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 60

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

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John Lee, who was a native of Colchester, Essex County, England, where he was born in 1620, came to America in 1634, went to Connecticut and subsequently was a member of the second company that went from Hartford to settle in Farmington in 1641. In 1658, he married Mary Hart, daughter of Stephen Hart, and died in 1690, having had a family of six children, from whom have sprung most of the Lees of New England and New York. John Lee, Jr., the eldest son of the pioneer, lived and died at Farmington and from him have come the Lees of Harwinton, Granby, and Kent. Mary Lee, the eldest daughter of the family, married Stephen Upson, of Waterbury, and from that alliance have come the Upsons and their descendants of Connecticut. Thomas Lee, the third son of the family, lived and died at Farmington; his descendants are among the Lees of Massachusetts and Vermont. One of his sons removed to Canada, near Niagara.

Stephen Lee, the ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was the the third child and second son of John Lee, the pioneer. From him have come the Lees of New Britain, Berlin and Kensington, Conn. Captain Stephen Lee, as he was called, had two sons, Isaac and Josiah. The eldest son was a doctor of much celebrity in Middletown, Conn., and vicinity; his sons were Isaac Lee, Jr., Stephen, Jacob and Josiah Lee. Stephen Lee went to Lenox and established a branch of the family there. Josiah Lee, who commanded a privateer in the War of the Revolution, was captured and carried to England and kept in prison several years.

William Henry Lee, the New York merchant, father of Mr. Frederick H. Lee, was descended from Colonel Isaac Lee, of the Stephen Lee branch of this family. He was born in New Britain in 1818. Early in life he went to Troy, N. Y., and engaged in business. A few years later he came to New York and entered the firm of J. R. Jaffray & Co., and in 1845 established the importing and jobbing firm of Lee & Case, a firm subsequently known as William H. Lee & Co., Lee, Bliss & Co., and Lee, Tweedy & Co. Mr. Lee was one of the enterprising merchants of the last generation and a very public spirited man. He was one of the charter members of the Union League Club, an active member of the Chamber of Commerce, for many years a warden of St. Thomas' Church, a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, the New England Society and the American Geographical Society, and a patron of the American Museum of Natural History. In 1893, he removed to Hartford, Conn., where he had long maintained his summer home, and died there in 1895.

Mr. Frederick Howard Lee, son of William Henry Lee, was born in New York, November 10th, 1859, and educated at St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., and in Columbia College, graduating from Columbia in 1882. He has been in business life as a partner in the house that his father established. He is a member of the Racquet and New York clubs, the Larchmont Yacht Club, and the Columbia College Alumni Association, and became a member of Troop A, N. G., S. N. Y., in 1889. His country residence is at the Lee homestead, in Hartford, Conn. Another member of the family is Charles Northam Lee, a brother of Mr. Frederick H. Lee, who lives in West Seventy-eighth Street, and is a member of the Seventh Regiment Veteran Club and the New England Society. The mother of Frederick H. and Charles Northam Lee, was Miss Northam, of an old and respected Connecticut family. She is still living in Hartford.

360

JAMES PARRISH LEE

D URING the reign of Charles 1., Richard Lee, of Shropshire, England, came to Virginia as Secretary of the Colony and one of the Privy Council. Descended from the Coton branch of the family, his ancestor in the fourteenth century was Roger Lee, who married Margaret Astley. In 1646, he was a magistrate of York County, and frequently represented York and North- umberland Counties in the House of Burgesses. In the second generation came Richard Lee, 1647- 1714, member of the Governor's Council, in 1676-80-83-88-92-98, and member of the House of Burgesses in 1677. His wife was Letitia Corbin, daughter of Henry Corbin and Alice Eltonhead.

The last named Richard Lee had, among other children, Philip, Thomas and Henry. The eldest of these, Philip Lee, of Westmoreland County, 1681-1744, moved to Maryland in 1700, became a member of the Governor's Council and a justice of the peace and was the ancestor of the Maryland line of the family. The second son, Thomas Lee, was the father of Richard Henry Lee and Francis Lightfoot Lee, signers of the Declaration of Independence. To Richard Henry Lee belongs the honor of being the mover in Congress of the Declaration of Independence. Upon June 7th, 1776, he proposed the following resolution, the original of which is preserved in the archives of State at Washington: "Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States: that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dis- solved." In pursuance of this resolution, the Declaration of Independence was afterwards drafted. The third of the three sons of Richard Lee was the grandfather of Major "Light Horse Harry " Lee, of Revolutionary fame, and the great-grandfather of General Robert E. Lee, who is too well known to need special mention. Among the writings of "Light Horse Harry " Lee occurs the well-known eulogium "First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

