USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 9
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The son of Abraham Child Dayton and Marie Tomlinson Dayton, who forms the subject of this present sketch, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 3, 1846, but since childhood has lived in the city of New York and the borough of Manhat- tan. He entered the College of the City of New York in 1861, and was graduated from the Law School of Columbia University in 1868, and has since been a practising lawyer of this city.
From his youth Mr. Dayton has been an ardent Democrat and has taken an active part in political affairs. In the campaign of 1864 he took the stump and made many effective speeches for General Mcclellan. In 1881 he was a member of the State Assembly and of its judiciary committee. The next year he organized the Harlem Democratic Club, and was a leader of the
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Citizens' Reform movement, which gave Allan Campbell seventy- eight thousand votes for Mayor after a campaign of only ten days. In 1884 he was secretary of the Electoral College of the State of New York. In 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1892 he was a dele- gate to Democratic State conventions, and in 1893 he was elected a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention.
In the last-named year he was appointed by President Cleve- land as Postmaster of New York. In that office he introduced many reforms which were appreciated by the employees, the public, and his superiors at Washington. His resignation as postmaster, on May 22, 1897, was followed, in June of that year, by a banquet tendered to him by fifteen hundred letter-carriers at the Grand Central Palace. There is now in the New York Postmaster's room a bronze portrait bust of Mr. Dayton, the cost of which was provided by fifty-cent subscriptions from four thousand postal employees, inscribed as follows :
CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON, Postmaster at New York, Appointed by President Cleveland June 3, 1893. Erected February, 1897, by the employees of the New York Post-Office, who desire to perpetuate Mr. Dayton's record for efficiency, discipline, justice, courtesy, and kindness.
In the Democratic convention of 1897 he was the most popular candidate for Mayor of Greater New York. His nomination did not suit the purposes of "Crokerism," which so dominated the "leaders " that his name was not presented, notwithstanding the imminence of a stampede in his behalf.
He is a member of the Bar Association of New York city, and one of the executive committee of the State Bar Association. He is a member of the Harlem Democratic, Sagamore, and Players' clubs, the Down-Town Association, and Sons of the Revolution, and is a governor of the Manhattan Club. He is a director of the Seventh National, Twelfth Ward, and Empire City savings-banks, and the United States Life Insurance Company. He was married, in 1874, to Laura A. Newman, daughter of John B. Newman, M. D., and has three children.
HENRY WHEELER DE FOREST
I "T has long been a truism that ours is the most composite of nations. Within its borders may be found men of every tribe and nation, some of recent arrival upon these shores, some descended from those who settled here centuries ago. Fittingly, too, the chief city of the nation is the most cosmopolitan of all. At least three separate nationalities contributed to its founding, while, as the principal gate of entry into the United States, it has long received the vast majority of all new-comers into the land. Conspicuous among those who have contributed to the growth of the city, and indeed one of the three founders of it, are the French, and especially the Huguenot French, who came hither with the Dutch.
The De Forest family, which has long enjoyed deserved prom- inence in this country, is of French Huguenot origin. Its first representative in America was Jesse De Forest, who fled from France to Leyden, and thence came to New York in 1623. A direct descendant of his, in the last generation, was Henry Grant De Forest of New York city. He married Miss Julia Mary Weeks, and to them the subject of this sketch was born.
Henry Wheeler De Forest was born in New York city on Oc- tober 29, 1855. His schooling was begun in New York. Later he was sent to boarding-school at Deerfield, Massachusetts, and thence to Williston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. He entered Yale at the age of sixteen, and was graduated there in the class of 1876. From Yale he returned to New York, and entered the Law School of Columbia University, where he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1877.
Upon his graduation from the Columbia Law School Mr. De
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Forest was admitted to the bar of New York, and forthwith entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1878 he became associated with his brother, Robert Weeks De Forest, first under the firm-name of De Forest & Weeks, and more recently under the present title of De Forest Brothers.
