USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 3
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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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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
STURGES, FREDERICK, eldest son of the late Jonathan Sturges, entered his father's mercantile firm in 1849 and retired with his father in 1868. He is President of the New York Warehouse and Security Company, is a director of the National Bank of Commerce, and is a trustee of the Seaman's Bank for Savings and the Atlantic Trust Company. He has also been a director of the Illinois Central Rail- road. He has been or is an officer and liberal patron of the Ameri- ean Bible Society, the Seamen's Fund Society, the Presbyterian Hos- pital, and the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled. He is a member of the Union League, Century, and Grolier clubs, and the Downtown Association. He married in 1863 Mary Reed, daughter of .Dudley B. Fuller, and has a daughter and three sons-Jonathan, Arthur Pemberton, and Frederick Sturges; Jr.
SCHERMERHORN, WILLIAM COLFORD, youngest and only surviving son of the late Peter Schermerhorn and Sarah Jones, was born in this city in 1821, was graduated from Columbia College, and adopted the profession of the law. He has had the care of a large inherited estate, principally invested in realty in this city. He has long been a trustee of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Com- pany. Recently He has erected for Columbia University one of the new buildings on Morningside Heights. He is a vice-president of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and is connected with other institutions. He is a member of the Metropoli- tan, Knickerbocker, Century, City, and Whist clubs, the Columbia Alumni Association, and the Scientific Alliance, and is a patron of the museums and of several art and scientific societies. He married Ann E. H. Cottenet, and has three daughters-Mrs. Samuel W. Bridg- ham, Sarah Schermerhorn, and Mrs. John I. Kane. Mr. Schermer- horn is first consin of Mrs. William Astor, who was a daughter of Abraham Schermerhorn, of Yonkers, his father's younger brother. He is the uncle of Frederick Augustus Schermerhorn of this city. The residence of Mr. Schermerhorn on West Twenty-third Street is one of the very few fashionable old residences which have been main- tained in spite of the encroachment of business interests in sections which were once exclusively residential.
SCHERMERHORN, FREDERICK AUGUSTUS, is a mining engi- neer by profession, but has principally devoted himself to the care of the large real estate interests of his family. He has been a trustee of Columbia College, now Columbia University, since 1877, and with his uncle, William Colford Schermerhorn, has erected one of the new buildings of that institution. He is also a manager and Recording Secretary of the New York Institution for the Blind. He is a director of the Building and Sanitary Inspection Company, and of the Na- tional Horse Shoe Association of America. He was born in this city
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
November 1, 1844, and entered Columbia College in 1861. In 1864 he was commissioned Second Lieutenant of the One Hundred and Eighty-fifth New York Volunteers, and in Jannary, 1865, became First Lientenant of Company C. He went to the front with the Army of the Potomac, was Aid-de-camp on the staff of Major-Gen- eral Charles Griffin, was brevetted Captain for gallant conduct at the Battle of Five Forks in 1865, and served till the close of the war. In 1865 he entered the School of Mines of Columbia College, and was graduated as a mining engineer in 1868. For seven years subsequent to the Civil War he was a member of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, and rose from private through the ranks of Corporal and Ser -. geant to that of First Lieutenant of Company K. He is a member of the. Union, Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, Century, City, Riding, Coaching, Country, New York - Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corinth- ian Yacht, Rockaway Hunting, and Mendelssohn Glee clubs, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the Columbia Alumni Asso- ciation. He is the eldest surviving son of the late Peter Augustus Schermerhorn, of this city, and Adeline E. Coster, daughter of a notable New York merchant. His father was born in 1811 and died in 1845, and was an older brother of the present William Colford Schermerhorn. Their father, Peter Schermerhorn, married Sarah Jones, and was in turn the son of Captain Peter Schermerhorn and Elizabeth Bussing. Captain Peter Schermerhorn was an eminent merchant of this city, born in 1749, his death occurring in 1826, and the son of another prominent New York merchant, Johannes Scher- merhorn, born in July, 1715, died in September, 1768, whose wife was Sarah, daughter of Jan Cannon and Maria Le Grand, of two old New York families.' The parents of Johannes were Arnout Schermer- horn and Maria, daughter of Johannes Beekman. Arnout Schermer- horn enjoyed high social position in this city. He was born in Albany in 1686 and removed to New York City with his parents, Symon Schermerhorn and Willempje, daughter of Arnout Viele, and grand- daughter of Cornelis Viele. Symon was born in Albany in 1658, sub- sequently resided in Schenectady, and died in New York City in 1696. Hle was still at Schenectady when it was attacked and burned by the Indians on the night of February S, 1690, and his oldest son, Johannes, was killed, with three negroes. Although himself wounded in the leg, Symon Schermerhorn rode to Albany during the night and gave the alarm. This experience induced his removal to New York. He was one of the sons of the famous Jacob Janse Schermerhorn, wealthy merchant and trader of Albany. Son of Jan Schermerhorn, of Waterland, Holland, where he was born in 1622, Jacob Janse Schermerhorn emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1636, and died at Albany in 16SS. He was one of the wealthiest men in the colony.
