USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 37
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FITZGERALD, THOMAS W., was a clerk of the City Court from 1SS4 to 1887, when President Cleveland appointed him a member of the Board of Pension Ap- peals. He was Secretary of the Board of Police Com- missioners of Richmond County from March, 1889, to January, 1890, when he resigned to assume the office of District Attorney of the same county, to which he had been elected in Novem- ber preceding. In 1892 he was re-elected District At- torney by the largest major- ity ever received for that office in Richmond County. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1894. He is a well-known campaign speaker, for many years has been a member of the Democratic County Committee of Richmond County, and Vice-Chairman of the Democratic General Committee, and has been a THOMAS W. FITZGERALD. frequent delegate to State Conventions. In 1898 Mayor Van Wyk appointed him a JJustice of the Court of Special Sessions. The son of Thomas W. Fitzgerald and Susan, daughter of Daniel Howard, he was born in this city, Septem- ber 1, 1854, and educated in the public schools and the College of the City of New York.
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SEABURY, ROBERT, was educated at the Hempstead Institute and Union Hill Academy of Jamaica, studied law with Alden J. Spooner, of Brooklyn, and Judge William H. Ouderdonk, of Queens County, and was admitted to the bar in December, 1866. For two years he practiced with John W. C. Leveridge, of New York City, subsequently formed a partnership with Alden J. Spooner, of Brooklyn, and since 1870 has practiced at Hempstead, L. I. For thirteen years he has been a member of the Hempstead Board of Education. Since April, 1876, he has been Clerk to the Queens County Board of Supervisors. He is a director of the Hempstead Bank and its counsel. Ile is a member of the Reform Club of. New York, and is Past Master of Morton Lodge, No. 63, Free and Accepted Masons. He was born in Hempstead, L. I., December 10, 1844, and is the son of Robert S. Seabury, merchant, and Sarah Elizabeth Hunt. He descends from John Seabury, who came to Massachusetts during the early colonial period, and whose grandson, John Seabury, in 1673, married a daughter of John Alden and Priscilla Mullins. Rev. Samuel Seabury, D.D., who was born in 1706, was the father of Samuel and Adam Seabury, who settled in Hempstead. Mr. Sea- bury married, first. Amelia Hendrickson, in May, 1870, and, second, Mary Hendrickson, a sister of his first wife, in July, 1884. He has a son, Albert Hewlett Scabury, who was graduated as a civil engineer from Cornell University in 1895.
BOWMAN, HENRY HOPPER, studied at Cornell University for one year, at the University of New York for one year, and two years later was graduated from the Columbia College Law School. This was in 1875. While studying law he lectured on commercial law and the theory of accounts in Packard's Business College in this city. He began law practice in this city in 1877, and three years later entered the firm of Smith & Bowman. For many years he has been President and Treasurer of the Peter Adams Company and the Adams & Bishop Company, manufacturers of high-grade paper. and has held the same offices in the Passaic Quarry Company. Ile is a member of the Aldine Club of Manhattan Borough and the Mou- tank Club of Brooklyn. He was born in Parerson, N. J., May 9, 1851, and is the son of John Harkness Bowman and Eliza Jane Hopper. IIe is of Scotch, English, Dutch. and French ancestry. His father, a civil engineer, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.
