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 5
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The Pilgrims; the American Philosophi- cal Society; American Psychological Association ; New England Association ; American Historical Association (life) ; Germanistic Society; American Scandi- navian Society; University Settlement Society; National Red Cross (life) ; National Commission of Education ; New York Chamber of Commerce; and Ameri- can Society of International Law. His clubs are the Century, Church, Metropoli- tan, University, Barnard, Columbia Uni- versity, Authors', Garden City Golf, Ard- sley, Lotos, Round Table, St. Andrew's Golf, Apawamis Golf, Metropolitan (Washington), and Bohemian (San Fran- cisco).
Dr. Butler takes a keen interest in politics, and is a brilliant speaker on topics of this nature as well as on edu- cational and scientific subjects. He is also a prolific writer, and among the many noteworthy products of his pen might be mentioned: "The Meaning of Education"; "True and False Demo- cracy"; "The American As He Is"; "Philosophy"; "Why Should We Change Our Form of Government"; "The Inter- national Mind"; "Education in the United States"; "Is America Worth Saving and Other Addresses"; "Scholarship and Ser- vice"; etc. He received the degree of LL. D. from Syracuse University, 1898; Tulane, 1901 ; Johns Hopkins, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale, 1902; University of Chicago, 1903; St. Andrew's and Manchester, 1905; Wil- liams, 1908; Harvard and Dartmouth, 1909; University of Breslau, 1911; and D. Lit. from the University of Oxford, 1905.
Dr. Butler married (first), February 7, 1887, Susanna Edwards Schuyler, daugh- ter of J. Rutsen Schuyler, of Bergen Point, New Jersey. One daughter was
born to them. Mrs. Butler died January 10, 1903. He married (second), March 5, 1907, Kate La Montagne.
MORTON, Levi Parsons,
Statesman, Financier.
Rarely in the history of the world has one man combined the qualities of a financier, a statesman, and a diplomat, all of the first magnitude. This powerful trinity is the distinction of Levi P. Morton. His knowledge of financial affairs, national and international, his wealth, his political insight and prestige, his all-conquering personality were all contributed to the service of his country. Levi P. Morton was born at Shoreham, Vermont, May 16, 1824, son of Rev. Daniel Oliver and Lucretia (Parsons) Morton. A paternal ancestor was that George Morton, of York, England, who was financial agent of the Mayflower Puritans in London, and who came over in the ship "Anne" which arrived at Ply- mouth, Massachusetts, in 1623. George Morton established his family at Mid- dleboro, Plymouth County, Massachu- setts, where descendants still reside. His son, John Morton, was the first delegate to represent Middleboro in the General Court at Plymouth in 1670, which service he repeated in 1672. A maternal ancestor was Cornet Joseph Parsons, of the cav- alry troop and the bearer of the colors, who was the father of the first child born at Northampton, Massachusetts.
Mr. Morton received a public school education, and graduated from Shoreham Academy. Dartmouth College conferred on him the degree of LL. D., July 14, 1891, and Middleburg College, Vermont, added a similar honor in 1892. At fifteen he entered a country store at Enfield, Massachusetts, which he left in order to
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Levi P. Martin
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begin in mercantile business in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1843. He next extend- ed his circle of activities to Boston, Massachusetts, beginning as a clerk with James M. Beebe & Company and becom- ing a partner, all in the space of four years. His next move was to New York, Mecca of the ambitious, where limitless opportunities opened up before this bril- liant young man. Continuing his mercan- tile business in Boston, he conducted one simultaneously in New York until he had a secure footing there. He then estab- lished the banking firm of L. P. Morton & Company, in 1863. Soon a foreign branch was added under the firm name of L. P. Morton, Burns & Company. In 1869 there was an entire reorganization under the name of Morton, Bliss & Company, of New York, and Morton, Rose & Company, of London, with Sir John Rose, then finance minister of Can- ada, partner in the London firm. Since Mr. Morton had made a careful study of the financial transactions of the United States Government, his firm was one of the syndicates to assist in refunding the national debt, which made the resumption of specie payments possible at a fixed rate. The London firm was appointed financial agent of the United States Government in 1873 and continued to 1884, and again in 1889. With the dissolution of Morton, Bliss & Company, the Morton Trust Company, with offices at No. 140 Broad- way, was established in 1899. Other activities in the financial world through- out the later years of his life included directorate duties in the .Equitable Life Assurance Company, the Home Insur- ance Company, the National Bank of Commerce, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Industrial Trust Company of Provi- dence, and the Newport Trust Company.
