USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them preeminent in their own and many other states, Vol. 2 > Part 12
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banquetted in Berlin by admiring Ameri- cans then abroad, which was attended by many Germans of distinction. As soon as he returned he was appealed to by the Ohio Republicans to speak for Hayes and sound money, and enlisted in the cam- paign, which resulted in the election of Hayes as Governor. The following year he launched a movement to secure an un- biased expression of non-partisan senti- ment similar to that of his campaign of 1872, but when Hayes was nominated for President on the Republican ticket, he cast his lot with the latter in preference to Tilden on the Democratic ticket. Hayes pledged himself to inaugurate Civil Serv- ice Reform, if elected, and Schurz made a strenuous campaign for him, who was finally declared to be elected, and Schurz was made Secretary of the Interior. He organized a system of promotion based upon merit, and was the first high official of the government to inaugurate serious reforms in the Civil Service. He also gave personally the same attention to his official duties that he was accustomed to employ in his own private business, re- formed abuses, and reorganized the In- terior Department on a more efficient basis.
In 1881 he accepted the joint editorship of the New York "Evening Post", with E. L. Godkin, and Horace White; how- ever, he withdrew in December, 1883, with the intention of taking up his per- sonal memoirs and other historical work. He was not pleased with the attitude of the Garfield-Arthur administration on civil service and other reform movements, and endorsed Cleveland for President, who was elected. Meanwhile he had be- come a foremost character in the Na- tional Civil Service Reform Association, organized by his friend, George William Curtis; and, after the death of Curtis, Mr. Schurz became president of the As-
sociation, being reelected annually from 1892 to 1901. He opposed the "imperial- ism" of the Mckinley administration, after the Spanish-American War of 1898, and continued to advocate the principles of democracy as he conceived them, until his death. He was a forceful orator and an eloquent speaker, with complete com- mand of both the English language and his native German.
Carl Schurz edited his speeches, pub- lished by J. B. Lippincott & Co. in 1885. He was the author of a "Life of Henry Clay," which was published in 1887, by Houghton, Mifflin & Company; and wrote an "Essay on Abraham Lincoln" published in 1887. He was contributing editor to "Harper's Weekly" from 1892 to 1898, and prepared "Carl Schurz's Rem- iniscences," in three volumes, published in 1909 by Doubleday, Page & Co. "The Life of Henry Clay" has been pronounced to be the best history of Henry Clay and his times ever written, while "Schurz's Reminiscences," prepared during the last three years of his lifetime, sparkle with a pleasant wit, interwoven with a beautiful Addisonian style.
Death came to Carl Schurz on May 14, 1906, in New York, after a winter's so- journ in the South. It cut short the story of his life in those reminiscences, and with his passing there appeared many eloquent tributes to his memory in the current literature of the day. Since that time a memorial fund was raised, which was expended in the erection of a statue of Carl Schurz on Morningside Heights, New York, where it now stands as a per- petual memorial of America's first great political reformer.
Carl Schurz married, July 6, 1852, in London, England, Margaretha, daughter of Heinrich Christian and Agathe Marga- rethe (Ahlf) Meyer, of Hamburg, Ger- many. After Schurz and his wife estab-
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lished their home at Watertown, Wiscon- sin, she devoted herself to literary and educational work, establishing a Froebel Kindergarten there in 1856, which was the first of its kind in America. Her school was followed by another in 1858, at Columbia, Ohio, and in 1859 by a third at Boston, Massachusetts. Afterward, such schools became fixed in the educa- tional systems of many cities of this country. Mrs. Schurz died March 15, 1876, in New York.
SIGEL, General Franz,
Educator, Soldier, Journalist.
General Franz Sigel was born in the Grand Duchy of Baden, Germany, No- vember 24, 1824, third child and eldest son of Moritz and Anna Marie Pauline (Lichtenauer) Sigel.
