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 6

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

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Mr. Barber built Belmont, a beautiful place in Washington; at one time he occupied the Cunard place on Staten Island, and now owns Ardsley Towers, a large country estate in Irvington, once the property of the late Cyrus W. Field. For many years his New York City residence was the Stuart mansion, at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-eighth street, recently sold to the Honorable William C. Whitney. In 1868, Mr. Barber married Celia M. Bradley, of Geneva, O., who died in 1870. For his second wife he married Julia Louisa Langdon, daughter of J. Le Droict Langdon, formerly of Belmont, N. Y., and a member of the Langdon family, con- spicuous in the annals of New York City and State. Mr. and Mrs. Barber have had five children, four of whom are living, Le Droict, Lorina, Bertha and Roland Langdon. His eldest son is a member of the New York Club. His eldest daughter, Lorina Langdon Barber, was married at Ardsley Towers, in June, 1897, to Samuel Todd Davis, of Washington.

HENRY ANTHONY BARCLAY

I N the early annals of New York, the name of Barclay is of constant recurrence, and the family's civic fame has been perpetuated in the naming of Barclay Street. Its representatives were of the eminent Scotch race known as de Berkeley, the ancestry of which is traced back to Edward I., King of England, and his Queen, Margaret, daughter of Philip Ill., of France. They were allied to the Earls of Kent and the Earls of Somerset, and were also descendants of King James of Scotland through the Gordons, Earls of Sutherland.

Colonel David Barclay, of Ury, born in 1610, was a son of David Barclay, laird of Mathers. He served in the Swedish Army as a Major and was commissioned Colonel by King Charles I. He was Governor of Strathbogie, and a member of Parliament in 1654-58, but became a Quaker and was imprisoned for his belief. His wife was Catharine Gordon, daughter of Sir Robert Gordon, 1580-1656, of Gordonstown, the second son of the titular Earl of Sutherland, Alexander Gordon. The eldest son of this union was Robert Barclay, one of the proprietors of East New Jersey, and its Governor, an appointment which he held for life by the favor of Charles 11. He never came to America, but governed through a deputy. His brother John, who removed to America, married Cornelia Van Schaick and became the ancestor of the New York Barclays. A sister of John Barclay married the son of Sir Evan Dhu Cameron, of Lochiel, and her daughters married the chiefs of such Scotch houses as Cameron of Dungallen, Campbell of Auchlyne, Macgregor of Bohawslie, Grant of Glenmoriston, McPherson of Cluny, and Cameron of Glendinning.

The eldest son of John Barclay was the Reverend Thomas Barclay, a man of great learning and influence in the City of Albany, where he was pastor of the Dutch Church. He married Anna Dorothea Drauyer, who was the daughter of Admiral Andries Drauyer, of the Dutch Navy, and granddaughter of Levinius Van Schaick. Their son, the Reverend Henry Barclay, was born in Albany and graduated from Yale College in 1734. He lived several years in the Mohawk Valley with the Indians, among whom he was a devoted Christian worker. In 1746, he became rector of Trinity Church, New York, and remained there until his death, in 1764. Shortly after coming to New York, he married Mary, the beautiful daughter of Anthony Rutgers. The eldest son of the Reverend Henry Barclay was Colonel Thomas Barclay, who was a Tory in the Revolution. His second son was Anthony Barclay, of Trains Meadow, Newtown, Long Island, who died in 1805, having married Anna Lent, daughter of Abraham Lent, and sister of Judge James Lent. The grand- father of Anna Lent was William Lawrence, of the celebrated New York family of that name. From this union came one son, Henry Barclay, who was born in 1794, married Sarah Moore, and lived until 1865.

Mr. Henry Anthony Barclay, the eldest son of Henry Barclay and Sarah Moore, and present head of this historic family, was born in Astoria, Long Island, December 4th, 1844, and was educated privately. He married Clara Oldfield Wright, daughter of John Skinner Wright, of the firm of Wright, Maxwell & Co., and his wife, Isabella Mary Oldfield, daughter of Granville Oldfield. On the paternal side, Mrs. Barclay's grandfather was the Honorable Robert Wright, who was the first Democratic Governor of Maryland, in 1806. Mr. and Mrs. Barclay have five children. Their sons, Henry Anthony, Jr., and Wright Barclay, are both members of Company K, of the Seventh Regiment. The three daughters of the family are Gertrude Oldfield, Mildred Moore and Clara Wright Barclay. Mr. Barclay's residence is in Madison Avenue, and he has a country house, Bonnie Brae, at Lenox, Mass. His clubs are the Union and Metropolitan.

