Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 164

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360

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Timothy was the youngest of five brothers, all of whom en- tered the so-called learned professions; the three elder being clergymen, and the two younger lawyers.

Timothy's early history is the history common to so many of the young men of New England, sons of farmers. Ile received his elementary education at the district school, and after master- ing all the branches taught in that school, he entered New Ips-

wich Academy, then one of the most popular and successful institutions of that kind in New Hampshire. Here he acquired a very thorough and practical education, and became an accom- plished and successful teacher, devoting himself to that calling in the winter for several years, and during the summer months he was engaged in working on his father's farm. All his leisure hours were devoted to the improvement of his mind, in perfect- ing himself in his studies, and in preparing for future fields of usefulness.

At length he accepted the position of teacher of mathematics and natural science in the New Ipswich Academy, discharging these duties with great acceptability for about two years, until August, 1853. At this time his brother Chauncy was a practicing lawyer at Greenpoint, then a part of the town of Buskwick, in Kings County, L. I., having opened an office there the pre- vions year. At the earnest request of his brother, Mr. Perry abandoned the profession of a teacher and became a student at law in the office of his brother, and a resident of Green- point. He pursued his studies with diligence and success, and in April, 1857, was called to the Bar. On the 1st day of May following he entered into partnership with his brother in the practice of law. This relation was, from the first, profitable and agreeable, and the firm took a high and responsible position among the leading law firms of the County of Kings. It com- bined those qualifications that naturally inspired the public with confidence in it, and as a result, it was soon rewarded by a very remunerative practice. This partnership still continues, conduct- ing its business in the same office occupied by the senior partner in 1852, and in which the junior partner read his profession.

The firin of C. & T. Perry is undoubtedly the oldest law firm, with a single exception, in the city of Brooklyn. Although engaged in the general practice of law, the specialty of this firm, for a long time, has been the examination of titles to real estate, in which department it ranks deservedly high. After the consolidation of Greenpoint-once a part of the town of Bush- wick-with Brooklyn, it became the Seventeenth Ward of the city, and was represented by Timothy Perry, as alderman, in the Common Council, from 1858 until 1863. This included the first years of the war. The Common Council undertook to fur- nish volunteers and to aid the draft, by assisting the families of all those who entered the service of their country. Mr. Perry took an active part in this undertaking, and in the Citizens' Aid Association of the Seventeenth Ward, which furnished a large number of volnnteers. In 1863 Mr. Perry became a member of the Brooklyn Board of Education, occupying the position till 1870. In January, 1882, Mr. Perry was appointed to the same office by Mayor Low, but resigned his place in May, 1883, to ar- cept the office of member of the Board of Elections of the city of Brooklyn, of which board he is now president.

For the last twenty-five years he has been closely identified with the growth and enterprise of his section of the municipality. Ile has been a director and vice-president of the Mechanics and Traders' Bank of Brooklyn since 1870, and for the past four years has been president of the Greenpoint Savings Bank, one of the most flourishing institutions of its kind in the city.

While Mr. Perry is of a retiring disposition, lacking the self- assertion necessary for great success as a jury lawyer, he pos- sesses rare qualifications for another quite as important depart- ment of his profession, that of legal adviser and counselor; for, as was well said by Ogden Hoffman, "the place to try a lawsuit is really in its preparation in the law oflice; unless it is well tried there, it will prove a failure at the Bar, and it is often the ense that the most brilliant jury lawyer is wholly indebted for his success to the solid learning, sound sense and practical judg- inent of what is known as an office lawyer."

Mr. Perry has earned and holds, to a remarkable degree, the confidence of the community, as shown not only by the positions of trust to which he has been promoted, but by his largo em ployment in the business of the devolution of estates, the inter

Timothy Perry essy

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Scott, the author, with all its power. But the reform won its way to adoption by the force of its merit, and has been engrafted into the laws of the State, so that its benefits are made continu- ous. To make this reform effective in results, at the time of financial peril, when it was adopted, Mr. Scott devised and first publicly advocated a compromise plan, by which over-burdened property might be so far relieved that owners would be induced to make an effort to redeem such property. This plan consisted in reducing the amount of accumulated and defaulted taxations, etc., on property that was burdened to near or quite its actual value, to a sum within the ability of the owner to pay. In lieu of such partial payments, property-holders were to be released from the full amount due on the tax-rolls for arrearages.

