The Butler Law Firm

The Butler law firm and the Olcott banking dynasty were at the core of the Albany Regency of the early 1800s, and their political control continued throughout that century. The Butlers also created the Union Theological Seminary of New York and the Church of the Covenant, of that cabal of eastern elitism, the Presbyterian Church; while an in-law headed the Baptist University of Chicago until John D. Rockefeller took over. In 1873, with directors of the Guaranty Trust, the Butler law firm created the Central Trust. In addition to wealthy benefactors of the American Bible Society and other Christian missionary causes, it was also the repository of tobacco and utility magnate and Catholic Church benefactor Anthony N. Brady's fortune.

Benjamin Franklin Butler

Benjamin F. Butler clerked for Martin Van Buren and moved to Albany with him in 1809, living in the Van Buren household until his marriage in 1819. In 1848, he opened the law firm of Butler & Butler with his son. "One of the more notable commercial transactions that involved the firm [Butler, Stillman & Hubbard, attorneys] was the founding of the Central Trust Company. In 1873 the directors of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company, in the business of lending money against collateral security, wanted to expand into other lines of business, but were prohibited from doing so by their restrictive charter. Until 1887, when New York finally passed a general incorporation law, every corporation had to come before the legislature and argue for the specific provisions they wanted in their charter, a time-consuming and expensive procedure that usually involved a great amount of political dealing with legislators. To avoid this morass, [William Allen] Butler searched for an inactive company that had a broader charter than the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company. In 1875, Butler and ten other individuals purchased the charter of the inactive Central Trust Company for $10,000. This new company was recapitalized at $1,000,000, with most of the money being advanced by the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company, which acquired the charter of the old company. The Central Trust Company was one of the largest clients of the Butler firm. In 1887, to facilitate daily contacts with the Central Trust Company, the firm moved to offices at 54 Wall Street, in the same building as the Company...." Railroad magnate Mark Hopkins was a boyhood friend of firm founder Hiram Barney. In 1888, Stillman and Hubbard were hired to manage the holdings of Hopkins's widow, which became their full-time task, although they technically remained partners until 1896. (History of Thacher Proffitt.) Butler was a trustee of the Central Trust until his death in 1902. Thomas Edgar Stillman, Esquire, was a nephew of Jacob Davis Babcock Stillman, a close friend of Leland Stanford.

Benjamin F. Butler was one of the founders of the Church of the Covenant in New York City in 1862. Its first Pastor, Rev. George L. Prentiss, resigned to accept the Chair of Pastoral Theology, Church Polity, and Missionary Work at Union Theological Seminary in 1873. William E. Dodge was one of the Ruling Elders, and Charles Butler and David McAlpin were Deacons in 1874. (Church of the Covenant. New York Times, Sep. 21, 1874.)

William Allen Butler, a director of the Central Trust

William Allen Butler (1825-1902), born in Albany, "was the son of Benjamin Franklin Butler, one of the most prominent members of the bar of the State of New York in the early part of the century." He is said to be "a lineal descendant from Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England." Benjamin F. Butler was in the cabinets of Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren. (William Allen Butler Dies Suddenly. New York Times, Sep. 10, 1902.) Pallbearers at Butler's funeral were Judge John M. Dillon, John E. Parsons, Lewis B. Reed, Prof. Henry M. Baird, Thomas H. Hubbard, Thomas E. Stillman, Adrian H. Joline, Wilhelmus Mynderse, John Reid, and Walter W. Law. (William Allen Butler Buried. New York Times, Sep. 13, 1902.) He was a director of the newly-formed Security Fire Insurance Company in 1856, along with Edmund W. Corlies of the Central Trust. (Insurance. New York Daily Times, Jul. 18, 1856 p. 6); and of the newly-formed Commercial Union Fire Insurance Company in 1890, along with George S. Bowdoin, who joined the Guaranty Trust in 1896. (Display Ad 8. New York Times, Nov. 19, 1890 p. 7.) He was the referee for the Continental Life Insurance Company in 1877. (Insurance Disclosures. New York Times, Feb. 15, 1877.) He was a member of the University Corporation, the governing body of New York University, at the merger of New York Medical College and Bellevue Hospital Medical College into New York University Medical College. (Medical Colleges Unite. New York Times, May 15, 1897.)

