Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby was among the first to send ships
to China: "Since our last, the ship LIGHTHORSE, belonging to ELIAS
HASKET DERBY, Esq. and commanded by Capt. ICHABOD NICHOLS, sailed from
this port for Canton in China." (Ship News. Salem Mercury, Aug. 12,
1788.) The Salem Mercury editorialized: "We feel a degree of pleasure
in saying that Robert Morris, Esq. is not the only individual, in
America, of sufficient ability and enterprise to own an Indiaman and
cargo. Elias Hasket Derby, Esq. of this town, has been solely concerned
in several voyages to the East Indies:- The ship Grand Turk, Captain
West, finished the first voyage made from New-England to Canton, in
May, 1787; the ship Three Sisters, Capt. Nichols, sailed from this port
in December, 1786, and was sold with her cargo in India; the bark
Lighthorse, Capt. Tucker, sailed for that quarter in January 1787, and
returned in January 1788; the ship Grand Turk, Capt. Derby, sailed in
December, 1787; Ship Juno, Capt. Elkins, in Jan. 1789, but foundered a
short time after her departure; ship Lighthorse, Capt. Nichols, last
August; and the ship Atlantick, Capt. Elkins, last month:- These
vessels, with their valuable cargoes, were all the property of Mr.
Derby." (Editorial. Salem Mercury, Oct. 14, 1788.) "Four ships of Mr.
Derby, the "Astrea," " Light Horse," "Atlantic " and " Three Sisters,"
were lying at Canton in the summer of 1789." Thomas Handasyd Perkins
was in charge of the financial transactions. (History of Essex County,
Massachusetts. Duane Hamilton Hurd, ed., 1888, p. 68.)
Elias Hasket Derby's daughter, Anstiss Derby, married Benjamin Pickman (1763-1843), Harvard 1784. (The late Benjamin Pickman. Washington, DC, Daily National Intelligencer, Sep. 12, 1843.) Their daughter, Anstiss Derby Pickman, married John W. Rogers of Salem and Boston. (Deaths. Boston Daily Atlas, Sep. 2, 1856.) Their daughter, Anstiss Derby Rogers, married William Shepard Wetmore. (Married. Boston Daily Atlas, Sep. 9, 1843.)
His son, John Derby, Esq., graduated from Harvard in 1786.
(Historical collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. IV. Essex
Institute, 1862.) John Derby was a director of the Salem Bank between
1819 and
1828.
John Derby's daughter, Mary Jane Derby, married Unitarian Rev.
Ephraim Peabody. Peabody was a church and business associate of Rev. James Handasyd Perkins
in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1830s. Their son, Robert Swain Peabody, was
an Overseer of Harvard and a member of the Corporation of Massachusetts
Institute of Technology; and their daughter was the first wife of
Harvard President Charles W.
Eliot. (Ephraim Peabody (1807-1856). By Samuel A. Eliot. Harvard
Square Library.)
In 1811, under the pretext of "imminent danger," the Town of Salem
passed a smoking ban, with a fine of three dollars for any person who
"shall smoke any pipe or segar in any street, highway, lane or public
building within said town, by day or by night." The Selectmen appointed
enforcers in every ward to be "Inspectors of the Police for the express
purpose of enforcing the above By-Law." The special inspectors included
Ichabod Nichols and John Derby. (Extract from the By Laws of the Town
of Sale, Salem Gazette, Jun. 28, 1811.) A few weeks before, about 20
miles up the coast, there had been a devastating fire in the town of
Newburyport, which followed a series of arsons. (Dreadful FIRE!
Newburyport Herald, Jun. 5, 1811.)
"A federal circular has come into our possession, signed by Jacob Ashton, Wm. Orne, Joseph Peabody,
John Derby, Samuel Putnam, addressed to the differenct towns in
this District, urging them 'to appoint Committees for every District,
and cause the Committee to see every
man in the District, to confirm the doubtful, and excite those who are
firm, to hold frequent meetings of voters to distribute political
papers and information,' &c. &c. We hope our Republican friends
will be on their guard against the insidious designs of the Junto.
Committees are to be appointed to wait on every man to intimidate by threats,
by misrepresentations, and falsehoods, the free electors of Essex.
Republicans, spurn at their impertinent attempts to mislead you, and
convince them that you know your duty, and will perform it."
(Editorial. Essex Register, Apr. 1, 1812.)
Anti-smoker Dr. Reuben Dimond Mussey (1780-1866), who published "an
elaborate treatise on tobacco," was one of the inhabitants of Salem
during this period, and he married a daughter of Dr. Joseph Osgood of
Salem. (History of Essex County, Massachusetts. Duane Hamilton Hurd,
ed., 1888, p. 143.) Mussey was born in Pelham Township, N.H., and
graduated from Dartmouth in 1803. He first studied medicine under Dr.
Nathan Smith MD (1762-1828). "Being without means, he was compelled to
make an attempt at earning some money. He located at Essex, Mass., and
after three years of general practice had saved enough to go to
Philadelphia and finish his medical education." This was at the U of
Pennsylvania, which was then "the Mecca of medical students from all
parts of the American continent," and the lair of anti-smoker Benjamin
Rush. After graduation, he practiced in Salem, Mass. for five years. He
left in 1814 to teach medicine at Dartmouth, then later went to the
Medical College of Ohio, in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Daniel Drake and His
Followers. Historical and Biographical Sketches. By Otto Juettner M.D.
Harvey Publishing Co., 1909, p. 162; (A cyclopedia of American medical
biography. By Howard Atwood Kelly. W.B. Saunders Co., 1920, p. 842.)
The "elaborate treatise on tobacco" was Health: Its Friends and Its
Foes (1862), a prototypical gibbering screed of hysterical anecdotes
typical of what the mentally retarded and ethically-challenged
followers of this putrid movement employ today.
Mussey's mentor, Dr. Nathan Smith, received a Bachelor of
Medicine at Harvard in 1790. He established the medical department at
Dartmouth in 1798; became the head of the newly organized Medical
Institution at Yale University in 1813; and was involved in
establishing Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and the medical
schools at Bowdoin in Maine, and the University of Vermont at
Burlington. He was the father of Dr. Nathan Ryno Smith, Yale 1817; Dr.
John Derby Smith; Yale 1832; Dr. Solon Smith, and Dr. James Morven
Smith; and grandfather of Dr. Walter John Smith, Yale 1878. (A
cyclopedia of American medical biography. By Howard Atwood Kelly. W.B.
Saunders Co., 1920, p. 1073; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale,
1870-1890, p. 286; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p.
1291.)
John Phillips (1701-1763), born in Salem, married Margaret Wendell,
a royal descendant of King Edward of England. (Americans of Royal
Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 170.) He was the uncle of
John Phillips (1719-1795), Harvard 1735, the first major benefactor of
Dartmouth College and founder of Phillips Exeter Academy at Exeter,
N.H. in 1781. His nephew, Samuel Phillips Jr., had founded Phillips
Academy in Andover, Mass. in 1778. (Memoirs of Prince's Subscribers.
The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Apr. 1852, Vol.
6, p. 273.) The two academies were the main feeder schools for Harvard
and Yale, respectively. John Phillips' great-grandson, Samuel Phillips
Blagden, married the sister of George
C. Clark, the first president of the American Society for the
Control of Cancer.
Jonathan Russell (1771-1832) was appointed U.S. chargé
d'affaires in Paris in 1810 by President James Madison, and in London
in 1811. He was U.S. Minister to Sweden and Norway from 1814 to 1818.
He was one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the
War of 1812, along with former President Adams' son and future
president John Quincy Adams,
James A. Bayard, Henry Clay and Albert
Gallatin. Russell was a US Congressman from Massachusetts from 1821-23.
(Russell, Jonathan. From Martha Mitchell’s Encyclopedia Brunoniana.)
James Asheton Bayard Sr. (1767-1815) was a Congressman from Delaware
from 1897 to 1812, and the ancestor of Thomas F. Bayard, S&B 1890.
His father, Jonathan Russell (? ~1742-1788), was a merchant in English and India goods (The Providence Gazette, and Country Journal, Dec. 10, 1768;5(257);4; Feb. 26, 1774;11(529):3.) His mother was Abigail Russell, the daughter of James Russell of Holliston. His uncles, William Russell (1739-1825) and Joseph Russell (1732-1792) were partners in Joseph and William Russell, shipowners and merchants of English goods. (Died. Rhode Island American, Feb. 11, 1825; Died. The Newport Mercury, May 28, 1792.) William Russell was a trustee of Brown University, and a member of the committee for its fund-raising lottery, along with John Brown, Esq. and Thomas P. Ives. (Rhode Island College Lottery. The Providence Gazette, Mar. 17, 1798.) William Russell served under the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War, and Lafayette was still active in French politics when Jonathan Russell was chargé d'affaires.
Russell Family of Woburn / Ye Old WoburnJonathan Russell graduated from Rhode Island College (now Brown
University) in 1791. He studied law at his hometown of Mendon, Mass.
for a year, then went into the commission business in New York with his
brother-in-law, Otis Ammidon, for three to four years, "and then failed
for debts to an immense amount. Immediately prior to their failure, Mr.
R. formed some kind of connection with Robert Murray & Co. then
merchants of New-York, in consequence of which he proceeded (in 1796)
to Charleston (S.C.) with a view to make speculations in Carolina
produce. Carrying with him letters in credit, or introduction, from
some gentlemen known in Charleston; he made speculations [in] the
amount, as it afterwards appeared, of more than eighty thousand pounds
sterling, or nearly four hundred thousand dollars. These speculations
proved abortive, and Mr. R. of course failed. He then went to Europe
with his family and resided some time in France. Returning again to
America he retired to Canada to avoid the persecution of creditors. But
as a more effectual remedy for this evil Mr. R. soon left his retreat,
and came into Providence, in this state, for the purpose of obtaining
the benefit of our insolvent act. As it may appear extraordinary to
people in this part of the state, that strangers from other states
should expect, by moving a short time into this, to be absolved by our
government from all obligations elesewhere, it is proper to observe,
that in the northern part of the state adjacent to Massachusetts and
Connecticut, no practice has been more common. A few weeks residence in
Providence is considered as sufficient to warrant a stranger to
petition here for the insolvent act; and more or less of such petitions
are presented at almost every session of the Assembly." To obtain his
residence status, Russell studied law again and was admitted to the bar
in 1799. He practiced for about a year, then joined the
"compting-house" of John I. Clarke, Esq., as his clerk. Thanks to
"great exertions being made in his favor and his creditors living in
other states, his petition was carried through at the October session
of 1800. This insolvent act,
however, would only secure Mr. R. from his creditors while he remained
in this state. The United States bankrupt law, which had then been
passed, was much more efficacious; by that law, such debtors as should
obtain a certificate of discharge in conformity to it, were relieved
from all their debts whenever and wherever contracted. But this law
extended only to those who had been traders subsequent to the first day
of June 1800, and Mr. R. had not been a trader since his failure in
1796, and was now only a lawyer, or a clerk to a merchant. Mr. R.
however soon became a trader agreeably to the intent and meaning of the
bankrupt law, by giving his note for 1090 Dollars, to his friends
Messrs. ____ __ ____ merchants in Providence, who took out a commission
in bankruptcy against their
friend Jonathan Russell, under which he was regularly declared a
bankrupt trader, and the necessary process being gone through, Messrs.
____ __ ____ appeared, and signed the proper certificates; declaring
their assent to his discharge from all his debts, and he was
accordingly discharged." His friends, the unnamed Messrs., were the
only creditors involved in this proceeding, and they reportedly
received all their money back. "If this was a mere fictitious demand
raised for the purpose of releasing Jonathan Russell from the bona fide
debts on his real creditors, it was certainly a very wicked transaction
on all hands; but there is one circumstance I had nearly forgotten,
which renders it impossible the transaction should have been
fraudulent. Mr. Russell made an oath that it was not fraudulent. And
perhaps the suspicion, and indeed the certain belief then entertained,
of the fraud of this transaction may have arisen unjustly, from a
general prejudice then prevailing against bankrupts, and which was
produced by numerous frauds of this nature, at that time practiced by
many of these persons to such a degree, that the bankrupt law, instead
of giving security to creditors, or checking extravagance and fraud in
bankrupts, had directly the contrary tendency, and was made by many a
mere cover for the grossest swindling and dishonesty.... These shameful
practices in others may very possibly have excited some very unjust
prejudices against Mr. R. who is now estimated at Providence to be
worth 50 or 60,000 dollars, which perhaps he acquired in two successful
voyages at sea, as supercargo in the employment of Mr. Clark."
Also, "While this gentleman resided in New York, he attracted the
notice of Col. Burr, and so good an opinion had the Colonel of Mr.
