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 84

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

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Dr. Louis Livingston Seaman is a grandson of Dr. Valentine Seaman. His great-grandfather was Willett Seaman, a merchant in New York in 1760, one of the founders and original governors of the New York Hospital. His paternal ancestor, Captain John Seaman, received a Colonial grant in 1637 at Hempstead Plains, Long Island, from King Charles 1. Members of the Seaman family were prominent in the early Dutch, French and Indian wars, and it is recorded that twenty-two of them served in one company in the Revolution. The mother of Dr. Seaman was Anna Amelia Ferris, descended from Robert Livingston, first Lord of the Manor, and from Philip L. Livingston, signer of the Declaration of Independence. Also on his mother's side, Dr. Seaman is the eighth in descent from Abraham de Peyster, Mayor of New York in 1692, and ninth in descent from Philip Pieterse Schuyler and Margaritta Van Schlichtenhorst. Major Hendrick Cuyler, who commanded the Albany troops in the French and Indian War, 1685-89, nine generations back. Johannes de Peyster, Brant Arents Van Schlichtenhorst and Captain Peter Van Brugh are among his other Knickerbocker ancestors.

Born in Newburgh, N. Y., October 17th, 1851, Dr. Louis Livingston Seaman was a member of the first class that entered Cornell University in 1868. He studied medicine at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, being an office student of the celebrated Dr. Samuel D. Gross. He won the gold medal on graduating in 1876. Subsequently he attended the University Medical College, New York City, for a post-graduate course, and received his degree in 1877. In 1884, he graduated from the law department of the University of New York.

In 1876, he was appointed house physician of the Charity Hospital in New York. One year later he became resident surgeon to the Ward's Island State Emigrant Hospital, a position he held for two years. In 1879-81, he was superintendent of the Emigrant Insane Asylum on Ward's Island and chief resident surgeon to the emigration institutions. In 1881, he was appointed Chief of Staff of the hospitals on Blackwell's Island. In 1886, while making a tour of the world, he investigated especially the contagious and epidemic diseases of the East. Since his return from abroad, Dr. Seaman has engaged in regular practice. He is visiting physician of the Old Marion Street Maternity Hospital and consulting physician to the Colored Orphan Asylum. He has visited Europe several times, and made a special study of cholera in the hospitals of Paris and Hamburg in 1892. He is a member of the American Medical Association, the Medical Society of the State of New York, the Medical Society of the County of New York, the New York County Medical Association, the New York Medical Union, the New York Pathological Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence of New York, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and is a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine. He is also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, and his social clubs include the Reform, Lotos, Calumet, Players, Quaint and the Cornell University Club, of which he is the vice-president.

In 1881, Dr. Seaman was a delegate to the London International Medical Congress, and again in 1890 a delegate to the Congress in Berlin. He has devised various apparatus for medical and surgical use, and is the author of many papers on medical and social subjects. Dr. Seaman was married in 1889 to Fannie Blackstone Freeman, a great-great-granddaughter of Sir William Blackstone, the eminent English jurist. Mrs. Seaman died in 1895.

501

ROBERT SEDGWICK

G [ ENERAL ROBERT SEDGWICK was born in England, in 1611, and was one of the ablest leaders of the Massachusetts Colony. Coming to America in 1636, he settled in Charles- town, Mass., and thenceforward was conspicuous in the young community. In 1637, he was a representative of the town of Charlestown in the General Court. He commanded the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company and was chosen Major-General of the Colony in 1652. Soon after that time, he went to England and was in the service of the Protector, Cromwell. Upon his return, in 1654, he was appointed to head an expedition against the Dutch " on Hudson's River and at the Manhatoes"; but peace being declared, he led his forces against the French of Nova Scotia and captured St. John, Port Royal and other forts. Afterwards he was despatched to the Island of Jamaica with a fleet, and there succeeded General Venables in command of the English forces. A supreme executive council was established, with Sedgwick at the head, and Cromwell sent him a commission giving him supreme command. While upon this service in the West Indies, he died in 1656.

