USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 15
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also a patron and a trustee of the American Museum of Natural His- tory. He married, in 1865, Lucy, daughter of Thomas Lloyd Wharton, of Philadelphia, who survives him with their four daughters-Mrs. Charles Brigham Penrose, of Philadelphia; Mrs. Eric B. Dahlgren, of St. Paul; Mrs. John Vinton Dahlgren, of New York, and Josephine Wharton Drexel.
Mrs. Drexel is an art and book collector, and the owner of one of the most notable libraries of rare books and mamiscripts in the United States. Her ancestry is interesting. Her grandfather, Kearny Whar- ton, was President of the Common Council of Philadelphia, and other- wise eminent, while her great-grandfather, Thomas Wharton, Jr., was President of the Supreme Exeentive Council of Pennsylvania. She is sixth in descent from the founder of the family in America, Elder Thomas Wharton, member of the Council of Philadelphia, and son of Richard Wharton, of Westmoreland. England. She also descends from Thomas Lloyd, first Deputy Governor of Pennsylvania, and Pres- ident of the Provincial Council from 1684 to 1688, and from 1690 to 1693. Through him she traces her lineage from Edward I. of Eng- land by his first wife, Princess Eleanor, daughter of Ferdinand of Castile; from Alfred the Great, from Henry I. of France and Anne of Russia, from Henry III. of England, and from Lady Antigone Plan- tagenet, a descendant of Henry IV. of England.
TIFFANY, CHARLES LEWIS, head of Tiffany & Company, the leading jewelers and diamond importers in the United States, has been actively engaged in business in this city since 1837, when he laid the modest foundation of the present bonse. Prior to the age of twenty- five he had been in business in Killingsby, Conn., where he was born February 15, 1812, his father, Comfort Tiffany, of New England de- scent, being a cotton manufacturer in that place. In 1837 Mr. Tiffany visited this city, and borrowing $500 from his father established a partnership here with J. B. Young, from his native town. Under the style of Tiffany & Young they began the sale of stationery and brie-a- brac at 259 Broadway. In 1841 J. L. Ellis became a partner, the firm name changing to Tiffany, Young & Ellis. The same year Mr. Young visited Europe and the importation of French imitation jewelry was begun, followed by that of gold jewelry and precious stones. Advan- tage was taken of the fact that diamonds sold at about one-half their value during the financial crisis in Paris in 1848. Investing all their funds at this time, they became the largest dealers in diamonds in the United States. Various changes occurred in the personnel of the firm, while the present style of Tiffany & Company was adopted. A remo- val was made in 1847 to 271 Broadway, in 1854 to 550-52 Broadway, while in 1867 the present site was acquired. The house are silver- smiths to most of the European sovereigns, and carried off the entire lists of awards at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 and
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the Paris Exposition in 1878. Mr. Tiffany was created Chevalier of the National Legion of Honor of France and from the Emperor of Rus- sia received the Praemia Digno. He is a liberal patron of art, a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Union and other clubs, and one of the founders of the Union League Club, having been an active supporter of the Federal Government during the Civil War. He built and presented to his son, Lonis C. Tiffany, the notable man- sion occupied by the latter on Madison Avenue. In addition to the Presidency of the corporation of Tiffany & Company, which maintains branch houses in London and Paris, he is a trustee of the State Trust Company and a director of the Bank of the Metropolis, of which he was an incorporator. He was married November 30, 1841, to Harriet O., daughter of Judge Young, of Killingsby, Conn. Their golden anniversary was celebrated in 1891 by their two sons and two dangh- ters.
