USA > New York > New York City > 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 20
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In 1858, Dr. Clarke married Ada Semmes, of Georgetown, daughter of Raphael Semmes and Matilda Jenkins Semmes. The Semmes family also furnished several officers to the Revolutionary Army, while Mrs. Clarke's first cousin, Raphael Semmes, was the famous Confederate Admiral, who commanded the Sumter and the Alabama of the Confederate Navy.
The issue of this marriage are Maude, a Dominican Sister of the Perpetual Adoration; Walter Semmes, a journalist; Mary Ada; Mary Agnes, wife of the Honorable Thomas C. T. Crain, lately Chamberlain of New York; Clara Agnes, wife of Captain Henry P. Birmingham, Surgeon U. S. A .; Richard Henry, Jr., of the New York bar, and Anna Cora Angela Clarke.
Dr. Clarke possesses a notable collection of engravings and prints particularly rich in those relating to Columbus, a large library, and a number of examples and copies of paintings by old masters. He has entertained many distinguished clerical and lay guests, including Cardinals McCloskey and Gibbons, Cardinal Vaughn, now Primate of England, Archbishop Corrigan, Admiral de Couverville, and the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. Active and eminent in all church and charitable works, Dr. Clarke has been President of the Alumni of Georgetown University, and of the New York Catholic Protectory, and a delegate to the American Convention of Charities and Correction, to the American Catholic Lay Congress and the Catholic Summer School. The cause of reformed politics has his earnest support; he is an earnest advocate of Civil Service reform, and he is also a member and officer of the Society of Sons of the American Revolution. He was selected to write the history of the Catholic Church in New York City in General James Grant Wilson's Memorial History of the City of New York, and has lately issued a paper on the aid rendered by France to America in the War of Inde- pendence, which is regarded as a most thorough monograph on that subject.
121
JOHN VAN BOSKERCK CLARKSON
1 I N 1688, Matthew Clarkson was Secretary of the Province of New York, by appointment of William and Mary, and held that office for thirteen years. He was the son of the Reverend Daniel Clarkson, an English clergyman, who was born at Bradford, Eng., in 1622. His mother was Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Henry Holcroft, whose wife was the daughter of Francis, Lord Aungier, who descended from the sovereigns of England. He married, January 19th, 1692, Catherine, daughter of Goosen Gerriste Van Schaick, of Albany, connected with the Van Courtlandts, the Verplancks, the Barclays and the Schuylers. The oldest son of Matthew Clarkson, David Clarkson, 1694-1751, was at one time a merchant in London, but returned and settled in New York, was a member of the Assembly, 1739-1751, and an uncompromising patriot. A grand- son of the original Clarkson was Gerardus Clarkson, one of the most distinguished physicians of Philadelphia; one of his great-grandsons was Matthew Clarkson, who served with distinction throughout the Revolutionary War; and among his other descendants were Matthew Clarkson, Mayor of Philadelphia and a Member of Congress; the Reverend Doctor Howard Crosby, Chancellor of the University of New York, and Bishop Robert Harper Clarkson, of Nebraska.
A son of Doctor Gerardus Clarkson was William Clarkson, a physician of Philadelphia, and in after years a Presbyterian minister, who had pastorates at Bridgeton, N. J .; Schenectady, N. Y. ; Savannah, Ga., and St. John's Island, S. C. He married Catharine, daughter of William Floyd, 1734-1821. William Floyd was the son of Nicoll Floyd, and grandson of Richard Floyd, of Brookhaven, the ancestor of the Floyd and Floyd-Jones families in this country. He was an enthusiastic patriot during the Revolution, and served the Colonial cause well. He was a delegate from New York to the Philadelphia Congress in 1774, a member of every Continental Congress from 1775 to 1782 inclusive, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, State Senator of New York, 1777-1788, Presidential elector and Major-General of the militia.
Samuel Floyd Clarkson, a son of William and Catharine Clarkson, and a lawyer of New York City, married Amelia A., daughter of William A. Baker, a New York merchant. Colonel Floyd Clarkson was the son of Samuel Floyd Clarkson. He was educated at private schools in New York City, and then engaged in the hardware business, in which he continued until the beginning of the Civil War. When President Lincoln called for troops in April, 1861, Floyd Clarkson was a private in the Seventh Regiment, and was in the famous march to Washington. In November, 1861, he became Major of the Sixth New York Cavalry, and served in the Peninsula and North Carolina campaigns, and was breveted Lieutenant-Colonel.
