USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester county in history; manual and civil list, past and present. County history: towns, hamlets, villages and cities, Volume III > Part 6
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In accordance with the arrangement made with his cousin and partner in Buffalo before starting, Mr. Mills closed out his Sacramento business in November, 1849, and started back with about $40,000 as the net profits of his season's work. Of course, his future was now determined. He was delighted with his experience, pleased with the country and so satisfied with its resources and prospects that he was already resolved to make it his home. He arrived in Buffalo in December, having been absent just about a year, and proceeded to close out his interest in the bank. His partner, Townsend, wished still, however, to have a half interest in the California business, and put in capital to that amount. The two partners busied them- selves during the winter in loading a bark and part of a ship with goods which they had bought for the Sacramento trade. These were dispatched around the Horn as early as possible, and in the spring Mr. Mills himself started, by way of the isthmus. Arrived in Sacramento, he again began dealing in
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general merchandise, gold dust and exchange. By the autumn of 1850 he had disposed of his various cargoes of merchandise and had so enlarged the other branches of his business that they required all his attention.
Then began the Bank of D. O. Mills & Co., which at once became-and to this day, under the same title, remains-the leading bank of Sacramento for the interior. It is the oldest bank that has always maintained full credit in the State. Dur- ing the following ten years, and years after, Mr. Mills was continuously and largely successful, and became known as the leading banker of the State, and, as the saying went, "the luckiest." The "luck of D. O. Mills" was, in fact, al- most a proverb, but it was joined with a reputation for unerring judgment, rapid decision, great boldness, and an unbending integrity. He would have nothing to do with questionable schemes, and his word was universally known to be as good as his bond.
In July, 1864, Mr. Mills was elected president of the Bank of California, which he was instrumental in organizing. He became actively interested in financial institutions too nu- merous to mention here, and in various enterprises, such as aiding in the building and management of railroads, the construction of iron works, the development of oil fields and lead mines, and the erection of many buildings in San Francisco and Sacramento. He became Regent and Treasurer of the University of California. Following his resignation of these positions, he presented the University with a gift of $175,000, to endow a professorship of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy.
BACK TO NEW YORK.
If in definitely transferring his residence for the greater part of the year to his native State Mr. Mills withdrew in a measure from active business, it was not by any means to live the life of a recluse. The obligation of caring for his large fortune, of finding new investments for his surplus income, kept him still prominent in the world of affairs. He found himself constantly interested in the progress and success of the enterprises that commanded his confidence and drawn to serve on their directorates. A mere enumeration of the cor- porations with which he was so associated is sufficient to indi- cate the wide range of his financial interests. Perhaps the most important of the latter enterprises in which Mr. Mills
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took a leading part was the so-called "harnessing of Niagara." In spite of his advanced years, he entered with all the enthusi- asm of youth upon the herculean task of making the great cataract the servant of man, devoting his ripened and undi- minished energies to the development of its almost unlimited water power. Many banks and other financial institutions and enterprises in New York found in him substantial support, and in most of the prominent ones he was a director or trustee.
In New York he cast about him for ways in which he could best benefit his fellow men without pauperizing them or im- pairing their self-respect. How great his benefactions were may never be known from the very manner of their bestowal, but some of his philanthropies were on so large a scale that despite his efforts they refused to be hid. Such a one was his gift to the city of New York of the building for a training school for male nurses on the grounds of Bellevue Hospital in 1888. The essentially practical nature of Mr. Mills's philan- thropic impulses was most clearly demonstrated, however, in the construction and administration of the three great Mills Hotels for homeless men. Two of these buildings have been in success- ful operation in New York city for twelve years, justifying the erection of the third at Seventh avenue and Thirty-sixth street, that city, at a cost of more than $1,500,000, which was opened two years ago. Mr. Mills took an intense and practical interest in the New York Botanical Garden from its inception, contributing $25,000 to the original endowment in 1895, and giving smaller sums whenever they were required. Mr. Mills was, in an altogether unusual sense, a quiet, well-informed, broad-minded man of the world. Fond of the society of men whose experience and culture ran in different channels, from his own, he was not only valued in turn by them as an associate in business and public spirited enterprises, but welcomed as a friend and companion in more purely social relations. He was a member of several prominent societies and took an active interest them.