Five children of General Sedgwick survived him. William Sedgwick was the second son; his elder brother dying childless. He married Elizabeth Stone, daughter of the Reverend Samuel Stone, the second minister of Hartford, and had one son, Samuel, 1667-1735. His wife was Mary Hopkins, granddaughter of John Hopkins, one of the founders of Hartford. The great-great-grand- father of the present Mr. Sedgwick was Benjamin Sedgwick, 1716-1757, son of Samuel Sedgwick. One of his sons was General John Sedgwick, a distinguished Revolutionary soldier.

Theodore Sedgwick, 1746-1813, another son, was born in Hartford and studied in Yale College, and in 1766 was admitted to the bar and practiced in Massachusetts, frequently represent- ing the town of Sheffield in the Legislature, and was a delegate to Congress in 1785. In the expedition to Canada in 1776, he was an aide to General Thomas. In 1788, he was a member of the Massachusetts Convention that ratified the Federal Constitution, and a Member of Congress from 1789 to 1796, when he was elected to the United States Senate, of which he became president pro tem. In 1799, he was again elected to the House of Representatives and became Speaker. From 1802 until his death, he was a Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts. Princeton College gave him the degree of LL. D. in 1799, and he was one of the few with whom Washington shared his confidences.

His son was Robert Sedgwick, 1787-1841, who married Elizabeth Dana Ellery, daughter of William Ellery, of Rhode Island. She was the great-granddaughter of Lieutenant-Governor Ellery, the Rhode Island signer of the Declaration of Independence. William Ellery Sedgwick, the father of the present Mr. Sedgwick, was the eldest son of Robert Sedgwick and his wife, Elizabeth Dana Ellery. He married Constance Irving Brevoort, daughter of Henry Brevoort and his wife, Laura Carson. Henry Brevoort's mother, Sarah Whetten, was a descendant of Adam Todd, one of the ancestors of the Astor, Kane and other New York families. Mr. Robert Sedgwick, the eldest son of William Ellery Sedgwick, was born in New York in 1852. He married, in 1878, Meta Brevoort Renwick, granddaughter of the late Professor James Renwick, of Columbia College. They have two sons, Robert Sedgwick, Jr., born in 1880, and Henry Renwick Sedgwick, born in 1881. Mr. Sedgwick did not enter Harvard University, as almost all his male relatives have done, preferring to travel. He went to China from London, around the Cape of Good Hope, in a sailing vessel, and for upwards of five years traveled in the East and in Europe. He is a member of the Century, Union, Tuxedo, New York Yacht and Downtown clubs, as well as the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, the Ex-Libris Society of England, the American Book Plate Society and simi- lar bodies. His city home is 129 East Thirty-sixth Street. Mr. Sedgwick resided for many years in Berkshire County, Mass., and spends a portion of every summer there.

The Sedgwick arms are : Argent on a cross gules five bells or. Crest, a lion proper passant through sedge on cap of maintenance. Motto, Confido in Domino.

502

MRS. CLARENCE ARMSTRONG SEWARD

T HE lady whose name appears at the head of this sketch, and who has been prominent in the social world of New York throughout the present generation, comes from a noble Prussian family. The first of the name in America was Baron Frederick Augustus de Zeng. He was born in Dresden, in 1756, the second son in his father's family. His father was Baron de Zeng, of Ruckerswalde, Wolkenstein, near Marienberg, Saxony. He was Lord Cham- berlain to the Duchess of Saxe-Weissenfels and High Forest Officer to the King of Saxony. The mother of Baron de Zeng was Lady Johanna Phillipina Von Ponickau, of Altenberg.

