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 97

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

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Among other distinguished members of this family was Henry Theodore Tuckerman, 1813-1871, one of the most prolific and most popular writers upon art and literary subjects in the present generation. He was a nephew of the Reverend Joseph Tuckerman, and another nephew was Edward Tuckerman, 1817-1886, the scientist and professor in Amherst College. Arthur Lyman Tuckerman, the architect who was superintendent of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Schools, in 1888, was of this family, and so are Bayard Tuckerman, of New York, the accomplished historian, author of A History of English Prose Fiction, A Life of General Lafayette, Life of Peter Stuyvesant, and editor of the Diary of Philip Hone; Stephen Salisbury Tuckerman, the artist, Leverett Saltonstall Tuckerman and Charles S. Tuckerman, of Boston.

The father of Mr. Paul Tuckerman was Lucius Tuckerman, a merchant of New York in the last generation, who was actively identified with the leading art, educational and philanthropic institutions of the metropolis. He was a patron of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a director of the Children's Aid Society, and gave his generous support to other enterprises of like character. On his mother's side, Mr. Tuckerman is descended from the Gibbs family, of Newport, R. I., and the Wolcotts of Connecticut. His maternal grandfather was Colonel George Gibbs, of Sunswick, Long Island, the distinguished scientist. His maternal grandmother was Laura Wolcott, daughter of Oliver Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury in the first Cabinet of President George Washington, and granddaughter of Governor Oliver Wolcott, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Paul Tuckerman, who was born in New York in 1856, and graduated from Harvard College, is a trustee of his father's and other estates. He married Susan Minturn, daughter of John W. Minturn, and granddaughter of Robert B. Minturn, and has one daughter, Dorothy Tuckerman. Mr. and Mrs. Tuckerman's residence is in Tuxedo Park. Mr. Tuckerman is a member of the Knickerbocker, Tuxedo and Racquet clubs, and the Downtown Association. The other children of Lucius Tuckerman are: Alfred Tuckerman, Walter Cary Tuckerman, who died in 1894; Laura Wolcott, wife of James Lowndes, of Washington; Emily Tuckerman, of Washington; Bayard Tuckerman, the author referred to above, and Lucy, the wife of Arthur George Sedgwick.

577

HERBERT BEACH TURNER

T HE Reverend Joseph Turner, known for years as Parson Turner, of the old Swedes Church of Gloria Dei, Southwark, Philadelphia, came over from England not long after the middle of the last century. He appears to have descended from Nicholas Turner, who lived at Halberton, near Exeter, in 1620. Assisted by a wealthy uncle, Philip Hulbeart, who had urged him to settle in America, he opened a large warehouse and went into business in Philadelphia. Not long after he returned to England and married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Mason, a physician of Exeter. He then came back and remained permanently in his new home. He was a thorough Englishman, and was at one time sent to jail by the patriot party during the Revolutionary War for his Tory sentiments. He was a great admirer of the famous Dr. White, the first Bishop of Pennsylvania, and was induced by him to enter the ministry of the Protestant Episcopal Church, which he did when somewhat advanced in life. He became associate rector of the Gloria Dei Church, originally built by the Swedes, who had endeavored to found a Colony on the banks of the Delaware long prior to the coming of William Penn, for which reason it is still commonly known as the old Swedes Church, and is to this day one of the most venerable landmarks of Philadelphia. He was at another time rector of St. Mark's Church, at Marcus Hook, below Philadelphia.

Samuel Hulbeart Turner, D. D., was the youngest of the Reverend Joseph Turner's eight children. He was born in the family mansion in South Second Street, Philadelphia, in 1790. He entered the ministry, was ordained by Bishop White and became rector of the church at Chester- town, Md. Here he established the first Protestant Episcopal Sunday School in America. He left this parish to become Professor of Biblical Learning and Interpretation of the Scripture in the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary in New York, which post he held, with conspicuous success, for nearly forty-three years. Many of the most prominent and learned clergymen for some two generations were instructed by him, and he exercised, during the long period in question, a wide influence in the affairs of the church.

His wife, the mother of Mr. Herbert Beach Turner, came from New England families. She was Mary Esther Beach, daughter of Burrage Beach, of Cheshire, Conn., and his wife, Julia (Bowden) Beach, whose father was Professor John Bowden, one of the clergy of Trinity Church, New York, and subsequently a professor in Columbia College. The Beach family is one of the oldest in Connecticut, its ancestor being John Beach, the Pilgrim, who in 1643 was among the first settlers of New Haven, where his descendants rose to great and deserved prominence in the affairs of the Colony and the succeeding State. On the side of his maternal grandmother, Mr. Turner descends from Major Thomas Bowden, an officer of the British Army, who served in America in the French and Indian War.

