USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 25
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derbilt. The latter was born in the New Brunswick hotel, and was educated in the Columbia Grammar School in New York. He worked for a time in a ship-chandler's shop, and was also a bank clerk at one hundred and fifty dollars a year. At twenty years old he married Miss Kissam, and soon after settled on a farm on Staten Island .. In that pursuit he prospered, and eventually owned a farm of three hundred and fifty aeres, which yielded him an annual profit of twelve thousand dollars. After the trip to Europe with his father on the ship North Star, he became interested in his father's railroad ventures. In time he became president of the Staten Island Railroad. Then, in 1865, he was made vice-president of the Hudson River Railroad, and later held the same place over the consolidated Hudson River and New York Central roads. William H. Vanderbilt inherited the bulk of his father's enormous fortune and his place at the head of the great Vanderbilt railway system. From that time forward his history was the history of American railroad enter- prise. He gained possession of the Canada Southern Railroad and various other lines, and greatly extended the system and, con- sequently, his own fortune and influence. He was also con- spicuous as a patron of art and architecture, and as a lover and driver of fine horses, himself owning a number of the best har- ness horses ever seen on the American continent. About 1881, realizing the uncertainties of life, he began transferring the active direction of his vast interests to his two sons, Cornelius and William Kissam Vanderbilt. In May, 1883, he surrendered the presidencies of all the roads with which he had been identified, and went to Europe for rest. He died in December, 1885.
The chief successor of William H. Vanderbilt in the direction of the Vanderbilt railroad system was his eldest son, Cornelius, though the second son, William Kissam Vanderbilt, was also prominently associated with him. Cornelius Vanderbilt was born at New Dorp, Staten Island, on November 27, 1843, and at an early age became a clerk in the Shoe and Leather Bank in New York. Thence he went into the employ of the banking house of Kissam Brothers of New York. Before quite attain- ing his majority, however, he followed his father into the great railroad business which his grandfather had founded, and most fittingly began his railroad work on the very road in which his
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grandfather had first become interested, and which was, as already stated, the foundation of the Vanderbilt family fortune and the Vanderbilt railroad system. He was first made assis- tant treasurer of the New York and Harlem Railroad. Later he became vice-president of that road and first vice-president of the New York Central and IIndson River Railroad. As above stated, he became in 1885 the head of the whole Vanderbilt system, although the nominal presidency was held by another. Mr. Vanderbilt married Miss Alice Gwynne, the daughter of one of the leading lawyers of Cincinnati, Ohio. He was a notably munificent patron of art and letters, and of in- numerable benevolent enterprises. His gifts to churches, col- leges, hospitals, etc., aggregated millions of dollars. In New York city and at Newport he possessed two of the finest man- sions in the world. His death occurred suddenly in September, 1899, and by his will his son, Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, became the chief inheritor of his fortune.
Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt was born in New York on October 20, 1877, and received his early education in private schools and from tutors. In 1895 he entered Yale University and pursued the regular course there. He ranked as a good student. and his affable manner and companionable ways made him one of the most popular men in his class. He did not participate much in athleties at college, but during vacations at his father's home at Newport he became an expert boatman. In 1899 he was gradu- ated at Yale with ereditable standing in his elass, and a few weeks later set off upon a trip around the world. He selected a congenial company of friends for his traveling companions, and made a most auspicious start on his journey. On reaching Japan, however, he received news of his father's sudden death, and, in consequence, canceled for the time the remainder of his traveling plans, and hurried home. On February 3, 1900, how- ever, he set out again on his travels, and completed his tour around the world as originally planned, his companions having waited for him at the other side of the world.
On his return from his travels, in 1900, Mr. Vanderbilt settled down to learn the business with which his family had been so long identified. Although possessing a fortune of many millions of dollars, and thus able, had he so desired, to indulge in a life of
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luxurious idleness, with freedom from all work and responsi- bility, he entered upon the duties of a clerk in the treasurer's office at the Grand Central Station in New York, and worked as diligently as though he were dependent upon his salary for a liv- ing. "I do it," he has been quoted as saying, "because I like to. My father and grandfather personally managed, as far as possi- ble, the property which was left to them. It is my ambition to do the same. I cannot begin at the top and really master a business. That is why I begin at the bottom."