Baron de Zeng was educated for the military service of his native country, and in 1774 received his commission as Lieutenant of the Guard in the service of the landgrave of Hesse- Cassel. Coming to this country, in 1780, he settled here, and in 1792 was Major of a battalion of militia in Ulster County, N. Y. He became an intimate friend of Governor Clinton and General Schuyler, and was associated with General Schuyler in the work of organizing the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, and in 1796 was one of the three proprietors who established a manufactory of window glass near Albany. The construction of the Chemung Canal was begun by him in 1814. For many years he resided in Kingston, Ulster County, but in his later years, lived at Bainbridge, Chenango County.

Baron de Zeng was the grandfather of Mrs. Clarence A. Seward. The grandmother of Mrs. Seward was Mary Lawrence, daughter of Caleb Lawrence and Sarah Burling, of Flushing, Long Island. She was married to the Baron de Zeng, in 1784, in Trinity Church, New York. Her father was the grandson of Joseph Lawrence, of Flushing, Long Island, the eldest son of the first William Lawrence, of Great St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England, who came to America in 1635, and married Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Smith, of Long Island. The father of Mrs. Seward was William Steuben de Zeng, the fourth child of Baron de Zeng. He was born at Little Falls, N. Y., in 1793. He was named after Baron Von Steuben, who was an intimate friend of his parents and who was visiting them at the time of the child's birth. His wife was Caroline Cutbush Rees, daughter of Major James Rees, of Geneva, N. Y. She was born in 1796, in Philadelphia, and married Mr. de Zeng in 1817.

By her marriage, in 1851, to the Honorable Clarence Armstrong Seward, Caroline de Zeng became allied to a family that has been preeminently distinguished in public affairs in the State of New York. Her husband was born October 7th, 1828. His father was a son of Dr. Samuel Seward, a prominent physician of Orange County and the first vice-president of the County Medical Society. He died in 1849. The family was of New Jersey origin. His great-great- grandfather, John Seward, served in the War of the Revolution as a Captain, was promoted to be Colonel of the First Sussex Regiment and married a Miss Jennings, who belonged to an Orange County family. The parents of the Honorable Clarence A. Seward dying when he was a mere child, he was brought up in the family of his uncle, the Honorable William H. Seward, the great New York statesman. Graduating from Hobart College, in 1848, he began the practice of law in Auburn, N. Y., and in 1854 established himself in New York City. In 1856-60, he was Judge Advocate-General of the New York State militia. For a time after the attempted assassination of Secretary of State William H. Seward, in 1864, he was acting Assistant Secretary of State of the United States. In 1876, he was a delegate to the National Republican Convention and a Presi- dential elector in 1880.

For many years previous to his death, in July, 1897, Mr. Seward was president of the Union Club of New York. He was also a member of the Century Association, the University, Man- hattan, New York Yacht, Players, A A + and Mendelssohn Glee clubs and the Bar Association. Mrs. Seward resides at 33 Madison Avenue and passes the summer months at her ancestral home in Geneva. There are two daughters in the family, Alice de Zeng and Caroline Rees Seward, who married Robert Endicott.

503

MRS. ELLIOTT FITCH SHEPARD

M ARGARET LOUISA (VANDERBILT) SHEPARD, widow of Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard, was born on Staten Island, and is a daughter of the late William H. Vanderbilt and grand- daughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Colonel Shepard, who married Miss Vanderbilt on the 18th of February, 1868, at the Church of the Incarnation, New York, was prominent by birth and ancestry, as well as for his personal qualities. On the paternal side, he was descended from the Reverend Thomas Shepard, a graduate of Cambridge, who came to this country to be minister at Cambridge, Mass., and died in 1649. The father of Colonel Shepard was Fitch Shepard, of Jamestown, N. Y., the son of Noah Shepard, his grandmother being Irene Fitch, a descendant of the Reverend James Fitch, who came to New England in 1638. Another ancestor was Major James Fitch, who commanded the Connecticut forces against the Indians, and was a contributor to the founding of Yale College. Major Fitch's wife was Alice, daughter of Major William Bradford, who commanded the Plymouth troops in King Philip's War, and a grand- daughter of Governor William Bradford, of Plymouth.

