(From: New York Bank History. By Bob Kerstein, President of Scripophily.com)
1873 Established Central Trust Company of New YorkNew York Bank History C / Scripophily.com
05/01/1901 Acquire By Merger Continental National Bank of New York
05/01/1912 Acquire By Merger Gallatin National Bank of the City of New York
03/01/1918 Acquire By Merger Union Trust Company of New York
03/01/1918 Name Change To Central Union Trust Company of New York
04/01/1927 Acquire By Merger Greenwich National Bank of City of New York
05/01/1929 Acquire By Merger Hanover Bank of the City of New York
05/01/1929 Name Change To Central Hanover Bank and Trust Co.
06/01/1951 Name Change To Hanover Bank
09/08/1961 Merge To State Manufacturers Trust Company
09/08/1961 Name Change To Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company
06/19/1992 Merge To State Chemical Bank
07/14/1996 Name Change To Chase Manhattan Bank, The
The Central Trust Company of New-York, No. 14 Nassau-st., corner of
Pine-st.: Henry F. Spaulding, President; Benjamin B. Sherman and
Frederick H. Cossitt, Vice Presidents; C.H.P. Babcock, Secretary. Board
of Trustees: Samuel D. Babcock, Jonathan Thorne, Isaac N. Phelps,
Josiah M. Fiske, Charles G. Landon, Edmund W. Corlies, Frederick H.
Cossitt, William H. Appleton,
Gustav Schwab, David Dows, Martin Bates,
William Allen Butler, James P. Wallace,
Benjamin B. Sherman, George W.
Lane, Jacob D. Vermilye, George Macculloch Miller, Roswell Skeel, A.A.
Low, Amos R. Eno, Charles G. Francklyn, William H. Webb, J. Pierpont
Morgan, Percy R. Pyne,
Charles Abernethy, Henry F. Spaulding, and David
Wolfe Bishop. (Classified Ad 12. Oct. 9, 1877 p.6.) Charles Abernethy
left in 1878. (Classified Ad 5, Apr. 19, 1878 p. 6.) Cornelius N. Bliss
became a trustee in 1879. (Classified Ad 4. New York Times, Jul. 9,
1879 p.6.) C.H.P.
Babcock, Secretary; Samuel
D. Babcock;
Jonathan Thorne; Josiah M. Fiske; David Dows; Martin Bates; A.A. Low;
and James P. Wallace were
also directors of the New
York Guaranty &
Indemnity Company.
Charles Abernethy (~1807-1878) of Woodbury, Conn. was the brother of Dr. John Jay Abernethy (1805-1879), Yale 1825, a surgeon and longtime Medical Director in the US Navy. (Died. New York Times, Mar. 30, 1878 p. 5; Obituary. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1879; Bulletin of Yale University. Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1880, p. 386.) Charles Abernethy's widow was a member of the Board of Lady Supervisors of the Woman's Hospital, along with Mrs. Samuel Thorne (The Woman's Hospital. New York Times, Nov. 18, 1881), and a Vice President of the Ladies' Association of the Homeopathic College and Free Hospital, along with Mrs. David Dows, Mrs. Roswell P. Flower, Mrs. William Rockefeller, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller. (For the Homeopathic Hospital. New York Times, Feb. 19, 1888.) She left a $3 million estate, including 30 shares of the Central Trust, to her nephew, George P. McLean, the former Governor of Connecticut and later US Senator 1911-29. ($3,000,000 to Relatives. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1906 p. 1.) McLean bequeathed the McLean Fund, which operates Hartford Hospital, Midstate Medical Center, and other healthcare institutions.
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1880, p. 386 / Google BooksDavid Wolfe Bishop's widow, the former Florence V.C. Field, married
John E. Parsons, the president
of the New York Cancer Hospital (now the
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute) in 1901. "Mrs. Parsons is
the daughter of the late Benjamin Field. She is a cousin of the
Princess Brancaccio, the late Osgood Field, and Miss Mary Field. The
Field family owns large tracts of property on the upper west side.
However, Mrs. Bishop's fortune comes chiefly from her husband, the late
David Wolfe Bishop, who was a favorite nephew of the late Miss
Catharine Wolfe. This fortune comes, a great part of it, originally
from the older Lorillards. Mr. Bishop was
the principal heir of Miss
Wolfe." (John E. Parsons and Mrs. Bishop Marry. New York Times, Mar.
13, 1901; Miss Wolfe's Heirs. New York Times, Apr. 12, 1887.) Bishop's
two sons were David Wolfe Bishop (~1874-1911), who moved to France
after his father's death; and Cortlandt Field Bishop, who lived in
Boston. (D.D. Bishop Dies in Paris. New York Times, Dec. 2, 1911.)
Parsons had been the law partner of Albon P. Man from 1857 to 1884. Man
was the attorney for Peter Lorillard and nearly all of the Lorillard
family; the attorney and counselor for Catherine Wolfe and her father,
John David Wolfe; and for
Lorillard Spencer, the Cammann and Conkling
families, and other notable persons. (For Sixty Years A Lawyer. New
York Times, Apr. 1, 1891.) John David Wolfe was David Wolfe Bishop's
uncle, whose sister, Harriet Matilda Wolfe (1804-1879) married his
father, Japhet Bishop (1794-1862). (Gravestone Inscriptions of
Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.) The two were business partners in Wolfe
& Bishop until 1856, when they retired. The firm continued as
Coffin, Bruce, Bishop & Co. with John P. Coffin, George W. Bruce,
David W. Bishop, and Albert G. Lee. (New York Daily Tribune, Feb. 4,
1856.)
"Cornelius Newton Bliss, though one of the big merchants of New York, was best known to the public as Treasurer of the Republican National Committee, an office he held for many years, during which he raised several large campaign funds, chiefly from the protected interests. He was President of the American Protective Tariff League, which he was instrumental in founding." He became Treasurer of the RNC in 1892. In 1906, in support of President Roosevelt, he raised the $260,000 Harriman fund, whose contributors included H. McK. Twombly, Chauncey M. Depew, James Hazen Hyde, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, George W. Perkins, H.H. Rogers, John D. Archbold, William Rockefeller, James Speyer, and himself. He was Secretary of the Interior in the McKinley administration. He was born at Fall River, Mass. in 1833. (Cornelius N. Bliss, Merchant, Is Dead. New York Times, Oct. 10, 1911.) His partner in the wholesale dry goods firm of Bliss, Fabyan & Co., George F. Fabyan, endowed the Fabyan professorship in the Harvard Medical School. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, Jan. 19, 1907) - which was occupied by former Council for Tobacco Research Scientific Advisory Board member Peter M. Howley. Bliss's son, Cornelius N. Bliss Jr. replaced him as a trustee of the Central Trust and as chairman of Bliss, Fabyan & Co.
Cornelius Newton Bliss / Bliss Family History Society, US GennetFabyan's son, Col. George Fabyan (1867-1936) founded Riverbank
Laboratories in Geneva, Illinois, a "direct lineal predecessor of the
National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency" in its
pioneering work in cryptology. This work was originally begun to
analyze the works of Shakespeare for coded messages to prove that they
were actually written by Sir Francis Bacon. The laboratory also
attempted to develop an antigravity device described by Bacon, who was
a member of the secret society of Rosicrucians. (George Fabyan
celebrated for developing first think tank. By F.N. D'Alessio,
Associated Press. June 13, 2001; Riverbank Laboratories. City of
Geneva, IL; Riverbank Laboratories Tour. Audio Engineering Society,
Oct. 30, 2001.) Col. Fabyan was said to be "an uncle" of Morton Salt heiress Helen Morton.
Edmund William Corlies (1832-1890): "His business career began with a clerkship in the office of Bucklin & Crane, and a few years later he launched out for himself. In 1858 he formed a partnership with John Caswell under the firm name of John Caswell & Co., and for many years the firm successfully carried on an extensive business with China and Japan. Since the dissolution of the firm, which was caused by Mr. Caswell's death, Mr. Corlies has continued the business on his own account. In January, 1875, Mr. Corlies became a director in the Bank of America, and in October, 1882, he was elected Vice President of the same institution, and in 1888 he was promoted to the Presidency." He was a director in the Central Trust Company, the Continental, German-American, and Atlantic Mutual Fire Insurance Companies of New York, the Norwich Union Fire Insurance Company of England, the Brooklyn Savings Bank, and was also a vice-president of the Brooklyn Trust Company. (Obituary. New York Times, Feb. 7, 1890.) He and William Allen Butler were directors of the Security Fire Insurance Company in 1856. (Insurance. New York Times, Jun. 18, 1856 p. 7.) His old business partner, John Caswell, was a director of the New York Guaranty & Indemnity Company.
Frederick H. Cossitt (1811-1887) was born in Granby, Conn., where
his French ancestors settled as early as 1720. In 1827, he joined a
relative's dry goods business in Memphis, Tenn. [Cossitt, Hill &
Co.]. In 1850, he came to New York and invested in real estate. He was
a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and a director in the
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company and the Greenwich Savings Bank, as
well as Vice-President of the Central Trust. (Obituary 1. New York
Times, Sep. 24, 1887 p.2.) He was also a trustee of the Home Life
Insurance in various years (1858, 1863, 1871). His daughter, Helen, was
married to Augustus D.
Juilliard of the Guaranty Trust. (Mrs. A.D. Juilliard, Long Ill, Is
Dead. New York Times, Apr. 3, 1916.) Another daughter, Elizabeth, was
married to Col. Thomas Stokes, of the Phelps-Stokes family, and a third
daughter, May, was married to George Egleston Dodge,
the son of William
E. Dodge (George E. Dodge's Funderal. New York Times, Apr. 30, 1904.)
Cossitt left public bequests to Presbyterian
Hospital, National
Temperance Society and Publication House, and the American Bible
Society (Mr. Cossitt's Bequests. New York Times, Oct. 28, 1887.) Henry
Talmadge of the Central Trust was his brother-in-law.
Amos R. Eno was a founder of the Second National Bank in 1863. His relative, Isaac N. Phelps, was a director. Butler, Stillman and Hubbard were the bank's attorneys. In 1884, his son, John Chester Eno, Skull & Bones 1869, defalcted the bank and fled to Canada. (Commentary. Webmouse Publications.) Ex-mayor Abram S. Hewitt, D.O. Mills, John A. Stewart and John E. Parsons, the president of Memorial Hospital, were pallbearers at his funeral. (Funeral of Amos R. Eno. New York Times, Feb. 25, 1898.) Gifford Pinchot, Skull & Bones 1889, was Amos R. Eno's grandson; William Phelps Eno was a member of Skull & Bones, 1860; and Amos Richards Eno Pinchot was a member of Skull & Bones, 1897.
Commentary / Webmouse PublicationsCharles Gilbert Francklyn (~1845-1929) was born near Newcastle,
England; his mother was a daughter of Samuel Cunard, founder of the
Cunard Steamship Lines, and his father was Col. Gilbert Francklyn. He
was an agent of the Cunard Lines in New York until the agency was
incorporated and taken over by Vernon H. Brown & Co. In 1878, he
organized and became the first president of the Municipal Gas Light
Company; a trustee of the post-merger Consolidated Gas Company; and
President of the Central Union Gas Company. In 1881, President Garfield
died at Francklyn's house in Elberon, N.J. (C.G. Francklyn Dies; Built
Gas Industry. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1929.) He was a trustee of the
Central Trust from 1877-81.
George William Lane (1818-1883) was the head of George W. Lane &
Co., tea traders since 1856. He was a former City Chamberlain, and the
longtime
President of the New York Chamber of Commerce. His first wife was Anna
A. Bulkley, who died in 1860. His second wife was Harriet
Lothrop Gilman, a sister of Johns Hopkins University President Daniel
Coit Gilman, S&B 1852. She died in 1881, and he married their
sister Louisa
in
1883. At his death, he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Presbyterian Hospital, and a director of the
Society for the Promotion of the Gospel Among Seamen. (Obituary. George
William Lane. New York Times, Dec. 31, 1883.)
William E. Dodge was one of the pallbearers at his funeral, which was
attended by numerous wealthy and powerful businessmen (Events in the
Metropolis, Funeral of George W. Lane. New York Times, Jan. 3, 1884.)
He was a director of the Continental Insurance Company in 1861, along
with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, A.A. Low, and John Caswell;
also Hiram
Barney of the Butler law firm, and Robert H. McCurdy, the father of
Richard A. McCurdy of the Guaranty
Trust. (Ad 7. The Independent, Jan. 31, 1861;130(635):7.) Lane was a
trustee of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company from at
least 1876 to 1883. (Display Ads, New York Times, Jan. 27, 1876; Mar.
7, 1883.) He was a close friend of Daniel Gilman's brother William, who
got five years in Sing Sing for funding his philanthropy via forgery of
Atlantic Mutual scrip.
George Macculloch Miller (1832-1917) was a law partner of Miller,
Peckham & Dixon, with Wheeler H. Peckham and William P. Dixon, who
was Samuel D. Babcock's son-in-law. He was a director of the New-York,
Providence and Boston Railroad, along with Samuel
D. Babcock and his
half-uncle, David S.
Babcock, and J. Boorman
Johnston of the NYGIC.
(General Railway Notes. New York Times, Dec. 9, 1880.) He founded the
forerunner of the United Hospital Fund, the Hospital Saturday and
Sunday Association of New York, and was its president from 1880 to
1910. "In addition to being the original trustee of the Cathedral of
St. John the Divine, Mr. Miller had been Secretary of the corporation
since 1873, and had been President of St. Luke's Hospital since 1890."
