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 pre?minent in their own and many other states. V.6 > Part 32
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He became a member of the general committee of Tammany Hall and dis- played so marked a business ability that he was chosen chairman of the finance committee. He became very influential in the party, but was too independent in his actions to please the politicians who, to forestall his appointment by President Polk as collector of the port of New York, offered him the nomination for the mayor- alty. This was in the day when national party power was of greater importance to Tammany Hall than city control; the ad- ministration of the city with its then but four hundred thousand population being comparatively simple. The Department of Charities and Correction was governed by a single officer; the police were ap- pointed, controlled and dismissed by the mayor; "Jobs" were unknown and "rings" had not yet been invented. The office of mayor, however, was something more than a civic honor.
Mr. Havemeyer was elected mayor by a large majority in April, 1845, and at once directed his special attention to police affairs, the Common Council pass- ing at his instance an ordinance provid- ing for a municipal police force. Under its terms he nominated George W. Mat- sell for Chief of Police and he was con- firmed, great reforms were introduced in city government, one of the most impor- tant relating to immigration. Upon his advice the Legislature passed an act cre-
ating the board of "Commissioners of Emigration," there having been no offi- cial supervision of immigration by State or City prior to that board. Mayor Havemeyer was appointed the first presi- dent of the board and remained its head after his term as mayor expired. The Ward's Island institution for emigrants was established by Mr. Havemeyer and his associates. At the expiration of his first term he was reelected, untiring energy, ability and devotion characteriz- ing both administrations. He declined a third term and for several years retired from active participation in politics. In 1857, when the metropolitan police com- missioner and the mayor, Fernando Wood, were struggling for control of the police force, Mr. Havemeyer came out of retire- ment and aided Chief Matsell. In 1859 he was a candidate for mayor in a tri- angular contest and was defeated.
From 1851 until 1861 he was president of the Bank of North America, and from 1857 until 1861 he was president of the New York Savings Bank, taking the office at a time of great peril to the bank and leaving it upon a secure foundation. For several years he was vice-president of the Long Island Railroad Company and held similar relation to the Pennsylvania Coal Company.
During the Civil War he was an un- wavering and earnest supporter of the government at Washington. He presided over one of the four great meetings held simultaneously in Union Square, April 21, 1861, to give expression to the patri- otic sentiments of the people of New York. In July, 1866, he was selected in conjunction with Thurlow Weed as arbi- trator of a long dispute between the Board of Public Charities and the Board of Commissioners of Emigration involv- ing an amount in excess of $100,000. Their report was satisfactory to both parties and the controversy ended. Twelve years
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were passed in quiet before Mr. Have- meyer again entered the public arena, to lead the fight against the Tweed Ring. Tammany Hall, under the control of Wil- liam M. Tweed, had become an organiza- tion of banditti, with the city treasury and the city's credit at its mercy. Many mil- lions of dollars were stolen and divided between Tweed and his confederates, their methods of plundering so ingenious and so well marked under a pretence of legitimate public expenditures, that even eminent financiers were deceived as to the real condition of affairs. So greatly were they deceived that they signed a certificate exonerating the "Ring," while the rank and file of Tammany Hall ac- claimed the leaders, who scattered with a free hand a share of the stolen funds among their followers.
Mr. Havemeyer, however, was one of the men who were not deceived, and in the spring of 1870 united with other patriotic citizens in organizing the New York City Council of Reform, whose ob- ject was to rescue the city from its plun- derers and bring the guilty to the bar of justice. Mr. Havemeyer was its first president, and presided at the first great meeting of citizens held at Cooper Insti- tute, April 6, 1871, and the still more im- portant meeting held at the same place, September 4, 1871, which created the Committee of Seventy, of which Mr. Havemeyer was for two months vice- president and afterwards president.
The story of the final overthrow of the corrupt "Ring" is a familiar one. After Mr. Havemeyer and Samuel J. Tilden gained access to the Broadway Bank in which the members of the "Ring" kept their accounts and obtained the legal proof of the enormous thefts, criminal prosecution completely broke the power of the "Ring" whose members fled, died, or gave themselves up to the law.
