USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 4
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Mr. Bull is a member of the Delta Phi Club, the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association, the Republican Club, the Calumet Club, the Lawyers' Club, and the Baltusrol and Richmond Hill Golf clubs.
He was married on August 1, 1885, at Rouen, France, to Miss Sarah Adams Williams. They have two children living : Marion Frances Bull and Priscilla Mullins Bull.
HENRY L. BURNETT
THE Burnett family was planted here in the seventeenth century by men of mark from England. One of its mem- bers, William Burnett, was Colonial Governor of New York and New Jersey in 1720-28, and afterward of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Another William Burnett, of a later genera- tion, was a distinguished physician in New Jersey, a member of the Continental Congress of 1776, and a surgeon-general in the army throughout the Revolution. Another in that genera- tion was Samuel Burnett, of New Jersey, a leading promoter of the Revolution, and a man of exceptional culture. At the end of the war he removed to what is now the State of Ohio, and there established his new home. There his son, Henry Bur- nett, grew up as a farmer, and also a contractor and builder. The latter married Nancy Jones, a member of an old Virginia family, and to them was born, at Youngstown, Ohio, on December 26, 1836, the subject of this sketch.
Henry L. Burnett rebelled, at the age of fifteen, against a mere district-school education, and so stole away from home with a bundle of clothes, forty-six dollars, and two books-" The Lady of Lyons " and " Thaddeus of Warsaw." He walked a hun- dred miles to Chester Academy, where James A. Garfield was then a student. There he worked at odd jobs to pay his way. Then he went to Hiram Institute, where Garfield was one of his teachers. Finally he entered the Ohio State and National Law School, and was graduated in 1859. The next year he was admitted to the bar and began law practice at Warren.
At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted in the cavalry. Each recruit was to bring his own horse and be paid for it. When the men found they were not to get cash, but certificates,
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they demurred. But Burnett cried out, "All who go into the war to fight, and not to sell horses, follow me!" The company followed him to a man. In the army he had a distinguished career, both in cavalry service and as a judge advocate. He was ap- pointed by Secretary Stanton to take charge of the investigation of the facts relating to the assassination of President Lincoln, and to prepare the testimony for the trial, and was subsequently assigned as one of the judge advocates on the trial of the assassins. He resigned in December, 1865, and returned to the practice of the law.
After some years of successful practice at Cincinnati and at Washington, General Burnett came to New York, in 1872, and quickly took leading rank at the metropolitan bar. He has been counsel for the Erie Railroad Company, counsel for the English stock-holders of the Emma Mine, and in the great case of the Rutland Railway Company against Governor Paige of Vermont. In the last-named case his masterly defense of Governor Paige marked him as one of the greatest advocates of the age.
General Burnett is a member of the Union, Century, Metro- politan, and other prominent clubs, and president of the Ohio Society, succeeding in the latter office Colonel William L. Strong, who was Mayor of New York from 1894 to 1897. He is also one of the new "reform " directors of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, and is interested in numerous other business and social enterprises, and at this time holds the responsible office of United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.
General Burnett's wife was formerly Miss Tailer, a descendant of Governor Tailer, one of the colonial governors of Massachu- setts. She is a woman of rare literary and artistic culture and high social position, who aids him in making his home a de- lightful center of intellectual and social graces.
LYMAN SATTERLEE BURNHAM
THE ancestors of Lyman Satterlee Burnham were among the earliest settlers in this country, coming hither from Eng- land. They made their home in the New England colonies, and played their part in the development of the latter into indepen- dent States. In the closing years of the last century the family was settled in Vermont, and took part in the Revolutionary War with the other patriots of that region. One member of it, Abi- gail Clark Burnham, was the only woman who remained in the town of Bennington during the famous battle there. She stayed in order to bake bread for the patriot soldiers, and she and her brother, who had been wounded in the battle, personally distrib- uted it to them as they filed past the house. A younger mem- ber of the family was Nathan Burnham, who was born at Shaftsbury, and who married Rebecca Noble of Tinmouth, a member of another eminent patriot family. They removed to New York State in 1812, and lived on a fine farm at Woodville, in Jefferson County.
