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 7
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Foreign travel, society, literature and yachting have claimed Dr. Barron's attention rather than his profession. He has journeyed in Europe and the East, and is a member of the Union and Union League Clubs, a life member of the New York Historical Society, and a life Fellow of the New York Geographical Society. He was a box owner of the original Metropolitan Opera House. Belonging to the Jekyl Island, Currituck, and Narrows Island Shooting Clubs, he has been most active in the New York Yacht Club and the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club. He sailed and owned the Wave, the match of which against the Scotch cutter Madge inaugurated international cutter racing, while he also built the Athlon, and owned the famous English cutter Clara. The arms of the Barron family, which Dr. Barron inherits and bears, are: A red shield with a gold chevron and three golden sheaves, the crest being an eagle and the motto "Fortuna juvat Audaces."
44
JOHN OLMSTED BARTHOLOMEW
O NE of the ancient families in England is that of Bartholomew. Its history is traced back to the early centuries, and before that there were branches existing in France. The American family is descended from that branch which was settled in Burford, England, whose arms, as they appear on tombs in the Bartholomew Chapel, are: Argent, a chevron engrailed between three lions, rampant, sable. About the middle of the sixteenth century, three Bartholomews were living in Warborough, Oxfordshire. One of them, William Bartholomew, the immediate ancestor of the American Bartholomews, was born in Warborough in 1557 and died in 1634. He was a large wholesale dealer in silks and woolens, and accumulated a considerable property, so that he was a man of wealth for those days. His wife was Friswede Metcalf, daughter of William Metcalf, who was at one time Mayor of New Woodstock. She died in 1647.
The first Bartholomew to come to this country was William, the second son of William and Friswede Bartholomew. He was born in 1602, and received a good education in the grammar school of his native place. His wife, whom he married before coming here, was Anna Lord, a sister of Robert Lord. He arrived in Boston in 1634, and immediately took a foremost position in the Colony, being admitted as a freeman of Boston the same year that he landed. A year later he went to live in Ipswich, and represented that town in the Great and General Court. In 1637, he was called upon to serve upon a special grand jury in Boston. He was town clerk of Ipswich in 1639, a deputy in 1641, 1647 and 1650, and treasurer of the town in 1654. He died in 1680.
In the second American generation, William Bartholomew, who was born in Ipswich in 1640, also took a leading part in the direction of affairs in the Colony. In 1663, he was in Medfield, and was living in Deerfield in 1678. Eleven years after he was an ensign in the New Roxbury, Conn., company of militia, and became Lieutenant of the company in 1691. He was a representa- tive to the General Court from Woodstock in 1692, Woodstock being the new name of New Rox- bury, of which place he was then a resident. He died in 1697. The wife of this William Bartholo- mew was Mary Johnson, daughter of Captain Isaac and Elizabeth (Porter) Johnson. Her grand- father was John Johnson, surveyor of the King's Army in America.
In the succeeding four generations the ancestors of Mr. John O. Bartholomew were Andrew Bartholomew, who was born in 1670, and died soon after 1752, and his wife, Hannah, daughter of Samuel Frisbie, of Branford; Joseph Bartholomew, who was born in Branford in 1712 and died in 1781, and his wife, Mary Sexton, of Wallingford; Ira Bartholomew, who was born in 1753 and died in 1828, and his wife, Caroline Shattuck; and Sherman Bartholomew, who was born in Wallingford in 1781 and died in 1814, and his wife, Sally Hackley. Andrew Bartholo- mew was a prominent man in Branford. Joseph Bartholomew commanded all those who were subject to military duty in the town. Ira Bartholomew was the first of his family to leave Connec- ticut, going to Cornwall, N. Y., then to Salisbury, and finally to Waterville, where he died. Sherman Bartholomew was a physician in Brownsville, Jefferson County, N. Y. In the War of 1812, he was a surgeon in the Federal Army, and falling sick at Sackett's Harbor, died there. He was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. Dr. Erasmus Darwin Bartholomew, the father of Mr. John Olmsted Bartholomew, was the son of Dr. Sherman Bartholomew. He was born in Waterville, N. Y., in 1804, studied medicine and had an extensive practice in the western part of the State. His wife, whom he married in 1826, was Mary Seline Brewster, a descendant of the Pilgrim elder, William Brewster. Dr. Bartholomew died in 1836, and his widow survived him for forty-four years, dying in 1880.
