"It commenced, without capital, on the 1st of February, 1843. At the
close of its second year, (31st of January, 1845), it had issued 1086
policies, and its net accumulated premiums was $97,278. At the
termination of the third year, on the 31st January, 1846, the whole
number of policies issued was 2133, and its net accumulated premiums,
after paying all losses and expenses, was $215,571..." The Trustees
were Morris Robinson, President; Benjamin D. Stillman [sic], R.H.
McCurdy,
Robert B. Minturn, C.W. Faber, Mortimer Livingston, Theodore Sedgewick,
Stacy B. Collins, William Barnwell, William Moore, Zebedee Cook Jr.,
Jonathan Miller, John H. Swift, Joseph B. Collins, James S. Wadsworth,
Henry W. Hubbell, Gouverneur M. Wilkins, John V.L. Pruyn, Thomas W.
Olcott, Charles Ely, Fitz Greene Halleck, Robert Schuyler, Amos S.
Perry, Thomas Tuckerman, Isaac G. Pearson, John C. Cruger, Alfred Pell,
David C. Colden, John C. Thacher, Rufus L. Lord, W.S. Wetmore, Joseph
Blunt, William J. Bunker, Gideon Hawley, and there were two vacancies.
Samuel Hannay was Secretary, and E. Cushing M.D. was the examining
physician in Cleveland, Ohio. (The Mutual Life Insurance. The Cleveland
Herald, Jul. 18, 1846.) "Stillman" was a misspelling of Silliman.
(Display Ad. Milwaukie Sentinel, Apr. 28, 1845.) Dr. Erastus Cushing of
Cleveland, Ohio, was the
grandfather of Dr. Harvey Cushing.
Zebedee Cook Sr. was a mast maker in Newburyport, Mass. (Display Ad.
Political Gazette, Oct.1, 1795.) He was Chairman of the Board of
Selectmen of Newburyport, which ordered that "all vessels arriving fom
Guadaloupe or Martinico, shall anchor at Quarantine ground, till the
Health-Officer has been on board and reported." (Take Notice.
Newburyport Herald, Nov. 29, 1808.) Zebedee Cook married Elizabeth
Whitney in 1825. (Married. Salem Gazette, Apr. 7, 1825.) He died in
1845. (Deaths. Boston
Daily Atlas, Sep. 5, 1845.)
In 1811, there was a big fire in Newburyport, which wiped out most of the downtown, including Zebedee Cook Jr.'s dry goods store. "On Friday evening last, at half past 9 o'clock, the citizens of this town were alarmed with a cry of fire, which proved to have taken effect at the place where they have so repeatedly been summoned in the course of the present season on a similar occasion; and where it has for some time past been anxiously feared some incendiary intended to accomplish the purpose which is now effected... It is estimated that upwards of two hundred buildings were burnt, most of which were Stores and Dwelling-Hoses; in which number nearly all the Dry Goods Stores in town are included; four Printing Offices, being the whole number in town; and including the Herald Office; the Custom-House; the Surveyor's Office; the Post-Office; two Insurances Offices; (the Union and the Phenix;) the Baptist Meeting-House; four Attorneys' Offices; four Book-Stores, the loss in one of which is Thirty Thousand Dollars, and also the Town Library." (Dreadful FIRE! Newburyport Herald, Jun. 5, 1811.) [A few weeks later, under the pretext of imminent danger, the town of Salem, about 20 miles down the coast, passed a smoking ban.]
In 1813, Z. Cook Jr. arrived at the Port of Boston in the ship
Commodore Preble, from Cadiz. One of his fellow passengers was Samuel A. Storrow.
(Centinel Shipping List. Columbian
Centinel, Dec. 11, 1813.) In 1814, Zebedee Cook Jr. (1786-1858) opened
an insurance office in
the Exchange
Coffee House in Boston. (Display Ad. Salem Gazette, Apr. 15, 1814.) In
1820, he chartered and opened the Eagle Insurance Company in the former
place of the Office of Discount and Deposit for the United States Bank,
Boston, with himself as President. (House of Representatives. Salem
Gazette, Jun. 13, 1820; Display Ad. Boston Repertory, Sep. 26, 1820.)
In 1824, he was a member of a committee formed "for the purpose of
adopting suitable measures to interest the attention of Congress in the
suppression of the piratical hordes which infest the shores of the
Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico." The other members were William Gray,
Thomas H. Perkins, Francis J. Oliver, and William Sturgis. (Meeting at
Merchants' Hall. Independent Chronicle and Boston Patriot, Dec. 15,
1824.) His business references included Stephen White, of
Salem; J. & T.H. Perkins & Sons; Samuel
G. Perkins; Bryant & Sturgis; Caleb Loring; Pascal P. Pope;
Daniel Webster; Willard Phillips; and Charles G. Loring, of Boston
(Insurance. Essex Register, Dec. 10, 1827); and
Lorman & Son, R.H. Douglass & Co., William Howell & Son,
and Riggs, Peabody & Co., Baltimore. (Insurance. Baltimore Patriot,
Aug. 15, 1828.) In 1834, in Gloucester, Mass., he married Ann S. Trask,
daughter of Hon. Israel Trask. (Marriages. Salem Gazette, Apr. 8,
1834.) He was President of the Mutual Safety Insurance Company of
New-York from 1840 until resigning in 1848. Alfred Pell, the
Vice-President, resigned as well. (Insurance. Portsmouth Journal
of Literature and Politics, Jun. 13, 1840; Boston Daily Atlas, Dec. 4,
1848.) He died in South Framingham, Mass., in 1858. (Obituary. New York
Times, Jan. 27, 1858.)
Clarence Cook was the fourth son of Zebedee Cook.
(Died. New York Times, Jun. 3, 1900). Clarence Chatham Cook was born in
Dorcester, Mass. in 1828, and graduated from Harvard in 1849. "He
studied architecture, and for several years was occupied as a teacher.
In 1863 he began the publication of a series of articles in The New
York Tribune on American art. These articles were continued at
intervals until 1869, when he became the Paris correspondent of that
paper. He remained abroad for several years." (Clarence Cook Dead. Jun.
3, 1900.) The Tribune was anti-smoker Horace
Greeley's paper. His sister married James Lovell Little of Boston
(Married. Boston Daily Atlas, Oct. 21, 1843), and his grandnephew, Clarence Cook Little, was
Director of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
John Church Cruger was born in New York City in 1807. "His family
was
one of the oldest in the Metropolis, two members, both named John
Cruger, having filled the office of Mayor of New-York in the early days
of its history." He was educated in France, returned to study law, and
became a lawyer. He soon retired to "devote himself to the life of a
country genetleman on his beautiful seat on the Hudson, known as
Cruger's Island, which he purchased in 1835." He was a Whig candidate
for Congress in 1852. (Funeral of John Church Cruger. New York Times,
Nov. 20, 1879.) His wife, Euphemia Van Rensselaer, was the daughter of
Stephen Van Rensselaer, Lord of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, and a
Royal descendant through the Livingstons of Louis VI, King of France.
(Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 587.)
They were the parents of Stephen
Van Rensselaer Cruger.
John Cruger came from Germany before 1700 and married a member of
the Cuyler family. One of the early Crugers married the daughter of a
Bristol banker, Samuel Peach, and was a Member of Parliament between
1774 and 1790, and later a U.S. Senator from New York. Many were West
India merchants on Curacao and Santa Cruz. Nicholas Cruger sent
Alexander Hamilton from Santa Cruz to New York. One of John C. Cruger's
aunts married William Bard, and his cousin married Rufus Delafield.
(Original Family Records, Cruger. By Edward F. De Lancey. New York
Genealogical and Biographical Record, April 1875, p. 78.)
Charles Ely was born in West Springfield, Mass., and came to New
York City
after his first wife, Harriet Kent, died. He was a member of the dry
goods firm of Merritt, Ely & Co. (Obituary Record of Graduates of
Yale, 1880-1890, p. 119.) His grandson, Morris Upham Ely, Wolf's Head
1898, was vice
president of the Ely Anode & Supply Co. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1932-1933, p.
94.) Henry B. Hyde of
the Equitable was employed by Merritt, Ely & Co. from 1850 to 1852.
The Ely family held a reunion in Lyme, Conn. in 1878. (Reunion of the
Ely Family. New York Times, May 6, 1878.)
Morris Robinson Esq. (1787-1849) was a Royal descendant of Edward I,
King
of England. He married Henrietta Elizabeth, a daughter of Capt. William
Duer of the U.S. Army, who was also a
Royal. His daughter, Harriet Duer Robinson, married Albert Gallatin,
grandson of the banker Albert Gallatin. (Americans of Royal Descent. By
Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 108.) Moses H. Grinnell replaced him
as President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. (City Intelligence.
New York Herald, May 9, 1849.) He was married a few months after being
appointed cashier of the Bank of Orange County in Goshen (Bank of
Orange County. Orange County Patriot, Sep. 21, 1913; Married. New York,
The Olio, Dec. 4, 1813.) He was elected cashier of the United States
Bank in Philadelphia a few years later. (New York, the American, May
20, 1820.) He was vice president and a director of the American Life
Insurance and Trust Company of Baltimore. (Classified Ad. Washington
DC, The Globe Oct. 27, 1835; Daily National Intelligencer, Mar. 2,
1836.) He was President of the U.S. Bank of New York, a private bank
financed by Richard Alsop and George
Griswold. (The U.S. Bank of New
York. Washington DC, Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 5, 1839.) A
tablet of the Canadian Society of New York which commemorates him for
establishing "the business of modern life insurance on the American
Continent, Feb. 1st, 1843." It states he was born in Wilmot, Nova
Scotia, on Sep. 2, 1784. (Robinson Tablet Unveiled. New York Times,
Feb. 3, 1903.) William Betts was his niece's husband.
Theodore Sedgwick was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of
New York. He graduated from Columbia College, and at the age of 25, was
an attaché of the Livingston Legation in Paris. He wrote a
biography of the Ambassador, and was a frequent contributor to Harper's Monthly. (Obituary. New
York Times,
Dec. 10, 1859.) He was
born in Albany in 1811. His grandfather, Theodore Sedgwick, was Speaker
of the House in the sixth Congress, and his father, Theodore Sedgwick,
was a Massachusetts state legislator. He wrote a biography of William
Livingston, Governor of New Jersey, and served in the legation to Paris
while Edward Livingston was Minister. He returned to New York in 1835,
and was a law partner of Robert Sedgwick. (Death of the Hon. Theodore
Sedgwick. New York Herald, Dec. 15, 1859.) He and his wife, Sara
Ashburner, who was born in Bombay, India, were buried in Section C of
the Sedgwick Pie. (Sedgwick Family Plot, Stockbridge Cemetary.) His
sister was Catharine Maria Sedgwick, the famous author. (Obituary.
Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. 2, 1867.)
His grandfather and father graduated from Yale in 1765 and 1798,
respectively. His father married Biographical Sketches of the Graduates
of Yale College, May 1763 - July, 1778, p. 146; and June, 1792 -
Spetember, 1805, p. 336.) His mother, Susan Anne Livingston, was a
daughter of Matthew R. [Ridley] and Catharine Livingston, daughter of
William Livingston, Governor of New Jersey, and a Royal descendant of
Louis VI, King of France. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry
Browning, 1891, p. 589.)
Benjamin Douglas Silliman was the son of Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman
(Yale 1796), and the grandson of Gen. Gold Selleck Silliman (Yale
1752), and great-grandson of Judge Ebenezer Silliman (Yale 1727). Prof.
Benjamin Silliman (Yale 1796) was his uncle. His mother was Hepsa Ely,
daughter of Rev. David Ely (Yale 1769), whose clan contributed at least
two dozen Yalies. After the War of 1812, his father gave up his
successful law practice in Newport, R.I., and moved to New York City,
then Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1823. Benjamin D. Silliman was admittted to the
bar in 1829, and was counsel to the National Bank of Commerce
for over half a century. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale,
1900-1910, p. 3.) He was one of the organizers of
the Society of Alumni of Yale College, with Elias H. Ely [Yale 1810] as
Treasurer. (Yale College. New-York Spectator, Sep. 20, 1831.) "Mr.
Silliman never married, and his nearest relatives living are his
sister, Mrs. Laura S. Blagden of Washington; two nieces, Miss Caroline
Taylor, who was his housekeeper, for years, and Mrs. Samuel Carey of
Manhattan; another niece, Mrs. Harriet Silliman Matherson of Brooklyn,
and two nephews. It is expected that the greater part of Mr. Silliman's
estate will go to these relatives. No estimate of the value of the
estate could be obtained yesterday, but it is known to be very large.
Mr. Silliman inherited a fortune from an aunt, and was also left part
of the estate of his brother. He owned the valuable piece of property
at the southeast corner of Broadway and Wall Street, Manhattan; his
residence in Brooklyn, also a valuable property, a country seat at
Babylon, L.I., and other real and personal estate." The little corner
at Broadway and Wall Street which his aunt, Mary McGregor, left him was
about thirty by forty feet in size, and "enjoys the reputation of being
the most valuable piece of ground in this city, if not in the world."
(Benj. D. Silliman Dead. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1901.) It was
sold for $700,000 to the Mercantile Trust Company of St. Louis, "acting
as agents for interests whose identity was not disclosed." The United
Cigar Stores Company held a lease on the building. (Most Costly Site in
New York Sold. New York Times, Jun. 7, 1905.) From 1877 until his
death, he was a business partner of Philip H. Adee, Yale 1873. In
1897, he made a deposition about his family's long friendship with the
William H. King, of the King family
of Newport, Rhode Island, several of whom had been partners of Russell
& Co. in the China trade.