The mayoralty campaign of 1872 saw
Tammany Hall with a very respectable candidate, the Apollo Hall Democracy with another, but neither candidate had the endorsement of the Committee of Seventy which just then was a power in politics. The Republican party saw their opportunity and nominated William F. Havemeyer, whose record as a war Dem- ocrat was satisfactory to the Republicans and whose services in behalf of reform rendered him acceptable to the Commit- tee of Seventy. He was elected and for a third time occupied the highest execu- tive office of the city. His third term was a stormy one, being a series of contests with the Board of Aldermen. Party leaders and private cliques were anxious to dictate or control appointments. The discomfited but not annihilated followers of Tweed were on the alert to discredit him. An indiscreet word or act, an un- acceptable nomination, anything in short which either was or could be construed into a mistake was certain to be seized upon by vigilant antagonists and by selfish interests to which he refused to be subservient. But he. "fought the good fight," and "kept the faith," breaking down under the strain, however, and dying at his desk in the City Hall.
A New York morning journal none too friendly to him said: "He was a Mayor whose honesty of purpose had never been impugned," and that the real fruit of the Reform party "is to be seen in the puri- fied Democratic party which has just now, two years after the election of Mr. Havemeyer, carried New York by a ma- jority almost unexampled."
An impartial religious journal said : "He had been called in a trying time to fill a difficult position. More was ex- pected of him than he could perhaps ac- complish. Unfortunately for him he was controlled by a partiality for old friends with which the city had neither sympathy or patience. He knew the men with
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whom he had associated in years long gone by better than the men of to-day, and with the tenacity of a strong nature clung to them."
Mayor Havemeyer was for years a member of the board of trustees of Cen- tral Methodist Episcopal Church, was deeply interested in its property, gave liberally to its current expenses, to its benevolences and was a regular attend- ant on the public Sunday services.
Mayor Havemeyer married Sarah Agnes Craig, of Scotch ancestry. Her grandfather, James Craig, came from Paisley, Scotland, and settled at Bloom- ing Grove, Orange county, New York, and was the founder of the manufactur- ing village of Craigville, formerly known as Cromeline on Grey Court Creek, a powder mill said to have been located there during the Revolution. In 1790 James Craig erected a paper mill, the first in Orange county. His wife was the daughter of Captain Hector McNeil, who commanded the United States ship "Bos- ton" in 1777 and was third of the twenty- four naval captains appointed by Con- gress, October 10, 1776.
Their son, Hector Craig, was born in Scotland, coming to this country with his parents. In 1816 he was one of the in- corporators and secretary of the Bloom- ing Grove and New Windsor Turnpike and in 1818 also secretary of the Orange County Agricultural Society. In 1823- 25 he was a Congressman, again elected in 1829, but resigned before his term ex- pired to accept appointment by President Jackson in 1830 to the post of collector of the port of New York. He was re- moved from that office by President Van. Buren for political reasons. In 1832 he was commissioner of insolvency for the Southern District of New York. He mar- ried a daughter of John Chandler, of Blooming Grove, a large land owner,
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storekeeper and miller, also trading with the West Indies, a man of importance in Orange county. Their daughter, Sarah Agnes Craig, was a country bred girl, a fine horsewoman in her younger days. She was educated in the famous Emma Willard School at Troy, New York. Her marriage to William F. Havemeyer was a very happy one, and in her affection, practical intelligence and earnest coöper- ation her husband found much of inspi- ration that led him onward in a notable business and official career. Mrs. Have- meyer was the mother of ten children, her heart was centered in her home, and her husband and children were her joy and pride. She was very charitable, had deep religious convictions, was earnest and sincere, her example and teaching potent in moulding the lives and charac- ters of her children. She lived to the age of eighty-seven and between her and her third child, John C., there existed the most intimate fellowship. The family home was located in what is now a far down town section on Vandam street, adjoin- ing the sugar house, and there John Craig Havemeyer was born.
