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 71
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Mr. Murray has taken special interest in the patriotic societies that have sprung up in recent years. He was one of the founders of the Society of Colonial Wars, and Deputy-General for New York State, and is a member of the Cincinnati and vice-president for the State of Connecticut. He belongs also to the Sons of the Revolution, the Sons of the American Revolution and the Loyal Legion, and is one of the board of directors of the Society of the War of 1812. He married Grace Peckham, daughter of Dr. Fenner Peckham, of Providence, R. l., a descendant of the Peckham, Torrey and Davis families of Rhode Island. His residence is in West Fifty-second Street.
424
STEPHEN PAYNE NASH
W HEN the Reverend John Davenport landed in Boston, in July, 1637, he brought with him a company of Colonists, who were people of unusually good standing, socially and financially. Among his followers was Thomas Nash, who brought with him his wife and five children. Thomas Nash was of a family that is supposed to have come originally from Lancaster, or Lancashire. In the spring of 1638, he was one of the little company that sailed from Boston to settle Qunnipiac, or New Haven, and in November of that year, was one of the Colonists who entered into an agreement with Nomanguin, and other Indian chiefs, for the purchase of lands. In 1639, he was one of the signers to the fundamental agreement for the regulation of the civil and religious affairs of the Colony, and the same year signed the agreement of those who wished to remove to settle the town of Guilford. His wife was Margery Baker, probably a daughter of Nicholas Baker, of Hertfordshire, England, one of the first emigrants to the Con- necticut Colony.
Thomas Nash, who died in 1658, was advanced in years when he came to this country, and his children early became prominent in the several communities in which they lived. His eldest son, John, took the oath of freeman in 1642, was a Sergeant in 1644, a Lieutenant in 1652, town treasurer and deputy in 1654, Captain of the train band in 1655, and chief of the military forces during the trouble with the Narragansett Indians. He settled in New Haven, where he was a magistrate and held other offices almost constantly throughout his life. Repeatedly, he was a delegate to the General Assembly, and was an assistant from 1672 until the time of his death, in 1687. Timothy Nash, another son of the pioneer, was the ancestor of that branch of the family to which Mr. Stephen Payne Nash belongs. He was born in 1626, and became a freeman of New Haven in 1654. He was in Hartford in 1660, and in Hadley, Mass,, in 1663, being a Lieutenant in the militia and a representative from the town of Hadley to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1690, 1691 and 1695. He went to Hadley with the Reverend John Russell, who, in the con- troversies in Hartford and Wethersfield, regarding the government of the church, led away a company of decedents to settle the rich and beautiful Connecticut River Valley. Timothy Nash married, about 1657, Rebekah Stone, daughter of Samuel Stone, of Hartford, and they had twelve children. He died in 1699, and his wife in 1709.
Lieutenant John Nash, the grandson of the pioneer, 1667-1743, was a representative to the General Court from Hadley seven times. His second wife, the ancestress of Mr. Stephen P. Nash, was Elizabeth Kellogg, daughter of Joseph Kellogg, of Farmington, Conn. In subsequent gen- erations, the line of descent was through Deacon John Nash, Jr., born 1694, and his wife, Hannah Ingram; Deacon David Nash, 1719-1803, and his wife, Elizabeth Smith; David Nash, 1755-1832, and his wife, Lois Alvord, and David Nash, 1792-1832, and his wife, Hannah Payne. David Nash, 1755, removed from Connecticut to Granby, Mass., about the close of the last century, and afterwards to Watervliet, N. Y., where his descendants have since lived.
Mr. Stephen Payne Nash, son of David Nash and Hannah Payne, was born in 1821. He was educated for the law, studying in the public schools in Albany and the French College at Chamblay, Canada. He began to practice in Saratoga, then went to Albany and afterwards came to New York, where he has spent most of his life. He was one of the founders of the New York Bar Association, in 1863, being its president in 1880, and has been a trustee of Columbia College and a member of the vestry of Trinity Church. His wife, Catherine McLean, was a daughter of the Honorable John McLean, of Salem, N. Y. He belongs to the Century Association and lives in West Nineteenth Street. His eldest son, John McLean Nash, was born in Albany in 1848, was graduated from Columbia College, is a lawyer and belongs to the Metropolitan, Uni- versity, Players and other clubs and the Bar Association. Another son is Stephen Edward Nash, born in 1850 who married Isabel Coggill. A third son, Thomas Nash, was graduated from Columbia University in 1882.
