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 90

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

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Nevertheless, the business interests of Colonel Strong have not been limited to the dry goods trade. To the public at large he is known as a banker, having been, until he was elected Mayor, president of the Central National Bank of New York, an institution in which he had long been a director. He is also vice-president of the New York Security and Trust Company, and a director in the New York Life Insurance Company, the Hanover Fire Insurance Company, the Plaza Bank, and a director or officer of many railroads and corporations.

Maintaining a deep interest in public affairs, Colonel Strong has actually come into political prominence in later years. He has always been earnestly attached to the principles of the Republican party, but held himself aloof from the party machinery. A supporter of General Fremont for the presidency in 1856, he has since favored the Republican candidates in every subsequent national campaign. For many years his services to his party, in moulding the sentiment of the business community, was earnest and efficient. As an organizer of business men's campaign clubs in several presidential campaigns, he was conspicuously successful. Once, however, he ran for office, when, in 1882, at the earnest solicitation of friends, party associates and representatives of the business community, he made a campaign for Congress in the Eleventh New York District, which was, however, largely Democratic, and though he made a notable canvass, he naturally failed of election. His greatest distinction as a public man came to him

in 1894, when the combined opposition to Tammany Hall in municipal affairs, headed by the Chamber of Commerce Committee of One Hundred, agreed upon him as its candidate for Mayor. He was elected by the large majority of forty-five thousand over his Tammany opponent, ex-Mayor Hugh J. Grant. His administration has been conspicuous for its business-like, non-partisan character. Mayor Strong has since been often mentioned as a candidate for Mayor of the Greater New York and for Governor of the State.

Mayor Strong was for some years a vestryman of the Church of the Incarnation on Madison Avenue, and is an attendant of St. Thomas' Church. His club connections include the presidency of the Wool Club and membership in the Metropolitan, Union League, Merchants', Republican, Colonial and Riding, and he belongs to the Ohio Society, the New England Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Geographical Society. He married, in 1866, Mary Aborn, daughter of Robert W. Aborn, of Orange, N. J., and has two children, P. Bradlee Strong and Mary, who married Albert R. Shattuck. Mr. Strong's city residence is 12 West Fifty-seventh Street.

536

MALCOLM STUART

A T all times in its history New York City has owed more to its mercantile class, probably, than to any other of its citizens. The world at large has contributed very much to the membership of this class and it has included in its ranks many of foreign birth, who have found in their adopted country opportunities for the exercise of a wholesome public interest in the affairs of the community.

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland has sent us, in every period, many indi- viduals who have in time become our most substantial merchants and most honored and useful citizens. Among these, Joseph Stuart, who was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, must be accorded an exceedingly high position. He was one of a family of six brothers, who became distinguished in the banking business, and in commercial affairs generally, both in Europe and in this country. The six brothers were associated in business, and had branch houses in Liverpool and Manchester, and afterwards in Philadelphia and New York, when they had established them- selves in this country. Joseph Stuart came to the United States after attaining mature years, settled in New York and became the senior member of the firm of J. & J. Stuart & Co., which for a full half century, from 1840 to 1890, was one of the leading and most influential banking houses in the metropolis, transacting a large business here and having also important connections abroad in Great Britain and on the Continent.

During his long business career in New York, Joseph Stuart held many offices of trust and honor in connection with financial institutions and other corporations. For many years he was president of the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank and of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick. He was vice-president of the Fourth National Bank of this city and of the Irish Emigrant Society, and a director in the Mercantile National Bank, the Mercantile Fire Insurance Company, the Standard Fire Insurance Company, the Queen Insurance Company and other large and important corporations. A consistent and devoted member of the Presbyterian Church, he was a generous supporter of the institutions of that denomination, giving freely of time and money to religious and philanthropic

causes. He was for many years trustee and treasurer of the Fourth Presbyterian Church of New York City. Joseph Stuart, the second, his son, and father of Mr. Malcolm Stuart, succeeded to the business of J. & J. Stuart & Co., and also held important official positions in the management of large corporations. The mother of Mr. Malcolm Stuart was Marieanne Malcolm, his maternal grandmother was Anna Pentland, and his paternal grandmother was Anna Watson, all of the town of Lurgan, in County Armagh, Ireland.