TIFFANY, LOUIS COMFORT, the well-known artist and architec- tural decorator, may almost be said to have created a new art. He has at any rate rehabilitated and improved an old one. Having estab- lished a reputation as an artist, his attention was given to the decora- tive arts in connection with architecture, and with the view of pro- moting decorative work and the making of colored-glass windows he organized in 1878 the Louis C. Tiffany and Associate Artists. This subsequently became the Tiffany Glass Company, aud was reorgan- ized in 1892 as the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, the found- er having been Art Director and President through all these changes. The chapel exhibited by him at the World's Fair attracted wide atten- tion. " One of the most marked incidents in the artistic career of Mr. Tiffany was the revival of the mosaic theory in the construction of a colored-glass window. Believing the work executed upon this principle would give the best results, but finding that the glass then obtainable in the markets of the world would not supply him with a range of color and texture of material necessary to carry ont his ideas, he immediately began a series of experiments through the me- dimm of existing glass houses. Becoming impatient, however, of their failure to grasp his thoughts, he established works of his own where he succeeded in producing not only many of the finest offerts that were obtained in the past, but also discovered new formulas by which he could make glass nulimited in its range of color and texture. With this glass, which is known as . Tiffany favrile glass,' he has not only made windows of great beauty, but also vases and different objects of artistic interest. So marked were these in their departure from anything known, and withal, so thoroughly good, that they at once commanded the admiration of the artistic world of Europe, and in consequence he was made a member, on June 15, 1894, of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts of Paris." In addition to the Presidency
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of the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company, he is a director of Tif- fany & Company and the Turner Machine Company, and a trustee of the American Fine Arts Society. The son of Charles L. Tiffany, of Tiffany & Company, he was born in this city February 18, 1848, and studied art with George Innes and Samuel Coleman, of New York, and Leon Bailly, of Paris. He traveled in Europe and Africa and re- turned in 1870. In 1871 he was elected an Associate of the National Academy of Design, and in 1880 an Academician. His pictures in- elnde "Dock Scene " (1869), " Street Scene in Tangiers " (1878), " Study of Quimper, Brittany " (1877), " Dnane Street, New York " (1878), " The Cobblers at Boufarick " ( 1888), " Feeding the Flamin- goes " (1888), and " Market Day at Nuremberg " ( 1892 ). .
STEWART, WILLIAM RHINELANDER, born in this city, De- cember 3, 1852, was educated by private tutors and at Charlier's and Anthon's schools; in 1873 was graduated from the Columbia College Law School, and while for some years he was engaged in general law practice as a member of a prominent law firm, for many years he has confined his attention to the family estate and charitable activities. Appointed by Governor Cornell in 1882 a member of the State Board of Charities, he has served continuously since through re-appointments by Governor Flower and Governor Black, while since 1894 he has been President of the Board. lle has been Chairman of its Committee on Reformatories, as he has also of that on schools for the deaf. He was President of the Twenty-fifth National Conference on Charities and Correction. He originated the idea of the triumphal arch which spanned Fifth Avenue at Washington Square during the centennial celebration of 1889, and was Secretary of the Committee which per- petuated it in marble. lle has been for many years a vestryman of Grace Church, and since 1893 has been its Treasurer. He is President of the Tennis Building Association, a trustee of the Greenwich Sav- ings Bank, and a director of the Corn Exchange Bank. He is a mem- ber of the Patriarchs, and the Union, Metropolitan, Tuxedo, Century, City, Reform, and Church clubs, and is Secretary of the Downtown Association. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He mar- ried, in 1879, Annie M., daughter of John A. Armstrong, of Baltimore, and has living a daughter and a son --- William Rhinelander Stewart, Jr. Ile is himself the eldest of the two sons of the late Lispenard Stewart, Sr., and Mary Rogers, daughter of the late William Chris- topher Rhinelander, and is grandson of AAlexander L. Stewart and Sarah, daughter of Captain Anthony Lispenard and Sarah Barclay. Alexander L. Stewart was in turn grandson of Robert Stewart, a cadet of the royal house of Stewart of Scotland, who settled in New York prior to the Revolution.
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HUNTER, JOHN, since 1856 has been active in developing the American thoroughbred horse and in freeing the racecourse in Amer- ica from the evils and scandals which have beset it. In 1890 he sue- ceeded the late August Belmont as President of the American Jockey Club, being the second to hold the position. and upon his resignation, in December, 1894, was himself succeeded by the present Angust Bel- mont. In 1884 he was a Democratic Presidential elector. He. was born on Hunter's Island, Westchester County, February 27, 1833. in the mansion of his distinguished grandfather, who was one of the leading men of the State, and for twelve years State Senator, and is the son of Elias Desbrosses Hunter and Ann. daughter of Peter J. Munro, Secretary of Legation to United States Minister to Spain John Jay, in 1780. He was educated under private tutors, and at the Columbia College Grammar School. He is a member of the Union Club. He married Annie, daughter of Henry A. Middleton, of South Carolina. and has eight children. The historic family estate was pur- chased by this city and incorporated into its great system of " New parks," and the old Hunter homestead, built of stone in 1813, still stands in Pelham Park.