This was a most just arrangement, because, under the laws, taxes in default had been largely increased by usurions rates of interest. It was wise, because, if the city attempted to force the payment of the whole, it would have obtained nothing but an uncertain title to abandoned lands. The plan proposed by Mr. Scott was adopted by the city substantially, and later became a law by the act of the Legislature. This measure resulted in the rapid payment of large sums of long over-due taxes. The city treasury was benefited, and hundreds of handsome homes, pro- ducing each year prompt and increasing revenues to the city, now exist, where otherwise there would have been commons for ycars. Thus, by a wise foresight and a quick discernment of practical reforms, benefits of the widest range are often secured.

Mr. Scott has been active in many other directions, as a private citizen, in promoting reforms and improvements. Many finc buildings in Brooklyn are the result of his own real estate opera- tions, or his encouragement and assistance to others in that class of improvement. He has for a long time labored to secure for our city an equitable and practical system of "rapid transit." He was one of the early promoters of the founding of the Bush- wick and East Brooklyn Dispensary, and also one of the founders of the Bushwick Savings Bank, of which he is now a trustee, and the attorney. He has always been active on the side of the people at large, and more than one corporation has been thwarted in its efforts to invade the rights of citizens by the zcal and legal ability of Rufus L. Scott.

Politically, Mr. Scott is a Democrat; he has been invaluable to his party by his persistent and consistent advocacy of reforms in policy, and purity in all the workings of party management and party machinery, from the simplest caucus up to the morc important functions. The contemporary press of the city of Brooklyn is not wanting in records of many hard-fought battles in ward meetings and conventions, wherein Mr. Scott has stood like a rock amid howling opposition, and in the face of oppos- ing majorities. But though sometimes outnumbered and de. featcd, time has generally vindicated his judgment, and no man in the ranks of his party in this city is more widely respected. Testimony of this has been given by numerous offers of advance- ment to high positions of political honor and trust. But Mr. Scott has hitherto refused to accept them. Being free from bad habits, regular in his manner of living, of iron constitution, and ordained by nature with a rich bestowment of physical, in- tellectual and moral gifts to be a leader, it is manifest that he will be called imperatively by his fellow citizens to till a still higher place in the affairs of this city and State than any ho has yet occupied, active and useful as he has been in his busy and patriotic life.

In June, 1866, Mr. Scott was married to Maria E. Hull, daughter of William M. Hull, Esq., of Greenpoint.

EDMUND TERRY.

MR. TEnay has been identified with the Kings County Bar, and the Bar of the City and County of New York, for over forty- four years. As his practice has been extensive at both Bars, and has extended to other counties, he is perhaps ono of the most experienced and highly respected lawyers now in practice.

He went to the Bar learned in the mathematical niceties of the special pleading practice during the existence of the Court of Chancery, when to become a successful special pleader, familiar with the plea, the demurrer, the joinder, the rejoinder, the sur- rejoinder, the rebutter and sur-rebutter, then the rationale of judicial investigation, required not only a logical mind, but a profound and accurate knowledge of the law. It is certain that Mr. Terry was accomplished in these, and that when the inno- vations of the Code swept the old practice away and instituted another procedure, he soon became accomplished in its form- ulæ, and he has ever since practiced under it with success.

Edmund Terry was born at Hartford, Conn., May 23d, 1817, and is one of five surviving sons of Hon. Roderick Terry and Harriet Taylor Terry.

His father was a merchant of Hartford, Conn .; a member of the City Council for many years; a member of the Legislature of the State, and President of the Exchange Bank of Hartford.

Mr. Terry's paternal grandfather was the Hon. Elipbalet Terry, of Connecticut, for many years Judge of the County Court, and a representative in the State Assembly thirty-three successive years. His mother was a daughter of the Rev. John Taylor, for many years minister at Deerfield, Mass., Mendon, N. Y., and afterwards in Michigan.

Edmund Terry, on his father's side, is a lineal descendant of Governor Bradford, who came over in the Mayflower, and, on his motlier's side, of Governor John Haynes, of Massachusetts, who was the first Governor of Connecticut, and also of Governor George Wyllys, of Connecticut.

