USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 2 > Part 3
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HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
Rapid Transit Commissioners, organized under the laws of 1894. Following the exposure of corruption in city affairs made by the Lexow Investigating Committee, he was one of the signers of the original call for the mass-meeting at Madison Square Garden, Sep- tember 6, 1894, to consider " the wisdom and practicability of taking advantage of the present state of public feeling to organize a citizens movement for the government of the City of New York entirely out- side of party polities and solely in the interests of efficiency, economy. and the public health, comfort, and safety." He was one of the Com. mittee of Seventy appointed by this meeting which nominated Colonel William L. Strong for Mayor, and directed the reform campaign of 1894, which resulted in the complete overthrow of Tammany Hall He has been Vice-President of the Union League Club by annual re- elections since 1889, and has served upon its most important commit- tees. Ile was one of the founders of the Merchants' Club, was its President in 1888 and 1889, the con- stitutional limit, and is now a mem- ber of its Board of Directors. He is also a director of the New England Society, of which he has been a member since 1865. He is also a member of the City, Riding, Law- vers', and New York Athletic clubs. He was born in Portsmouth, N. IT .. October 22, 1836. His father, the late Woodbury Langdon, was a leading merchant and shipbuilder of Portsmouth, while his mother was Frances, daughter of Jacob WOODBURY LANGDON. Cutter, another Portsmouth mer- chant. His grandfather, Henry Sherburne Langdon, was offered the post of Private Secretary by Washington, but declined in deference to his father, who thought him too young to assume the responsibility. The latter, Hon. Woodbury Langdon, Mr. Langdon's great-grandfather, was a distinguished mer- chant of Portsmouth, member of the Continental Congress of 1779-80. member of the Executive Council of New Hampshire from 1781 to 1790, . Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 1782, and again from 1786 to 1790. His brother, Hon. JJohn Langdon, was a member of the Continental Congress of 1775, Speaker of the New Hampshire Assembly in 1777, a Revolutionary patriot, who gave a large part of his private fortune to equip the soldiers under General John Stark, who opposed Burgoyne; a member of Congress in 1783, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1787 which framed the Constitution
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of the United States, Governor of New Hampshire in 1788, United States Senator in 1789, and President of the United States Senate from 1789 to 1792, and, with the exception of two years, Governor of New Hampshire from 1805 to 1812. He declined the portfolio of the Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinet of Jefferson in 1801, and in 1812 declined the nomination as Vice-President of the United States offered him by the Republican Congressional caneus. . The late Hon. Francis E. Langdon, M.D., State Senator of New Hampshire, was the brother of Mr. Woodbury Langdon, of New York City. The latter, after acquiring a good education, entered the employ of Frothingham & Company, a well-known drygoods commission house of Boston, and so rapidly made his way in the confidence of his employers that in 1863 he came to New York to take charge of the branch house of the firm. In 1868 he became a partner in the firm of Frothingham & Company. Upon the death of the senior partner, in 1870, the style of Joy, Langdon & Company was adopted. Mr. Langdon is head of this house.
GREENE. FRANCIS VINTON, Colonel of the 71st New York from February, 1892. until he volunteered with his regiment in the war with Spain in May, 1898, and was commissioned Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and assigned to service in the Philippine Islands, has long been prominent in business circles in New York City. At the time of volunteering he was President of the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, President of the National Contracting Company, Vice-Pres- ident of the Trinidad Asphalt Company, and a director of the Sea- board National Bank. He was graduated from West Point in 1870. at the head of his class, for two years was assigned to the artillery service, in 1872 was transferred to the Corps of Engineers, and for four years as Assistant Astronomer and Surveyor, was detailed for service with the Commission engaged in determining the British boundary from Lake-of-the-Woods to the Rocky Mountains. In 1876 he was in the office of the Secretary of War. In 1877 he was appointed Military Attaché to the United States legation at St. Petersburg, with instruc- tions to study the military operations between Russia and Turkey. Hle accompanied the Russian army until the close of the war. Re- turning to the United States in January, 1879, that year the Govern- ment published. in two volumes, his report. under the title " The Rus- sian Army and Its Campaigns in Turkey." This work is accepted as the most authoritative on the subject. From the Czar he received the decorations of St. Vladimir and St. Anne, and the campaign medal. The star of Roumania and the Roumania cross he received from the Prince of Roumania. For six years, beginning with 1879. he had charge of the engineering work on streets and bridges in the District of Columbia. In July. 1885. he was appointed Instructor of Practical Military Engineering at West Point. In January, 1886. he
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resigned from the army and became Vice-President of the Barber Asphalt Paving Company. In 1889 he joined the National Guard of New York. He was commissioned Major and Engineer of the First Brigade. In 1892 he was elected Colonel of the 71st New York. He married Belle Chevallie. He has contributed to current periodicals. and published " Army Life in Russia," " The Mississippi," and " Na- thaniel Greene " (" Great Commander " series). Ile is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Century, University, United Serv. ice, Lawyers', and New York Yacht clubs, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. Born in Providence, R. I., June 25, 1850, he is the son of the late General George Sears Greene. distinguished soldier and civil engineer, and Martha Barrett Dana. On the paternal side he descends from Dr. John Greene, an English surgeon from Salisbury, Dorsetshire. where his ancestors were landed proprietors, who accompanied Roger Will- iams to New England in 1635, settled at Salem, Mass., and subse- quently accompanied Williams to Rhode Island. From him also do- scended General Nathaniel Greene, of the Revolution. On the ma- ternal side he descends from Richard Dana, who emigrated from England to Cambridge. Mass., in 1640. General Greene's father, Gen- eral George Sears Greene, was a resident of New York City from 1856 until called into service by the Civil War, and had charge of the con- struction of the new reservoir in Central Park.
