USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 19
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RANDOLPHI, LEWIS V. F., since January, 1896, President of the Atlantic Trust Company, is also President of the Excelsior Steamboat
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Company, is President of the Carolina and Cumberland Gap Railway, is President of the Kanona and Prattsburgh Railway, and is a director of the Lawyers' Mortgage Insurance Company. He was long in the service of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and be- came its Treasurer. He was also actively connected with the settle- ment of the estate of the late Sanmel J. Tilden, and was Secretary of the Tilden Trust and of the Tilden Library corporation, his impor- tant services being acknowledged in John Bigelow's recently pub- lished " Governor Tilden and His Times." Mr. Randolph was a Chiou soldier during the Civil War, has long been a resident of Plainfield, N. J., and was at one time its Mayor. He is of Pilgrim and Dutch antecedents, and traces his line of descent for some hundreds of years. His ancestors participated in the colonial wars and in the Revolution.
SCHENCK, FREDERICK BRETT, born in New York City, June 9, 1851, was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, entered the employ of a prominent New York brokerage firm, and subsequently engaged in the note brokerage business, which he followed until 1881. He theu entered the service of the Mercantile National Bank, and was Assistant Cashier from 1881 to 1883, Cashier from 1883 to 1896, and since July, 1896, has been President of the bank. He is also a director of the Hamilton Bank and of the Safe Deposit Company of New York. In 1897 he was President of the group of bankers of New York City and Richmond County in the New York State Bankers' Association. He is a member of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn and the Holland Society of New York City, and for eight years has been President of the Brooklyn Young Men's Christian Association. His father was a dealer in cotton manufacturers' supplies prior to the Civil War, and subsequently was in Government employ and a bank official. He also descends from Major Henry Schenck of the Revolution, while the founder of the family in America emigrated from Holland to New York about 1680, and settled at Bushwick, L. I.
IIAZZARD. WILLIAM H., has been President of the Fulton Bank of Brooklyn since 1881, and is a trustee of the City Savings Bank of Brooklyu. From 1876 to 1880 he was President of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company. He was Supervisor of the Tenth Ward of Brooklyn from 1862 to 1865, and in 1879 and 1880 was a member of the Board of City Works. He was born in Sussex County, Delaware, April 8, 1823, the son of Stephen Hazzard, and the grandson of Jacob Haz- zard. The ancestor of his family in Delaware was a brother of the founder of the Rhode Island family of Hazzard. Having worked upon a farm between the ages of six and fourteen, Mr. Hazzard then went to Philadelphia, and apprenticed himself to John Robinson, to learn the trade of carpenter and builder. In 1844 he removed to New York City, and in 1847 to Brooklyn. Two years later he started
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in business in Brooklyn as a building contractor, and attained a re- markable reputation for the character of work done. He built the residence of the late H. B. Claflin, and in 1880 erected Dow's Stores, at that time the largest warehouses in the world. He associated one of his sons with him, under the style of William Hazzard & Son.
HOAG. DANIEL T., has been President of the American Savings Bank, of New York City, since October 13, 1885, when he succeeded the late Elliott F. Shepard, and is also a director of the Columbia Bank, of New York City. He has been for nearly thirty years a prominent New York merchant, having come to this city in 1854, and entered the tea brokerage business with such success that the sales made by his firm eventually aggregated about ten million dollars in a single year. For more than thirty-five years he has been a member of St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal Church, of New York City, for more than twenty years having been Senior Warden, and for more than ten years a Vestryman. He is first Vice-President of the Home for Old Men and Aged Couples, and is a member of the Union and Church clubs. Hle is a director of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Com- pany. Mr. Hoag was born in Duanesburgh, N. Y., and is the son of Daniel Hoag and Frebon Sheldon. His ancestors came from Eng- land in 1635, settling in New Hampshire. He was himself educated in Duanesburgh, clerked in a store, for three years was clerk in the offices of the Canal Collector in Schenectady, Utica. and Albany, es- tablished himself as a merchant in Duanesburgh, and subsequently accepted the position of Teller of the Mohawk Bank of Schenectady, which he held until his removal to New York City in 1854.
