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 2

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

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MRS. CATHERINE BEEKMAN AITKEN

I N the year 1647, there came to New Amsterdam, in the same vessel with Governor and Captain General Petrus Stuyvesant, a young Hollander of position and wealth named Willhemus Beekman. His family were wealthy burgers, of Keulen, and he was born in 1623 at Hasselt, in Oberyssel. Being of higher social rank than most of the Colonists, and having the favor of the Governor, he at once became a man of mark, one of the first great matches in the history of New York being his marriage to Catherine De Boogh, the belle and heiress of the infant city. He became Schepen and Burgomeister of the town, and a large property owner, being in fact its richest inhabi- tant. Among other offices which he filled was that of Deputy Governor of the Dutch possessions on the Delaware River, which had been captured from the Swedes by Governor Stuyvesant in 1655. At all times during his career he showed a keen appreciation for valuable lands, and among his other estates, acquired by purchase or grant from the Dutch West India Company, was a large tract at Esopus. He partly resided on this estate, and was appointed Sheriff of the district, and in that capacity welcomed Governors Nicolls, Lovelace and Andros after the British occupation. He also purchased all the land around Rhinebeck, which place he named from the river on whose banks he was born, and built there a stone house which is still standing, the bricks of which its chimney is constructed having been imported from Holland. Notwithstanding his prominence, he was one of the leading Dutch citizens who were suspected of disloyalty by Governor Andros, and subjected to arrest by that official in 1675. In 1683 he, however, was named as Mayor of the city, and was for many years one of the aldermen, being throughout his career one of the most influential of the early Dutch inhabitants of the Province.

He bought Corlears Hook from Jacob Corlear soon after his arrival in the Colony, and in 1670 purchased of one Thomas Hall a large tract fronting on the East River and extending nearly across the island on a line with the present City Hall. Here he established his homestead, and it is recorded that his orchard was on the slopes where Beekman Street now descends, that thorough- fare, as well as William Street, taking their names from him. He died in 1707, at the ripe age of eighty-four, leaving a large family who have ever maintained the prominence which was given to the name by its founder.

His son, Colonel Gerardus Beekman, the eminent patriot, was a physician and surgeon. He married, in 1677, Magdalena Abeel, of Albany, and resided in Flatbush. In 1685, he was appointed Justice of Kings County. He was one of Leisler's Council. In 1687, he took the oath of allegiance. He became a member of the Colonial Assembly in 1698, and was afterwards Acting Governor. He was a large purchaser of lands on the Raritan and Millstone Rivers, in New Jersey, and was active in developing that section, dying in 1723.

Mrs. Aitken is directly descended from this branch of the family, being a daughter of the late Abraham Beekman and his wife, Elizabeth (Houghton) Beekman. The Houghtons are also a family of distinguished ancestry and connections, being related to many of the most celebrated names in Colonial history. The Beekman family twice intermarried with the Van Dyke family. Mrs. Aitken, in fact, can trace her descent back for three hundred years in no less than three direct lines to ancestors, all of whom were of prominence in the early records of the country, both in Colonial and Revolutionary times.

Among the other Revolutionary patriots included in the number was her great-great-grand- father, Rulof Van Dyke, member of the Provincial Congress of New York and of the Committee of Safety which governed the State during the Revolution, and who took an active and distinguished part in the public affairs of that period, being referred to in the accounts of those trying times as one of the most steadfast and energetic supporters of the American cause.

Mrs. Aitken is the widow of the late Honorable William B. Aitken, who died in 1880. He was a lawyer and statesman. Her three children are Lydia A. Aitken, Elizabeth (Aitken) Bull, wife of Charles Hudson Bull, and William B. Aitken, a lawyer of New York City.

LAWRENCE DADE ALEXANDER

V IRGINIA'S Colonial aristocracy is a factor which has exercised a powerful influence on the political history and material progress of the United States. It has been almost a predom- inant element in moulding the social side of the American character. Distinctions based on birth and ancestry were and are still cherished in the Old Dominion to a greater degree than any other State, and the descendants of its gentry, who sprang originally from families of social position and gentle blood in the mother country, are now found in every part of the land, and have preserved and upheld such traditions.

