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 66

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

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The youngest of the three daughters of this family was Leontine Arnaud, who, at the time of her father's death, was only four years of age. In 1811, when she was sixteen years old, she married John B. Marié, son of the former maitre du port of Cap Français. Mr. Marie, who was born in Arles, Provence, France, settled in mercantile life in New York and soon became, according to the modest standard of that period, prosperous, being the owner of ships trading chiefly with Mexico.

When Mr. Marie died, in 1835, he left a widow and nine children, three daughters and six sons. The eldest daughter, Louise Marie, married the Vicomte de Bermingham, of France. The second daughter married Ferdinand Thieriot, of Leipsic, whose father had been chamberlain to the King of Saxony. The third daughter married Emil Sauer, who was, at one time, president of the German-American Bank. The eldest son was Camille, who, up to the time of his death, in 1886, was a distinguished and esteemed citizen of New York. The other sons were Albin, John, Peter, Joseph and Francis. Albin went out in early life in the expedition to survey the ruins of Central America. Joseph Marié married Josephine Hubbard, has two daughters, Leontine and Josephine Marie, and lives in West Forty-third Street. His daughter Josephine has published several books and magazine articles which have met with favor, especially from Roman Catholic readers. All the daughters of the older generation, with their husbands, and also the three eldest sons of the family are deceased.

Mr. Peter Marié, the fourth son of the family, was born in New York and was engaged in business in Wall Street until 1865, when he retired. He has always had a taste for social life and has also cultivated letters, owning a small, but rather choice library. He has occasionally written, but rarely published, vers de societe, but in 1864, during the Civil War, he published a volume of selections called Tribute to the Fair, devoting the proceeds to the fair in aid of the sick and wounded soldiers. His residence, for forty-five years, was at 48 West Nineteenth Street, but in 1890, he was driven north by the march of improvement. He then removed to East Thirty-seventh Street, on Murray Hill, where he now lives. His house contains many souvenirs of the metropolis. notably minatures, aquarelles and photographs of the fairest of the beau monde, as some one has observed, "more social New York ana, than any other house in town." Mr. Marie is unmarried. He is a member of the Union, Knickerbocker, Grolier, City and Tuxedo clubs, the American Geographical Society, the New York Academy of Sciences and other societies and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design and the American Museum of Natural History. He is vice-president of the New York Institute for the Blind.

395

HENRY GURDON MARQUAND

G UERNSEY, one of the Channel Islands, was the ancestral home of the Marquand family. Its first representative in America was Henry Marquand, who was born in 1737, came in 1761 to the American colonies, and died in 1772. He made his home in Fairfield, Conn., and it was there, in 1766, that his son, Isaac Marquand, was born. The latter married Mehitable Perry, of the same town, a member of a Connecticut family of long standing, and moved to New York, where he was engaged successfully in business for many years. He resided in Brooklyn, and died in 1838.

Mr. Henry Gurdon Marquand, his son, who is distinguished not only for his many works of public beneficence, but for the leading part he has taken in promoting artistic education in this country, was born in New York, April 11th, 1819. He was educated in schools in his native city, and in Pittsfield, Mass., where he was fitted for college. At an early age, however, he entered upon a life of business. He was agent for his brother, the late Frederick Marquand, in the care of his large landed and other property interests, and devoted many years to the improvement of the estate and the augmentation of its value. He also became engaged in the banking business, and interested in the development of railroad enterprises in the Southwestern States of the Union. The building of the St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad was largely due to his efforts.

In 1851, Mr. Marquand married Elizabeth Love Allen, of Pittsfield, Mass., daughter of Jonathan and Eunice W. Allen, the family being one of prominence in Berkshire County, of that State. Mrs. Marquand's grandfather was the Reverend Thomas Allen, who was born in Northampton, Mass., in 1743, and died in Pittsfield in 1810. Graduated from Harvard College in 1762, he became the first minister of Pittsfield, being ordained in 1764. He was an ardent Revolutionary patriot, and commanded a company at the battle of Bennington, thereby gaining the title of "the fighting parson ." He was minister of the church in Pittsfield for forty-six years.

