USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 14
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industry, he returned to the metropolis in October, and towards the close of 1805 was living at No. 40 Barclay- street, (then a two story brick front house,) the upper part of which was occupied by LEMAIRE, a Frenchman, the architect of the City Hall. On the 1st of November, 1806, Mr. STUART removed to the house at the corner of Chambers and Greenwich streets, which he enlarged. At the time Mr. STUART came to live in New-York, the population of the City, according to the census, was seventy-five thousand seven hundred and seventy persons. He resumed, in a small way, the business in which he had been so prosperous in Edinburgh, and through manufactu- ring a pure quality of candy, became so well known and successful that he made money rapidly, and took standing among the most reputable merchants of the City.
He continued in active business until the beginning of 1826, and died on the 29th of January of that year, aged fifty-one. He left an extensive and rapidly increasing trade, and an estate, real and personal, valued at over one hundred thousand dollars. At the time of his death he ranked among the rich men in the City of New-York.
ROBERT L. STUART.
ROBERT L. STUART was the eldest son of KINLOCHI STUART, and was born in the City of New-York on the 21st of July, 1806. After the death of his father, in 1826, he continued the business of manufacturing candy, until the 7th of January, 1828, when the firm of R. L. & A. STUART (the latter his younger brother) was formed. This copart . nership continued unchanged for a period of fifty-one years, and until dissolved by the death of its junior partner, in 1879.
In 1832, R. L. & A. STUART commenced refining sugar by steam, and were the first successful operators in that industry, efforts by others in the same direction having resulted in loss, cessation or bankruptcy. The office of the
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firm at this time was at No. 169 Chambers-street, a building erected by them in 1831, and the first dwelling-house in the City into which gas was introduced, a main being laid from Greenwich-street for this purpose.
The five-story building, corner of Greenwich and Cham- bers streets, which the firm subsequently occupied, was erected by them in 1835. The nine-story building, corner of Greenwich and Reade streets, was put up in 1849. The large warehouses on the south side of Chambers-street were built by the firm, and first occupied for the storage of refined sugars.
In 1855-56, the manufacture of candy was discontinued, and sugar refining became the sole business of the firm. No work was ever done in the establishment on Sunday, nor were repairs made at the refinery on that day, or allowed to be made at outside machine shops. The same energy and perseverance in honorably meeting and over- coming obstacles which were dominant in the father were characteristic also of the sons. The hatred of everything spurious, which placed the manufactures of KINLOCHI STUART above any suspicion of adulteration, made the product of R. L. & A. STUART a synonym for purity in the markets of the civilized world. During the Civil War the STUARTS gave their unqualified support to the Government, and were among the heaviest subscribers to the first million of the war loan-a significant proof of their confidence in the result of the struggle.
In 1872-73 the brothers retired from active business. In 1835 ROBERT L. STUART married MARY, the daughter of ROBERT MCCREA, one of the old and wealthy merchants of New-York. Mr. STUART, after his retirement from active business, devoted his time principally to the work of philanthropy, in which he was most efficiently assisted by his worthy wife, whose name, like that of her husband, is found in connection with nearly every charity of New- York, and with many out of it.
Mr. STUART was a member of the Chamber of Commerce from June 2, 1859, a member of the Union Club for many years, and also a member of the Union League Club from
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its formation, in March, 1863. He was likewise connected with the Century Club, the New-York Historical Society, the American Academy of Sciences, the Museum of Natural History-the presidency of which he resigned in 1880-and the Young Men's Christian Association, being President of the Board of Trustees of the last named at the time of his death. In the Presbyterian Hospital Mr. STUART was greatly interested, and was President of that institution. He gave to it in 1880 the sum of fifty thousand dollars, in addition to many previous gifts. Among other notable gifts of Mr. STUART, made in the same year as the above, are one hundred thousand dollars to Princeton Theological Seminary, a like sum to Princeton College, and fifty thou- sand dollars to the San Francisco Theological Seminary. Mr. STUART was a liberal but judicious patron of art, and his spacious mansion on Fifth Avenue is filled with many most beautiful paintings, marbles and bronzes. Deeply interested in all that related to the welfare of the City of his birth and love, and all good works at home and abroad, he won the respect, esteem and affection of the entire com- munity. Mr. STUART died at his residence, in this City, on December 12th, 1882, in the seventy-seventh year of his age.