Mr. John Olmsted Bartholomew, the eldest son of Dr. Erasmus Darwin Bartholomew, was born in Denmark, Lewis County, N. Y., February 10th, 1827. He came to New York early in life, and has since been a resident of this city, first being engaged in the British importing business, and later as a member of a banking firm in Wall Street. He is a member of the Metropolitan and Union clubs.
45
EDMUND LINCOLN BAYLIES
I N the middle name of Mr. Edmund Lincoln Baylies the connection of his ancestors with one of the most famous soldiers of the Revolutionary War and a participation in some of the most glorious events of that patriotic struggle are commemorated. His great-grand- father, Hodijah Baylies, of Massachusetts, was an officer in the Continental Army, serving from the beginning to the close of the war. He was a member of the staff of General Benjamin Lincoln, and fought at the siege of Charleston and again at the capitulation of Yorktown, where his commander was deputed by Washington to receive the sword of Lord Cornwallis.
General Lincoln's family was of English extraction and his ancestors were among the earliest settlers of New England. From one of its branches President Abraham Lincoln descended, while another branch produced Levi Lincoln, 1749-1820, one of the leading Revo- lutionary patriots and lawyers of Massachusetts, and his equally famous son, Governor Levi Lincoln, 1782-1868, who was foremost among the statesmen of the early part of this century. General Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Mass., in 1733 ; was a member of the Colonial Assembly, and as Colonel of the militia was active in organizing troops at the outbreak of the Revolution, and in the siege of Boston; he became a Major-General in 1776 and served throughout the war, being wounded at Bemis Heights, in the Saratoga campaign, while acting as second in command under General Gates. He was in command of the Southern Department and became Secretary of War under the Confederation from 1781 to 1784; suppressed the famous Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts; was Lieutenant-Governor of the State in 1787, and held many offices of prominence, including that of Commissioner to various Indian tribes. Before his death, in 1810, his daughter Elizabeth became the wife of Colonel Baylies, soon after the end of the Revolutionary War. In 1782, Colonel Baylies was selected by Washington as aide- de-camp. After the war he occupied various civil positions of prominence, including that of Collector of the Port of Dighton, Mass. In 1810, he became Judge of Probate for Bristol County, Mass., which office he occupied till 1834.
His son, Edmund Baylies, was born in Hingham, Mass., in 1787, and married Elizabeth Payson, of Charlestown, Mass. Their son, Edmund Lincoln Baylies, Sr., was born in Boston, Mass., in 1829, and married Nathalie E. Ray, of the notable New York family of that name, which has given a number of distinguished men to the city and State.
Mr. Edmund Lincoln Baylies, their son, thus combines in his ancestry families of the highest consideration in both this State and New England. He was born in New York in 1857 and graduated A. B. from Harvard University in the class of 1879, receiving the degree of LL. B. from the same institution in 1882, his legal training being supplemented by a course in Columbia College in this city. He has pursued the practice of law with energy and success, being a member of the firm of Carter & Ledyard.
By his marriage in 1887, Mr. Baylies became connected with one of the very foremost of the old families of New York, if not of the country at large. His wife was Louisa Van Rensselaer, a direct descendant of the original patroon of Rensselaerwyck. The founder of the Colony, it is well known, was Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a rich merchant of Amsterdam, who, in 1630, obtained from the Dutch West India Company, lords of New Netherland, and from the States General, the grant of an enormous tract of land composing nearly all of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer. This was erected into a manor with feudal rights and remained as such under the rule of the successive patroons down to the Revolution, when the manorial privileges were abolished. The original Kiliaen Van Rensselaer never visited his transatlantic estates, but his sons came here and from them descended a numerous family con- nection. Taking an active interest in society, Mr. Baylies was one of the Patriarchs and, among other clubs, belongs to the University, City and Knickerbocker. His residence is in West Thirty-sixth Street.
46
GERARD BEEKMAN
A MONG the honored family names of this country none has stood higher than that of Beekman. It is also one of the oldest, the founder of the American branch of the family having made his advent on these shores in 1647. Its representatives in both the Nether- lands and Germany had gained distinction in war and peace as far back as the thirteenth century. In those countries, they were of titled rank, and ancient records show that the heads of the family were often sent upon embassies, or were called upon as representatives of the State to entertain dignitaries from other countries.
