USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 29
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40
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the Committee of One Hundred which received the foreign guests of the city at the Columbian Celebration of 1893, and has entertained the Infanta Eulalie. Don Antonio of Spain, Prince Roland Bona- parte, the Due de Lerme, the Duc de Veragua. the Grand Duke Alexis of Russia. Prince Charles de Hatzfeldt-Wildenberg, the Duke of Marl- borough. and the Due de Tamames. He is a director of the Little Giant Fire Extinguisher Company, and a member of the Manhattan and Democratic clubs, the Bar Association of the city, the New Eng: land Society, and the Sons of the Revolution. He is of distinguished descent. the son of the late Colonel Mathias Oliver Davidson, civil engineer, and his wife, daughter of Captain Mathew Miles Standish. and was born in Fordham. N. Y., October 21, 1863. He was educated - at St. Paul's School. Concord. N. H., and in 1885 was graduated from the Columbia College Law School at the head of bis class.
WEED, SMITH MEAD, was engaged in the practice of law in Plattsburgh. N. Y., and New York City, from 1857 to 1883. since which date he has not actively practiced. He has been identified with many important corporate enterprises, and at present is Presi- dent of the Hudson River Ore and Iron Company, has been President of the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company since he organized it in 1881, is President of the Chateau- gay Railroad, the first railroad route into the Adirondacks, organ- ized and constructed through his efforts; is First Vice-President of the Joseph Ladue Gold Mining and Development Company, of Yu- kon; is a member of the Advisory Committee of the South American Exploration Company, and is a SMITH MEAD WEED. director of the Mutual Automatic 'Telephone Company, the Auto- matie Telephone and Electric Company, and the Associated Colonies. He was a Democratic Member of the New York Assembly in 1865, 1866, and 1867. becoming Democratic candidate for Speaker and leader of the minority in 1866. He was a member of the Constitutional Cou- vention of 1867. In 1868 the State Senate employed him as Senior Counsel in the impeachment of Canal Commissioner Dorn. Again elected to the Assembly in 1871, he opposed the Tammany Hall ring, and was assaulted in the Assembly Chamber by Assemblyman James Irving, of New York, the latter being expelled from the Assembly
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in consequence. He also served in the Assembly in 1873 and 1874, in the latter year again being candidate of the Democratic minority for Speaker. In 1872 he organized the New York and Canada Rail- road Company, and arranging with the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, of New York City, to complete the road, in 1875 he saw the opening of a line connecting the British Provinces with New York City and the Pennsylvania coal fields. Becoming General Counsel of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company in 1873, he established an office in New York City. He has been active in connection with the Nicaragua Canal project. Ile has also been active in the com- mercial development of the island of San Domingo, and in the con- struction of a railroad on that island. He was successful in seem- ing the establishment of a United States Army post at Plattsburgh. N. Y., and was largely instrumental in securing the erection of the well-known Hotel Champlain, three miles south of Plattsburgh. Ile was a prominent Democratie candidate for United States Senator in 1890. being defeated by David B. Hill. He married, in 1859, Carrie L., daughter of Colonel M. M. Standish, of Plattsburgh, seventh in lineal descent from the famous Captain Miles Standish. Mrs. Weed died in 1886. leaving two sons and two daughters. The second son. Hon. George Standish Weed, a lawyer of Plattsburgh, has served as President of that village, County Judge, Collector of Customs for the District of Champlain, and twice as Member of the New York Assembly. Mr. Weed was himself born in Belmont, Franklin County, N. Y., July 26, 1833, the son of Roswell Alcott Weed and Sarah A., daughter of Smith Mead. a soldier of the War of 1812. He attended the public schools of Plattsburgh, for five years engaged in mercantile pur- suits, studied law with Judge Beckwith, of Plattsburgh, and in 1857 was graduated from the Harvard Law School, having taken front rank in his class, and twice been elected Speaker of the Dane Law School Assembly.
