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 83
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Richard Lawrence Schieffelin was the father of the gentleman referred to in this article. He was born in 1801, graduated from Columbia College, studied law with his brother-in-law, Benjamin Ferris, and practiced until 1843. For the rest of his life he devoted himself to the care of his real estate and corporate interests. Elected a member of the Common Council of New York City in 1843, he was president of the board and afterwards declined a nomination for Congress. He was prominent in the Protestant Episcopal Church, was one of the earliest members of the Church of St. Mary, which his father founded at Mahattanville, and at the time of his death, in 1889, was its senior warden. For more than sixty years he represented that church in the Diocesan conventions and was also prominently identified with Grace parish. In early life, he was interested in military matters and held the commission of Brigadier-General. In 1833, he married Margaret Helen McKay, daughter of Captain George Knox Mckay, of the United States Artillery. His children were Sarah Sophia Schieffelin, who married the Reverend Cuthbert Collingwood Barclay; Helen Margaret Schieffelin, who married, first, William Irving Graham, and after his death, Alexander Robert Chisolm; and George Richard Schieffelin.
Mr. George Richard Schieffelin was born July 27th, 1836. Graduated from Columbia Col- lege in the class of 1855, he has been engaged in the practice of law in this city. In 1866, he married Julia Matilda Delaplaine. The grandfather of Mrs. Schieffelin was John F. Delaplaine, an old New York shipping merchant. Her father, the Honorable Isaac C. Delaplaine, was born in New York in 1817 and died in 1866. Graduated from Columbia College in 1834, he became a prom- inent lawyer. In 1861, he was elected a member of the National House of Representatives.
Mr. and Mrs. Schieffelin have had five children. Their eldest daughter, Julia Florence Schieffelin, married Joseph Bruce Ismay, of Liverpool, England, one of the owners of the White Star Steamship Company. She has two children, Margaret Bruce and Thomas Bruce Ismay. The second daughter, Margaret Helen Schieffelin, married Henry G. Trevor. There are two unmarried daughters of the family, Matilda Constance and Sarah Dorothy Schieffelin, and one son, George Richard Delaplaine Schieffelin. The city residence of Mr. and Mrs. Schieffelin is in East Forty-fifth Street, near Fifth Avenue, and their country place is The Anchorage, at Southampton, Long Island. Mr. Schieffelin is a member of the Tuxedo, Union, Knickerbocker, New York Yacht, Riding and Shinnecock Golf clubs, the St. Nicholas Society, the Century Association, the Downtown Associa- tion and the Society of Colonial Wars. In 1895, he was deputy governor of the latter organization.
495
SAMUEL BRADHURST SCHIEFFELIN
I N the present generation, the Schieffelin family, which has held such an important place in New York, has a number of branches. The preceding page of this volume affords a detailed account of the founder of the family, Jacob Schieffelin, 1757-1835, and his wife, Hannah Lawrence. Henry Hamilton Schieffelin, their second son, was born in 1783. He was named after General Henry Hamilton, who commanded the English forces in the Northwest during the Revolution, and under whom Jacob Schieffelin served. Graduating from Columbia College in 1801, Henry Hamilton Schieffelin studied law under Cadwalader Colden, but in 1805 entered into partnership with his father, as Jacob Schieffelin & Son, and when Jacob Schieffelin retired, in 1814, the firm became H. H. Schieffelin & Co. Henry Hamilton Schieffelin was the first vice-president of the New York College of Pharmacy, in 1829, and became its president on the incorporation of the college in 1831. He retired in 1849 and died in 1865. He married Maria Theresa Bradhurst, daughter of Dr. Samuel Bradhurst, 1749-1826, and his wife, Mary Smith, daughter of Lieutenant Richard Smith. The sons of Henry Hamilton Schieffelin were Henry Maunsell, Samuel Bradhurst, James Lawrence, Philip, Sidney Augustus, Bradhurst and Eugene Schieffelin. After their father's retirement in 1849, the brothers carried on the business under the style of Schieffelin Brothers & Co. Samuel B., James Lawrence and Sidney A. Schieffelin were the leading members.