After a thorough preparatory course, Mr. Terry entered Yale College, from whence, in 1837, he was graduated with high honors. In conformity to an early and settled resolution to become a lawyer, he entered the Law Department of Harvard University, at Cambridge, at the time when that illustrious jurist and truly accomplished scholar, Joseph Story, presided over it. It was a rare and splendid opportunity to acquire the learning of his profession which thus presented itself to the young attorney, and one which was appreciated and duly taken advantage of. He completed his legal education in the office of the late Wil- liam W. Ellsworth, of Hartford, and was called to the Bar in that city. Soon after taking his degree as counselor-at-law at Hartford, he removed to the city of New York, where, after a period of study in the office of Walter Edwards, Esq., he was admitted to the Bar of the State of New York. He began the prac- tice of his profession in the city of New York and in Brooklyn in 1840. His abilities as a lawyer were very soon recognized, and his industry in the discharge of his professional duties soon met its appropriate reward. Ho has continued to practice his profession in Brooklyn and New York since 1848. His practice has not been confined to those cities, as we have said.

After he had practiced a few years in the State courts, ho was, on motion of Daniel Webster, admitted to practice in the Su- preme Court of the United States.

Mr. Terry has always been what may be termed a general law- yer, without any specialty in his practice. He has always de- clined any official position, and never was ambitious of political distinction. His ambition has always been confined to the en- grossing duties of his profession.

In March, 1855, he was married to Anna, daughter of the late John H. Prentice, of Brooklyn. He has a family of seven sons and one daughter, having lost two other sons by death.

Though he is one of the most laborious muen in his profession, ho has always found time for performing all the duties of a good citizen, and for amiable and refreshing relaxation in the domestic circlo.

That he should occupy a high and respected position at the respective Bars of which he is a quember, is a natural and just reward for those acknowledgod endowments so long recognized by the public and his professional brethren.

Edmund Terry

BIOGRAPHY OF ANDREW J. PERRY, ESQ.

1293ª

ANDREW J. PERRY, EsQ.

This gentleman comes of good New England stock; his ancestry on the paternal side being of Connecticut, and, on the maternal side, of Rhode Island origin. His father, Cyrus Perry, and his mother, Waity Comstock, were both natives of the town of Wilton, Saratoga county, N. Y., where they lived and died. Of their eight children, all born in Wilton, Andrew J., the subject of this sketch, was the second. Growing up amid the ex- periences and with the advantages of a farm life, his education was gained at the district school; until, am- bitious for a wider field than that offered by the pater- nal acres, he entered the Academy at West Poultney, Vermont, and in due time he entered as Sophomore at Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., whence he was graduated with credit in the class of 1846, and imme- diately coming to New York city, became a student at law in the office of the late John Mason, Esq.

Making diligent use of his opportunities, he was, in 1848, admitted to practice, and began his professional career in partnership with James H. Raymond, Esq., a connection, however, which was terminated in the following year by Mr. Raymond's death, since which Mr. Perry has entered into but two professional part- nerships-one with the late Chief-Justice Bosworth, of the Superior Court, terminated by his election to the Bench, and the other with Moses B. Maclay, Esq., which was of brief duration. In 1855, he was made a member of the Board of Education of New York City, and for a year was Chairman of its Evening School Committee.

In 1858 he linked his fortunes, in marriage, with Julia L., daughter of H. J. Olcott, of Cherry Valley, N. Y., and became at once, as he since continued, a resident of Brooklyn. He has resided in the Twen- tieth, the Fourth, and, for the past twenty years, in the Sixth Ward of the city ; at all times taking con.

siderable interest in all political, social, charitable, and local improvement matters affecting the interests of his adopted home.

He has been prominent in Republican political circles, and was (from 1870 to the beginning of the year 1883) a member of the Republican General Com- mittee of Kings County, and member and several years Chairman of its Executive Committee. In 1872 he received the Republican nomination for Repre- sentative in Congress from the then Second District of the State ; which, however, being strongly dem- ocratic, he failed of an election. He was also strongly supported in convention, in 1873, as the Republican nomince for Mayor of the city of Brooklyn.

Mr. Perry was a member of the Brooklyn Board of Elections for two years, and its President until his resignation of the office in 1883. He was also an active member of the Committee of One Hundred, a reform association composed of public-spirited citizens, who brought about important legislation for the cor- rection of municipal abuses ; the work of the com- mittee being donc mostly from 1871 to 1874.