SMITH, WILLIAM ALEXANDER, head of the New York banking firm of William Alexander Smith & Company, has been an active exec- utive officer of many institutions of this city, in which he has been engaged in business as a stockbroker and banker since 1845. He has been President of the New York Stock Exchange, as well as its Treas- urer. He is now Vice-President of the Continental Trust Company. In 1848 he became Treasurer of the New York Bible Society; since 1863 has been Trustee of the permanent fund of the Orphans' Home and Asylum; since 1864 has been Trustee of the parochial fund of the Protestant Episcopal Church; since 1868 has been Treasurer of the General Clergy Relief Fund; since 1868 has been a manager of St. Luke's Hospital, and since 1869 Vice-Chairman of its Executive Com- mittee, while since 1993 has been President of the Sheltering Arms. He is also Vice President of the Protestant Episcopal City Mission; is a manager of the Home of Incurables, and is a manager of the Society for Promoting Religion and Learning. He is a member of the Church and Century clubs and the Sons of the Revolution. He married, first, Clara Mary, daughter of Rev. Levi Bull, D.D. She died in 1857. He married, in 1863, Margaret, daughter of George Jones and Serena Mason. He has a daughter, the wife of Rev. L. C. Stewardson, and two sons-Robert Hobart and William Alexander Smith, Jr. Born in Pottstown, Pa., September 9, 1820, he is himself the eldest surviving son of the late Robert Hobart Smith and Mary, daughter of Joseph Potts and granddaughter of Judge Samuel Potts. His grandfather, Major Robert Smith, of the Revolution, was for forty-eight years a director and trustee of the United States Bank at Philadelphia.
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HILLHOUSE, THOMAS, in 1882 founded the Metropolitan Trust Company, of this city, and was its President until his death in July, 1897. Hle was born at Watervliet, N. Y., March 10, 1816, was ed- ucated at Chase's Academy, Chatham, N. Y., and in 1851 made Gen- eva, this State, his residence. He actively supported Fremont for President in 1856, and in 1859 was elected to the State Senate. From 1861 to 1863 he was Adjutant-General on the staff of Governor E. D. Morgan, and organized 200,000 men for service in the Union Army. President Lincoln appointed him Assistant Adjutant-General of Vol- unteers. He was elected Comptroller of the State for the two years. 1865 and 1866, and was active in connection with the establishment of Cornell University. President Grant having appointed him, in 1870, Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York, he ably discharged the duties of that important post until 1882. He was the oldest son of Thomas Hill- house and Ann Van Schaick Ten Broeck, and was descended from Rev. James Hillhouse, who emi- grated from Ireland to Connectient in 1720, being the son of John Hill- house, of Freehall, Londonderry, Ireland, and nephew of Captain James Hillhouse, Mayor of Lon- donderry, and mentioned in Ma- caulay's great history for bravery GEN. THOMAS HILLHOUSE. in the siege of Londonderry. Gen- eral Hillhouse married Harriet, daughter of Phinehas Pronty, the eminent banker of Geneva, N. Y., and had four daughters and two sons -- Thomas Griswold Hillhouse and Phinehas Prouty Hillhonse.
MACY, JOSIAHI, was born in Nantucket, Mass .. in 1785, the son of a shipowner, and coming to New York City in 1828, with the late William H. Macy, his eldest son, established the shipping commis- sion firm of Josiah Macy & Son. Upon the admission to partner- ship of another son in 1829 the style became Josiah Macy & Sons. One of the founders of the City Fire. Insurance Company, he was on its directorate from 1833 until his death in 1872. Ile was also a . director of the Tradesmen's Bank. He retired from active business to his estate at Rye, N. Y., in 1853. He married, in 1805, Lydia Hus- sey, of an old Nantneket family. Two daughters survived him. with five sons-William II., Charles A .. Josiah G., Francis IL., and John H. Macy. He descended from Thomas Macy, born in Salisbury, Eng-
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land, in 1608, who immigrated to Newbury, Mass., in 1639, and in 1659 became one of the nine purchasers and proprietors of Nantucket Island. Ilis wife's ancestor was also one of these nine proprietors.
