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 62
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Mr. Logan has, of course, traveled extensively, both abroad and in the United States. He is a member of the St. Stephen's Club, in London, and of the Cosmos, of Washington, D. C. The social organizations with which he is connected are numerous, and embrace the Lawyers' Club, as well as the Colonial, Lotos, Nineteenth Century, Adirondack League, New York Athletic, and Hamilton, of Brooklyn. His tastes for sport are in the direction of yachting, and he is a member of the New York Yacht Club, while membership in the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars and the Order of Patriots and Founders of America, attests his descent from patriotic ancestors. He is a member of the Historical Society, the Geographical Society and many other bodies devoted to science, art and literature. He is much interested in Mexico, has delivered several notable addresses on the history and law of that country, and is now engaged in the preparation of a History of Mexico Since the War of Independence.
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G. WEAVER LOPER.
T HE rocky coast of New England gave to the country the naval heroes who made the United States flag respected on the ocean and the navigators who carried our commerce into all quarters. Mr. Loper's ancestry is of this race, his family name being one of the oldest in New London County, Conn. Through a maternal ancestor, he descends from Edmund Fanning, who came in 1662 from Ireland to New London, and a little later to Stonington, where he became a landowner and the progenitor of a family distinguished in American naval annals. Among his descendants were Edmund Fanning, a famous early American navigator, and Nathaniel Fanning, who served as midshipman on the Bonhomme Richard and commanded the main top in the famous action with the British frigate Serapis. His gallantry is commemorated in an autographic letter of John Paul Jones. Becoming a Lieutenant in the United States Navy, he died in 1805.
The grandfather of the subject of this sketch was Captain Richard Fanning Loper, a nephew of Lieutenant Fanning. He was born at Stonington, in the first year of this century. He chose the sea as a profession, and before his majority was a Captain. In 1831, he left the ocean, became a resident of Philadelphia and founded a shipbuilding establishment, which grew into one of the largest in the country, over 400 vessels having been built at the works from Captain Loper's designs. He was also an inventor and a prominent and respected citizen of Philadelphia, occupying many positions of trust, including the presidency of the Philadelphia & Trenton Railroad. In 1870, Captain Loper retired from business and removed to his native town, dying in New York City in 1880.
Captain Loper's services to the Government of his country deserve detailed record. In 1846, he was consulted by the War Department in regard to building boats for the landing of General Scott's army on the Mexican coast. Other experts had declared that it would be impossible to build the desired craft in less than three months. Captain Loper, however, declared his readiness to complete the work within the requisite time and furnished the vessels in about thirty days, their prompt arrival at the scene of operations ensuring the capture of Vera Cruz. For his services he received the thanks of the Secretary of War, General Maury. In 1861, he was again called upon to help the Government in the transportation service, and lent efficient aid, for which he was thanked by Generals Burnside and Ingalls and by President Lincoln. In both cases his knowledge and skill were given to his country gratuitously and from motives of patriotism.
The wife of Captain Loper was Margaret Mercer, a native of Philadelphia, and among their children was William H. Loper, who married Annie Weaver, daughter of George J. Weaver and his wife, Emily (Fitler) Weaver, both of whom were members of Philadelphia families of wealth and influence.
Mr. G. Weaver Loper is the son of William H. and Annie (Weaver) Loper. He was born in New York, in 1858, and received his education at private academies in this city and Philadelphia. He entered business, became a manufacturer, and has been prominent in many industrial and financial undertakings of the largest scope in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and New York. Mr. Loper was married, in 1879, to Fannie Gordon, the children of this union being two minor sons, G. Gordon Loper and G. Weaver Loper, Jr. Mr. Loper's tastes for sport naturally take the direction of yachting, in which he is an expert. His grandfather, Captain Loper, was a famous yachtsman, joining the New York Yacht Club in 1855 and owning such famous old-time prize-winners as the schooner America, the Magic, Josephine and Palmer. Mr. Loper was recently the owner of the steam yacht Avenel, and has served as Rear Commodore of the American Yacht Club. He is also a member of the New York Yacht Club and of the Seawanhaka-Corinthian, Larchmont and Eastern Yacht clubs. His family residence is 36 West Fifty-eighth Street. Mr. Loper is a member of many of the prominent clubs, including the Metropolitan, Union League, Country, Calumet, Racquet and the Downtown Association ; the Pendennis, of Louisville; the Queen City and Country, of Cincinnati, and the Union League, of Philadelphia.