For more than a quarter of a century, Mr. Marquand has devoted much of his attention to charitable and religious objects, as well as to the cause of art. He has been prominent in the practical administration of the city's best charities, while among his many gifts for such objects is the new wing added to Bellevue Hospital. He presented the Marquand Chapel to Princeton University and has been a liberal friend to that institution of learning. His benefactions, however, have not been confined to any part of the country, and he founded and endowed the Free Library in the city of Little Rock, Ark. Mr. Marquand has long been one of the foremost of American collectors of painting and objects of art. His handsome private residence in East Sixty- eighth Street, notable for its architectural features, contains one of the most remarkable private art collections in the world. He has devoted unceasing labor to advancing public artistic educa- tion, and took the lead in the foundation of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of which institution he is the honored president, and to which he has been a constant benefactor. He is a member of the Century Association, the Metropolitan, Grolier and Princeton clubs, and of many artistic, literary and charitable institutions, and in recognition of his services to art, is the first honorary member of the American Institute of Architects. His country residence is in Newport.

Mr. and Mrs. Marquand had six children; Linda, wife of the Reverend Roderick Terry, Allan, Frederick Alexander, Henry, Mabel, who married Henry Galbraith Ward, and Elizabeth Love Marquand, now Mrs. Harold Godwin. Professor Allan Marquand, the eldest son, is a graduate of Princeton University, and took the degree of Ph. D., at Johns Hopkins University. Devoting himself to art studies, after some years passed in Europe, he accepted the Professorship of Art in Princeton. He has presented the college with valuable artistic collections, and has written much upon art and cognate subjects. He married Eleanor Cross. Henry Marquand, the third son, has taken the place in the banking business vacated by his father's retirement. He married Katharine (Cowdin) Griswold. The second son of the family, Frederick Alexander Marquand, died in 1885.

396

WILLIAM HENRY MARSTON

M ARSTON MOOR, in Yorkshire, the scene of one of the great battles of the English Civil War in the seventeenth century, took its name from an ancient family in that part of England. The origin of the surname Marston is Continental rather than Saxon. It is apparently derived from the Latin Martius, signifying one devoted to the service of Mars. When William the Conqueror invaded England, one of his officers of rank bore the name, received estates in the northern part of the kingdom, and founded a family which extended its branches throughout England. Representatives of it were found as far back as five hundred years ago in Worcestershire, Staffordshire and Leicestershire, though the main stock of the race remained in Yorkshire, and it is from it that the American family of Marston traces its descent. The arms which they are entitled to bear are: a blue shield bearing a gold chevron embrasured as battlements between three gold lions' heads crowned and broken off. The crest is also a golden lion's head crowned and with open jaws.

William Marston, the ancestor of Mr. William H. Marston, and first of his race in America, was born in 1592. He was one of the Puritan emigrants to New England, and arrived at Salem, Mass., in 1634, a widower, bringing four children with him. In 1638, he was one of the original proprietors of Hampton, N. H., and was a Quaker in his belief. His son, Thomas, born in England, in 1617, died at Hampton in 1690, having been a town official in that place. He married Mary Estow in 1647. In the next generation came Ephraim Marston, 1654-1742, followed by Simon Marston, 1683-1735. The latter's son, Daniel Marston, 1708-1757, was an officer of the Colonial forces in the French War, and served in Nova Scotia and at the second siege of Louisburg under Amherst and Wolfe, commanded a company, being killed and buried there. He left a large fortune for those times. His sister Sarah was the mother of General Henry Dearborn, of Revolutionary fame, and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United States in the War of 1812.

Simon Marston, son of Daniel Marston, became a Captain in the Revolutionary Army and afterwards Major of the State forces. In 1762, he settled on an estate at Deerfield, N. H. His son was Asa Marston, 1758-1834, and his grandson, Captain Eben Marston, born in 1793, also held a military command in Deerfield, represented the town in the New Hampshire Legislature, filled every office in the gift of the community where he lived, and was one of its foremost and most respected citizens. He was the father of the subject of this sketch.

Mr. William Henry Marston was born on the old family homestead at Deerfield in 1832. Educated in academies at his native place, he came in 1851 to New York, when nineteen years old, and engaged in the banking business with the house of Belknap & James. In 1853, he went West to establish banks in Illinois and Wisconsin, and remained there off and on for eight years. He became a partner in the banking house of F. P. James & Co., in 1854, and in 1862 founded the firm of William H. Marston & Co., of which he was senior partner, being immediately recognized as the leader in the stock market and as one of the boldest and most successful operators that Wall Street had known at that period. During Mr. Marston's residence in the West, his headquarters were at Springfield, Ill., and Abraham Lincoln was his lawyer and friend. He was also intimate with General John A. Logan, while his personal and business associations in New York have included all the prominent men of the times. At present, Mr. Marston is president of the Hopkins Alaska Gold Mining Company, an enterprise which he regards as the most important of the many he has undertaken.