DAYTON, CHARLES WILLOUGHBY, Postmaster of New York from his appointment by President Cleveland in June, 1893, until the appointment of his successor by President McKinley in the spring of 1897, is a successful lawyer, and at the present time is a trustee of the Twelfth Ward Savings Bank, and a director of the Twelfth Ward Bank, the Seventh National Bank, and the Riverside and Fort Lee Ferry Company. In 1881 he was elected to the Assembly, and made a member of its Judiciary Committee. In 1882 he organized the Har- lem Democratic Club, and the same year was Secretary of the Citizens' Reform movement, which secured to Allen Campbell 78.000 votes for Mayor after a campaign of but ten days. He was a member of the Democratic State Conventions of 1881. 1882, 1883, and 1892. and was a member of the Platform Committee of that of 1882, and Chairmali of the Committee on Permanent Organization in 1892. Active in the Presidential Campaign of 1884. he was a Cleveland Elector, and Ser- retary of the Electoral College. He was again an active worker and speaker in the campaigns of 1858 and 1892. The speech delivered by him in Burlington. Ja .. in 1888 was circulated as a campaign docu- ment by the Democratic National Committee. He was a member of the Centennial Committee of the Washington inauguration in 1889. and one of its Committee on Transportation. He was a member of
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the Constitutional Convention of 1894. He is one of the incorporators of the New York Post-Graduate Medical School, is a trustee of the Harlem Library and the Harlem Law Library, and was appointed on the Board of Improvement of Park Avenue above 106th Street, and elected its President. the authorization of the work by the Legisla- ture in 1892 being largely through his instrumentality. In the May- oralty Campaign of 1897 he appeared on the platform with the late Henry George, refusing to bow to the absolute dictatorship which Richard Croker had established in Tammany Hall. He was born in Brooklyn, October 3, 1846, the son of Abraham Child Dayton and Maria A., daughter of Hon. David Tomlinson, M.D. His father was educated in Europe, contributed to periodical literature, and was the author of "Last Days of Knickerbocker Life in New York." His grandfather, Charles Willoughby Dayton, was a prominent merchant of this city. Mr. Dayton attended the College of the City of New York. and was graduated from the Columbia College Law School in 1868. In 1874 he was married to Laura A., daughter of John B. Newman, M.D., and has three children.
CHANDLER, CHARLES FREDERICK, founder of the School of Mines of Columbia College in 1864, from that date until 1897 was both Dean of its faculty and Professor of Chemistry and Lecturer on Geol- ogy. He still occupies this chair, but in order to give more attention to it resigned as Dean in 1897. Born in Lancaster, Mass., December 6, 1836, he was graduated from the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard College, and subsequently studied in the universities of Berlin and Göttingen, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the lat- ter. From 1856 to 1864 he was Instructor and Lecturer on Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology in Union College. He succeeded the late Professor St. John in the Chair of Chemistry and Medical Jurispru- dence in the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. For about thirty years he was also Professor of Chemistry in the New York College of Pharmacy. He was appointed President of the Board of Health of this city in 1873, and again for a term of six years in 1877. One of the founders of the American Chemical Society, he has been its Vice-President and its President. In conjunction with Professor Chandler, of Lehigh University, his brother, he founded the American Chemist. He is now editor of the Photographic Bulletin. He holds the degrees of Ph.D., M.D., and LL.D., is a member of the Metropolitan and many other clubs, and a member of a large number of learned societies of America and Europe. In 1861, he married Anna Maria, daughter of James R. Craig and Margaret Walton, and has a daughter. He is himself the son of Charles Chandler, of Peter- sham, Mass., and Sarah Whitney, of Boston, and descended from Will- iam Chandler, who settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1637.
