Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 10

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650

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George H. Bissell, who was born in Hanover, N. H., in 1821, died in New York in 1884. He was graduated from Dartmouth College in 1845, and became a professor of Greek and Latin in the University of Norwich, Vt. Subsequently he was the Washington correspondent of The Richmond Times, traveled extensively throughout the West Indies, was a journalist in New Orleans, and principal of the High School and superintendent of the schools in the same city. The observation of traces of coal oil in specimens of rock from Pennsylvania that had been submitted to him for examination at Dartmouth, led him to look carefully into that subject. He became convinced of the existence of reservoirs of oil underground where these specimens had come from, and coming to New York in 1853, he organized, the following year, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company, the first petroleum company ever started in the United States. In association with J. G. Eveleth, he leased land in Titusville, Pa., and began operations. The first venture was not a success, however, and in 1855 the company was reorganized, although it was not until 1859 that rich veins of oil were struck. Mr. Bissell, with his partners, reaped handsome financial returns from their enterprise, and in a few years he retired from business and settled in New York City, spending the remaining years of his life in caring for his real estate interests. He always retained his early affection for Dartmouth College, and presented to that institution its handsome gymnasium.

Mr. Pelham St. George Bissell, son of George H. Bissell and his wife, Ophie Louise Griffin, was born in New York, December 5th, 1858. Educated in the Columbia Grammar School and in Columbia College, he graduated from the latter institution in the class of 1880. He succeeded his father in the care of the family property, and is also interested in the manufacture of paper, being the organizer and a large owner of the Adirondacks Pulp Company. He married Helen Alsop French, daughter of Colonel Thomas J. French, lives in West Thirty-ninth Street, and has one son, Pelham St. George Bissell, Jr. He is a member of the Columbia College Alumni Association, the New York Athletic Club and the New York Historical Society.

GEORGE DACRE BLEYTHING, M.D.

O N the one hand Dr. Bleything's descent is traced to a family of Welsh gentry, possessing aristocratic connections, which at an early date in the history of this country became identified with its social and material progress; and on the other it is connected with the struggle for independence through a family which took a patriotic part in the conflict. His great-grandfather was William Bleything, of Wrexham, in the County of Denbigh, Wales, a landed gentleman of ancient descent, the family coat of arms being still borne by its American branch. He married Ellen Duckworth, of the same county, and their second son, Joseph Duckworth Bleything, grandfather of the subject of this article, became a prominent manufacturer, possessing large mills for the manufacture of paper at Manchester, Eng .; Whippany, Morris County, N. J. ; Paterson, in the same State, and Westchester, N. Y. His largest interests were in this country, and it was in his establishment at Whippany that paper was first manufactured by machinery in the United States. The wife of Joseph Duckworth Bleything was an English lady of high connections, Mary Hughes, daughter of Captain John Hughes of the Royal Navy, and his wife, Mabel Beresford Hope, whose family, it is needless to say, has for many generations occupied a place in the British peerage and taken a conspicuous place in the history of the mother country, many of its representatives being noted in annals of the British Army and Navy or in Parliamentary and administrative affairs. Members of it have intermarried with a large number of the families of nobility and gentry in the United Kingdom and it continues to the present day one of the most representative names of its class in England.

Edmund Langstreth Bleything, Dr. Bleything's father, was the son of Joseph Duckworth Bleything and his wife, Mary Hughes, and married Mary Ward Tuttle, of Morris County, N. J., her family having taken part in the Revolutionary War on the patriotic side. The Burn, at Whippany, near Morristown, now Dr. Bleything's country residence, occupies the site of the old Colonial mansion in which the American and French officers of Washington were often hospitably entertained by his mother's family when the Continental headquarters was established at Morris- town. The estate was a Colonial grant, and was inherited by its present possessor through his mother, whose family was noted in the early history of Morris County, being among the earliest people of social distinction in that section of the present State. The original papers relating to their grant are still in the possession of the family.