Mr. Samuel Bradhurst Schieffelin was born February 24th, 1811, and continued at the head of the firm until his retirement, in 1865. He has since devoted much of his attention to literature and has written The Foundations of History and a number of other works chiefly of a religious character. He married Lucretia Hazard and resides at 958 Madison Avenue. William Henry Schieffelin, son of Mr. Samuel B. Schieffelin, was born August 20th, 1836, and early in life entered the firm of Schieffelin Brothers & Co., of which, in 1865, he became the head, the style being changed to W. H. Schieffelin & Co. In 1862, he entered the Union Army, was Major of the First New York Mounted Rifles, and saw active service in Virginia. He married Mary Jay, daughter of the Honorable John Jay. He held positions of trust, and was identified with many scientific and philanthropic organizations. He died in 1895.
William Jay Schieffelin, his son, was born in New York in 1866 and was graduated from Columbia College in 1887. Making chemistry his profession, he pursued postgraduate studies at the University of Munich, Bavaria, graduating there in 1889 with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Entering the firm of William H. Schieffelin & Co., he is now active in its successor, Schieffelin & Co. He has been interested in the reform of the municipal administration, and in 1896 was appointed a member of the Civil Service Commission. In 1891, he married Marie Louisa, daughter of Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard and a granddaughter of William H. Vanderbilt. They have four children, two sons and two daughters, the eldest being William Jay Schieffelin, Jr. Their residence is in West Fifty-seventh Street. Mr. Schieffelin is a member of the City, Century and Church clubs, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, the St. Nicholas Society and the Society of Colonial Wars.
Sidney Augustus Schieffelin, the fifth son of Henry Hamilton Schieffelin, born in 1818, was long a member of the house of Schieffelin Brothers & Co., from which he retired in 1865. He died in 1894. He married Harriet A. Schuyler, 1836-1882, daughter of Arent Henry Schuyler and his wife, Mary C. Kingsland. Their sons are Henry Hamilton Schieffelin, born in 1863, and Schuyler Schieffelin, born in 1866. The latter, in 1889, left the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in his junior year and entered the firm of Schieffelin & Co. His residence is 173 Fifth Avenue. He is a Captain in the Twelfth Regiment, National Guard. His clubs are the Union, Fencers', City, Ardsley Country, Badminton, Knickerbocker and Riding, and he is a member of the St. Nicholas Society, Society of Colonial Wars, Colonial Order, Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Historical Society, of which he is a life member.
496
PHILIP SCHUYLER
I N the seventh generation from Philip Schuyler and Margaretta Van Slichtenhorst, the American ancestors of a family that has been one of the most distinguished in the history of the United States, General Philip Schuyler is descended, through Johannes Schuyler and his wife, Elizabeth Staats; Johannes Schuyler and his wife, Cornelia Van Cortlandt, and General Philip Schuyler, the eminent Revolutionary patriot and soldier, and his wife, Catharine Van Rensselaer. General Philip Schuyler, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was the son of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler, born in 1768. The first wife of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler was Sarah Rutsen, daughter of Colonel Jacob Rutsen, of an old Kingston, N. Y., family that had married with the Van Rensselaers and other great families of that day. The second wife of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler and the grandmother of General Philip Schuyler of the present generation, was Mary A. Sawyer, of Newburyport, Mass., a member of one of the old families of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The father of General Philip Schuyler was George Lee Schuyler, who is especially remem- bered by this generation from his connection with the America Cup, the famous yachting prize, the struggle for its possession having resulted in the most brilliant international yachting events in this century. George Lee Schuyler was born in Rhinebeck in 1811, but lived the greater part of his lifetime in New York, with whose interests he was thorougly identified. He was deeply interested in yachting matters and was one of the donors of the America Yachting Cup trophy, and in 1882 was the sole surviving member of the syndicate which prepared that prize. He also gave con- siderable attention to historical research, particularly in relation to the family whose name he bore. Among his principal literary works were Correspondence and Remarks upon Bancroft's History of the Northern Campaign, and The Character of Major-General Philip Schuyler. The first wife of George Lee Schuyler and the mother of General Philip Schuyler, was Eliza Hamilton. His second wife was Mary Morris Hamilton, a sister of his first wife. The maternal grandfather of General Schuyler was James Alexander Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton and his wife, who was a daughter of the General Philip Schuyler of Revolutionary renown. General Schuyler is therefore descended from his illustrious ancestor and namesake through both his paternal and maternal lines, his father being a grandson and his mother a great-granddaughter of the General.