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KEENE, JAMES ROBERT, broker and banker, and prominent member of the New York Stock Exchange. is also well known for his efforts to elevate the American turf. He is a director of the West- chester Racing Association, and was one of the founders of the New York Jockey Club, having been a member of its Board of Stewards from its organization. He is also a member of the Rockaway Hunt Club. Two of his horses-" Domino " and " Foxhall "-are famous among racehorses. With the latter. in England. he won the Cam- bridgeshire Handicap, and on the continent the Grand Prix. Ascot Gold Cup, and the Cesarewitch Handicap. Mr. Keene was himself born in England in 1838. the son of James Keene, a successful London merchant, who in 1852 removed with his family to Shasta County. California. From having been educated under a private tutor. for three years at a private school in Lincolnshire, and under a master of Trinity College, Dublin, Mr. Keene accepted the position of a cowboy, herding cattle for the United States Government at Fort Reading, in the Indian country. He next prospected for gold, with- out success, and then engaged in freighting, cattle-raising, and the operation of a flouring-mill erected by himself. For two years he edited a newspaper. He also studied law. and practiced among the miners. He went to Virginia, Nev., during the excitement over the Comstock lode, secured valuable mining property, sold it advantageously. JAMES ROBERT KEENE. and, going to San Francisco, en- gaged in speculation in mining stocks which netted him $125,000 in two months. This capital was soon wiped out, however, but he continued to operate, transacted busi- ness for Senator C. N. Felton, and upon the appointment of the latter as Assistant United States Treasurer at San Francisco, bought the Senator's seat in the San Francisco Stock Exchange on credit. He achieved rapid success, realizing a fortune of about $6.000.000. and becoming President of the Stock Exchange. Upon the failure of the Bank of California he was one of the four contributors of a million dollars to the guarantee fund of $8.000,000 necessary to secure the depositors, continue the bank-in business, and prevent a widespread panic. In addition to his personal contribution, he carried a resolu- tion in the Stock Exchange for a contribution of $500.000 from that institution, and influenced leading brokers to make up nearly as much
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more. Coming to New York City on his way to Europe in the spring of 1877, and finding the stock market here at a low ebb, he at once be- gan to employ the large capital at his command in the bold pur- chase of nearly all the leading stocks, and so steadily and persistently advanced the market that in the fall of 1879 he sold out with a profit of about $9.000,000. He has since continued to be a resident of New York City. While in San Francisco he married Sarah Jay, daughter of Colonel Leroy Daingerfield, of Virginia, her mother being the daughter of Judge Parker. the first Judge of the Supreme Court of Virginia. The two children of Mr. and Mrs. Keene are Foxhall Par- kor Keone and Jessie Harwar, wife of Talbot. I. Taylor, of Baltimore; Md.
PIERSON. JOHN FRED, attained the rank of Brevet Brigadier- General in the service of the Union during the Civil War, and since that conflict has been head of the well-known irou house of Pierson & Company, proprietors of the Ramapo Iron Works. General Pier- son's granduncle. Josiah G. Pierson, established these works at Ram- apo. N. Y .. in 1795. and took into partnership his younger brother, Hon. Jeremiah Halsey Pierson, under the style of J. G. Pierrson & Brother. Jeremiah Halsey Pierson, grandfather of General Pierson. retained his connection with the firm until his death, was active in the organization of the Erie Railroad Company, and was a Member of Congress in 1821. Henry L. Pierson, his son, and the father of General Pierson, suggested the construction of the Erie Railroad, assisted in the survey of its line, and served as a director and its treasurer. He was a member of the firm of J. G. Pierson & Brothers under various changes of the firm style from 1828 until his death in 1869. General Pierson was born in this city, February 25. 1839; upon reaching his majority became a member of the Engineer Corps of the Seventh Regiment ; was appointed Aid on the staff of General William Hall, and recruiting a company at the beginning of the Civil War. in May, 1861. was commissioned a Captain in the First New York Volun- teers. He was commissioned Major in July. 1861. Lieutenant-Colonel in September of the same year, Colonel in October, 1862. and Brevet Brigadier-General in March, 1865. The youngest officer of his rank in the Union army. he was frequently mentioned for gallantry. He was wounded at Chancellorsville and at Glendale, and was captured at Chantilly in 1862. and confined in Libby Prison. He also partici- pated in the battles of Big Bethel, Fair Oaks, Malvern Hill, and Fredericksburg. While but twenty-three years of age he several times commanded a brigade. In 1869 he married S. Augusta Rhodes. He is a member of the Union. Tuxedo. Racquet, New York Yacht, and Army and Navy clubs, the Seventh Regiment Veteran Association. the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the New England Society. He has country-seats at Ramapo, N. Y., and New-
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port, R. I. He descends from Rev. Abraham Pierson, who was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1608; in 1632 was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge; emigrated to Boston in 1639; the next year led the settlers who founded Southampton, L. I .; founded Branford. Conn., and for a quarter of a century was pastor of its church, and subsequently founded Newark, N. J., and was the first pastor of its church. He was chaplain of the Connecticut forces raised against the Dutch in 1662.