ROBERT McCREA.
ROBERT MCCREA was a native of Scotland, born in 1764, but came to this country when a young man, and went into the business of importing dry goods. At that time both Alexandria and Newport were rivals of New-York in the importing trade.
Mr. McCREA was a man of sterling business qualities and sound judgment, and soon had a large and extensive trade, at one time having nine business partners in as many different cities of the United States. He was the first to import ingrain carpets into this country. Mr. McCREA married JANNETT, the daughter of the Rev. JOHN FUR-
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GASON, and lived for many years on Spring-street, then the most fashionable part of the city. A man of genial dispo- sition, generous almost to a fault, he was beloved and respected by all who knew him. At the time of his death, which occurred in 1837, in the seventy-third year of his age, Mr. MCCREA was one of the most wealthy merchants in New-York City.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR, the elder, was born July 17th, 1763, in the village of Waldorf, near Heidelberg, in the Grand Duchy of Baden. He was the youngest son of JOHANN JACOB ASTOR, a poor peasant, whose father had been in better circumstances.
The first years of his life were passed in poverty and pri- vation, and, at the age of sixteen, he left his father's occu- pation and joined an elder brother who had settled some years before in London, and who subsequently became the head of the musical instrument warehouse of ASTOR & BROADWOOD. He set out on foot for the Rhine, and, rest- ing under a tree while still in sight of his native village, formed three resolves, to which he adhered through life- to be honest, to be industrious, and never to gamble. He worked his passage down the Rhine on a timber raft, and, on arriving in London, received employment at his brother's factory. Here he remained three years, acquiring the Eng- lish language and putting by some scanty savings for the time when he should be able to realize the project upon which his thoughts were fixed, of removing to America, where he had a presentiment of attaining great riches. In his later period of prosperity he often referred to these years as having been among the happiest of his life. In November, 1783, he embarked at Southampton, taking a stock of flutes and other musical instruments, which were to be sold at a profit. Upon arriving in New-York he found his brother, HENRY ASTOR, in possession of a con-
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siderable fortune, acquired by supplying at first the British garrison, and afterwards the meat dealers of the city with cattle, which he bought in herds in the interior.
JOHN JACOB ASTOR soon busied himself in the fur trade, to which his attention had been called by a fellow-country- man, and in which large fortunes were being amassed. He entered upon this new occupation with unremitting vigor, and, at the end of ten years, had diverted the most profitable markets from his competitors, and was at the head of a business branching to Albany, Buffalo, Plattsburgh and Detroit. Finding that London was a better market for furs than New-York, he chartered a vessel, put his brother- in-law, WILLIAM WHETTEN, a ship captain, in command, sold the cargo to great advantage, and returned with ASTOR & BROADWOOD instruments, which, from their excellence, were held in high reputation. Taught by this experience he bought ships and engaged in the lucrative China trade, sending vessels round the world on each cruise, carrying furs to England, English manufactures to Canton, and thence returning to New-York with tea. His business increased immensely, but he superintended all parts of it personally, and gave attention to the minutest details. His letters of instruction to his agents were written with extraordinary comprehensiveness and accuracy. It was his maxim, "If you wish a thing done, get some one to do it for you ; but if you wish it done well, do it yourself." He meditated long before acting, but a resolve once taken, it was exe- cuted without hesitation.