Thomas Lee, son of Philip Lee, of Westmoreland, died in 1749, having married Christiana Sim, daughter of Dr. Patrick Sim and Mary Brooke, of Maryland. His son, Governor Thomas Sim Lee, 1745-1819, was a member of the Provincial Council of Maryland in 1777, Governor in 1779 and 1792 and a member of the Continental Congress, 1763-64. His wife was Mary Digges, daughter of Ignatius Digges and Elizabeth Parkham. John Lee, of Needwood, 1788-1871, grandfather of Mr. James Parrish Lee, was educated in Harvard and, in 1823-25, was a Member of Congress. His wife was Harriet Carroll, daughter of Charles Carroll and Harriet Chew. His son, Dr. Charles Carroll Lee, 1839-1893, was graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1859, served on the medical staff of the Union Army during the Civil War, and after the war had a large private practice and was a professor in the New York Post-Graduate Hospital. He was presi- dent of the Medical Society of the County of New York at the time of his death in 1893. His wife was Helen Parrish, of Philadelphia, their children being Sarah Redwood, Richard Henry, Thomas Sim, James Parrish, Charles Carroll, Mary Helen, Helen and Mary Digges Lee. Mrs. Lee survived her husband and is now living in Tuxedo Park.

On the female side, Mr. Lee goes back to other illustrious ancestors. Henry Corbin, father of Letitia Corbin, who married the second Richard Lee, came to Virginia in 1654, and was a burgess in 1659, a justice of the peace and a member of the Governor's Council. He was a son of Thomas Corbin, of Hall End, England, and descended from Robert Corbin, who gave lands to the Abbey of Ealesworth in the twelfth century. The great-grandmother of Mr. Lee was Mary Digges, descended from Edward Digges, proprietor of the Bellfield estate, Auditor-General of the Colony and Gov- ernor, 1656-58. Harriet Carroll, grandmother of Mr. Lee, was a descendant of the Carroll and Chew families. Her father was Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. James Parrish Lee was born in New York, June 6th, 1870. Both he and his brother, Dr. Thomas Sim Lee, were educated in Harvard University, graduating in the class of 1891. He is a lawyer by profession. In 1896, he married Clara Lothrop Lincoln, only daughter of Lowell and Clara A. (Lothrop) Lincoln.

361

MARSHALL CLIFFORD LEFFERTS

OME short distance north of Hoorn, in the Province of North Holland, is the village of Haugh wout. There the American ancestor of the Lefferts family, Leffert Pietersen Van Haughwout, was born. Coming to this country in 1660, he settled in Midwout (Flatbush), Long Island, served on the grand jury in 1688, was a constable in 1692 and an assessor in 1703. He died in 1704. His wife was Abigail, daughter of Auke Janse Van Nuyse.

Jacobus Leffert, 1686-1768, head of the family in the second generation, in 1715 was on the roll of the militia company of Flatbush, and in 1727 was one of the three freeholders of Brooklyn to defend their patent. His wife was Janetje, daughter of Nicholas, or Claes, Barrentse Blom. Leffert Lefferts, 1727-1804, son of Jacobus Leffert, was a farmer in Bedford, one of the freeholders of Brooklyn, 1756-76, town clerk 1761-76, and assistant justice 1761-77. He married Dorothy, daughter of John Cowenhoven. John Lefferts, 1763-1812, great-grandfather of Mr. Marshall C. Lefferts, was a farmer of Bedford and in 1790 married Sarah, daughter of Rem and Ida Cowenhoven. His son, Leffert Lefferts, 1791-1868, married Amelia Ann Cozine, daughter of Judge John Cozine, of New York, and became the father of Colonel Marshall Lefferts.

Colonel Lefferts, 1821-1876, educated in the public schools, was first a civil engineer, but after a few years became a partner in an importing house. For eleven years following 1849, he was president of the New York, New England & New York State Telegraph Company. After that, he owned several telegraph patents, was connected with the Western Union Telegraph Company as electrical engineer, organized the Commercial News Department of the Western Union Company in 1867, and was president of the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company from 1869 to the time of his death. Joining the famous New York Seventh Regiment in 1851 as a private, he became its Lieutenant-Colonel the next year and Colonel in 1859. When the Civil War broke out, he led his regiment to the front in 1861 and again saw service with it in 1862 and 1863, when he was Military Governor at Frederick, Md. After the war, he resigned his command, but was for several years commander of the veteran corps of the regiment. Colonel Lefferts left seven children: George M. Lefferts, a practicing physician of New York; William H. Lefferts, of the firm of Morewood & Co .; Marshall C. Lefferts, the subject of this sketch; Frederick R. Lefferts, treasurer of the Celluloid Company; Grace Lefferts, who married Frederick R. Hutton, Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Columbia University; Mary E. Lefferts, who married Dwight A. Jones, of Englewood, N. J., a practicing lawyer in New York; and Louis E. Lefferts, president of the Penrhyn Slate Company.

