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 7
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Not long after settling in New York in the pursuit of his profession, he sought Westchester County in search for a home. The magnificent Reid estate, "Ophir Farm," lying partly in the town of White Plains and partly in the town of Harrison, comprising many hundred acres, has been the "country-seat" of the Reid family many years. Mr. Reid, whose genial, demo- cratic manners attracted the good will of his neighbors, be- came deeply interested in what concerned Westchester County. He contributed liberally when called upon to aid laudable ob- jects, and local charities had no better friend. A worthy cause never appealed to him in vain. He was chosen one of the orig- inal board of directors (a first stock owner) of the White Plains Bank (now the First National Bank of White Plains), and until his going to Europe to assume public office, he never missed a meeting of that board. He said then that the attending of such meetings, where he could come in close contact with his neighbors, afforded him the greatest pleasure. At leave taking, prior to departing for Europe, in 1905, he asked that a place among the directors might be made for him when he returned from his mission abroad, when he intended to make his home in Westchester County a permanent one. The di- rectors assured him that his place on the board was a life posi- tion, and his coming back would be most heartily welcomed.
Early in his career Mr. Reid entered into political and news- paper life, making speeches for the Republican party in the Fremont campaign when not twenty years of age, and becoming the editor of the Xenia News; soon after he became widely known by his letters to the Cincinnati Gazette, signed "Agate." He was thus engaged at the opening of the Civil War, his letters attracting attention alike from their vigorous style and their trustworthy information. He took part in the war as a volunteer aide-de-camp to General Morris, and afterwards to General Rosecrans in the West Virginia campaign of 1861.
WHITELAW REID
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Later he served as war correspondent with the Army of the Cumberland and the Army of the Potomac, and was present at the battles of Shiloh and Gettysburg.
Mr. Reid was librarian of the House of Representatives at Washington, 1863-66, at the same time being the Washington correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette, of which he had be- come one of the proprietors. After the war he made a journey through the South, and for some time tried cotton planting in Louisiana and Alabama. The results of his observations while thus engaged were embodied in a book entitled "After the War," published in 1867. He was connected with the New York Tribune from 1868.
In the early Sixties, when he was acting as a newspaper correspondent at the national capital, a personal intimacy began between Mr. Reid and Horace Greeley, who was equally im- pressed by the former's literary attainments, his executive ability and his personal character. Mr. Greeley, indeed, at an early date urged Mr. Reid to come to New York as a member of the staff of the Tribune, or at least to take charge of the paper's Washington bureau. The invitation was declined for the time, but the two men became, and remained for the rest of the elder's life, confidential and affectionate friends.
In 1868 Mr. Greeley again renewed his invitation to Mr. Reid to enter the home office of the Tribune, and this time it was accepted. As if conscious of the approaching end of his own great career, Mr. Greeley felt the need of selecting for his successor a man after his own heart, who would con- tinue unimpaired the great journal which he had founded, and he discerned that man in Whitelaw Reid. The intimate association which then was formed lasted little more than four years.
Mr. Reid was quickly advanced to the post of managing editor; and when, in 1872, Mr. Greeley accepted the nomina- tion for the Presidency, he placed the whole control of the paper in Mr. Reid's hands, where it remained until his death. After Mr. Greeley's death, Mr. Reid became editor-in-chief and principal owner of the Tribune. He published, in 1873, his memorial of Greeley, a biographical sketch of his late friend and chief. He organized a syndicate which bought control of the unfinished linotype for setting type by machinery, introduced it first in newspaper composition, and after some
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years' experiment with it organized the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, became its first president, and established its shops in Brooklyn.
