USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 26
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
355
356
WILLIAM RAYMOND WEEKS
from a ferry-boat, and in consequence of that tragedy all boats were thereafter fitted with safety gates. He was married to Mary Frances Adriance, and was the father of the subject of this sketch.
On the maternal side, Mr. Weeks's genealogy may be traced from Joris Janse Rapalje, a French Huguenot of Rochelle, who came hither from Holland in the ship Unity, in 1623, and Catalina Trico, a Huguenot from Paris. These two were married at Albany, New York, and in 1625 their first child was born, Sarah Jorise Rapalje, the first white child born in the New Netherlands, now New York. The next year they removed to New Amsterdam, now New York city, and then to Wallabout, Brooklyn. Another daughter of theirs, Jannetje, married Rem Janse van der Beeck, ancestor of the Remsen family, who had come from Westphalia. Sarah Jorise Rapalje married Tunis Gysbertse Bogaert, a Hollan- der. Their daughter Annetje married Joris Abramse Brincker- hoff. Their daughter Sarah married Rem Adrianse, son of Elbert Adriaense and Catalina van der Beeck, daughter of Rem Janse van der Beeck and Jannetje Jorise Rapalje. Elbert Adriaense was a son of Adriaen Reyerse, a son of Reyer Elbertse of Utrecht, Holland. Adriaen Reyerse emigrated to America in 1646. Isaac Adriance, son of Rem Adrianse, married Letitia van Wyck. Their son Theodorus, an officer of New York troops in the Revo- lutionary War, married Killetie Swartwout. Their son, Charles Platt Adriance, purchased the fine property at Poughkeepsie, New York, now know as College Hill. He married Sarah Camp, daughter of Aaron Camp of Newark, New Jersey, and descendant of William Camp, one of the first settlers of that city. Aaron Camp was a son of that Nathaniel Camp who was an officer in the Revolutionary War and a friend of Washington, to whom Washington presented a cannon, called "Old Nat," long in pos- session of the family, and now at Washington's headquarters, Morristown, New Jersey. A daughter of Charles Platt Adriance and Sarah Camp, named Mary Frances Adriance, married, as be- fore stated, John Randel Weeks, and thus became the mother of the subject of this sketch. Other families from which Mr. Weeks is descended on the paternal side are those of Randel, Griswold, Hyde, Wolcott, Aspinwall, Sumner, Holland, Lee, Fairchild, Harrison, Pierson, and Dodd. On the maternal side
-
WILLIAM RAYMOND WEEKS
may be mentioned the families of Creed, Schenck, Reyerse. Strycker, Polhemus, and Van Werven.
Of such ancestry, William Raymond Weeks was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 4, 1848. He was educated in the public schools of that city, and finally in the well-known Newark Academy, of which institution he is now a trustee. At the time of the Civil War he became a member of the New Jersey militia, and also of the Union League. He studied law in his father's office, and in 1870 was admitted to the practice of it in New Jersey, as an attorney. Six years later he was admit ted to the practice of a counselor in that State. In 1895 he was admitted to practice at the bar of the State of New York, and also at the bar of the federal courts, and in 1897 in West Vir- ginia. Mr. Weeks has in his practice covered almost the entire range of litigation, both civil and criminal. He has served as counsel in some of the most notable criminal cases of the age. But his attention has chiefly been paid to civil law, and most particularly to corporation, real-estate, mining, and probate law. He maintains an office in New York, and another in Newark. In addition to his legal practice, Mr. Weeks has written a num- ber of historical and other works, among which may be men- tioned a " History of the First Endowment of the College of New Jersey," a "Bibliography of New Jersey," a monograph on "The Jerseys in America before 1700," and a paper on " The Manhattans," controverting the theory that the island on which New York city was founded was the original and only Man- hattan.
Mr. Weeks is a member of the American Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Lawyers' Club, the Twilight Club, the Dunlap Society, the Society of American Authors, the American Numismatie and Archeologi- cal Society, of which he was historiographer for some years, the American Historical Association, the New Jersey Historical Society, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, of which he is attorney- general, the Society of the War of 1812, and the Revolutionary Memorial Society of New Jersey. He is also historian of the Alumni of Newark Academy.
