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 42

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

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Dr. Guernsey's parents were long-time residents of Litchfield, Conn., and there he was born, July 3d, 1823. He was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass., and the scientific department of Yale College. He studied medicine under Dr. Valentine Mott, and in 1846 was graduated from the medical department of the University of New York. For a short time he was an editor of The Evening Mirror. Associated with N. P. Willis and George P. Morris, and with George Bennett and Aaron Smith, he established The Brooklyn Times, of which he was editor for two years. He, however, continued the practice of his profession without interruption and was city physician of Brooklyn. He also wrote a school history of the United States which became an accepted text-book. Ill health compelled his temporary retirement, but in 1850 Dr. Guernsey returned to his profession in New York City and in a few years attained an exceedingly large practice.

In addition to his private practice, Dr. Guernsey has been prominent in many ways. For six years he was professor of materia medica and of theory and practice in the New York Homeopathic Medical College, and he was one of the founders and the first president of the Western Dispensary and the Good Samaritan Hospital, and a member of the medical staff of the Hahnemann Hospital. In 1877, he was largely instrumental in having the Inebriate Asylum on Ward's Island converted into a general hospital under the Department of Charities and Corrections and placed in the hands of the Homeopathic School of Practice. Since that time, he has been the president of the medical faculty of the institution. He was also one of the originators of the State Insane Asylum at Middletown, N. Y., and was many years a trustee and vice-president. In medical literature, also, Dr. Guernsey is prominent. In 1852, he was one of the editors of Jahr's Manual, and in 1872 he founded The New York Medical Times, of which he has always been the senior editor. In 1855, he published Domestic Practice, which has passed through many editions and been republished in Europe in four languages. He has also been a frequent contributor to medical journals and is an active member of many societies.

The wife of Dr. Guernsey, whom he married in 1848, was Sarah Lefferts Schenck, whose maternal ancestors were the Huguenot Merseroles, of Picardy, and on the paternal side the Lefferts and Schencks. The latter family descended from Edgar de Schencken, who in 798 was seneschal to Charlemagne. From him came the Baron, Schenck Van Mydeck, of Gelderland, the ancestors of Johannes Schenck, who came from Holland in 1683, and from whom Mrs. Guernsey is descended in the sixth generation. Dr. Guernsey is a member of the Union League Club, of which he was one of the founders. He also belongs to the Sons of the American Revolution, the National Academy of Design and the New England Society, and resides at 180 Central Park South. He has had two children, a daughter, Florence Guernsey, who is still living, and a son, Dr. Egbert Guernsey, Jr., of Florida, who died July 25th, 1893.

252

ERNEST RUDOLPH GUNTHER

S TUDENTS of American genealogy are acquainted with the fact that many of the families prominent in the social, professional and business world in this country are descended from ancestors belonging to the class of nobles in the various countries of Europe. The Napoleonic wars, which convulsed Germany at the close of the last century and the first decades of the present one, brought to the United States a number of representatives of noble families whose estates had been confiscated in the course of the violent changes that marked the period in question, or who for various political reasons found it prudent to leave their native country for other lands. Among them was Christian G. Von Günther, who came to New York in 1815, became a successful and respected citizen of this country, and was the grandfather of the gentleman of whom this sketch treats.

The Von Günthers were originally a noble family of Germany, with a long ancestry extending back for many generations. Many representatives of the race remained in their native country, while others had distinguished themselves in the service of various monarchs and foreign powers. An uncle of Christian Von Günther, who made Holland his adopted country, became a prominent officer in the Dutch Navy. The principal German branch of the family was established in the Kingdom of Saxony, where they were high in the favor of the electors and kings of that country. They possessed a castle, paintings of which are among the heirlooms now in the possession of the American representatives of their name. The father of Christian Von Günther was a physician and a man of the highest scientific attainments, and was surgeon to the King of Saxony. His son entertained liberal opinions and followed the example of his royal master in giving support to the cause of the Emperor Napoleon and of France, during the trying times that preceded the downfall of the Empire. For this the King of Saxony, when Napoleon was overthrown, was punished by the allied Powers assembled at the Congress of Vienna. One-half of his dominions, comprising some of the richest portions of the kingdom, were taken from him and annexed to Prussia. Von Günther, who was among the supporters of the French cause and liberal opinions, thereupon came to America, taking with him the emblazoned coats of arms of his family and portraits of some of its members, including those of himself and brother, and of the uncle (the Dutch naval officer already mentioned) and his wife, these last two being in the court costume of the period.