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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
SCHUYLER, PHILIP, who served with distinction in the regular army during the Civil War, after which he resigned his commission, is the son of the late George Lee Schuyler and his first wife, Eliza, daughter of the late James Alexander Hamilton, and granddaughter of the famous Alexander Hamilton; is the grandson of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler by his second wife, Mary A. Sawyer, of Newburyport, Mass., and is the great- grandson of the notable General Philip Schuyler of the Revolution and his wife, Catherine Van Rensselaer. The parents of the Revolutionary patriot were Johannes- Schuyler and Cornelia Van Cortlandt; his grandparents - were Johannes Schuyler and Elizabeth Staats, FiLYP PIETERSEN SCHUYLER COMMISSARIS 3856. while his great-grandparents were the original emigrants from Holland to New Amsterdam-Philip Schuyler and Mar- garetta Van Slichtenhorst. The present General Schuyler receives a double strain SCHUYLER ARMS. from Major-General Schuyler of the Revolution, and the generations preceding, through the fact that his maternal great-grandmother, wife of Alexander Hamilton, was the daughter of General Philip Schuyler and Catherine Van Rensselaer. General Schuyler is a member of the Patriarchs, and the Union, Knickerbocker, Century, Harvard, New York Yacht, Seawanhaka- Corinthian Yacht, and Hudson River Ice Yacht clubs, the Society of the Cincinnati, the Seventh Regiment Veterans, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the Sons of the Revolution. He married Harriet (Lowndes) Langdon. Nevis, his country-seat at Irvington, was the home of Alexander Hamilton.
ROOSEVELT, CORNELIUS VAN SCHAICK, was an eminent merchant of New York City, and in 1823 became one of the founders and original incorporators of the famous Chemical National Bank of New York. He was the son of Jacobus 1. Roosevelt and Mary Van Schaick, his father having been commissary in the patriot army dur- ing the Revolution; was the grandson of Jacobus Roosevelt and An- natje Bogaert, was great-grandson of Johannes Van Roosevelt, of New York City, and was great-great- grandson of Nicholas Van Roosevelt, of Esopus, N. Y., now Kingston, while Nicholas Roosevelt he was removed one generation further from Claes Martinsen Van Roosevelt and Jannetje Thomas, who emi- grated from Holland to New Amsterdam in 1649. Cornelins V. S. Roosevelt married Margaret, daughter of Robert Barnhill, and had
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
six sons, of whom the youngest, William W., died in youth. The others were the late Silas Weir Roosevelt, who became prominent as a lawyer; James Alfred Roosevelt, who died in 1898; Cornelius Van Sehaick Roosevelt, Jr., who died in 1887; the present Robert Barnhil! Roosevelt, and the late Theodore Roosevelt, father of the present The- More Roosevelt.
ROOSEVELT, JAMES ALFRED, second son of Cornelius Van Schaick Roosevelt, Sr., and Margaret Barnhill, was born in this city, June 13, 1825, and died in the summer of 1898. In 1845 he became a member of his father's mercantile firm, and eventually succeeded him as its head. In 1STS he established the banking firm of Roose- velt & Sons. He was. President of the Broadway Improvement Com. `pany, Vice-President of the Chemical National Bank, Vice-President of the Bank for Savings, a member of the Board of Managers of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, a trustee of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, and a director of the Eagle Fire Company, the Greenwich Insurance Company, the Central and South American Telegraph Company, the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company, and the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railway Company. Mayor Strong appointed him a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of this city. He was President of the Roosevelt Ilospital, and was a trustee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruel- ty to Children. He was a member of the Metropolitan, Knicker- bocker, Century, Riding, Coaching, Country, New York Yacht, Sea- wanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, and Hudson River Ice Yacht clubs, the Somerset Club of Boston, the Downtown Association, and the St. Nicholas Society. He married in 1847 Elizabeth N., daughter of William F. Emlen, of Philadelphia, and is survived by his widow, two daughters, and a son-William Emlen Roosevelt. The latter was long his father's associate in business. Another son, Alfred, prior to his death in 1892, was a member of his father's banking house.