Russell that some time before the explosion of the western plot, he
wrote repeated letters to this town containing urgent inquiries
respecting Mr. Russell wishing to know, if he was not here, where he
could be found. And when informed that Mr. Russell was at sea, he wrote
again soon afterwards inquiring whether Mr. R. had returned, and if not
when expected." (Communication. The Newport Mercury. Aug. 20,
1808;(2419):3.) Jonathan Russell was a director of the Roger Williams
Bank and of the Hope Insurance Company, located just above it. (The
Providence Gazette, Mar. 31, 1804 and Mar. 8, 1806.) "The Roger
Williams Bank was incorporated in Providence in 1803, through the
influence of Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to place government deposits
in a Republican-controlled bank. The bulk of the United States deposits
in Rhode Island remained there until 1817. The bank continued until
1865, when it was reorganized as Roger Williams National Bank; it was
absorbed by the Industrial Trust Company in 1900." (Roger Williams Bank
Records. Rhode Island Historical Society, 3/1995.) Russell was replaced
in Paris by Joel Barlow.
The swindle was followed by a lawsuit: U.S. Supreme Court. RUSSELL v. CLARK'S EX'RS, 11 U.S. 69 (1812). Nathaniel Russell v. John I. Clark's Executors, and others, Feb. 17, 1812. Clark & Nightingale and Joseph and William Russell were two of three main colonial merchant firms in Providence. The third was Nicholas Brown and Co., which was heavily involved in the slave trade. Nathaniel Russell (1738-1820), the plaintiff, was born in Bristol, R.I. and was sent to Charleston in 1765 as the agent for Providence merchants.
Russell v. Clark's Executors, 1812 / Justia(Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. By William Richard Cutter, William Frederick Adams. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. Russell, pp. 130-134.)
Genealogical and Personal Memoirs / Google BooksIn 1794, Jonathan Russell married Otis Ammidon's sister
Sylvia, who died at age 38. (Died. The Rhode Island American and
General
Advertiser, Jul. 12, 1811). His second wife was Lydia Smith, the
daughter of Barney Smith, Esq. (Columbian Centinel, Apr. 7, 1817;
Deaths. Christian Inquirer, Dec. 31, 1859.) Otis Ammidon was married to
Jonathan Russell's sister Abigail. The Ammidons were the children of
Col. Philip Ammidon of Mendon, Mass.
(Classified Ad [Otis and Stephen Ammidon sell the late Col. Ammidon's
farm at Mendon.] The Providence Phenix, Jan. 21, 1804.) Otis Ammidon
was president and a director of the Providence Insurance Company
(Classified Ads. The Providence Gazette, Dec. 26, 1807; The Rhode
Island American, Jan. 5, 1810; Jan. 8, 1811); cashier of the Providence
Bank (The Providence Gazette, Apr. 6, 1811); a partner of Gilman &
Ammidon of Philadelphia, with Benjamin Ives Gilman, who were affiliated
with Brown & Ives of Providence (Providence Patriot & Columbian
Phenix, Mar. 12, 1814); and of Coffin & Ammidon of Philadelphia,
with Hector Coffin, who were associated with B. & T.C. Hoppin
(Classified Ad. Rhode Island American, Dec. 21, 1824.) Jonathan
Russell's brother-in-law, Philip Ammidon, advertised his services prior
to "embarking for Canton, with the intention of residing there," and
cited as references Samuel
G. Perkins & Co. of Boston; Brown &
Ives of Providence; Le Roy, Bayard & M'Evers of New York, and
Gilman & Ammidon of Philadelphia (Classified Ad. Boston Gazette,
May 19, 1814; Boston Daily Advertiser, Jun. 3, 1814); and "The
subscriber, embarking for Canton, (in China) where he will reside for a
considerable time, offers his services to the public for the
transaction of the usual business of that place," with references to
Israel Thorndike and Richard D. Tucker & Co. of Boston; Brown &
Ives of Providence; Le Roy, Bayard & Co. and Lebbeus Loomis, Esq.
of New York; Gilman & Ammidon of Philadelphia; and Henry Payson
& Co., Baltimore. (Classified Ads. Commercial Advertiser, Jul. 8,
1818; Boston Daily Advertiser, Jul. 15, 1818.) Philip Ammidon founded
Russell & Company with Samuel Wadsworth Russell in Canton, China,
in 1824. "Evidently Ammidon made some successful deals with the Parsi
opium growers in India, for the partnership was renewed for another
four years in November 1826, well in advance of the starting date,
January 1, 1828, to allow Russell to return home.... Unable to return
in 1828, Ammidon provided Russell with
William H. Low, a very capable replacement with business
connections in Philadelphia and Salem. In 1830, when Arnmidon was still
unable to return to Canton, another replacement Augustine Heard of
Boston, was recommended. Both Low and Russell accepted Heard and
Arnmidon was terminated from the partnership." (Samuel Wadsworth
Russell
House, US National Park Service.) Low was the uncle of Abiel Abbot Low of the New York
Guaranty & Indemnity Company.
"George Russell, son of Jonathan, graduated at Brown University,
studied law with the distinguished John Sergeant of Philadelphia, but
later turned to commerce and founded the house of Russell & Sturgis
in Manila. Returning thence, after eleven years, with a comfortable
fortune, he married Sarah (Parkman) Shaw, daughter of Robert G. Shaw."
His son, Henry Sturgis Russell,
named after his partner, was born in
1838, and graduated from Harvard in 1860. In 1864, he married Mary
Hathaway Forbes, the daughter of John M. Forbes, for whose company he
worked for three years after leaving the Army. He died in 1905. (Henry
Sturgis Russell, 1838-1905. By John T. Morse, Jr. In: Sons of the
Puritans: A Group of Biographies. By Francis Cabot, et al.). Henry
Sturgis Russell was president
and a trustee of the Boston Homeopathic Medical Society from at least
1872 to 1895; and his
father-in-law, John Murray Forbes, the head of J.M.
Forbes & Co., was a trustee in
1872. (Homeopathic Medical Society.
Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 10, 1872; Mass. Homeopathic Hospital. Boston
Daily Advertiser, Jan. 18, 1877; Homepathic Hospital Work. Boston
Daily Globe, Jan. 23, 1895.) Henry Sturgis Russell's son, Howland
Russell, married a daughter of Eugene
Van Rensselaer Thayer Sr.
Samuel Wadsworth Russell (1789-1862), co-founder
of Russell &
Co. with Philip Ammidon, was the uncle of William
Huntington Russell,
a co-founder of the Russell Trust (Skull & Bones) in 1833. Samuel
Wadsworth Russell joined the firm of Hull & Griswold in New York in
1810. John Griswold and Samuel Wetmore (who was the guardian of his
younger siblings) were his partners in the first Russell & Co. of
Middletown, Conn. When his contract with Hull & Griswold ended,
Wetmore got him a position as supercargo on a ship owned by Hoppins
& Co. and Edward Carrington & Co., and eventually he went to
Canton in 1819 "under arrangements made by Edward Carrington and
several leading merchants of Providence." He operated under their
instructions for the first five years. He made friends with John
Perkins Cushing, a cousin of James and Thomas H. Perkins, who was left
in charge of their Canton office at age 16 after Ephraim Bumstead died.
"As early as 1818 Cushing began to turn over the company's commission
business to other Canton associates that included James P. Sturgis
& Company, the Wilcocks representatives, and Russell & Company.
This included Cushing's opium shipments. In 1820 Cushing brought on his
cousin Thomas Tunno Forbes to train for the business. Forbes, however,
died in 1827 before assuming control of the firm. Cushing, eager for
retirement and lacking another suitable heir, made arrangements to
dissolve the firm. Honoring a sealed letter left by Forbes requesting
that Russell take over all the business and with the knowledge that his
cousin and Russell had had a successful dealings in the past, Perkins
& Company was absorbed by Russell & Company. With the
concurrence of the Perkins management, Russell, who had expected to
leave China in 1830 delayed his departure to set up the management
structure of the combined companies, still under the name of Russell
& Company." Ammidon was replaced by Augustine Heard, who
represented the Perkins interests; Robert Bennet Forbes was
given
charge of the Russell & Company storeship business on the Lintin
station and John Murray Forbes was placed with the firm as an assistant
in line for partnership. Russell retired from the company in 1836.
(Samuel Wadsworth Russell
House, US National Park Service.)
William Huntington Russell,
Skull & Bones 1833, graduated from
the Yale School of Medicine
in 1838. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 241.) He
operated the Collegiate and Commercial Institute in New Haven. One of
his students was Henry
Meyer Johnson, Yale 1877.
His sons, Talcott Huntington Russell, born in 1847 (Obituary Record
of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20) and Edward Hubbard
Russell, born in 1855, were officers of the Russell Process Company,
which
licensed patents for metallurgy. (Guide to the Russell
Process Company Records. Compiled by Janet Elaine Gertz, Aug. 1982.
Yale University, 2006.) Edward H. Russell "in 1895 gave up mining and
lived abroad until May, 1928, when he returned to New Haven; spent most
of the time in London and devoted himself to the study of sociology and
work among the poorer classes." (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale
University 1928-1929, pp 219-221) William H. Russell's grandsons who
graduated from Yale included Dr. Thomas H. Russell 1906, William
Huntington Russell 1912, Philip Gray Russell 1913, Edward S. Russell
1916, and William Low Russell 1920.
Their brother, Philip Gray Russell, Skull &
Bones 1876, was an examiner in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington,
D.C., from 1878 to 1882, and then a patent lawyer in partnership with
George S. Prindle. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p.
74.)
Dr. Thomas Hubbard Russell, Yale 1872, M.D. 1875, was an assistant
to Prof. Francis Bacon (M.D. 1853), and a
member of the University
faculty since 1877. (Obituary Record of the Graduates, Yale University
1915-20.) His wife was a sister of Dr. Edward l. Munson, Elihu 1890,
who was an assistant to the Surgeon General and professor of preventive
medicine at George Washington University from 1915-1916, and the first
Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of California
Medical School from 1934 to 1939. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale
University Deceased during the Year 1947-1948, pp. 23-24.)
Dr. Francis Bacon was one of the
organizers of the American Public Health Association, and
he was married to a niece of Yale President Theodore Dwight Woolsey. He
finished his
medical course in 1850, but didn't receive his degree until 1853. "Upon
the outbreak of yellow fever in Galveston, Texas, in 1852, he
volunteered for service as assistant surgeon in the Galveston Hospital
and was there a year and a half." (Obituary Record of Graduates of
Yale, 1910-1915, p. 284.) Dr. George
Woolsey, Yale 1881, was a cousin of his wife.
William Huntington Russell, Yale 1912, son of Dr Thomas H. Russell
1872, was a lawyer in New Haven from 1919-1937. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1942-1943, pp.
113-114.)
"Francis "Frank" Blackwell Forbes (1839-1908) was the son of
clergyman John Murray Forbes (1807-1885), the grandson of James Grant
Forbes, and the great-grandson of Rev. John Forbes. He had a brother
named John Murray Forbes, Jr. (1844-1921) and a sister named Adelaide
Forbes Carmichael. In 1857, after a secondary-school education at the
Columbia College Grammar School in New York, Francis Blackwell Forbes
went to China, where he became a partner in Russell & Co. He was
also active in the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, which operated a
fleet of flat-bottomed steamers up and down the Yangtze River. In 1867,
he married Isabel Clarke, and they had three sons: Francis Murray
Forbes (1874-1961), who lived with James Murray Forbes while he was in
school and starting off in business; Charles Stuart Forbes (1877-1949);
and James Grant Forbes (1878-1955). Their daughter Isobel Forbes
married Albert de Mimont.... Francis Blackwell Forbes's uncle, Paul
Siemen Forbes (1808-1886), also lived in China during the same period.
He had three sons: William Howell Forbes (1837-1896), Henry De Courcy
Forbes (1849-1920), and Paul Revere Forbes (1860-1940)." (Biographical
Sketch. Forbes Family Papers 1732-1931. Massachusetts Historical
Society.)
Rev. John Murray Forbes' son, John Murray Forbes Jr., married J.N.A.
Griswold's daughter, Minnie. His groomsmen were George Griswold, E.F.
Emmet, and Robert F. Hone, and his ushers were B. Campbell and B.
Whitlock.Her bridesmaids were Annie Emmet, Miss Minot of Boston, May
Butler Duncan, and Miss S.S. Marié. Mr. and Mrs. Pierre
Lorillard and Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor were among the guests.
(Four Weddings Yesterday. New York Times, Feb. 17, 1882.) He died in
Morristown, N.J. (Died. New York Times, May 2, 1921.)
Partners of the firm consisted of W.H. Forbes, H.D. Forbes, John M.
Forbes Jr. of New York, C. Vincent Smith, George M. Wheeler, S.W.
Pomeroy (who opened the New York branch in 1878), and E.H.M.
Huntington. (Russell & Co. in Trouble. New York Times, Jun. 4,
1891.) The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was a creditor,
and it had an account at the National Bank of Commerce. Mr. Beaman of
Evarts, Choate & Beaman was counsel for the firm. The partners were
listed as W.H. and H.D. Forbes of Hongkong, S.W. Pomeroy of London,
E.H.M. Huntington of Paris, and John M. Forbes Jr. of New York. Henry
Hannah was manager of the New York branch. Former partners included
A.A. Low, N.L. Griswold, George Griswold, and Paul Forbes. (The
Suspension of Russell & Co. New York Times, Jun. 5, 1891.) The deed
assigning it to Henry Hannah, was signed by John Murray Forbes, and
listed Howell Forbes of Hong Kong, John Murray Forbes of Morristown,
N.J., Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy of London, Charles Vincent Smith of
Shanghai, and Charles Alexander Tomes of Hong Kong. (Business Troubles.
