USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 15
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DENNIS DANIEL McKOON
THE first American member of the McKoon family was L James McKoon. He came of an old Scotch family with which a strain of Norman blood had been mingled. He migrated from Scotland about the year 1750, and settled in Herkimer County, New York, then a frontier wilderness, and was one of the pioneers of that region. His descendants have played a leading part in the development of central New York. Among them, a hundred years ago, was Martin McKoon, who married Margaret Clapsaddle and lived for a time at Ilion, Herkimer County, New York. There, on October 17, 1827, was born their son Dennis Daniel MeKoon, the subject of this sketch.
When the boy was seven years old the family removed to Oswego County, and there he went to school, at first in the public schools and later in the Fulton Academy at Oswego. On completing his studies in the latter institution he began the study of law in the office of Judge Ransom H. Tyler of Oswego. He was admitted to the bar in 1854, and thereupon removed to Phoenix, New York, where he opened offices of his own and soon built up a promising and profitable practice. Such dis- tinction did he win at the very beginning of his career that he was chosen to be a judge of the Oswego County Court, and filled that place for two terms.
He was indeed chosen judge for a third term, but resigned the place at the beginning of that term in order to enter the army at the outbreak of the Civil War. He entered Company D of the One Hundred and Tenth New York Volunteers as a private, but in the course of his service rose to be first lieutenant and adjutant of the regiment. His army career was ended by a
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severe attack of typhoid fever, from which he did not fully re- cover for three years, by which time the war was over.
By 1867 Mr. MeKoon had regained his health sufficiently to resume the practice of his profession, and he then removed to Middletown, Orange County, New York, and became a member of the law firm of Foote, MeKoon & Stoddard. That firm en- joyed a large patronage, of which Mr. MeKoon personally had a goodly share. Its activities were not, however, sufficient to engage all his attention, and accordingly in 1874, while retaining his Middletown business, he opened another office in New York city. For three years he practised in both cities, and then, hav- ing built up a sufficiently large metropolitan business to merit his whole attention, he withdrew from the Middletown office. Since then he has practised exclusively in New York, confining himself ahnost entirely to civil procedure, and paying especial attention to real-estate litigation. In such practice of his pro- fession Mr. MeKoon has been highly successful, attaining an enviable rank in the legal fraternity and seenring ample material recompense for his labors. In 1889 he took into partnership with himself his son Gilbert MeKoon, and in 1892 David B. Luckey, thus forming the firm of MeKoon & Luckey. From this firm he later withdrew, and he is now again alone in the practice of his profession.
Mr. MeKoon has held no public office since he retired from the bench to enter the army. He has, however, found time to engage in various other business enterprises besides his legal practice, and he is now a director and treasurer of the Richmond Homestead Association of New York; a director and vice-presi- dent of the Frontier Bank of Niagara, New York ; president of the Manahasset Park Association of Monmouth County, New Jersey; and is interested in several other corporations.
He was married, in 1852, to Miss Mary Gilbert, daughter of Andrus Gilbert of Oswego County, New York.
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JOHN MILTON MABBOTT
JOHN MILTON MABBOTT, one of the rising physicians of this city, is a native of New England. His father, John Mabbott, was born in Nottinghamshire, England, was educated at a college at Sheffield, and came to America as the representa- tive of a large cutlery firm of the latter city. His mother was, before her marriage to John Mabbott, Miss Catherine Benton Homer, a native of Birmingham, England, and her mother was, before her marriage, Miss Catherine Benton, the head of a large and important school for girls in England. Of such parentage John Milton Mabbott was born at Waterbury, Connecticut, on July 14, 1862. He was educated in the schools of his native city, and was the first president of the High School Alumni Associa- tion. He was also president of the Waterbury Philosophical Society.
His inclinations led him to prepare himself for the practice of medicine. For six months he spent several hours a day as a student at the Apothecaries' Hall, reading the Pharmacopoeia and the United States Dispensatory, and compounding prescrip- tions under the supervision of competent apothecaries. In 1880, at the age of eighteen, he entered the office of a preceptor, and the following year was matriculated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia University. From the latter he was graduated with the degree of M. D. in May, 1884. His preceptors were Dr. F. E. Castle of Waterbury, and Dr. Charles H. Wilkin of New York.