The second son of Henry and Sarah (Moore) Barclay is James L. Barclay, who married Olivia Bell, only daughter of Isaac Bell, 1815-1897. She died in 1894 and he married Priscilla (Dixon) Sloan. Mr. Barclay's youngest brother, Sackett M. Barclay, married his cousin, Cornelia Cockrane Barclay, and has five children, Harold, Robert Cockrane, Beatrice W., Ethel N. and Cornelia Barclay, his residence being in West Forty-sixth Street. Mr. Barclay's only sister, Fanny Barclay, married William Constable, of Constableville, N. Y.

SAMUEL F. BARGER

O F Dutch origin, the name of Bergen, which was the family name of the American ancestor of Mr. Samuel F. Barger, signifies hill. It is common in the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland. Hans Hansen Bergen, who was the first of the name in this country, was a resident of Holland in the early part of the seventeenth century. When Wouter Van Twiller was sent to New Netherland as the second director-general of the Colony in 1633, he brought with him a large company of soldiers, officials and Colonists, and among them was Hans Hansen Bergen. Six years after landing in New Amsterdam, this pioneer married Sarah Rapalje, daughter of Joris Jansen Rapalje. The father of Sarah Rapalje was a Huguenot who came from Rochelle, France, in 1623, and settled in Fort Orange, Albany. After a few years, he moved to Manhattan and thence to Wallabout, on Long Island. In 1655, and several times thereafter, he was one of the magistrates of Brooklyn. His wife was Catalyntie Trico. Sarah Rapalje became a historical personage from the fact that she was the first Christian female born in New Netherland. When she was twenty-nine years of age her husband died and left her a widow with seven children. She afterwards married Teunis Gysbert Bogaert, and was thus the ancestress of two of the greatest Dutch Colonial families of New Netherland.

Jacob Hansen Bergen, son of the pioneer, was born in 1653. He took the oath of allegiance to the British Government in 1687, and was a constable in 1698. His wife was Elsje Frederiks, daughter of Frederik Lubbertsen and Tryntje Hendricks. Their son, Frederick Jacobse Bergen, was the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Samuel F. Barger. He was born in 1681 and died before 1762. In 1715, he was a private in the militia company of Brooklyn, in 1738, was a Lieutenant in the Richmond County militia, and late in life removed to Somerset County, N. J., where he died in 1762. His wife was Gerretye Vechte, daughter of Gerrit Vechte. Henry Bergen, son of Hendrick Bergen and grandson of Frederick Jacobse Bergen, was born in 1757, lived on Staten Island and died in 1804. His wife, whom he married in 1783, was Polly, or Mary, Tyson. He changed his family name to Barger, and his descendants have since adhered to that usage. Henry Barger, father of Mr. Samuel F. Barger, was born in 1797 and died in 1867. He was engaged in mercantile life in New York, and was Colonel of a regiment of artillery in the Counties of Kings and Richmond. His wife was Matilda Anna Frost.

Mr. Samuel F. Barger was born in New York, October 19th. 1832. Educated in the Columbia College Grammar School and the University of the City of New York, he practiced law in the office of Aaron S. Pennington, of Paterson, N. J., being admitted to the bar of the State of New Jersey in 1854, and to the bar of the State of New York the following year. Early in his professional career, he became a director of the New York Central Railroad Company. When the New York Central and the Hudson River Companies were consolidated in 1869, he was retained as a director in the new corporation, and has since devoted himself, both in a business and in a professional way, to the interests of those railroads. He is a member of the executive committee, and chairman of the law committee of the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad Company, is officially connected with other companies of the Vanderbilt system, is a trustee of the Wagner Palace Car Company and of the Union Trust Company, and was for several years a director and member of the executive committee of the Western Union Telegraph Company. He has served as a commissioner on the Board of Edu- cation of New York City, and was a Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1876.

In 1869, Mr. Barger married Edna Jeanie Le Favor, of Medway, Mass., of distinguished ancestry; their children are Maud Anna, Edna Holbrook and Milton Sanford Barger. His city residence is in Madison Avenue, and his summer home is Edna Villa, in Newport. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Manhattan, Union, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, New York Yacht, Riding and Racquet clubs, the St. Nicholas Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New York Historical Society, the American Geographical Society and the Somerset Club of Boston.

