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 92

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

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547

JAMES TALCOTT

S AMUEL TALCOTT, a younger son of John Talcott, 1600-1660, who came to Boston in 1632, was the founder of a notable branch of the ancient Connecticut Talcott family. Born in Newtown, Mass., about 1634, Samuel Talcott, as an infant, accompanied his parents in the migration to Hartford, in 1636, and graduated from Harvard in 1658. He was a deputy to the General Court of Connecticut, 1670-84, and a Lieutenant and Captain of the militia during the Indian wars. His wife was a daughter of Elizur Holyoke and Mary Pyncheon, who were of historic Massachusetts families.

The subject of this article is a descendant in a maternal line of the Reverend Thomas Hooker, the first settled clergyman of Hartford, Conn., and of Thomas Hart Hooker, member of the Second Connecticut Regiment, which took part in the battle of Bunker Hill, and in Arnold's Quebec Expedition. This branch of the Talcott family has given to the State of Connecti- cut some of its most distinguished citizens. Joseph Talcott, grandson of John Talcott, the pioneer, was born in 1669, was an assistant in 1711, and Governor of Connecticut from 1724 until his death in 1741. Brigadier-General George Talcott, 1786-1862, was a distinguished officer of the United States Army from 1813 to 1851. Captain Andrew Talcott, 1797-1883, served in the Engineer Corps of the United States Army, in 1834-36 had charge of the improvement of the Hudson River, and afterwards in civil life was connected with railroad and other important enterprises. Lieutenant- Colonel George Henry Talcott was a graduate from West Point, and served in the Mexican War. Brigadier-General S. V. Talcott was at one time Quartermaster-General of the State of New York on the staff of Governor Horatio Seymour.

Mr. James Talcott is a representative in the metropolis in this generation of this Colonial and Revolutionary family, and is a native of West Hartford, Conn., in which place he was born in 1835. His father was a manufacturer and landowner, and the son received a good education in the schools of his native place, at Easthampton, Mass., and elsewhere. When he had reached the age of nineteen, he left his native place, and, coming to New York, established himself in business here. An elder brother had for a time been proprietor of an extensive knitting mill in New Britain, Conn., and Mr. Talcott's first engagement in New York was as agent for his brother's establish- ment. The New York agency proved successful from the outset, and Mr. Talcott has been connected with that and business of allied nature ever since, a period of over forty years. He is now one of the prominent wholesale merchants of the dry goods district of the city, conducting a business of great magnitude, consisting of many departments of varied characters, domestic and foreign. He is agent for several of the largest mills in New York and New England. Mr. Talcott is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, and of the Board of Trade and Transportation. He is also a director of the Manhattan Company, and has been a member on the board of directorate of the Broadway National Bank, the Broadway Savings Bank and other financial institutions. He is a life member of the American Geographical Society and the New England Society, and is a member of the American Museum of Natural History, and of several clubs.

Mr. Talcott has not allowed his business interests to interfere with the discharge of the higher duties devolving upon the citizen. His name has been identified with almost every move- ment during the past twenty-five years, looking to the improvement of the city government. To charitable and educational objects in this city and elsewhere, irrespective of creed, he has freely contributed in time and money.

In 1860, Mr. Talcott married Henrietta E. Francis, daughter of the Reverend Amzi Francis, of Bridgehampton, Long Island. They have five children. The Reverend J. Frederick Talcott is a graduate of Princeton University, and lives at 60 West Eighty-seventh Street. Francis Edgar Talcott lives at Westfield, N. J., and Arthur Whiting Talcott is in business with his father, and resides at 39 West Seventy-sixth Street. The two daughters are Grace and Edith Charlotte Talcott. Mr. and Mrs. Talcott reside at 7 West Fifty-seventh Street.

548

FREDERICK D. TAPPEN

D URING the Spanish persecutions in the Netherlands, the Tappen family fled from Holland to England, whence its American ancestor came to New York in 1630, settling in Fort Orange and at Kingston in 1637. Descendants are now found throughout the State of New York and other Middle States. One of the most picturesque figures of New York during the last half of the nineteenth century was Colonel Charles Barclay Tappen, who belonged to this respected family. His grandfather settled in Morris County, N. J., before the Revolution, and his father was John Tappen, editor of The Plebian, now The Ulster Gazette. Born before the century began, Colonel Tappen almost lived to see its end, dying April 20th, 1893, having passed his ninety-seventh birthday.