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DANIEL LORD
T HOMAS LORD, who was born in England about 1585, was the American founder of the Lord family, the records of which, in the mother country, are traceable upon the Hundred Rolls, and other documents back to the thirteenth century. The family was probably of Norman origin, as indicated by the use, in the ancient records and muniments in which they figure, of the words, de Laward alias Lord, as the name was at times found written in various places where mention is made of its possessors during the middle ages.
Thomas Lord, the founder of the American branch of the family to which attention is called in this article, sailed from London in 1635, accompanied by his wife Dorothy and his children, Thomas, Ann, William, John, Robert, Aymie and Dorothy. He first established himself at Newtown, as it was then called, but which afterwards became known as Cambridge, Mass., where his eldest son, Richard Lord, born in 1611, who preceded his father, had already settled as early as 1632. In 1635, Thomas Lord and his family formed part of the large company which was led by the Reverend Thomas Hooker, pastor of the town of Newtown, to form a new settle- ment on the Connecticut River, and thus he became an original proprietor and one of the first settlers of the town of Hartford, the part of the modern city still called Lord's Hill taking its name from his family. He died there prior to the decease of his wife, which, as stated in the records of the place, occurred in 1675. William Lord, the fourth child of Thomas Lord, was born in England in 1623, and was a lad of about twelve years of age when he came to this country with his parents. He settled at Saybrook, Conn., and became a large landowner both there and at Lyme, in the same Colony. He was a man of remarkably strong character and possessed unusual scholarly attainments for the generation in which he lived. His relations with the Indians were most friendly, and his influence over them was marked. He was referred to by Chapeto, the famous Indian chief, as his " very loving friend," and similar relations continued with the celebrated Uncas, Chapeto's son. On many occasions he was instrumental in saving the Colonists from attacks by the aborigines. William Lord's elder sister, Ann, married Thomas Stanton, who, in the early history of New England, was Interpreter-General of the United Colonies.
Thomas Lord, the second son of William, was born in December, 1645, at Lyme, married Mary Lee in 1693 and died in 1730. Their third son, Joseph, born in 1697, married Abigail Comstock in 1724, and their son, Captain Daniel Lord, born in 1736, married Elizabeth Lord, granddaughter of Thomas and Mary (Lee) Lord and daughter of Thomas and Esther (Marvin) Lord. Captain Daniel Lord and his wife, Elizabeth Lord, were, therefore, first cousins. Dr. Daniel Lord, the second of that name and the son of Captain Daniel, was the great-grandfather of the present Mr. Daniel Lord, of New York. He studied medicine with Dr. Samuel Mather, of Lyme, one of a noted family of physicians, and had more than a local reputation as an excellent physician and admirable instructor. He married Phœbe Crary, of Stonington, two of whose brothers, Peter and Edward Crary, afterwards became influential merchants in New York. Their only child was Daniel Lord, the third bearer of that name, who was born at Stonington, Conn., and was the grandfather of the present head of the family.
Daniel Lord, the third of the name, was graduated from Yale College in 1814, and in 1846 received from the same institution the degree of LL. D. He studied law with George Griffin, a distinguished advocate at the New York bar at that period. Admitted to the bar in 1817, he rapidly rose to be one of its leaders and acquired the reputation of being the first commercial lawyer of the country. On the sixteenth of May, 1818, he married Susan, second daughter of Lockwood De Forest, of the old New York family of that name, which is often referred to in these pages, its members being related to many persons of prominence in the city's history. He died in New York, March 4th, 1868, leaving a reputation of great ability, absolute integrity and striking devotion to his profession.
Daniel De Forest Lord, his eldest son, was born April 17th, 1819. He also followed the
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profession of his father and became a prominent member of the bar in this city. He married October 15th, 1845, Mary Howard Butler, daughter of the Honorable Benjamin F. Butler, who during the first half of the present century was a distinguished lawyer of New York and was at one time Attorney-General of the United States in the Cabinet of President Van Buren. The brothers and sisters of Daniel De Forest Lord were Phobe Lucretia, who married Henry Day, both of whom are now dead; John Crary Lord, who married Margaret Hawley, daughter of Gideon Hawley, of Albany, and died some years ago, his widow still surviving; James Couper Lord, who died in 1869, having married Margaret Hunter Brown, daughter of James Brown, then the head of the well-known firm of New York bankers, Brown Bros. & Co .; Sarah, who married Henry C. Howells and is the only child of Daniel Lord now living; Edward Crary Lord, who married Cornelia Livingston, both of whom are now dead; and George De Forest Lord, who married Frances T. Shelton.