Upon returning from the war, Colonel Clarkson entered business, first as cashier in a commission house, and then successively as secretary of the Equitable Savings Bank, secretary and agent for Woodbury G. Langdon, and finally as a real estate agent for himself. He was trustee of the Union Dime Savings Bank, president of the Riverside Bank, a prominent Free Mason in Kane Lodge, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, Chancellor of the New York Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, Commander of the New York Department of the Grand Army of the Republic, a member of the St. Nicholas Society, and vice-president of the Sons of the Revolution. In March, 1857, he married Harriet A. Van Boskerck, daughter of John Van Boskerck, a retired merchant of Holland descent. Ten children were born of this union, and five sons and two daughters grew to maturity. Colonel Clarkson died January 2d, 1894.
Mr. John Van Boskerck Clarkson is the eldest surviving son of Colonel Floyd Clarkson. He is a prominent real estate operator, going into that business with his father in 1884, under the firm name of Floyd Clarkson & Son, which still remains unchanged. He lives in the family residence at 48 East Sixty-sixth Street, occupied by his father for many years. He is a member of the St. Nicholas Club and the Sons of the Revolution, Society of Colonial Wars, Military Order of Loyal Legion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a Director of the Riverside Bank.
I22
HENRY CLEWS
B ANKER and man of public affairs, Mr. Henry Clews has long held a preeminent position in the metropolis. For forty years he has been prominent in Wall Street, and during that entire time has also taken an active part in national and municipal affairs. Mr. Clews was born in Staffordshire, England, where his family ranks as one of the oldest and most substantial in that part of the country. His father was a man of high social and business standing, engaged in prosperous manufacturing enterprises, largely in connection with the American market. He prepared his son for admission to Cambridge University, with the intention of having him enter the ministry of the Established Church.
Having occasion to visit the United States on a business trip, the senior Mr. Clews brought with him his son, who was then only fifteen years of age. Something in the bustling commercial life of the country caught the fancy of the boy, and he persuaded his father to allow a change in his plans and to permit him to enter upon a business, rather than a professional career. Remaining in New York, a position in the importing house of Wilson G. Hunt & Co. was secured for him, and since that time he has been wholly identified with the city of his adoption. He continued in the importing business for several years, but having an ambition to become a banker, in 1857, was admitted to membership in the Wall Street firm of Stout, Clews & Mason. From the outset he was successful in his new field of labor, and in the years since then has attained to a foremost place among financiers, and was prominent in all the patriotic work that engaged the attention of the community at that time. About 1861, he became a junior partner in the firm of Livermore, Clews & Co. His firm received its first impetus during the Civil War, through the loyalty of Mr. Clews to the National Government and his confidence in the ultimate triumph of the Union cause. Secretary of Treasury Chase appointed his firm fiscal agents for the sale of the five-twenty Government loan, and this trust was carried out with a success that called out the commendation of Mr. Chase for the patriotism and energy shown in the handling of the business. Mr. Clews was also foremost during the Civil War in organizing many of the large mass meetings that were held to stimulate patriotism and encourage the Government in Washington. In 1877, the firm of Henry Clews & Co., of which he is still actively at the head, was organized by him.
As a public-spirited citizen of the metropolis, Mr. Clews has taken a deep interest in politics, but has always declined political preferment. He was an original member of the famous Committee of Seventy, and untiring in the work of that organization in overthrowing the Tweed Ring. He was offered the office of City Chamberlain as a bribe to withdraw his opposition; of course, the proposal was spurned. Other tenders of political positions have come to him at different times in his career. Twice the Secretaryship of the Treasury was offered to him, and twice the Republican nomination for Mayor of New York, and President Grant also desired to nominate him for the office of the Collector of the Port of New York in 1873.
For many years, Mr. Clews was treasurer of the American Geographical Society, and also of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, when Henry Bergh was its president. He has been connected with other city institutions and has given generous support to many humanitarian enterprises. He was one of the founders of the Union League Club, and is also a member of the Union and other leading clubs. His interest in art subjects is shown by the fine gallery of paintings that he owns, and he is one of the thirty-five stockholders and owners of the Metropolitan Opera House. He is the author of Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street, a book that reviews the financial history of New York's great money centre during one of its most interesting periods. In 1847, he married Lucy Madison Worthington, of Kentucky, who comes of an old and aristocratic Southern family, being a grand-niece of President James Madison. His city residence is in West Thirty-fourth Street, and his summer home is The Rocks, in Newport. He has one son, Henry Clews, Jr., and one daughter, Elsie Clews.
