USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 14
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BELMONT, AUGUST, founder in 1837 of the famous banking house of August Belmont and Company, was one of the most eminent citizens of his day. His connection with the great Rothschild bank- ing house made him a power in financial circles from the beginning. He became naturalized as soon as possible after reaching this coun- try, and in 1844 voted for the Presidential candidate of the Demo- cratic party, with which he remained connected throughont life. From 1844 to 1850 he was Austrian Consul-General in this city, but resigned in protest against the treatment of Hungary by Austria. In 1853 he was appointed by President Pierce United States Charge d'Affaires at The Hague, and became United States Minister to Hol- land upon the elevation of the mission in 1855. He negotiated an important consular convention and secured to the United States the right of locating consuls in the Dutch East Indies. He deprecated the partisan bitterness preceding the Civil War, and with the split in the Democratic party in 1860, allied himself with the Douglas wing, was active at the Baltimore Convention, and became Chair- man of the National Committee. Upon the election of Lincoln he wrote urgent letters to the Southern leaders to dissuade them from
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secession. He was an earnest supporter of the Federal Government during the war, helped to raise the first German regiment in this city, and brought all his influence to bear upon Europe to prevent the recognition of the belligerency of the South. His letters to the Rothschilds of London and Paris were laid before the English and French Ministers of State, while he personally visited England on this matter in 1861, and France in 1863. He was a delegate to every Democratic National Convention from 1860 to 1884, and presided at the opening of those of 1864 and 1868. He resigned as Chairman of the National Committee in 1872, having held the position twelve years. He was a member of the Union Club, President of the Man- hattan Club, and President of the American Jockey Club. His stable of thoroughbreds was without a peer in the United States. In 1849 he married a danghter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry, and had six children, of which four survived hin-Hon. Perry Belmont, August, Jr., Mrs. Samuel S. Howland, and Oliver II. P. Belmont. He died in this city, November 24, 1890, having been born at Alzei, Rhenish Prussia, December 8, 1816. His father was a landed proprietor, and carefully educated him until he reached the age of fourteen, when he entered the Frankfort banking house of the Rothschild Brothers. At the end of three years he was given a supervisory position at Naples, Italy, and retained this until his removal to New York in 1837.
BELMONT, PERRY, has been prominent in public life. He served four terins in Congress following his election from the First District, embracing Staten Island and Long Island, except Brooklyn, in 1880. For four years he was Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was active in connection with the Fishery Treaty and the Sand- wich Islands Treaty, secured the passage of the retaliation bill in the fisheries' dispute with Canada, defeated the project to extend Federal support to the Nicaragua Canal Company, and carried through the bill to indemnify the Chinese massacred at Rock Springs. From the French Government he received the Legion of Honor for his success in passing the bill making ours one of the first nations to participate in the Paris Exposition. He advocated the claims of Washington, D. C., as the site for the World's Fair. Throughout his course he was a consistent advocate of tariff reform. He resigned during his last term to accept his appointment by President Cleveland as United States Minister to Spain. He is a trustee of the Colonial Trust Com- pany, a director of the United States Casualty Company, and the First Municipal Bond Assurance Company of America, and a mem- ber of the Union, Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, and a large number of other elnbs of New York, Newport, and Paris. He was born in this city December 28, 1851, was graduated from Harvard in 1872, with honors in history and political economy; studied civil law at the
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University of Berlin, and was graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1876. From that time until his election to Congress, he practiced law in this city in partnership with Dudley Vinton and George Frelinghuysen. He has argued important cases in the Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.
BELMONT, AUGUST, head of the famous banking house of Au- gust Belmont & Company since the death of his father in 1890, has rapidly gained recognition as one of the ablest of New York finan- ciers. He is President of the Hempstead National Bank, acting Pres- ident of the Audit Company, Vice-President of the Kings County Ele- vated Railway Company, and a director of the National Park Bank, the Bank of the State of New York, the Manhattan Trust Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Fifth Avenue Trust Company, the Equitable Life Assurance So ciety, the Chicago, Milwau- kee and St. Paul Railway, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, the Zanesville and Ohio Railway Company, the Long Island Railroad Company, the Brooklyn and Jamaica Rail- road, the Mechanical Rubber Company, the New York Belting and Packing Com- pany, the United Electric Light and Power Company. the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, and the Westchester Racing ! Association. He was born in this city, February 18, 1853. and through his mother is the grandson of Commodore AUGUST BELMONT. M. C. Perry. who opened the Japanese ports to commerce and commanded the United States naval forces during the war with Mexico; is great-grandson of Com- modore O. H. Perry, of Lake Erie fame, and lineally descends from William Wallace, the famous Seot, through Edward Perry, who was born in Devonshire, England, in 1630, and settled in Sandwich, Mass., in 1653. He was graduated from Harvard in 1875 and entered his father's banking house soon afterward. One of his most notable achievements was the handling of the bond issue during the second Cleveland administration in conjunction with J. Pierpont Morgan. He is President of the American Kennel Club and a well-known breed-
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er of thoroughbreds. He is also President of the American Jockey Club. He was married in 1881 to Bessie H. Morgan, and has three sons -- Angust, Raymond, and Morgan.
