USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
15
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
York University in 1830, and was the first President of its Council. He conceived the plan of a great national university, but finding that " the clergy had obtained control of the new institution, he aban- doned the idea he had conceived of endowing the City of New York with a great American Sorbonne." In 1842 he was elected the first President of the American Ethnological Society, while from 1843 un- til his death in 1849 he was President of the New York Historical Society. He married a daughter of James Nicholson, appointed by Congress Commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Navy in 1777.
GALLATIN, JAMES, eldest son of the famous financier, Albert Gallatin, in June, 1839, succeeded his father as President of the " National Bank of this city, now the Gallatin National Bank, and re- mained at its head for about thirty years, resigning in 1868. He died abroad a few years later. His administration of the affairs of the bank was very successful and he occupied a foremost place among the financiers of the city. He contributed for his bank $25,000 to the Federal Government during the Civil War. He was one of the charter members of the original Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani- mals, and was an officer of varions financial and benevolent insti- tutions.
GALLATIN, ALBERT A., second son of the celebrated Albert Gal- latin and his wife, a daughter of James Nicholson, Commander-in- chief of the American Navy during the Revolution, died in this city at an advanced age in 1890. He was graduated from Princeton, bred to the law, and practiced for a time in Philadelphia. Subsequently he engaged in financial enterprises in New York City, being at one period the business partner of the first John Jacob Astor. He accom- panied his father on his missions to France in 1815, and to England in 1826, and became the personal friend of the Duke of Wellington and other distinguished men. For some years he was Professor of Chemistry in the University of the City of New York.
GALLATIN, FREDERIC, engaged in the practice of law in New York City, is the son of the late Albert A. Gallatin and grandson of the famous Albert Gallatin. He is a college-bred man and a well- known yachtsman. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, Riding, New York Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, Larch- mont Yacht, and Atlantic Yacht clubs, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars. He is also a Vice-President of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He married Amy G., sister of Elbridge T. Gerry and daughter of GALLATIN ARMS. the late Thomas R. Gerry, U.S. N. Her mother was Hannah, daugh-
16
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
ter of Peter P. Goelet, sister of the late Peter and Robert Goelet, and aunt of the present Ogden Goelet and the lately deceased Robert Goelet.
CRUGER, STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER, was the manager of a number of large estates, having been engaged in the real estate busi- ness in this city from 1867 until his death in 1898. He was President of the Florida, West Coast Improvement Company, a director of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, the Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad, the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad Com- pany, the Silver Springs, Ocala and Gulf Railroad Company, the Title .Guarantee and Trust Company, the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the Commercial Union . Fire Insurance Company, . "Barrett's, 'Palmer and Heal Dyeing Establishment, and Barrett Nephews Company, Old Staten Island Dyeing Establishment; was Treasurer as well as trustee of St. Stephen's College, and a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, the New York Public Library, and the American Bible Society. As Comptroller of Trinity Church Corporation since 1880 he managed all its immense real estate inter- ests. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Union, Metropolitan, Union League, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, New York Yacht, Meadow Brook Hunt, and other clubs. In 1870 he was elected Major of the Twelfth Regiment, National Guard; in 1875 became Lieutenant-Colonel, and in 1877, Colonel, commanding the regiment until he resigned in 1883. As Chairman of the Army Committee of the Centennial inau- guration celebration in 1889, he had the organization of the entire parade. He has held the posi- tions of Treasurer and of Presi- dent of the Republican County Committee, and in 1888 was the COL. S. V. R. CRUGER. Republican candidate for Lieuten- ant-Governor on the State ticket . with Warner Miller. Appointed Park Commissioner by Mayor Strong, he was elected President of the Board. He was born in New York City, May 9, 1844, the son of the late John Church Cruger by his second wife, Euphemia White, daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer, last Patroon of Rensselaerwyck. He thus lineally descended from John Cruger, one of the most famous of early New York merchants, who was Alderman of this city from 1712 to 1733, and Mayor from 1739
6.