VAN NAME, CALVIN DECKER, has been engaged in the prac- tice of law in New York City since 1877. He has maintained his resi- dence on Staten Island, however, where he was born. and has taken an interest in all local publie improvements. He served a number of years as a member of the Board of Sewer Commissioners of the village of Port Richmond. S. I., now a part of the City of New York. and was
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also its Corporation Counsel. He is a member of the Holland Society and the Democratic Club of New York City, and of New York Com- mandery, Knights Templars, and Mecca Temple of the Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. He was born at Mariner's Harbor, S. I., Jamary 3, 1857; was educated in the New York City publie schools, prepared for the University Law School, and in May. 1877, was gradu- ated from that institution with the degree of Bachelor of Laws, and at once was admitted to the bar of New York. The son of William Henry Van Name and Elizabeth A., daughter of Ben- jamin Decker, on the paternal and maternal sides alike he de- seends from old Dutch fam- ilies of New Amsterdam. Through his mother he lin- tally descends from Lieu- tenant Decker, who was the first Sheriff of New Nether- lands. On the paternal side he descends-through Will- iam Henry Van Name, Cor- nelius Van Name, Aaron Van Name, Charles Vau Name, Simon Van Name, and Evert Van Name -- from Joachem Van Name, who arrived at. New York City in the ship Hope, which sailed from Amsterdam, April 8, 1662. He lived for some time in Harlem (see Riker's " History of Har- lem," p. 339). Subsequently he settled at Kingston, Ulster County, N. Y., and thore married Elizabeth, daughter of Evert Pell. CALVIN DECKER VAN NAME. One of their sons, Evert. the ancestor of Mr. Van Name, married Wintje Beuleam, and settled on Staten Island, where descendants have continued to the present time ( see Clute's " History of Staten Island "). Joachem Van Name was a son of Engelbert Van Name, of Heusden, on the River Meuse. in Holland. From this place Joachem Van Name went to Amster- dam, and thence took ship for New Amsterdam.
HOTTENROTIL, ADOLPH CHRISTIAN, attended the New York public schools, in 18SS was graduated from the College of the City of New York in the scientific course, and in 1890 was graduated
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from the Law School of the New York University. He practiced alone for a time after his admission to the bar, and then became a member of the present firm of Gumbleton & Hottenroth. He is counsel to the Taxpayers' Alliance, while his firm are attorneys to the People's Guaranty and Indemnity Company. He was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1894, and secured the adoption of canal improvements in that body. As counsel of the property owners of the Twenty-third Ward he was active in securing through trains on the Manhattan Elevated Bailway and a uniform fare of five cents. He is a member of the New York City Council for the term from 1898 to 1902. The son of Christian C. Hottenroth and Catherine Sandroek, he was born in New York City, May 9, 1869.
McKOON, DENNIS DANIEL, began the practice of law in Oswego County, New York, in 1854, served two terms as Judge of the County Court of that county, and was just entering upon the third term, for which he had been elected. when the Civil War was inangu- ratéd. Ile resigned from the bench and enlisted in Company D of the
One Hundred and Tenth New York Volunteers. He soon rose to the rank of First Lieutenant, and acted as Adjutant of the regi- ment. A subsequent attack of typhoid fever incapacitated him for further military service, as well as for business activity of any kind, for a term of three years. In 1867 he again began the practice of law in Middletown, Orange Conn- ty, N. Y., whither he had removed, DENNIS DANIEL MCKOON. as a member of the firm of Foote, MeKoon & Stoddard. In 1874 he also opened an office in New York City, while in 1877 that at Middletown was completely abandoned. At present he is head of the New York law firm of MeKoen & Enekey, his son, D. Gilbert MeKoon, having been received into partnership in 1889, and David B. Luckey in 1892. Judge MeKoon is President of the Mannahasset Park Association. of Momouth County, New Jersey. is Vice-President of the Frontier Bank of Niagara, N. Y., of which he has been a director since its organization, and is Treasurer of the Richmond Homestead Association, of New York City. He married, in 1852, Mary, dangh- ter of Andrus Gilbert, a wealthy citizen of Oswego County, New York, where he served many terms as Supervisor, and for more than
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forty years was a civil magistrate. Mrs. MeKoon died, leaving one child, the present D. Gilbert McKoon. Judge MeKoon was himself born in Ilion, Herkimer County, N. Y., October 17, 1827, the son of Martin MeKoon and Margaret, daughter of Colonel Clapsaddle, the latter an officer in the War of 1812, and a prominent and wealthy citizen of Herkimer County. Judge MeKoon is lineally descended from Martin Luther, of Germany, and Roger Williams, of Rhode Island. His ancestor. James McKoon, son of Jonathan McKoon, of Scotland. settled in Herkimer Conniy. New York, in the middle of the eighteenth century. While the family was of Norman origin, Richard le Machun and Robert le Machun were established among the Scotch mobility as early as 1264 A.D. and 1296 A.D., respectively. The late Judge MeKoon, Vice-Chancellor of the State of New York, was Mr. MeKoon's uncle.