MACY, WILLIAM H., eldest son of Josiah Macy and Lydia Hus- sey, was born in Nantucket. Mass., in 1805, and there educated. He early entered a shipping office in New York City. In 1826 he en- gaged in business on his own account. Two years later his father came to the city and became head of a shipping firm, William H. be- coming his partner. Eventually the latter engaged in other mer- cantile enterprises. He was long a member of the New York Cham- ber of Commerce, and was at one time its Vice-President. He was President of the Leather Manufacturers' Bank, President of the Sea- man's Bank for Savings, and Vice-President of the United States Trust Company. He married Eliza L., daughter of Sylvanus T. Jen- kins, and died in 1887. His son, the present William H. Macy, is connected with some of the institutions of which his father was an officer. He is Vice-President of the Leather Manufacturers' Bank, and a trustee of the United States Trust Company and the Seaman's Bank for Savings.
RIKER, JOHN LAWRENCE, for many years a prominent mer- chant of this city, is an officer of a remarkable array of the more important financial institutions of New York. He is Vice-President of the Second National Bank, is Vice-President of the Atlantic Trust Company, is a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank, the Fifth Avenue Safe Deposit Company and the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, and is a director of the Bank of New York, the Bank of New Amsterdam, the Plaza Bank, the Fidelity and Casualty Com- pany, the Eagle Fire Company, the Continental Insurance Company, the Greenwich Insurance Company, the Hanover Fire Insurance Company, the Providence and Stonington Steamship Company, the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad Company, the New York Zinc Com- pany, the New York and Boston Dyewood Company, and the Laffin and Rand Powder Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, City, Riding. New York Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corinth- ian Yacht, Mendelssohn Glee, and New York Athletic clubs, the Hol- land Society, the St. Nicholas Society, the Downtown Association, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars. He was born at Bowery Bay, L. L., in 1830, and studied under private tutors and at Astoria Academy. He married in 1857 Mary Anne Jackson, and has living three daughters and four sons-John Jack- son, Henry Laurens, Samuel. and Charles Lawrence. He is himself the son of the late John Lawrence Riker, lawyer, and Lavinia, dangh- ter of Sylvanus Smith, and descends from Abraham Rycken, to whom Governor Kieft granted lands in New Netherland in 163S.
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GOODWIN, JAMES JUNIUS, from 1861 until his retirement in 1871, he was associated with his cousin. J. Pierpont Morgan, in bank- ing enterprises in this city, as representing the London house of George Peabody & Company. and as a member of the New York firm of Dabney, Morgan & Company. He is a director of the Erie Railroad Company, and a member of the Union, Metropolitan. Century, City, Riding, and Church clubs, the New England Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Sons of the Revolution, and other organizations. Ile was born in Hartford, Conn., was educated in private schools and the Hartford High School, and traveled in Europe from 1857 to 1859. He married, in 1873, Jo- sephine Sarah, daughter of Joshua B. Lippincott, who. during the fifty years from 1836 to 1886, was head of the notable Philadelphia publishing house of Lippincott & Company, and has three sons. Wal- ter Lippincott, James Lippincott, and Philip Lippincott Goodwin. Mr. Goodwin is himself the son of the late James Goodwin, of Hart- ford. and Luey, daughter of Joseph Morgan. His father was for more than thirty years President of the Connecticut Mutual Life In- surance Company, and through him Mr. Goodwin is descended from Ozias Goodwin, who was born in England in 1596, arrived in Boston in 1632, and was one of the founders of Hartford under Rev. Thomas Hooker. Through his mother. Mr. Goodwin descends from Captain Miles Morgan, one of the founders of Springfield. Mass. He also de- scends from Thomas Olcott. another founder of Hartford, and is great- grandson of Captain Lemnel Roberts, of the Revolutionary army.
IVES. BRAYTON, was graduated from Yale in 1861, and, enter- ing the Federal service as Adjutant of the Fifth Connectieut Vohin- teers, was mustered out at the close of the war with the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General, although but twenty-four years of age. Coming to New York, he established himself as a stock broker in 1867, and so continued until his retirement in 1889. One of the founders of the New York Stock Exchange, for thirteen years he was a member of its Governing Committee. was its Vice-President in 1876 and 1877. and its President in 1878 and 1879. He was for many years President of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. In 1890 he was elected President of the Western National Bank, and served for several years. He was formerly a director of the Mercantile Trust Company, and is now Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing Company, and a director of the Western National Bank. the United States Guarantee Company, the United Electric Light Company, the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, the New York Stock Exchange Building Company, and the Equitable Life As- surance Society. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Tuxedo, Century. University, Grolier. Riding. Players', and Lawyers' chibs, the New England Society. the Dunlap Society, the Yale Alumni
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Association, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion. He mar- ried, in 1867. Eleanor A., daughter of Rev. B. S. Bissell, of Norwalk. Conn., and has three daughters and a son-Dr. Sherwood Bissell Ives. General Ives descends from William Ives, who early emigrated from England to Boston, subsequently becoming one of the founders of New Haven, Coun.
