USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 24
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MCCALL, JOHN AUGUSTINE, President of the New York Life Insurance Company since 1892, has made a remarkable record in con- nection with insurance institutions in this State. Born in Albany. N. Y., in 1849, the son of the late John Augustine McCall, of that city. he attended the Albany schools, and having been graduated in 1868 from the Albany Commercial College, soon after became bookkeeper in the Albany office of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance. Com- pany. Later he engaged in real estate and insurance business. but presently became a clerk in the State Insurance Department. From 1870 to 1872 he was in the actuarial division. In 1872 he had charge for a while of the statistical work connected with the reports, and the. same year was appointed ex- aminer of companies. From 1876 to 1883 he was Deputy Superintendent of the Depart- ment. In this capacity, in spite of strong opposition, he set himself to expose the fraudu- lent practices of many con- cerns, and as a result forced out of business some eighteen life insurance companies in this State, a large number of fire insurance companies, and fifteen companies of other States. Several insurance offi- cials were tried and convicted as a consequence. In 1883 Governor Cleveland appointed him Superintendent of the De- partment, enabling him to carry out other reforms and to place the insurance business of JOHN AUGUSTINE MCCALL. the State on a sounder basis than it had hitherto known. Declining the offer of Governor Hill to reappoint him, he became Comptroller of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of this city. His election to his present position followed the exposure of the management of the New York Life Insurance Company, made through the medium of the New York Times by its cashier. Theodore M. Banta. Mr. McCall is also a trustee of the American Surety Com- pany and the New York Security and Trust Company, and a director of the Central National Bank. the National City Bank, the National Surety Company, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan. City. Colonial, Manhattan, Mer- chants', and Lawyers' clubs. He married Mary I. Haran.
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HYDE. HENRY BALDWIN, has been connected with insurance interests throughout nearly his entire business career, and is Presi- dent of the notable Equitable Life Assurance Society of this city. Born February 5. 1844. he is the son of Henry Hazen Hyde. of Cats- kill, N. Y .. and Luey Baldwin, daughter of Rev. James Beach and Hannah C. Baldwin. of Winsted. Conn .. and descends from William Hyde, one of the founders of Hartford. Conn., who accompanied Rev. Thomas Hooker from England. He is a member of the Union. Union League, Riding. Lawyers', - Westminster Kennel. and Southside Sportsmen's clubs. He married Anna Fitch, and has a son-James Hazen Hyde.
MCCURDY, RICHARD ALDRICH. President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, has been connected with this corporation in vari- ous relations throughout nearly his entire business career. He is also a director of the National Union Bank, the Bank of New Amsterdam. the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Lawyers' Surety Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Continental Insurance Company, and the International Bell Telephone Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan. Union Leagne, Manhattan, Morristown. and Lawyers' clubs, and the New England Society. He married, in 1856, Sarah Ellen. daughter of Charles Coffin Little. of Boston, and has a daughter, Mrs. Louis A. Theband, and a son, Robert Henry MeCurdy. Born January 29. 1835. Mr. MeCurdy is himself the son of the late Robert Henry MeCurdy, eminent drygoods commission merchant of this city, and Gertrude Mercer, daughter of Dr. James Lee, of Newark, N. J., and niece of Chancellor Theodore Frelinghuy- sen, United States Senator from New Jersey, and candidate in 1844 for Vice-President of the United States.
