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 98

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

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With the death of Augustus Van Cortlandt, in default of male heirs, the family property and name passed to the grandsons, children of Anne Van Cortlandt, who had married Henry White, her cousin, son of her father's youngest sister Eve. Henry White was of Welsh descent. His grandfather was a Colonel in the English Army, came to Maryland in 1712, was a merchant in New York, and president of the Chamber of Commerce in 1772. Augustus White, the eldest son of Henry and Anne White, inherited the property by will from his grandfather and took the name of Van Cortlandt. When he died without issue, in 1839, his brother succeeded him and upon the death of the latter, also without issue, only a few months after Augustus had died, the entail fell to his nephew, the son of his sister, who was the wife of Dr. Edward N. Bibby. The father of Dr. Bibby was Captain Thomas Bibby, of Revolutionary fame.

Mr. Augustus Van Cortlandt Bibby, who thus succeeded to the estate by the terms of his uncle's will, changed his name to Van Cortlandt, and is still living. The City of New York acquired by the right of eminent domain, in 1884, seven hundred acres of this land, with the Van Cort- landt mansion built by Frederic Van Cortlandt, in 1748, and it is now included in Van Cortlandt Park. The present Augustus Van Cortlandt lived on this property until it was taken by the city, and still owns one hundred acres of it. From 1847 to 1853, he was engaged in the banking business, and in 1859 was a member of the New York State Assembly. He was an early president of the St. Nicholas club, is a member of the New York Historical Society, the Metropolitan and City clubs, and the St. Nicholas Society, and otherwise identified with the social institutions of the city. The wife of Mr. Van Cortlandt was Charlotte Amelia Bunch, daughter of Robert Bunch, of Nassau, Island of New Providence, and granddaughter of Dr. Richard Bayley, the first health officer of the port of New York and a close friend of Sir Guy Carleton. The children of this marriage are: Augustus, Jr., Henry W., Robert B., who is a member of the Metropolitan, Knicker- bocker and other clubs and a Columbia College graduate; Oloff de Lancey and Mary B. Van Cortlandt.

The Van Cortlandt arms are: argent, four wings of niell, sable and gules (forming St. Andrew's cross), five estoiles gules. Crest, over an esquire's helmet a wreath argent and gules, sur- mounted by an estoile gules. Motto, Virtus sibi manus.

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CORNELIUS VANDERBILT

B ILT, or Bild, a manor in the Province of Friesland, in the Netherlands, a few miles from Zeyst, gave its name to one of the foremost American families of the present day. Jan Aertsen Vanderbilt emigrated from that manor to New Netherland in 1650, and established himself in Flatbush. He was married three times; to Anneken Hendricks, a native of Bergen, Norway; to Dierber Cornellis, and to Magdalentje Hansz. Aris, his eldest son, married, in 1677, Hildegonde, or Hilletje, daughter of Rem Janse Venderbeeck. He died after 1711.

In the third American generation came Jacob Vanderbilt, 1692-1759, who was the first of the family living on Staten Island. By his wife, Neiltje, he had a son, Jacob Vanderbilt, who was born in 1723 and married Mary Sprague. Jacob and Mary (Sprague) Vanderbilt were the parents of Cornelius Vanderbilt, their youngest child, who, born in 1764, married Phebe Hand and became the father of the celebrated Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Vanderbilt family was settled on Staten Island, near New Dorp, and owned considerable valuable farming property there. The senior Cornelius Vanderbilt removed to Stapleton, Staten Island, and managed an extensive farm. He also regularly ran boats between Staten Island and New York for the transportation of produce to the New York markets and to accommodate occasional travelers.