In the spring of 1900 it was announced that Mr. Vanderbilt was engaged to marry Miss Elsie French, the second daughter of the late Francis Ormond French of New York, the young people having been close friends since their early childhood. Miss French was descended from an old New England family, which settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, in 1636, and which furnished more than one noble patriot in colonial and Revolu- tionary times. Mr. Vanderbilt and Miss French were married in the Zabriskie Memorial Church of St. John the Evangelist, at Newport, on January 14, 1901.
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Alfandega
HENRY SAYRE VAN DUZER
J UDGING from the name, which we shall find is no mis- nomer, Henry Sayre Van Duzer should be an excellent representative of New York State and city. The family name savors unmistakably of that sturdy Holland Dutch stock which first founded a colony here, as New Amsterdam and New Hol- land, while the middle name is indicative of English origin. These indications are correct. Mr. Van Duzer's paternal anees- tors came to this country from Holland in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and settled in New York State in the lower part of the valley of the Hudson River. His great-great- grandfather was Isaac Van Duzer, one of the earliest and most energetic settlers of Orange County. He was a sturdy Knickerbocker, with all the industry, thrift, and shrewdness of his race, and he soon accumulated what was for those simple and unpretentious days a considerable fortune. Isaac Van Duzer's son, Christopher Van Duzer, lived and died on the old homestead in Orange County. The next generation, however, consisting of Christopher's children, removed to New York city. One of Christopher Van Duzer's sons, Selah Van Duzer, became a lead- ing banker in New York city, and gave the family name an enviable reputation for integrity and ability in the higher walks of business life. He was for some years president of the National Exchange Bank of New York. His son, Selah Reeve Van Duzer, the father of the subject of this sketch, pursued an equally honorable and successful career in New York as a whole- sale druggist.
Mr. Van Duzer's maternal ancestors, the Sayres, came from England. The first of them on these shores was Job Sayre, who came over in 1640 and settled at Lynn, Massachusetts. Later he removed to Long Island. Members of a subsequent genera-
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tion removed from Long Island to Orange County, New York, and there became associated with the Van Duzers, and also inter- married with one of the pioneer families of Chemung County. In the last generation Catherine Mathews Sayre became the wife of Selah Reeve Van Duzer, and to them the subject of this sketch was born, in New York city, on February 26, 1853.
Henry Sayre Van Duzer began his studies at a grammar school in Thirteenth Street, New York. He spent three years, from 1868 to 1871, at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. He entered Harvard in 1871, and was graduated in 1875 with the degree of A. B. He passed directly to the Columbia College Law School, where he spent two years and received his LL. B. His school and college record throughout is one of which he may justly be proud. Not a day of his ten years' course was wasted, and the rapidity with which he advanced is abundant evidence of a well-balanced, well-con- trolled mind, and an intellect above the average in strength and development.
Mr. Van Duzer was admitted to the bar of the State of New York at Poughkeepsie, in May, 1877. He began the practice of his profession as a clerk in the office of Prichard, Choate & Smith. He remained with them until 1879, when he opened an office of his own at No. 120 Broadway. Three years later he formed a partnership with Thomas Fenton Taylor, under the firm-name of Van Duzer and Taylor. An extensive real-estate and corporation practice has been built up, and much important litigation has passed through their hands.
Mr. Van Duzer has always been a staneh Republican, but has not been ambitions of political honors. He is a constant student and a devotee of his profession, and gives his best energies to it.
He takes great interest in Harvard College affairs, especially in the direction of athletics. Amateur sports of all kinds find in him an ardent sympathizer and patron. He is a member of the Union, the Metropolitan, the Harvard, and the University Athletic clubs, the Holland Society, the St. Nicholas Society, and the New York State Bar Association. From October, 1889, to January, 1898, he was judge-advocate of the First Brigade of the National Guard of New York, on the staff of General Louis Fitzgerald.
Mr. Van Duzer is unmarried.