In 1883 he organized a volunteer fire department at Bloom-
358
WILLIAM RAYMOND WEEKS
field, New Jersey, where he then lived, served the following year as a member of the legislative committee of the New Jersey State Firemen's Association, became its first State counsel in 1884, and held the office four years, drafting and remodeling the State fire laws. He compiled and published a compendium of these laws, with a series of forms. He was one of the founders and is a trustee of the Bank of Cuba, and has organized numerous other financial, mining, and manufacturing corporations. He was appointed by the late Edwin Lister, president of Lister's Agricultural Chemical Works of Newark, the sole executor of his will and life trustee of his controlling interest in the company, of which he was recently elected as president.
Mr. Weeks was married, on August 4, 1869, to Miss Irene Le Masséna, a great-granddaughter of Bonaparte's greatest marshal, André Masséna, Prince of Essling, by whom he has two daugh- ters, Nina Margaret and Rénée Hutchinson.
1
1
JOHN WHALEN
F the various elements that have in the last two centuries contributed to the populating of the United States and to the upbuilding of its institutions, the Irish race is one of the most numerous and most conspicuous. Especially is such the case in the city of New York, which has long been noted as " the largest Irish city in the world," having a larger Irish population than any in the Emerald Isle itself. Naturally enough, members of this active, aggressive, ambitious race have attained prominent places in business, professional, and political life. Many of these were themselves immigrants. Others are the American-born sons of immigrants, or the more remote descendants of those who came hither generations ago. But one and all retain a keener interest in their " old country" than any other element of the population, and perhaps more than any other retain the salient characteristics of their race.
John Whalen, as his patronymie suggests, is of Irish ancestry. His father and mother came to New York half a century ago. His father died when John was an infant, and the boy's bringing up is to be credited to the mother.
He was born in New York on July 4, 1854, and is intellectually a product of the public schools of this city. After leaving school he decided to become a lawyer, and entered upon the study of that profession in the office of the Hon. Charles O'Conor, where he served first as errand-boy, and then as law clerk. He also became a student in the Law School of New York University. and was duly graduated from that institution with the degree of LL. B. At a later date he received the degree of LL. D. from Manhattan College.
Mr. Whalen was admitted to the bar of the State of New York
359
360
JOHN WHALEN
at the October term of the Supreme Court in 1877, and immedi- ately began the practice of his profession. His attention was early turned to corporation and real-estate cases, and his integrity, close application, and unflagging energy soon won him an ample measure of success.
For nearly fifteen years Mr. Whalen was chairman of the Board of School Trustees of the Twelfth Ward, which embraced about half of the school population of the city. He was ap- pointed Tax Commissioner in May, 1893, and during his term the tax rate was only $1.72, the lowest in twenty-eight years.
In the beginning of 1898 he was appointed by Mayor Van Wyck to be corporation counsel of the consolidated city of New York, which office he still holds.
Mr. Whalen is a member of the Democratic party organization, and of the Democratic, Catholic, New York Athletic, and various other prominent social clubs in this city, and also of the Bar Association and State Bar Association. In addition to his law library he has a fine general collection of books, among which he finds time to indulge his literary tastes.
Not the least interesting incident of Mr. Whalen's career occurred on May 14, 1900, when it fell to his lot to wield a pick- ax in breaking the first ground for the actual beginning of the construction of the great rapid transit tunnel in New York city. This interesting ceremony occurred on the day named, in presence of a vast and applauding multitude, at the junction of One Hun- dred and Fifty-sixth Street and Broadway, near Mr. Whalen's home, in the fine part of the city commonly known as Washing- ton Heights.
:
RUSSELL WHITCOMB
THE name of Whitcomb in New England dates back to the days of the Pilgrim fathers. It was borne by one of their mun- ber who made his home at Cohasset, Massachusetts. In the last generation it was and still is borne by William Wirt Whitcomb of Boston, who married Miss Mary A. Lawrence, a daughter of the Rev. Robert Lawrence, a minister of the Congregational Church, and the bearer of a family name well known in American history.