A characteristic which has been transmitted to the American bearers of the Beekman name is a religious temperament and courage in the assertion of their convictions. For two hundred and fifty years these traits have appeared in the successive generations of the New York Beekman family. In the various professional occupations, bearers of the name have stood in the forefront, while they have consistently evinced a philanthropic spirit and as citizens have shown a patriotic devotion that has won public acknowledgment. Socially they have been true to the obligations of their origin, and have become allied by marriage with the leading families of the Middle and New England States.
Wilhelmus Beekman came to New Amsterdam in the year mentioned above, with Director General Peter Stuyvesant, as treasurer of the Dutch West India Company. He also became Vice- Governor of the Dutch Colony upon the South or Delaware River, and afterwards filled many offices, including those of Vice-Governor at Esopus, now Kingston, alderman of New York and Deputy Governor. In some of these or other equally honorable offices, his sons and grandsons also served with public approval. Soon after his arrival he married an heiress and in the course of time increased his possessions by obtaining large grants of land from the Dutch Government. He resided for many years near the East River, at the intersection of Pearl and Beekman Streets. As the city extended, he removed to the northward, to what was termed "the Hook." His great grandsons went even further north on the island. James, one of them, purchased in 1762 a country place near Turtle Bay, at the present Fiftieth Street, and two of his brothers settled half a mile beyond that point. The Beekmans have always been large landholders in New York, and it is of interest to note their preference for a water view in connection with the estates upon which they established their homes.
Of the numerous descendants of Wilhelmus Beekman, none observed the injunction contained in his last will and testament, to remember that "A good name is more to be desired than great riches," more than James William Beekman the elder, father of the gentleman whose name heads this article. He was the son of Gerard Beekman and descended, in the sixth generation, from the family's founder. His aim in life was to do good, devoting time and means to the acquisition of such knowledge as would benefit his fellow men. Much of the intelligent labor of his life was given to hospitals and their improvement, and the result of his investigations were embodied from time to time in reports and addresses for general circulation. His last illness, in 1877, was caused by too close attention to such duties as a governor of the New York Hospital. He was long an eminent member of the bar, and married Abian Steele Milledolar.
His two sons, Mr. Gerard Beekman and Mr. James William Beekman, have continued the work which interested their father. The former is, like his father, a graduate of Columbia College, and has been for some years one of its trustees. The latter graduated from Columbia Law School, and was admitted to the bar in 1871, but devotes much attention to charitable institutions, being a trustee of the New York Hospital and officially identified with other similar organizations. Both brothers are connected with the principal social clubs and patriotic societies. Mr. James William Beekman, among other distinctions, was made a Knight of the Order of Orange Nassau, by the Queen Regent of the Netherlands, in recognition of his services to the officers of the Dutch man-of-war Van Speijk during the Columbian Naval Review in 1893.
47
MILO MERRICK BELDING
T HE Belding family is old as well as influential. The first of the name to come to this coun- try was William Belding, who settled in Wethersfield, Conn., about 1640. His descendants scattered throughout the Connecticut River Valley, and many of them found their way northward into the State of Massachusetts. That branch of the family from which the present Mr. Belding is descended was settled in the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts long before the Revolution. Mr. Belding's great-grandfather was Samuel Belding, and his grandfather, John Belding, was a Revolutionary soldier. His father, Hiram Belding, of Ashfield, Mass., was a prosperous farmer and country merchant, and also taught school. On his farm was built the first house erected in Ashfield, the old homestead being still preserved.
Mr. Milo Merrick Belding was born in Ashfield, April 3d, 1833. He was educated in the village school, and then attended the Shelburne Falls Academy in the winter and worked on the farm in the summer. When he was only seventeen years of age, he began to devote himself to business, and after a time went into the employ of a firm in Pittsfield, Mass., where he remained until 1858. Then he started independently, and in a few years became one of the prosperous young merchants of Western Massachusetts. His father and two brothers had removed to Michigan in 1858, and Mr. Belding commenced sending them invoices of silk. From this small beginning began the business which in five years culminated in the establishment of a house in Chicago, and two years later a branch in New York City. In 1866, the firm started a silk mill in Rockville, Conn., and in 1874 built a larger mill in Northampton, Mass. Later on, their growing business led to the establishment of another mill in Belding, Mich., a village which they founded. They now own five mills in different parts of the country, and have offices in New York, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Chicago, St. Paul, San Francisco and Baltimore, employing in the manufacture and sale of their goods over three thousand people. The village of Belding, Mich., covers nine hundred acres of land, and is now a town of over five thousand inhabitants. It has ten mills, several other manufacturing establishments, and all the accessories of a prosperous community. It is a monument to the enterprise and public spirit of the family which established it, and from which it takes its name.