John Craig Havemeyer was born May 31, 1833, son of William Frederick and Sarah Agnes (Craig) Havemeyer. Until his eleventh year he attended various pri- vate schools, Miss Durant's, Greenwich and Charlton streets, Miss Houghton's, Vandam near Varick street, and Mr. Mar- tin's in Dominick street. At the age of eleven he was sent to the boarding school of Rev. Robert W. Harris, White Plains, New York. From a diary neatly kept during this period it is found that the studies he pursued were Latin, Greek, mathematics, French, geography, history and spelling and that the religious ele- ment was prominent in the training he there received. He remained at White Plains about two years, then entered the
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grammar school of Columbia College, there gaining special commendation for excellence in English. He was unusually facile in expressing himself in good Eng- lish while quite young and when but fourteen one of his youthful essays, "The Seasons," was admitted into the public print. During portions of 1848-49 he was a student at New York University, but ill health and particularly poor eyesight compelled him to withdraw from college. He, however, continued his studies in pri- vate and became a member of two debat- ing societies, the Philosophian Society, of which he was chosen president in 1850, and the Addisonian, which he was instru- mental in organizing in January, 1851. The debates in these societies in which the boy took active part were of great aid to him in cultivating that fluency, clarity and directness of expression for which he has always been noted. The abandonment of his college course was a severe blow to him and brought him much sadness and disappointment. For a time he did nothing, then attempted to secure a position but the fact that his father was mayor created a peculiar diffi- culty. He became discouraged and re- solved to "run away," and go by vessel to California, but his father learned of his plans and busied himself in the boy's behalf, finally securing him a position with his uncle in a grocery store on Ful- ton street, where he received fifty dollars for his first year's work.
The following pledge solemnly taken and kept with an extract from his diary reveals his moral and religious sentiment, deliberate judgment and will power, even in youth: "I, the undersigned, do hereby solemnly promise and declare that I will, as far as in me lies, totally abstain from the use of tobacco, snuff or segars, and in addition thereto do sol- emnly affirm that I will refrain partaking in large or small quantities of intoxicat-
ing liquors of any kind so ever from date until arrived at the age of twenty-one and if then this course be found beneficial whether or not I will follow this rule the rest of life, remains for myself to de- termine." The above has been drawn out and is now signed from a growing incli- nation towards indulging in them ex- hibiting itself. From his diary, date of November 14, 1850, this extract is taken :
In my eighteenth year, of moderate size and passable looks, engaged in the grocery business with an uncle, I sometimes feel a contentment and at others a depression of spirits which alter- nately makes me satisfied with my condition and again spreads on all objects around a gloom which a day of active exercise alone can dispel. But my trust is in God. He will answer my prayers and give me the equilibrium of disposi- tion, the sobriety of thought and activity of mind and body which I have long and earnestly de- sired. I wish to be neither too grave nor gay, but desire to unite the two traits in such a manner as will render me a happy medium.
Above all things I would be governed in my actions and thoughts by a high and holy principle which will lead me always to consider the right and justice; influence me to act kindly and gen- erously toward all, to relieve the wants of the destitute, encourage the disheartened and which will impart to my character a firmness and proper dignity and give to my feelings an elevation which shall act as a talisman to protect me from the low contaminations surrounding me, by which I sometimes fear that I have been somewhat corrupted.
From June 12, 1852, until March 27, 1853, he took an extended tour through Europe and the countries bordering the Mediterranean, a journey taken at his father's instance as a health measure, but for the young man it became a period of investigation and study, not mere sight- seeing. At Bueckeburg, the home of his German ancestors, he visited the house in which his grandfather was born. His let- ters from European cities and from the Holy Land display an interest in every- thing he saw, and a close observation that enabled him to write most interest-
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ingly and intelligently of the countries he visited. He returned to New York from Havre on the steamer "Humbolt," arriv- ing home in April, 1853.
With his return from Europe, Mr. Havemeyer began his business life in earnest. He became clerk in the Have- meyer & Moller Sugar House and in a few months wrote to his sister: "I went into the sugar house as clerk towards the last of December and have now (Jan- uary 30, 1853) entire charge of the office." During this period he was vice-president of the Everett Club, a debating society, and was active in the support of religion and the church.
