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 9
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which he attained a high degree of suc- cess. In 1860 Mr. Alvord gave up the lumber part of his business and there- after devoted himself entirely to the manufacture of salt. He held various local offices at Salina, and in November, 1843, was elected to the New York As- sembly, and from that time forward his name was prominently connected with the history of his native State. From 1864 to 1866 he was Lieutenant-Governor of New York, and from 1867 to 1868 was a member and vice-president of the State Constitutional Convention. In 1861 Mr. Alvord was made permanent presiding officer of the Union Convention which met in Syracuse in that year. He rend- ered valuable service to New York as a legislator, displaying great ability in the formulating of salutary laws and the tact to secure their adoption ; his cogent logic, directness of speech, acute discernment, and ready grasp of every point at issue, together with his untiring industry, im- posing presence and commanding man- ner, making him a power in the New York Assembly. Mr. Alvord was speaker in 1858 and 1864, and was the first speaker of the Assembly when it met in 1879 in the new capitol at Albany, and occupied the new chamber for the first time. He died in Syracuse, New York, October 25, 1897.
PIERREPONT, Edwards, Lawyer, Jurist, Diplomat.
Edwards Pierrepont, a distinguished New York lawyer and jurist, was a native of Connecticut, born at North Haven, March 4, 1817, son of Giles Pier- repont and Eunice, daughter of Jonathan Munson, and great-grandson of Joseph Pierrepont, who settled in North Haven, his father having given a valuable prop- erty to the town for public use. The pro- genitor of the family in this country, John
Pierrepont, was the younger son of a great family in Nottingham, England, and came to the United States in 1650, settling at Roxbury, now a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. Six years after coming to America, he purchased three hundred acres of land in Roxbury, and there married Miss Stow, of Kent, Eng- land, who was the mother of his son James, one of the chief founders and promoters of Yale College.
Edwards Pierrepont was prepared for college by the Rev. Noah Porter (after- ward president of Yale College), and entered that institution and graduated with the class of 1837, receiving one of the highest class honors, that of class orator. In 1840 he was graduated from the New Haven Law School. He entered upon the practice of his profession at Columbus, Ohio, in partnership with P. C. Wilcox of that city. In 1846 he per- manently located in New York City, where he had resided for some time. In 1857 he was elected judge of the Superior Court of that city, and resigned in 1860 in order to resume his practice. Judge Pierrepont took a deep and patriotic interest in the Civil War. His first speech, and which brought him promi- nently before the public, was made a year and a half before the outbreak of hos- tilities, in which he forecast the dread- ful struggle. He was one of the most active members of the noted Union De- fence Committee, and, when the Massa- chusetts troops were attacked in Balti- more, in April, 1861, and all communica- tion with the national capital cut off, Judge Pierrepont was selected as one of a committee of three to make their way as best they could to Washington, his associates being William M. Evarts and Thurlow Weed. In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln, in connection with General John A. Dix, to act as a com- missioner to try the prisoners of state
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that were confined in the different forts of the United States. In 1864 he took a prominent part in the effective alignment of the War Democrats who favored the reëlection of Abraham Lincoln.
