USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 5
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In personal appearance he was somewhat above medium height, with a lithe, vigorous frame, a brisk, erect carriage, a bright black eye, and a face full of geniality and benevolence. His bearing was frank, kindly, and without pretence. Wherever he went friends were quickly won. and those who knew him best saw most of his sincere, unselfish, attractive qualities.
He traveled widely, for business or pleasure, over all parts of the United States, and several times crossed the Atlantic. He was still incessantly engaged in a scarcely diminished variety of labors when, from heart disease, he died, almost instantaneously, in his own home, at the age of seventy-eight.
A bronze statue of Mr. DODGE was erected at a prominent point near the junction of Broadway and Sixth Avenue. Previous monuments in the City were intended to com- memorate the services of military heroes or eminent statesmen. In an address at the dedication, the Hon. ABRAM S. HEWITT called attention to the fact, that this was erected "to perpetuate the memory of one whose chief claim to distinction lies in a noble character, a useful life, and, above all, in the employment of his means as a trust fund for the good of his fellow-men."
Mr. SAMUEL D. BABCOCK, Ex-President of the Chamber of Commerce, presented the statue to the City, in behalf of the Committee, expressing the hope that "it would be preserved as a perpetual reminder of an upright and influential merchant, a useful and loyal citizen, a zealous
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and tender-hearted Christian philanthropist, an illustrious type of a true and lofty manhood."
The statue is of life size, resting upon a massive granite pedestal, having a drinking fountain in front. The inscription reads :
"Erected by voluntary subscriptions, under the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York, 1885."
GEORGE W. LANE.
GEORGE WILLIAM LANE, President of the Chamber of Commerce at the time of his death, was, for almost all his life, a resident of New-York. He was born near Red Mills, in the neighborhood of Lake Mahopac, Putnam County, New-York, January 8, 1818, and on the borders of that lake he maintained, during the latter part of his life, a summer home. While still a boy he came to New-York, and began that career in Front-street which he followed until his death. He became one of the most conspicuous represen- tatives of the mercantile business in which he was engaged. He died at his home in New-York City, December 30, 1883, when he had almost completed his sixty-sixth year.
For thirty years he was a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He was elected Vice-President of that body May 6, 1875, and President May 4, 1882. Among the financial institutions with which he was then connected, and to which he had devoted much attention during the later years of his life, may be mentioned the Fulton Na- tional Bank, the Merchants' National Bank, the Seamen's Bank for Savings, the Continental [Fire] Insurance Con- pany, the Atlantic Mutual [Marine] Insurance Company, and also the Central Trust Company, of which he was one of the original incorporators.
In religious and philanthropic work he was also promi- nently active. He was one of the members of the Madison Square Presbyterian Church when it was organized under the pastoral care of the late Rev. Dr. WILLIAM ADAMS, and he continued to be an elder of that church and a trustee
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until his death. He was a member of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, a manager of the American Bible Society, President for fifteen years of the Port Society, Trustee for five years of the Union Theological Seminary, and President of the Managers of the Presby- terian Hospital.
He was also interested in the promotion of good gov- ernment, and especially in efforts to secure an honest administration of the City of New-York. He worked efficiently in the Committee of Seventy, by which a fraudu- lent system of municipal affairs was exposed and frustrated. At the urgent request of his friend, Mayor HAVEMEYER, he accepted the office of Chamberlain of the City, and continued in it from May, 1873, to February, 1875. With great reluctance, in the summer before his death, he consented to become a member of the Croton Aqueduct Commission, and the arduous responsibilities of this position weighed heavily upon him.
In all these important stations he maintained the confi- dence of his colleagues and associates, as the numerous tributes testify which were called out by his death. Although his disposition was that of a modest, retiring man, who never wished preferment, his strong convictions, excellent judgment and abundant public spirit were so well known that his counsel was constantly sought. It was freely given to all who asked it. There are few men in any community whose opinions were so trustworthy as Mr. LANE's, either in public or in private affairs. He had a large measure of that sagacity which sees the end from the beginning, combined with that instinctive sense of justice and righteousness which does not hesitate in forming a purpose, nor swerve from a chosen course because of its unpleasantness or want of popularity.