Russell Whitcomb, son of the above-named couple, was born at Malden, Massachusetts, ou May 6, 1865. In his carly child- hood he was taken by his parents to Boston, and lived in that city until 1897, when he removed to New York, his present home. His parents intended him for a professional career, and began his education with that end in view. He was sent to the well-known Chauncey Hall School in Boston, and later continued his education under private tutors, and postponed going to col- lege because of ill health. He studied law in the office of his uncle, the Hon. Leslie W. Russell of New York, intending to make that his profession. That, however, was not to be. Close application to his books began to tell injuriously upon his eye- sight, and he was compelled to abandon his legal studies and betake himself to some other calling. He then entered the real- estate business, in the office of Edward F. Thayer of Boston, and upon the death of Mr. Thayer he succeeded to the business. and formed the firm of Whitcomb & Bowker, which afterward became Whitcomb, Wead & Co. He retired from business for a time to go abroad to complete his education at Oxford Univer- sity, England, and while there began a careful study of social problems, living and working among the poor in England, and
361
362
RUSSELL WHITCOMB
also in this country. Then he returned to Boston and connected himself with the firm of Bingham, Whitcomb & Whiting. In 1897 he came to New York to establish a branch of that house, conducting this business for a year, when this firm was dis- solved, Bingham & Whiting succeeding to the Boston business, and Mr. Whitcomb continuing the New York business as an investment broker.
In January, 1900, he was elected president of the Mexico Commercial Company, a corporation composed of prominent financiers and business men of New York and other Eastern cities. He has always enjoyed the confidence of those familiar with his business methods, and is an able organizer, possessed of much executive ability.
While in Boston Mr. Whitcomb was a trustee of various estates and a director of the Mystic Wharf & Storage Company, which offices he resigned on coming to New York.
Mr. Whitcomb has held no public office. He is a member of the Manhattan and other clubs, and is unmarried.
a LWhile
ARCHIBALD SYLVESTER WHITE
A RCHIBALD SYLVESTER WHITE is but thirty-three years of age, yet we find him at the head of one of the greatest industries of modern times, an example of the fact that youthful energy, taet, and ability have forced themselves into the guidance of so many of our successful enterprises of magni- tude. He seems to be illustrating in his remarkable career the truth of the words of Buxton, who says: "The longer I live the more I am certain that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the powerful, the great and the insigniti- cant, is energy - invincible determination - a purpose onee fixed, and then death or victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in this world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it." This has been the key-note of the successful prosecution of his ambition.
Mr. White was born at Newark, Ohio, on March 25, 1867. His parents also were born in Ohio, but it is interesting to note that they were children of pioneers from the New England States, direct descendants from members of the historic May- flower company. His mother's maiden name was Ella Harring- ton. His father, Erasmus P. White, was a contractor.
Mr. White's education was begun in the public schools of Newark. In 1883, when sixteen years of age, he came to New York city, and entered business as a clerk, thus beginning life at the bottom of the ladder. At the same time he pursued his studies further in the night schools of the Cooper Institute. In this way he acquired an excellent general education of a practical character, such as was well adapted to the require- ments of a snecessful business career.
363
364
ARCHIBALD SYLVESTER WHITE
He became identified with the salt industry in 1885. In 1891 he engaged in the manufacture of salt at Ludlowville, New York, a town near the head of Cayuga Lake, and lying within the great salt field of New York State, of which Onondaga County is perhaps the best-known part. To this business he devoted himself with singleness of purpose and with an energy and dis- cretion that rapidly won him more than passing success. Six years later his rank in the business was so commanding that he was able to consolidate under a single head all the salt-manufac- turing interests of New York State. Two years later, in 1899, he organized the National Salt Company, which comprised all the salt-making plants in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The magnitude of this corporation and its business may be estimated when we consider what a necessity of life salt is, and how widely it is used in various great industries as well as in domestic economies. The total salt product of the United States is now somewhat more than twelve million barrels a year, of which, of course, the greater part is manufactured by Mr. White's company.
In addition to the National Salt Company, Mr. White is actively interested in various other business enterprises. Among the corporations with which he is connected may be mentioned the Standard Chain Company, the New Jersey and Hudson River Railway and Ferry. Company, the Metropolitan Safe Deposit Company of New York, the Monmouth Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and the Bank of Jamaica.