New York Sun, Jun. 10, 1891.)
George and Nathaniel Lynde Griswold were grandsons of Rev. George
Griswold and Hannah Lynde, of Lyme, Conn. (Descendants of Richard Bray
of New England.
Ancestry.com.) Rev. George Griswold, Yale 1717, was an uncle of
Connecticut Governor Matthew
Griswold. Another son, Sylvanus, graduated
from Yale in 1757. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale
College, Oct. 1701 - May 1745, p. 168.) The Griswolds were a powerful
political family. Gov. Griswold was a son-in-law of Roger Wolcott;
second cousin by marriage of William Pitkin; brother-in-law of Oliver
Wolcott Sr.; uncle by marriage of Oliver Wolcott Jr.; father of Gov.
Roger Griswold [Yale 1780], and great-grandfather of Gov. Matthew
Griswold (1833-1919). (Wolcott-Griswold-Ellsworth-Pitkin family of
Connecticut. Political Graveyard.com.) At least two dozen members of
this Griswold family graduated from Yale, and a number of the women
married Yalies.
George and Nathaniel L. Griswold, Canton merchants, began their partnership in 1794, and "by his enterprise contributed to the withdrawal of the East India trade from Boston to New York." (Obituary. New York Herald, Sep. 7, 1859; Death of an Old New-York Merchant. New York Times, Sep. 7, 1859.) George Griswold was a director of the Columbian Insurance Company, the Globe Insurance Company, the Bank of America, the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, the Bank of the United States, the New York & Erie Railroad, and the Illinois Central Railroad; and a member of the Council of the New University in the City of New York. (N.Y. University. Daily National Intelligencer, Oct. 21, 1830.) He was a director of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, with property situated on the Bay. (Wall Street. New York Herald, May 26, 1836.) He and Richard Alsop of Philadelphia formed a partnership called "The Bank of the United States in New York," with $200,000. (From the Daily Whig. New York Spectator, Aug. 13, 1838.) Morris Robinson was its President. (The U.S. Bank of New York. Washington DC, Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 5, 1839.)
Mrs. George Griswold was Elizabeth Woodhull, a Royal descendant of William the Conqueror. Their daughter Sarah married John Cleve Green. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 9.) Their daughter Cornelia married J. Woodward Haven [father of George Griswold Haven]. (Married. New York Spectator, Feb. 7, 1833.) Their son, Richard Sill Griswold, graduated from Yale in 1829, and his cousin George Griswold M.D., Nathaniel's son, in 1824. (Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College... later than 1815, pp. 199 and 124.) Another daughter, Matilda, in 1849 married Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who was Secretary of State under President Arthur. They had six children. (The Death of Mrs. Frelinghuysen. New York Tribune, Feb. 4, 1889.)
Americans of Royal Descent, p. 9 / Google BooksGeorge Griswold Jr. was a partner
in the business until 1868, when
he
went abroad with his family. He died in Dresden, Saxony. (Obituary. New
York Times, Apr. 27, 1884.) [Friedrich Reiche of Hamburg, Germany, a
partner of Russell & Co. from 1855-1858, retired to Dresden,
Germany. (New England Fortunes Made in China Through the House of
Russell & Co. Boston Globe, Jun. 28, 1908.)] Capt. Constantine von
Dziembowski of
Dresden, Germany, was a son-in-law. (Died. New York Times, May 9,
1885.) Another daughter, Lydia, married Baron Richard Sterneck. A son
died in Klagenfurt, Austria. (Died. New York Tribune, Oct. 15, 1909.)
A daughter, Louise Griswold, married Harold de Raasloff, son of the
ex-Danish
minister to the U.S. (De Raasloff-Griswold. New York Times, Dec. 16,
1897.) SonJohn Noble Alsop Griswold
"traveled to the Far East in 1847 and was within a year appointed
United States consul at Shanghai. He held that position until 1854.
Upon his return to America, he helped develop several prominent
railroads, serving as president of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company and chairman of the board of directors of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company. Griswold was also involved in
the house of Charles H.
Russell & Co." (John Griswold House, p. 15. National Park
Service.) He was a Vice President in China of the Medical Missionary
Society. (Medical Missionary Society in China. New York Times, May 19,
1853, from the China Mail, Mar. 3, 1853.) He married a sister of Dr. Thomas
Addis Emmet in 1861. (John N.A. Griswold Dead. New York Times, Sep.
14,
1909.) J.N.A. Griswold's
daughter, Minnie Griswold, married John Murray Forbes, the son of Rev.
John Murray Forbes. (Four Weddings Yesterday. New York Times, Feb. 17,
1882.) Another son, Frank
Gray Griswold,
was an executive of the Lorillard Tobacco Company.
John C. Green was born in New Jersey in 1797. He was a clerk and
supercargo at N.L. & G. Griswold. In 1833, he went to Canton,
China, where he was connected with Russell & Co. for six years. In
1839, he returned and married George Griswold Sr.'s daughter, and
resumed
his business in the China trade. He was a director of the Bank of
Commerce. He was once president of New York York University, and made
gifts to Princeton. He was a brother of [Henry W.] Green, Chancellor of
New Jersey. (Obituary. New York Times, Apr. 30, 1875.) He left an
estate of $5 million, with $3 million in a trust for his sister, Mrs.
Emily A. Livingston, and brother, Charles E. Green. (Wants to Know
About the $3,000,000. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1894.) He endowed the
Lawrenceville prep school with his estate. (Made Ready For College. New
York Times, May 26, 1885.) Mrs. Green gave $50,000 to the Presbyterian
Hospital. (New York. Boston Daily Advertiser, Jul. 13, 1877.) He was a
director of the New York & Erie Railroad, a stockholder of the
Atlantic Telegraph Company, a Governor of the Society of the New York
Hospital, and a director of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy
Railroad.
Nathaniel L. Griswold's son, John L. Griswold, went to Peoria, Ill. in 1839, and was a partner of Albert G. Curtenius in the grocery business. "They received goods by the boat-load, selling them through a large territory and did an immense business. They also bought and shipped grain, dealt largely in real estate, and in early days did a banking business." They divided $500,000 when Curtenius died in 1857. Griswold continued with his brother until retiring in 1864. "He was one of the largest stockholders of the Peoria Gas Company and one of the incorporators of the Second National Bank." He left two nephews. (Mortuary Matters. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Jan. 16, 1883.) A daughter of Nathaniel L. Griswold married Peter Lorillard Sr.
Skull & Bones co-founder Alphonso Taft's father, Peter Rawson
Taft
(1785-1867), who immigrated to Cincinnati via Vermont, was born in
Uxbridge, a wealthy area near Mendon, Massachusetts, and the Tafts have
held family reunions there since at least as far back as 1874 (The Taft
Family. Port Jervis, NY, Evening Gazette, Aug. 22, 1874.) "Ninety-six
years ago Alphonso Taft called them 'kindred' and 'tribe.' Today the
politically famous Taft family has clans in 22 states. Representatives
will gather Aug. 15-16, as they have every year since 1874, at the
family's place of origin, Mendon, Mass." Annual reunions are also held
in "numerous states." "Alphonso was the guiding spirit behind the Taft
family gatherings, calling them together for the first time in 1874."
(Taft Family Gathers for Clan Reunion. AP. Ada, Oklahoma Evening News,
July 30, 1970.) Alphonso Taft was one of the leading trustees of
Antioch College, which "designs to devote particular attentions to the
study of the laws of health, and every effort will be made to prevent,
on the part of the student, any conduct of life that shall violate
those laws." (Horace Mann's Antioch College. New York Daily Times, Aug.
10, 1853.) Alphonso Taft died in 1891. (Obituary Record of Graduates of
Yale, 1890-1900, p. 18.) The honorary pallbearers at his funeral were
David
Sinton, John W. Herron, Aaron F. Perry, George R. Sage, P.P. Mallon,
W.S. Groesbeck, J.G. Hollister, Warner F. Bateman, H.D. Peck, Fred W.
Moore, H.P. Lloyd and Harry R. Smith, all of Cincinnati. The Rev.
George R. Thayer of the Unitarian Church conducted the services. (Laid
to Rest. The Atchison Champion, May 29, 1891.)
John Williamson Herron (Yale Ph.B.
1891) of Cincinnati was William H. Taft's brother-in-law. His father of
the same name was a U.S. District Attorney and state legislator.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools Deceased
during the Year 1949-1950 pp. 135-136.) His sister married Thomas McK.
Laughlin (Ph.B. 1897), whose brother Irwin B. Laughlin, Scroll
& Key 1893, was in the U.S. diplomatic service.
Alphonso Taft. In: Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912. By S.J.
Clarke Publishing, 1912, p. 800.
Alphonso Taft moved to Cincinnati in 1840, where he was a crony of
James Handasyd Perkins, whose grandson, James H. Perkins, was
chairman of the board of the National City Bank and president of
the Farmers Loan and Trust. During the 1920s, Farmers became a major
stockholder in the American Tobacco Company, and
James H. Perkins was on American Tobacco's board of directors between
1926 and
1929. Perkins maintained the family ties with the Taft family as a
crony of Alphonso's
son, Henry Waters Taft
(S&B 1880) was on the advisory committee of Yale's Institute of
Human
Relations. His brother, Thomas
Nelson Perkins, was a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, which runs
Harvard University. In 1922, the
Office of Cancer Investigations of the US Public Health Service at
Harvard University (which was subsequently merged into the National
Cancer Institute), was established at Harvard by Assistant Surgeon
General Joseph W. Schereschewsky,
who was a member of the Hygiene Reference Board of the Life Extension
Institute. Former President William H. Taft (S&B 1878) was
chairman of the board of the Life Extension Institute,
which was formed
in the boardroom of the Guaranty Trust in 1913. Its driving
force was anti-smoker Irving Fisher (S&B 1888), and its purpose was
to recruit the most powerful businessmen in the country into a
conspiracy to impose health fascist tyranny on America.
Taft descendant Emily Taft was married to Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D-IL), who in 1965 was one of four US Senators who urged President Johnson to veto the Cigarette Advertising and Labelling Act because of its provision postponing the Federal Trade Commission's rule requiring health hazard warnings in cigarette advertising; while their son, Paul W. Douglas, became a director of Philip Morris from 1980-95. And Pres. George W. Bush has more than twenty ancestors who hailed from the Mendon, Massachusetts area in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Ancestry of George W. Bush / William Addams ReitwiesnerMembers of The Order have played key roles on both sides of the anti-smoking movement, and the first thing they did was take over the tobacco companies. This is how they engineer the Hegelian false alternatives they inflict on the people!
The Health Establishment and the Order of Skull & BonesThe first Brown Brother to immigrate from Ireland to Baltimore was
Alexander Brown's younger brother, Stewart. Alexander Brown's wife was
his cousin Grace Davison, and her sister, Ann Davison, the wife of Dr.
George Brown (who is said to have been "no blood relation"), was there
also. Alexander Brown's oldest son William, 15, accompanied them, while
the others were left at boarding school in Yorkshire, England.
Alexander Brown had been a linen merchant in Ballymena, and he was back
in business in Baltimore before the end of December 1800. William
returned to Liverpool in 1808 and founded Brown, Shipley & Co. (The
Browns of Brown, Shipley and Company, Merchant Bankers of Liverpool and
London; Letters Home to Lisburn; Davison and Brown Families. By Jimmy
Irvine. Lisburn.com). "William's friends dispatched their
correspondence through William Brown and Company of Liverpool, a means
Mary repeatedly asked her family also to use. That letters were thus
able to come through in time of war, demonstrates the strength of the
Brown family establishment." Notes, Letter No. 17.) William Cumming of
Petersburg, Virginia, purchased tobacco for "Mr. Brown and Mr. Oliver
in Baltimore." (Letter No. 23, Mar. 9, 1814. By Jimmy Irvine.
Lisburn.com) John Brown of Baltimore married "Isabella, daughter of
John Patrick of Ballymena, who was both a doctor and linen merchany."
(Notes, Letter No. 24, June 4, 1814. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com)
Dr. George Brown and his wife had immigrated in 1783. (Notes, Letter No. 5. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com) Their daughter Grace married Alexander Brown's son John A. Brown (1788-1873), and their daughter Ann married Robert Dickey, an Irish merchant in New York City. (Dr. George Brown's Family. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com.) Dr. Brown died in 1822 aged 67. (Deaths. Boston Recorder, Sep. 7, 1822.)
Dr. George Brown's Family / Lisburn.com"Robert Dickey was a native of Ballymena. The family originally came from Ayrshire and settled in Ballymena under William Adair as early as 1620. Later they lived at Leighmore, Ballymena. James Dickey of Crumlin was a United Irishman who played a minor role during the later stages of the '98 rising in Ballymena, for which he forfeited his life on the gallows. Like the Browns and many other Irishmen who left the country far America after the '98 uprising, Robert Dickey prospered over there and became immensely rich. He married a daughter of Dr. Brown of Baltimore." (Letters 1 - 8. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com.)