Colonel Tappen was an architect and builder, and many of the buildings in New York City of the last generation were designed by him. An intensely patriotic man, he served in the War of 1812, and in 1833, Governor Marcy commissioned him Colonel of the Two Hundred and Thirty- Sixth Regiment, National Guard, State of New York. He maintained a deep interest in military affairs through life. Among other offices, he filled, from 1835 to 1838, that of Superintendent of Repairs of the City of New York, a post equivalent to the present Public Works Department. He was a man of striking personality and vigorous to the time of his last illness. Living in East Sixty- eighth Street, it was his regular practice, on every pleasant day, to walk down Fifth Avenue and Broadway to Wall Street. He had a family of eleven children and saw thirty grandchildren and great-grandchildren grow up around him. His wife, Elizabeth Tappen, was a woman of much force of character and natural vigor, and also lived to a ripe old age, passing away only a few years before her husband died.

Mr. Frederick D. Tappen is a son of the late Colonel Charles B. Tappen. Born in New York City, January 29th, 1829, he was prepared for college in the Columbia College Grammar School, and then entered the New York University, from which institution he was graduated in 1849. The following year he entered the service of the National Bank of New York, now the Gallatin National Bank, and has maintained that connection for nearly half a century. In 1857, he became cashier, and in 1868 was elected president, a position that he has retained to the present time.

For more than forty years, Mr. Tappen has been one of the most prominent factors in the banking business of New York. Problems of finance have been the occupation of his life, and he is one of the leading authorities upon the subject, and his opinions and advice have often been asked by the State and National officials. One of the most striking features in Mr. Tappen's career has been his service to the banking interests of the metropolis in times of panics. In 1873, 1884, 1890 and 1893, he took a leading part in devising and executing measures that carried the allied banks of the city through the storms. During these critical times, he was chairman of the loan committee of the Clearing House Association. In 1893, his work was particularly successful and won for him the approval of the business community generally. As a token of appreciation, Mr. Tappen's banking associates presented him with an antique silver tankard that had a peculiarly interesting and pertinent significance. The tankard was originally presented to Sir John Houblon, Lord Mayor of London and first governor of the Bank of England, for his efforts in tiding over a financial crisis, in 1693, as shown by an inscription on the tankard. It finally came into possession of a New York gentleman, and it was particularly fitting that just two centuries from the time of its first presentation it should again be used for a like purpose in the financial centre of the New World. Mr. Tappen has been president of the Clearing House Association twice, is vice-president of the Metropolitan Trust Company, and a director in the Bank of New Amsterdam, the Sixth National Bank and Queen Insurance Company, and a trustee of the Royal Insurance Company, of Liverpool. Mr. Tappen married Sarah A. B. Littell. His clubs include the Metropolitan, Union League, Union, Grolier and Players, and he is a member of the Holland Society, St. Nicholas Society and the Downtown Association. His residence is at 49 East Sixty-eighth Street.

549

ALEXANDER TAYLOR

O F Scottish origin, the grandparents of Mr. Alexander Taylor, Jr., were residents of Leith until 1822, when they emigrated to the United States, bringing with them their eldest, and at that time only, son, Alexander. The father engaged in mercantile business in New York, and died in 1840. The son, Alexander, father of the subject of this sketch, was educated in New York, and engaged in business early in life. First he was connected with a Wall Street firm of brokers, but soon established himself independently. Subsequently, with two brothers as partners, he founded the firm of Taylor Brothers, at the head of which he continued until 1870, when, with his son, Alexander Taylor, Jr., he organized the firm of Alexander Taylor & Son. Soon after, he removed to London as the resident partner there of the banking house of Clews, Habicht & Co. His firm was the fiscal agent of the United States in England, and had part in some of the most important financial enterprises of that time.