In 1859, Mr. Marston married Lila Irwin, daughter of Robert Irwin, a prominent banker of Springfield, Ill., and the most intimate friend of Lincoln in this latter city. Their children are Robert Irwin Marston, born in 1860, who is a graduate of Dartmouth College, and two daughters, Laura Marie and Ella Chase Marston. Mr. Marston resides at 112 West Forty-fourth Street, and is a member of the Union Club and other social organizations.

397

BRADLEY MARTIN

T HE family of Mr. Bradley Martin, who has borne so important a part in the social affairs of the metropolis in the present generation, has long been distinguished in the annals of Northern and Central New York, coming originally from old Colonial stock in Connecticut. The name of Martin was adopted as a surname by the English family at an early date, and many of its representatives were prominent in the history of England after the Norman Conquest. John Martin accompanied Sir Francis Drake in that famous seaman's voyage around the world, 1577-80. William Martin, or William Seaborn Martin, the American ancestor of the family, was first of Stratford and then of Woodbury, Conn. Tradition says that his father emigrated from England, and that the son was born on shipboard during the voyage of the family to the New World. His wife was Abigail Curtiss, daughter of Jonathan Curtiss, of Stratford, where she was born, in 1671. She was married in 1685, and died in 1735. His death occurred in 1715. He and his wife were members of the first church in Woodbury from 1685.

Samuel Martin, son of William Martin, was born in 1693, married Annis Hinman in 1716, and had a family of seventeen children. Their son, Nathan Martin, who was born in 1734, mar- ried Ellen Bradley, and died in 1794. Bradley Martin, of the next generation, was born in 1782, in Woodbury, and died in Avon, N. Y., in 1825. His wife was Harriet B. Hull, who was born in Salisbury, Conn., in 1785. Their son, Henry Hull Martin, who was born in 1809, studied law and was a prominent citizen of Albany, where he was cashier of the Albany City Bank and president of the Albany Savings Bank. In October, 1835, he married Anna Townsend, daughter of Isaiah Town- send, of the distinguished Townsend family, of Albany. One of the brothers of Anna Townsend was Frederick Townsend, who was born in Albany in 1825, and graduated from Union College in 1844. He was Adjutant-General of the State of New York in 1856, assistant provost marshal in Albany in 1863, Brigadier-General of the National Guard of the State of New York in 1878, and Adjutant- General of the State in the administration of Governor Alonzo B. Cornell. Another brother was Dr. Howard Townsend, of Albany, 1823-1867, a graduate of Union College in 1844, and from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1847, Surgeon-General of the State, 1851-52, and a professor in the Albany Medical College. Still another brother was Franklin Townsend, at one time Adjutant-General of the State of New York, and otherwise identified with the militia of the State.

Mr. Bradley Martin, son of Henry Hull Martin and Anna Townsend, was born in Albany, December 18th, 1841, and was educated in Union College. He early married Cornelia Sherman, daughter of Isaac Sherman. Isaac Sherman was a wealthy merchant of New York, and a frequent contributor to the daily press and other publications upon the subject of taxation. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Martin: Sherman and Bradley Martin, Jr., and Cornelia Martin, now the Countess of Craven, who was married in Grace Church, New York, April 18th, 1893. The Earl of Craven is the present head of an old and wealthy family of England. The first to bear the name was John Craven, of Appletreewick, Craven, Yorkshire, who lived during the reign of Henry VII. His descendant, William Craven, was knighted in 1626, and later created Baron Craven, of Hampstead, Marshall, County Berks. In 1801, the seventh Baron was made Earl of Craven and Viscount Affington. The present Earl of Craven is the fourth Earl.

Since their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Martin have given many notable entertainments and have been the hosts of distinguished guests, at their town residence, in West Twentieth Street. They have been present, when in New York, at the balls of the Patriarchs, and guests at the other important functions of society. They have been much abroad, however, and Mr. Martin rents a deer forest at Balmacaun, Scotland. Mr. Martin holds membership in nearly all of the leading clubs of New York, including the Union, Knickerbocker, Racquet, Century, Tuxedo, Metropolitan, Downtown, E + and Fencers. The arms of the family are: Gules on a chevron, or., three talbots, passant, sable. The crest is, on a globe, or., a falcon rising, argent, gored, with a ducal coronet.