James Alexander Hamilton, the maternal grandfather of General Schuyler, was born in New York in 1788, and died in Irvington in 1878. He was graduated from Columbia College in 1805. During the war of 1812, he was Brigade-Major and Inspector in the New York State militia. After- wards he studied law and became a prominent member of the bar. In the first administration of President Andrew Jackson, he was for a few days, in 1829, acting Secretary of State previous to the accession of Martin Van Buren to that place in the Cabinet. Later he was United States District Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was the author of Reminiscences of Hamilton; or, Men and Events at Home and Abroad during Three-quarters of a Century.
General Philip Schuyler was born in New York and has made his home in this city and at his ancestral estate in Irvington. His Irvington home is Nevis, the old-fashioned Colonial house that was the home of Alexander Hamilton and that abounds in historical and social memories of a century ago. General Schuyler is an ardent yachtsman as well as a general sportsman. He is a member of the New York Yacht Club and has closely identified himself with the interests of the social life in and about Irvington and Ardsley. During the entire Civil War period, he served with distinction in the regular army, resigning his commission at the close of the war. He married Harriet (Lowndes) Langdon. He was a prominent member of the Patriarchs during the brilliant life of that social organization. His clubs include the Union and Knickerbocker, the Century Association, the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club, and he also belongs to the Seventh Regiment Veterans, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of the Cincinnati, the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and the American Geographical Society, and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History.
497
GUSTAV H. SCHWAB
W HEN Frederick the Great, of Prussia, determined to establish the Berlin Royal Academy of Science, he called upon John Christopher Schwab to be a member of that body, and to assist in its establishment and direction. Professor Schwab at that time occupied the chair of philosophy and mathematics in the University of Stuttgart and declined the offer of King Frederick, preferring to remain in the position with which he had been long associated. Professor Schwab was the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch. His son, the grandfather of Mr. Gustav H. Schwab, was a well-known German author.
Gustav Schwab, the father of Mr. Gustav H. Schwab, was born in 1822, in Stuttgart, Germany, where his ancestors had lived for many generations. When he was seventeen years of age, he entered the counting house of H. H. Meier & Co., a large firm in Bremen. There he remained for five years, but in 1844, when twenty-two years of age, he came to New York, to enter the house of Oelrichs & Kruger. In less than five years after his arrival in New York, he had sufficiently familiarized himself with commercial methods in this country to go into business for himself as the junior partner in the firm of Wichelhausen, Recknagel & Schwab. Ten years after, in 1859, he returned to the concern with which he had been first associated in New York, becoming a partner in the firm of Oelrichs & Company, which succeeded Oelrichs & Kruger. Soon after, the firm became agents for the North German Lloyd Steamship Line, a connection that has been maintained ever since.
Outside of the shipping business, with which Mr. Schwab was principally identified, he had numerous other interests. He was among the directors of the Central Trust Company, the Wash- ington Life Insurance Company, and the Orient Mutual Insurance Company, and at the time of his death was the oldest director and vice-president of the Merchants' National Bank. He was a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and warden of St. James' Church, Fordham. Deeply interested in charitable matters, he was a patron and for many years treasurer of the German Hospital, and a generous benefactor of other philanthropic organizations. He was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and at one time a commissioner of the Board of Education. In 1850, Mr. Schwab married Catharine Elizabeth Von Post, daughter of L. H. Von Post, of New York City. When he died, in 1888, his widow and a large family of children survived him.
Mr. Gustav H. Schwab is the eldest of the children of Gustav Schwab, and was born in New York, May 30th, 1851. He was educated here and at Stuttgart, Germany. In 1876, he married Caroline Wheeler, niece of William B. Ogden, of New York and formerly of Chicago, of which city he was the first Mayor, and also president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railway. Mr. and Mrs. Schwab have two children, Emily Elizabeth and Gustav.
Entering his father's firm of Oelrichs & Company, in 1876, Mr. Schwab had charge of the steamship business. He has, however, taken an active and useful part in all meas- ures to advance the commerce of New York, or to create better municipal government. He has frequently been interested in committees of the Chamber of Commerce, appointed to advance the cause of honest money and of political reform, and is now chairman of the Chamber's Committee on foreign commerce and the revenue laws. He also succeeded his father as director of the Merchants' National Bank, and is also a director in the United States Trust Company. He lives at 4 East Forty-eighth Street, his country residence being at Irvington-on-Hudson. He is a member of the Tuxedo colony, and the principal New York clubs of which he is a member are the Metropolitan, Century, City, Reform, Commonwealth, Liederkranz, and Mendelssohn Glee. A brother of Mr. Schwab, Herman C. Schwab, who is associated with him in business, is a member of the Reform, Commonwealth, and other clubs, and resides on the old family place at Morris Heights. Another brother is the Reverend Lawrence H. Schwab, a graduate of Yale College and rector of St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Church, in New York City. A third brother, John C. Schwab, Ph. D., is professor of political economy in Yale University.