William Allen Butler Jr. was one of two executors of the will of Theodore Saltus's son, John Sanford Saltus, with the Central Union Trust as a backup executor. J. Sanford Saltus left $50,000 to the American Bible Society of New York City. Most of his fortune had been in bank stocks, and around 1914, J.S. Saltus was one of the major stockholders of the National Bank of Commerce, the American Exchange Bank, the Park National Bank, and the Bank of America. (Fix Saltus Estate At About $2,000,000. New York Times, Aug. 8, 1922; John S. Saltus left estate of $3,543,253. New York Times, May 19, 1923; Banks Stock List Full of Surprises. New York Times, Sep. 23, 1914.) William Allen Butler was executor of the will of Cassie Mason Meyers Julian-James, net New York assets $195,590. She left $40,000 to Butler. (Estates Appraised. New York Times, Feb. 28, 1926.)

Charles Butler

In 1855, William Allen Butler worked in his uncle's office at 12 Wall Street, handling railroad bonds (New York Daily Times, May 2, 1855 p.6.) His uncle, Charles Butler (1802-1897), went to Chicago in 1833, when it was "a hamlet of less than 300 population," and became interested in real estate there. He persuaded his brother-in-law, William Butler Ogden (1805-1877), who was a member of the New York legislature, to take charge of his interests there, while he handled Ogden's interests in New York. In 1836, Charles Butler was one of twenty founders of Union Theological Seminary and continued on its board of directors for life, as president from 1870-97. Also in 1836, Charles Butler became a member of the Council of the University of New York, now New York University. He was president of New York University at his death, when William Allen Butler was elected in his place. (Auction Sales. New York Daily Times, June 13, 1855 p.6; Charles Butler Is Dead. New York Times, Dec. 14, 1897; Burial of Charles Butler. New York Times, Dec. 11, 1897; New York University. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1898 p. 14; Guide to the Charles Butler Papers. New York University Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library.) Charles Butler's boyhood friend, Charles A. Briggs, spearheaded the liberal takeover of the Presbyterian Church. Briggs got his ideology at the University of Berlin. (The Fundamentalist / Modernist Conflict. The First Presbyterian Church.)

Charles Butler's oldest daughter, Emily Ogden Butler, gave $150,000 in cash and 223,109 as half the residue of her estate, as well as $300,000 before her death, to Union Seminary. Her friend and companion, Dr. Mathilda K. Wallin, received $11,437 in personal effects, $200,000 in cash, a life interest in $25,000, and the use of her country home and town estate. (Union Seminary Receives $300,000. New York Times, Dec. 25, 1924; Miss Emily O. Butler Left $2,105,063 Net. New York Times, May 22, 1929.) Wallin became Treasurer of the Women's Army General Hospital of New York in 1916, and a year later was named to the executive committee of the American Women's Hospitals, and held this post until her death. She was a longtime trustee of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children (C.H. Strong to Keep Old Infirmary Open. New York Times, May 12, 1928; Dr. Mathilda K. Wallin, a Physician, Dies; American Women's Hospital Official, 97. New York Times, Sep. 20, 1955.)

William Butler Ogden

In 1837, William Butler Ogden became the first Mayor of Chicago. In 1862, he was a Commissioner of the Union Pacific Railroad when it got its big subsidy from the US Congress, along with Thomas W. Olcott [the father of Central Trust trustee Frederick P. Olcott], John S. Kennedy of the Central Trust, Noah L. Wilson (later a director of the New York Guaranty & Indemnity Company), C.P. Huntington and D.O. Mills. (Public Notices. New York Times, July 14, 1862.) In 1863, he was on the first board of directors of the Union Pacific, along with Abiel A. Low, one of the founding directors of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company (Union Pacific Railroad. New York Times, Oct. 31, 1863.) Ogden was President of the Board of Trustees of the pre-Rockefeller University of Chicago, from which he resigned to move to New York (Chicago Affairs. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1874.) Ogden's widow and son contested his will because they were allowed an income only and no money, in his son Herman's case, until his "full and permanent reformation... from intemperance and evil habits to the full satisfaction of my Executors..." (He Wanted His Son To Reform. New York Times, Feb. 26, 1886.) Mrs. Ogden's bequest to her niece's son was conditioned on abstaining from alcohol and tobacco until he reached the age of twenty-one. (Mrs. Ogden's Estate Valued At $20,000,000. New York Times, Oct. 7, 1904.) Her sister was the wife of Guaranty Trust director George G. Haven. (Mrs. William B. Ogden. New York Times, Sep. 29, 1904, p.9).