Soon after the death of Mr. LANE, Rev. Dr. CHARLES H. PARKHURST delivered two commemorative addresses in the Madison Square Presbyterian Church. These addresses were printed with the proceedings of the various associations to which Mr. LANE belonged. These discourses present the characteristics of the man more completely than they can
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here be given, and the key to his excellence in all the rela- tions of life is therein distinctly pointed out .- DANIEL C. GILMAN, LL. D.
JONATHAN STURGES.
THIS and succeeding generations will remember JONA- THIAN STURGES as one of the old school of merchants, whose probity and honor were as natural to them as their fore- sight and perseverance. The life of Mr. STURGES was of that well-rounded, symmetrical kind, and was in all that the phrase implies-good and true. It was a life worth living. It presented the highest sagacity of the merchant and the noblest virtues of the private citizen. There was in Mr. STURGES a beautiful blending of modesty and wis- dom, of instinctive courtesy and firm principle. What he did was thorough. Although conducting a large business, he nevertheless found time to devote to philanthropic and Christian work. Truly his long life was well spent. It was a career of principle, which leaves its impress upon a gener- ation, and silently but eloquently bids the man of commerce bring all his transactions to the bar of conscience. Rich as Mr. STURGES was in this world's goods, he was richer still in honor, and at his death he left to his family, in addition to his earthly fortune, the priceless possession of a good name.
Mr. STURGES was born in Southport, Conn., March 24th, 1802, entered the service of R. & L. REED, grocers, in Front- street, in 1821, and became a partner in 1828, when the firm name was changed to REED & STURGES. Mr. REED died in 1836 ; the firm then became STURGES, ROE & BARKER, and in 1843 STURGES, BENNET & Co., and so remained until 1865, when it was again changed to STURGES, ARNOLD & Co. Mr. STURGES retired from the firm on January 1st, 1868. The extensive grocery, coffee and tea business of the house had been continued at No. 125 Front-street from 1815, when it was first started by LUMAN REED. Mr. STURGES became the owner of the property, reconstructed the building and
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had his office there. He, with GEORGE GRISWOLD, was one of the chief promoters of the Illinois Central Railroad, and was a director up to the time of his death. He was also a director in the New-York and New-Haven Railway. It is not questioned that he was regarded as the foremost man in the tea and coffee trade, and his counsel, enriched by the experience of half a century, was often sought by the trade. As a friend he was warm and steadfast, and everybody implicitly trusted him.
Mr. STURGES was one of the oldest and most valued mem- bers of the Chamber of Commerce, served on several impor- tant Special and Standing Committees, and filled the office of Vice-President from 1863 to 1867. In an eloquent tribute to his memory, delivered at a meeting of the Chamber, held December 3d, 1874, Mr. A. A. Low said of him, "He was a recognized patron of art. In the Church he manifested the virtues of the Christian, in society the unostentatious at- tributes of a gentleman, in the service of his country the devoted zeal of a true patriot, as a citizen the love of the philanthopist, never forgetting his obligations to the poor, the sick and the crippled, but extending to all the benefac- tions of a warm heart and of an open hand. The homage we pay to the good man when living we desire to perpetuate in hallowed memories, and to this end we inscribe on our minutes the sentiments that are graven on our hearts-of gratitude for this life of uncommon beauty, of sincere sorrow for our own great loss, and of our sympathy for the family of the bereaved." Mr. STURGES deserved this warm tribute, which needs no elaboration here. His honorable career was brought to a close November 28th, 1874, by an attack of pneumonia, the result of a cold caught a few days previously while attending a religious conference in Philadelphia.
GEORGE OPDYKE.
GEORGE OPDYKE was born December 7, 1805, in King- wood, Hunterdon County, New-Jersey. He was descended,
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through a long line of prosperous farmers, from a Holland family who settled upon Long Island, N. Y., about the year 1650.