Kentucky absorbed much of Virginia's best blood, and has in turn contributed its share to the social development of the country at large. During the first quarter of the present century, many representatives of the old families of tide-water Virginia migrated to the new region which extended from the Blue Ridge to the Mississippi. Among this number was Gerard Alexander, of Effingham, an estate in Prince William County, Va., who, with his wife, Elizabeth (Henry) Alexander, and his family went in 1823 to Breckenridge County, Ky., where he died in 1834. A granduncle of the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, General Edmund Brooke Alexander. was an officer of reputation in the United States Army, and was distinguished in the Mexican War, in the operations against the Mormans in Utah, and in the war between the States.

The father of Mr. Lawrence Dade Alexander was Junius B. Alexander, who as a youth accompanied his parents from Virginia to Kentucky. He engaged with success in the banking business at Louisville, St. Louis, and later on in New York. The country seat he established here was Effingham, on Todt Hill, Staten Island, the name being taken from the ancestral Virginia estate, the property afterwards being inherited by his son, Frank D. Alexander. Another of the sons of Gerard Alexander was Colonel Thomas Ludwell Alexander, a prominent officer of the Mexican War, and who, under the administration of President Lincoln, became governor of the Soldiers' Home at Washington, D. C. Junius B. Alexander married Lucy Fitzhugh Dade, a lady who also came of ancestors prominent in Virginian history, and was a native of that State. Her maternal grandfather, General Lawrence Taliaferro Dade, was commanding officer of the State Militia, a member of the Legislature for Orange County, and an emigrant to Kentucky, where he died. Her brother, Francis Cadwalader Dade, served with distinction throughout the Civil War and is now Chief Engineer on the retired list of the navy.

Mr. Lawrence Dade Alexander was born of this parentage in Meade County, Ky., in 1843. He attended Washington University, St. Louis, and entered Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, where he took his degree. He entered his father's profession and followed him to New York City, becoming in 1869 a member of the New York Stock Exchange. He married Orline St. John, a daughter of the late Newton St. John, who for nearly a half a century was a prominent banker of Mobile, Ala. Among her ancestors was General Bibb, the first Governor of the State of Alabama, and Colonel Charles Pope, of Delaware, who was prominent in the Revolution. Mrs. Alexander's brother, the late William Pope St. John, was president of a prominent national bank in this city, and was known for his contributions to economic science. The late Professor Samuel St. John, who for many years held the chair of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, was also her cousin. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence D. Alexander have four children, St. John Alexander, Lawrence Dade Alexander, Jr., Orline Alexander, and Lucy Dade Alexander, the latter being now Mrs. E. A. W. Everitt.

Mr. Alexander has a partiality for country life, characteristic of the race of Southern gentle- folk from which he is descended. He is a member of the University Club and the Southern Society. His inclinations are literary, and he has been an enthusiastic and judicious collector of books. In both respects, his tastes have a close connection with the sport of angling, in which he is an expert. He has been a contributor on this subject to The American Angler and to the work on American Sports issued by the Century Company.

ETHAN ALLEN

N TEW JERSEY was debatable ground during the War of the Revolution, and some of the most important military movements of the Continental forces were within and across her borders. In particular, Monmouth County was not only the scene of a famous conflict- the battle of Freehold-but throughout the struggle between the Crown and the Colonies, its coast was subject to raids by the British land and sea forces. The duty of patrolling its shores became one of the most imperative as well as most hazardous tasks of the time and was undertaken by some of its patriotic inhabitants. Prominent among them was Captain Samuel Allen, a man of wealth and influence in the county, who from his own means raised and equipped a company of minute men for this purpose. At their head, he took part in some of the most stirring events of the war, and rendered service of the highest value to the patriot cause. When British foes again threatened this part of the country, during the War of 1812, the son of this Revolutionary hero, Samuel Fleming Allen, performed a like duty on behalf of his State and country, and the State of New Jersey gave deserved recognition of the great value of his military services at that time by conferring upon him a State pension that ended only with his death, which occurred in 1882, at the ripe age of ninety-one.