Mr. Herbert Beach Turner was born at Cheshire, Conn., in 1835. He was graduated from Columbia College in 1855 and adopted the profession of the law after taking a course at the Albany Law School. In 1863, he married Sarah Kirkland Floyd, daughter of John Gelston Floyd, of Mastic, Long Island. The name of Floyd is prominent in the history of Long Island and of New York. Richard Floyd, who migrated from Wales in 1654, was the ancestor of the family. General William Floyd, Mrs. Turner's great-grandfather, served in the Revolutionary Army, and was a member of the New York Committee of Safety and of the Continental Congress, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Mr. and Mrs. Turner have three children, Thornton Floyd, Mary Esther Beach and Anna Tracy Turner. Mr. Turner's home is at Engle- wood, N. J., where the family resides more than half of the year. During the winter months, they reside at 125 East Thirtieth Street.

Mr. Turner belongs to the Century, University, Reform, Church and A + clubs, and the Downtown Association. He is an active Protestant Episcopalian, is greatly interested in eco- nomics, and is concerned in all movements for the reform of national and municipal politics.

578

LAWRENCE TURNURE

L EAVING his ancestral home in Picardy, to escape religious persecution, Daniel De Tourneur, a member of an ancient family of France, settled in Leyden, Holland, in the early part of the seventeenth century. His wife, whom he married in 1650, was Jacqueline Parisis, of a family whose members were refugees from Hesdin, in Artois. Her brother was the Reverend Eustachius Parisis, a minister in Harlem, Holland.

Two years after his marriage, Daniel de Tourneur with his wife and infant child sailed for New Netherland. He was one of the earliest settlers in the villiage of Harlem on Manhattan Island. In 1661, he was an associate schepen, and a schepen in 1662, being also chosen brandt meester or fire warden. In 1663, he was a magistrate, and in 1665 an under sheriff and president of the court, and held other offices. Later he lived in Flatbush, where he died in 1672. Daniel Tourneur, his son, was a freeman of Flatbush in 1672, and afterwards a magistrate and Lieutenant. His son, the third Daniel Tourneur, was an overseer, 1676-81, and commissioner in 1686. Jacques Tourneur, son of the first Daniel Tourneur, married, in 1683, Aefie Kortright, daughter of Michael Kortright ; and their son, Michael, married Maria Oblenis, a descendant of Joost Oblenis, a magistrate of Harlem in 1666, succeeding his father, Joost Oblenis, who was named in the patents of Governors Nicolls and Dongan.

Mr. Lawrence Turnure is the prominent representative of this ancient Huguenot family. He is a native of New York, and has been identified with mercantile and financial affairs, having been associated with the late Moses Taylor, and being now the head of Lawrence Turnure & Co. He married Jane Redfield, daughter of Heman Judd Redfield. Mrs. Turnure is descended from William Hyde, of Norwich, Conn., one of the first settlers of that place. Elizabeth Hyde, grand- daughter of William Hyde, married, in 1682, Lieutenant Richard Lord, of Saybrook, grandson of Thomas Lord, who came to Newtown, Mass., in 1635, and to Hartford, Conn., in 1636, being afterwards among the first settlers of Saybrook. In the next generation, Phoebe Lord, who was born in Lyme, Conn., about 1686, married Joseph Sill, son of Captain Joseph Sill, who was born in England about 1636, came to Cambridge, Mass., with his father, John Sill, previous to 1638, and in 1676 removed to Lyme, Conn. Jabez Sill, son of Captain Joseph Sill, moved from Lyme, Conn., to Wilkesbarre, Pa., in 1770, and died there in 1790. His wife was Elizabeth Noyes, daughter of Moses Noyes and Mary Ely, of Lyme, and granddaughter of the Reverend Moses Noyes. Mary Sill, daughter of Jabez and Elizabeth (Noyes) Sill, married James Gould, of Wilkesbarre, Pa. The mother of Mrs. Turnure, Abigail Noyes Gould, was born at Lyme in 1795. She married, in 1817, Heman Judd Redfield, who was born in 1788 in Suffield, Conn., the son of Peleg Redfield and Mary Judd, and in the seventh generation from William Redfield, who settled in New London. Heman Judd Redfield was a master in chancery, and collector of customs at New York. The Turnure residence is in Fifth Avenue. Mr. Turnure is a member of the Tuxedo, Manhattan and Democratic clubs, the Downtown Association, the American Geographical Society, and many of the leading artistic and benevolent organizations of the city. He has four sons and two daughters. Lawrence Turnure, Jr., who was at one time in the banking business with his father, is a member of the Union, Rockaway Hunt and Country clubs, and married Romaine Stone. The third son, George Evans Turnure, was graduated from Harvard in 1889, married Elizabeth G. Lanier, is in business with his father and belongs to the Calumet, Racquet and other clubs. The eldest daughter, Jeannie Turnure, married Major John C. Mallery, U. S. A. The other children, Redfield, Mary G. and Percy R. Turnure, who was graduated from Harvard in 1894, are unmarried.

