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 26
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The Reverend Samuel Dana had many distinguished descendants. His eldest son was Richard Perkins Dana, the father of Mr. Richard Starr Dana. Another son was Israel Thorndike Dana, who was born in Marblehead, Mass., in 1827, and graduated from the Medical School of Harvard College in 1850, with the degree of M. D. He was one of the founders of the Portland School of Medical Instruction and of the Maine General Hospital. He was also professor of materia medica and professor of the theory and practice of medicine in the Medical School of Maine. The Reverend Samuel Dana, of Groton, Mass., was another distinguished member of this family. Born in Cambridge, Mass., in 1739, he was graduated from Harvard College in 1755, and in 1761 settled as a minister over the church in Groton. Afterwards he turned his attention to the study of law, and was admitted to the bar. Removing to Amherst, N. H., he was Judge of Probate for Hillsborough County, in 1789, and in 1793 was elected a member of the State Senate. James Freeman Dana, grandson of the Reverend Samuel Dana, of Marblehead, was born in 1793 and died in 1827. Graduated from Harvard College in 1813, he was assistant professor of chemistry in that institution, the first professor of chemistry and mineralogy in Dartmouth College, in 1820, and professor of chemistry in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York in 1825. Samuel Luther Dana, brother of James Freeman Dana, was born in 1795, graduated from Harvard College in 1813, and became a famous chemist. During the War of 1812, he was an officer in the artillery service, and after the war was graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1818.
Richard Perkins Dana, the father of Mr. Richard Starr Dana, was born in 1810 and died in 1894. A collegiate career was planned for him, but before he had completed his studies for college, he relinquished that purpose and entered the counting house of his uncle, Israel Thorndike, in Boston. While thus engaged, he made several voyages as supercargo of vessels, owned by his uncle, visiting different parts of the world. The literary tastes inherent in his family early manifested themselves, and he wrote valuable accounts of the places that he visited. During part of his lifetime he resided in China, principally in Canton and Hong Kong, being connected with business houses in those places. After his retirement from active business in the East, he settled in New York. For sixteen years he was a director of the New York Juvenile Asylum, and was one of the governors of the Woman's Hospital. His wife was Juliette H. Starr, of the old Connecticut family of that name. His son, William Starr Dana, now deceased, was a Commander in the United States Navy, and served with much distinction. His only daughter became the wife of General Egbert L. Viele.
Mr. Richard Starr Dana is the eldest son of Richard Perkins Dana. He was born in New York in 1836. Educated in Columbia College, he was graduated from that institution in the class of 1857. On leaving college, he entered the banking and commission house of Russell & Co., China, merchants, becoming a partner in that firm in 1863. He married Florine Turner. He is a member of the Union Club, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars and the Colonial Society of the Acorn. He has two sons, Richard T. and David T. Dana.
157
GEORGE TRIMBLE DAVIDSON
T HE clan McDavid, originally a part of the clan Chattan, derives its name from the marriage of a daughter of the Lord of the Isles with the second son of David 1., King of Scotland. When the Scottish crown fell into abeyance, upon the death of Margaret of Norway, the representative of the Davidson family was one of the nine nobles of royal blood who competed for the throne. From his family came Malcolm Davidson, whose son Nicholas emigrated to Lynn, England, and established another branch there.
In 1639, Mathew Craddock, the royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay, selected Nicholas Davidson to come to this country as his personal representative. He landed, in 1639, at Charlestown, Mass., where he took up his residence, and at the time of his death possessed one of the largest estates in the Colony, inventoried at the sum of £1,869.