LORD, DANIEL, founder of the well-known law firm of Lord, Day & Lord, was born in Stonington, Conn., September 2, 1795, and died in New York City, March 4, 1868. He was graduated from Vale Col- lege in 1814, attended the Law School at Litchfield, Conn., and in 1817 was admitted to the New York bar. During the last forty years of his life he was counsel on one side of the other in most of the noted civil suits in the New York State courts. He appeared in the cases growing out of the fire in New York in 1836, those growing out of the panic in 1837, the litigations between the Methodist and Dutch Re- formed churches, and the Mason and Phelps and the Leake will con- tests. He also won in the United States Supreme Court in the case of the prize ship Hiawatha.
L'AMOREAUX, JESSE SEYMOUR. attended the common schools of Saratoga County, New York, and subsequently was graduated from the Fort Edward Collegiate Institute. He studied law in Schuy- lerville, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar, May 8, 1861. He enjoys an extensive practice, having offices in Ballston Spa, N. Y., and in New York City. During the last ten years he has mainly devoted himself to corporation work. He is a director and Vice-President of the First National Bank of Ballston Spa, as well as its attorney. He served a term of six years as County Judge of Saratoga County. having been elected in 1882. He is a member of the Lotos Club of New York City and the Albany and Saratoga clubs. He has been a Royal Arch Mason for twenty-five years. ITe is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Ballston Spa. He was born in Wilton, Saratoga County, N. Y., December 11, 1837, and is the son of Jesse L'Amoreaux and Charity Esmond.
CAMPBELL, THOMAS C., lawyer, was born in Rochester, N. Y., April 27, 1845, and, at the age of sixteen, enlisted in the Union Army,
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being mustered out in October, 1865. In 1867 he was elected Quarter- master-General on the staff of Commander-in-Chief John . Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was appointed editor of the Republic, organ of this society. This position he held until March, 1870. when he was graduated from the Cincinnati Law School and began the practice of law in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1868 he had been elected a member of the City Council of Cincinnati, while in 1869 he had been appointed Assistant Revenue Collector. Elected Prosecuting Attorney of Cincinnati in 1871. he held the office for two terms. For ten years he was counsel of the Cincinnati Gasette. He proseented election frands for the Republican Committee in 1876. In behalf of Judge Cox he successfully contested before the Ohio Senate and Supreme Court the election of Judson Harmon, late Attorney-General of the United States. He was counsel for Hou. Stanley Matthews. subsequently a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, in his contest with General Banning, and was counsel for Governor Campbell in his Congressional contest. He suc- cessfully defended Chief of Police Shellbaker and Comptroller Hoff- man, both of Cincinnati. In 1884 he founded the Cincinnati Evening Telegram, and for three years con- ducted it. Since 1888 he has been engaged in practice in New York City. For four years he was Pres- ident of the Hamilton Republican Club of this city. He is a mem- ber of the Ohio Society, and is a THOMAS C. CAMPBELL. Scottish Rite Mason. He is a member of the Reorganization Committee of the Columbus Central Railway Company. He has twice been nominated for Congress, both times declining to accept.