The late David M. Turnure, a brother of Mr. Lawrence Turnure, also a banker and merchant in New York, died several years ago, leaving a widow. Mrs. Turnure, whose maiden name was Mary E. Baldwin, is a daughter of the Honorable Harvey Baldwin. She has two children. Her son, Arthur B. Turnure, Princeton, 1876, married Elizabeth Harrison. Her daughter, Mary S. Turnure, is unmarried.

579

JULIEN STEVENS ULMAN

D URING the present century, Germany has contributed a very large and important ele- ment of population to the United States, and especially to New York City. These newcomers, from all parts of the kingdom, have been representatives of many of the best families of their native land. As adopted citizens or as native-born Americans in the second and third generations, they have been among the most useful and most successful contributors to the preeminence of New York, as the business, professional and social metropolis of the New World.

Prominent among these citizens of the metropolis who are of German descent, is Mr. Julien Stevens Ulman. On both the paternal and maternal side of the family he descends from ancestors who, from time immemorial, have been among the substantial people of Bavaria and have held high rank in the communities in which they lived. The Ulmans, for more than four centuries, have been residents of Augsberg, that celebrated city which is one of the principal seats of commerce of South Germany. Augsberg has always been famed for its important manufacturing interests and for the high intellectual position maintained by its inhabitants. Few of its families have stood better in professional life than the Ulmans. The paternal great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather of the gentleman whose family is here under consideration were especially distinguished in their time for high professional attainments. On the maternal side, the ancestors of Mr. Ulman were among the oldest families of Furth, in Bavaria.

Mr. Julien Stevens Ulman is a native New Yorker, having been born in this city October 1st, 1865. His father was Solomon B. Ulman and his mother was Johanna Bach. His paternal grandparents were Bernhard and Sophie Ulman. On his mother's side, his grandparents were Joseph Bach and Cecelia Englander. Mr. Ulman received his preparatory education in the Charlier Institute. He was prepared for college when he was seventeen years of age and passed the exami- nations for Harvard in 1882. Being moved by a desire to travel, however, he gave up his plans for a collegiate education and went to Europe, where he spent considerable time in study and in visiting all parts of the Continent. Returning to his native city, he engaged in business pursuits. In 1884, he was connected with a banking house, where he remained for six years. In 1890, he went into the leather business, and is now at the head of one of the largest and most successful houses engaged in that line of trade, having valuable connections with all foreign countries and doing an extensive exporting business.

Mr. Ulman is unmarried and lives at 66 West Thirty-ninth Street, in a house that has been occupied by his family for thirty-three years, they being now the oldest residents in that street. During the summer he lives in Newport, where he is well known and popular. Interested in gentlemanly sports, he is a member of several clubs and similar organizations devoted to those interests, among them the New York Yacht Club, the Richmond County Hunt and the Polo Asso- ciation. He is a patron of the opera and is a member of the Opera Club. His other clubs are the Lawyers', Reform and Michaux.

Many members of the family to which Mr. Ulman belongs have been distinguished in the public service. One of his uncles, who is now retired from active service, was a Surgeon- General in the Bavarian Army, his period of service extending over half a century. The grand- father of Mr. Ulman on the maternal side served under Napoleon as Quartermaster-General during the Crimean War. In every generation members of the family have been prominent in the military service of their native land. Mr. Ulman's great-grandmother, Englander, née Cann, founded a home for impoverished families of title in Frankfort-on-the-Main ; her people came from Holland, where also she founded an institution for homeless women. His brother, Morris S. Ulman, has been a member of the Senate of Rhode Island and was a Judge of the Probate Court. He still maintains his connection with New York, being a member of several of the clubs of this city and of Providence, R. I.