MRS. FORDYCE DWIGHT BARKER

M RS. EMILY FRANKLIN (BABCOCK) BARKER is the widow of the late Fordyce Dwight Barker, who died in New York in December, 1893, and a daughter of Samuel D. Babcock. The Babcock family were closely connected with the Colonial and Revolutionary history of Rhode Island. Mrs. Barker's great-great-grandfather was the famous Colonel Henry Babcock, 1733-1800, who was a volunteer on the patriot side at the siege of Boston in 1775, and afterwards became Colonel of the Rhode Island militia, and Commandant of the Rhode Island Colony brigade of troops in the Continental service. Her great-great-great-grandfather was Major-General Joshua Babcock, who also at one time commanded the militia brigade of Rhode Island, was Chief Justice of the Colony, a member of the State Council of War during the Revolution, and several times a member and Speaker of the Rhode Island Assembly. The direct representative of this notable family removed from Stonington to New York, and it was in this city that Mrs. Barker was born and has since resided.

Her marriage with the late Fordyce D. Barker took place in 1878. The latter inherited the blood of a number of prominent old New England families. He was the son of Fordyce Barker and Elizabeth Lee Dwight.

Fordyce Barker, born in Winton, Me., bore a name which is widely known throughout that State, and which has been that of many men of prominence in its annals. He was celebrated as one of the most skilful physicians in New York, being known throughout the United States and Europe as an eminent member of his profession in this country, and as a medical writer of the highest rank.

Fordyce D. Barker was born at Norwich, Conn., in 1847, but in the second year of his age was taken to New York, where he resided during the rest of his life. On his father's side, he descended from a family of prominence in Maine and New Hampshire, his great-great-grandfather being Mayor Abiel Abbott, 1741-1809, who raised a body of troops in New Hampshire to reinforce the Continental Army at Ticonderoga. He was a member of the New Hampshire Provincial Congress in 1777, and as an ardent patriot, took a leading and influential part in organizing the Government of the State of New Hampshire, and completing the severance of the former Colony from Great Britain. Mr. Barker's mother, Elizabeth Lee Dwight, was born in Springfield, Mass., her family being one which has occupied a leading political and social position in Massachusetts for many generations, which supplied many famous clergymen, professors and lawyers, and which is connected by ties of blood and intermarriage with many of the illustrious names in the history of the State. Her great-great-grandmother was Mary Pitt, a favorite niece of the great Earl of Chatham. This lady was the mother of Benjamin Lee, of Taunton, England, who, while in the English Navy, was a fellow midshipman with the Duke of Clarence, afterwards King William the Fourth. Among other distinguished ancestors, Mr. Barker also numbered Nathaniel Gorham, one of the delegates from Massachusetts to the Convention, which in 1787 framed the Constitution of the United States, his signature being affixed to the document, in company with that of Rufus King, as representatives of Massachusetts.

Educated at private schools in New York and at Exeter, N. H., followed by a course of study at Dresden, Germany, and at Versailles, France, Fordyce D. Barker entered the banking profession in this city. After his marriage, he traveled abroad with his wife, and was an active participant in the social life of the city. He was, in a moderate degree, a sportsman and a patron of hunting and the turf. At the time of his premature death, he was a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Riding and City Clubs, of the Rockaway Hunt and Coney Island Jockey Clubs, of the Sons of the Revo- lution and Seventh Regiment Veteran Association, and of Holland Lodge F.A.M., and of many other social and benevolent organizations. Two children were born to Mrs. Barker and her late husband, Elizabeth Crary Fordyce Barker and Lillian Lee Fordyce Barker. The family residence is at No. 36 West Fifty-first Street.

PETER TOWNSEND BARLOW

I N the early part of the seventeenth century the first Barlow emigrated to this country from England and settled in New England. Descendants of this pioneer have been prominent in the public affairs of that section and many of them have attained to high distinction in the councils of the nation. One of the most illustrious Americans who has borne the name was the Honorable Joel Barlow, who crowded into a long and busy life as much of variety, romance and usefulness as generally falls to the lot of a dozen ordinary men. He is best recalled, perhaps, as the author of that remarkable effort in verse, The Columbiad. But he was more than a poet and author. He was a soldier of the Revolution, a Chaplain in the Continental Army, a practicing lawyer, a vigorous journalist, a bookseller, an agent for Western lands and a speculator. Sympathizing with the French Revolutionists, he became a leader in their councils and was made a citizen of the French Republic. Some of the most brilliant political pamphlets of that interesting period were from his trenchant pen. He served as the United States Consul to Algiers and also as United States Minister to France.