Richard Pettigrew in "Triumphant Plutocracy" said: "The situation is well summed up in the case of the Union & Central Pacific Railroads which were conceived in the womb of the Republican Party; were born into the world as the full-fledged children of corruption and iniquity, and which never for one day drew an honest breath."

William B. Ogden's niece, Frances Sheldon, married William Fitzhugh Whitehouse, Skull & Bones 1899, who was the grandson of Henry J. Whitehouse, the Protestant Episcopal Bishop of Illinois. William F. Whitehouse began his career at the Guaranty Trust from 1900 until 1904, when his father bought him a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. They were the parents of Edwin Sheldon Whitehouse, Skull & Bones 1905, and grandparents of Charles Sheldon Whitehouse, S&B 1947. Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse (Mary Crocker Alexander), whose grandfather, San Francisco banker Charles Crocker, was associated with Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington and Mark Hopkins, continued her mother's interests on the board of Presbyterian Hospital. Her sister was Mrs. Winthrop W. Aldrich, whose husband was on the board of directors of the American Society for the Control of Cancer; and their father was Charles B. Alexander, counsel, a director, and a member of the Executive Committee of the Equitable Life, and grandson of a founder of Princeton Theological Seminary. (Miss Alexander to Wed S. Whitehouse. New York Times, Jul. 30, 1920; C.B. Alexander, 77, Noted Lawyer, Dies. New York Times, Feb. 8, 1927; W.F. Whitehouse, Newport Leader. New York Times, May 28, 1955; Sheldon Whitehouse Dies At 82; Career Diplomat for 26 Years. New York Times, Aug. 7, 1965.)

George W. Parsons

When his father retired, Hiram Barney became William Allen Butler's law partner in Barney, Butler & Parsons. Hiram Barney was a director of the Continental Insurance Company in 1861, along with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, A.A. Low, and John Caswell, George W. Lane of the Central Trust, and Robert H. McCurdy, the father of Richard A. McCurdy of the Guaranty Trust. (Ad 7. The Independent, Jan. 31, 1861;130(635):7.) George W. Parsons (1823-1887) was born in Spencertown, Columbia County, New York. After graduating from Williams College and Yale Law School, he began his practice with the firm and retired from it in 1875. "He was an authority on insurance law and at one time he was counsel to over 30 insurance companies." He was a director of the Skin and Cancer Hospital. (Ob. 1. Obituary Notes. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1887.) Parsons was a director of the Home Insurance Company of New York in 1871 (New York Times, Oct. 19, 1871, p. 8). Fred. P. Olcott and J. Harsen Rhoades were directors of Home Insurance in 1887.

Parsons's son-in-law, Thomas Wentworth, was a "bosom friend" of James H. Ingersoll and William H. Bucknam, who burned down Ingersoll's house and several other properties so that Ingersoll could use the insurance money for his defense during the Tweed Ring investigations of the 1870s. (Runs Back to Tweed Days. New York Times, Feb. 28, 1892.) He was active in the Alumni Association of Phillips Exeter Academy from its first annual dinner in 1883 until 1895, including a term on its Executive Committee. Fellow active alumni included Robert T. Lincoln, Fordyce D. Barker, and Charles MacVeagh. Wentworth was a partner of William R. Foster, Jr., the attorney of the Produce Exchange gratuity fund, who forged phony mortgages, while the Trustees of the Produce Exchange, whose president was Guaranty Trust director Alexander E. Orr, made the loans in the form of personal checks to Foster. (Foster's Strange Folly. New York Times, Sep. 30, 1888.) He was active in the Republican Party, and was appointed to a four-year term as Magistrate by New York Mayor Strong. (Chosen A City Magistrate. New York Times, Jan. 14, 1895), after which he was a partner of Wentworth, Lowenstein & Stern. He was a graduate of Yale and "held membership in the Wolf's Club [sic], an organization composed of the older graduates of Yale College," presumably meaning Wolf's Head. (Thomas Wentworth Dead. New York Times, Nov. 12, 1907.)