James Malcolm, the maternal grandfather of Mr. Malcolm Stuart, whose family name he bears, was a prominent linen manufacturer of Lurgan, Ireland, a man of considerable wealth, of high social standing and influential in the local affairs of the community in which he lived, serving as justice of the peace, and holding other offices of honor at the hands of his fellow townsmen and of the central authorities of Ireland. A son of James Malcolm, also named James Malcolm, and an uncle of Mr. Malcolm Stuart followed his father in his large business interests as a linen manu- facturer in Lurgan. He, also, was a justice of the peace and deputy lord lieutenant for the County of Armagh, under appointment by Queen Victoria.

Mr. Malcolm Stuart was born of this notable ancestry in New York City, August 16th, 1869. His early education was secured in the school of Miss Du Vernet, and after that he attended the private school of Dr. Holbrook at Sing Sing. When his school days were completed, he went into mercantile life and is now a merchant in the foreign and domestic trade. He has traveled extensively abroad and has become thoroughly acquainted with nearly all the countries of Europe.

Mr. Stuart lives at 120 East Thirty-sixth Street, and for the summer occupies a handsome cottage with other members of his family at Quogue, Long Island. Interested in military matters, he is a private in the famous Seventh Regiment and belongs to the Seventh Regiment Veteran Club and the Quogue Field Club.

537

FREDERICK STURGES

T HE grandfather of Mr. Frederick Sturges was the Honorable Jonathan Sturges, of Fairfield, Conn., in which place he was born in 1740, and died in 1819. Graduating from Yale College in 1759, he became a leading member of the Connecticut bar. He took an active part in the pre-Revolutionary movements, and was a representative from Connecticut in the First and Second Federal Congresses, in 1789-93. After completing his Congressional terms, he was a Judge of the State Supreme Court from 1793 to 1805.

Jonathan Sturges, Jr., son of Jonathan Sturges of Connecticut, and the father of the subject of this sketch, was one of the great merchants of New York in the last generation. He was born in Southport, Conn., in 1802, and died in New York in 1874. After receiving a good education, he came to New York as a young man and entered upon mercantile life, being first connected with the firm of R. & L. Reed. Beginning in 1821, when he was nineteen years of age, he was rapidly advanced in business, until in 1828 he was a partner in the concern, which after fifteen years became Sturges, Bennett & Co., a name that was retained until 1865, when it was changed to Sturges, Arnold & Co. Mr. Sturges continued at the head of the house for three years longer, but in 1868 he retired. Outside of the mercantile business which principally engaged his attention, he had many other important commercial and financial interests. He was one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce, of which he was a director, and was also a director of the Illinois Central Railroad, and the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad.

In social affairs Jonathan Sturges was no less prominent than in the business world. Devoted to the cause of the Union in the dark days of the war, he was one of the founders of the Union League Club, and most energetic in all the work undertaken by that organization in support of the nation. In 1863, he was president of the club. A member of the Chamber of Commerce from early in his business career, he was twice vice-president of the organization. He was also one of the founders of the Century Association, often known as the Century Club. The wife of Mr. Stur- ges, whom he married in 1829, was Mary Cady, daughter of John Cady. His sons were Frederick, Edward, Arthur P., and Henry C. Sturges. His eldest daughter was Virginia R. Sturges, who became the wife of William H. Osborne, and has a city residence at 32 Park avenue, and a country house, Castle Rock, at Garrison-on-the-Hudson. Another daughter, Amelia Sturges, married John Pierpont Morgan, in 1861, and died the following year.