The Morton Trust Company was merged with the Guaranty Trust Company in 1910.
His first official representation of the United States was his appointment by the President as honorary commissioner to the Paris Exposition in 1878. His politi- cal career proper began with his election to Congress as a Republican from the Eleventh District of New York, previ- ously Democratic, by an overwhelming majority. He served from 1879 to 1883, on record as opposed to unlimited silver coinage, and a well-informed and keenly interested member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 46th Congress. Offered a choice of a place in the Cabinet as Secretary of the Navy or the French mission, he chose the latter, and served as Minister to France from 1881 until 1885, when he resigned his office under Grover Cleveland's administration of the Presidency. He secured the temporary revocation of a French prohibition of American pork products, and recogni- tion of American financial and commer- cial corporations in France. He drove the first rivet in the Bartholdi statue of "Liberty Enlightening the World," and on July 4, 1884, accepted on behalf of his government the completed statue. Though a candidate for the United States Senate, he failed to win this honor. In 1888 he was nominated for vice-president of the United States by a large majority and elected on the ticket with Benjamin Har- rison. From 1889 to 1893 he presided with dignity and fairness over the Senate and won high esteem.
In November, 1894, the ability and ex- perience of Mr. Morton were given over to the service of New York State, when he became Governor by a preponderating number of votes. He put into force the
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new constitution, the fourth, and began a sixteen year period of Republican con- trol of New York. In his inaugural address, Governor Morton laid down his executive principle that the governor should never interfere with the work of the Legislature beyond the precise line which his constitutional duty and obli- gation warranted. He used the veto spar- ingly, but frequently influenced the with- drawel of obnoxious bills by anticipatory conferences with the authors. The work- ing out of the new constitutions with the new boards and commissions it en- tailed was an arduous task, for which a more suitable executive than Governor Morton would have been hard to find. During his term Greater New York grew out of the consolidation of New York City, Brooklyn, and Long Island City. More effective control of liquor traffic and a reorganization of the National Guard are minor achievements in a splen- did total. In this, as in all offices, Gover- nor Morton was distinguished for execu- tive ability, prudent administration, courtesy, modesty and graciousness.
He was a generous and faithful member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and a member of many associations and clubs. The Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, the New England Society, the Metropolitan Club, the Union League Club, the Lawyers', Republican, and Downtown clubs, all claimed his membership.
After some years of retirement on his estate, "Ellerslie," at Rhinecliff-on-the- Hudson, he died May 16, 1920.
Levi P. Morton married (first) Lucy Kimball, who died in 1871. He married (second), February 12, 1873, Anna Liv- ingston Street, and they were the parents of five daughters : Edith Livingston, Lena, Helen, Alice, and Mary.
PERKINS, Edward Ellsworth,
Lawyer, Financier, Political Leader.
The professional career of Edward E. Perkins, of Poughkeepsie, New York, lawyer and financier, and one of the best known men of that section, began in the town of which he is yet a resident and of which at the age of twenty-one he was elected a justice of the peace. His advent into the business world followed closely upon his admission to the New York bar, and he has been identified with important corporate interests in New York and Texas, His prominence as a citizen has kept pace with his business and profes- sional success, and he has been a leader of the Democracy of Dutchess County with a record of nine years of unbroken success as chairman of the County Com- mittee. Now, just at the prime of his splendid powers, he reviews a career of successful law practice that still contin- ues, is the honored chief executive of the First National Bank of Poughkeepsie, and finds his voice yet potent in high Democratic councils.
Edward Ellsworth Perkins was born in the town of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, February 4, 1863, and there attended the district schools until completing the courses they offered. In 1878 he became a student at Pelham Institute in the City of Poughkeepsie, finishing a three-year course at that insti- tution. He then spent two years at home, on the old Spackenkill Farm, his birth- place, and in 1883 began the study of law under the preceptorship of O. D. M. Baker, of Poughkeepsie. In 1884 he was elected a justice of the peace, an office he held for three years. In 1886 he was ad- mitted to the New York bar at the December term of the Supreme Court held in Brooklyn, standing first in a class of seventy members. He at once began
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the practice of his profession in the office of his preceptor, Mr. Baker, of Pough- keepsie, there continuing until 1890, when he became identified with New York and Philadelphia capitalists in Texas investments and spent three years in that State, returning to Poughkeepsie in 1893 and resuming the practice of law, which he has continued to the present time.