Young Sigel was at Carlsruhe, a cadet in the Military Academy, where he gradu- ated in 1843, and was commissioned lieu- tenant. After a duel with an adjutant of his battalion, he resigned and went to Heidelburg to study law, when news of the proclamation of the Republic in Paris came in February, 1848, and which inau- gurated the revolutionary movement that swept over Germany, Austria and Italy. Sigel organized an independent battalion at Mannheim. He joined in the uprising of 1848, which proved a failure, and he fled to Switzerland. In the spring of 1849 the revolutionary movement broke out anew. Sigel returned to Carlsruhe and became Minister of War under the revo- lutionary government. On May 25 he was given command of the army on the Neckar, and led his troops in an engage- ment at Heppenheim. The plan of cross- ing the border into Würtemberg had to be abandoned on account of the objec- tions to entering a foreign state. Sigel resumed his duties as Minister of War,
and was again placed in command of the army. Shortly afterwards the revolution- ary government enlisted the services of General Ludwig Mieroslawski, the Polish revolutionist, who appointed Sigel adju- tant and second in command. Sigel took part in several engagements, but the revo- lution failed, and Sigel took refuge in Switzerland, where he wrote revolution- ary articles for the newspapers. In April, 1851, the Swiss government decided that his presence was no longer desirable, and General Sigel was escorted by gendarmes through Switzerland and France, and there permitted to take a boat to Eng- land. It was at a café in Paris, which he was permitted to visit, that he made the personal acquaintance of Carl Schurz. The two revolutionary officers were introduced by General Shimmelpfennig, who later commanded a brigade of vol- unteers in the Civil War in the United States.
General Sigel landed at Southampton in 1851, and went to London, where he supported himself by playing the piano in the Chinese Exhibit at the Crystal Palace. The next year he came to New York and kept a cigar store. He gave lessons in Italian, mathematics and fenc- ing, and corresponded for German and English papers. For a time he was a surveyor and draftsman, and assisted with the plans of the projected Crystal Palace in New York. In 1854, he married Elise Dulon, the eldest daughter of Dr. Rudolph Dulon, and for several years taught mathematics, mechanics, transla- tion, and American history, in the Ger- man-American school of his father-in-law. Three time a week he drilled the pupils and gave instructions in tactics. In the evening he taught English in a night school. He also conducted a German- American Sunday school at the Turn Hall, was teacher of fencing, and for a
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time was president of the Turn-Verein, wrote for the "School of the People," wrote for the Turn-Verein a manual of gymnastics and fencing, and translated Scott's tactics for the Turners. From 1855-57 he was instructor in tactics of the Fifth New York Regiment of Militia. For about a year he edited and published "The Review," a military, technical and literary monthly magazine for the militia, Turners and other societies. In 1857 he accepted a position as teacher in the Ger- man Institution of St. Louis, with a yearly salary of $800. In April, 1860, he received his final citizenship papers, on the eve of his election as a director of the School Board of St. Louis.
At no time did Sigel have any sympa- thy for the principle of slavery and the doctrine of secession, and he was an ardent supporter of Lincoln. After the secession of South Carolina he engaged in organiz- ing and drilling a company to meet the preparations made by Governor Jackson, of Missouri, who sympathized with the South. The secessionists established a camp with the intention of taking the arsenal in St. Louis, with its military stores. The United States government sent Captain Nathaniel Lyon to command the Union troops at St. Louis, and when Lincoln's first call for volunteers came, it found citizens in St. Louis prepared. Under the leadership of Lyon, Blair and Sigel, Camp Jackson was taken, and the United States Arsenal saved. General Sigel organized the Third Missouri Regi- ment, made up entirely of German-Ameri- cans, and became its colonel. In com- mand of a brigade he marched against the secessionists at Carthage, in South- west Missouri, and attacked them vigor- ously with fifteen hundred men, July 5, 1861; but was obliged to fall back to Deep River, where he reorganized his force and became attached to the army of
General Nathaniel Lyon. In the battle of Wilson's Creek, where Lyon fell, he gained the rear of the Confederates, but the death of Lyon created confusion, and Sigel was overwhelmed and obliged to re- treat.
Sigel, promoted to brigadier-general, was by General Fremont given command of a division, and later of two divisions, and ordered to join the army of General S. R. Curtis, and took part in the battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas. Soon after he was commissioned major-general, and on June I, 1862, he was given command of the forces at Harper's Ferry and Maryland Heights, and followed "Stonewall" Jack- son to Winchester, Virginia. On June 25, 1862, he was given command of the First Corps, Army of Virginia, and was present at the battle of Cedar Mountain. He commanded the forces along the Rap- pahannock river, having in addition to his own corps a division of General Banks, and a division of the Ninth Corps. At the Second Battle of Bull Run he opened the battle by attacking "Stonewall" Jackson, near Groveton. In the beginning he gained decided advantage, and it was his corps that covered the retreat to Wash- ington, which ended the conflict.