(George M. Miller Dead At 85 Years. New York Times, Nov. 15, 1917.)
Hyman Blum, a partner of the dry goods firm of Leon & H. Blum of
Galveston, Texas, was Vice President of the S&S Association in
1883, and Charles Lanier of the Central Trust was Treasurer. Its Board
of Directors included George Jones, owner of the New York Times. George
W. Lane, President of the Chamber of Commerce, and Morris K. Jesup were
on its Distributing Committee. (The Hospital Collections. New York
Times, Jan. 16, 1883; Fund for the Hospitals. New York Times, Jan. 22,
1889; The Hospital Association. New York Times, Jan. 17, 1893.) The
platform gathering for St. Luke's cornerstone-laying ceremony included
Miller, Percy R. Pyne, Samuel D. Babcock, and Gustav H. Schwab.
(Cornerstone of St. Luke's. New York Times, May 7, 1893.) Miller and J.
Pierpont Morgan were directors of the New-York, New-Haven and Hartford
Railroad (New-Haven and Hartford. New York Times, Oct. 20, 1892; Oct.
19, 1893.) In 1893, a committee was appointed "to take steps to have
Hospital Saturday and Sunday observed throughout the United States."
Members of the committee included Miller, Lanier, Jesup, Samuel D.
Babcock, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jesse Seligman, Jacob H. Schiff, and
Charles Stewart Smith. (Hospital Saturday and Sunday. New York Times,
Nov. 21, 1893.) He was one of the Trustees of the Cathedral of St. John
the Divine, who included Bishop Potter, Chairman; J. Pierpont Morgan,
Treasurer; Samuel D. Babcock and J. Roosevelt Roosevelt,
who were named
to the Building Committee; and Cornelius Vanderbilt. (Trustees of the
Cathedral. New York Times, Jan. 25, 1893; Cathedral Trustees Meet. New
York Times, Apr. 27, 1898.) Miller and his son, Hoffman Miller, were
members of the board of managers of St. Luke's Hospital, along with
Percy R. Pyne and his son, J.P. Morgan Jr., Samuel D. Babcock, and
Gustav H. Schwab. (St. Luke's Hospital Managers. New York Times, Oct.
20, 1894.) Miller and J. Pierpont Morgan were pallbearers at Cornelius
Vanderbilt's funeral. (Mr. Vanderbilt's Funeral. New York Times, Sep.
14, 1899.) Miller, Robert Olyphant,
James Speyer, Henry R.
Kunhardt, Albert H. Wiggin,
Andrew C. Zabriskie, and Frank
L. Polk were on the execuitve
committee of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association in 1910
(Hospital Association Grows. New York Times, Feb. 16,
1910; New York's Own Needs. New York Times, Nov. 11, 1914.)
One of Miller's daughters married William Bard McVickar, son of William A. McVickar, "a clergyman of the Protestant Episcopal Church, who for many years had charge of the Episcopal Church at Nice, France," and grandson of Rev. John McVickar, a professor at Columbia College in the early 19th century. McVickar was associated with John E. Parsons for several years, and was a member of the Society of New York Hospital. (Death List of A Day. New York Times, Mar. 31, 1901 p. 7.) Miller's grandson, G. Macculloch Miller, married Cornelius Vanderbilt's granddaughter, Flora Payne Whitney, the daughter of Harry Payne Whitney, S&B 1894. (Mrs. Tower to Wed in Cairo Today. New York Times, Feb. 24, 1927.)
George Macculloch Miller's brother was Commodore Jacob William Miller (1847-1918), who after retiring from the U.S. Navy became General Manager of the Providence and Stonington Steamship Company, of which his brother, Samuel D. Babcock, and G.G. Haven were directors. He re-entered the Navy during the Spanish-American War. (Providence and Stonington Elections. New York Times, Sep. 19, 1895; Com. J.W. Miller Dies of Pneumonia. New York Times, Mar. 9, 1918.) Their father was Jacob Welsh Miller (1800-1862), U.S. Senator, Whig-NJ 1840-53. His mother, Mary Louisa Macculloch, was the daughter of George Perrott Macculloch (1775-1858), who "was born in Bombay, his father being a Scotch officer in the East India service. He was employed during the first Consulate of Napoleon, in various financial negotiations for the East India Company, and came to New-York in 1806." He settled in Morristown, N.J., and was the promoter of the Morris Canal. (Obituary. New York Times, Jun. 7, 1858 p. 5; Obituary 2. New York Times, Jun. 16, 1888 p. 5.) George Macculloch Miller was the active executor of the will of Louise H. Le Clere, "the daughter of Louis Le Clere, one of the younger guards of Napoleon." She left about $240,000 to the French Evangelical Church of New York, and the "Societe Protestante pour l'encouragement de l'instruction primaire en France." (Mlle. Le Clere's Will Is Admitted At Last. New York Times, Aug. 10, 1912.)
George Macculloch Miller / Gencircles.comAfter graduating from the University of Gottingen, Morgan worked in
the New York banking house of Duncan, Sherman & Co. from 1857-60,
when he became the agent and attorney in New York for George Peabody
& Co., 1860-64. J. Pierpont Morgan, W. Butler Duncan of Duncan,
Sherman & Co.; Samuel D.
Babcock, and J. Boorman
Johnston of J.
Boorman, Johnston & Co. were on the Advisory Committee of Robinson
& Cox, attorneys for United States Lloyds; losses payable in London
at the firm of J.S. Morgan & Co. (which had been formed in 1864
from Morgan, Peabody & Co.), of which J.P. Morgan later became head
(Financial. New York Times, Dec. 24, 1866 p. 6.), while Duncan, Babcock
and Johnston formed the New York Guaranty & Indemnity Company. From
1864-71 he was a partner of Dabney, Morgan & Co. with Charles
Dabney, formerly of Duncan, Sherman. In 1871, he formed Drexel, Morgan
& Co. with Anthony J. Drexel of Philadelphia. Morgan became the
senior partner when Drexel died in 1893, and it became J.P. Morgan
& Co. in 1895. (J.P. Morgan. Wikipedia.) In the 1870s, Morgan
financed Thomas Edison's Edison Electric Company, which he merged with
Thomson-Houston Electric to form General Electric. (John Pierpont
Morgan, 1837-1913. Obits.com. Link died
http://obits.com/morganjp.html.) His grandfather, Rev. John Pierpont, Yale
1804, was a temperence advocate in the 1850s. The Pierpont family were
Royal descendants of William the Conqueror, King of England. One of his
collateral ancestors, William Cavendish, Earl of Devonshire,
"contributed greatly to establishing the English colonies in America,
particularly those in Virginia." (Americans of Royal Descent. By
Charles
Henry Browning, 1891, p. 614.) His great-granddaughter
married Walter H. Page, who
became the
chairman of the Morgan Guaranty Trust.
J.P. Morgan was a director of the Great Western (Marine) Insurance
Company during 1859-64, along with Samuel D. Babcock, W. Butler Duncan,
J.B. Johnston, Richard Lathers,
and Henry F. Spaulding, who later
formed the NYGIC and the Central Trust. James M. Brown of Brown
Brothers & Co. and Brown, Shipley & Co.; and William M. Evarts
were also directors of the Great Western. (Classified Ad 11. Financial.
New York Times, Jan. 22, 1859 p. 7; Financial. New York Times, Jun. 7,
1864 p. 6.) The Great Western in its early days had an interlocking
directorate with the Bank of the Republic, which has been accused of
engaging in the slave trade, of which Lathers was president.
In 1894, his daughter, Juliet Morgan, married William Pierson
Hamilton (1869-1950), Yale 1891, a descendant of the first president of
Yale. Hamilton was a cashier and later treasurer and a director of the
Manhattan Trust Company until 1897, when he joined J.P. Morgan &
Co., and was a partner of Morgan and its affiliates from 1900 until his
death. (Bulletin of Yale University, Obituary Record of Graduates of
the Undergraduate Schools Deceased during the Year 1949-1950, p. 135.)
J.P. Morgan Sr. made about $17 million in bequests, "not including
many trust funds for the payment of annuities.". He left $3 million to
his son, John Pierpont Morgan, the residuary and principal heir. He and
Morgan's sons-in-law, William P. Hamilton and Herbert Livingston
Satterlee, and Lewis Cass
Ledyard, one of Morgan's lawyers, were executors and trustees. His
wife, Mrs. Frances Louisa Tracy Morgan, got a trust fund of $1 million,
and an additional income of $100,000 including a trust fund set up by
his father. His daughters, Annie Tracy Morgan, Louisa Satterlee, and
Juliet Hamilton, each got $3 million in trust, and the husbands of the
two married daughters got $1 million outright. The widow of his
brother-in-law, Charles Edward Tracy, and his sisters-in-law, Mrs.
Clara Tracy Hoppin and Mrs. Julia N. Brown, got trust funds of
$100,000. Over the course of his life, he gave Harvard
University more than $1.5 million. ($3,000,000 to Each Child and
$1,000,000 To Mrs. Morgan. New York Times, Apr. 20, 1913.)
Isaac Newton Phelps (1804-1888), partner of Phelps, Stokes & Company, Bankers. Travelers' credits, circular notes, and commercial credits throughout the world; London correspondents: The Union Bank of London and J. Hambro & Sons. Phelps, Stokes & Co. was formed when the metal importing firm of Phelps, Dodge & Co., broke up. (Phelps, Dodge & Co. New York Times, Nov. 23, 1878.) In the New York Times, Jan. 8, 1880, p. 7, Phelps, Stokes & Co. stated that "Mr. F.P. Olcott has an interest in our business." On Apr. 20, 1880, p. 6, Olcott was listed as a partner of I.N. Phelps, James Stokes, and Anson Phelps Stokes.
Isaac N. Phelps left the hardware trade in 1853 and joined his cousin, John J. Phelps (the father of William Walter Phelps, Skull & Bones 1860), in real estate speculation in the business section of New York City. He was the founder of the Mercantile Bank, one of the founders of the Second National Bank, the principal stockholder and Managing Director of the United States Trust Company, a director and one-time vice president of the Greenwich Bank, a stockholder in the Metropolitan Trust Company, the Mercantile Fire Insurance Company, the United States Life Insurance Company, the Central Trust Company, the Fifth-Avenue Safe Deposit Company, and the Hamilton Bank, and a large holder of gas stocks; and, in the distant past, a director of the Erie Railroad. His first wife was a daughter of Sylvester Lusk of Enfield, Conn.; one of their daughters married Rufus King of Albany, and another was Mrs. Anson Phelps Stokes. His second wife was Mrs. Anna Maullin. (Obituary. Isaac Newton Phelps. New York Times, Aug. 2, 1888.) In 1878-80, he formed a partnership with his son-in-law, James Stokes (who died in 1881) and Anson Phelps Stokes (1838-1913), the forebear of two successive Bonesmen of that name (S&B 1896 and 1927). Isaac N. Phelps was related to Amos R. Eno, and was involved with him in the Second National Bank.
The Three Anson Phelps Stokes / ChickenBonesIn his will, Phelps left $5,000 to the American Bible Society, $10,000 to the American Home Missionary Society, $5,000 to the American Tract Society, $10,000 to the American Board of Foreign Missions; and lesser amounts to non-religious charities. John A. Stewart, Anson Phelps Stokes, John H. Rhoades, and Fredric P. Olcott were the executors and trustees, who were to receive $20,000 each for their services. (Isaac N. Phelps's Will. New York Times, Aug. 14, 1888.) John Harsen Rhoades (~1838-1906) was the President of the Greenwich Savings Bank, and the father of John Harsen Rhoades Jr. (~1870-1943), who founded Rhoades & Co. which merged with Carl M. Loeb & Co. John A. Stewart was President of the United States Trust Company of New York. He and John Harsen Rhoades, Anson Phelps Stokes, and John J. Phelps were trustees, along with William Rockefeller and James Stillman. (Display Ad 18. New York Times, Apr. 22, 1901, p. WF8.)
Harold F. Linder, the banking partner of A.A.A.S. Treasurer William T. Golden, was admitted as a general partner of Carl M. Loeb & Co. in 1933.
Fred. P. Olcott and J. Harsen Rhoades were directors of the Home Insurance Company of New York in 1887. (New York Times, July 13, 1887, p.8.) George W. Parsons, who was William Allen Butler's partner in Barney, Butler & Parsons, had been a director in 1871.
Benjamin Borden Sherman (1810-1885), of Eatontown, N.J., came to New York in 1830. He became a partner in the wholesale grocery firm of McCoon & Sherman, which went out of existence in 1863 when Sherman became associated with Peter Moller in the sugar refining business. He became a vice president of the Merchants' National Bank, which he resigned in 1872 to become President of the Mechanics' National Bank. He resigned in 1882 after suffering a stroke, although continuing as a director in both the Mechanics' and Merchants' Banks. He was also a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, the Royal Insurance Company, and the Bleecker-Street Savings Bank. (Obituary. New York Times, May 3, 1885.) He was a leading lay member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, whose absence was noted by Assistant Bishop Potter. (In Centennial Cenvention. New York Times, Oct. 2, 1885.)