Mr. White has neither held nor sought any public office, but contents himself with the duties of private citizenship. He is a member of a number of clubs and social organizations, among which are the Lawyers' Club and the Ohio Society of New York, the Crescent Athletic Club of Brooklyn, the Union Club of Cleve- land, Ohio, and the Detroit Club of Detroit, Michigan.
He was married in Brooklyn, New York, on June 28, 1893, to Kathleen Gertrude Rigney, a young woman whose charming manner and mental accomplishments made her a favorite with all who knew her. They have one child, Helene Marie White, a precocious and exceedingly interesting little one, who, at the early age of five, is already making her presence felt in the world of small people.
1
Wie b . White
WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY
W ILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY, eminent as a lawyer, political leader, statesman, financier, social leader, and patron of art and of the turf, comes of fine old New England stock. His carliest American anecstors, John and Elinor Whitney, and their son Richard, came over from England with Sir Richard Saltonstall in 1635, and settled in Massachusetts. To Richard Whitney was born a son, also named Richard, to whom was born a son who became known in history as General Josiah Whitney of Revolutionary times. To General Whitney and his wife Sarah Farr was born a son, Josiah Whitney, who married Anna Scollay. A son of the latter couple, Stephen Whitney. was eminent in Massachusetts polities, and had a son, General James Scollay Whitney, who was also eminent in both the military and civil services
The subject of the present sketch is a son of General James Scollay Whitney. He was born at Conway, Massachusetts, in 1839, and was carefully educated at Williston Academy, East- hampton, Massachusetts, and at Yale College. He was graduated at Yale in the class of 1863. One of his classmates was William G. Sumner, the well-known writer and political economist, with whom Mr. Whitney divided the first prize for English essays. From Yale he went to Harvard, entered the Law School there, and was graduated in 1865. From Harvard he came to New York, pursued a course of study in the office of Abraham R. Lawrence, afterward a justice of the Supreme Court of New York, and was soon admitted to practice at the bar.
Mr. Lawrence was at that time concerned chiefly with cor- poration law, and Mr. Whitney was naturally drawn toward that important and profitable department of professional work.
365
366
WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY
Therein he soon built up a large practice. He was for several years counsel for and a director of the Continental Life Insur- ance Company. He was also counsel for the New Jersey Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became bankrupt. Mr. Whitney was counsel for the Metropolitan Steamship Company, the Tredegar Company of Richmond, Virginia, and other corporations. For more than two years he was trustee under the mortgage of the Dayton & Union Railroad of Ohio, and had the sole management of the road. He was counsel for the principal holders of the receiver's certificates issued by the receiver of the New York & Oswego Midland Railroad, and was also for several years counsel for the stock- holders of the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad. One of the best-known cases in which he has been concerned was the famous libel suit of Charles Reade, the English novelist, against the proprietors of the "Round Table" of this city for a severe criticism of "Griffith Gaunt." Mr. Whitney was counsel for the defense, and, after a week's trial, won his case.
Mr. Whitney made his entrance into political life with Abra- ham R. Lawrence during the campaign against the Tweed Ring in 1870 and 1871. In the latter year he was associated with Governor Tilden, Mayor Wiekham, and others in the campaign when the Apollo Hall organization, of which Mayor Wickham was the head, aided in the overthrow of the Tweed Ring. In 1872 Mr. Whitney ran for District Attorney on the Apollo Hall ticket, but was defeated. He afterward joined the Tammany Hall organization, but remained in elose relations with Mr. Til- den. In 1875 he was appointed by Mayor Wickham Corporation Counsel, to succeed E. Delafield Smith, removed. He was twice reappointed to the position, resigning the office in November, 1882. He was conspicuous in organizing the Young Men's Democratie Club. After Tammany's opposition to Tilden, Mr. Whitney, with others, organized the Irving Hall Democracy. When that fell into disrepute he assisted in organizing the County Democracy.
Mr. Whitney was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Presi- dent Cleveland in 1885, and served during that administration of four years with distinguished success, being intimately identified with the creation of the present navy. Upon the expiration of
367
WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY
his term he retired to private life, resolutely declining all offers of political preferment. Down to the present time, however, he has remained one of the most forceful and influential figures iu the Democratic party in the United States.