In 1867, Judge Pierrepont was elected a member of the convention for framing a new constitution for the State of New York, and served on the judiciary com- mittee with great efficiency. He was also in the same year employed by Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Henry Stanbury, Attorney-General, to conduct the government prosecution against John H. Surratt, indicted for being a party to the murder of President Lincoln. In 1868, President Grant ap- pointed Judge Pierrepont to the position of United States Attorney for the District of New York, which he occupied until 1870, when he resigned. He at once be- came one of the most active members of the Committee of Seventy, formed to take action against the "ring frauds" in the New York City municipal government. In 1871, when the Texas & Pacific rail- road was organized under charter by the United States, he was made a director, counsel, and treasurer of the road, and the following year visited Frankfort and London on business for the company. Judge Pierrepont was proffered the ap- pointment of Minister to the Court of Russia by President Grant in May, 1873, but declined the honor. In 1875 he accepted the portfolio of Attorney-Gen- eral of the United States in President Grant's cabinet. While filling this posi- tion he argued for the government all the more important cases, among which were the noted Arkansas Hot Spring case, and the Pacific railway case. He was also called upon by Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, to give an opinion upon a great question of international law in which were discussed the questions of nation- ality and acquired nationality, and his
opinion gave him a wide reputation both in Europe and America. In 1876 he was appointed Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James. When President Grant visited Europe during the second year of Judge Pierrepont's mission, the latter named urged upon the Queen's ministers the propriety of according the same pre- cedence to the former President of the United States that had been given to the ex-ruler of France. This was gracefully acceded to, and other countries followed the precedent set by Great Britain. While abroad, Judge Pierrepont devoted much attention to the financial system of England. He returned to the United States in 1878, and at once resumed the practice of his profession, at the same time taking an active interest in financial questions, and writing considerably upon the subject. In 1887 he wrote an article advocating an international treaty, claim- ing that by convention the commercial value of the silver dollar might be restored. He also published various orations and addresses. Judge Pierre- pont was awarded the honorary degree of LL. D. from Columbian College, Wash- ington, D. C., in June, 1871, and in 1873 Yale College conferred upon him the same degree. During his residence in London, Oxford bestowed upon him the degree of D. C. L., the highest honor the university confers. He died in New York City, March 6, 1892.
SWINBURNE, John, Sanitationist.
Dr. John Swinburne, whose fame prin- cipally rests upon the creation of the quarantine station in New York Harbor, was born at Deer River, Lewis county, New York, May 20, 1820. His father dying when he was only twelve years old, at that early age he was called upon
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to face the realities of life by not only self-support, but by contributing to the maintenance of his mother and her other children. He labored upon a farm during the summer, and attended the public schools in winter. His meager educa- tional advantages were supplemented by a two years' course at the Fairfield Acad- emy, and in 1842 he entered the Albany Medical College, from which he was graduated in 1846, first in his class, hav- ing entirely maintained himself during his years of study. He had mastered a thorough knowledge of anatomy, and was at once appointed college demon- strator in that department, and occupied the position for four years. He then established a private school of anatomy, which he afterwards closed in order to attend to the demands of a very exacting personal practice. In 1859 and 1861 he read papers before the New York State Medical Society that were published in the society reports. In the latter year, the first of the Civil War period, General John F. Rathbone appointed him chief medical officer in charge of the sick at the depot for the sick at Albany, New York. In April, 1862, the need of surgeons on the battle-field having become most urgent, he tendered his services to Gov- ernor Morgan as volunteer surgeon with- out compensation, and he was at once commissioned, and ordered by General McClellan to repair to Savage Station, which was about to become an important point in the opening military campaign. There he established a depot, having been given full powers and command so far as pertained to a surgeon in charge of sick and wounded. When the Army of the Potomac retreated from Savage Station on June 29th, thousands of wounded soldiers were necessarily left on the battle-field, and although Surgeon Swinburne was free to retire with the army, as did the majority of the surgeons,
he remained to care for the sick and wounded, braving capture rather than desert his post, remaining for a month, and until all the wounded had been re- moved. His humane conduct and pro- fessional ability won the esteem of the Confederate authorities, who appreci- atively recognized the fact that he had paid the same attention to their own wounded soldiers as he did to those of the Federal army. Dr. Swinburne applied to General Stonewall Jackson for a pass to visit the various hospitals in the vicinity where the wounded Federal prisoners were confined, and the general, in grant- ing the pass, in a very complimentary note informed him that he was not to be considered a prisoner of war, and that the pass would safeguard him through the lines wherever he desired to go.
In 1864, Governor Seymour appointed Dr. Swinburne to the position of Health Officer of the Port of New York, and the Republican Legislature at once confirmed the appointment. He was reappointed by Governor Fenton in 1867. When he assumed control of quarantine duties, there were absolutely no provisions for effectually carrying out its purpose; the only means was a floating hospital, and this vessel in a leaky condition. During his administration, continuing from 1864 to 1870, Dr. Swinburne succeeded in con- structing, at a minimum cost of $750,000, and in face of the greatest opposition, the docks and buildings in the lower bay, known as Swinburne Island and Hoffman Island, both built on banks that were near the surface at low tide, and which to-day constitute the best quarantine in the world.