Mr. Belding is actively interested in other enterprises besides that with which his name has become most prominently connected. He is the president of the Livonia Salt and Mining Company, of Livonia, and president of the St. Lawrence Marble Company, which owns extensive quarries in Gouverneur, N. Y. Some years ago, he became interested in mining and lumber, and is now a large owner of mining and timber interests in North Carolina and Tennessee, industries which, under his direction, have developed into large and profitable proportions. He also has large ranch properties in Montana. In financial enterprises, he has also taken an active part, being one of the organizers and the first president of the Commonwealth Fire Insurance Company, and president of the American Union Life Insurance Company.
In 1858, Mr. Belding married Emily C. Leonard, daughter of William Leonard, of Ashfield, Mass., a descendant from Noadiah Leonard, of Sunderland, Mass., who was a Captain in the Revolutionary Army, and fought at Bunker Hill. The mother of Mrs. Belding was Almira A. Day, who came of an old Colonial family of New England. Mr. and Mrs. Belding live in West Seventy-second Street, near Central Park. They have one son, Milo M. Belding, Jr., who married Anne Kirk, daughter of Daniel Kirk, of Belfast, Ireland, and is in business with his father. Mr. Belding belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, the Sons of the Revolution, the American Geographical Society, the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America, and the Silk Association. His clubs are the Colonial and Merchants' Central. Milo M. Belding, Jr., is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and belongs to the Union League, New York Athletic, Montauk, Marine and Field, and Merchants' Central clubs. The country residence of the family is at the ancestral home, in Ashfield, Mass.
48
ROBERT LENOX BELKNAP
B ORN in New York, July 23d, 1848, Mr. Belknap was a representative of several of the oldest American families. He was directly descended from Abraham Belknap, who died in 1643, one of the earliest settlers of Salem, Mass., and from Joseph Belknap, 1630-1712, one of the founders of the old South Church in Boston. Joseph Belknap's grandson, Samuel Belknap, 1707-1771, of Woburn, Mass., sold his Massachusetts estate in 1751, and removed to Newburg, N. Y., where he purchased nearly the whole of a tract called the Baird patent. Abel Belknap, 1739-1804, son of Samuel, was a member of the County Committee during the Revolutionary War. His son, Aaron Belknap, 1789-1847, was a distinguished lawyer, and married his cousin, a daughter of Samuel Belknap, Captain of the Massachusetts provincial troops, and afterwards a member of the State Legislature.
Their son, Aaron Betts Belknap, 1816-1880, was, like his father, a lawyer of high distinction. He was also a leader in the Presbyterian Church, and was connected with many public and charitable institutions-among them the Princeton Theological Seminary, the Lenox Library, the Presbyterian Hospital, the Port Society and others. He married Jennet Lenox Maitland, daughter of Robert Maitland, 1768-1848, and his wife, Elizabeth Sproat Lenox. The Maitlands come of ancient Scotch lineage, tracing their descent to Sir Robert Maitland of Thirlstane, Knight, who died in 1434. The Lenoxes, also of old and honorable Scotch origin, are another of New York's foremost families, one of its representatives being the founder of the Lenox Library, now merged in the New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
Mr. Robert Lenox Belknap, their son, was educated at Columbia College, receiving the degrees of A. B. in 1869 and of A. M. in 1872. Entering upon a business career, he speedily displayed marked abilities in the conduct of large enterprises. His first achievement was his active share in the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, of which he was treasurer from 1879 to 1888. He contributed largely to the opening up of the great Northwest by the prominent part he took in the development of the lake ports at the head of Lake Superior. The National Guard movement owed much to Mr. Belknap's disinterested efforts. Entering the Seventh Regiment, in 1866, after being president of his company for several years, he became Lieutenant-Colonel and Chief-of-Staff of the First Brigade. After four more years' service he resigned his active commission, receiving the brevet rank of Colonel. In 1875, having been detailed as Acting Assistant Inspector-General, he made many of the inspections and reports which inaugurated the reforms that have made a new era in National Guard affairs. Mr. Belknap also devoted much time to charitable, philanthropic and educational work. For twelve years he served as treasurer of the Presbyterian Hospital. He was a trustee of the Princeton Theological Seminary, a member of the Church Extension Committee of the Presbytery of New York, and treasurer of the Lying-in Hospital.