123
CHARLES WILLIAM CLINTON
P ARTICULAR interest attaches to the present representatives of names which in Colonial New York or in the early history of the State were borne by the great families. Among them none occupied a higher position than the Clintons, who are an English family of ancient origin, and represented in England now by the Duke of Newcastle. The family was established in America by Charles Clinton, 1690-1773, who was born in the County of Longford, Ireland, a descendant of Henry, the second Earl of Lincoln, and a man of property and influence. In 1731, he purchased a large tract of land at Little Britain, Ulster County, and became the most prominent man in that section. During the French and Indian war, he served as Lieutenant in Bradstreet's expedition of 1756 against Fort Frontenac, and was also Judge of the County Court. He was a relative of Admiral George Clinton, the Royal Governor of the Province from 1743 to 1753, and of the latter's son, Sir Henry Clinton.
This relationship did not prevent the New York Clintons from warmly espousing the patriotic side in the struggle, and two of Charles Clinton's sons became leaders in the American cause. One of them, General George Clinton, 1739-1812, was a delegate to the Continental Congress of 1775 and voted for the Declaration of Independence, but did not sign it, having been recalled to New York to assume a military command. In 1776, he was made a Brigadier- General by Congress, and in 1777 was elected Governor of New York under the first State Constitution. He held this post by five successive elections till 1795. He was again elected Governor of New York in 1801, and became Vice-President of the United States in 1805, in the second administration of Jefferson, being re-elected in 1808 with Madison.
His elder brother, General James Clinton, was born in 1736, distinguished himself in the French and Indian war, became a Colonel in the Army of the Revolution, and as such took part in General Montgomery's expedition against Quebec. Appointed Brigadier-General in 1776, he served under Putnam on the Hudson, defended Fort Clinton when it was stormed by the British in 1777, and after a gallant resistance escaped severely wounded. He was present at the siege and capitulation of Yorktown, was subsequently a member of the State Convention of 1788, which ratified the Federal Constitution, and a State Senator, dying in 1812.
His wife was Mary, daughter of Egbert DeWitt, the most famous of his family being his son, DeWitt Clinton, 1769-1828, whose political career as Senator, Mayor of New York, Lieutenant-Governor, 1811-1813, and finally Governor, 1817-1822, and 1824-1828, are part of the history of the State and the county, while his advocacy and success in carrying through the completion of that great work, the Erie Canal, opened in 1825, was the groundwork of New York's financial and commercial supremacy. Charles Clinton, a brother of DeWitt Clinton, was Mr. Charles William Clinton's grandfather. His son, Alexander Clinton, was a physician of ability and reputation, and married Adeline Arden Hamilton, daughter of Alexander James Hamilton, an officer of the British Army and a representative of a distinguished Scottish family.
Mr. Charles William Clinton is the offspring of this alliance. He was born in New York, received an academical education and studied architecture under the late Richard Upjohn. Mr. Clinton has been for many years engaged in the practice of his profession, in which he has attained the foremost rank. Among the many creations with which he has adorned this city, such edifices as the Mutual Life Insurance Building and the Seventh Regiment Armory may be specially mentioned. He was one of the vice-presidents of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, which office he held for seven years. He served in the Seventh Regiment, volunteering three times when it was called into active service during the Civil War. Besides the various associations connected with his profession, such as the Institute of Architects and the Architectural League, Mr. Clinton also belongs to the Chamber of Commerce and several literary, artistic and social clubs, among which are included the Century Association, the Tuxedo Club and the Municipal Art Society.
