USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 53
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
Mr. Pyne's grandfather, Percy R. Pyne, who came from England, was president of the National City Bank and was prominent as a philanthropist. He married Catherine S. Taylor, daughter of Moses Taylor, one of the fore- most merchants and financiers of the city in his day. He was the head and practical creator of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railway. Through another line of paternal descent Mr. Pyne includes among his ances- tors James Rivington, founder and publisher of Rivington's Gazette, who was a very prominent figure in the history of the City of New York, before, dur- ing, and for sometime after the Revolutionary period.
The maternal ancestry of Mr. Pyne extends back to men of great promi- nence in the American Revolution and the Continental Congress, his mother, who was born Margaretta Stockton, being daughter of General and Mrs. Rob- ert F. Stockton, of New Jersey, Mrs. Stockton having been, previous to her marriage, Miss Potter, of Washington. General Stockton's father was com- modore Robert Stockton ("Fighting Bob"), and his grandfather was Richard Stockton, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, who was the descend- ant in the fourth generation of Richard Stockton, who came from England before 1670, and after residing for several years on Long Island, purchased, about the year 1680, a tract of 6408 acres of land, of which Princeton, New Jersey, is nearly in the centre. John Stockton, father of Richard, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, inherited "Morven," the Stockton family seat in Princeton, and was for many years chief judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Somerset County, New Jersey. General Washington often
36
562
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
stopped at "Morven," which is still standing, and in which the tenth genera- tion of the family now live.
Moses Taylor Pyne, father of Percy Rivington Pyne, 2d, is a graduate of Princeton in the Class of 1877 and LL.B. and L.H.D. of Columbia. He has large interests in railway and industrial corporations, and is a director of the City National Bank of New York, and other institutions.
Percy Rivington Pyne, 2d, was prepared for college at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, recognized as one of the foremost preparatory schools of the country, and from there he went to Princeton University, from which his father and several other ancestors had been graduated, and com- pleting his course after four years of scholastic and social prominence, was graduated Bachelor of Arts in the Class of 1903.
In 1904 Mr. Pyne began his financial career in connection with the Farmer's Loan and Trust Company, and in 1907 he became associated with the management of the Moses Taylor estate.
On February 8, 1909, Mr. Pyne organized the banking and stock broker- age firm of Pyne, Kendall & Hollister, with offices in the new National City Bank Building at 55 Wall Street, and has since been successfully engaged in business in that connection. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Commercial Trust Company of Jersey City, the East River Gas Com- pany, New Amsterdam Gas Company, Syracuse and Binghamton Railroad, Cayuga and Susquehanna Railroad, Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Coal Company, and is president and director of the Prospect Company of New Jer- sey. He is also a trustee of the East Side branch of the Young Men's Christian Association. Mr. Pyne brings to his business and social life a splendid equipment of natural ability, with all the advantages of a thorough education, excellent physical training, culture, and a long honored name, and his firm has already taken a place of prominence in the financial world. Mr. Pyne has attained distinction among the younger men identified with the great financial activities of Wall Street.
In social life he has attained especial prominence, and is a member of the most important clubs and societies of this and other cities, including the Union, Racquet, University and Princeton Clubs and Down Town Association of New York City; the South Side Sportsmen's Club, Meadow Brook, Rock- away Hunt, Garden City Golf, Baltusrol Golf, Morris County Golf and West Brook Golf Clubs and Princeton Graduates' Club; Automobile Club of Amer- ica; Automobile Association of London, the Motor Car Touring Society (of which he is vice president and director ), The Touring Club of France, The Aero Club of New York, American Museum of Natural History, Short Beach Club, Badminton Club, Underwriters' Club, The Pilgrims, Tuxedo Club and St. Nicholas Society; also the Princeton Club of Philadelphia, and others.
563
HAMPDEN EVANS TENER
H AMPDEN EVANS TENER, president of the Irving Savings Institution, was born in Ireland, November 7, 1865, the son of Hampden Evans, of Scotch-Irish, and Eliza (Frost) Tener, of English par- entage.