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Julem A Nates
SALEM HOWE WALES
SALEM HOWE WALES is a son of Oliver Wales, a woolen manufacturer of Massachusetts, and a descendant of Na- thaniel Wales, who came over with Richard Mather in 1635. He was born at Wales, Massachusetts, on October 4, 1825, and attended the schools of that place. Thence he went to Attica, New York, and pursued a course in the academy there. He came to New York city in 1846, and found employment for two years in a mercantile house. Then he became associated with Orson D. Munn and Alfred E. Beach, publishers of the " Scien- tifie American," and for nearly twenty-four years was managing editor of that periodical. While he was thus engaged he was, in 1855, appointed by Governor Seymour a commissioner from New York to the Paris Universal Exposition. He spent several months in Paris, and contributed a series of letters on the Expo- sition to the "Scientific American." Again, in 1867, he went abroad for more than a year, and wrote many letters.
Mr. Wales early identitied himself with the Republican party. During the Civil War he was a conspicuous supporter of the Federal Government, and was a member of the Executive Com- mittee of the United States Christian Commission. He was a delegate to the National Republican conventions of 1872 and 1876, and was a Presidential elector in 1872. Mayor Havemeyer appointed him a member of the Board of Park Commissioners of New York city in 1873, and he became president of the board. The next year he was the Republican candidate for the Mayoralty of New York, but was unsuccessful, the city going strongly Democratie. Later, in 1874, acting Mayor Vance ap- pointed him to fill the vacancy as Commissioner of Docks, and he was chosen president of that board and served for two years.
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Again, from 1880 to 1885, he was a Park Commissioner, and for a part of the time was president of the board. Governor Dix appointed him a trustee of the State Insane Asylum at Middle- town, New York. The Supreme Court made him a commis- sioner to determine the amount of damage done to abutting property by the elevated railroads in New York city, and in 1895 Mayor Strong appointed him a commissioner to supervise the construction of the new East River Bridge, of which latter board he was chosen vice-president. He was one of the founders of the Hahnemann Hospital and of the Homeopathic Medical College, and has been president of the boards of both. He is a director of the National Bank of North America and of the Han- over Insurance Company, and is connected with various other companies.
Mr. Wales was one of the early members of the Union League Club of New York. For several years he was its vice-president, and for many years he was chairman of its executive and finance committees. He had principal charge of the construction of the present club-house. He was one of the founders of the Metro- politan Museum of Art, and is now a trustee of it and member of the executive committee. He is a member of the American Museum of Natural History, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the New York Botanical Society, of the National Academy of Design, of the Society for the Pres- ervation of Historic Places and Objects, of the Charity Organi- zation Society, and of the Century Association of New York. At Southampton, Long Island, where he makes his summer home, he is a director of the Southampton Bank and of the Southampton Water Works, a trustee of St. Andrew's Dune Church and of the Rogers Memorial Library, and a member of the Meadow and Shinnecock Hills Golf clubs.
He was married in 1851 to Miss Frances E. Johnson of Bridge- port, Connecticut, and they have two children : Clara, wife of the Hon. Elihu Root, and Edward Howe Wales, a former mem- ber of the New York Stock Exchange.
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26 Namen
IRA DE FOREST WARREN
TRA DE FOREST WARREN, who for nearly half a century has been an active and prominent legal practitioner in the city of New York, comes of New England ancestry, his paternal forefathers having been settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts. in the early part of the eighteenth century. His father, the Rev. Ira De Forest Warren, was a clergyman of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and as such was well known throughout New York State, where most of his life was spent. The Rev. Mr. Warren married Miss Eliza Caldwell, and to them the subject of this sketch was born at Albany, New York, on December 31, 1831.
In his boyhood Mr. Warren attended the public schools of Albany, and thence proceeded to the well-known seminary at Cazenovia, New York, where he pursued a high and thorough academie course of study. Between the ages of seventeen and twenty he was both student and teacher. He was the teacher of a public school, and at the same time devoted a portion of his time to the study of law. His legal studies were completed under the able direction of the Hon. Horatio Bullard A. Cort- land of Cortland County, New York, and in September. 1852, he was admitted to practice at the bar.
Mr. Warren at onee made his way to New York city, and there entered upon the practice of his profession in the fall of 1853, being at the time seareely twenty-one years of age For two years he was associated in practice with Edward Sandford; but Mr. Sandford died in 1854, and thereafter he remained alone in his practice for seven years, in which time he built up a large and profitable patronage. In 1861 he formed a professional partnership with William Z. Earned, under the style of Larned
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& Warren, which continued for more than a quarter of a cen- tury. In 1897 he organized the firm of Warren, Boothby & Warren, of which he is the senior partner. The other members are his brother, Lyman E. Warren, and John W. Boothby.