After having for two years attended the District School, he assumed charge of it at the age of sixteen. Two years later, in 1823, he adventurously started out into the new West, settling first at Cleveland, Ohio, and there en- gaged in mercantile pursuits. Later he removed to New- Orleans, where he remained five years. In 1829 Mr. Op- DYKE married Miss ELIZABETH HALL STRYKER, of his native place, and in 1832 he entered into business in New- York City as wholesale clothing manufacturer, afterwards as importer of dry goods, and finally as 'banker. He con- tinued in active business until his death, June 12, 1880, and passed successfully through every financial panic of fifty years. From 1839 to 1853 he made his residence near Newark, N. J., and then removed back to New-York City.
In early life Mr. OPDYKE took an active part in political affairs. Departing from the Whig opinions of his family, he became a Democrat, and a devoted supporter of the Ad- ministration of ANDREW JACKSON. He was, however, at all times heartily opposed to the extension of slavery, and in 1848 he aided in the organization of the Free Soil party, and was its candidate for Congress in the Fifth District of New-Jersey, but was defeated by WILLIAM WRIGHT, who afterwards was United States Senator from that State.
At the time of the financial panic of 1857, Mr. OPDYKE exerted himself to bring about a concerted movement by the banks of New-York City to restore confidence by en- larging their loans upon securities and credits of un- doubted value. He claimed that the financial crisis was largely based upon fear, the general condition of the busi- ness of the country being sound, and the only real weakness being among the prematurely extended railways in the West. He showed how the Bank of England had stemmed financial crisis by enlarging credits on good se- curities, instead of refusing their customers accommodation in times of greatest need. As a result of these efforts, a
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Board of Currency was organized, and much valuable in- vestigation made by the leading bankers of the City into economic questions, with a result that still influences the administration of the banks of the country.
In 1858 he was elected a member of the Assembly by the Republican party, and took an active part in advocating all measures for the advancement of the commercial interests of the City and State of New-York.
In 1860 he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Chicago, and, with DAVID DUDLEY FIELD and the late HORACE GREELEY, aided largely in effecting the nomination of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, of whose adminis- tration he afterwards became an active and efficient adviser.
The first public action taken in New-York City in sup- port of the National Government, upon the outbreak of the Rebellion, was that of the Chamber of Commerce upon the resolutions proposed by Mr. OPDYKE, at its meeting, held April 19th, 1861. This was the beginning of untiring and patriotic labors on his part throughout the war, during which he gave freely of his time, strength and means, in every direction where he found he could in any way aid the nation in its great struggle. In the fall of 1861, Mr. OPDYKE was elected Mayor of the City of New- York, and held that office through the eventful years of 1862 and 1863, being the only Republican Mayor the City of New-York has chosen. His position as the Chief Magistrate placed him at the rallying point for all intelli- gent and patriotic zeal in the metropolis, and he was especially active in the raising and equipping of troops, and in the forwarding of them to the seat of war. The draft riots in the City occurred during his Mayoralty, and the emergency was met by him with courage and an unwaver- ing determination to restore obedience to law without yielding to the clamor of the mob. He remained at his post of duty, and refused to listen to any measures of com- promise, although he was frequently threatened with as- sassination, his residence twice attacked by the mob, and other of his property destroyed by fire. During the con- tinuance of the riot, the Common Council unanimously
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voted $2,500,000, to relieve from actual service all who were drafted. This ordinance the Mayor promptly vetoed, de- claring that rioters should be conquered, not conciliated, and that the City must actually furnish the men needed to preserve the nation. After the riot was quelled the Mayor defeated the scheme of the Common Council, by securing action of the Board of Supervisors, which furnished actual men as substitutes for those who were drafted and who did not themselves serve.
Mr. OPDYKE was a delegate at large to the New-York Constitutional Convention of 1867-8, and a member of the succeeding Constitutional Commission of 1872-3. In re- vising the State Constitution, he found work which was most interesting and congenial to his tastes, and labored con amore upon all the subjects which came before the Convention and Commission. He was especially active in all that concerned the canals and other commercial interests of the State; in all that related to Common School education, and especially to measures for compul- sory attendance at the schools ; in all that contributed to the improved government of cities, including measures looking to the election, by the vote of tax-payers only, of a Board of Financial Control in the large cities ; and in the Constitutional amendment that was eventually adopted as to bribery. He greatly regretted that the Legislature did not approve the proposed amendment relative to Boards of Financial Control in cities,-which was first suppressed by political manœuvres, and when again proposed by the Charter Commission, was defeated by politicians, whose schemes it would have effectually checked.
