USA > New York > Famous families of New York; historical and biographical sketches of families which in successive generations have been identified with the development of the nation, Vol. I > Part 14
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The younger son, William [1789], studied under the Rev. Thomas Ellison at Albany. Among his classmates was James
William Fenimore Cooper, the novelist. Their acquaintance
the Reformer ripened into a life-long friendship. He was graduated at Yale in 1808, took up law, but was obliged to leave it because of illness. In 1812, he espoused Augusta McVickar, and in 1815 he wrote his famous Memoir on the Subject of a General Bible Society for the United States, which was a prominent factor in the develop- ment of the great American Bible Society, which in the past century published and distributed several millions of copies of the Gospel. In 1818, he was made a judge of Westchester County, and he was subsequently reappointed. In 1843, he was removed from office by Governor William C. Bouck at the demand of the pro-slavery politicians of the State, and especially of New York City, who were bitterly opposed to Jay on account of the latter's avowed advocacy of abolition. Much of his leisure time the Judge devoted to literary work. Among his writings were essays upon the Sabbath as a civil and divine institution, temperance and intemperance, Sunday-schools and their development, duelling, the slavery question, emancipation, political righteousness, the duty of government, the African slave trade, and other topics of moral, religious, or political importance. The man was essentially a moral reformer so great that his views were at least thirty years ahead of his time. In his papers many of the sentiments are those which are heard to-day, and few of them belong to the period in which they were written. One, however, touched a responsive chord in the public heart. This was a monograph against duelling, so forcibly written as to excite general comment. It was published anonymously, and before the authorship was disclosed it was held up as a model by the Anti-duelling Association of Savannah, which awarded the unknown author a gold medal. Of remarkable prescience was his volume entitled War and Peace ; the Evils of the First, with a Plan for Securing the Last. In this he made a strong argument for international arbitration, and took almost the same ground as marked the debates of the delegates at the recent Peace Congress at The Hague. He had six children, of whom one
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was a son and five were daughters. All of them reached maturity, married, and left issue.
The oldest son of Peter Augustus, Dr. John Clarkson [1808], was graduated from Columbia in 1827, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1831. Dr. John He was an eminent practitioner, and at the same Clarkson time a scientist. He made a specialty of conchology, and accumulated a collection of shells which at the time was the best in the New World. This collection is now in the American Museum of Natural History, where it is still kept intact as the Jay Collection. He was one of the founders of the Lyceum of Natural History and of the New York Yacht Club. He married Laura Prime, by whom he had six children, two sons and four daughters. Peter Augustus II. [1821] married Jose- Peter
phine Pearson, by whom he had one son. Of the Augustus II. daughters of Peter Augustus, Mary Rutherford married Frederick Prime, from whom are descended the Garrettson, Russell, and Gib- bons families. Sarah married William Dawson, from whom are descended the Franklands. Catherine Helena married Dr. Henry A. Dubois, from whom are descended the Dubois families. Anna Maria married Henry E. Pierrepont, from whom come the Stuyve- sant, Pierrepont, Luker, and Moffatt families. Susan Matilda married Matthew Clarkson. Of the daughters of Judge William, Anna married the Rev. Louis P. W. Balch, Maria Banyer married John F. Butterworth, and Sarah Louisa married Dr. Alexander M. Bruen, from whom are descended the Bruens and Ides. Eliza married Henry Edward Pellew.
John [1817], the only son of Judge William, was graduated from Columbia College in 1836, and admitted to the bar in 1839. He had the intense vitality of his race, and was a promi- John the nent figure in New York life for sixty years. He was Writer
the bitter foe of slavery, a tireless philanthropist, and a leader of the civil-service movement. He served as United States Minister to Austria. A fluent writer, he contributed hundreds of timely articles to the American press. He married Eleanor Kingsland Field, by whom he had five children, one son and four daughters.
