USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 16
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lar amount between Vanderbilt University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Young Men's Christian Association of New York City, St. Luke's Hospital, and other institutions. He defrayed the expense of the removal of the obelisk from Egypt to Central Park-$100,000. He was the owner of Maud S., Aldine, and other animals which had exceptional trotting records. Hle married Maria Louise Kissam, daughter of Rev. Samuel Kissam, a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church, and had nine children, of whom eight, four sons and four daughters, survived him. The daughters are Mrs. Elliott F. Shepard, Mrs. William D. Sloane, Mrs. H. MeK. Twombly, and Mrs. W. Seward Webb. Mr. Vanderbilt erected the large brownstone double house on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-first Street.
VANDERBILT. CORNELIU'S, present head of the Vanderbilt fam- ily. is the oldest son of the late William H. Vanderbilt, and grand- son of the late "Commodore " Cornelius Vanderbilt, founder of the family fortunes. Conjointly with his brother, William K. Vanderbilt, he has the financial control and management of the richest railroad system on the American continent, consisting of 0.5. forty-three closely affiliated cor- porations, which operate sixteen thousand miles of track. He is per- sonally a director of fifty railroad companies, of many of which he is either President or Vice-President. Ile has made many liberal gifts. The possessor of one of the finest private art collections in New York, at a cost of $53,000 CORNELIU'S VANDERBILT. he purchased Rosa Bonheur's cele- brated painting. " The Horse Fair," and presented it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 18ST he devoted $75,000 to the erection of the building for the railroad branch of the Y. M. C. A., at Madison Avenue and Forty-fifth Street. In conjunction with his mother, the late - Mrs. William H. Vanderbilt, he erected in 1891 the costly stone and brick building on Forty-second Street, near Third Avenue, dedi- cated to missionary work in connection with St. Bartholomew's Church. He subscribed $100.000 toward the erection of the new Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine. With his three brothers he built the Vanderbilt Clinic, and donated it to the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. He has erected a
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dormitory for Yale University as a memorial of his eldest son, Will- iam Henry Vanderbilt, who died during his college course. He was one of the company of eminent New York citizens who built the new Opera House, after the destruction of its predecessor by fire. August 27, 1892. Born at New Dorp. S. I., November 27, 1843, his boyhood was spent upon the farm which his father at that time was managing. Following the acquisition of an academie education. he became clerk in the Shoe and Leather Bank of this city, and for three years was also in the employ of the banking firm of Kissam Brothers. In 1865 his grandfather offered him a responsible position in the of- fice of the Harlem Railroad. In 1867 he became Treasurer of the road. Upon his grandfather's death in 1877 he succeeded his father as First Vice-President of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, in charge of its finances, and upon the retirement of his father in 1883 took the leading place, which he has occupied since. Severe sickness in very recent years has led him to spend much time abroad. the responsible management of their common interests thus falling more than formerly upon William K. Vanderbilt. Early in life Mr. Vanderbilt married Alice Gwynne, daughter of an emineut lawyer of Cincinnati. Of their seven children three sons and two daughters survive, of whom two are married. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Jr .. the oldest surviving son. is married to a daughter of Richard T. Wilson, the well-known banker; a daughter. Gertrude, is the wife of Harry Payne Whitney, son of William C. Whitney.
VANDERBILT. WILLIAM KISSAM. is President of the American Horse Exchange, a director of the American Safe Deposit Company, the New York Mutual Gas Light Company, and the Morris Run Coal Mining Company, and is a director of about forty railroad corpora- tions. For some time past the invalid condition of his brother, Cor- nelius, has devolved the control and direction of the affairs of the great Vanderbilt system entirely upon him, and he has distinguished himself by his success in achieving a more intimate and compact affiliation of the corporations composing the system than had before been attained. He has long been active in promoting yachting and the interests of the turf. He is a prominent member of the Coney Island Jockey Club. He was a member of the syndicates which built the sloops Colonia and Defender, successful defenders of the America's Cup. He also built the steam yachts Alva and Valiant, the latter being the most elegant craft of the kind afloat. He has trav- eled extensively, and sumptuously entertained aboard these vessels. IIe joined with his brothers in founding the Vanderbilt Clinic. He was one of the organizers of the Metropolitan Chib. and is a member of the Union and other principal clubs. lle built in this city the notable residence on Fifth Avenue, at the corner of Fifty-second Street, just north of the William H. Vanderbilt double residence. and
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a no less notable residence at Newport known as the " Marble House." The second son of the late William II. Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam, he was born on Staten Island, December 12. 1849. After taking an academic course in this country. he completed his educa- tion at Geneva, Switzerland. Returning he entered the office of C. C. Clarke. Treasurer of the Hudson River Railroad. and from a book- keeper's apprentice on a small salary worked his way through the de- partments. From 1877 to 1883 he was Second Vice-President of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad: in 1882 became Presi- dent of the New York, Chicago and St. Louis, and from 1883 was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, being its executive head. He married Alva Smith, of Mo- bile, Ala., now Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont, and has three children-Con- suelo, now the Duchess of Marlborough; William Kissam. Jr .. and Harold.