ROOSEVELT, WILLIAM EMLEN, only surviving son of James Alfred Roosevelt of this city, has long been a member of the banking firm of Roosevelt & Sons, and in 1898 succeeded his father as its head. He is an officer of a large number of corporations. He is President of the Wessell Silver Company, Vice-President of the Sixth National Bank, Treasurer of the Terminal Improvement Company, Secretary and a Director of the Broadway Improvement Company, a trustee of the Union Trust Company, the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, and the Institution for Savings of Merchants' Clerks, and a director of the Chemical National Bank, the Gallatin National Bank, the National Starch Manufacturing Company, and the Mexican Tele- graph Company. He married Christine, daughter of John Kean, Vice- President of the Manhattan Trust Company. He is a member of the
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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
Metropolitan, Century, City, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, and other clubs, the Downtown Association, and the Sons of the American Revolution.
. DODGE, DAVID LOW, one of the founders in New York City in 1805 of Higginson & Dodge, at one time the largest wholesale dry- goods house in the United States, with branches at Boston and Bal- timore, was also the founder of one of the most remarkable merchant families of New York, whose members have now for four generations not merely maintained their social prestige, but their place in active business cireles, and their prominence in the public life of the city, . and in connection with its, institutions. David Low Dodge was one of the founders of the American Bible Society, as he was also of the American Tract Society. He was an elder of the Wall Street Pres- byterian Church. He founded the New York Peace Society, the first organization of its kind, and was its president. He was the first President of the American Peace Society. At his residence was founded the Young Men's Christian Association of this city, of which his grandson, the present William Earl Dodge, was long the presi- dent, and of which his great-grandson, Cleveland Hoadley Dodge, is now the president. The Young Men's Missionary Society was also organized in his house. One of his published works, " War Inconsist- ent with the Religion of Jesus Christ," was republished in England and translated into several European languages. Born in Connecti- ent in 1774, he was the son of David Dodge, a friend of General Israel Putnam, who plied his trade as wagon manufacturer in the interest of the patriot cause during the Revolution, and was lineally de- seended from William Dodge, who settled in Salem, Mass., in 1629. This emigrant was of a knightly family long seated adjacent to the city of Chester, near Liverpool, England. A patent dated April S. 1306, was issned to his ancestors for having " valiantly served to- wards the publie good and encouraged their heirs and successors to follow in like virtne and noble conduct." For some years David Low Dodge was head of a private school at Norwich, Conn. He estab- lished a store at Hartford, Conn., in 1802, another at Litchfield, Conn., soon after, and in 1805 a third at New York City under the firm style of Higginson & Dodge. Notwithstanding the immense proportions which this business assumed, the embargo and loss of vessels during the War of 1812 greatly crippled the house, and this, with the appear- ance of the yellow fever plagne, led Mr. Dodge to return to Norwich, Conu., where he established one of the earliest and largest cotton mills in New England. Returning to New York City permanently in 1825, he organized the firm of Ludlow & Dodge. He was in retire- ment from active business and engaged in religious and literary activity from 1827 umtil his death in 1852. He married in 1798 Sarah, daughter of Rev. Aaron Cleveland, an ancestor of President Grover
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
Cleveland. She was a sister of the eminent preacher, the late Dr. Samuel Hanson Cox, and aunt of the late Bishop Arthur Cleveland Co.x.