BLOSS, JAMES ORVILLE, head of the firm of J. O. Bloss & Com- pany, cotton merchants, was elected President of the New York Cotton Exchange in 1892, and again in 1893, having previously, in 1890, been elected its Vice-President, and almost continuously since 1866, having been a member of its Board of Managers. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, is a trustee of the India Rubber and Gutta Pereha Insulating Company, and a director of the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway Company, and has been a director of the Third National Bank. He was active in opposing the anti-option bill in Congress and chiefly instrumental in establishing the plan of de- liveries of cotton on contract by means of warehouse receipts and cer- tificates of grade. Born in Rochester, N. Y., September 30, 1847, he is the son of the late James Orville Bloss and Eliza Ann, daughter of Roswell Lockwood and Thalia Oviatt, and is descended from Edl- mund Bloss, of an old family of Suffolk, England, who became one of the prominent men of Watertown, Mass., where he was admitted a freeman in 1639. Coming to New York City at eighteen years of age. Mr. Bloss for six years was with Norton, Slaughter & Company, bank- ing and commission ; then with Woodward & Stillman until 1875; with John Chester Inches as partner became then head of the cotton firm of Bloss & Inches; from 1881 to 1891 was a member of Gwathmey & Bloss, and since the latter date has been head of his present firm. He is a member of the Union and Metropolitan clubs.
BOURNE, FREDERICK GILBERT, President of the Singer Manu- facturing Company, is also an executive officer of a number of other important corporations. He is a director of the Bank of the Manhat- tan Company. the Knickerbocker Trust Company, the Central Rail- road of New Jersey, the Long Island Railroad Company, the Babcock and Wilcox Company, and the Diche Manufacturing Company. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Racquet, Lawyers. Riding, New York Athletic, New York Yacht, Larchmont Yacht, At- lantic Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht, South Side Sportsmen's. and several other clubs. He married, in 1875. Emma, daughter of James Rufus Keeler and Mary Louisa Davidson, of an old New York family, and has surviving four daughters and five sons-Arthur Keel- er, Alfred Severein, George Galt, Kenneth, and Howard Bourne. Mr.
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Bourne was born in Boston, Mass., in 1851, the son of the late Rev. George Washington Bourne and Harriet Gilbert, the father of the latter being a prominent iron and steel importer of Portland, Me. HIis paternal grandparents were Benjamin Bourne and Mary Hatch. Educated in the public schools of New York City, in 1865 he took a position with the Atlantic Submarine Wrecking Company, subse- quently became Secretary to the late Edward Clark; became Manager of his estate in 1882; in 1885 was elected Secretary of the Singer Manufacturing Company, and eventually became its president.