580

EDWARD CARLTON UNDERHILL

A MONG the companions of Winthrop at the settlement of Boston was Captain John Underhill, a veteran soldier, who had served in the Low Countries under Maurice, of Nassau. He came of the old landed family of the Underhills, of Hunningham, in War- wickshire, the coat of arms which he bore, and which has been inherited by his descendants in this country, being three trefoils between a red chevron on a silver shield with the crest of a tripping buck, being that of their English ancestors. The family still possesses representatives in the old country.

Captain Underhill's extensive military knowledge was of the greatest service to the New England Colonists in the Pequot War of 1637. He was a leader of the band of whites who over- came and nearly exterminated the only formidable savage tribe in that region. He was one of the first officers of the famous Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, of Boston, and, in 1638, published in London a narrative of the Pequot War, under the title of News from America, which ranks among the most curious and interesting literary productions which have come to us from the early Colonial period of New England.

Being involved in what was termed the Antinomian dispute, Captain Underhill was exiled from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, being chosen Governor of the latter Colony at Dover, in 1638. Even in this station, the enmity of some of the leading Puritans and the religious intolerance of the times pursued him, and he again withdrew, going to the Dutch settlements on the North River, where other victims of the unhappy, intolerant spirit which animated the early history of Massachusetts found a refuge and complete religious security, among the number being counted the famous Ann Hutchinson.

His military experience was at once recognized by the masters of the New Netherland. In 1644, he commanded the Dutch forces in a successful attack upon the hostile Indians near Stam- ford, which, for the time, ended all opposition by the redskins to the whites. He settled at Oyster Bay, Long Island, in 1655. He warmly espoused the occupation of the New Netherland by the English, and died in 1672. During his lifetime, he was commonly called "Lord Underhill," the designation having reference to his gentle birth and the superiority of his descent to that of many of the New England Colonists.

The youngest son of the renowned soldier and Colonist was Nathaniel Underhill, born in 1663, who, in 1685, purchased a large tract two miles from Westchester, N. Y., and became the ancestor of the Westchester branch of the Underhill family. He married Mary Ferris, and was followed by three successive Abraham Underhills, the last of them, who died toward the close of the eighteenth century, having been Mr. Edward C. Underhill's great-grandfather. The branch of the family continued for almost two hundred years to reside in Westchester, where they had num- erous offshoots and connections, and ranked among the most influential people of the county. The land originally purchased by Nathaniel Underhill, in 1685, was also, until the present century, still in the hands of his descendants. The published History of Westchester County is full of references to the bearers of the name, and to their intermarriages with other families of the greatest prominence in the same and other portions of the State.

It is to this ancient race that Mr. Edward Carlton Underhill belongs. His grandfather, James Underhill, born at Westchester in 1784, married Lydia Carpenter, and was father of Abraham Underhill, born in 1804, also in his ancestral town, but who became a resident and prominent citizen of New York. The wife of Abraham Underhill and the mother of the present Mr. Underhill was Eliza Ostrander, born 1814, in Columbia County, N. Y., also a member of an old Colonial family. Mr. Underhill was born in this city in 1858, was educated here, and adopted the pro- fession of the law. In 1882, he married Esther Reynolds, the issue of this marriage being two daughters, Caroline Elizabeth and Dorothy Underhill. Mr. Underhill resides at 166 West Ninety- fifth Street, and is a member of the Republican Club.

581

THEODORE NEWTON VAIL

N 1710, John Vail, a Quaker preacher, settled in Morris County, N. J. He was a descendant of

1 I John Vail, who came from Wales, and whose children and grand children were, in later genera- tions, the heads of families prominent and influential in New York, New Jersey and else- where. One of the most distinguished members of the family was the Reverend Stephen M. Vail, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, author and professor of Hebrew and the Oriental languages. The grandfather of Mr. Theodore N. Vail was Lewis Vail, civil engineer, who was one of the first to engage in building canals and railroads in the State of Ohio. Another relative, Samuel Vail, was the owner of the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, N. J., and with his brother, George, and his son, Alfred, was the financial supporter of Professor S. F. B. Morse in perfecting and bringing to public attention the magnetic telegraph. Alfred Vail invented many of the appliances that helped to perfect the telegraph, and in the estimation of scientists who are familiar with the subject, is entitled to a large share of credit for all the important and practical features of the tele- graph of to-day. George Vail was a Member of Congress, 1853-57, United States Consul to Glasgow in 1858, and a member of the Court of Pardons of the State of New Jersey.