The Skeel family had been wealthy since the early 1800s, when
Skeel's father, Theron Skeel, ran packet sloops on the Hudson River out
of the village of Coxsackie. Roswell Skeel was a director of the Bank
of the Commonwealth (Bank Notices. New York Times, May 13, 1853 p. 7;
Died. Oct. 21, 1895 p.5) His brothers, Almet and Rufus Skeel, were
involved in various developments in the West. Their sister, Margaret
Skeel, married Howard Van Wyck of Kenosha, Wis.
Mrs. Skeel, who was Anna Augusta Reed, was on the Executive Committee of the Westchester Temporary Home for Indigent Children, along with Mrs. Richard M. Hoe, who was David Dows's daughter Susan. An inmate who escaped from this home complained of being beaten. "District Attorney Platt says he has heard stories of Superintendent Pierce's fierceness with the cat-o-nine-tails, and that he sometimes uses it too severely." (She Ran Away From the Home. New York Times, Feb. 4, 1894.) The main building subsequently burned to the ground. "[T]he venerable Charles Butler, President of the Union Theological Seminary," was also President of the home, and Mrs. Whitelaw Reid was on the Board of Managers. (Worthy Westchester Charity. New York Times, Mar. 17, 1895.) Mrs. Skeel left $10,000 to the Home, $10,000 to the American Unitarian Association of Boston, and $5,000 to the Church of the Messiah (Unitarian) in New York. (Died. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1900; Bequests of Mrs. Skeel. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1900.)
Spaulding was a partner of Spaulding, Vail, Fuller & Co. He was a director of the Great Western (Marine) Insurance Company, along with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, J. Boorman Johnston, and Richard Lathers, its president (Financial. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1859 p. 7.) Spaulding was a director of the Queen Insurance Company of Liverpool & London, along with NYGIC directors Samuel D. Babcock, Martin Bates, Josiah M. Fiske, and J. Boorman Johnston. (Classified Ad 3. New York Times, Jan. 22, 1880 p. 6.) He was a director of the Mechanics' National Bank, along with Benjamin B. Sherman, Alexander E. Orr, David L. Wallace, and Anson Phelps Stokes. (Classified Ad 8. New York Times, Jan. 11, 1883 p. 9.)
Jacob D. Vermilye (~1817-1892) was Cashier of the Merchants' National Bank from 1858-68, a member of its board since 1865, and its President from 1869 until his death. (Died. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1892 p. 5.) He was a brother of Col. Washington R. Vermilye and William M. Vermilye, who founded Vermilye & Co. (The Will of Col. W.R. Vermilye. New York Times, Jan. 8, 1877; William Montgomery Vermilye. New York Times, Jun. 19, 1878.)
William H. Webb (1816-1899) established his shipyard in 1840, on the East River between sixth and seventh streets in New York City. He retired around 1869, and established the Webb Academy and Home for Shipbuilders 1890. He was a director of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company. (Good Use For His Waelth. New York Times, Jul. 17, 1890; William H. Webb Dead. New York Times, Oct. 31, 1899.) He was president of the North American Steamship Co. (Classified Ad 4. New York Times, Feb. 16, 1867 p. 7.)
The Central Trust Company of New-York, No. 15 Nassau-st., corner of Pine-st.: Henry F. Spaulding, President; Benjamin B. Sherman and Frederick H. Cossitt, Vice-Presidents; C.H.P. Babcock, Secretary. Board of Trustees: Samuel D. Babcock, Jonathan Thorne, Isaac N. Phelps, Josiah M. Fiske, Charles G. Landon, Edmund W. Corlies, Frederick H. Cossitt, William H. Appleton, Gustav Schwab, David Dows, Martin Bates, William Allen Butler, James P. Wallace, Benjamin B. Sherman, George W. Lane, Jacob D. Vermilye, G.O. McCulloch Miller, Roswell Skeel, A.A. Low, Amos R. Eno, Charles G. Francklyn, William H. Webb, J. Pierpont Morgan, Percy R. Pyne, Henry F. Spaulding, David Wolfe Bishop, Cornelius N. Bliss. (New York Times, Oct. 22, 1880 p.9.)
The lineup was the same in early 1881. (Classified Ad 8. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1881 p.7.) In late 1881, Francklyn and Bishop left, and were replaced by Charles Lanier and George I. Seney; and M.F. Reading replaced Cossitt as a Vice-President. (Classified Ad 12. New York Times, Dec. 21, 1881 p.7; Classifed Ad 11. Jan. 4, 1882 p.7.) In 1883, Frederick P. Olcott replaced Reading as Vice-President, and the trustees were divided into three classes. (Classified Ad 6. Jan. 11, 1883 p.9.) In 1884, Sherman left the Vice-Presidency. (Classified Ad 9. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1884 p.7.)
John Stewart Kennedy (1830-1909) was born in Scotland. From 1850 to 1857, he was employed by William Bird & Co., a firm engaged in the iron trade, in the US and Canada. In 1857, he moved to New York City and entered into business with Morris K. Jesup. They founded Jesup, Kennedy & Co. of Chicago in 1861. In 1868, he formed J.S. Kennedy & Co., which he left to his nephew, J. Kennedy Tod, when he retired in 1888. "Mr. Kennedy was closely associated with James J. Hill in the Northwestern railroad development of three decades and more ago. He was interested in the construction of what is now the Great Northern Railway, and was a member of the syndicate that contracted with the Canadian Government to build a Canadian Pacific Railway. He was also one of the incorporators of the Union Pacific Railway." In 1889, he was president of the board of managers of Presbyterian Hospital. In 1893, he was a director of the National Bank of Commerce, and was President of Presbyterian Hospital, President of the Board of Trustees of the American Bible House at Constantinople, and a trustee of the Central Trust until his death. (Generous and Modest. New York Times, Dec. 27, 1889; Mr. John S. Kennedy. From the Scottish-American. New York Times, Feb. 20, 1893; J.S. Kennedy Dead Of Whooping Cough. New York Times, Nov. 1, 1909.) One of the events which occurred in Turkey during his tenure was the Armenian genocide. Kennedy left $2,250,000 to the Presbyterian Hospital, which he had given $1,000,000 the year before; $2,250,000 to the Presbyterian Church; and $2,250,000 to Columbia University, as well as smaller bequests to members of the family of its president, Nicholas Murray Butler. (How They'll Spend Kennedy Millions. New York Times, Nov. 7, 1909.)
Kennedy was a Commissioner of the Union Pacific Railroad, along with Thomas W. Olcott of New York [the father of F.P. Olcott], Noah L. Wilson of Ohio, William B. Ogden of Illinois, and C.P. Huntington and D.O. Mills of California, when it got its big subsidy from the US Congress (Public Notices. New York Times, July 14, 1862.)
Kennedy was a member of the Advisory Board of the Scottish American Investment Company, Ltd., founded by Scottish investor William John Menzies. NYGIC director W. Butler Duncan, who left when his firm failed in 1873; and John A. Stewart, president of the United States Trust Company, were also original members. Kennedy's partners, Henry M. Baker, John S. Barnes, and J. Kennedy Tod, served as secretaries of the board. James Alfred Roosevelt of Roosevelt & Son, and Robert Lenox Kennedy [not a relative], president of the National Bank of Commerce, were also members. J. Kennedy Tod & Co. was Scottish American's representative from 1883 to 1902. (The Man Who Found the Money. By Saul Engelberg and Leonard Bushkoff. Michigan State University Press, 1996.)
The Man Who Found the Money / CTRL Mail ArchiveHe was also a trustee of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company,
along with Guaranty Trust directors Alexander E. Orr, Augustus D.
Juilliard, Charles R. Henderson, and Charles A. Peabody.
(Display Ad
11. New York Times, Jan. 14, 1901 p. 9.); and a director of the Bank of
the Manhattan Co. (Display Ad 10. New York Times, Jan. 27, 1902 p. 9),
which his nephew, William S. Tod, joined in 1903 (Display Ad 19. New
York Times, Jan. 5, 1903 p. 11). Kennedy and Orr were trustees of the
United States Trust Company of New York (Display Ad 15. New York Times,
Jan. 21, 1901 p. WF8.) Kennedy and Orr were on the Finance Committee of
the New York Life Insurance Company when it drew a check to J.P. Morgan
& Co., of which New York Life Vice President George W. Perkins was
a partner, to reimburse him for a campaign gift of $48,702.50 to the
Republican National Committee, of which fellow trustee Cornelius N.
Bliss was Chairman. (Perkins Is Arrested and Denies Wrongdoing. New
York Times, Mar. 29, 1906.) Kennedy's old business partner, Morris K.
Jesup, was a major benefactor of the Memorial Hospital.
His nephew, J. Kennedy Tod, was married to Maria Howard Potter, the
niece of Rev. Dr. Henry C. Potter, Rector of Grace Church, who
succeeded his uncle, the Right Reverend Horatio Potter, as Bishop of
New York. Rev. Potter's nephew, Edward Clarkson Potter, married Emily
Havemeyer, daughter of Theodore
Havemeyer of the Sugar Trust. (Events
in the Metropolis; Three Weddings. New York Times, Nov. 16, 1882;
Bishop Potter to Wed. New York Times, Jul. 13, 1902; J. Kennedy Tod
Dies At 72 Years. New York Times, Jun. 3, 1925.) Tod left $100,000 to
the Presbyterian Hospital. ($3,925,268 Estate Left By John K. Tod. New
York Times, Jun. 17, 1926.) The Bishop's son, William Bleecker Potter,
was "one of the best-known mining engineers and metallurgists in the
United States." (William B. Potter Dead. New York Times, Jul. 15,
1914.) He lived in St. Louis, home city of the Mississippi Valley Trust
Company, which funded the Mexican revolution, along with other powerful
financial institutions, in conjunction with Guggenheim mining
interests, which were represented by William C. Potter of the Guaranty
Trust. The Bishop's brother, Howard Potter, married Mary Louisa Brown,
a daughter of James Brown, the founder of Brown Brothers & Co. in
New York, and was a partner of Brown, Shipley & Co. in London.
(Howard Potter Dead. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1897; Death List Of A
Day. New York Times, Apr. 19, 1898; The Will of James Brown. New York
Times, Nov. 9, 1877.) Bishop Potter's nephew, James Brown Potter, was
President of the Tlauhualalo Agricultural Company in Mexico during the
uprising. (Report of Diaz Rising. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1897.) James
Brown Potter was a partner of Brown Brothers & Co. His daughter,
Anne Urquhart Potter, married James Alexander Stillman. (James B.
Potter Dies In Virginia. New York Times, Feb. 23, 1922.)
Charles Lanier (~1836-1926) was the senior member of Winslow, Lanier
& Co., bankers, for 63 years. "A great friend of the late Pierpont
Morgan, Mr. Lanier was a member of the little group, informally called
the Corsair Club, which made its headquarters on Mr. Morgan's yacht...
Among those who assembled on these occasions were David Egleston, Frank
and Endicott Peabody of Boston, Joseph Peabody of Paris, James Lawrence
of Boston, Rollins Morse of Boston and Frank Sturgis of New York." His
wife was Sarah E. Egleston, daughter of Thomas Egleston. Charles
Lanier's father, James F.D. Lanier, established the firm in New York
with Richard H. Winslow in 1849. Mrs. William Averell Harriman
was his
granddaughter. (Charles Lanier, Banker, Dies At 89. New York Times,
Mar. 8, 1926; Death List of A Day. New York Times, Apr. 19, 1898.)
During the 1880s, Lanier was Treasurer of the forerunner of the United
Hospital Fund, the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, of which
George Macculloch Miller of the Central Trust was president. Lanier
claimed to be descended from Thomas Lanier, a Huguenot refugee who
accompanied George Washington's great-grandfather to Virginia in 1655
and married his daughter, which is disputed. (Baron George Washington
Fighting for Austria. By A Veteran Diplomat. New York Times, Sep. 3,
1916.) "Mr. Lanier's securities included $1,400,000 in Standard Oil
stocks, the largest items being 3,000 shares Standard of Indiana,
$191,625; 7,200 shares Standard of New Jersey, $314,200, and 4,125
shares Standard in New York, $135,609. Other large stockholdings were
1,440 shares All-American Cables, $192,960; 700 Jersey Central,
$189,000; 828 Central Union Trust Company, $728,640; 100 First National
Bank, $273,750; and 940 New York Trust Company, $526,400." He left
$5,000 each to the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in
New York and Trinity Church in Lenox, Mass.; the New York City Mission
and Tract Society and the Lanier Memorial Museum in Madison, Indiana.
Mrs. W.A. Harriman received the income from $1,058,334. (Lanier Left
Estate of $9,677,364 Net. New York Times, Nov. 22, 1927.) He was a
trustee of the Central Trust and Central Union Trust from 1881 until
his death. His son, James F.D. Lanier, married Heber R. Bishop's
daughter, Harriet. (Lanier-Bishop. New York Times, Nov. 25,
1885.) Bishop was the vice president of Presbyterian Hospital in
1893.
Charles Lanier's daughter, Sarah Eggleston Lanier, married Francis Cooper Lawrance Jr.
(1858-1904), Yale 1877. She died in 1893, and he remarried to Susan
Ridgeway Willing. His brother, Thomas Garner Lawrance, was tapped for
Skull & Bones 1884 but died before graduating. Lawrance Hall was
erected in his memory. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale,
1900-1910, p. 395.) Frances Cooper Lawrance Sr. had a villa in Pau,
France, where most of the family lived. His daughter was Lady Fanny
Vernon. (Francis Cooper Lawrance. New York Times, Aug. 20, 1911.)