In his younger days Mr. Mills was a conservative Democrat, as his father was before him. With the breaking out of the Civil War, however, he supported the Republican candidates and afterward generally voted with that party. He was a regular attendant, and for many years a vestryman, of St. Thomas's Church, and gave liberally to its support and to its many charities.
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Mr. Mills was married on September 5, 1854, to Miss Jane Templeton Cunningham, daughter of James Cunningham, of New York. Mrs. Mills died on April 26, 1888.
Mr. Mills died January 3, 1910, while on a temporary visit to California. His two children, Ogden Mills and Mrs. White- law Reid, survive him. His grandchildren are Ogden L. Mills, Mrs. Henry Carnegie Phipps, and the Countess of Granard, children of Mr. and Mrs. Ogden Mills, and Ogden Mills Reid and Mrs. John Ward, children of Mr. and Mrs. Whitelaw Reid.
Mr. Mills's remains lie in the Mills Mausoleum, in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, North Tarrytown, in this county.
LEWIS MORRIS who was among the signers of the Declara- tion of Independence, and prominent among the delegates in the Convention, and was a member of the Colonial Assem- blies, resided in Westchester County, in Morrisania, the town that was named in honor of his family. Mr. Morris is credited with being a good farmer, as he was a sterling patriot. He died at his home, on January 22, 1798, at the age of seventy-two years. The associates of Mr. Morris as delegates from the State of New York, who signed the Declara- tion of Independence, were Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis and William Floyd. Of the total signers only two, Adams and Jefferson, became Presidents of the United States. Washington and Madison, afterward Presidents, were not members of the convention when the Declaration of Independence was signed, but were members of the convention which adopted the Con- stitution.
Gen. Morris was in attendance at the meeting of the Colonial Congress of the Province of New York at White Plains, July 9, 1776.
General Morris was born in the Manor of Morrisania, in 1726, a son of Lewis Morris and Catherine Staats Morris. His father was Chief Justice, a member of the Colonial Assembly, and patriot, highly respected for many good qualities.
The son graduated from Yale College in 1746. Prior to the Revolutionary period he devoted much of his time to the pur- suit of agriculture on his estates in Morrisania. At the begin- ning of the Revolution he was made a Brigadier-General in the Continental Army.
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A son, Richard Valentine Morris, was a Commodore in the United States Navy.
The Morris family mansion was located near Port Morris, overlooking Bronx Kills, built by General Morris in 1781.
General Morris died at his home January 22, 1798.
E
GOUVERNEUR MORRIS was born in Morrisania January 31, 1752. He was a son of Lewis Morris and his second wife Sarah Gouverneur, and a half-brother of General Lewis Morris. He was graduated from King's College in 1768. In 1775 he was a delegate to the Provincial Congress of New York and a member of the Committee of Safety for Westchester County. He being a lawyer of eminence he was of valuable assistance in all bodies. He was one of the committee which drafted the Constitution of the State of New York, adopted in April, 1777. He was American Minister to France during the French Revo- lution and a member of the Constitutional Convention which framed the Constitution of the United States. In 1800 he was chosen United States Senator from New York State. He was closely associated with Governor DeWitt Clinton in the work of constructing the Erie Canal. Was an intimate friend of General Alexander Hamilton, was at his side at his death, and delivered his funeral oration.
Mr. Morris resided in a palatial residence situated in the southeast corner of the Manor, near what was later known as Port Morris, just east of what is now St. Ann's avenue. The house was recently torn down to make room for the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad.
Mr. Morris died at his home on November 5, 1816.