Mr. Frederick Sturges was born in 1833. In 1849, when he was sixteen years of age, he entered upon business life by taking a place in his father's office. Continuing in the establishment for nearly twenty years, he retired when his father gave up business, in 1868. Since that time he has devoted himself to the corporate and other interests of the estate which his father left. He is a director of the National Bank of Commerce, the Atlantic Trust Company, the Seaman's Bank for Savings, and has been a director of the Illinois Central Railroad. Deeply interested in religious and philanthropic work, he has devoted considerable time to such causes. The Presbyterian Hospital, the Hospital for the Ruptured and Crippled, the American Bible Society and the Seamen's Fund Society have been special objects of his attention, and have received from him generous financial support, besides having the benefit of his capable business management in the administration of their affairs. Mr. Sturges married, in 1863, Mary Reed Fuller, daughter of Dudley B. Fuller. His children are Jonathan, Arthur Pemberton, Frederick, Jr., and Mary Fuller Sturges. He is a member of the Century and Grolier Clubs, the Downtown Association and the American Geographical Society, and is a supporter of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The city resi- dence of the family is at 36 Park avenue, and their country home is at Fairfield, Conn. Jonathan Sturges, the eldest son of Mr. Frederick Sturges, is a graduate of Princeton College, and has devoted himself to literary pursuits. He is a member of the Metropolitan, University, Fencers, Players and other clubs. Arthur Pemberton Sturges, the younger son, is also a graduate of Prince- ton, and a member of the Metropolitan, Calumet, Players and University clubs.

538

FRANK KNIGHT STURGIS

N T ATIVE of the metropolis, Mr. Frank K. Sturgis is a thorough New Yorker in education, in spirit and in devotion to those institutions that have made this the foremost city of the New World. He is now fifty years of age, having been born September 19th, 1847. His father was William Sturgis and his mother Elizabeth K. Hinckley. He traces his ancestry to early pioneer families of New England. The years of his maturity have been passed in Wall Street, and he long ago took rank as one of the able financiers of his time. After an excellent education, he entered the banking house of Capron, Strong & Co. There he served a brief apprenticeship of one year, devoting himself assiduously to the theoretical and practical study of the general subject of finance. The ability he displayed, his aptitude in financial affairs and his close application to business soon brought him into partnership connection with the house in which he had commenced his career. The firm of Capron, Strong & Co. was succeeded, in 1871, by that of Work, Strong & Co., and Mr. Sturgis has maintained his partnership relationship with the house unbroken from the day that he entered the original firm in January, 1869, when he was only twenty-one years of age, down to the present time, the firm name now being Strong, Sturgis & Co.

Mr. Sturgis has the highest standing as a banker and broker, and has been honored in many ways by those who recognize his strength of character and his ability. One of the highest honors that can be conferred upon a man in financial circles in New York was awarded to him in 1892, when he was elected to the presidency of the New York Stock Exchange, of which he has been a member since 1869. He was reelected in 1893. Before his elevation to that position, there had been forty-two presidents of the Stock Exchange from 1817, the date of the formal organization and adoption of a constitution under the name of the New York Stock and Exchange Board. Mr. Sturgis during his incumbency achieved a brilliant reputation, second to none of his able predecessors. It was largely at his suggestion and through his labors, in association with other leading financiers, that the Clearing House was established, and he has been instrumental in introducing many reforms in the administration of the business of the Stock Exchange that have redounded to the benefit of its members and to the general advantage of the business community.

Notwithstanding close application to his profession, Mr. Sturgis has found time to culti- vate the social side of life and has been engaged in other enterprises of a distinctly different character. He has been an important factor in the social, benevolent and political life of the city, and has been active in the general direction of important social organizations. Particularly inter- ested in gentlemanly sports, he has devoted much time to the turf. When the Jockey Club was organized by August Belmont and others, Mr. Sturgis was urged to become a member of the board of stewards and treasurer and secretary of the club, and in that position has exercised a strong and wholesome influence upon those turf matters with which the Jockey Club has especially concerned itself. In the organization of the Mar" en Square Garden Company he also took a prominent and influential part, being president of the company and one of the hardest working members of its board of directors. He has also been an officer of the National Horse Show Association and is credited with much of the success that has attended the annual exhibitions that have been held under the auspices of that organization. He has been a governor of the Metropolitan and Knicker- bocker clubs, of the Westchester Racing Association and of the Turf and Field Club, and otherwise a prominent representative of the best social element of the city in club life.

Mr. Sturgis married, October 16th, 1872, Florence Lydig, daughter of Philip Mesier Lydig, and a member of the famous old New York family whose name she bears. The city residence of the family is in Thirty-sixth Street, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and their summer home is Clipston Grange, at Lenox, Mass. Mr. Sturgis is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Knick- erbocker, City, Union League, Coaching, Players, Whist, Rockaway Hunt, Larchmont Yacht and New York Yacht clubs, the Century Association, the Country Club of Westchester County, the American Geographical Society and the National Academy of Design.