AVERY, ROBERT, is President of the United Loan and Invest- ment Company, and is Vice-President of the Brooklyn Hygienic Ice Company, Vice-President of the Burlington and Hinesburg Rail- road Company, Vice-President and Secretary of the Virginias Railway Company, Vice-President and Treasurer of the Pacific Pine Lumber Company, and Vice-President and General Counsel of Michael J. Dady & Company. He has been a member of the Union League Club of New York City. Born in Tunkhannock, Pa., September 22, 1839, he at- tended private schools and Wyoming Seminary at Kingston. Pa. From 1858 to 1861 he was Manager of the Dusseldorf Art Gallery of Paintings and Statuary. He was an officer of the volunteer army of the United States from 1861 to 1866, and from the latter date to 1870 was an officer of the regular army, attaining the grades of Cap- tain, Major, Lieutenant-Colonel, Brevet Brigadier-General, and Brevet Major-General. He was wounded at Chancellorsville, at Lookout Mountain received a wound resulting in the loss of the right leg; from 1865 to July, 1866, was Assistant Commissary-General of prisoners of war: from 1866 to 1868 was Inspector-General in connection with
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the Freedmen's Bureau; in 1867 and 1868 was Judge Advocate, and since December 31, 1870, has been on the retired list. He was ad- mitted to the New York Bar in 1871, and also to practice in the United States Supreme Court. From 1871 to 1873 he was Secretary of the Houston and Great Northern Railroad, and in 1873 and 1874 was General Manager of the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Rail- road. He is the son of Abel M. Avery and Euphemia Pell Stevens; is great-grandson of Solomon Avery, a Revolutionary soldier; is ser- enth from Captain James Avery, who won distinction fighting the Indians in 1675-77, and is ninth in line from Christopher Avery, who immigrated to New England from Cornwall, England, where the fam- ily had been prominent since the fourteenth century. Through an ancestress, Susannah Palmes, he descends from Egbert, seventeenth and last king of the West Saxons. On his mother's side he is related to the Pells and Delaplaines of New York City.
YOUNG, CHARLES TITUS, entered the Internal Revenue office. Second District of New York, in 1865, in 1868 was made Chief Clerk, and the following year resigned. In 1870 he entered the employ of the National City Bank, of Brooklyn; in 1884 was appointed Cashier. was elected Vice-President in 1889, and in 1894 was elected its Presi- dent, a position which he still occupies. He is also a trustee of the Sonth Brooklyn Savings Institution, is President of the Brooklyn Athenæum, and a member of the Montauk and Marine and Field clubs of that city, and the St. Nicholas Society. He was born in Brooklyn, November 27, 1844. and there received his education at the Polytechnic Institute and Clark & Brownell's private school. He is the son of Henry D. Young and Elizabeth. daughter of Jacob, and granddaughter of Isaac Doty, and is the grandson of Abraham Young and great-grandson of Oscar Young.
VAN NORDEN, WARNER, son of a New York merchant, at an early age was placed in one of the largest wholesale produce estab- lishments in New York City, and at the age of twenty-one was as- signed to the management of a branch house in New Orleans. In that city he also had his first experience as a bank president. In 1876 he returned to New York City and successfully engaged in business as a private banker. Since January, 1891. he has been President of the National Bank of North America in New York City, of which he has been a director since 1888. He is also President of the Land and River Improvement Company, President of the South Yuba Water Company, a trustee of the American Savings Bank, and a director of the Home Insurance Company. He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, and is President of the Presbyterian Union
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of New York City. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, and of the Metropolitan and Lawyers' clubs, and the Holland Society. He was born at 173 Franklin Street, New York City, July 2, 1841, and descends from Dutch and French Huguenot ancestors, who were prominently identified with the early history of New York. Dis paternal an- cestor arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland about 1640. On the maternal side he descends from the two Huguenots, Abraham La Noy and Jean Mousnier de la Mon- taigne, the latter of whom was Vice-Director of New Netherlands under Governor Stuyvesant. He also descends from the famous Rev. Dr. Everardus Bogardus and his wife, Anneke Jans. . His great- + great-grandfather, Adriance Hogh- WARNER VAN NORDEN. land, once owned all the land now devoted to the Riverside Park and Drive. His ancestral strains also include the families of Roome, Kierstedt, Kip, Van Nest, Waldron, and Vermilye.
SHERMAN, WILLIAM WINSLOW, President of the National Bank of Commerce in New York since 1891, was its Cashier for ten years, and has been connected with it since 1858. He is a member of the Union League and Riding clubs and the New England Society.