CORNELL, WILLIAM W., the late well-known iron manufacturer of New York City, was a liberal donor, giving to various benevolent institutions, and especially contributing toward the erection of church buildings of the Methodist Episcopal denomination. He also founded Cornell College. at Mount Vernon, Iowa. He was an elder brother of the late John Black Cornell, and the latter was apprenticed to him in the iron business. The son of Thomas Cornell, grandson of Hon. Whitehead: Cornell, and descended from Thomas Cornell. who settled at Flushing. L. I .. in 1643, William W. Cornell was born in Far Rockaway. L. I., January 1. 1823, and died at Fort Washington. New York City, March 17, 1870.
CORNELL, JOHN BLACK. founder and until his death in 1SS7 the head of the famous iron-manufacturing house of J. B. & J. M. Cornell, did much for the general development of the business of which his own firm became so prominently representative. He pa- tented in 1854 a method of joining the metal slats of revolving shut- ters for store windows, and two years later patented a metallic sur- face for fireproof partitions which would support plaster. The use of iron in building became much more practicable through these inven- tions. He was an abolitionist. a believer in temperance reform, and a prominent and liberal member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. For fourteen years he was President of the New York City Church Ex- tension and Missionary Society, and was President of the Board of Trustees of Drew Theological Seminary. He was a trustee of many benevolent institutions of this city, and connected with the Methodist Church elsewhere. and a generous contributor to them. He was lineally descended from Thomas Cornell, son of Richard, of London, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1636, and removed later to Rhode Island. and thence to Flushing. L. J., where in 1613 he obtained a grant of land from Governor Kieft. A part of his estate was known as Cornell's Neck, and subsequently as Willett's Point. His de- ascendants were locally prominent. Mr. Cornell's father was Thomas Cornell, and his grandfather. Hon. Whitehead Cornell. a member of the Assembly. Born in Far Rockaway, L. L. abont 1825. Mr. Cornell served a seven years' apprenticeship with his elder brother, then at the head of a modest iron firm, was associated with him for several years. and in 1847 founded a business of his own which was developed into the notable house of J. B. & J. M. Cornell.
CORNELL, JOHN M .. head and sole proprietor of the world-re- nowned house of J. B. & JJ. M. Cornell, iron manufacturers and con- structors, is also a director of the New York Real Estate Associa-
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tion and the Dear Hill Company. He was born in New York City, April 27, 1846, up to the age of fifteen attended private schools, includ- ing Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, and then entered bis father's iron works. He acquired proficiency so rapidly that at the age of seventeen he became foreman, and at the age of twenty-one became his father's partner under the firm-style which is still retained. He has conducted the great business alone since his father's death. IJe is a member of the Sketch and Building Trades clubs, and in 1873 married Sarah Keen.
STURGIS, FRANK KNIGHT, in January, 1869, became a partner in the New York banking firm of Capron, Strong & Company, which in 1871 became Work, Strong & Company, and subsequently Strong, Sturgis & Company, the present style. In 1869 he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1892 he became its President, and the following year was re-elected. Upon the organization of the Jockey Club he became its Secretary and Treasurer and a member of the board of stew- ards. He was one of the founders of the Madison Square Garden Company, and is its President. He is also a director of the Na- tional Horse Show Association, the New York Quotation Company, and the Quicksilver Min- ing Company. He is a governor of the Metro- politan Club, as he is of the Knickerbocker Club, the Turf and Field Club, and the Westchester Racing Association. In addition to those men- STURGIS ARMS. tioned, he is a member of the Union, Union League, Century, City, Coaching, Players', Whist, Rockaway Hunt, New York Yacht, Larch- mont Yacht, and Country clubs, and the New England Society. IIe was born in this city September 19, 1847, the son of William Sturgis and Elizabeth K. Hinckley. Ile married in 1872 Florence, daughter of Philip Mesier Lydig, of New York.