On the last day of the year 1855 he signed a partnership agreement with Charles E. Bertrand, then beginning his independent career as a sugar refiner. The firm Havemeyer & Bertrand was located at Williamsburg at what is now the corner of South Third and First streets, Brooklyn. Six months later a cousin, F. C. Havemeyer, was admitted to the firm. The difficulty in getting proper machinery from Germany caused delay and loss, and after nine months of struggle Mr. Havemeyer sold his inter- est to Havemeyer & Moller.
In November, 1856, he started on a journey intending to travel east and west until he found a business opportunity and wherever he found a business opportun- ity there to settle, but after visiting Bos- ton and Worcester he returned to New York, there deciding to remain. In March, 1857, he entered the employ of Havemeyer & Moller and during the fall of that year made a business trip to De- troit and other places, a journey he re- cords in his diary as one on which he "made the acquaintance of several prin- cipal firms in the grocery business." In January, 1859, he made a special arrange- ment with the firm of William Moller & Company, Steam Sugar Refiners, as
salesman and agent, with power of attor- ney, his compensation $3,000 a year and a share of the net profits of the business. His responsibilities were very great and involved business trips to various parts of the country. The entries in his diary at this period, although meagre, show him to have been in improved health and spirits and very active in his business. Yet, business cares did not prevent his giving time to the church, Sunday school, Young Men's Christian Association, Bible Society and the Everett Club, and wherever he happened to be on a Sun- day he always attended Divine service.
About the end of January, 1860, Mr. Havemeyer left William Moller & Com- pany, and very soon afterward started independently as a commission merchant with offices first at No. 107 Water street, later at No. 175 Pearl street, also becom- ing a member of the New York Produce Exchange. It was at that time that Mr. Havemeyer, prompted by devotion to Christian business principle, had Scrip- tural quotations printed on his business letterheads. His father objected to the practice and in deference to him the prac- tice was discontinued. Mr. Havemeyer admitted his brother Henry to a partner- ship in 1865 under the firm name of John C. Havemeyer & Brother. Their busi- ness was largely in tobacco and rice, later many other articles were handled and journeys east, west and south were necessary. This business relation existed until July, 1869, when the firm of Have- meyer & Company, composed of Albert and Hector C. Havemeyer, engaged John C. Havemeyer to conduct the mercantile part of their sugar refining business with power of attorney. This was an ex- tremely responsible position, involving extensive purchases and sales of sugar ; "and any other articles for the use of or being the product of one refinery, or otherwise required by our business, to
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draw or endorse checks and orders for the payment of money, to make or in- dorse any promissory notes or bills of exchange, to borrow money and generally to negotiate and transact in the name and in behalf of said firm, all financial and commercial matters properly relating to said business as fully and effectually as either we or either of us as copartners in said firm could do if present." Under so wide a contract Mr. Havemeyer worked for nine months when Have- meyer & Company sold out to Have- meyer & Elder, January 7, 1870. From that time until 1880 Mr. Havemeyer was a member of the firm of Havemeyer Brothers & Company, Sugar Refiners, No. 89 Wall street. He sold his one- sixth interest in the firm in September, 1880, to John E. Searles, Jr., of No. 100 Wall street, retiring from that time on from all connection with the sugar busi- ness; often during later years it has been erroneously stated that he was a member of the "Sugar Trust." Many times he has been falsely attacked in that connec- tion and to disprove the charge he has in several instances publicly set forth his relations, terminating in 1880, to the busi- ness of sugar refining.
From 1880 until his retirement, Mr. Havemeyer confined his business opera- tions to real estate dealing in the States of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New York, and the region now the State of Oklahoma. During the seventies he was president of the Central Railroad of Long Island, associated as a bondholder with the Darien Short Line Railroad in 1893, in 1890 prominently connected with the reorganization of the Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad Company, and for some time was a trustee of the Con- tinental Trust Company of New York.
During the years 1876 to 1881 Mr. Havemeyer, as the executor of the will of his father, found himself with his brother
Henry the defendants in a suit brought by the administrators of the estate of his uncle, Albert Havemeyer, involving the charge of a breach of contract in the sale of a large amount of stock of the Long Island Railroad Company. Two juries decided against the defendants but on appeal the verdict was reversed, Judge William H. Taft, afterward President, was one of the judges who decided the case in John C. and Henry Havemeyer's favor.
