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 94

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

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In 1873, Mr. Thompson married Sarah Gibbs, daughter of Governor William C. Gibbs, of Newport, and a granddaughter of Mary Channing, aunt of the famous Reverend William Ellery Channing, and great-granddaughter of John Kane, of Albany, and seventh in descent from the Reverend Jonathan Russell, of South Hadley, Mass., in whose home the regicides, Whalley and Goff, were protected for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Thompson have one daughter, Sarah Gibbs Thompson. The city residence of the family is at 5 East Fifty-third Street, their summer home being in Southampton, Long Island. Mr. Thompson is a member of the University, Players, Racquet, New York, Engineers', United Service and New York Athletic clubs, the Century Association, the Downtown Association, and the Metropolitan Club, of Washington.

Three brothers of Mr. Thompson, John Jameson Thompson, Albert C. Thompson and Clarence Russell Thompson, were in the military service of their country during the Civil War. The latter was killed at the battle of Malvern Hill. Albert C. Thompson was wounded at the second battle of Bull Run. Since the war he has been a resident of Ohio, where he was elected a Judge and for three terms was a Member of Congress.

559

LEONARD MORTIMER THORN

A N original patentee of Flushing, Long Island, in 1645, was William Thorne, the American ancestor of several branches of a family that has been distinguished in New York for two hundred and fifty years. Notwithstanding some differences of opinion among genealo- gists, it is now generally agreed that William Thorne, of Flushing, was the William Thorne who came from England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the early part of the seventeenth century and settled in Lynn, Mass., where he was a freeman in 1638 and had land apportioned to him. He came to Long Island in 1642, and after living several years in Flushing, was one of the proprietors of the town of Jamaica, in 1657. In the same year, he was a signer of the remonstrance to Gov- ernor Petrus Stuyvesant, protesting against the treatment of the Quakers. Some of his descend- ants dropped the final letter e from their name and adopted the surname Thorn.

John Thorn, of the second generation, in 1664, was a freeman of Connecticut, to which Colony the Long Island settlement then pertained. His son, Joseph, who died in 1753, married, in 1695, Martha Johanna Bowne, daughter of John Bowne, of Flushing. In 1704, with several others, Joseph Thorn was a purchaser of three hundred and sixty acres of land in Nottingham township, Burlington County, N. J., but it is not known that he ever lived there. Thomas Thorn, 1704- 1764, son of Joseph Thorn, lived in Flushing and Cortlandt Manor. His first wife, the ancestress of that branch of the family to which the subject of this sketch belongs, was Penelope Coles, daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth (Wright) Coles, of Oyster Bay, one of the oldest and most important families of Long Island. The great-grandfather of Mr. Leonard Mortimer Thorn was Daniel Thorn, 1726-1765. son of Thomas and Penelope Thorn. His wife was Mary Frost, daughter of William and Susannah (Coles) Frost. The grandparents of Mr. Thorn were Charles Thorn, 1755-1818, and Anne Kirby, 1752-1845, daughter of Daniel and Hannah (Latting) Kirby.

William Thorn, 1777-1861, father of Mr. Leonard Mortimer Thorn, married Anne Knapp, of Greenwich, Conn., and had a family of twelve children, Charles Edgar, Anne Augusta, Julius Oscar, William Knapp, Frances Mathilda, Mary Elizabeth, Alfred Ferdinand, Ferdinand Alfred, Leonard Mortimer, George Frederick, Samuel and Caroline Mathilda Thorn. Of his daughters, Anna Augusta married G. N. Allen. Frances Mathilda married Thomas Garner, of England, who died in 1867. She died in 1862. Their children were: Frances, who married Francis C. Lawrance, of New York; Josephine, who married James L. Graham, of New York; Thomas, who married Harriet Amory, of Boston; William T., who married Marcellite Thorn; Caroline, who married Samuel Johnson, of Bridgeport, Conn., and Anna T., who married George H. Watson, of New York. Frances Garner Lawrance, daughter of Francis C. Lawrance and Frances Garner, became the wife of George William Venables Vernon, the seventh Lord Vernon, of Sudbury Park, Derby- shire, England, whose mother was a daughter of the Earl of Litchfield. Francis C. Lawrence, Jr., married Sarah Egleston Lanier. William Thorn Garner and his wife, Marcellite Thorn, had three daughters, Marcellite, Florence and Adele. The parents were drowned in the Mohawk yachting accident in New York harbor, in 1876, the recollection of which, as one of the saddest affairs in New York yachting annals, has not been obscured by the passing years. William Knapp Thorn, of the same family, married for his first wife, Harriet Cooke, of Bridgeport, Conn., and after her death, married, in 1839, Emily A. Vanderbilt, daughter of Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt.