Immediately after graduation he secured, through competitive examination, an appointment upon the house staff of St. Luke's Hospital, where he went through the regular medical service of a year and a half. For four months thereafter he was at the
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Chambers Street Hospital in the capacity of intern and ambu- lance surgeon. Next, while waiting for another desired appoint- ment, he spent a year as surgeon of a transatlantic passenger steamer, the Zaandam (New York and Amsterdam), and traveled a little abroad. This place he resigned to become for six months assistant and then for three years resident physician in the Nursery and Child's Hospital. Since 1890 he has been asso- ciated in practice with Dr. E. L. Partridge, at No. 19 Fifth Avenue, under conditions which have enabled him to acquire at the same time a large clientele of his own. He has devoted much attention to the instruction of nurses in the New York Postgraduate and the St. Luke's Hospital training-schools. His practice is general in character, though he has paid special attention to midwifery and the diseases of children, in which he might, if he wished, be ranked as a specialist. He is con- neeted with the outdoor department of the New York Hospital, and is attending obstetrician to the New York Infant Asylum. Under the administration of Mayor Strong he was appointed a school inspector of this city.
In addition to his practice Dr. Mabbott has made a number of valuable contributions to current literature and medical topics. He is a member of the Medical Society of the County of New York, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Physicians' Mutual Aid Association, the St. Luke's Hospital Alumni Asso- ciation, and the Hospital Graduates' Club. In politics he is a Republican, and a member of Good Government Club F.
Dr. Mabbott was married, on October 30, 1895, to Miss Kate Adele Ollive, daughter of Thomas Stone Ollive, a director of the National Biscuit Company. One child, Thomas Ollive Mabbott, was born to them on July 6, 1898. They make their home at the Brevoort House.
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JOSIAH MACY
THE Macy family, now for many generations widely known and highly honored in the business and social world of America, is of English origin. Prior to its transplantation to this country it was settled in the southern part of the historic county of Wiltshire, England, near Salisbury Plain and the colossal memorials of Stonehenge. There, in the parish of Chil- mark, Salisbury, Thomas Macy was born in 1608, and thence he came to these shores in 1635. His destination was the Massa- chusetts colony, in which he settled at first at Newbury, of which place he was a freeman in 1639. In the latter year, however, he became one of the founders of a new settlement, which he named after his old home, Salisbury. In this place he filled many offices of importance, and was for years one of its foremost citizens.
A development of the same motive which had led to the founding of the New England colonies, however, in time caused his withdrawal from this part of Massachusetts. Mr. Macy was an adherent to the Baptist faith, which was at that time regarded with pronounced disfavor by the great majority of his fellow-colonists. That fact alone might have been sufficient to cause him serious trouble, but his Baptist principles made him characteristically tolerant and generous toward all other Chris- tian faiths, especially toward the Quakers, who at that time were objects not only of disfavor, but of actual legal proscription and popular persecution. Mr. Macy unhesitatingly gave them shelter from persecution, and in consequence soon found the animosity of his neighbors turned against himself. For a time he sturdily held his ground, but later deemed it best to withdraw from Salisbury and in a new pilgrimage to seek other places
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where he and his friends could enjoy unmolested freedom of thought and worship.
He selected the now historic island of Nantucket, off the south coast of Massachusetts, as his place of refuge. With eight comrades he went thither in 1659, and purchased the entire island from the Indians, who up to that date had been sole possessors. In so doing he began an important chapter of American history. He made that island a part of the Massa- chusetts Bay colony, and founded there a community which, through its hardy seafaring qualities, has played a great part in the affairs of the nation. The seamen of Nantucket for genera- tions were a prime factor in the commercial expansion of Amer- ica, and also contributed vastly to the prowess of American arms in war at sea.
Thomas Macy spent the remainder of his life at Nantucket. and was one of the foremost members of that community. He was its first Recorder, and from 1672 to 1686 he was each year a Representative from Nantucket to the General Court of the colony. In King Philip's War he was a lieutenant in the colo- nial army, and did valiant service. His descendants intermarried with other families of Nantucket, until nearly everybody of im- portance upon that island seemed to be more or less directly connected with the Macy stock.