Two of his sisters married Thomas Blagden Sr. of Washington, D.C.
Emily Greene Silliman Blagden died in Washington in 1853. (Deaths.
Daily
National Intelligencer, Nov. 7, 1953.) Their son, Silliman Blagden,
graduated from Yale in 1869. He practiced law in New York for five
years, then "devoted himself to private interests in Washington."
Several years later he became an evangelist in New England and Canada.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 908.) Thomas
Blagden Sr. was a
member of the Board of Health for several years (Board of Health. Daily
National Intelligencer, Jun. 5, 1829; Jun. 2, 1834.) He died in 1870.
(Died. New York Times, Feb. 4, 1870.) Laura Silliman Blagden died at
the home of her son, Thomas Blagden Jr., in Upper Saranac, N.Y., at the
age of 89. "Blagden Road was named after Mrs. Blagden's husband, who
died thirty years ago. The family have been residents of Mount Pleasant
for more than a generation, and still occupy their home, 'Argyle,' in
that section." (Death of Mrs. Blagden. Washington Post, Jan. 26, 1908.)
Thomas Blagden was a brother of George W. Blagden, whose wife was a
Royal. Their son married the sister of George C. Clark of Clark, Dodge
& Co., and one of Thomas Blagden Jr.'s sons married Clark's niece.
His niece, Harriet Silliman Blagden, married Arthur Mathewson MD,
Yale 1858, an opthalmic and aural surgeon in Brooklyn, N.Y. They took
up residence at the Blagden family estate in Washington in 1906.
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1920-1921, p. 12.)
James Samuel Wadsworth "attended both Harvard University and Yale
University, studied law, and was admitted to the bar, but had no
intention of practicing. He spent the majority of his life managing his
family's estate," until going into politics. He was one of the
organizers of the Free Soil Party, which joined the Republican Party in
1856. He was commissioned a Major General of the New York state militia
before getting command of a brigade in the Army of the Potomac. He was
wounded in battle in 1864 and died in a Confederate field hospital.
(Barker Family Tree, accessed 2/23/10.) He married Mary Craig Wharton.
(James Wadsworth Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of
Congress, Washington, D.C.) James S. Wadsworth, Esq., of Genesee was a
director of the Colonial Life Insurance Company of Scotland. Fellow
directors included Nathaniel Thayer, and its Governor was The Right
Hon. The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine, Governor General of Canada.
(Insurance. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1854.)
His son, James Wolcott
Wadsworth, was educated at the Hopkins Grammar School in New Haven and
was preparing to enter Yale when his father died. He enlisted in the
Union Army instead. He was a New York state official until 1881, then a
member of Congress (with one break) until 1907. He was President
of the Geneseo National Bank and the Genesee River National Bank of
Mount Morris. He married Louise Travers, daughter of William R. Travers of New
York. (Familiar Figure in Geneseo. New York Times, Dec. 25, 1926.) The
ushers were John Travers, her brother; Rowland Redmond, W.A. Duer and
Richard Peters. (Marriage in High Life. From the Newport R.I. News,
Sep. 16. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Sep. 20, 1876.)
Another son, Craig Wharton Wadsworth, married Evelyn Peters, a Royal
descendant of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. (Americans of Royal
Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 267.)
James Wolcott Wadsworth
Jr., Skull & Bones 1898, was U.S. Senator from New York from 1915
to 1927, and U.S. Representative from 1933 to 1950. He was a trustee of
Cornell University, and a director of the Genesee Valley National Bank
& Trust Company. He married Alice Evelyn Hay, daughter of John Hay.
Their children were Mrs. William S. Symington 3d, Yale ex-23, James
Jeremiah Wadsworth [S&B] 1927, and Reverdy Wadsworth 1936.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools Deceased
during the Year 1951-1952, p. 34.) U.S. Sen. James W. Wadsworth Jr. was
a director of the Frontier Mortgage Corporation, whose fellow directors
included Bronson Rumsey and Brig. Gen. H.C. Bickford of Toronto,
Canada. (Display Ad. Dunkirk Evening Observer, Jun. 23, 1921.) His
wife's sister married Payne
Whitney, S&B 1894, and he and Whitney were executors of John
Hay's will. (Will of John Hay Filed. Washington Post, Jul. 21, 1905.)
The Wadsworth family "is about the nearest approach to the British
landed gentry that can be found in republican America.... The first
native born American of the name, James Wadsworth, of Durham, Conn.,
became a member of the committee of safety at the breaking out of the
Revolutionary war." (The Wadsworths of the Genesee Valley. By Elbert O.
Woodson. Logansport Journal, Jul. 20, 1906.). James Wadsworth, Yale
1748, had no living children and left his property to nephews and
nieces. (Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale College, May,
1745-May, 1763, p. 192.)
James Wadsworth, Yale 1787, was a nephew of Gen. James Wadsworth,
Yale 1748. He and his older brother William bought land in the
townships of
Geneseo and Avon of New York State from their father's second cousin,
Jeremiah Wadsworth. "From February 1796 to November 1798 he was in
Europe, with the cooperation of Robert Morris, Aaron Burr, DeWitt
Clinton, and others, interesting foreign capitalists in American
investments." (James Wadsworth. (Dictionary of American Biography Base
Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.) He married
Naomi Wolcott, and their daughters
married Martin Brimmer (Harvard 1814) and Sir Charles Murray, a son of
the Earl of Dunmore. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale
College Vol. IV., July 1778 - June, 1792, p. 582.) He left $900,000 in
trust to his grandson, Martin Brimmer of Boston, who left no heirs. The
other heirs put claims on it, but the court ruled against his English
grandson, Charles J. Murray. (Wadsworth Estate Settled. New York Times,
Sep. 20, 1896.)
James Wadsworth 1787's nephew, James Wadsworth, Yale 1841, studied
law with Benjamin D. Silliman. He was mayor
of Buffalo and a state senator. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale,
1890-1900, p. 32.) His son, Wedworth Wadsworth, Book &
Snake 1867, "spent some years in the custom house in New York following
his graduation," then traveled and painted. (Obituary Record of Yale
Graduates 1926-1927, p. 215.)
William Shepard Wetmore (1801-1862) was born in Vermont, but was
raised by his uncle, Samuel Wetmore, in Middlrtown, Connecticut after
his mother died. He went to sea at age 14. "In 1823, he was shipwrecked
near Valparaiso, to which port he had gone as supercargo of one of the
ships of Edward Carrington & Co., of Providence, a business partner
of his uncle. In Valparaiso he went to work for the firm Richard Alsop
of Middletown, Connecticut. This eventually led to a partnership of
Alsop, Wetmore and Cryder in 1825 with John Cryder of Philadelphia. He
retired from the firm around 1831, and, apparently on advice from his
doctor, left for Canton, China where in 1833 he established the firm of
Wetmore & Co. with Joseph Archer of Philadelphia. The company went
on to be one of the largest mercantile houses in the East Indies
brokering tea, tea papers, silks, spices, wines, ports, hemp, pearl
buttons, copper and coffee, and on occasion opium, though apparently in
lesser quantities than rival British houses." (Letters to William
Shepard Wetmore, China Trade merchant and supercargo, 1827-1840.
Description of auction items. PBA Galleries, accessed 6-19-11.) He and
his first wife, Esther Phillips Wetmore, Samuel Wetmore's daughter,
were married at St. Pancras New Church in London. (Table Talk. London,
The Age, Oct. 29, 1837.) She died the next year. (Died. New-York
Spectator, Nov. 1, 1838.) His second wife was Anstiss Derby Rogers.
(Married. Boston
Daily Atlas, Sep. 9, 1843.) She was a
great-granddaughter of Elias
Hasket Derby, the pioneer of the China Trade, and of Rev. John
Rogers, the fifth president of Harvard. (Geo. Peabody Wetmore. Newport
Mercury, Mar. 24, 1894.) He was a mortgageholder of the New York,
Providence and Boston Railroad (Display Ad. Boston Daily Atlas, Oct. 2,
1844), and a New York director of the Liverpool and London Fire and
Life Insurance Company (Display Ad. New York Times, Sep. 25, 1852.) He
was a Vice President in the U.S. of the Medical Missionary Society in
China, for whom Russell & Co.
were Treasurers. S.
Wells Williams was Recording Secretary. (Medical Missionary Society
in China. New York Times, May 19, 1853,
from the China Mail, Mar. 3, 1853.) His uncle, Samuel Wetmore, was a
founder of that company, and was guardian of the younger siblings of
partner Samuel W. Russell. (At a Court of Probate Held in Middletown in
and for the District of Middletown on the 24th of Sept. A.D. 1810.) He
was a personal friend of George Peabody. (Mr. Peabody. Boston Daily
Atlas, Sep. 23, 1856.)
Partners of Wetmore & Co. prior to June 12, 1856 were John
Burgess Goodridge and Oliver Everett Roberts. It was dissolved by
Roberts, and Wetmore joined Franklin Delano Williams and William
Wetmore Cryder as Wetmore, Williams & Co. (Notice. Shanghai North
China Herald, Jun. 20, 1857.) Roberts tried to assign the property of
the firm to Oliver H. Perry, U.S. Consul at Canton, but William Shepard
Wetmore had it set aside and cancelled by decree of the Court of the
U.S. Commissioner in China, and obtained sole control. S. Wells
Williams was Clerk of Court. (Intimations. North-China Herald, Sep. 5,
1857.) Stating that the firm was "perfectly solvent," he expelled
Roberts and formed Wetmore, Williams & Co. with Franklin Delano
Williams and William Wetmore Cryder. It was to operate from Shanghai,
with agents in Macao, Hong Kong, and Foochow, unless conditions at
Canton improved. (Notice. North-China Herald, Sep. 5, 1857.) In 1847,
William S. Wetmore was the first to import gutta-percha, used for
insulating underwater cables. (Gutta-Percha. San Francisco Evening
Bulletin, Feb. 23, 1869.)
His father, Seth Wetmore (1769-1830), of St. Albans, Vermont, was a
probate judge, member of the Vermont Legislature, and a Fellow of the
University of Vermont. (Deaths. New Hampshire Statesman and Concord
Register, Sep. 18, 1830.) He was briefly a merchant in New York; his
property was seized pursuant to "an act for relief against absconding
and absent debtors." (Notice. New York Daily Advertiser, Jul. 8, 1797.)
The Legislature of the State of Vermont passed a special Act of
Insolvency in favor of Seth Wetmore, of Middlebury, "freeing and
discharging the said Seth Wetmore from his debts on surrendering up his
property to the subscribers for the use and benefit of his creditors."
(Bennington, Vermont Gazette, Nov. 23, 1798.)
William S. Wetmore's son, George
Peabody Wetmore, Skull &
Bones 1867, was born in London, England in 1846. He graduated from
Columbia Law School and was admitted to the bars of New York and Rhode
Island. He was Governor of Rhode Island for two terms, beginning
in 1885, and U.S. Senator from 1895 to 1913. He was a trustee of the
Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale, and of the Peabody Education
Fund. He married Edith Malvina Keteltas, daughter of Eugene Keteltas,
of the class of 1822 at Yale who graduated from Union College. They had
four children. (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1921-1922, p. 47.)
His daughter, Annie Derby Rogers Wetmore, married William Watts Sherman.
His grandson, William Shepard Keteltas Wetmore, Yale 1897, was a
member of the party to survey a route for the Hankow-Canton Railway in
1898. During World War I, he was in charge of the Information Bureau of
the Red Cross at Nice, France in 1917, and then a rest club in France.
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1924-1925, p. 135.)
Trustees: Morris Robinson (President), William J. Hyslop, R.H.
McCurdy, Frederick S. Winston, C.W. Faber, Mortimer Livingston,
Theodore Sedgwick, Stacy B. Collins, John H. Swift, Joseph B. Collins,
James S. Wadsworth, Henry W. Hubbell, Gouverneur M. Wilkins, John V.L.
Pruyn, Frederick Whittlesey, Charles Ely, John C. Cruger, Walter Joy,
Alfred Pell, David C. Colden, John C. Thatcher, Rufus L. Lord, William
Betts, Joseph Blunt, Isaac G. Pearson, William Barnwell, William Moore,
Zebedee Cook, Jonathan Miller, Fitz Greene Halleck, Robert Schuyler,
Amos S. Perry, Joseph Tuckerman, Gideon Hawley, William J. Bunker, (one
vacancy). Samuel Hannay, Secretary; Minturn Post, Physician to the
Company. (Daily National Intelligency, Feb. 15, 1847.) In 1848,
Halleck, Hawley, and Schuyler were replaced by David A. Comstock,
Eugene Dutilh, and Moses H.
Grinnell. H.S. Durand was the agent in Racine; P.R. Foy, Physician.
(Display Ad. Racine Advocate, Mar. 29, 1848.) Livingston and Lord left,
J.P. Yelverton was elected, and Robert Schuyler returned. (Display Ad.
Cleveland Daily Herald, Mar. 3, 1849.)
William Betts was the son of Samuel Betts, a New York merchant, and
Susanna Lake, of the island of Santa Cruz in the West Indies, where he
was born in 1802. He graduated from Columbia College in 1820. After
studying law with David B. Ogden, he practiced law for a few years with
Gerard W. Morris, then joined the firm of his father-in-law, Beverly
Robinson, as Betts, Emmet & Robinson at No. 52 Wall-street. He was
counsel to the New York Life Insurance Company was well as the Mutual
Life, and a trustee of Columbia College and the College of Physicians
and Surgeons. "He devoted himself principally to conveyancing, but
occasionally appeared in the old Court of Chancery, where he was
counsel for the plaintiff in the case of Monroe against Douglas, in
which James Monroe, son of President Monroe, sought to secure from Mr.