Cornelius Vanderbilt, who made the family name famous in the last generation, was born on Staten Island, near Stapleton, May 27th, 1794. A moderate education was given to him, and this was supplemented by exceptional mental vigor and business genius that led him to success. In 1810, when he was only sixteen years of age, he instituted a ferry service between Staten Island and the City of New York, thus commencing his career as a master of transportation. His career from this point onward is part of the familiar commercial history of the country. In the course of time, he became the greatest shipowner of his generation. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he presented to the Government the steamship Vanderbilt, rep- resenting a value of one million dollars. For this generous gift, Congress bestowed upon him a vote of thanks and a gold medal, inscribed, " A grateful country to her generous son." His success in the railroad business was even more pronounced, and the series of consolidations that resulted in the creation of the New York Central system stamped him as one of the master minds of his generation in business and finance. When he died, in 1877, he ranked among the richest men of the world, and left to his family a fortune almost without parallel. Commodore Van- derbilt was a generous benefactor to religious and educational institutions, among his large gifts being one million dollars to Vanderbilt University, in Nashville, Tenn., and the building occupied by the Church of the Strangers, on Mercer Street, a memorial to the Reverend Charles F. Deems.

At the age of nineteen, Commodore Vanderbilt married Sophia Johnson, who died in 1867. He married again in 1868, his wife being Frances A. Crawford, of Mobile, Ala. By his first wife, he was the father of thirteen children; Phoebe Jane, wife of James N. Cross; Ethelinda, wife of Daniel B. Allen; Eliza, wife of George A. Osgood; William H .; Emily, wife of William K. Thorn; Sophia J., wife of Daniel Torrance; Maria Louise, wife of Horace F. Clark; Francis; Cornelius Johnson; Mary Alicia, wife of Nicholas La Bau; George W .; Catharine Johnson, wife of Smith Barker, Jr., and George W., second. The second George W. Vanderbilt died in 1866, as a result of service in the Union Army.

William H. Vanderbilt, the eldest son of Commodore Vanderbilt, was born in New Bruns- wick, N. J., May 8th, 1821, and died December 8th, 1885. He was educated in the Columbia Grammar School, and at the age of eighteen, went into mercantile life. In 1864, he was elected vice-president of the New York & Harlem Railroad, and upon his father's death, in 1877, succeeded to the presidency of the New York Central & Hudson River and other railroad prop- erties, and became the head of the Vanderbilt family. He was one of the great railroad magnates

584

of this generation, but in the latter years of his life devoted much time to travel and art collecting. He was a lover of fine horses, and owned Maud S., Aldine, Small Hopes, Lady Mac and other famous roadsters and trotters. He gave large sums of money to Vanderbilt University, the College of Physi- cians and Surgeons, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, St. Luke's Hospital, and other institutions.

The wife of William H. Vanderbilt was Maria Louisa Kissam. Mrs. Vanderbilt was a daughter of the Reverend Samuel Kissam, who was born in 1796, and was pastor of the Reformed Dutch Church, at Cedar Hill, near Albany. Her mother was Margaret H. Adams. The grand- parents of Mrs. Vanderbilt were Peter Rutgers Kissam, a Columbia College graduate and a mer- chant of New York, and his wife, Deborah Townsend, daughter of Penn Townsend. The parents of Peter Rutgers Kissam were Benjamin Kissam, of Long Island, and his wife, Catherine Rutgers, daughter of Petrus Rutgers. Benjamin Kissam was a celebrated lawyer, member of the Com- mittee of Safety in 1776, and member of the First and Second Provincial Congresses. His father was Joseph Kissam, who was a justice of the peace of Manhasset, Long Island, and married Deborah Whitehead, daughter of the Honorable Jonathan and Sarah (Field) Whitehead. The parents of Joseph Kissam were Daniel Kissam, of Long Island, 1669-1752, and his wife, Elizabeth Coombs. Daniel Kissam was the son of John Kissam, of Flushing, who was born in 1644, of English origin, and married Susannah Thorne, daughter of William Thorne. His father emigrated from England, and was one of the first settlers of Flushing. The children of William H. Vanderbilt were Cornelius, William K., Frederick W., George W., Margaret Louisa, Emily Thorn, Florence Adele and Eliza O. Vanderbilt.

Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the eldest son of William H. Vanderbilt, was born on Staten Island, November 27th, 1843. In 1865, he entered the office of the New York & Harlem Railroad, and successively held various important official positions in connection with the Vanderbilt system of railroads, becoming, upon the death of his father, the head of the house, and actively in control of the Vanderbilt properties, being now chairman and controlling director in the various compa- nies that make up that magnificent transportation system. He is a trustee of Columbia University, the General Theological Seminary, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, St. Luke's Hospital, and other institutions, and is noted for his interest in charitable work. He erected the building on Madison Avenue occupied by the railroad branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, and gave a dormitory to Yale University. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Union League, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, Grolier, Players, Century and Lawyers' clubs, and of many other social organizations. He married Alice Gwynne, daughter of Abraham Gwynne. Their children are: Cornelius, Gertrude, Alfred G., Reginald C. and Gladys M. Vander- bilt. Their eldest son, William H. Vanderbilt, died while a student in Yale University. Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., is a graduate from Yale, and married, in 1896, Grace Wilson, daughter of Richard T. Wilson. Gertrude Vanderbilt married Henry Payne Whitney, son of the Honorable William C. Whitney.

William K. Vanderbilt, the second son of William H. Vanderbilt, married Alva Murray Smith. He has two sons and one daughter, William K., Jr., Harold S., and Consuelo. His daughter married, in 1895, the Duke of Marlborough. She has one son, born in 1897, to whom the Prince of Wales is the godfather, and who is the heir to the historic name of Marlborough. Mr. Vanderbilt owns the Valiant, one of the finest steam yachts in the world. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Union, Manhattan, New York Yacht, and Players clubs. Frederick W. Vanderbilt graduated from Yale College in the class of 1876, and married Miss Anthony. He belongs to the Tuxedo, Metropolitan, University, New York Yacht and other clubs. George W. Vanderbilt is unmarried. He belongs to the Metropolitan, Century, Players, Grolier, New York Yacht and other clubs. His country estate, Biltmore, near Asheville, N. C., is one of the handsomest establishments of its kind in the world. Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt married Colonel Elliott F. Shepard, whose family is treated more extensively elsewhere in this volume. Emily T. Vanderbilt is the wife of William D. Sloane. Florence Adele Vanderbilt is the wife of Hamilton McK. Twombly, Eliza O. Vanderbilt is the wife of William Seward Webb.

585

CHARLES HENRY VAN DEVENTER

N TOT only on the paternal, but also upon his mother's side, this gentleman's ancestry is carried back with unusual exactitude through a line of Dutch progenitors, extending to the early foundation of New Netherland. The Old World ancestor of his family, to whom the record extends, was Peiter Pieters, of Deventer, Holland, whose wife was Janneken Jansen, and it was their son, Jan Pietersen, born in 1628 at Deventer, whence the surname of his descendants was derived, who came out, in 1662, to the Colony established on the Hudson River by the Dutch West India Company. He brought with him his wife, Engel Teunis, and was a resi- dent of Brooklyn and New Utrecht, being a man of prominence and schepen of the latter place in 1673. Peter Jans Van Deventer, who was born about 1653 and died in 1747, resided at Martins' Neck, Long Island, and was a deacon of the Reformed Church at New Utrecht while he was on Long Island. In 1698, he lived in New York, but removed to New Jersey, and in 1709, was an elder of the Reformed Church of Freehold, Monmouth County, and about 1720, it is recorded, lived in Bound Brook, N. J. In 1686, he married Maria Christiaan, who came from the town of Doorn, Holland, members of her famlly being among the early emigrants to New Netherland who settled in the New Jersey Colony.

Their son, Jacob Van Deventer, was an inhabitant of Freehold, and was born in 1709, dying in 1756. He married for his first wife Margaretta Field, and after her death, Elizabeth Van Clief. His son, Jeremiah Van Deventer, of Bound Brook, 1741-1806, a patriot and a soldier in the Army of the Revolution, married Elizabeth Conover, while his grandson, Peter Van Deventer, a resident of Rahway, who was born in 1789 and died in 1817, married Elizabeth Vail. Peter Van Deventer was the grandfather of Mr. Charles Henry Van Deventer, whose father, Henry Bergen Van Deventer, of Bound Brook, N. J., and St. Louis, Mo., was born in 1809 and died in 1879, his wife being a lady who, like him, was of direct Holland descent.