Letters 1 - 8 / Lisburn.com"COFFEE. Four hundred and fifty thousand lbs of St. Domingo COFFEE,
deliverable in Baltimore (where it can be shipped free of commercial
charge, by a house of the first respectability) for sale by ROBERT
DICKEY." (New-York Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 16, 1804.) Capt. George
Dickey of No. 6 Harman-street, and Mrs. Elizabeth Dickey, widow of
Capt. George Dickey, died in New York (New York Commercial Advertiser
Aug. 3, 1804; New York Weekly Museum, July 8, 1815); "In North
Street, Belfast (Ireland), on the 2d December last, of typhus fever,
Mr. Robert Dickey." (New York Commercial Advertiser, Mar. 14, 1818.)
Since at least 1809, Robert Dickey lived in "the most fashionable
neighborhood for New York’s social elite and wealthy merchant class."
In 1821, he sold his property at Nos. 71 and 73 Greenwich Street to
Charles Denston, after whom several of his descendants have been named
(who include three partners of Brown Brothers, a partner of J.P. Morgan
& Co. and a chairman of the Morgan Guaranty Trust), for $10.
(Robert and Anne Dickey House. By Jay Shockley. New York City Landmarks
Preservation Commission, June 28, 2005.)
Robert Dickey's daughter, Ann Thompson Dickey (1809-1893) married
Israel Thorndike Jr. in New York in 1832. (Married. New-York Spectator,
Jan. 31, 1832; Marriages. Christian
Register, Feb. 4, 1832.) She died in Baltimore. (Died. New York Times,
Nov. 21, 1893.) "In 1789, vessels were
sent from Boston to the East Indies, and to China, and soon became a
very profitable commercial enterprise. In proportion to its population,
Salem took the lead of Boston in the East, as it had done in the West
Indian trade. Teas, silks, nankins and other cotton cloths, sugar,
coffee, and spices, were imported; and cargoes of East India products
were, by the enterprising merchants of Salem and Boston, exported to
ports in the north of Europe. Ginseng formed part of the cargoes
shipped to the East Indies, but specie, generally silver current coin,
was sent to a large amount to Canton and Calcutta, &c, &c. The
merchants who first engaged in the East Indies trade at Salem, were
Derby, Gray, Cabot, Thorndike, and Crowninshield." (Commercial Sketch
of Boston. Anonymous. The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review,
Aug. 1839.)
Robert Dickey's son, John G. Dickey, died in Philadelphia at age 24. (Died. North American and Daily Advertiser, Jan. 24, 1840; New-York Spectator, Jan. 27, 1840.) His daughter, Mary Dickey, died at age 19 at the home of her uncle, John A. Brown, in Philadelphia. (North American and Daily Advertiser, Apr. 10, 1840.) His son, George Dickey, died in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1860. (Died. New-York Times, Sep. 18, 1860.) Robert Dickey's daughter, Jane Brown Dickey, died in Baltimore. (Died. New York Times, Feb. 10, 1892.)
Robert Dickey's daughter Elizabeth never married. "She was born in
1816, and was a daughter of the late Robert Dickey, of New York, who
married Miss Brown, daughter of Dr. George Brown, celebrated as a
physician in Baltimore during the last part of the eighteenth century.
She was a relative of the late John A. Brown, once head of the banking
firm of Brown Brothers & Co. of Philadelphia, and at one time lived
at his residence, on Rittenhouse square, in Philadelphia." (Maryland
Obituary. Washington Post, Apr. 26, 1907.)
Robert Dickey's son, Judge Hugh T. Dickey of Chicago, graduated from Columbia University in 1830. His classmates included Hamilton Fish, John M. Forbes, and Lewis C. Gunn. (Commencement of Columbia College. New-York Morning Herald, Aug. 5, 1830.) He married [Frances] Anne Russell De Koven, the youngest daughter of the late Henry L. De Koven. Her brother, Rev. Henry De Koven, performed the ceremony in Middletown, Conn. (Marriages. Boston Daily Atlas, Apr. 24, 1850; Marriages. Christian Inquirer, Apr. 27, 1850.) Hugh T. Dickey petitioned for the estate of John G. Dickey of Philadelphia to be probated in Milwaukee County Court. John A. Brown was the executor. (State of Wisc., Milwaukee Co. Court, in Probate. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 4, 1856.) He was a director of the Chicago and Galena Railroad (Financial and Commercial. New York Herald, Aug. 31, 1856), and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. (The Reportorial Racket. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, Jun. 9, 1879.) He died in New York City at age 80; at his death, he was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. His wife and a daughter, the wife of Rev. Charles Douglass of Washington, D.C., survived him. (Obituary. New York Times, June 3, 1892.) "Mrs. Dickey was Miss Frances Russell De Koven of Chicago. Her husband, Mr. Hugh T. Dickey, was for many years a partner of Brown Brothers & Co. He died some years ago, and his place in that concern has been taken by his son, Charles D. Dickey, who married Miss Louise L. Whitney of New Haven." (Death List of A Day. New York Times, Oct. 13, 1900.)
Hugh T. Dickey Jr. was actually the first to marry Louise Lawrence Whitney, daughter of Stephen Whitney, who left a fortune of $14 million. The ushers were Francis Hillhouse of New Haven, Edward Morrell of Philadelphia, Newbold Edgar of New-York, and Charles Dickey, a brother of the groom. George B. McClellan was best man. The wedding haul was estimated at $30,000. (Dickey - Whitney. New York Times, Apr. 4, 1888; In Flashing Diamonds. Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 4, 1888.) Hugh T. Dickey Jr. died at age 28. (Died. New York Times, Mar. 12, 1891.) A few years later, Louise married Charles D. Dickey Jr., "a cousin of her late husband," at Grace Church, whose seating capacity was "taxed to its utmost." Norton Goddard and Lawrence Whitney were ushers, and Benjamin R. Kittredge was best man. (Yesterday's Weddings. New York Times, Mar. 15, 1893; [Lawrence Whitney ex-'96 S. died at Yale] Stephen Whitney, Ph.B. 1908. Bulletin of Yale University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1929-1930, p 292-294.)
Middletown Vital Records from Barbour, 1668-1852 - D / Rootsweb.comRobert Dickey's son, Charles D. Dickey of Mobile, Alabama, became a partner of Brown Brothers & Co. in 1859. (Copartnership Notices. New York Herald, Oct. 25, 1859; Financial and Commercial. New York Herald, Oct. 27, 1859.) He was believed to be first admission into the house since the death of Samuel Nickinson. (Correspondence of the Courier. Charleston Courier, Tri-Weekly, Nov. 19, 1859.) He died in Islip, L.I. in his 79th year. (Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. 16, 1897.) His daughter, Sophie Witherspoon Dickey, married Howard Townsend and died in 1892. (Died. New York Times, Feb. 1, 1892.) Charles Denston Dickey Jr., husband of Louise L. Whitney, whose mother was Mary Witherspoon, died at age 59. He was born in Mobile, Alabama, and became the head of Brown Brothers thirty years previously. "He was also interested in the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Bank of Manhattan, the Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey, the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Company, the Northern Insurance Company, the Greenwich Savings Bank, and the Northern Assurance Company." (Died; and: Charles D. Dickey, Banker. New York Times, Feb. 5, 1919.) Charles D. Dickey Jr. replaced Hugh T. Dickey as a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. (Has Thirteen Members. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sep. 22, 1892.) His son, the next Charles Denston Dickey, was a partner of Brown Brothers also, then a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chairman of Trust Matters of the Morgan Guaranty Trust.
Capt. Henry De Koven was the son of Elizabeth Sebor and John Lewis
DeKoven, a "foreigner" born in 1748. They married in 1781. And Henry L.
De Koven
married Margaret T. Sebor. (Former Diplomat Wins New Laurels as
Sculptor. By Marie McNair. Washington Post, Sep 14, 1950; Middletown
Vital Records from Barbour,
1668-1852 - SABIN to SMITH. Transcribed by Coralynn Brown.) "Taken off
a British transport by a colonial privateer and brought
in to be interned at Middletown, Connecticut was an officer in the
Hanoverian auxiliaries of the British forces, John Lewis DeKoven. He
must have been an enthusiastic Mason, and a persuasive fellow, as soon
after his arrival in 1783 the lodge at Middletown was resuscitated from
its war time dormancy, and DeKoven took the initiative in
organizing a 'Grand' Royal Arch Chapter, that is, that is, a chapter
which was self constituted and independent, although it was formed
under sanction of the local lodge. This was an unusual thing to do in
Connecticut, and St. Johns Lodge in Middletown is the only one, and
there were a dozen in the state at that time, to lend its sanction to a
Royal Arch chapter. It almost looks as though it was revived for that
purpose.... DeKoven's enthusiasm was not confined to Masonry. Although
he contracted a perfectly respectable marriage, apparently his European
gallantry did not fit into the mores of the Land of Steady
Habits. He began to wander from the straight and narrow path, and when
he was caught chasing a neighbor's wife, the irate husband chased him
out of town. On the way out, he sold his mark, the anchor of hope, and
he is said to have fled to Canada." (American Masonic Roots in British
Military Lodges. WBro. James R. Case, Master, American Lodge of
Research, New York City; Researched and Edited by: WBro. Antonio M.
Ligaya, PM. In: Cable-Tow, 2006 July;65(2):16-22.) "Wanted Immediately,
A Large Sum in Final Settlements, Continental
Loan Office Certificates, Interest for Certificates, and Soldiers'
Notes, for which CASH and a generous Price will be given, by Elizabeth
De Koven, who has just received a New Supply of Excellent Bohea TEA."
(Middlesex Gazette, Middletown, Conn. Aug. 22, 1789, p. 4.)
In March 1822: "Soon after my arrival at Callao, the ship America,
Captain De Koven, of New-York, arrived with a full cargo of flour. I
believe he brought about 3500 barrels, which were sold at a very great
profit. To Capt. De Koven I sold my quicksilver at invoice price, which
amounted to about $3500. As all communication was cut off between Lima
and the interior, I was unable to dispose of the quicksilver at any
price, except to Capt. De Koven. He was bound to Canton, and took the
article at invoice price to dispose of it in China. I subsequently lent
him $11,500 in dollars (which, together with the quicksilver, amounted
to $15,000). and took his bill on the owners of the America, in
New-York, for the amount at sixty days sight. The owners of the ship
were Messrs. Hoyt and Tom, Elisha Tibbets, and Stephen Whitney."
(Voyages to various parts of the world, made between the years 1799 and
1844. By George Coggeshall. Appleton & Co., 1851.) De Koven also
mastered the America from Cadiz, Spain (Independent American, Sep. 4,
1816), the ship Clyde, from Cadiz (New York. Farmer's Cabinet, Nov. 20,
1804), the ship Minerva, for Havanna [sic] (New-York Price-Current,
Mar. 16, 1805), the Bengal, from Buenos Aires (New-York Price-Current,
Nov. 29, 1806), the Culladen, from Montevideo (New York Commercial
Advertiser, Aug. 17, 1807), the ship Whampoa, from Spain (Latest News
From Spain. Connecticut Journal, Jan. 18, 1810), the Donna Emilia, from
New York to Goa, India (Ming's New-York Price Current, Feb. 24, 1810),
the Donna Emilia, from New York to Calcutta via Isle of France
(Baltimore Price Current, May 18, 1811), and the Sea Nymph between
Lisboa and New York, 1823. The ship America, Captain D'Kooven [sic] of
New York, was reported left at Whampoa by Capt. Baker, of the
brig Comet, of Salem. ([Shipping News.] Salem Gazette, Mar. 7, 1823.)
In 1824, De Koven was among a group of US citizens residing or
transacting business in Lima, Peru, who thanked Commodore Charles
Stewart, the commander of U.S. Naval forces in the Pacific, for
protecting their interests against the revolutionary governments of
Peru and Chile.
(Letter from William H. Conckling, et al., to Commodore Charles
Stewart, May 2, 1824. In: American State Papers [Naval Affairs: Volume
2].)
"This paper argues for a revision of the traditional view of the
global silver trade with China in the late 18th and early 19th century.
Section 1 showed that the existing historiography tended to ignore that
silver imports into China continued for longer and at increased levels
up to the 1820s. It provided new evidence showing that the structure of
the silver trade changed substantially with US merchants becoming the
central intermediaries between Latin American silver producers
and
Chinese ‘consumers’. It also demonstrated that Chinese imports of
silver consisted increasingly of Spanish American coins, the so-called
pillar and bust dollars." (A Trojan Horse in 19th century China? The
global consequences of the breakdown of the Spanish Silver Peso
standard. By Maria Alejandra Irigoin.)
In 1831, Henry L. DeKoven was one of the incorporators of Wesleyan
University. (The Charter of Wesleyan University. Wesleyan University.)