539

RUTHERFURD STUYVESANT

L INEALLY descended from several great Colonial ancestors of New York and New England, Mr. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant comes from Governor Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam, Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts, Governor Dudley of Connecticut, Lewis Morris, Chief Jus- tice of New York and first Governor of New Jersey, and also traces his descent to Robert Livingston, Balthazar Bayard, Walter Rutherfurd, Lewis Morris, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, and others who were numbered among the great men of their day. The father of Mr. Stuyvesant was Lewis Morris Rutherfurd, who was born in Morrisania in 1816. Graduated from Williams College in 1834, he studied law with the Honorable William Henry Seward, in Auburn, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar in 1837. In 1849, he gave up the practice of law, devoting himself to scientific pursuits. His special work was astronomical photography and spectral analysis. In 1863, he began the publication of a series of papers on Astronomical Observations with the Spectroscope, in The American Journal of Science. In 1863, he was appointed by Congress one of the fifty original members of the Academy of Science. In 1885, he was an American delegate to the International Meridian Conference in Washington. For more than twenty-five years he was a trustee of Columbia College, was an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society, and received many medals. He died in 1892, at Tranquillity, the New Jersey home of the Rutherfurd family.

The mother of Mr. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant was Margaret Stuyvesant Chanler. She was the daughter of the Reverend John White Chanler and Elizabeth Winthrop, and through her mother was descended from Governor Petrus Stuyvesant and Governor John Winthrop. Her maternal grandmother was Judith Stuyvesant, daughter of Petrus Stuyvesant, and great-great-granddaughter of the famous Dutch Governor of the West India Company on Manhattan Island. Her maternal grandfather was Benjamin Winthrop, great-great-great-grandson of Governor John Winthrop. Her maternal great-grandmother, the wife of Petrus Stuyvesant, was Margaret Livingston, daugh- ter of Gilbert Livingston, son of Robert Livingston, first lord of the Livingston Manor. Gilbert Livingston inherited a large estate near Saratoga, and married Cornelia Beekman.

On the paternal side Mr. Stuyvesant is descended from the Rutherfurd and Morris families, that have played such an important part in social, business and public affairs in New Jersey and New York. The Rutherfurds are descended from Sir John Rutherfurd, of Scotland, whose grand- father, John Rutherfurd, married Barbara Aburnethy, daughter of the Bishop of Caithness, and who was the sixteenth in descent from Hugo De Rutherfurd, a Scottish Baron of 1225. Walter Ruther- furd, the head of the family in this country, was the great-grandfather of Lewis M. Rutherfurd. His wife was Catharine Alexander, sister of the Earl of Stirling. Their son John, who married Helen Morris, daughter of Lewis Morris, represented New Jersey in the United States Senate from 1791 to 1798. He was the great-grandfather of Mr. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant, and in the next gene- ration, Robert Walter Rutherfurd, who was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, married Sabina, daughter of Colonel Lewis Morris. Helena Sarah Rutherfurd, aunt of Lewis Morris Ruther- furd, was born in 1789 and died in 1873. She was the second wife of Peter Gerard Stuyvesant.

Mr. Rutherfurd Stuyvesant was named Stuyvesant Rutherfurd, and was graduated from Col- umbia College in the class of 1863. By the will of his mother's great-uncle, Peter Gerard Stuy- vesant, property was left him upon the condition of changing his family name, and consequently, by act of the Legislature, he took the name that he now bears. In 1863, he married Mary Ruther- furd Pierrepont, daughter of Henry Evelyn Pierrepont and Anna Maria Jay. Mrs. Stuyvesant died in 1879. Mr. Stuyvesant lives at Tranquillity, N. J., and his city residence is in East Fifteenth Street. He is a member of the Union, Century, City, Racquet, New York Yacht, Atlantic Yacht and Sewanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Downtown Association, the Columbia College Alumni Association and the American Geographical Society, and is a patron of the American Museum of Natural History and the National Academy of Design, and a patron and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

