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 28

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

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Entering Yale College, Chauncey Mitchell Depew graduated in 1856. His alma mater in 1887 conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., and he has ever been prominent in promoting the interests of Yale. Immediately after graduation, he began the study of law with the Honorable William Nelson, in his native town, in 1858. He was an adherent of the Republican party, and early became noted as an effective political speaker. Taking an active part in the Lincoln presidential campaign of 1860, he was elected to the New York State Legislature in 1861, reelected in 1862, and in 1863 successfully headed the Republican State ticket as candidate for Secretary of State. He subsequently declined the post of Minister to Japan, to which he was appointed by President Johnson, and was an unwilling candidate for the Lieutenant- Governorship in 1872. Though prominent in the councils of his party, he has accepted no public office in late years. Indeed, in 1884, he declined a unanimous tender of the United States Senatorship by the Republican party in the Legislature, and also the position of Secretary of State of the United States, which was offered by President Benjamin Harrison. At the Republican National Convention of 1888 he received the unanimous support of the New York delegation for the Presidential nomination, and a flattering vote.

Political ambition in Mr. Depew's case has been subordinated to his business responsi- bilities. In 1866, his friendship for Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt and his son, William H. Vanderbilt, led to his becoming attorney for the New York & Harlem Railroad, and when Commodore Vanderbilt, in 1869, acquired control of the New York Central and consolidated it with the Hudson River Railroad, he was elected a director. In 1875, he became general counsel for all the Vanderbilt railroad companies. In 1882, when William H. Vanderbilt retired from the presidency, Mr. Depew became second vice-president of the New York Central, and in 1885, on the death of James H. Rutter, succeeded to the presidency, an office which he still holds, being at the same time president, vice-president, or a director, of all the railroads and other companies of the Vanderbilt system. In 1871, Mr. Depew married Elise Hegeman, of New York, who died in 1893. One son, Chauncey M. Depew, Jr., was the result of this union.

As a public speaker Mr. Depew's reputation is established. He has been the orator on many public occasions, including the celebration of Washington's inauguration as the first President, the dedication of Bartholdi's Statue of Liberty, the centennial of the formation of the Government of the State of New York, and the opening of the World's Fair at Chicago. He was seven times president of the Union League Club, ten times of the Yale Alumni, twice of the St. Nicholas Society, and seven times of the Sons of the American Revolution, in which, as befits his Revolutionary lineage, he is deeply interested, while he is also prominent in the Holland Society and the Huguenot Society of America.

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FREDERIC JAMES DE PEYSTER

D ESCENDED through the eldest surviving male representatives in successive generations, Mr. Frederic James de Peyster is now at the head of that historic New York family whose name he bears. He is in the seventh generation from Johannes de Peyster, the founder of the family in New York, a gentleman of noble blood, who was distinguished among the original Colonists of New Netherland by his wealth and business ability. His ancestors fled from France to Holland, in the sixteenth century; he was born in the latter country, and came to New Amsterdam about 1645. Among other positions that he held was that of schepen in 1677, alder- man, 1666-69, and burgomaster in 1675.

Colonel Abraham de Peyster, 1698-1728, son of Johannes de Peyster, was a native of New Amsterdam, and one of its most public-spirited citizens, being a councilor, an alderman, Judge of the Supreme Court, Mayor of the city in 1691, Acting Governor in 1701, and treasurer in 1706. He was a strong advocate of public improvements, and among other benefactions presented to the city the plot of ground on which the old City Hall was built in Wall Street. He married a cousin, Catherine de Peyster. Abraham de Peyster, Jr., 1696-1767, the eldest son in his father's family, was a figure of prominence in Colonial affairs, being provincial treasurer from 1721 until the time of his death, a period of over forty-five years. His wife, whom he married in 1722, was Margaret Van Cortlandt, daughter of Jacobus Van Cortlandt and Eve Philipse. He had eleven children. James de Peyster, his eldest son, who was born in 1726, married, in 1748, Sarah Reade, daughter of the Honorable Joseph Reade, one of the king's councilors. The line of descent through the third Abraham de Peyster, eldest son of James and Sarah de Peyster, failed through the successive death of all the male members of his family without male issue. His brother, James de Peyster, left no children, The youngest son, Frederic de Peyster, married for his first wife, Helen Hake, daughter of Samuel Hake. After her death in 1801, he married Ann Beekman, only daughter of Gerard G. Beekman, and granddaughter of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt.