425
GEORGE LIVINGSTON NICHOLS
I N the time of Edward the Confessor, Nicholas de Albine, who was also called Nigell and Nicholl, came from Normandy to England. He was the ancestor of all who bear the name of Nicholl, or Nichols. The ancestor of the American branch of the family was settled in Glamorganshire. Francis Nichols, the American pioneer, was born in England in 1595, and coming to this country was an original proprietor of Stratford, Conn., in 1639, and Captain of the train band. His second wife was Annie Wynes, or Wines, daughter of Barnabas Wynes, one of the original proprietors of Southold, Long Island, in 1640. John Nichols, born in England, came with his father, Francis Nichols, to this country and his son, Samuel Nichols, born in 1655, married Mary Bowers, daughter of the Reverend John Bowers, of Derby, Conn., in 1682, and afterwards settled in New Jersey. He was the father of Humphry Nichols, who settled in Newark in 1738, where he died in 1765.
Isaac Nichols, son of Humphry, born in Newark in 1748, was a patriot of the Revolution in 1775, was in the expedition against Quebec, was at the siege of Fort Schuyler, and the capture of Burgoyne's army, was Lieutenant in Colonel James Livingston's regiment, and was twice wounded at the battle of Rhode Island. When peace came, he removed to Brooklyn, was Justice of the Peace for eighteen years, and died there in 1835. His first wife, the great- grandmother of Mr. George Livingston Nichols, was Cornelia Van Duzen, daughter of William Van Duzen and Lucretia Bogardus, who was a granddaughter of the celebrated Annetje Jans Bogardus.
Lewis Nichols, 1790-1859, the grandfather of Mr. Nichols, was born in Brooklyn and was a soldier in the War of 1812. He was engaged in the publishing business and brought out the first directory of the City of Brooklyn. His wife was Jane Anne Little, daughter of George Little.
George L. Nichols, Sr., son of Lewis Nichols, was born in Brooklyn in 1830 and died in 1892. His early business experience was secured in the house of T. B. Coddington & Co., metal importers, and he became a member of that firm in 1854. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce, vice-president of the Phenix National Bank, a director of the Brooklyn Academy of Music and a trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company. He was a councilor of the Long Island Historical Society, president of the Mercantile Library Association and one of the first trustees of the Brooklyn Bridge. President Arthur offered him a position on the Tariff Revision Commis- sion, which he declined, as he did other tenders of office. In 1852, he married Christina Marie Cole, daughter of Jan Kool, or John Cole, and Rebecka Fransiena van Santen. Her father was born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1784, son of Andries Kool and Elsie Vander Linden. Her mother, born in Amsterdam, in 1804, was the daughter of Adrian van Santen and Christina Barkmeyer.
Mr. George L. Nichols, Jr., son of the preceding, was born in Brooklyn, May 9th, 1860. He was graduated from Williams College in 1881, and from the Columbia College Law School in 1883. In 1884, he received the degree of M. A. from Williams College. In 1883, he was admitted to the bar. He has a large practice, principally in connection with corporations. An active Republican, he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention in 1888, and in 1891 was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission of Brooklyn, and reappointed in 1892. He married, in 1893, Mary (Chickering) Ruxton, daughter of George H. Chickering. of Boston, and lives at 66 East Fifty-sixth Street. He has one daughter, Christina Mary Nichols. He is a member of the Metro- politan, University, Grolier and Hamilton clubs, the Downtown Association, the Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Williams College Alumni, the St. Nicholas Society, the Society of the War of 1812, the Sons of the Revolution, the Military Order of Foreign Wars, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Historical Society, and also belongs to the New York Historical, Botanical, Zoological and American Natural History societies. The other surviving children of George L. Nichols, Sr., are Kate N. Nichols, the authoress, wife of Spencer Trask; Acosta Nichols, a partner in the firm of Spencer Trask & Co., and Marie Christina Nichols.
426
DE LANCEY NICOLL
W HEN General Sir Richard Nicolls, Governor of New York, came to this country in 1664, he was accompanied by his nephew, Matthias Nicoll, a lawyer of Lincoln's Inn, Lon- don. The Nicolls came of an ancient English family. Their coat of arms was issued to John Nicoll, of Buckingham, near Islip, Northampton County, in 1601, and the records refer to a former John Nicoll, who lived in the middle of the fifteenth century. When Governor Nicolls had successfully overcome the Dutch in New Amsterdam and made the Colony an English possession, he appointed his nephew, Matthias, to be the first English Colonial secretary. After the Governor returned to England, Matthias Nicoll was a councilor of Governor Lovelace, was Mayor of the city in 1671, Speaker of the first Colonial Assembly in 1683 and one of the first Judges of the New York Court of Oyer and Terminer, appointed by Governor Dongan in 1683.