He was founder, president and a director of the Middlesex County
National Bank from 1830 to 1835. Samuel Russell succeeded him as
president from 1835 to 1840, and 1841 to 1846; and DeKoven's relative,
Charles R. Sebor, from 1846 to 1878. (Town and City of Middletown. By
Henry Wittemore; transcribed by Janece Streig. In: The History of
Middlesex County 1635-1885. J. H. Beers & Co., 1884.) On June 25,
1835, Henry L. DeKoven obtained title to land in the heart of Austin,
Illinois, which was annexed by Chicago in 1899. The tracks of the
Chicago & Northwestern Railroad tracks
are on its northern boundary. Austin Community Collection 1860-1981,
Chicago Public Library.) The town was named for Henry Austin Sr., an
Illinois
legislator who helped create and pass the Illinois Temperance Act in
1872 to ban the sale of alcohol, and founded a temperance community
there. Samuel Russell also owned very valuable property in Chicago, Lot
9 in Block 28 of the Original Town of Chicago, which his daughter
Frances Ann Russell inherited. (A Venerable Claim. Chicago Daily
Tribune, Oct. 24, 1883.) His land at South Water St. and N. Fifth
Avenue was leased out by Mary A. Lewis of New York and Cornelia Russell
Green of London, England. "The land was purchased in 1833 by Samuel
Russell of Middletown, Conn., grandfather of the lessors, from Thomas
Hartzell, who obtained it from the government, and Mr. Russell is said
to have been much pleased that for each of the two stores in the
building he then erected he was able to secure a rent of $700 a year."
(South Water St. Gets Long Lease. Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr. 2, 1912.)
Capt. De Koven's son, Rev. Dr. Henry De Koven, married Charlotte, a
daughter of Jacob R. Le Roy. (Died. New York Times, Oct. 20, 1885.)
Jacob Le Roy was the son of Herman Leroy, who founded Le Roy, Bayard
& Co., and was one of the five brothers of Mrs. Daniel Webster.
(Married. New-York Spectator, December 18, 1829; Funeral of Daniel
Webster. New York Times, Nov. 1, 1852; Daniel Webster's Widow. New York
Times, Feb. 28, 1882.) His son, the opera composer Reginald De Koven,
was married in Chicago to Annie Farwell, the daughter of Sen. Charles
B. Farwell. Hugh T. Dickey Jr. was his best man. Mr. and Mrs. J.V.
Farwell and Mr. and Mrs. Franklin MacVeagh (S&B 1862) were among
the guests. The newlyweds left immediately for Florence, Italy.
(Notable Nuptials. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 2, 1884.) Mrs. Hugh T.
Dickey left Reginald De Koven and another favorite nephew, Elijah Kent
Hubbard, $5,000 each.
(Will of Mrs. Hugh T. Dickey. New York Times, Nov. 4, 1900.) "Reginald
De
Koven was born in Middletown, Conn. in 1861, the son of an Episcopalian
clergyman who was descended from an English Army Captain of Colonial
Times. His father took up his residence in England in 1872 and sent his
son to Oxford." (Reginald De Koven Dies At A Dance. New York Times,
Jan. 17, 1920.) Mrs. Reginald De Koven's sister, Grace Farwell, married
Dudley Winston, Skull & Bones 1886, and was the mother-in-law of James H. Douglas Jr.
Capt. De Koven's daughter Margaret married Dr. William B. Casey, one
of the founders of the state insane asylum. (Mrs. Margaret De Koven
Casey. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1900.) His daughter Elizabeth married
Chicago pioneer Elijah Kent Hubbard, one of the builders of the Galena
and Chicago Union railroad. His son of the same name was the president
of the Russell Manufacturing Co. of Middletown, Conn. (Aged Chicago
Native Dies. Chicago Daily Tribune, Jun. 27, 1915.) Henry L. De Koven,
Elijah Hubbard, and Samuel D. Hubbard were trustees of Wesleyan
University. (Wesleyan University. New-York Spectator, Aug. 3, 1830.)
His son, again named Elijah Kent
Hubbard, was President of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association
and a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of Human
Relations at Yale. Another son, Louis De Koven Hubbard, was a textile
manufacturer in Connecticut. (Louis DeK. Hubbard. New York Times, Jan.
26, 1934.) Another son, Elisha Dyer Hubbard, married Muriel McCormick,
daughter of Harold
McCormick and granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. (Muriel M'Cormick
Wed in a Garden. New York Times, Sep. 11, 1931.) A daughter, Katharine,
married Clarence Seymour Wadsworth, the son of Julius Wadsworth. Samuel
Russell Jr. was one of the ushers. (Hubbard-Wadsworth. Boston Daily
Advertiser, Oct. 8, 1897.)
Capt. De Koven's daughter, Cornelia, married Julius Wadsworth, born in Middletown, Conn. "His father was a prosperous merchant and left to his sons a fortune of nearly half a million. Young Wadsworth, the eldest of several brothers, received a good education in the ordinary English branches, and in his father's stores obtained what was of the greatest advantage to him - a good business education. In 1836, at the age of 22, Mr. Wadsworth came West." He and his brother, E.S. Wadsworth, bought real estate in Chicago, and started the Wadsworth Bros. wholesale dry goods house, later Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, and eventually acquired by John V. Farwell. In 1848, Wadsworth and Dyer built a packing house, most of whose beef was shipped to Great Britain. His fortune was estimated at $2 to 3 million, including a large block of the preferred stock and bonds of the Milwaukee Road. He died at age 73. (A Business-Man's Career. Chicago Daily Tribune, Jun. 5, 1887.) He left $80,000 to brothers in Middletown, then half the remainder to his wife, and the other half to his only child, Clarence Seymour Wadsworth, with Elijah Hubbard of Middletown and Lucien G. Hoe of Chicago as trustees. (Julius Wadsworth's Will. New York Times, Jun. 19, 1887.) Their grandson, Julius Wadsworth, was vice consul to China, who married Cleome Carroll Miner, a descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Md. (Couple Engaged in China Plan Bridal at Home. Washington Post, Aug. 23, 1934; Vice-Consul Will Wed. New York Times, Sep. 30, 1934.) He was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Co. (Railroad Matters. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1876) and its vice president. David Dows and Jeremiah Milbank were also directors, and Alexander Mitchell was president. (Financial. New York Times, Mar. 7, 1877; The Railroads. Chicago Tribune, Jun. 9, 1878.) Hugh T. Dickey became a director in 1880. (Milwaukee & St. Paul. Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1880.) Wadsworth resigned in 1886, citing ill health. (Resigned His Office. New York Times, Jun. 29, 1886.)
Capt. De Koven's son James was the President of Racine College in
Wisconsin. De Koven and his
close friend and classmate, George F. Seymour, were embroiled in a
church controversy over ritual; in succession a few months apart, both
were elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Illinois, but were
denied confirmation. (Bishop George
F. Seymour. In: Past and Present of the City of Springfield and
Sangamon County Illinois. By Joseph Wallace. The S. J. Clarke
Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.) He made some remarks about liberty
which certain laymen wished to suppress: "A Little Dialogue - Dr. Gregg
- I have a word to say in private to
these reporters. Dr. McMurdy - Say what you have to say right here. I
don't know of anything very secret and dreadful that you should object
to having read. Dr. Gregg - I secured this room previously, and wish to
speak to these reporters. The Rev. Dr. McMurdy, who is a little fiery,
rose 'in a huff,' and cleared out of the room. The reporters of THE
TRIBUNE, Times and Inter-Ocean were left alone with
the confiding and innocent Dr. Gregg, who held some astonishingly new
greenbacks in his left hand, while he oratorically gesticulated with
his right. He said: 'A layman has suggested to me the propriety of
making you a presentation, so that you may be recompensed for any
additional trouble you may have with your reports. We want you to get
up a nice report, - to do it in good style, you know. Allow me to offer
you each $5 --' TRIBUNE reporter - Do I understand you as offering us
money to fix up our reports, Dr. Gregg? Dr. Gregg - Not at all, only,
as I have said, to recompense you for extra trouble. TRIBUNE reporter -
We are not in that line of business, so far as I am concerned. THE
TRIBUNE can afford to pay its employees for 'extra trouble.' Our
reporters are not in the habit of accepting gratuities from any source.
Times reporter - I think the
same way. Our papers cannot be bought at that figure - or at any
figure. Inter-Ocean reporter
- I think the proposition is d--d cheeky, to say the least of it. Dr.
Gregg - I did not mean to offend you, and the suggestion did not come
from me. Reporters - Well, that's an end of it now. Dr. Gregg grew very
red in the face, and retired looking uncomfortable. At this point, Mr.
John De Koven, brother of the Bishop-elect, entered the room, and asked
the reporters to have dinner. The journalists, however, felt stung by
the insult just offered, and refused the invitation. They left the
College, refusing a sleigh which Mr. De Koven had kindly offered to
take them down-town, and walked to Congress-Hall, where they made out
their reports, and where they were not bored by patronizing churchmen."
(The New Bishop. Chicago Daily Times, Feb. 7, 1875.) He died suddenly
at age 47, about six
weeks after slipping on an icy sidewalk in Chicago and breaking his
leg. (Rev. James De Koven, D.D. New York Times, Mar. 20, 1879.) He
never married, and two sisters, Mrs. Casey and Mrs. Doyle, kept house
for him. (Dr. De Koven. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 20, 1879.) He
imitated practices of the Roman Catholic Church, including a
confessional where the boys would visit every two or three weeks. (A
High Churchman. Some of the Peculiarities of the Late Rev. Dr. De
Koven. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 23, 1879.)
Capt. De Koven's son John was born in Middletown in 1833, and came
to Chicago when he was about 19. He went to work as a clerk for the
Galena road. "A little later, through influence of friends, he secured
a place as teller in the private banking house of I.H. Birch & Co."
He was later an executor of Birch's estate. He was cashier at the
Stock-Yards Bank, then the Northwestern National, then the Merchants'
National Bank, "which was the last official place other than director's
positions that he held." He married Louise Hadduck, daughter of E.H.
Hadduck of Chicago, and they had one daughter. At the time of his death
he was a director in the Merchant's Loan and Trust Co., the Chicago,
Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern
Railways, the Title Guarantee and Trust Co., the Chicago Telephone Co.,
and the American Surety Co. He always stayed at the Union League Club
on his frequent visits to New York City. (John De Koven Dead. Chicago
Daily Tribune, May 1, 1898.) He was one of the founding stockholders of
the Knickerbocker Trust Co. in New York, whose other stockholders
included J.Pierpont Morgan. (A New Trust Company Up Town. New York
Times, Jul. 12, 1884.) His wife, Helen H. De Koven, left $10,000 to St.
Luke's Hospital, Chicago, and half of her estate, estimated at
$600,000, mostly in real estate, to her daughter, Louise H. De Koven.
(Chicago Daily Tibune, Mar. 31, 1886.)
Louise De Koven Bowen was a daughter of John De Koven, whose estate
was valued at $750,000. Francis and Louise Dickey of New York were
among those who received bequests. (Will of John De Koven Filed.
Chicago Daily Tribune, May 11, 1898.) She was executrix of the
$2,000,000 estate of Louisa Hadduck, which left a bequest of $25,000 to
St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. Former trustee John De Koven received
fees of $41,925. (Reports on the Hadduck Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune,
Apr. 20, 1895.) After her husband's death, she lived for much of her
life with Jane Addams, the founder
of Hull House, one of her major philanthropic interests. (Roses For
Miss Addams. New York Times, Apr. 13, 1916; Jane Addams Dies In Her
75th Year. New York Times, May 22, 1935; Mrs. J.T. Bowen, 94, Leader In
Welfare. New York Times, Nov. 10, 1953; Estate Worth $2 Million Left By
Mrs. Bowen. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 17, 1955.) Mrs. Bowen was a
member of the
Republican National Committee National Women's Camapign for Hughes in
1916, and a member of the RNC. (Willcox Has Women Aides. New York
Times, Sep. 16, 1916; Mrs. Bowen Takes Republican Post. New York Times,
Jul. 18, 1923.) Mrs. Bowen succeeded Addams as president until 1944,
and was the treasurer of Hull House for about sixty years, until 1953.
(Mrs. Bowen Reaches 81. New York Times, Feb. 27, 1940.)
Her husband, Joseph Tilton Bowen, was Secretary and Cashier of the
newly-founded Northern Trust Company of Chicago. Directors were A.C.
Bartlett of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.; J. Harley Bradley of
David Bradley Mfg Co.; H.N. Higinbotham of Marshall Field & Co.;
Marvin Hughitt, President of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad;
Charles L. Hutchinson, President of the Corn Exchange Bank, vice
president; A.O. Slaughter; Martin A. Ryerson of Martin Ryerson &
Co.; Albert A. Sprague of Sprague, Warner & Co.; and Byron L.
Smith, President. (Display Ad 6. Chicago Daily Tribune, Sep. 23, 1889.)
Bowen
was elected to honorary membership in the Hull House Woman's Club.
(Woman's Club Awes Man Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 6, 1902.) Joseph
Tilton Bowen was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1854. He was
educated in the public schools, and married Louise Hadduck De Koven on
June 1, 1880. He was in the silk manufacturing business until 1890.
After leaving the Northern Trust (?1892), he was resident vice
president and
manager of the City Trust, Safety Deposit and Surety Company of
Philadelphia. (Joseph Tilton Bowen. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 30,
1911.)