Beginning in 1882, he was with the Oliver Iron and Steel Company of Pittsburgh for about three years; then with the Continental Tube Works until about 1888, when he entered the service of the Carnegie Steel Company, in which, after holding various posi- tions of increasing responsi- bility, he became one of the junior partners. He retired from that company just prior to the organization of the United States Steel Cor- poration, moved to New York City in 1901, and has since been affiliated with banking interests.
He was a director of the Irving National Bank from 1902 until it was merged, January I, 1907; was one of the organizers, in 1907, of the Fidelity Trust Company, and is now a director of that company, and of the Montclair (New Jersey ) Trust Company, and of the Bloomfield (New r Jersey ) Trust Company. He became a trustee of the Irving Savings Institution, February, 1907; was chair- HAMPDEN EVANS TENER man of its Finance Committee for 1908 and 1909; was elected its president January, 1910, and is now giving to that bank an efficient and successful ad- ministration. In 1910, Mr. Tener was appointed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie a trustee of the United States Steel-Carnegie Pension Fund.
Mr. Tener is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Union League, and of the Lawyers' and Transportation Clubs of New York.
564
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
WASHINGTON EVERETT CONNOR
565
WASHINGTON EVERETT CONNOR
W ASHINGTON EVERETT CONNOR, one of the most distin- guished financiers in New York, and long a leading figure of the New York Stock Exchange, is a native of the old village of Greenwich, which later became known as the "old Ninth Ward," New York City. He was born December 15, 1849, the son of Cleveland A. and Eliza (Lamber) Con- nor. His family is of English derivation and was transplanted in America by John Connor previous. to 1765, and Mr. Washington E. Connor is a descend- ant of his son, John Connor, Jr., born February 6, 1771, who married Janet Sayre, born November 23, 1775. The house in which Mr. Washington E. Connor was born, on Spring Street, stood next to that in which his grand- father had been born, and which, with some adjoining property, had been owned by Mr. Connor's father for more than half a century. His father, Cleveland A. Connor, was a well-known merchant and banker, who for over thirty-six years was connected with the Village Bank, which was for a long time the financial headquarters of the people and institutions of the old Green- wich Village.
Washington Everett Connor received his early education in the public schools and was afterwards for eighteen months in the Free Academy, now the College of the City of New York. He had a good record in college, being a bright student, especially in mathematical studies, for which he early mani- fested a great aptitude.
On leaving college he entered business life in 1866 as a clerk in the bank- ing house of H. C. Stimson & Company, bankers and brokers, and there ac- quired a thorough training in the business of Wall Street, and established a wide acquaintance among influential financial men. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, October 6, 1871, and soon became a promi- nent figure in the financial world, with a reputation for great ability in the handling of stock exchange matters and for his devotion to the interests of his clients.
Mr. Connor's genius and ability attracted the attention of the late Jay Gould, whose judgment of men has never been excelled for keenness and accuracy, and in 1881 the firm of W. E. Connor & Company was formed, with George J. Gould as a general partner and Mr. Jay Gould as a special partner. This firm for many years was the confidential representative of the interests of Jay Gould, and had charge of the most important of his operations in Wall Street, and Mr. Connor was also a favorite broker of the late Russell Sage and many other of the most prominent capitalists operating in Wall Street in that day.
No man ever held a more influential position in connection with the operations of the New York stock market than did Jay Gould, who was the successful general in many a hard-fought financial campaign, in which the
566
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
cooperation and administrative ability of Mr. Conner was a valuable factor in the successful outcome.
The large brokerage business which he built up for his firm, together with extensive private operations on his own account, secured for Mr. Connor a most substantial fortune. While engaged in the brokerage business Mr. Con- nor was especially distinguished for his ability to keep his own counsel, and this he did to such an extent that during the famous Western Union Tele- graph campaign, which resulted in the transfer of the control of that corpo- ration from the Vanderbilts to Jay Gould, Mr. Connor, who personally con- ducted all of the operations, did it so quietly that Wall Street carried the im- pression that his firm was heavily short of stock, when in fact it was the prin- cipal owner of it. This misapprehension had been so general among the brokers that it had found its way into the newspapers of the city, and several articles had been predicated upon it to the effect that Mr. Gould had at last met his Waterloo.