In the generation that is now passing away, Samuel L. M. Barlow was a conspicuous figure in New York professional and social circles. He belonged to the Connecticut branch of the family, the same that nearly a century earlier had produced the Honorable Joel Barlow. His father was Dr. Samuel Bancroft Barlow, a graduate from Yale College and a physician of high reputation. Dr. Barlow practiced his profession in Connecticut for several years immedi- ately following his graduation from Yale College, and then removed to New York. At one time he was president of the New York Homoeopathic College.

Samuel L. M. Barlow was born in Granville, Hampden County, Mass., July 5th, 1826. When his father moved to New York City, he was a mere child. After completing his educa- tion, he engaged himself as office boy in a law office, where he earned a salary of one dollar a week. Within seven years from the time he started in this small way, he was manager of the firm at an annual salary of three thousand dollars, which was a large sum for those days. During that period of seven years, he had attained the age of twenty-three, had studied law and been admitted to the bar. From that time on, his career was one of the most successful in the history of the New York bar. At the age of twenty-three, he settled a claim under the treaty with Mexico, for which he received a very large fee. A claim of two million dollars against the French Government for arms furnished by American manufacturers during the Franco-Prussian War was adjusted by him after about one hour's work, and for that he received twenty-five thousand dollars. He was employed by many railroad companies, and one of his greatest triumphs was in defeating Jay Gould for the control of the Erie Railroad, after which he was a director and the private counsel for that corporation. In 1852, he became a member of the firm of Bowdoin, Larocque & Barlow, and afterwards, with Judges W. D. Shipman and W. G. Choate, organized the firm of Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & Choate. He controlled The New York World, 1864-69, was one of the founders of the Manhattan Club, a discriminating collector of pictures and bric-a-brac and the owner of one of the finest collec- tions of Americana in this country. He died in Glen Cove, Long Island, July 10th, 1889.

Mr. Peter Townsend Barlow, son of S. L. M. Barlow, was born in New York, June 21st, 1857. His mother was a daughter of Peter Townsend, after whom he was named. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1879 and studied law in the Law School of Columbia College and in the office of Shipman, Barlow, Larocque & Choate. He lives at 55 East Twenty-first Street and his country residence is Tario, in New London, Conn. His club membership includes the Union, University, Harvard, New York Yacht and Racquet clubs and the 'Downtown Association. He is also a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mr. Barlow married, in 1886, Virginia Louise Matthews, daughter of Edward Matthews. Their children are Edward Matthews and Samuel L. M. Barlow.

JOHN SANFORD BARNES

G ENERAL JAMES BARNES, the father of Mr. John Sanford Barnes, lawyer and broker, was a distinguished civil engineer and soldier. Born about 1809, he was graduated from West Point in 1829, in the class with Robert E. Lee, Joseph E. Johnston and O. M. Mitchell. During the seven years that he remained in the army, he was advanced to the rank of Lieutenant in the Fourth Artillery. Resigning from the military service, he entered the engineering profession and was chief engineer and superintendent of the Western Railroad of Massachusetts from 1836 to 1848, and chief engineer of the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad from 1848 to 1852. He was also engaged in the construction of the Rome & Watertown, the Sacketts Harbor & Ellisburg, the Buffalo, Corning & New York, the Terre Haute, Alton & St. Louis and the Potsdam & Watertown Railroads. During the Civil War, General Barnes performed distinguished service. Going to the front as Colonel of the Eighteenth Massachusetts Volunteers, he was promoted in 1862 to be Brigadier-General of Volunteers, and took part in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and other contests of the Virginia campaign. At the battle of Gettysburg, he was severely wounded, while in command of the First Division of the Fifth Army Corps. He was breveted Major-General of Volunteers in 1865, and mustered out of service the following year with health permanently impaired by wounds and exposure. He died in Springfield, Mass., February 12th, 1869.

Mr. John Sanford Barnes was born at West Point, May 12th, 1836, entered the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and was graduated in 1854. When the Civil War broke out, he was in the naval service of the United States and served throughout the struggle, being promoted from time to time until he attained the rank of Commander. When the war was concluded, he resigned from the service, and prepared himself for professional life by studying law. He was admitted to the bar, and practiced in Albany and New York City for a short time, and then became a partner in the banking firm of J. S. Kennedy & Co., where he was engaged for twelve years, withdrawing from that concern in 1879. After that, he devoted his attention to law business for several years, and then reengaged in banking.