His greatest enterprise was the settlement of Astoria at the mouth of the Columbia River, which is the subject of WASHINGTON IRVING'S volume of that name. After the famous journey of LEWIS and CLARK across the continent, he dispatched traders and buyers to the Indian tribes of Oregon and Dakota and the great lakes. The British Northwest Fur Company opposed him to the utmost, driving away his agents and voyageurs and claiming ex- clusive rights to the fur trade of the Pacific. In the face of great difficulty the station of Astoria was maintained for four years, and a treaty was signed by his agent and son-
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in-law BENTZON, with Count BARANOFF, on behalf of the Russian Government in Kamschatka and Alaska. In deal- ing with the Indians, and in his instructions to his captains relative to their intercourse with the savages, Mr. ASTOR was wise, humane and liberal. A significant corroboration to this statement is found in the conduct of COMCOMLY, the chief of the native Chinooks, who, upon the approach of a British sloop of war in December, 1814, offered to defend Astoria with his warriors, promising to inflict a sanguinary repulse upon the enemy. But unfortunately Mr. ASTOR had erred for once in his judgment of human nature, and had entrusted Astoria, with its fort, its magazines and its accumulation of valuable furs, to a renegade Scotchman named DUNCAN MCDOUGALL, who, for a bribe from the British Northwest Company, bade COMCOMLY dismiss his braves, and hoisted the Union Jack almost before he could be summoned to surrender.
In this remarkable enterprise Mr. ASTOR was actuated less by considerations of pecuniary profit than by the zest of a vast design, which had gradually developed in his mind, and which aimed at the exploration and civilization of the Pacific Coast, through the medium of commerce and colonization. The magnitude of his financial relations and the vigor and breadth of his self-trained intellect brought him into frequent correspondence upon the establishment and maintenance of Astoria, with the leading American statesmen of the time, but the Government gave no further encouragement or protection than its acquiescence in pro- jects which were evidently to be so greatly to its advantage.
At the commencement of the present century Mr. ASTOR began investing the profits of commercial ventures in real estate upon Manhattan Island, whose immense future value he was one of the first to foresee. He bought meadows and farms in the track which the growth of the City would follow, trusting to time to multiply their worth. His rise to fortune was due to none of the curious windfalls and favoring chances which are popularly associated with his early years ; the first half of his life was an arduous struggle, in which adversity and disappointment only stim-
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ulated him to further self-improvement, and to a broader and profounder study of the world. The practical cast of his character, and the principles of frugality and labor which his experience had instilled, made him impatient of indolence and sham and mendicancy- But he knew the value of wise benefaction, and by his will established the library which bears his name, and which his son and grand- son have augmented, till their united gift to the City re- presents a million and a half of dollars.
Mr. ASTOR was a self-educated man, and his desire for useful information was a constant habit of the mind, and marked every period of life. He delighted in the society of men of letters and accomplishment. One of his most intimate friends, dating from the days of their service as directors of the Bank of the United States, was ALBERT GALLATIN, and his frequent companion, and one who, at a later period, lived with him for several years, was WASHINGTON IRVING. Through business relations he was interested in the chief banking institutions of the City, and in 1834, when the New-York Life Insurance and Trust Company was robbed by its cashier of its entire surplus, amounting to a quarter of a million, Mr. ASTOR saved the Company from an inevitable suspension, which, in those days, meant disgrace, by the gratuitous loan of an amount sufficient to meet its immediate needs.
After his retirement from active business, in 1822, he made several visits to Europe, residing on the continent, in all, nearly ten years. He acquired the French language, which he learned to speak and write fluently, was presented at the Court of CHARLES THE TENTII, and devoted parts of two winters to the galleries and museums of Italy ; the summers abroad were passed at a villa he owned on the Lake of Geneva, which he afterwards gave to his son-in-law, VINCENT RUMPFF, then Minister of the Han- seatic League at Paris.
Mr. ASTOR's last years were spent in repose and retire- ment, in the supervision of landed interests and in the society of a small circle of men of attainment.
His strongest trait was integrity. His private life was
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blameless. His chief pleasure was in the simple recreations of his country home. By the force of his influence and example, he helped to give character to the society of his time.
In old age, surrounded by every luxury, and looking back across an eventful career, his thoughts reverted to the home of his boyhood in the humble little village of Waldorf ; and by his will he made provision for the establishment there of an asylum for the sick and infirm, which, since its creation, in 1854, has alleviated suffering, and stood as a memorial of the love its founder retained to the last for his German fatherland.
Mr. ASTOR died in this City, March 29th, 1848, in the eighty-fifth year of his age.
SAMUEL B. RUGGLES.
