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 35

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

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 35

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Mr. Percival Farquhar, son of A. B. Farquhar, was born in York, Pa., and educated at the York Collegiate Institute, and at Yale College, from which he graduated with the degree of Ph. B., in 1884. After a course of study at the Columbia Law School, he was admitted to the bar in 1886. For one year, 1887, he was president of the Columbus and Hocking Valley Coal and Iron Company. Since then he has been engaged in the practice of law, is connected with important business enterprises and is active in politics. In 1889, he was defeated in a campaign for the Assembly in the Third New York City District, but the following year was elected by a majority of two thousand, reelected in 1891, and again in 1892. He was one of the leading members of the Assembly, and established a reputation for knowledge of public affairs. Especially interested in the electoral franchise, he introduced and had charge of much important legislation relating to that subject, including the New York City Inspection Bill, the Personal Registration Bill, the Ballot Reform Amendments, the Codification of Laws relating to the Ballot, the Revisions of the Penal Code, and various measures affecting the National Guard.

Mr. Farquhar has been actively interested in the militia. He joined the Seventh Regi- ment in 1887, and in 1888 accepted a commission in the Second Battery of Artillery, where he was promoted to be Second Lieutenant and then First Lieutenant. He is one of the board of managers of the A. B. Farquhar Company, of York, Pa., a member of the firm of A. B. Farquhar & Co., of New York, and vice-president of the New York and Staten Island Land Company. He is a member of many clubs and social organizations ; among them, the Southern Society and the United Service, Manhattan, Reform, Calumet, Lawyers', Seventh Regiment Veteran, Democratic, Tuxedo, Riding and University Athletic clubs.

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SIGOURNEY WEBSTER FAY

F OR two centuries, the members of the Fay family have been among the most prominent citizens of a cluster of towns near the central part of the State of Massachusetts. They have held town offices, have been members of the State Legislature, leading merchants, and otherwise active and influential in their several communities.

John Fay was the American progenitor of this interesting family. His parents belonged in London, and he was left an orphan at an early age. In 1656, when he was only eight years old, he was a passenger on board the ship Speedwell, which sailed from Gravesend with a company of Colonists for Boston. Arriving there, he was taken to Sudbury, where he was brought up. In 1669, he was in Marlborough, a town adjoining Sudbury, and already had several children. When King Philip's war broke out, he served in a military company, and after a time went with the other settlers to Watertown for greater safety. He returned to Marlborough when quiet was restored by the death of Philip and the subjugation of his tribe, and remained there until his death, in 1690.

A great-grandson of John Fay was Josiah Fay, who was born in Westboro, Mass., in 1732, and fought at Bunker Hill, being a member of the Westboro company which marched to Boston as soon as the news of the battle at Lexington and Concord had been heard. During the ensuing years of war, he was a member of the First Continental Infantry. In the same company with Josiah Fay was Elisha Forbes, of the same town, and the two remained comrades- at-arms throughout the long struggle for independence. Both these patriots were ancestors of Mr. Sigourney W. Fay, the New York merchant, one being his great-grandfather in the paternal and the other his great-grandfather in the maternal line, a son of Josiah Fay marrying a daughter of Elisha Forbes.

Mr. Sigourney Webster Fay was born in Boston, Mass., February 6th, 1836. His father, Nahum Fay, was a well-known merchant fifty years ago. The son was graduated with honors from that rival of the famous Boston Latin School, the English High School. Fixing upon a business career for his future, he started as a clerk in the great dry goods store of Lawrence, Stone & Co., of Boston, and then gained a further knowledge of the special line of business that he had selected to follow by a term of service in the Middlesex Mills, of Lowell, Mass., one of the leading manufactories of its class.

In 1860, when he was only twenty-four years of age, he concluded to start out for himself, and helped to organize and to establish in New York the great commission house of Stone, Bliss, Fay & Allen. For nearly a decade this was one of the largest commission houses in the woolen goods trade in New York City. At one time, it was the selling agent of fifteen of the largest and most important factories in New England. In 1864, the firm was reorganized into Perry, Wendell, Fay & Co., and in 1878 it became Wendell, Fay & Co.