GRISWOLD. CHESTER, is one of the leading steel and iron man- ufacturers in the United States. He is President of the Crown Point Iron Company, and Vice-President of several other companies. Ele is also a director of the Adirondack Railway Company, the Rut- land Railroad Company. and the Hudson River Ore and Iron Com- pany. He has served many years as Treasurer of the American Protective Tariff League. He is a member of the Union, Metropoli- tan. Tuxedo, Raegnet, Riding, Southside Sportsmen's, and New York Yacht clubs. the Downtown Association, and the Sons of the Revolu- tion. He married a daughter of Colonel Le Grand B. Cannon, of this city. Ile is the son of the late Hon. John A. Griswold, principal own- er of the Rensselaer Iron Company, and one of the introducers of the
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Bessemer steel process into this country; Mayor of Troy, N. Y., in 1850, the associate of C. F. Bushneff and John E. Winslow in building the Monitor in 1861, Trustee of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute from 1860 to 1872, Member of Congress from 1863 to 1869, and Re- publican candidate for Governor of this State in 1868. The latter was the son of Clement Griswold, grandson of Simon Griswold, a Revolu- tionary soldier, and a descendant of Edward Griswold, who emigrated from Kenilworth, England, to Connectient in 1639, and became a magistrate and deputy to the general court.
ENO, AMOS RICHARDS, for about twenty years subsequent to 1831 was engaged in the drygoods business in this city in partnership with his cousin, John J. Phelps. From about 1850 until his death in 1898 he devoted his energies mainly to real estate investments, leav- ing a fortune of some $20,000,000 so invested. He was the builder and owner of the Fifth Avenue Hotel, and a director of the Second Na- tional Bank and other financial institutions. He was a member of the. Reform Club and the New England Society. He bequeathed $50,000 to Amherst College and $150,000 as a fund for indigent mem- bers of the New York Chamber of Commerce and needy widows or children of deceased members, with the addition of another $100,000 should members of the Chamber raise a like sum. He either be- queathed or himself gave before his death $6,000 to the Cemetery Association of Simsbury, Conn .; $7,000 to the Congregational Society of the same; $3,000 to the New York Juvenile Asylum, and $5,000 each to the American Home Missionary Society, the American Sunday- school Union, the Colored Orphan Asylum, the Demilt Dispensary, the Protestant Half-orphan Asylum, the Association for the Relief of Respectable Aged and Indigent Females, the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples, the New York Cancer Hospital, the Society for the Relief of Ruptured and Crippled, the Training School for Nurses, the New York Institution for the Blind, and the New England Society. Born in Simsbury, Conn., in 1810, he was the son of Hon. Salmon Eno, a member of the Connecticut Legislature in 1834, and was de- scended from Dr. James Enno, a London graduate in medicine who settled in Windsor, Conn., in 1648. Mr. Eno married Lucy Jane, danghter of Hon. Elisha Phelps, of Simsbury, who was long a member of Congress and Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1821 and 1829. Two daughters survive him, with four sons -- Amos F., Dr. Henry Clay. John Chester, and William Phelps Eno. It remains to speak of a painful event which yet revealed in Mr. Eno a sense of honor in- ducing him to make a sacrifice so great that it has no parallel under lilie circumstances. In May, 1884, his son, John Chester Eno, then President of the Second National Bank, disclosed to its directors that he had nsed more than $2,000,000 of the funds of the bank in specula- tions and the attempt to make them good. When Amos R. Eno was
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informed of this he at once gave $2,000,000 to the bank, with subse- quent payments of $95,000 and $47,500, thus enabling the institution to meet the run made upon it. The sacrifice of a fortune so inumense to satisfy a sense of business honor will never be forgotten.
ENO, AMOS F., the eldest son of the late Amos Richards Eno, is an executor of his estate, and was long associated with his father in the management of their very large real estate interests. He re- ceived a large inheritance in recognition of his services, being referred to in his father's will as having " helped me more than any one else in the management of my estate." He is a director of the Citizens' In- surance Company of New York and the Ann Arbor Railroad Com- . pany. He is a member of the Union League, Manhattan and Men- delssohn Glee clubs. the Century Association, the Downtown Associa- tion, the Liederkranz, the New England Society, and other organiza- tions. He was born and edneated in New York City, and early in life engaged in the real estate business.