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In the sixth generation, the John Clarkson branch was repre- sented by Peter Augustus III., who was graduated from Colum- bia in 1863, and who married Julie Post, daughter of Dr. Alfred Post. Dr. John Clarkson 11. is one of New York's leading physi- cians. He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1865, and served during the Civil War in the United States Army hospitals at Washington and New Orleans. After the war, he went abroad and took a post-graduate course in Vienna and Prague. He was one of the founders of the New York Free Dis- pensary for Sick Children, and was appointed in 1892 a State Examiner of Lunacy. He married Harriette Arnold Vinton, daugh- ter of Major-General Vinton, U. S. A. Laura married Charles P. Wurts. Mary Jay married Jonathan Edwards. Augustus, the son of Peter Augustus II., was graduated from the Columbia Law School in 1876. He married Emily Astor Kane, the daughter of Delancey Kane. Of the children of John Jay, Minister to Austria, Eleanor married Henry G. Chapman, from whom are descended the Chapmans, Mortimers, and Barclays; Augusta married Edmund Randolph Robinson; Mary married William Henry Schieffelin, and Anna married Lieutenant-General von Schweintz.
William, who is best known as Colonel William [1841], son of the Minister to Austria, volunteered at the breaking out of the Colonel Rebellion, and served throughout the great conflict,
William making an enviable record for gallantry and fidelity. But to him war was a matter of duty and not of pleasure or profit. With the coming of peace, he resigned, entered the bar, and rose rapidly to a high rank in the profession. He was graduated from Columbia in 1859, and the Columbia Law School in 1867. He married Lucy Oelrichs, by whom he has one surviving daughter. To Colonel Jay New York owes largely the development of the old-time sport of coaching, he having been the president of the Coaching Club from 1876 to 1896. He is a member of the vestry of Trinity Church; and it is worthy of note that a Jay has been either a churchwarden or vestryman of that church since its foundation in 1697.
The career of the family in the New World is that of a strong,
Mrs. John Jay and her Children From the painting by R. E. Pine
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intelligent race, inspired by a compelling moral sense. This has marked every generation. Each individual family is characterized by health and fertility. Its sons are vigorous, its daughters sound and beautiful. In the mercantile world the men succeed, and in the social world the women always hold high places. Upon all moral questions the Jays are to be found on the side of conscience and of right. When it comes to a choice between two courses of action, they never permit the desire of gain or preferment to influence them in their determination. They fought strenuously for liberty of conscience, even when death and ruin were held up as the punishment for their temerity. They fought against tyranny and oppression in the New World, with the full knowledge that confiscation and death would be the penalty in case of failure. They were untiring in their opposition to slavery, although it cost them many political honors and offices. They were abolitionists, when abolitionism was a social disgrace. They were Republicans, when to be a Republican in New York meant danger, assault, and abuse. They were civil-service reformers even when threatened by the leaders of both of the party machines.
Two hundred years have not sufficed to change the fierce Huguenot strain in the Jay blood. Beneath the diplomat, the jurist, the physician, and even the society belle, there is a soldier or a hero. They have enriched the families into which they have married by adding these characteristic qualities. No matter under what name the descendants are known, the unswerving moral nature of the race is bound to crop out. Moral impulses are as large a factor in the evolution of society and civilization as mate- rial greatness or intellectual splendor. The majesty of the Empire State owes just as much to the moral heroism of the Jays as to the commercial genius of the Astors, the statesmanship of the Schuylers, or the organizing eminence of the Van Rensselaers.
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Rufus King From the painting by Trumbull
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XVIII
KING
N comparing the careers of famous fam- ilies, an observer cannot fail to be impressed by the marked difference in the fields of activity occupied by each as a whole. One family seems more or less identified with a great estate or a specific calling ; another with a city or a series of callings ; a third with a State ; and a fourth with several States or with the nation itself. Adams, for instance, is associ- ated with Massachusetts, Lee with Virginia, and Clinton with New York. In all these cases there seems to have been what may be termed a strong love of home or an absence of the nomadic or adventurous spirit. In striking con- trast are those families where these qualities have appeared in inverse ratio. Their male members have gone afar and have at- tained distinction in other cities, States, and even lands. Nowhere is this more noticeable than with the King family, which is of Mass- achusetts origin, but which has become famous in at least six States - Massachusetts, Maine, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, and Wis- consin. Remarkably strong and prolific, it has produced so many influential citizens that it would be inadvisable to pay attention to any outside of those of New York.