ROBERT RUTHERFORD MORRIS died at his home in New Rochelle, on September 5, 1881. Mr. Morris had passed the allotted three score years and ten, having been born in 1808. He belonged to the historic Morris family descended from New Jersey's first English Governor, Lewis Morris. His father, James Morris, was the son of Lewis Morris, who, for signing the Declar-
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ation of Independence, had his manor at Morrisania laid waste by British troops, where, thirty-two years later the subject of this sketch was born. There, too, was he raised. Gouverneur Morris, the statesman of the Revolution, was Robert's relative and one of his earliest advisers. It was under the directions of. Gouverneur that the lad was entered as an apprentice in the extensive mercantile house of Peter Harmony & Co., of New York, and trained to business habits. But this training did not produce any love for labor upon the part of the young man, and once free from the shackles of its routine, he never returned to it. At an early age he married Hannah Cornell Edgar, the only daughter of W. Edgar, and granddaughter of Herman LeRoy, who ranked among the first New York merchants of the last century. The Morrises were probably the most influential family in this country at that time, as they had been for many years, and the circumstances of which the young man entered upon his career were very favorable. Through his mother he was con- nected with the distinguished Van Courtlandt family, and this family prestige was supplemented, in no small degree, by his marriage in the influential Edgar and Le Roy circles. Wealth was his in almost unlimited volume, and it was not strange, therefore, that he was averse to a struggle for profits among a crowd. After his marriage he lived as a man of fortune, "a gentleman of the old school." Genial, whole-souled and honest, he gathered friends around him and made few enemies. Char- itable to a fault, he refused no man a favor that could be granted.
Mr. Morris and Daniel Webster were firm friends, in New York social circles this intimacy was formed. Both were cor- dially received by the Edgars, New Bolds, LeRoys, and other fashionable families having their homes near the battery, then the aristocratic families of the city. In his second marriage Webster followed the footsteps of his friend, and married into the Le Roy family, becoming thus still more closely attached to Morris. Just before Webster died, he took his heavy gold ring with its handsome stone and motto, and insisted that Morris should take it, "As Token," he said, "of my gratitude. You have been my best friend." Mr. Morris in a similar way, and with the like words gave the same ring to his "best friend," Walton White Evans. Mr. Morris in his lifetime treasured this ring almost beyond conception. Once a purse-proud individual tried to gain it by an offer of $1,000. Mr. Morris calmly replied that "$10,000, Sir, wouldn't tempt me."
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HIRAM PAULDING, late Rear-Admiral of the United States Navy, was born in town of Cortlandt, this County, on December 11, 1797, a son of John Paulding, one of the captors of Major John André, the British officer, as a spy.
In 1811, when Paulding was fourteen years of age, President Madison, in part recognition of the services the lad's father had rendered his country, and at the same time assist a bright youngster, gave the boy an appointment as a midshipman in the navy.
He served under Decatur and took part in the volunteer cruise in the schooner Dolphin in search of the mutineers of the whale ship Globe. In 1824 he set out on his mission to reach Gen. Simon Bolivar, the Columbian liberator, in camp in the Andes, and his own story of this expedition was pub- lished in 1834.
Admiral Paulding was in command of the Brooklyn Navy Yard at the time of the construction of the Monitor, and for him is claimed the credit of hastening the building of the peculiarly constructed (as it was considered at the time) little craft that went out and met and conquered in Hampton Roads the Rebel terror-the Merrimac.
The late admiral has been described as "a chivalrous hero of the old days, whose official life is interwoven with his Coun- try's history, whose home life was a rarely beautiful one and whose example is worthy of imitation."
Since his death, quite recently, one of the new war vessels has been named by the Government in his honor.
His daughter, Rebecca Paulding Meade, is the author of a recently published book entitled the "Life of Hiram Paulding, Rear Admiral, U. S. N."
JARED V. PECK, of Rye, who represented the district, in- cluding this County, as Assemblyman in 1848, in Congress in 1853 and 1854, and a Presidential Elector in 1856, was a man of strong character and of pronounced views. On one occasion, in recent years, a prominent County politician called upon him to secure his support for a certain political candidate, and fail- ing to get his desire, informed Mr. Peck that he did not under- stand him, and asked his grounds for refusal. "Principle, sir," replied the brave Congressman. "And some people cannot understand why other people do things from principle."
Mr. Peck died in 1884, at his residence in Rye.
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EDGAR ALLAN POE was not a native of this County, hav- ing been born in Boston, Mass., January 19, 1809.