HEALD, DANIEL ADDISON, has been President of the Home In- surance Company of New York since 1888, having been its General Agent from 1856 to 1868. its Second Vice-President from 1868 to 1883. and its Erst Vice-President from 1883 to 1888. He is a trustee of the Holland Trust Company, and a director of the National Bank of North America and the National Surety Company of New York. There are good reasons for styling him the leading fire underwriter of the United States. He was one of the prime movers in the or- ganization of the National Board of Fire Underwriters in July, 1866. and long served as Chairman of its Executive Committee, as well as President of the organization. He has delivered many addresses on his chosen life's work. that on " Fire Underwriting as a Profession," read at Chicago in September. 1880, before the Fire Underwriters' Association of the Northwest. being especially notable. For nearly forty years he has been a prominent member of the New York Board
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of Fire Underwriters, in connection with which he has held many of- ficial positions. He was born at Chester, Vt., May 4, 1818, the son of Amos Heald and a daughter of Captain Edwards. a Revolutionary soldier under Washington. His paternal grandfather was also a Revo- Intionary soldier, and participated in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. The first American ancestor on the paternal side em- igrated from- Berwick. England, to Concord, Mass., in 1635. . Mr. Heald worked on his father's farm until sixteen years of age, spent two years at a preparatory school at Meriden, N. II., entered Yale College in 1837, and was grad- uated in 1841. He read law while at Yale under Judge Daggett, of New Haven, and for two years in the office of Judge Washburn, of Undlow, Vt., and in May, 1843, was admitted to the Vermont bar. In connection with his law business he also condneted a fire insurance business as agent of the .Etna and other companies of Hartford, Conn. His success led to his ap- pointment to the general agency of the Home Insurance Company, DANIEL ADDISON HEALD. then a young company, in 18a6. At that time this company had assets of less than $900,000. They are now over $11,000,000, notwith- standing such conflagrations as those of Portland, Me., St. John, N. B., Chicago, and Boston.
ROCKEFELLER, JOHN D., eldest son of William A. Rockefeller and Eliza Davidson, of Tioga Co., N. Y., where he was born in 1839, has been a resident of New York City for many years. He has won a national reputation through his financiering skill in connection with the industry of petroleum refining, and has amassed the largest private fortune owned by an individual in the United States. His gifts to the Chicago University aggregate four or five million dol- lars. He has also been a liberal patron of other educational in- stitutions, as well as of churches and organizations under the auspices of the Baptist denomination. He was educated at Owego, N. Y., and in the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio, whither his father removed in 1851. He held the positions of Clerk and Bookkeeper and Cashier in a Cleveland business house between the ages of sixteen and nineteen, and then entered the firm of Clark & Rockefeller. Reorganized as Andrews, Clark & Company
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in 1860, they engaged in oil refining. Five years later Clark's interest was acquired by the other two partners, Sammel Andrews and John D. Rockefeller, who combined with Mr. Rockefeller's brother under the style of William Rockefeller & Company. This company con- structed the famous Standard Oil Works in Cleveland. William Rockefeller came to New York to manage the Eastern interests. In 1867 occurred another reorganization. Henry M. Flagler was ad- mitted to partnership, while both in Cleveland and New York the busi- ness was transacted under the style of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flag- ler. In 1870 the Standard Oil Company of Ohio was incorporated, Jolin D. Rockefeller becoming its President and William Rockefeller its Vice-President. In 1881 the Standard Oil Trust was organized with John D. Rockefeller as its President and William Rockefeller as Vice-President, while at the same time the Standard Oil Company of New York was incorporated, William Rockefeller becoming its President and John D. Rockefeller its Vice-President. In 1892 the form of a trust was abandoned. Mr. Rockefeller is a director of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, and a member of the Baptist Club, the New England Society, and the Sons of the American Revolution.
ROCKEFELLER, WILLIAM, born in Tioga County, N. Y., in 1841, is the second son of William A. Rockefeller and Eliza Davidson, and was educated in an academy at Owego, N. Y., and in the public schools of Cleveland, Ohio. He was bookkeeper with a Cleveland firm from 1858 to 1860. and in the latter year became bookkeeper with the produce commission firm of Hughes & Lester. Upon the retirement of one of the partners in 1862 he became a member of the firm under the style of Hughes & Rockefeller, and so remained until 1865. Hay- ing acquired considerable capital he then withdrew to become senior member of the oil refining business which had been established in a small way by his brother, John D. Rockefeller. The firm style became William Rockefeller & Company, and the Standard Oil Works were erected in Cleveland. The same year, 1865, William Rockefeller removed to New York City and established the allied firm of Rocke- feller & Company, of which he was head. Upon the organization of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio in 1870 he became its Vice-Presi- dent, his brother being its President. He was also Vice-President of the Standard Oil Trust during its existence from 1881 to 1892. In 1881 was also incorporated the Standard Oil Company of New York, which is now the principal corporation. William Rockefeller has been its President since the beginning. He is also a member of the Board of Managers of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Rail- road Company, a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company and the Consolidated Gas Company, and a director of the Second National Bank, the National City Bank, the Hanover National Bank, the
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Leather Manufacturers' National Bauk, the Brooklyn Union Gas Company, the National Transit Company, the New York Transit Com- pany, the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, and the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Riding, and New York Yacht clubs, and the New England Society. He married in 1864 Almira Geraldine Goodsell, of Fairfield, Conn., and has two sons-William G. and Percy Avery Rockefeller, and two daughters -- the wife of Dr. David Hunter McAlpin, Jr., and Ethel Geraldine Rockefeller.