124
JOHN COCHRAN
W HEN General Lafayette lay dangerously ill with a fever for many weeks in the Ver Planck mansion in Fishkill, in the autumn of 1778, he was closely attended by Dr. John Cochran, of Washington's army, of whom he became very fond, and to whom he was accustomed to apply the endearing soubriquet, "the Good Doctor Bones." Dr. Cochran rendered noble service to the Patriot cause. He was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1730. His father was a farmer, who had emigrated to the Colonies from the North of Ireland. He received a careful education and finished his medical studies in season to take part in the French and Indian War of 1755, serving as a surgeon's mate and winning a reputation as a skillful practitioner. In 1776, he volunteered his services to the Patriots and was appointed Physician and Surgeon General by Washington. Congress made him Director General of Hospitals in 1781. When peace was declared, he made his home in New York City, and at one time held the office of Commissioner of Loans for the State, by appointment from Washington. Early in life, he married Gertrude, sister of his intimate friend, General Philip Schuyler, and lived in New Brunswick, N. J., where he prac -. ticed his profession and was at one time president of the Medical Society of that State. Mrs. Cochran was the great-granddaughter of John Schuyler, who led an expedition to Canada against the French and the Indians in 1690, and who was the youngest son of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, the American ancestor of the family, and his wife, Margaret Van Schlichtenhorst.
The son of Dr. John Cochran was Walter L. Cochran, who married Cornelia Smith, daughter of Judge Peter Smith, of Peterboro, N. Y. The ancestors of Judge Smith came from Holland, and he was a large land owner in Western New York, reputed at one time to be in possession of nearly one million acres. He was also a partner with John Jacob Astor in the fur business, and his son, Gerritt Smith, was the famous philanthropist and anti-slavery advocate and staunch friend of John Brown. Mrs. Cochran's mother was Elizabeth Livingston, oldest daughter of Colonel James Liv- ingston, of the Army of the Revolution, who drove the British sloop Vulture from the North River, thus bringing about the capture of Major André and the preservation of West Point from falling into the hands of the enemy. This James Livingston was the descendant of Robert, the nephew of Robert, the first Lord of the Manor, and the first American Livingston, and of his wife, Margaretta Schuyler, daughter of Colonel Peter (Queder) Schuyler, having been a son of John, the youngest son of Robert, the nephew, and of his wife, Catherine Ten Broeck.
General John Cochran can thus trace his ancestry from the great families of the Colonial and Revolutionary period. The son of Walter L. Cochran, he was born in Palatine, Montgomery County, N. Y., August 27th, 1813. Graduated from Hamilton College in 1831, he was admitted to the bar three years later, removed to New York in 1846, and began a career that for more than a quarter of a century kept him actively engaged in the public service. In 1853, he was appointed United States Surveyor for the Port of New York, and from 1857 to 1861 was a Member of Con- gress. In 1864, he was made a Vice-Presidential candidate on the ticket with John C. Fremont, but withdrew before the election came on. Upon the breaking out of the Civil War, he recruited and took command of a regiment and served until 1863, when he resigned on account of disabili- ties. He was the first man to advise arming the slaves in the Civil War, urging that military measure in a speech in November, 1861.
In civil life, since the war, he has borne a conspicuous part, having been Attorney-General of the State of New York, 1863-65, president of the Common Council of New York City in 1872, and a police justice in 1889. He was a delegate to the National Liberal Republican Convention in 1872, and declined the Ministry to Uruguay and Paraguay in 1869. He is a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, in which he is the president of the New York Society; a member of the Loyal Legion, the Sons of the Revolution, the Tammany Society and other social, political and military organizations. He lives in East Sixty-second Street, and his summer home is in Brookside, Morris County, N. J.
125
DAVID VESEY SMITH CODDINGTON
L INCOLNSHIRE was the English home of William Coddington, who was born in 1601, came to this country in 1630 and settled in Salem, afterwards removing to Boston. He was a magistrate of Massachusetts, and owned valuable land. Sympathizing with the sectaries whom the Colonial authorities persecuted, he defended Ann Hutchinson and Mary Dyer, but was unable to save the latter, and, arousing bitter opposition, he withdrew to Rhode Island, where he was a Judge, and in 1640 Governor. When the Providence Plantations were incorporated, in 1647, he became assistant president, and succeeded to the presidency in 1648. In 1674-75 and 1678 he was elected Governor of the Colony. He built the first brick house in Boston.