In addition to an extensive law practice, Mr. De Forest is or has been connected with various business enterprises, corpora- tions, and charitable associations. He was for some years president of the New Jersey and New York Railroad Company, and is a director of the Knickerbocker and Hudson Trust com- panies, and of the Niagara and British-American Insurance companies, a trustee of the Bank for Savings, and of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and one of the gover- nors of the New York Hospital.
Mr. De Forest has never been actively engaged in politics, be- yond discharging the ordinary duties of a citizen.
He is a member of various clubs and other social organizations, including among others the Union Club, the University Club, the Metropolitan Club, and the Down-Town Association.
He was married, on August 22, 1898, to Miss Julia Gilman Noyes.
ROBERT WEEKS DE FOREST
THE De Forest family in this country is of French Huguenot descent, its first ancestor here having been Jesse de Forest, who came to New York in 1623 from Leyden, whither he had fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Robert Weeks De Forest was born in this city on April 25, 1848, the son of Henry G. and Julia Brasher Weeks De Forest. His father was a son of Lockwood De Forest, a South Street mer- chant, and his mother was a daughter of Robert D. Weeks, the first president of the New York Stock Exchange.
After receiving a primary education in this city, Robert Weeks De Forest was sent to Williston Seminary, at Easthamp- ton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. Then he entered Yale, and was graduated with honors in the class of 1870. Returning then to New York, he entered the Columbia College Law School, and received therefrom the degree of LL. B. in 1872. Meantime he had been admitted to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court of New York in the spring of 1871. A brief period of postgraduate study followed at the University of Bonn, Germany.
Mr. De Forest began the practice of his profession in the firm with which his father had been connected, and of which his uncle, John A. Weeks, was the head. At his entry it assumed the name of Weeks, Forster & De Forest. Later he was a member of the firm of De Forest & Weeks, and since 1893 he has been associated with his younger brother in the firm of De Forest Brothers.
The law practice of these firms has been general in its scope. Mr. De Forest has for many years, however, been general counsel for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, having become profes-
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sionally connected with that corporation in 1874. Since 1885 he has been president of the Hackensack Water Company, and he is a director or trustee of a number of corporations, among them being the Niagara Fire Insurance Company and the Conti- nental Trust Company of this city. He has never sought nor held political office, but has been prominent in various public enterprises of a benevolent or educational character. Thus he was a leader in the movement for a systematization of charitable work, and has for a number of years been president of the New York Charity Organization Society. He was one of the founders of the Provident Loan Society, an admirable philanthropic insti- tution intended to obviate the evils of the ordinary pawnbroking system. It was founded in 1894, at a time of great social distress in this city, when there was exceptional need of some means whereby the poor could raise money on temporary loans on per- sonal property, on equitable terms. Mr. De Forest was chosen the first president of it, and much of its success was due to his wise direction. He also succeeded his father as one of the man- agers of the Presbyterian Hospital of this city, and also as one of the managers of the American Bible Society. In 1889 he was elected a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has ever since been retained in that place.
Mr. De Forest is a member of a number of clubs, their variety showing the wide range of his tastes and interests. Among them are the Century, University, Grolier, Seawanhaka Yacht, and Jekyl Island.
He was married, on November 12, 1872, to Miss Emily John- ston, the eldest daughter of John Taylor Johnston, president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and of the council of the University of the City of New York. Since 1880 they have lived at No. 7 North Washington Square, in the stately old mansion built by Mrs. De Forest's grandfather, John Johnston, in 1833. Their country home was for many years at Seabright, New Jersey, but is now at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.
Mr. and Mrs. De Forest have four children. The two sons, Johnston and Henry Lockwood, were graduated at Yale in 1896 and 1897 respectively. The two daughters are named Ethel and Frances Emily.
RICHARD DELAFIELD
THE Delafield family of England and America descend from the Counts de la Feld of Alsace, whose lineage is one of the oldest in France. Authentic records of them appear before the year 1000. The ancient castle which still bears their name is situated in a pass of the Vosges Mountains, near the town of Colmar. Pope Leo IX. is said to have rested there on his way to Strasburg. In the cathedral of that city were monuments to two of the De la Felds, and a perpetual chantry with a pension of two marks per annum to provide masses for the repose of the souls of their dead.