William Nicoll, son of Matthias Nicoll, married Anna, daughter of the patroon Jeremias Van Rensselaer, of Albany, and his wife, Maria Van Cortlandt, and received from the King of England a tract of land in Suffolk County, ten miles square in extent, which he settled and called Islip Grange, after the old family home in England. Upon his death, this estate descended to his eldest son, Benjamin. His younger son, William Nicoll, devoted himself to public affairs and was elected Speaker of the Colonial Legislature for eighteen consecutive years. He owned an estate of four thousand acres at Shelter Island, which he left by will to his nephew, William, the son of his brother, Benjamin. This nephew, William, was one of the great lawyers of his period. His descendants, through his eldest son, inherited the Islip estate, while the descendants of his second son, Samuel Benjamin Nicoll, became proprietors of the Shelter Island property. In the present generation by intermarriage the Nicolls of Bayside, Long Island, represent both branches of the family.
Benjamin Nicoll, the youngest son of the first Benjamin Nicoll, was educated in Columbia College and married Mary M. Holland, daughter of Edward Holland. His son was Henry Nicoll, a wealthy New York merchant, and his grandson, Edward Holland Nicoll, married Mary Townsend, of Albany. The eldest son of Edward Holland Nicoll was Henry Nicoll, a lawyer of prominence in New York City, and a Member of Congress. His youngest son, Solomon Townsend Nicoll, became a successful merchant of New York, and married his cousin, Charlotte Ann Nicoll, of Shelter Island, the second child of Samuel Benjamin Nicoll, who died in 1866 and who was the son of Samuel Benjamin Nicoll, the head of that branch of the family in the fourth generation. In 1855, Solomon Townsend Nicoll purchased the present Nicoll estate at Bayside. His children are: Anne Nicoll, who married William M. Hoes; De Lancey Nicoll; Benjamin Nicoll, who married Grace Davison Lord, daughter of James Couper Lord, and granddaughter of the famous Daniel Lord; Edward Holland Nicoll, who married Edith M. Travers ; Mary Townsend Nicoll, who married James Brown Lord; and Charlotte Nicoll, the wife of Willoughby Weston. Benjamin Nicoll and Edward Holland Nicoll both graduated from Princeton College and are merchants in New York.
Mr. De Lancey Nicoll was born in Bayside, Long Island, in 1854. He was educated in St. Paul's School, Concord, N. H., and then graduated from Princeton College with high honors in 1874. Two years later he graduated from the Columbia College Law School, and was admitted to the bar. He soon became successful in his profession, and his family connections gave him high social standing. In 1885, he was appointed assistant district attorney by Randolph B. Martine, and in that office preeminently distinguished himself. When District Attorney Martine's term of service expired, Mr. Nicoll, in 1887, was a candidate for the vacant position, nominated by the Independents and Republicans, but was defeated by John R. Fellows. In 1890, he was nominated by the Tammany organization for the same office and was elected, serving a term of three years. In 1894, he was a member of the Constitutional Convention.
Mr. Nicoll married Maud Churchill and lives in East Thirty-eighth Street. He belongs to the Tuxedo Club, and is also a member of the Metropolitan, Manhattan, Union, Law, University, Dem- ocratic, Racquet and other clubs and the Downtown Association.
427
WILLIAM WHITE NILES
C ENTURIES ago ancestors of the Niles family, which was of Norse origin, established themselves in England. During the conflict between the King and Parliament, the mem- bers of the family were generally adherents of Cromwell, and after the restoration, several of them came to America. Among these emigrants was John Niles, the ancestor of Mr. William White Niles. He was a resident of Dorchester, Mass., in 1634, and a freeman of Braintree, in 1647. His son, Captain Nathaniel Niles, 1642-1727, married Sarah Sands, daughter of James Sands. Their son, the Reverend Samuel Niles, born in 1673, graduated from Harvard College in 1699, and preached in Kingston, R. I., and Braintree, Mass. His wife was Elizabeth Thacher, daughter of the Reverend Peter Thacher, of Milton, Mass. Samuel Niles, Jr., 1711-1804, their son, graduated from Harvard in 1731. He was a leading lawyer in Boston and a Judge for nearly forty years. During the War of the Revolution, he was a patriot and a friend of John Adams. He married, in 1739, his cousin, Sarah Niles, daughter of Nathaniel Niles.