At one time during the panic of 1884 it was ascertained that W. E. Con- nor & Company were borrowers to the extent of $12,000,000, and a combina- tion was formed to drive them into bankruptcy. This combination began their attack by a heavy assault upon Missouri Pacific stock, but Messrs. Connor and Gould so outmatched their adversaries that when the day of reckoning came, one hundred and forty-seven houses were found short of Missouri Pacific and were forced to "cover" at heavy losses to themselves and at a great profit to W. E. Connor & Company. Mr. Jay Gould retired from Wall Street in 1886, and in the following year Mr. Connor also retired from the brokerage busi- ness. He retained, however, an active interest in many railway and other corporations for several years, but more lately has given up, largely, director- ships in corporations, devoting his attention to the care of his own large prop- erty interests.
Mr. Connor has long been prominent in the Masonic fraternity, in which he has served as Master of St. Nicholas Lodge, No. 321; District Deputy Grand Master, Grand Treasurer of Grand Lodge of the State of New York, Grand Representative of Grand Lodge of England. Mr. Connor is a mem- ber of the American Geographical Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The American Society of Natural History, and is a member of the Union League, Lotos, Republican and National Arts Clubs of New York; also of The Amer- ican, Boston and Larchmont Yacht Clubs, New York Athletic Club and Rum- son Country Club. He takes active interest in many forms of recreation, but especially in yachting, with which he has for years been influentially identi- fied; and has a favored place in the best society of the metropolis.
He married, in London, June 25, 1887, Louise Hynard, and has one son, Wayne Everett Connor, born April 13, 1888.
567
EDWARD WASSERMANN
E DWARD WASSERMANN, of the firm of Wassermann Brothers, stock brokers, was born in San Francisco, California, April 8, 1859,
son of August and Regina Wassermann. His father was a native of Munich, Bavaria, and a graduate of the University of Munich. He came to New York in 1849, and in the same year, going to San Francisco, founded the Alaska Commercial Company, which became a very important enterprise.
Edward Wassermann was educated in the San Francisco High School, later in a school at Frank- fort on the Main, and in the University of Heidelberg, and also studied art in Ger- many.
In 1879 he was appren- ticed to a banking house in Frankfort on the Main. Four years later he went to Paris, where he was for two years with the Raphaels and the Crédit-Lyonnais, and after traveling through Europe, he returned to New York City in 1884, and es- tablished the firm of Was- sermann Brothers, which has main offices at 42 Broad- way, and four uptown branches. He has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange since 1888.
Mr. Wassermann is a connoisseur in several branches of art and owns a EDWARD WASSERMANN fine collection of paintings, tapestries, oriental porcelains and other objets d'art. He is a member of the Criterion and Lawyers' Clubs of New York, Automobile Club of America, and the Royal Ulster Yacht Club of Bengore, Ireland.
He married, in New York City, February 23, 1887, Emma Seligman (now deceased), daughter of the late Jesse and Henrietta Seligman. He has three children: Jesse A., Renee Henrietta, and Edward, Jr.
568
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
WALTHER LÜTTGEN
569
WALTHER LUTTGEN
W ALTHER LUTTGEN, one of the best known of the representative bankers of New York City, enjoys the almost unique distinction of more than a half century's connection with the firm of which he is now a member. He is of German descent and nativity, born in Solingen, Germany, January 7, 1839, son of Carl August and Johanne (Struller) Lüttgen.
He attended public and private schools in Germany until 1854, when he came to New York with his parents and then, after a year at school here, he entered upon a business career with a custom-house broker from 1855 to 1857, then with a hardware importing house until 1859, when he entered the house of August Belmont & Company. He began his employment as a junior clerk, afterward becoming connected in closer and more confidential relations with the business until in 1880 he was admitted to a partnership in the firm. During fifty-one years, as employee and partner, he has been a valued aid and counselor of the Belmonts, father and son, and has been at all times an active factor in the large operations of the firm, which has always been one of the foremost in the financial activities of New York, and identified with the finan- cing of many great national enterprises.
He has been identified with many important corporate enterprises, and during the past twenty-five years has been a director of the Illinois Central Railroad Company; is a director of the Rapid Transit Subway Construction Company and identified with various other important interests, which have the benefit of his active participation and experienced counsel, so far as the exact- ing duties of the large banking house of August Belmont & Company, many of which are placed in his hands, will permit of his undertaking to take part in other enterprises.