SHELDON, EDWARD WRIGHT, was graduated from Princeton College in 1879. subsequently receiving the degree of Master of Arts; studied law with William 1. W. Stewart, of New York City, and in 1881 was graduated from the Columbia College Law School. He has since practiced in New York. He has been counsel for the National Park Bank and the United States Trust Company in impor- tant litigations, and has conducted a large number of foreclosure and mortgage proceedings against railroad corporations. He was born in Plainfield, N. J., December 17, 1858, and is the son of Rer. George Sheldon, D.D., and Martha Lyman. He lineally descends from
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Isaac Sheldon, who sailed from Plymouth, England, and was at Dor- chester, Mass., in 1634; at Windsor, Conn., in 1640, and eventually settled at Northampton. Mass.
CROMWELL, GEORGE, lawyer, and first President of the Borough of Richmond under the present charter of the City of New York, was graduated in ISTS from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, in 1883 was graduated from Yale University, and subsequently was gradnated from the Columbia College Law School. He entered the law office of Elihu Root, afterward forming his present connection with the firm of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard. In 1887 he was elected to the New York Assembly as a Republican from Richmond County, receiving a majority of 1,229, the largest ever received by a Republican in the county. In 1888 he was the unsne- vessful Republican candidate for Congress from the First New York District. During 1888 and 1889 he was a member of the Republican State Committee. In 1897, Gover- nor Black appointed him a member of the Board of Park Commission- ers for Richmond Conuty, while by his colleagues he was elected Presi- dent of the Board. Elected Presi- dent of the Borough of Richmond in 1897, he was seated in office after a contest in the courts. He is a director of the Walker Chemical Company, and a member of the Union League, Century, and Uni- versity clubs, and the Downtown Association, of Manhattan Bor- GEORGE CROMWELL. ough; the Hamilton Club, of Brooklyn, and varions clubs and societies of Staten Island and else- where. He breeds hackney horses on his estate. Far View Farm, on Staten Island. Born in Brooklyn, N. Y., July 3, 1860, he is the son of the late Henry B. Cromwell, New York merchant, and founder of the Cromwell Steamship Lines. He descends from Thomas Cromwell. Earl of Essex, head of the family of which the famons Lord Protector of England was a member.
CULLEN, EDGAR MONTGOMERY, Justice of the Supreme Court. attended the Kinderhook, N. Y., Academy, in 1860 was graduated from Columbia College, and entered the Troy Polytechnic Institute. When the Civil War occurred he became Second Lientenant in the First United States Infantry. He participated in the battles of Cor-
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inth and Farmington. Commissioned by Governor Morgan in 1862, when nineteen years of age, Colonel of the Ninety-sixth New York Volunteers, he served in this capacity in the Virginia operations leading to the downfall of Lee. Upon his return he followed the profession of civil engineer, and in 1875 became Engineer-in-chief on the staff of Governor Tilden, with the rank of Brigadier-General. Hle had also begun the study of law with his uncle, Judge Alexander McChe, soon after his return from the army, and, in May, 1867, was admitted to the bar. He became a member of the Brooklyn law firm of MeChe, Hall & Cullen, which, in 1870, was reorganized as Hall & Cullen. He served several years as Assistant District Attorney, hay- ing been appointed in 1872. In 1880 he was elected. on the Demo- cratic ticket a Justice of the Supreme Court for the Second Judicial District of the State of New York. He distinguished himself by his judicial integrity and impartiality in the famous Dutchess County election case, which led to the defeat of Isaac H. Maynard for the Court of Appeals in the State election of 1892. The Democratic politicians proposed to discipline Judge Cullen by refusing him a re- nomination for the Supreme Court bench in 1894. The Brooklyn Bar Association took action, however, public sentiment became strong on the subject, and Judge Cullen was finally nominated by the Republican Convention and by both wings of the Democracy. Ile was elected by a phenomenal majority. He was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., December 4, 1843, and is the son of the late Dr. Henry James Cullen and Eliza MeCue. His father was one of the most prominent physicians of Brooklyn.