Dr. George Dacre Bleything was born in Morris County, October 18th, 1842. He was educated under a private tutor at Trenton, N. J., and entering Columbia College, graduated from the medical department with the degree of M.D., and has since practiced his profession in this city. His marriage connected him with one of the most prominent families in New England ; Mrs. Bleything, who was a native of Savannah, Ga., having been born Maria Howard Bulfinch. Her father was the Reverend S. G. Bulfinch, of Boston, and her mother Maria Howard, of Savannah, Ga., daughter of Samuel Howard, who was the first in this country, after Robert Fulton, to construct steamboats. Her maternal grandfather, it should also be noted, figured in the Boston Tea Party. On the paternal side, Mrs. Bleything's grandfather was the famous Charles Bulfinch, the leading American architect of the period succeeding the Revolution, whose work is still admired in the venerable State House at Boston, and who designed the west wing of the Capitol at Washington, D. C. Her grandmother was Susan (Apthorpe) Bulfinch, and the family is still represented in Boston society, its members possessing many valuable and interesting relics, including family portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lely, Coply, Smibert, Sir Benjamin West and Angelica Kaufman.

Dr. Bleything's town residence is No. 1008 Madison Avenue, and, as already indicated, his country place is the old seat of his maternal ancestors in Morris County, N. J., which has come down to him as the representative of its original Colonial grantees and which is one of the historical places of that vicinity.

CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS

S EVERAL branches of the Bliss family have been prominent in New York during the last two generations or more. They are derived from different sons of Thomas Bliss, the American pioneer, who came from Devonshire, England, to America about 1635, lived in Braintree, Mass., and Hartford, Conn., and died about 1640. The Honorable Cornelius Newton Bliss is descended from Jonathan Bliss, of Rehoboth, Mass., who was born in England about 1625, the son of Thomas Bliss, the pioneer. Jonathan Bliss was a freeman of Plymouth in 1655 and a freeman of Rehoboth in 1658, being one of the first settlers of that place. His wife, whom he married in 1648, was Miriam Harmon. He died in 1687. His son, Jonathan Bliss, of Rehoboth, who was born in 1666, married, in 1691, Miriam Carpenter, daughter of William and Miriam (Searls) Carpenter. Their son, Lieutenant Ephraim Bliss, who was born in 1699, married, in 1723, Rachel Carpenter. Captain Jonathan Bliss, of Rehoboth, 1739-1800, married, in 1759, Lydia Wheeler. Their son, Asahel Bliss, who was born in 1771, was a deacon of the Congregational Church of Rehoboth for fifty years. His wife, whom he married in 1794, was Deborah Martin, daughter of Edward Martin. He died in 1855 and his wife survived him three years, dying in 1858. Asahel N. Bliss, 1808-1833, son of Deacon Asahel and Deborah (Martin) Bliss, was the father of the Honorable Cornelius N. Bliss. He was a prominent merchant of Fall River, Mass. His wife, whom he married in 1831, was Irene B. Luther.

The Honorable Cornelius N. Bliss was born in Fall River, January 26th, 1833. His father died while he was still an infant, and his mother, after some years of widowhood, married Edward S. Keep, of Fall River. Mr. and Mrs. Keep removed to New Orleans in 1840, but the son was left with friends to attend school until he had attained the age of fourteen. Then he joined his mother in New Orleans and completed his education in the high school in that city. When he was through with his books, he entered the counting-room of his step-father, and after remaining there for a year, left New Orleans for Boston and went into the dry goods and jobbing house of James M. Bebee & Co. In 1866, the firm was dissolved, and Mr. Bliss became a member of the firm of John S. & Eben Wright & Co., one of Boston's largest commission houses. But after the Civil War, Boston began to lose its great dry goods trade, that had been centered in that city for a quarter of a century or more, and that now was gradually shifting to New York, and shortly Mr. Bliss removed to the metropolis and established a branch of the Boston house. Important branches were established afterwards in Philadelphia and Chicago, and the concern has become one of the largest and most influential in its trade in the country. In the course of time, the firm name was changed to Wright, Bliss & Fabyan, and later to Bliss, Fabyan & Co., as it now stands.

Politically Mr. Bliss is a Republican, and his activity in the party organization has given him a national reputation. He has been particularly prominent in the interest that he has taken in municipal affairs and is a recognized leader in every movement for honest government. The Republican nomination for Governor of the State was suggested to him in 1885, but he resolutely declined the honor, and again in 1891 he refused to be a candidate for the same office. In 1892, and in 1896, in important Presidential campaigns, he was treasurer of the Republican National Committee. In 1897 he became a member of the Cabinet of President Mckinley, taking the portfolio of the Interior Department.

For several years he was a vice-president of the Union League Club, and one of the most active and honored members of that influential organization. He has been chairman of the executive committee and vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce; vice-president of the Fourth National Bank ; president of the New England Society ; a governor and treasurer of the New York Hospital, and is at the head of many social and benevolent organizations. He married, in 1859, Elizabeth Plumer, daughter of the Honorable Avery Plumer, of Boston, and has two children living, a son, Cornelius Bliss, Jr., and a daughter. His residence is in Madison Avenue.