The family was founded in this country by John King of Kent,
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England, who came to the New World about 1702, and settled in Boston, Mass. He married Mary Stowell, by whom he had John the several children. Of these, Richard, the eldest,
Founder was born in Boston in 1718, and from his early youth displayed singular vitality, ability, and versatility. He was a merchant, trader, speculator, soldier, farmer, and writer, in all of which callings he made his mark. After serving in the expedition against Louisburg, during the war with France, he moved to Scarborough, Me., which became the permanent home of himself and of some of his descendants. He was twice mar- ried. His first wife, Isabella Bragdon, bore him three children, Rufus the of whom Rufus, the eldest [1755], became the head
Senator of the New York house. Mary Black, his second wife, bore him five children, of whom William became the first Governor of the State of Maine, and Cyrus a noted Congressman from Massachusetts.
Rufus was graduated at Harvard in 1777, and studied law with Theophilus Parsons, one of the leading jurists of that time. In the Revolution he was aide-de-camp to General Glover, under General Sullivan's command, and proved himself a brave and faith- ful soldier. Of his war experiences, a thrilling story is extant. Young King, the General, and the officers were at breakfast about a mile distant from Quaker Hill, where a lively cannonading was in progress. The meat had not been served when the General ordered King to ride over and ascertain how the engagement was going. The young officer shook his head sorrowfully at losing his morning meal, but nevertheless sprang from his chair on hear- ing his commander's words, and ran to where his horse was standing. As he did so H. Sherbourne, another officer, slipped into his chair at the table, smiling at the departing aide-de-camp. King had scarcely mounted his horse when a stray cannon-ball entered the dining-tent and mangled Sherbourne's foot and ankle so badly that the leg had to be removed. Sherbourne recovered and was on warm terms of friendship with King for the rest of his life, but ever afterwards he claimed that King owed him leg and foot-service, while King, on the other hand, invariably removed
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his hat and thanked Sherbourne for his courtesy in substituting his own leg for King's in the trying ordeal.
In 1783, Rufus King was elected a member of the Massachu- setts General Court, and in 1784 was made a delegate to the Continental Congress at Trenton, being returned in 1785 and 1786. He took a very active part in the deliberations of that body, and was a member of several important committees. In 1787, he was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Philadelphia Convention which made the present Constitution of the Republic. In this struggle, upon which depended the future of the young common- wealth, King was easily one of the great leaders. After the final draft had been made and the bill referred to the thirteen States for their several adoption, he was sent to Massachusetts by Congress to secure its passage by that State, which occurred in 1788. On March 31, 1786, he married Mary Alsop, daughter of John Alsop, a member of the First Continental Congress from New York, to which State he transferred his domicile in 1789, shortly after Massachusetts had adopted the Constitution. He had been so busy with his political duties that he had had no time to make himself acquainted with the people of his new home. Great, therefore, was his surprise in the same year when they elected him to the New York Assembly, and greater still, a few days after joining that body, when made their choice, with Philip Schuyler for colleague, as Senator from the Empire State to the First Con- gress of the nation.
His elevation to the Senate disclosed to him the fact that he was as much respected in New York as in Massachusetts. His career at Washington was marked by ability and fidelity, as well as by infinite patience. He was always in his seat, and attended every session of the committees to which he belonged. He took a strong part in the important debates of the period, and was instrumental in shaping the course of legislation as well as the policy of the Government. Now that more than a century has elapsed, it is easy to see that he was one of the great men of that body, and that to him was due much of the welfare which the nation subsequently enjoyed. In 1796, he was chosen
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by George Washington to be Minister to the Court of St. James, where he remained during the administration of Adams and for two years of Jefferson's. Much work devolved upon the Minister at that time, more, in fact, than is the case to-day, but King, with characteristic industry, attended to every matter, great and small, working sometimes eighteen and twenty hours out of the twenty- four. He stood the strain for seven years, and then, finding that his health was giving way, he was relieved at his own request. Upon his return to New York, he settled at Jamaica, L. I., where his mansion house was soon the centre of a large literary and political circle. Here for several years he led a studious but busy life, expressing himself with force upon the public questions which arose from year to year. In all of these utterances he was actuated by the sense of right, and frequently took issue with his own party. In 1813, he was again chosen by the Legislature of New York as Senator of the United States, and he was re-elected for the third time in 1820, nearly unanimously, only three votes dissenting. As early as 1785, he took strong grounds against slavery and its exten- sion. Later he stanchly advocated the plan of converting the pro- ceeds of the sale of Government lands into a fund for the purpose of emancipating slaves or for their removal, as might be desired by the individual States. In 1825, he was again appointed Minister to England, where he was heartily welcomed, but after a few months he found that his declining strength was insufficient to meet the labors of the office, and, with the deep conscientiousness which marked his life, he resigned and returned home. He died in 1827, leaving five sons.
