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 64
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Their son, Mr. Henry D. McCord, was born at the Village of Sing Sing, New York, September 15th, 1836. He was educated in the common schools of his native village and had no advantages beyond this. Owing to the death of his parents, he was forced at an early age to begin life for himself and to depend upon his own exertions. He, however, had displayed, even as a boy, a strong inclination for a business life, and consequently, while still very young, began his career with a mercantile establishment in his native place. When twenty-one years old, he came to New York and formed a connection with a relative, William D. Mangam, whose place of business was in lower Broad Street. He remained with Mr. Mangam till the latter's death, in 1870, and then succeeded to the business, which, conducted under his name, has grown to be one of the largest concerns in the grain trade of the city or the country ; and it is also worthy of note that Mr. McCord's place of business is the same in which he started in mercantile life in the metropolis over forty years ago. Mr. McCord owes his success in life entirely to his own exertions and to his untiring industry. His strength of character asserted itself in his youth, when he voluntarily formed the exemplary habits which have since distinguished him in social and business life. While not actively connected with temperance work, Mr. McCord is a consistent opponent of the use of intoxicants. For several years he was president of the Produce Exchange, of New York, and has been active and efficient in all measures to promote or to protect the commercial interests of the metropolis. Mr. McCord has never taken an active part in politics, although it has been often suggested that nominations equivalent to election, were subject to his acceptance. His devotion to the care of his business has, however, caused him, up to the present time, to firmly decline all such offers.
In 1860, Mr. McCord married Esther E. Noé, daughter of Richard Q. Noé, of this city. They have a family of three children : William M. McCord, who in 1887 married Helen Washburn; Minnie E., now the wife of Charles L. Schwartzwaelder; and Clara Belle, who married, in November, 1897, Robert Sherrard Elliot. Mr. McCord's residence is on the west side, at 118 West Seventy-third Street, and since 1892 he has owned a large estate at Scarborough, N. Y., near his native place, on which he has a country house. He is a member of the Colonial Club and many social, benevolent and business societies and organizations,
383
HENRY MITCHELL MACCRACKEN
B ORN in Oxford, O., in 1840, the Reverend Henry Mitchell MacCracken, Chancellor of New York University, formerly the University of the City of New York, inherited from his parents a predilection for religious and educational work that has made him one of the distin- guished men of his generation. His father, the Reverend John MacCracken, who came of an old Scottish family, was a Presbyterian clergyman. His mother, before her marriage, was an accomplished teacher and for many years presided over a private school for young ladies in Oxford. Two of his great-grandfathers fought for the Colonies in the Revolution, one, Henry MacCracken, falling, in 1778, a victim of the Indians and Tories on the Susquehanna; the other, Major Samuel Wilson, living after the war in his home near Cincinnati.
The education of Dr. MacCracken was directed by his father and mother and at an early age he became a student in Miami University, being graduated from that institution with the degree of B. A., when he was only seventeen years old. Taking up the profession of teaching, he was engaged as a classical teacher and as school superintendent for four years. Entering upon the study of theology in the Theological Seminary in Xenia, O., and Princeton, N. J., he subsequently applied himself to the study of philosophy and history in Tubingen and Berlin, Germany, remaining abroad for several years. Before going abroad, he had been pastor of a church in Columbus, O., and there and in Toledo, O., spent fifteen years of active work in the ministry, taking an interested part in the affairs of the Presbyterian denomination.
When he was about forty years of age, Dr. MacCracken was called to be Chancellor of the Western University of Pennsylvania. His brilliant success in administering the affairs of this University gained him wide repute, and in 1884, during the Chancellorship of the Reverend Dr. John Hall, he was called to the chair of philosophy in the University of the City of New York. Shortly he was advanced to be vice-Chancellor, and in 1891, upon the resignation of Dr. Hall, he was made Chancellor, a position that he now holds. During his years of service to the University, he has proved himself a worthy successor to his predecessors in the office of Chan- cellor, James Matthews, Theodore Frelinghuysen, Gardiner Spring, Isaac Ferris, Howard Crosby and John Hall. His energy and persistence, his scholarly attainments and his skill as an educator have wrought great changes in the old University, which has displayed a rapid development along all lines during the last few years. A graduate seminary and a school of pedagogy have been established, the Undergraduate College and the School of Engineering have been removed from their old quarters in Washington Square to a new site on University Heights and the University, as a whole, is taking its place as one of the most important and most useful collegiate institutions in the United States.