17
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
to 1744, and from Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, founder and first Patroon of the Colony of Rensselaerwyck on the Hudson, 1630-1646. He was principally educated in Europe, where he was at the beginning of the Civil War. Hurrying home he became First Lieutenant in Company E, One Hundred and Fiftieth New York, at seventeen years of age. He distinguished himself at the battle of Gettysburg, and in August, 1863, became Adjutant. Assigned to the Twentieth Corps in October of that year he participated in Sherman's Atlanta campaign, being twice wounded at Resaca. Recovery seeming hopeless he was honor- ably discharged, but several months later he revolunteered, was re- commissioned, and returned to his regiment at Atlanta in September, . 1864.'-A horse was shot under bim at Averysboro during the famous - march to the sea. He was commissioned Captain and appointed Chief of Ordnance, First Division, Twentieth Corps, and served in this. capa- city until the end of the war. Mustered out in June, 1865, he was bre- vetted Major and Lieutenant-Colonel " for gallant and meritorious conduct during the campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas." HIe married Julie Grinnell, daughter of Thomas W. Storrow, of Bos- ton. Mrs. Cruger is a well-known authoress, under her pen-name of ... Julien Gordon."
GARDINER, JOHN LYON, while his town house is on Madison Avenue in this city, maintains his residence on Gardiner's Island, of which he is the present proprietor, being the twelfth of his family who has held this once manorial estate. The first proprietor, Lion Gardiner, purchased the island from the Indians in 1639, and had his title confirmed both by the Dutch of New Amsterdam and the Earl of Stirling, while in 1667 the island was erected under the Eng- lish law into a lordship and manor, and so remained until the Revolution destroyed the fendal rights attaching to it. Colonel Gardi- ner is the son of the late Samuel Buell Gardi- ner and Mary Thompson, and grandson of John Lyon Gardiner and Sarah. daughter of John GARDINER ARMS. Griswold, of Lyme, Conn., and granddaughter of Governor Matthew Griswold. He married Elizabeth Coralie Livingston-Jones and has three sons-Lion, John, and Winthrop-and a daughter, wife of Alex- ander Coxe, an English gentleman whose estate is near Sevenoaks, Kent. Mrs. Gardiner was one of the founders of the Society of Colo- nial Dames of America and its first Vice-President.
DE PEYSTER, JOHANNIS, founder of the famous New York family of this name, was the scion of an old Huguenot family of
2
18
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
gentle blood, which had been long seated at Tours, France. Soon after the massacre of St. Bartholomew (1572), the family removed to Holland, branches being established at Amsterdam and Haarlem. Johannis was born in the latter place, of which his wife, Cornelia Lubberts, was also a native. He removed in 1645 to New Amsterdam, which he had previously visited ( 1633), on the former occasion also enlisting in the New Amsterdam Burgher Corps. Between the years 1655 and 1677 he held the offices of Schepen, Burgomaster, Alder- man, and Deputy Mayor of New Amsterdam and New York. He was one of the Committee of Defense in 1673, when the English captured New Amsterdam, and was one of the negotiators of the favorable terms of surrender. Governor Nicolls appointed him Mayor of New York-City, October 15, 1677, but he declined the office, on the ground . of his imperfect command of the English language: Colonel Nicolls asserted, however, that de Peyster " could make a better platform speech than any other man outside of Parliament." De Peyster was a merchant, and acquired a large fortune. Of an old and aristocratic armiger family, he and his still more famous son, Abraham, favored popular government.
DE PEYSTER, ABRAHAM, Mayor of New York City from 1692 to 1695, was one of the most eminent figures in the colonial history of this city and State. He held the commission of Colonel, command- ing the militia of the City and County of New York-nine companies of horse and foot. He was Alderman of the city in 1685 and subse- quent years. He was a Judge of the Supreme Court, and in 1700 be- came its Chief Justice. He was a member of the King's Council from 1698 to 1702, while in 1701 he served for a time as presiding officer of the Council and Acting Governor of the Province of New York. He was Treasurer of the provinces of New York and New Jersey du- ing the twenty years from 1706. He was an esteemed friend of Will- iam Penn, proprietor of Pennsylvania, and was the most intimate friend and adviser of the Earl of Bellomont, New York's best Colonial Governor. In her well-known " History of New York," Mrs. Martha J. Lamb asserts that New York City owes its first impulse of real mu- nicipal progress and improvement to Colonel Abraham de Peyster. He donated to the city the site of the original City Hall. where stands the present Sub-Treasury Building-the scene of Washington's inau- guration as the first President of the United States. Mayor de Peyster was born in New York City, July 8, 1657, and died here August 2, 1728. He was the oldest son of Johannis de Peyster and Cornelia Lubberts. During a visit to Amsterdam, Holland, he married his kinswoman of that city. Catherine de Peyster. The artistic statue of Colonel Abra- ham de Peyster, which adorns Bowling Green, was given to the City of New York by his distinguished descendant, General John Watts de Peyster.