Colonel Ethan Allen, son of Samuel Fleming Allen and grandson of Captain Samuel Allen of the Revolution, was born in Monmouth County, in the year 1832. He was graduated from Brown University in 1860 with high rank, being orator of his class. Adopting the profession of law, he thenceforth made New York City his residence, and entered upon an active and successful practice. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was holding the important position of Deputy United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. His own desire was to enter the army, but Mr. Stanton, at that time Secretary of War, appreciated his services in his actual post so highly that he refused sanction to his proposed relinquishment of that position. But he was enabled to devote himself to the military, as well as the civil, service of the Union, for Governor E. D. Morgan commissioned him a Colonel in the recruiting service, in which he rendered efficient aid to the Government in the war, recruiting for the army what was then known as the Blair Brigade, named after the veteran statesman, Francis P. Blair.

In 1861, Colonel Allen married Eliza Clagett, daughter of Darius and Providence Brice Clagett. Mrs. Allen is a native of the District of Columbia, belonging to one of the most distin- guished families in Maryland, or indeed in the country at large, and is a member of the Colonial Dames, of that State. One of her remote ancestors was Augustine Heerman, who arrived in New Netherland in 1663 and afterwards removed to Maryland, where he became the Lord of Bohemian Manor in that Province and the founder of a noted family there. Among the other distinguished Maryland families with which she is connected by ties of blood and common descent are the Vanderhuydens, Brices, Frisbys, Dorseys and Pacas Tillmans, the name of Clagett having been for many generations famous in the same State. Her ancestry also includes such families in other States as those of Schuyler, Randolph and Jennings.

The Allen family residence is in West Fifty-second Street. Mr. Allen belongs to the Union League Club, and is also a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Brown University Alumni, and many political, charitable and social organizations. He has traveled extensively in Europe, his tours covering all portions of the Continent, among his experiences being a visit to the North Cape of Norway and a sojourn in St. Petersburg and Moscow. At the New York bar, he has won special distinction for his ability before a jury. Out of the several hundred jury cases that he was engaged in during his twenty years or more of active practice, he rarely lost one. Among other celebrated cases in which he was retained as counsel was the famous contest growing out of the will of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, his associate in this instance being former Attorney-General Jeremiah Black. Mr. Allen was chairman of the National Committee of 1872, which supported the cause of Horace Greeley for the Presidency of the United States.

ASA ALLING ALLING

NSTANCES are found in the early records where the name of the small and distinguished family to which this gentleman belongs is given as both Alling and Allen. The former manner has been adhered to by the American bearers of the name descended from Roger Alling, the Puritan emigrant of 1637. Roger Alling was the son of James Alling, or Allen, of Kempston, Bedfordshire, England. Espousing Puritan opinions, he left England for Holland, and thence went to Massachusetts, removed to New Haven, Conn., and on June 4th, 1639, was a signer, in company with Davenport, Doolittle and others, of the historical New Haven Compact. He became a man of mark in the community, was an officer of the church, Treasurer of the Colony and also a Judge, his name occurring repeatedly in the early history of New Haven, where he died, September 27th, 1674. Roger Alling married Mary Nash, daughter of Thomas Nash, one of the first settlers of New Haven, and left a family of seven children.

Members of the Alling family have always remained in New Haven and held distinguished positions there in the professions, in political life, and in connection with Yale College; John Alling, third son of Roger, having been one of the earlier treasurers of that institution and Judge of Probate 1711-17. Two grandsons of the original emigrant, however, removed before the year 1700 to New Jersey, where their descendants hold a distinguished place and have intermarried with the Hornblowers, Bradleys and other families of similar prominence in that State.