Instead of returning to his legal practice, Mr. Whitney in 1889 interested himself in financial and general business affairs, espe- cially in connection with the great Metropolitan Street Railway system of New York. He is a director or trustee of numerous banks, trust companies, and other corporations. He is a mem- ber of most of the leading clubs of New York city and of many in other cities. He and his family have long enjoyed conspicuous social leadership in New York, Washington, and elsewhere, and his mansion on Fifth Avenue is famed as one of the most splen- did residences in New York. It is especially rich in works of art, Mr. Whitney having been for years a generous but discrimi- nating purchaser of paintings, both old and new.
In the fall of 1897 Mr. Whitney became interested in the turf. and in the following year he appeared in the sporting world as the owner of a fine racing-stable. Since that time he has become the owner of some of the most notable horses in the world, such as Jean Beraud, Ballyhoo Bey, and Hamburg, and has won in- numerable races in America, including some of the greatest on the turf, and also, in 1901, the classic English Derby, the last- named being won with the horse Volodyovski.
Mr. Whitney was married, in 1869, to Flora Payne, daughter of Henry B. Payne, United States Senator from Ohio. She died in 1892, leaving him four children. These are Harry Payne Whit- ney, who married Gertrude Vanderbilt, daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt ; Pauline Whitney, who married Almerie Hugh Paget of England; Payne Whitney, who married Helen Hay, daughter of John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States : and Doro- thy Whitney. Mr. Whitney was married again, in 1896, to Edith S. May Randolph of East Court, Wiltshire, England, who died in May, 1899, in consequence of injuries received in a hunting-field accident more than a year before.
GEORGE WOODWARD WICKERSHAM
G JEORGE WOODWARD WICKERSHAM is of mingled English and Swedish stock. His father, Samuel Morris Wickersham, was of English Quaker origin, a son of Thomas Wickersham, first president of the Philadelphia Board of Brokers, at first a successful civil engineer, and afterward an equally successful iron and steel merchant, being thus identified with the characteristic industries of the great Keystone State, colonel also of the Twenty-second Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers in the Civil War. His mother, Elizabeth Cox Woodward, was the daughter of Joseph Janvier Woodward and Elizabeth Cox, his wife. Mr. Woodward was of English origin, and was a prominent publisher in Philadelphia, while Miss Cox, whom he married, was of Swedish ancestry.
Our subject was born to Samuel M. and Elizabeth C. W. Wickersham, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on September 15, 1858. His mother died while he was an infant, and he was cared for and brought up largely by his maternal grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Woodward. They designed him for a professional career, and accordingly paid close attention to his education. After pursuing preparatory courses, he was sent to Lehigh University, where he studied civil engineering, and then to the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. From the latter he was gradu- ated in 1880 with the degree of LL. B.
Mr. Wickersham began the practice of his profession in the city of Philadelphia in the fall of 1880. At that time he formed a partnership with Charles B. McMichael, who has now become a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia. This association proved agreeable and profitable, but Mr. Wickersham soon came to the conclusion that New York would be a better
368
369
GEORGE WOODWARD WICKERSHAM
field for the exercise of his talents. In the springof 1882, accord- ingly, he removed to New York, and entered as an employee the office of Chamberlain, Carter & Hornblower. There he pros- pered and his abilities secured recognition. At the beginning of 1883 he became managing clerk in the office of Strong & Cad- wallader, and on May 1, 1887, he was admitted to partnership in that firm. The other members were Charles E. Strong, John L. Cadwallader, and George F. Butterworth. On October 1, 1897, Mr. Strong died, and the surviving members have since conducted the business under the old firm-name. This firm was founded by George W. Strong about the year 1800. It next became known as George T. & Charles E. Strong, then as Strong & Bidwell, and finally as Strong & Cadwallader. It has been counsel for the Bank for Savings since 1819, and for the Seamen's Savings Bank since 1829. It has a large real-estate and corporation business, and is the legal representative of many estates. Mr. Wiekersham's own specialty is corporation law.
Mr. Wickersham is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, Players', Grolier, Down-Town, Church, Ardsley, and Rockaway Hunt clubs, and of the New York Bar Association, of which latter he is a member of the executive committee.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.