Mr. OPDYKE was at all times an earnest student, and supplemented his early schooling by systematic self- instruction. He became a clear and forcible writer and a pleasing and effective speaker. As early as 1845 he wrote a treatise on Political Economy, which he afterwards re- vised and published in 1851. In this work he discussed the theory of wages, the value of land and other questions, and advanced many original views which have since become ac- cepted doctrines of the science. In his treatise he demon-
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strated the economic evils of slavery, and took strong ground in favor of free trade, but was willing to accept " a tariff for revenue only " as a practical policy for the United States. He also advocated the issue by the National Gov- ernment of an inconvertible paper money, limited by constitutional provisions to a certain amount per capita of population. When, during the War of the Rebellion, Secre- tary CHASE sought his advice as to the proposed issue of the legal tenders, Mr. OPDYKE, adhering to his views formulated in 1845, strongly urged the issue of national currency to an amount not exceeding three hundred million dollars. Against the subsequent enlarged issues of these notes he earnestly objected, foreseeing the injurious effects that soon followed the inflation of the currency.
Mr. OPDYKE published also, in 1866, a volume of "May- oralty Documents," embracing the political and adminis- trative history of the City during his term of office. This volume contains his veto messages, which throw a strong light upon the modes of City government under ineffective charter provisions.
Mr. OPDYKE was for twenty-two years a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York. For eight years, from 1867 to 1875, he was a Vice-President, and during the period of his connection with the Chamber he was constant in his attendance at its meetings, and very active in calling attention to matters of public concern, serving upon most of the important Commit- tees, and taking a prominent part in the debates of the Chamber. Especially was he prominent in all measures for improving the navigation and defence of New-York Harbor, and for securing free navigation of the State Canals.
WILLIAM H. FOGG.
WILLIAM H. FOGG was born on a farm in the town of Berwick, Maine, on December 27th, 1817. His grand-
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father was a prominent officer in the Church, and his father was a man highly esteemed by his fellow citizens. The parents of Mr. FOGG came from genuine New-England stock. The small means Mr. FOGG had accumulated as clerk in a country store enabled him to establish, with two other young men, in Boston, the firm of BENNOCK, FOGG & SHANNON, which continued for some time, but being unsuccessful, the partnership was dissolved. To Mr. FOGG's honor, be it said, he paid, years after, with interest the whole indebtedness of this firm. In 1847 the firm of FOGG BROTHERS was organized, having more or less relation with the brother, HIRAM, who resided in China. The busi- ness was transferred to New-York in 1852, and the branch at Boston closed. Mr. FOGG's brother died in 1855, and the firm then became WILLIAM H. FOGG & Co., the busi- ness devolving entirely upon WILLIAM H. FOGG, who was then thirty-eight years of age. Energy, enterprise and honesty ensured success, and soon the firm became promi- nent in the China trade. When Mr. FOGG returned from his visit to that country in 1880, the firm dissolved, but the busi- ness was continued under the name of the China and Japan Trading Company, of which Mr. FOGG remained President until his death. The Company's enterpise is now a matter of history. It had branches at Shanghai, China ; at Yo- kohama, Kobe, Osaca, in Japan; at London and San Francisco, and handled, in addition to tea and silk, large quantities of general merchandise. In all his transactions, WILLIAM H. FOGG was conservative and cautious, and had the reputation of conducting the affairs of the Company on sound principles. For a quarter of a century he was an honored member of the Chamber of Commerce, and for two years prior to his death one of its Vice-Presidents. At the time of his decease he was a director in the Park Bank, and once its President, a director of the Atlantic Mutual In- surance Company, the Equitable Life Assurance Company and the Mercantile Trust Company. He was also a Governor of the New-York Hospital, and of several other beneficent organizations, all of which expressed in fitting terms their
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sorrow at his death, which occurred in this City, March 24th, 1884.