Douglas, his brother-in-law, a redistribution of property left to the
family by Sir William Douglas, of Scotland." He left a son, Beverly
Robinson Betts, and a daughter, Caroline, who married her cousin, Henry
Barclay Robinson, of Fredericton, New Brunswick. (Death of William
Betts. New York Times, Jul. 6, 1884.) Anne Dorothea Robinson was a
granddaughter of Col. William Duer [1805-1879], Royal. Morris Robinson
was an uncle of Mrs. Betts. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles
Henry Browning, 1891, p. 108.)
Robert H. McCurdy (1800-1880), was the father of Richard A. McCurdy.
He was a
partner of the dry goods firm of McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer. The
elder McCurdy and his former partner, Herman D. Aldrich, died on the
same day, and they had a joint funeral. It was an Episcopal service in
which Dr. George L. Prentiss, a Presbyterian clergyman from the Union
Theological Seminary, participated on behalf of McCurdy's remains.
Charles Butler was one of those who attended. (Obituary 1, New York
Times, Apr. 6, 1880 p. 5; The Two Dead Partners. New York Times, Apr.
8, 1880 p. 8.) Partner William Spencer died in New Haven in 1868.
(Died. New York Times, Feb. 11, 1868 p. 5.) He was a director of the
Continental Insurance Company in 1861, along
with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, A.A. Low, and John Caswell;
also Hiram
Barney of the Butler law firm and George W. Lane of the Central Trust.
(Ad 7. The Independent, Jan. 31, 1861;130(635):7.) McCurdy, Aldrich
&
Spencer was the predecessor firm of Low, Harriman & Co., whose
senior partners were James Low
(~1809-1898) and Oliver
Harriman
(1829-1904).
Herman Daggett Aldrich's wife was Elizabeth Wyman of Baltimore, whose brother, William, was the donor of Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus. (Elizabeth Wyman Aldrich. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1904 p. 9; $500,000 for Johns Hopkins. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1903.) The Wymans' father, Samuel Wyman Sr., came to Baltimore from Lowell, Mass., and had been interested in New England cotton mills for many years. (William Wyman Is Dead. New York Times, Nov. 27, 1903.) Wyman's cousin, William Keyser, and Francis Jencks/Jenks donated their land to JHU along with his. (Land for Johns Hopkins. New York Times, Feb. 5, 1901.) Henry Walters was one of the unnamed potential donors (Johns Hopkins University. New York Times, Apr. 23, 1901.) Another brother, Samuel Wyman Jr., was associated with Herman Aldrich after the latter retired from McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, May 17, 1899.) Samuel Wyman Jr. left a trust fund from the income of 200 shares of the Continental Insurance Company for Katherine Nolan Dudley, daughter of the Right Rev. Thomas U. Dudley; and $25,000 to his friend, Seth G. Babcock. A nephew, Spencer Aldrich, Jacob B. Underhill, and Thomas U. Dudley Jr. were executors. (The Will of Samuel Wyman, Jr., Filed. New York Times, May 20, 1899.)
The Homewood Campus / Johns Hopkins UniversityTrustees: Joseph B. Collins (President), William J. Hyslop, R.H. McCurdy, Frederick S. Winston, C.W. Faber, John P. Yelverton, Theodore Sedgwick, Stacy B. Collins, John H. Swift, John Wadsworth, S.M. Cornell, Gouverneur M. Wilkins, John V.L. Pruyn, Frederick Whittlesey, Charles Ely, John C. Cruger, Walter Joy, Alfred Pell, David C. Colden, Alfred Edwards, William Betts, Joseph Blunt, Isaac G. Pearson, Henry Wells, William Moore, Zebedee Cook, Jonathan Miller, David A. Comstock, Robert Schuyler, James Chambers, Joseph Tuckerman, Moses H. Grinnell, William J. Bunker, Eugene Dutilh, Francis S. Lathrop, and J.O. Thatcher. Isaac Abbott, Secretary; R. Thompson M.D. and R. Howard M.D., Medical Examiners for Columbus, C.T. Flowers, Agent, Columbus. (Display Ad. Daily Ohio Statesman, Jan. 18, 1850; Cleveland Herald, May 24, 1851.)
Trustees: Joseph B. Collins (President), R.H. McCurdy, F.S. Winston,
C.W. Faber, J.P. Yelverton, T. Sedgwick, S.B. Collins, John H. Swift,
J. Wadsworth, Samuel M. Cornell, G.M. Wilkins, John V.L. Pruyn, George
R. Clark, Charles Ely, John C. Cruger, Abraham Dininger, Alfred Pell,
M.H. Grinnell, Alfred Edwards, William Betts, Joseph Blunt, Isaac G.
Pearson, Henry Wells, William Moore, Jonathan Miller, D.A. Comstock,
Robert Schuyler, James Chambers, Joseph Tuckerman, John M. Stuart,
William J. Bunker, Nathaniel L. Hayden, F.S. Lathrop, Samuel E.
Sproulls, Louis J. Battelle, and Eugene Dutilh. Isaac Abbatt,
SEcretary; Charles Gill, Actuary. (Display Ad. Philadelphia North
American, Oct. 14, 1852.)
Trustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1854: Frederick S. Winston, President; R.H. McCurdy; Joseph B. Collins; W. Smith Brown; J.P. Yelverton; Hamlin Blake; John H. Swift; J. Wadsworth; Samuel M. Cornell; G.M. Wilkins; John V.L. Pruyn; George R. Clark; Ezra Wheeler; J.P. Treadwell; Abraham Bininger; M.H. Grinnell; Alfred Edwards; William Betts; Joseph Blunt; Isaac G. Pearson; Samuel D. Babcock; William Moore; Jonathan Miller; William H. Popham; C.H. Norton; John M. Stuart; William J. Bunker; Nathaniel Hayden; L. Edgerton; Eugene Dutilh; R.G. Moulton; Samuel E. Sproull; Charles J. Stedman; Richard Patrick; Lucius Robinson; Lewis Battelle. Secretary: Isaac Abbatt; Actuary: Charles Gill. (Insurance. New York Times, Feb. 17, 1854.)
The Brown family owned the Port Morris Land and Improvement Company, which held property along the New-York and New Haven Railroad, with a half-mile frontage on the East River. Three of them were incorporators of the Southern Railroad Company. (New Companies Incorporated. New York Times, Jun. 28, 1885 p.3; New York's Bankers, Merchants and Manufacturers. New York Times, Aug. 18, 1885). William Smith Brown was one of the founders of the Demilt Dispensary. (City Items. New York Tribune, Mar. 24, 1852.) He died in Heidelberg, Germany. (Obituary Notes. New York Times, Jun. 26, 1892.) His son, William Reynolds Brown, married Ellen Watkins Babcock, a daughter of Samuel D. Babcock's uncle, Capt. David Sherman Babcock. Their son, Donald W. Brown, was Vice President of the Puritan Mortgage Corporation, whose directors included his uncle, Joseph N. Babcock, and Thomas J. Watson, President of the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, which became the International Business Machine Corporation. (Donald Brown Dies On Vacation. New York Times, Aug. 25, 1931; Display Ad 25. New York Times, Nov. 19, 1932 p. 21; Display Ad 1. New York Times, Apr. 15, 1924 p. 2.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston (President), Millard
Fillmore, David Hoadley, William V. Brady, Richard Patrick, Joseph
Blunt, Nathaniel Hayden, Jonathan Miller, Abm. Bininger, J.P.
Yelverton, John Wadsworth, William J. Bunker, H.A. Smythe, R.H.
McCurdy, John V.L. Pruyn, William Betts, S.M. Cornell, S.E. Sproulls,
John M. Stuart, Hamlin Blake, Alfred Edwards, Lucius Robinson, Samuel
D. Babcock, Rod. G. Moulton, I.G. Pearson, William Moore, John H.
Swift, Eugene Dutilh, Charles T. Stedman, Cephas H. Norton, J.P.
Treadwell, Ezra Wheeler, William H. Popham, Lycurg. Edgerton, and W.
Smith Brown. Isaac Abbatt, Secretary; Minturn Post M.D., Medical
Examiner. (Insurance. New York Times, Feb. 16, 1856.)
Trustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1858: Frederick S.
Winston, President; Millard Fillmore; David Hoadley; William V. Brady;
Henry A. Smythe; Robert H. McCurdy; John V.L. Pruyn; William Betts;
Isaac Green Pearson; William Moore; John H. Swift; W.E. Dodge; Richard
Patrick; Joseph Blunt; Nathaniel Hayden; Jonathan Miller; Abraham
Bininger; John P. Yelverton; John Wadsworth; William J. Bunker; Samuel
M. Cornell; Samuel E. Sproulls; John M. Stuart; Hamlin Blake; Alfred
Edwards; Lucius Robinson; Samuel D. Babcock; George S. Coe; Charles J.
Stedman; Cephas H. Norton; J.P. Treadwell; Ezra Wheeler; William H.
Popham; Lycurgus Edgerton; W. Smith Brown; George R. Clark. Secretary:
Isaac Abbatt; Actuary, Sheppard Homans; Medical Examiner, Minturn Post,
M.D.; General Agent, Henry H. Hyde. (Insurance. New York Times, Jul. 1,
1857.) In 1858, Treadwell left and William K. Strong joined.
(Financial. New York Times, May
17, 1858.) In 1859, Miller left and Alex W. Bradford became a trustee.
(Insurance. New York Times, May 26, 1859.)
General Agent Henry H. Hyde was the father of Henry Baldwin Hyde (1834-1899), who founded the Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1859, after seven years as a clerk at the Mutual. (Death of Henry B. Hyde. New York Times, May 3, 1899.)
The Dodge family settled at Salem,
Massachusetts in 1629, and branched into Connecticut during the
Revolutionary times. David Low Dodge, the head of a private school at
Norwich,
married a daughter of the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, the grandfather of
ex-president Cleveland. "In 1802, David Low Dodge went into business in
Hartford, Conn., and three years later founded the wholesale dry goods
house of Higginson, Dodge & Co. of Boston, New York and Baltimore,
which was destined to become the largest wholesale house of its day,
but dissolved in the trade disturbances attendant upon the Embargo act.
For some years following the dissolution, David L. Dodge lived in
Connecticut, entering business in New York once more, however, in the
firm of Ludlow & Dodge, from which he retired in 1827." His
daughter, Mary Abiah Dodge, married New York merchant Norman White, the
father of Rev. Erskine Norman White, Yale 1854, both of whom were
directors of Union Theological Seminary. (Obituary Record of Graduates
of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 18.) Peter Ludlow was David L. Dodge's
partner in Ludlow and Dodge, which dissolved in 1817. (Notice. New York
Commercial Advertiser, Jul. 2, 1817.) William E. Dodge Sr.'s mother, Sarah Cleveland, was an aunt of Dr. Clement Cleveland of Memorial Hospital and the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
His son, William Earl Dodge, born in 1805, established Huntington
& Dodge that year in New York. He married the daughter of Anson
Green Phelps of Phelps & Peck, metal dealers, and entered the firm,
which became Phelps, Dodge & Co. in 1833. William Earl Dodge Jr.
was born in 1832 and became a partner in 1864. Both were active in the
Evangelical Alliance and the National Temperance Society, and William
E. Dodge Jr. was active in the Young Men's Christian Association. He
was a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company. He married Sarah,
the daughter of Panama Railroad President David Hoadley in 1854.
William E. Dodge Sr. died in 1883, and William E. Dodge Jr. in 1903.
(William E. Dodge Dead. New York Times, Aug. 10, 1903.) William Earl
Dodge [3d] graduated from Princeton in 1879, and married Emeline, the
daughter of Oliver Harriman.
(A Brilliant Social Event. New York Times,
Dec. 7, 1879.)
William E. Dodge Sr.'s brother-in-law, Daniel James, was a partner
of
Phelps-Dodge, which did business in Liverpool as Phelps, James &
Co. Dodge was an original incorporator of the New-York and Erie
Railroad, a director of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad,
and the New Jersey Central, and one of the founders of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company, the Atlantic Mutual Marine Insurance Company, the
Bowery Fire Insurance Company, the United States Trust Company, the
Greenwich Savings Bank, the City Bank, and the American Exchange
National Bank, "in all of which he was a Director from the time of
their organization until his death." He owned lumber mills and up to
400,000 acres of timber land in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, West
Virginia, Texas, and Canada. He left seven sons - William E. Dodge Jr.,
Anson G.P. Dodge, Rev. David Stuart Dodge, Gen. Charles C. Dodge,
Norman W. Dodge, George
E. Dodge, and Arthur M. Dodge. (A Good Life-Work Ended. New York
Times, Feb. 10, 1883.) Mrs. Dodge and sons William E. and D. Stuart
Dodge [Yale 1857] were the executors of his will, which was in the
custody of John E. Parsons.
His estate was estimated at $5 million net. (William E. Dodge's Will.
New York Times, Feb. 18, 1883.) Mrs. Arthur M. Dodge was an officer of
The New York Cancer Hospital in 1896. (Report of the Cancer Hospital.
New York Times, Apr. 25, 1896; Arthur Murray Dodge. Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased from June 1890, to June, 1900, p.
476.)