In the next generation came Nathaniel Niles, 1740-1828. Graduated from Princeton College, in 1766, he lived in Boston, but moved to Norwich, Conn., and was a member of the Connecticut Legislature. Afterwards he went to Vermont and became an influential man in that State, being a member and Speaker of the Vermont House of Representatives, the first Member of Congress elected from that State, and Lieutenant-Governor. He was for many years Judge of the Supreme Court, a trustee of Dartmouth College and six times a Presidential elector. The grandfather of William White Niles was Judge William Niles, who when young went with his father to Vermont. He graduated from Dartmouth College, became a lawyer and a member of the State Constitutional Convention, and was a Judge. He married Relief Barron, daughter of Colonel John Barron, a Revolutionary officer. On the maternal side of the house, Mr. Niles is descended from John Mil- burne, a victim of the Star Chamber, and from John Rogers, the first martyr burned at Smithfield.
William Watson Niles was born in Orange County, Vt., in 1822, and graduated from Dart- mouth College. He studied law in Indiana, made a tour of Europe and then established himself in New York, where he has been prominent for nearly fifty years of professional life. He was active in securing the construction of the first railroad west of Lake Erie and has been connected with many corporations. During the Civil War, he actively supported the Government, was one of the eleven organizers of the Loyal League of New York, which attained a membership of 100,000, one of the life senators of that body, and a founder and secretary of the Citizens' Associa- tion. As a member of the New York Legislature and one of the judiciary committee, he took a leading part in the measures for the impeachment of the judicial accomplices of the Tweed Ring and was one of the managers who secured the conviction of Judge Barnard before the Court of Impeachment. He was one of the commissioners who secured and located the great parks for the city. In 1855, he married Isabel White, daughter of the Honorable Hugh White, and has six children. His residence is in Bedford Park. He is a member of the New England Society, the American Geographical Society, the Dartmouth Alumni Association and of other societies and clubs. He was one of the founders of the American Museum of Natural History and of the Young Men's Christian Association.
Mr. William White Niles, son of William Watson and Isabel (White) Niles, was born in New York, is a graduate of Dartmouth College and a member of the New York bar, being the head of the law firm of Niles & Johnson. He is active in promoting the city's interests and was a member of the State Legislature in 1895, serving on the judiciary committee. He was appointed a member of the Commission for the Preservation of the Adirondack Forests, and is now a school trustee of New York City. He is a member of the Republican, Ardsley and Calumet clubs and the Dartmouth Alumni Association, and an honorary member of the Zoological Society. The eldest son of William Watson Niles is Robert L. Niles, who is a member of the Stock Exchange, and who married a daughter of the late Bishop Lyman, of North Carolina.
428
GORDON NORRIE
N EW YORK had many famous merchants in the closing years of the last and the first half of the present century. They were the men instrumental in establishing the mercantile supremacy of the city in this country, and gave it the commercial prestige which rival communities in other parts of the United States had never been able to overcome. These early New York merchants came from all parts of the world, but it is not too much to say that foremost among the most energetic and enterprising of them were those who were of the intelligent and thrifty Scottish race.
Adam Norrie, the American ancestor of the subject of this sketch, was a fine representative of these old-time Scotch-American merchants. He was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1795. Early in life he went to Sweden, where he became interested in the manufacture of iron, in which he was very successful. Coming to New York about 1820, while he was still a young man, to inves- tigate the iron trade on this side of the Atlantic, and its possibilities for extensive business, he decided to remain here.
At that time one of the great firms in New York was Boorman & Johnston. They dealt largely in Swedish iron, and were general merchants and importers of all kinds of commodities. The firm had been in existence for some time previous to the War of 1812, and when Mr. Norrie came here, was, in importance and wealth, one of the foremost establishments in this country. Adam Norrie joined this firm, his advent as a partner being signalized by the addition of the words "and company" to its style. He was highly capable and energetic, and soon took a position in his adopted country as one of its ablest merchants and most public-spirited citizens. A chronicler of the mercantile history of that period has said of him: "He was Scotch to the backbone-that is, filled with ideas of stern honesty, sagacity and prudence, together with rapid determination. He probably was remarked for these great mercantile qualities before he left Scotland, for with them he also brought to the firm he joined in this city, a splendid connection and correspondence in the old country."