After his retirement from his position, and while traveling in Europe, in 1870, Dr. Swinburne was invited to form the American Ambulance Corps for service during the Franco-Prussian War. From his arrival in Paris, September 7, 1870, to
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his departure, March 18, 1871, his efforts and those of his assistants were such as to excite the astonishment of the people and the admiration of the medical profession. The ambulance service was conducted on the most extensive scale, with results that far surpassed those obtained by the French surgeons, and the entire expense was defrayed by Americans residing in Paris. The French government decorated Dr. Swinburne a chevalier of the Legion of Honor and with the Red Cross of Geneva in acknowledgement of his services. After he returned from Europe he settled at Albany, New York, where he soon had an extensive practice. He was elected mayor of that city in 1882, but his election was contested, and he obtained his seat only after fourteen months litigation. As a Republican, he was elected to Congress in 1884. He established the Swinburne Dispensary, wherein ten thousand persons were annually treated, entirely at his own expense. As a medical and surgical expert, he was perhaps more frequently called to the witness stand, in the most important medico-legal cases, than any other member of the medical profession in the State.
Dr. Swinburne's biographer has writ- ten that "There is something phenome- nally grand in the active, self-denying and busy life of John Swinburne as a surgeon on the battle-field; as a health officer contending with the terrible dis- eases of cholera, small-pox and yellow fever, saving the people from their de- structive ravages for years, and finding the means not only to check but to sup- press these diseases ; as a philanthropist, establishing sanitariums, hospitals and dispensaries for the care and treatment of the poor. His quiet benevolence, yet bold aggressiveness in fighting error and corruption in high places, both in profes- sional and official stations, gave his life a
charm unequaled in the past, and has won for him the admiration of the masses of the people." Dr. Swinburne died at Albany, New York, March 28, 1889. His biography was compiled and published by the Citizens' Association of Albany, New York.
AUGUR, Christopher C., Soldier of Mexican and Civil Wars.
General Christopher Colon Augur was born in New York in 1821. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, was graduated in 1843, and during the next two years served on frontier duty. In 1845 he was brevetted second lieutenant of the Fourth Infantry, and, joining with his command the Army of Occupation in Texas under General Taylor, took part in the advance to the Rio Grande in 1846. He was promoted to first lieutenant February 16, 1847, and served through the remainder of the Mexican War as aide-de-camp to General Hopping, after whose death he was called to the staff of General Caleb Cushing, and was engaged in the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. On August I, 1852, he was promoted to captain, and acquitted himself with great courage and judgment in the Indian troubles in Oregon during 1855-56.
The threatening conditions in the south caused his recall to the east early in 1861. On May 14th he was commissioned major of the Thirteenth Infantry, and placed in command of the cadets at West Point. On November 12th following he was com- missioned brigadier-general of volunteers, and given command of a brigade in Mc- Dowell's corps in the defences about Washington. In July, 1862, he was trans- ferred to the command of a division under General Banks in the Army of Virginia, and served through the Rappahannock campaign, receiving a severe wound in
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the battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia. For distinguished and meritorious serv- ice in that battle he was appointed major- general of volunteers August 9, 1862, and brevetted colonel in the regular army. General Augur was relieved from active service shortly after the fall of Harper's Ferry, upon being appointed by Congress a member of the military commission charged with investigation of the sur- render of that important post. He re- joined his command in November, and accompanied General Banks through the Louisiana campaign in 1862. In 1863 he was placed in command of the district of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the First Infantry, July 1, 1863, and commanded the left wing of the army besieging Port Hudson, Mis- sissippi, which surrendered July 9th. He received the brevet of brigadier-general March 13, 1865, for gallant service at the capture of Port Hudson, and the brevet of major-general at the same date for gal- lant and meritorious service in the field during the war. Thereafter General Augur continued in service as com- mander of various military departments, commanding at Washington, 1863-66. He received promotion to the colonelcy of the Twelfth United States Infantry, March 15, 1866, and was mustered out of the volunteer service September Ist. He commanded the Department of the Platte until 1871, having been commis- sioned brigadier-general of the United States army March 4, 1869; and com- manded other departments-of Texas, until 1875; of the Gulf until 1878; and of the South and of Missouri until 1885, when he was retired.