Thomas Hamlin Hubbard

Thomas H. Hubbard (1838-1915), joined the Butler firm before the Civil War, and was a partner from 1867-1896. He was the second son of Maine governor Dr. John Hubbard, who signed the infamous Maine Liquor Law in 1851. As a trustee of the estate of Collis P. Huntington, he served as First Vice President of the Southern Pacific and in the management of other Huntington properties. He was President of the Pacific Improvement Company, and President of the International Banking Corporation, which acted as agent of the U.S. in collecting the Boxer Indemnity from China; President of the Guatemala Central Railroad, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the American Light and Traction Company, and a director of the National Bank of Commerce, the Equitable Trust Company, Wabash Railroad Company, the Toledo, St. Louis and Western Railroad Co., the Western Union Telegraph Co., the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and other companies. (Gen. T.H. Hubbard, Financier, Dead. New York Times, May 20, 1915 p. 11; Hubbard Estate $2,579,422. New York Times, Apr. 7, 1917 p. 11.) He was one of the attorneys in the litigation over the will of Francis Saltus of the Saltus Steel Co. of New Haven, Conn., and he was the executor of the will of Theodore Saltus, who left half his estate of $3,543,253 to be divided between the American Bible Society, the Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, and the New York Association for the Improvement of the Poor. (Mr. Saltus's Brief Will. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1901; Brigadier General Thomas Hamlin Hubbard. Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States.) Hubbard was a director of the Shoe and Leather Bank, and his son, John was added to the board in 1904 (Annual Bank Elections. New York Times, Jan. 21, 1904.) Hubbard was a director of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, along with Joy Morton and Norman B. Ream. (Alton's control complete. New York Times, Oct. 3, 1907.) Hubbard was president of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. His wife, Sibyl A. Fahnestock, was the sister of Harris C. Fahnestock, a former partner of Jay Cooke & Co. and Vice President of the First National Bank of New York. Harris Fahnestock's daughter, Ruth, married A. Coster Schermerhorn, S&B 1920 (Ruth Fahnestock Wed At St. Thomas. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1926.) The Fahnestock family has a thousand-year legacy of imperial ambition.