Captain James Ferguson de Peyster, eldest son of Frederic de Peyster and Helen Hake, became the head of the family. Frederic de Peyster, Jr., who was the first president of the New York Historical Society, and father of General John Watts de Peyster, was his brother. He entered the United States Army in 1814, at the age of twenty-one, being commissioned as First Lieutenant of the Forty-Second Infantry, and was shortly promoted to be Captain. In later years he was active in civil life in New York, being particularly identified with educational matters, as a member of the Board of Education, and as trustee of the College of the City of New York.

Mr. Frederic J. de Peyster, son of Captain James F. de Peyster, and Frances Goodhue Ashton, was born in New York, February 5th, 1859, and was graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1860, and from the Columbia College Law School two years later. He has practiced his profession with success, most of his time, however, being fully occupied with the care of his family property. But he is more generally known from his connection with educational, charitable, and other public institutions. He is president of the Holland Society, a governor of the Society of Colonial Wars, president of the New York Dispensary, and of the St. Nicholas and Orpheus Societies, and chairman of the New York Society Library. He belongs to the University, St. Nicholas, City and Century clubs.

In 1871, Mr. de Peyster married Augusta McEvers Morris, daughter of William H. Morris, of Morrisania. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. de Peyster was James Morris, who married Helen Van Cortlandt, daughter of Augustus Van Cortlandt and Helen Barclay; he was the fourth son of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, by his wife, Mary Walton, daughter of Jacob Walton and Maria Beekman. Mr. and Mrs. de Peyster have three daughters, Helen Van Cortlandt, F. G. and M. A. de Peyster, and one son, Frederic Ashton de Peyster. The residence of the family is in East Forty-second Street, near Fifth Avenue, and their country home is at Lake Placid, N. Y.

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JOHN WATTS DE PEYSTER

S IXTH in descent from Johannes de Peyster, the ancestor of one of the most distinguished fam- ilies that are recorded in the annals of New York, was Frederick de Peyster, Jr., father of General John Watts de Peyster. The line of descent from Johannes de Peyster to Frederick de Peyster, Jr., was through Abraham de Peyster, first of the name, 1657-1728; Abraham de Peyster, second, and his wife, Catharine; Abraham de Peyster, third, 1696-1767, and his wife, Margaret Van Cortlandt; James de Peyster and his wife, Sarah Reade, and Frederick de Peyster, Sr. The youngest son of James de Peyster, Frederick de Peyster, Sr., was, with his elder brothers, the third Abraham de Peyster and James de Peyster, prominent in military affairs. Each was Captain of a company in the King's Regiment before they had scarcely attained their majority

Frederick de Peyster, Jr., was born in New York in 1796 and died at the family homestead, Rose Hill, Dutchess County, N. Y., in 1872. Although the youngest son, he became the most distinguished member of his father's family. Graduated from Columbia College, he was active in public and private life, and was called upon by his fellow citizens to fill many positions of trust and responsibility. He is especially remembered as the first president of the New York Historical Society. In 1820, he married Mary Justina Watts, daughter of the Honorable John Watts.

The founder of the Watts family in New York was Robert Watts, a Scotch gentleman of birth, whose family owned the estate of Rosehill, near Edinburgh. He came hither towards the close of the seventeenth century, was a member of the Council, married Mary, a daughter of William Nicholls and Anna Van Rensselaer, and was the father of the Honorable John Watts, Sr., also a Councilor of the Province and President of the King's Council, who married Ann de Lancey. John Watts, Jr., called The Recorder, to distinguish him from his father, the Councilor, was born in 1749 and died in 1836, having been the last Recorder of the city under the royal authority. He married Jane, daughter of Peter de Lancey and Elizabeth Colden. His special claim to remem- brance is firmly established by the foundation of the Leake and Watts Asylum, to which he bequeathed a large portion of his wealth.