Their son, John De Koven Bowen,
married Elizabeth Winthrop
Stevens, daughter of Ledyard
Stevens [Scroll & Key 1864]. His
brother, Joseph T. Bowen Jr.,
was best man, and Carl A. Lohmann, S&B 1910, was an usher. (Society
at Home and Abroad. New York Times, May 29, 1910 and Jun 19, 1910.)
John DeK. Bowen was secretary and treasurer of the Sanitary Steel Couch
Co. in Chicago, a salesman for William
A.
Read & Co., Chicago
bankers; and for Lage Brothers in New York City until 1924, but had not
engaged in any occupation from then until his death from "status
lymphaticus." (John De K. Bowen Dies Suddenly in Hospital in N.Y.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 23, 1927; Bulletin of Yale University.
Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1927-1928, pp. 175-177.) Joseph T.
Bowen Jr. was busted by a theater guard who said that Bowen molested
him as they sat side by side in the Clark theater. [He subsequently
moved to La Jolla, Cal.] (J.T. Bowen Jr. Arrested By Theater Guard.
Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 24, 1945; Continue Lewd Behavior Charge
Against Ex-Broker. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 25, 1945.) Their
daughter, Louise, married Mason Phelps, Book and Snake 1906. They
divorced in 1921. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University
Deceased during the Year 1945-1946, pp. 148-149.) Their
daughter, Helen, married William McCormick
Blair, S&B 1907, who founded the Chicago investment banking
firm of William Blair & Company. Richard Ely Danielson, S&B
1907, was his best man. (Miss Bowen to Wed Wm. McC. Blair. New York
Times, Jun. 3, 1911; The Blair-Bowen Wedding. In Town & Country,
Feb. 24, 1912.) Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr.
was
Vice President of the Lasker
Foundation.
Edward King of
Newport was a partner of Russell & Co. from 1837 to 1842; William
Henry King from 1843 to 1849; David King Jr. from 1866 to 1872; and
Samuel W. Pomeroy Jr. was a partner since 1871.
(New England Fortunes Made in China Through the House of Russell &
Co. Boston Globe, Jun. 28, 1908.) "The brothers were most likely drawn
East through the success of an extended family member, Charles William
King, a Canton merchant for forty-five years whose father Samuel King
was a senior partner in a New York commission merchant firm, King and
Talbot." David King
Jr. (1839-1894) was the nephew of the other two. He
was a partner of Wetmore, Williams & Co. from 1858 until a position
opened at Russell & Co. He married Ella Rives in 1873. Her
grandfather,
William Cabell Rives, was the U.S. Senator from Virginia from
1832-1845, and Minister to France both before and after his term. In
1882, they moved to Washington, D.C., and became part of the Socialite
Lobby in that city. He was a crony of Sen. Nelson W. Aldrich.
(Kingscote's Coming of Age. By Holly Collins. The Preservation Society
of Newport County, Feb. 24, 2003.) Ella Rives was a Royal descendant of
James I, King of Scotland. (Americans of royal descent. By Charles
Henry Browning, 1891, p. 99.)
Dr. David King Sr. was born in Raynham, Mass. in 1774. He graduated
from Brown University in 1796, and received his medical training from
Dr. James Thacher of Plymouth. He came to Newport in 1799, and
performed the first vaccination in the state in 1800. (Obuituary
Notice. Newport Mercury, Dec. 3, 1836.) He married the daughter of Gen.
George Gordon of the revolutionary army. His son, Dr. David King Jr.,
was born in 1812, graduated from Brown in 1831, and Jefferson Medical
College in 1834. He married Sarah G. Wheaton, daughter of Rev. Salmon
Wheaton. George Gordon King [1807-1870, member of Congress 1849-1853]
was his older brother. (Death of David King. Newport Daily News, Mar.
8, 1882.)
Edward King died in Newport in 1875, with an estimated wealth of $5
million. His wife was the daughter of Daniel Leroy. (Obituary. New York
Times, Sep. 3, 1875.) Daniel Leroy was a brother-in-law of both
Nicholas Fish and Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. (Daniel
Webster's Widow. New York Times, Feb. 28, 1882.) Daniel Leroy's father,
Herman Leroy, founded LeRoy, Bayard and McEvers with William Bayard in
1786.
Edward King's son, George Gordon
King (1858-1922) married Annie M.
Coats, daughter of Sir James Coats of Ayr, Scotland [and granddaughter
of John Auchincloss]. His
mother was Mary Augusta Leroy. (George Gordon King. Newport Mercury,
Apr. 1, 1922.) "He was a deputy to every general convention of the
Protestant Episcopal Church since 1898, and for many years was on the
Domestic and Missionary Board." (George Gordon King. New York Times,
Apr. 1, 1922.) He was an usher at the wedding of Archibald Douglas Russell
[also Royal]. (A Wedding at Riverdale. New York Times, Oct. 3, 1884.)
He was treasurer of the Episcopal General Board of
Missions from at least 1910 to 1916, and was a layman founder of the
Christian Unity Foundation, whose members included George Wharton
Pepper of Philadelphia. (Christian Unity Foundation Has Been
Incorporated. Fort Wayne Sentinel, Jul. 23, 1910; Many Churches Favor
Conference. Portsmouth Valley Sentinel, Oct. 18, 1916.)
Philip
Wheaton Rives King, Yale 1901, son of David King and grandson of Dr.
David King (Brown 1831), was born in Paris, France. His father "was
engaged in business in China
for many years, as a partner in the firm of Russell & Company, tea
merchants." (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1922-1923, p. 278.)
"On
July 1, 1866, William H. King had made arrangements to be married in
the City of Troy in the State of New-York. He was a resident of
Newport, several times a millionaire, and owned valuable property in
the place of his residence and in the City of New-York. He had made his
money in China, having been engaged in trade there. He was of middle
age. His main characteristic at that time appears to have been the
habit of drinking to excess. Who the woman was to whom he was to have
been married, what her connections were, whether what the King family
might have regarded as a mésalliance was contemplated - these
things have not yet been made known to the public. No marriage ceremony
was performed upon that or any succeeding day, for about the time the
marriage was to have taken place, two of King's brothers, Edward King
and Dr. David King, arrived in Troy. Edward King was the father of
George Gordon King, at present one of Newport's prominent society men,
and one of the chief litigants in the case now before the courts. King
went back to Rhode Island with his brothers, and within a few days was
confined in the McLean Asylum for the Insane in the State of
Massachusetts.... the application for his confinement was made by a
third brother, George Gordon King, and from that day to this, William
H. King has been a prisoner. George Gordon King became the guardian of
his insane brother's millions and remained so until he died. Then
Edward King, another brother, secured the appointment, and his control
of the property was only terminated by death. Following him, the third
brother, Dr. David King, was made guardian. He died in 1882." (Famous
King Will Case. New York Times, Feb. 12, 1895.) Benjamin D. Silliman
deposed that he knew the King family very well, and that Dr. David King
was
Silliman's father's family physician. He said he had known William H.
King very
well, and acted as his counsel in a number of transactions, and
recalled that King had been sent to an asylum. Another witness, James
Bancker, said that he went to China in 1842 and remained there until
1849, when he became an intimate friend of William Henry King. "The
witness said that King's brother Edward was a member of the firm of
Russell & Co., and when he dropped out William Henry King was taken
in." (William H. King's Millions. New York Times, Aug. 8, 1897.)
A woman named Mrs. Eugenia Alethia Webster Ross had been challenging William H. King's imprisonment since 1894. She claimed that the real William H. King had disappeared in China, and that the imprisoned man was really her uncle, Pelatiah Webster Gordon, who had taken King's name to avoid prosecution in Boston. She said that her father was James E. Calhoun, a cousin of the South Carolina statesman. (Fight for the King Fortune. New York Times, Jul. 10, 1898.) There was a Pelatiah Webster Gordon of Fort Gibson, Miss., who was a student at Harvard Medical School in 1832-33, with Dr. James Jackson as his instructor. (Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, for the Academical Year 1832-1833, p. 11.) Port Gibson (aka Fort Gibson, or Gibson's Landing) is a little town midway between Vicksburg and Natchez. About six miles south of it is an even smaller town called Gordon.
Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, 1832-1833 / Nat'l Inst. for Technology and Liberal Education (pdf, 36 pp)Charles W. King of the house of Olyphant & Co. died on the
Bentinck steamer near Aden, while returning to the U.S. from China.
(Died. Boston Courier, Dec., 1845.)
Clarence
[Rivers] King, Yale 1862, son of James Rivers King and Florence Little,
whose grandfather was William Little (Yale 1777): "His grandfather
was one of the pioneer merchants in the Chinese trade, and to this
business his father with three brothers succeeded, but died in 1848 in
Amoy, China. During the financial crisis of 1857, the family property
which had remained in the business was lost." Clarence King was the
first Director of the United States Geological Survey. (Obituary Record
of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 195.) Clarence King had supposedly
never
married.
But he pretended to be a black man named James Todd, and secretly
married a black woman, Ada Copeland, and they had
five children together. "Not until he lay dying of tuberculosis in
Phoenix in late 1901, his last desperate hope of a desert cure gone,
did James Todd write a letter to his wife telling her who he really
was." (Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and
Deception Across the Color Line. By Martha A. Sandweiss. Penguin Press,
2009.)
Frances Boyd, who married William Little, Yale 1777, was a Royal
descendant of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. (Biographical Sketches of
the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. III May, 1763-July, 1778, p. 689.
By Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 1903; and: Americans of Royal Descent. By
Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p.656.)
Clarence King's uncle, Robbins Little, Skull & Bones 1851, was
superintendent of the Astor Library in New York City. His father was
William Little, Harvard 1809, and his mother was the daughter of Asher
Robbins, Yale 1782, who was the U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
[1825-1839]. (Married. Providence Gazette, Jun. 23, 1824; Newport
Improvements. New York Times, Jan. 11, 1891; Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 178.) "One subject which engrossed
much of his
[Asher Robbins'] attention at the close of his Senatorial career was
the use of the Smithsonian legacy, which he hoped might found a
national university." (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale
College Vol. IV., July 1778 - June, 1792, p. 231.)
One of William Little HC1809's sisters, Maria Augusta, married a
slaveowner, Samuel Clement, who had a plantation in Adams County,
Mississippi [whose county seat is Natchez]. "Eventually, the plantation
passes to daughter Ellen
Clement who marries Don Antonio Yznaga (del Valle), a prominent Cuban
planter, trader, and entrepreneur, in 1850. They continue to operate
and expand the Ravenswood Plantation, as well as their other properties
and business interests in Cuba and New York. The 1860 census lists
Ravenswood with 145 slaves." (Ravenswood Plantation. Sankofagen Wiki,
Accessed May 1, 2009.) Her mother, Mrs. Frances B. Little died in
1834 on board the steamboat Envoy during the passage from Cincinnati
to Natchez. (Deaths. Boston Daily Atlas, Nov. 19, 1834; Died. New York
Spectator, Nov. 20, 1834.) Natica Yznaga of Ravenswood plantation
married Sir John Pepys Lister-Kaye, a British baronet. "Sir John Kaye
was created a baronet by Charles I. In 1809 the baronetcy became
extinct, but it was renewed in Sir John Lister-Kaye, who married in
1800 Lady Amelia Gray, daughter of George, the fifth Earl of Stamford
and Warrington." (Told While the Smoke Curls. NewYork Times, Sep. 4,
1904.)
Natica Yznaga's friend, Sally Whiting, named her daughter Natica in
her honor. Natica Rives was the only child by her first marriage to
Oliver H.P. Belmont. Her second husband was George L. Rives, and Natica
took her stepfather's name. (The Burden-Rives Engagement. New York
Times, Jan. 20, 1907.)
Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy Jr., the partner of Russell & Co., was a Royal. A
great-grandfather, George Wyllys, Yale 1729, was the son of the
Colonial Secretary of Massachusetts and Connecticut, married Mary
Woodbridge, who was of Royal descent from Alfred the Great of England.
His grandfather, Eleazar Pomeroy, married Mary Wyllys in 1764; she was
a descendant of King Edward III of England. (Americans of royal
descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, pp. 55 and 110.) Another
great-grandfather, Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy, Yale 1733, was one of the
original trustees of Dartmouth College; his uncle, Samuel Pomeroy,
graduated from Yale in 1705, and married a daughter of one of the
original trustees of Yale. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of
Yale College, October, 1701 - May, 1745. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter,
1885, pp. 399, 485 and 39.)
Americans
of royal descent, p. 55 / Google Books
Graduates
of Yale College, October, 1701 - May, 1745 / Internet Archive
Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy Sr. purchased the land that became Pomeroy,
Ohio
in 1804. It included most of the coal lands for four miles along the
Ohio River. "Pomeroy organized a coal company with his two sons, Samuel
and Charles and sons-in-law Valentine B. Horton and C.W. Dabney, and
called it Pomeroy and Sons Co." Horton married Clarissa Pomeroy. They
operated tow boats for hauling coal destined for Boston. (Coal
Important in Settling Pomeroy, Meigs County. By Beulah Jones. Athens
Messenger, Jan. 11, 1976.) Valentine B. Horton was born in Windsor,
Vt., and moved to the area soon after finishing his education as a
lawyer. He was engaged in mining and manufacturing, and served two
terms in the U.S. Congress. Mrs. Horton was the daughter of Samuel
Wyllys Pomeroy and Clarissa Alsop. She was born in Boston in 1804.