Their son, the subject of this sketch, was born in 1816. He was educated at the Belleville Academy, and then went West, to Detroit, Michigan, and became a clerk in a dry-goods store. Af- terward he filled a similar place at Utica, New York. Finally he went to Brooklyn, New York, and there formed a partnership with H. P. Journeay, and established what soon came to be one of the foremost dry-goods stores not only in that city, but in the whole United States. Later Hugh Boyd was added to the firm. It was Mr. Burnham's theory that a good clerk must be made by long training and education in correct business methods. He therefore selected with care the young men who gave the most promise of such development, and had them carefully trained in
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the ways of the firm. There are to-day in that store men who were personally engaged by him in its early years and who have grown old in its service. In such ways, and through the con- stant practice of the most honorable methods, the unsurpassed patronage of the great establishment was secured.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Burnham became a leader in many movements to sustain the government and to aid in preserving the Union and to care for the soldiers and their families. He was conspicuous in organizing and managing the great Brooklyn Sanitary Fair, in aid of the United States Sani- tary Commission, and suggested the establishment of the medal of honor for bravery in the field given by the Kings County War Fund Committee.
In other public works he was equally active. He participated with Henry Ward Beecher in the early closing movement. He was a sincere lover of good music, and was one of the foremost members and for many years an officer of the Philharmonic Soci- ety of Brooklyn. He was also one of the founders of the Apollo Club. From 1870 to his death he was a trustee of the South Brooklyn Savings Bank. He was a life member of the Brooklyn Library and the Brooklyn Historical Society. He belonged to the New England Society of New York until a similar society was formed in Brooklyn, when he transferred his allegiance to the latter. He was a stock-holder in the Brooklyn Athenæum, and a member of the Brooklyn Club, the Oxford Club, the Old Brooklynites, and the Vermonters.
Mr. Burnham was an earnest member of the Swedenborgian Church, and a memorial window has been placed in the church to which he belonged in his honor, the entire congregation grate- fully contributing to the fund. He was married, in 1847, to Miss Emma Molineux, sister of General E. L. Molineux. He died on February 20, 1897, leaving no children.
J. ADRIANCE BUSH
THE ancestors of J. Adriance Bush came from Europe in early colonial days. Those on his father's side came from Holland, and settled at the old town of Rye, in Westchester County, New York, where the family homestead of colonial times still stands, a picturesque landmark in some of the most historic regions of the country. There Mr. Bush's father, William L. Bush, lived during his early life and until he be- came engaged in the lumber trade elsewhere, as merchant and shipper. Mr. Bush's mother was before her marriage Miss Vir- ginia Renshaw, the daughter of Commodore James Renshaw of the United States navy, whose family was settled for many generations in Washington and in Virginia.
J. Adriance Bush was born at Rye, on May 29, 1850. He was at first intended for a military career, and accordingly was edu- cated at military academies in New York and Connecticut. Later he came to New York city and entered the Law School of Colum- bia University, where he was graduated in 1873. Immediately after graduation he was admitted to the bar, and began the practice of his profession.
For a time Mr. Bush's practice was of a general character. Then he began to pay especial attention to corporation law, which in this city is one of the most important branches of the profession, and for some years he has been engaged with it almost exclusively. He is the counsel of a number of the largest manufacturing corporations and is also a director in several rail- road and other companies.
Mr. Bush has not been a politician in the ordinary sense of that term. He has not been an office-seeker, and indeed has never held any purely political office. He was, however, on the
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ground of his professional fitness for the place, in 1880, appointed one of the trustees of the New York and Brooklyn Bridge. In that capacity, and as vice-president of the board of trustees, he served the city in a valuable manner for ten years.
Nor did his interest in bridges begin and end with that service. He has long taken a deep interest in the art which was so highly esteemed and honored by the ancient Romans. He has been intimately concerned in the securing of franchises and charters for a number of important bridges, has conducted litigation in behalf of several, and has had the satisfaction of seeing several, chiefly through his initiative and unfailing efforts, carried to completion. Mr. Bush enjoys the distinction of having prepared the first bill for the construction of what will, when built, be probably the most noteworthy bridge in the world, namely, one across the North River from Fort Washington, on the New York side, to Fort Lee, on the New Jersey shore. The prac- tical features of that bill were subsequently embodied in the bill for the construction of another bridge, farther down-stream. He has recently published a book, which has had a wide sale, on the National Bankruptcy Act of July 1, 1898.