After the panic of 1873, Mr. Taylor returned to New York to take charge of the affairs of the house with which he was connected, and at the same time represented the British bondholders of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids & Northern Railroad Company. Eminently successful in reviving the fortunes of the banking house, and in protecting the interests of the bondholders, for whom he was attorney, he afterwards became connected with other financial undertakings. He assisted in estab- lishing the Gramme Electric Company, of which he was director and treasurer, was an early pro- moter of the plan for a canal across Nicaragua, being a director and chairman of the executive committee of the company, and maintained an active connection with the New York, West Shore & Buffalo Railroad, of which he was treasurer and a director, and with the Ontario & Western Rail- road and the Walkill Railroad, in each of which he was a director. He was for many years a member of the New York Stock Exchange, frequently being called upon to occupy official position in that body, was a member of the St. Andrew's Society, the Burns and Union League clubs, a vice- president of the National Academy of Design, and also connected with the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company, of Scotland, of which he was one of the three American trustees.

Mr. Alexander Taylor, Jr., the oldest son in his father's family, was born in New York, June 22d, 1848. His primary education was secured in the famous Charlier Institute, and he afterwards attended Churchill's Military Academy in Sing Sing. Before he had become of age, he entered his father's office as a clerk, subsequently becoming a member of the firm of Alexander Taylor & Son. Ultimately he became the sole proprietor of the firm. While in no sense a politician, Mr. Taylor has given much attention to the cause of political reform and the honest administration of munici- pal government. He has never held political office, but was at one time persuaded to be a candidate for Congress from the Twelfth Congressional District, and although defeated, made a strong campaign. He has been particularly distinguished by his interest in gentlemanly sports and by his activity in promoting organizations devoted to those pursuits. The Gentlemen's Driv- ing Association of New York owed its origin solely to his efforts, and he was one of the organizers and a director of the National Horse Show Association of America, and one of the originators and governors of the Country Club of Westchester County. He is a member of the Megantic Fish and Game Club, of Maine, the Adirondack Club, the oldest organization in the Adirondack Mountains, the Caribou Club, of Maine, and other similar organizations, and belongs to the Union League and New York Yacht and Larchmont Yacht clubs, and some twenty other clubs.

In 1868, Mr. Taylor married Fannie Taylor, daughter of the Honorable Henry J. Taylor, ot Jersey City. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor have had seven children, of whom only three are living. Laura Taylor married C. T. W. Hollister, lives in Cleveland, O., and has one son, Alexander Taylor Hollister. Frances Taylor, the youngest daughter, married J. C. Baldwin, Jr., of New York, where they are now living. They have one son, J. C. Baldwin, third. Alexandrina Taylor, the only unmarried daughter, lives with her parents. The Taylor residence is Chrismere, Mamaroneck, N. Y., one of the handsomest estates on Long Island Sound.

550

HENRY AUGUSTUS COIT TAYLOR

O NE of the leading merchants of New York City, in the first half of the eighteenth century. was Moses Taylor, whose business was advertised in the New York Gazette of 1750, as "at the corner house opposite the Fly Market." This Moses Taylor, the first of his name in the New World, was a London merchant and settled in New York about 1736. His younger son was born in 1739, soon after the arrival of the family in this country, became a man of considerable wealth and had a large family. During the British occupation of New York, he removed to the interior of New Jersey, where his son, Jacob B. Taylor, was born.

After the war and when he had attained to manhood, Jacob B. Taylor came to New York and followed in the footsteps of his father and his grandfather in business. He rapidly advanced to prominence in social and political, as well as in business walks of life. He was a member of the board of aldermen with such men as Philip Hone, John Ireland, and others, at a time when the solid business men of the city considered it a duty and an honor to engage in public affairs, and to devote part of their time to advancing and conserving the welfare of the municipality. For many years he lived in Broadway, at the corner of Morris Street, and there entertained generously, surrounding himself with the most interesting people of the city, He was associated in business with John Jacob Astor for many years.

Moses Taylor, son of Jacob B. Taylor, was born in 1806, and died in 1882. He was educated with the end in view of fitting himself for the business life that had been mapped out for him, and at the age of fifteen, began his career. Gradually undertaking small business ventures, he found himself, at twenty-six years of age, with a capital of $15,000, a fortune for a young man in those days. Thereupon he went into business for himself and prospered for a time, but in the great fire of 1835, lost all that he possessed. He quickly recovered from this disaster, however, and became one of the wealthiest and most prominent business men of his day. In 1855, he was elected president of the City Bank, a position that he retained until his death, in 1882. His ability in the direction of financial affairs was generally recognized, and President Lincoln offered him the position of Secretary of the Treasury after the resignation of Secretary Chase. He became largely interested in railroad properties, and at one time practically owned the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. He also made profitable investments in the Lackawanna Coal & Iron Company, and the Manhattan Gas Company, and, with Peter Cooper, Marshall O. Roberts and Chandler White, he was a supporter of Cyrus Field in the Atlantic cable undertaking.