In September, 1862, Sigel commanded the Eleventh Corps and the Grand Re- serve Division, which was present but did not participate in the battle of Fredericks- burg. In the disputes resulting from the Second Battle of Bull Run, Sigel was in- volved, and personal relations became so difficult that he deemed it wise to resign his command of the Eleventh Corps, just prior to Chancellorsville, and he accepted a command in the Department of the Le- high, with headquarters at Reading, Penn- sylvania, and was stationed there when the battle of Gettysburg was fought. Soon afterward, owing to illness, he was obliged to accept a leave of absence.
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Returning to duty in February, 1864, he was given command of the Depart- ment of West Virginia, and was defeated by a superior force under General John C. Breckinridge, near Newmarket. In con- sequence, he was relieved and placed in charge of the division guarding Harper's Ferry. In July, 1864, he successfully de- fended Maryland Heights against Gen- eral Early, giving time for the Sixth and Nineteenth army corps to reach the na- tional capital and save it from capture. The administration, however, had lost confidence in Sigel, and he was relieved of his command and ordered to Baltimore, and he resigned in May, 1865.
While a resident of Baltimore, he edited the "Baltimore Wecker," a German news- paper. He took an active part as a speaker in promoting the reëlection of President Lincoln. In 1866 he removed to New York City. President Grant ap- pointed him Collector of Internal Reve- nue, and in 1869 he was the Republican candidate for Secretary of State, but the Democratic ticket was elected. President Grant appointed him a special member of the commission which visited Santo Do- mingo, and reported to Congress in favor of annexation. The same year he was elected Register of the City of New York, the Reform Democratic party joining the Republicans in giving him a majority of the votes cast, and he served to January, 1875. For President in 1880, General Sigel warmly supported Hancock, and thereafter was known as a Democrat up to 1896, when he supported Mckinley, having no sympathy with the monetary teachings advocated by Bryan. He served the city of New York as equity clerk in the office of the county clerk, and in 1885 President Cleveland appointed him Pen- sion Agent at New York, and he filled that office with credit, 1885-1888. After his retirement he continued to reside in
New York City, lecturing throughout the country on military and historical sub- jects, in advertising business, and for several years published the "New York Monthly," a journal printed part in Ger- man and part in English, devoted to the interests of German-American citizens. By special act of Congress he was granted a pension of $1,200 per annum.
He died at his home in New York City, August 21, 1902. A full length portrait in oil of General Sigel occupies a place in the court house in Carthage, Missouri, the scene of one of his early battles. An equestrian statue in Forest Park, St. Louis, was unveiled in 1906. Franz Sigel Park in the Bronx, New York City, was named for him. In 1908 a statue was placed on Riverside Drive, New York City, and at the unveiling of the statue, prominent in the marching procession were noted Grand Army posts, with members being German-American soldiers who had served under General Sigel in Missouri and Arkansas, and others who were in his Virginia campaign.
General Franz Sigel married, in Janu- ary, 1854, Elise Dulon, sister of Rudolph Dulon, who was born in the city of Bremen, Germany, and died in New York, December 18, 1905.
WOODFORD, Stewart L., Soldier, Diplomatist.
General Stewart Lyndon Woodford was born in New York City, September 3, 1835, son of Josiah Curtis and Susan (Terry) Woodford, and eighth in descent from Thomas Woodford, a native of Bos- ton, Lincolnshire, England, who settled at Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1635, and became one of the founders of Hart- ford, Connecticut. His great-grandfather, William Woodford, of Farmington, Con- necticut, was a soldier in the Revolution,
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and his grandfather, Chandler Woodford, of Avon, was in the War of 1812. Through his mother, General Woodford descends from one of the original settlers of South- old, Long Island.