BENEDICT, ELLAS CORNELIUS, became a clerk with Corning & Company, bankers, on Wall Street, when fifteen years of age, and in 1857, but eight years later, succeeded to their large business, form- ing the banking firm of Benedict & Company, at the head of which he has remained to the present time. The firm style was Benedict, Flower & Company from 1871 to 1875, Roswell P. Flower, subsequent- ly Governor of New York, being then a partner. The firm has largely handled investment securities, especially railroad and gas securities. With his brother Mr. Benedict founded the Gold Exchange Bank. He has been connected with a large number of important corporations, and is now President of the Kansas City and Omaha Railway Com- pany, and an officer of other corporations. He is a devoted yachtsman. owner of the yacht Oneida, and is well known to be the intimate friend of ex-President Cleveland. He is a member of the Players', New York Yacht, American Yacht, and Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs.
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For more than a quarter of a century he has been Treasurer of the New York Ophthalmic Hospital, and is a trustee of the New York Homeo- pathic Medical College and Hospital. He married, in 1859, Sarah C., daughter of Lucius Hart, of this city, and has three daughters and a son-Frederic Hart Benedict. He was himself born in Somers, West- chester County, N. Y., January 24, 1834, the son of Rev. Heury Bene- diet and Mary Betts Lockwood, and is lineally descended from Thomas Benedict, who was at Boston in 1638, and subsequently settled at Norwalk, Conn.
BENEDICT, FREDERIC HART, is the only son of Elias Cornelius Benedict and Sarah C., daughter of Lucius Hart, of New York City, and is a member of the well-known banking firm of Benedict & Com- pany, of which his father has for so long a time been the head. He is Treasurer of the Johnson-Lundell Electric Company. He is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and of the Union, Tuxedo, City, Manhattan, Riding, Players', Racquet, Country, New York Athletic, New York Yacht, and Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs. He mar- ried, first, Jennie, daughter of Henry M. Flagler, and subsequent to her death, Virginie, daughter of Frederic R. Coudert,
BENEDICT, LE GRAND LOCKWOOD, is the son of James Hoyt Benedict, long prominent as a banker in New York City, and grandson of Seth Williston Benedict, proprietor in turn of the New York Evangelist, the Emancipator, and the New York Independent. He is ninth in descent from Thomas Benediet and Mary Brigdum, the founder of the family in this country having between 1638 and 1685 resided in Massachusetts Bay Colony, Huntington, Southold, and Ja- maica, L. I., and Norwalk, Conn., serving in one or another community as Magistrate, Commissioner, Lieutenant, Town Clerk, and represen- tative to the Connecticut General Assembly. Mr. Benedict was born in New York City, August 24, 1855; was graduated from the Renssel- aer Polytechnic Institute, and is a member of the Union and Rocka- way Hunt clubs. - Ile married, in 1881, Sarah Collier Blaine, and has a daughter and a son-Le Grand Lockwood, Jr.
PORTER, WILLIAM HENRY, is Vice-President of the Chemical National Bank of the City of New York, is Vice-President of the Pacific Coast Company, a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank, and a di- rector of the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company. After reaching the age of eighteen, for eight years he was connected with the Fifth Avenue Bank of this city, rising from one elerical posi- tion to another until he had filled them all. When Henry White Cannon resigned as Comptroller of the Currency of the United States in 1886, to accept the Presidency of the Chase National Bank of this
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city, Mr. Porter accepted the position of Cashier in this institution. In 1891 he succeeded John Thompson as its Vice-President. In 1898 he became Vice-President of the Chemical National Bank. From 1894 to 1896 he was Secretary of the New York Clearing House Asso- ciation, serving the maximum term in this office. He also served two terms, from 1895 to 1897, as Treasurer of the American Banking Association. He is Treasurer of several charitable institutions, is a trustee of several large estates, and is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the City, New York Athletic. Transporta- tion, Republican, Atlantic Yacht, and Ivy clubs, the New England Society, and the American Geo- graphical Society. Born in Middle- bury, Vt., January 3, 1861, he is the son of William Trowbridge Porter and Martha Sampson, of colonial New England ancestry .on both sides. He was educated in a pri- vate school and an academy, began his business career in New York City in the office of the President of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line WILLIAM HENRY PORTER. Railway Company, and snbse- quently entered the Fifth Avenue Bank. He married, in 1887, Esther, daughter of James Jackson, of New York City, and has a son-James Jackson Porter, and a daughter-Helen.