Rev. David Stuart Dodge, Yale
1857, was president of the board of trustees of the Syrian Protestant
College in Beirut, Lebanon, president of the Presbyterian Board of Home
Missions 1899-1915, and president of the National Temperance Society
from 1903 until his death. [These had all been funded by his father's
bequests]. He married Ellen Ada Phelps, daughter of
John Jay Phelps. (Obituary
Record of Yale Graduates 1921-1922, pp.
17-18.) She was a sister of William Walter Phelps,
Skull & Bones 1860. Rev. Dodge's son, Francis Phelps Dodge, Yale
1894, was involved with Life Extension Institute.
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1925-1926, pp. 157-158.)
William Earl Dodge Sr.'s brother, David Stuart Dodge, Yale 1826, was
a
physician in Hartford, Conn. They had ten children, including one who
graduated in the Yale class of 1866. (Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870m
p. 330.) His son, Frederic Nevins Dodge, Scroll & Key 1866, was a
lawyer with
the E.A. Bliss lumber company, then an official in the New York Custom
House since 1887. His mother was a daughter of Erastus Hyde. (Obituary
Record of Yale Graduates 1925-1926, pp. 35-36.) His grandson, Effingham
Nevins Dodge, Elihu 1906, was editor of the Yale Alumni Weekly from
1906-1907. He was a law partner of Montgomery
Hare, Yale 1893 [who
married John E. Parson's daughter]. He enlisted in Naval Intelligence
in 1918. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased
during the Year 1940-1941, p. 111.)
William Earl Dodge Sr.'s sister, Elizabeth
Clementine Dodge, married Col. Edmund Burke Stedman in 1830, then
William Burnett Kinney in 1841. Her oldest daughter married William
Ingraham Kip Jr., son of the bishop of California. (Personal and
General Notes. New Orleans Picayune, Nov. 26, 1889.) Their son, Edmund
Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), Yale 1853, was a stockbroker and poet.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased from June
1900, to June, 1910, p. 874; Arthur Griffin Stedman, p. 1080.) Her
granddaughter, Mary Burnet Kip, was the grandmother of the Koch Brothers.
Officers and directors of the Phelps-Dodge Company, formed to take
over the assets of Phelps, Dodge & Co.: James Douglas, President;
Cleveland H. Dodge,
Arthur Curtiss James,
and James McLean, Vice
Presidents; and George Notman, Secretary and Treasurer; George H.
Agnew, E. Heyward Perry [sic - E. Hayward Ferry], Francis
L. Hine, and William Church Osborne.
(Phelps-Dodge Company Election. New York Times, Dec. 23, 1908.)
Sheppard Homans was born in Baltimore in 1831. He graduated from
Harvard "in the early sixties," with honors in mathematics. He was a
mathematician for the Union Pacific Railroad in St. Louis for a few
years before returning East. He was consulting actuary for the Mutual
Life Insurance Company and President of the Provident Savings Life
Insurance Society. (Died in Central Park. New York Times, Jan. 9,
1898.) Sheppard Homans' daughter, Helen Homans, the tennis player,
married Marshall McLean. (R.L. Hoguet Weds Miss Lynch in Paris. New
York Times, Jun. 28, 1907.) His father, I. Smith Homans, founded the
Bankers' Magazine in 1846.
His niece, Frances Elsie Homans, daughter of Edward Cranch Homans, married Charles Dexter Cleveland, son of Treadwell Cleveland.
Sheppard Homans Jr. was an usher, and Mr. and Mrs. Edmund C. Stedman
were among the guests. (A Day's Weddings. New York Times, Nov. 30,
1899.) Edward C. Homans, a stockbroker, was born in St. Louis ca. 1843,
and came to New York around 1863. He suffered from a cancer of the
neck, which was cut out by Dr. W.T. Bull in 1893. "He had never been well since." He had five daughters and a son. (New York Tribune, Sep. 10, 1894.) A son, Howard
P. Homans, was senior partner of Homans & Co., an investment firm.
He graduated from Princeton in 1901. (Howard P. Homans. New York Times, Nov. 13, 1962.) He was an early resident of 1 Beekman Place. (Mrs. Joseph E. Willard Buys 31 Rooms in 1 Beekman Place. New York Times, May 28, 1930.)
His brother, Isaac Smith Homans 2d, graduated from Harvard as a
civil engineer. He was an owner of the Northern Railroad of New Jersey
and one of the founders of Engelwood. (I. Smith Homans. Boston Daily
Advertiser, Dec. 1, 1879.) His son, Thomas Simmons Homans, graduated
from Yale in 1892. He was a Linotype designer. His great-grandfather
was Capt. Benjamin Homans, chief clerk of the Navy and acting secretary
in 1814. (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates, 1926-1927, p. 245.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston (President), William Moore,
Isaac Green Pearson, William J. Bunker, John P. Yelverton, Alfred
Edwards, John M. Stuart, Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robinson, John V.L.
Pruyn, Robert H. McCurdy, John H. Swift, William Betts, John Wadsworth,
Alexander W. Bradford, George R. Clark, Samuel M. Cornell, W. Smith
Brown, William H. Popham, Ezra Wheeler, Wellington Clapp, Samuel D.
Babcock, David Hoadley, William V. Brady, George S. Coe, Nathaniel
Hayden, John E. Devlin, Lycurgus Edgerton, M.M. Freeman, Millard
Fillmore, Hamlin Blake, Henry A. Smyth, W.E. Dodge, W.K. Strong,
William M. Vermilye, and Richard Patrick. Isaac Abbatt, Secretary;
Sheppard Homans, Actuary; Minturn Post, M.D., Medical Examiner. H.B.
Merrell, Agent for Wisconsin; E.B. Wolcott, M.D. and F.A. Luning,
Medical Examiners for Milwaukee Agency, and James Prentice, M.D., for
Portage. (Display Ad. Wisconsin State Register, May 18, 1861.) Blake,
Edgerton, and Swift were replaced by Martin Bates Jr., William A.
Haines, and Seymour L. Husted. (Display Ad. Wisconsin State Register,
Apr. 12, 1862.)
Wellington Clapp was in the dry goods commission trade, with a large Southern trade up until the Civil War. "His firm, Clapp & Kent, failed in 1861. In 1862 he formed the banking firm of Clapp & Grinnell, with H[orace] F. Clark, Com. Vanderbilt's son in law, as a special partner. The house soon became a noted one in Wall st. and did a large business." He was also a director of the Bank of Commerce and the Continental Life Insurance Company. He died in his 78th year, and left three sons and three daughters, one of whom was the wife of Dr. Donald, rector of Trinity Church in Boston. (Boston Daily Advertiser, Mar. 25, 1893.) Dr. E. Winchester Donald's sister, Mary, was the wife of Prof. John Wesley Churchill, Harvard 1865, professor of pulpit delivery in the Andover seminary since graduation in 1869, and the regular instructor in elocution at Phillips Academy from 1867-1896, of which he was a trustee. (Profound Grief. Lowell Sun, Apr. 14, 1900.) Emma Clapp married Robert Cochran, their daughter married Louis Sidney Carrere, who were the in-laws of U.S. Sen. William Warren Barbour of New Jersey.
William A. Haines was a partner of Halsted & Haines, dry goods. He was born in Elizabeth, N.J., in 1822 and died of Bright's disease. His son, William A. Haines, was a member of the firm also. (Death of a Prominent Merchant. New York Times, Mar. 9, 1880.) Partner James M. Halsted was a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society.
Annual reports of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New-York,
1864-1873, 1879-1888, 1905, 1908-1910, 1913-1915, 1917, and 1919 at
Columbia University.
Board of Trustees, 1864: Frederick S. Winston, President; John V.L. Pruyn; William Moore; Robert H. McCurdy; Isaac Green Pearson; Martin Bates; William J. Bunker; William Betts; John P. Yelverton; John Wadsworth; Alfred Edwards; Nathaniel Hayden; John M. Stuart; Oliver H. Palmer; Samuel E. Sproulls; Samuel M. Cornell; Lucius Robinson; W. Smith Brown; Millard Fillmore; Alex. W. Bradford; Richard Patrick; William H. Popham; William A. Haines; Ezra Wheeler; Seymour L. Husted; Samuel D. Babcock; David Hoadley; Henry A. Smythe; William V. Brady; W.E. Dodge; George S. Coe; William K. Strong; William M. Vermilye; John E. Develin; Wellington Clapp; and M.M. Freeman. Secretary, Isaac Abbatt; Actuary, Sheppard Homans; Assist. Sec., Theodore W. Morris; Cashier, Frederick M. Winston; Medical Examiner, Minturn Post M.D.; Assist. Medical Examiner, Isaac L. Kip M.D. Counsel, William Betts and Lucius Robinson; Attorney, Richard A. McCurdy. (Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1864.) In 1865, William Bunker left the board and Alonzo Child joined. (Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1865.)
Isaac Lewis Kip married William V. Brady's daughter, Cornelia.
(Married. New York Times, Jun. 4, 1858.) He was a son of Leonard W.
Kip, and he had two brothers, William W. Kip, a lawyer, and another
brother who was a missionary to China. (Death List of a Day. New York
Times, Mar. 27, 1897.) Isaac L. Kip died in 1911. (Died. New York
Times, Oct. 8, 1911.) His grandson, Philip Kip Rhinelander, married a
daughter of Henry
Martyn Alexander. (Miss Rhinelander to Wed a Banker. New York
Times, Sep. 14, 1921.) The Kip family was descended from Hendrick Kype,
one of the founders of the Dutch West India Company. (William V.B. Kip
Is Dead Here At 65. New York Times, Jan. 15, 1937; The Kip/Kipp Family
of New Amsterdam (New York).)
Trustees of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, 1866: Frederick S.
Winston, President; John V.L. Pruyn; William Moore; Robert H. McCurdy;
Isaac G. Pearson; Martin Bates; William Betts; John P. Yelverton; John
Wadsworth; Alfred Edwards; John M. Stuart; Oliver H. Palmer; Samuel E.
Sproulls; Samuel M. Cornell; Lucius Robinson; W. Smith Brown; Richard
Patrick; William H. Popham; William A. Haines; Ezra Wheeler; Seymour L.
Husted; Samuel D. Babcock; Alex. W. Bradford; David Hoadley; Henry A.
Smythe; William V. Brady; W.E. Dodge; George S. Coe; William K. Strong;
William M. Vermilye; John E. Develin; Wellington Clapp; Alonzo Child;
Henry E. Davies; Richard A. McCurdy, Vice President; Francis Skiddy.
Secretaries: Isaac Abbatt, Theodore W. Morris; Actuary, Sheppard
Homans;
Medical Examiners, Minturn Post, M.D., Isaac L. Kip, M.D. Betts,
Robinson, and Bradford were Counsel. (Financial. New York Times, Mar.
6, 1866.) In 1867, Yelverton and Stuart left; Bradford remained only as
Counsel. (Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1867.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston, John V.L. Pruyn. William
Moore, Robert H. McCurdy, Isaac Green Pearson, Martin Bates, William
Betts, John Wadsworth, Alfred Edwards, Oliver H. Palmer, Samuel E.
Sproulls, Samuel M. Cornell, Lucius Robinson, W. Smith Brown, Richard
Patrick, William H. Popham, William A. Haines, Ezra Wheeler, Seymour L.
Husted, Samuel D. Babcock, David Hoadley, Henry A. Smythe, William V.
Brady, William E. Dodge, George S. Coe, William M. Vermilye, John E.
Develin, Wellington Clapp, Alonzo Child, Henry E. Davies, Richard A.
McCurdy, Francis Skiddy, J. Elliot Condict, James C. Holden, Hugh N.
Camp. (Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1868.) In 1868, Herman C. von Post joined
the board; G.S. Winston replaced Minturn Post left as Medical Examiner.
(Annual Report, Feb. 1, 1869.) Moore and Brady left, and George C.
Richardson and Alexander H. Rice joined the board in 1870. (Annual
Report, Feb. 1, 1870.)
George C. Richardson was the head of the Boston dry goods house which succeeded A. & A. Lawrence & Co. It became the selling agents for the Lowell Manufacturing Co., Everett Mills, Booth Cotton Mills, York Manufacturing Co., Lewiston, Tremont and Suffolk Mills, and the Massachusetts Cotton Mills. He was born in Royalton, Mass. in 1808, and went to Boston in 1835. He was a partner with George D. Dutton up to 1855, later Beebe, Richardson & Co., Richardson, Deane & Co., George C Richardson & Co., and George C. Richardson, Smith & Co. He became a director of the Union Bank in 1850 and was its president since 1863, and was a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1870 until his death. (Obituary. New York Times, May 21, 1886.)
Board of trustees: Frederick S. Winston, John
V.L. Pruyn, Robert H. McCurdy, Isaac G. Pearson, Martin Bates, William
Betts,
John Wadsworth, Alfred Edwards,
Oliver H. Palmer, Samuel E. Sproulls,
Samuel M. Cornell, Lucius
Robinson, W. Smith Brown, Richard Patrick, William H. Popham, William
A. Haines, Ezra Wheeler, Seymour L. Husted, Samuel D. Babcock, David
Hoadley, Henry A. Smythe, William E. Dodge, George S. Coe, William M.
Vermilye, John E. Develin, Wellington Clapp, Alonzo Child, Henry E.
Davies, Richard A. McCurdy, Francis Skiddy, J. Elliot Condict, James C.