Lawrance Sr. left an estate appraised at $1,774,800. Some of the
largest legatees were George Francis Augustus (Lord Vernon), grandson,
about $220,000; Francis William Lawrance, same amount; Frances Alice
Willing Lawrance, granddaughter, about $230,000; Charles Lanier
Lawrance, grandson, about $220,000; Kitty Lanier Lawrance,
granddaughter, $263,882; Susan R. Willing Lawrance, son's widow,
$130,443. (Lawrance Estate Appraised. New York Times, Aug. 14, 1912.)
Frank C. Lawrence was a son of Thomas Lawrance, "who in his day was one
of the best-known merchants in the city and an extensive owner of land
in what was once called Greenwich Village," where the streets were
named for members of his family. (Obituary. New York Times, Aug. 17,
1889.)
Susan R. Willing Lawrance was a sister of Ava Lowle Willing, who
married John Jacob Astor. (Will of E.S. Willing. New York Times, Apr.
27, 1906.) The Willing sisters' father, Edward Shippen Willing of
Philadelphia, was a Royal descendant of Alfred the Great, King of
England. His sister, Ellen Willing, married Comte Blondeel van
Cuelsbroeck of Belgium, and a niece, Emily Ridgway, married Etienne,
Comte de Ganay. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning,
1891, p. 86.)
Charles Lanier Lawrance
(1882-1950), Wolf's Head 1905, was the son of Francis Cooper Lawrance
Jr. and Sarah E. Lanier. He married Emily Margaret Gordon Dix, a
daughter of Rev. Morgan Dix, rector of Trinity Parish. (Miss Dix to Be
a Bride. New York Times, Apr. 5, 1910; Married. New York Times, Aug. 5,
1910.) Their children were Francis Cooper Lawrance, Harvard 1939; Mrs.
Joseph Sherman Frelinghuysen Jr., and Mrs. Winston Frost. He founded an
aircraft engine company before becoming an executive of the Wright
Aeronautical Corp. and the Curtiss-Wright Corp. His half-sister married
Prince Andre Poniatowski. (Obituary Record of Graduates of the
Undergraduate Schools, 1949-1950, p. 65.) Prince Andre Poniatowski was
the younger son of Prince Andrew Poniatowski of the former ruling house
of Poland. His mother was Elizabeth Sperry of San Francisco. When he
married Frances Alice Willing Lawrance, he was an officer in the French
Army. She received about $10,000 a year from the income of a trust fund
at the United States Trust
Company. (Frances Lawrance Asks 160,000-Franc Allowance to Wed
Prince Poniatowski. New York Times, Dec. 5, 1919.) Charles Lanier
Lawrance's sister, Kitty Lanier Lawrance, married William Averell
Harriman. (W.A. Harriman and Miss Lawrance Wed. New York Times, Sep.
22, 1915.) His brother-in-law, John A. Dix, married Sophie W. Townsend,
daughter of the Howard Townsends.
(J.A. Dix to be Bridegroom. New York Times, Apr. 8, 1910.) Mrs. Francis
Cooper Lawrance and Mrs. Winston Frost did charity work at Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. (Aides of Cancer Center Meet Today. New
York Times, Jan. 15, 1959.)
Sarah Elizabeth Egleston's brother, Thomas Egleston, Yale 1854,
graduated from the School of Mines in Paris, and was put in charge of
the mineralogical collections at the Smithsonian Institution. He was
the first Professor of Minerology and Metallurgy at the Columbia School
of Mines. He was a trustee of the General Theological Seminary, and
left a large residue of his estate to Trinity Church.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1890-1900, p. 694.) J. Pierpont
Morgan
attended his funeral. (Funeral of Prof. Egleston. New York Times, Jan.
19, 1900.) His brother, George Washington Egleston, resided at
Kinnersley Castle in Herefordshire, England. He left his entire estate
in trust for his three sons, with the Central Trust Company as sole
executor and trustee. (Moralizes In His Will. New York Times, Mar. 1,
1904.) Another brother, William Couch Egleston, Yale 1861, was a lawyer
in New York City. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p.
720.) He
was a director of the Cleveland and Pittsburgh Railroad along with his
brother-in-law, Charles Lanier. (New York Times, Jan. 2, 1890.) He left
$100,000 each to Yale University and St. Luke's Hospital. (Many
Bequests to Charity. New York Times, Apr. 6, 1907.)
Frederick P. Olcott (1841-1909) was the eleventh and last child of
Thomas Worth Olcott, President of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank and
the Mechanics and Farmers Savings Bank of Albany, New York. His
brother, Dudley, succeeded their father
in 1880. The Olcotts were
descended from Thomas Olcott, one of the first settlers of Hartford,
Connecticut, in 1630. (Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs:
Olcott. Schenectady Digital Archive; and: Obituary of Dudley Olcott.
(Dudley Olcott obituary. Encyclopedia of Biography of New York, by
Charles Elliott Fisk.) Olcott was the financial backer of Anthony
Brady, the largest stockholder in the American Tobacco Company.
Central Trust trustees Samuel Thorne, Augustus D. Juilliard [Jr.], Frederick P. Olcott, and James N. Jarvie, and George G. Haven of the Guaranty Trust, were directors of the State Bank of America. (Annual Bank Elections. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1904.)
George Ingraham Seney (1826-1893) was born in Astoria, New York, but "On both sides he is a Marylander by descent." His grandfather was a member of the first Federal Congress and his father was the noted Methodist minister, Rev. Robert Seney. His maternal great-grandfather was James Nicholson, the first Commodore in the United States Navy. He attended Wesleyan University and graduated from New York University in 1847, and immediately began work as paying teller at the Metropolitan National Bank. He was its president from 1877 to 1884, when the bank failed due to his stock speculations. "At the time of his retirement from the bank it was supposed that Mr. Seney had lost the greater part of his fortune, but a large block of the securities of the East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railroad, which were then considered as practically worthless, he was later enabled to sell out advantageously." He gave $550,000 to Wesleyan University; $225,000 to "literary institutions in Georgia" (Emory College, at Oxford, and Wesleyan Female College, at Macon), and $500,000 to the Seney Hospital in Brooklyn. (Honoring Mr. Seney. New York Times, May 21, 1882; George I. Seney Is Dead. New York Times, Apr. 8, 1893; Emory University. New Georgia Encyclopedia.)
Emory University / The New Georgia Encyclopedia.)Frederick P. Olcott, President; George Sherman, First
Vice-President; E. Francis Hyde, Second Vice President; C.H.P. Babcock,
Secretary; B.G. Mitchell, Assistant-Secretary. Executive Committee:
Frederick P. Olcott, Samuel D. Babcock, Charles Lanier, John S.
Kennedy, Cornelius N. Bliss, Adrian Iselin Jr., Samuel Thorne, A.D.
Juilliard, and Charles G. Landon. "The stock of the Central Trust
Company sells for the highest price ever paid for the stock of any
trust company in this country, and probably the world." (Kings Handbook
of New York City. By Moses King, 1893.).
Adrian Iselin Jr. was a director of the Guaranty Trust from 1892 to 1906, then a trustee of the Central Trust from at least 1908 to 1929, when he was replaced by his son, Ernest Iselin. His father, Adrian Iselin, who was executor of the estate of James Gallatin, was a director of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company. Adrian Iselin's daughter, Therese E. Iselin, married Irwin B. Laughlin [Scroll & Key 1893], First Secretary of the US Embassy in Germany. Members of the German and Russian Embassies of Washington, D.C. attended the wedding, and President Taft sent a gift. Laughlin's brother married a sister of Mrs. Taft. (Miss Iselin Weds Irwin B. Laughlin. New York Times, Sep. 19, 1912.) His daughters each received $25,000 in cash, life income from a $100,000 trust fund, and contingent interest in a $120,000 trust fund. (Adrian Iselin Left Estate to Family. New York Times, Feb. 7, 1935.)
Samuel Thorne (~1835-1915) was a son of NYGIC director and Central Trust trustee Jonathan Thorne. He retired from his father's leather business in 1872, became interested in the Pennsylvania coal fields, and was President of the Pennsylvania Coal Company at one time. Besides the Central Trust, he was a trustee of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, and a director of the Chicago, Burlington, & Quincy Railroad Company, the Colorado and Southern Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Sixth Avenue Railroad Company, the Northern Securities Company, the New York Dock Company, and the Bank of America. (Samuel Thorne Dies On J.J. Hill's Yacht. New York Times, Jul. 6, 1915.) His wife, Phoebe Brinckerhoff Thorne, was a manager of the Women's Hospital. (Mrs. Phoebe B. Thorne. New York Times, Oct. 10, 1923.) His son, Edwin Thorne, succeeded him as a trustee of the Central Trust. He was a great-great-grandfather of John F. Kerry's ex-wife, Julia Stimson Thorne, and her twin brother and Kerry's campaign advisor, David Hoadley Thorne.
The Ancestors of Julia Stimson Thorne / William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical ServicesCentral Trust trustees Samuel Thorne, Augustus D. Juilliard, Frederick P. Olcott, and James N. Jarvie, and George G. Haven of the Guaranty Trust, were directors of the State Bank of America. (Annual Bank Elections. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1904.)
A.A. Housman & Co. attached the trustees of the will of John E. Liggett for $277,200 in commissions on the sale of 550½ shares of stock of the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, amounting to $5,505,500, to George P. Butler. Claude Kilpatrick, John Fowler, and Mitchell Scott were the trustees. "The Sheriff served the attachment upon the Central Trust Company." (The Liggitt [sic] and Myers Sale. New York Times, Apr.22, 1899.)
"At the annual meeting of the Central Trust Company, F.P. Olcott, President; George Sherman, Vice President; George Bertine, Secretary, and the Board of Trustees were re-elected. James N. Wallace and Henry Evans were elected Trustees in place of William Allen Butler and Samuel D. Babcock. W.E. Read was elected a member of the Executive Committee." (Central Trust Election. New York Times, Jan. 23, 1903, p.12.) In 1904, the Central Trust Company's office was at 54 Wall Street, in between the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company at 50-52 Wall Street, and property owned by George Peabody Wetmore, Skull & Bones 1867, with the 26-story Sixty Wall Street Company building, owned by the International Banking Corporation, on the other side of it. (Neglected Blocks on Pine and Cedar Streets. New York Times, Oct. 23, 1904.)
Henry Evans (1860-1924) was born in Houston, Texas, where "His mother's father was perhaps the leading citizen of Houston and a man of large means for the time." They were impoversihed by the Civil War, and the family moved North around 1865. Henry Evans attended the Columbia College School of Mines, and went to work for the Continental Insurance Company in 1878. He rose in the ranks and was sent to California. Returning to New York, he became Secretary of the Agency Department in 1888, Second Vice President in 1889, Vice President in 1892, and President in 1903. "It took him less than twenty-five years to advance from office boy to head of the company," and he proceeded to consolidate the American Eagle, Continental, Fidelity, Phenix, and Farmers' Insurance Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa into a powerful group of fire insurance companies. (Henry Evans Dies, Insurance Leader. New York Times, Aug. 30, 1924.) There were numerous directors of the Guaranty and the Central Trust on the Continental's board of directors, including George F. Baker, Richard A. McCurdy, Alexander E. Orr, and Daniel G. Reid of the GT, and Frederick P. Olcott and William A. Read of the CT; plus William Gilman Low, a stepson of A.A. Low of the NYGIC, who prided himself on being the oldest depositor in the Guaranty Trust Company, as well as on never smoking, drinking, or driving a car; and former Lazard Freres partner George Blumenthal. (Display Ad 7. New York Times, Feb. 9, 1904 p. 7; Display Ad 7. New York Times, Jul. 13, 1906 p. 6; Display Ad 9. New York Times, Jan. 18, 1907 p. 8; Display Ad 10. New York Times, Jan. 13, 1909 p.6; Display Ad 28. New York Times, Jan. 21, 1916 p. 20; Display Ad 81. New York Times, Jan. 18, 1917.) He was a trustee of the Central Trust from 1903 until his death in 1924.
In 1909, Evans was president of the Fidelity Fire Insurance Company,
which merged with the Phenix, and in 1916, he was president and a
director of the Fidelity-Phenix, along with Dudley Olcott 2d, and
Eugene Meyer Jr. and Charles
Altschul of Lazard Freres. (Phenix In
Merger With the Fidelity. New York Times, Dec. 23, 1909; Display Ad 9.
New York Times, Jan. 24, 1916 p. 6.) In 1910, he was an incorporator of
the Fire Companies Building Corporation, along with Altschul and James
N. Wallace of the Central Trust. (In the Real Estate Field. New York
Times, May 13, 1910.) Charles Altschul's son, Frank Altschul of Lazard
Freres, was a longtime friend of Mary Woodard Lasker, and James S.
Adams of the American Cancer Society became a partner of Lazard.
In 1911, Evans became chairman of the executive committee of
Manning,
Maxwell & Moore, "at the request of his friend and relative,
Charles A. Moore," who retained the controlling interest. Colby M.
Chester Jr. [who married Moore's daughter] resigned as secretary,
and was replaced by J.H. Evans, a son of
the late Sir Francis Evans of England, who was not related. (Maxwell
& Moore Changes. New York Times, Jul. 25, 1911.) Manning, Maxwell
& Moore originated with Henry Swan Manning, Yale
1863, who founded H.S. Manning & Co., a railway machinery supply
company, in 1870. "Eugene L. Maxwell became associated with him in
1873, and Charles A. Moore in 1880, when it became Manning, Maxwell
& Moore. The company supplied Russian railways, and had special
contracts with the U.S. Government during the Spanish-American War."
(Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1921-1922, pp. 200-201.)
Dudley Olcott (1838-1919), was Frederick P. Olcott's brother. He was President of the Merchants and Farmers' Bank of Albany, and a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York from 1880 to 1906. (Display Ad 6. New York Times, Feb. 4, 1905 p. 7. Has dates of election; Dudley Olcott, Albany Banker. New York Times, Dec. 29, 1919.) He was a trustee of the Metropolitan Trust Company, along with Collis P. Huntington, Heber R. Bishop, and Morris K. Jesup (Classified Ad 11. New York Times, Dec. 18, 1883 p. 7), and Jesup, D.O. Mills, John E. Parsons, and Norman B. Ream. (Display Ad 19. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1903 p. 11.)
Dudley Olcott Obituary / Darci's PlaceWilliam Augustus Read was born in Brooklyn and graduated from the
Brooklyn Polytechnic and the Collegiate Institute. He joined Bermilye
& Co. in 1877 and became a member in 1896. In 1904 he formed his
own firm. (William A. Read, Banker, Is Dead. New York Times, Apr. 8,
1916.) He was "one of the best-known men in Wall Street. He is
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Toledo, St. Louis &
Western Railroad, a Trustee of the Alliance Assurance Company of
London, and of the Imperial Insurance Company, and Director of the
Allis-Chalmers Company, the Bank of New York, the Safety Car Heating
and Lighting Company, the Subway Realty Company, the Twin City Rapid
Transit Company, the Victor Chemical Works, the Continental Insurance
Company, the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, the International
Banking Corporation, and the Pope Manufacturing Company." (Bankrupt
Coal Co. Sued For $1,800,000. New York Times, Mar. 3, 1908 p. 4.) In
1905, Vermilye & Co. broke up into two firms, Mackay & Co. and
William A. Read & Co. (Vermilye Firm's Offshoots. New York Times,
Apr. 1, 1905.) Clarence Dillon joined
in 1913, and William A. Read
& Co. became Dillion, Read & Co. in 1921, with William A. Read
Jr. (Harvard 1918, another naval aviator) as a partner. (Banking Firm
Changes. New York Times, Jan. 14, 1921.)
Two other sons graduated from Yale. Curtis Seaman Read 1918, a naval
aviator who was killed in service (Obituary Record of the Graduates,
Yale University 1915-20, p. 1115); and Russell Bartow Read M.D., Elihu
1920 (Obituary
Record of Graduates of Yale University, 1931-1932, p. 136.) His
daughter Caroline married Archibald G. McIlwaine Jr., Yale 1918, who
had been a member of her late brother's aviation unit. Her attendants
included Alice Davison, and his ushers included Seth Low, William
Rockefeller, Oliver B. Jennings, and Artemus L.
Gates. (Miss Caroline Read Bride in Country. New York Times, Jun.
20, 1920.) Brothers William A. Read Jr. and Duncan H. Read were members
of Dillon, Read & Co. until 1930 and 1931. (Read Quits Banking
House. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1931.)
Henry Talmadge (~1825-1907) was founder of the banking firm of Henry Talmadge & Co., 50 Pine Street. "Mr. Talmadge was 82 years old and retired from active participation in the business several years ago, but was a daily visitor at the office. He was active as a Trustee of the Central Trust Company, Vice President and a Director of the Cossitt Land Company and a Director of the Mechanics' National Bank." He was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Society of Mayflower Descendants. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, Mar. 20, 1907.) His late wife was Frances A. Cossitt, sister of Frederick H. Cossitt. (Died. Dec. 1, 1893 p.5.) He was one of the associates of the Gilman family.
"Mr. Wallace was a protege of the late Anthony F. [sic] Brady. He first met Mr. Olcott when the latter was a member of a banking firm in the financial district and when Mr. Olcott became a Vice President of the old Central Trust Company on Jan. 1, 1882, Mr. Wallace went with him as clerk. In 1901 Mr. Wallace was made an Assistant Secretary, and the following year Fourth Vice President. In 1905, when Mr. Olcott retired, Mr. Wallace was elected President and on June 18 of last year, when the Central Trust Company merged with the Union Trust Company, he was elected President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the consolidated company... At the time of his death Mr. Wallace was director in many companies, including the Bank of America, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Company and several of its subsidiaries, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad, the Mechanics and Farmers Bank of Albany, the Morristown Trust Company, the New York Dock Company, New York Municipal Railway Corporation, Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co., and the Union Carbide Company." His personal fortune was estimated at $5 million, and his Central Trust Christmas bonus was $50,000, which he distributed to charity. (James N. Wallace, Banker, Dies At 55. New York Times, Oct. 12, 1919.)
"The Argus Company was reorganized to-day upon the retirement of
William McMurtrie Speer and the transfer of the holdings of stock to
the Argus Company. It is understood that Mr. Speer received a bonus of
$6,000 for the surrender of his stock and retirement from the company.
The new officers elected are: Directors - William H. Johnson,
President; Edward Murphy, second, Vice President; Amasa J. Parker, Jr.,
Secretary; James N. Wallace, and Timothy S. Williams. It is understood
that Edward Murphy, second, represents the interests of Edward Murphy,
Jr.; Mr. Wallace that of Anthony N. Brady, and Mr. Williams that of
Roswell P. Flower." (Albany Argus Reorganization. New York Times, May
3, 1896, p.5.)
In 1910, James N. Wallace and his crony Anthony N. Brady were among
the five voting Trustees elected to control the stock of General Motors for five years. (Voting Trustees for
General Motors. New York Times, Oct. 23, 1910.)
Wallace was chairman of the Union Pacific stockholders' protective committee after dissolution of the Union Pacific - Southern Pacific merger was ordered by the Supreme Court. Henry Evans, J. Horace Harding of C.D. Barney & Co., Frederick Strauss of J&W Seligman & Co.; and Albert H. Wiggin, President of the Chase Manhattan Bank, were also members. (Harriman Directors Discuss Dissolution. New York Times, Dec. 4, 1912.)
The Butler law firm's spinoff firm of Joline, Rathbone, and Larkin was counsel for Central Trust Company, and J.N. Wallace was its president. The Board of Trustees included Cornelius N. Bliss, Adrian Iselin Jr., A.D. Juilliard, John S. Kennedy, James Speyer, and William A. Read. (Bankrupt Coal Co. Sued For $1,800,000. New York Times, Mar. 3, 1908 p. 4.)
James Speyer had been Collis P. Huntington's banker for 30 years. He was a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company from 1898 to 1906; a director of the Guaranty Trust 1905-1907, and a trustee of the Central Trust from 1908 to at least 1910. He was on the execuitve committee of the Hospital Saturday and Sunday Association, which was founded by fellow trustee George Macculloch Miller, in 1910 and 1914 (Hospital Association Grows. New York Times, Feb. 16, 1910; New York's Own Needs. New York Times, Nov. 11, 1914). He was one of the organizers of the American Society for the Control of Cancer in 1913, and was a member of its General Committee in 1926. He was a member of the campaign committee of the United Hospital Fund in 1919, along with George Blumenthal, J.P. Morgan, G.E. Roosevelt, and Allen Wardwell. (Prepare Hospital Drive. New York Times, Jul. 18, 1919.) Speyer was a trustee of Mount Sinai Hospital, to which he donated $150,000 in 1929. Jules S. Bache, and Frank Altschul of Lazard Freres were also contributors. (Speyer Gives $150,000. New York Times, Jan. 10, 1929.)
"At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Central Trust Company of New York, held yesterday, these officers were elected: James N. Wallace, President; E. Francis Hyde, Benjamin G. Mitchell, Dudley Olcott, and Edwin G. Merrill of Bangor, Me., Vice Presidents. Milton Ferguson was elected Secretary in the place of George Bertine, resigned." (New York Times, Jan. 22, 1909, p. 11.) Trustees: Frederic P. Olcott (Chairman), Charles Lanier, Henry D. Babcock, Augustus D. Juilliard, James Speyer, George M. Miller, Cornelius N. Bliss, James N. Jarvie, William A. Read, James N. Wallace (President), John S. Kennedy, Samuel Thorne, Adrian Iselin Jr., E.F. Hyde, Henry Evans, Dudley Olcott 2d. (Trow's Directory, 1909.)
Henry Denison Babcock (~1847-1918) was a son of Samuel D. Babcock,
the first president of the New York Guaranty and Indemnity Company in
1864, and a founder of the Central Trust in 1873. He was a first cousin
of Franklin L. Babcock,
the president of
the Central Farmers' Trust Company. Henry D. Babcock
graduated from Columbia University in 1868. He was a partner of the
Stock Exchange firm of Hollister & Babcock, the Treasurer of St.
Luke's Hospital, and a member of the Board of Managers of the Society
of the Sons of the American Revolution. (Henry D. Babcock Dead. New
York Times, Jun. 2, 1918; H.D. Babcock Left $1,000,000. New York Times,
Jun. 12, 1918.) His partner, Henry Hutchinson
Hollister, [Wolf's Head] 1899, was
the brother of Buell Hollister, S&B 1905. (Henry H. Hollister Dead.
New York Times, Jan. 30, 1927.) His son, Henry D. Babcock Jr., was
killed in a polo accident as a freshman at Yale. (Princeton Man's Blow
Kills Yale Polo Player. New York Times, May 23, 1904.) Another son,
Samuel D. Babcock, who was in Scroll & Keys, died of "heart disease
following pneumonia" in a Paris hotel, where he had been serving with
the American Red Cross as a representative
to the American
Expeditionary Force since September 1917. (The Yale Senior Societies.
New York Times, May 22, 1896; Samuel D. Babcock Dies In Paris. New York
Times, Apr. 17, 1918.) Mrs. Henry D. Babcock was Anna M. Woodward.
Their only
daughter, Anna Woodward Babcock, married Henry Rogers Winthrop,
a
Yale
graduate who was the Financial Secretary and a director of the
Equitable Life Assurance Society. (Henry R. Winthrop To Wed. New York
Times, Aug. 8, 1905.) Ashbel H. Barney was an usher at their wedding.
"James Hazen Hyde was to have been an usher, but at a late hour his
regrets were received." (Miss Babcock Wed To Henry R. Winthrop. New
York Times, Oct. 4, 1905.) Two other sons, Woodward Babcock and Richard
Franklin Babcock, survived him. (Samuel Denison Babcock, Obituary
Record of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20, p. 683.)
Woodward Babcock (1876-1938): "After
being graduated from Columbia
University he entered the employ of the Guaranty Trust Company and
later his father's brokerage firm of Hollister & Babcock. In 1907
he became associated with Harris, Winthrop & Co., one of the oldest
New York brokerage houses, which was dissolved in 1929. In that year he
became a partner of the new firm of Winthrop, Mitchell &
Co." He
had a son, Henry D. Babcock, and a daughter, Barbara. (Woodward
Babcock, Broker Here, Was 61. New York Times, Mar. 22, 1938.) His wife
was Grace Chauncey , whose younger brother married Abiel Abbott Low's granddaughter.
(Married. New York Times, Apr. 22, 1903). He was also an
Assistant
Secretary of the Trust Company of the Republic. (Display Ad 25. New
York Times, Jan. 11, 1903 p. WF8.)
Richard F. Babcock and Henry Rogers Winthrop were general partners of Winthrop, Miller & Co. Woodward's son, Henry D. Babcock (~1907-1980), joined as a special partner with his father's estate money. (Legal Notice. Wahington Post, Jun. 18, 1938.) Henry D. Babcock's daughter Joan married James Cox Brady, Scroll & Keys 1957 and a descendant of Anthony N. Brady. "Miss Katherine R. Babcock was maid of honor for her sister. The other attendants were Miss Elliot Brady and Mrs. Reuben F. Richards [daughter-in-law of Tobacco and Allied Stocks director Junius A. Richards], sisters of the bridegroom; Mrs. Nicholas F. Brady, sister-in-law of the bridegroom; the Misses Donna Webster, Wistie Windsor, Nancy Doyle and Lillian Bostwick, Mrs. Bayard Swope and Mrs. Carl W. Timpson Jr. Susan Babcock, another sister of the bride, was flower girl. Nicholas F. Brady was best man for his brother. The ushers were Henry D. Babcock Jr., brother of the bride; Mr. Richards, George H. Bostwick Jr., J. Gordon Douglas Jr., David R. Wilmerding Jr., James L. Van Allen 2d, Robert S. Walker, Morris Brooke, Andrew W. Burden, Reeve Schley 3d, Julien Kahle and Allen Wardwell 2d." (Wedding June 27 For Joan Babcock. New York Times, Jun. 2, 1957; L.I. Nuptials Held for Joan Babcock. New York Times, Jun. 28, 1957.) Joan Babcock, Mrs. Robert A.G. Monks, and Kate P. Todd, the sister of anti-smoker New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, were attendants at the wedding of Patricia White to Carl W. Timpson Jr. (Patricia White Is Wed in Peapack. New York Times, Dec. 4, 1955.)
Dudley Olcott 2d was the son of Anthony Brady's first financial backer, Frederic P. Olcott, and Dudley Olcott's nephew. When his father became chairman of the board of Central Trust in 1905, his son was named his assistant. He was elected a vice president in 1907, until resigning in 1920. In that year he joined the banking firm of Billings, Olcott & Co., from which he retired in 1937. (Dudley Olcott 2d, Long A Banker, 72. New York Times, June 28, 1946.) The latter firm was formed with Oliver C. Billings and Robert S. Winsmore, after the firm of John H. Davis & Co. dissolved upon its senior partner's retirement. (Brokerage Firm Dissolves. New York Times, Jan. 31, 1920.)