General John Watts de Peyster was born in New York in 1821, and married Estelle, daugh- ter of John Swift Livingston. Possessed of wealth, he adopted no active profession, but has devoted his life to literature and to the interests of his native city and State. Military life had great attraction for him, and in 1845 he was commissioned a Colonel of the National Guard, becoming Brigadier-General in 1851, and in 1855 Adjutant-General of the State. In 1866, the brevet rank of Major-General was conferred on him by concurrent action of the State Legislature, for services to the State and United States prior to and during the Civil War. He has taken an active part in various municipal reforms, particularly the organization of the police force on its present basis and the establishment of a paid fire department. His literary activity also has been noteworthy, embracing frequent contributions to periodicals, as well as a number of historical and other works, among which may be mentioned The Life of Torstenson, 1855, The Dutch at the North Pole, 1857, and The Personal and Military History of General Philip Kearny, 1869, the latter being his cousin.

The permanent residence of General de Peyster is Rose Hill, at Tivoli-on-Hudson. For fifty years he has been a prominent figure in metropolitan literary, social and philanthropic circles. He is a member of the Century Association, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the St. Nicholas Society, the Holland Society, and other leading organizations of the city. Three sons of General de Peyster were in the Union Army during the Civil War, and two of them lost their lives. His eldest son, John Watts de Peyster, Jr., was a Major, and was breveted Colonel for distinguished services at Chancellorsville. Frederic de Peyster, Jr., was breveted Colonel for gallantry at the first battle of Bull Run. The third son, Johnston L. de Peyster, hoisted the first American flag "over the capitol in Richmond, Va., in 1865 and received the brevet of Lieutenant-Colonel and Colonel in recognition of his bravery. He married Annie Toler and now lives in New York.

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MRS. NICHOLAS DE PEYSTER

U T PON preceding pages of this volume the history of Johannes de Peyster, who came to New Amsterdam in the early part of the seventeenth century and founded a family that has been one of the most distinguished in the annals of New York City and State, in Colonial, Revolutionary and contemporaneous times, has been fully reviewed. His name and that of his son and grandson, Abraham de Peyster and Abraham de Peyster, Jr., will be always con- spicuously identified with the commencement of New York's civic life. The descendants of this Huguenot gentleman have had a large part in public affairs and in every generation have conspicu- ously adorned public and private life. In their several branches they have been connected in marriage with all the great Colonial families of New York, and those who bear the name to-day trace their lineage to the Van Cortlandts, Livingstons, Reades, Beekmans, Schuylers and others famous in the early history of New Netherland and New York.

Nicholas de Peyster, the husband of the lady whose family is under consideration in this article, was one of the leading representatives of this historic house in the present generation. He was a native of New York, where he spent most of his life and where he died February 17th, 1889. His father was George de Peyster and his mother Lydia Jackson, of Long Island, his grandfather being Nicholas de Peyster and his grandmother Marion de Kay. He received a thorough education under private tutors, and inherited large means from the estates of his father and grandfather. He was among the pioneers to California in 1849 and was very successful there. After returning to the East he lived the life of a gentleman of leisure and cultivated tastes, being thoroughly identified with the social and material interests of the metropolis and spending much time in foreign travel. He was a member of the St. Nicholas, American Yacht and New York clubs and the Century Association.

Before her marriage, in 1871, Mrs. Nicholas de Peyster was Marianna Moore, daughter of William Stewart Moore, of New York. She was a relative of Clement C. Moore, the celebrated scholar and professor of Hebrew in the New York Theological Seminary for more than forty years, and who gave to the seminary the land upon which its buildings stand. He was a son of Bishop Benjamin Moore, compiled the earliest Hebrew and Greek lexicons published in America, and is known wherever the English language is spoken as the author of that popular household poem beginning, "'Twas the night before Christmas."

Mrs. de Peyster is also descended from Governor Thomas Dongan, who came to New York in 1682, under appointment of King James II., and gave to the city its famous charter of 1686, ever since known as the Dongan Charter, which, after the lapse of two hundred years, has continued to influence the destinies of the city. Governor Dongan was the youngest son of Sir John Dongan, an Irish Baronet, and nephew to Richard Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel. He was created Earl of Limerick by George l.