Fitch Shepard, of Jamestown, N. Y., Colonel Shepard's father, was born in Connecticut, in 1802, and was the founder of the Chautauqua County Bank. In 1828, he married Delia Maria Dennis, whose ancestor, Robert Dennis, emigrated from England in 1635. Her father, Paul Dennis, represented Washington County in the New York Legislature. His wife was Elizabeth May, the daughter of Surgeon Theodore May, of the Revolution, and descended from the Ellis and Bedlow families, of New York.

Fitch Shepard's only brother was Burritt Shepard, who entered the United States Navy in 1826. He was First Lieutenant of the frigate Raritan, in the Mexican War. He married Mary Joan Norsworthy, daughter of Samuel Norsworthy, one of the old merchants of New York. Fitch Shepard removed from Jamestown to New York, where he established the National Bank Note Company, of which he was long president. He had three sons, of whom one, Burritt Hamilton Shepard, was lost at sea, in 1848, when nineteen years of age. He was then a member of the senior class of the University of the City of New York. He was intended for the ministry, and was a young man of great promise. Another son is Augustus Dennis Shepard, of New York.

Colonel Elliott Fitch Shepard was born in Jamestown, N. Y., July 25th, 1833, being the second son. He was graduated from the University of the City of New York, was called to the New York bar, and became one of its leading members. During the Civil War, his services to the Government were of the most arduous character. Governor E. D. Morgan appointed him on his staff, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, and he was especially commissioned to equip regiments of volunteers. He organized and sent to the field from the State of New York, more than forty- seven thousand troops, the Shepard Rifles, Fifty-First Regiment, New York Volunteers, being named in his honor. After the war, Colonel Shepard was counsel for the New York Central Rail- road. He was the founder of the New York State Bar Association, in 1876, and its first president.

From 1884 to 1887, he traveled in Europe with his family, and returning, in 1888, purchased The Mail and Express, and devoted himself largely to that newspaper property, assuming the duties of editor. He was throughout his career warmly interested in religious work, being a member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, president of the American Sabbath Union, and founder of St. Paul's Institute in Asia Minor, an educational institution that was largely supported by him. At the same time, Colonel and Mrs. Shepard were prominent in social circles and he was a member of the leading clubs of New York and a generous supporter of literary, art, scientific and philanthropic institutions. He died suddenly, in 1893. Mrs. Shepard's children are four in number, the three married daughters being Mrs. William Jay Schieffelin, Mrs. Ernesto Fabbri and Mrs. David Morris. Mrs. Shepard's home is in West Fifty-second Street and her summer residence is Woodlea, at Scarborough-on-Hudson, where a handsome memorial chapel has been erected by Mrs. Shepard in memory of her late husband.

504

GARDINER SHERMAN

I N Dedham, Essex County, England, a town on the river Stour, in one of the most beautiful rural districts of England, between London and Ipswich, the Shermans were settled, more than three centuries ago. They were prominent and influential citizens of the place, several of them at different times being members of the House of Commons. In business life they were woolen manufacturers, and generally prosperous. From this family sprang the Shermans, who have been prominent in the history of the United States. Henry Sherman, of Dedham, the earliest English ancestor of whom there is historical record, was born in 1520, and died in 1589. His wife was Agnes Butler. Edmond Sherman, son of Henry Sherman, was a wealthy merchant, and the founder of the English school at Dedham, which is still in existence with quarters in his old home, known as Sherman Hall. The wife of Edmond Sherman was Anna Cleave, granddaughter of John Cleave, of Colchester, manufacturer, alderman and member of the House of Commons.