Mr. Fay has other important business and social connections. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, has been a director of the Hanover National Bank since 1876, and is one of the governors of the House of Refuge. He belongs to the Union League Club, as one of its veteran members, having been among the first to join after the club was organized, in February, 1863. For several years he was secretary of the club, his first elevation to that position being when he was only twenty-seven years old. His other clubs include the Metropolitan, Players, City, and Merchants, and he is a member of the New England Society, and, by virtue of his patriotic ancestry, one of the Sons of the American Revolution. In 1860, he married Delia A., daughter of Emery B. Fay, of Boston, and for twenty-five years he has resided at 35 West Fiftieth Street. He possesses very pronounced literary tastes and talent, and is an acute dramatic critic, being a close student of the drama past and present. He has lectured frequently and success- fully on literary subjects, and among other works has written an able analytical essay on Charles Lamb.

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GEORGE RICHMOND FEARING

S EVERAL branches of the Fearing family, members of which have been prominent in the social world and in business life in Newport and New York during the last hundred years or more, trace their descent to a common ancestor, who came to this country about 1638. John Fearing, this pioneer, was a native of England, and one of the company of Colonists that came on the ship Diligent and landed in Hingham, Mass. After arriving here, he rapidly came to the front as an energetic man of affairs, and became prominent in the town of Hingham, where he settled. In 1648, and again in 1661 and 1663, he was elected a selectman, was a constable in 1650, a freeman in 1652 and the clerk of writs in 1657. His death occurred in 1665.

After John Fearing, there were four generations in which the head of the family was an Israel Fearing. Israel Fearing, 1644-1693, of the first generation from the pioneer, lived in Hingham, and married Elizabeth Wilde. His son Israel, 1682-1754, married Martha Gibbs. His grandson Israel, 1723-1753, married Hannah Swift. The fourth Israel Fearing, 1747-1826, was a Brigadier- General of the Massachusetts militia and a soldier of the Revolution. By his wife, Lucy Bourne, General Fearing became the great-grandfather of George R. Fearing and Daniel B. Fearing, of Newport, and also of Charles F. Fearing and William H. Fearing, of New York. The grand- parents of both these branches of the family were William Fearing, 1771-1845, a shipping merchant of Massachusetts, and his wife, Elizabeth Nye.

Daniel Butler Fearing, son of William Fearing, was born in 1804 and became one of the most prosperous and influential merchants in New York. His wife was Harriet Richmond, of Providence, R. I. Mr. Fearing died in 1870, and his widow passed away a year later. Henry Seymour Fearing, his son, lived in Newport, where he owned a fine estate, inherited from his father. His death occurred in 1886. His wife, whom he married in 1857, was Serena Mason Jones, daughter of George and Serena (Mason) Jones. Daniel Butler Fearing, son of Henry Seymour Fearing, inherited his father's estate in Newport and makes his residence in that city. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1882, and in 1887 married Henrietta 1. Strong, daughter of James H. and Georgiana (Berryman) Strong, of New York. He belongs to many of the leading clubs and other organizations in the metropolis, his club membership including the Metropolitan, Union, Knickerbocker, Manhattan, Calumet, Players and Grolier, and the Somerset and Tavern clubs of Boston.

Colonel George R. Fearing is a brother of the late Henry Seymour Fearing. He was born in New York and was graduated from Columbia College in 1860. He has a home in Fifth Avenue, but spends most of his time in Newport. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Knickerbocker and other clubs. He has one son, George R. Fearing, Jr., who was graduated from Harvard University in the class of 1893, and married, in 1897, Hester Cochrane, daughter of Alexander Cochrane, of Boston.

Charles Nye Fearing, another son of William Fearing, was born in 1812, was graduated from Brown University, and during his business life was in the commission dry goods trade in New York. His wife, whom he married in 1839, was Mary Swan, daughter of Benjamin L. and Mary S. Swan. William H. Fearing, the second son of Charles Nye Fearing, was born in New York and has been engaged in the importing business. He married Gertrude Lea, daughter of Joseph Lea, of Philadelphia. His residence is in East Forty-third Street, and his clubs include the Metropolitan, Tuxedo and Union, and he is a member of the American Geographical Society. He has three sons, Joseph Lea, William Henry, Jr., and Frederick Charles Fearing. The elder surviving son of Charles Nye Fearing is Charles F. Fearing, who was born in New York and was graduated from Harvard College in 1863. He engaged in business as a stock broker, but has spent much of his time in foreign travel. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Harvard and South Side Sportsmen's clubs, and of the Sons of the American Revolution. Edward Swan Fearing, the brother of William H. and Charles F. Fearing, died in 1881.