VANDERBILT. FREDERICK WILLIAM. third son of the late William H. Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam, was born in 1855. and in 1878 was graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale. Subsequently he worked his way through every department of the offices of the Vanderbilt system of railroads. His residence in this city, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Fortieth Street. the gift of his father, was built by his grandfather. He also maintains a Newport home, " Rough Point," and has an estate of 600 acres at Hyde Park on the Hudson. He is a director or member of the Board of Managers of twenty-six or more railroad corporations, and is a director of the Lincoln National Bank, the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company. the American Surety Company. the Guaranty Trust Com- pany. and the American Horse Exchange. He is a member of the Metropolitan. Knickerbocker. Tuxedo. University, and other clubs. He owns one of the finest steam yachts. Conqueror, built in 1889 by Russell & Company, of Port Glasgow.
VANDERBILT, GEORGE WASHINGTON. has been a benefac- tor of various institutions in this city and elsewhere. He founded the Thirteenth Street branch of the New York Free Circulating Library. providing its building on Jackson Square. To the New York College for the Training of Teachers, of which he was a trustee. he gave a valable property for a new site on Morningside Heights, adjoining the present site of Columbia College. He presented the room known as the Vanderbilt Gallery to the American Fine Arts Society. The value of this donation was $100,000. He also united with his broth- ers in the erection and equipment of the Vanderbilt Clinic. In addi- tion to his residence in this city-one of the houses which constitute the famous William II. Vanderbilt double house, occupying the block on Fifth Avenue between Fifty-first and Fifty-second streets-he has
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a summer residence at Bar Harbor, and in 1885 purchased 100,000 acres of mountain land on the French Broad River, near Asheville. N. C. This he has converted into a vast park and improved estate, with mansion and stables, and stocked with blooded cattle. sheep, and horses, making it perhaps the most notable country place in America. The fourth son of the late William H. Vanderbilt and Maria Louisa Kissam, he was born at New Dorp, S. L., November 14, 1862, and was educated by private tutors and at several famons schools. He is a member of the Metropolitan. Century, City, Racquet, New York Athletic, New York Yacht. Grolier, and Players' clubs, the So- ciety of the Sons of the American Revolution, and other organizations.
DANA. RICHARD STARR. was born in New York City in 1836, in 1857 was graduated from Columbia College, and, entering the bank- ing and commission honse of Russell & Company, of Canton. China, the largest American house in the China trade, became a partner iu 1863. Ile is a member of the Union Club, the Sons of the Revo- Intion, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Colonial Society of the Acorn, and the Columbia College Alminni Association. He married Florine Turner, and has two sons-Richard T. and David T. Dana. He is the son of the late Richard Perkins Dana, of this city, and his wife Juliette H. Starr, and is descended, through a line of clergymen, from Richard Dana, who came from England to Cambridge, Mass., in 1640. His father was long engaged in business in Canton and Hong Kong, China, but after retiring. resided in New York City, where he was one of the Governors of the Woman's Hospital, and served sixteen years as a Director of the New York Juvenile Asylum. He published accounts of some of his travels. He died in 1894.