In 1878 Mr. Reid was elected by the Legislature of New York a Regent of the University of the State of New York; he was offered the post of minister to Germany by President Hayes and President Garfield, declining in both instances, and served as American minister to France from 1889 to 1892. Public appreciation of his services abroad was expressed in dinners by the Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Society, the Lotos Club, and other organizations, on his return home. The Cham- ber of Commerce elected him an honorary member, a mark of respect which had been bestowed on only fifteen other men during the century of the chamber's existence. He was nomi- nated for Vice-President of the United States with President Harrison by the Republican National Convention of 1892; was special ambassador of the United States to Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1897; member of the Peace Commission to Paris for the negotiation of peace with Spain, securing Porto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, in 1898; special ambassador to the corona- tion of Edward VII in 1902. In 1904 he was elected Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, for life. In March, 1905, he was appointed Ambassador of the United States at the Court of St. James, which position he continued to fill until his death.
Mr. Reid wrote easily and authoritatively on matters of pub- lic interest. His publications include : "After the War" (1867) ; "Ohio in the War" (1868) ; "Newspaper Tendencies" (1874) ; "Town Hall Suggestions" (1881) ; "Some Consequences of the Last Treaty of Paris" (1899) ; "How America Faced Its Edu- cational Problem" (1906) ; "Our New Duties" (1899) ; "Our New Interests" (1900); "Problems of Expansion" (1900) ; "The Monroe Doctrine, The Polk Doctrine and Anarchism" (1903); "The Greatest Fact in Modern History" (1906), etc.
Mr. Reid, as editor and proprietor, made the New York Tribune a formidable and constructive factor in American politics; as Chancellor of the Board of Regents of the Univer- sity of the State of New York, as United States Minister to France for four years, as one of the negotiators of the peace with Spain after our Cuban War, as special ambassador on several occasions to Great Britain, as the Republican candidate for Vice-President with Benjamin Harrison, 1892, and finally
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as an Ambassador to Great Britain for a longer term than any of his predecessors, except Richard Rush, he had become and was at the time of his death, one of the best qualified and most useful of public servants.
The news of his untimely death was received on both sides of the Atlantic with profound regret. From the day he arrived in London, in June, 1905, until his death, he was among the foremost of the men in diplomatic life from whatever country. His skill and tact, his wide and varied experience in public and political questions, his high character and suavity of man- ner enabled him to meet and successfully to treat the successive important questions that arose between the two countries. Mr. Reid's literary talents were of a high order, and his style finished and refined, enabling him to deliver admirable ad- dresses in all parts of Great Britain which commanded approval and exercised good influences both there and at home. It had been evident to his friends for some time that his health had been steadily declining, but it was hoped that he would live to finish his term with that of the administration of President Taft, on which he reflected so much honor and credit abroad. The rare event of the death of our Ambassador while in office was made the occasion of an interchange of heartfelt con- dolences between the two governments.
The remains of Mr. Reid were brought from England to this country in a British war vessel-a special and extraordinary courtesy extended by the British Government.
From his twentieth year, when he purchased and proceeded to edit a newspaper in Xenia, Ohio, his native town, Whitelaw Reid found the leading interest of his life in public affairs. From that first venture, down to the day of his death at the post of duty as Ambassador to England, the leading activities in his life were dedicated to public service. The record of those long and well-filled years testifies to the breadth of his char- acter, to the range of his gifts. He was resolute and skilled in the forthright give and take of politics. In the more deli- cate art of diplomacy he was equally steadfast and resourceful. To the practice of journalism, with its incessant pressure of haste, of issues rising as the hours fly and requiring in the editor as swift a habit of mind, he brought both the practical readiness of his profession and the scholarly traits of the man of letters. Whitelaw Reid was, in fact, a many-sided man, in whom diverse qualities were supremely well balanced. But
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what co-ordinated his powers and made their exercise effective was a central spring of sane, clearsighted, devoted patriotism. He was one of those publicists and statesmen whose labors have been governed by solicitude for the welfare of their country.
In the death of Whitelaw Reid Westchester County lost a type of devoted friendship; this fact residents fully recognize. His kind regard and consideration for his neighbors and for all with whom he came in contact, taught them to consider him as indeed a friend.