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CORTLANDT DE PEYSTER FIELD

T HE distinguished family to which Mr. Cortlandt de Peyster Field belongs has spread widely all over the United States, and has given many useful and eminent men to society, business and public life. The first of the name in this country was Robert Field, of Flushing, a descendant from Hubertus de la Field, who came to England with William the Conqueror. Hazard Field, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was named after his mother's family, the Hazards, who were descended from Thomas Hazard, of Lyme Regis, Dorset- ershire, who came to New England in 1636. His grandmother was of the Burling family, of Flushing, and his great-great-grandmother was Hannah Bowne, of the ancient Long Island Quaker family of that name. Hazard Field, the eldest child of a group of sixteen brothers and sisters, and the fifth in descent from the original Robert Field, of Flushing, was born in 1764, and died in 1845.

Benjamin Hazard Field, the eldest son of Hazard Field by a second wife, and the father of Mr. Cortlandt de Peyster Field, was a distinguished New York merchant and philanthropist. He was born in the village of Yorktown, Westchester County, May 2d, 1814, and died in New York City, March 17th, 1893. After a substantial education in the public schools and academies, he came to New York and entered the office of Hickson W. Field, who was a leading merchant in the trade with China, as well as in the wholesale drug trade, three-quarters of a century ago. In 1832, he became a member of the firm and when, in 1838, his uncle retired, he succeeded to the business. During the next twenty-five years, he was one of the most active and public-spirited citizens of the metropolis. In 1865, he retired from business.

As a philanthropist, perhaps, Benjamin H. Field was known to the whole community. He was actively interested in nearly every important undertaking for the public good in his generation. He was a trustee of the New York Dispensary, of the New York Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, the Sheltering Arms, the Children's Fold and the Roosevelt Hospital. A director of the House for Incurables, he was president of that corporation from its organization, in 1866, and in connection therewith erected an Episcopal Church, at his own expense, upon the grounds of the home. It is said that he spent an extremely large amount for those times in the cause of education, religion and charity. In the commercial world, he held high rank, even after his retirement. He was a life member of the Chamber of Commerce, a director of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, the Old Fulton Bank and the Greenwood Cemetery Company, and vice-president of the Bank for Savings. A life member of the St. Nicholas Society, he was at one time its president, was a life member of the New York Historical Society, being for twenty years its treasurer, and in 1885 its president, and in 1859, he became a life member of the American Geographical Society. Deeply interested in art, he was a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History and was chiefly instrumental in securing the erection of the Farragut and the Halleck statues.

The mother of Mr. Cortlandt de Peyster Field was Catherine M. Van Cortlandt de Peyster, daughter of the senior Frederic de Peyster. Through her, Mr. Field is connected with the Livings- ton, Beekman, Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt and other great New York families. Mr. Field was born in New York City, December 28th, 1839. Graduated from Columbia College in 1859, with the degree of B. A., and that of M. A. being afterwards conferred upon him, he went into his father's office and in 1865, succeeded to the business, which has since been conducted under the firm name of Cortlandt de Peyster Field & Co. He is a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church and generous to educational and benevolent enterprises. When in town, he lives in East Twenty-sixth Street, but makes his residence in the ancestral house in Yorktown, N. Y. Mr. Field's wife, whom he married in 1865, was Virginia Hamersley, daughter of John Hamersley, of one of the oldest and wealthiest families of New York and Virginia, representatives of the name having been prominent in the Colonies from an early date.

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NICHOLAS FISH

T HE English family of Fish is said to be a branch of the old Saxon family of Fyche, which in the tables of German nobility dates from a remote period. At what time the family removed to England is not definitely known, but it was settled there in the early centuries after the Conquest. The ancestor who first appears in English historical annals was Simon Fish, who was a lawyer in London and died about 1531. Early in the seventeenth century, three members of the family, Nathaniel, John and Jonathan, came to New England, settled in Lynn, Mass., and then in Sandwich, on Cape Cod. Jonathan Fish, the progenitor of the branch of the family that has been distinguished in public life in New York, was the youngest of the three brothers. Born in England in 1610, he removed from Sandwich to Newtown, Long Island, of which place he was one of the first settlers in 1659. For several years he was a magistrate, and died in 1663. In the second generation of this Long Island family, Nathan Fish, son of Jonathan, was born in Sandwich, Mass., in 1650, removed to Newtown in 1659 with his father, and died there in 1734. His son, Jonathan, 1680-1723, was for fifteen years town clerk of Newtown. His grandson, Samuel, of Newtown, 1704-1767, married Agnes Berrien, and his great-grandson, Jonathan, 1728- 1779, married Elizabeth Sackett and was a merchant of New York.