In March, 1883, Mr. Perry received from President Artliur, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, the appointment of U. S. General Appraiser at the Port of New York, an office for the hearing and de- termining appeals by importers from advances of valu- ations made by the Appraiser on ad valorem dutiable merchandise. There are four of these Districts of Ap- praisal covering the United States, and the district which includes the port of New York is, of course, the most important in the amount and value of its importa- tions, and the cases for adjudication which arise there- from. The office of a general appraiser is substantially a court of enquiry and decision, and its decisions, based upon testimony of witnesses, duly sworn and examined,

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

are of very great importance, not only to the interests of the general government but to those of the importer. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Perry's administration of this important office has been satisfactory both to the government at Washington and to the mercantile community generally.

Mr. Perry has, for many years, successfully prose- euted a general law practice in the city of New York, devoting to it all his energies and time. Yet, that he is not unmindful of the elaims of society upon him, is evidenced by the fact that he is a trustee of the Brooklyn Homeopathie Hospital, and is a member of the Long

Island Historieal and of the New England Societies, as well as of the Brooklyn Club and the Hamilton Club. He has, also, for many years, been an attendant upon the Westminster Presbyterian Church, of which the Rev. Dr. James M. Ludlow is Pastor, and has been member and President of its Board of Trustees.

In person, Mr. Perry is tall, being apparently six feet in height ; in build, is rather slender than other- wise; and inheriting, as he does, from a line of long- lived and sturdy aneestors, a vigorons constitution, and with health nnimpaired, he ranks among the younger rather than the older citizens of Brooklyn.

1293

LEGAL BIOGRAPHIES.

HON. WILLIAM H. WARING.

Four generations of the Waring family have been residents of Brooklyn. In 1803, the grandfather of the present sketch, Henry Waring, then a wealthy and influential merchant of New York, residing in Frankfort street, purchased for his summer residence the then well-known and for those days the elegant residence formerly belonging to Lodewick Bamper, on Brooklyn Heights; a description of this house and of its eccentric proprie- tor is to be found in Stiles' History of Brooklyn, at page 308, and foot-note. This property, with the purchases of adjoining land made by Mr. Waring, extended in length from the water front over Brooklyn Heights to the vicinity of Henry street, and in width from a line near Clark street to a line near Red Hook lane. The house itself stood within the lines of Columbia Heights near the corner of Clark street, and was reached from the Ferry road (Fulton street) by a street midway between Clark street and Red Hook lane, and known on the early maps of Brooklyn as Waring street. This street was closed about the time Mr. Waring sold the land for the erection of the large build- ing used for many years as a boarding-school for young ladies, and which afterward was the original building of the present Mansion House hotel. Mr. Waring continued to occupy his residence on the Heights and his Frankfort street house alter- nate summers and winters until the outbreak of the war of 1812, when he moved his family to his native town of Greenwich, Connecticut. On the conclusion of the war he returned to Brooklyn, and took up his permanent residence in the village. When Columbia street, since known as Columbia Heights, was opened in 1833, the old Bamper House was removed, and Mr. Waring purchased the premises bounded by Fulton, Washing- ton and Johnson streets, extending about one hundred and fifty feet on Fulton street. Upon this property he built the large frame house with Corinthian pillars now standing on Washington street, and known as the " Waring Mansion." In 1852, when the property was sold by his heirs, the house was purchased by the late Rodney S. Church, turned round upon Washington street, where it still stands, with a basement story added, and will be readily recognized by those who had occasion to visit it during the Rebellion drafts as the headquarters of the Provost Marshal. From the return of Mr. Waring's family to Brooklyn, in 1815, until his death, which occurred in April, 1851, he took an active interest in the affairs of Brooklyn, both as village and city; a selectman of the village and alderman of the city for many years, one of the founders of the Long Island Bank, and of the Brooklyn Savings Bank, in each of which institutions he was for many years respectively a director and trustee. President of the Long Island Insurance Company, and active in politics as a Democrat of the old school, he was always a prominent figure in the history of Brooklyn, and contributed largely to its pros- perity. He lived long enough to see it rise from a settlement without corporate organization, and with a population of less than four thousand, to an active, enterprising city of more than three hundred thousand inhabitants. On page 137 of Stiles' History, will be found an extended sketch of this old Brooklynite, accurate in all particulars save one, viz., in the statement that he commanded the privateer ' Adelia,' which was fitted out by New York merchants during the war. The fact that the command of the privateer was tendered to, but declined by him, gave rise to the statement that he actually commanded it.