SCHELL, AUGUSTUS, having been graduated from Union College in 1830, studied law in New York City and at the Litchfield Law School, and in 1833 was admitted to the bar and began practice in this city. He became the partner of John Slosson in the law firm of Slosson & Schell; with Edward Slosson, brother of the above, formed the firm of Schell & Slosson, and subsequently received Waldo Hutchins into partnership under the style of Schell, Slosson & Hutch- ins. He soon acquired a large real estate and corporation practice, becoming counsel for many prominent merchants, as well as connsel for a number of leading banks and insurance companies. He became active in politics, and for many years was Chairman of the Tammany Hall General Committee. He came within a few votes of receiving the nomination as Governor of the State in the Democratic State Convention of 1852. He presided over the Democratic State Con- ventions of 1853, 1854, and 1855. In 1854 be refused the nomination as Mayor of New York, which was equivalent to election. He was for four years Collector of the Port of New York. under appointment
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by President Buchanan in 1857. Upon retiring from this office he did not resume the practice of law, but became active in connection with the Vanderbilt railroad interests. In 1862 he became a director of the Harlem Railroad Company, in 1864 entered the directorate of the Hudson River Railroad Company, and in 1867 became a director of the New York Central Railroad Company: Upon the consolidation of the two last-mentioned, he was elected a director of the new cor- poration. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway Company was organized the same year by the consolidation of four roads, and Mr. Schell became Vice-President of the new corporation. He was also a director of many other corporations in the Vanderbilt system, including the Chicago and Northwestern, the Michigan Central, and the Canada Southern. He was a director of the Union Pacific both before and after its consolidation with the Kansas Pacific and the Denver Pacific. Ile was for some years one of the vice-presidents of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and was a trustee of the Union Trust Company and a director of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1867. Ile was a member of the National Democratic Convention which nominated Horatio Seymour for the Presidency in 18GS. In 1872, Governor Hoffman appointed him on the Constitutional Com- mittee which recommended important amendments to the Legislature. The same year he rescued Tammany Hall from the Tweed ring, and was elected Grand Sachem. He was Chairman of the National Dem- ocratie Convention in 1872, and issued the call for the National Cou- veution which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for the Presidency in 1876. Mr. Schell was a Presidential elector on the Tilden ticket in New York. He was an active member of the New York Historical Society, and served on its Executive Committee, as its Vice-President and as its President. From 1866 until his death he was President of the New York Institution for the Blind, having previously been its Treasurer, and since 1849 one of its executive officers. He was a trustee of the Roosevelt Hospital, as he was also of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. One of the founders of the Manhattan Club, he was its President from 1871 to 1877, and was its Vice-President from the latter date until his death, March 27, 1884. Ile had been its Manager from the organization of the club in 1865 to 1871. He was one of the Gov- ernors of the St. Nicholas Club. He married, in 1873, Anna M .. danghter of George S. Fox and granddaughter of Thomas Leggett. Ifis widow survived him, but he left no issue. Mr. Schell was born in Rhinebeck, N. Y., August 1, 1812, the son of Christian Schell and Elizabeth Hughes, of German and Welsh antecedents, respectively. Ilis grandfather, Richard Schell, immigrated to America from Ger- many prior to the Revolution. The father of Augustus Schell was a merchant at Rhinebeck, and during the War of 1812 raised a company of soldiers and participated in the defense of New York City.
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BABCOCK, SAMUEL D., is one of the most eminent business ex- ecutives and financiers in New York City, and is an officer of a for- midable list of important corporations, of several of which he is presi- dent. Of the New York Real Estate Association he is President, as he is also of the Manhattan Real Estate Association, of the Colonial Real Estate Association, and of the Central Real Estate Association. He is President of the International Bell Telephone Company, and of the Downtown Association, and is Treasurer of the Improved Dwellings Association. He is a director or trustee of the American Exchange National Bank, the Bank of New Amsterdam, the National Union Bank, the Central Trust Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Fifth Avenue Trust- - Company, the Continental Insurance Company, the Mutual Life In- surance Company, the United States Lloyds, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, the Harlem Railroad Company, the Providence and Stonington Steamship Company, the Metropolitan Opera and Real Estate Company, the City and Suburban Homes Com- pany, the Navesink Park Company, the Manufacturing Investment Company, and the Popular Photograph Company. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, and other clubs. He was born in Rhode Island, and is lineally descended from James Babcock, who, born in Essex, England. in 1580, was one of the Puritans that emigrated to Leyden, Holland, and thence to Plymouth Colony. In his direct line appear Captain John Babcock, of Plymouth and Rhode Island; Cap- tain James Babcock, of Westerly, R. J .; Hon. Joslina Babcock, a Vale graduate, Chief Justice of Rhode Island and Speaker of its Assembly, and Colonel Henry Babcock, Commander of the Continental forces of Rhode Island in the Revolution.