Holden, Hugh N. Camp, Herman C. von Post, George C. Richardson, and
Alexander H. Rice. Richard A. McCurdy, Vice President;
Sheppard Homans, Actuary; John M. Stuart, Secretary; L.C. Lawton, Asst.
Actuary; Frederic Schroeder, Assistant Secretary; C.A. Hopkins,
Cashier; William Betts, LL.D., Hon. Lucius Riobinson, Hon. Henry E.
Davies, Counsel; Isaac L. Kip, M.D., G.S. Winston, M.D., Medical
Examiners. (Display Ad, New York Times, Jan. 25, 1871, p. 7.) In 1872,
Hoadley left the board and William F. Babcock joined. (Annual Report,
Jan. 1, 1872.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston, President; John V.L. Pruyn,
Robert H. McCurdy, Isaac Green Pearson, Martin Bates, William Betts,
John Wadsworth, Oliver H. Palmer, Samuel E. Sproulls, Samuel M.
Cornell, Lucius Robinson, W. Smith Brown, Richard Patrick, William H.
Popham, William A. Haines, Seymour L. Husted, Samuel D. Babcock, David
Hoadley, Henry A. Smythe, William E. Dodge, George S. Coe, William M.
Vermilye, John E. Develin, Henry E. Davies, Richard A. McCurdy, Francis
Skiddy, J. Elliot Condict, James C. Holden, Herman C. von Post, George
C. Richardson, Alexander H. Rice, William F. Babcock, F. Ratchford
Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt, and Lewis May. John M. Stuart, Secretary,
Frederic Scroeder, Asst. Secretary; W.H.C. Barlett, Actuary, L.C.
Lawton, Asst. Actuary; C.A. Hopkins, Cashier.
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston, Robert H. McCurdy, William
Betts, Samuel M. Cornell, Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robinson, William
H. Popham, Samuel D. Babcock, William Smith Brown, Henry A. Smythe,
William E. Dodge, George S. Coe, John E. Develin, Martin Bates, William
A. Haines, Seymour L. Husted, Oliver H. Palmer, Henry E. Davies,
Richard A. McCurdy, Francis Skiddy, James C. Holden, Herman C. von
Post, George C. Richardson, Alexander H. Rice, William F. Babcock, F.
Ratchford Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt, Lewis May, Oliver Harriman,
Thomas Dickson, Henry W. Smith, John H. Sherwood, Egisto P. Fabbri,
George H. Andrews, and Robert Olyphant. (Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1879.)
In 1880, George F. Baker, Joseph Thompson, and Benjamin B. Sherman
joined the board. (Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1880.)
Robert Olyphant was a partner of Ward, Talbot & Olyphant, coal merchants, from 1874 until retiring in 1910. He was also a director of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company and the Thompson-Starrett Company. "He was a great-grandson of the David Olyphant who came to this country from Jamaica, B.W.I. before the Revolution and settled in Charleston, S.C., later serving as Surgeon General of the American forces in the South and after the war moving to Newport, R.I." He was president of the Sons of the Revolution from 1914 to 1925. His father was Robert Morrison Olyphant, and his grandfather was David Washington Cincinnatus Olyphant. (Robert Olyphant Dies At Age of 75. New York Times, Dec. 1, 1928.) He was an activist with the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association from its early days (Mrs. Richard Irwin Resigns. New York Times, Nov. 18, 1896), and president of its successor, the United Hospital Fund (Hospital Aided By Churches. New York Times, Dec. 29, 1916; 57 Hospitals Share $525,000 Fund Here. New York Times, May 12, 1922.) His brother, John Kensett Olyphant, was the father of John K. Olyphant Jr.
His son, Robert Olyphant, married
Grace Oakey, daughter of the late
Mr. and Mrs. John
Forbes Oakey. His brother, Donald Olyphant, was best man. (R.M.
Olyphant, Jr., Weds. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1917.) Donald Olyphant, a
painter, married Anne de Courjament, daughter of
French capitalist Count de Courjament, in 1919. They met while he was
an aviator in the A.E.F. They were divorced in 1925, and he married
Germaine Louise Jacques, daughter of Auguste Jacques of Cognac, France.
(Donald Olyphant Married. New York Times, Mar. 28, 1928.) Their sister,
Amy Gordon Olyphant,
married William de La Roche Anderson. Her cousin, Helen Talbot
Olyphant, was maid of honor. (Weddings Of A Day. New York Times, Nov.
20, 1904.)
His father, Robert Morrison
Olyphant, was president of the Delaware
& Hudson Railroad for twenty years. He was named for Robert
Morrison, a famous missionary to China. He graduated from Columbia in
1842, joined his father's firm, Talbot, Olyphant & Co., and
made a trip to China in 1844. "Mr. Olyphant reorganized his father's
company in 1858 and again visited the Orient. He retired from the
mercantile trade in 1873. Long after his retirement Mr. Olyphant became
assistant to the President of the Delaware & Hudson Railroad. He
was elected to a Vice Presidency of the road, and later became
president." He retired in 1903 but remained honorary Chairman of the
Executive Committee. (Robert M. Olyphant Dies At 93 Years. New York
Times, May 4, 1918; Robert Olyphant. In: Scots and Scots Descendants in
America. By Donald John MacDougall, 1917, p. 330.)
Dr. David Olyphant was a nephew of Lord Olyphant.
He moved from South Carolina to Rhode Island in 1785, and married Ann
Vernon there. His son, David W.C. Olyphant, "entered the counting-room
of his
cousin, Samuel King, senior partner of King & Talbot, a firm
engaged in the then flourishing trade with China." In 1817 he returned
to New York and associated with George W. Talbot, formerly of King
& Talbot. In 1818, he was employed by Thomas H. Smith, and was
Smith's agent in China from 1820-1823 and 1826 "until the spectacular
failure of his employer" (1827 or 1828). He founded Talbot,
Olyphant & Company with Charles Nicoll Talbot, his friend's son,
and was in China again from 1834-1837 and 1850 to 1851. He died in
Cairo, Egypt on the return trip. Talbot, Olyphant &
Co. were "merchants in the China trade, whose record of cooperation
with missionaries and refusal to engage in the opium trade gained for
their office in China the nick-name of 'Zion's Corners.'" "He and his
partners provided free passage to China for many missionaries,
including the distinguished S.
Wells Williams." Robert Morrison Olyphant married Sophia, daughter
of William Vernon of Middletown, R.I. in 1846, who died in 1855; and
married her sister, Anna, in 1857. (Olyphant, David Washington
Cincinnatus; and:
Olyphant, Robert Morrison. Dictionary of American Biography Vol. XIV,
1935. Dumas Malone, ed.) [Perhaps
D.W.C. Olyphant caused this "spectacular failure," in the name of
"God." -cast]
Olyphant & Company of China failed in 1878. The largest
preferred creditors were Drexel, Morgan & Co., the Government of
the Republic of Peru. William
W. Parkin (a grandson of David W.C.
Olyphant), George W. Talbot, Hobart Seymour Geary, and Talbot Olyphant
of New York, Tobias Pim of Belfast, Ireland, and John F. Seaman of
Newburg were the partners, the last three of whom were in China. The
firm began importing nitrate of soda from Peru, and made an agreement
to import coolies from China to Peru. (Olyphant & Co.'s Failure.
New York Times, Dec. 9, 1878.) William
H. Wisner held a number of notes on them. (A Wide-Reaching Failure.
New York Times, Dec. 8, 1878.) Other large creditors were Forbes,
Forbes & Co., London; Brown, Shipley & Co., London; total
liabilities about $645,000. (The Failure of Olyphant & Co. New York
Times, Jan. 4, 1879.) Robert M. Olyphant, William W. Parkin, Richard R.
Tyers and George W. Talbot, surviving partners of Olyphant & Co.,
received a judgement of $574. (Alabama Claims. Boston Daily Advertiser,
May 20, 1884.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston, William Betts, Samuel E. Sproulls, Samuel M. Cornell, Lucius Robinson, William Smith Brown, Samuel D. Babcock, Henry A. Smythe, William E. Dodge, George S. Coe, John E. Develin, Martin Bates, Seymour L. Husted, Oliver H. Palmer, Henry E. Davies, Richard A. McCurdy, James C. Holden, Herman C. von Post, George C. Richardson, Alexander H. Rice, William F. Babcock, F. Ratchford Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt, Lewis May, Oliver Harriman, Thomas Dickson, Henry W. Smith, John H. Sherwood, George H. Andrews, Robert Olyphant, George F. Baker, Benjamin B. Sherman, Joseph Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Anson Stager, and Frederic Cromwell. (Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1881.) Davies left. (Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1882.) In 1883, Betts left, and Julien T. Davies and Robert Sewell joined the board. (Annual Report, Jan. 1, 1883.)
Board of Trustees: Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robinson, Samuel D.
Babcock, Henry A. Smythe, George S. Coe, John E. Develin, Seymour L.
Husted, Oliver H. Palmer, Richard A. McCurdy, James C. Holden, Herman
C. von Post, George C. Richardson, Alexander H.
Rice, William F. Babcock, F. Ratchford Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt,
Lewis May, Oliver Harriman, Thomas Dickson, Henry W. Smith, John H.
Sherwood, George H. Andrews, Robert Olyphant, George F. Baker, Benjamin
B. Sherman, Joseph Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Anson Stager, Frederic
Cromwell. Julien T. Davies, Robert Sewell, William Bayard Cutting, S.
Van R. Cruger, Charles R. Henderson, and George Bliss. (Annual Report,
After May 1, 1884.) Smythe, Palmer, Dickson and Cutting left, and Rufus
W. Peckham, J. Hobart Herrick, and William P. Dixon joined. (Annual
Report, 1885.)
Col. Stephen Van Rensselaer Cruger was the son on John Church Cruger and Euphemia White Van
Rensselaer, daughter of Stephen Van Rensselaer, "the last patroon of
Rensselaerswyck," the Dutch colony on the Hudson River. He was born in
New York City in 1844 and educated mainly in Europe. He enlisted in the
U.S. Army at age 17, and fought at Gettysburg and the Georgia campaign,
and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He went into real estate
in 1867, and managed several large estates. He was appointed
comptroller of Trinity Church in 1880, and managed all of its property.
He was a trustee and treasurer of St. Stephen's College, the Mutual
Life Insurance Company, the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company,
and the U.S. branch of the Commercial Union Insurance Company; and a
director of the Illinois Central Railroad. He married Julie Grinnell,
daughter of Thomas W. Storrow of Boston. (The National Cyclopaedia of
American Biography, Volume 7, 1897, p. 85.) He was the head of S.V.R.
Cruger & McVickar, real estate. His wife received his entire
estate. Lewis Cass Ledyard
was
counsel. (S.V.R. Cruger's Will. New York Times, Jul. 29,
1898.)
As controller of the Trinity Church Corporation, Cruger was opposed
to carrying out the Health Department order that there be running water
on each floor of the Corporation's tenements. He said, "We believe it
is better not to have water in old houses. The water in the yard is
accessible for all tenants. The tenants of such houses are usually
dirty, and if they had water in the halls the floors would always be
wet. Our tenants are better off with water in the yard than in the
halls. Another thing, the expense of making such improvements would be
great." (Water Not Supplied Freely. New York Times, Dec. 9, 1894.) He
employed Frederick L. Hoffman
(later a statistician for the ASCC) to compile a report denying the
Health Department's charge that the death rate was much higher in the
Trinity tenements than in the city at large.
Mrs. S.V.R. Cruger was Julie Grinnell Storrow, a well-known author
under the name of Julien Gordon. She was the daughter of Thomas
Wentworth Storrow, a packet ship owner, and Sarah Saunders Paris,
and
was born in Paris, France. She studied in Europe and spoke fluent
French, Italian and German, and later Russian. (Chance, Mrs. Julie
Grinnell. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Volume 14,
1910, p. 160.) After her husband died, she moved to Washington, D.C.
and dined with the Russian Ambassador, the Austrian Minister and
others, and the Marquise de Talleyrand. (Society in Washington. New
York Times, Dec. 28, 1901 and Dec. 5, 1902.) Mrs. Cruger's sister
Katherine married Francis
McNeil Bacon.
Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robinson, Samuel D. Babcock, George S.
Coe, John E. Develin, Seymour L. Husted, Richard A. McCurdy, James C.
Holden, Herman C. von Post, George C. Richardson, Alexander H. Rice, F.
Ratchford Starr, Frederick H. Cossitt, Lewis May, Oliver Harriman,
Henry W. Smith, John H. Sherwood, Robert Olyphant, George F. Baker,
Joseph Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Frederic Cromwell, Julien T. Davies,
Robert Sewell, S. Van R. Cruger, Charles R. Henderson, George Bliss,
Rufus W. Peckham, J. Hobart Herrick, William P. Dixon, Robert A.
Grannis, Nicholas C. Miller, Henry H. Rogers, and John W. Auchincloss.
(Annual Report, 1886.) George C. Richardson left, and Bartow W. Van
Voorhis, Theodore Morford, and William Babcock joined. (Annual Report,
1887.)
Granville Moss White graduated from Yale School of Law in 1877, then studied medicine at Columbia and received his M.D. in 1884. He was connected with the Mutual Life Insurance Company since 1886, first as medical examiner and medical director until 1903, then as secretary and second vice president between 1903 and retirment in 1929. He was a director of the Morristown Trust Company for 29 years. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1931-1932, p. 238.)
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1931-1932 / Yale University Library (pdf, 311 pp)Board of Trustees: Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius Robinson, Samuel D.
Babcock, George S. Coe, John E. Develin, Richard A. McCurdy, James C.