Mr. Marshall Clifford Lefferts was born in New York in 1848, and was educated in the local schools, from which he went to the New York Free Academy, now the College of the City of New York. Leaving the academy before graduating, he was early engaged in the supply department of the American Telegraph Company, which was afterwards merged into the Western Union Telegraph Company, and later he became connected with the Gold and Stock Telegraph Company with his father, leaving it in 1872 to take a position in the Celluloid Manufacturing Company. Since 1890, he has been president of the Celluloid Company. Mr. Lefferts has never taken any active part in public life, although in 1892 he was invited and accepted a place upon the famous Committee of Seventy.

The chief relaxation of Mr. Lefferts from the cares of business is in his library of early printed books of English literature and Americana, which ranks high among the private libraries of this country. In 1878, Mr. Lefferts married Carrie Ella Baker, daughter of Peter C. Baker, of New York, and Malvina L. Carpenter. He has three children: Franklin B. Lefferts, a student in the School of Mines of Columbia University; Mary C. Lefferts, and Marshall C. Lefferts, Jr. He lives in East Sixty-fifth Street, and spends the summer in Cedarhurst, L. 1., where he has a country seat. He is a member of the Union League, Grolier and Rockaway Hunt clubs, the St. Nicholas Society, the Chamber of Commerce and other social and commercial organizations.

362

FRANCIS H. LEGGETT

I N Westchester County, New York, the name of Leggett's Point, which projects into the Sound, recalls a family that has been resident for about two hundred and fifty years in that place. The Leggetts were formerly seated in Gloucestershire, England, and were of ancient descent, the tradition being that their family name was derived from an ancestor who was a papal legate. This is indicated by their arms, which are described as : ermine, a lion rampant gules; crest, a pope's mitre upheld by the claws of a lion, gules.

As early as 1661, Gabriel Leggett came to this country, having previously emigrated from England to Barbadoes. He settled at Westchester, N. Y., and bought a place which has remained in the hands of his descendants to our days. He married Elizabeth Richardson, daughter of John Richardson, one of the joint patentees of the Planting Neck, as it was called, by which alliance a large amount of property came into his possession. He was for years an official of Westchester, and his descendants have always been prominent in that section and in New York. Among the notable ones were Thomas Leggett, who was driven from his estate by the Tories in the Revolu- tion, but after the war had ended, made a fortune in New York City. His sons were among the noted New York merchants of the early portion of the century. One of them, Samuel Leggett, was president of the old Franklin Bank, and president of the first gas company of the city, in 1823. Major Abraham Leggett, of another branch of the family, served as an officer of the Revolutionary Army, and was an original member of the Cincinnati. His son, William Leggett, was associated with William Cullen Bryant, in the management of The Evening Post. A son of Samuel Leggett married a daughter of Wager Hull, a descendant of Admiral Sir Wager Hull, of the English Navy, and one of his granddaughters was the philanthropic Sarah H. Leggett, who established the Home for Working Women, and the Fifth Avenue Reading Room.

Mr. Francis H. Leggett descends from Gabriel Leggett, through William, one of the latter's sons, who resided at Mt. Pleasant, N. Y., in the early part of the eighteenth century. His son, Ezekiel, was the father of Abraham Leggett, and grandfather of a second Abraham Leggett, born in 1805, who was the father of Mr. Francis H. Leggett. Abraham Leggett was long one of the leading merchants of New York City. For half a century he carried on a large wholesale business on Front Street, and was one of the founders of the Old Market Bank, now the Market and Fulton National Bank.

Mr. Francis H. Leggett was born in New York, March 27th, 1840, and after a substantial academic education, entered a business house. After five years of experience, he embarked in business on his own account, in 1862, in partnership with an older brother, as wholesale merchants. This relationship continued for eight years, and then, in 1870, Mr. Leggett joined with another and younger brother in organizing the firm of Francis H. Leggett & Company. Although his brother, Theodore Leggett, died in 1883, the firm's name has remained unchanged to this day, and it has grown into an extremely large establishment, occupying the large building on West Broadway and Franklin Street, which is a landmark in the downtown section of the city.