SMITH, CHARLES STEWART, for seven years President of the Chamber of Commerce, is eminent alike as a drygoods commission merchant, a financier, and an agitator for better local government. He was one of the most active members of the Committee of Seventy which nominated and secured the election of Mayor Strong, following the exposure of corruption by the Lexow Investigating Committee. Long a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he has been one of its liberal supporters. At the present time he is Treasurer of Wood- lawn Cemetery, Treasurer of the City and Suburban Homes Company, a trustee of the United States Trust Company and the Greenwich Savings Bank, and a director of the Fourth National Bank, the Mer- chants' National Bank, the Fifth Avenue Bank, the Equitable Life As- surance Society, the German-American Insurance Company, the Pitts- burg, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad Company, the United States Rubber Company, the Associates' Land Company, and the Mossberg and Granville Manufacturing Company. He was born in Exeter, N. H., March 2, 1832, his father being pastor of a Congregational Church in that place. His ancestors were among the early settlers of Connecti- ent. Coming to New York at the age of fifteen, he was employed in a drygoods jobbing house. Subsequently he was connected with S. B. Chittenden & Company, being their European buyer for several years. In 1865 he became a member of the firm of George C. Richardson & Company, of Boston and New York, successors of the famous firm of A. and A. Lawrence & Company. On January 1, 1884, the firm style became George C. Richardson, Smith & Company, and July 1, 1885, became Smith, Hogy & Gardner, Mr. Smith being head of the firm. In 1887 he retired. He has been twice married and has two sons.
MORRIS, LEWIS, Chief Justice of Colonial New York and New Jersey, and founder in this country of a distinguished family (see cut in this work, Volume II, p. 503), was born in New York City in 1671, and died in Kingsbury, N. J., May 21, 1746. His father, Richard Morris, had been an officer in Cromwell's army. His parents having died during his infancy, he was brought up by his unele, a large landed proprietor of Morrisania. Lewis Morris was bred to the law and was a
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leading lawyer of his day in New York and New Jersey. In 1692 he was appointed to the bench of the Superior Court of New Jersey. He also entered the council of Governor Cornbury, but contended against the latter's corrupt procedures and was expelled. He then induced the New Jersey Assembly to draw up an indictment of Cornbury, and, per- sonally presenting this document to Queen Anne, secured Cornbury's recall. Just after having been appointed second justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court, and before taking his seat, Morris resigned this appointment to accept that of Chief Justice of New York and New Jersey. Governor Cosby subsequently removed him from this office for his temerity in deciding against the Governor in the famous case of Cosby rs. Van Dam. Morris was chiefly instrumental in securing the" separation of New York and New Jersey. He was Governor of New Jersey from 1738 until his death in 1746, having been Acting Governor of that colony in 1731, and a member of its council from 1710 to 173S. One of his sons, Lewis Morris, was also a New York lawyer, and be- came Chief Justice of the Vice-Admiralty Court. The latter was the father, by different wives, of Lewis Morris, signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the famous Gouverneur Morris.
MORRIS, GOUVERNEUR. was born in Morrisania, January 31, 1752, and died there November 6, 1816. He was graduated from King's College, now Columbia, in 1768, and in 1771 was admitted to the New York bar. He practiced for some time, but presently found himself engrossed as a legislator, statesman, and diplomat. Ile served many terms in the New York Assembly, and was a member of the legislative committee which drafted the State Constitution of 1776. He was active in the patriot cause throughout the Revolutionary period, and was a prominent and active member of various Continental con- gresses. A delegate to the convention which framed the Constitution of the United States, the final revision of that instrument was assigned to him. He was the confidental agent of the Thirteen Colonies in ar- ranging the terms of peace at the close of the Revolution. He was United States Minister to France at the time of the French Revolu- tion. He was elected to the United States Senate from the State of New York, and in that body defended the judiciary system under the United States Constitution when its abolition was proposed.