The wife of Dr. MacCracken was Catharine Hubbard, daughter of the Reverend Thomas Swan Hubbard, of Vermont, and granddaughter of Dr. Fay, of Vermont. He has two sons, John Henry and George Geer MacCracken, and one daughter, Fay N. MacCracken. His eldest son is a graduate from the New York University in the class of 1894, and has since been a teacher of philosophy in the University College. The residence of the family is on University Heights, and in summer time at Overbrook, Pine Hill-in-Catskills. Dr. MacCracken is connected with several religious, educational and other societies, being an officer of the Association of Colleges in the Middle States, the American Society of Church History, the Society for the Prevention of Crime, and the American Tract Society. He has been a prolific writer on philosophical, sociological, educational, historical and religious questions, and has published The Lives of the Church Leaders and other important works. In 1867, as a delegate from the United States, he delivered an important address to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scot- land, in Edinburgh, and in 1884 delivered an historical address at the first meeting of the congress of the Scotch-Irish race in Belfast, Ireland. He received the degree of D. D. from Wittenburg College, Ohio, and the degree of LL. D. from Miami University.
384
NATHANIEL L'HOMMEDIEU MCCREADY
T HE ancestors of Mr. Nathaniel L'Hommedieu McCready have been prominent in New York City for several generations. In 1772, Thomas McCready, the first of the family in this country, came from Scotland and settled in Philadelphia, leaving that place to make his home in Westchester, just before the War of the Revolution. The father of Mr. McCready, who bore the same name that he gave to his son, was born in New York City, September 4th, 1820, and went, while still a young man, to Mobile, Ala., where he was engaged as a clerk in a shipping commission house and acquired his first knowledge of business matters. In 1840, he returned to his home in New York, ready to go into business for himself and established the shipping and commission firm of N. L. McCready & Co., which became one of the leading concerns of its line in New York, and at the head of which he remained for a quarter of a century.
When he retired from this house, in 1865, Mr. McCready continued in an allied business, associating himself with Mr. Livingston and Mr. Fox, forming the firm of Livingston, Fox & Co. Two years later, he joined with other business associates in establishing the Old Dominion Steamship Company, of which he became the president, holding that position for twenty years, until the time of his death, in 1887. He was also a director of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company, the Empire City Fire Insurance Company, the Washington Life Insurance Company, and the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway Company, of which he was at one time president. He belonged to the Union and St. Nicholas clubs, was an honorary member of the Marine Society from 1847, a member of the Reformed Church and a generous contributor to its charities.
During the war, Mr. McCready rendered great and valuable services to the Government in transporting troops and supplies to the front, and after the war, by the foundation of the Old Dominion Steamship Company, was among the first to establish friendly commercial relations with the South. Mr. McCready, as his name indicates, is connected with one of the most ancient families of New York. Benjamin L'Hommedieu was a Huguenot, who was born in La Rochelle and came to America in 1686, from Holland. He settled in Greenport, Long Island, and married a daughter of Nathaniel Sylvester, of Shelter Island. His eldest son, Benjamin, married Martha, daughter of Ezra Bourne, of Sandwich, Mass., and their son, the Honorable Ezra L'Hommedieu, was one of the most prominent citizens of New York City during the Revolutionory period, several times a Member of Congress, a member of the United States Senate from 1788 until the time of his death, in 1811, and conspicuous in other official positions throughout his long life.
The wife of Nathaniel L'Hommedieu McCready, Sr., was Carolina Amanda Waldron, a lineal descendant from Resolve Waldron, who came over to New Amsterdam in the suite of Governor Petrus Stuyvesant in the seventeenth century. Mrs. McCready's grandfather was Brigadier-General Mapes, who held the command of the troops on Long Island under Governor De Witt Clinton during the War of 1812. Dr. Benjamin McCready, for many years a professor in Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and one of the oldest and most esteemed members of the medical profession in New York City, was a brother of Nathaniel L'Hommedieu McCready, Sr.
Mr. Nathaniel L'Hommedieu McCready of the present generation was the eldest of his father's family of five children. Only a sister, Mrs. William Ward Robins, with him survive their parent. Mr. McCready is the administrator of his father's estate. He married Jeanneton Borrowe, who is a member of the Colonial Dames. He lives at 4 East Seventy-fifth Street and is a graduate of Columbia College, belongs to the Tuxedo Club, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, University and Country clubs, New York Yacht Club, St. Nicholas Society and of the American Geographical Society. Mr. McCready divides his time between this country and France. While here, he interests himself in the care of his estate, and in France both Mr. and Mrs. McCready devote themselves to outdoor sports. Their favorite amusement is boar hunting, and they have brought home many trophies of the chase, and their pack, of which they are justly proud, took the first prize a few years ago at the Paris Bench Show.