Mr. Leonard Mortimer Thorn was born in 1816. In early life, he spent many years in Texas and acquired a thorough knowledge of Indian life and customs, being at one time proficient in thirteen Indian tongues. During his active business career, he was a member of the firm of Garner & Co. In 1858, he married Augusta Amelia Raguet and has had a family of four children, L. Mortimer, Jr., Condé R., Marcia, who died in 1885, and Emily Augusta Thorn. Leonard Mortimer Thorn, Jr., graduated from [Columbia College. He married Lillian Gwynn and lives in West Fifty-fifth Street. Condé R. Thorn is also a Columbia graduate. He married Louise Akerly Floyd- Jones, lives in East Tenth Street and is a member of the A + and Calumet clubs.

560

SAMUEL THORNE

W ILLIAM THORNE was made a freeman of Lynn, Mass., in May, 1638. After remaining in Massachusetts for a few years, he moved to Long Island, and in 1645 was one of the patentees of Flushing. In 1646, a plantation in Gravesend was granted to him, and in 1657 he became a proprietor of Jamaica. The Long Island pioneers of the Thorne family were Quakers, and prominent in the early history of that society in their section. Joseph, son of William Thorne, married Mary Bowne, daughter of John Bowne, one of the most noted Quakers of his time, who for his religion was sent to Holland, to be tried, but was acquitted, the authorities of New Amsterdam being censured for their intolerance. The mother of Mary Bowne was Hannah Feake, daughter of Robert Feake, who settled in Watertown, Mass. Martha Johanna Bowne, sister of Mary Bowne, afterwards became the wife of Joseph, son of John Thorne, the two sisters thus marrying uncle and nephew. Joseph Thorne, son of Joseph Thorne and Mary Bowne, was born in 1682 and lived for the greater part of his life at Hempstead. His wife was Catharine Smith, and his son, William, born in 1745, married Jemima Titus, while his grandson, Samuel, married Phæbe Dean, daughter of Jonathan and Margaret Dean.

Jonathan Thorne, son of Samuel Thorne and Phoebe Dean, and descendant in the fifth gen- eration from William Thorne, was born at Washington, Dutchess County, N. Y., in 1801. His father was living at Thornedale at the time of the son's birth, and the latter was educated in the local schools. At an early age, he came to New York and was a clerk in the dry goods business. When he was twenty-three years of age, he married Lydia Ann Corse, daughter of Israel Corse, of New York, formerly of Maryland, who was largely interested in the leather business, in which thencefor- ward his son-in-law was engaged. He learned the art of tanning, and in time became the manager of tanneries in New York and Pennsylvania, and the proprietor of one of the largest establishments of the trade in New York. He was also connected with other commercial and financial enterprises, such as the Central Trust Company and the Leather Manufacturers' National Bank, of which he was a director for forty years. He died in 1884.

Mr. Samuel Thorne, son of Jonathan Thorne, was born in Dutchess County, N. Y. Septem- ber 6th, 1835. He was educated in this city and, entering the counting house of his father's firm, acquired a knowledge of the business, in which he was engaged for a short time. Since his father's death, Mr. Thorne has been principally occupied with the care of the estate. He is president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and a director of the Central Trust Company, the Sixth Avenue Railroad, and the Bank of America. For some fourteen years he resided upon the family homestead, Thornedale, in Millbrook, Dutchess County, N. Y. Becoming interested in the importation and breeding of short horned cattle, he had one of the finest herds of these animals in the country.

In 1860, Mr. Thorne married Phebe Van Schoonhoven, daughter of William Van Schoon- hoven, of Troy, N. Y. They have five children, the eldest son, Edwin Thorne, being a graduate of Yale, and president of the Polar Construction Company. He married Phebe Ketchum, daughter of Landon Ketchum, of Saugatuck, Conn., and granddaughter of Morris Ketchum, the well-known New York banker. The second son, William Van S. Thorne, is a graduate of Yale and vice-president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company. The two other sons of Mr. Thorne are Joel W. and Samuel Thorne, Jr., and the only daughter of the family is Margaret B. Thorne. Mr. Thorne's residence is 8 East Fifty-fifth Street, and he has a country residence in Dutchess County, adjoining the old family seat. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Century, Down- town and Riding clubs, the American Geographical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Mr. Samuel Thorne's younger brother, Jonathan Thorne, a graduate from Haverford College, is engaged in the leather business, and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League and other clubs. Another brother, William Thorne, was also in the leather trade, but retired some time since. He is a member of the Union League Club.