KENT, JAMES, did more perhaps than any other one man to estab- lish American equity jurisprudence on a seientine foundation. Ile was born in Philippi. Putnam County, N. Y., July 31, 1763, and died in New York City, December 12, 1847. His father, Moses Kent, was graduated from Yale, practiced law in Dutchess County, New York, and was Surrogate of Rensselaer County. His grandfather, Elisha Kent, a Vale graduate, was the son of a Connecticut farmer. The Chancellor's mother was a daughter of Rev. Moss, a Presbyterian
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clergyman. James Kent was graduated from Yale in 1781, and studied law with Egbert Benson. He soon after formed a legal part- nership with Gilbert Livingston, of Poughkeepsie. He was a Federal- ist, and in 1790 was elected to the New York Assembly, in 1792 being re-elected. In 1793 he removed to New York City, and by Governor John Jay was appointed Master in Chancery. The same year he was appointed professor of law in Columbia College. He was elected to the Assembly from New York City in 1796. The next year he was ap- pointed Recorder of New York City, but within a few months resigned to accept his appointment as Judge of the Supreme Court. He served on this bench until 1814, while from 1804 he was Chief Justice. His decisions have been reported by Caines and Jolson, and form " the very fountain-head of common-law learning in America, and are daily referred to and cited in our courts." Appointed Chancellor of this State to succeed Lansing in 1814, he held the office until 1823, when he reached the constitutional age limit. He was the first Chancellor whose decisions were reported, while the range of questions which came before him, together with the research and judicial soundness displayed in his opinions, united in making these reports the basis of American equity jurisprudence. In 1822 he was a member of the con- vention which revised the State Constitution. From 1823 until his death he practiced law as chamber counsel in New York City, while at the same time delivering lectures on law at Columbia College. Out of these lectures grew his famous " Commentaries," which were first pub- lished in 1826-30, and have been accorded a place beside those of Sir William Blackstone.
KENT, WILLIAM, son of Chancellor James Kent, was a prominent lawyer in New York City, and one of the organizers of the law faculty of the University of the City of New York. He was one of the original lecturers in the law department of this institution. By appointment of Governor Seward, he was Cirenii Judge of the First Cirenit from 1841 to 1846, and during the following year was professor of law at Harvard College. He was born in 1802 and died at Fishkill, N. Y .. January 4, 1861. His mother was Elizabeth Bailey, sister of United States Senator Theodorus Bailey.
KENT, WILLIAM, who has been successfully engaged in the prac- tice of law in this city since 1878, is the son of the late James Kent and Sarah Irving, daughter of Edwin Clark. Hle is a grandson of Judge William Kent, great-grandson of Chancellor James Kent, and ninth in lineal descent from Samuel Kent, who was settled at Gloucester, Mass., prior to 1640. His mother was a grandniece of Washington Irving, and the granddaughter of his elder brother. Judge Jolin Treat Irving. Through her Mr. Kent is also ninth in lineal descent from Egbert Van Borsimm and Annetje Hendricks.
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whose marriage, in New Amsterdam in 1639, was the first performed in a church in this city of which there is a record. Mr. Kent was graduated from Columbia College in 1878, studied law, and was ad- mitted to the bar, and has been engaged in active practice in the city since. He was born at Fishkill Landing, N. Y., March 19, 1858, and maintains his residence at Tuxedo Park. He is a member of the Union, Tuxedo, Fencers', New York Yacht, and Delta Phi clubs, the Columbia College Alumni Association, and the Bar Association of the city.