His descendant, Mr. George Trimble Davidson, is a son of Colonel Mathias Oliver Davidson a distinguished civil engineer, who served upon the construction of the Croton aqueduct, and subsequently opened the coal regions of Western Maryland. In 1856, he took charge of the construction of the railroads in the island of Cuba; in 1865-70, built the New Haven & Derby Railroad, and in 1870-2 laid out the series of avenues which cross the upper portion of the City of New York. Colonel Davidson had relations with foreign governments, and the Emperor Maximilian of Mexico, where he was employed professionally upon important works, tendered him the title of Marquis, which, however, he did not assume. Mr. George Trimble Davidson's grandfather, Dr. Oliver Davidson, of Plattsburg, N. Y., was a descendant in the fifth generation of Nicholas Davidson, of Charlestown. Dr. Davidson married Margaret Miller, a daughter of Dr. Mathias Burnett Miller, of Utica, and a sister of Judge Morris S. Miller, Mrs. John Schuyler, of Albany, and Mrs. Charles Dudley. Their children, besides Mathias Oliver, were Lucretia Maria and Margaret Miller Davidson, whose precocious poetic genius astonished the literary world half a century ago, and Lieutenant Levi P. Davidson, a graduate of West Point. Dr. Oliver Davidson, after the death of his wife, who possessed great literary distinction, purchased the Sir William Johnson place in Amsterdam, N. Y., where he resided until his death, in 1847. Mr. Davidson's mother is also of distinguished descent. She is a daughter of the late Captain Mathew Miles Standish, of Plattsburg, and Catharine Phoebe Miller, who was a first cousin of Mr. Davidson's paternal grandmother, Mrs. Oliver Davidson. Her father, Captain Mathew Miles Standish, who served during the War of 1812 in the battle of Plattsburg, was the direct descendant in line of primogeniture of Captain Miles Standish. Her second husband, also deceased, was Colonel James Woodruff Romayn, of Detroit.
The paternal arms to which Mr. Davidson is entitled are : on a field azure three pheons argent; on a fess or., a stag attired with ten tines, couchant proper; crest, a falcon's head couped. Motto, Viget et cinere virtus. The Standish arms are: on a field azure, three standishes argent; crest, a cock proper. Motto, Constant en tout. Mr. George Trimble Davidson was born in Fordham, N. Y., October 21st, 1863. He was educated in St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., and graduated from the Columbia Law School, being admitted to the bar at the head of his class in January, 1885. He is engaged in the practice of law and is a member of the Manhattan Club. He occupies a high social position, having been a frequent guest at prominent social functions, and active in the management of the important social affairs. In 1893, he was one of the organizers of the Committee of One Hundred, which received the foreign guests of the city at the Columbian celebration. He has entertained the Infanta Eulalia, Don Antonio of Spain, Prince Roland Bonaparte, the Duc de Lerme, the Duc de Veragua, the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia, Prince Charles de Hatzfeldt-Wildenberg, the Duke of Marlborough, the Duc de Tamames, and other royal and noble foreigners.
Mr. Davidson owns a collection of paintings, including canvases that formerly belonged to Joseph Bonaparte. He has written considerably in prose and verse.
158
WILLIAM GILBERT DAVIES
F OR more than a century and a half the Davies family has been established in this country. In Britain, its lineage is traced to Robert Davies, of Gwysany Castle, high sheriff of Flintshire, who was descended from Cymric Efell, Lord of Eylwys Eyle, in the thirteenth century. The American ancestor, John Davies, 1680-1758, of Kinton, Hertfordshire, came to this country in 1735, settled in Litchfield, Conn., and married Catherine Spencer. He is especially remembered as one of the founders and benefactors of St. Michael's Church, Litchfield, a tablet in that church preserving his memory. His son, John Davies, Jr., married Elizabeth Brown, and had, with other children, Thomas Davies, 1737-1766, who graduated from Yale College, was ordained a clergyman in England, and returned to America as a missionary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts.
The third John Davies, 1735-1799, eldest son of John Davies, Jr., married Eunice Hotchkiss and was the father of Thomas John Davies, 1767-1845, who removed to St. Lawrence County, N. Y., in 1800, and was Sheriff and county Judge. The Honorable Henry E. Davies, 1805-1881, was the son of Thomas John Davies. Admitted to the bar in 1826, he removed to New York, and was long prominent in public life. In 1840, he was an alderman, in 1850 Corporation Counsel, in 1856 a Justice of the Supreme Court, in 1860 a Judge, and afterwards Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. In 1855, he married Rebecca Waldo Tappan, daughter of John Tappan, a Boston merchant, whose brothers, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, were prominent in the abolition movement. Her grandfathers, Benjamin Tappan and John Foote, were both Revolutionary soldiers. The Tappan family is descended from Abraham Tappan, who came to America in 1630. She was also descended from John Hull, the Master of the Mint and Treasurer of Massachusetts, who coined the pine tree shillings. Through his mother, the present Mr. Davies traces his descent to the Quincys, Salisburys, Wendells, and other great New England families, and to the famous Anneke Jans.