BELL, JAMES D., was on the editorial staff of the New York World, most of the time as Literary Editor, from January, 1871, to May, 1873, and from the latter date to January, 1877, was on the editorial staff of the New York Daily Graphic. He organized the illustration department of the latter. He also contributed occasional editorials to the Graphic and the New York Times until 1882. He studied law, and on September 16, 1880, was admitted to the bar, becoming a member of the firm of Dailey, Bell & Crane, which sub- sequently became Dailey & Bell. From 1886 to 1887 he represented the Nineteenth Ward on the Board of Supervisors of Kings County, and was Chairman of the Law Committee. From ISS8 to 1890 he was Commissioner of Police and Excise in the City of Brooklyn. He was Chairman of the Committee which reorganized the Democratic party in Kings County in 1894. From 1894 to.1896 he was Chairman of the
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Democratic General Committee of Kings County, while he is its First- Vice-Chairman at the present time. He is a trustee and Chairman of the Law Library of Brooklyn, is a trustee and First Vice-President of the Brooklyn Bar Association, is a director and Vice-President of the Hanover Club, and is a member of the Brooklyn Club. He served in the Federal Army from October 1, 1861, to June 26, 1865, in the First New York Mounted Rifles. He is now serving his fourth term as Commander of the Abel Smith-First Long Island Post. No. 435, Department of New York, Grand Army of the Republic. He is also serving his third term as Chairman of the Memorial and Executive Committee of the Grand Army of the Republic of Kings County. The. son of John Bell and Anna M. Sherman, he was born in New York City, September 29, 1845. He was educated in the public schools and the College of the City of New York.
DAVISON, CHARLES EVERETT, has been actively engaged in the practice of law in New York City since 1878, and. having made a special study of medical jurisprudence, is a recognized authority in that department. He has been counsel in a number of the famous cases on trial during the past twenty years. He was one of the found- ers of the Medico-Legal Society. In 1891 he was a prominent can- didate for the nomination for the State Senate from the First District of the city, He has traveled much abroad, and is an art collector. Ile married, in 1885, Mary Eva, daughter of the late James P. Trav- ers, long a prominent merchant of this city. Mr. Davison was boru in New York City in 1857. was educated here and at Heidelberg Uni- versity, Germany, and was graduated from the Law Department of the University of the City of New York in 1878. He is the son of the late John Garrett Davison and Sarah Amelia Stanton, his mother being granddaughter of a Mayor of Dublin, Ireland, and a cousin of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. His father, born at Sherburne, N. Y., was the son of Captain Peter I. Davison, who, although born in England-as was his wife, who had been a Miss Garrett-served against Great Britain in the War of 1812, having the rank of Cap- tain in the United States army.
SACKETT, HENRY WOODWARD, head of the law firm of Sackett & Bennett, is the son of the late Dr. Solon P. Sackeit, of Ithaca, N. Y .. and Lovedy K. Woodward. He is the great-grandson of Major Buel! Sackett, a Revolutionary officer of an old Rhode Island family. as he is also of Sir Benjamin Woodward, the English naturalist. Born in Enfield, N. Y., in 1853. he was graduated from Cornell College in 1875; while studying law was Instructor in Greek and Latin in the Monti- cello Military Academy, and entered Columbia College Law School in 1876. At this period he contributed to the New York Tribune re-
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ports of cases in the Court of Appeals and United States courts. Le was admitted to the bar in 1879, and became associated with the late Cornelius A. Runkle, counsel of the Tribune. Upon the death of Mr. Runkle in 1888, he succeeded him in that relation, and since that time has also written the legal editorials which have appeared in that jour- nal. He is a member of the City Bar Association, the Society of Medi- cal Jurisprudence. Troop A, the Society of Sons of the American Revolution, and the City, University, and Twilight clubs. He was married, in 1866, to Lizzie, daughter of Edmund Titus, of Brooklyn.
CHAPIN, ALFRED CLARK, has made an enviable record in pub- lic life against ring and boss rule. A promising young lawyer of Brooklyn, in 1881, and at the age of thirty-three, he was elected to the Assembly as a Democrat by 1,200 majority in a district normally Republican by 2,400. This was in anticipation that he would act independently, and he did so, rapidly familiarizing himself with the legislative machinery and the measures before the body and boldly exposing corrupt and pernicious projects. As Chairman of a special committee he made a fearless report on the receiverships of insolvent insurance companies. He secured the passage of the so-called Chapin primary law, and advocated the principles of home rule for cities. At the close of his term he was tendered a dinner at which Mayor Seth Low spoke. Re-elected in 1882 by 3,650 majority, he was elected Speaker of the Assembly. Iu 1883 he was elected State Comptroller by 16,000 majority, although the candidate for Secretary of State on the same ticket was defeated by 16,000. His administration was able, leading to his re-election. The Western Union Telegraph Company having refused to pay its taxes, while a judgment against it was re- turned " unsatisfied," he drew a bill requiring the corporation to dis- close its property. Within twenty-four hours the company paid in $140,000 of delinquent taxes. In 1887 he was elected Mayor of Brooklyn after an exciting contest, and in 1889 was re-elected by over 0,000 majority, the largest ever received by a candidate for that office. "He laid more miles of granite pavement than all his predecessors combined; he built more schoolhouses than had been erected during any three previous administrations; he increased the police force of the city more than one-third; he opened small attractive parks in different localities, and thus gave healthful resorts and additional breathing spaces to the people; and he inaugurated the erection of a memorial of the Federal dead more magnificent than any yet projected by any other city in the country-and all this he did without laying any additional burden npon the taxpayers." In 1891 he was elected to Congress. Born in South Hadley, Mass., March 8, 1848, he is lineal- ly descended from Samuel Chapin, who was in New England prior to 1636. He was graduated from Williams College in 1869, from the Harvard Law School in 1871, and after studying in a New York
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law office for another year, was admitted to the bar in 1872. In 1873 he began practice in Brooklyn. He was the first President of the Young Men's Democratic Club of that city. He now has business in this city, being Secretary and director of the Land and Security Investment Company, Secretary and director of the Screw Dock Com- pany, and director of the Cereals Manufacturing Company.