BURR, AARON, in his variegated career, affords a striking ex- ample of brilliant intellect without conscience in American public life. Ile was the son of Rev. Aaron Burr and the grandson of Jonathan Edwards. Ilis father was the founder of Princeton College and its President. Burr seems to have had deep religions convictions himself when a young man, but threw them off, became an infidel, and delib- erately decided to go through the world substituting gentlemanly courtesy for principle. His maxim in legal practice was, "Law is whatever is boldly asserted and plausibly maintained." He was born in Newark, N. J., February 6, 1756, and died at. Port Richmond, S. I., September 14, 1836. He was graduated from Princeton College at the age of sixteen. He was studying law at Litchfield, Conn., with his brother-in-law, Tapping Reeve, when the battle of Lexington occurred. He joined the American forces at Boston, and accompanied the expedition of Benedict Arnold against Quebec. He carried a message from Arnold at Quebec to Montgomery, a perilous task, and as aid to Montgomery participated in the assault on Quebec. But he quarreled with Arnold, and returning to New York, became a member of Washington's staff. Within six weeks he quarreled with Washington, withdrawing to join Putnam's staff. In 1777 Washing- ton assigned him to the command of a regiment as Lientenant-Colonel. Ile acted with the Conway cabal to undermine Washington, who nevertheless sought to favor and placate him. Burr wintered at Val- ley Forge in 1777-78. subsequently commanding a brigade at the battle of Momouth. Washington assigned him to maintain order in West- chester County, with White Plains as his headquarters. In March, 1779, Burr resigned from the army, while soon after he resumed the study of law with Judge Paterson, of New Jersey, and Thomas Smith, the semi-Tory, of Haverstraw, N. Y. Burr was admitted as an attorney at Albany in January, 1782, and as a counselor in the follow- ing April. He had not studied for the required period, but himself moved the suspension of the rules on the ground of special privilege, in view of his military service. He began practice at Albany, soon after marrying Mrs. Theodosia Prevost, widow of a British officer. She was ten years Burr's senior, and the mother of two sons. By her Burr had his only child. Theodosia, who subsequently married Joseph
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Alston, and was lost at sea. Burr removed to New York City in 1783, after its evacuation by the British, and became one of the most sue- cessful lawyers before a jury. In 1784 and 1785 he was a member of the New York Assembly. Governor Clinton appointed him Attorney- General of the State in 1789. He was also one of three commissioners for passing upon claims growing out of the Revolution. In 1791 he was elected to the United States Senate from New York, defeating General Philip Schuyler. He received thirty electoral votes as Presi- dent of the United States when John Adams was chosen. Like Jeffer- son he was an anti-Federalist or Republican, while in 1800 these two men were tied for the Presidency, each having received seventy-three electoral votes. Largely through the influence of Alexander Hamil- ton, Jefferson was chosen President by the House of Representatives, Burr becoming Vice-President of the United States. While holding this office he became a candidate for gubernatorial honors in New York, was defeated, largely through Hamilton's influence, challenged the latter, and mortally wounded him in their memorable duel. He was indicted in New York and New Jersey, but escaped to South Caro- lina. The indictments were not pressed to trial, and returning to Washington, he served out his term as presiding officer of the Senate. Socially and politically he was now an outlaw in the United States. Revenge and ambition appear to have both been consulted in his scheme to secure the secession of the Louisiana territory from the United States and organize it as a nation under himself. He was tried for treason at Richmond, Va., and while technically acquitted, few impartial investigators have doubted his guilt. He involved others, including Blennerhassett. He then resided in England until 1812, when he returned to New York and resumed the practice of law, but without regaining his lost prestige. He married Madame Jumel late in life, his first wife having long been dead. His second wife soon separated from him.
CHOATE, JOSEPH HODGES, member of the celebrated law firm of Evarts, Choate & Beaman, is eminent alike in his profession and as a public orator. He has appeared in many of the most famous cases during the last forty years, and excels in the combination of brilliant eloquence with sonnd and convincing legal arguments. One of the Committee of Seventy which brought about the overthrow of the Tweed ring at the polls, he was associated with Charles O'Conor in the conviction of Tweed and his henchmen. As Counsel for General Fitz John Porter he brought about the appointment by President Hayes of a military commission at West Point, and before this body secured a reversal of the court-martial and the reinstatement of his client to military rank. He successfully defended General di Cesnola in the libel snit growing out of the controversy over the integrity of the Cypriote antiquities acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Yours very truly Joseph It Choale
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