George De Forest Lord was also a lawyer of prominence and a member of the law firm of Lord, Day & Lord, established by his father and continued by the members of the family. He was born in New York in 1833, and was graduated with high honors from Yale College, in the class of 1854, and also from the Harvard College Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1859. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he became a member of the Twenty-Second Regiment, and as First Lieutenant of Company G, was in service at the front. He died in 1892. Daniel De Forest Lord died at his country home, Sosiego, in Lawrence, Long Island, November 10th, 1894.
Mr. Daniel Lord, whose name is at the head of this article, is the elder son of the late Daniel De Forest Lord. He was born in this city in 1846, was graduated from Columbia Col- lege in the class of 1866, was admitted to the bar in 1868 and became a member of the firm of Lord, Day & Lord, and in the same year married Silvie Livingston Bolton. He has had two children, Fanny Bolton and Daniel Lord. His son graduated from Yale University in the class of 1892, and was preparing for admission to the bar in the office of Lord, Day & Lord at the time of his sudden death in 1893, which terminated a career of great promise and put an end to the name of Daniel Lord, which had been conspicuously borne by some member of this distinguished family for six generations and during a period of over one hundred and fifty years. Mr. Lord's daughter, Fanny Bolton Lord, is still living.
Mr. Daniel Lord is now the senior member of the firm of Lord, Day & Lord. The business conducted by the firm was begun by the grandfather of the present members in 1817, and is still continued by them, thus making it one of the oldest firms in the city, either in the law or other vocations, as it has had a continuous existence of over eighty years, during which time it has been under the guidance of the members of one family, and has represented interests intimately associated with the development of the city's prosperity. Mr. Lord's town residence is in Ninth Street, just east of Fifth Avenue, while his country home is at Lawrence, where he has erected a new house on the site formerly occupied by his father, which he calls by the same name, Sosiego. Mr. Lord belongs to the Metropolitan, Union, University, Union League, New York, Athletic, Lawyers', Downtown, Rockaway Hunt, Lawrence and Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Bar Association, the Columbia College Alumni Association, and the Sons of the Revolu- tion and is a fellow of the National Academy of Design. He has never taken a prominent part in politics or held any public elective office, though at all times he has been deeply interested in public matters and has lent his influence to the support of proper measures for the public good.
Franklin Butler Lord, brother of Daniel Lord and his parter in the law firm of Lord, Day & Lord, was born in New York, September 18th, 1850, and is a graduate of Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar in 1873, and since that time has been in active practice. In 1875, he married Josephine Gillet, daughter of Joseph Giliet, and has had four children, Franklin Butler, Jr., Howard, who died young, Edward Crary and George De Forest Lord. His residence is at Lawrence, Long Island, and he is a member of the University, Century, Lawyers', Rockaway Hunt and Lawrence clubs, and of the Columbia College Alumni Association, the Bar Association, the Downtown Association and the Sons of the Revolution.
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PIERRE LORILLARD
A BOUT the beginning of the American Revolution, the Lorillard family was established in this country. It is of French origin, and its representatives came from Montpelier, in the department of the Herault, France. Being Huguenots, the Lorillards were obliged to leave their native land to escape persecution, and migrated to Holland and afterwards to the New World. Peter Lorillard, the founder of the New York branch of the family, settled in Hackensack, N. J., and was killed by the Hessians during the Revolution. His wife was Catharine Moore, sister of Blazius Moore, and they had a large family, among them the brothers, Peter A., George and Jacob. Peter A. Lorillard, 1763-1843, married in 1789 Maria Dorothea Schultz, daughter of Major Schultz, of the Continental Army. Their children were: Maria Dorothea, born in 1790, married Thomas A. Ronalds; Catherine, born 1792, married Captain W. A. Spencer, U. S. N .; Peter, born in 1796; Dorothea Ann, born 1797, married John David Wolfe ; and Eleanor Eliza, born 1801, who became the second wife of Captain Spencer, after the decease of her sister.