Mrs. de Peyster still lives in West Fifteenth Street, in the family mansion that was occupied for sixty years by her maternal grandparents. The house is one of the old-time residences of the city, and contains one of the finest collections of rare antiques and paintings in New York. Among the pictures in Mrs. de Peyster's possession are, a Reubens, a Vanderlyn, a Sir David Wilkie and many other masterpieces, including the Hemicycle at Rome. Mrs. de Peyster has traveled much in Europe and has been entertained by members of the nobility in Great Britain and on the Continent. At her home in this city she has received many distinguished guests. She also has a summer home on the ocean front at Long Branch. The only son of Mr. and Mrs. de Peyster is William Moore Dongan de Peyster, who has already achieved reputation by his interest in sports. He rides to hounds, and his hunters are among the noted horses of their class in the vicinity of New York. Mr. de Peyster performed a notably heroic deed a few years ago in stopping a runaway team at Long Branch, thereby saving the lives of two ladies. He is a life member of the New York Historical Society, and a patron of the American Museum of Natural History.

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HENRY DEXTER

C HIEF JUSTICE of Ireland in 1307, Richard de Exeter was doubtless the ancestor of the Dexter family. His immediate descendants resided for many generations in County Meath, the family name in the course of time being changed to its present form of spell- ing. Richard Dexter, born in 1606, fled from Ireland, his native land, before the great Irish Rebellion and massacre in the time of the English Commonwealth and sought refuge in New England. He was admitted a freeman of Boston, Mass., and resided in both Malden and Charles- town, dying at the latter town in 1680. John Dexter, his only son of whom there is any record, was born in Ireland in 1639 and died in Malden in 1677. Richard Dexter, of Lynn and Malden, Mass., was born in Malden in 1676 and died there in 1747. He was the second son of John Dexter and married, in 1697, Sarah Bucknam, daughter of Joses and Judith (Worth) Bucknam. Land purchased by Richard Dexter in 1663 in Malden has remained continuously in the hands of his descendants down to the present time. Richard Dexter, of the next generation, 1714-1773, mar- ried, in 1741, Rebecca, daughter of David and Sarah (Pope) Peabody, of a Massachusetts family that has been preeminently distinguished in subsequent generations both in the United States and Europe, and which, through the marriages of its members with other noteworthy families, is constantly referred to in these pages.

David Dexter, son of the third Richard Dexter, was born in Malden in 1745 and died in Bos- ton in 1821. He was at different times a resident of Haverhill and Woburn, Mass., and Pembroke, Hampstead and Atkinson, N. H. His wife was Lydia Marsh, daughter of Jonathan and Elizabeth (Merrill) Marsh, and a descendant of the oldest families of Haverhill and Newbury. Dr. Aaron Dexter, of Boston, professor in Harvard College, 1783-1829, was a younger brother of David Dexter. Jonathan Marsh Dexter, of Billerica and West Cambridge, Mass., and New York, who was born in Haverhill, Mass., March 24th, 1775, and died in New York March 26th, 1861, was the eldest son of David Dexter and the father of Mr. Henry Dexter. His wife, whom he married in 1808, was Elizabeth Balch, daughter of Joseph and Abigail (Audebert) Balch. Joseph Balch's mother was of the distinguished Cushing family, famous in the annals of Massachusetts, and her maternal grandmother was a Palfrey, belonging to another notable New England race which has produced many men and women of distinction.

Mr. Henry Dexter was born in West Cambridge, Mass., March 14th, 1813. He was educated in the public schools of his native city and began his business career at an early age, being employed in several publishing houses in Boston and Cambridge. When he was twenty-three years of age, he removed to New York City and was for some time engaged in the hardware busi- ness with the Whittemores, the famous inventors of cotton card-making machines. His experience with publishing firms had fixed his mind upon that line of activity and he became convinced of the great possibilities in the wholesale trade in books, newspapers and periodicals. An elder brother had already been engaged in this business for some time in a small way. In 1842, Mr. Dexter joined his brother and in a short time conceived the original plans of the American News Com- pany, which, however, he was not able to realize fully until 1864, when the company was organ- ized with Mr. Dexter as its first president, a position which he still holds, while under his charge the concern has attained a marked success.

In 1853, Mr. Dexter married Lucretia Marquand Perry, daughter of Orrando Perry, of Easton, Conn .; he has one daughter and one son. His son, Orrando Perry Dexter, who was born in 1854, was graduated from Oxford University, England, in 1878, taking the degree of A. M. in 1881, and subsequently pursuing a law course in this city at the Columbia College Law School, was graduated in 1880 with the degree of LL. B. He is a practicing lawyer and has written much, principally on genealogical and mathematical subjects. The Dexter family owns a large tract of land in the Adirondacks, where their summer residence is situated. The city residence of Mr. Dexter is in West Fifty-sixth Street.