SAMUEL BULKLEY RUGGLES was, for more than twenty years, one of the directing minds of the Chamber of Com- merce. He was born at New-Milford, Connecticut, April 11th, 1800, and was descended from an old Colonial stock of English origin, inheriting, in full degree, that combina- tion of ardor and perseverance which is characteristic of the New-England race. Gifted with rare intellectual powers, he was one of the most attractive of men. Ready in intelli- gence, felicitous in speech, and of a genial, kindly manner, he, from early youth, took his place among the intellectual magnates of the land.
Graduated from Yale College at the age of 14, he studied law as a profession, and was admitted to practice at the New-York bar in 1821. In 1838 Mr. RUGGLES was elected a member of the Assembly, from this City, and was chosen Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means of that body. His report to the Legislature on the canal policy of the State, though derided at the time by political opponents as visionary and exaggerated, is one of the ablest of our State papers. Warm in expression and earnest in tone, its
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predictions, to use the writer's words at a later period, "startled the nerves of some of our worthiest citizens." Yet, not only were all of the estimates reached, but ex- ceeded, within the period to which he had confined them.
His estimate in the report in question was, that if the Erie Canal should be enlarged, its tolls would reach the sum of three millions of dollars at the close of navigation in 1849. The actual figures were over three and one-half millions. In that year, although the enlargement was not made, the number of tons carried to tide water was twelve hundred thousand. The movement reported for 1880 was over three millions of tons, valued at more than two hun- dred millions of dollars. This enormous increase was in no small measure due to the jealous and ceaseless care with which Mr. RUGGLES watched every act of the Legislature which threatened or concerned this great artery of internal traffic.
From the time that he first espoused the cause of the Erie Canal, until his death, there was no wavering in his devotion to the cause of internal improvements. His models, for admiration and imitation, were the famous FRANCIS EGERTON, Duke of Bridgewater, who con- structed, at his own cost, the first canal in England, and DE WITT CLINTON, to whose energy and statesmanship New-York owes its canal system, and the control of the traffic of the Lake country.
But while his fame is indissolubly connected with the canal system of this State, (he was Commissioner from 1838 to 1858, when he retired from the Board,) this was by no means the only sphere of his usefulness. Mr. RUGGLES was one of the original founders of the Bank of Commerce, in 1839, and took an important part in securing the passage at Albany of the General Banking Law, under which it was chartered, and for many years was a director of this institution. He was also one of the Commissioners with JAMES GORE KING and JOHN A. STEVENS to decide upon the route of the Erie Railroad. The records of the Chamber bear abundant testimony to his untiring industry and great sagacity, and numerous pamphlets from his pen
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show the range of subjects which attracted his attention. In 1852 he published a defence of the right and duty of the American Union to improve its navigable waters. In May, 1864, he delivered the address on the opening of the Metropolitan Fair in aid of the United States Sanitary Commission. The following July he was the orator on the occasion of the semi-centennial meeting of the graduates of Yale College, of the class of 1814, and of the Alumni of that Institution. The same year he published his re- port on the Resources of the United States, and on a uniform system of weights, measures and coins ; this re- port he had previously presented to the International Statistical Congress at Berlin. In 1866 he represented the United States as Commissioner at the Paris Exhibition. In 1869 he was one of the delegates to the International Statistical Congress at the Hague. In 1871 he published a pamphlet entitled "Internationality and International Congresses : a Report to the Department of State;" together with a report to Congress on the comparative population and cereal products of the United States. In 1877 he addressed the American Bankers' Convention on the subject of American silver coinage, and made an earnest appeal for the " Dollar of our Fathers."
The last and crowning work of his life, however, to which he had given years of patient study of a most arduous character, was the " Consolidated Tables of National Pro- gress in Cheapening Food," which presented, by decades and geographical divisions, the agricultural progress of the nation in cheapening the food of America and Europe. This important work was printed by the Chamber for distribution.
This brief sketch of Mr. RUGGLES would be incom- plete without some mention of his identification with the growth of our City. At an early day he foresaw its won- derful development in population and boundary, and he was connected with some of its greatest enterprises. Al- though a lawyer by profession, his associations were, of choice, with the great merchants of this City, and his achievements and fame are our just heritage.