George Lorillard, brother of Peter A. Lorillard, joined the latter in establishing the great tobacco manufactory now carried on by the P. Lorillard Company. He became the owner of considerable real estate in New York, much of which is still held by the family.
Peter Lorillard, son of Peter A. Lorillard, was born in 1796, and married Catherine Griswold, daughter of Nathaniel L. Griswold, who was in the fifth generation of direct descent from Nathaniel Griswold, the first magistrate of the Saybrook, Conn., Colony, and his wife, Anna Wolcott, daughter of Henry Wolcott, the first of the Wolcott family, of Connecticut. Thus the Lorillards of this branch in the present generation trace their lineage to several famous Colonial families of New England and to noble ancestors in the old country. Peter Lorillard was a man of great public spirit. He died in Saratoga in 1867. Of his children, Catherine Lorillard married James P. Kernochan, who died in 1897; Mary Lorillard married Henry L. Barbey; Eva Lorillard became the wife of Colonel Lawrence Kip; Jacob Lorillard married Frances A. Uhlhorn; Louis L. Lorillard married Katharine, daughter of Gilbert L. Beekman; and George L. Lorillard married late in life and left no children.
Mr. Pierre Lorillard, son of Peter Lorillard, the third, born October 13th, 1833, was the eldest of his father's family. One of Mr. Lorillard's most notable social achievements was the founding of Tuxedo Park. He also fitted out, in connection with the French Government, the two Charnay Franco-American archæological expeditions to explore the ancient cities of Central America and Yucatan, for which France made him Chevalier of the Legion of Honor, and in 1883 an officer of that order. He has gained an international reputation as a breeder and owner of thoroughbred horses. His stables at Rancocas, N. J., were among the most important in the United States, and the winning of the Derby by his American-bred horse, Iroquois, is still remembered. His clubs include the Union, Knickerbocker and Racquet. Mr. Lorillard now makes his home principally in England, his interests in connection with the English turf absorbing most of his time, but he still maintains a residence in Tuxedo Park.
In 1858, Mr. Lorillard married Emily Taylor, daughter of Dr. Isaac E. Taylor, a celebrated New York physician, and one of the founders of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College. His children are: Emily, who married William Kent, great-grandson of Chancellor James Kent; Pierre, Jr., and Maude Louise, who married Thomas Suffern Tailer, son of Edwin N. Tailer. His second son, Griswold N. Lorillard, died at the age of twenty-five without issue. Pierre Lorillard, Jr., eldest son of Mr. Pierre Lorillard, was born in New York, January 28th, 1860. He married, in 1881, Caroline J. Hamilton, daughter of George Hamilton, of Scotland, her mother being a daughter of the Reverend Dr. Phillips, of New York. They have two sons, Pierre and Griswold Lorillard. The residence of Pierre Lorillard, Jr., is Keewaydin, in Tuxedo Park. He belongs to the Union, Knickerbocker, Fencers', Riding and Westminster Kennel clubs, and is also a member of the Metropolitan Club, of Washington.
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SETH LOW
H OLDING a place among the foremost New Yorkers of the present day, and one of a family that has been identified with the metropolis for three-quarters of a century, President Seth Low of Columbia University is of New England blood. His ancestors were among the early English settlers of Massachusetts, the representative of the family who established its New York branch being his grandfather, Seth Low, who was born in Gloucester, Mass., in 1782. For two years he was a member of the class of 1808 in Harvard College, and subsequently was a clerk in the store of a druggist in Salem, Mass. In 1828, he removed to New York, where he engaged in business on his own account, making his residence in Brooklyn, of which city, at his death in 1853, he was an honored citizen. His wife was Mary Porter, of Topsfield, Mass., whom he married in 1807.
His eldest son was Abiel Abbot Low, born in Salem in 1811. Educated in business from his youth, at first in Salem and from 1833 to 1840 in the noted American firm of Russell & Co., of China, in Canton, he became a leader of New York's commercial interests. On his return from China, he organized the House of A. A. Low & Co., which was long a principal factor in the country's Eastern trade. Mr. Low was prominent in advancing the material interests of New York and was president of the Chamber of Commerce from 1863 to 1866. He resided in Brooklyn, and though consistently refusing public office, was active and conspicuous in the educational, charitable and religious organizations of that city. He died in January, 1893. His wife was Ellen Almira Dow, descended from Richard Dow, an emigrant of 1646, who settled in Salisbury, N. H. Her father, Josiah Dow, was an officer in the War of 1812, founded Dow's Academy in Wakefield, Mass., and was a merchant of prominence in Salem, Boston and finally in New York, being for many years a resident of Brooklyn.