As already stated, Mr. Van Deventer comes of another old Dutch family. His mother, Elizabeth Degroot Voorhees, who married Henry Bergen Van Deventer in 1846, was a descendant of Coert Alberts van Voor Hees, who lived, prior to 1600, in the village of Hees, near Ruiken, in the Province of Drenthe in the Netherlands. His son, Steven Coerte van Voor Hees, born in 1600, who came to New Netherland in 1660, was the first of the family in the New World. He purchased a tract of thirty-one morgens of land at Flatbush, Long Island, for three thousand guilders, being evidently a man of substance. His name appears in the records of that town, where he was a magistrate in 1664, and where he died in 1684. He was married in Holland and brought his children with him. In the next generation, his son, Jan Stevens van Voorhees, born in 1652, appears on the assessment roll of Flatlands in 1675 and 1683, and afterwards took the oath of allegiance in 1687.

Jan Janse Van Voorhees, the next in line of descent, who was baptized in 1686 at Brooklyn and moved to Staten Island, was the father of Jacobus Van Voorhees, 1720-1771, who married Sarah Culver, and resided first at Hackensack and afterwards in Somerset County, N. J. James Voorhees, 1748-1810, his son, was born in Hackensack and married Anna Harris, by whom he had John Harris Voorhees, 1783-1856, who married Eleanor Tunison, after whose death he married, in 1811, Susan P. Degroot, who was the mother of Mrs. Henry Bergen Van Deventer.

Mr. Charles Henry Van Deventer was born in New Jersey, January 7th, 1847, and was educated in the academy at Lawrenceville, N. J. He entered the brokerage business in early life, and since 1869 has been a member of the New York Stock Exchange. In 1876, Mr. Van Deventer married Christine Miller, daughter of James and Mary A. (Roe) Miller. The two children of this union are Lloyd M. and R. Craig Van Deventer. The family residence is 60 West Fifty-third Street, near Fifth Avenue. Mr. Van Deventer is a member of the Union League and New York Athletic clubs, and by right of his Dutch origin through several lines of descent, has been a member of the Holland Society since 1885.

586

HENRY VAN DYKE, D. D.

N the ninth generation of an old Dutch family, the ancestors of whom came to New Amsterdam in 1652, the Reverend Dr. Henry van Dyke is the second of his name who has achieved distinction in the pulpit. He is the eldest son of the late Reverend Dr. Henry Jackson van Dyke, who was a noted Presbyterian clergyman. The elder Dr. van Dyke was born in Abingdon, Montgomery County, Pa., in 1822, being the fourth son of Dr. Frederick A. van Dyke. Graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1843, he studied at Princeton Theological Seminary, and in 1845 was ordained to the ministry. He married, in the same year, Henrietta Ashmead, of Philadelphia. His first charge was the Presbyterian Church at Bridgeton, N. J., from 1845 to 1852. The following year he preached in Germantown, Pa., and in 1853 went to Brooklyn, where he was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, remaining in that pulpit for fifteen years.

In 1872, Dr. van Dyke resigned from his Brooklyn pastorate to accept a call to the Presbyterian Church at Nashville, Tenn. Making a trip to Europe before entering upon this new field of labor, upon his return home he changed his plans and returned again to Brooklyn, where he remained until his death, in 1891. During his lifetime, he made several visits to Europe and wrote interesting and valuable sketches of his experiences abroad. He was an effective pulpit orator, and had a wide influence upon the questions of his day. In 1876, he was elected moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly.