On August 15, 1886, General Augur was dangerously wounded by a negro ruffian whom he attempted to chastise for using foul language in front of his house in Washington. General Augur died in 1898.
COLFAX, Schuyler,
Statesman, Vice-President.
Schuyler Colfax was born in the city of New York, March 23, 1823, being a posthumous child. He was a grandson of General William Colfax, who was born in Connecticut in 1760, and was captain commandant of Washington's guards. At the close of the Revolutionary War Cap- tain Colfax married Hester Schuyler, a daughter of General Philip Schuyler, and their third son was named Schuyler. He occupied the position of teller in the Me- chanics' Bank of New York City, and died while he was still a young man.
Schuyler Colfax, son of Schuyler Col- fax above mentioned, attended common schools in New York, but before he was eleven years of age went into employment in a store. His mother married again and with her family, including Schuyler, went to Indiana, settling in New Carlisle. Young Schuyler's stepfather, Mr. Mat- thews, having been elected auditor of St. Joseph county, made his stepson his deputy, and took him to South Bend, which, from that time forward, became the home of Mr. Colfax. Here, while dis- charging his regular clerical duties, young Colfax took an interest in journalism, and during two winters was in Indianapolis as senate reporter for the "State Journal." In 1845 Mr. Colfax became editor and proprietor of the St. Joseph "Valley Register," and the new paper soon came to be considered one of the very best in the State, and achieved a wide circulation. As a Whig, Mr. Colfax was a very ardent admirer of Henry Clay. He was a member and one of the secretaries of the Whig National Convention of 1848, which nominated General Taylor for the presi- dency. In 1851 Mr. Colfax was nomi- nated by the Whigs of his district as their candidate for Congress, and lacked few votes of being elected, although the dis-
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trict was normally strongly Democratic. In 1852 he was a delegate to the National Convention which nominated General Scott for the presidency. General Scott was, however, defeated, and the begin- ning of the last days of the old Whig party had come. In 1854 Mr. Colfax was nominated for Congress by the People's Convention, called in opposition to the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and was elected by a very large majority. He entered the memorable Thirty-fourth Congress on the first Monday of Decem- ber, 1855, and was prominent in the excit- ing struggle which resulted in the elec- tion of Nathaniel P. Banks of Massachu- setts as speaker, upon the one hundred and thirty-fourth ballot. Mr. Colfax soon came into prominence in Congress, and was recognized as one of the most effec- tive orators in the newly formed Republi- can party. He was continued in Congress by successive reëlections until 1869. He had by this time become prominently known through the country for his strong anti-slavery sentiments, and his temper- ance principles and practice. He was one of the acknowledged leaders of the oppo- sition to the Lecompton constitution, and generally to the admission of Kansas as a slave State. When the great political conflict broke out, Mr. Colfax was in the thick of it. "He held that success was a duty, due not only to Republican prin- ciples, but to the age and the country, and that any concession, short of prin- ciple, necessary to insure that success, was not only wise and expedient, but also patriotic and obligatory." In the Thirty- sixth Congress Mr. Colfax was made chairman of the committee on the post office and post roads, and to him is given the credit for the establishment by Con- gress of the daily overland mail from the western boundary of Missouri to San Francisco.