The first of the name in England was Hubertus de la Feld, who came over with the Conqueror and received grants of land in the county of Lancaster. The names of his descendants are numbered among the wealthy nobles under succeeding monarchs. Many of them were distinguished at arms and rendered services to their country for which they were rewarded with lands and titles. John Delafield, born in 1647, entered the service of the Emperor of Germany, fought against the Turks under Prince Eugene of Savoy, and was created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a dignity which descends to all his male posterity.
The great-great-grandson of John, Count Delafield, came to America late in the last century, married Anne Hallett of Hal- lett's Cove, now Astoria, in New York, and became the founder of the American family of his name. One of his sons, Rufus King Delafield, married Eliza Bard, daughter of William and Katherine Cruger Bard. Richard Delafield is their son.
He was born at New Brighton, Staten Island, on September 6, 1853, was educated at the Anthon Grammar-School, New York city, and at the age of twenty embarked on his business career
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as a clerk in a New York mercantile house. His talent for affairs soon made itself apparent, and he was rapidly advanced to the position of manager.
In 1880 he founded the house of Delafield & Co., and commenced business in the California trade. The firm, which is conducted on old conservative principles, is one of the most prosperous establishments in New York. Mr. Delafield is at its head as senior partner and capitalist in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. He is vice-president and director of the National Park Bank, vice-president of the Colonial Trust Company, and has been president of the Mercantile Exchange.
He has taken no active part in politics, except to serve as president of the New York Commission for the World's Colum- bian Exposition, and as a member of the Committee of One Hundred at the New York Columbian Quadricentennial Cele- bration. He is actively interested in the affairs of the Episcopal Church and is a vestryman of Trinity Church Corporation. His clubs are the Union League, the Tuxedo, the Merchants', and the New York Athletic. In musical circles he is prominent, having been president of the Staten Island Philharmonic and secretary of the New York Symphony societies. Among the many charitable institutions with which he is identified are the Seaside Home on Long Island, of which he is president, and the Varick Street Hospital, of whose executive committee he is a member.
Mr. Delafield was married, in 1880, to Miss Clara Foster Carey of New York, whose family is one of the oldest in the city. Her great-uncle was Philip Hone, Mayor of New York in 1826. Dr. Kane, the arctic explorer was also a relative.
CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW
TT is probable that if at almost any time in the last twenty years the question has been asked who was the best- known and most popular citizen of New York, or indeed of the United States, a large plurality of replies, given both here and in foreign lands, would have been, "Chauncey M. Depew." Nor would the selection have been in any respect an unworthy one. In business and in politics, in public and in private, in society and in philanthropy,- indeed, in all honorable activities of human life,-Mr. Depew has come into contact with the American public to a greater extent than almost any other man of the age, and above most Americans of this or any generation is fairly entitled to the distinction of being regarded as a representative American and as a citizen of the world.
Chauncey Mitchell Depew was born at Peekskill, New York, on April 23, 1834, the son of Isaac and Martha (Mitchell) Depew. His father was of Huguenot origin, descended from a family which had settled at New Rochelle two centuries ago, and was himself a man of remarkable physical prowess, mental force, and spiritual illumination. He owned country stores, farms, and vessels on the Hudson. Martha Mitchell, Mr. Depew's mother, was of English Puritan ancestry, a member of the distinguished New England family which produced Roger Sherman, William T. Sherman, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, and George F. Hoar; a woman of grace and kindliness, who exerted a strong and enduring influence upon the character of her gifted son. The boy was educated at Peekskill Academy and at Yale College, and was graduated from the latter in 1856. Then he studied law at Peekskill in the office of William Nelson, and was admitted to the bar in 1858.