561

CHARLES LEWIS TIFFANY

T HREE brothers of the Tiffany name came to this country from England at a very early period, and for five succeeding generations their descendants resided in the town of Attleborough, Mass. James Tiffany, the ancestor of Mr. Charles Lewis Tiffany, lived on what is still known as the Tiffany Farm in that town. He was born there in 1697, and died in 1776. His son, Ebenezer, who died in 1807, had a son, Comfort Tiffany, who was born in 1777, and moved from Massachusetts to Connecticut, where he was for the greater part of his life engaged in the manufac- ture of cotton goods. He died in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1844. He was the father of Charles Lewis Tiffany.

The mother of Mr. Tiffany was Chloe Draper, daughter of Isaac Draper, of Attleborough. Her father was born near Dedham, Mass., in 1736, and was a successful tanner of Attleborough. He was the son of Ebenezer Draper, 1698-1784, by his wife, Dorothy Child, daughter of Joshua and Elizabeth (Morris) Child, of Brookline, Mass. The grandparents of Isaac Draper were James Draper of Roxbury, 1654-1698, and his wife, Abigail Whiting, daughter of Nathaniel Whiting, and great-granddaughter of John Dwight. James Draper was a soldier in King Philip's War. He was a son of James Draper, who was born in England in 1618, and died in Roxbury, Mass., in 1694, being a freeman of Roxbury in 1690. The mother of James Draper, Jr., was Miriam Stansfield, daughter of Gideon and Grace (Eastwood) Stansfield, of Wadsworth, Yorkshire, England. The first James Draper was the American ancestor of the family, and was a son of Thomas Draper, of Heptonstall Parish, England. The Drapers were people of good standing and substantial merchants, Thomas Draper being a clothier.

Mr. Charles L. Tiffany, the eldest son of Comfort Tiffany, was born in Killingly, Conn., February 15th, 1812. He was educated in the public schools and the Plainfield Academy. Moving to New York in 1837, he started in business under the firm name of Tiffany & Young, and in 1857 began the special business career as manufacturer of and dealer in jewelry, silver- ware and bronzes, that has made his name famous throughout the world. A review of the history of this notable business house is not called for here, for its name has become a household word on two continents. Mr. Tiffany has received many honors from foreign governments. In 1878, he was made Chevalier of the National Legion of Honor, of France, and the Czar of Russia gave him a gold medal, Praemio Digno. He has also received letters of appointment from the Queen of England, the Czar and Czarina of Russia, the Emperors of Austria, Germany and Brazil, the Prince and Princess of Wales, the Kings of Belgium, Greece, Spain, Italy, Denmark and Portugal, the Shah of Persia, the Khedive of Egypt and other crowned heads. He was one of the founders of the New York Society of Fine Arts, is a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and a trustee of the American Museum of Natural History. He is also a life member of the New England Society, the National Academy of Design, the American Geographical Society, and the New York Historical Society. His club membership includes the Union League, New York, Union, City and New York Yacht clubs.

In 1841, Mr. Tiffany married Harriet C. Young, of Killingly, Conn. Mrs. Tiffany's father was Ebenezer Young, who was born in 1784 and died in 1851. He was one of the notable public men of the State of Connecticut in the early part of the present century. He was graduated from Yale College in 1806, was elected a State Senator in 1823, and twice thereafter, was for two years president of the Connecticut Senate, and was a member of the National House of Represen- tatives, 1829-35. Mr. and Mrs. Tiffany had two sons and two daughters. Their eldest son, Louis C. Tiffany, is the well-known artist. He married Louise W. Knox, lives in East Seventy- second Street, and has three children, Mary Woodbridge, Hilda G., and Charles L. Tiffany, second. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Grolier, Century and other clubs and social organizations. Charles L. Tiffany's residence is at the corner of Madison Avenue and Seventy- second Street, one of the most artistic houses in the city, and architecturally one of the most notable private residences in the country. Mrs. Tiffany died in November, 1897.

