues. He is active in politics still, figured prominently as the reg- ular Republican candidate in the first contest for the mayoralty of the consolidated city, but the campaign was made on his part more in compliance with a sense of party duty rather than from any personal desire to again hold public office. His law practice, one of the most important on Manhattan Island, fully oc- cupies all his working hours.

The officers are: President, Edward M. Grout ; vice-president, Edward F. Patchen ; secretary, Henry Earle ; treasurer, William C. Smith.

The largest and the best generally known

of the social organizations of Brooklyn is the Union League Club, which was organized in 1887 as the Twenty-third Ward Republican Club, but changed its name to its present desig- nation a year later when it was incorporated. The present officers are: President, Hibbert ·B. Masters ; first vice-president, David Thorn- ton ; second vice-president, Horace M. Carle- ton ; treasurer, Thomas Bishop; and secretary, James R. Ross.

The Union League is essentially a political organization, Republican to the backbone and the head centre of the party in the "City of Churches." There is no getting away from this or any desire to get away from it. The constitution of the club plainly declares that its aims are "To promote social intercourse, to advance the cause of good government by awakening a political interest in citizens, to overcome existing indifference in the discharge of political ditties, and to perform such other work as may best conserve the welfare of the ·Republican party." The club was a numerical and financial success from the first and in 1891 tock possession of its present palatial edifice on Bedford avenue and Dean street at a cost, in- cluding site and fittings, of some $215,000. Architecturally the building is an ornament to the city, and the front is designed after the Romanesque style, of brick and terra cotta, and is exceedingly chaste throughcut, while the four stories which rise over the line of the side- walk are surmounted by a French roof, giving really the accommodation of an additional floor and the whole is surmounted by a neat cupola. The main entrance is most imposing in effect, and throughout the entire interior the appoint- ments are the very best that taste or luxury could suggest and money could buy. On its roll of membership are 850 names-thereby representative of every professional and busi- ness interest in the city, and all adherents of the Republican party with an intensity that is only varied by their natural temperaments.

The Lincoln Club was originally a purely Republican institution, although nowadays its

F. A. Theson

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THE SOCIAL WORLD OF LONG ISLAND.

association with party politics has been aban- doned and its purely social features are its main attraction. In fact many of the most prominent Democrats in Brooklyn have been and are on its roll of membership and in its boards of officers and managers. The Lin- con was organized in 1878 by a number of cit- izens of Republican proclivities in politics, and for a year or so held very pleasant meetings according to a sort of house-to-house arrange- ment. By the close of a year a knowledge of these meetings and their many social pleasures and their spread of good fellowship and ac- quaintanceship led to so many requests for membership that the originators were induced to widen the scope of their association, to abandon its political proclivities and to look out for a house in which the affairs of the club might be carried on and its social features developed ·to the utmost. Two adjoining frame buildings were purchased on Putnam avenue and there the club took up its head- quarters and speedily grew in popularity as well as in financial and numerical strength. This was shown in 1889 when, after "tinkering and coopering," at a considerable expense, the original frame buildings, from time to time to meet the needs of the institution, it was deter- mined to pull them down and erect on their site a structure that would meet all the passing and prospective wants of the association and be another architectural landmark in the city. The result was the erection of the present Lin- coln Club house, a magnificent four-story structure in a style developed from the early French Renaissance-one of those buildings which attract the eye and rivet the attention even in a "wilderness of brick, stone and square holes for windows." as a writer once gave as the characteristic feature of American streets. Internally it is fitted up in a style in keeping, not with all the comforts of home, but with all the attractions and luxuries of clubdom, and that means it is in every sense of the word a modern palace.

The Lincoln Club is officered as follows :

President, H. F. Williams; secretary, Jay Stone ; treasurer, A. T. Stoutenburgh.