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Mr. RUGGLES died at a summer resort on Fire Island, L. I., August 28th, 1881, in the eighty-second year of his age.
CORNELIUS RAY.
CORNELIUS RAY was of an old New-York family, the founder of which, JOHN RAY, emigrated to this country from Exeter, in the County of Devonshire, England, at the close of the seventeenth century.
CORNELIUS RAY was the son of RICHARD RAY and his wife, SARAH BOGERT, and was born in Smith-street, (now William-street,) New-York City, April 25th, 1755.
Mr. RAY entered mercantile life at an early age, and became one of New-York's most prominent merchants. During the war of the Revolution, on the investment of the City by the British, he retired to Albany, where he mar- ried, on July 26th, 1784, ELIZABETHI ELMENDORPII, the daughter of PETER EDMUND ELMENDORPH, of Kingston, Ulster County, in this State, by whom he had several children. Mr. RAY returned to the City when peace was restored, and again entered mercantile life. After the establishment of the Bank of the United States, he was chosen President of the New-York Branch, and continued in that office until the expiration of the bank's charter in 1810.
On April 20th, 1784, Mr. RAY was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and its President May 6th, 1806, serving until May 4th, 1819, when he declined a re- election.
In March, 1817, through the efforts of Mr. RAY, the Chamber was aroused to renewed activity. Its by-laws were revised, and a large number of young merchants were elected members, who afterwards became prominent in its affairs. Though not a politician, Mr. RAY was a Federalist in principle and a consistent supporter of the Federal party. Being on terms of intimacy with prominent mem-
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bers of that party, he was frequently called upon to preside at its meetings.
Mr. RAY was long connected with and took an active interest in the charitable institutions of this City. He was one of the incorporators of the Society of the Lying-in Hospital, which was established by Act of the Legislature, passed March 1, 1799, one of its first Governors, and its President for many years.
In his personal character and intercourse Mr. RAY was kind and gentle, of high principles, and a merchant of strict integrity. An affectionate father, a firm friend and a sincere Christian, he left to his children at his death, which occurred in this City January 18th, 1827, an untar- nished name, which they will ever regard as their best inheritance.
ROBERT RAY.
ROBERT RAY was born in the City of New-York July 14th, 1794. His father, CORNELIUS RAY, was President of the Chamber of Commerce 1806-1819. ROBERT RAY was graduated from Columbia College in 1813, receiving, four years later, the degree of M. A. Although educated for the bar, he never practiced law. After a trip to Europe he was admitted a partner in the banking house of PRIME, WARD, SANDS, KING & Co., and for many years was one of its members. He was one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce, and one of its directors from its organization in 1839 until 1841, having also served as Vice-President within that period. In 1841 he resigned his office and went to Europe, but on his return he was re-elected a director in October, 1844, and served as Vice-President from May, 1848, until June, 1866, retaining the office of director until his death, which took place at his residence in this City, March 4th, 1879.
Mr. RAY's offices in various financial, commercial, charitable and other institutions were quite numerous.
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He was a trustee of Columbia College ; a director of the New-York Life Insurance and Trust Company ; a Governor of the New-York Lying-in Hospital from 1834, afterwards Vice-President and President; a trustee of the Lenox Library ; a director of the Eagle and the Sterling Fire Insurance Companies, and a director and afterwards Presi- dent of Greenwood Cemetery. He was also a Vestryman of Grace Church, and its treasurer for many years. In 1835 he was a steward of the St. Nicholas Society, and for years a member of the Union Club.
Mr. RAY's active business career ceased on his retirement from the banking firm named. By his marriage, in 1819, with CORNELIA, eldest daughter of NATHANIEL PRIME, he had several children. Mr. RAY was a man of the highest integrity, methodical in his business habits, somewhat reserved in manner, but genial withal. He never desired or held any political office, but nevertheless did all in his power to promote the welfare and prosperity of his native City.
JOHN C. GREEN.
JOHN CLEVE GREEN was born near Lawrenceville, New- Jersey, on the fourth day of April, 1800. His father's ancestors came from England, his mother's from Holland, near the close of the seventeenth century. Both families first settled on Long Island, but soon removed to New- Jersey.
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