Steward L. Woodford was prepared for college at the Columbia Grammar School, New York City, and was graduated from Columbia University in 1854. He studied law in 1858, was admitted to the bar, and became a member of the law firm of Woodford & Ritch. For more than half a century he continued in active practice, and among other firms was a partner in 1870 of the firm of Arnoux, Ritch & Woodford, and in 1910 became senior member of Woodford, Boveé & Butcher. Early in life he began to take an active interest in public affairs. He was a dele- gate to the Republican National Conven- tion of 1860, which nominated Lincoln for the presidency, and was messenger of the Electoral College of New York to Washington, bearing the votes of his State for Lincoln. Early in 1861 he was appointed Assistant United States Dis- trict Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and as such had charge of the bureau which conducted all the block- ade cases and such litigation as grew of the war. He resigned in 1862 to enter the army, enlisting in the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Regiment New York Volunteers, in which he was made captain, and later was promoted to lieutenant- colonel. He was judge advocate-general of the Department of the South, provost marshal-general and later chief-of-staff to General Quincy A. Gilmore, commanding that department. He was the first mili- tary governor of Charleston, South Caro- lina, after its capture by the Federal forces, and was then transferred to the command of Savannah, having been pre- viously promoted to colonel and brevetted brigadier-general for gallantry in action.
At the close of the war General Wood- ford returned to law practice, but was again drawn into public life. In 1866 he was elected on the Republican ticket Lieu- tenant-Governor of the State of New York. In 1870 he was the Republican candidate for Governor, and was defeated by John T. Hoffman ; his friends always insisted that he been elected and counted out, a contention which was confirmed by the ante mortem confessions of William M. Tweed and A. Oakly Hall. In 1872 he was elector-at-large and president of the Electoral College of New York, and in the same year was elected to Congress from the Third Brooklyn District. In 1877 he was appointed United States Dis- trict Attorney for the Southern District of New York by President Grant, and was appointed in 1881 by President Gar- field, who also offered him his choice between three foreign missions, which General Woodford declined, preferring to remain in the practice of his profession. He was delegate to the Republican Na- tional Conventions of 1872, 1876 and 1880, and was prominent in the last two as a candidate for the vice-presidential nomi- nation, withdrawing in 1876 in favor of William A. Wheeler, and in 1880 himself placing Chester A. Arthur in nomination. In 1875, although a New Yorker, he par- ticipated in the Ohio gubernatorial cam- paign, conducting a series of joint debates with General Thomas Ewing, the leader of the Ohio Democracy, on the question of the resumption of specie payment. Rutherford B. Hayes was elected Gov- ernor upon this issue, and this decision in favor of sound money fixed the attitude of the parties and restored the financial credit of the nation. Meanwhile General Woodford had resumed his law practice, his firm becoming Arnoux, Ritch & Wood- ford. In 1896 he was appointed by Gov- ernor Morton one of the commissioners
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to frame the charter of the Greater New York. In 1896, during the sound money campaign, he again came forward as an ardent advocate of safe and honest cur- rency. As permanent chairman of the Republican State Convention at Saratoga he delivered the keynote speech, and later took part in the campaign, speaking throughout the country in advocacy of sound money. In 1897 President McKin- ley appointed him United States Minister to Spain, a post which, owing to the com- plications regarding Cuba, was the most responsible in the entire diplomatic serv- ice. Among his earliest communications to the Spanish government was one ten- dering the good offices of the United States toward establishing permanent peace in Cuba, an offer which was not accepted. General Woodford distin- guished himself by the coolness, firmness and tact with which he met the delicate and complicated situation growing out of the unfortunate letter of Senor Polo y Bernabe, and the closely following de- struction of the battleship "Maine," events which greatly inflamed public opinion in America. General Woodford's policy of authorizing the Spanish govern- ment to publish in full all negotiations conducted by him, excited the surprise of the ministers, and became famous as the "new American diplomacy." He remained in Madrid until April 21, 1898, when he was informed that diplomatic relations were severed, and received his passports before he had an opportunity to present the ultimatum of the United States, re- quiring that within forty-eight hours Spain should relinquish all claims to sovereignty in Cuba. Returning home, he declined a commission as major-gen- eral tendered by President McKinley, and continued titular minister to Spain until September, 1898, when he resigned. He was a member of the New York State Re-
publican Convention of 1898, which nomi- nated Roosevelt for Governor, and as chairman of the committee on resolutions reported the platform announcing the position of the party in New York on the Cuban question. He was active in the succeeding campaign of Governor Hughes, whom he placed in nomination for the presidency at the Republican convention in Chicago. He was president of the Hud- son-Fulton Commission in 1909, and after the celebration in New York was sent by the government to Europe to present gold medals to the rulers whose countries sent battleships to the celebration. He was decorated by the German Emperor with the Prussian Order of the Crown of the first class, and was granted audiences by the Queen of Holland, the President of France, the King of Italy, and the King of England. He was also decorated with the Order of the Rising Sun, second class, by the Emperor of Japan, the highest decoration conferred upon foreigners.