CARNEGIE, ANDREW, is the largest manufacturer of pig iron, steel rails, and coke in the world, is a well-known writer on political economy, an ardent advocate of radicalism in England through the medium of the press, and the author of many benefactions in the United States and Great Britain. While he has long been a resident of this city, he is much abroad. At the cost of $50.000 he erected for the Bellevne Hospital Medical College in 1884 a five-story building containing three general laboratories and an auditorium. He is one of the ten founders of the Thirteenth Street Branch of the Free Cir- culating Library, each of which contributed $5.000. It was his capi- tal- which was principally ventured in the erection of the notable Carnegie Music Hall, Seventh Avenue and Fifty-seventh Street. He is President of the Keokuk and Hamilton Bridge Company and a di- rector of the Music Hall Company and the Pittsburg, Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company. Ile gave $500,000 to Pittsburg for a public library in 1885, and $250,000 to Allegheny City for a music hall and library in 1886. He also gave $250,000 for a free library in Edinburgh,
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and $40,000 for a free library in Dunfermline, Scotland, likewise estab- lishing public swimming baths in the latter city in 1879. He has established several libraries for the employees of his works. He has owned and directed the policy of as many as fourteen newspapers in Great Britain at one time, using them as a propaganda of the princi- ples of democracy. This is also the theme of his most famous volume, " Triumphant Democracy; or, Fifty Years' March of the Republic " (1886). Besides his many contributions to periodical literature he has likewise published " An American Four- in-Hand in Britain " (1883) and "Round the World " ( 1884). He was born in Dun- fermline, Scotland, No- vember 25, 1835, the. son of a humble weav- er, who came to the United States in 1845, settling at Pittsburg. Ilere the boy in turn attended a stationary engine, was a telegraph messenger, and became a telegraph operator, eventually obtaining the position of manager of the telegraph lines and clerk to the super- intendent in the Penn- sylvania Railroad office at. Pittsburg. His first stroke of fortune came with his activity in pro- ANDREW CARNEGIE. moting Mr. Woodruff's invention of the sleep-
ing-car. Later he was appointed Superintendent of the Pittsburg Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad. His next fortunate spech- lation was in joining the syndicate which purchased for $40,000 the Storey farm on Oil Creek. The flow of oil from this property yielded as much as $1,000,000 in clear profit in a single year. He next joined with others in establishing a rolling mill, and in the course of some years was at the head of the greatest system of steel and iron works which a single person has ever controlled, in- cluding the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the Pittsburg Bessemer Steel Works, the Union Iron Mills, the Hartman Steel Works, the
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Scotia Ore Mines, the Union Mill of Wilson, Walker & Company, the Lucy Furnaces, the Frick Coke Company, and the Keystone Bridge Works.
SAGE, RUSSELL, while prominent in Whig politics in this State early in life, has come into national prominence as a railroad financier in this city. Born in Verona, N. Y., in 1816, he is the son of Elisha Sage and Prudence Risley, both of New England ancestry. He at- tended the public schools, at an early age entered the store of his brother in Troy, N. Y., and at the age of twenty-one became his broth- er's partner. He subsequently acquired the sole interest, and in 1839 established a wholesale business. Still later he became a produce commission merchant and established connections in New York City, which enabled him to control the produce markets of Troy and Al- bany. In 1845 he became an Alderman of Troy, and during seven year's was also Treasurer of Rensselaer County. In 1848 he was a delegate to the Whig National Convention. He was an unsuccessful Whig candidate for Congress in 1850. Two years later he was a mem- ber of the Troy Common Concil, the same year he was elected to Con- gress, and in 1854 was re-elected by 7,000 majority. He participated in the formation of the Republican party in this State. As a Councilor of Troy in 1852 he was active in the sale of the Troy and Schenectady Railroad, then owned by that city. About 1857 he became a large owner of the La Crosse Railroad (now the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul), and was elected a director and subsequently Vice-Presi- dent. About 1861 New York City became the scene of his operations. He traded principally in railroad securities, and since 1863 has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In recent years he has been connected with many corporations with which the late Jay Gould was also prominently identified. At various times he has been Presi- dent of more than twenty-five railroad corporations. He is now Presi- dent of the Standard Gas Light Company, is President of the Pough- keepsie and Eastern Railroad Company, Vice President of the Albia and Centreville Railway, and is a director of the Fifth Avenue Bank, the Importers' and Traders' National Bank, the United States Guar- antee Company, the German-American Real Estate Title Guarantee Company, the Hamilton Bank Note Engraving and Printing Com- pany, the Manhattan Railway. the Western Union Telegraph Com- pany, the American Telegraph and Cable Company, the American Speaking Telephone Company, the Gold and Stock Telegraph Com- pany, the International Ocean Telegraph Company, the New York Mntnal Telegraph Company, the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the Union Pacific Railway Company, the Texas and Pacific Railway Company, the Wabash Railroad Com- pany, the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad Company, the Shore Line Railway, the Iowa Central Railway Company, and
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the Chattanooga Southern Railroad. Mr. Sage married, first, in 1841, Maria, daughter of Moses I. Winne, of Troy, who died in 1867. IIe married in 1869, Margaret Olivia, daughter of Hon. Joseph Slocum, of Syracuse, and a descendant of Captain Miles Standish and of Colonel Hemy Pierson, of Sag Harbor, N. Y. In 1895, Mr. and Mrs. Sage erected a notable dormitory for the Troy Female Seminary, of which Mrs. Sage is a graduate.