Mr. William Gilbert Davies was born in New York, March 21st, 1842, graduated from Trinity College in 1860, also studied at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and was admitted to the New York bar in 1863. During the Civil War, he was a member of the Twenty-Second New York Regiment. A considerable part of his professional life has been spent as counsel to one of the large insurance corporations. His practice now is mainly as chamber counsel. He is a member of the American, State and City Bar associations, and the Law Institute, and is a lecturer on the law of life insurance in the University of the City of New York. In 1870, Mr. Davies married Lucie C. Rice, daughter of the Honorable Alexander H. Rice, who was Mayor of Boston, a Member of Congress, and for three terms Governor of Massachusetts. Mr. Davies lives in East Forty-fifth Street. He is an active member of the New York and Virginia Historical societies, and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. He also belongs to the Union, University, Lawyers', Manhattan, Tuxedo, Grolier and St. Nicholas clubs, the Century Association, the Liederkranz, the + B K Alumni Association, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Society of Colonial Wars.
Julien Tappan Davies, younger son of the Honorable Henry E. Davies, was born in New York, September 25th, 1845, was educated at Mt. Washington Collegiate Institute and at the Walnut Hill School, Geneva, N. Y., and was graduated from Columbia College in 1866, and from the Columbia Law School in 1868. He has made corporation law his specialty. Early in his career, he became a trustee and one of the counsel of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and in 1884 succeeded David Dudley Field as general counsel of the Manhattan Railway Company. He is the senior member of the law firm of Davies, Stone & Auerbach. In 1869, he married Alice Martin, daughter of Henry Martin, of Albany, N. Y. They have three children, Ethel, Cornelia S. and Frederick Martin Davies. The city residence of the family is in West Ninth Street, and their summer home, Pinecroft, in Newport. Mr. Davies belongs to the Metropolitan, Union League, University, Lawyers', City, Players, Church, Republican and New York Yacht clubs, the Society of Colonial Wars and the St. Nicholas Society, and is vice-president of the St. David's Society.
159
FELLOWES DAVIS
A N old Tudor mansion, the manor house at Twickenham, England, now in ruins, was the original seat of the Davis family, which was transplanted to the New World by William Davis, 1617-1683. He settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1638, being among the first of the band of Puritan gentlemen and yeomen who escaped from the persecutions of Charles I. and Archbishop Laud and sought an asylum in New England, where they could find religious freedom. This pioneer's grandson, Colonel Aaron Davis, was a member of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress, Colonel of the Militia, a prominent local and State official, an active patriot during the Revolution, and a leading citizen of Massachusetts in that period. His two sons, Captain Aaron Davis, Jr., and Moses Davis, were also active patriots, the latter serving as a minute man at Lexing- ton and Concord, and the former as an officer of State troops. His house was destroyed by orders of Washington, as being in range of the American artillery trained on Boston at the siege of that city. The two branches of the family were, however, united when William Davis, Jr., grandson of Moses Davis, espoused Maria Davis, granddaughter of Aaron Davis, Jr., the issue of this marriage being Mr. Fellowes Davis, who thus represents both lines of descent from Colonel Aaron Davis.
Mr. Davis's ancestry also includes some of the most famous names in the early history of the country. The wife of Moses Davis, Mr. Davis's great-grandmother, was Hannah Pierpont, daughter of Ebenezer Pierpont, a descendant of the "Founder of Massachusetts," John Winthrop, and of his colleague and successor as Governor of the Colony, Thomas Dudley.
Second to Winthrop alone in his services, Dudley, who was of the blood of the Earl of Leicester, was one of the high born and bred Puritan gentlemen who formed the natural leaders of the Massachusetts settlement. In youth he had been a soldier on the Protestant side in France, and when, in 1630, he migrated to New England, held an important office under the Earl of Lincoln, one of the political supporters of the Puritan cause. He was four times Governor and several times Deputy Governor of Massachusetts, and, at sixty-eight years of age, was the commander of the troops of the Colony. He was noted even among the Puritans for his piety and the austerity of his life, while his devotion to the interests of New England knew no bounds. One of his sons, Joseph Dudley, was also a statesman and administrator in the early Colonial period, and rendered effective service to both Crown and Colonists. After acting as president of the Council of Massa- chusetts and Chief Justice of New York, he was appointed by Queen Anne Governor of his native Province, which office he held for seventeen years.
Thomas Dudley's son, the Reverend Samuel Dudley, married Mary Winthrop, and their daughter, Ann, marrying Edward Hilton, was the grandmother of Ann Hilton, wife of Ebenezer Pierpont. Mr. Davis, indeed, can claim descent in two lines from Governor Dudley, whose daughter, Mary, married John Woodbridge, and was the ancestor of Sarah Smith, wife of his grandfather, William Davis, Sr.