Colonel Nicholas Fish, 1758-1833, son of Jonathan Fish and Elizabeth Sackett, was one of the foremost representatives of the patriotism which the leaders of social New York exhibited in the trying times of the Revolution. Born in 1758, he had just left Princeton College to take up the study of law, when the war against Great Britain began. As an aide-de-camp to Brigadier- General John Morin Scott, he served at the battle of Long Island and in the operations around New York, and afterwards participated in the battle of Saratoga and commanded a corps of light infantry at Monmouth. At the siege of Yorktown he was a Lieutenant-Colonel, commanding a portion of the New York line. After the war, he was equally distinguished in civil life, both in society and business pursuits. President Washington appointed him Supervisor of the Revenue, which at that time was one of the highest positions in the Treasury Department, and he also became Adjutant-General of the State of New York. In 1797, he was treasurer of the New York Society of the Cincinnati. His death occurred in 1833. The wife of Colonel Fish was Elizabeth Stuyvesant, great-great-granddaughter of Governor Peter Stuyvesant. Through her mother, Margaret Liv- ingston, she descended from Robert Livingston, the first Lord of Livingston Manor.

The Honorable Hamilton Fish, son of Colonel Nicholas Fish and his wife, Elizabeth Stuy- vesant, was a man whose eminent public services and high personal character placed him in the front rank of the last generation of Americans. Born in New York in 1808, and graduated from Columbia College in 1827, he took an active part in political life, was prominent in the Whig party of those days, served in the State Assembly, and in 1843 was elected to Congress. In 1847, he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor, and was then elected Governor, serving from 1849 to 1851, in which latter year he was made United States Senator from New York. In 1869, President U. S. Grant appointed him Secretary of State of the United States, and in this great office he served for the entire eight years of President Grant's two terms. While in that position he carried through the Treaty of Washington in 1871, which led to the settlement of the Alabama Claims through the Geneva arbitration of 1872. His death occurred in 1893.

In 1836, Mr. Fish married Julia Kean, daughter of Peter Kean, of Ursino, N. J. His children were Sarah Morris Fish, who married Sidney Webster; Elizabeth Stuyvesant Fish, who married Frederick S. G. d'Hauteville ; Julia Kean Fish, who married Colonel S. N. Benjamin, U. S. A .; Susan Leroy Fish, who married William E. Rogers; and Nicholas, Hamilton, Jr., Stuyvesant, and Edith Livingston Fish.

Mr. Nicholas Fish, the eldest son of Hamilton Fish, was born in New York, February 19th, 1846. He was graduated from Columbia College in 1867 and from the Dane Law School, of Har- vard, in 1869. In 1871, he was second secretary of the United States Legation in Berlin, becoming

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first secretary in 1874. From 1877 to 1881, he was chargé d'affaires to the Swiss Confederation and United States Minister to Belgium, 1882-86. Since 1887, he has been engaged in the banking business in New York and prominent in financial affairs. He married Clémence S. Bryce and has two children, Elizabeth S. Clare and Hamilton Fish, Jr. His town house is in Irving Place and his country residence is Wahnfried, in Tuxedo. Mr. Fish belongs to the Metropolitan, Tuxedo, University, Players, Lawyers', University Athletic, St. Anthony and Riding clubs, and is also a member of the Century Association, the Society of the Cincinnati, the St. Nicholas Society and the New York Historical Society.

The second son of Hamilton Fish, statesman and diplomat, is the Honorable Hamilton Fish of this generation, who worthily bears his father's name. He was born in Albany, April 27th, 1849, and in 1869 was graduated from Columbia College. During the ensuing two years he was private secretary to his father, who was then Secretary of State in Washington. In 1873, he graduated from the Law School of Columbia College. He was aide-de-camp on the staff of Governor John A. Dix, 1873-74, and in 1874, and for several terms thereafter, was returned to the Assembly of the State of New York for Putnam County. Since that time he has been one of the leaders in the Republican party of the State, having been Speaker of the Assembly, and for many years chairman of the Republican county committee of Putnam County. In 1884, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention, and has received other honors at the hands of his political associates. He married, in 1880, Emily M. Mann, daughter of the late Honorable Francis N. Mann, of Troy, N. Y., and has two children. His residence is Rocklawn, in Garrisons, N. Y. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Union League and other clubs, and of the Bar Association.