The people of Nantucket naturally and inevitably took to sea- faring pursuits-commerce, fishing, and whaling. To such occupations various members of the Macy family turned their attention. In 1785 one of the Macys was a ship-owner and one of the richest and most influential business men on the island. To him a son was born on February 25 of the year named, to whom was given the name of Josiah, destined to become famous in American business annals. Josiah Macy was educated in the schools of Nantucket up to the age of fifteen years. Then the voice of the sea called him in irresistible tones. He followed the example of his father, and went aboard one of his father's ships. Thenceforward his life was for years spent chiefly at sea. At first he was engaged on his father's ships. Then he became a ship-owner on his own account.
In time he outgrew Nantucket or its commercial possibilities. In 1828 he came to New York city to seek a larger field and
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establish himself in the shipping commission business. His son William H. Macy, who had preceded him in coming to New York, was his partner, and the firm-name was that of Josiah Macy & Son. The next year another son was admitted to the firm, and the name became Josiah Maey & Sons. Thus it re- mained until Mr. Maey's retirement in 1853, when it was changed to Josiah Macy's Sons. From 1853 to his death, on May 20, 1872, Mr. Macy lived at Rye, in Westchester County, New York. He was one of the founders of the City Fire Insur- ance Company, and a director of it from 1833 to the end of his life. For many years he was a director of the Tradesmen's Bank. His wife, whom he married on February 6, 1805, and who died on September 25, 1861, was Lydia Hussey, a member of an old Nantucket family.
Josiah Macy was a typical merchant of the old school, enter- prising, upright, benevolent, and successful. His name was a tower of strength in the business world while he lived, and after him it was a priceless inheritance to his children and their ehil- dren. He left five sons and two daughters : William H., Charles A., Josiah G., Francis H., John H., Lydia H., and Ann Eliza- beth Maey.
JOSIAH MACY JR.
JOSIAH MACY, JR.
T THE name of Macy, long honorably prominent in the mercan- tile world, is of English origin, and is one of the oldest in the United States, or rather in North America, for it antedates the United States by a century and a half. The visitor to the quaint island of Nantucket, which, though a part of the State of Massachusetts, lies far out at sea, with only the broad Atlantic between it and the shore of Spain, is soon reminded of the an- tiquity and importance of the Macy family. For that family were the first white owners of Nantucket, and that island was their home for many years. To this day the name of Macy is intertwined with those of Starbuck and Coffin all through the history of Nantucket.
The acquisition of that island by the Macys was effected under circumstances much resembling the planting of the Rhode Island colony by Roger Williams. Thomas Macy of Chilmark, England, was a Baptist. At the age of twenty-seven, in 1635 he came to America and settled at Newbury, and afterward at Salis- bury, Massachusetts. His Baptist faith inclined him to such tolerance in religion, especially toward Quakers, as was not alto- gether to the liking of his Puritan neighbors. When he carried his principles and practice so far as to shelter and proteet some Quakers from persecution-or prosecution, under the laws of the colony-he found himself made the object of unfriendly atten- tions, and was constrained to leave his home for a place where greater liberality prevailed. Accordingly he purchased the whole island of Nantucket, and for several generations there- after it was the family home. He retained his membership in the colony of Massachusetts Bay, however, and for many years was a Representative in its legislature, or General Court. He was
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also a lieutenant in King Philip's War, and the first Recorder of the county of Nantucket.
The Macys of Nantucket naturally led a seafaring life, and were conspicuous among the hardy mariners who made the name of that island famous the world around. At the beginning of the nineteenth century one of the foremost members of the family was Josiah Macy, a captain and ship-owner, and the son of a man who was likewise captain and ship-owner. At the age of forty-three, in 1828 he came to New York and entered the ship- ping and commission business in partnership with his son Wil- liam H. Macy, under the name of Josiah Macy & Son. The next year another son was taken into partnership, and the firm-name beeame Josiah Macy & Sons. After his retirement the name was again changed to Josiah Macy's Sons. His wife was Lydia Hussey, a member of an old Nantucket family.