398

ALBERT MATHEWS

I N the early annals of Westchester County, the name of Mathews is of frequent occurrence, and its possessors in different generations were prominent and influential in the affairs of the county. Mr. Albert Mathews, who was born in this city in 1820, descends from the Westchester family, his father being Oliver Mathews, of New York, and his mother, Mary (Field) Mathews, granddaughter of Uriah Field, of Long Island. His paternal grandfather, Daniel Mathews, of Westchester, married Charity Smith, belonging to a family which had also been long identified with that portion of the State, having intermarried with nearly all of other older families of the section in question.

Educated at schools in this city, Mr. Mathews entered Yale, and graduated in 1842, with a high position in his class, having been editor of The Yale Literary Magazine, and a member of the Skull and Bones, and \ T. His devotion to his alma mater and its interests has since been unceasing. He was identified with the organization of the Yale Alumni Association, of New York, and has served as its vice-president, as well as a member of its executive committee, taking always a warm interest in its success. Mr. Mathews' graduation from Yale was followed by a year spent in the law school of the sister university, Harvard, after which he returned to New York, was admitted to the bar, and began his professional career in 1845. He soon became prominent as a lawyer, at a time, too, when the New York bar boasted of such intellectual and forensic talent as that of Ogden Hoffman and Charles O'Connor. The knowledge of the law of equity possessed by Mr. Mathews, the ability with which he managed cases before juries, his skill in cross examination, rather than a declamatory manner of speaking, were leading elements in his success. He quickly acquired a large and lucrative clientage, and, until his virtual retirement from active practice, was retained in many civil actions in the courts. He was a founder of the New York Bar Association, and its vice-president in 1886. In 1849, Mr. Mathews married Louise Mott Strong, daughter of N. W. Strong, of this city. His wife dying in 1857, he was married a second time, in 1861, to Cettie Moore Gwynne, daughter of Henry C. Flagg, of New Haven, who died in 1884.

Mr. Mathews' literary activity dates back to his college days, and even when a lawyer in active practice, his love of letters asserted itself. Adopting the nom de guerre of " Paul Siegvolk," which he has always retained, he was a frequent contributor to The Knickerbocker Magazine and has contributed to The Home Journal, of this city, almost from its beginning, and for the last eight years continuously. In 1860, he published Walter Ashwood, a novel which exhibited originality and power, and attracted great attention on its appearance. He neglected, however, to pursue the field of novel writing, but has continued to produce essays on literary and miscellaneous subjects. In 1879, appeared his first important book, A Bundle of Papers, of which several editions have been published. In 1877, he also published a volume of essays, Ruminations, now in its second edition.

Mr. Mathews is also a graceful poet, having published a brief poem, Nil Desperandum, while A Retrospect, delivered in 1887 at the forty-fifth anniversary of his class, was printed at the request of his classmates. A recent short poem, Lines to an Autumn Leaf, has attracted much attention; while in 1896, a small volume, entitled A Few Verses, from his pen, was printed in a limited edition only, for circulation among friends. In addition, he has written much on legal, economic and political topics, including Incidental Protection a Solecism, Thoughts on the Codification of the Common Law, and many single articles upon a variety of subjects, which have appeared from time to time in the leading periodicals.

Mr. Mathews takes an active interest in the Authors' Club. He joined the Century in 1889, and served as a member of its committees, and is, in addition, a member of the University and Reform clubs, and of the St. Nicholas Society. He has spent considerable time in travel, and has visited Europe on several occasions, taking great pleasure in the literary, artistic and scientific worlds of the older countries, in all of which he possesses numerous friends.

399

CHARLES THOMPSON MATHEWS

O N his father's side, Mr. Mathews traces his lineage to one of the oldest Dutch families of New York State. His ancestor was Major Dirk Wesselse Ten Broeck, who was born in Holland in 1642 and came to Beverwyck, now Albany, in 1662. In 1686, he was the first Recorder of the city, and Mayor in 1696-8. His wife was Christian Cornelise Van Buren. He was a member of the first Assembly of New York, in 1691. It was this Dutch pioneer whom Washington Irving parodied in Knickerbocker's History. The great-great- grandmother of Mr. Mathews was Gertrude Schuyler, and it is through her that he is descended from Mayor Ten Broeck. His great-grandmother was Katharine Van Vorhees, of New Brunswick, N. J., and his grandmother was Anna Loree, of New York City. His grandfather was William Edmund Mathews, nephew and heir of Sir William Saunders, Bart.