498
GEORGE SLESMAN SCOTT
T HE family to which Mr. George Slesman Scott belongs is of ancient Scottish origin, and was seated several centuries ago at Dipple Parish, Morayshire. From that place came the member of the family who established the American branch in Virginia nearly two hundred and fifty years ago. The arms of the family as they appear on the tomb of one of the Scottish ancestors are : on a bend, a star between two crescents, in a bordure, eight stars. The crest is a dove, and the motto, Gaudia nuncio magna. Similar to this are the arms generally used by the family, which are, or. on a bend azure, a bezant between two crescents of the field, in a bordure argent, eight bezants. The crest is a dove proper, holding in its beak an olive branch, and the motto is as already given above.
The Reverend John Scott, of Dipple Parish, Morayshire, Scotland, was born about 1650. He was a college bred man, and rector of Dipple Parish, Moray, in 1699, dying there in 1726. By his wife Helen Grant, he had a son, the Reverend James Scott, who was born in Dipple Parish, and was the first American ancestor of the family that bears his name. He came to Virginia before 1739, and in 1745 was rector of Dettingen Parish. Educated at Aberdeen University, he was ordained by the Lord Bishop of London, in 1735. His wife was Sarah Brown, 1715-1784, daughter of Dr. Gustavus and Frances (Fowke) Brown.
In the second American generation, came the Honorable Gustavus Scott, who was born at Westwood, Prince William County, Va., in 1753, and died in Washington, D. C., in 1801. His education was secured at Kings' College, Aberdeen, Scotland, and from 1767 to 1771, he studied law in the Middle Temple, London. Returning to this country, he located in Maryland, became a prominent member of the bar and active in Revolutionary affairs. In 1774-75, he was a deputy from Somerset County to the Maryland Convention, a member of the Maryland Association in 1775, and in 1776 a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. After the adoption of the State Govern- ment, he removed to Dorchester County and represented that county in the Assembly, 1780-84, being a delegate from Maryland to the Continental Congress in 1784-85. His wife, whom he married in 1777, was Margaret Hall Caile, daughter of Hall Caile, of Annapolis, Md.
John Caile Scott, son of the Honorable Gustavus Scott, grandson of the Reverend James Scott, the American pioneer, and grandfather of the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch, was born in 1782. He lived at his country seat, Western View, Culpepper County, Va., until 1828, when he removed to Ross County, Ohio. He died at Muhlenberg Farm, Pickaway County, O., in 1840. His wife, whom he married in 1802, was Ann Love, 1780-1832, daughter of Samuel Love and Ann Jones of Fairfax County, Va. Samuel Love, grandfather of Ann Love, was a member of the Committee of Safety in Maryland in the Revolutionary period, an associate freeman and a delegate to the Maryland Convention. Charles Jones, the maternal grand- father of Ann Love, was a citizen of Frederick County, Md., and active in measures for equipping the Continental troops and providing them with ammunition. The father of Mr. George Slesman Scott was John Caile Scott, who was born in Strawberry Vale, Fairfax County, Va,, in 1809. Removing io Philadelphia, he married Louisiana Eleanor Slesman, who was born in Philadelphia in 1807, the daughter of George and Elizabeth (Scull) Slesman. He died in Philadelphia in 1875.
Mr. George Slesman Scott was born in Chillicothe, O., in 1837. He has been for many years engaged in the banking business in New York. He married Augusta Isham, and the family residence is in West Fifty-seventh Street, near Fifth Avenue. Mr. Scott belongs to the Metropolitan, Tuxedo, City, Riding, New York Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht and American Yacht clubs, and the Sons of the American Revolution, and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. He was at one time vice-president and director of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, a director of the Union Pacific Railway Company, and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and president of the Richmond & Danville Rail- road Company.