Holden, Herman C. von Post, Alexander H. Rice, F. Ratchford Starr,
Lewis May, Oliver Harriman, Henry W. Smith, Robert Olyphant, George F.
Baker, Joseph Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Frederic Cromwell, Julien T.
Davies, Robert Sewell, S. Van R. Cruger, Charles R. Henderson, George
Bliss, Rufus W. Peckham, J. Hobart Herrick, William P. Dixon, Robert A.
Grannis, Nicholas C. Miller, Henry H. Rogers, John W. Auchincloss,
Theodore Morford, William Babcock, Preston B. Plumb, and William D.
Washburn. (Annual Report, 1888.) In 1889, Stuyvesant Fish, Augustus D.
Juilliard, and Charles E. Miller joined the board. (Display Ad. Raleigh
News & Observer, Feb. 13, 1889.)
Board of Trustees: Frederick S. Winston, Samuel E. Sproulls, Lucius
Robinson, Samuel D.
Babcock, George S. Coe, Richard A. McCurdy (President), James C.
Holden, Hermann C. von Post, Alexander H. Rice, Lewis May, Oliver
Harriman, Henry W. Smith, Robert Olyphant, George F. Baker, Joseph
Thompson, Dudley Olcott, Frederick Cromwell, Julien T. Davies, Robert
Sewell, S. Van Rensselaer Cruger, Charles R. Henderson, George Bliss,
Rufus W. Peckham, J. Hobart Herrick, William P. Dixon, Robert A.
Granniss (Vice President), Nicholas C. Miller, Henry H. Rogers, John W.
Auchincloss, Theodore Morford, William Babcock, Preston B. Plumb,
William D. Washburn, Stuyvesant Fish, Augustus D. Juilliard, Charles E.
Miller, and James W. Husted. Isaac F. Floyd, 2d Vice President; William
J. Easton, Secretary; A.N. Waterhouse, Auditor; Frederick Schroeder,
Assist. Secty.; Emory McClintock, Actuary; John Tatlock, Assist.
Actuary; Charles B. Perry, 2d Assist. Actuary; Frederick Cromwell,
Treasurer; John A. Fonda, Asisist. Treasurer; William P. Sands,
Cashier; Edward P. Holden, Assist. Cashier; William G. Davies,
Solicitor; William W. Richards, Comptroller. Medical Directors:
Gustavus Winston, M.D., Walter R. Gillette M.D., and E.J. Marsh, M.D.
(Display Ad. New Orleans Daily Picayune, Feb. 24, 1890.) Nicholas C.
Miller, William D. Washburn, and Frederick S. Winston were replaced by
Walter R. Gillette and James E. Granniss. (Display Ad. Frank Leslie's
Illustrated Newspaper, Feb. 28, 1891.)
George Isaac Bliss was an actuary and statistician with the Mutual
Life from 1898 until his retirement in 1938. He was born in Courland,
Russia. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1946-1947, p. 43.)
William J. Easton retired in 1919 as Secretary of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company, where he had spent 54 years. He died at age 71.
(William J. Easton. New York Times, Mar. 5, 1920.) His son, Kerner
Easton, married Margaret Sinclair Smith, daughter of R.A.C. Smith. (Miss Smith Wed in Secret. New York Times, Aug. 31, 1915.)
Tighe was a native of New York, who moved to St. Paul, Minnesota in
1886 and specialized in municipal and real estate law. He was admitted
to practice before the United States Supreme Court in 1892 by motion of
William H. Taft, S&B 1878, who was then the U.S. Solicitor General.
He was attorney for the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York since
1890, the Eastman Kodak Company since 1900, for Fairbanks, Morse &
Co. since 1926, and for a number of Minnesota counties and
municipalities, including St. Paul 1920-28. He organized the St. Paul
& Suburban Railway Co.; purchased the Duluth, Red Wing &
Southern Railroad and became its president; organized and became vice
president of Luger Lumber Co. in 1904, and served as counsel until
1918. He was vice president of C. Gotzian & Co., shoe
manufacturers, 1906-1909, and married Harriet Gotzian, the daughter of
Conrad Gotzian. They were the parents of Laurence Gotzian Tighe,
S&B 1916, and Richard Lodge Tighe, S&B 1923. (Bulletin of Yale
University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1928-1929,
pp. 78-79.) Laurence G. Tighe,
S&B 1916, was a partner of Brown
Brothers and of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.
"In the Mutual Life Building are quartered the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Guaranty Trust Company, the Morton Trust Company, and the National Safe Deposit Company, in all of which the Mutual itself as well as various of its officers and Trustees have been interested, and in addition to this certain of the Trustees who have been members of the 'inner circle' have occupied offices in the building for their private purposes." (Says Mutual Officers Cared Only For Power. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1906 p. 3.)
In 1891, the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company was reorganized under the auspices of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. (The New Trust Company. New York Times, Oct. 21, 1891, p. 10.) Its name was later changed to the Guaranty Trust Company of New York.
The Mutual Life Insurance Company was the principal sponsor of the National Union Bank, which not only made it "a depository for its own assets, but has ordered the agencies in other cities to select a local bank, which employs the National Union, as a New York correspondent. This plan, it is expected, will bring at once about $6,000,000 into the hands of the new concern. John D. Crimmins, with the traction syndicate back of him; Oliver H. Payne, with the Standard Oil Company; Frederick P. Olcott, with the Central [Trust] Company; H. McK. Twombly, with some of the Vanderbilt business; S.L. [sic] D. Babcock, Luther Kounze and William C. Whitney, each representing millions, are in the directory." Its president, J.C. Hendrix "twenty years ago, was the Brooklyn reporter for a New York morning paper." (How It is Arranged. Atlanta Constitution, Apr. 12, 1893.)
In 1902, sixteen of the thirty-five trustees of the Mutual Insurance Company of New York were also directors of the Guaranty Trust or Central Trust (Babcock, McCurdy, Baker, Cromwell, Henderson, Rogers, Juilliard, Gillette, Haven, Bowdoin, Iselin, WC Whitney (former), Jarvie, Speyer, Lanier, and Twombly). Frederick P. Olcott's brother, Dudley, was also a trustee, as was Samuel D. Babcock's son-in-law, William P. Dixon, and another relative, William Babcock; and Richard A. McCurdy was President of the Mutual. (Display Ad 3. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1902 p. 4.) In 1905, Babcock and Whitney were gone, and Robert H. McCurdy and ex-Secretary of War Elihu Root had been elected in their places. (Display Ad 6, Mutual Life Insurance Co. New York Times Feb. 4, 1905 p. 7 [a special ad with dates of election].)
Richard A. McCurdy and his friends in the Guaranty Trust set up McCurdy (who had planned to retire that year anyhow) to be the scapegoat of the investigation. H.H. Rogers was Chairman of the Agency Committee, which by-laws gave the general supervision of all agency matters; while George F. Baker was Chairman of the Finance Committee, and was for many years Chairman of the subcommittee on Salaries, "which fixed, or allowed President McCurdy to fix, the compensation," which formed the basis of the board's action against him and the Raymond firm. But, when it was proposed to punish the delinquencies of this inner circle, it was blocked. Board members Stuyvesant Fish and Effingham B. Morris of the Girard Trust Company of Philadelphia resigned. (Fish Likely to Serve On Lawson Committee. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1906.) Other members of Mutual's Finance Committee were Charles R. Henderson, George G. Haven, Augustus D. Juilliard, Adrian Iselein Jr., James N. Jarvie and Emory McClintock, Vice President and Actuary. They were all relected after McCurdy resigned and fled to "exile" in France, except that Henderson was transferred to the new Real Estate Committee, and Frederic Cromwell was substituted for George G. Haven. "On reliable authority it is ascertained that as matters stand now George F. Baker, retaining his old place as ranking member of the Finance Committee, is ruling the Mutual's affairs. Indeed, Wall Street men declared yesterday that Mr. Baker had recently expressed the opinion that the reorganization of the Mutual Life on the terms which he had mapped out would be carried out regardless of the opposition that might be encountered from Policy Holders' Campaign Committees, and regardless of public criticism generally. Mr. Baker, it is understood, has been in constant communication with President Peabody about the naming of the committees, a condition that was predicted last Fall when Mr. Peabody, whose law firm was counsel for the First National Bank, was elected upon the insistence of Mr. Baker and Henry H. Rogers of the Standard Oil Company." (Mutual Stands Pat; George F. Baker Rules. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1906.) The investigation subsequently revealed that Vice President McClintock had personally directed the company's lobbying efforts in Boston. (M'Clintock's Orders to Lobbyist Out Now. New York Times, Aug. 17, 1906.)
They allowed McCurdy to put numerous relatives on the payroll and draw lavish salaries. These included his son, Robert H. McCurdy; son-in-law, Louis A. Thebaud; his brother-in-law, and Dr. Elias J. Marsh, as Medical Director; and Thebaud's cousin, Peter Stuyvesant Pillott, as Inspector of Risks. Dr. Walter R. Gillette, First Vice President, was a brother of a partner in Chamberlain & Gillette, General Agents for the company in Texas. Vice President Robert A. Graniss's cousin, Howard Lewis, was General Agent for the Mutual in northern New York. General Agent Raymond was a brother of Charles H. Raymond. McCurdy and his family reaped $4,643,926 in salary and commissions between 1885 and 1905. (McCurdy Family's Millions From Mutual Life. New York Times, Oct. 7, 1905 p. 4.) The Mutual brought suit against McCurdy et al. to recover $3,371,341, and then settled for $815,000. (Mutual Gets $815,000 Ends M'Curdy Suits. New York Times, Mar. 5, 1909.) By 1910, McCurdy was being lauded as "one of the three great figures in life insurance."
George G. Haven was punished for squealing on the gang: "To this influence of Mr. Baker is attributed in large degree the retirement of George G. Haven from the Finance Committee and the implied retirement of Mr. Haven from a place of prominence in Mutual Life affairs. Mr. Haven was formerly one of the innermost members of the 'inner circle,' and even a member pro tem., according to his testimony, of the sub-committee of the Finance Committee, which voted President McCurdy an additional $50,000 a year in 1901 in lieu of pension, which Mr. McCurdy was prohibited from receiving under the by-laws of the company. The other two members of this committee were George F. Baker and Augustus D. Juillliard, both of whom testified before the Armstrong Committee before Mr. Haven was called to the stand. Mr. [Charles Evans] Hughes did not elicit much information from either of them about the increase in salary and how it was voted, but when Mr. Haven was called he told about the work of the sub-committee, explaining that he personally had served on it only two or three times when he was called in through the absence of one of the members. It was soon after this that the Lawyers Mortgage matter came out, and it has been an open secret in financial quarters that considerable resentment was felt toward Mr. Haven by certain of his fellow-members of the 'inner circle.' In the Lawyers Mortgage deal Messrs. Juilliard, Cromwell, Haven, Jarvie and Iselin were involved in addition to Mr. McCurdy." (Mutual Stands Pat; George Baker Rules. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1906.)
Edwin W. Coggeshall, who was President of the Lawyers' Mortgage
Insurance Company in 1901, testified that he had offered to sell a
block of 1000 shares of the increased capital stock of his company to
the Mutual. These were accepted by Richard A. McCurdy on behalf of the
Mutual, but subsequently split up between Mutual board members. All
except Adrian Iselin, Jr., were members of the Finance Committee, "and
were among the party who originally advocated the immediate election of
Charles A. Peabody to the
Presidency of the company, opposing the plan
suggested by other Trustees to postpone electing a permanent President
until the Mutual's own investigating committee had completed its work."
Coggeshall said that instructions were received to issue the 1000
shares to N.B. Putnam, Jr., who turned out to be a clerk in the
Guaranty Trust. (Mutual Trustees Divided Stock. New York Times, Dec.
23, 1905.) Dudley Olcott and James Speyer, who were elected Trustees in
1880 and 1898, respectively, resigned in March, 1906, after Charles A.
Peabody was successfully installed as President. Peabody subsequently
became a director of the Guaranty Trust.
Charles A. Peabody (1849-1931) was President of the Mutual
Life Insurance Company from 1906 until retiring in 1927. He was a
director of the Farmers Loan
and Trust from at least 1900 to at least 1929, and a director of
the Guaranty
Trust Company from 1911-26. After
graduating
from Columbia University and Columbia Law School, he joined his
father's law firm, Peabody, Baker and Peabody. Partner Fisher Ames
Baker was counsel to the First National Bank and the uncle of its
President, George Fisher Baker. "It was said at the time Mr. Peabody
left law for insurance, that the change was, at least in part, due to
the influence of the elder Baker in the councils of the Mutual."
Peabody was trustee of the estate of the first John Jacob Astor since
1893, and
was associated with William Waldorf Astor and represented him in this
country. At his death, he was on the boards of directors of City Bank
Farmers Trust Company, Mutual Life Insurance Company, Oregon Short Line
Railroad, Central of Georgia Railway, Illinois Central Railroad and
Union Pacific Railroad, and was a trustee of the Church Pension Fund
and member of the board of managers of Delaware & Hudson Company.
(C.A. Peabody Dies; Insurance Figure. New York Times, Apr. 27, 1931.)
His granddaughter, Anita Peabody
Hadden, married Arthur W. Page Jr,
whose brother Walter H. Page
became chairman of the Morgan Guaranty Trust.