HAVEMEYER, WILLIAM. a descendant of Herman Havemeyer. who was living in Bueckeburg. Germany, prior to 1600. at the age of fifteen emigrated from Germany to London, England, in the clos- ing years of the last century, and having acquired the art of sugar refining. in 1799 immigrated to New York City. In the course of a few years he was engaged in business on his own account. and was joined by a younger brother, Frederick C. Havemeyer, who became his partner in 1807 under the firm style of W. & F. C. Havemeyer. William was the father of the late William F. Havemeyer. and grandfather of the present William F. Havemeyer. Frederick C. was the father of the late Frederick Christian Havemeyer, and grand- father of the present Henry Osborne Havemeyer and the recently de- ceased Theodore A. Havemeyer.
HAVEMEYER, WILLIAM FREDERICK, was four times nom- inated for Mayor of New York City, and three times was elected to the office. He was Mayor in 1848 and 1849, and from 1871 to 1874. He was also elected as the Democratic candidate in 1845, served one year. and declined a renomination. In 1859 he was a candi- date, but was defeated by Fernando Wood. He was active in opposi- tion to the Tweed Ring in 1870, was Vice-President of the historie " Committee of Seventy," and subsequently its President, and became its successful candidate for Mayor. He died while Mayor, in his office in the City Hall, in November, 1874. Born in New York City in 1804, he was graduated from Columbia in 1823, and with his cousin, Freder- iek Christian Havemeyer, in 1828 organized the firm of W. F. & F. C. Havemeyer, sugar refiners. This partnership continued until 1842. In 1851 he was elected President of the Bank of North Amer-
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ica, and in 1857 also became President of the New York Savings Bank. He was Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, Vice-Pres- ident of the Long Island Railroad Company, and a director of other corporations. In 1844 he was a member of the Democratic General Committee of this city, and also a Polk Presidential elector. Upon the creation of the State Board of Emigration Commissioners in 1847, he became its first President. He was one of the original members of the Union Defense Committee during the Civil War. He married, in 1828, Sarah Agnes, daughter of Hon. Hector Craig, Congressman and Surveyor of the Port of New York, and had two daughters -- Mrs. Hee- tor Armstrong and Mrs. Isaac W. Maclay-and six sous-John. Henry, Hector Craig. James, Charles, and William F. Havemeyer, Jr.
HAVEMEYER, FREDERICK CHRISTIAN, son of Frederick C. Havemeyer, the younger of the two original brothers in this city, was born in New York in 1807, and attended Columbia College. He learned the business of sugar refining as an apprentice in the estab- lishment of his father and uncle, W. & F. C. Havemeyer, and with his cousin, the late Ilon. William F. Havemeyer, in 1828 established the sugar refining firm of W. F. & F. C. Havemeyer. Upon the dissolu- tion of this partnership in 1842, for some time he devoted himself to the management of the large estate left by his father, and to travel abroad. In 1855, however. he established the sugar refining firm of Havemeyer, Townsend & Company, which eventually became Have- meyer & Elder. He resided in Westchester County, and for many years was President of its School Board. He married, in 1831, Sarah Osborne. daughter of Christopher Townsend, and had three daugh- ters -- Mrs. J. Lawrence Elder, Mrs. Louis J. Belloni. and Mrs. Fred- erick Wendell Jackson-and seven sons-Charles, Theodore A., George W., Henry Osborne, Thomas J., Warren HI .. and Frederick Christian Havemeyer, Jr.
HAVEMEYER, WILLIAM FREDERICK, youngest son of the late Hon. William J. Havemeyer, is Vice-President of the National Bank of North America, Vice-President of the Queens County Bank of Long Island City, and a director of the Union Ferry Company, of New York and Brooklyn; the Manhasset Improvement Company, and the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway Company. He was formerly Vice- President of the Havemeyer Sugar Refining Company, of which his brother, Hector Craig. was President. Ile is a member of the Met- ropolitan, Century, City, Grolier, AAdirondack League, and New York Yacht clubs. and the Downtown Association. He was born in this eity and educated in private schools.