Samuel Alling, one of the pioneer Roger Alling's sons, was a proprietor of the New Haven Colony, and from him Mr. Asa A. Alling, of New York, is descended through his son, Caleb Alling. The latter, born in 1694, married for his second wife Thankful Mix. His son, Asa Alling, the first of that name, was born in 1723, and married, in 1749, Ann Potter, of New Haven. He removed to Nine Partners, now in Dutchess County, N. Y., and thus founded the branch of the family known as the Hudson River Allings, which has since intermarried with the Knapps, Thompsons, Huntings and other leading families of that section. He had four sons, one of whom was the Reverend Abraham Alling, of Connecticut ; and another, Asa Alling, second of the name, who was born in 1751 and was known as Captain Alling from his service in the Revolutionary Army. He married Jemima Purdy, of Dutchess County, and had two sons and three daughters. One of the latter married Colonel Jordan, brother of Ambrose L. Jordan, a leader of the New York bar in his day. Asa Alling, 1789-1864, third of the name, was a son of the second Asa Alling. He was a Judge in Dutchess County, N. Y., and married Cornelia Sackett in 1816. Their son, J. Sackett Alling, born in 1822, is the father of Mr. Asa A. Alling. J. Sackett Alling became a leading merchant in New York. In 1855, he married the present Mr. Alling's mother, whose maiden name was Anna E. Bertine, a descendant of Pierre Bertine, or Berton, a Huguenot of noble family, who, on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, came to South Carolina and afterwards to Westchester County, N. Y.

Born of this parentage, in New York City, May 4th, 1862, Mr. Asa A. Alling was educated at public and private schools and entered Cornell University, from which he was graduated Ph. B. in 1883. He was ivy orator of his class and won the Woodford prize for oratory. He then passed two years in the Law Department of Columbia College; and receiving the degree of LL. B. in 1885, was called to the bar in the same year. He has since been engaged in active professional practice in this city, and is a member of the firm of Kenneson, Crain & Alling. Mr. Alling has taken an active part in politics, being prominent in the councils of the Democratic party.

In 1894, Mr. Alling married Louise Floyd Smith, a descendant of an old Long Island family and of distinguished Colonial and Revolutionary ancestry. Mr. Alling is a member of the Metropolitan, University, Reform, Manhattan, Cornell University, Dutchess County and Democratic clubs, having been a governor of the latter. He also belongs to the Bar Association, the West End Association, the New England Society, the New York Historical Society and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.

ELBERT ELLERY ANDERSON

L AWYER, soldier, political economist and publicist, Mr. E. Ellery Anderson has taken a prominent part in molding and directing opinion and action on the great public questions that have agitated the American people in the closing years of the nineteenth century. He is a thorough New Yorker, born in this city October 31st, 1833, and his scholastic temperament comes to him as an inheritance from his father, who was a distinguished educator and scientist.

Professor Henry J. Anderson, M. D., LL. D., the father, was born in 1799. He was graduated from Columbia College in 1818, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1823, two years later becoming Professor of Mathematics, Analytical Mechanics and Physical Astronomy in Columbia College. For eighteen years he held that position, and then resigned on account of his wife's health and traveled in Europe. While abroad, he became identified with the Roman Catholic Church, and on his return to New York gave much time to the promotion of the interests of that ecclesiastical body. He was president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and was on the official boards of other church organizations. In 1851, he was elected a trustee of Columbia College, and in 1866 was made emeritus Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy. When the American Scientific Expedition went to explore the level of the Dead Sea, Professor Anderson accompanied the party and conducted some interesting investigations. In 1875, he went to India to explore the Himalayas for ethnological and philosophical discoveries. While there, he was stricken with disease and died in October of that year.

Mr. Anderson traveled in Europe in 1843 with his father, and returning to his studies was graduated from Harvard College in 1852. He was admitted to the bar in 1854 and has seduously applied himself to the practice of his profession ever since. He has had the management of many trust estates and has been engaged upon some very celebrated cases. In 1868, he entered into partnership with Frederick H. Man, under the firm name of Anderson & Man. The partners have handled much litigation with railroads, and one of their most important cases was that in which they recovered some two million dollars interest due on bonds of the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad. In 1862, Mr. Anderson went to the front as a Major in a regiment of New York volunteers and served until he was captured and returned home under a parole of Stonewall Jackson. Although a strong Democrat, he joined in the movement against Tweed in 1871, and did good work in helping to overthrow the ring. As a Tammany man, he was for several years chairman of the Eleventh District, but in 1879, in company with Abram S. Hewitt, William C. Whitney, Edward Cooper and others, he withdrew from that organization and became one of the founders of the County Democracy, being for a long time chairman of the general committee.

