USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 8
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GEORGE CROCKER
Then he joined his three associates in building the Southern Pacific Railroad, and became its president in 1871, as well as vice-president of the Central Pacific. He personally superin- tended the building of much of the Southern road. He was also a large purchaser of land in California, including much of the water-front of Oakland. He was the principal owner of the Crocker-Huffman Land and Water Company at Merced, and his estate now owns the assets of that enterprise, comprising forty- two thousand acres of land, a lake of seven hundred acres, and eighteen miles of irrigating canals.
Late in life Mr. Crocker made his home in New York, where he had a fine house, with notable collections of paintings, bronzes, and ceramics. He was married, in 1852, to Miss Mary Ann Deming, a lady of English origin, and granddaughter of Seth Read, a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolutionary army. He left four children : Colonel Charles F. Crocker, lately vice-president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and director of the corporation of Wells, Fargo & Co., who married Miss Easton, a niece of Mr. D. O. Mills; George Crocker; William H. Crocker; and Harriet Crocker, wife of Charles B. Alexander of New York.
George Crocker, the second son of Charles Crocker, was born at Sacramento, California, on February 10, 1856. He was educated at first in the schools of that city, and afterward at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York. After leaving the latter in- stitution, he spent some time in European travel. On his return to the United States he naturally turned his attention to the business in which his father had won so great distinction. His father's wealth made it unnecessary for him to engage in any struggle for a livelihood, but in order thoroughly to acquaint himself with the business he began at the bottom of the ladder, in a clerkship in the operating department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. After a time he purchased an extensive cattle-ranch in Utah and undertook the management of it.
From the last-named enterprise he was recalled, in August, 1888, by the death of his father. He then joined his elder bro- ther in assuming the management of the vast railroad and other interests of the estate, devoting his attention chiefly to the rail- roads. He has, indeed, since that time, been following the railroad business with exceptional zeal.
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Mr. Crocker is now second vice-president of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, of which his brother, the late Charles F. Crocker, was first vice-president. He is also president of the Oriental and Occidental Steamship Company, president of the Crocker Estate Company, president of the Carbon Hill Coal Company, president of the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company, president of the Promontory Ranch Company, vice- president of the Pacific Improvement Company, and a special partner in the brokerage firm of Price, McCormick & Co. He is also interested as an investor in many other enterprises.
In the early fall of 1899 it was announced that the Crocker interests in the Southern Pacific Railroad had been purchased by an Anglo-American syndicate of which Collis P. Huntington was the head. These holdings, it was said, amounted to some three hundred and forty thousand shares of stock, of which the value was variously stated at from ten million dollars to fifteen million dollars. It was said that the figures paid by the pur- chasers were a little above the latter amount, and that George Crocker's share of the proceeds of the sale would be something better than four million dollars. This sum he was reported to be about to invest in real estate, largely in New York, but to some extent in San Francisco and Chicago. It was also stated that henceforth Mr. Crocker will make his home chiefly in New York, out of deference to the desire of his wife.
Mr. Crocker has made his home in this city for a great part of the time in recent years, and is a familiar figure in the best social circles of the metropolis. He is a member of the Metropolitan, New York, Lawyers', New York Athletic, Transportation, West- chester, and Stock Exchange Lunch clubs, and is a governor of the Eastern Fields Trial Club. In San Francisco, where he is equally at home, he belongs to the Pacific, Union, University, Country, and Olympic clubs.
He was married at St. Thomas's Church, in this city, on June 5, 1894, to Mrs. Emma Hanchett Rutherford of San Francisco. He owns a home at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street, having recently built it, where he lives when in New York. Mr. Crocker has become interested in New York real estate and business buildings to the extent of several millions of dollars.