Once in the New World, Von Günther became imbued with democratic sentiments, identifying himself thoroughly with this country and its institutions and discarded the aristocratic prefix Von of his name, the American branch of the Von Günther family having since adhered to the name of Gunther. He entered business life with energy and success and attained a high position in the commercial world in New York, which city he had from his arrival in the United States selected for his abode. His son, the late William Henry Gunther, followed in his footsteps and pursued an energetic and successful business career, having the respect and confidence of the community in which his modest and useful life was passed.

Mr. Ernest Rudolph Gunther is the son of the late William Henry Gunther, and the grandson of Christian Gunther. He was born in this city in 1862, in Gunther Row, a block of handsome residences built by his father at Fourteenth Street and Second Avenue, then the fashionable part of New York. After a course of study in private schools in New York and on the Hudson, he received his final education abroad. Mr. Gunther has been a prominent patron of art, and these tastes are gratified by the possession of a number of examples of paintings by the foremost artists of Europe, prominent among which is The Communicants, by F. Estran, of Vienna. He takes great interest in horses, and his brake and four are well known in the park. Mr. Gunther is a member of the City, Country and Union League clubs. He is also well known for his entertainments, to which his artistic and musical tastes give a marked character.

253

ABRAM EVAN GWYNNE

T OHN CLAYPOOLE, who was a member of Cromwell's House of Peers, and whose eldest son married Elizabeth, daughter of Cromwell, was of royal descent. He came from an old Welsh family, and among his ancestors in direct line were Sir Robert Winfield, William de Bohun, Earl of Northampton, Henry de Bohun, the first Earl of Hereford and Essex, and his successors in that peerage for four generations; Edward 1., King of England, William the Conqueror, St. David, King of Scotland, Henry II., Emperor of Germany, Edmund Ironsides, King of the Anglo- Saxons, A. D. 989; Baldwin, Count of Flanders, Hugh Capet, King of France, A. D. 940, and other sovereigns of England and France. He was ninth in descent from Princess Elizabeth, daughter of Edward I. of England, and her husband, Humphrey de Bohun, the fourth Earl of Hereford and Essex, who were married in 1306.

James Claypoole, a son of John Claypoole, came to this country in 1683 on the ship Con- cord, landing in Philadelphia. He became a merchant and was treasurer of the Free Society of Traders of the Province of Pennsylvania. His son and his grandson in succession were eminent in that Colony and each held the office of Sheriff of Philadelphia County, while his great-grandson was Captain Abraham Claypoole, of Philadelphia, 1756-1827, an officer in the Continental Army and one of the original members of the Pennsylvania Society of the Order of the Cincinnati. Among the descendants of Captain Claypoole by his first wife, Elizabeth P. Falconer, are the Rockhill and Biddle families, of Philadelphia and Baltimore, and the Claypoole and Carson families, of Cincinnati and Columbus, O.

Captain Claypoole married, for his second wife, Elizabeth Steele, in 1795, and his second child, Alice Ann Claypoole, became the wife of Major David Gwynne, of Cincinnati. Major Gwynne was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army in 1812, a Captain in 1813, a Major in 1814 and a Major and Paymaster in 1816. He resigned from the army in 1830 and died at his country seat, near Louisville, Ky., August 21st, 1831. The eldest son of Major David Gwynne was Abraham Evan Gwynne, of Cincinnati, a lawyer and a partner of the famous Judge Storer of that city. He married Cettie Moore Flagg, daughter of Henry Collins Flagg, who was Mayor of New Haven, Conn., 1836-41, and his third child was Alice Claypoole Gwynne, who is well known to New Yorkers of this generation as the wife of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the present head of the Vanderbilt family.

Mr. Abram Evan Gwynne, of New York, is the fourth child and second son of Abraham Evan Gwynne. His birthplace was Cincinnati, O., where he was born November 22d, 1847. His early education was received at Starr's Military Academy, Yonkers, N. Y., and at the famous Phillips Academy, Andover, Mass. He then entered Columbia College, New York, and was grad- uated from that institution in the class of 1870. Immediately after completing his college course, Mr. Gwynne began his active career by entering a banking office in Wall Street. He remained there for several years, but in 1876 accepted a responsible position on the staff of the New York Post Office, under Postmaster Thomas L. James. This place he gave up two years later to enter the service of the Canada Southern Railway Company, one of the roads of the Vanderbilt system, in its executive offices in this city. Mr. Gwynne's experience in the railway business lasted only two years and he returned to Wall Street and the banking business, and a short time afterwards, with his brother, David Eli Gwynne, joined the Stock Exchange firm of Chauncey & Gwynne Brothers. This association lasted ten years, and when it was dissolved the Messrs. Gwynne formed a firm of the same character, under the title of Gwynne Brothers, Abram Evan Gwynne being the junior partner in this establishment.