During the course of his professional career of nearly half a century Mr. Warren has been engaged in a great variety of cases, and has enjoyed an enviable rank as a general practitioner. He has paid some special attention to real-estate litigation and procedure, and has become interested in real-estate affairs gen- erally, and for the past twenty years largely a corporation practi- tioner. For many years he was a director of the Real Estate Exchange of New York. He is, of course, well known among business men of various callings, and to the citizens of New York at large. His character and pleasing disposition have made him much esteemed by all his friends and acquaintances, both in and ont of his profession. Advancing years have not diminished his sympathy with youth, and he has in many instances taken an earnest and beneficent interest in the welfare of young lawyers.
Mr. Warren is a member of various organizations, prominent among which are the Manhattan and Lawyers' clubs. He has always taken a citizen's due interest in the affairs of city, State, and nation, but has neither held nor sought public office. While nearing the age of threescore years and ten, he wears his age and its honorable achievements lightly, and seems to be just in the prime of his physical and intellectual activities.
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L. E. Hannl
LYMAN EDDY WARREN
THE business and professional metropolis of the State and nation gathers to itself from all parts of the land, as well as it sends men out to all parts. The ranks of its army of men of affairs are thronged with those who were born and who spent the early years of their lives in the country or in other cities. and who in time found that "all roads lead to Rome," or at least that the most promising paths to success lead often to the chief city of the Western world.
Lyman Eddy Warren, one of the most successful lawyers of New York city, is one of these, being a native of the central part of New York State. His father, the Rev. Ira D. Warren, was of Puritan ancestry, his ancestors having been settled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, before 1740. The Rev. Mr. Warren was a clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and as such was well known throughout New York State, and he mar- ried Miss Eliza Caldwell, a member of a New York State family. Their son was born in Cortland County, New York, on Septem- ber 4, 1847. He attended the public schools and academies at Cortland, New York, and Montrose, Pennsylvania, and thus received a good academic education.
On approaching years of manhood Mr. Warren entered upon the study of law in the office of the Hon. Horatio Ballard, for- merly Secretary of State of New York State. Ho made rapid and substantial progress, and in 1866 was admitted to practice at the bar.
Mr. Warren began his legal practice in conjunction with his brother William H. Warren at Cortland, New York, and from the first enjoyed a gratifying degree of success. Later he es- tablished himself in practice at Ithaca, New York, and thence
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removed to Auburn, where he had a lucrative practice, in part- nership with the Hon. William B. Woodin, ex-State Senator.
Twenty years of legal work in these cities ripened Mr. Warren's powers and established his rank in the profession. Then, in 1888, he removed to New York city, where he has since pros- pered highly as a member of the firm of Warren, Boothby & Warren, of which the senior member is his elder brother, Ira De Forest Warren.
It has fallen to Mr. Warren's lot to serve as counsel in a number of particularly important cases. Thus he was counsel for the estate of Ezra Cornell, the pioneer of telegraph-building and founder of Cornell University at Ithaca, New York. He has also had as his client the Lee Arms Company, and in defense of its patent rights has visited all the important coun- tries of Europe and engaged in litigation or negotiations there. He has been special counsel for and a director of the Fisheries Company ; of the W. W. Brauer Company in the cattle export trade; of the Brauer Steamship Company; of the British and Foreign Lee Arms Company; of the British Magazine Rifle Company ; of the Hanover Steamship Company of London; of the Henrico Steamship Company of London, and various other corporations.