The Hanover Club has a history in many respects akin to that of the Lincoln Club in that whatever political proclivities it may have had in its earlier days have long been aban- doned and it is purely devoted to social pur- poses. It is essentially an Eastern District or- ganization, and its inception was due to the desire of several of the wealthier residents of that section of the old city which would fill the same purposes in their own home district that the older clubs did nearer the old Ferry. The matter was discussed for quite a considerable time and then the old Hawley Mansion, an ideal building for club purposes, was put on the market and the desire to secure it for the proposed organization led to action being taken in the matter. A meeting was called, signed by Andrew D. Baird, Frederick W. Wurster, Charles Cooper, William C. Bryant, Henry Seibert, Charles H. Russell, A. C. Hallam, E. B. Havens, Warren E. Smith, H. G. Taylor, Charles Fox, B. E. Veitch, J. A. Peterkin, Millard F. Smith, James A. Sperry and Louis Conrad, who may be regarded as the "found- ers and fathers" of the organization. As a result of the call quite a large and representa- tive meeting was held, when it was determined to organize the Hanover Club and take up an option which had been secured on the Hawley Mansion. This arrangement was carried out, a set of by-laws for the government of the new organization was drawn up and possession was taken of the mansion. The first Board of Di- rectors was made up of Andrew D. Baird, Millard F. Smith, John Cartledge. J. Adolph Mollenhauer, William Donald, Benjamin D. Bacon, William C. Bryant. E. B. Havens, Mathew Dean, Henry Hasler, Edwin Knowles, Frederick W. Wurster, J. Henry Diek, A. C. Hallam and H. F. Gunnison. The first busi- ness was to "fix up" the splendid old mansion, to remodel it for the uses of the organization and this involved not only a thorough over- hauling of its interior arrangements and a

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HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

complete outfit in the way of furniture and decoration, but also the building of a large ex- tension. However, all this was satisfactorily accomplished and on January 19, 1901, the club house was formally opened to the mem- bers and their friends. Since then the prog- ress of the organization has been as rapid as its most enthusiastic member could desire. It has a membership of 400, and among those who figure on its roll are many of the most prominent residents of Brooklyn-prominent in professional, business, political and social life, the very class of men who by their ener- gies are making Brooklyn advance with rapid strides to the foremost position among the group of boroughs which constitute the Great- er New York.

The president is Mr. James A. Sperry ; the treasurer, Mr. Andrew D. Baird, and the sec- retary, Mr. Alvah Miller.

The Montauk Club is the last of the social clubs which we present here as being fully and fairly representative of the higher club life of Brooklyn. Its home on Eighth avenue, Lin- coln Place and the Park Plaza, occupies one of the finest sites in Brooklyn and its building is among the most attractive in the city. The structure in design is after the Venetian, and every detail is carried out with the most ex- quisite taste. The edifice stands out in bold relief, as it were, even in its rather aristocratic surroundings, and while there can be no doubt of its semi-public character-its size at once determines that even to the most casual ob- server-there is never any question as to its being a liome, and a home whose owners pos- sess taste and wealth. This itself is a satisfac- tory point, for we have seen club houses-ex- pensive concerns so far as their cost was con- cerned and pretty exclusive as to their mem- bership-which would puzzle even an experi- enced man about town to say off-hand whether they were hospitals, police stations or insur- ance headquarters. The Montauk Club house cost, including site, $202,680, while its fur- nishings and fittings involved a further outlay

of about $30,000. It was opened for the use of members in May, 1891, the club at that time having been some two years in existence. The limit of membership-500-has long been reached and is easily maintained-a long wait- ing list being one of the features of the story of the club. Its management is of the most generous order, its appointments throughout are of the most perfect description and every- thing it does, every hospitality it extends, is characterized by lavishness, but at the same time everything that savors of what might be called the mere ostentation of wealth-the bar- barity of richness-is strictly tabooed. It is a progressive and thoroughly representative or- ganization of Brooklyn's most prominent citi- zens, and has thoroughly deserved the almost national degree of importance it has achieved during the comparatively brief period of its existence.

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 104

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188