FIELD, DAVID DUDLEY, a brother of Cyrus W. Field and of Hon. Stephen J. Field, of the United States Supreme Court bench, was tutored by his father; in 1825 was graduated from Williams College; read law with Harmanus Bleecker, of Albany, and was licensed as an attorney at New York City in 1828, and admitted as a counselor in 1830. He was counsel for James Fisk in the Erie liti- gation, and for William M. Tweed at the time of the overthrow of the Tweed ring. Ile was counsel for Samuel J. Tilden in the Tilden- Hayes Presidential contest. He was elected to Congress in 1877 to fill the unexpired term of Smith Ely. But his fame rests upon his work in codifying the laws. He advocated codification as early as 1839, and in 1841 submitted to the Legislature several bills on the subject, which failed of passage. The Constitutional Convention of 1846 recommended codification, and in 1847 Mr. Field was appointed one of the commissioners to draft codes. The New York code of civil procedure was thus drafted and was enacted into law by the Legis- lature in 1847. Field also drafted the code of criminal procedure adopted by the Legislature in 1881, and the penal code adopted in 1882. His greatest effort. the civil code, has so far failed of adoption.
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principally on account of the hostile attitude of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York. His civil code has been enacted in the two Dakotas and California, however, while his code of crimi- nal procedure is the basis of that adopted in nearly thirty States and several Territories. Before the British Association for the Promotion of Social Science he advocated in 1866 the adoption of international codes looking to the abolition of war and the substitution of judicial arbitration. He was the first President of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Laws of Nations. His " Outlines of an International Code " has been translated into French, Italian, and Chinese. He was born in Haddam, Conn., February 13, 1805, and . died in New York City, April 13, 1894. He was the eldest of the dis- tingnished sons of Rev. David Dudley Field and Submit Dickinson.
TRACY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, attended the common schools and the Owego (N. Y.) Academy, studied law with Davis & Warner, of Owego, and in May, 1851, was admitted to the bar. He practiced law for ten years in Owego. In November. 1853, he was elected Dis- triet Attorney of Tioga County, New York, on the Whig ticket, and was re-elected for a second term of three years. In the organization of the Republican party he horame one of its local leaders. Elected to the New York Assembly in 1861, he was active in securing the election of Henry J. Raymond as its Speaker, and was Chairman of several im- portant committees. He also assisted in effect- ing an alliance between the War Democrats and the Republicans. In 1862 he raised a regi- ment in his district, and was appointed its Colonel. Having been assigned to the defense of Washington, and to duty in Northern Vir- ginia, his regiment became a part of the Ninth BENJAMIN F. TRACY. Corps, and was engaged in the Wilderness campaign of 1864. A portion of the Union line having given way on the extreme right in the battle of the Wilderness, Colonel Tracy seized the colors and carried his men forward with a charge, the capture of the works following. For this he was awarded a medal. He was sub- sequently prostrated by sickness and sent home. He resigned, but when he had recovered, re-entered the service, and was assigned to the command at Elmira. N. Y., where there was a camp and draft rendezvous, as well as a large number of Confederate prisoners. At the close of the war he resigned, having been commissioned Brigadier- General. He became a member of the New York law firm of Benedict, Burr & Benedict in July, 1865. He soon made Brooklyn his residence. In 1866 he was appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and did much to stamp out illicit distilling.