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In the year of his graduation from Yale Mr. Depew cast his first vote. It was for John C. Frémont, the Republican candi- date for President of the United States. Two years later he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention. In 1860 he was a stump speaker in behalf of Abraham Lincoln. His first public office came to him in 1861, when he was elected to the State Assembly. He was reelected in 1862, and was Speaker pro tem. for a part of the term. In 1864 he was nominated by the Republicans for Secretary of State of the State of New York, and was elected by a majority of thirty thousand. In this campaign he established his place as one of the most effective popular ora- tors of the time. At the end of his term he declined a renomina- tion, and, after holding the commission of United States minister to Japan, given to him by President Johnson, for a few months, he retired from politics.
Mr. Depew had already attracted the attention of Commodore Vanderbilt and his son, William H. Vanderbilt. He was ap- pointed by them, in 1866, attorney for the New York and Harlem Railroad Company. Three years later he became attorney for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and afterward a director of that company. His influence grew with the growth of the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and in 1875 he became gen- eral counsel for the entire system, and was elected a director in each of the lines comprised in it.
Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor on the Liberal Republican ticket in 1872, and shared the defeat of his ticket. In 1874 he was chosen Regent of the State University, and one of the commissioners to build the Capitol at Albany. He narrowly missed election as United States Senator in 1881, and declined, in 1885, to be a candidate for the same office.
His influence in railroad circles had been constantly increasing meanwhile, and in 1882, when William H. Vanderbilt retired from the presidency of the New York Central, Mr. Depew was elected second vice-president, succeeding James H. Rutter in the presidency three years later, holding that place until 1898, when he succeeded Cornelius Vanderbilt as chairman of the board of directors of the entire Vanderbilt system of railroads.
Mr. Depew was a candidate for the Presidential nomination at the National Republican Convention of 1888, and received the
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solid vote of the State of New York, and on one ballot ninety- nine votes. At the National Republican Convention of 1892 Mr. Depew was selected to present the name of President Harrison, In January, 1899, Mr. Depew was elected a United States Senator from the State of New York. His appearance at Washington commanded much personal interest, and he soon won recognition as a Senatorial orator.
Mr. Depew is still Regent of the University of the State of New York, an active member of the St. Nicholas Society, the Holland Society, the Huguenot Society, and the New York Chamber of Commerce ; a director of the Wagner Palace Car Company, the Union Trust Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, St. Luke's Hospital, the Niagara Bridge Company, the American Safe Deposit Company, the New York Mutual Gas Light Company, and of other indus- trial companies and corporations too numerous to mention. He was for seven years president of the Union League Club, and on retiring was elected an honorary life member. For ten years in succession he was elected president of the Yale Alumni Associa- tion, and he is now president of the Republican Club.
Mr. Depew married Elise Hegeman on November 9, 1871, and has one child, a son, Chauncey M. Depew, Jr. Mrs. Depew died on May 7, 1893.
Mr. Depew has long been known as foremost among the hu- morous and ready public speakers of the time, and there are none New-Yorkers love better to hear. He has been the orator on three great national and international occasions - the unveiling of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the first President of the United States, and the opening of the World's Fair at Chicago. He was selected by the Legislature to deliver the oration at the centen- nial celebration of the formation of the Constitution of the State of New York, the centennial of the organization of the Legis- lature of the State of New York, and the services held in New York in memory of President Garfield, General Sherman, Gen- eral Husted, and Governor Fenton. He also delivered the ora- tions at the unveiling of the statues of Alexander Hamilton in Central Park, of Columbus in Central Park, and of Major André in Sleepy Hollow.
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Theo. L. De Vinne
THEODORE LOW DE VINNE
"THE "art preservative of arts" has had many worthy pro- fessors and practitioners, from Gutenberg, Caxton, and Aldus down to the present day, but none more earnest and effec- tive than the head of the well-known De Vinne Press of New York. He is of New England birth and Huguenot-Dutch and French-Irish parentage, and has served, as a true workman should, in all grades of his profession, from the lowest to the highest. His father, Daniel De Vinne, was born at Londonderry, Ireland, of French and Irish parentage, but was brought to this country in infancy, and had a long and useful career as a Methodist preacher and an antislavery advocate. His mother was Joanna Augusta Low of New York, of Huguenot and Dutch descent.