Those who knew him would testify, without exception, that Mr. FOGG was one of the most courteous of men, possessing, in an eminent degree, that charming urbanity which smooths intercourse between men of business, and enables them to avoid many of the asperities so often encountered in commercial life. The writer knew him intimately, and often had to consult with him on im- portant questions which came before the Chamber for con- sideration and action. In all cases, and at all times, Mr. FoGG showed the same unvarying courtesy which charac- terized his whole life. In his capacity as Vice-President of the Chamber, or as Chairman of its Executive Committee, he was ever ready to spend his time and means to further the interests and enhance the welfare of New-York. Prac- tical, sagacious and cool, Mr. FoGG's judgment was highly valued, and his force of character much admired by his colleagues and friends. He was a man of deeply religious convictions, liberal but unostentatious in all his works of charity.
MATTHEW MAURY.
MATTHEW MAURY was born in Liverpool, England, Sep- tember 29th, 1800. He descended from a Huguenot family, which settled in Virginia in 1717, and was the third son of JAMES MAURY, who, directly after the Revolution, went to Liverpool to establish an American house, and was ap- pointed consul to that port by General WASHINGTON. He filled this office from 1790 to 1829, under the first six Presidents of the United States, reflecting credit upon his country, and commanding the honor and respect of those with whom he came in contact both in public and private life, and at a time when to be an American was necessarily unpopular. He was the first President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Liverpool, and his portrait,
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painted for that body by STEWART NEWTON, still hangs in its rooms.
MATTHEW MAURY was educated at Eton, and visited America for the first time in 1817. He began business with MAURY, LATHAM & Co., his father's house in Liverpool, and was made a partner soon after he came of age. They were general merchants, tobacco being their chief import, until the cotton trade grew up. The first American cotton was shipped in wooden boxes. A memorandum by Consul MAURY, of these first imports, was as follows :
In 1785, 5 in 3 vessels ; in 1786, 6 in 2 vessels ; in 1787, 108 bales in 5 vessels, and so on. Thus, MATTHEW MAURY grew up with the business in which he spent his life, and had a rare familiarity with it in all its details. When the present method of "futures" began, it was so distaste- ful to his ideas as a merchant that he could never fully enter into it. After 1822, he was constantly in America. In 1832, with his younger brother, RUTSON, he established the house of M. & R. MAURY, in New-York, changed in 1841 to MAURY BROTHERS, of which he continued the head until his death.
Born under the flag, MATTHEW MAURY was by right an American citizen, and had the strongest love and admira- tion for his country and her Republican Government, with a firm belief in its complete success. This did not hinder his admiring many excellent features in the working of the English Government, such as the absence of rotation in office, and the simplicity of the tariff.
JAMES MAURY, like all thoughtful men of his time, had a great aversion to slavery, an aversion he carefully instilled into his children, and charged them, when they came to this country, never to own a slave. Brought up under such influences, it is plain, that when the late war broke out, MATTHEW MAURY could be nothing else but a strong Union man, and ever remain so.
He had a high appreciation of the value of the New-York Chamber of Commerce, and almost all his public services were rendered through it. He was its Secretary from 1849 to 1853.
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In the following measures he was either prime mover or a zealous co-worker :
In the establishment of the bonded warehouse system, when ROBERT J. WALKER was Secretary of the Treasury ; in an endeavor to improve the banking system of this State ; in the founding in 1848 of the "Institution for the Savings of Merchants' Clerks and others," in which he took a deep interest, and served always as trustee, and as Second Vice-President for twenty-one years ; in an effort to establish a time and weather observatory on the Battery in this City, which failed because the authorities did not favor it ; in the repeal of the cotton tax, because it was an export duty, and therefore unconstitutional. This met with much opposition, but the arguments against it were unanswerable, and the tax was at last repealed.
The resumption of specie payments he urged almost from the day the war closed. He was one of the very few who insisted that preparation should begin at once to retire the greenbacks, and bring the country back to a gold basis, believing that this would check speculation, which, he argued, would be the inevitable result of our irredeemable and inflated currency.
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