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LOUIS PALMA DI CESNOLA

A S early as 1094, the noble family of Palma di Monte San Giuliano, which originally came from Spain, resided in Sicily. The Counts of Palma di Cesnola, of Rivarolo in Piedmont, are an offshoot of this ancient race. Pietro Palma, a Captain in the Army of Manfred, King of Sicily, was sent in 1260 on a diplomatic mission to Piedmont. His royal master was slain at the battle of Benevento in 1263, and he remained in Piedmont, and in 1262 was invested with feudal rights over the town of Rivarossa. The family of Palma removed in the fifteenth century from Salassa to Rivarolo, near Turin, where its representatives still live and are the proprietors of palaces and estates. Four generations ago the family divided into two branches, the Counts Palma di Cesnola, and a junior branch, the Counts Palma di Borgofranco.

General Louis Palma di Cesnola was born at the house of his ancestors in Rivarolo, Piedmont, June 29th, 1832, and was the son of Count Victor Maurice Palma di Cesnola and his wife, Countess Eugenia Ricca di Castelvecchio, his grandparents being Count Emmanuele and Countess Irene Grassotti. Being destined for the priesthood, he was educated at Ivrea and the University of Turin, but when the war of 1848 broke out his patriotic ardor carried him into the Sardinian Army as a volunteer. He at once displayed soldierly qualities, and for bravery at the battle of Novara was promoted, in 1849, to the rank of Lieutenant, being at the time the youngest commissioned officer in the Sardinian service. After the war, he entered the military academy at Cherasco, graduating in 1851. He served thereafter for several years in the army as aide-de-camp of General Ansaldi, and was in the Sardinian contingent sent to the Crimean War.

In 1860, he came to New York and in the following year was commissioned a Major and then Lieutenant-Colonel of the Eleventh New York Volunteer Cavalry ("Scott's Nine Hundred "), and in 1862, was appointed Colonel of the Fourth New York Cavalry. In 1863, he was wounded and taken prisoner at Aldie, Va., and was for nine months confined in Libby Prison, Richmond, but was exchanged. His bravery and efficiency as a cavalry officer were frequently recognized officially, and among other incidents of a like character, General Judson Kilpatrick, in 1863, in personally complimenting him on his conduct in the field after several brilliant cavalry charges, presented him with his own sword. During the Shenandoah Valley campaign, under General Sheridan, he was at the head of Devin's Brigade, seeing service which was not interrupted till the term of service of his regiment expired, at the end of 1864, and early in 1865, President Lincoln conferred on him the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General.

General di Cesnola had married, on the 11th ot June, 1861, Mary Isabel Jennings Reid, daughter of Captain Samuel C. Reid, of New York, and in due time became an American citizen. In 1865, having been appointed United States Consul to Cyprus, he became interested in archæo- logical investigations. Armed with a firman from the Sultan, he instituted researches, identifying the remains of the ancient cities of ldalium, Salamis, Citium and Golgos, at the latter of which he uncovered the ruins of the Temple of Venus, and discovered hundreds of statues and other objects. In 1873, he returned to America, bringing a collection of many thousand objects, comprising statuary, bronzes, vases, gems and coins, the whole of which was acquired for the newly established Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York. Going back to Cyprus, though hampered by the hostility of Turkish officials, General di Cesnola continued his researches, identified other cities, and, in 1875, explored the ruins of Paphos, Amathus and Curium, where he discovered further treasures, which were added to the collection at the Metropolitan Museum, raising it to forty thousand objects and making it an unrivaled presentation of ancient Cypriote civilization. In 1877, the United States Consulate to the island was abolished, and General di Cesnola occupied himself with the preparation of his great work, Cyprus, its Ancient Cities, Tombs and Temples, published in 1878. Universities and learned societies throughout the world recognized the value of his labors, and among other distinctions, both Columbia and Princeton Universities conferred upon him the degree of LL. D., while he was elected an honorary member

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of the Royal Society of London, of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Turin, and of many similar bodies. Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, and the King of Bavaria, bestowed knightly orders and decorations on him, and King Humbert, of Italy, caused a gold medal to be struck in honor of his labors.

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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 28

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