DODGE, WILLIAM EARL, son of David Low Dodge and Sarah Cleveland, was one of the most illustrious among notable New York merchants. He was a member of the New York Chamber of Com- merce from 1855 until his death, became its Vice-President in 1863, and was its President from 1867 to 1875. He was one of the Commit- tre of Twenty-five of this body which in January, 1861, presented at Washington a petition with 38,000 signatures urging a peaceful solu -- tion of the slave question. He was also one of ten delegates accred- Angel-by the New- York-Legislature to the " Peace Congress " of 186.1. - During the Civil War he was active in organizing- troops and raising - funds, contributing bountifully from his own fortune. He was one of the founders of the Union League in support of the Federal Govern- ment, out of which grew the Union League Club. He was elected to Congress from the Eighth New York Distriet in 1864, and distin- guished himself by his advocacy of sound financial views. He refused a renomination. In 1872 he was a member of the Electoral College. Appointed by President Grant a member of a commission to investi- gate the condition of the Indians, he studied the situation for several years, touring the Indian Territory, and secured a thorough reform in the Department of the Interior in the care of the Indians, en-bing the powers of the Indian agents and traders, and obtaining better educational advantages for the aborigines. He also interested him- self in the edneation of the freemen, founding one college in their in- terest and endowing several others. Other colleges endowed by him were Williams, Dartmouth, Amherst, Lafayette, Beloit, Marietta, Oberlin, Hamilton, Grinnell, and Maryville. Ile likewise endowed Union Theological Seminary of this city, and the theological semi- uaries at Auburn, N. Y., Princeton, N. J., New Haven, Conn., Cincin- nati, Ohio, Bangor, Me., and Chicago, Ill. He was the founder and presi- dent of several temperance organizations. He was one of the founders of Union Theological Seminary, and one of its trustees from the begin- ning until his death. He was Vice-President of the American Bible Society. He was President of the Evangelical Alliance. Born at Hartford, Conn., September 4, 1805, he was educated at Norwich, Conn., and under his unele, Dr. Cox, at Mendham, N. J. He worked in his father's cotton mill at an early age, and between the ages of thirteen and twenty-one in his father's drygoods establishment in this city. In 1827 he founded the drygoods firm of Huntington & Dodge, which at once became prosperous. He married Melissa P., daughter of Anson Green Phelps, founder of Phelps & Peck, the largest estab- lishment in the metal trade in the United States. In 1833 occurred the total collapse of the great warchouse of this firm, which had then
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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
been recently but fanltily erected at Cliff and Fulton streets. In this crisis Mr. Phelps persuaded Mr. Dodge to dispose of his drygoods busi- ness and join him in the metal trade, and the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co. was established. Mr. Dodge was an important factor in the development of its business, and was head of the firm for many years prior to his death in 1883. He also had other large interests. Having acquired in 1836 large traets of land in Tioga County, Pa., he or- ganized the Lackawanna Iron and Coal Company. He was chiefly instrumental in promoting the Erie Railway Company, personally obtaining the subscriptions, and being a member of its original direct- orate. ... Ile was likewise one of the organizers and original directors of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in 1843 turning the first spade- ful of soil in its construction. The Lackawanna and Western was an- other railroad of which he was a founder and original director. He was at one time President of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad.
DODGE, WILLIAM EARL, has long been senior member of the notable firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co., metal merchants, which was founded by his grandfather, Anson Green Phelps, and of which his father, the late William Earl Dodge, was for many years the senior partner. He is also President of the Ansonia Brass and Copper Com- pany, a Trustee of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company. the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, and the Provident Loan Society, and is a director of the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, the United Globes Mines, the Commercial Mining Com- pany, and the New Jersey Zinc Company. He was one of the New York State Commissioners to supervise the condition of the New York troops in the field during the Civil War, and at its close received the thanks of the State by joint resolution of the Legislature. He was one of the founders of the Union League Club, and an official of the Loyal Publication Society. He was advisory director of the Woman's Central Association of Relief, which led to the establishment of the United States Sanitary Commission. In respect to religious inter- ests, the benevolent institutions of the city and public interests, he has sustained a relation not unlike that of his illustrious father. He is a member of the executive committee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, as he is also of that of the New York Botanic Garden, and that of the American Museum of Natural History. He is a trustee of the Slater Fund and he has been Chairman of the National Arbitra- - tion Committee. He has been Vice-President of the American Sun- day-school Union, and he succeeded his father as President of the Evangelical Alliance. He was for many years President of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city, and was chiefly instrumental in securing the erection of its building at Twenty-third Street and Fourth Avenne,-the first erected especially for the use of Y. M. C. A. members in the United States. He has also been Vice-President of the
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
New England Society. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Century, City, Reform, Riding, Country, Presbyterian, West- brook Golf and Southside Sportsmen's clubs, the Downtown Associa- tion, Scientific Alliance, and other societies. He was born in this city in 1832, and became a member of the firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co. in 1864. He married in 1854 Sarah Tappen, daughter of the late David Hoadley, President of the Panama Railroad Company.