BRICE, CALVIN STEWART, United States Senator from Ohio from 1891 to 1897, was eminent alike as a leader of the Democratic party and as a railroad financier. At the time of his death he was Pres- ident of the Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, President . of the Cineinnati, Jackson and Mackinaw Railway Company, Presi- dent of the Sault Ste. Marie Bridge Company, Vice-President of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway Company, and a director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the Chase National Bank, the United States Guarantee Company, the Homer Lee Bank Note Company, the Elkhorn Valley Coal Land Company, the Western Union Beef Company, and the Welsbach Commercial Company. In 18SS he became Chairman of the National Democratic Campaign Com- mittee, and while retaining this position in 1889, succeeded the late W. H. Barnmn as Chairman of the Democratie National Committee. In January, 1890, he was elected United States Senator from Ohio to succeed ITemy B. Payne, his term beginning March 4, 1891. Born in Denmark, Ohio, September 17, 1845, he was the son of a Presbyterian clergyman, one of the Brices of Maryland, who claim descent from Sir Alexander Bruce, of Airth, Scotland, and his wife, Janet, daugh- ter of Alexander, fifth Lord Livingston. His mother, Elizabeth Stew- art, of Carrollton, Md., is of the royal Stuarts. He temporarily left Miami College during the Civil War for three months' service in Cap- tain Dodd's University Company, and later served in the Virginia campaign with Captain MeFarland's University Company,-Com- pany A of the Eighty-sixth Ohio. He was graduated in 1863, and the following year organized Company E of the One Hundred and Eight- ieth Ohio, and served in Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas until the end of the war, attaining the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. He at- tended the law school of the University of Michigan, was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1866, and began practice in Cincinnati. He be- came successful as a corporation lawyer and in connection with rail- road interests. In 1870-71 he secured in Europe a loan for the Lake Erie and Louisville Railroad, and extended it to the town of Lima. Afterward it became the Lake Erie and Western, and he has been its President since 1887. He was largely instrumental in building the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railway ( the " Nickel Plate "), between Chicago and Buffalo. At different times he had been con- nected with the Chicago and Atlantic, the Ohio Central, the Richmond and Danville, the Richmond and West Point Terminal, the East Ten-
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nessee, the Virginia and Georgia, the Memphis and Charleston, the Mobile and Birmingham, and the Kentucky Central.