The Honorable Seth Low, the youngest son of A. A. Low, was born in Brooklyn, January 18th, 1850. He received his early education at the Polytechnic Institute of that city, entered Columbia College and was graduated in the class of 1870. He then entered his father's business house, and in 1875 was admitted to partnership. On the retirement of the senior partners, in 1879, Mr. Low and his brothers succeeded to the control of the time-honored concern, which was finally wound up in 1888.
Although he displayed an hereditary talent for business, it was not to be the occupation of his life. He had taken a laudable interest in politics, and in 1880 was president of the Young Men's Republican Club of Brooklyn. In 1881, he was elected Mayor of Brooklyn as a candidate of the Republican and Reform parties and was reelected for a second term. Mr. Low's administra- tion marked a new era in municipal affairs, and gave an example that has been fruitful of results throughout the country as the first thorough test of the benefits of the divorce of city interests from party politics. On retiring from the mayoralty, in 1886, he traveled in Europe for some time and then returned to his business duties. Since he has resided in New York, he has served as a member of the Rapid Transit Commission, and was one of the commissioners to draft the charter of the Greater New York. In 1897, he was the Citizens' Union candidate for Mayor.
In 1889, Mr. Low was tendered, by the unanimous vote of the trustees of Columbia College, the presidency of that venerable institution. Under his administration, Columbia has been elevated to the position of a University, its medical and other departments being consolidated with the parent body, while its educational scope has been greatly widened and strengthened. It is through Mr. Low's efforts, also, that the removal of the University itself to Morningside Heights has been provided for, his own munificent gift of the new Low library, as a memorial of his father, being only one of the benefits he has conferred upon it. In 1880, Mr. Low married Annie Wrae Scollay Curtis, daughter of Justice Benjamin Robbins Curtis, of the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. Low's residence is 30 East Sixty-fourth Street, and he is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, University, City and other clubs and of many societies, literary and scientific.
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CHARLES HENRY LUDINGTON
A MONG the early settlers of Charlestown, Mass., was William Ludington, who removed to Branford, Conn., and died in 1662. His son, William, married Martha Rose, and their eldest son, Henry, and his wife, Sarah Collins, had a son, William, born in 1702, who married Mary Knowles, and whose eldest son was Colonel Henry Ludington, who was born at Branford, in 1738, and was the grandfather of Mr. Charles Henry Ludington.
Henry Ludington removed to Putnam County, N. Y., about 1760, with his parents and his uncle, Elisha Ludington. As soon as the Revolution began, he cast his fortunes with the patriot cause. He was a Captain of militia in 1773, his commission, signed by Governor Tryon, the last Royal Governor of New York, being in the possession of Mr. Charles Henry Ludington, as is also his commission as Colonel from the Provincial Congress of New York, which was followed by one conferring similar rank from the State of New York, signed by Governor George Clinton. He succeeded to the command of the regiment of which Beverly Robinson had been Colonel in Dutchess County. Being posted in the northern border of the neutral ground, he was so success- ful in thwarting the British plans that a large reward was offered for his capture alive or dead. When the British, in April, 1777, burned Danbury, Conn., Colonel Ludington led a portion of the Continental forces which attacked the enemy. At the battle of White Plains he was an aide-de- camp to General Washington. In civil life he was a member of the Legislature for several terms. His death occurred in 1817. In 1760, he married his cousin, Abigail Ludington, daughter of Elisha Ludington, son of the third William Ludington.
Lewis Ludington, the youngest child of Colonel Henry Ludington, was born in 1786, in Fredericksburg, Putnam County, N. Y., and died in Kenosha, Wis., in 1857. He removed to Carmel, N. Y., in 1816, and was engaged in business there, but in 1839 established the firm of Ludington, Burchard & Co., afterwards Ludington & Co., at Milwaukee, Wis. He married Polly Townsend, daughter of Samuel Townsend, their children being: Laura, wife of John Hustis; Delia, William Edgar, Robert, Charles H., James, Lavinia E., Emily, wife of Victor E. Tull, and Amelia, wife of John C. Angell. His son, James Ludington, founded the city of Ludington, Mich.
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