GEORGE BLISS

O NE of the foremost lawyers of his time, and also noted for his public spirit and devotion to the cause of religion, Colonel George Bliss had a line of distinguished New England ancestry. His remote progenitor was William Bliss, of Belstone, Devonshire, a wealthy landowner who, as a Puritan, was subjected to persecution in the time of Archbishop Laud and suffered the loss of his estate. His sons sought refuge in the New World and one of them, Thomas Bliss, 1580-1640, founded the branch of the family to which Colonel Bliss belonged. Thomas Bliss lived in Braintree, Mass., and Hartford, Conn., his son being Samuel Bliss, 1624- 1720, of Springfield, Mass., who married Mary Leonard. Next in line of descent were Ebenezer Bliss, 1683-1717, who married Mary Gaylord, and Jedediah Bliss, whose wife was Rachel Sheldon. The Honorable Moses Bliss, 1736-1814, was their son. He was graduated from Yale College in 1755, studied theology and preached for a short time, but finally abandoned the church for the bar, becoming a very successful lawyer and a Judge in Hampshire County, Mass. He was a strong patriot in the Revolution. His wife was Abigail Metcalf, daughter of William and Abigail (Edwards) Metcalf. Their son, the Honorable George Bliss, of Springfield, was born in 1764, graduated from Yale in 1785 and in 1823 was made an LL. D. by Harvard. He also was a very distinguished lawyer, a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, Senate and Executive Council, and a delegate to the famous Hartford convention. His wife was Hannah Clarke, daughter of Dr. John Clarke, of Lebanon, Conn. The Honorable George Bliss, second of the name, was born in Springfield in 1793 and was graduated from Yale in 1812. In the war with England, he served as aide, with rank of Colonel, on the staff of General Jacob Bliss. He was several times in the Massachusetts Legislature, being Speaker of the House in 1853, president of the Senate in 1855, a member of the Council and a Presidential elector. He was one of the founders of the Boston & Albany Railroad and president of the company, 1836-42, and also president of several other roads. His wife, Mary Shepard Dwight, was the daughter of Jonathan and Sarah Dwight.

Colonel George Bliss, of New York, was born of this parentage in Springfield, May 3d, 1830. He graduated from Harvard in 1851, studied law and made New York City his home. In 1859, he was private secretary to Governor Edwin D. Morgan, and was on the Governor's staff with rank of Colonel, was Captain in the Fourth Heavy Artillery, and raised several regiments of colored troops for the Civil War.

The services of Colonel Bliss to the community and to his own profession have been notable. During 1872-77, he was United States District Attorney, and was one of the com- mission to revise and condense the laws relating to New York City. As an author, he is known throughout the whole United States for his great work, Bliss' Annotated Code of Civil Procedure of the State of New York. Early in his legal career, he issued a standard treatise on The Law of Life Insurance. He was an active member of the Republican party and a leader in its councils in this city and State.

During the administration of President Arthur, the property of the American Catholic College in Rome was threatened with confiscation by the Italian authorities, though belonging to American citizens. Colonel Bliss actively interested himself in the matter and secured the interven- tion of the United States, the protest of our Minister at Rome, W. W. Astor, being effectual to stop the spoliation. In 1895, His Holiness, Pope Leo XIII., in recognition of this and other services of Colonel Bliss to the Church, made him a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory.

In 1858, Colonel Bliss married Catharine Van Rensselaer Dwight, daughter of Frances Dwight, of Albany. She died in 1884. In 1887, he contracted a second alliance with Anaïs Casey, daughter of Henry H. Casey, of New York. Three children were born to them, of whom Ruth Alice Bliss and George Bliss, Jr., survive. Colonel Bliss died September 2d, 1897. The family residence is in West Thirty-ninth Street, and Colonel Bliss' clubs embraced the Union League and Catholic, and he belonged also to the New England Society.