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Ah ... J. Waterbury
NELSON J. WATERBURY
T HE eminent son of an eminent father is the subject of this sketch. The name of Nelson J. Waterbury has for more than a half-century been an honored one in the legal profession of the city and State of New York. It was borne in the last generation by Judge Nelson J. Waterbury, son of Colonel Jona- than Waterbury, a prominent citizen of New York, and Eliza- beth Jarvis Waterbury, the latter a daughter of Elijah Jarvis (a nephew of Bishop Jarvis) and Betsey Chapman Jarvis, a daugh- ter of Dr. Chapman, a leading physician and citizen of Norwalk, Connecticut. Judge Waterbury had the unique experience of being appointed to the judicial bench only a few days after his admission to the bar. He made, despite his youth, an admi- rable judge, and afterward had a long and brilliant career as Assistant Postmaster of New York, as District Attorney of New York, as a member of the Board of Education, as Judge-Advo- cate-General of the National Guard of New York, as a legal practitioner, and as a political leader. He died in 1894. His wife was formerly a Miss Gibson of Boston, whose mother was of the Coolidge family. Of their four children the youngest, and the only son, is Nelson J. Waterbury, the second of the name.
He was born in New York city on January 11, 1859, and was carefully educated with a view to his entering the profession which his father so much adorned. He attended the then well- known Charlier Institute and the Anthony Grammar School. at which latter he was prepared to enter college. He was matriculated at Columbia College in 1876, pursued the regular academie course, and was gradnated with the degree of A. B. in 1880. Thereupon he was enrolled in the Law Department of Columbia, and was graduated therefrom in 1882.
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NELSON J. WATERBURY
Mr. Waterbury was admitted to practice at the bar of New York in the year of his graduation from the law school, and shortly afterward became associated with his father in profes- sional work, under the firm-name of N. J. & N. J. Waterbury, Jr. This connection was maintained until the death of the elder Waterbury, in 1894. Sinee that time Mr. Waterbury has pursued his praetice alone, with gratifying success.
His praetice is a general one in matters relating to municipal administration, with especial attention to publie condemnation proceedings. In the latter department of practice he conducted proceedings, on behalf of the city of New York, to condemn the right of way for the new Croton Aqueduct from Yonkers to the terminus in New York. Claims against the city aggregating more than two million dollars were filed and contested, but he successfully defended the city against them all. He was also the city's legal representative in its litigation to acquire water rights in the Bronx River. His municipal practice has not always, however, been in behalf of the city. On the contrary, he has had wide experience and marked success in prosecuting claims on behalf of property-owners against the city.
Years ago Mr. Waterbury was quick to appreciate the grow- ing importance of business and industrial corporations, and the increasing extent of their legal interests. Accordingly he began to pay especial attention to that branch of practice, and has thus for some years been prominently concerned with the affairs of various large industrial corporations and consolidations.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Mr. Waterbury is a Democrat in politics, but has held no publie office.
He was married, in 1896, to Miss May Louise Haydon of Philadelphia, with whom he makes his home in the city of New York. He is a member of the Manhattan Club and other social organizations.
William A. Weeks.
WILLIAM RAYMOND WEEKS
THE family of Wrey de la Wyke, Wykes, Weekes, or Weeks, has held an honored place in English history since the days of the Normon Conquest. Its original coat of arms was a shield ermine, displaying three battle-axes sable; and the erest was an arm in armor, embowed, holding a battle-ax gules. The first member in this country was George Weekes, who came from Devonshire, England, to Dorchester, Massachusetts, in 1637. His wife was Jane Clap, a descendant of Osgod Klapa, a Danish nobleman. George Weekes was a surveyor, and was one of the seven selectmen of Dorchester in 1645, 1647, and 1648. The direct line of descent from him was as follows : Ammiel Weekes. also a surveyor ; Joseph Weeks, the present spelling of the name being adopted by him; Ebenezer Weeks; Ebenezer Weeks II. who was one of the minute-men at Lexington and served in the patriot army in the Revolution; William Raymond Weeks, a printer, teacher, author, chaplain in the War of 1812, one of the foremost elergyman of his time, and one of the earliest anti- slavery agitators, his church, the Fourth Presbyterian of New- ark, New Jersey, being mobbed, in 1834, because it was rumored that he was going to preach a sermon against slavery; and John Randel Weeks, a printer and lawyer, County Clerk of Essex County, New Jersey, a member and secretary of the Newark (New Jersey) School Committee, and for some years a member of the Newark Board of Education. He was a director and real estate counsel of the Mutual Benefit Life Insurance Company. Although a successful lawyer, he had an antipathy to litigation. and often declared that three quarters of the cases could be set- tled out of court, and nine tenths of them ought to be. He was drowned accidentally in New York Bay, in 1879, having fallen
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