562

FRANK TILFORD

T HE origin of the Tilford family, that has been prominent in New York City, can be traced back for almost a thousand years. The name, as it is in modern use, is a contraction from one of the various spellings of the old Norman surname Taillefer. The family is frequently referred to in works upon Norman-French genealogy. The general opinion of Perigourd and of the L'Augoumois, which is justified by the testimony of many distinguished scholars and critics, is to the effect that the house of Taillefer was descended from the ancient Counts d'Augouleme, and this idea has been confirmed in the fact that the surname is illustrated by heraldic devices in the coat of arms borne by the various branches of the race for so many centuries. Wlguin, chief of this race, was invested with great possessions in the year 866 by King Charles Le Chauve. Guillaume de Taillefer, first of the name and the son and successor of Wiguin, as Count de L'Augoulesme, transmitted the name, de Taillefer, to his descendants by an act of valor and extraordinary strength, during a battle for the Normans, in the year 916. From this notable ancestor, the line of lineage has been clearly traced down through the successive generations of the family to the subject of this sketch.

The immediate ancestors of Mr. Tilford came from Scotland. The first of the name in this country emigrated during the reign of George Il., and settled in Argyle, a village north of Albany. James Tilford, the grandfather of Mr. Frank Tilford, was a Captain during the War of 1812 and his great-grandfather served throughout the War of the Revolution. John M. Tilford, the father of Mr. Frank Tilford, came to New York when he was only twenty years old, having been born in 1815. Finding employment in the store of Benjamin Albro, he remained there five years. In 1840, with Joseph Park, a fellow clerk, he organized the firm of Park & Tilford, which has become the leading house in its line in the world.

Mr. Frank Tilford, the youngest son, and the successor of his father in the firm of Park & Tilford, was born in New York City, July 22d, 1852. He was educated in private schools and completed his studies in the Mount Washington Collegiate School, and entered the paternal business house at Sixth Avenue and Ninth Street early in life. When the business became a joint stock cor- poration, in 1890, the senior Mr. Tilford was made vice-president of the company, and upon his death, in January, 1891, Mr. Frank Tilford succeeded him. Mr. Tilford is also associated with other financial undertakings. He has been a member of the Real Estate Exchange since 1873, and has made investments in property on the upper west side of the city. In 1874, he became a director of the Sixth National Bank, and in 1885, a trustee of the North River Savings Bank. In company with George G. Haven and other gentlemen, in 1889, he organized the Bank of New Amsterdam, of which he is now the president. He has also been conspicuous in the management of many philanthropic institutions and in other public enterprises, being a member of the Chamber of Commerce since 1887, a school trustee, president of the New Amsterdam Eye and Ear Hospital, a trustee of the Babies' Hospital, treasurer of the Hancock Memorial Association, and one of the most active members of the executive committee of the Grant Monument Association, which accomplished the work of completing General Grant's tomb in Riverside Drive.

In 1881, Mr. Tilford married Julia Greer, daughter of the late James A. Greer, and a grand- daughter of George Greer, one of the great sugar refiners of the last generation. Mr. and Mrs. Tilford have two daughters, Julia and Elsie Tilford. Mr. Tilford has been a member of the Union League Club since he attained his majority, and belongs also to the New York Athletic, Lotos, Press, Colonial, Republican, Rockaway Hunt and several other clubs. By virtue of his ancestry, he is a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution. His country residence, Mar-a-Vista, is at Cedarhurst, Long Island. His city home, at 245 West Seventy-second Street, is one of the handsomest residences of that section of the new west side of New York. It was built by Mr. Tilford himself in 1895, and, largely embodying his own ideas, is architecturally one of the most notable buildings in its neighborhood.