William Haynes Truesdale was born near Youngstown, Ohio, in 1851. He
was educated in Rock Island, Ill., and became a clerk in the Rockford,
Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad, which became part of the
Burlington system. In 1872 he became cashier and purchasing agent, and
went to Frankfort, Germany, as the company's transfer agent. In 1874,
he was connected with the law firm firm of Osborn & Curtis in Rock
Island, then in 1879 was general freight agent of the Logansport &
Crawfordsville railroad. In 1881, he was traffic manager, then vice
president of the Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis & St. Louis
Railway, and was appointed its receiver when it went under in 1888. In
1894, he was third vice president and general manager of the Chicago,
Rock Island & Pacific Railroad, becoming first vice president in
1899. He resigned that year to be president of the Delaware, Lackawanna
& Western. He retired as president in 1925, but continued as
chairman until 1930. He married Annie Topping of Terre Haute, Ind. (Wm.
H. Truesdale, Rail Official, Dies. New York Times, Jun. 3, 1935.) He
left the bulk of his estate, which was reputed to be "well over
$1,000,000," to their three children. (Truesdale Will Filed in
Greenwich Court. New York Times, Jun. 19, 1935.) William H. Truesdale
was a member of the National Committee to raise $5 million for the
Church Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church. (To Raise $5,000,000 for
Church Pension. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1916.) He donated $1000 to the
American Society for the Control of Cancer.
($50,000 to Cancer Society.
New York Times, Feb. 20, 1927.)
William H. Truesdale was born in Poland, Ohio, and his father was
Dr. Calvin Truesdale, a
prominent physician in Rock Island, Ill. ("Sam" Sloan Chairman.
Syracuse
Evening Herald, Mar. 3, 1899.) Dr. Calvin Truesdale was vice president
and general manager of the Rock Island railway. He had lived in Rock
Island since 1854, and was its mayor for four years. (Dr. Calvin
Truesdale. Chicago Inter Ocean, Jun. 11, 1895.) He was a director of
the Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis Railroad. (Will It Hold?
Chicago Inter Ocean, Oct. 15, 1874.) He received his M.D. in 1845 at
Western Reserve College. (Commencement Exercises in the Western Reserve
College. The Ohio Observer, Aug. 20, 1845.) Dr. Calvin Truesdale died
at the home of his
son, attorney H.C. Truesdale, in Minneapolis. (Calvin Truesdale Dead.
Minneapolis, The Penny Press, Jun. 10, 1895.)
Hiram Calvin Truesdale's son, Cavour L. Truesdale, graduated from
Yale in 1914. His daughter, Sarah Helen, married Dr. Angus Washburn
Morrison (1884-1949), Elihu 1906, a neurologist in Minneapolis. His
M.D. was from Johns Hopkins in 1910. Their three sons graduated from
Yale, and their daughter married a Yale graduate. He had three Yale
cousins as well. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University,
1948-1949, p. 57 / 58.) He was a grandson of Dorilus Morrison of Maine,
who was the first mayor of Minneapolis. The family owned timber lands
and mills, grain elevators, and were officers of a local bank. (Angus
Washburn Morrison, M.D. In: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the
Northwest, 1923, pp. 233-235.) Their daughter married John Pillsbury
Snyder Jr., Yale 1935. His father was a grandson of Gov. John Sargeant
Pillsbury, who started the Pillsbury Company with his brothers. (309
Ramsay Road. Wayzata Historical Society.) He refused Scroll & Key,
Berzelius, Book & Snake, and Elihu. His cousin, John S. Pillsbury,
took Bones. (Innovations Mark Tap Day at Yale. New York Times, May 11,
1934.) His grandfather, Minneapolis attorney Fred B. Snyder, married
Susan May Pillsbury in 1885. He was a regent of the University of
Minnesota since 1912, and was a personal friend of all eight of its
presidents. (F.B. Snyder, U. Regent for 39 Years, Dies. Winona
Republican-Herald, Feb. 14, 1951.) The last officer named Pillsbury,
George Sturgis Pillsbury, left the Pillsbury Company in 1969, citing
the family's other enormous financial interests, held by the Sargent
Management Co. He and three of his four children were educated at Yale.
He, his brother and a cousin remained as directors. John Pillsbury
Snyder continued as a vice president. (Giant Pillsbury Company Finds
Self Without Pillsbury For First Time. The Register, Danville, Va.,
Nov. 30, 1969.)
William H. Truesdale's daughter, Marie Melville Truesdale, married
Richard Mervin
Bissell of Chicago. He was Western manager of the Hartford Fire
Insurance Company in Chicago. His ushers were Charles Hamill and Victor
Elling of Chicago, Joseph F. Kernan and John R. Halsey [Scroll &
Key 1884] of New York, the bride's brother, Calvin Truesdale, and her
cousin, Franklin Steele of Minneapolis. His brother, Arthur Bissell,
was best man. (Weddings of a Day. New York Times, Jun. 26, 1901.)
Richard M. Bissell, Yale 1883, was with the Hartford Fire Insurance
Company from 1883 to 1941, and president of Hartford Accident &
Indemnity from 1913 to 1934. He was a lecturer on insurance at Yale
between 1903 and 1914, and a governor of Mory's
Association from 1936
to 1939. His brothers-in-law were Calvin Truesdale, Yale 1907, and
Melville D. Truesdale, Yale 1915. Their children were William Truesdale
Bissell, Skull & Bones 1925; Mrs. Hector Prud'homme (Yale 1925),
and Richard
Mervin Bissell Jr., Yale 1932. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale
University, 1941-1942, p. 25.)
Richard M. Bissell Jr. refused
election to Skull & Bones. (Yale Tap Day Critic Accepts Election.
New York Times, May 15, 1931.) He attended the London School of
Economics in 1932-33, and Yale graduate school from 1933-39, where he
was a research assistant and part-time instructor. He was an economic
analyst at the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce of the Commerce
Department 1941-42; was at the War Shipping Administration 1942-45; and
was in the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion 1945-46. He was
professor of econmics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1948.
Paul G. Hoffman and Wayne Chatfield-Taylor
(Scroll & Key 1916) were also examined at this hearing. (House
Committee on Appropriations, Apr. 20, 1948, p3.) "In July, 1947
Bissell was recruited by Averell
Harriman to run a committee to lobby for an economic recovery plan
for Europe. The following year he was appointed as an administrator of
the Marshall Plan in Germany and eventually became head of the Economic
Cooperation Administration." "In 1954 he was placed in charge of
developing and operating the Lockheed U-2 'spy plane'. Bissell and
Herbert Miller, another CIA officer, chose Area 51 in 1955 as the site
for the test facility for the U-2, and Bissell supervised the test
facility and its build up until he resigned from the CIA." He was
appointed Deputy Director for Plans in 1958. In 1960, he oversaw plans
for covert action against Cuba, using the same team from its Guatemala
action. [CIA Inspector General Lyman B. Kirkpatrick Jr.,
whose in-laws had ties to the United Fruit Co., put the blame for its
failure on Bissell -cast.] In 1962, he left the CIA, and was replaced
by Richard Helms. (Richard M. Bissell Jr. Wikipedia, accessed 02/05/12.)
Richard M. Bissell Jr. married Ann Bushnell, daughter of Mrs. Winthrop G. Bushnell. (Garden Wedding
For Ann Bushnell. New York Times, Jul. 7, 1940.) Winthrop Grant
Bushnell graduated from Yale in 1888. He was with the Edison
Manufacturing Company until 1906. He invested in electric street
railways, lighting, and power properties in New England, Ohio, and
Cuba. He was associated with Alden
M. Young for several years. He was chairman of the executive
committee of the New Haven chapter American National Red Cross War Fund
and other major campaigns. He married Harriet Elizabeth Scofield,
daughter of Levi Tucker Scofield and Elizabeth Clark Wright, and they
had two daughters. One of his four surviving brothers was Rev. Samuel
C. Bushnell {S&B] 1874. (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates
1921-1922, p. 437 / 134.) W.G. Bushnell was among a group at the
Saranac Inn which included Mr. and Mrs. A.M. Young, Mrs. J.H. Goss, George Milton Smith and
Herbert Gallaudet. A few miles away at the Ampersand, Desmond FitzGerald's uncle
was on his honeymoon. (Saranac Inn. New York Tribune, Sep. 16, 1906.)
While golfing in Augusta, Ga., Bushnell met John D. Rockefeller, who
introduced him to the daughter of his old friend, Levi T. Scofield, and
encouraged their romance. They were married in Cleveland by
Rockefeller's pastor. (Rockefeller A Matchmaker. New York Times, Jun.
22, 1911.)
Richard M. Bissell Sr.'s father, George Francis Bissell, was born in
Manchester, Conn., in 1827. He went to Dubuque, Iowa in 1850, where he
was local agent for the Hartford Fire Insurance Company. He was
appointed general agent for the West in 1863, with Chicago as his
headquarters. He was a prominent member of the Union League Club, and
its president from 1889-90. He had two other sons, Frank R. Bissell and
Arthur G. Bissell. (The Obituary Record. Chicago Inter Ocean, Jun. 26,
1895.) He was Second Vice President and a director of the American
Exchange National Bank. (Choosing Officers. Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan.
13, 1892; Few Changes Made. Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 10, 1894; Heads
of the Banks. Chicago Inter Ocean, Jan. 9, 1895.)
Cornelius Vanderbilt was great-grandson of the Commodore. He was the
oldest son of Cornelius Vanderbilt and Alice Claypoole Gwynne. He got
his mechanical engineering degree at Yale in 1899, and made many
inventions. His father disapproved of his marriage to Grace Wilson, and
when he died in 1899, left him $500,000 and income from a trust fund of
$1 million, while his four siblings received approximately $7,350,000
each. His brother, Alfred
Gwynne Vanderbilt, who got the $36 million residuary estate,
promptly gave him $6 million from it. The Vanderbilts were friends of
Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, entertained Prince Henry of Prussia and Duke
Boris of Russia, and were entertained by Czar Nicholas II and the royal
family of Russia. He was an incorporator of the Interborough Rapid
Transit Company, in alliance with August Belmont. His other brothers
were William Henry Vanderbilt 1893, who died during college, and
Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt 1902. His sisters were Mrs. Harry Payne Whitney and
Countess Széchenyi. (Gen. C. Vanderbilt Dies On His Yacht. New
York Times, Mar. 2, 1942.) He was a trustee of the Mutual Life
Insurance Company 1902-1938, and a director of numerous other
corporations [including the Central Union Trust]. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1941-1942, p.
72.) His mother was a Royal descendant of Edmund Ironsides, King of
England,
and his grandfather Flagg was mayor of New Haven. (Americans of Royal
Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 162.) He was an usher at Frank L. Polk's wedding in 1908.
Officers: Charles A. Peabody, President; Emory McClintock,
Vice-President and Actuary; Granville M. White; George T. Dexter, 2d
Vice-President; George T. Dexter, 2d Vice President; James Timpson, 2d
Vice-President; William J. Waston, Secretary; William Frederick Dix,
Secretary; Charles H. Warren, Treasurer. Board of Trustees: George F.
Baker, Pres. First National Bank, New York City; Hugo Baring, banker,
N.Y.C.; Charles S. Brown, real estate, N.Y.C.; Dumont Clarke, Pres.
American Exchange National Bank; Emory W. Clark, Vice-Pres., First
National Bank of Detroit; Cyrus H.K. Curtis, Publisher, Philadelphia;
Julien T. Davies, lawyer, N.Y.C.; William B. Dean, iron and steel, St.
Paul, Minn.; Charles D. Dickey, Brown Brothers & Co., N.Y.C.;
William P. Dixon, lawyer, N.Y.C.; H. Rieman Duval, Pres. American Beet
Sugar Company, N.Y.C.; Frederick H. Eaton, Pres. American Car and
Foundry Co., N.Y.C.; William F. Harrity, lawyer, Philadelphia; Augustus
D. Juilliard, merchant, N.Y.C.; William H. Lambert, retired,
Philadelphia; Charles Lanier, banker, Winslow, Lanier & Co.,
N.Y.C.; Alfred E. Marling, real estate, N.Y.C.; J. Rogers Maxwell,
Pres. Atlas Portland Cement Co., N.Y.C.; Emory McClintock,
Vice-President and Actuary; George P. Miller, lawyer, Milwaukee, Wis.;
Theodore Morford, Pres. Sussex National Bank, Newton, N.J.; Thomas M.
Mulry, Pres. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank of New York; Charles A.
Peabody, President; Emile O. Philippi, merchant, Paris, France; Herman
Ridder, publisher, N.Y.C.; Alfred M. Shook, Pres. First Savings Bank
and Trust Co., Nashville, TN; Charles Emory Smith, publisher,
Philadelphia; Leroy Springs, banker and cotton merchant, Lancaster,
S.C.; Louis Stern, merchant, N.Y.C.; Henry W. Taft, lawyer, N.Y.C.;
Benjamin F. Tracy, lawyer, N.Y.C.; William H. Truesdale, Pres.
Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; Cornelius Vanderbilt,
N.Y.C.; Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson, retired; Robert B. Woodward, banker,
N.Y.C. (Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1907.) In 1910, Baring, Clarke, Dickey,
Lanier, and Morford were gone; replaced by James M. Beck, lawyer in
N.Y.C.; Wayne MacVeigh, lawyer, of Bryn Mawr, Penn.; William H. Porter,
Pres. Chemical National Bank, N.Y.C.; Stewart Shillito, Pres. The John
Shillitto Co., Cincinnati; and Woodrow Wilson, President of Princeton
University. (Annual Report, 1910.)
Charles Stelle Brown "studied in City College and then in Germany
and entered the real estate business here in 1873, specializing in
valuations and appraisals. In 1901 he formed a partnership with the
late Douglas Robinson, brother-in-law of President Theodore Roosevelt.