DODGE, CHARLES CLEVELAND, who was a volunteer in the Union Army during the Civil War, became one of the distinguished cavalry leaders, and rose to the rank of Brigadier-General, is the son of the late William E. Dodge and his wife, Melissa P., daughter of the . late Anson Green Phelps. - General Dodge has long had important. business interests in this city. IIe is President of the Esmond Inter- national Traction Company, and is a Director of the New York City Watch Company. He was born in this city, and is a graduate of Yale College. Since the war he has been Major of the New York Mounted Rifles. He is a member of the Union and University clubs and the Yale Alumni.
DODGE, NORMAN W., the eminent lumber merchant of this city, is the son of the late distinguished William Earl Dodge and his wife, Melissa P., daughter of the late Anson Green Phelps, founder of Phelps, Dodge & Co. Mr. Dodge is President of the Normandale Lun- ber Company and a Director of the Hilton & Dodge Lumber Com- pany. He is a member of the Union League and Country clubs and the Downtown Association.
DODGE, CLEVELAND HOADLEY, son of the present William Earl Dodge, and grandson of the late eminent merchant and philan- thropist of the same name, is a member of the famous firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co., and an officer of a number of corporations. He is a Director of the National City Bank, the Farmers' Loan and Trust Com- pany, the Ansonia Brass and Copper Company, the Quincy Mining Company, and the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company. He is President of the Young Men's Christian Association of this city, hav- ing succeeded his father in that office. He is also identified with va- rious benevolent institutions. He was born in New York City in 1860. and was educated at Princeton. He married Grace Parish. He is a member of the Century, University, Calumet, Country, Princeton, and University Glee clubs, the Downtown Association, Scientific Alliance. and other organizations.
DODGE, GRACE HOADLEY, daughter of the present William Earl Dodge, and granddaughter of the late William Earl Dodge, enjoys the distinction of being the first woman appointed a member of the Board of Education of New York City. The dis- tinction was earned, however, by her earnest efforts to advance the
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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
cause of the education of women. She founded the system of " Work- ing Girls' " clubs in this city, and was also the founder of the Teach- er's College, which is now connected with Columbia University.
GALLATIN, ALBERT (baptized ABRAHAM ALPHONZO AL- BERT ), takes rank as one of the most eminent of the financiers of the United States. (For portrait, see Volme I., p. 323, of this work. ) The son of Jean Gallatin and Sophie Albertine Rolaz du Rosey, he was born in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1761, was graduated with high honors from the University of Geneva in 1779, and to escape the ini- portunity of members of his family who were determined that he 'should enter the military service of Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, he emigrated to_Boston in 1780. He served in the Revolutionary Army, and later was instructor in Harvard College. : Removing to Philadel- phia he made judicious real estate investments and engaged in busi- ness. In 1790 he was elected to the Pennsylvania Legislature. In 1795 he was elected to Congress, where he became the leader of Madi- son's followers. Subsequently he represented Pennsylvania in the United States Senate. He was Secretary of the Treasury from 1801 to 1813, in the cabinets of Jefferson and Madison. He opposed Jeffer- son's embargo policy in 1807, declaring war with England to be pref- erable, and, as the third with Jefferson and Madison, in directing the policy of the Republican party and the nation at that period, was the first of the three to urge the War of 1812 as the only solution of the difficulties with Great Britain. The loan of $17,000,000, nego- tiated by the United States in December, 1812, in support of the war, would have been a failure but for his success in influencing the taking of over $10,000,000 by his three personal friends-John Jacob Astor, of New York, and Stephen Girard and David Parish, of Philadelphia. He was one of the commissioners who arranged the Treaty of Ghent. In 1815 he was United States Minister to France, and in 1826 was Envoy Extraordinary to Great Britain. In 1829 he took up his resi- dence in New York City. The same year he became President of the newly organized National Bank of this city, now the Gallatin Na- tional, and remained at its head until his resignation in 1839, when he was succeeded by his eldest son, the late James Gallatin. He opposed Jackson's policy in connection with the Bank of the United States, and, the resulting panic of 1837 having forced all the banks of New York City to suspend, he was active in bringing about a con- - vention of the banks of the country in this city, and the general agree- ment upon a day to resume not being obtained, the banks resumed in this city alone, May 10, 1838. He declined the presidency of the Bank of Commerce offered him in 1838. The formation of the New York Clearing House Association in 1833 was merely the execution of the suggestion made by him as early as 1841 that the banks regu- larly settle their exchanges. He was the chief founder of the New
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