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Mr. Crocker made, in the summer of 1879, one of the swiftest railroad rides on record in the United States. He was in New York when he heard of the hopeless illness of his elder brother, Charles F. Crocker, and was informed that only the utmost ex- pedition would offer him any promise of seeing him alive. At the earliest possible moment the start was made, in a desperate race against time from one side of the continent to the other. It was then seen what the highest achievements and resources of modern engineering, acting in response to the dictates of un- limited wealth, could do. All the way across the continent phe- nomenal time was made, and on the home stretch all former records were broken. The run from Ogden to Oakland was by far the quickest ever made on that section of the Pacific Rail- road. A few days before, the younger brother, W. H. Crocker, had made a flying trip over it on the same errand, but George Crocker surpassed his record by some hours. Leaving Ogden at 12:49 P. M., the wharf at Oakland was reached at 9:10 A. M. the next day, the run of eight hundred and thirty-three miles being made without a stop. A swift ferry-boat bore him to the other side of the bay, where another special train was in waiting, to bear him to San Mateo. He reached the latter place to find his brother still alive, though unconscious.
Colonel Charles F. Crocker, to whose death-bed his brother thus hastened, was the eldest of the family, being two years older than George Crocker. He received an education similar to that of George Crocker, and then devoted himself to the railroad and other interests of his father. He was also interested in educa- tional and other affairs, being president of the California Academy of Sciences, and a trustee of Leland Stanford University. On his death he left one daughter and two sons. The daughter, Miss Mary Crocker, reached the age of eighteen years in the fall of 1899, and at that time came into possession of the great fortune bequeathed to her by her father and held for her by the trustees of his will. This fortune, amounting to about four million dollars, made her the wealthiest unmarried woman in California.
fought Daly
JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY
"THE distinguished jurist whose name heads this sketch is of pure Irish ancestry. His father, Dennis Daly of Limerick, was a purser's clerk in the British navy, and afterward came to this country and engaged in the shipping trade. In Jamaica, West Indies, he met Elizabeth Theresa Duffey, daughter of Lieutenant John Duffey of the British army, and married her in this city. Afterward he settled at Plymouth, North Carolina, in the house once occupied by John Randolph of Roanoke, and there were born his two sons, Augustin, the eminent dramatic manager, and Joseph Francis.
The latter was born on December 3, 1840. At the age of nine years he was brought by his widowed mother to New York, and was educated in the public schools. In 1855 he became a clerk in a law office, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar. He soon rose to prominence, especially in the movement for reform of the municipal government. He was associated with Charles O'Conor, Benjamin D. Silliman, and other eminent men, and drafted many statutes which are still on the books as bulwarks of good government. In 1865 he appeared before the governor to argue for the prosecution of unfaithful officials. In 1870 he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas for a term of fourteen years, and in 1884 he was reelected for another such term. In 1890 his associates chose him to be chief judge of that bench, and when that court was consolidated with the Supreme Court, he became a justice of the latter, and thus served out the remainder of his term.
Upon the bench Justice Daly was eminently dignified and im- partial. He was unwilling to submit to any political or other extraneous influences. On more than one occasion he refused to
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obey the dictates of the "boss" of the Democratic party. The latter accordingly marked him for punishment, and, on the expi- ration of his term in 1898, directed that he should not be re- nominated. Justice Daly's eminent fitness for the bench was generally recognized. The Republican party, though he was a Democrat, nominated him for reelection, and the Bar Associa- tion enthusiastically approved its action and worked for his suc- cess. He was recognized to stand for the principle of a pure and impartial judiciary. But the power of the " boss" was too great, and he was defeated, though such defeat was no dishonor.
Justice Daly has long been a favorite orator on public oc- casions, and a strong friend of Ireland in her struggles for self-government. As a trustee of the National Federation of America he presented the address of welcome to the Earl of Aberdeen on his visit here in 1892, and as president of the Catholic Club he welcomed the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Russell of Killowen, in 1896. He was chairman of the joint committee of the Catholic Historical Society and Catholic Club on the quadricentenary of the landing of Columbus, and presided at the meeting of citizens on May 5, 1898, in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the episcopate of the Archbishop of New York. In 1889 he, with his brother Augustin, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, and others, incorpo- rated the now famous Players' Club. He is still a member of it, is president of the Catholic Club, member of the Metropoli- tan, Manhattan, and Democratic clubs, the Southern Society, Dunlap Society, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, Gaelic Society, Law Institute, Bar Association, American-Irish Historical Soci- ety, American Geographical Society, Legal Aid Society, Catholic Summer School, Champlain Club, manager of the Roman Cath- olic Orphan Asylum, and member of the advisory board of St. Vincent's Hospital. In 1883 he received the degree of LL. D. from St. John's College, Fordham.