(Sandusky Register, Sep. 28, 1894, p.4.) In 1828, S.W. Pomeroy Jr.
wrote to his father describing the earthquake in Lima, Peru, mentioning
damage to the house of Alsop, Wetmore & Co. (Further Particulars.
Pittsfield Sun, Aug. 7, 1828.)
David King Jr.'s sister, May J. King, and S. Wyllys Pomeroy of
Boston were married in Paris by Rev. J.B. Morgan. (Married. Newport
Daily News, Dec. 13, 1873.) He left for China again in 1882. (Newport
Mercury, Apr. 15, 1882.) In 1883, the Ohio Valley Coal Co. was
incorporated at Pomeroy by S. Dana Horton, George B. Pomeroy, E.J.
Horton, C.C. Shayne and Frank Dabney. (Neighboring Counties. Athens
Messenger, May 31, 1883.) S.W. Pomeroy and Miss Pomeroy were in Paris
with DeCourcey Forbes [a former partner of Russell & Co.]. (Local
Briefs. Newport Daily News, Nov. 3, 1898.) Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, whose
wife was Mary King, was a son of Samuel Wyllys and Catherine Boyer
Coolidge Pomeroy. He died in Genoa, Italy. (Death List of A Day. New
York Times, Apr. 10, 1901.) Their son, Samuel Wyllys Wyllys-Pomeroy,
graduated from Eton School in England, and Harvard in 1902. He was a
coal mine operator in Oklahoma. (Harvard College Class of 1902.
Quindecennial Report, June 1917, p. 321.) Mrs. S.W. Wyllys Pomeroy
married Col. Charles Sidney Haight. Their son was George Winthrop
Haight [Skull & Bones 1928]. He was with Cravath, de Gersdorff,
Swaine & Wood of New York (Mary L. Uppercu Becomes a Bride. New
York Times, Sep. 3, 1933), and later one of the original conferees at
the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference in 1974. (George W.
Haight. New York Times, Aug. 14, 1983.)
Samuel W. Pomeroy's son, Charles Coolidge Pomeroy, was born in
Philadelphia in 1833, and graduated from Harvard in 1853. He
studied law in Cincinnati for a while, then joined his father in
Pomeroy. In the Civil War, he was a Captain in the Eleventh Infantry,
and was mustering and disbursing officer for Illinois. He married Edith
Burnet of Cincinnati in 1863. In 1867, he resigned and went into the
lumber business in Chicago. He went to Cincinnati in 1870, and New York
in 1878. He was with the banking firm of Perkins, Livingston &
Post, later Post, Martin & Co. until 1890, when Post & Pomeroy
was formed. He had two daughters. (Charles C. Pomeroy Dead. New York
Times, Feb. 23, 1898.) His daughter Mary Pomeroy married Lieut. Edward
Van Cutsem in
London. He was an officer of the Royal Irish Fusiliers and a son of the
former Dutch Consul General in London. (Miss Mary Pomeroy Weds. New
York Times, Feb. 6, 1910.) Her sister-in-law, Sybil Maude van Cutsem,
died in Newport after a bout of typhoid fever. Their father, Edward
Charles Van Cutsem, was a distinguished diplomat. (Death of Miss Van
Cutsem. Newport News, Oct. 17,
1910; Died. Newport News, Oct. 18, 1910.) Mrs. Van Cutsem jumped or
fell from the window of her Park Avenue apartment, age 54. (Falls 3
Floors to Her Death. New York Times, Jun. 15, 1938.) Edward C. Van
Cutsem
married Harriet Ida Caroline Harcourt, daughter of [Henry Merritt]
Harcourt, in Calcutta, India. (Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Allen's
Indian Mail, Jun. 23, 1869.) [Her sister-in-law, Florence Josephine
Alexandra van Cutsem, married Freeman Astley Jackson (1874-1951). Their
granddaughter, Serena Stanhope, married David Armstrong Jones Viscount
Linley, who is #14 in succession to the throne of England, with their
kids at #15 and #16. Her brother-in-law, Henry Harcourt Van Cutsem
(1877-1917), was the great-grandfather of Edward Van Cutsem, godson of
Prince Charles and a page at the Prince's marriage to Lady Diana
Spencer in
1981. Edward Van Cutsem became a banker. Prince William and Prince
Harry were ushers at his marriage to Lady Tamara Grosvenor, daughter of
the duke of Westminster, in 2004. The duke's fortune was estimated at
$7.4 billion. Queen Elizabeth II attended.]
Around 1876, Russell & Co. sold their boats and other property
to
the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. After a period of
mismanagement, George A. Butler was appointed manager of the company.
"Mr. Butler as a colored man and an American merits some attention. He
was the son of a colored clergyman in Washington, and was sent to
France and Germany to be educated, where he improved his time so well
that he became a master of French, German, and Italian. He also
acquired a general knowledge of several other tongues. He
attracted
the attention of Anson Burlingame, who brought him to China as his
private secretary. He remained in China after Mr. Burlingame's return
and went into the employ of Russell & Co., where he remained til
1879, holding a position of importance and greatly respected; while
Superintendent of the China Merchants' Company he had almost sole
control under Tong King Sing, Chief Executive. After he went with his
chief to Europe the company fell into the hands of natives, by whom it
was brought to the verge of bankruptcy. They visited Brazil to further
a scheme the company had of building several steamers of 4,000 tons
burden, which should go round the Cape of Good Hope to Brazil, stopping
at Mauritius and Senegal on the way. They were to take emigrants from
China to Brazil, a cargo of Brazilian products from Rio de Janeiro to
New York, and return thence by Suez, bringing such lading as suited the
Chinese market. While in Portugal news came of disasters to the
company, and the two envoys hastened home." Butler negotiated the sale
back to Russell & Co. for $7,000,000. As for Russell & Co.,
after Samuel Russell retired, "it passed principally into the hands of
Paul S. Forbes, who retired some eight years ago and is now living in
the American colony in Paris. There are now several partners, of whom
the three principal are William Forbes, Decourcy Forbes, and C.N.
Smith." (The Flowery Kingdom. Chicago
Tribune, Nov. 12, 1884.)
"George A. Butler, the son of a colored clergyman of Washington, was
educated in Europe, and went to China as the private secretary of Anson
Burlingame. Mr. Butler remained in China after the retirement of
Minister Burlingame, and prospered in business. He is now the possessor
of great wealth, and is the trusted advisor of Chinese statesmen and
business men. Just now he is in New York." (One Thing and Another. New
York Evangelist, Dec. 9, 1886.) Henry Hannah, assignee, filed suit
against unknown heirs of George Augustus Butler to recover $4,206.69 by
the sale of lot 7 of square 80 in Washington: "Mr. Butler, though a
citizen of the United States, lived for many years abroad, representing
the firm of Russell & Co., and died recently at Hong Kong, China,
leaving a widow, whom the plaintiff thinks resides in England. In the
year 1890 he obtained loans of Russell & Co., to whom he handed the
title deeds to secure the loans. The firm then took steps to obtain a
deed of trust, and while they were corresponding with him he died."
(Suit Against George A. Butler's Heirs. Washington Post, Dec. 22,
1891.) Richard V. Hartnett & Co. sold 58 "claims, judgements, and
demands of Russell & Co. of China, against persons, firms,
Governments, associations and corporations. The sale was by order of
the Atlantic Trust Company, substituted assignee, in Supreme Court
proceedings, and the amount realized was $85. Of the claims, one was
against the estate of the late George A. Butler for $9,789.58. Another,
against the Chinese Government, was for $366,485.84." (Russell &
Co. Claims Sale. New York Times, Jun. 9, 1898.)
(Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, June 19, 1804.)
When John Stille Sr. died in 1802, John Stille Jr. continued the
business. His son, Dr. Afred Alfred Stillé, Yale 1832, was a
founder of the American Medical Association; and his son, Charles
Janeway Stillé, Yale 1839, married Anna Welsh Dulles, daughter
of Joseph Heatly Dulles, Yale 1814, and sister of Joseph Heatly Dulles,
Yale 1839; Rev. John Welsh Dulles, Yale 1844, the grandfather of C.I.A.
Director Allen W. Dulles;
and Andrew Cheves Dulles, Yale 1853.
James Perkins was the eldest son of James Perkins, a son of Edmund
Perkins, and Elizabeth Peck, daughter of Thomas Handasyd Peck. He had
five sisters and two brothers, Thomas Handasyd and Samuel Gardiner
Perkins. Their father died in 1771, and his mother "took her
husband's
place in the counting house, actively participated in its affairs, and
was so far recognized as a partner that business letters were sometimes
addressed to her from Holland with a masculine prefix." He began in
business about 1782, at Cape François on the island of Santo
Domingo, and continued through the slave uprising in 1791 until at
least 1798. He was first elected a member of the Massachusetts
Historical Society in 1792. (Memoir of James Perkins. Proceedings of
the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 1, 1791-1835, p. 353.)
James Perkins of the house of J. & T.H. Perkins died at his seat
in Roxbury in 1822. (Deaths. Boston Commercial Gazette, Aug. 5, 1822.)
An editorial in the Commercial Advertiser noted that he gave $20,000 to
the Boston Atheneum in 1821, and bequested $25,000 to Harvard
University, and lamented that "We are astonished that capitalists, in
their liberal moments, never think of Yale College. Cambridge, before,
had so much money that they hardly knew what to do with it - while
modest and unassuming Yale... is left to struggle along by its own
merits solely, and comparatively without funds." (Reprinted in
Connecticut Mirror, Hartford, Aug. 19, 1822.) The ship Canton Packet,
belonging to the late firm of J. & T.H. Perkins, was sold by order
of the Executors of the will of the late James Perkins, Esq.
(Advertisement. Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot, Nov. 30,
1822.)
James Perkins Jr. (1794-1828) and Thomas H. Perkins Jr. were
partners of Samuel Cabot Jr. from 1817 to 1821. (Advertisements. Boston
Repertory, Jan. 16, 1817, and Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1821.)
James married his cousin once removed, Eliza Greene Callahan
(1789-1860). Their sons were James Amory Perkins b. 1814, Edward Newton
Perkins b. 1820, Charles Callahan Perkins b. 1822, and James Henry
Perkins b. 1826. Their daughter, Sarah Paine Perkins b. 1818, married
Henry Russell Cleveland. (Marriages. Boston Atlas, Feb. 3, 1838;
Cleveland - Perkins Family Papers. From Eliza Callahan Cleveland. New
York Public Library.) James Perkins Jr.s' great grand niece, Helen Bruce Cleveland,
was the wife of Clement J. Smith, business crony since 1919 of
Cornelius Vander Starr, who helped found American International Group
(AIG) in China.
Of their sisters: "The eldest, Elizabeth, (born 1756), became the
wife of Russell Sturgis, a fur merchant who also had learned his trade
under Thomas Handasyd Peck. The second, Ann Maynard (1759), married
Robert Cushing and was the mother of John Perkins Cushing, a China
trade merchant and noted horticulturalist. Mary (1769) married Benjamin
Abbot, headmaster for many years of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter,
N.H., and Esther (1771) married first Thomas Doubleday and after his
death the merchant Josiah Sturgis, a brother of Russell Sturgis.
Margaret Mitchell (1773), the youngest, was married to Ralph Bennett
Forbes of Milton..." Their grandfather Peck was "a friend and frequent
host of John Murray, the founder of Universalism in America." During
the siege of Boston, the family took refuge with Squire Edward Bacon in
Barnstable, Mass. (Elizabeth Peck Perkins. In: Notable American Women,
1607-1950, Vol. 2. By Edward T. James et al., 1971, pp. 50-51.)
Daniel Wadsworth Coit was indentured to Gilbert and John Aspinwall
in New York City, after which he was an assistant to his friend and
cousin, David Greene Hubbard. In 1818, with his his cousins G.G. and
S.S. Howland as partners, he accompanied a cargo of military supplies
to Peru. On the return trip in 1821, he visited his cousins, Mr. and
Mrs. George M. Woolsey in Liverpool, England. He married Harriet Coit,
daughter of Levi Coit and granddaughter of Joseph Howland, whose mother
was his cousin. His father, Daniel Lathrop Coit, died in 1833. He lost
his properties in Europe in 1837, and began buying land in Michigan and
Iowa. He went to Mexico in 1845 and in 1848 with Howland &
Aspinwall. In 1849, he went to California, and with Mr. Drusina, he
represented the Rothschilds in buying gold dust, and also bought land
in San Francisco. His brothers were Joshua and Henry Coit, and his
sister Eliza was the mother of the author this memoir and of Daniel Coit Gilman, to whom he
gave his drawings of San Francisco when Gilman went there to head the
University of California in 1872. (A Memoir of Daniel Wadsworth Coit of
Norwich, Connecticut, 1787-1876. By William C. Gilman [Jr.], 1908.)