As early as 1887 Mr. Perkins became identified with Poughkeepsie business undertakings by aiding in the organiza- tion of the Poughkeepsie and South- Eastern Railroad Company extending from Poughkeepsie to Hopewell Junction, serving that company as its first secretary and treasurer. In 1890 he began his career in Texas in association with New York City and Philadelphia capitalists and located in Fort Worth, where they organized and built an extension of the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad from Commache to Brownwood. On the com- pletion of that line Mr. Perkins became associated with T. L. Marselis, of Dal- las, Texas in extending and completing the Dallas & Oak Cliff Railroad, and later in the building of the Fort Worth & Dallas Railroad between Fort Worth and Dallas. While in Fort Worth he was elected president of the American Savings Bank and Trust Company ; also was appointed by The Travelers Insur- ance Company of Hartford as their finan- cial agent for the State of Texas in the department of mortgages, loans and in- vestments. In 1893 Mr. Perkins effected the organization of the American National Bank of Fort Worth and was chosen director and first vice-president. The same year he returned to Poughkeepsie and resumed the practice of law, but he has also continued his financial connec- tions with the business interests of his
N.Y .- 8-3
community. In 1906 he was elected president of the Evening Enterprise Publishing Company, and in 1909 he was made chief executive of the First National Bank of Poughkeepsie. In 1918 he merged the interests of the two evening papers,-the "Evening Star" and the Enterprise Publishing Company, under the name of the Evening Star and Enter- prise Publishing Company, and was elec- ted president of the new organization. He aided in organizing the Hudson Gas & Electric Company; the Upper Hudson Railway & Electric Company; and the United Hudson Electric Company ; in all of these holding directorships. He is also a director of The Shatz Hardware Manu- facturing Company. He is a life member of the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion ; and his clubs are the Amrita, Dut- chess, Dutchess Golf and Country, and the Poughkeepsie Automobile.
A lifelong Democrat, Mr. Perkins has attained leadership in his city and county, succeeding the late Major J. W. Hinkley, of Poughkeepsie. For nine years Mr. Perkins was chairman of the Dutchess County Democratic Committee, and dur- ing that period was victorious in every election. In August, 1910, he was elected president of the Democratic County Chairmen's Association, of the State of New York, and in 1914 he was elected to the treasurership of the New York Demo- cratic State Committee. He is a wise political leader, his advice and counsel being sought and valued by party leaders. On July 11, 1918, during the World War emergency, he was appointed by the governors of the Federal Reserve, county director in the certificate of indebtedness organization. He brought the bankers of his county together and successfully dealt with many problems arising in con- nection with the war finance committee.
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Mr. Perkins married, June 23, 1891, Mary D. Beard, daughter of Colonel O. T. and Elizabeth (Mosgrove) Beard, of Poughkeepsie. Mr. and Mrs. Perkins are the parents of four children: I. Olive Elizabeth, married, in January, 1919, the Marquis Fanino de Amico, of Milan, Italy. 2. Jeane Maria, married, in June, 1922, Prince Fabrizio Colono, of Rome, Italy. 3. Argenta, married in August, 1920, Louis A. Penaherrera, secretary of the Equador Legation, Paris, France. 4. Edward Reginald, born in April, 1899, served with the American Expeditionary Forces in France with the rank of sergeant, during the war with Germany, and is now (1924) engaged in the lumber business in Genoa, Italy.
BARNARD, Hon. Joseph Folger, Jurist.