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carried on through official connivance. He was one of the counsel of Henry Ward Beecher in the defense of the famous suit brought against the preacher by Theodore Tilton. He argued a number of important cases in the Court of Appeals, the Federal courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States. By appointment of Governor Cornell he was a Judge of the Court of Appeals from December 8, 1881, until suc- ceded through the election of Chief Judge Ruger, January 1, 1883. 1 delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1880, he was one of the " Stalwarts" who voted for General Grant to the end. He was Republican candidate for Mayor of Brooklyn in 1881, but resigned in favor of Seth Low, who was elected. In 1882 he was candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court, received 23,000 more votes than the rest of the ticket, but was defeated, Cleveland carrying the State that year by 192,000 majority. He was Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of President Benjamin Harrison, and was enthusiastic in the work of building up the new navy. At the end of the administration he re- sumed the practice of law in New York City, and is head of the firm of Tracy, Boardman & Platt. He and ex-President Harrison were counsel for Venezuela in the boundary dispute between that country and Eng- land. By Governor Morton he was appointed one of the nine commis- sioners to draft the charter of the present City of New York. In the first municipal election of the consolidated city under this charter, in the fall of 1897, General Tracy was the Republican candidate for Mayor, the other candidates being Seth Low, Robert Van Wyck, and Henry George. Born in Owego, Tioga County, N. Y., April 26, 1830, General Tracy is the son of Benjamin Tracy. His ancestors, originally from Ireland, were long established in Vermont.
O'CONOR, CHARLES, for many years conceded to be the most eminent legal practitioner in New York City and the nation, was born in New York City, January 22, 1804, and died in Nantucket, Mass., May 12, 1884. His father, of an old family of Connaught, Ireland, came to New York City in 1801. When thirteen years of age, Charles O'Conor entered a lawyer's office. He was admitted to the bar as an attorney in 1824, and as a counselor in 1827. He was counsel in the Lispenard will contest, the Slave Jack and the Lemon slave cases, appearing for the slaveholders; the Forrest divorce case, the Parish and Jumel will cases, the Tweed prosecution, and the Tilden-Hayes Presidential contest. He was counsel for Jefferson Davis when the latter was indieted for treason. Under President Pierce he was for a time United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was the Presidential candidate of that faction of the Democratic party which rejected the nomination of Horace Greeley, but failed to carry a State. He left books and a considerable sum of money to the New York Law Institute Library. He recovered $64,000 for Mrs. Forrest after nineteen years' litigation.
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The impression had gone abroad, which Mr. O'Conor had unfortu- nately left uncontradicted, that he had undertaken Mrs. Forrest's case in pure philanthropy. His chivalry had, in fact, called out a gift of silver plate from the ladies of New York, which he had accepted. Hence charges were made when he accepted as his fee a large pro- portion of the sum recovered for Mrs. Forrest. Mr. O'Conor at once demanded an investigation at the hands of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, and by a committee appointed from that body he was exonerated from the charge of unprofessional conduct.
EVARTS, WILLIAM MAXWELL, succeeded Charles O'Conor as the acknowledged head of the New York bar. He attended the Boston Latin School, in 1837 was graduated from Yale College, having founded, while at college, the Fale Literary Magasine, and studied law at the Harvard Law School and with Daniel Lord, of New York. He was admitted to the bar in 1841, and al- most at once attracted attention. From 1819 to 1852 he was Assistant District Attorney of New York City. In 1851 he prosecuted the Cuban fili- busters in the case of the Cleopatra. As counsel for the State of New York he argued the Lemmon Slave case in the Supreme Court in 1857, and in the Court of Appeals in 1860. In 1862 he maintained in the United States Su- preme Court the right of the Govern- ment to treat captured vessels as prizes. In the same tribunal he dem- onstrated in 1865 and 1866 the uneon- WILLIAM MAXWELL EVARTS. stitutionality of State laws which, without Congressional sanction, sought to tax National bank stock and Government bonds. He was chief counsel for the President in the Jolison impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate. Ap- pointed United States Atorney-General in the Cabinet of Johnson, July 15. 1868, he served until the close of the administration. He was chief counsel for the United States in the successful prosecution of the Ala- bama claims before the Arbitration Tribunal at Geneva, Switzerland, in 1872. He was chief counsel for Henry Ward Beecher in the sensa- tional Tilton suit of 1875. Two years later he was chief counsel for the Republican National Committee in the Tilden-Haves Presidential contest. He was counsel in the Parish and Gardner will contests. Still the nominal head of the notable law firm of Evarts, Choate & Beaman, for some years he has been in retirement. He was Chairman
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