A letter in the Brooklyn Eagle, written by the late Alden J. Spooner, and published a few days after Mr. Waring's death, thus speaks of him: " In adding a small tribute to his memory, it is due to him to say he discharged his various public duties with integrity and ability, and that his deportment was ever affable and gentlemanly in all his associations; as a part of the municipal authority of Brooklyn, during six successive years he was always punctual in his seat, with a watchful eye to the best interests of Brooklyn, a friend to a strict construction of

its charter; nothing would induce him to exceed its corporate powers for any purpose, and especially in the disbursement of the public funds, regarding the good old-fashioned economy as an antidote of extravagance and excessive taxation. Liberal and charitable in all his intercourse in life, he never, directly or in- directly, clevated himself or his friends at the public expense. His standing in society contributed in no small degree to cstab- lish the first monicd institutions, the Long Island Bank and the Savings Bank, as also the Long Island Insurance Company, to which he lent an efficient aid as president. His well-earned reputation, whether in public or private life, is an inestimable legacy to his deseendants, of which they may be proud."

The only survivor of Mr. Waring's children now living in Brooklyn is Mr. Henry P. Waring, aged cighty-four, of which eighty years have been passed in Brooklyn.

Of the second generation of the Waring family, the best known in Brooklyn was Nathaniel T. Waring, born August 27, 1806, educated at the village school of Thomas Laidlaw, and at Eliza- beth, N. J., and graduated at Union College, Schenectady, in 1826. He was a college mate of William H. Seward, of the late Judge John A. Lott, and the late J. Sullivan Thorne. He studied law at the law school of Judge Gould, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and with Judge Radcliffe, of New York, was admit- ted to the Bar in 1829, commenced the practice of his profession in the then village of Brooklyn, and continued in active practice at the Brooklyn Bar until his death, which occurred in May, 1877. He was a well-known and active politician, of the same political faith as his father, though he never held any public office, save such as was directly connected with his profession, as Master in Chancery under the old State Constitution, Corpora- tion Attorney in the early history of the city, and later for several terms as Corporation Counsel. He was noted as the "sheriff's lawyer" for many years, having been counsel for a number of sheriffs, from Richard Udell to George Remsen. Few were better known on Long Island than "Nat. Waring," as he was familiarly called, and few with whom so many anecdotes and reminiscences are connected in the memories of the old settlers.

William H. Waring, the son of Nathaniel F. and Clara A. Waring, was born February 7th, 1831, in Hieks street, near Pine- apple. The house, modernized and enlarged, is still standing, and known as No. 102. His early ancestors on his father's side had come to this country in its early history from England, and had settled in Greenwich, Conn. There is a romantic tradition still extant in the family, that one of his ancestors was married to Lady Ann, the daughter of the Earl of Millington. When very young, Lady Ann fell in love with a play actor, with whom she eloped, and after marriage sailed for America, disowned her aristocratic parents. On the voyage thither the quondam play actor was taken ill of a fever and died. Lady Ann, too proud to return to her home, and finding her way to Greenwich, she was made town clerk, and subsequently married a Waring. The records of the town, in her handwriting, are still extant, and a tombstone in the old graveyard, at Greenwich, still marks the place of her burial and records her title and lineage. The name of Millington was preserved in the family until the last genera- tion. On his mother's side, he is descended from the Dutel. Lodowick Hackstaff, one of the Dutch burgesses of New York before the Revolution, was his mother's grandfather. He built the first house that was erected in White street, then remote from the city, and where for many years he lived and died. The little frame house on Clark street, near Henry, where the subject of this sketch attended, in early childhood, "woman's school," is still standing, and adjoining it was subsequently built the Quaker meeting-house on the corner of Clark and Henry streets, in the basement of which "Quaker Heely " acted as pedagogue, and of whom Mr. Waring was one of the pupils. The school and its master will readily be recognized by old Brooklynites. Receiving his preparatory education at Union Hill Academy, Jamaica, and Kinderhook Academy, at Kinder-

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Civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the County of Kings and the City of Brooklyn, N. Y., Part 164

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909. Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : Munsell Number of Pages: 1360

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909.
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : Munsell
Number of Pages: 1360