On his mother's side, Mr. Mathews is descended from Francis Newman, Governor of Connecticut in 1660, and from other distinguished families. His mother was Rebecca Bacon Thompson, the wife of Charles Drellincourt Mathews, of New York. Her mother was Lydia Bacon, granddaughter of J. Bacon, who married Lydia Hungerford, of Farley Castle, England. Her father was Charles Chauncey Thompson, of Woodbury, Conn.

Through his maternal grandfather, Mr. Mathews goes back to Anthony Thompson, who came over in 1637 with Governor Eaton and Dr. Davenport and settled at New Haven. The grandson of Anthony Thompson, Samuel Thompson, married the daughter of Lieutenant- Governor James Bishop, of Connecticut. His great-great-grandson, Hezekiah Thompson, the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Mathews, was a lawyer, paymaster in the French War, and a member of the General Assembly of Connecticut. His son, Charles Thompson, 1780-1817, was a lawyer in New York City, and his grandson, Charles Chauncey Thompson, was one of the merchants of New York in the middle of this century. Through his maternal grandmother, who was second in descent from Lydia Hungerford, Mr. Mathews goes back to the Hungerfords of Farley Castle, England. The founder of this family was Walter de Hungerford, of the thirteenth century. His great-grandson, Sir Thomas Hungerford, in the reign of Edward Ill. was the first Speaker of the House of Commons, and in the next generation Sir Walter Hungerford, in the reign of Henry VI., was Lord High Treasurer. At the battle of Agincourt, he made Charles of Orleans prisoner. The great-grandson of Sir Walter Hungerford was a member of the Privy Council of Henry VIII. Two generations later the head of the family, Sir Edward Hungerford, surnamed "The Spendthrift," squandered his estate, which passed out of the possession of the family. The Hungerford arms were: Sable, two bars argent, in chief, three plates.

Mr. Charles T. Mathews was born in Paris, March 31st, 1865. He was educated at St. Paul's School and in Paris and Nice. Graduating from Yale College in 1886, he also studied at the Columbia School of Mines, and was graduated Ph. B. in 1889. He studied architecture in Paris, exhibited drawings at Chicago at the World's Fair, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has written extensively upon the subject of art and architecture, his principal works being, The Renaissance under the Valois, a book that is now used at Harvard, Columbia and other universities, and The Story of Architecture, published in 1896.

Mr. Mathews resides at 30 West Fifty-seventh Street, and has a country residence at Norwalk, Conn. ; built originally at great expense, it passed into the hands of W. H. Vanderbilt, from whom Mr. Mathews' father purchased it in 1876. The house is laid out upon a large scale and superbly finished. It contains a ball room, theatre, state apartments, picture gallery, and so forth. The porphyry and marbles of the peristyle were brought from Egypt, and the woodwork of the interior is considered the best of its kind in this country. Mr. Mathews is a member of the Tuxedo, University, Racquet, A ¢ and Calumet clubs. He has traveled all through Europe, and has also visited China and Japan. He has a valuable collection of paintings, including examples of Diaz, Moreau, Tambourini and others, and is also owner of the Latour tapestries.

400

TITUS BENJAMIN MEIGS

V INCENT MEIGS came from Devonshire, or Dorsetshire, England, about 1640, with his wife and several children. Soon after his arrival, he settled at New Haven, Conn. Afterwards he removed to Guilford, Conn., then to East Guilford, and finally to Ham- monassett, where he died in 1658. John Meigs, his son, was a resident of East Guilford, being a freeman of that place in 1657, and dying there in 1671. His wife was Tamzin Fry. Next in order of descent was John Meigs, 1650-1713, and his wife, Sarah Wilcox. Janna Meigs, 1672-1739, son of the second John Meigs, was the first magistrate of East Guilford, Conn., and a deputy to the General Court, 1716-26. His wife was Hannah Willard, of Wethersfield. Captain Jehial Meigs, of East Guilford, 1703-1780, son of Janna Meigs, married Lucy Bartlett, of Lynn, Mass. In the next three generations came Elihu Meigs, 1749-1827, and his wife, Elizabeth Rich; Elihu Meigs, 1780-1806, and his wife, Jerusha C. Pratt, and Jabez Pratt Meigs, of Delhi, N. Y., 1805-1881, and his wife, Une Kelsey, of Madison, Conn., whom he married in 1824.

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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 66

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