->
!
:
19
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
DE PEYSTER, JOHANNES, wealthy merchant of New York, was Mayor of the city in 1698 aud 1699, as his elder and still more eminent brother, Chief Justice Abraham de Peyster, had been from 1692 to 1695. His contemporaries credited him with being the handsomest man in New York. He at one time served as Alderman. He married a daughter of Gerrit Bancker, a rich Indian trader and merchant of Albany, and died in 1719, leaving descendants.
DE PEYSTER, FREDERIC, was born in New York City, Novem- ber 11, 1796, and, at the time of his death. August 17, 1882, it was asserted that he had "probably been connected as an active officer- with more social, literary, and benevolent societies than- any other New Yorker who ever lived." He was, graduated from Columbia College in 1816; studied law with Hon. Peter Augustus Jay and Hon. Peter Van Schaick; began practice in 1819, and from 1820 to 1837 was Master in Chancery. After 1837 he confined his legal business to the care of the large estates of himself and his father-in-law, Hon. John Watts, Jr., devoting the rest of his time to literary pursuits and phi- lanthropy. He was Corresponding Secretary of the New York His- torical Society in 1827; was its Recording Secretary from 1829 to 1837; was again Corresponding Secretary from 1838 to 1843; was President of the Society from 1864 to 1866, and again, from 1873 until his death, in 1882; was Foreign Secretary in 1844, and Second Vice-President from 1850 to 1853. As a young man he defeated a plan to disrupt the Society and dispel its collections, at the same time obtaining a lib- eral appropriation for it from the New York Legislature. He served terms as Treasurer and President of the St. Nicholas Society of New York, and for thirty years served as Manager. He was a trustee of the St. Nicholas Club from its organization, having been one of its founders, and was its President from 1877 until his death. At the time of his decease he was Vice-President of the Association of the Alumni of Columbia College, and Chairman of its Standing Com- mittee. He was long a trustee of the New York Society Library, and President of the Board from 1870 until his death. For more than fifty years he was a trustee of the Leake and Watts Orphan Asylum, and Clerk of the Board. He was Vice-President of the Home for Incurables, and a director of the Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb. He was an original incorporator, a director, and Vice-President of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. When he died he was the oldest member of the Board of Managers of the New York Bible Society, having served for more than fifty years. He was also senior officer of the vestry of the Church of the Ascension. He was an officer of the Mercantile Library Association, and one of the oldest directors of the Sixth Avenne Rail- road Company. In 1867, Columbia College conferred upon him the
.
٠
20
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
degree of Doctor of Laws, while, in 1877, the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain made him an Honorary Fellow. He was an honorary member of the historical societies of Massachusetts, Maryland, Penn- sylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, Buffalo, and Chicago, and was corre- sponding member of the New England Historie-Genealogical Society. He published " The Moral and Intellectual Influence of Libraries " (1866). " William the Third as a Reformer " (1874). " Representative Men of the English Revolution " (1876), "The Life and Adminis- tration of the Earl of Bellomont " (1879), " The Culture Demanded by the Age " ( 1869), and " Early Political History of New York " (1865). He was a member of a students' militia company during the War of 1812, and subsequently became Captain of the 115th New York Regiment. He served on the staff of Governor De Witt Clinton, and was Military Secretary to the same for the Southern District of New York. He was the son of Captain Frederic de Peyster and Helen, daughter of Commissary-General Samuel Hake, of the British Army, and his wife, Helen Livingston, great-granddaughter of Robert Liv- ingston, first lord of Livingston Manor. Mr. de Peyster's grandfather, James de Peyster, a wealthy New York merchant, married a daughter of Ion. Joseph Reade: a member of the King's Council, and was hin- self the son of Hon. Abraham de Peyster, for many years Treasurer of New York and New Jersey, in which office he succeeded his father, the famous Colonel Abraham de Peyster, Chief Justice, Acting Gov- ernor, and Mayor of New York. The wife of Hon. Abraham de Peyster, Jr., was Margaret, daughter of Hon. Jacobus Van Cortlandt. Mr. Frederic de Peyster married Justina, daughter of Hon. John Watts, Jr. She died early, leaving one child, the present General John Watts de Peyster.