Unreserved distinction accorded by his contemporaries placed a favorite son of Poughkeepsie, New York, Hon. Joseph Folger Barnard, on the pinnacle of fame as the greatest legal luminary of his time in the State of New York and the most prominent member of the Dutchess County bar, and who served for thirty- six years as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, the longest record for length of service in that high office in that State. This intellectual giant, whom nature had endowed with, and long prac- tice had perfected, a judicial tempera- ment, stamped upon the court annals of his day and generation the remarkable impress made by the rendering of more that 100,000 decisions, covering an ex- tremely wide range of cases, which to this day are quoted as authority more frequently by trial lawyers and judges than the utterances of any other Jurist in the State. Three New York governors
delighted to honor this man by reappoint- ing him, under a special act of the Legis- lature, to serve on the Supreme Bench after retirement made compulsory by the age limit. Here was a justice who, according to many of his legal brethren, possessed all the attributes of a judicial mind, at the same time all the safeguards supposed to be thrown around the liti- gants in a case by a jury of their peers ; so that counsel, when appearing before him, often decided to dispense with a jury trial, preferring to repose their con- fidence in his arbitrament on questions of fact. After his retirement from the bench he was frequently called upon to act as referee, and to his death he retained unimpaired all his abilities and his mental faculties. He departed this life January 6, 1904.
The following tribute might well serve as the best epitaph that could be en- graved upon his tomb :
In law always just and impartial, in social life a lover of domesticity, fond of anecdote and epigram, with a keen sense of wit and humor, no man ever questioned his strict integrity or his sin- cere desire in all his rulings and decisions to accomplish the ends of justice and equity, while adhering to the strict requirements of law.
The Barnard family, of whom came Justice Barnard, had their origin in England. That the members were of high standing in the realm is shown by the fact that Burke's "Armory of Eng- land, Scotland and Ireland" has nineteen coats-of-arms registered for the Barnards. Nearly all of these were granted to Eng- lish branches of the family. Judge Barnard was a descendant of Thomas Barnard, who came from England, in 1659, with the King's Patent, and settled in Nantucket. Of him came Captain Frederic Barnard, the master of a whal- ing vessel sailing out of Nantucket, who
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Igamany
1233359
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
married Margaret Allen. They were the parents of Judge Barnard, born at Pough- keepsie, New York, September 18, 1823. His father was well known to the older citizens of Poughkeepsie and often delighted them with the traditions of Nantucket and tales of the whaling trade. His home was on Cannon Street, where Judge Barnard first saw the light.
Judge Barnard received a well rounded education. He attended the public schools of Poughkeepsie and the Dut- chess County Academy. He was gradu- ated from Yale College, class of 1841, degree of Bachelor of Arts. After a pri- vate course of study in law with Stephen Cleveland and Henry Swift, both of whom in their time were leaders in the profession, he was admitted to practice, 1844, and for twenty eventful years he advised an ever increasing number of clients and tried numerous and important cases before the courts. January 1, 1864, Judge Barnard took his seat as a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial District of the State of New York, and continued in service there for eight years. He then was reelected for fourteen years ; and at the end of twenty- two years of continuous service, he again was reelected for a fourteen year term, both political parties uniting in bestowing this honor upon him. On December 31, 1893, having reached the age limit, seventy years, he was retired from the bench and resumed the private practice of law. But it was for only a brief period that he was absent from the Supreme Bench, because Governor Morton prompt- ly took advantage of a constitutional provision permitting the appointment of a Justice of the Supreme Court, who had reached the age limit, to resume service for the remainder of the term for which he had been elected, and the Governor
replaced Justice Barnard in his former position. Governors Black and Roose- velt did likewise in giving him reappoint- ments; and he, therefore, was given the rare privilege of rounding full thirty-six years on the Supreme Court, which is the longest period for similar service to be recorded in New York State. Judge Barnard was the presiding Justice of the General Term in 1870 by special appoint- ment by the Governor.
A historian of earlier years in Dutchess County had the following to say of the service of Judge Barnard to the bench and bar :
The group of lawyers . . . . undoubtedly embraces the most brilliant and powerful advocates that have ever adorned the Dutchess County bar, the Barnard brothers (Joseph F., George G., Frederick and Robert) Homer A. Nelson, Charles Wheaton, Allard Anthony and William I. Thorn. Their names are all fresh in the memories of the present generation, and mouldy tradition does not have to be resorted to to pass judgment upon their abilities and achievements. The present bar hears with interest the many stories of their doings and pro- ceedings in their early days, when business was dull and clients were scarce, but the legal battles fought between these trained legal gladiators in later years are recalled with interest and excite- ment by many of the present bar who remember well the magnificent contests of which they were spectators. It is hard to tell where the palm of supremacy should go. Each excelled the other in some quality, but each was a forceful, resourceful and eloquent trial lawyer.