Mr. Lüttgen is one of the most prominent of the German-American citi- zens of New York, and has a large personal following. He formerly was a resident of New Jersey, and held various minor and local offices, but never was an aspirant for political office. He is, however, much interested in poli- tics in the larger sense, being strongly Democratic in principle and favoring a tariff for revenue only as a present economic expedient, but eventually of free trade as the best permanent policy.
He is a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, American Geographical Society, New York Zoological Society, New York Botanical Society, Legal Aid Society, German Society, German Hospital, Down Town Association, New York Yacht Club, Automobile Club of America, New York Athletic Club, and Columbia Yacht Club. He has his town house on West End Avenue, and his country home at Redding, Connecticut.
Mr. Lüttgen married, in Brooklyn, May 23, 1866, Amelia Victoria Bre- meyer, and has two daughters: Florence Amelia and Gertrude Marion.
570
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
JOHN INSLEY BLAIR
571
JOHN INSLEY BLAIR
J OHN INSLEY BLAIR, capitalist, financier, philanthropist, and one
of the distinguished Americans of the Nineteenth Century, was born near Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey, August 22, 1802, the son of James Blair, a farmer, and a direct descendant from John Blair, who came to this country from Scotland in 1720.
Mr. Blair attended the village school during the winter until he was eleven years old, when he became clerk for a cousin in a store at Hope, New Jersey, and was thereafter self-supporting. Eight years later he and his kinsman, John Blair, started a general country store at Blairstown, New Jer- sey, of which he became sole proprietor two years later. He established branch stores at Marksborough, Johnsonsburg and Huntsville, New Jersey, continued in the mercantile business for forty years, and established flour mills, textile and other industries, and was postmaster of Blairstown for forty years.
About 1833, with associates, he engaged in developing iron mines near Oxford Furnace, a forge that had been in operation since ante-Revolutionary days. He was one of the organizers in 1846 of the Lackawanna Coal and Iron Company, built several railroads and took a leading part in the building, in 1856, of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad.
He built the first railroad across the State of Iowa, and afterward built more than two thousand miles of railroad in that State and Nebraska, and other roads in Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Dakota, Texas. More than eighty Western towns were laid out through his instrumentality, and he be- came one of the original directors of the Union Pacific. Railroad Company and controlling owner of many large corporations, East and West.
In connection with his large financial interests he became founder of the well-known banking firm of Blair & Company, which is one of the most im- portant in the financial district of New York.
He was a prominent Presbyterian layman, and, besides donating land and building, endowed with $150,000 the Blair Academy in Blairstown. He also gave more than a million dollars to Presbyterian institutions, founded professorships in Princeton and Lafayette and made generous contributions to Western colleges. In the eighty towns which he laid out in the West, more than one hundred churches were erected, largely through his generosity.
He was an active Republican from the organization of the party, dele- gate to every national convention, and once nominee of the party for gover- nor of New Jersey in 1868.
He married, in 1826, Nancy Locke, daughter of John Locke, and had two sons: Marcus L. and DeWitt Clinton Blair; and two daughters: Emma L., who married Charles Scribner, the publisher; and Aurelia, who married Clarence G. Mitchell. Mr. Blair died in 1899 at the age of ninety-seven.
572
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
LEMUEL COLEMAN BENEDICT
573
LEMUEL COLEMAN BENEDICT
L EMUEL COLEMAN BENEDICT, of the stock brokerage firm of Benedict, Drysdale & Company, was born in Brooklyn, New York, June 30, 1867, son of Coleman and Mary A. (Cleland) Benedict.
Mr. Benedict is of an old New York family of English origin, his earliest American ancestor being Thomas Benedict, who came from England to New Netherland in 1662, and on March 20, 1663, was appointed a magistrate by Director-General Stuyvesant. From him were descended men of prominence and distinction in many vocations, some of whom were active and prominent on the American side during the Revo- lutionary War, and also in the Union Army during the Civil War; while others were men of mark in many lines of professional and business life. Jesse W. Benedict, his grandfather, was a prominent lawyer, and his law firm the oldest and one of the most highly respected in this city. Coleman Bene- dict, father of Lemuel C. Benedict, was a stock broker, well known and highly esteemed in the financial circles of the metropolis.