INMAN, JOHN HAMILTON, having served four years in the Con- federate Army, in the fall of 1865 came to New York City and engaged in the cotton business in a moderate way, establishing a firm which became the leading cotton house in the world, and of which he re- mained the head until his death in 1896. He was also largely inter- ested in Southern railroads and industrial enterprises. He was a member of the Rapid Transit Commission in this city from its creation until his death. He was a member of the Metropolitan and Manhat- tan clubs and of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, of which Dr. John Hall was pastor. He was born in Jefferson County, Tennessee, in 1844, and enlisted in the Confederate service at the age of seven- teen, having previously been employed in a bank in which he had risen to the position of assistant cashier. He married, in 1870, Margaret MeKinney Coffin, of Tennessee, and had two daughters and four sons -- Hugh Martin. John Hamilton, Jr., Frederick Clark, and Charles Chade Inman.
INMAN, SAMUEL MARTIN, cotton merchant of this city and At- lanta, Ga., is the largest dealer in this line in the United States. He is a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. the Southern Railway Company, and the Atlanta Home Insurance Company. He is a founder and a commissioner of the Georgia School of Technology, and is largely interested in the Constitution Publishing Company of Atlanta and the Atlanta Land Company. He was born in Dandridge, Tenn., February 19, 1843, the son of Shadrach W. Inman, a successful merchant. and Mrs. Jane ( Martin) Hamilton. His great-grandfather, Abednego Inman, a Revolutionary soldier, married Miss Thompson, of Virginia. He worked in his father's store and on a farm, and at- tended the Maryville and Princeton colleges. The war calling him away from the latter, he volunteered in the First Tennessee Cavalry and became lientenant. In 1866 he engaged in business at Augusta, Ga. The following year he removed to Atlanta, and with his father formed the cotton firm of S. W. Inman & Company. With the return of his father to Tennessee in 1870, the firm style became S. M. Imman & Company, under which it became the largest firm in the cotton trade in the South. He is a brother of John HI. Inman.
ADAMS, EDWARD DEAN, a member of the banking firm of Winslow, Lauier & Company from 1578 to 1893, has achieved remark-
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able success in reorganizing embarrassed corporations. At the pres- ent time he is President of the Cataract Construction Company, Presi- dent of the Niagara Development Company, President of the Niagara Junction Railway Company, President of the Nikola Tesla Company, Vice-President of the Central and South American Telegraph Com- pany, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Chicago Terminal Transfer Railroad Company, a member of the Executive Committee of the Northern Pacific Railway Company and subsidiary companies, the West Shore Railroad Company, the Northern Pacific Express Company, and the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, and a director of the Mercantile Trust Company, the New Jersey General Security Company, and the American Cotton Oil Company. He or- ganized the Northern Pacific Terminal Company in 1882, and became its President; in 1883 organized the St. Paul and Northern Pacific Railway Company, becoming its Vice-President, and in 1885 organ- ized the New Jersey Junction Railroad Company, constructed its lines, and leased them to the New York Central. In 1885 he also accomplished the delicate operation of a reorganization of the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railroad, the New York, Ontario and Western, and the West Shore and Ontario Terminal Company. He preserved the Central Railroad of New Jersey from a receiver by his reorganization of it in 1887. In 1888 he was active in floating the bond issue of the Philadelphia and Reading, while in 1890 he re- organized the American Cotton Oil Company. As the representative of the German bondholders he was Chairman of the Reorganization Committee of the Northern Pacific Railway Company in 1893. The son of Adoniram JJudson Adams, of Boston, he was born in that city April 9, 1846, and in 1864 was graduated from Norwich University, Vermont. After spending two years abroad, from 1866 to 1869 he was in the employ of a Boston firm of bankers and brokers. From 1870 to 1878 he was a member of the Boston banking house of Rich- ardson, Hill & Company, which he helped to organize. In 1878 he re- moved to this city. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Tuxedo, Union League, and other clubs. He was married, in 1872, to Fannie ยท A., daughter of William E. Gutterson, of Boston, and has a son and a daughter. The son, Ernest Kempton, has been graduated from Yale and Columbia.
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