He came among us in 1846, and became a resident of Ford- ham, in the town of West Farms, and the little cottage where he and his most amiable wife dwelt still stands as one of the show places in that section. In this humble cottage Poe spent some of the happiest hours of his singular and eventful life; his time of bliss proved short, his devoted wife dying in January, 1847; she lies buried in the church-yard of the Dutch Reformed Church on the Kingsbridge road.
In the Fordham cottage he wrote "Annabelle Lee," "Eu- reka," and "Ulalume."
He remained a resident of Fordham until June 29, 1849, when he went to Baltimore, Md., where he died on October 7, 1849; he never recovered from the blow he received by the death of his wife.
The little one and a half story cottage on the Kingsbridge road stood until quite recently on the old spot, the grounds surrounding it growing beautifully less as the years advanced. The humble abode of a distinguished man was being crowded out of place, as it were, on all sides, by overtowering modern buildings. On June 10, 1913, admirers of the eccentric author came to the rescue, and on that day the little cottage was moved from its original site and placed on a new foundation prepared for it in Poe Park, at One Hundred and Ninety-fourth Street and Valentine Avenue, about two blocks from its former posi- tion. The Park covers about two blocks, and the cottage, which will be restored as nearly as possible to its original condition, will stand at the northern end. It has been carefully kept in repair.
An old landmark standing not far distant from the Poe home, and known as the old King's Bridge Tavern, was torn down in May, 1913. This "public house" was described jocosely by a writer, who said, "here Edgar Allan Poe used to wait for his manuscripts to come back from heartless editors in New York." For more than one hundred years this inn stood at what is now Two Hundred and Twenty-sixth Street and Broadway, and in earlier days was a popular resort where men prominent in their time would daily assemble.
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MAJOR WILLIAM POPHAM, lawyer and soldier of promi- nence, who settled in Scarsdale, in this County, at the close of the Revolutionary War, is entitled to a conspicuous place among the notables associated with this County's history.
He was born in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland, on Septem- ber 19, 1752. When nine years of age his parents came to the United States and became residents of the State of New Jersey. He graduated from Princeton College prior to the Revolution. Coming from patriotic stock, his parents for sake of principles being forced to migrate to Ireland after the restoration of Charles II, young Popham, soon after leaving college, enlisted in the Continental Army, where he soon became conspicuous for bravery displayed on the field, especially during the battle of Long Island. In recognition of services he received appoint- ment as Captain, and served on the staff of General James Clinton, and later on the staff of Baron Steuben, participating in the battles of Brandywine and White Plains. His conduct in these engagements earned for him promotion to the office of Major. Immediately following the war he became a resident of Albany where he practiced law and soon gained a position of prominence. In Albany he became acquainted with Miss Mary Morris, daughter of Chief-Justice Richard Morris, whose family estate was in Scarsdale. The Morris House, later the residence of Major Popham, and at the present time in the Popham family, and known as the Popham Homestead, is over two hun- dred years old. In 1787 Major Popham purchased a farm adjoining the Morris property and erected on it, facing the New York Post Road, a larger dwelling, which house is still standing. He resided at his Scarsdale residence until his death, in 1846.
In 1804 he was clerk of the Court of Exchequer, in New York, and held that position until the abolition of the Court. Until the time of his death he was President-General of the Cincinnati of the United States, and President of the New York Chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati.
Major Popham was, on the maternal side, the great grand- father of William Popham Platt, County Judge of this County, of the late Lewis C. Platt, president of the Village of White Plains, and of former Deputy County Clerk Benoni Platt, all of White Plains, in this County, their father, Lewis C. Platt, the first elected Surrogate of this County, having married, in 1853, Miss Laura Sherbrook Popham, granddaughter of Major Popham.
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CLARKSON NOTT POTTER, LL.D., a former Representa- tive in Congress, representing this County, was long closely identified with the County and its best interests. He became a resident of New Rochelle in 1862, dwelling with his family on the magnificent estate known as "Nutwood," facing Long Island Sound, until the time of his death which occurred, after a brief illness, on January 23, 1882. He was a Warden and Vestryman of Trinity Episcopal Church, New Rochelle, from 1864 to date of his death. He served in Congress four terms.