Three names are inseparably connected with the Brick Presbyterian Church of New York, organized in 1767. The united pastorates of the Reverend Dr. John Rodgers and the Reverend Gardiner Spring, the first two occupants of that pulpit, covered more than the first century of its existence. During the last part of its first century, however, a decline set in and the con- gregation became depleted. It remained for the Reverend Dr. Henry van Dyke, the present pastor, to restore the church to its former high position as one of the most prominent religious societies of New York City.

The Reverend Dr. Henry van Dyke was born in Germantown, Pa., in 1852, and graduated from Princeton College in 1873, and from the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1877. He studied at the University of Berlin for two years, and then returned home to become, in 1878, pastor of the United Congregational Church at Newport, R. I. He remained in Newport for four years, and in 1882 was installed as the fifth pastor of the Brick Presbyterian Church, and occupies that pulpit at the present time. In 1884, he received the degree of D. D. from Princeton College and was made a director of the Princeton Theological Seminary. The degree of Doctor of Divinity was also conferred on Dr. van Dyke by Harvard in 1893, and by Yale University in 1896. Princeton gave him the degree of Doctor of Literature in 1897. In 1896, he was appointed to deliver the Ode at the Sesqui-Centennial of Princeton. He was university preacher at Harvard for two years, delivered the Lyman Beecher lectures on preaching at Yale in 1896, and was appointed to the Levering lectureship at Johns Hopkins University for 1898. Dr. van Dyke's literary work is well known in England and America. Among his books are The Reality of Religion, The Story of the Psalms, The Poetry of Tennyson, The Christ Child in Art, The Story of the Other Wise Man, Little Rivers, The Gospel for an Age of Doubt, The Builders and other Poems, and The First Christmas Tree. He is also a frequent contributor to the leading American reviews and magazines, and a number of his works have been reprinted in the mother country.

The wife of the Reverend Dr. van Dyke, whom he married in 1881, was Ellen Reid, a great-great-grandniece of George Washington. He lives in East Thirty-seventh Street. He is a member of the Century Association, the City, Princeton, University and Authors' clubs, the Holland Society, of which he is a trustee, the St. Nicholas Society, of which he is chaplain, and the Sons of the Revolution.

587

GEORGE WILLETT VAN NEST

P ETER PIETERSE VAN NEST, who came to New Netherland in 1647, settling in Brooklyn, was the founder of the American Van Nest family. In 1663, he was in the convention of delegates from the Dutch towns of Long Island. His wife was Judith Rapelje, whose father, Joris Janse Rapelje, immigrated in 1623. Joris Rapelje was a grandson of Colet Rapelje, an officer in the army of Henry of Navarre.

The ancestors in the ensuing generations of the gentleman now referred to have been George Van Nest, 1660-1747, of Raritan, N. J .; Peter Van Nest, 1700-1795 ; George Van Nest, 1736-1821, and his wife, Catalyna Williamson. Next in line came Rynier Van Nest, 1771-1859, and George Van Nest, 1795-1824, whose wife was Phæbe Van Nest, daughter of Abraham Van Nest, another son of George Van Nest and Catalyna Williamson. Abraham Van Nest, born in 1777, was a prominent citizen of New York during the first half of this century, being president of the Green- wich Savings Bank and an officer of other financial institutions. He was an alderman of the city, and Van Nest Hall, at Rutgers College, was named after him on account of his liberality to the institution. He died in 1864, at what was originally his country place, but from 1840 on had been his permanent residence-the old mansion and property of Sir Peter Warren, on Bleecker Street. This historic house and its grounds remained substantially as they were in Sir Peter's day until Abraham Van Nest's death. The latter's wife was Margaret Field, of the old New York family of that name.