HAVEMEYER, HENRY OSBORNE, the most active member of the notable family which for a centiny has been identified with the
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development of sugar refining in this country, is President of the American Sugar Refining Company, and a director of the American Coffee Company, the Brooklyn Cooperage Company, and the Colonial Trust Company. In 1869 he became a partner in the celebrated sugar refining firm of Havemeyer & Elder, of which his father, Fred- erick Christian Havemeyer, was the head, while the other members were Theodore A. and Thomas JJ. Havemeyer, brothers of Henry Osborne; his brother-in-law, J. Law- rence Elder, and Charles H. Senff. Henry Osborne Havemeyer devel- oped remarkable aptitude for the management of the firm's business, and the chief executive functions gradually devolved upon him. He was chiefly instrumental in organ- izing. in 1891, the American Sug- ar Refining Company, which of- fected the consolidation of nearly all the important refineries in the United States. He is engaged in breeding cattle, horses, and sheep upon his country estate at Green- wich, Conn. He erected a public school building for the village of HENRY OSBORNE HAVEMEYER. Greenwich at a cost of $250,000. He is a member of the Riding and Grolier clubs. He married, in 1883, Louise Waldron, daughter of George W. Elder, and has two daughters and a son-Horace Havemeyer.
DOWD, WILLIAM, has been eminent as a merchant, as a banker and financier, and in the public life of New York City. Coming to New York abont 1845 he entered the employ of Lyman Cook & Com- pany, subsequently became a junior partner under the style of Cook, Dowd & Baker, and was long head of the house under the style of Dowd, Baker & Whitman. He was President of the National Bank of North America from 1874 until his retirement from the more active executive responsibilities in 1891, but is still a director and assistant cashier. At the present time he is also Vice-President of the Mis- souri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, a trustee of the American Surety Company, and a director of the Bowery Bank, the Southwest Coal and Improvement Company. and the South Yuba Water Com- pany. He was elected Chairman of the New York Clearing House As- sociation in 1878 and re-elected in 1879. He was Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Importers' and Traders' Insurance Com- pany for twenty-one years. From 1877 to 1883 he was President of
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the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. For ten years a member of the Board of Edneation of this city, he was Chairman of its Committee on Finance for four years, and for several years Chairman of its Com- mittee on Colored Schools. He was also Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Trustees of the College of the City of New York. He was Republican candidate for Mayor of New York in 1880. From 1883 to 1888 he was a member of the Aqueduct Commission. He is a member of the Union League Club, the Downtown Association, and the New England Society. He married, in 1851, Maria Eliza Merrill, of Clinton, Conun., and has a daughter and four sons-William B., Colonel Hemau, Joseph, and George. M. Dowd. Born in Batavia, N. Y., August 30, 1824, Mr. Dowd is the son of Joseph Dowd, merchant and owner of several ships trading with the West Indies, by his third wife, Polly, daughter of Deacon Joseph Dutton and Priscilla Stuart, and granddaughter of Sir Elkanah Stuart, who was disowned by his family for marrying a French Huguenot. He is the grandson of Jo- seph Dowd and his wife, Mary Blatchley, some of whose ancestors came over in the Mayflower, and is a descendant of Henry Dowd, who. in 1639, accompanied Rev. Henry Whitfield from England to Guilford, Conn.
DREXEL, JOSEPII W., was one of the most notable bankers in the history of American finance. Born in Philadelphia in 1831, he was one of three sons of the late Francis M. Drexel, an accomplished Aus- trian artist who, having followed his profession in Philadelphia until 1840, engaged in banking. Having spent several years in his father's banking house in Philadelphia, Joseph W. Drexel established a branch house in Chicago. Returning to Philadelphia upon his father's death in 1871, he formed his notable alliance with the late Junins S. Morgan, head of the London banking firm of J. S. Morgan & Com- pany, and father of the present J. Pierpont Morgan. Mr. Drexel thus became head of the famous New York banking house of Drexel, Mor- gan & Company, and so remained until his death in 1888. He was also head of the allied house of Drexel, Harjes & Company, of Paris. Similarly, he retained his interest in the associated Philadelphia house of Drexel & Company, while he was a large owner of the Philadelphia Public Ledger. He largely retired from active business in 1876 and had leisure to interest himself in the musical and artistic interests of New York City. He was President of the Philharmonie Society and a director of the Metropolitan Opera House. He was a trustee of the Bartholdi Statne Fund. A generons patron of the Metropolitan Mil- semm of Art, he presented to it valnable paintings, a collection of Egyptian engraved stones, and other art objects, and a collection of musical instruments of all nations. By his will he begneathed to Lenox Library his notable musical library of 7,000 volumes, embrac- ing the history and literature of misic, ancient and modern. He was
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