Mr. Bush is much given to riding, driving, and similar sports. He has a home in New York city, where he spends five months of the year. The remainder of the year he lives at his country home in Mount Pleasant Township, Westchester County, New York, where he has a large farm. He is a member of the Cen- tury Association, the Union League, Metropolitan, New York Yacht, Lawyers', and Lambs' clubs, the St. Nicholas Society, the Bar Association, and various other organizations, including fish- ing, shooting, and golf clubs.
He was married, on October 26, 1880, to Miss Eliza P. Raynor, daughter of James A. Raynor of this city. Mrs. Bush died in 1884, leaving him a daughter, Anna Raynor Bush.
McCOSKRY BUTT
THE name of Butt was transplanted hither from Stamford, England, four generations ago. The first to bear it in this country was John Butt. He had a son, George Amos Butt, who, in 1825, married Miss Mary Elizabeth Coskry, whose mother was a descendant of Major-General Marinus Willett, the defender of Fort Stanwix. A son of George Amos Butt was Robert McCoskry Butt, who married, in 1857, Miss Frances Morris, a member of the famous Westchester County family of that name. An uncle of the Mary Elizabeth Coskry named above was Robert McCoskry, who was one of the original directors of the Chemical Bank of New York.
McCoskry Butt is the son of Robert McCoskry and Frances Morris Butt, and was born in this city in April, 1858. He was taken to Paris, France, in 1869, and was there educated at Chap- tal College, receiving the degree of B. S. in 1877 from the Uni- versity of France. He then studied at the Polytechnic School at Hanover, Germany, and finally came home, and was graduated with the degree of C. E. at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, in 1882. Two years later he became a mem- ber of the New York Stock Exchange, of which he is still a member, though he has retired from business.
Mr. Butt's career has been largely military. While at the Poly- technic Institute he joined the Troy Citizens' Corps. That was in 1880. He was then a private of the Sixth Separate Company, N. G. N. Y. He was transferred to Company K, Seventh Regi- ment, January 30, 1883; became second lieutenant, Company E, Twelfth Regiment, February 27, 1885; first lieutenant, Company D, October 28, 1885; resigned November 14, 1887. He then enlisted as private in Company K, Seventh Regiment, March
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24, 1888; was made first lieutenant and commissary of subsis- tence, Twelfth Regiment, February 19, 1891 ; lieutenant-colonel, February 27, 1893; colonel, November 20, 1896; and brigadier- general, First Brigade, N. G. N. Y., March 3, 1898.
In all these various capacities he was an exceptionally effective member and officer of the National Guard. Under him the Twelfth Regiment was made one of the crack regiments of the State, standing first in marksmanship and second in numbers only to the Seventh. At the State camp at Peekskill, in 1895-97, he had the unequaled record of ninety-five per cent. of his men present. He served efficiently with his command in the Buffalo and Brooklyn strike riots of 1892 and 1895. Governor Morton made him inspector of guard duty at the Peekskill camp in 1895 and 1896, and Governor Black, in 1897, made him a member of the commission to prepare a new military code for the State troops. Governor Roosevelt made him president of the Regulations Board in 1899. At Creedmoor he qualified for four years as a marks- man, ten years as a sharp-shooter, and four years as an expert.
On the outbreak of the war with Spain he was put in com- mand of a brigade at Camp Black, and was recommended for a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers by Governor Black. Later he was offered the lieutenant-colonelcy of the Two Hundred and First New York Volunteers, but declined it because the regiment was not sure of seeing service in Cuba. He was, he considered, moreover, properly entitled to a colonelcy. General Wesley Merritt, U. S. A., wrote the strongest possible letter recommending him for the command of a brigade, and General Wilson wrote twice to the President asking that he be sent with him to Porto Rico as brigadier-general of volunteers. But, even though General Butt offered to pay his own expenses, the appointment was not made, to the great regret of all who knew General Butt's worth.
General Butt was one of the original members of the Calumet Club, and belongs also to the Union Club, New York Yacht Club, Country Club, New York Athletic Club, Riding Club, Seventh Regiment Veterans, and Association of Engineers. He was mar- ried, in 1884, to Miss Minnie Havemeyer Elder, daughter of J. Lawrence Elder, of the firm of Havemeyer & Elder, and has two sons, Robert McCoskry and Lawrence Havemeyer.
JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN
YTHE family of Calhoun traces its ancestry back to King Conock of Ireland, and to the Earls of Lexon, in Dumbar- tonshire, Scotland. The name of Conock was transformed into that of Colquhoun, which was borne by a famous Scottish clan. The family was planted in America in the person of James Col- quhoun, or Calhoun, who came hither by way of Donegal, Ireland, in 1733, with his wife, Catherine Montgomery. They settled first in Pennsylvania, and then in Virginia. Finally they es- tablished Calhoun Settlement in Abbeville, South Carolina, in February, 1756. Their youngest son, Patrick, was colonel of a regiment of border troops in the Revolution. He married Martha Caldwell of Charlotte County, Virginia. The son of this couple was the Hon. John C. Calhoun, South Carolina's most dis- tinguished statesman. The latter's son, Andrew Pickens Cal- houn, was one of the foremost planters of that State and of the South. He married Margaret Maria Green, daughter of General Duff Green, and a relative of the Washington, Willis, Marshall, Edwards, Lee, Lewis, Henry, and other noted families.
John Caldwell Calhoun, son of Andrew Pickens Calhoun and Margaret Green Calhoun, was born near Demopolis, Marengo County, Alabama, on July 9, 1843. His first ten years were spent in that place, and most of the next six at Fort Hill, the ancestral estate in South Carolina. His mind was trained and his life directed chiefly by his mother, a woman of noble char- acter and great force of intellect. His schooling began in a log school-house near the family home. In the fall of 1860 he entered the South Carolina College, at Columbia, as a sophomore, but on the outbreak of the Civil War he joined the Confederate army, and began service at the first firing upon Fort Sumter
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with the college cadets. Thereafter he was actively employed in the field, and commanded a superb company of cavalry, serv- ing in the Hampton Division of General M. C. Butler, until the end of the war, and was reputed to be the youngest captain in the service.
After the war he returned home, to find Fort Hill devastated and the family fortune swept away. His father had died, and the care of his widowed mother devolved upon him, together with the support and education of his brothers and sisters. In 1866 he formed a partnership with James R. Powell at Mont- gomery, Alabama, for the purpose of colonizing negroes in the Yazoo valley, Mississippi, to work plantations on the cooperative plan. The enterprise proved successful, but at the end of a year Mr. Calhoun sold out his interest to his partner for ten thousand dollars. Then he went to Arkansas and repeated the experiment on a much larger scale. For fourteen years he was engaged in such operations, and he not only recouped his own fortunes, but rendered inestimable service in opening the way to the industrial elevation of the former slaves.
Mr. Calhoun disposed of his plantation interests in 1884, at a net profit of over one hundred thousand dollars, and came to New York city. His first operation was the organization of a syndicate to refund the State debt of Arkansas. He was at the head of the Richmond Terminal Railroad enterprise, which afterward absorbed the Richmond and Danville and Eastern Tennessee Railroad systems. He also led the movement to obtain control of the Central Railroad and Banking Company of Georgia and its tributaries, and became vice-president and chairman of the finance committee of that corporation, as well as a director of the Richmond and Danville Railroad and of the West Point Terminal Company. Thus he became one of the foremost figures in the commercial and industrial rehabilitation of the South.
Mr. Calhoun was one of the founders of the Southern Society of New York, and its president, and is a member of the Man- hattan, Reform, Lawyers', and other clubs, and of the Sons of · the American Revolution. The latter body sent him to France, in 1897, as a special ambassador from it to the President and Cabinet of the French Republic, and to the descendants of Lafay-
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ette, Rochambeau, and De Grasse, asking their cooperation in commemorating the one hundred and nineteenth anniversary of the signing of the treaty between France and the colonies, and in recognition of his services the society presented to him a beautiful set of illuminated and engrossed resolutions. He was an official delegate to the Cotton Expositions at New Orleans in 1884, and at Louisville in 1885, and was one of the World's Fair Committee of One Hundred, selected in New York in 1890, and one of its executive committee of twelve.
He was married, in 1870, to Miss Linnie Adams, daughter of David Adams of Lexington, Kentucky, and grand-niece of Rich- ard M. Johnson, once Vice-President of the United States. Of their children four died at early ages. Four others survive : James Edward, born in 1878, who became a prominent officer in the Spanish-American War; David Adams, born in 1881; Julia Johnson, born in 1884; and John Caldwell, born in 1887.