He was one of the founders of the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter at Columbia College, and was for two years president of the Psi Upsilon Club. He was also a member of the Union, Union League, University, Down Town, New York Yacht and Seawanhaka Yacht Clubs of New York, besides the Minnesota Club of St. Paul, the Kitchi Gammi Club of Duluth, and the Superior Club of Superior ; a member and manager of the New York Society of the Sons of the Revolution, and a hereditary member of the Society of Cincinnati, and of the Society of the Colonial Wars.
Mr. Belknap married, in 1870, Mary Phoenix Remsen, daughter of Henry Rutgers Remsen and his wife, Elizabeth Waldron Phoenix, both of whom represented old New York families. He died March 13th, 1896, at his residence in New York city. His widow and six children survived him. On January 25th, 1897, his eldest son, Robert Lenox Belknap, Jr., died. The remaining children are Waldron Phoenix, Mary Remsen, Jennet Maitland, who is the wife of Robert McAllister Llovd, Elizabeth and Maitland Belknap.
49
ISAAC BELL
R EPRESENTATIVES of the Bell family were among the first settlers of this country in the early part of the seventeenth century. Isaac Bell, the progenitor of the New York branch, came to America from Edinburgh in 1640, and settled in Connecticut. He purchased a tract of land eight miles square from the Indians, and soon became a prosperous and influential man. One of his descendants was James Bell, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. James Bell, who was born in 1709, owned property near Stamford, Conn. By his wife, Sarah, he had five sons: James, born in 1734; Isaac, 1736; Jacob, 1738 ; Jesse, 1746, and Jared, 1755. His son, Isaac Bell, 1736-1809, the ancestor of the New York Bells, married Hannah Holley, and their daughter, Hannah Bell, married Fitch Rogers, son of Samuel Rogers, of Norwalk, Conn. The second wife of Isaac Bell, the second of the name, was Susannah Smith, who died in 1807, and who was a daughter of Ephraim Smith, of Stamford. Adhering to the Royal cause at the time of the Revolution, Isaac Bell and his wife, like other Loyalists, suffered many losses, their property being confiscated and much of it destroyed. He owned several mills in Stamford and was also a large shipping merchant in New York. Leaving his possessions in Connecticut, he came within the British lines in New York, and, in 1783, took his family to St. John, New Brunswick, where they remained for several years. He was annually elected Chamberlain of the city, as long as he remained in that Province.
The children of Isaac and Susannah (Smith) Bell were James Bell, who died in Frederickton, New Brunswick; Henry Bell, 1765-1773, who was accidentally killed in New York, and was buried in Trinity Churchyard; Isaac Bell, who was born in 1768, and Catharine Bell, who was born in 1770 and married Nehemiah Rogers, a brother of Fitch Rogers.
Isaac Bell, third of the name and father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Stamford, Conn., being the third son of Isaac and Susannah (Smith) Bell. His boyhood was spent in New York during the British occupation of the city. He married, in 1810, Mary Ellis, daughter of John Ellis, 1754-1812, and Marie Faugères, 1767-1846. The father of Mary Ellis was a native of Yorkshire, England, and came to this country in 1783. Her mother was a daughter of Dr. Lewis Faugères and Evana, or Eve, Remsen, of New Lots, Long Island. Dr. Faugères was born in Limoges, France, in 1731, and was the son of Francis Faugères, a surgeon in the French Navy. He was brought to New York in 1756, a prisoner of war, and remained permanently in this country thereafter. His mother was Magdalen Bertrand, of a noble French family. His wife, Eve Remsen, was a daughter of Jacob Remsen, a merchant of Brooklyn, by his wife, Maria Voorhies, of Gravesend. Her grandparents were Rem Remsen, 1652-1742, of New Lots and Flatbush, and Marratie Janse Van Der Bilt, of Flatbush, who was a daughter of Jan Aertsen Van Der Bilt, the ancestor of the Vanderbilt family.
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