John Sherman, who was born in Dedham in 1613, a son of Edmond Sherman and Anna Cleave, came to New England in 1634, and was the ancestor of that branch of the family which is here under consideration. A resident of Watertown, Mass., he was a Captain, surveyor, town clerk and representative to the General Court. In 1660, and after, he was the steward of Harvard College. Captain Sherman died in 1690. His wife, who died in 1701, was Martha Palmer, daughter of Roger and Grace Palmer, of Long Sutton, Southampton County, England.

Joseph Sherman, who was born in Watertown in 1650, son of Captain John Sherman, was the grandfather of the Honorable Roger Sherman, who in turn was the great-great-grandfather of Mr. Gardiner Sherman. Joseph Sherman was a representative to the General Court of Massachu- setts, 1702-05, and frequently a selectman and assessor. He married Elizabeth Winship, daughter of Lieutenant Edward Winship, of Cambridge, and had a family of eleven children. William Sherman, the ninth child and seventh son, who was born in 1792, was a farmer of Stoughton, Mass. By his second wife, Mehetabel Wellington, daughter of Benjamin Wellington, he had seven children, among whom was Roger Sherman, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Roger Sherman was born at Newton, Mass., in 1721, and became one of the most active and most devoted public men of the Revolutionary period. Most of his life was spent in Connec- ticut, where he was a Judge, member of the General Assembly, and otherwise prominent. He was a member of the committee that drafted the Declaration of Independence, being a member of the Continental Congress in 1774, was Mayor of New Haven, and member of the United States Senate. His wife was Elizabeth Hartwell, daughter of Deacon Joseph Hartwell, of Stoughton, Mass. His son, Colonel John Sherman, the great-grandfather of Mr. Gardiner Sherman, was born in 1750, married Rebecca Austin, and died in 1802. During the War of the Revolution he was a paymaster in the Fourth Regiment of the Connecticut Line, and served in other capacities during the rest of the war. His son was the Reverend John Sherman, who was one of the original owners and first settlers of Trenton Falls, N. Y. The Reverend John Sherman and his wife, Abigail Perkins, were the parents of John Sherman, who married Mary A. Evans, and was the father of the subject of this sketch.

Mr. Gardiner Sherman was born in New York, December 29th, 1840. He was graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1859. For fifteen years he was a member of the New York Stock Exchange, but sold his seat and retired in 1879. Subsequently, he became president of the Seventh National Bank, but retired permanently from business in 1890. He has been twice married. His first wife was Jessie Gordon, daughter of Dr. Charles and Mary (Upham) Gordon, of Boston, and by her he had one daughter, Jessie Gordon Sherman. His second wife is Mary Moore Ogden, daughter of John D. and Mary C. (Moore) Ogden, of New York. The city residence of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman is in West Seventy-second Street, and they have a country home at Bar Harbor, Me. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union and City clubs, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Sons of the American Revolution.

505

WILLIAM WATTS SHERMAN

I N the great Anglo-Saxon emigration of the eleventh century, members of the Sherman or Shurman family moved from Germany to England and established themselves in the vicinity of London. There their descendants have been numerous and influential, and have borne a distinguished part in English public affairs. In this country, several branches trace their lineage to Colonial days. The progenitor of one branch came from Dedham, Essex County, England. The arms of this family are: On a shield or., a lion rampant, sable, between three oak leaves vert. Crest, a demi-lion, rampant, sable. It is to this branch that Mr. William Watts Sherman be- longs. Henry Sherman, of Dedham, was the oldest member of the family of whom there is accurate historical record. He was the son of Thomas Sherman, and was born about 1520. His son, Henry Sherman, who married Susan Hill; his grandson, Samuel Sherman, 1573-1615, who married Phyllis Ward, and his great-grandson, Philip Sherman, 1610-1686, who married Sarah Odding, were the ancestors in successive generations of the founder of the family in this country. Philip Sherman, 1610-1686, was the father of Eber Sherman, of Roxbury, Mass., who was born in 1634 and died in 1706, and his grandson was also Eber Sherman, of North Kingston, who married Martha Remington. Henry Sherman, the great-grandson of the American founder of the family, was born in 1724 and married, in 1747, Ann Higginbottom, daughter of Dr. Charles Higginbottom.