In 1862, Mr. Barnes married Susan Bainbridge Hayes, daughter of Captain Thomas Hayes, of the United States Navy. The grandfather of Mrs. Barnes was the famous Commodore William Bainbridge, whose ancestors were settled in New Jersey soon after 1600. Sir Arthur Bainbridge, of Durham County, England, was the head of the family in the Old World, from which the New Jersey Bainbridges were descended. The father of Commodore Bainbridge was the sixth in descent from Sir Arthur Bainbridge. Commodore Bainbridge is one of the most impressive figures in the naval history of the United States during the first quarter of a century of the republic. He was in the merchant marine at the age of fifteen, captain of a ship at nineteen, commander of a frigate in the wars with Algiers and Tripoli in the early years of the present century, and a prisoner in Tripoli for a year and a half. He was in command of the frigate Constitution in the engagement with and capture of the English frigate Java, and commanded the fleet composed of the Constitution, Essex and Hornet in the War of 1812 in some of the most brilliant episodes of that time. His portrait, painted by Chappel, by order of the City Government, hangs in the City Hall of New York. The grandmother of Mrs. Barnes was Susan Hyleger, whom Commodore Bainbridge married in 1798 at the Island of St. Bartholomew. Her grandfather was John Hyleger, of Holland, for many years Governor of St. Eustatia.

The children of Mr. and Mrs. Barnes are : J. Sanford Barnes, Jr., James Barnes and Edith S., Charlotte A. and Cornelia R. Barnes. The city residence of the family is in East Forty-eighth Street, and the country home is in Lenox, Mass. Mr. Barnes is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, Union, University, Knickerbocker, Whist, Riding and Westminster Kennel clubs, the Downtown Association and the New England and American Geographical Societies, and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.

JOHN CONNER BARRON, M.D.

W OODBRIDGE, N. J., was settled in 1665, soon after the Duke of York's grant to Berkely and Carteret by families largely drawn from Connecticut, and was named after the Reverend John Woodbridge, the pastor and magistrate of its New England One of the names met most frequently in the early annals of this ancient town is that of Barron, a family of English origin, representatives of which came to the American colonies early in the seventeenth century.

founders.

Elizeus Barron, it is shown by the records of the town, married Mary Andrews in 1705. John Barron built the church in 1714, and in 1774 Samuel Barron was chairman of the Freeholders of the county, while Ellis Barron was commissioned Captain in the First Middlesex Regiment in 1776. Of the same family were Captain Barron, Fleet Captain under Perry on the lakes ; Thomas Barron, a prominent financier in the early part of the century, and Director of the New Orleans branch of the Bank of the United States ; as well as Commodore James Barron, one of the ablest officers in the infant Navy of the United States. The attack on his vessel, the Chesapeake, by the British frigate Leopard, in 1807, was among the events which led to the War of 1812. The same occurrence also caused the feud between Barron and Commodore Stephen Decatur. The latter, though Commodore Barron's inferior in rank, was a member of the Naval Court which passed upon his conduct and which harshly sentenced him to suspension from the service. Decatur was particularly active in the matter, and this culminated in the famous duel in 1820, at Bladensburg, between the two officers, in which Decatur was slain. Commodore Barron's grandson, an officer of the United States Navy, adhered to the cause of the South in the Civil War, and was a Commodore in the Confederate States service.

Mr. John Conner Barron was born at Woodbridge, in 1837, of which town his direct ancestors were all natives. His great-grandfather, Samuel Barron, was a large land owner, and his grandfather, Joseph Barron, was prominent in the church at Woodbridge. Mr. Barron's father, John Barron, married a lady belonging to one of the oldest Revolutionary families on Staten Island, Mary Conner, daughter of Colonel Richard Conner and his wife, Mary Claussen. Colonel Conner was a member for Richmond County of the New York Provincial Congress of 1775, and took a prominent and patriotic part in the ensuing struggle.

Educated at Burlington College, New Jersey, and at Yale (class of 1858), Dr. Barron, who had entered the Medical Department of Yale College during his senior year, graduated in 1861 from the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons with the degree of M.D. In 1869 he married Harriet Mulford Williams, of Clinton, N. J., daughter of the Reverend Albert Williams, a direct descendant of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. Mrs. Barron's great-grand- father was a lieutenant in the Second Regiment of the New Jersey Line during the Revolution, and served in all of Washington's campaigns. The issue of the Barron-Williams marriage are five children, Thomas, May, Carlile Norris, John Conner and Ellis Barron. The family residence is Barron Court, a mansion and estate of fifty acres at Tarrytown-on-Hudson.

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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 6

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