Davis Vail, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Ohio, but became connected with the Speedwell Iron Works of his brother. He married Phoebe Quinby, daughter of Judge Isaac Quinby, of Morris County, N. J., and returned to Ohio, where he lived several years, and where his son, Theodore N. Vail, was born, July 16th, 1845. Through his mother, Mr. Vail is con- nected with one of the most eminent families of New Jersey. One of his uncles was General Quinby, a graduate of West Point and a hero of the Civil War.

Mr. Theodore N. Vail was educated in the Morristown, N. J., Academy, and then studied medicine in the office of his uncle, Dr. William Quinby. But telegraphy soon attracted him, and acquiring knowledge of the system, he took a position in New York on the staff of the general superintendent of the metropolitan and Eastern divisions of the United States Telegraph Company. He then went West, and in 1868 was an operator and agent at Pine Bluffs, Wyo., on the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1869, he was appointed clerk in the railway mail service between Omaha and Ogden, and his efficient work in that position led to repeated promotions, until upon the establishing of the railroad post office on the Union Pacific lines he was made chief clerk.

In 1873, he was summoned to Washington and appointed general superintendent of the railway mail service, a position where he had special charge of the distribution of the mails, an onerous duty that he performed in a remarkably satisfactory manner. Promotions came fast to him after that. In 1874, he was made assistant superintendent of the railway mail service, in 1876, assistant general superintendent, and in 1876, general superintendent. Thus he had attained to the highest grade in the service at the age of thirty-one years, the youngest officer in that branch of the post office department. His administration was thoroughly efficient. He expanded and improved the civil service system of the department, reduced the rates for transporting the mails, and introduced other reforms.

In 1878, Mr. Vail resigned from the postal service to become the general manager of the Bell Telephone Company, a position that he retained for ten years, during which time he built up the business of the company in a remarkable degree, establishing long distance telephones, introduc- ing copper wires and making other improvements that practically revolutionized the business. Since his retirement from active business in 1888, he has traveled extensively, chiefly in the tele- phone interests. His country home, Speedwell Farms, is an estate of fifteen hundred acres, in Lyndon Center, Vt., where he raises French coach horses, Jersey cattle, sheep and ponies. He belongs to the Union League, New York, and New York Athletic clubs, and is also a member of the Algonquin and the Union clubs, of Boston. He married, in 1869, Emma Louise Righter, of Newark, N. J., and has one son, David Righter Vail, a graduate from Harvard University in the class of 1893, and now engaged in the practice of law.

582

AUGUSTUS VAN CORTLANDT

T HE Van Cortlandts of Yonkers trace their descent from the first Van Cortlandt in this country, Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt, of Wyk bif Diernstede, Netherland, a soldier in the service of the West India Company, who came to America in the ship Haring, with Governor William Kieft, in 1638. He was a schepen in 1654, one of the commissioners to treat with the Colony of Connecticut in 1663, a member of the council of Governor Andros and otherwise of prominence, influence and usefulness in the Colony, during the period of the Dutch occupation. A man of noble ancestry, he was lineally descended from the Dukes of Courland in Russia. The family name was Stevens or Stevenson, from Courland, and the latter was adopted as a surname, in Dutch being Kortelandt. His wife was Annetje Loockermans, sister of Govert Loockermans.

Descendants of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt have been among the most noted citizens of New York, prominent in business, social and political circles. They have married into all the leading families of the metropolis for three centuries, and so are connected with the Van Rensselaers, Schuylers, Philipses, Ver Plancks, de Peysters, Jays, Livingstones, Barclays, de Lanceys and others. Jacobus Van Cortlandt, the youngest member of the first Van Cortlandt's family, Mayor of New York for nine years and the ancestor of the Van Cortlandts of Yonkers, married Eve Philipse, daughter of Frederick Philipse, the first lord of the Philipse manor. His son Frederick married Frances Jay, daughter of Augustus Jay and his wife, Anna Maria Bayard. Augustus Jay was the son of Pierre Jay, the head of the family in this country, and his wife was the daughter of Balthazar Bayard. The elder sons of Frederick Van Cortlandt died without issue, and the entail fell to Augustus Van Cortlandt, who married Catherine Barclay.

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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 97

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