Stuyvesant Fish, the youngest son of the senior Hamilton Fish, was born in New York, June 24th, 1851, and graduated from Columbia College in the class of 1871. He entered the service of the Illinois Central Railroad in a responsible position the same year that he was graduated from college, and from 1872 to 1876 was engaged with the banking house of Morton, Bliss & Co. Since 1877, he has devoted himself entirely to railroad affairs. In that year, he was elected a director of the Illinois Central Railroad; became the secretary of the Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans Rail- road the same year, and was elected vice-president of the latter road in 1882. Made vice-president of the Illinois Central in 1883, he was advanced to the presidency in 1887 and holds that position at the present time. He is also connected with other railroads and is a director in the National Park Bank, the New York Life Insurance & Trust Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company.

In 1876, Mr. Fish married Marion G. Anthon, daughter of William Henry Anthon. The father of Mrs. Fish, one of the prominent lawyers of the New York bar in the last generation, was born in New York in 1827 and died in 1875. In 1851, he was a member of the New York Assembly, and during the Civil War served as Judge-Advocate-General on the staff of Governor Edwin D. Morgan. He was the son of John Anthon, the distinguished lawyer and jurist, and grandson of Dr. George C. Anthon. His grandfather was a native of Germany, who entered the British Army and attained to the rank of Surgeon-General, serving from the commencement of the French War, until after the close of the Revolutionary War, when, in 1784, he resigned from the army and settled in New York. John Anthon, grandfather of Mrs. Fish, was born in Detroit in 1784, and died in New York in 1863. Graduated from Columbia College in 1801, he studied law, was one of the founders of the New York Law Institute, of which he was president, and was the author of many valuable legal treatises and law reports. The establishment of the Supreme Court of New York City was largely due to his efforts. During the War of 1812, he commanded a company of militia and served in defense of the city.

The city residence of Mr. and Mrs. Stuyvesant Fish is in Gramercy Park, and they have a summer home in Newport. They have one daughter and two sons, Marion, Stuyvesant, Jr., and Sidney Webster Fish. In his club membership, Mr. Fish includes the Metropolitan, Union, Riding, Players and St. Anthony, the Downtown Association, the St. Nicholas Society and the Southern Society.

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HALEY FISKE

I N the reign of King Edward IV. of England, Lord Symond Fiske, grandson of Daniel, Lord of the Manor of Stadhaugh, Parish of Laxfield, County Suffolk, died in 1464 and left a son William Fiske, who married Joan Lynne, of Norfolk, and died before 1504. William Fiske and Joan Lynne were the English ancestors of the family to which Mr. Haley Fiske belongs. The line of descent from this William Fiske to the first American ancestor of the family is through Symond Fiske, of Laxfield; his son, Symond Fiske, who died in 1505; his grandson, Robert Fiske, who died in 1551; his great-grandson, William Fiske, who was born in 1566; and his great-great-grandson, John Fiske, who was born in St. James, where he died in 1633, and who married Anne Lantersee, daughter of Robert Lantersee.

William Fiske, son of John and Anne (Lantersee) Fiske, was born in England about 1613 and came to this country in 1637, settling in Salem, Mass., of which place he was a freeman in 1642. His wife was Bridget Muskett, of Pelham, England, whom he married after coming to this country. Removing to Wenham, Mass., he was the first town clerk there, 1643-50, and a repre- sentative to the General Court, 1647-52. His death occurred in 1654. William Fiske, of the second American generation, 1643-1728, was a representative to the General Court in 1701, and for several terms thereafter, was a moderator, in 1702-03-12-13-14, and a Lieutenant of the militia. His wife was Sarah Kilham, daughter of Austin Kilham, who emigrated from Kilham, Yorkshire, England, and was one of the first settlers of Wenham. In the next four generations, the line of descent is through Samuel Fiske, of Wenham and Rehoboth, and his wife, Elizabeth Browne ; Josiah Fiske, of Cumberland, R. I., 1702-1773, and his wife, Sarah Bishop; John Fiske, of Cumber- land, 1729-1789, and his wife, Mary Bartlett; and Ensign Squire Fiske, 1756-1804, Colonel of a Rhode Island regiment in the War of the Revolution, and his wife, Amey Lapham, daughter of Abner Lapham.

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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 35

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