After Mr. Robinson's death in 1918 the firm became Brown, Wheelock,
Harris & Co., with Mr. Brown as chairman of the board." He was also
trustee or director of the Fulton Trust, the Title Guarantee and Trust,
the North British and Mercantile Insurance Co., Consolidated Gas Co.,
and other firms. He was on the governing board of New York Hospital
since 1904. He was a member of the Jekyl Island Club. His father was
Lewis Blanchard Brown. (C.S. Brown Dead; Realty Broker, 84. New York
Times, Jul. 22, 1935.)
Frederick Heber Eaton was born in Berwick, Penn., and educated in
the public schools. He became engaged in manufacturing in 1880, and was
elected President and a director of the American Car and Foundry
Company in 1902. He was also a director of the Columbia Trust Company,
the Seaboard National Bank, the American Beet Sugar Company, and
several other firms. (Frederick H. Eaton Dead. New York Times, Jan. 29,
1916.)
Board of Trustees: George F. Baker, N.Y.C.; James M. Beck, lawyer,
N.Y.C.; Charles S. Brown, real estate, N.Y.C.; Joseph H. Choate Jr.,
lawyer, N.Y.C.; Emory W. Clark, Vice-President, First National Bank of
Detroit; James C. Colgate, banker, N.Y.C.; Cyrus H.K. Curtis,
publisher, Philadelphia; Julien T. Davies, lawyer, N.Y.C; William B.
Dean, iron and steel, St. Paul, Minn.; William P. Dixon, lawyer,
N.Y.C.; H. Rieman Duval, Pres. American Beet Sugar Co.; Frederick H.
Eaton, Pres. American Car and Foundry Co.; Augustus D. Juilliard,
merchant, N.Y.C.; Wayne MacVeigh, lawyer, Bryn Mawr, Penn.; Alfred E.
Marling, real estate, N.Y.C.; Edwin S. Marston, Pres. Farmers' Loan and
Trust Co.; Emory McClintock, Consulting Actuary; George P. Miller,
lawyer, Milwaukee; John J. Mitchell, Pres. Illinois Trust & Savings
Bank, Chicago; Thomas M. Mulry, Pres. Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank
of New York; Charles A. Peabody, President; William H. Porter, banker,
N.Y.C.; Herman Ridder, publisher, N.Y.C.; John G. Shedd, Pres. Marshall
Field & Co., Chicago; Stewart Shillito, Pres. The John Shillitto
Co., Cincinnati; Alfred M. Shook, Pres. First Savings Bank and Trust
Co., Nashville; Leroy Springs, banker and cotton merchant, Lancaster,
S.C.; Louis Stern, merchant, N.Y.C.; Henry W. Taft, lawyer, N.Y.C.;
Benjamin F. Tracy, lawyer, N.Y.C.; William H. Truesdale, Vice
President, and Pres. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad; Paul
Tuckerman, N.Y.C.; Cornelius Vanderbilt, N.Y.C.; James H. Wilson,
contractor and engineer, Wilmington, Del.; Edwin W. Winter, N.Y.C.; and
Robert B. Woodward, banker, N.Y.C. (Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1912.) In
1914, Shook was replaced by William U. Hensel, Lancaster, Pa. (Annual
Report, Dec. 31, 1913 and Dec. 31, 1914.)
John G. Agar, lawyer, N.Y.C.; George F. Baker, N.Y.C.; James M.
Beck, lawyer, N.Y.C.; Edward
J. Berwind, merchant, N.Y.C.; Charles S. Brown, real estate,
N.Y.C.; Joseph H. Choate Jr., lawyer, N.Y.C.; Emory W. Clark,
Vice-President, First & Old National Bank of Detroit; James C.
Colgate, Bennington, Vt.; Cyrus H.K. Curtis, publisher, Philadelphia;
Grafton D. Cushing, Boston, Mass.; Julien T. Davies, lawyer, N.Y.C;
William B. Dean, iron and steel, St. Paul, Minn.; William P. Dixon,
lawyer, N.Y.C.; H. Rieman Duval, Pres. American Beet Sugar Co.; J.
Levering Jones, lawyer, Philadelphia; Augustus D. Juilliard, merchant,
N.Y.C.; Alfred E. Marling, real estate, N.Y.C.; Edwin S. Marston, Pres.
Farmers' Loan and Trust Co.; George P. Miller, lawyer, Milwaukee; John
J. Mitchell, Pres. Illinois Trust & Savings Bank, Chicago; Charles
A. Peabody, President; William H. Porter, banker, N.Y.C.; John G.
Shedd, Pres. Marshall Field & Co., Chicago; Stewart Shillito, Pres.
The John Shillitto Co., Cincinnati; Leroy Springs, banker and cotton
merchant, Lancaster, S.C.; Louis Stern, merchant, N.Y.C.; Henry W.
Taft, lawyer, N.Y.C.; Edwin Thorne,
N.Y.C.; William H. Truesdale, Vice President, and Pres. Delaware,
Lackawanna & Western Railroad; Paul Tuckerman, N.Y.C.; Cornelius
Vanderbilt, N.Y.C.; Rodman Wanamaker, merchant, N.Y.C.; Thomas
Williams, N.Y.C.; James H. Wilson, contractor and engineer, Wilmington,
Del.; and Edwin W. Winter, N.Y.C. (Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1916.) In
1919, Dean was gone; Arthur V. Davis, merchant, Pittsburgh, was new.
(Annual Report, Dec. 31, 1918.)
S. Sloan Colt, vice president of the Bankers Trust Company, Charles Proctor Cooper, vice president of A.T.&T., and John King Ottley, President of the First National Bank of Atlanta, were elected trustees. (Mutual Life Elects 3 Trustees. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1931.)
W. Randolph Burgess,
Vice Chairman of the National City Bank, was elected a trustee of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company. (Elected By Mutual Life. New York Times,
Nov. 28, 1940.)
Charles E. Adams, Joseph S. Auerbach, Lewis H. Brown, William
Marshall Bullitt, W. Gibson Carey Jr., Joseph H. Choate Jr., Emory W.
Clark, James C. Colgate, S. Sloan Colt, Charles P. Cooper, John W.
Davis, F. Trubee Davison, Lawrence A. Downs, Charles E. Dunlap, Leon
Fraser, David F. Houston (former Chancellor, Washington University-St.
Louis), William D. Mitchell, Roland S. Morris, John K. Ottley, Frank L.
Polk, William C. Potter,
Elihu Root Jr., Henry Lee Shattuck, John
Sloane, Robert C. Stanley, Robert T. Stevens, Henry W. Taft, Myron
C.
Taylor, John C. Traphagen, Paul Tuckerman, Vanderbilt Webb, Clarence M.
Wooley. (Insurance Bosses Used Jobs to Further Their Own Interests, SEC
Says. The Capital Times, Mar. 13, 1941.)
Frank L. Polk, partner of the law firm of Davis, Polk, Lansing, Wardwell & Reed, was a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1930 to 1943.
Lewis W. Douglas was president of the Mutual. Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction Company Inc.; Lewis H. Brown, President of the Johns-Manville Corporation; W. Gibson Carey Jr., President of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.; F. Trubee Davison, in military service; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co., and a director of the Guaranty Trust; Leon Fraser, President of the First National Bank of the City of New York; William D. Mitchell, Counsellor at Law; New York; Alexander E. Patterson, Executive Vice President of the Mutual; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; Robert C. Stanley, Chairman and President of the International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd.; Robert T. Stevens, fomer president of J.P. Stevens & Co., in military service; and John C. Traphagen, President of the Bank of New York. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov. 18, 1942 p. 20.)
Lewis Douglas succeeded David F. Houston as president of the Mutual
Life. He was born in Douglas, Ariz. in 1894 and graduated from Amherst
College in 1916, then spent a year at Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. He had been a US Representative (D-AZ) from 1927-33, when
he was appointed U.S. Director of the Budget. "When the President
rejected the policy of a balanced budget Mr. Douglas declined to agree
with Mr. Roosevelt's views" and resigned. He had been principal and
vice chancellor of McGill University since 1938, which he resigned, but
continued as a governor. He married Margaret Zinsser. (Mutual Life
Picks A New President. New York Times, Jun. 9, 1939.) He was elected a
vice president and director of American Cyanamid in 1934. (L.W. Douglas
Joins Chemical Conern. New York Times, Dec. 11, 1934.) He was assistant
lease-lend expeditor with W.A.
Harriman in London (Lewis W. Douglas Named London Lease-Lend Aide.
New York Times, Jan. 28, 1942), and was an advisor to Gen. Lucius Clay
in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force military
government of Germany. Clay's immediate assistants and counselors were
the Director of Intelligence, the Joint Intelligence Committee and a
mission from the Office of Strategic Services. (Hard Policy Fixed for
Ruling Reich. New York Times, May 17, 1945.) He was president of the
Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York from 1940-47, and a director
of General Motors from 1944-65; and was appointed to the US Advisory
Committee on Information (USIA) in 1959. (Douglas, Lewis Williams,
1894-1974. Congressional Bio.) He married Peggy Scharmann Zinsser, the
youngest daughter of Fredrick George Zinsser. (Married. New York Times,
Jun. 21, 1921.) Her sister, Ellen Zinsser, married John J. McCloy. Her nephews, Stuart
and Peter Douglas, were ushers. Lewis W. Douglas and F. Trubee Davison
were among the guests. (Other Weddings. New York Times, Apr, 26, 1930.)
He was the grandson of James Douglas,
the President of the Phelps-Dodge Company, who had been the major
benefactor of James Ewing of the
American Society for the Control of Cancer; and he succeeded his uncle,
Archibald Douglas, as chairman of the board of managers of Memorial Hospital in 1944.
Lewis W. Douglas, president. Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction Company Inc.; Lewis H. Brown, President of the Johns-Manville Corporation; W. Gibson Carey Jr., President of the Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.; F. Trubee Davison; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; E. Roland Harrison [sic], partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; William D. Mitchell, Counsellor at Law; New York; Alexander E. Patterson, Executive Vice President of the Mutual; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; Robert C. Stanley, Chairman and President of the International Nickel Company of Canada Ltd.; Robert T. Stevens, Chairman of J.P. Stevens & Co.; and John C. Traphagen, President of the Bank of New York. (Display Ad. Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 9, 1945 p. 21.)
Trustees nominated to
serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Chairman, Air Reduction
Company Inc.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, New York; Charles E.
Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes,
Vice President and Director, Olin Industries Inc.; E. Roland Harriman,
partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; William
D. Mitchell, Partner, law firm of Mitchell, Capron, Marsh, Angulo &
Cooney, New York; John Sloane, Chairman of
W.& J. Sloane; Robert T. Stevens, Chairman of J.P. Stevens &
Co.; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., Executive Vice President of
International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov.
7, 1951 p. 32.)
Artemus L. Gates, S&B 1918, was elected a trustee of Mutual Life Insurance (Former High Navy Aide Made Insurance Trustee. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1952.)
Trustees nominated to serve for three years were Charles E. Adams, Director, Air Reduction Company Inc.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, President of the Mutual; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes, Chairman of Finance Committee and Director, Olin Industries Inc.; E. Roland Harriman, partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Robert P. Koenig, President, Cerro de Pasco Corporation; William D. Mitchell, Partner, law firm of Mitchell, Capron, Marsh, Angulo & Cooney, New York; John Sloane, Chairman of W.& J. Sloane; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., President of International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1954 p. 42.)
Trustees nominated to serve for three years were S. Sloan Colt, director, Bankers Trust Company.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, President of the Mutual; Charles E. Dunlap, President of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes, Director and Consultant, Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation; E. Roland Harriman, partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Oveta Culp Hobby, President, Editor and Director, The Houston Post; Robert P. Koenig, President, Cerro de Pasco Corporation; John Sloane, Retired; and Thomas J. Watson Jr., President of International Business Machines Corp. (Display Ad. Cicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 7, 1957 p. N10.)
Trustees nominated to
serve for three years were S. Sloan Colt, Director and member of
Executive and Trust Committees, Bankers Trust
Company.; F. Trubee Davison; Louis W. Dawson, Chairman of the
Mutual; Charles E.
Dunlap, Chairman of the Berwind-White Coal Mining Co.; John W. Hanes,
Director of the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation; E.
Roland Harriman,
partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman; Oveta Culp Hobby, President,
Editor and Director, The Houston Post; Robert P. Koenig, President,
Cerro
de Pasco Corporation; Frank Pace Jr., Chairman of General Dynamics
Corp.; and Thomas R. Wilcox,
Executive Vice President of The First
National Bank of New York. (Display Ad. New York Times, Nov. 4, 1960 p.
56.)
"CHARLES J. BUESlNG, C.L.U.* Lincroft, N. J.; Delegate-Director
(1963-). Field Underwriter, Mutual Of New York. ACS New Jersey
Division: Member, Board of Trustees and Executive Committee (1945- );
Past President, Past Crusade Chairman. Recipient, ACS Natl.-Div. Award;
Member: Board, Life Underwriters' Association of New York; Life
Managers' Assn. of N. Y. (Past Pres.); American Society of Chartered
Life Underwriters." (1966 House of Delegates and Board of Directors.
American Cancer Society Inc.)
H.I. Romnes, the Chairman of
A.T.&T. and a director of the American Cancer Society, became
a trustee in 1967. (Mutual
Life Appoints Romnes to Its Board. New York Times, Oct. 3, 1967.)
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