The wife of Moses Taylor, whom he married in 1832, was Catharine A. Wilson, daughter of a New York merchant. She died in 1892. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were survived by five children. Their daughter, Alberta S. Taylor, married Percy R. Pyne, the banker, and has two sons, Percy Rivington Pyne, who married Maud Howland, and Moses Taylor Pyne, who married Margaretta Stockton. Another daughter, Katherine Winthrop Taylor, married Robert Winthrop, and is the mother of Albertina T., Robert Dudley, Frederic and Beekman Winthrop. George C. Taylor, the eldest son, lives in Islip, Long Island, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Union and Knickerbocker clubs.

Mr. Henry A. C. Taylor, the youngest son, was born in New York, January 19th, 1841, and was graduated from Columbia College in the class of 1861. He is a partner in the firm of Moses Taylor & Co. He married, in 1868, Miss Fearing, daughter of Daniel B. Fearing, lives in East Seventy-first Street, has a summer home in Newport, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union, Knickerbocker, and New York Yacht clubs, and the Downtown Association. He has two sons and one daughter. His eldest son, Henry Richmond Taylor, graduated from Columbia University in the class of 1891, is a member of the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker and other clubs, and is engaged in the practice of law. His younger son, Moses Taylor, was graduated from Yale University in 1893, is a member of the Metropolitan and Knickerbocker clubs, and married Edith Bishop, daughter of Heber R. Bishop.

55℃

JOHN TAYLOR TERRY

A MONG the most notable Puritan pioneers in the settlement of the Connecticut Colony were John Haynes and George Wyllys. John Haynes was Governor of Massachusetts in 1635. He removed to Hartford, and in 1639 became the first Governor of Connecticut; and thereafter was seven times elected in alternate years to the same office, being also Deputy Governor five times. George Wyllys was a wealthy English gentleman of Warwickshire and had a farm prepared for him in Hartford before he came over with his family in 1638. He took a leading position; was a magistrate in 1639, Deputy Governor in 1641, and Governor in 1642. He died in 1644, but his descendants became prominent and three of them held in succession the office of Secretary of State of the Colony. Upon the land of Governor Wyllys stood the famous Charter Oak, in whose hollow trunk the charter of Connecticut was hidden. Samuel Terry was the original patentee of the town of Enfield, Conn., about 1657, and was the first Colonist married at Springfield, Mass.

Mr. John T. Terry can trace his lineage to all three of these famous Puritans. His ancestral lines also go back on both sides to Governor William Bradford, who led the Mayflower Pilgrims. His maternal ancestress, Mabel Harlakenden, the wife of Governor John Haynes, was a member of a family whose descent is traced to King Edward III. One of Mr. Terry's maternal forefathers was the Reverend Edward Taylor, who married a granddaughter of Governor Wyllys. The direct line of descent is from Samuel Terry, of Enfield, Conn., who was born in 1661, was Selectman, Ensign and Captain, and died in 1730. His son Ephraim, of Enfield, 1701-1783, married Governor Bradford's great-granddaughter, Ann Adams, and his grandson, Eliphalet, 1741-1812, was a justice of the quorum in 1778, a representative in the Connecticut Assembly for thirty-three consecutive years, most of that time being Speaker of the House, and a judge of the County Court from 1798 until his death. Another member of the family was Colonel Nathaniel Terry, who led a company of soldiers from Enfield to Boston as soon as the news of Concord and Lexington reached there. Major General Alfred H. Terry, a distinguished officer of the Civil War, is of the same family.

The father of the subject of this sketch was Roderick Terry, 1788-1849, a merchant of Hartford, Conn., for forty years, and president of the Exchange Bank there for fifteen years. His mother was a daughter of the Reverend John Taylor, of Deerfield, Mass., whose wife was a daughter of Colonel Nathaniel Terry, and who could trace his descent to the Days, the Smiths and other leading families of Western Massachusetts. The grandfather of the Reverend John Taylor was Edward Taylor, of Westfield, Mass., who graduated from Harvard College in 1671.