DE PEYSTER, JOHN WATTS, philanthropist and military his- torian and critic, is the most eminent representative of his family. He is the author of hundreds of volumes, pamphlets, and magazine articles on historical and military subjects, including a group of works on Dutch military and naval history, a group of works on the Ameri- can Revolution, a group on the American Civil War. another group on the Thirty Years' War, another on the Wars of Frederick the Great, another on the Napoleonic campaigns, and another on Bothwell and Mary Queen of Scots. His military writings are without parallel . in any language for their exhaustive use of authorities, his general reference library of 25,000 volimes having been supplemented by spe- cial collections of the known volumes and pamphlets in English. Ger- man, French, Italian, Spanish, etc., on each subject or epoch of history treated. He has also published miscellaneous studies of the military leaders of all times, known to sacred and profane history. with military biographies of Torstenson, Gustavus Adolphus, Wallen-
21
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
stein, Napoleon, Carausius, the Dutch Admirals, General Schuy- ler. General Wayne, Sir John Johnston, Marshal Blücher, General Philip Kearney, General George H. Thomas, General Hooker, Gen- oral Hancock, General A. A. Humphreys, General Heintzehan, and others. He has essayed historical fiction and historical drama, and has published
many poems. He donated special li-
braries to Columbia
College, the New
York Society Li-
brary, the New
York Historical So- viety, and Franklin and Marshall Col-
lege. He gave to New York City the statne of his famous ancestor in Bowl- ing Green, and erected in Trinity Churchyard the no- table statue of his grandfather, Hon. John Watts, Jr.
He also gave a beautiful statue to the city of Hudson, N. Y., and has erected several for GENERAL JOHN WATTS DE PEYSTER. institutions endowed by him. He built a Hospital for Consumptives and an elaborate Training School for Boys for the Order of Brothers of Nazareth of Unionvale, Dutchess County; and to this Order gave 130 acres of his ancestral domain, together with a library. He has erected and fitted up another and larger Home for Consumptives in the same county. He has donated books to the Cazenovia Lyceum and to St. Stephen's College, Dutchess County. The new Methodist Episcopal Church, at Madalin, N. Y., was erected and donated by him. To the same denomination he likewise gave the buildings and extensive grounds for the Watts de Peyster Missionary Home for Girls at Madalin. Ile has built and fitted up a handsome Library Building for Franklin and Marshall College. He gave valable works of art of historic interest to the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and to the City of Kearney, Neb., also do- nating books to the public library of the latter. He erected a chapel at Nebraska City, Neb., and a church and memorial parish school at
-
一
22
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
Altoona, Pa. He erected the " Annex" to the Leake and Watts Orphan House. General de Peyster's military career began in 1845, when he enlisted in the State Militia in Dutchess County, being then twenty-four years of age. He received rapid promotions, and after the reorganization of 1846-47, for " meritorious condnet," he was com- missioned Colonel of the 111th Regiment, commanding the 22d Regi- mental District. The Anti-rent agitation was at its height, while the rank and file of the militia was mutinons on account of the reorgan- ization throughout the State. Colonel de Peyster was commended by Governor Ilunt aud Adjutant-General Stevens as being the only Colonel in the State, with the single exception of one old army officer, who maintained discipline during this period. In 1851, Governor Hunt appointed him Brigadier General of New York State troops " for important services." Meanwhile General de Peyster had begun the acquisition of his remarkable military library, while he estab- lished and edited a monthly, the Eclaireur, in which were published English translations of the standard military treatises of Von Hard- egg and other Europeans. From 1851 to 1853 he was in Europe, engaged at his own expense in the discharge of the trust committed to him by his appointment as " Military Agent of the State of New York, to examine and report on such of the military systems of Europe as should be adapted to the use of his native State of New York." He made two remarkable reports, which were published as Senate doemnents, and in an Appendix to the Report of the Adjutant- General, being widely circulated. They are said to " have been the foundation of every improvement that our State troops have under- gone since that time." They set forth the value of the brass twelve- pounder, aud led to the introduction in our cities of the paid fire de- partment, with steam fire-engines. On January 1, 1855, General de Peyster was appointed Adjutant-General of the State of New York by Governor Clark, and at onee inaugurated vigorous reforms. He issued revised regulations, and, for the first time, secured uniformity of muskets and uniforms throughout the State, achieving a vast econ- omy as well as efficiency. He introduced appropriate artillery, and prepared every branch of the service for emergencies. He reorgan- ized the Adjutant's Department, and demanded an honest manage- ment of the finances. But this displeased the politicians, and, finding the Governor frightened at their outcry, General de Peyster resigned in disgust. Theneeforward he devoted himself to military anthorship, most of his studies in Dutch history being published prior to the Civil War. When this occurred, although suffering from frightful hemor- rhages, he offered three regiments to President Lincoln at one time, and two at another. A Brigadier-Generalship, however, was not of- fered him, while the hardships connected with a lower rauk prohibited his acceptance of it. Each of his three sons enlisted before reaching their majorities, while each rose to the rank of Brevet Colonel. But
-
1
-
-
23
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NEW YORK BIOGRAPHY.