JAMES ORVILLE BLOSS

A MONG the early settlers of Watertown, Mass., were Edmund Bloys, or Bloss, Robert Jennison and James Cutler. From these pioneers, as well as from other early Colonists of New England, Mr. James Orville Bloss is descended. Edmund Bloss, the first American ancestor of the family, was admitted a freeman of Watertown in 1639, and was one of the leading men of that place. He was a native of England and came of an old Suffolk family. His first wife, Mary, died in 1675, and he afterwards married Ruth Parsons, daughter of Hugh Parsons. He died in 1681, having been born in 1587. Ruth Parsons was a niece of Joseph Parsons, who, with his brother Hugh, was settled in Springfield before 1636. The brothers came originally from Devonshire, England.

Richard Bloss, of the second American generation, was born in England in 1623 and took the oath of fidelity in Watertown in 1652. He died in 1665. His wife, whom he married in 1658, was Micael Jennison, daughter of Robert Jennison, who was a freeman of Watertown in 1645 and owned many acres of land there. Robert Jennison came to this country with his brother, William Jennison, as a follower of Governor John Winthrop. William Jennison became prominent in early Colonial affairs, was a freeman of Watertown in 1630, frequently a selectman of the town, a representative to the General Court and Captain of the train band. The New England families now bearing the name are all descended from Robert Jennison.

Richard Bloss, grandson of Edmund Bloss, the pioneer, was born in 1659 and removed from Watertown to Killingly, Conn., in middle life, being a freeman of that place in 1690. He married, in 1688, Ann Cutler, daughter of James and Lydia (Wright) Cutler, of Cambridge Farms, now part of the town of Lexington, Mass. Her father was born in 1635 and died in 1685. He was a farmer and a soldier in the War with King Philip's Indians. His wife, whom he married in 1665, was the widow of Samuel Wright and daughter of John Moore, of Sudbury. The paternal grand- father of Ann Cutler was James Cutler, who was born in England in 1606 and settled in Watertown in 1634, being one of the original grantees of that place. Tradition says that his wife, Anna, was a sister of the wife of Captain John Grout. About 1651, he removed from Watertown to Cam- bridge Farms.

James Bloss, 1702-1790, of Killingly, Conn., was the great-great-grandfather of Mr. James Orville Bloss. The great-grandparents of Mr. Bloss were James Bloss, of Hebron, Conn., who was born in Killingly and died in New Rochelle, N. Y., in 1776, and his wife, Elizabeth Clough, 1733-1803, daughter of Jonathan and Mary Clough. James Bloss was a soldier in the Revolutionary War and his son, Joseph Bloss, grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was also a Revolutionary soldier, being in the detachment of troops that was on duty at the execution of Major Andre. Joseph Bloss was born in Thompson, Conn., in 1759 and died in 1838. His wife was Amy Kennedy, who was born in Milton, Mass., in 1768, daughter of Andrew Kennedy, 1729-1788, and Amy Wentworth, 1732-1802. The father of Mr. Bloss was James Orville Bloss, Sr., of Rochester, N. Y., who was born in Alford, Mass., in 1805 and died in Rochester in 1869. His wife was Eliza Ann Lockwood, 1810-1880, daughter of Roswell Lockwood, 1783-1863, and Thalia Oviatt, 1787-1873.

Mr. James Orville Bloss was born in Rochester, N. Y., September 30th, 1847. Early in life, he determined to devote himself to business pursuits, and with that end in view secured a thorough business training. When he arrived of age, having settled in New York, he became a cotton merchant and has followed that business with success. In 1892, he was elected president of the New York Cotton Exchange and reelected to that honorable position in the following year. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and a director of the Third National Bank. Although actively engaged in business for many years, he has found time and opportunity for extensive travel abroad. He is unmarried and resides in East Forty-seventh Stret. His clubs are the Metro- politan and the Union League.

CARL F. W. BODECKER, D.D.S.

C ARL F. W. BODECKER, D.D.S., M.D.S., is of German birth. His parents, Henry Bodecker and Doris Bodecker, born Lohmann, were residents of Celle, Hanover, where Dr. Bodecker was born July 6, 1846. He was educated in the schools of his native city. He began the study of dentistry in Germany ; in 1866, he went to London, Eng., where he was engaged in the practice of his profession till 1869, when he came to this country. He graduated from the New York College of Dentistry in 1871, receiving the first prize awarded by the faculty.

One of the most successful and most popular members of the dental profession in this city, he has made his personal impression on dental science, and is a member of many societies connected with his profession, both in the United States and in Europe. In 1878, when the Dental Society of the State of New York desired that the practitioners whose interests it concerned should be represented in the book entitled The Public Service of the State of New York, Dr. Bodecker was one of four gentlemen honored by being selected to have their portraits as representative dentists appear in the volume. When the International Medical Congress, made up of delegates from all parts of the world, assembled in Washington, in 1887, Dr. Bodecker was Chairman of the Dental Clinic. Again, in 1893, he presided over the Clinic of the International Dental Congress, that met at Chicago during the World's Fair, and has held a distinguished position in other scientific gatherings connected with his chosen profession and its interests in various directions.