Mr. Davis married, in 1871, Marie Antoinette Baker, of Boston. Mrs. Davis is also directly descended from Governor Dudley, and from many pioneers of distinction, her ancestor, Robert Baker, having come over with the Endicott fleet and was granted a tract of land by the Crown, in Salem, Mass., 1637. Jonathan Baker served in the French and Indian War with distinction, and Benjamin Baker and Jesse Davidson, both great-grandfathers of Mrs. Davis, served in the Revolution, the former at Bunker Hill. The issue of this marriage are four children, Fellowes Davis, Jr., Marie Antoinette Davis, Pierpont Davis and Dudley Davis. The family residence is 57 West Forty-eighth Street. Mr. Davis is one of the board of managers of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, a member of the Council of the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Historical Society, and of the Union Club. The arms of the Davis family, of which one of the earliest examples is still found carved in the stone work of the old manor home at Twickenham, England, consist of a red shield bearing a gold griffin rampant, the crest being a barred helmet surrounded by a rampant griffin, and the motto is Deo Duce Ferro Comitante.
160
CHARLES EVERETT DAVISON
T HE branch of the Davison family which is represented in New York City in the present generation by Mr. Charles Everett Davison, is of English extraction. That gentleman's descent is from ancestors who, from their first appearance in America, showed a patriotic devotion to it. His grandfather, Peter I. Davison, and his wife, a Miss Garrett, were both born in England, but came to this country soon after the Revolution, settling in Chenango County, N. Y. Peter 1. Davison became a man of wealth and prominence in that section of the State, and warmly espoused the cause of his adopted country in the War of 1812 against Great Britain, in which conflict he served in the United States Army with the rank of Captain. His son, John Garrett Davison, was born at Sherburne, Chenango County, N. Y., and married Sarah Amelia Stanton, of Little Britain, Orange County, N. Y., a lady belonging to a family of Irish origin with New England connections, which has produced many distinguished ministers and lawyers, as well as men prominent in other pursuits, both in its early and more recent generations. Her grandfather was at one time Mayor of Dublin, Ireland. She was also a cousin of Secretary Stanton, President Lincoln's great Secretary of War.
Mr. Charles Everett Davison, their son, was born in New York in 1857, and received his education here and at Heidelberg University, Germany, where he passed some years. Mr. Davison then took up his legal studies in this city. His professional preceptor was Vine Wright Kingsley, of the New York bar, one of the old Kingsley family and an eminent lawyer as well as a distinguished litterateur. Mr. Davison also followed the law course of the University of the City of New York, graduating in 1878, and in the same year was admitted to the bar of this city and has been an active and successful practitioner from that time to the present day. He has made a special study of medical jurisprudence, in which difficult branch of the law he is regarded as an expert, and is one of the founders and active supporters of the Medico-Legal Society, one of the leading bodies of its class, not only in New York but in the world at large. He has been associated as counsel in some of the most remarkable trials in the annals of the city, the special professional studies to which he has in a large measure devoted his attention, rendering him an authority upon such subjects and causing him to be called in consultation in differert causes involving questions of medical jurisprudence.
In 1885, Mr. Davison married Mary Eva Travers, of New York. Mrs. Davison's father was James P. Travers, a native of New Orleans, La., having been born there in 1824. Removing to New York in 1844, he engaged in mercantile business in the metropolis, founding a large export trade, his offices being in a large building in Beekman Street, which he erected for his own use. Mr. Travers enjoyed the distinction of having first introduced blotting paper into general use throughout the United States. Mr. Travers was twice offered, but declined, a nomination for Member of Congress for the second district of Long Island.
Though essentially of scholarly and literary tastes and devoted to his professional pursuits, Mr. Davison has taken a prominent part in society, and is not without interest, though not of an active nature, in yachting and other leading sports. He has, as already referred to, resided and traveled abroad, and is, as the result of his journeyings, unusually well acquainted with foreign countries and affairs, and at his residence, 13 Charles Street, in the old Ninth Ward, possesses a collection of choice paintings of American and European artists. He has taken a patriotic interest in national and local politics, and in 1891 was a candidate for the nomination to the State Senate for the first district, the opposing candidate being S. D. Townsend. The result was an exciting struggle in the convention, which lasted from ten o'clock in the morning to a late hour in the evening, though it eventually ended in the nomination of Mr. Townsend, who was finally elected by the constituency.
Mr. Davison, in addition to his town residence, has two country seats, one at Manhanset, Long Island, and another at Monroe, Orange County, N. Y.