Although he has given considerable time to politics, he has never permitted his name to be used for any elective public office. He has, however, been a school trustee, and in 1896 was appointed a member of the Board of Education. He has also served on the Rapid Transit Com- mission, the Croton Aqueduct Commission and the Elevated Railroad Commission. In 1887, President Cleveland appointed him on the commission to investigate the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads, and he prepared the majority report of the commission. He was appointed one of the directors of the Union Pacific Railway Company on behalf of the Government, and in 1893 was appointed by the United States Court one of the receivers of that corporation.

It is as an advocate of tariff reform in recent years that Mr. Anderson has made himself best known, and has exercised the widest and strongest influence. His services to the Democratic party on that issue in the Presidential campaign of 1892 were exceedingly valuable. He was president of the Reform Club and chairman of the Tariff Reform Committee, and wrote many papers and made many addresses. In the campaign of 1896, he was similarly active for the cause of sound money. Mr. Anderson married Augusta Chauncey, and lives in West Thirty-eighth Street. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Democratic, University, Reform, Whist and other clubs, and of the Bar Association.

HENRY BURRALL ANDERSON

O F ancient Scottish origin, that branch of the Anderson family of which Henry Hill Anderson, father of Mr. Henry B. Anderson, was the notable representative in New York for nearly fifty years, was long settled in the State of Maine. The grandfather of Henry Hill Anderson was the Reverend Rufus Anderson, who was a graduate of Dartmouth College and a distinguished clergyman. His grandmother was a cousin of Chief Justice Theophilus Parsons, of Massachusetts. Her grandfather was Ebenezer Parsons, of Gloucester, Mass., a trader with Indians, often a selectman and a deacon and ruling elder of the First Church. His death occurred in 1763. The great-grandfather of Mrs. Rufus Anderson was Jeffrey Parsons, who, near the close of the first half of the seventeenth century, sailed from England for the West Indies. After remaining some time in Barbadoes, he came to Massachusetts, settling in Gloucester, on Cape Ann. He had considerable means and was a successful merchant and also held town office. His wife was Sarah Vinson, daughter of one of the first settlers of Gloucester.

The father of Henry Hill Anderson was the Reverend Dr. Rufus Anderson, who was born in North Yarmouth, Me., in 1796, and died in 1880. After being graduated from Bowdoin College in 1818, he studied in the Andover Theological Seminary, being graduated therefrom in 1822 and ordained a minister two years after. He became the secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions in 1832, holding that position for thirty-four years. For two years following 1867, he was a lecturer on foreign missions in the Andover Seminary. He traveled frequently upon business of the missionary society, visiting the Mediterranean in 1843, East India in 1854 and the Sandwich Islands in 1863. His numerous publications included many books, principally upon subjects relating to missionary work.

Henry Hill Anderson, who was born in Boston, November 9th, 1827, died in York Harbor, Me., in September, 1895. Prepared for college in Phillips Academy, Andover, he was graduated from Williams College in 1848, receiving the degree of M. A. in 1851. He studied law in New York and entered the office of Henry E. Davies, then Counsel to the Corporation. Entrusted with the defense of many important cases against the city, he was uniformly successful.

In 1852, he became a partner of the law firm of Willard, Sweeney & Anderson, a professional relationship that continued for five years, when, for domestic reasons, he retired and spent some time in foreign travel. From 1859 to 1862, he was an assistant to Greene C. Bronson, Counsel to the Corporation, and afterwards, with Mason Young and Henry E. Howland, established the firm which is now known as Anderson, Howland & Murray. He steadfastly refused proffers of public office that were frequently made to him, but in 1871, he was candidate for Judge of the Supreme Court, being defeated by Noah Davis. He enjoyed a large and profitable private practice, had charge of many corporation interests and was frequently a referee. For many years, he was a vestryman of the Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church, was one of the founders of the University Club and its first president, an office which he held for nine years. His wife, Sarah B. Burrall, daughter of William P. Burrall, of Hartford, survives him and lives in Gramercy Park, where the New York home of the family has always been.

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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 2

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