385
RICHARD ALDRICH MCCURDY
F ROM the family of McKirdy, or MacKurerdy, that formerly belonged to the tribes who possessed the Western Islands of Scotland under the Crown of Sweden and the Lords of the lsles, came the McCurdys. They were the principal possessors of the Island of Bute at a very early period. In 1489, James IV. leased the Crown property of Bute, which in 1503 in one general charter was assigned to several families, the greatest portion to the MacKurerdys. John McCurdy, 1724-1785, the ancestor of the family in this country, emigrated from Ireland thirty years before the Declaration of Independence. His wife, whom he married in 1752, was Anne Lord, daughter of Judge Richard Lord, granddaughter of Judge Nathaniel Lynde, great-great- granddaughter of William Hyde, of Norwich, a descendant of Thomas Lord, of Hartford, and great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Digby, who was a daughter of Everard Digby, descended from Sir John Digby, of Eye-Kittleby, County Leicester, England.
Richard McCurdy, 1759-1857, son of John McCurdy, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He graduated from Yale College in 1787, for some years practiced law, but later in life managed the estate inherited from his father. Several times he was a representative in the Connecticut Legislature. His wife was Ursula Griswold, daughter of Deacon John Griswold, of Lyme, Conn., and granddaughter of Governor Matthew Griswold and Ursula Wolcott. The father of Mr. Richard Aldrich McCurdy was Robert Henry McCurdy, one of the famous New York mer- chants of fifty years and more ago. He was born in 1800 in Lyme, Conn., and died in New York in 1880. Prepared to enter Yale College, he changed his plans and came to New York and started upon the business career in which he acquired wealth and reputation. Early in his career he made the acquaintance of Herman D. Aldrich and the friendship between the two was lifelong and devoted. Messrs. McCurdy and Aldrich were sent by their employer to Petersburgh, Va., where they opened a branch store and remained for several years. Returning to New York in 1820, they soon established the commission dry goods firm of McCurdy & Aldrich, which existed for nearly thirty years, before the senior partner retired in 1857. After 1840, the house was known as McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer. During the Civil War, Mr. McCurdy acted as Commissary-General in the State of New York and rendered the Government valuable assistance in many ways. He was largely interested in all objects of public charity, was an incorporator of the Continental Fire Insurance Company and the Mutual Life Insurance Company, a director in the Merchants' Exchange Bank and American Exchange National Bank, member of the Chamber of Commerce and one of the founders of the Union League Club.
The mother of Mr. Richard A. McCurdy, whom his father married in 1826, was Gertrude Mercer Lee, daughter of Dr. James and Gertrude (Mercer) Lee, of Newark, N. J. She was a niece of Chancellor Theodore Frelinghuysen, Mayor of Newark, chancellor of the University of New York, Attorney-General of the State of New Jersey, United States Senator, Vice-Presidential candidate with Henry Clay in 1844 and president of Rutgers College. She was descended from the Reverend Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, who came to this country in the first part of the eighteenth cen- tury. The children of Robert H. McCurdy and his wife, Gertrude, were: Richard A. and Theodore F. McCurdy, Mrs. Gardiner G. Hubbard, Mrs. Elias J. Marsh and Mrs. Charles M. Marsh.
Mr. Richard Aldrich McCurdy was born January 29th, 1835. Most of his lifetime has been spent in connection with the Mutual Life Insurance Company, of which he now president. He belongs to the Metropolitan, Union League, Manhattan, Morristown and Lawyers' clubs the New England Society and the American Museum of Natural History. In 1856, he married Sarah Ellen Little, daughter of Charles Coffin Little, of Boston. His daughter, Gertrude Lee McCurdy, is now the wife of Louis A. Thebaud. His son, Robert Henry McCurdy, is a graduate from Harvard Col- lege in the class of 1881 and married Mary Suckley. He belongs to the Metropolitan, Union League, University and other clubs. Mr. and Mrs. Richard A. McCurdy have a city residence in Fifth Avenue, and a country home in Morris Plains, N. J.