Airamballeins
HIRAM CALKINS
YTHE Calkins and Lockwood families are of English ancestry, transplanted in early times to Connecticut. The former numbers among its members Deacon Hugh Calkins, a deputy to the old Connecticut court, and John Deming, who was named in the famous charter which was hid in the Charter Oak. The Lockwoods trace their descent from Rogerus de Lockwoode of Staffordshire, England, through Sergeant James Lockwood of the Connecticut Light Horse, in the War of the Revolution. From these families came Elisha Deming Calkins and Abigail Lockwood, who were born in Connecticut, moved to Saratoga County, New York, and, in 1815, were among the pioneer set- tlers in the far western part of the State.
Hiram Calkins, son of this couple, was born at Gainesville, Wyoming County, New York, on December 28, 1830. He was educated in the public schools and at the academy at Castile, New York. His early years were spent upon his father's farm, but at the age of twenty-one he became a bookkeeper at Harris- burg, Pennsylvania. There he served for four years, and then, in 1856, became the Harrisburg correspondent of the Philadelphia "Sun " and the New York " Herald." In 1858 he came to New York and became a member of the staff of the "Herald," on which he served until the fall of 1866.
From 1860 to 1864 he represented that paper at Albany, and then, in 1864-65, at Washington. At Washington he was in- strumental in securing the Democratic votes in Congress neces- sary to make the majority for the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery. For this he received the personal commenda- tion of both President Lincoln and Secretary Seward. He was at the death-bed of Lincoln, and furnished to the "Herald " its
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account of that memorable scene. He was also at the conference of Republican leaders at the house of Thaddeus Stevens, in 1865, at which the reconstruction policy for the Southern States was agreed upon. In 1866 he became a member of the staff of the New York " World," under the headship of Manton Marble, and in 1868-69 was also editor-in-chief of the "Citizen." He at- tended every national convention of both political parties from 1860 to 1884, and was familiar with the plans that controlled all the nominations for President.
Mr. Calkins entered the public service, in 1870-71, as clerk of the Senate at Albany. In 1872-73 he was secretary of the State Constitutional Commission, elected by the united vote of both Democrats and Republicans, and in the latter year he was an in- fluential member of the Democratic State Convention. In 1875 he was clerk of the Assembly. At the Democratic Convention of 1873 he was a member of the sub-committee which drew up the platform on which Samuel J. Tilden was elected Governor, and which, remodeled, was that on which Mr. Tilden ran for the Presidency in 1876. While clerk of the Assembly he rendered invaluable services in securing legislation for dock improvements in this city.
Mr. Calkins was appointed a port warden of New York in May, 1885, and since 1892 has been president of the board. He was one of the founders, and from 1870 to 1875 was the first presi- dent, of the Hahnemann Hospital in this city. In 1890 he was again elected president, and still holds that place. He is a trus- tee of the New York Homeopathic Medical College, having served continuously on the board for twenty-six years. He is a member of the Maritime Association of New York, and is active in its affairs ; also of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was mar- ried to Miss Mary J. Partch, at Hinesburg, Vermont, on January 28, 1858. She died on April 7, 1872, leaving him four children : Frederic Hudson Calkins, Cascenda Calkins Sanders, Lillian Cal- kins Strong, and Hiram Calkins, Jr.
I. 6.6 alving
DELANO CHIPMAN CALVIN
A MONG those who have given character and distinction to the bar of New York the name of one farm-lad from "up the State " must have high rank. This is Delano Chipman Calvin, the son of Alpheus Reed Calvin and Minerva his wife. These were Vermont people, as had been their parents before them; but about 1820 they settled on a farm in Jefferson County, New York, and there, in the township of Clayton, on November 3, 1824, their son was born. His early years were those of a typi- cal farm lad, working on the farm most of the time, but going to a district school in the winter. After a time he was sent to a select school, then to the Black River Literary and Religious Institute at Watertown, and finally to the Lancaster Academy at Rochester. While at Watertown he began the study of law in an office there, and pursued it elsewhere until the summer of 1849, when he was admitted to practice at the bar. A partner- ship was immediately formed with one of the leading lawyers of that part of the State, at Watertown, and there he practised his profession with marked success until 1866, when he removed to New York. In 1853-55 he was District Attorney of Jeffer- son County.
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