VANDERBILT, CORNELIUS, popularly known as " Commodore." laid the foundations of the fortune of this well-known New York fam- ily. He was born on Staten Island, May 27, 1794, and died in New York City, January 4, 1877. He was the son of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Phebe Hand, niece of Colonel Hand, an officer in the Revolution; was the grandson of Jacob Vanderbilt and Mary Hoogland; the great- grandson of Jacob Vanderbilt and Neeltje Denyse; the great-great- grandson of Jacob Janse Vanderbilt and Maritje Van der Vliet, while he was removed one generation further from Jan Aoertsen Van der Bilt, who came from Holland about 1650, by his second wife, Dierber Cornelius. Cornelins Vanderbilt received a limited education, and, at sixteen years of age, borrowed money to buy a perianger, with which he did a ferrying business between Staten Island and New York City. At the end of two years he owned two boats, and had an inter- est in another. The period of the War of 1812 was a good one for his business and he performed many patriotic services. In 1813 he married his cousin, Sophia Johnson, and resided in New York. At the age of twenty-three he was at the head of the transportation business in New York Harbor. In 1817 he became captain of a steam- boat plying between New Bruns- wiek, N. J., and New York, while he made New Brunswick his resi- dence. He became manager of this line. In 1824 he obtained a lease of the New York and Eliza- bethport Ferry, and organized a profitable business. In 1829 he bought the interest of Thomas Gibbons, his former employer, in the line between New York and New Brunswick. During the next twenty years he built numerons steamboats and established lines "COMMODORE" CORNELIUS VANDERBILT. of boats on Long Island Sound and the Hudson and Delaware rivers. Soon after the discovery of gold in California he established a steamship line by way of Nicaragua, his vessels plying in both the
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Atlantic and the Pacific. In 1851 a branch line was established be- tween New Orleans and Greytown. When the control passed out of his hands, he regained it by establishing opposition lines between New Orleans and Galveston and between New York and Aspinwall. From 1855 to 1861 he also operated a line between New York and Havre. He received from Congress a gold medal and vote of thanks for his gift to the Federal Government, in 1862, of his finest steamship, which had cost $800,000. In 1864 he retired from the sea, his fortune being then estimated at about $40,000,000. In 1844 he had acquired an interest in the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, while, in 1857, he became its President. 'In 1864 he secured a controlling in- terest in the Hudson River Railroad, while, by 1867, he had a like interest in the New York Central, and brought abont the amalgama- tion of the two roads. By subsequently gaining control of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern he extended the system westward. Mr. Vanderbilt gave one million dollars to Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tenn. He purchased the Church of the Strangers in this city for its pastor when sokl under the hammer, at a cost of $50,000. He was married a second time to Frances Crawford, of Mobile, Ala., his thirteen children being by his first wife.
VANDERBILT, WILLIAM HENRY, eldest son and principal heir of the late "Commodore ". Cornelius Vanderbilt, was born in New Brunswick, N. J., May 8, 1821. He attended the Columbia College Grammar School and, at the age of eighteen, entered the employ of the New York banking firm of Drew, Robinson & Company. His health having broken down, his father purchased for him a farm at New Dorp, Staten Island, which the son improved and made a paying property. Having been invited to take charge of the affairs of the Staten Island Railroad, which was in the hands of a receiver, he con- nected it with New York by an independent line of ferryboats, and, within two years, had met all outstanding claims, and had the road on a paying basis. After this demonstration of ability he became his father's associate in railroad management. In 1864 he became Vice- President of the New York and Harlem Railroad Company, and the year following became Vice-President of the Hudson River Railroad Company. After the consolidation of the latter with the New York Central, he became First Vice-President and Executive Officer of the new corporation, while, in July, 1877, he was elected its President. On May 4, 1883, he resigned the presidencies of all the roads with which he was connected, his two sons, Cornelius and William Kissam, becoming chairmen of the two boards in which the control of the Vanderbilt system was vested. Mr. Vanderbilt also invested a por- tion of his fortune, $53,000,000. in Goverment bonds, for convenient disposal among his heirs. Mr. Vanderbilt gave a million dollars to the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons, and divided a simi-
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