Mr. Gwynne is an amateur painter of talent, having inherited a taste and aptitude for art from his celebrated ancestor, Washington Allston, who was half-brother of his grandfather on his mother's side. He is also a frequent contributor to the newspaper and magazine literature of the day.

254

JOHN HALL, D. D.

F EW clergymen, whether foreign or native born, have played a more important part in the religious life of New York than the Reverend Dr. John Hall, pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. As a pulpit orator he is preeminent, while his activity in the cause of education has been notable. The ancestors of Dr. Hall were Scotch Presbyterians, who emi- grated from Scotland to Ireland two centuries ago and were active in the settlement of the Province of Ulster. The Reverend Dr. John Hall was born in 1829, in the County of Armagh, Ireland, on the place occupied by his ancestors for six generations, and which is still held by the family. His father was an elder of the Presbyterian Church and the family held a good

social position. Being the eldest son, Dr. Hall received the Christian name of his grandfather, John Hall. Receiving a classical preparatory education in private schools, he entered Belfast College before he was thirteen years old. During his college course, he gained reputation by his scholarly attainments, winning the prize for excellence in the Hebrew language. After graduating, he studied for the Presbyterian ministry, and in 1849, when twenty years of age, received his license to preach from the Presbytery of Belfast. He then accepted a call to a missionary station in the west of Ireland. After a few years, he was called to the First Church of Armagh, where he was installed in 1852. For six years he held that pulpit, and then, in 1858, he became the junior pastor of St. Mary's Abbey, now Rutland Square, Dublin. There he rapidly attained to prominence, and also became identified with educational affairs, receiving a royal appointment as Commissioner of Education.

In 1867, Dr. Hall was a delegate from the Irish General Assemby to the Assemblies of the Presbyterian Churches of the United States. His reputation had preceded him to this country, and his presence here attracted further attention from both clergy and laymen. Called to the pulpit of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, he accepted and was installed in November, 1867. For thirty years he has occupied that pulpit, and has brought the church to a foremost position. Its gifts to the missionary and benevolent work of the Presbyterian denomination have been of a notable character.

In literary and educational work, Dr. Hall has also achieved fame. His contributions to the religious press have been abundant, and he is frequently a speaker on public occasions. Among his published works are Family Prayers for Four Weeks, Papers for Home Reading, Familiar Talks to Boys, Questions of the Day, God's Word through Preaching, and Light upon the Path. From 1882 until the appointment of Dr. MacCracken, he was Chancellor of the University of the City of New York, succeeding the Reverend Dr. Howard Crosby.

In 1852, after his settlement in the City of Armagh, Dr. Hall married Emily (Bolton) Irwin, the daughter of Richard Bolton, who long occupied Monkstown Castle, County Dublin. Her first husband was John Irwin, a gentleman of County Roscommon, who died in early life. Her son by her first marriage, William Irwin, is a well-known lawyer of this city. Dr. Hall was a missionary in County Roscommon, where he met Mrs. Irwin, who was doing much voluntary work for the poor during and after the famine. Dr. and Mrs. Hall have had four sons and a daughter. The eldest son, Robert W. Hall, graduated from Princeton in 1873 and is a professor in New York University. The second son, Bolton Hall, graduated from Princeton in 1875. He married Susie Hurlbut Scott, daughter of William H. Scott, and lives in East Forty- sixth Street. He is a member of the City and Reform clubs and has taken an active part in reform movements, gaining distinction as a platform orator, and a writer on social questions. The third son, a prominent surgeon, died recently, and the youngest is a Presbyterian minister, and has rendered good service in Omaha and Chicago. He married the daughter of the great botanist, Professor Bartling, of Göttingen, Germany. The only daughter, Emily Hall, married William E. Wheelock. Dr. Hall's residence is in upper Fifth Avenue and his vacations, as a rule, are passed in his native Ireland.