386
JAMES LAWRENCE MCKEEVER
C OMMODORE ISAAC MCKEEVER, U. S. N., an officer of the War of 1812, was a native of Pennsylvania, born in 1793, and entered the navy as midshipman in 1809. He attained the rank of Lieutenant during the war with Great Britain, in which he took an active part. While commanding a gunboat on Lake Borgne, La., in 1814, he was captured by the British forces then advancing on New Orleans. After the war, he became Commander in 1830, Captain in 1838, and in 1850 was promoted to be Commodore and commanded the Brazilian Squadron, being afterwards in charge of the Norfolk, Va., Navy Yard, and dying there in 1856. His wife was Mary Flower Gamble, daughter of Lieutenant Joseph Gamble, U. S. N., also an officer in the War of 1812, and his wife, Mary Thomson, whose parents were Thomas Thomson and Mary Jane Hale. Thomas Thomson, a native of Scotland, came to America before the Revolution and was Captain of a Pennsylvania troop.
General Chauncey Mckeever, United States Army, eldest son of Commodore Isaac Mckeever, has been distinguished in the military service. Born in Baltimore, Md., in 1829, he graduated from West Point in 1849 and was commissioned in the Third Artillery. At the opening of the Civil War, he was appointed Captain and Assistant Adjutant-General, and served as chief of staff to General Heintzelman at Bull Run and in the Peninsula. He was promoted to be Lieutenant-Colo- nel, Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General, receiving the latter grade from Congress, in 1865, for gallant and meritorious service. After further service in the Adjutant-General's department, he was retired for age, in 1864. He is a member of the Union and University clubs in this city and the Metropolitan Club of Washington.
Mr. James Lawrence Mckeever, of New York, is the second son of Commodore Mckeever. He was born in Baltimore, Md., October 4th, 1831, and passed some of his earlier years in Brazil. He has, however, long been a resident of New York and prominent in the banking profession. He married Mary Augusta Townsend, of a patriotic American ancestry, and also of an ancient and distinguished English family.
Mrs. McKeever is the daughter of Robert Townsend and Mary A. Whittemore. Her grandfather, Peter Townsend, was the owner of the Sterling Iron Works, and during the Revolu- tion rendered important services to the patriotic cause. In his establishment was forged the great chain that was stretched across the Hudson below West Point to obstruct the progress of the British fleet, and he also cast cannon and anchors for vessels of the American navy, including those of the Constitution. On the maternal side, Mrs. McKeever is descended from the Whittemores, of Hitchin, in Hertfordshire, near London, where the family has been established since Saxon times. Whittemore Hall, at Whittemore, was the original seat of the bearers of the name. Thomas Whittemore came to Malden, Mass., about 1640. His grandson, Captain Samuel Whittemore, of Menotomy, now Arlington, Mass., who married Esther Prentice, was an active patriot, and though eighty years old, led a company to the Lexington fight, where he was severely wounded. He was shot, and bayoneted by the British and left for dead on the field; recovering, he lived fifteen years longer. His grandson, Samuel Whittemore, 1774-1835, was Mrs. McKeever's grandfather. He was the son of Thomas Whittemore and Ann Cutler, married Jane Tileson and was an influential New York merchant in the earlier portion of the present century, being president of the Greenwich Bank. The residence of Mr. Mckeever is 164 Lexington Avenue, and his country seat is at South- ampton, Long Island. He is a member of the Union Club, Downtown Association, Sons of the American Revolution and the American Geographical Society.
The children of Mr. and Mrs. McKeever are two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Robert Townsend Mckeever, is well known in connection with transportation matters and married Frances C. Webb. The second son, Isaac Chauncey Mckeever, is a member of the New York Stock Exchange and married Julia Draper. One daughter, Edith Mckeever, married Hoffman Miller, and the remaining daughter of the family is Marion Mckeever.
387
CHARLES FOLLEN McKIM
O F Scotch-Irish ancestry, the father of Mr. Charles Follen McKim, one of the most accom- plished American architects of this generation, was the Reverend James Miller McKim, who was early enrolled as one of the leaders in the cause of anti-slavery. Born in Carlisle, Pa., November 14th, 1810, he first studied in Dickinson College, in his native town, but completed his education in Princeton College. Choosing the ministry for a profession, he was ordained pastor of the Presbyterian church in Womelsdorf, Pa., in 1835, soon after his graduation from college.