Adam Norrie accumulated a fortune in his business and became interested in many other enterprises in New York and throughout the United States. He was one of the original stock- holders of the canal between Lakes Michigan and Superior, a promoter and large stockholder of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Railroad, vice-president of the Bank for Savings, and a director of the Bank of Commerce and the Royal Insurance Company. He was one of the founders of St. Luke's Hospital, for ten years president of St. Andrew's Society, and for many years held the office of senior warden of Grace Church. His residence was in Chambers Street, near Broadway, opposite City Hall Park, a few doors east of where the Stewart building now stands, that locality being then a fashionable residential section of the city. He died in 1882, his wife having passed away ten years previously. Four children survived him, Gordon, Margaret Van Horn, Mary Van Horn and Julia Clarkson Norrie.
Mr. Gordon Norrie is the only son of Adam Norrie. He was born in New York and succeeded to the large estate that his father left. He married Miss Lanfear, resides at 377 Fifth Avenue, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Church, City and Union clubs, the Century Association and the Downtown Association. Mr. Norrie has two sons, who are prominent in the social life of the city at the present time. A. Lanfear Norrie married Ethel Lynde Barbey, daughter of Henry I. Barbey; he lives in East Forty-first Street, and is a member of the Tuxedo, Metro- politan, Calumet, Union and Racquet clubs, the Country Club of Westchester County, and the Downtown Association. The other son, Adam Gordon Norrie, was educated in Columbia Uni- versity, and was graduated from that institution in the class of 1891. He is a member of the City, St. Anthony, Knickerbocker and other clubs. He married, in 1897, Margaret L. Morgan, a daughter of the late William Dare Morgan. The daughters of Mr. Gordon Norrie are Mary, Sara G. and Emily L. Norrie. The summer home of the family is in New London, Conn.
429
THOMAS FLETCHER OAKES
T HE ancestor of the Oakes name in this country was Edward Oakes, a member of an English family that had high connections in the old country. Edward Oakes and his wife, Jane, were residents of Cambridge. They came to New England in 1634, and settled in Boston. With them came their two children, Urian and James. Urian Oakes achieved special distinction as a clergyman and educator. Born in England in 1631, he was only three years old when he was brought to this country. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1649, and after a few years returned to England, and was established over a church in Tichfield, Hampshire. Becoming a non-conformist, he was among those who were silenced by the authorities in 1662. When the Reverend Jonathan Mitchell, pastor of the Harvard College Church, died in 1668, the Reverend Urian Oakes was called back to this country to take the vacant pulpit. He also succeeded the Reverend Dr. Leonard Hoar in the presidency of Harvard College in 1675. His death occurred in 1681.
Dr. Thomas Oakes, also a son of Edward Oakes, was born in 1644 and died in 1719. He graduated from Harvard College in 1662, studied medicine in London, and became one of the leading physicians of Massachusetts. He was a member and speaker of the Provincial Assembly in 1689, a member of the Provincial Council, an agent for Massachusetts, in England, in 1692, and again a member of the Assembly in 1706. His son, the Reverend Josiah Oakes, who died in 1719, was a Harvard graduate in the class of 1708, and minister at Eastham., Mass., most of his life. Mr. Thomas Fletcher Oakes is descended from James Oakes, a brother of the Reverend Urian Oakes and Dr. Thomas Oakes. His father, Francis Garaux Oakes, was a shipmaster of Boston, and his mother was Caroline Comfort Paige. His grandfather, Daniel Oakes, served as a soldier in the War for Independence.
Born in Boston, July 15th, 1843, Mr. Oakes was educated in private schools of his native city, and then began his business career as clerk for the contractors who were engaged upon the construction of the Kansas Pacific Railroad. In 1863, when he had scarcely attained the age of twenty, he was a purchasing agent in St. Louis for the Kansas Pacific Railroad, and it was not long before he was advanced to the position of general superintendent. For more than sixteen years he made his home in St. Louis and Kansas City. In 1879, he became general superintendent of the Kansas City, Fort Scott & Gulf, and the Kansas City, Lawrence and Southern railroads. A year later he was called to be vice-president of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, and removed to Portland, Ore. Scarcely a year had elapsed when he was elected vice-president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and in 1883 he became general manager of the same company. In 1888, he was made president, and held that position for five years, until October, 1893, when the property went into the hands of receivers, of whom he was one until the reorganization of the company in 1896. He is also one of the trustees of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company.
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