John Coddington, a gentleman of wealth for his day, married Margaret Edgar and removed to New Jersey. His son, James Coddington, 1754-1816, was in the Revolutionary Army. He com- manded the body guard Washington gave to Lafayette at the Brandywine and was wounded there. He married Experience (Inslee) Randolph, widow of Captain Nathaniel Randolph. Their son, Jonathan I. Coddington, 1784-1856, was born at Woodbridge, N. J., and was a prominent merchant in New York. He also had a notable political career, and was the friend of Presi- dents Jackson and Van Buren. In 1827, he was a member of the Assembly, and in 1836 was appointed postmaster at New York, then one of the most lucrative Federal offices. He held the place under Presidents Jackson, Van Buren and Harrison. The latter informed him that, though a political opponent, he would not be disturbed, and after General Harrison's death, Tyler's representative asked him to renew his bond. While debating whether to do so or not, he learned that John Lorimer Graham had been appointed in his place. He was a Presidential elector in 1844, and in the same year was the Democratic candidate for Mayor. He declined the Gubernatorial nomination of the Republican party in 1856 on account of failing health. At one time he served on the staff of Governor Tompkins. He married Matilda Palmer, daughter of William Palmer.
The three sons of Jonathan 1. and Matilda (Palmer) Coddington were David Vesey Smith, Gilbert Smith and Clifford Coddington, the first and last now deceased. Clifford Coddington entered the Civil War as Lieutenant in the Fifty-First New York Regiment. He took part in Burnside's North Carolina expedition, and in his first battle was mentioned for conspicuous gallantry. At Antietam, he showed great courage under fire, and was wounded. He subsequently was aide to Major-General Potter, and after the siege of Knoxville was retired for disability. Later, he became Colonel of the Twenty-First Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y. David Vesey Smith Coddington was a distinguished lawyer and orator. Vice-President Dallas once said of him : "There is a young man whom I consider one of the great men of the country. He should be here in the Senate."
Gilbert Smith Coddington was born in New York in 1835, and was educated here and in Geneva, Switzerland. He has traveled much, and spent twenty-five years in Europe. During the Civil War, he supported the Government with energy, and recruited many men at his own expense. In 1862, he was Captain of the Twentieth New York Battery. In 1880, Mr. Coddington married Amelia N. Stilwell, daughter of the Honorable Silas M. Stilwell, 1800-1881, an eminent lawyer of New York. Her great-uncle was the Revolutionary General Garret Stilwell. Early in life, her father was a member of the Tennessee Legislature and of the Virginia House of Burgesses. After 1828, he resided in New York and was a member of the Assembly, acting Mayor, United States Marshall and author of the Stilwell Act and the United States Banking law. Mrs. Coddington is descended from John Cook, the regicide, who came to America, changed his name to Stilwell and was the ancestor of many prominent families.
Mr. Coddington is a member of the Metropolitan, Reform and St. Nicholas clubs, the New York Historical Society, New York Genealogical and Biographical Society and American Geograph- ical Society, also of various clubs in Europe.
I26
CULLEN VAN RENSSELAER COGSWELL
A FTER a long and tempestuous passage across the Atlantic in 1635, the ship Angel Gabriel ended its voyage by dashing upon the rock-bound coast of Maine during a terrible storm. Most of the passengers were washed ashore and escaped with their lives, among them being John Cogswell and his wife, the American ancestors of the family to which Mr. Cullen Van Rensselaer Cogswell belongs. John Cogswell was the son of Edward and Alice Cogswell, of Westbury Leigh, Wiltshire, England, where he was born in 1592. His wife was Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of the Reverend William and Phyllis Thompson. He was a manufacturer and owned several large mills. Belonging to an English family, at the head of which, in 1447, was Lord Humphrey Cogs- well, to whom a coat of arms was granted, he was forty-three years of age when he came to this country and was summarily tossed ashore upon the rocks of Maine. He settled in Ipswich, Mass., of which place he was a freeman in 1636.
In the second American generation was William Cogswell, who was born in England in 1619 and accompanied his parents to this country. He was a resident of Ipswich, where he was a surveyor of the public ways and active in church and town affairs. His wife was Susannah Hawkes, daughter of Adam Hawkes and Anne Hutchinson. His death occurred in 1700. His son, Jonathan Cogswell, who was born in 1661 and died in 1717, was a merchant, justice of the peace and Captain of the train band. He married, in 1686, Elizabeth Wainwright, daughter of Francis Wainwright, who came from Chelmsford, England, and was a soldier in the Pequot War. Jonathan Cogswell, second of the name, grandson of William Cogswell, was born in Ipswich in 1687 and died in 1752. He was a justice of the peace in 1733. His second wife, the ancestress of Mr. Cullen Van Rensselaer Cogswell, was Elizabeth Wade, daughter of Jonathan Wade.
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