James N. Wallace, President; E. Francis Hyde, Benjamin G. Mitchell, Dudley Olcott, and Edwin G. Merrill, Vice Presidents; Milton Ferguson, Secretary; Frank B. Smidt, Assistant Secretary. Trustees: Samuel Thorne, Adrian Iselin Jr., E.F. Hyde, Henry Evans, Henry D. Babcock, Dudley Olcott 2d, Chas. Lanier, A.D. Juilliard, James Speyer, James N. Wallace, Geo. Macculloch Miller, Cornelius N. Bliss, James N. Jarvie, William A. Read. (Display Ad 60. New York Times, Jan. 9, 1910 p. AFR22.)
Cornelius N. Bliss (1874-1949) was the son of trustee Cornelius
Newton Bliss. He graduated from Harvard in 1897 and joined his
father's
firm, Bliss Fabyan & Co., where he was chairman until 1932. He also
succeeded him as chairman of the Republican National Committee, during
the ill-fated candidacy of Charles Evan Hughes. In World War I he was a
member of President Wilson's War Council, and in World War II, was
chairman of the Red Cross advisory council on war activities. He was a
director of the Bankers Trust Company
[since at least 1917] and
of the New York Life
Insurance Company, and an honorary Governor of New York Hospital.
(Cornelius Bliss, 74, Financier, Is Dead. New York Times, Apr. 6,
1949; Class of 1897, Fourth Report. Harvard College, 1912.) He
was a $1000 donor to the American Society for the
Control of Cancer in 1927. ($50,000 to Cancer Society. New York
Times, Feb. 20, 1927.) He was a trustee of President Franklin D.
Roosevelt's National
Foundation for Infantile Paralysis in
1937.
After the breakup of the American Tobacco Company, its Preferred Stock was deposited at the Central Trust. The Committee was J.N. Wallace, Chairman; Frederick Strauss, Charles D. Norton, Harry Bronner, and Ernest Iselin; F.L. Babcock, Secretary, and Adrian H. Larkin, Counsel. American Tobacco Company Bonds were deposited at the Guaranty Trust. (Display Ad 17. New York Times, Aug. 2, 1911 p. 11.) Charles D. Norton was a Vice President of the First National Bank. As of Dec. 31, 1911, the American Tobacco Company had $26,750,742.63 in cash accounts, including $6,737,506.69 at the Guaranty Trust Co., $4,349,521.51 at the Farmers Loan & Trust Co., $3,326,049.64 at the Central Trust Co., $2,500,000.00 at J.P. Morgan & Co., and $2,303,628.00 at the National City Bank, and amounts between one and two million dollars at the Chase National Bank, the National Shawmut Bank, the National Bank of Commerce, and the Fourth Street National Bank; and lesser amounts at other banks. (Fiscal Statements, The American Tobacco Co., Dec. 31, 1911, p. 108.)
ATC Fiscal Statements, Dec. 31, 1911 / UCSF (pdf, 355 pp)Franklin Lawrence Babcock (1874-1950) was a son of Charles H.P.
Babcock. He served as secretary in numerous Central Trust
reorganizations between 1907 and 1915, and he was secretary of the
Committee that deposited the preferred stock of the American Tobacco
Company at the Central Trust. (Display Ad 17. New York Times, Aug. 2,
1911 p. 11.) In 1920, he was appointed Trust
Officer of the Lincoln National Bank, whose directors included William
G. Rockefeller. (Classified Ad 24. New York Times, Jan. 16, 1920 p.
22.) He was Assistant Trust Officer at the Irving National Bank
(Display Ad 38. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1923 p. 31.) In 1925, he became
the first president of the Central Farmers' Trust Company in Palm
Beach, Florida, which was jointly created by the Central Union Trust
and the Farmers' Loan and Trust. The presidents of the two firms,
George W. Davison and James H.
Perkins, were on its board of directors.
(To Open Bank In Florida. New York Times, Sep. 4, 1925; Franklin L.
Babcock. New York Times, Jul. 30, 1950.) Babcock's son, F. Lawrence
Babcock, was a writer and associate editor
for Fortune Magazine, and a war correspondent for Time Inc. From
1947-49, he was with the information service division of the US
Military Government in Berlin, , and from 1950-54 he was an editor with
Radio Free Europe. As a freelance writer, he wrote industrial
biographies. (F.L. Babcock, 54, Writer, Is Dead. New York Times, May 1,
1960.) He was a first cousin of Central Trust trustee Henry D. Babcock.
Trustees: Henry D. Babcock, Cornelius N. Bliss Jr., James C. Brady,
George W. Davison (Vice President), Henry Evans, Milton Ferguson
(Secretary), E.F. Hyde (vice President), Adrian Iselin Jr., James N.
Jarvie, A.D. Juilliard, Charles Lanier, George Macculloch Miller,
Dudley Olcott, Dudley Olcott 2d (Vice President), William A. Read,
Jacob H. Schiff, Samuel Thorne, James N. Wallace (President).
(Directory of Directors in the City of New York, 1915 Vol. 1939, p.
784.)
James Cox Brady was the son of Anthony N. Brady of the American Tobacco Company. He was a director of the Central Union Trust between ca. 1918 until his death in 1927. He was a member of Scroll & Keys, and a Yale classmate of Lansing P. Reed, S&B 1904, of the Guaranty Trust.
James N. Wallace, Dudley Olcott, E.H. Gary, chairman of United
States Steel, and Col. Robert M. Thompson raised and equipped their own
First Armored Motor Battery, a fleet of several armored vehicles, 70
motorcycles, four officers, including Olcott, and 156 college men. The
US Army refused to enroll them as a unit or allow them to control their
own equipment, and the enlistees refused to dig trenches or go on long
marches. (Motor Battery In Camp. New York Times, June 30, 1916; U.S.
Won't Recognize Motor Battery. New York Times, July 16, 1916.)
Frederick Strauss of J. & W. Seligman & Co. and Clarence
Dillon of William A. Read & Co. were elected trustees. (Trust
Company Elections. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1917.)
Clarence Dillon was born in San Antonio, Texas, and attended the
Worcester Academy in Massachusetts and Harvard. He joined William A. Read
& Co. in its Chicago office in 1905 after William A. Phillips, a
Harvard classmate with the firm, introduced him to Read. He became a
partner in 1916 and its head after Read died. He was a director of the
Central Trust and its successors, the Central Union Trust Company and
the Central Hanover Bank and Trust, the National Park Bank, the Chase
National Bank, the Dodge Automobile Company, Mational Cash Register
Company, Brazilian Light and Power and the U.S. & Foreign
Securities Corp., and a voting trustee of the Goodyear Tire and Rubber
Company. During World War I he was on the War Industries Board. He
purchased the Château Haut-Brion vineyard in Bordeaux, France in
the
1930s. He retired from active business in the 1950s. (Clarence Dillon,
Financier, Is Dead. By Alfred E. Clark. New York Times, Apr. 15, 1979.)
Clarence Dillon was a founder of the New York Heart Association.
(New York Heart Association Appeals for Aid in Its Work. New York
Times, Dec. 21, 1924.) He was elected a director of the New York Post
Graduate Medical School and Hospital in 1924. Fellow directors included
Vincent Astor and James C. Brady, and William
V. Griffin was First Vice President. (Hospital Elects Board of
Laymen. New York Times, Nov. 21, 1924; Two Hospitals Plan to Merge By
Jan. 1. New York Times, Nov. 20, 1929.)
He married Anne Douglass, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Douglass
of Milwaukee, Wis. Her sister was Mrs. Samuel Clay, whose husband was a
U.S. Minister to Egypt. (Mrs. George Douglass. New York Times, Jan. 10,
1937.) George Douglass was a son of one of the founders of R.G. Dun
& Co. a business credit rating agency founded in 1841 [which became
Dun & Bradstreet], and was a manager of its Milwaukee office since
1884. (R.G. Dun & Co.'s Agency. Milwaukee Sentinel, Oct. 4, 1891.)
Mrs. Douglass was a niece of R.G. Dun, head of the company. Her brother
Edwin Dun was U.S. Minister to Japan, and a relative of Sen. Allan G.
Thurman, to whose influence his appointment was attributed. (Has
Relatives in Milwaukee. Milwaukee Sentinel, Mar. 31, 1893; Obituary
Notes. New York Times, Aug. 30, 1895; George Douglass, 1790-1869.
Marble Cemetery.org.) Mrs. Dillon was a supporter of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.
(Women's Field Army of Cancer Control Group To Be Beneficiary of Card
Party Tomorrow. New York Times, Mar. 15, 1937.) Other relatives
included Malcolm Graham, an owner and officer of the Union Metallic
Cartridge Company, the Remington Arms Company, and the Bridgeport Gun
Implement Company, whose first wife was a Miss Douglass, sister of Mrs.
Robert G. Dun. (Death List of a Day. New York Times, Dec. 19, 1899.)
Their son, Clarence
Douglas[s] Dillon, Harvard 1931, became a vice
president and director of Dillon, Read & Co. in 1938. He served in
the Navy in World War II and became chairman in 1946. He was U.S.
Ambassador to France 1953-57, Secretary of the Treasury 1961-65, and
was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Security
Council during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was a friend of the
Rockefeller brothers Nelson, Laurance amd John, since his school days,
and was chairman of the Rockefeller Foundation from 1972 to 1975. (C.
Douglas Dillon. Wikipedia, accessed 9-19-10.) Mrs. C. Douglas Dillon
was a patroness of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
(Sloan-Kettering Center to Gain. New York Times, Aug. 30, 1967.) Their
daughter, Joan Douglas Dillon, married James Brady Mosely, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Frederick S. Moseley, and a grandson of James Cox Brady. (Miss
Joan D. Dillon Married in France. New York Times, Aug. 2, 1953.)
William A. Read & Co. became Dillion, Read & Co. in 1921, with R.L. Taylor, James H. Seaman, J.W. Horner Jr., James Dean, R.W. Martin, William A. Phillips, W.M.L. Fiske, William A. Read Jr., and E.J. Bermingham as partners. (Banking Firm Changes. New York Times, Jan. 14, 1921.) Dillon, Read was "one of the firms which poured money into pre-Hitler Hermany at a time when many observers foresaw the advent of Hitlerism, but when John Foster Dulles, then attorney for the bankers, made public statement after statement that Germany was a sound investment." A Senate investigation exposed their financing of the Chaco War and bribery of a Bolivian finance minister. (Dewey Holds Key. By Drew Pearson. Idaho Falls Post-Register, Feb. 18, 1959.) "Looking at all the loans issued, it appears that only a handful of New York financial houses handled the German reparations financing. Three houses — Dillon, Read Co.; Harris, Forbes & Co.; and National City Company — issued almost three-quarters of the total face amount of the loans and reaped most of the profits... After the mid-1920s the two major German combines of I.G. Farben and Vereinigte Stahlwerke dominated the chemical and steel cartel system created by these loans. Although these firms. had a voting majority in the cartels for only two or three basic products, they were able — through control of these basics — to enforce their will throughout the cartel." (Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler. By Antony C. Sutton. Chapter 1, Wall Street Paves the Way for Hitler.)
Ch. 1, Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler / Reformed-TheologyIronically, Clarence Dillon was born Clarence Lapowski. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Poland. (C. Douglas Dillon Dies at 93; Was in Kennedy Cabinet. By Eric Pace. New York Times, Jan. 12, 2003.)
C. Douglas Dillon / New York TimesTrustees of the Central Trust: Adrian Iselin, Jr., E. Francis Hyde,
Henry Evans, Dudley Olcott 2d, Edwin Thorne, Clarence Dillon, Charles
Lanier, Augustus D. Juilliard, Henry D. Babcock, Dudley Olcott, Jacob
H. Schiff, George W. Davison, James N. Jarvie, James N. Wallace, James
C. Brady, Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., and Fredrick Strauss. Trustees of
the Union Trust: W. Emlen
Roosevelt, Augustus W. Kelley, William
Woodward, John V.B. Thayer, Walter P. Bliss, Frederick deP. Foster,
James Gore King, Edwin G. Merrill, M. Orme Wilson, V. Everit Macy,
William H. Nichols Jr., Ernest Iselin, Richard Delafield, Francis M.
Weld, J.Y.G. Walker, James Brown, Cornelius Vanderbilt,
and Johnston de
Forest. (Expect New Mergers of Trust Companies. New York Times, Mar. 3,
1918.)
The entire personnel of both companies was retained after the merger. It became the third largest trust company in the U.S. (Merger of Trust Cos. Goes Into Effect Here. New York Times, Jun. 19, 1918.) James N. Wallace, President and Chairman of the Board; Edwin G. Merrill, Vice President and Vice Chairman; Vice Presidents: G.W. Davison, J.Y.G. Walker, E.F. Hyde, J.V.B. Thayer, H.M. Popham, D. Olcott 2d;, F.J. Fuller, B.A. Morton, F.B. Smidt, F.J. Leary; M. Ferguson, Vice President & Secretary; H.M. Myrick, Treasurer. Trustees: Walter P. Bliss, James C. Brady, James Brown, George W. Davison, Johnston De Forest, Richard Delafield, Clarence Dillon, Henry Evans, Frederic de P. Foster, Adrian Iselin, James N. Jarvie, Augustus D. Juilliard, Augustus W. Kelley, Charles Lanier, V. Everit Macy, Edwin G. Merrill, William H. Nichols Jr., Dudley Olcott, Dudley Olcott 2d, W. Emlen Roosevelt, Jacob H. Schiff, Frederick Strauss, Edwin Thorne, Cornelius Vanderbilt, J.Y.G. Walker, James N. Wallace, Francis M. Weld, M. Orme Wilson, William Woodward. (Display Ad 126. New York Times, Jun. 20, 1918 p. 17.)