Mr. Benedict was educated in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and the Ury House School at Foxchase, Pennsylvania, and having com- pleted his educational preparation, he secured employment, in the autumn of 1884, with the prominent firm of William Wall's Sons, rope manufac- turers, and remained with that firm for four years, leaving on account of illness. After a period of rest and recuperation, he secured employment in 1889 with M. C. Bouvier, stock broker, of New York City, and in that connection made himself thoroughly familiar with stock market oper- ations. On January 2, 1890, he purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, and became a member of the firm of James McGovern & Company, which firm succeeded Coleman Benedict & Company, and on December 31, 1904, upon the retirement of Mr. McGovern, who was a leading figure in the financial district, and one of the principal members of the firm of Coleman Benedict & Company. Mr. Benedict, with Mr. Rob- ert A. Drysdale, a partner of James McGovern & Company, formed the pres- ent firm of Benedict, Drysdale & Company.
During his twenty years' connection with Stock Exchange business Mr. Benedict's firm has been identified with many large financial operations. It is one of the best known engaged in Wall Street business and commands a large and influential clientele.
Mr. Benedict is a Republican, although not active in political affairs. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Racquet and Tennis Club, New York Yacht Club, Atlantic Yacht Club, Calumet Club, the New York Stock Exchange Luncheon Club, and the Society of Colonial Wars.
He married, in Richmond, Virginia, June 4, 1908, Carrie Bridewell, and they have their home at 216 West Seventy-second Street.
574
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
CHARLES HAYDEN
575
CHARLES HAYDEN
C HARLES HAYDEN, senior member of the firm of Hayden, Stone A & Company, bankers and brokers, of Boston, New York and other cities, and one of the best-known financial men of the country, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, July 9, 1870, the son of Josiah W. and Emma A. (Maxwell) Hayden.
After a sound preparatory education he entered the Massachusetts Insti- tute of Technology, from which he was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science in the Class of 1892.
In February, 1892, in association with Galen L. Stone, he established, in Boston, the firm of Hayden, Stone & Company, which has from its inception done a successful business, the volume of which has increased each year from its origin, not only in the parent house at Boston, but also by establishing other offices in New York City; Portland, Maine; New Haven, Connecticut ; Detroit, Michigan; Bar Harbor, Maine; and Newport, Rhode Island. There has been added to the membership of the firm N. B. MacKelvie, the active head of the New York house, and J. A. Downs, both of whom entered the firm in 1906, and Felix Rosen, who became a member of the firm in 1908. The Boston house, at 87 Milk Street, has especially large interests in the handling of copper and metal stocks, which form so important a feature in the activi- ties of that market, but are also identified with all leading lines of securities, while in the New York office, at 25 Broad Street, the firm are brokers in general lines of stocks and bonds, with connections and facilities surpassed by no other firm for transactions of this kind on behalf of their clients, among whom are included many prominent financial institutions, capitalists and in- vestors throughout the country.
Mr. Hayden is known as a man of sound financial judgment and excellent executive ability, and is officer or director of many important cor- porations. He is trustee and a member of the Executive Committee of the Boston and Worcester Electric Companies; treasurer and director of the Con- tinental Zinc Company; director and member of the Executive Committee of the Lamson Consolidated Store Service Company, and the Shannon Copper Company ; and a director of the National Shawmut Bank of Boston, Massa- chusetts; also a director of the Utah Copper Company, Nevada Consolidated Copper Company, Ray Consolidated Copper Company, Chino Consolidated Copper Company, Nevada Northern Railway Company, Twin City Rapid Tran- sit Company, and the American Pneumatic Service Company; and treasurer and director of the United Telephone Company. He is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and the Boston Stock Exchange.
Mr. Hayden was major and aide-de-camp on the general staff of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia; was disbursing officer of the United States in Massachusetts during the Spanish-American War, and is now paymaster
576
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
general of the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia; and he is one of the most effi- cient officers in the military establishment of the Bay State.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.