Mr. Leggett still remains in active business life at the head of the concern he started twenty- seven years ago. He, however, has other business interests, being a director of the Home Insurance Company and a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank. For twelve years he was a director of the National Park Bank, and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Produce Exchange, Mercantile Exchange and Cotton Exchange. He belongs to the Union League, Metropolitan, Tuxedo, Merchants, Riding and Grolier clubs, and other artistic, literary and scientific institutions, and is a working member and one of the vice-presidents of the council of the Charity Organization Society. In 1895, Mr. Leggett was married at Paris, France, to Besse (Macleod) Sturges, a lady descended from the distinguished Scotch family of MacLeod, which has also been prominent in the United States. Besides his city residence at 21 West Thirty-fourth Street, Mr. Leggett has a country seat, Ridgely, at Stone Ridge, Ulster County, N. Y.

363

EUGENE LENTILHON

O F mingled French and English ancestry, the Lentilhons of New York trace their lineage to the Lentilhon and de Tours families of France, and to the Leaycrafts and Smiths of England. The Lentilhon ancestor, who was born about 1700, married a Mademoiselle Repon, from Bulla, in Switzerland, and had several children. His son, Antoine Lentilhon, 1732- 1805, married Popon des Tours. Their son, Jean Marie Joseph Lentilhon, 1773-1839, married, in Virieux, Catherine Barthèlemie Pauline, daughter of Claude Antoine Gerbès de Tours. The Gerbès de Tours family was of Spanish origin, but was established before the eighteenth century in the village of Tours, near St. Didier, Rochefort. Antoine Gerbès de Tours held that fief and married Jeanne du Poyet, heiress of the fief of Le Poyet. Jean Marie Gerbès de Tours, son of Antoine Gerbès de Tours, was notary royal and judge chatelaine of St. Didier, and died before 1772, having married Jeanne de Cossu. Their son, Claude Antoine Gerbes de Tours, father of Catherine Barthèlemie Pauline de Tours, born in 1739, was guillotined by the Revolutionists in 1793. His wife was Laurence de Flon, daughter of François de Flon and his wife, Catherine Soviche.

Two sons were born to Jean Marie Joseph Lentilhon and his wife, Catherine Barthèlemie Pauline de Tours. From these two sons the Lentilhon family of New York is descended. The eldest son, Antoine Lentilhon, married Eliza Leaycraft Smith. They had no son, but their four daughters married, respectively, Herman Ten Eyck Foster, Peter Vandervoort King, Henry Oothout and John Garven Dale. The second son, Eugène Lentilhon, was the ancestor of that branch of the family under consideration here. He was born in Lyons, France, in December, 1810, and became a merchant in New York, where he died in 1879. In 1836, he married Emily Louisa Smith, who was born in 1819 and died in 1869. She was the daughter of Gamaliel and Mary Riker (Leaycraft) Smith. Her father, Gamaliel Smith, was born in Suffield, Conn., in 1774, and died on the Island of Santa Cruz in 1823. He was a descendant of the Reverend Henry Smith, a Puritan clergyman, who, in 1638, became the first minister of the church in Wethersfield, Conn., and died in 1648. Mary Riker Leaycraft, the mother of Emily Louisa (Smith) Lentilhon, was the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Haldane) Leaycraft. Her paternal ancestor was Christopher Leaycraft, who, in 1647, was a member of the Governor's Council in the Bermudas. John Leaycraft was the son of Viner Leaycraft and his wife, Elizabeth Codwise. Eugène Lentilhon and his wife, Emily Louisa Smith, had seven children: Antonia Eliza, Joseph, Eugène Louis, Pauline de Tours, Jean de Tours, Edward Smith and William Augustus Lentilhon. Joseph Lentilhon, the eldest son, 1839-1895, was a Captain in the Seventh Regiment. He married Zella Trelawny Detmold, and had nine children.

Eugène Lentilhon is the eldest son of the late Joseph Lentilhon, and the representative in lineal descent of the family. A graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University, he married Rose Paret Buchanan, daughter of James A. Buchanan, and has a son, Eugène Lentilhon, the third of the name. The other children of Joseph Lentilhon are: Zella, who married Charles Brewster Wheeler, U. S. A .; Emily Louisa, who married John Parkin Gilford, and has two daughters, Emily L. and Almy Gilford; Marie de Tours, who married Chester Clark Boynton, and also has two daughters; Joseph, who married Louise Everett; Pauline Léonie; Edward Detmold; Antoinette de Tours, deceased, and Minna Lentilhon.