255

FREDERIC ROBERT HALSEY

B ORN in Hertfordshire, England, in 1592, Thomas Halsey was the progenitor of the American family that bears his name. He came to this country before 1637, being a resident of Lynn, Mass., in that year. He was one of the founders of Southampton, Long Island, in 1640, where he was considered one of the most respected citizens. He was a delegate to the Connecticut General Court in 1664, was named in the patent of confirmation in 1676, was also named in Governor Dongan's patent in 1686, and took an active part in all the town affairs and in the controversies between the Dutch and the English. His first wife, Phæbe, who was murdered by the Pequot Indians in 1649, was the ancestress of that branch of the Halsey family which is here under consideration. His second wife was Ann Johnes, widow of Edward Johnes.

Descendants of Thomas Halsey distributed themselves throughout various parts of the South and West, and many of them were prominent in the settlement of Oneida and Otsego Counties, and other portions of New York State which were then a wilderness. In Tioga County is a village called Halsey Valley, in Tompkins County is Halseyville, in far-off Oregon there is a village named Halsey, while, nearer at home, Halsey Street in Brooklyn still preserves the memory of the family. Many of the Halseys took part in the early French and Indian wars, and their names are recorded in the Colonial records of New York. They served in the Revolution, notably at Fort Ticonderoga, and in the Wars of 1812 and 1848. In the Civil War, several of them won high rank in defense of the cause of the Union.

Daniel Halsey, of the second American generation, 1630-1682, the third son of Thomas Halsey, was the ancestor in direct line of Mr. Frederic Robert Halsey. His son, Daniel Halsey, 1669-1734, married Amy Larison, daughter of John Larison. His grandson, Silas Halsey, 1718-1786, married Susanna Howell, and was chairman of the Committee of Safety of Southampton, Long Island, on the breaking out of the Revolution. Dr. Silas Halsey, second, 1743-1832, and his second wife, Hannah (Jones) Howell, whom he married in 1780, were the great-grandparents of Frederic Robert Halsey. Silas Halsey studied medicine in New Jersey and practiced his profession in Southampton until 1776. His uncompromising patriotism brought him particularly under the ban of the British authorities in New York, and he was forced to remove to Connecticut, where he remained for three years. After the war, he returned to his former home and was Sheriff of Suffolk County in 1787 by appointment of Governor Clinton. In 1793, he removed to Ovid, N. Y. For several years he was supervisor and a member of the Assembly; in 1801, a delegate to the Consti- tutional Convention; in 1804, a member of the National House of Representatives, and in 1807, a State Senator. His son, Nicoll Halsey, 1782-1865, grandfather of Mr. Frederic R. Halsey, married, in 1806, Euphemia McDowell, daughter of Robert and Margaret McDowell, of Kingston, Pa. He was a member of the State Assembly of New York in 1824, and a Member of Congress, 1833-35. The parents of Mr. Frederic R. Halsey were Robert Halsey, who was born in 1809 and died in 1896, and his wife, Sarah Stewart.

Mr. Frederic Robert Halsey, in the eighth generation of the American Halseys, was born in 1847, in Ithaca, N. Y. He was graduated from Harvard College in the class of 1868 and from the Columbia College Law School in 1870, and engaged in the practice of his profession in New York. Interested in public affairs and in the militia, he was appointed, in 1893, Paymaster-General on the staff of Governor Roswell P. Flower, with the rank of Brigadier-General. He is the author of a book treating of the engraved works of Raphael Morghen. He married, in 1872, Emma Gertrude Keep, only child of Henry Keep. His city residence is 22 West Fifty-third Street, and his country residence, is Egeria, Tuxedo Park. Mr. and Mrs. Halsey have no children. He is a member of the Union, University, Tuxedo, Manhattan, Racquet, New York Athletic, Harvard and Westminster Kennel clubs, and is a patron of the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He also belongs to the Gun Club of Philadelphia, the Olympic Club of Long Island and the St. James Club of Paris.

256

JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY

I N 1716, William Hamersley, an officer in the British Navy, a descendant of Sir Hugh Hamersley, Lord Mayor of London, 1627, was stationed at New York and married into the old Dutch family of Van Brugh. He became a resident of the city, a vestryman of Trinity, and is buried in its historic graveyard. Hamersley Street, changed in later times to West Houston, was named after him. He was furthermore the founder of a family which has lived in New York for five generations, which has always been identified with its interests, and which has been distinguished by high character, social position and noteworthy alliances.