During a meeting of the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York, held in Albany, February 20, 1913, . a considerable portion of the proceedings was devoted to the memory of Chancellor Whitelaw Reid. Among the Regents who delivered brief addresses was Francis M. Carpenter of Westchester County, who said in part :
"Mr. Vice Chancellor-
"I purpose to speak of the local activities and personal char- acteristics of Chancellor Reid which endeared him to his neigh- bors and the people of Westchester County, rather than of the various activities he gave to the State and nation. For many years prior to his appointment as ambassador to Eng- land, he owned and occupied a magnificent estate in the town of Harrison, near White Plains, the county seat, which he called "Ophir Hall." His house was open to his neighbors and friends and the freest hospitality extended to all, and none came away without being impressed with the intellectual culture in that home, shown in paintings of great artists adorn- ing the walls and the refined taste in its furnishings. Chan- cellor Reid was, in the broadest sense, a public-spirited man. His generosity in aid of all struggling institutions in our county, his presence and speech on every occasion for the bet- terment of his fellow men and the advancement of every good cause, his personality and charming manners, evidenced the noble man he was. He was closer to the hearts of the people of Westchester County because of his efforts, crowned with success, to make the Tribune one of the leading dailies, which was the ambition of Horace Greeley, the founder of the New York Tribune, so much beloved and honored in this county, where he lived and died a martyr to the policies and principles he advocated and believed. While Mr. Reid's activities de- manded most of his time, he found opportunity for work as
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a master of finance. I recall his election as director of a na- tional bank in White Plains and at once he grasped the details of its management, and his advice, sought, and given in his unostentatious manner, was an inspiration to his fellow mem- bers. The broader field of his life work as journalist, politician, and diplomat, has been fittingly alluded to by members of this Board who were his associates for a longer period of time than was my privilege. It was not my good fortune to meet Mr. Reid in his official capacity as Chancellor of the University until the dedication of the Education Building. His presence on that occasion and the prominent position assigned him as presiding officer added much to the brilliancy and success of the ceremonies. His was a life of great attainments, his death a loss to this nation, a loss to the Education Department of this State, and his memory worthily honored by this and other lands as few men before him."
(Mr. Carpenter was an associate with Mr. Reid in the Board of Directors of the First National Bank of White Plains.)
Academic degrees were conferred upon Mr. Reid by various institutions in America and Europe. From his alma mater, Miami University, he received A. B. in 1856, A. M. in 1859, and LL. D. in 1890; New York University, then known as the University of the City of New York, gave him an honorary A. M. in 1872, and Dartmouth the same in 1873. Princeton gave him LL. D. in 1899, Yale in 1901, Cambridge, England, in 1902; St. Andrew's, Scotland, in 1905, and Victoria Univer- sity, Manchester, England, in 1909. The University of Oxford in 1907 gave him D. C. L., the most coveted of its degrees.
Mr. Reid was married in 1881 to Miss Elizabeth Mills, daughter of the capitalist and philanthropist Darius Ogden Mills (a native of this county), who bore him two children. The elder, Ogden Mills Reid, after being graduated from the collegiate and law departments of Yale University and admitted to the bar, became associated with the Tribune, and is now president of the corporation, and editor. The younger, Miss Jean Reid, was married in 1908 to the Hon. John Hubert Ward, a brother of the Earl of Dudley and equerry to King Ed- ward VII.
Mr. Reid died at his official residence, Dorchester House, in Park Row, London, at 12:10 P. M., Sunday, December 15, 1912. His remains, brought to this country, and buried in this county, repose in North Tarrytown.
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Mr. and Mrs. Reid long maintained three residences in Amer- ica. They established their New York home at 451 Madison avenue, and their country home at Purchase, near White Plains, in this county, on the extensive estate known as "Ophir Farm," many years ago the property of Ben Holliday and subsequently of the well-known shipbuilder John Roach. Soon after Mr. Reid's purchase of it the house was destroyed by fire, and he built in its place "Ophir Hall." A third dwelling, for season- able occupation, was Camp Wildair, at Paul Smith's, in the Adirondacks.