General Woodford was married in 1857 to Julia E. Capen, daughter of Henry T. Capen, of New York. She died in June, 1899; he married (second) September 26, 1900, Isabel, daughter of James S. Han- son, who survived him. At the time of his decease he was commander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Pilgrim So- ciety, the Lawyers' Club, the University Club, the Century Club, the Lotos Club, and the Republican Club of New York, the Union League and Hamilton clubs of Brooklyn, and the New England Society of both New York and Brooklyn. He was for many years a trustee of Cornell University; was a director in the City Savings Bank of Brooklyn : and general counsel and director in the Metropolitan
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Life Insurance Company. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by Colum- bia, Trinity and Yale colleges; that of LL. D. by Trinity, Dickinson and Mari- etta colleges; and that of D. C. L. by Syracuse University. He was a member of the Delta Psi and D. K. E. fraternities. General Woodford died at his home in New York, February 14, 1913.
SIBLEY, Hiram, Leader Among Men.
Great leaders are few. The mass of men seem content to remain in the posi- tions in which they are placed by birth, experience or environment. Laudable am- bition, ready adaptability and a capacity for hard work are essential elements of success, and in none of these require- ments was Hiram Sibley ever found lack- ing. It is not a matter of marvel, there- fore, that he occupied a preëminent posi- tion among the builders of Rochester and the promoters of progress and develop- ment in various sections of the country. In fact, his interests were so wide, that he was a man not of one locality, but of the nation. The eminence to which he attained was due also to the fact that he had the ability to recognize the opportune moment and to correctly appraise the value of a situation and determine its pos- sible outcome. It was these qualities that enabled him to enter upon his first great work in amalgamating and coordinating the forces that led to the establishment of the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany. The history of the invention of the telegraph is too well known to need re- iteration here. The great majority of the members of Congress and the men promi- nent in the country doubted the worth of the ideas which found birth in the fertile brain of Samuel F. B. Morse. Not so with Mr. Sibley, and with wonderful pre-
science he recognized what this might mean to the country and his executive ability was brought to play in the organ- ization of what is now one of the most useful and powerful corporations of the world.
No special advantages aided him at the outset of his career. On the contrary, he was deprived of many advantages which most boys enjoy. A native of North Adams, Massachusetts, he was born Feb- ruary 6, 1807, and was the second son of Benjamin and Zilpha (Davis) Sibley, who were representatives of old New England families that had been founded on American soil at an early epoch in the history of our country. He had com- paratively little hope of acquiring an education, but nature endowed him with a strong mind and keen discernment. He possessed, also, much mechanical genius, used every chance which he had for its development, and before he had attained his majority was master of five trades. His mechanical knowledge and his skill proved an important factor in the sub- stantial development of Monroe county. Years later, in an address made to the students of Sibley College, on a visit to Ithaca, he gave utterance to words which were typical of his own life, saying: "There are two most valuable posses- sions, which no search warrant can get at, which no execution can take away, and which no reverse of fortune can destroy ; they are what a man puts into his head-knowledge; and into his hands -skill."
Mr. Sibley used every opportunity to acquire both, and therein lay the founda- tion of his wonderfully successful career. At the age of sixteen he became a resi- dent of Western New York, locating first in Livingston county, where for sev- eral years he carried on business as a wool carder, machinist and iron founder.
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In 1829 he came to Monroe county and the following year entered into partner- ship with D. A. Watson, in the building and operation of a saw mill and factory for the construction of wool carding ma- chines. They also began the manufacture of agricultural implements, having the first blast furnace and machine shop in Monroe county. Around the new enter- prise there sprang up a flourishing vil- lage which was called Sibleyville. In his business Mr. Sibley gave employment to eighty men, but later he and his part- ner were called elsewhere by more exten- sive business interests, and the town gradually sank into decadence, so that only the mill and the shop mark its site at the present time.
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