In the fourth generation in direct descent from Mr. William Hamersley is James Hooker Hamersley. He was born in New York, 1844, being the son of the late John William Hamersley, also born in New York, and of his wife, Catharine Livingston Hooker, born at Poughkeepsie, N. Y. The paternal grandparents were Lewis Carré Hamersley, of New York, who married Elizabeth Finney, born in Accomac County, Va .; while on the maternal side were the Honorable James Hooker, born at Windsor, Conn., and his wife, Helen Sarah Reade, born at Red Hook, properly Reade Hoeck, Dutchess County, N. Y.

Mr. Hamersley's family is thus connected with some of the most eminent names in early Colonial history. It may be mentioned that he is fifth in descent from Judge Thomas Gordon, of the Council of the Province of East Jersey, Deputy-Secretary and Attorney-General, 1692, Receiver-General and Treasurer, 1710-19, and one of the Lords Proprietors; sixth in descent from Robert Livingston, Speaker of the New York Assembly, 1718-25, and founder of Livingston Manor; seventh in descent from Filyp Pieterse Van Schuyler, Captain of New York Provincial forces, 1667, and eighth in descent from Brant Arentse Van Schlichtenhorst, Governor of the Colony of Rensselaerwyck, 1648, and commandant of the fort and garrison at Rensselaerstein, who led his forces against Governor Stuyvesant, of New Amsterdam, and was in the main successful. Through his mother's family, Mr. Hamersley is also connected with the Van Cortlandts, de Peysters and Stuyvesants, while among his other ancestors is Henry Beekman, the patentee from Queen Anne of a large amount of land in Dutchess County, N. Y., a portion of which has never left the hands of his descendants, and is owned by Mr. Hamersley.

Mr. Hamersley graduated with honors from Columbia College in 1865, and took the degree of LL.B. at the Law School of the same institution two years later. He practiced the legal profession successfully for some years, but finally retired to devote himself to the duties of cotrustee of the large estate left by his father. In April, 1888, he was married to Margaret Willing Chisolm, born at College Point, Long Island, daughter of William E. Chisolm and his wife, Mary A. Rogers, daughter of John Rogers. The Chisolms are of a prominent South Carolina family, the Rogers being large owners of real estate in New York. The sister of John Rogers married William C. Rhinelander. Mrs. Hamersley is also a great niece of William Augustus Muhlenburg, who founded St. Luke's Hospital, and is a direct descendant of Frederick Augustus Muhlenburg, first Speaker of the United States House of Representatives. Mr. and Mrs. Hamersley's two children are Catharine Livingston Hamersley and Louis Gordon Hamersley.

He is an extensive traveler, including some twenty voyages across the Atlantic, a participator in the pleasures of society, member of a number of clubs, including the Metropolitan, University and City clubs and St. Nicholas Society, president of the Knickerbocker Bowling Club, member of the New York Geographical Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, etc. The engrossing occupations incident to the care of his family property have not prevented Mr. Hamersley from taking an active interest in politics. Literature is, however, the favorite pursuit of his leisure, and he writes occasional articles on the live topics of the day, such as law, religion, and politics and history. Mr. Hamersley is a graceful poet, his verse appearing in various periodicals and collections of poems, though they have not yet been brought together in one volume.

257

WILLIAM GASTON HAMILTON

E VERY schoolboy knows the story of the career of Alexander Hamilton. Born of parents in moderate circumstances, on the Antilles island of Nevis, through the kindness of friends he studied in Kings (Columbia) College, was a soldier in the Continental Army, and on the staff of Washington with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, was Secretary of the Treasury in Washington's first Cabinet, one of the ablest jurists and statesmen of the early period of the United States, and among the greatest men that have been called upon to serve the Republic. His death in a duel with Aaron Burr in 1804 has always added a melancholy interest to the story of his life, and was a striking and impressive end to a brilliant and picturesque career.

The descendants of Alexander Hamilton have been conspicuous in military and civil life. His eldest son, Philip, was killed in a duel before he had attained his majority, on the same spot where his father fell three years later. His second son, Alexander, was a soldier in the War of 1812, and another son, James Alexander, also served in the War of 1812, was a lawyer and United States District Attorney. William Stevens Hamilton was a Colonel of Volunteers in the Black Hawk War, and the youngest son, Philip, was a lawyer in New York, and at one time an Assistant District Attorney.

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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 42

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