A sketch of CAPT. EBENEZER SMITH, who took a promi- nent part at the final trial and execution of Major André, may be of special interest owing to the number of his descendants residing in this County. His son, Rev. David Smith, one of the first trustees of Yale College, preached in the Bronxville Re- formed Church when he was 91 years of age. Hon. Alfred E. Smith, of Bronxville, a former member of the State Legisla- ture from this County, and President of the village of Bronx- ville, is a great-great-grandson of the patriotic Captain.
Captain Smith was stationed at West Point at the time André was brought there, and later was in command of the guard over André at West Point, and was commander of the guard for the day André was executed at Tappan. In proof of Gen. Wash- ington's confidence in Captain Smith, is told the story of how Gen. Washington sent for him and informed him of the impor- tant trust to be imposed upon him in the care of André, and warned the Captain that he (Washington) was fearful lest the food or drink which might be offered him (the Captain) that night be drugged, in order to make André's escape possible ; adding, "Treachery is all around me, and I hardly know whom to trust, but I know I can trust you-you must mount guard over him to-night." To this Capt. Smith promptly replied, "My life shall answer for his safety." The Captain did not leave André that night. Through the lone hours the prisoner grew confidential, lamented his fate and asked the Captain to intercede for him. In speaking later of that night's experience and of the behavior of the prisoner, Captain Smith said, "The agony of his mind as he walked the room was most distressing, and it seemed to me that his very flesh crawled upon his bones." Capt. Smith was an especial favorite with Gen. Washington, at
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whose request the Captain withdrew his offered resignation from the army. At the time peace was established in 1783, he was one of the oldest men in point of service, having been in the army eight years, eight months and nine days.
After the war he served as a member of the Massachusetts Legislature.
SAMUEL JONES TILDEN, was another of Westchester County's adopted sons, a resident of whom any county could feel justly proud. For many years, and until the hour of his death, he resided in Yonkers, occupying "Greystone," his mag- nificent estate, consisting of a palatial residence and many highly cultivated broad acres of land, constituting in all one of the most attractive show places of the County.
He became a resident of Yonkers in September, 1879. He died August 4, 1886.
Mr. Tilden held several official positions in this State, but never held a federal office. He was never a Representative in Congress, or a United States Senator or a cabinet minister; yet it may be doubted if any other man since Lincoln exerted so great an influence upon national affairs.
His advance from minor office holding to national leadership has been rapid, and unparalleled in our country's history, ex- cept by the career of Grover Cleveland, who, unknown to the Nation in 1881, was elected President of the United States in 1884. Tilden had reached the age of 54 years, in 1868, before he began to be prominent in national politics, as a reform Demo- cratic leader. In 1872, at the head of the Committee of Seventy of New York city, a non-partisan committee, he led the fight against William M. Tweed.
Mr. Tilden's place in American history, as the great polit- ical reformer, is secure. He was indeed, "the great American reformer." His successful fight against the Tweed ring was the beginning of the great movement to throw off the shackles of political corruption which the Civil War riveted upon the country. His successful fight against the Canal ring gave a new impetus to political reform in nearly every Northern State. It was under his leadership that the Democratic party was again politically rehabilitated, and the political rehabilitation of the Democratic party compelled a moral rehabilitation of the Republican party.
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Hon. John Bigelow, the historian, in speaking of Tilden, says : "What Tilden did for the city of New York in crushing the Tweed ring, what he did for the State in crushing the Canal ring, and the declaration of the House of Representatives, in 1877, that he had been the choice of the people of the United States for President, seems to entitle him to the proposed evi- dence of national consideration."
It is possible that historians will always divide on the ques- tion of whether or not Mr. Tilden was fraudulently deprived of the Presidency ; but that he was the choice of a large majority of the voters at the polls there can be no doubt whatever. Neither can there be two opinions as to the great patriotism which he exhibited during this tremendous conflict which brought the country almost to the edge of another civil war. His advising peaceful submission in the face of strong evidence that he had been defrauded of what was his just due, proved him to be a strong character, a man who would serve country rather than self.
Many men have been great in victory; but Samuel J. Tilden belongs to that smaller company who proved themselves great in defeat.