William Henry Maey, eldest of the five sons of Josiah Macy, was born at Nantucket in 1805, and died in New York in 1887. Besides being a partner in his father's firm, he was vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, president of the Seamen's Bank for Savings, and of the Leather Manufacturers' Bank, and an officer of various other banks, trust companies, insurance com- panies, and other business organizations. He ranked among the most trusted and most influential merchants and financiers in New York, and his name was a synonym for honor and integrity. He married Eliza L. Jenkins, daughter of Sylvanus F. Jenkins, and had seven children.
Josiah Macy, Jr., was the sixth of these children, and was born in New York in 1838. He was educated at a Friends' school in New York, and was destined for a mercantile career, and at the age of twenty-one years was taken into partnership in the firm of Josiah Maey & Sons, founded by his father and grandfather. With that firm he was identified for some time.
Later Mr. Maey withdrew from his father's firm and became president of the Devoe Manufacturing Company. This was one of the first companies consolidated into the great Standard Oil Company. He was also actively interested in the produce busi- ness in New York, and was president of the Produce Exchange, as well as of the Devoe Manufacturing Company, at the time of his death.
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Mr. Macy was married, in 1858, to Miss Caroline L. Everit of Brooklyn, New York, who bore him three children, two daughters and a son, who were named Mary K. Macy, Kate E. Macy, and V. Everit Maey.
Mr. Maey took an active interest in the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, but that enterprise proved fatal to him. He contracted typhoid fever while in attendence upon it, and died before the end of the year, at the early age of less than thirty-nine.
V. EVERIT MACY
THE founder of the Macy family in America was Thomas Maey of Nantucket. He was born at Chilmark, near Salis- bury, England, in 1608, and in 1635 came to this country and settled at Newbury, Massachusetts, of which place he was a freeman in 1639. In the latter year he removed to Salisbury, of which place he was one of the founders and in which he held many important offices. Gradually, however, there arose against him such animosity as finally compelled him to remove from the place and seek the most remote part of the colony. This was because of his generous tolerance in religious matters. He was an adherent of the Baptist faith. That faet in itself did not commend him to his Puritan neighbors. In addition, he was charitably disposed toward all other Christian faiths, and espe- cially toward the Society of Friends, or Quakers. These latter were at that time under the ban not only of prejudice but of law in Massachusetts. But they found in Thomas Macy a firm friend, who not only championed their cause, but gave them shelter from their persecutors. For this cause persecution was presently turned against Thomas Macy himself, with the result of driving him away from Salisbury. He remained firm in his liberal principles, however, and in later generations some of his descendants became members of that very Society of Friends which he had championed.
Seeking a place where he might cherish his faith unmolested, Thomas Macy went with eight others to the island of Nantucket, and purchased the whole of it from the Indians, who were at that time its only occupants. There he and his family made their home for many generations, founding there that commu-
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nity of hardy and daring mariners which has made the name of the island famous the world around.
Thomas Macy was the first Recorder of Nantucket, and was for many years a Representative to the General Court of the Massachusetts colony. He was also a lieutenant in the colonial forces during King Philip's War. From him are descended the present members of the Macy family in the United States, through a long line of noted Nantucket ship-owners and skippers, the members of which have intermarried with the Starbucks, Coffins, and other old families of that historic place.
The Macy family was transferred to New York early in the last century by Josiah Macy, who was born in Nantucket in 1785, and who died at Rye, in the suburbs of New York, in 1872. He was the son of a ship-owner and captain who had a fine line of Liverpool packets, and he himself followed the same business for a number of years. In 1828, however, he removed to New York, and there founded, with his son William Henry Macy, the mercantile commission house of Josiah Maey & Son, afterward, on the admission of another son as partner, Josiah Macy & Sons, and still later, after the father's retirement, Josiah Macy's Sons. Josiah Macy was a member of the Society of Friends and was esteemed as one of the most upright business men of his day. He was a director of the Tradesmen's Bank and of the City Fire Insurance Company.