Aside from his private practice, Dr. Bodecker has occupied many important positions in connection with dental institutions. He was a professor of Dental Histology and Embryology in the New York College of Dentistry, and occupied the same chair in the University of Buffalo. Many dental societies have honored him with election as an honorary member ; in this country, the New Jersey State Dental Society, the New Jersey Central Dental Society, and the California State Odontological Society. He is also an honorary member of the American Dental Society of Europe, Der Central Verein Deutscher Zahnärzte, and the Svenska Tandlakave Sallskapt. Dr. Bodecker has written much upon the subject of dentistry, contributing many valuable papers to dental periodicals, and publishing several pamphlets. He is also the author of The Anatomy and Pathology of the Teeth, a work that has been accepted by the profession as an authorita- tive treatise, and which has been quoted with high commendation by the leading authorities upon dentistry, both here and abroad, as one of the most advanced works of its kind of the present age.

In 1874, Dr. Bodecker was married to Wilhelmina Himbeck, who came from a German family distinguished in the annals of the State. Her grandfather was the Count Von Himbeck, and her father was in the direct line of inheritance to the title, which is an ancient one, descending from a line of eminent ancestors. He married Doris Konig, who did not belong to the nobility, and for that reason forfeited his right to the title, which passed to collateral heirs. Dr. and Mrs. Bodecker have two sons. Charles F. Bodecker is a minor. Dr. Henry W. C. Bodecker is a practicing dentist, who has taken his degrees of B.S. and D.D.S., and is associated with his father in the practice of his profession and gives promise of sustaining the paternal reputation for original scientific investigation.

Dr. Bodecker resides at 60 East Fifty-eighth Street, and has a country residence at Centre Moriches, L. I. He is interested in gentlemanly outdoor life, but especially in yachting and riding. He is not much of a club man, finding recreation from his professional life only in the German Liederkranz. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, and has had entrance to the most aristocratic society. He has been presented at court in the Old World. At home he is a generous entertainer and has had, from time to time, as his guests, many distinguished foreign visitors.

JOHN BOGART

F OR centuries the name of Bogart has been borne by many Hollanders of distinction. Some- times it has been spelled Bogart, and again Bogert, and different branches of the family have at times used the prefixes, van den or van der. A Bogart was Minister of Remon- strants in the sixteenth century. Another was Recorder General of the Dutch Provinces in the seventeenth century, and his portrait appears in one of Rembrandt's famous paintings. William Jans Boogaert was a kirk-meister in Amsterdam in 1590, Jan Willem Boogaert was a commissioner in the same city in 1611, and Johan Bogaert was a deputy sheriff. Some members of the family Latinized the name, and thus, in this country, we have Everhardus Bogardus, who was one of the earliest Dutch clergymen in New Amsterdam. Several pioneers of the name settled in New Jersey, and on the Hudson, and one influential branch went to Beverwyck, now Albany.

Teunis (Anthony) Bogaert was the Dutch ancestor in the old country of that branch of the family which settled in Beverwyck. He was a resident of Schoenderwoert, a small village near Leerdam, in the southern part of Holland. His son, Cornelis Bogaert, of Schoenderwoert, was the father of Cornelis Bogaert, who was buried in Albany in 1665. The second Cornelis Bogaert came from Holland in 1640 to Rensselaerwyck, where he held land under the Patroon Van Rensse- laer in 1641. He also owned land in Beverwyck. His descendants married and intermarried with the leading Dutch families of Albany and vicinity. His son, Jacob, who died in 1725, married Jannetje, daughter of Pieter Quackenbush, and his grandson, Isaac, who died in 1770, married Hendricke, daughter of Hendrick Jants Oothout. His great-grandson, Hendrick I., who was born in 1729 and died 1821, married Barbara, daughter of Johannes Marselis.

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Prominent families of New York; being an account in biographical form of individuals and families distinguished as representatives of the social, professional and civic life of New York city, Part 10

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: New York, The Historical company Number of Pages: 650

Author: Weeks, Lyman Horace, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: New York, The Historical company
Number of Pages: 650