the General's pen throughout the war was mightier than the swords of most of the generals in the field. During the early years he ren- dered a service of education by the publication of such works as " Facts or Ideas Indispensable to the Comprehensions of War," " No- tions on Strategy and Tactics," " Military Lessons," " Winter Cam- paigns," and " Practical Strategy-Field-Marshal Traun." Every in- cident of the war afforded a text for newspaper and magazine articles, while still more valuable service was performed through private cor- respondence with a large number of the leading Union Generals. On May 25, 1866, the New York Legislature conferred upon him the brevet of Major-General of New York State troops, with rank from April 20, 1862, for " meritorious services rendered to the National Guard and to the United States, prior to and during the Rebellion." The-only child of the late Frederic de Peyster and Justina, daughter of the late John Watts, Jr., General de Peyster was born in New York City, March 9, 1821. He had as tutor Professor Lutz, and traveled much in Europe during his youth, but was never graduated from college. He himself mastered Latin, Greek, French, and German, also acquit- ing a working knowledge of Italian and Spanish. He subsequently received the degree of Master of Arts from Columbia College, has twice received the degree of Doctor of Laws, and is the recipient of that of Doctor of Literature. In 1893 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Science, Letters, and Art of London, while, in 1894, he was awarded its gold medal for " Scientific and Literary Attain- ments." He received three medals from Oscar I. of Sweden, in recog- nition of his work as a military critic. He is a life member of the Royal Historical Society of Great Britain, is an honorary member of the Clarendon Historical Society of Edinburgh, is a member of the Maatschappij Nederlandsche Letterkunde of Leyden, Holland, is Vice- President of the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadel- phia, and is, in fact, a member, or honorary or corresponding member, or fellow, of between forty and fifty historical, scientific, and literary societies of the United States, Canada, and Europe.
DUER, WILLIAM, founder of the New York family of this name, was born in Devonshire, England, March 18, 1747, and died in New York City, May 7, 1799. He was the son of John Duer, a wealthy planter of Antigua, by his wife, Frances, daughter of General Fred- erick Frye, of the British West India service. Having been educated at Eton, in 1762 William Duer accompanied Lord Clive to India as Aid-de-camp.
He inherited his father's estates in Antigua, and, stopping at New York City to arrange for some supplies of lumber, made real estate investments and settled in the city. Here he be- came very prominent. He was Colonel of the militia, County Judge, a member of the New York Provincial Congress, a member of the Revolutionary Committee of Safety, a delegate to the first Constitu-
-
24
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
tional Convention of 1776-7, a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1777-8, Secretary of the Treasury Board in 1789, and Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Hamilton. In 1792 he failed for $3,000,000, causing the first panie in the country due to speculation. He married Lady Catherine, daughter of William Alexander, Lord Stirling, Major-General in the Revolution, and his wife, Sarah, daugh- ter of Philip Livingston, second lord of Livingston manor, a grand- daughter of the first Johannes de Peyster, and a descendant of Robert II. of Scotland. Their sons, Hon. William Alexander Duer and Hon. John Duer, became eminent, and are the ancestors of the present well- kuown members of the family:
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.