He married, in 1873, the stepdaughter of Judge Hamilton W. Robinson, Miss Emma Robinson Barker, who died in 1886, leav- ing him two sons and a daughter. In 1890 he married Miss Mary Louise Smith, daughter of Edgar M. Smith.
1
Elliot Dam for the
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ELLIOT DANFORTH
E ALLIOT DANFORTH, who for many years has been promi- nent as a lawyer, political leader, and public official in the State of New York, was born at Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, on March 6, 1850. His mother, whose maiden name was Aurelia Lintner, was of German descent. His father, Peter Swart Danforth, was of English descent, and was a State Senator in 1854-55, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1872.
Elliot Danforth early manifested a particularly studious dispo- sition, and this led to his acquiring the most thorough education possible, in the common schools and in Schoharie Academy. He then turned his attention to legal studies in his father's office, and at the age of twenty-one years, in 1871, was admitted to practice at the bar. For a few years he practised in his native village with much success. Then, in 1878, he removed to Bain- bridge, Chenango County, where he formed a partnership with the Hon. George H. Winsor, one of the foremost lawyers of that part of the State, and that association lasted until Mr. Winsor's death, in 1880. Mr. Danforth's legal career has since that date been marked with much success, and he has served as a member of numerous committees of the State Bar Association.
Mr. Danforth began in his childhood to take an ardent interest in politics, and upon reaching years of manhood he became what might be termed a practical politician, identified with the Demo- cratic party. His first public office was that of President of the village of Bainbridge, to which he was elected for several terms. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1880, and was the youngest of all the New York State delegates. In the fall of that year he was unanimously nominated for Rep-
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resentative in Congress by the Democratic Convention of his dis- trict, but declined the nomination. He was also widely men- tioned as a candidate for State Treasurer. Four years later he was again a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, and in that year's campaign gave earnest and effective support to the Presidential candidacy of Mr. Cleveland, who was elected.
Soon after the election of L. J. Fitzgerald as State Treasurer, in 1885, Mr. Danforth was appointed to be his Deputy, and at the expiration of his term was reappointed, thus serving through the years of 1886-89. At the Democratic State Convention in 1889 he was unanimously nominated for State Treasurer, and was duly elected by more than 16,000 plurality. Two years later he was renominated for another term in the same office, and was reëlected by about 50,000 plurality.
Mr. Danforth was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant- Governor in 1898, but was defeated, although leading the head of the ticket by 12,000 votes. He was a delegate to the National Democratic conventions of 1892 and 1896, chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee in 1896-98, and chairman of the executive committee of that committee in 1899. He was for several years president of the First National Bank of Bain- bridge, New York, and also president of the Board of Education of that place.
Mr. Danforth is now practising law in the city of New York, and is identified with its professional and social activities. His law offices are in the Home Life Insurance Company's Building, on Broadway, opposite City Hall Park. He is a member of the Democratic Club, the chief social organization of the Democratic party, the Lotus Club, and the orders of Free Masons, Odd Fel- lows, Knights of Pythias, and Elks.
In 1874, on December 17 of that year, Mr. Danforth married Miss Ida Prince, the only daughter of Dr. Gervis Prince, presi- dent of the First National Bank of Bainbridge. She died in New York city on October 5, 1895, leaving him two children, Edward and Mary. He married a second time, in New York, on Novem- ber 30, 1898, his second bride being Mrs. Katharine Black Laim- beer.