ALLISON, THOMAS, was born in New York City, September 19, 1840; in 1860 was graduated from the College of the City of New York, studied law with Hon. John W. Edmonds, and in 1861 was admitted to the bar. He practiced alone for some years, was head of the law firm of Allison & Shaw for nine years preceding May, 1882, and since that date has practiced alone. He was nominated for the bench of the Court of Common Pleas in 1889 by the Citizens' movement, the Republican party, and the County Democracy, but the Tammany. ticket won throughout. Governor Morton appointed him Judge of the Court of General Sessions to succeed the late Hon. Randolph B. Martine, and during his eight months' service on this beuch he adjudicated a number of difficult and notable cases, including that of Sheriff Tamsen. The jurors who served under him presented him with a silver and ivory gavel and a set of resolutions, while members of the bar, who had practiced be- fore him, presented a silver service, General Benjamin F. Tracey mak- ing the presentation. He was nom- inated to succeed himself on this bench in the fall of 1895 by the Re- publican party, the State Demoe- racy, and the Good Government clubs, but failed, with the rest of THOMAS ALLISON. his ticket, though polling more votes than any other candidate on the ticket. He refused appointment as Corporation Counsel by Mayor Edson in 1885, and in 1896 refused appointment as District Attorney by Governor Morton to succeed the late John R. Fellows. Early in his practice Judge Allison gained a reputation in cases involving important questions of municipal law, and in cases of the city he has been employed as special counsel by the corporation counsels from William C. Whitney to the present in- cunbent, irrespective of party lines. He brought an enjoiment suit for Hubert O. Thompson when Tammany Hall proposed to initiate one hundred and sixty seven new members in order to control the Presidential nomination in the Tilden campaign. Under Mayor Ed- ward Cooper he secured the rejection by the Senate Committee of the public burdens bill which had passed the State Assembly, and which was a device of Tammany Hall to legislate the County Democracy ont
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of office. Sole counsel for the city throughout the Broadway surface railroad litigation, he obtained the final injunction restraining the Board of Aldermen from granting the franchise. He represented the city in proceedings to condemn lands for the new speedway along the Harlem River, and reduced the claims for damages from $3,500,000 to $275,000. He also saved many millions of dollars to the city by defeating the claims of upland owners to easements of access over the tideway in waters surrounding the city. He acted as counsel to the commission to frame the charter of Greater New York, advised it upon many important points, and drew several chapters of the charter and several of the amendments to laws reported by the commission. Judge Allison married, in 1871, Mary C., daughter of the late William E. Millet. of New York, and has three daughters, three sons having died. He is himself the son of Michael Allison and Susan Gentil, both natives of New York, as was also his grandfather, Richard Allison. The latter's wife, Elizabeth Ruckel, was a native of St. Johns, New Brunswick.
GREENE, RICHARD HENRY, engaged in the practice of law in New York City from about the close of the Civil War until his re- tirement in 1886, was long a member of the law firm of Roosevelt & Greene. Later he was counsel of a number of the street railways, be- came active in their management, and became president of several. He is now Secretary and a director of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He was born. January 12. 1839, was grad- uated from Yale in 1862. and from the Columbia College Law School. He is a member of the Yale and Westside Republican clubs. the So- ciety of Mayflower Descendants, the Society of Colonial Wars. the Society of American Wars. the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of the War of 1812. the New York Historical Society. the Seventh Regi- ment War Veterans, and the Yale Alumni Association. He married. in 1867. Mary Gertrude, daughter of Captain Edwin Beach Munson, and Amelia C. Sperry, of New Haven, and has a daughter and a son- Marshall Winslow Greene. Mr. Greene is hunself the son of the late William Webb Greene, merchant of New York City and resident of Brooklyn, who was Captain of the Tenth New York and Alderman and Judge in Brooklyn; is grandson of Captain Richard Greene. of East Haddam, Conn., an officer in the War of 1812; is great-grandson of Captain James Green. of the Second Connectieut Horse in the Revolution, and is great-great-grandson of William Greene and De- sive, daughter of John Bacon and Mary Hawes. He descends from John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley, of the Mayflower; from Kenehin, brother of Governor Edward Winslow: from Captain John Gorham and Captain Samuel Marshall. of King Philip's War, and from Ed- mund Hawes, Rev. John Mayo, and Hemy Walcott. Through his mother. Sarah A., daughter of Colonel William Whetten Todd, who
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was business partner of his uncle, the first John Jacob Astor, he de- scends from the founders of the Roosevelt, Bogaert, Herring. Slegt, and other Dutch families.
SLOCUM, HENRY WARNER, was one of the distinguished gen- erals of the Civil War, and one of the most eminent citizens of Brook. lyn. He was the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State in 1865, at the close of the war, but failed of election. In 1868 he was elected to Congress, and re-elected in 1870, and again in 1884. He was elected President of the Brooklyn Board of City Works in 1876. He was also a commissioner of the Brooklyn Bridge, and favored making it free. In the National Democratie conventions of 1888 and 1892 his name was brought forward for nomination as President. He was born in Delphi, N. Y., September 24, 1827; was graduated in 1852, and resigned his commission as First Lieutenant in October, 1856. ITe then studied and practiced law in Syracuse, and in 1859 was elected to the Assem- bly. Promptly volunteering in the Civil War, he was appointed Colonel of the Twenty-seventh New York Volunteers, May 21. 1861. At Bull Run he was wounded. and immediately afterward was commissioned Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and assigned to General Franklin's Division, Army of the Potomac. He participated in the siege of York- town and at West Point, Va., and succeeded Franklin in the command of the division, May 15, 1862. At Gaine's Mill he re-enforced Fitz-John Porter at a critical moment, and also distinguishing himself at Glen- dale and Malvern Hill, was commissioned Major-General of Volun- teers, July 4, 1862. He took part in the second battle of Bull Run, South Mountain, and Antietam, and in October, 1862, was given the command of the Twelfth Corps. He was active at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, with distinction to himself, leading the right wing of the army on the last-named field. In August, 1864, he succeeded General Joseph Hooker in command of the Twentieth Corps, and throughout Sherman's March to the Sea led the left wing. participating in every action preceding the surrender of Gen- eral Johnston. Resigning from the army in 1865, he began the prac- tice of law in Brooklyn, and was successful and eminent in his pro- fession.