Theodore Low De Vinne was born at Stamford, Connecticut, on December 25, 1828. He was educated at the common schools in the various towns in which his father was stationed in the Methodist itinerancy, and finally at Amenia Seminary, Amenia, New York, which he left at the age of fourteen, to begin work. His first work was in a printing-office at Fishkill, New York, and then, in 1844, in the office of the "Newburg (New York) Ga- zette." In 1849 he came to this city and entered the employ of Francis Hart, one of the best printers of that day. Eight years later he became a partner in the establishment, and on the death of Mr. Hart, in 1877, he became the practical head of the firm. In 1883 the firm changed its name to that of T. L. De Vinne & Co., and is now best known as the De Vinne Press.
From the beginning of his career as a managing printer, Mr. De Vinne has persistently and intelligently striven to improve the appearance of books and to elevate the general character of American typography. In this he has achieved marked success.
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For years his publications have ranked at the head of American press work, and the peer of any in the world, and orders have come to him from all parts of this and other countries from those who wish their books to be printed in the highest style of art. His influence has also extended outside of his own office, and has strongly tended to improve the general art of printing in America and throughout the world. He has been the printer of the " St. Nicholas Magazine " since it was started in 1873, and of the "Century Magazine" since 1874. The "Century Dictionary," one of the largest works ever undertaken by a printing-office, was brought out by him. In 1886 he removed his establishment to a fine building in Lafayette Place, specially designed by him as a model printing-office.
Mr. De Vinne is a prominent member of the National Typo- thetæ, of which he was the first president. He belongs also to the Grolier, Authors', and Century clubs, and the Aldine Asso- ciation. He has been a writer as well as a printer of books, and, in addition to magazine articles, has put forth "The Printer's Price List " (1871), " The Invention of Printing " (1875), " Historic Types " (1886), "The Practice of Typography : Plain Printing Types " (1900), and other works.
He was married, in 1850, to Miss Grace Brockbank, and has one son, Theodore Brockbank De Vinne, who is associated with him in the management of the De Vinne Press. Mr. De Vinne has taken no part in politics other than that of an intelligent private citizen, and has formed no important business connections outside of his own office. He has been content to devote his life to the one great work of bringing the illustration, printing, and publishing of books to the highest possible perfection, and in that he has succeeded beyond the achievements of most of his predecessors in this or any land.
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FREDERICK WILLIAM DEVOE
F REDERICK WILLIAM DEVOE, the well-known manu- facturer and merchant, comes of a family of distinguished record which in ancient times was resident in the district of Veaux, in Normandy, and which has variously been known as De Veaux, De Vaux, De Veau, and De Vos. Its first member in this country was Matheus de Vos, a Huguenot, who came to New Amsterdam, now New York, for refuge and freedom. Later came Daniel and Nicholas de Vaux, and settled in Harlem, on Manhattan Island. Finally Frederick, the brother of these lat- ter, a native of Annis, France, escaped massacre by flight from home, grew to manhood at Mannheim, Germany, became a mer- chant, and came to New York. He too settled in Harlem, married Hester Terneur, owned the great Cromwell farm near what is now Central Bridge, and was a man of much note in the community.
He had a son named Frederick, who also had a son of that name, who had a son named John. The last-named married his cousin Rebecca de Voe, and had eleven children. One of these, John, served in the War of 1812, married Sophia, daughter of Thomas Farrington of Yonkers, and had ten children, of whom the youngest is the subject of this sketch.
Frederick William Devoe was born in New York city on Jan- uary 26, 1828, and was educated in private schools. In 1843 he became a clerk in the store of his brother Isaac, at Spotswood, New Jersey. Three years later he returned to New York and entered the drug and paint establishment of Jackson and Robins, in which his brother John was a junior partner. In 1848 he became clerk for Butler and Raynolds, and four years later under- took business on his own account as a member of the new firm of Raynolds and Devoe.
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