In June, 1910, Congressman Sulzer, of New York, introduced in Congress a bill providing for an appropriation of a suitable sum to pay for the erection in Washington, D. C., of a statue to the memory of Samuel J. Tilden. The latter's friends alleg- ing that it is time Congress accorded him his due recognition among the Republic's statesmen of the first rank.
Mr. Tilden was elected to the State Assembly, from the 18th district New York city, in 1872; the serving of one term gave him opportunity to study at close range the workings of the Tweed political machine and learn the most effective way to crush it. His opportunities for doing good were increased when he was elected Governor in 1874. In 1876, near the termination of his two years term as Governor, he purchased from John T. Waring, of Yonkers, "Greystone," as a place of residence, and here Tilden resided when he became a candidate for Presi- dent of the United States, and "Greystone" became the mecca to which all friends of the Democratic nominee made their way previous to election.
Mr. Tilden was in 1874 elected Governor of this State, defeat- ing, by about 50,000 majority, Gen. John A. Dix, candidate for
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re-election, who was first chosen to the office by a majority of about 50,000. When he took office, January 1, 1875, Mr. Tilden discovered the people overburdened by taxation, in a great degree unnecessarily he thought. The direct taxes col- lected from the people in the tax levy of 1874 were over $15,- 000,000. When he had been eighteen months in office, in 1876, the tax levy was only $8,000,000.
The Democratic National Convention, in 1876, to select nomi- nees for President and Vice-President, met in St. Louis on June 27. Mr. Tilden was nominated on the second ballot, receiving 535 votes, out of 738 votes cast for the Presidential nominee; the balance of the vote being scattered in small quan- tities among favorite sons. Thomas A. Hendricks, of Indiana (who was ten years later elected Vice-President), received 60 votes, and Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock (who was later the Democratic nominee for President), received 59 votes.
When Mr. Tilden wrote his letter, in 1880, declining a re- nomination to the Presidency, his friends recognized his pur- pose, well considered, to never return to public life. Though Mr. Tilden's failing health reinforced the consideration which led to his abdication in 1880, the political party with which his public life had been identified, and of which he had long been the head, experienced unexampled difficulties in trans- ferring its allegiance to another leader. As time wore on, the determination to renominate Mr. Tilden, regardless of his health or his personal inclinations, gathered strength and momentum. He alone of all the principal statesmen of his party seemed day by day to expand and to assume continually enlarging propor- tions in popular estimation.
Early in the year 1884, as the time for choosing a candidate approached, the purpose to nominate Mr. Tilden threatened to be irresistible. The Democratic masses entertained the un- doubted conviction that his nomination would assure success. There was also a wide-spread disposition among Republicans, who loved fair play, to give their votes on the first opportunity in such a manner as to redress the wrongs of 1876. But the idea of a renomination at no time secured any encouragement from Mr. Tilden. On June 12, 1884, Mr. Tilden wrote and sent to conventions of his political party, in the several States, his second letter of declination. Out of twenty-two State con- ventions, held previous to the publication of this last named
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letter, twenty instructed their delegates to vote first and always for Mr. Tilden, and the other two States declared him to be the second choice after the first vote for a favorite son. All these States had prepared to assist in having Mr. Tilden nominated by the National Convention of his party. The action of these conventions was deemed cause for the second letter.
The Presidential campaign of 1876, instead of ending on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, as usual, did not end until three months later. Each party claimed victory at the polls. For a time the situation looked serious. Issues were raised that might in other countries have created revolu- tion and disruption. But wise counsel prevailed. Governor Til- den, who prized the best interests of the nation above personal ambition, advised a peaceful solution of difficulties; though the result be a great disappointment to his friends, a majority of the Nation's electors, that they accept it peacefully and honorably.
The findings of the Electoral Commission were against Gov- ernor Tilden, who lost the Presidency by one vote; yet he had the satisfaction of knowing that he had received a majority of the popular vote.
Tilden's total vote was 4,284,885. Hayes' total vote was 4,033,950.
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