Judge Barnard was incomparably the greatest legal character that Dutchess County has ever produced. A fine scholar, a trained lawyer, an incorruptible and fearless man, he had all the tools necessary and proper for use in his life work, and he used them, if not to perfection, at least so as to earn and receive the respect and reverence not only of the bar but of the people of the entire judicial district. Austere in his appearance, quick and impetuous in his language, he had under his brusque demeanor the heart of a child. Impatient of the fetters of legal procedure, caring little or nothing for precedent, his whole aim was to do justice in each particular case. He was particu- larly helpful to young and inexperienced practi-
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tioners, and particularly to the young men whom he saw studying in the surrounding offices; and it was a chilly day for the veteran when one of these verdant practitioners appeared in Judge Barnard's court against him.
Judge Barnard was a Democrat in poli- tics. When the City Bank of Pough- keepsie was organized, 1860, he was elec- ted as its first president.
Judge Barnard married, January 7, 1862, Emily B. Hasbrouck, daughter of Abraham B. and Julia F. (Ludlum) Has- brouck, of Kingston, New York. His father-in-law was for ten years president of Rutgers College, and was also repre- sentative in Congress from Ulster County, New York. Judge and Mrs. Barnard were the parents of Frederic Barnard, of whom further, and Mrs. James Lenox Banks, of New York City.
BARNARD, Frederic, Attorney-at-Law.
For the manifestation of his public spirit, as well as for the enviable reputa- tion borne by a distinguished family name, the city of Poughkeepsie has been honored by making its scenes the home and business circle of Frederic Barnard, lawyer, and son of Judge and Mrs. Joseph Folger Barnard, the father having been for three decades and a half a member of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He has been practicing at the Dutchess County bar approaching thirty years. In 1923 he gave to the Rural Cemetery a work of art in the form of a sundial mounted on an expensive column at a cost of $5,000.
Frederic Barnard was born in Pough- keepsie, December 7, 1864. He was edu- cated in the Bishop's private school of his home city, and at Yale University, class of 1885, degree of Bachelor of Arts. On the completion of his studies he read
law in the office of Hackett & Williams, of Poughkeepsie. He prepared for the bar at the Law School of Columbia Uni- versity, class of 1886, and was admitted to the bar, in February, 1887, at Brooklyn, New York. He entered upon his practice at Poughkeepsie, and subsequently for one year, 1894, was associated with his father. When Judge Barnard resumed his judicial duties on the Supreme Bench, the son, Frederic Barnard, returned to practice alone, in which he still continues. Merited appreciation was given when Mr. Barnard, in the summer of 1923, pre- sented to the Rural Cemetery of Pough- keepsie the artistically designed and charmingly located sundial, which is suit- ably inscribed with legends that enhance the appropriateness of the gift of its public-spirited donor. A local newspaper, in according recognition of the giver and the gift, says :
That the latter is destined, as it becomes gen- erally known, to be accorded distinguished place among the works of art in this section of the Hud- son Valley.
Frederic Barnard, of Poughkeepsie, has placed, about three hundred feet west of the main entrance to the cemetery, at the point where all the driveways con- verge, a sundial which is unique and mag- nificent and which must be seen and stu- died to be appreciated.
Mention of a sundial calls forth in most minds the thought of a low slender column, supporting a small dial-face, but Mr. Barnard's gift is quite the opposite in character. It is massive, substan- tial, dignified and, in its material aspect, carries the suggestion, not of the rapid and evanescent flight of time, but of eternal, unmoved and unchang- ing values in the universe. This impression is conveyed by the size and the proportions of the whole creation and by the material in which it has been wrought. Within a grassy circle four sets of approaching steps lead to a square platform of granite on which stands the carved pedestal weigh- ing three tons that bears the bronze dial. The
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Frederic Barnard
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
granite is exceptional in that the usual gray is shot through with reds and greens, and the stone will ultimately be softened by the weather into beauti- ful color-tones. It is known as Tiffany granite and is found only in a quarry at Cohasset, Massachu- setts, owned by the Tiffany Studios of New York City. Louis C. Tiffany has had general charge of the design for Mr. Barnard's gift, and Edwin Stanton George, manager of the Tiffany Studios, has given his special oversight to the execution of the plans. Alexander J. Cowe, superintendent of construction, has directed the work at the quarry and the assembling and erection of the parts at Poughkeepsie.
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