16I
1
CLARENCE SHEPARD DAY
R OBERT DAY, who emigrated from England to this country in 1634, was the first American ancestor of Mr. Clarence Shepard Day, He was a native of England, where he was born about 1604, and came from Ipswich, with his wife Mary, on the ship Elizabeth. When he landed in Massachusetts, he settled in Newtown, now Cambridge, becoming a freeman in 1635. When the Reverend Thomas Hooker headed the company which moved to Connecticut and founded Hartford, Robert Day and his family went with them. His first wife having died, he mar- ried, second, Editha Stebbins, of Hartford, and died there in 1648.
In subsequent generations, the ancestors of Mr. Clarence Shepard Day were Thomas Day, who in 1659 married Sarah Cooper, daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Cooper, and died in 1711, his wife dying in 1726; John Day, of West Springfield, Mass., who was born in 1673 and died in 1752, and his wife, Mary Smith, of Hadley, whom he married in 1697 and who died in 1742; Colonel Benjamin Day, of West Springfield, who was born in 1710, and his wife, Eunice Morgan, whom he married in 1742 and who died in 1765; Benjamin Day, who was born in 1747, graduated from Yale College in 1768 and died in 1794, and his wife, Sarah Dwight, of Springfield, who was married in 1772 and died in 1785; and Henry Day, who was born in 1773 and died in 1811, and his wife, Mary Ely, who was born in 1774, married in 1794 and died in 1859.
The father of Mr. Clarence Shepard Day was Benjamin Henry Day, son of Henry and Mary (Ely) Day. He was born in West Springfield in 1810, and for many years was engaged in the pub- lishing business in New York. He is best remembered in connection with The New York Sun, which he founded in 1833 and which he subsequently sold, in 1837, to his brother-in-law, Moses Y. Beach. He afterwards established the paper known as The Brother Jonathan, which he edited and published for twenty years, and then, relinquishing active professional pursuits, lived in retirement and died in 1889. The mother of Mr. Clarence Shepard Day, whom Benjamin Henry Day married in 1831, was Eveline Shepard, who was born in Amsterdam, N. Y., in 1806, daughter of Mather Shepard and Harriet Day.
Through his grandmother, Mary Ely, Mr. Clarence S. Day is descended from another notable Colonial family. His first American ancestor in that line was Nathaniel Ely, of Ipswich, England, who came to Massachusetts in 1634 and afterwards took part in the settlement of Hartford and Nor- walk, Conn., finally establishing his family in Springfield, Mass. Mary Ely was a descendant in the sixth generation from Nathaniel Ely, the pioneer. Her father was William Ely, of West Spring- field, 1743-1825, her mother being Drusilla Brewster, 1745-1828, daughter of William Brewster, of Windham, Conn., who was a direct descendant of William Brewster, of Plymouth. Her grand- mother was Mercy Bliss, daughter of Samuel Bliss, of the Bliss family of Springfield, and her great- grandmother was Mary Edwards, daughter of Deacon John Edwards, of the same family as the famous Jonathan Edwards. Her great-great-grandmother, Mary Day, was a daughter of Robert Day, the pioneer, and thus through two lines of descent, on both sides, the subject of this article traces his lineage to Robert Day.
Mr. Clarence Shepard Day was born in New York, August 9th, 1844. Prepared for college in the public schools, he then studied in the College of the City of New York. During the Civil War, he served, in 1862, with the Seventh Regiment. For thirty years past, he has been occupied with financial affairs and is one of the best known bankers and stock brokers in Wall Street. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Lawyers' and Riding clubs and belongs to the New England Society and the Chamber of Commerce. In 1873, he married Lavinia Elizabeth Stockwell, who, through her mother, is descended from the Parmly family of New York. They have four children: Clarence S. Day, Jr., who graduated from Yale in 1896; George Parmly Day, who also graduated from Yale in 1897; Julian Day, now a Yale undergraduate, and Harold C. Day. The city residence of the family is in Madison Avenue, and they have a country home, Upland Farm, in Harrison, Westchester County, N. Y.
162
GEORGE LORD DAY
A CCORDING to tradition, the Day family was originally settled in Wales, and it is said that the name was derived from the Dee, a small river in the principality. In the course of time, its representatives moved into England, some of them becoming people of importance in the eastern counties and London. By the early records of the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth Colonies, it appears that during the first quarter of a century of the New England settlement eight persons of the name came hither as Colonists.
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