His brother, Joshua Coit (1800-1881), Yale 1819, made a fortune as a
lawyer in New York City and retired in 1860. He lived the rest of his
life in New Haven, and left $2500 to Yale. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 66.)
His son, Daniel Lathrop Coit, Yale 1864, died the same year while
working with the Sanitary Commission on the James River. (Obituary
Record, Yale 1859-1870, p182.) His other son,
Charles Woolsey Coit, Yale 1862, moved to Grand Rapids, Mich. to
develop his father's real estate interests. He was a trustee of Olivet
College for several years. He married a daughter of Lucas Guernsey
Merrill of Kenosha, Wisc., and had three sons. (Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 163.)
His grandson, Albert Merrill Coit, Yale 1905, sold bonds for timber lands, and since 1901, was a trustee of the Coit Estate in Grand Rapids, and secretary and treasurer of Fentress & Co. investment bankers in Chicago. In 1913, he married a daughter of Robert Hall Babcock M.D. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1930-1931, pp. 167-168.) Babcock was a blind doctor who was the author of the medical textbooks/anti-tobacco screeds, Diseases of the Heart and Arterial System (1903) and Diseases of the Lungs (1907). He was also a first cousin of Samuel Denison Babcock of the Guaranty Trust and the Central Trust. (Descendants of Joseph Miner - Seventh Generation. The Thomas Minor Society.)
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1930-1931 / Yale University Library (pdf 345 pp)Another native of Norwich, Conn., Benjamin Billings Coit M.D., Yale
1822, also moved from New York City to San Francisco in 1849. (Obituary
Record, Yale 1859-1870, p. 238; and: Record of
the meetings of the class of 1822, Yale college, held in 1862 and in
1867, with biographical sketches of the members of the class. Yale
University Class of 1822, pp. 17-18.) He was the
father of Benjamin Howard Coit, who married Lillie Hitchcock, who built
the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill.
Joseph Rothschild, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1873, was
born in San Francisco in 1855. He was the son of Henry Rothschild.
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1926-1927, p. 296; and: Rothschild,
Joseph. In: Notables of the West. Press Reference Library,
International News Service, Vol. II, 1915.)
Daniel W. Coit's sister, Maria, was the wife of Pelatiah Perit, Yale
1802, a
partner in the shipping house of Goodhue & Co. from 1817 to 1861,
and President of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York from
1853 to 1863. He left $15,000 to Yale College, which endowed a
Professorship of Political and Social Science. (Obituary Record, Yale
1859-1870, p. 119; Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale
College with
Annals of the College History, Vol. V, September, 1792 - September,
1805. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter. University Press, 1911, p. 528
[543].) He was one of the founders of the Bank
of Commerce in New York. (Free Banking. Boston Courier, Jan. 17,
1839), and was a member of the Council of the University of the City of
New York. (The University. New-York Spectator, Mar. 18, 1839.) Partners
of
Goodhue & Co. at its dissolution on Jan. 1, 1861 were Robert C.
Goodhue, Charles C. Goodhue, Pelatiah Perit, Richard Warren Weston, and
Horace Gray. The business was continued by Weston and Grace. (Boston
Daily Advertiser, Jan. 15, 1862.)
Pelatiah Perit's brother, John W. Perit, graduated from Yale in
1801.
He was a partner of Samuel
Cabot and Joseph
Cabot in
1820 (The Repertory, Boston, Jan. 27, 1820); then a partner of
Russell Sturgis & Company in Manila, with copartners George R.
Russell, Russell Sturgis, and Henry P. Sturgis, from 1834 to 1839. The
firm was represented in the United States by Goodhue
& Co. (Notice. Salem Gazette, Dec. 5, 1834 and Jan. 30, 1835;
Philadelphia North American, May 6, 1839.) John W. Perit's son, James
D. Perit, died in Canton "[a]t the factory
of his father" at age 21. (Died. New York Spectator, Aug. 21, 1834.)
J.W. Perit's daughter, Anna, married Joseph S. Ropes of Boston.
(Marriages. The Boston Daily Atlas, Nov. 27, 1848) He died in 1845.
(John Webster Perit.
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of
the College History, Vol. V, September, 1792 - September, 1805. By
Franklin Bowditch Dexter. University Press, 1911, p. 453 [468].)
The Perit brothers were grandsons of Rev. Pelatiah Webster, Yale
1746. (A Genealogical Regiater of the First Settlers of New England: To
which are Added Various Genealogical and Biographical Notes, Collected
from Ancient Records, Manuscripts, and Printed Works.By John Farmer.
Carter, Andrews & Co., 1829; Biographical sketches of the graduates
of Yale College [1745-1763]. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter. Holt, 1885,
p. 97.)
William Ropes was born in Salem, Massacusetts, in 1784.
"When arrived at a suitable age, he entered the counting room of Mr.
Derby, and, while in his employ, made several voyages to Calcutta. In
the year 1815 he removed to Boston, and in successive years was
associated in partnership with Colonel Benjamin Pickman and his son,
with Mr. Noyes, with Mr. Thomas Ward, and the present Mr. B.T. Reed. In
1832 Mr. Ropes went to St. Petersburg [Russia], and established the
house in which he was interested at the time of his decease. In 1842,
having spent five years in St. Petersburg, and five years in London, he
returned to Boston, which since that date has been his usual residence.
Mr. Ropes was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of the late
B.T. Reed of Marblehead, by whom he had children, and six of them are
now living. His second wife was Miss Codman, sister of Rev. Dr. John
Codman; one of the sons of this marriage was killed at Gettysburg."
(The Late William Ropes. Boston Daily Advertiser, Mar. 12, 1869.)
"Those American merchants who settled down permanently in St Petersburg
usually took on the status of foreign guests. William Ropes, who came
to St. Petersburg in 1831, was a first guild merchant from 1847
onwards... Purchase of Russian goods was usually easier and cheaper if
a merchant had Russian citizenship. This was claimed to be the most
easily acquired in Finland. For example William Hooper Ropes, who
followed his father from Boston to St. Petersburg, wrote in 1834 of
having registered as a merchant in Hamina and subsequently becoming a
merchant of the second guild in St. Petersburg" [p. 122]. "Initially
Ropes worked under the protection of Baron Stieglitz... The
establishment of the independent firm of William Ropes was announced in
a printed circular of March 1833. Baring Brothers and Co. of London,
Goodhue & Co. of New York and Thomas W. Ward of Boston were named
as its backers." They also carried cargos consigned to Peabody, Riggs
& Co. [p. 128]. Ropes' son-in-law William C. Gellibrand was from
St. Petersburg [p. 131]. William H. Ropes was consul from 1850 to 1854
[p. 137]. (From Sugar Triangle to Cotton Triangle, Trade and Shipping
Between America and Baltic Russia, 1783-1860. By Kalevi Ahonen.
University Library of Jyväskylä, 2005.)
William Ropes' son, Joseph S. Ropes, moved to St. Petersburg with
his father, where he graduated from the Gymnasium and the Imperial
University. He joined W. Ropes & Co. in 1847. He was a member of
the board of Trustees of Phillips Academy and Andover Theological
Seminary from 1874-1898. He moved to Norwich, Conn. in 1894 to live
with his wife's nieces, the Misses Huntington. He married Anna Rumsey
Perit, daughter of John W. and Margaretta (Dunlap) Perit
in Philadelphia in 1848. (Joseph Samuel Ropes. The New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, January 1904. New England
Historical and Genealogical Society.)
William Ropes' daughter, Martha Reed Ropes, married Charles Hooper
Trask, Skull & Bones 1849, who established a branch of W. Ropes
& Co. in New York City. After she died, Trask married a daughter of
William Hooper Ropes.
(Marriages. The Boston Daily Atlas, Oct. 11, 1849; Obituary Record of
Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 541.) His father, Captain Richard
Trask,
sailed for James Andrews. (For Havana. Boston Courier, Apr. 24, 1828.)
The entire Trask family changed their name from "Tink" in 1826. (AN ACT
to change the names of the several persons therein mentioned. Boston
Commercial Gazette, Jun. 29, 1826.) In 1903, Charles H. Trask's son,
Frederick Kingsbury Trask, married a daughter of John H. Jacquelin and
became a partner of Jacquelin & de Coppet in New York City.
(Married. New York Times, Apr. 17, 1903; Frederick K. Trask. New York
Times, Dec. 16, 1939.) Frederick
K. Trask Jr. was a vice president of the American
Heart Association. (Elected As President of Heart Association. New
York Times, Jun. 8, 1951.)
William Ropes' son, John Codman Ropes, founded the Boston
law firm Ropes & Gray with John Chipman Gray in 1865. Harvard
University was one of their first
clients. Thomas [Nelson]
Perkins became a name partner in 1914. (Company History. Ropes
& Gray, accessed Nov. 1, 2008.) (A Memoir of the Life of John
Codman Ropes, LL.D. By Joseph
May. The Merrymount Press, 1901. [This book is "With the Compliments of
William. Ropes Trask."])
William Hooper Ropes' son, Charles Joseph Hardy Ropes, who was born
in St. Petersburg, Russia, graduated from Yale in 1872 and became a
professor of sacred literature. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale,
1910-1915, p. 793.)
Ernest C. Ropes was a secretary for the YMCA in Russia and Estonia
from 1919 to 1922. He joined the US Commerce Department's Bureau of
Foreign and Domestic Commerce in 1923, and retired in 1947 as chief of
the Russian Unit. He was born in Brooklyn and attended schools there
and in St. Petersburg, "where his family long had had business
interests," and was chairman of the American Russian Institute. (E.C.
Ropes, Expert on Soviet Trade, 72. New York Times, Oct. 14, 1949.)
George Smith was "a Scotch farmer, who had reached Chicago in 1834
with a view of purchasing farming lands. Friends of his who were
bankers soon joined him, and turned his mind toward banking... An
insurance charter granted him in Illinois, while denying banking
privileges in bulk, conferred some of them in detail." Daniel Wells of
Milwaukee was his friend in the Wisconsin Legislature. The bill he drew
up "allowed the company, besides insuring on ship and shore, to receive
money on deposit, give certificates, loan on the same terms as
individuals, and employ its surplus capital in the purchase of stock
and other moneyed operations, 'provided nothing herein contained shall
give banking privileges.'" "[A]ll competitors were legally expelled
from Wisconsin for thirteen years." Alexander Mitchell came to
Milwaukee from Scotland in 1839 to serve as
secretary of the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company. He had
been sent by the Aberdeen law office of Adam & Anderson, "for the
money with which Smith operated was largely theirs." The company's main
business was loaning money to buy land. (Alexander Mitchell, the
Financier. By James D. Butler. Collections of the State Historical
Society of Wisconsin.)
Rival bankers attempted to wreck the bank with runs. "Finally, however, Smith wearied of the persecution instigated by his business rivals, and established a collateral bank in Atlanta, Ga., abandoning the Milwaukee office. George Smith's bank notes were thereafter issued from the Georgia capital, and the distance was so great between Chicago and Atlanta that he was able to protect himself better against suddn demands for gold." He never retaliated although he had enough of his attackers' notes to shut them down. Charles B. Farwell, later U.S. senator, was chief teller of the bank. "The astute financier foresaw the war of the rebellion and the troublous times that were ahead. About 1856 he called in his Georgia circulation, wound up his business and invested his immense fortune in securities that have since quadrupled in value." He invested in the Northwestern, the St. Paul, and the Rock Island railroads. He moved to London and spent his fimal days at the Reform Club in London, with Peter Geddes as the active manager of his affairs in the United States. His fortune was estimated at $30 to $40 million. (George Smith, Banker. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 18, 1893.)
Peter Geddes was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad since at least 1875, when "Mr. Mitchell succeeded in carrying
out his design of eliminating from the directory Russell Sage, which we
regard as a favorable sign for Wisconsin. In the new board appear two
well known Wisconsin men, Jonathan Bowman, of Kilbourn City, and J.G.
Thorp, of Madison." Other directors were Alexander Mitchell and John
Plankinton of Milwaukee, Selah Chamberlain of Cleveland; Walter S.
Gurnee, Julius Wadsworth, Elias L. Frank, James Buell, David Dows, and John M. Burke of
New York; and F.A. Mueller of Rotterdam, Holland. (The New Milwaukee
& St. Paul Directory. Wisconsin State Register, Jun. 19, 1875). He
was the road's oldest living director when he retired in 1906 at
age 84. (Obituary Notes. New York Times, Oct. 10, 1913.) He was a
director of the Chicago,
Burlington & Quincy Railroad from at least 1876 to 1889 as well.
Charles Ferdinand Ilsley of Eastport, Maine came to Wisconsin in
1847 and found work as a clerk at the the Wisconsin Marine & Fire
Insurance Company. He joined Samuel Marshall's banking business in
1849, whic did private banking as the Marshall & Ilsley Bank until
1888. Marshall & Ilsley also chartered the State Bank of Madison in
1853. He was a director of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co.
(Ilsley, Charles Ferdinand. Wisconsin Historical Society.)
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