In the home of his distinguished father and in subsequent social and business re- lations, Mr. Havemeyer frequently met men of great reputation and influence. One of these was Samuel J. Tilden, the great lawyer and Democratic idol, who used often to visit Mayor Havemeyer at his home, Mr. Tilden, a bachelor, then living on Union Square near Fourteenth street. He left a lasting impression on Mr. Havemeyer on account of his irregu- lar habits of life. He went to bed very late and got up very late, not before ten in the morning. He had false teeth and when agitated moved them about in his mouth and as his agitation increased would take them out and place them on the table. He drew up Mr. Havemeyer's partnership papers and warned him that it was important to look into all the de- tails of a partner's character, very much the same as when one got married. In the early eighties Mr. Havemeyer was connected in business with John Wana- maker, the great merchant and states- man, and has some interesting letters ex- changed with that great man, with Judge Taft, and many other men of an earlier day. Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll, the noted agnostic, was also brought in busi- ness touch with him, and an interesting correspondence between the two men is preserved, all the more interesting on ac- count of the abysmal difference between them in relation to Christian belief.
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For forty years after his marriage in 1872 Mr. Havemeyer made Yonkers his home and took a deep interest in promot- ing its prosperity. He advocated public parks, headed the agitation which result- ed in old historic Manor Hall being saved and transferred to the State of New York, and at the dedication of "Hollywood Inn," a non-sectarian club house for young men, represented St. John's Chapter of the Brotherhood of St. Andrew in a speech full of deep feeling. He was and is opposed to war on Christian grounds, depreciates the patriotism that is found- ed on military or naval prowess, believes that humanity and religion are above patriotism and the law of universal love before that of allegiance to one's country, and that as long as mankind shall con- tinue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors the thirst for military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters. He has maintained his positions in the religious and secular press, beginning at the age of seventeen with an article in the New York "Evening Post," of which Wil- liam Cullen Bryant was the editor, down to the present, taking issue with Theo- dore Roosevelt's article in the "Outlook" in 1909 on "Great Armaments and Peace," answering it in the "Christian Advocate" of New York. He was a Democrat by inheritance, but never has been narrowly partisan. He warmly supported Grover Cleveland for President, and in 1908 sup- ported Bryan, but with little enthusiasm, believing on the whole he represented better principles than his opponent. He bitterly opposed the use of the pulpit as a political rostrum. In 1903, when capi- tal and labor were in bitter controversy, Mr. Havemeyer endeavored to bring about a better mutual understanding by public discussion and at his own expense obtained Music Hall, Yonkers, in which to hold the meeting, his position being
wholly impartial, only seeking to estab- lish the fact that both capital and labor were under obligations to higher de- mands of humanity and religion.
Mr. Havemeyer was reared in the at- mosphere of a religious home, and at about the age of sixteen made an open profession of religion and joined the Methodist church. From this early age he associated himself actively with all departments of his church, believing them all essential to the development of the best type of Christian character. In 1862 he aided in founding the Christian Brotherhood of Central Methodist Epis- copal Church, New York, of which Rev. Alfred Cookman of sainted memory was pastor, and became its first president. After settling in Yonkers he joined the First Methodist Church and has never removed his membership. He was treas- urer of the building committee in charge of the erection of the present beautiful church edifice and he has been a devoted and influential layman of the church he loves for over sixty years. For a number of years he was closely associated with the work of the Evangelical Alliance and a member of the executive committee. In the work of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, he has taken a lively interest since youth, his membership dat- ing back to 1855 when the association occupied rooms in Clinton Hall, Astor Place. It was largely through his aid that the Yonkers branch was established. He was its first president, personally raised the first year's salary of the gen- eral secretary, was for years president of the board of trustees, was a recognized association speaker and addressed more Young Men's Christian Association audi- ences than any man in Yonkers, com- pleted the fund to pay off its mortgage indebtedness, and as the secretary writes : "There hangs in my office, just over my desk, a fine portrait of the kindly earnest,
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