SLOCUM, HENRY WARNER, eldest son of the late Major-General Henry Warner Slocum and his wife Clara, daughter of Israel Rice and Dorcas Jenkins, was born in Syracuse, N. Y., May 28, 1862; was grad- uated from Yale University in 1883; studied law; was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia in 1884, and since 1885 has prae- ticed law in Brooklyn and New York City. He is a director of the Williamsbargh City Fire Insurance Company, the New York and Brooklyn Railroad Company, and the Coney Island and Brooklyn Railroad. His clubs include the Racquet, Tennis, and University
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Athletic, and he is a member of the Military Order of the Loyal Le- gion. He married, in 1888, Grace, daughter of Henry Edsall and Emma Jerome, and granddaughter of Thomas Jerome, eldest brother of Leonard Jerome. They have two daughters.
BUEL, OLIVER PRINCE, was graduated from Williams College in 1859, studied law with his father, the late Hon. David Buel, Jr., and with the late Hon. John K. Porter; was admitted to the bar in 1861, and, with the exception of a few years at Troy, N. Y., has prac- ticed law since in New York City. Ile has especially devoted, himself to insurance and corpo- ration law. He is a director of the United States Life In- surance Company, having been its general counsel since 1878. and is also a director of the United States Fire Insurance Company. He is an active member of the City Bar Asso- ciation, and as Chairman of one of its special committees framed a proposition to con- solidato the courts of this city, which was eventually adopted by incorporation in the new State Constitution. He is a member of the Reform, Hard- ware, and Catholic clubs. being Vice-President of the latter. Reared an Episcopalian, he embraced Catholicism in 1881. OLIVER PRINCE BUEL. He was for four years a resi- dent of Yonkers, and served as a member of its Board of Education and as President of the Demo- cratic Club of that city. Under the title, "The Abraham Lincoln Myth," he has published a satire on Huxley's assault on Christian evidences. He married, in 1871, Josephine, daughter of Charles Me Dou- gall, Surgeon in the United States Army. Through his mother, Har- riet. Hillhouse, as well as through his father, a prominent lawyer of Northern New York for nearly fifty years, and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1821, Mr. Buel descends from old Con- necticut families.
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FISKE, HALEY, was graduated from Rutgers College in 1871, and, studying law with the New York firm of Arnoux, Ritch &
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Woodford, was in active practice as a member of that firm until his retirement from professional work in 1891 to accept the office of Vice- President of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He was counsel in the Fayerweather will contest and many other notable cases. At the present time, in addition to the Vice-Presidency men- tioned, he is a director of the National Shoe and Leather Bank and the Metropolitan Trust Company. He is Treasurer of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin. He is a member of the City Bar Association, and the City, Players', Grolier, Church, and Delta Phi clubs. He married, in 1878, Mary Garrettina Mulford, who died in 1886, and by her had a daughter. By his present wife, Marione Cowles Cush- man, he has a son, Archibald Falconer Cushman Fiske, and a daugh- ter. Mr. Fiske was born in New Brunswick, N. J., March 18, 1852, the son of the late William Henry Fiske and Sarah Ann Blakeney, grandson of Judge Haley Fiske, and great-grandson of Ensign Squire Fiske, Colonel of a Rhode Island regiment in the Revolution. His father was a civil engineer, and at one time connected with the Street Department of this city. His grandfather was Lientenant in the War of 1812, and a civil engineer, who built the lower locks of the Delaware and Raritan Canal. The first American ancestor, William Fiske, who settled in Salem, Mass., in 1637, was a lineal descendant of Lord Symond Fiske, who died in 1464, and was in turn grandson of Daniel Fiske, lord of the manor of Stadhaugh, Laxfield, Suffolk, England.
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