The International Banking Corporation was established by a special act of the Connecticut legislature in June 1901, which exempted it from state inspection and supervision. Its purpose was to collect the $25 million Boxer Indemnity from China (which the Guaranty Trust also applied for), and expand US banking influence in Asia, the Americas, and the rest of the world. Many of Citibank's foreign branches originated with this firm. Thomas H. Hubbard was President of the Board of Directors of the IBC, and his son, John Hubbard, was Treasurer. Its President, Marcellus Hartley, who died soon after, was also President of Union Metallic Cartridges Company, the Remington Arms Company, and the Bridgeport Gun Implement Company, and a director of the American Ordnance Company, and the Equitable Life Assurance Society. Edward F. Cragin was Vice President, and Valentine P. Snyder was Vice Chairman of the board. Subscriptions for the company were taken at the Western National Bank, which was purchased by the Guaranty Trust-founded National Bank of Commerce in 1903. (Cabinet Names Agent to Collect Indemnity. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1902; Many Branch Banks to Be Established. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1902; International Banking Corporation. New York Times, Jan. 18, 1902 p. 3.) H.C. Frick and Eugene Delano of Brown Brothers and Company were elected to the board of directors the next day. (Banking Corporation Directors. New York Times, Jan. 3, 1902 p. 10.) The New York Times editorialized in its favor, assured readers that it would have no powers beyond that of a legal entity, and decreed that its affairs were "not a matter for public discussion." (International Banking. New York Times, Jan. 3, 1902 p. 6.) The Board of Directors was reconstituted, with James W. Alexander, James H. Hyde, and W.H. McIntyre, respectively the President and Vice Presidents of the Equitable; E.H. Harriman, Chairman of the Union Pacific; Abram S. Hewitt, ex-mayor of New York [who died in 1903]; Luther Kountze of Kountze Brothers; Edwin Gould, President of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway; H.E. Huntington, director of the Southern Pacific Railroad; George Crocker, President of the Pacific Improvement Co.; John J. McCook of Alexander & Green, attorneys, 120 Broadway, where the meeting was held; J.M. Ceballos, of J.M. Ceballos & Co., shippers; Edward F. Cragin, director of the Trust Company of America, and H.S. Manning, its Vice President; R.A.C. Smith, Vice President American Surety Co.; A.W. Paige of Bridgeport, Conn.; Jules S. Bache, Vice President of Toledo, St. Louis and Kansas City Railroad; John B. Jackson, President Fidelity Title and Trust Co., Pittsburgh; H.P. McIntosh, President Guardian Trust Co., Cleveland; H.S. Rogers, Vice President Merchants National Bank, Cincinnati; and H. Hardy, Secretary. (The International Bank. New York Times, Jan. 23, 1902.) J.B. Lee, a 22-year veteran of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China, was appointed manager, and W.H. McIntyre, New York associate agent of the Colonial Bank of London, his assistant. (Banking Corporation Officials. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1902 p. 6.) Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, Isaac Guggenheim, and John Hubbard joined the directorate. (Market Movement. New York Times, Apr. 22, 1902 p. 12.) The IBC and the Guaranty Trust were approved as the US Government's fiscal agents in Hong Kong and Manila by the Solicitor of the Treasury. (Government's Fiscal Agents At Manila. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1902 p. 5.) William L. Moyer, President of the National Shoe and Leather Bank, was elected President of the IBC; Alexander Green, Secretary; and Allen W. Page, Attorney. Executive Committee members were T.H. Hubbard, Moyer, Haley Fiske, Edwin Gould, J.H. Hyde, L. Kountze, J.J. McCook, William A. Read, and William Solamon. (International Banking Corporation. New York Times, Nov. 22, 1902 p. 13; Dec. 20, 1902 p. 13.) Massacusetts Ex-Gov. Crane Elected a Director. (New York Times, Jan. 10, 1903 p. 14.) In 1903, the IBC's subsidiary, the Sixty Wall Street Co., bought land at 58 to 62 Wall Street to construct a new 26-story headquarters building; the IBC purchased a controlling interest in the National Shoe and Leather Bank; and Walter Kutzleb, who was in charge of foreign banking at the IBC, was accepted as a special agent of the Russo-Chinese Bank. By March 1904, the Internal Banking Corporation had shipped $1.5 million of gold to Argentina, and planned to send several million dollars more in April; its ultimate destination being Paris (More Gold For Argentina. New York Times, Mar. 16, 1904 p. 10; Foreign Exchange Situation. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1904 p. 12.) During this period, the Russo-Japanese War had broken out. The Yalu River Timber Company interests, headed by a courtier named Bezobrazoff, had been a major incitement. According to a letter to the New York Times by Wolf Von Schierbrand, Bezobrazoff "took good care to disappear from the scenes of his exploits, St. Petersburg and Far Asia - at the very commencement of this present war. He is reported to live in Paris, enjoying his ill-gotten gains in luxurious idleness, but in disgrace with his monarch. (The Two Bezobrazoffs. New York Times, Aug. 19, 1904.) "Actually the 'economic enterprise' was set up in order to forward a policy of imperial expansion in the Far East which the group already favored, and far from shaping events to insure private gain, the members seem to have contemplated some economic loss for the attainment of their political objectives." (War and the Private Investor, by Eugene Staley, Ch. 3.)

William J. Wallace

Partner William James Wallace (1837-1917) was United States District Judge (Northern District) from 1874 to 1882, then Circuit Judge, and then Presiding Judge of the US Court of Appeals from 1891 until 1907, when he retired and joined the Butler firm. He was a native of Syracuse. (Ex-Judge Wm. J. Wallace. New York Times, Mar. 13, 1917 p. 11.) He represented the American Tobacco Company in the Sherman Anti-Trust suit of 1908. (Last Arguments in Tobacco Suit. New York Times, May 20, 1908.)

cast 09-24-06