WILSON, RICHARD T., head of the notable New York banking house of R. T. Wilson & Company. is of an old Georgia family. was born in that State, became Commissary-General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, and at the close of that struggle re- moved to this city and entered upon his successful financial career. Hle is President of the East River Gas Company, of Long Island City, is a trustee of the Manhattan Trust Company, and is a director of the Fourth National Bank. the Union Trust Company. the United States Casualty Company, the Hudson Building. the New York and East River Gas Company. the American Cotton Oil Company. the Bertha Mineral Company. the Mathieson Alkali Works, the Western Union Beef Company, the Yonkers Railroad, the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad Company, and the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. He is a member of the Union. Metropolitan, and Manhattan clubs. the Down- town Association, and the Southern Society. Mrs. Wilson was a Miss Johnston, of Macon. Ga. They have two sons. Marshall Orme Wilsou.
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who married Caroline, daughter of the late William Astor and Caro- line Schermerhorn, and Richard T. Wilson, Jr., and three daughters, Mrs. Ogden Goelet, the wife of Hon. Michael Henry Herbert, of Mil- ton House, Salisbury, England, and Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr.
GRISWOLD, STEPHEN M., successfully engaged in the jewelry business in New York City since 1854, has been President of the Union Bank of Brooklyn since it was organized. For six years he was a member of the Brooklyn Board of Aldermen, and subsequently was elected to the State Senate. He is a member of the Montank Club, and since 1851 has been a member of Plymouth Church. Mr. Griswold was born in Windsor, Conn., November 22, 1835, the founder of his family in this country having come from England to New England in 1630. Ilis early education was that of the New England common schools.
HURLBUT, HENRY AUGUSTUS, long at the head of the hat trade in the United States until the dissolution of his firm of Swift & Hurlbut in 1860; from that time until his death in November, 1897, was prominent in -connection with notable corporations of New York City. He was one of the founders of the Second National Bank of New York City, and was its first President. He was one of the incorporators of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, remained a di- rector until his death. and was a member of the Finance Committee which supervised the erection of the Equitable Building at 120 Broad- way. He was a trustee of the Mercantile Trust Company, and a di- rector of the Home Fire Insurance Company. and the Mercantile Safe Deposit Company. He was also a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He became a member of the Republican party at the time of its organization, having been formerly a Whig. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention which nominated Grant for the Presidency. Appointed by Governor Dix a Commissioner of Emigration for the State of New York, he was elected President of the Board, and so remained for twelve years. until the national government assumed full control of immigration. He was a trustee of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, as he was also of the Demilt Dispensary and the American Seaman's Friend So- ciety. He served as President of the New England Society, and as Vice-President of the Union League Club, of which he was one of the founders. He founded the Hurtbut Scholarship at Yale University, from which institution his two sons were graduated. in 1860 and 1863. respectively. He married, in 1832, Susan Rebecca Kennedy, of New Haven, Conn. She died in 1888. Mr. Hurlbut was born in Hartford. Conn., December 8. 1808, the son of Ebenezer Hurlbut and Fanny Brewster. He descended through his father from Thomas Hurlbut. who came from England to Boston in 1635, and settled at Saybrook.
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Conn .. and subsequently at Wethersfield. Through his mother he de- seended from Elder Brewster, of the Mayflower. His father having died when he was twelve years of age, he was apprenticed to a hat manufacturer of New Haven, Con., became General Superintendent of the establishment in 1828, and a partner in 1835. A branch was established in New York City, Mr. Hurlbut taking personal charge, which was soon made the principal business. In 1843 this part- nership was dissolved. and the firm of Swift & Hurlbut organized. be- coming the largest honse in the hat line in the country.
JAMES, D. WILLIS, connected with the metal firm of Phelps, Dodge & Company, as was his father, the late Daniel James. is Vice- President of the United States Trust Company. and a director of the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, the Ansonia Clock Company, the Ansonia Land and Water Power Company. the Northern Pacific Rail- way Company, the United Globe Mines, the Commercial Mining Com- pany, and the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. His father resided in or near Liverpool. England, from 1831 until his death in 1876, as a member of the Liverpool firm of Phelps, James & Company, the English branch of Phelps. Dodge & Company, and D. Willis James was born in Liverpool. April 15, 1832. He is a member of the Metropolitan. Century, City. Riding, Reform, Alpha Delta Phi. New York Yacht, and Morris County Golf clubs, the Downtown Associa- tion, and other organizations. He married Ellen S. Curtiss. and has one son -- Arthur Curtiss James. Mr. James's mother was Elizabeth Woodbridge, daughter of the late Anson Greene Phelps, founder and long the head of Phelps & Peck, and its successor, Phelps, Dodge & Company.