Walter Phelps Bliss (1870-1924) was the son of George Bliss of
Morton, Bliss & Company. Since his father's death in 1896, his only
business was managing his father's estate. He was a director of the New
York Central, the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, the
New York & Harlem, and the Southern Pacific railroads; the
Continental Insurance Company, the Commercial Union Assurance Company
(London), and several other British insurance companies. William E.
Bliss 1867 and George T. Bliss 1873 were half-brothers. (Obituary
Record of Yale Graduates 1923-1924, pp. 115-116.)
James Brown (1863-1935) was a son of George Hunter Brown, a partner of Brown Brothers & Co.; a grandson of James Brown, who founded Brown Brothers in New York in 1825; and a great-grandson of Alexander Brown. Brown Brothers merged with W.A. Harriman & Co. in 1931. "Mr. Brown was active in the creation of the Port of New York Authority, especially in determining the method of financing its operations." He was the first American president of the British Empire Chamber of Commerce. (James Brown Dies; A Banker 50 Years. New York Times, Jun. 10, 1935.) He was a trustee of the Union Trust when it merged with the Central Trust in 1918, and remained on the board of the Central Union Trust until his death. His daughter, Adele Quartley Brown, married Robert Abercrombie Lovett, Skull & Bones 1918, and a general partner of Brown Brothers, Harriman & Co. (Old Wall St. Firm Flies A New Flag. New York Times, May 11, 1958 - list of partners.) His daughter Evelyn married fellow trustee Edwin Thorn.
James Brown (1863-1935) - William Brown Descendants and Spouses / Stovy BrownJames Brown's grandfather, James Brown, gave $200,000 to the Union Theological Seminary, and was the oldest Elder in the Presbyterian Church (Obituary. James Brown, of Brown Brothers, Bankers. New York Times, Nov. 2, 1877), and left bequests to the Presbyterian Church, Princeton Theological Seminary, Presbyterian Board for Home Missions, Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, and the American Bible Society. (The Will of James Brown. New York Times, Nov. 9, 1877.) James Brown's uncle, John Crosby Brown (1838-1909), senior partner of Brown Brothers & Co., was also a big benefactor of Union Theological Seminary.
Johnston de Forest was the son of Robert W. de Forest, who was a director of the Guaranty Trust-founded Life Extension Institute and a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of Human Relations; and the son-in-law of David B. Ogden of Parsons, Shepard & Ogden, whose partner, John E. Parsons, was the head of Memorial Hospital. (Ogden - de Forest. New York Times, Jul. 14, 1911; Married. New York Times, Sep. 11, 1911.) His grandfather, John Taylor Johnston, was the founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Johnston de Forest was counsel to the law firm of de Forest, Elder & Mulreany. He was a member of the board of the Russell Sage Foundation and the Presbyterian Hospital, a trustee of the Central Hanover from 1918 to 1951, and was also on the boards of the Hudson Trust Company, the Niagara Fire Insurance Company, the Dolphin Jute Mills and the Tide Water Associated Oil Company. (J. de Forest, Figure in Law, Charities. New York Times, Nov. 26, 1952.)
Richard Delafield (1853-1930) was the son of Rufus King and Eliza
Bard Delafield. He was educated at the Anthon Grammar School in N.Y.C.
and entered the mercantile business at 20. He organized the firm of
Delafield, Morgan, Kissell
& Co., later Delafield & Co., trading primarily in California
and Pacific slope products. In 1890, he became a director of the
National Park Bank, and president in 1896. He became chairman of the
board in 1922. He was also vice president of the Colonial Trust Co., a
director of the Mount Morris Bank, the Plaza Bank, the National Surety
Co. and several insurance companies, chairman of the Mutual Bank, a
vice president of the Central Union Safe Deposit Co., and a trustee of
the American Surety Company, and of the Trinity Church Corporation.
His first wife,
Clara, who died in 1909, was the daughter of Frederic Giraud Foster.
(Richard Delafield, Banker, Dies At 76. New York Times, Aug. 5, 1930.)
Richard Delafield was one of the five members of the
Clearinghouse
Committee of the New York Clearing House whom the Pujo Money Trust
Investigating Committee accused of "wielding 'autocratic power' and
exercising 'monstrous regulation' over the banking business and
enabling its members to wring from the rest of the country an annual
tax
of $50,000,000 on the collection of out-of-town checks." (Five Men the
Power in Clearing House. New York Times, Jun. 7, 1912.) Richard
Delafield left $100,000 for a scholarship at Columbia
University. His stepson, Frederic
Foster Carey, and the Chase National
Bank were executors. (Left $100,000 to Columbia. New York Times, Aug.
24, 1930.) His stepdaughter, Marion De Peyster Carey, married William B. Dinsmore Jr. He gave
the bride away. (Many
Bright Weddings. New York World, Jun. 5, 1905.) Frederic Foster Carey
was a partner of Whitehouse & Co., and later a general and special
partner in the firm of his uncle, Henry Carey. He was a member of the
New York Stock Exchange for fifteen years. He was a nephew of Giraud
Foster. (Frederic F. Carey, Retired Stockbroker, Dies. New York Times,
May 5, 1933.) Carey's granddaughter married Mark W. Cresap Jr.
Richard Delafield was president of the Delafield family association, and the other four directors were Maturin L. Delafield and E.C. Delafield of New York City, Edward Henry Delafield of Noroton, Conn., and Wallace Delafield of St. Louis. Richard Delafield's father was the youngest son of John Delafield who immigrated to the U.S. in 1783, and was "named in honor of Senator Rufus King, an intimate friend of John Delafield." "John Delafield brought to America the first copy of the treaty of peace which formally closed the Revolution. His sister had married William Arnold, the grandfather of the celebrated Matthew Arnold, and a close friend at the time of William Pitt, the Prime Minister." The ship carrying the official copy arrived several days later. "A member of the de Peyster family met Delafield on his arrival, and sent the copy of the treaty by special messenger to Philadelphia, where the Continental Congress was in session." (Famous Delafield Family Is Now Incorporated. New York Times, May 12, 1912.)
Famous Delafield Family Is Now Incorporated, 1912 / New York TimesThe Delafield family married into the royal desendants of Edward
III,
King of England, in 1563, and their ancestor, John Delafield, was made
a Count of the Holy Roman Empire in 1697, "with remainder of the title
to his descendants, male and female, of his name." (Americans of Royal
Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p.65.) He was a trustee of
the Minturn estate. (Apartment Sales. New York Times, Jul. 31, 1921.)
Frederic de Peyster Foster was the son of Giraud and Emily Hone
Foster. He attended private schools, then received his law degree at
Columbia in 1868. He was also a director of the Central Union Safe
Deposit Company, the Fulton Trust Company and the Provident Fire
Insurance Company, president of the Miller Mining and Smelting Company
and a U.S. director of the Royal Exchange Assurance of London. His
widow was the former Mrs. Julia Marshall Talbot. (F. de P. Foster,
Lawyer, Dies At 80. New York Times, May 26, 1929.) He was the brother
of the first Mrs. Richard Delafield. Mrs. Foster's first husband was
Richmond Talbot, who died in 1887. He was the grandson of George Washington Talbot, founder
of King & Talbot, China merchants, with Samuel
King Jr.; and the son of Charles Nicoll Talbot, who founded Talbot,
Olyphant & Company with David W. Olyphant. Talbot, Olyphant &
Co. were "merchants in the China trade, whose record of cooperation
with missionaries and refusal to engage in the opium trade gained for
their office in China the nick-name of 'Zion's Corners.'" "He and his
partners provided free passage to China for many missionaries,
including the distinguished S.
Wells Williams." (Olyphant, David Washington Cincinnatus; and:
Olyphant, Robert Morrison. Dictionary of American Biography Vol. XIV,
1935. Dumas Malone, ed.)
William Henry Nichols was President of the General Chemical Company and Vice President of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corporation. He was a director of these and of the Corn Products Refining Co., National Aniline and Chemical Co., Nichols Chemical Co., Semet-Solvay Co., Solvay Process Co., and the Barrett Co. He was born in Brooklyn and educated at Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and Columbia University. His father, William H. Nichols Sr., was chairman of the board of the Allied Chemical and Dye Corp. (W.H. Nichols Jr. Dies of Pneumonia. New York Times, May 27, 1928.)
Edwin Thorne (1861-1935) went to Sheffield Scientific School at Yale
University, and graudated in 1882. He was a member of the Berzelius
Society. He was or had been a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance
Company and the Bank of America, and a trustee of the Granby
Consolidated Copper Company, the Federal Terra Cotta Company, and the
New York Dock Company. He had offices at 120 Broadway. (Edwin Thorne,
74, Capitalist, Dead. New York Times, Sep. 30, 1935). He was a trustee
of the Central Hanover Bank & Trust Company since 1915, and the
Mutual Life Insurance Company 1915-33; also a director of the Northern
Securities Company. He was a member of Berzelius. Samuel Brinckerhoff
Thorne, Skull & Bones 1896, was a cousin. (Edwin Thorne, Ph.B.
1882. Bulletin of Yale University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale
University Deceased During the Year 1935-1936, pp 138-139.) His offices
were at 120 Broadway. (Edwin Thorne, 74, Capitalist, Dead. New York
Times, Sep. 30, 1935.) Edwin
Thorne was
a grandson of NYGIC director and Central Trust trustee Jonathan Thorne,
a son of Central Trust trustee Samuel Thorne,
and a great grandfather
of David Hoadley Thorne,
S&B 1966, who was the campaign advisor of
John Forbes Kerry, S&B 1966, and his twin sister, Julia Stimson
Thorne, who is Kerry's ex-wife. His brother, William V.S.
Thorne, was a manager and treasurer of the Presbyterian Hospital
from 1899 to 1920.
Edwin Thorne's son, Landon
K.
Thorne (1888-1964), was the grandfather of
David and Julia Thorne. He was a director of the Bankers Trust Company
and the president of Bonbright & Co. Landon K. Thorne, Jr.
(~1913-1980)
was associated with the Bankers Trust
Company from 1936 until his retirement in 1965. Edwin Thorne's son,
Francis Burritt Thorne (1892-1950), Yale 1914,
was with the Central Trust from 1915 to 1918. He was with several
brokerage firms before founding F.B. Thorne & Co. in 1933. He was a
vice-president of the privately-held North Central Texas Oil Company
1940-43,
and chairman of the board 1943-1950. His first wife, Evelyn, was the
daughter of fellow trustee James Brown.
(Obituary Record of Graduates of
the
Undergraduate Schools Deceased
During the Year 1950-1951, page 134.)
Edwin Thorne's nephew, Yale psychiatrist Lewis Thorne, was shot to death in 1950 by a cigarette-smoke hating former patient of the Institute of Human Relations.
John Yates Gholson Walker (~1872-1940), was born in Liverpool, England. He was the son of Maj. Norman Stewart Walker of Richmond, Va., the purchasing agent for the Confederate Army in Bermuda, who engaged in business in England after the Civil War. He began his career with Laidlaw & Co. in New York; then he became an official of the First National Bank of Walla Walla, Wash., "where he served as an officer in the body of troops used to suppress an uprising of the Nez Perce Indians." In 1895, he and his brother, Norman Stewart Walker Jr., organized Walker Brothers in New York. He retired in 1914 to become a vice president of the Central Trust. His brother attended the University of Heidelberg before beginning his business career in New York. (J.Y.G. Walker Dies; Wall Street Broker. New York Times, Feb. 18, 1940; N.S. Walker Dies At Johns Hopkins. New York Times, Jan. 27, 1931.)
Francis Minot Weld was born in New York City in 1875. He was at
Harvard from 1893 to 1897, and got his A.B. and A.M. in 1898. He joined
Blodget, Merritt and Co., bankers, in Boston, and transferred to New
York in 1900. He became a partner of Moffat and White in 1905, which
became White, Weld & Co. in 1910. (Harvard College Class of 1897,
Fourth Report, 1912, p. 427.) He married Margaret Low White, daughter
of William Augustus White (Harvard 1863) and sister of Alexander Moss
White (Harvard 1892) [his partner in White, Weld & Co.]. Ogden White was Francis M. Weld's
nephew. (Report of the Secretary of the Class of 1863 of Harvard
College, June 1903, to June, 1913, p. 115.) He died in 1949. (Francis
M. Weld. New York Times, Nov. 2, 1949.) His son, David Weld, joined
White, Weld in 1938, and was a partner until it was incorporated in
1972. One of his sons was William
F. Weld [the future Governor of Massachusetts]. (David Weld, 61,
Aide of Investment Firm. New York Times, Jul. 23, 1972.)