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Julien T. Davis
JULIEN TAPPAN DAVIES
J ULIEN TAPPAN DAVIES, who ranks among the most suc- cessful lawyers of the metropolis, is of Welsh descent. His family line is traced back to Rodic Maur, from whom the seventh in descent was the famous Cymric Efell, Lord of Eylwys Eyle, who lived in the year 1200. From him, in turn, was descended Robert Davies of Gwysany Castle, Mold, Flintshire, who was born in 1606, and who was high sheriff of Flintshire and Knight of the Royal Oak. A descendant of Robert Davies, named John Davies, came to America in 1735, and settled in Litchfield, Con- necticut. He was a man of wealth and influence. From him, in turn, was descended the late Thomas John Davies, judge of St. Lawrence County, New York. The three sons of the latter were Professor Charles Davies, the eminent mathematician, the late Chief Justice Henry E. Davies of New York, and Major-General Thomas Alfred Davies.
The subject of this sketch is the fourth son of the late Chief Justice Henry E. Davies. He was born in New York city on September 25, 1845, and was carefully educated. He was sent to the famous Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, on Washington Square, New York city. Next he studied at the Walnut Hill School, at Geneva, New York, and thence pro- ceeded to Columbia College. From the last-named institution he was graduated in 1866, with the degree of A. B.
Upon leaving college, Mr. Davies, who had already fixed upon the law as his profession, entered as a student the law office of Alexander W. Bradford of New York, and there was prepared for admission to the bar. Such admission was secured on No- vember 6, 1867. Such early entrance to the bar was due to the responsibilities which had been thrust upon him by the death of
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Mr. Bradford. That gentleman left the conduct of his business, by will, to his partner, Mr. Harrison, and to Mr. Davies. This made it necessary for Mr. Davies to seek immediate admission to the bar. He also entered into partnership with Mr. Harrison, and thus came into a large law practice. At the same time he continued his studies in the Law School of Columbia College, from which he was graduated in 1868 with the degree of LL. B., at the same time receiving the degree of A. M. from the college. Mr. Davies was afterward associated in practice with his father, who retired from the bench and resumed legal practice in January, 1869.
Mr. Davies joined the Twenty-Second Regiment, N. G. N. Y., in 1863, as a private, being then only eighteen years old. He saw active service in the campaign which culminated at Gettys- burg.
The law practice of Mr. Davies has been chiefly in connection with two great corporations. He has been for many years coun- sel of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company, and carried through the courts a most important series of cases establishing its franchises and the principles of its liability for damages to property. He is also counsel for and a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. He is a Republican in politics, and is actively interested in the duties of citizenship and the eleva- tion of the standard of municipal administration, but has held no political office.
Mr. Davies is a member of various professional and social organizations of the highest class. He was married on April 22, 1869, to Miss Alice Martin, daughter of Henry H. Martin, a banker of Albany, New York.
William Hilluh Wariz .
WILLIAM GILBERT DAVIES
"THE name of Davies is unmistakably of Welsh origin. It has been well known in Wales and the adjacent parts of England for centuries, and is at the present time a common one there, and is borne by many men of light and leading. The branch of the Davies family now under consideration traces its history back to ancient times in Flintshire, where its members were among the foremost men of their day, and the family one of the most distinguished. From Flintshire some members of it removed, centuries ago, to the town of Kington, in the Welsh- English county of Hereford, and there John Davies was born and lived to manhood. He came to this country in 1735, being the first of his family to do so, and settled at Litchfield, Connec- ticut, within sight of the hills which reminded him to some degree of his native hills of Wales. He married Catherine Spencer, a lady of English ancestry, and for many years was one of the foremost citizens of Litchfield, and indeed of the western part of Connecticut.
A son of this couple, also named John Davies, married Eliza- beth Brown, and continued to live at Litchfield. His son, the third John Davies, married Eunice Hotchkiss. His son, Thomas John Davies, removed from Litchfield to St. Lawrence County, New York, in 1800, and became sheriff and county judge. His son, Henry E. Davies, the fifth of the line in this country, be- came a lawyer, came to New York city, and was long a prom- inent figure in professional and public life. He was successively an alderman, corporation counsel, justice of the Supreme Court, and chief justice of the Court of Appeals. He married Rebecca Waldo Tappan of Boston, a niece of the abolitionist leaders, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and a descendant of one of the most
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distinguished of New England families. Miss Tappan was also related by descent to the Quincys, Wendells, Salisburys, and other New England families, and also to that famous Anneke Jans whose heirs have so often laid claim to vast possessions in New York city.