Even before he had become of age he was an Abolitionist, and henceforth his devotion to that reform was unreserved and energetic. He was a member of the first convention of aboli- tionists, whose deliberations resulted in the formation of the American Anti-Slavery Society, and his interest in the cause led him to resign from the work of the ministry in 1836, after only a year of pastoral service, in order that he might enter the lecture field, under the auspices of the new Anti-Slavery Society which he had assisted in organizing. For the ensuing four years he was constantly engaged in promulgating anti-slavery doctrines upon the platform, throughout Pennsylvania, and was subjected to the indignities and persecution that were the lot of all abolitionists of that day.
In 1840, Mr. McKim settled in Philadelphia, where he became publishing agent and sub- sequently corresponding secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society, a connection that he maintained for more than a quarter of a century, being in effect the exclusive and responsible manager of the society. When the Civil War broke out, he responded to every call of patriotism, and throughout the long struggle was particularly active in all movements for upholding the Union cause and for caring for the welfare of the liberated slaves, aiding also in the recruiting of many of the Pennsylvania regiments. In 1863, he was made corresponding secretary and general manager of the Pennsylvania Freedman's Relief Association. In that capacity he traveled extensively throughout the South, establishing schools and looking after the material interests of the freedmen, and accomplished very notable results. From 1865 to 1869 he was connected with the American Freedman's Union Commission, and soon after retired from public life, after about thirty-five years of unremitting activity. In 1865, he was associated with several other gentlemen in founding The New York Nation. His death occurred in West Orange, N. J. His wife was Sarah Allibone Speakman, of an old Pennsylvania family.
Mr. Charles Follen McKim was born in Chester County, Pa., August 24th, 1847. His primary education was in the public schools, and then he was sent to Harvard College, where he studied in the Lawrence Scientific School for two years, 1866-67. He also studied in Bow- doin College. His education in this country was supplemented by study and travel in Europe, including a three-years' architectural course at the School of Fine Arts in Paris. Returning to the United States, in 1870, he settled in New York and associated himself with W. R. Mead and Stanford White in the firm of McKim, Mead & White, that has been foremost in the contem- poraneous development of architecture in this country. During more than a quarter of a century that it has been in existence, this firm has contributed to the United States some of the most notable architectural structures erected in this country. Several examples of their work have been referred to elsewhere in this volume. In addition to what is there enumerated, they have been the architects of the Columbia University buildings, the New York Life Insurance Company's building, the houses of Frederick W. Vanderbilt and Charles L. Tiffany and other structures in New York, and the Algonquin Club and Public Library building in Boston, and other important buildings elsewhere.
Mr. McKim married, in 1885, Julia Appleton, of Boston, and lives in West Thirty-fifth Street. He is a member of the Century Association, the Metropolitan, University, Racquet, Players, City and St. Andrew's Golf clubs, and the Algonquin and Somerset clubs of Boston.
388
ROBERT MACLAY
A MONG the many clans of Scotland, none have a more ancient or more honorable record than the MacLaigs, who can be traced back in the annals of the Highlands many centuries. The American Maclays are descended from this clan. Charles Maclay, the head of the American branch of the house, came from Scotland to this country in 1734 and settled in Pennsyl- vania, where his descendants have been prominent in professional, business and public life. Many of them were soldiers in the Revolutionary War. The Honorable William Maclay was one of the first United States Senators elected from Pennsylvania. He served only a short term, but made a very distinct impress upon the formative legislation of the young republic. He was a sturdy Dem- ocrat of the old school, and it has been claimed for him that he should share with Thomas Jefferson the honor of being the founder of the Democratic party.
The founder of the New York branch of the family was the Reverend Dr. Archibald Maclay, the grandson of Charles Maclay, the pioneer. He was an eminent Congregational clergyman, and came to New York City from Pennsylvania in 1805. Becoming afterwards a Baptist clergyman, he was pastor of one church for a period of thirty-two years. For several years he was the vice-presi- dent and general agent of the American and Foreign Bible Society, and during the latter part of his life was president of the American Bible Union. Two sons of Dr. Archibald Maclay attained to emi- nence. Robert H. Maclay studied medicine, and during the greater part of his long life held rank among the leading physicians of New York City. He was also president of the New York Savings Bank. He married Mary Brown, daughter of William Brown, of Glasgow, Scotland. Another son was the Honorable William B. Maclay, who was a Member of Congress in 1842, and for three consecutive terms thereafter.
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