BACHE, JULES SEMON, banker and stock broker, is the son of the late Semon Bache, founder of the glass-importing house of Semon Bache & Company. He was prominent in reorganizing the Distillers" and Cattle Feeders' Company as the American Spirits Manufacturing Company, representing the stockholders of the former corporation. He is now Vice-President of the American Spirits Manufacturing Com- pany, Chairman of the Board of the Detroit and Lima Northern Rail- way Company, a director and Chairman of the Financial Committee of the American Union Life Insurance Company, and a director of the Spirits Distributing Company. He is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and the New York, Riding and Driving, Suburban Riding, and Liederkranz clubs; has traveled extensively, and is an art collector, especially of the German school. He was born in New York City, November 9, 1861, his mother, Elizabeth Von Praag, also being a native of this city. He married, in 1892, Florence R., daughter of Adolph Sheftel, a retired merchant of New York. Mr. Bache's conn- try-seat, Arsdale Manor, Wilson Park. Tarrytown, embraces the scene of Major Andre's capture.
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TILFORD, FRANK, in 1891 succeeded his father as Vice-President of Park & Tilford. In 1874 he became a director of the Sixth National Bank, in 1876 became a member of the New York Real Estate Ex- change, and in 1885 became a trustee of the North River Savings Bank. He helped to organize the Bank of New Amsterdam, has always been one of its officers, and is now its President, a position which he has held for several years. He is also Vice-President of the Standard Gas Light Company, and is a director of the Fifth Avenue Trust Company, the Washington Assurance Company, and the Colo- nial Assurance Company. ` The youngest son of the late John M. Til- ford, one of the founders of the famous mercantile house of Park & Tilford, he was born in New York City, July 22, 1852, and was educated in private schools and at Mount Washington Collegiate School. He entered his father's establishment at an early age, and worked his way up from the him- blest grade of employee. He is a member of the Executive Commit- tee of the Grant Monument Asso- ciation, is President of the New Amsterdam Eye and Ear Hospital, and is a trustee of the Babies' Hos- pital. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Board of Trade and FRANK TILFORD. Transportation, the Union League, Colonial, Lotos, and Republican clubs, the American Society, and the Society of the Sons of the Revo- lution. He married, in 1881, Julia, daughter of the late James A. Greer, of New York City, and has two daughters.
COSTER. CHARLES HENRY, since 1883 has been a member of the famous banking firm of Drexel, Morgan & Company, and its suc- cessor, J. P. Morgan & Company, and is likewise a partner of Drexel & Company, of Philadelphia, and Morgan, Harjes & Company, of Paris. He has been active in a large number of railroad reorganiza- tions, and is a participant in the control and management of im- portant railroad lines in all parts of the country. He is a director of no less than fifty-two distinct railroad corporations, inehiding such well-known systems as the Northern Pacific, the West Shore, the Southern Railway, the Reading, the Erie, the Lehigh Valley, the Chesapeake and Ohio, the Chicago and Erie, and the Chicago, Mil- waukee and St. Paul. He is a member of the Board of Managers of
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the Philadelphia and Reading. He is also a director of the General Electric Company, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the Lehigh Valley Coal Company, the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, the Northern Pacific Express Company, the Le- high Valley Transportation Company, and the Puget Sound and Alaska Steamship Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Tuxedo, City, Reform, Racquet, St. Nicholas, and New York Yacht clubs, and a life member of the Academy of Sciences. Born in New- port, R. I., July 24, 1852, he attended private schools, from 1867 to 1872 was in the counting-room of Aymar & Company, importing merchants, and from 1872 to 1883 with their successors, Fabbri & Chauncey. He married, in 1886, Emily, daughter of Clarence Pell and Anne Claiborne, and has three daughters and a son-Charles Henry, Jr. Mrs. Coster is a descendant of Thomas Pell, first lord of Pelham Manor, Westchester County, as also of General Ferd. L. Clai- borne, of Mississippi, and William Claiborne, Secretary of Virginia. Mr. Coster is the son of the late George Washington Coster and Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Oakley, and is the grandson of John Gerard Coster and Catherine Margaret Holsmann. His grandfather was one of the most famous New York merchants and financiers.
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