William Gilbert Davies is a son of Henry E. Davies and Re- becca Tappan Davies, and was born in this city on March 21, 1842. He acquired collegiate education at Trinity College, Hart- ford, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1860, and at the University of Leipzig, Germany. In 1863 he was admitted to practise law at the bar of the State of New York, and entered earnestly upon the pursuit of the profession his father had so greatly adorned. During the Civil War, then raging, he served for a time in the Twenty-second Regiment, New York Militia, during the Gettysburg campaign.
It was in the law office of Slosson, Hutchins & Platt, and in the Law School of Columbia College, that Mr. Davies was pre- pared for his career as a lawyer. His first partnership in prac- tice was formed with Henry H. Anderson, but on August 1, 1866, the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Davies entered the service of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. The law department of that corporation was fully organized in September, 1870, with J. V. L. Pruyn as solicitor, and with Mr. Davies as his assistant. In that place Mr. Davies remained until May 20, 1885, when he became the head of the department.
The law of life-insurance was then practically an unknown quantity, the system itself being in its infancy, and but few questions having been presented to the courts for decision. During the succeeding quarter of a century, with the enormous growth of that form of insurance, new problems were constantly presented for solution, and Mr. Davies, as counsel for one of the leading companies, was largely instrumental in establishing the rules of law relating to that subject as they exist to-day. He resigned his position in December, 1893, to resume the active practice of his profession, since which time he has been chiefly engaged as a referee and in street-opening proceedings, having received many appointments to such positions. His most con- spicuous service of this character was on the commission for widening and extending Elm Street from Great Jones Street to
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the City Hall, which great public improvement was carried through in an unprecedentedly short time, thus effecting a great saving of expense to the city, and greatly diminishing the in- jury to the property-owners.
Important as have been the duties of his profession, they have by no means monopolized Mr. Davies's attention. His ripe scholarship and finished literary style have made him a welcome contributor to current literature. His discussion of "Myste- rious Disappearances and Presumptions of Death in Insurance Cases " has been published and become a classic. He was en- gaged as a lecturer in the New York University Law School in 1891. He was one of the chief promoters of the Medico- legal Society, and from 1886 to 1889 was chairman of its board of trustees.
A paper on "Medical Jurisprudence and its Relations to Life- Insurance," read before the Insurance Convention held at Chi- cago during the Centennial Exposition of 1893, was widely quoted and favorably commented upon by the insurance press at the time.
Mr. Davies is a prominent member of numerous professional and social organizations. Among these are the New York His- torical Society, the New York Biographical and Genealogical Society, the Medicolegal Society, the New England Society, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the New England His- torical-Genealogical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association, the Liederkranz Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Century Association, and the Union, University, Lawyers', Manhattan, Tuxedo, Grolier, Democratic, and St. Nicholas clubs. He belongs also to the American, New York State, and New York City bar associa- tions, and the Law Institute.
He was married, in 1870, to Miss Lucie Rice, daughter of the Hon. Alexander H. Rice, who was for three terms Governor of the State of Massachusetts. His New York home is at No. 22 East Forty-fifth Street.
CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON
(HARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON'S American ances- C try has included merchants, authors, soldiers, physicians, and statesmen. His grandfather, Charles Willoughby Dayton born at Stratford, Connecticut, became a leading merchant of New York. He married a daughter of Francis Child, of Hugue- not descent, and they had a son named Abraham Child Dayton, who was a contributor to some of the foremost periodicals of his day, and was also a leading member of the New York Stock Exchange. His wife was Marie A. Tomlinson, a daughter of Dr. David Tomlinson of Derby, Connecticut, and afterward of Rhinebeck, New York, a member of the New York Legislature and a prominent member of the medical profession. Dr. Tom- linson's wife, Cornelia Adams, was a granddaughter of Andrew Adams, one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation, Speaker of the Continental Congress, and chief justice of the State of Connecticut.
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