540

THEODORE SUTRO

D ISTINGUISHED at the New York bar, as well as in public and social life, the subject of this article belongs to a family which has given to Germany many eminent scholars and professional men. Mr. Sutro was born at Aix-la-chapelle, Prussia, March 14th, 1845, and is a son of Emanuel Sutro, a native of Bavaria, and his wife, Rosa Warendorff, a highly educated and accomplished lady, who was born at Dueren, near Aix-la-chapelle. On both the paternal and maternal sides, his relatives were nearly all lawyers or doctors, one of the most distinguished among them being his mother's uncle, the famous jurist Edward Gans, professor extraordinarius at the University of Berlin, who died in 1839.

Mr. Sutro is the youngest of twelve children and of seven sons, each of whom have achieved high positions, two of his brothers having national reputations. The Honorable Adolph Sutro, of San Francisco, the owner of Sutro Heights, donor of Sutro Park to the city, and one of its most prominent citizens, has been Mayor of that city, while Otto Sutro, of Baltimore, who died in 1896, was widely known as one of the foremost patrons of music in the United States. Mr. Sutro's father, who was a manufacturer at Aix-la-chapelle, died in 1847, and his son Theodore, brought to the United States at an early age, received his education here. This included preparatory studies in Baltimore and at Phillips Academy, Exeter, N. H., after which he entered Harvard University, graduating with distinction in the class of 1871. Adopting the profession of law, he attended lectures at the Boston University Law School and at the law department of Columbia College, in this city. Called to the bar in 1874, Mr. Sutro has continued in successful practice, and represents large corporate and business interests. He possesses a striking personality, with oratorical gifts of a high order, and is singularly effective before a jury.

In 1895, Mr. Sutro, although a Democrat, was appointed by Mayor Strong to fill an important office in the municipal administration, that of Commissioner of Taxes and Assessments. Mr. Sutro has distinguished himself in this post no less than in the other positions which he has occupied in life, and he has proved a credit to the Reform Government. He has made many important decisions on novel points in the matter of taxation of corporations and estates which have, almost without exception, been sustained by the courts when subjected to judicial review.

In 1884, Mr. Sutro married Florence Edith Clinton, a lady of literary and artistic tastes similar to his own, and whose beauty and personal and intellectual qualities render her a favorite in society. Both Mr. and Mrs. Sutro are musical in their tastes, the latter being known to a wide circle as a talented amateur pianist. They are also among the most regular patrons of the opera, and are frequent guests at the important social functions of fashionable life. Mr. Sutro is distinguished as a speaker and writer, and has published numerous articles on legal and general subjects in periodicals and in the newspaper press, while Mrs. Sutro also possesses marked literary ability, and frequently appears as an author of similar articles. She has also been the patroness and promoter of many large charities and philanthropic works. In 1897, she founded and acted as president of the woman's department in the Music Teachers' National Association, and achieved a national reputation in bringing forward woman's compositions in music. She has also been elected president of the National Federation of Woman's Musical Clubs throughout the United States. Mr. and Mrs. Sutro are enthusiastic book collectors and possess a large library, which includes many rare editions and examples of the bookbinders' art. They are noted for their hospitality, and have entertained many distinguished foreigners.

Mr. Sutro's residence is at West One Hundred and Second Street and Riverside Drive. The interior decorations of the house indicate the refined taste of the owner, and represent in their details his individual artistic sense. He has there, among other art treasures, a collection of some of the choicest productions of American painters. He is a member of numerous clubs and societies, a few among them being the Harvard, Reform, German, and National Civic clubs, as well as the Patria, + B K and the Bar Association.

541

JOHN RICHARD SUYDAM

F EW families have a greater antiquity than the Suydams, who are of Dutch origin and have been identified with Long Island since the first settlement of that part of the State. Back in the tenth and eleventh centuries, those who bore the name owned large estates in Holland and the Netherlands. Hendrick Rycken, the ancestor of the family in this country, was a member of the Riker family. Some authorities have held that he belonged also to the Suydam family in Holland and his sons adopted that name. He arrived in the New World in 1663, and located in Smith's Vly, in the suburbs of New Amsterdam. Afterwards, he removed to Flatbush, Long Island, where he died in 1701.

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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 90

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