QUINTARD, GEORGE WILLIAM, head and principal owner of the Quintard Iron Works, is well known in the business and financial world. In 1868 he founded the New York and Charleston Steam- ship Company, and successfully conducted its affairs until 18SS, when he disposed of his interest to the South Carolina Railroad Com- pany. He is Vice-President of the Eleventh Ward Bank of New York City, is Vice-President of the Union Ferry Company of Brooklyn and New York, is First Vice-President of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, is Vice-President of the Ann Arbor Railroad Company, is a trustee of the Colonial Trust Company, and the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, and is a director of the Leather Manufacturers' National Bank, the State Trust Company, the Manhattan Life Insurance Company, the . German-Ameri- GEORGE WILLIAM QUINTARD. can Real Estate Title Guarantee Company, the International State Casualty Company, the Erie Rail- road Company, the Long Island Railroad Company, and the Batopilas Mining Company. He served a term as State Commissioner of Emigra- tion under appointment by Governor Dix. He also served four years as Park Commissioner of New York City, during which time the exten- sive " new parks " were acquired by the city. He is a member of the Metropolitan, New York Yacht, American Yacht, and Lawyers' clubs, and the New England Society, and prior to his retirement from active club life a few years ago, was also a member of the Union League, New York, Century, and Manhattan clubs. He married, in 1844, Frances E., daughter of the late Charles Morgan, and has living a son-James Wood Quintard, of Portchester, N. Y .. and a daughter -- Mrs. Nicholas F. Palmer, Jr. He was himself born in Stamford,
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Conn., April 22, 1822, the son of Isaac Quintard and Clarissa Hoyt. The Quintards came originally from Nancy, France, in 1642, and set. tled in England, where, in the city of Bristol, Isaac Quintard was born. He was a merchant of York, England, prior to his emigration to Stamford, Conn., in 1708. His descendant of the same name, father of Mr. Quintard, was a merchant of Stamford. Through his mother Mr. Quintard also descends from Simon Hoyt, who died at Stanford. Conn., in 1657. At fourteen years of age Mr. Quintard became a clerk with MacManus, Gould & Company, of New York City. He was subse- quently with E. L. Bushnell, ship-chandler, and eventually established himself in the same line. With his father-in-law, the late Charles Morgan, he became interested in 1847 in the large iron works of T. F. Secor & Company. The plant was wholly acquired by them in 1850. becoming known as the Morgan Iron Works. As managing part- ner, from 1850 to 1866, Mr. Quintard made it one of the most notable shipbuilding establishments. Much work was done for the Federal Government during the Civil War. In 1866 the works were sold to the late John Roach. The following year Mr. Quintard established the Quintard Iron works, in conjunction with James Murphy. The latter subsequently retired. Mr. Quintard took his son-in-law, Nicholas F. Palmer, Jr., into partnership.
DURYEA, HIRAM, is President of the National Starch Manu- facturing Company, a business established more than a half century ago by his father, the late Hendrick Vanderbilt Duryea, and at the close of the Civil War was brevetted Brigadier-General of Volunteers " for distinguished conduct at the battle of Gaines Mills, Va." Born at Manhasset, L. I., April 12, 1834, and educated in private schools. upon reaching his majority he became a partner in his father's starch manufacturing business at Glen Cove, L. I. Upon the incorporation of the business he became Vice-President of the Glen Cove Starch Manufacturing Company, and subsequently succeeded his father as its President. The company of which he is now President is simply the successor of the other. In 1855 Governor Myron Clark commis- sioned him First Lieutenant of Artillery in the Forty-eighth New York. Offering his services at the beginning of the Civil War he was commissioned Captain in the Fifth New York (the " Duryea Zouaves "), and within a few months was promoted to Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. He participated at the siege of Yorktown and . commanded the regiment in the Peninsula and Maryland campaigns. the command receiving special mention for gallantry during the seven days battles and the operations before Richmond. He was appointed Colonel of the regiment, October 29, 1862, but received permanent injuries, which compelled him to retire from the service in December following. May 26, 1866, he was brevetted Brigadier General, as already stated. He is a member of the United Service Club, the
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Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the Society of the Fifth Army Corps, and the Veteran Association of the Fifth New York. He married, in 1868, Laura D., daughter of Leander Burnell and Anna Noble Dewey, and has two daughters and two sons, Harry H. and Chester B. Duryea. He is himself descended on the paternal side from JJoost Durie, a French Huguenot, who settled at Manheim, Rhenish Palatinate, married Magdalena LeFevre, and emigrated to Long Island some time prior to 1675. He is also descended from Rev. Johannes Polhemus, and the founders of the Bogart, Hoagland, Weertman, and Van Nostrand families. Through his mother he de- scends from Peter Wright, who came from Norfolk, England, to Massa; chusetts Bay, in 1635, and in 1653 settled at Oyster Bay, L. I .; from Edward Dotey, who came over in the Mayflower; from Robert Feke, who came over with Governor Winthrop; from William Ludlam, who came from Matlock, England, in 1655, and from John Townsend, of Oyster Bay, and his wife, Elizabeth Montgomerie, cousin of Governor Dongan.
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