William Henry Macy, eldest of the seven children of Josiah Macy, was born at Nantucket in 1805, came to New York city in early life, and later became his father's partner, and was for many years one of the foremost merchants and bankers of the metropolis. He was vice-president of the Chamber of Com- merce and of the United States Trust Company, president of the Leather Manufacturers' Bank, of the Seamen's Bank for Savings, and a director of the Bank of Commerce, the City Fire Insurance Company, the National Insurance Company, and the Atlantic Insurance Company, and president of New York Ilos- pital. He married Eliza L. Jenkins, daughter of Sylvanus F. Jenkins, and died in New York in 1887.
Josiah Macy, Jr., son of William H. and Eliza Jenkins Macy, was born in New York in 1838, and died in 1876. He was for a time a partner of his father, but left him to become president of
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the Devoe Manufacturing Company, an oil-house which was one of the first concerns incorporated to form the Standard Oil Company. Josiah Macy, Jr., married Miss Caroline L. Everit of Brooklyn, and to them was born, in New York city, on March 23, 1871, the subject of this sketch.
V. Everit Macy was carefully educated, and was graduated from the Architectural Department of Columbia University in 1893. He has never engaged in any business, but has devoted his activities chiefly to philanthropic work. Thus he is treasurer of the People's Institute and of the City Club, and a trustee of the University Settlement Society, of the George Junior Repub- lic, and of the Teachers' College, of New York. For the sake of civic betterment he has taken an active part in several political campaigns, and was a member of the Central Committee of the Citizens' Union in 1897, and was connected with the independent State campaign of 1898.
Mr. Macy is a member of the University, Racquet, City, Reform, St. Anthony, Knollwood, and Midday clubs, and of the Century Association of New York. He was married, in 1896, to Miss Edith W. Carpenter, who has borne him two sons, V. Everit Macy, Jr., and Josiah Macy.
WILLIAM HENRY MACY
THE real founder of the New York commercial house of Josiah Macy's Sons, famous now for the best part of a century, was one of those sons, by name William Henry Macy. He came from the Macy family which was transplanted from Chilmark, Salisbury, England, in 1635, to the Massachusetts Bay colony, in the person of Thomas Macy, who dwelt first at Newbury, Massachusetts, then at Salisbury, of which he was one of the founders, and finally, for the sake of religious freedom and because of his sympathy with the then perseented Society of Friends, upon the island of Nantucket, which he and eight others purchased from the Indians in 1659. The family was from early times intimately identified with the seafaring inter- ests and industries of Nantucket, and many of its members became successful sea-captains and ship-owners. The Macys intermarried with other prominent families of the island, and many of the foremost residents of Nantucket at this day can elaim kinship with them.
Among the sea-captains and ship-owners of this family in Nantneket was Josiah Macy, who was born at Nantucket on February 25, 1785, and died at Rye. New York, on May 20, 1872. He was a particularly successful ship-captain and -owner for years at Nantucket, and afterward was a conspicuous shipping and commission merchant in New York city. He married, on February 6, 1805, Lydia Hussey. a member of one of the oldest Nantucket families, who bore him five sons and two daughters. These were William Henry, Charles A .. Josiah G., Francis H .. John II., Lydia H., and Ann Eliza Macy. Mr. Macy was a prominent member of the Society of Friends, on account of the persecution of which in early times his first American ancestor
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had founded the community of Nantucket, and was known not only as a successful merchant, but as a publie-spirited and benevolent member of society.
William Henry Macy, the eldest son of Josiah and Lydia Hussey Maey, was born on the island of Nantucket, Massachu- setts, on November 4, 1805. His education was acquired in the schools of his native place, and was thorough and practical. Heredity and inclination combined to direet him toward the shipping business, but his energies were not to be confined to the island which had hitherto for a century and a half been the home of his ancestors.
At the age of eighteen years, in 1823, he came to New York city, which was then evidently destined to be the commercial metropolis of the Western world. He spent three years as an employee in a shipping-office, and then, on attaining his major- ity, had the courage and enterprise to begin business on his own account.
That was in 1826. The name of Macy was and had long been well known in the shipping world, especially in that of New England. Naturally every Nantucket skipper and ship-owner, and many others from other parts of New England, took an interest in the Nantucket boy in New York, and gave him en- couraging patronage. His business was successful from the first, and grew rapidly and substantially.
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