In the third generation, each of the five sons of the great Senator proved worthy children of their sire. John Alsop, the John Alsop oldest [1788], was educated at Harrow and in Paris. the Governor On his return to New York, he was admitted to the bar. In the War of 1812, he volunteered and served in the army up to the declaration of peace, becoming lieutenant of cavalry. A few years later (1819) he was elected to the Assembly, which position he held for several terms. In 1823, he was a State Sen- ator, in 1825, Secretary of the American Legation in London, and
Mrs. Rufus King From the painting by Trumbull
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in 1849 a Congressman. In 1856, he was elected Governor of New York State. For many years he was President of the State Agri- cultural Society, and was an earnest advocate of all measures tending to benefit the farming interests of the commonwealth. He took a deep interest in public affairs up to the very end of his life, serving as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1867, when seventy-nine years of age. He died the following year. His wife was Mary Ray, by whom he had seven children, three sons and four daughters.
Charles, the second son [1789], was an Assemblyman (1813), a soldier in the war with England (1814), an editor (1820), and President of Columbia College from 1849 to 1864. He President was conservative in his tendencies, and more of a Charles scholar than a man of the world. In his editorial labors he set high standards, and for many years was a distinguished literary critic. In his administration of Columbia, he bent his energies toward elevating the scholarship of that institution, and did much toward putting it on a plane with the older schools of the land, and changing it from a college to a university. During his term the institution was removed, in 1857, from its down-town site to Madison Avenue and Forty-ninth Street. This change was marked by the raising of standards and the creation of new chairs. The following year the Law School was established, which has since grown into one of the leading professional schools of the world. In 1860 was brought about the consolidation whereby the College of Physicians and Surgeons became the medical depart- ment of Columbia College. Most notable of all was the creation of the School of Mines in 1864, the year in which he resigned. He had foreseen the future importance of science in the university curriculum, and was one of the first scholars who favored the elevation of science to a parity with the classics. After the trus- tees had agreed upon the new department, he made it a point to urge thoroughness in the new foundation. It was on account of this labor of love that the School of Mines was established upon the largest and most generous scale then known in the United States. Charles married Eliza Gracie, daughter of Archibald
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Gracie, by whom he had seven children, three sons and four daughters; and upon the death of his first wife he espoused Hen- rietta Low, by whom he had six children.
James Gore [1791], third son of Rufus, studied in London, Paris, and at Harvard, being graduated from the last in 1810.
Owing to these educational advantages, he was recog-
James Gore the Financier nized as one of the most cultured men in the first half of the century. In the War of 1812, when but twenty-three, he was Assistant Adjutant-General of the New York militia. In 1815 he established, under the firm name of James G. King & Co., a commission house in New York, his partner being his father-in- law, Archibald Gracie. In 1818, he gave up business in this city, and went to England, where, at Liverpool, he formed a partner- ship with his brother-in-law under the title of King & Gracie. Here he remained six years, winning the friendship and esteem of many famous merchants. Notable among these was John Jacob Astor, who subsequently named Mr. King as an executor of his will and a trustee of the Astor Library. At Mr. Astor's suggestion, Mr. King became a partner in the house of Prime, Ward, Sands, King, & Co., which in 1826 became the firm of Prime, Ward, & King.