Eugène Louis Lentilhon, the second son of Eugène Lentilhon, 1810-1879, married Ida M. Ward and has two children, Ida Ward and Herbert D. Ward Lentilhon. His residence is Virieux sur Mer, Far Rockaway, Long Island. Jean de Tours Lentilhon, the third son, died in 1850. Edward Smith Lentilhon, the fourth son, married Emily Swan, daughter of Edward H. Swan, of Oyster Bay, Long Island. She died in 1890. William Augustus Lentilhon, the youngest son, married, in 1884, Julia Catherine Rodewald, and has one daughter, Julia Mac Neill Lentilhon. He resides in New Brighton, Staten Island. Antonia Eliza, the eldest daughter of Eugène and Emily Louisa (Smith) Lentilhon, married Edward Fesser, of Cuba. The second daughter, Pauline de Tours Lentilhon, is unmarried.

364

JEFFERSON M. LEVY

I T was in early Colonial days, during the seventeenth century, that the ancestors of Mr. Jefferson M. Levy came to America. Some of them settled in New York and others in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island, but both branches of the family maintained intimate relations from that time to the present. Representatives of the name acquired land in New York as early as 1665. When the Revolution came, the men of the family were active patriots. The great-grandfather of Mr. Jefferson M. Levy was one of the signers of the non-importation agreement, the original of which is in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, and he was one of the five commissioners appointed by the Colonial Congress to sign the money notes issued by its authority. Jonas Philips, his great- grandfather on the maternal side, served with distinction during the Revolutionary War. The grandmother of Mr. Levy, who is buried at Monticello, Va., was a woman of remarkable beauty and went abroad shortly after the Revolution. Being presented at the court of St. James, she created a sensation and was called the American beauty.

Several generations of Mr. Levy's relatives have distinguished themselves in the service of their country. His uncle, Commodore Uriah P. Levy, was at the time of his death, in 1862, the ranking officer in the United States Navy. He had a brilliant career in the navy and distinguished himself in the War of 1812. He was finally captured by the British in the battle of the Argus and Pelican and held a prisoner for eighteen months, until the close of the war. In 1822, at Dubardeau Inlet, he performed a notable act of bravery, saving many lives during a furious gale. The Emperor of Brazil urged him to enter the navy of that country, but he declined the honor. He was instru- mental in abolishing flogging in the United States Navy, and in fact was called the Father of the Seamen of the Navy. The bronze statue of Jefferson, by David D'Angiers, that stands n the old Hall of Representatives in the Capitol at Washington, was presented by Commodore Levy to the United States in 1834.

After the death of Thomas Jefferson, Commodore Levy purchased the historic house and estate of Monticello, the home of the great Democrat. The mansion, which was begun by Jefferson in 1764 and finished in 1771, is one of the finest of its date, modeled somewhat after the Petit Trianon of Versailles. It stands in a commanding position on a small plateau, elevated some three hundred feet above the surrounding country and five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The estate embraces five hundred acres of park land, gardens and lawns. It is now the property of Mr. Jefferson M. Levy, who inherited it from his uncle, Commodore Levy.

The father of Mr. Jefferson M. Levy was Captain J. P. Levy, a brilliant naval officer. During the Mexican War, he commanded the United States ship America, and did noteworthy service in the siege of Vera Cruz. When that city surrendered to the United States forces, General Scott appointed him Captain of the Port. Captain Levy died in 1883.

Mr. Jefferson M. Levy was born in New York. His early education was under the direction of private tutors, after which he entered the University of the City of New York, and was graduated with honors. For more than twenty years he has been a prominent member of the New York bar, and also has large interests in real estate. Mr. Levy is a pronounced Democrat in politics. In 1891, the Democratic nomination for Congress from a New York City district was offered to him, but he declined the honor. During the presidential campaign of 1892, he was an active worker in the Virginia League of Democratic Club, and as chairman of that organization contributed much towards the election of President Cleveland. He was the first vice-president of the Young Men's Democratic Club of New York. Mr. Levy is a member of the Manhattan, Reform, Commonwealth, New York Yacht and Democratic clubs, the Southern Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the New York Historical Society, the Westmoreland Club of Virginia and the Sandowne Park Club of England. His city residence is at 66 East Thirty-fourth Street, and he also occupies the historic house at Monticello. He is a generous patron of music, and in 1897 was one of the largest subscribers to the fund for the support of opera in the Metropolitan Opera House.

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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 60

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