Watts Sherman, born in 1775, was the maternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was a son of Captain Nathaniel Sherman and Lucy Tisdale, and in 1794 married Olivia Gillson, daughter of James Gillson and Amy Whipple, of Attleboro, Mass. Removing to Utica, N. Y., he was engaged in business there for many years. In 1813, he became associated in business with Henry B. Gibson, his son-in-law, and Alexander Seymour, and removed to New York, becoming a leading merchant of this city.

Watts Sherman, of New York, son of Henry Sherman and Sarah Mitchell, and grandson of Captain Nathaniel Sherman and Lucy Tisdale, was the father of Mr. William Watts Sherman. Born in 1809, he married first Lois Sarah Weld, daughter of Thomas Weld. She died in 1838, and he afterwards married his cousin, Sarah Maria Gibson, daughter of Henry B. Gibson and Sarah Sherman, who was a granddaughter of Captain Nathaniel Sherman. Henry B. Gibson was born in Reading, Pa., in 1783. He moved to Ballston, N. Y., with his father, John Gibson, when only nine years old, becoming one of the first settlers of that place. He was cashier of the Ontario Bank in Canandaigua, and subsequently in business in New York, was a partner of Watts Sherman, the elder.

Watts Sherman, second, began his career as a teller of the Ontario County Bank, and was afterwards cashier of the Lexington County Bank, at Geneseo. For many years he was cashier of the Albany City Bank. In 1851, he removed to New York, and became the manager of the banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Co. He died in 1865, on the Island of Madeira, and his wife died in New York, in 1878. The children of Mr. Sherman, by his first wife, were Erastus Corning, and Henry Gibson Sherman. By his second wife, he had William Watts, Duncan, Harry Gibson, Frederick, Charles A., and Alexander Sherman.

Mr. William Watts Sherman was born in Albany, in 1842. In 1871, he married in Newport, Annie Derby Rogers Wetmore, daughter of William Shepard Wetmore and Anstiss Rogers. Mrs. Sherman died in 1884, leaving two daughters, Georgette Wetmore Sherman, who married Harold Brown, son of John Carter Brown, of Providence, R. I., and Sybil Katherine Sherman, who married John Ellis Hoffman. In 1885, Mr. Sherman married Sophia Augusta Brown, daughter of John Carter Brown. The two children of this marriage are Irene Muriel Augusta, and Mildred Constance Sherman. The city home of Mr. and Mrs. Sherman is 838 Fifth Avenue, and their summer residence is in Newport. Mr. Sherman belongs to the Metropolitan, City, Coaching, Century, Knickerbocker and other clubs, the St. Nicholas Society and the American Geographical Society.

506

HENRY F. SHOEMAKER

O NE of the leaders among the founders of Germantown, Pa., which historic village, associated as it is with a battle of the Revolutionary War, is now included in the limits of the City of Philadelphia, was the ancestor of the Shoemaker family, who was also numbered among the trusted friends of William Penn and was a coworker with Francis Daniel Pastorious. The latter, who was a man of high education and gentle birth in Germany, being the son of a judge, became imbued with the religious principles of the sect of Pietists and first conceived the idea of founding a religious colony in what is now Pennsylvania. Becoming acquainted with Penn, whose religious ideas accorded with his own and those of his associates, he acquired a large tract in the transatlantic domain which had been granted by Charles Il. to Penn, and in 1683 led there, from Holland, a body of his coreligionists, who settled at Germantown. Among their men of prominence, was the first of the family line from which the subject of this article descends, the name having ever since been noted in Pennsylvania and in the City of Philadelphia, while its bearers are now found occupying various distinguished stations in many different portions of the country.

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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 84

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