563

HENRY ALFRED TODD

J OHN TODD, of Rowley, born in England about 1617, was the founder of the American family of Todds, of Rowley, Mass. He is recorded as of Boston in 1637; of Rowley, Mass., in 1649; and was a member of the Great and General Court of Massachusetts in 1664 and later. The first two generations of the family in America spelled the name Tod. The son of the pioneer, John Todd, himself bearing the same name, was born in 1655, and married Elizabeth Brocklebank, a daughter of Captain Samuel Brocklebank, of Rowley, Mass., under whom he served in the campaigns of King Philip's War, 1675-76. A son of the second John Todd, also John Todd, was born in 1688, and was married to Ruth Lunt. In the fourth generation, Benjamin Todd was born in 1744, and married Elizabeth Saunders. He was a staunch supporter of the American cause in the War of the Revolution. In the next genera- tion, Wallingford Todd, born in 1778, was the grandfather of the subject of this sketch. He was an officer in the United States merchant marine, and he married Hannah Todd, his cousin german, and daughter of Moses Todd and Elizabeth Carleton. His son, Richard Kimball Todd, was born in 1814, and became the father of Mr. Henry Alfred Todd. He was graduated from Princeton College in 1842 and entered the ministry. For many years he was the principal of Todd Seminary for boys, an institution that he founded. In 1847, he was married, at the Broadway Tabernacle, to Martha Clover, daughter of Lewis P. Clover, of New York City, officer of the United States Customs. She was a sister of the late Reverend Lewis P. Clover, D. D., of New Hackensack, N. Y., and of Judge Henry Alfred Clover, LL. D., of St. Louis, Mo. Mr. Henry Alfred Todd is in the seventh generation from the founder of the family in this country. He was born at Woodstock, III., March 13th, 1854, prepared for college at his father's seminary, and graduated from Princeton with the degree of A. B. in 1876. Following his graduation, he was a fellow and tutor in Princeton College, 1876-80. Then he went abroad and remained three years, studying in the universities of Paris, Berlin, Rome and Madrid. Returning to the United States, he became instructor and associate in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 1883-91; was made Doctor of Philosophy by the same institution in 1885; was a professor in Leland Stanford University, California, 1891-93, and in 1893 became a member of Columbia University as professor of Romance Philology. He is the author of various works in philology and literature.

Mr. Todd was married, in 1891, to Miriam Gilman, of Baltimore, Md., the second daughter of the late John S. Gilman, of the Gilmans of Gilmanton, N. H., who was president of the Second National Bank of Baltimore. A sister of Mrs. Todd is Mrs. D'Arcy Paul, of Baltimore. Mr. and Mrs. Todd have three children, Lisa Gilman, Martha Clover, and Richard Henry Wallingford Todd, born August 2d, 1897. The town house of Mr. Todd is at 824 West End Avenue, at the corner of One Hundredth Street, an attractive residence, a modern adaptation in light brick and stone of the domestic Renaissance architecture, with American basement and broadly lighted and balconied foyer on the southern exposure. It contains valuable paintings, inherited from Lewis P. Clover, the elder. Woodlands, at Baltimore, the country house of the family, is noteworthy among the beautiful and stately homes of Maryland, and is enriched by numerous portraits and works of art of early and recent periods.

Mr. Todd is a member of various clubs and literary and scientific societies. He belongs to the Century Association and the Princeton Club of New York City, the New York Academy of Sciences, the American Oriental Society, the American Philological Association, the Modern Language Association, the Dante Society, the American Dialect Society, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and is a member of the Société des Anciens Textes Français. The arms of the family, as engraved on silver plate, brought by the founder of the family from England, are : Vert, a fox grimpant, argent; crest, a dove with wings displayed. Motto: "By cunning, not by craft."

564

HENRY PENNINGTON TOLER

HETHER in social life, in business, or in sport, the name this gentleman now bears has been eminent in New York for several generations. It is of Irish origin, directly descended from the Norbury family (Lord Norbury-Judge Toler), which bears relationship to the aristocracy of that country. Its first representative to come to America was Mr. Toler's great-grandfather, who first settled in Providence, R. I., in the early portion of the century, but finally came to New York, where he was prominent in business life for many years.

His son, Hugh K. Toler, was also an eminent and respected New York merchant throughout the period preceding the Civil War, and was a founder and partner of the firm which afterwards became E. S. Jaffray & Co. He was also a figure in metropolitan social life, but by his residence in Newark, was identified with the State of New Jersey and took a prominent part in many local institutions there. It was his custom for a long period to drive daily from Newark to Jersey City, cross the Hudson to his place of business in New York, and to return in the same way each evening, it being recorded that he was never known to miss a trip of this kind irrespective of the weather. The present Mr. Toler's father is Hugh A. Toler, who is still active in business pursuits in New York. The latter's brother, Henry K. Toler, Mr. H. P. Toler's uncle, was, however, one of the most renowned of the early champions of sport in America, and is mentioned in Frank Forresters' Warwick Woodlands as the greatest shot in the State. He was also foremost in the turf of his time, and was instrumental in arranging the great race between Fashion and Boston in 1842. The mare, which was bred at Madison, N. J., by Mr. Gibbons, represented the North, and Boston the South, so that the race was a test between the sections, and when it was run at the old Union Course, on Long Island, was regarded as a national event, attracting 40,000 people to the track. The race, as was then the custom, was run in four-mile heats and Boston, who held the record at that distance, 7.37, was beaten by Fashion, who made the time 7.32. Mr. H. P. Toler now has, in his home at Short Hills, N. J., original paintings of the horses, showing Mr. Gibbons' stables.

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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 94

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