He prospered in business and became a leader in the Wall Street world. When the financial crisis of 1837 took place, he crossed to Great Britain and induced the governors of the Bank of England to send five millions in gold to his house for the relief of American bankers. This prompt action restored confidence, brought back specie payments, and put a quick end to the panic, which might otherwise have worked incalculable harm. He be- came a member of the Chamber of Commerce in 1817; he served as its Vice-President [1841-1847], and as President [1848-1849]. In the latter year he was elected to Congress from New Jersey, and served one term in that body, his service being marked by his business ability. He fathered what was known as the " King system" for collecting the revenue, which was adopted by the Government, and has remained practically unchanged ever since. Prior to that time there were many minor officials, each one of
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whom enjoyed a quasi-independence of the rest. King saw that this was unbusinesslike, and that in so important a matter as the collecting of a nation's income the system should be as thoroughly organized and centralized as in any great commercial house. The rapidity with which the nation now transacts its business affairs is, therefore, a monument to the genius of James Gore King, the financier. He married Sarah Rogers Gracie, daughter of Archibald Gracie, and sister of Eliza, who married his brother Charles. The union was a very happy one, being blessed by eight children, three sons and five daughters.
Edward [1795], fourth son of Rufus, was a student at Colum- bia College and the Litchfield Law School, and was admitted to the Ohio bar upon his coming of age. He was one of the pioneers of that State, his greatest work being the founding of the Cincin- nati Law School in 1833. He married Sarah Worthington, by whom he had two sons. A physician, Frederic Gore Dr. Frederic [1801], was the fifth and youngest son of Rufus. He Gore was graduated from Harvard in 1821, and took his medical degree from Columbia in 1824. He finished his studies in Italy and France in the following year, and then returned to New York, where he soon became a prominent practitioner. He was a staff physician of the New York Hospital and a demonstrator of anatomy in the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He married Emily Post, daughter of Dr. Wright Post, but the union proved childless.
While the third generation was entirely male, the fourth had a preponderance of women, there being eighteen granddaughters to thirteen grandsons. Of the former, those who married were : Mary, to Phineas M. Nightingale; Elizabeth Ray, to Brigadier-Gen- eral Henry Van Rensselaer, U. S. A .; Caroline, to her cousin, James Gore II .; Eliza Gracie, to the Rev. Charles Henry Halsey; Esther, to James G. Martin; Alice C., to Andrew Bell Paterson; Emily S., to Stephen Van Rensselaer Paterson; Gertrude, to Eugene Schuy- ler; Mary A., to William H. Waddington, French Minister at the Court of St. James; Caroline, to Denning Duer; Harriet, to Dr. George Wilkes; Mary, to Edgar H. Richards ; Frederica Gore, to John C. B. Davis, Minister to Germany; and Fanny L., to James
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L. McLane. Of the grandsons, eleven grew up and filled im- portant places in the community. Charles Ray, the oldest son
Doctor of John Alsop, was graduated from Columbia in 1831, Charles Ray and from the University of Pennsylvania, in medicine, in 1824. He became a successful physician, and married Hannah Fisher. Upon her death he espoused her sister, Nancy Fisher. John Alsop 11. married Mary Colden Rhinelander. Richard 11. married Elizabeth Lewis. Rufus Il. was graduated
Brig .- Gen. Rufus II. from West Point, served in the Engineer Corps, and was engaged upon the construction of Fortress Monroe. He left the army, and became an engineer on the Erie Railway. Thereafter he entered journalism, and at one time edited the New York Daily Advertiser. He went to Wisconsin, where he was made editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. He was a member of the Constitu- tional Convention of Wisconsin, and for his services to the State was appointed Minister to Rome in March, 1861. On the out- break of the Rebellion, he resigned from the diplomatic service in order to enter the army, and rose to the rank of brigadier-general. His health breaking down, he retired from the service, and was reappointed as Minister to Rome, but returned home in 1867. He married Susan Elliott.
William Gracie, son of Charles, was graduated from Colum- bia (1834), and married Adeline McKee. Cornelius Low was graduated from Columbia (1848), and entered the army at the outbreak of the Civil War, in which he became lieutenant-colonel. He married Julia Lawrence, and, upon her death, Janet de Kay. James Gore II. married Caroline King. Archibald Gracie married Elizabeth Denning Duer.
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