499
CHARLES SCRIBNER
O RIGINALLY Scrivener, meaning a professional writer, there seems to be special fitness in the name Scribner, borne by a family that for three generations has been foremost in the publishing business in the United States. The first in America was Matthew Scrivener, a member of the Council of the Virginia Colony, in 1607. Benjamin Scrivener was in Norwalk, Conn., in 1680, and married Hannah Crampton. From his youngest son, Matthew, the Scribners of the United States are mostly descended. The name was changed to Scribner, in the case of the grandchildren of Benjamin Scrivener, after 1742, as appears by the records of the town clerk of Norwalk. Little is known of Matthew Scribner, save that he married Martha Smith, of Long Island, in 1742, and had nine children. His second son, Matthew, who was born in 1746 and died in 1813, was graduated from Yale College, in 1775, and was a Congregational minister, occupying pulpits in Westford and Tyngsboro, Mass. He married Abigail Rogers, daughter of Dr. Uriah Rogers. The father of Abigail Rogers, who was born about 1710 and died in 1773, was a prominent phyiscian of Norwalk, Conn. His wife was Hannah Lockwood, daughter of James Lockwood, of Norwalk, and Lydia Smith. Dr. Rogers was the father of a large family and many of his descendants have been distinguished in the history of Connecticut and New York. One of his daughters married Moss Kent and became the mother of the celebrated Chancellor James Kent.
The grandfather of the present generation of the Scribner family was Uriah Rogers Scribner, 1776-1853, eldest son of the Reverend Matthew Scribner and Abigail Rogers. He engaged in busi- ness in New York, and was one of the successful merchants of his time. His first wife was Martha Scribner, daughter of Nathaniel Scribner, of Norwalk. In 1812, he married Betsey Hawley, daughter of Thomas and Keziah (Scribner) Hawley, of Ridgefield, Conn. Thomas Hawley was the son of the Reverend Thomas Hawley, who was born in Northampton, Mass., in 1690, and graduated from Harvard College, in 1709. The father of the Reverend Thomas Hawley was Captain Joseph Hawley, a graduate from Harvard College, in 1674, whose wife was Lydia Marshall, daughter of Captain Samuel Marshall, of Windsor, Conn.
Nine children of Uriah R. Scribner and his wife survived their father. Charles Scribner, publisher and bookseller and founder of the house now known as Charles Scribner's Sons, was the third son. He was born in New York, in 1821, and died in Luzerne, Switzerland, in 1871. Grad- uated from Princeton College in 1840, he studied law for three years, but did not enter upon the practice of that profession. In 1846, with Isaac D. Baker, he organized the firm of Baker & Scribner, for the publishing of books, and for many years was in business on the site of the Old Brick Church, at the corner of Nassau Street and Park Row. From 1850 to 1857, he was alone in business, his partner having died, and in the latter year he bought the importing business of Banks, Merwin & Co., and took Charles Welford as a partner. Then the firms of Charles Scribner & Co. American publishers, and Scribner, Welford & Co., importers of foreign books, were established. In 1865, Mr. Scribner began the publication of The Hours at Home Magazine, which was merged in The Scribner's Magazine, established in 1870. Subsequently the firm sold The Scribner's Magazine to its present owners, and it became The Century Magazine. A few years later the second Scribner's Magazine, that is now in successful publication, was started. In 1848, Mr. Scribner married Emma E. Blair, daughter of John I. Blair, of New Jersey.
Mr. Charles Scribner, second of the name, and now at the head of the publishing house which his father established, was born in New York, and graduated from Princeton College, in 1875. He married Louise Flagg, lives in East Thirty-eighth Street, and has a country home, The Gables, in Morristown, N. J. He is a member of the Century, Aldine and other literary clubs, belongs also to the Union, University and Morristown clubs, and is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Geographical Society. His brother, Arthur H. Scribner, who is also a member of the publishing firm, is a graduate from Princeton College, in the Class of 1881, and is a member of the Century, Aldine, Grolier and other clubs.
500
LOUIS LIVINGSTON SEAMAN, M. D.
A MONG the eminent physicians in New York City, in the last century, was Dr. Valentine Seaman, who was born in 1770. He had the distinction of introducing the practice of vaccination into New York City in 1799, when he was less than thirty years of age. Dr. Seaman was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1792, having studied under Dr. Benjamin Rush, and was a surgeon in the New York Hospital from 1796 until his death, in 1817. He was a voluminous writer upon medical subjects, and was the author of treatises on Vaccination and other subjects.
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