The Reverend Abraham Rynier Van Nest, father of Mr. G. Willett Van Nest, was the son of George and Phobe Van Nest and was born in New York in 1823. He graduated at Rutgers College, and received from that college the degree of D. D. He was the author of a life of the Reverend Dr. George Bethune. On his mother's side, Mr. Van Nest is connected with the Willett and Bronson families of New York. She was the daughter of Dr. Marinus Willett and his wife, Caroline Bronson. Her grandfather was Colonel Marinus Willett, 1740-1830, the Revolutionary patriot. He was an officer in De Lancey's Regiment in 1758, was in Bradstreet's successful expe- dition against Fort Frontenac, and from the beginning of the Revolution to its close was Lieutenant- Colonel and Colonel in the Continental Army. He was one of the earliest Sons of Liberty in New York, and for his rescue of Fort Stanwix in 1777 received a sword from Congress. After the war he was tendered an appointment as Brigadier-General by Washington, but declined it, was in the Assembly, became Sheriff of New York in 1785, serving for several terms, and was Mayor of the city in 1807. In the War of 1812, he planned the defenses of New York.

The great-grandfather of Colonel Willett was Colonel Thomas Willett, 1645-1722, a member of the Governor's Council, Commander of the Queens County Militia and an opponent of Jacob Leisler. He lived in great state for those times at Flushing. From his father, Thomas Willett, he acquired the plot granted in 1645, which comprises most of the block bounded by Hanover Square, Pearl and Stone Streets and Coenties Alley. Colonel Thomas Willett's mother was Sarah Cornell, daughter of Thomas Cornell, of Cornell's Neck. The wife of Colonel Marinus Willett was Margaret Bancker, a descendant of Evert Bancker, Mayor of Albany, 1695-6 and 1707-9, and of Johannes de Peyster, Mayor of New York, 1696. Mrs. Abraham R. Van Nest's mother, Caroline Bronson, was a daughter of Dr. Isaac Bronson, 1760-1839, a prominent banker and financier and a descendant of John Bronson, who came to Connecticut in 1636.

Mr. G. Willett Van Nest was born in New York, and is a graduate of Harvard, where he also took the degree of LL. B. Since 1882, he has been a practicing lawyer in New York, and has argued several cases of great importance in the highest courts. He was an editor of the Seventh Edition of Sedgwick on the Measure of Damages, and is the author of a number of articles on legal and political subjects which have appeared in the leading periodicals. Mr. Van Nest's city residence is at 345 Fifth Avenue. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Harvard, and University clubs, the Downtown Association, the Bar Association and the Holland Society.

588

WARNER VAN NORDEN

I TT was in 1623 that the name of which this gentleman is the distinguished representative in the present generation first appears in the records of the early Dutch settlement in the New Netherland. Since that date, however, the family has been identified with New York, both in the city and the State, and is now connected by blood or marriage with many of the more prominent Knickerbocker families, such as the Kips, Vermilyeas, Van Cortlandts, De La Noys, Waldrons, Van Dams and Van Nests. In fact, Mr. Warner Van Norden boasts of a descent of the most distinguished kind from the Dutch and Huguenot founders of New York on both the paternal and maternal sides of his family line. Among his maternal ancestors is numbered the famous Reverend Everardus Bogardus, the first Dutch domine or minister of the Reformed Church of Holland, who came to the Colony in 1633, in the same ship which brought over the second Dutch Governor of the New Nethlerland, Wouter Van Twiller. The wife of Domine Bogardus, whom he married in 1638, was the famous Annetje Jans. He is also descended from Adrian Hoghland, who at one time owned the greater part of the property on the upper west side of Manhattan Island, now included in Riverside Park, which was long known in the city's early history as the De Kay farm. At the same time he inherits, through the maternal side of his ancestry, the blood of two distinguished Huguenot refugees, who, as their names indicate, were of noble rank, and who, driven from France previous to the issue of the Edict of Nantes, 1598, and during the persecution directed against their Protestant subjects by Charles IX. and Henry III., in which period occurred the massacre of St. Bartholomew, sought refuge first in Holland, and then later, they or their children, found religious freedom, and opportunity to better their condition in that country's transatlantic possessions. They were Abraham de lay Noy and Jean Mousnier de la Montagnie, the latter of whom, under the administration of Stuyvesant, was vice-director and ruler of Fort Orange-or, as we know it, the City of Albany-and was in many ways prominent in the affairs of the New Netherland in its formative period.

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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 98

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