After the election of Mr. Lincoln to the
Presidency, great pressure was brought to bear upon him for the appointment of Mr. Colfax to a place in his cabinet as Postmaster-General, but the President appointed Montgomery Blair to that office. During the Civil War, Mr. Colfax, in his place in Congress, continued to actively sustain by voice and vote the principles which he had always held. On the organization of the Thirty-eighth Congress he was elected speaker upon the first ballot, being the first newspaper editor ever elected to the speaker's chair. In this position Mr. Colfax made a most favorable impression upon both parties by his courtesy, and by his thorough knowledge of parliamentary law. A notable incident of his career as speaker occurred in April, 1864. Mr. Long, of Ohio, made a speech from his place in the House of Representatives, in which he practically abandoned the Union to its fate, declaring the rebellion to be in the right, and the war organized by the north to be unjust and wrong. Under the excitement produced by this speech, Mr. Colfax left the speaker's chair, calling for another member of the House to preside, and went upon the floor of the House to move the expulsion of Mr. Long, and supporting the motion with a stirring and aggressive speech. He afterward, how- ever, modified his resolution of expulsion by changing it to one of censure, in which form it was passed by a large majority. On May 7, 1864, Mr. Colfax was pre- sented by citizens of his own State with a set of silver of beautiful design and artistic execution, as a testimonial of their regard for his public services. Mr. Col- fax was twice reëlected as speaker, each time by an increased majority. On April 14, 1865, Congress having adjourned, as he was about to start on an overland journey to California and Oregon, he visited the White House in the early evening and bade President Lincoln
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good-bye. The President invited him to his friends asserted were unjust and un- accept a seat in his box at Ford's Theatre, reasonable charges. for that evening, but the invitation was Mr. Colfax passed the latter part of his life at his home in South Bend, Indiana, frequently delivering public lectures in his own and other States. He died in Mankato, Minnesota, January 13, 1885. declined on account of Mr. Colfax's prior engagements. On that night Mr. Lincoln was shot by the assassin, J. Wilkes Booth. After his return from Washington to South Bend, Indiana, Mr. Colfax deliv- ered one of the most eloquent of all the STANFORD, Leland, eulogies on the Martyred President, and Man of Large Affairs, Philanthropist. repeated it by request on April 30th, in Chicago.
Leland Stanford was born in Albany county, New York, March 9, 1824, son of Josiah Stanford, a prosperous farmer, who also took contracts for the building of roads and bridges and aided in the construction of the Albany & Schenectady railroad (now a part of the New York Central system), one of the earliest in America.
In May, 1868, Mr. Colfax was nomi- nated by the Republican National Con- vention at Chicago for Vice-President on the ticket with General Ulysses S. Grant, and entered upon the position of president of the Senate on March 4, 1869. In 1871 General Grant offered him the position of Secretary of State in his cabinet, but the offer was declined. In 1872, although his name was mentioned for renomination for Vice-President, he was defeated'in the convention. In December of the same year, he declined the position of editor- in-chief of the New York "Tribune." In 1872 and 1873 the character of Mr. Col- fax, as was the case with several other of the most prominent men in Congress and out of it, was attacked on account of the Credit Mobilier scandal. It was charged against persons thus accused that they had accepted certificates of stock or money from the officials of the Union Pacific Railway Company, as compen- sation for their influence in Congress in behalf of the company's schemes. An investigation by the judiciary committee of the House resulted in a report, which, while it technically acquitted Mr. Colfax of having committed any offense after he became Vice-President, nevertheless did not entirely relieve him from public suspicion on this point. As a conse- quence, Mr. Colfax suffered during the remainder of his life from what he and
Leland Stanford, fourth of Josiah Stan- ford's seven sons, passed his early life on his father's farm, "Elm Grove," and at school nearby. At the age of twenty he took up the study of law, and in 1845 entered the office of Wheaton, Doolittle & Hadley in Albany. A few years later he moved to Port Washington, Wiscon- sin, on Lake Michigan, where he prac- ticed law four years with moderate suc- cess. In 1852 the loss by fire of all his property, his library included, wrecked his plans; and he determined to push further west. In the summer of that year he reached California, where three of his brothers were established in business in the mining towns. Receiving him into partnership, he was placed in charge of a branch establishment at Michigan Bluff, in Placer county. In this new occupation he developed business qualities of which he had been unconscious, and four years later he established himself in San Fran- cisco, where he founded an independent mercantile house which soon became known as one of the most substantial on the Pacific coast.
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