Mr. Potter was born on April 25, 1824, in Schenectady, N. Y., a son of Alonzo Potter, late Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania, a nephew of the late Episcopal Bishop Horatio Potter of New York, and was a brother of the late Episcopal Bishop Henry C. Potter of New York. He was descended from Quaker ancestors who settled at Warwick Neck, R. I., in 1640, his grandfather, Joseph Potter, having removed thence to Duchess County soon after the Revolution, and subsequently represented that county in the Legislature. Mr. Potter was graduated from Rensselaer Institute as a civil engineer and also at Union College, of which his maternal grandfather, Eliphalet Nott, was long president. Mr. Potter was for some time a surveyor in Wisconsin, where he soon determined to study law-thence removing to New York city to commence his studies, and in 1848 he was there admitted to the bar. He retired from active professional business in 1859 to engage in financial enterprises, but when on the breaking out of the war, his brother, Gen. Robert B. Potter, who had suc- ceeded him in his practice, joined the army, Mr. Potter returned to law, appearing in many important cases, among which the Legal Tender case will be especially remembered; in 1868 he entered the political field. He had in 1848 lent his aid to the Free Soil wing of the Democratic party ; in 1868 he was elected to the national House of Representatives from the Westchester (the Tenth) District as a Democrat, being re-elected he served until 1875; again was elected and served in 1877-78. He was at that time, it may be said, the first person, except General Aaron Ward, who had been elected to Congress from this district for more than two successive terms. In the first Congress in which he sat Mr. Potter served on the committee of Private Land Claims, Elections, and Commerce, and in the others on the Judiciary Committee, making in all these trusts a high reputa- tion as a conscientious, capable and laborious worker. In 1871 he proposed and in 1873 he reported from the Judiciary Com-
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mittee a Constitutional amendment limiting the term of the President and Vice-President to six years, and providing that no person should be eligible for the Presidency who had once held that office, but it failed to receive due support (a proposi- tion similar to the one now being considered and one originat- ing with him). During his third term at Washington, Mr. Potter was a member of the Special Committee on Southern Affairs whose report (the first in which the Republicans had joined with the Democrats in opposing the iniquities of bayonet rule in the South) that the Louisiana Returning Board had reversed the will of the people as expressed at the polls, created so wide and deep a sensation. In 1872 Mr. Potter was a dele- gate to the Democratic National Convention at Baltimore. While he was in favor of cordially accepting the constitutional amend- ments and other changes growing out of the war, he was yet opposed to the nomination of Mr. Greeley, because his belief in centralization, legislative discretion, protection and subsidies were opposed to Democratic views, but after Mr. Greeley was nominated he faithfully supported him. In 1876 he was a prominent candidate for the Governorship, and but for the sup- pression of Governor Seymour's dispatch declining the nomina- tion would, it was believed, have been nominated. He canvassed the State with his usual vigor, and while he did good work for the National and State tickets, carried this, his own Congres- sional District-then the Twelfth-by a large majority. In the Forty-fifth Congress he served on the Committee on the Revi- sion of the Laws Regulating the Counting of the Electoral Votes, and was chairman of the well-known "Potter Committee" charged with inquiring into the frauds connected with the Presidential Election in 1876. In 1871 Mr. Potter had presided over the State Convention which excluded Tweed, and the char- acter of his address on that occasion and the fairness and ability with which he presided had added much to his reputation. In 1879 the State Convention which rejected Kelly nominated Mr. Potter for the Lieutenant-Governorship, but he was defeated by Hoskins, Republican, by 290 votes in a poll exceeding 900,000. In June, 1881, he was made the Democratic candidate for the United States Senatorship, and in August was elected President of the American Bar Association, before which body he delivered an able and eloquent eulogy upon the public life and services of the late Chief Justice Taney.
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WHITELAW REID, though not a native of Westchester County, is fully entitled to be mentioned in connection with the County's history, considering his residence among us, and the high regard in which he was held locally.
Mr. Reid, who died in London, on December 15, 1912, while acting as United States Ambassador to Great Britain, was born in Xenia, Ohio, on October 27, 1837, a son of Robert Charlton and Marian Whitelaw (Ronalds) Reid.
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