Mr. John Taylor Terry has been one of New York's foremost merchants in the generation that is fast passing away. He was born in Hartford in 1822, and, coming to New York in 1841, went into business with Edwin D. Morgan, first as a merchant and then as a banker. After the death of Governor Morgan, in 1883, Mr. Terry continued the business under the original firm name. He has been one of the leading bankers and financiers of the metropolis, interested in large undertakings, and a director in various railroad, insurance and telegraph corporations, among them the Mercantile Trust Company, of which he is vice-president, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Metropolitan Trust Company, the American Exchange Bank and a number of railroad companies. He has a country residence at Irvington-on-the-Hudson, and belongs to the Union League Club, the American Geographical Society, the New England Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Mayflower Descendants, and is a patron of the American Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1846, Mr. Terry married, in Brooklyn, Elizabeth Roe Peet. Their elder son, the Reverend Roderick Terry, D. D., is pastor of the South Reformed Church, of New York. He married Linda Marquand, their two children being Eunice and Roderick Terry, Jr. John T. Terry, Jr., the younger son, a graduate of Yale and a member of the bar, married Bertha Halsted and has two children, a son and a daughter.

552

PAUL LOUIS THEBAUD

F RANCE and Holland gave to America the ancestor of the Thebaud family, of New York, which for more than a century has taken a notable and honored part in the commercial activity of the metropolitan city, and has, at the same time, held a distinguished position in its social relations. The first of the name to come to this country was Joseph Thebaud, who landed at Boston, Mass., arriving from China, in 1771, as the accredited representative in America of the French East India Company and of other large mercantile interests in his native land, to which the growth of business between the two countries made an agent here necessary. Joseph Thebaud was a man of high education, and had enjoyed a long training in commercial affairs, and had, also, in the course of his business career, traveled extensively and become familiar with all parts of the world. He took at once a leading place in American business life of that day, his talents and expe- rience, as well as the influential connections he possessed in Europe, placing him, ere many years after his first arrival in this country had passed, among the foremost merchants that his adopted land possessed in those days. Living for a time in Boston, he removed to New Haven, Conn., which at that date, and for some decades after, was a considerable shipping port, and enjoyed more or less foreign trade, which, however, gradually shifted to New York about the beginning of the present century, owing to the superior natural advantages the latter port possessed as an entrepôt of com- merce. Perceiving this tendency, Joseph Thebaud accordingly established himself in the growing metropolis, where he and his descendants have ever since been citizens. He was one of the sub- stantial men of his time, and in his business relations was noted for an inflexible integrity, his motto being that his word was as good as his bond, which principle he observed in all his extensive affairs. The commercial house which he established, and which three generations of his descend- ants have now conducted with success and honor through the vicissitudes of a century, has ever been governed according to the principles of its founder, and presents an instance of permanency rare in the history of such establishments in this country, where business changes are frequently of so marked a character.

Joseph Thebaud acquired social distinction as well as wealth in New York. He resided in Beekman Street, then a neighborhood of dwellings occupied by the most substantial citizens, his near neighbors being the Stuyvesant family, and his country seat was on a large tract of land extending from Orchard and Rivington Streets to the East River. One of his favorite personal tastes was for flowers, and his greenhouses, in which he took great pride, were the admiration of the town and a decided novelty. Among his most intimate friends in New York was the elder Dr. Hosack. He was active in the various charities of the city, being the founder of the French Benevolent Society. In 1795, he married a daughter of Philip Le Breton, a wealthy merchant of the French island of Martinique, in the West Indies, and at his death, in 1811, left a large estate to his wife and sons, John J. and Edward Thebaud.

The latter received his education at Moravian College, Bethlehem, Pa., and then entered the office of the famous New York shipping merchant, Gardiner G. Howland, where he obtained a sound commercial training. His father's business manager, Joseph Bouchaud, was the executor of the estate, and continued the elder Mr. Thebaud's business, subsequently marrying his widow. In :820, Edward Thebaud joined his stepfather, the firm being very successful, but he retired in 1824 and visited relatives in France.

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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 92

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