His father was Dr. Francis Minot Weld. He was born in Dalton, N.H.
in 1840, and graduated from Harvard in 1860. He received his medical
training during the Civil War, and began practicing at the family's
home ground of Jamaica Plain, Mass. He came to New York City in 1866,
and was one of the founders of the Harvard Club. He was an Oversser of
Harvard College from 1882 to 1889. (The Obituary Record. New York
Times, Jan. 2, 1894.) His first cousin, Cora Weld, married Francis Greenwood Peabody,
HC 1869, the Unitarian minister of "social change."
Marshall Orme Wilson was the husband of Caroline S. Astor, a sister
of John Jacob Astor IV.
(The descendants of John Jacob Astor. New York Times, Mar. 6, 1898.)
She was a Royal descendant of James I, King of Scotland. (Americans of
Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 553.) [However, Rev.
Thomas Barclay of Albany's relation to John Barclay of East Jersey is
disputed.]
Guaranty Trust / Central Trust directors/trustees Cornelius N.
Bliss, Adrian Iselin Jr., J.P. Morgan,
Percy R. Pyne [Jr.], George
Emlen Roosevelt, James Speyer, and
Albert H. Wiggin, and the wives of
Speyer and Oliver Harriman,
were members of the campaign committee to
raise money for the United Hospital Fund in 1919. Other fund raisers
included Mrs. C.B. Alexander; M.N. Buckner (S&B 1895); Mrs.
Benjamin Brewster (S&B 1882); W.V.
Griffin; Mr. & Mrs. Oliver G.
Jennings (S&B 1887); Ivy L. Lee; Ogden L. Mills; William
Fellowes Morgan; Mrs. Henry L. Stimson (S&B 1888); Carll Tucker;
Allen Wardwell, (Yale
1895); Frank S. Witherbee
(S&B 1874); and
A. Zinsser. The distribution committee included Otto T. Bannard
(S&B 1876), Cornelius N. Bliss, and James Speyer. (Hospitals Seek
$1,000,000. New York Times, Oct. 25, 1919.)
President: George W. Davison. Trustees: James C. Brady, James Brown, George W. Davison, Johnston de Forest, Richard Delafield, Clarence Dillon, Henry Evans, Frederic de P. Foster, Adrian Iselin, James N. Jarvie, Charles Lanier, William H. Nichols Jr., Dudley Olcott, W. Emlen Roosevelt, Frederick Strauss, Edwin Thorne, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Y.G. Walker, Francis M. Weld, and William Woodward. (Display Ad 31. New York Times, May 19, 1924 p. 28.) Evans left in 1925, Lanier left in 1927, and Brady left in 1928.(Display Ad 40. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1925 p. 38; Display Ad 29, Jan. 1, 1926 p. 32; Display Ad 23, Jan. 1, 1927 p. 28; Display Ad 63, Jan. 1, 1928 p. N13.)
The Central Union Trust Company was the depository of the preferred stock of the American Sumatra Tobacco Company. Joseph F. Cullman, Jr., of Cullman Brothers was chairman of the Committee, which consisted of Theodore G. Smith, First Vice President of the Central Union Trust; Henry M. Sperry, Vice President of the First National Bank of Hartford; Maurice Wertheim of Hallgarten & Co.; F. Wolfe, Secretary; and Cohen, Coie & Weiss, Counsel. (Display Ad 39. New York Times, May 8, 1925 p. 33.)
Trustees of the Central Union: James Brown, Johnston De Forest,
Ernest Iselin [replacing Adrian Iselin], W. Emlen Roosevelt, Edwin
Thorne, Francis M. Weld, Colby
M. Chester Jr., Clarence Dillon, James N. Jarvie, Frederick Strauss,
Cornelius Vanderbilt, William Woodward, George W. Davison, Frederic de
P. Foster, Dudley Olcott, Ernest Sturm, and John Y.G. Walker. Hanover
directors: William Woodward, John B. Clark, E. Hayward Ferry, Ernest
Iselin, Edgar Palmer, John J. Riker, William Warren Barbour, William
Crawford, William Halls Jr., Edwin G. Merrill, John S. Phipps, Henry P.
Turnbull, Henry R. Carse, Thomas Dickson, Henry W. Howe, Eustis Paine,
Auguste G. Pratt, Francis T. Maxwell, and John P. Stevens.
($722,000,000 Banks Agree On Merger. New York Times, Mar. 20, 1929.)
Halls, Merrill and Turnbull of the Hanover weren't on the new board of
trustees. (Display Ad 150. New York Times, May 13, 1929 p. 40.)
"He was a man of substantial wealth, his fortune being estimated in
the millions." His father was president of the Linen Thread Company,
and he left Princeton during the first semester to work at the company.
He became its president when his father died, until he was appointed to
the U.S. Senate in 1931. He was elected in 1932, defeated in 1936, and
elected again in 1938. (Senator Barbour of New Jersey Dies in
Washington Home at 55. New York Times, Nov. 23, 1943.) He married
Elizabeth Cochran Carrere, whose sister was married to his brother
Frederick K. Barbour. (Miss Carrere Weds Wm. W. Barbour. New York
Times, Dec. 2, 1921.) His mother-in-law, Gertrude Wellington Cochran,
was the granddaughter of Wellington
Clapp. (Weddings. New York Times, Dec. 8, 1893; Married. New York
Times, Jan. 13, 1866.)
Colby M. Chester Jr. joined the Postum Cereal Company as assistant
treasurer after World War I, and was president of Postum and its
successor, General Foods, from 1924 to 1935, and chairman from 1935 to
1943. He retired as honorary chairman in 1958. (Obituaries. New York
Times, Oct. 11, 1965.) He was one of the incorporators of Manning,
Maxwell & Moore Company, with an authorized capital of $3,000,000,
(Manning, Maxwell & Moore Incorporated. New York Times, Jun. 1,
1897). He was its Secretary until 1911 when he resigned, and Henry Evans, another relative, became chairman
of the executive committee. Charles A. Moore retained the controlling
interest. (Maxwell & Moore Changes. New York Times, Jul. 25, 1911.)
Colby M. Chester Jr. married Charles A. Moore's daughter, Jessie Campbell Moore. Luther G. Billings Jr. was best man. (A Day's Weddings. New York Times, Apr. 21, 1904.) Both L.G. Billings Jr. and Dr. F.T. Billings were ushers at the wedding of Chester's brother, Arthur T. Chester. (Chester-Cutter. New York Times, Jul. 23, 1902.)
His father was Rear Admiral Colby M. Chester of the U.S. Navy, whose concessions from Turkey drew the U.S. into the global struggle for oil. It included construction of 2400 miles of railroads across Turkey, with mineral rights within 20 km of the right of way, to carry oil from northern Iraq. The U.S. then produced 68% of the world's oil, which the U.S. Geological Survey warned is "going dry." "The story of these grants is largely the story of Admiral Chester's persistent efforts since 1908. He had been in Turkish waters before, and as a Captain had noted the lack of satisfactory harbors. In 1908 he went to Constantinople to investigate more fully. He had the approval of the New York Chamber of Commerce and the good-will of President Roosevelt." His son, Arthur Chester, represented the Ottoman-American Exploration Company in Turkey. (Chester Concession Inflames World Struggle for Oil. New York Times, Apr. 22, 1923.) The U.S. Chargé d'Affairs at Constantinople in 1899, Lloyd C. Griscom, threatened the bombardment of Smyrna by Chester's ship to make the Ottomans pay indemnities. (Tells How Griscom Fooled the Sultan. New York Times, Mar. 7, 1909.) Adm. Colby Mitchell Chester had been appointed Professor of Naval Science at Yale in 1917. His wife was the former Antoinette Tremaine of Brooklyn. (Colby M. Chester, Rear Admiral, Dies. New York Times, May 5, 1932.) His son, Arthur Tremaine Chester, graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1895. (A.T. Chester Dies; Ex-Naval Officer. New York Times, Feb. 5, 1935.)
John Balfour Clark (?1898-1982) was the son of J. William Clark, president of the Clark Thread Company. He was a director nominee of the Hanover Bank during its merger with Manufacturers Trust Company. (Holders' Vote Set on Bank Merger. New York Times, Feb. 1, 1961.) He was honorary chairman of Coats & Clark Inc. when he was elected to the board of American Express. ('Unmerger' Trend Continuing; American Express Deal Ended. New York Times, Nov. 8, 1968.) He retired in 1964. (John Balfour Clark. New York Times, Jul. 27, 1982.) His second wife was Marjorie Ward Wing, daughter of LeRoy Ward, a banker in Baton Rouge, La. (Wing-Ward. New York Times, Feb. 6, 1929; Mrs. Marjorie Wing Wed. New York Times, Aug. 4, 1935.) She was a member of Mrs. Laurance Rockefeller's patronesses committee at Memorial Cancer Center (4th Annual Fete For Cancer Center. New York Times, May 6, 1951), and for the New York Heart Association. (Benefit Planned For Heart Group. New York Times, Mar. 13, 1955.) His niece married a son of Dr. Seth M. Milliken.
Ernest Iselin was a member of the Committee of the Preferred
stockholders of the American Tobacco Company in 1911. He was a trustee
of the Union Trust in 1918. He became a trustee of the Hanover National
Bank with the merger of the Gallatin National Bank, to when it merged
with the Central Union Trust in 1929, and continued
as a trustee of the Central Hanover Bank and Trust Company until 1934.
Jarvis Cromwell, the Chairman of William Iselin & Co., became a
trustee in 1937. He was the son of Adrian
Iselin Jr.
Pratt was a director of the Fidelity-Phenix Fire Insurance Company of the America Fore Group in 1958, along with Arthur K. Watson, president of IBM World Trade Corporation. (Display Ad 31. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1958 p. 35.) Fellow Hanover director Louis S. Cates was also a director of America Fore companies, Bernard M. Culver was chairman of the board, and Frank Christensen was President.
Trustees: William Warren Barbour, James Brown, Henry R. Carse,
Hendon Chubb, John B. Clark, William Crawford, George W. Davison,
Johnston De Forest, Thomas Dickson, Clarence Dillon, Thomas Ewing Jr.,
E. Hayward Ferry, Robert L. Gerry, Henry W. Howe, Ernest Iselin, Alfred
L. Loomis, Francis T. Maxwell, Dudley Olcott, Eustis Paine, Edgar
Palmer, John S. Phipps, Auguste C. Pratt, Jesse J. Ricks, John J.
Riker, Philip J. Roosevelt, Frederick Strauss, Ernest Sturm, Edwin
Thorne, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John Y.G. Walker, Francis M. Weld,
William Woodward. (Display Ad 130. Jan. 1, 1931 p. 43.)
The Central Union Trust Company and attorney Everett James Esselstyn
were counsel for the executors and executors of the will of George A.
Helme, former president of the George W. Helme Tobacco Company, along
with his widow and son, James B. Helme. (Helme Will Aids Midtown
Hospital. New York Times, May 6, 1931; G.A.
Helme's Estate is Put at $4,652,401. New York Times, Aug. 8, 1935.)
Esselstyn was the grandfather of Caldwell B.
Esselstyn Jr., Skull & Bones 1956.
Howe and Maxwell left the board, and Robert L. Gerry joined the
board. Trustees: William Warren Barbour, President, Linen Thread Co.;
James Brown, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.; Henry R. Carse,
President, Electric Boat Co.; Colby M. Chester, Jr., President, General
Foods Corp.; Hendon Chubb, Chubb & Son; John B. Clark, President,
Clark Thread Co.; William Crawford, Builder, New York City; George W.
Davison, President; Johnston De Forest, De Forest Brothers; Thomas
Dickson, Dickson & Eddy; Clarence Dillon, Dillon, Read & Co.;
Thomas Ewing Jr., President, Alexander Smith & Son's Carpet Co.; E.
Hayward Ferry, Director, Phelps Dodge Corp.; Robert L. Gerry,
President, The Gerry Estates, Inc.; William S. Gray Jr., Vice
President; Ernest Iselin, A. Iselin & Co.; Alfred L. Loomis, Vice
President, Bonbright & Co.; Dudley Olcott, Billings, Olcott &
Co.; Eustis Paine, Vice President, New York & Pennsylvania Co.;
Edgar Palmer, Chairman, New Jersey Zinc Co.; John S. Phipps, Banker;
Auguste G. Pratt, President, Babcock & Wilcox Co.; Jesse J. Ricks,
President, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp.; John J. Riker, Trustee,
Atlantic Mutual Insurance Co.; Philip J. Roosevelt, Roosevelt &
Son; Frederick Strauss, J. & W. Seligman & Co.; Ernest Sturm,
Chairman, Continental Insurance Co.; Edwin Thorne, Trustee, Mutual Life
Insurance Co. of New York; Cornelius Vanderbilt, Director, Illinois
Central R.R. Co.; John Y. G. Walker, Walker Brothers; Francis M. Weld,
White, Weld & Co.; William Woodward, Chairman of the Board.
(Display Ad 69. New York Times, Mar. 27, 1932 p. SM15.) Riker left the
board in 1933. (Display Ad 18. New York Times, Jan. 1, 1933 p. N9.)
Dillon, Ewing, Iselin, Loomis, Strauss, Walker, and Weld left in 1934.
(Display Ad 32. New York Times, Jun. 1, 1934 p. N9.) Phipps left the
board, J.Y.G. Walker returned, and Walter G. Dunnington joined the
board in 1935. (Display Ad 36. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1935 p. 37.) In
1936, Brown, Olcott and Thorne left. (Display Ad 40. New York Times,
Jul. 11, 1936 p. 41.) In 1937, Crawford and Sturm left, and Jarvis
Cromwell and Milton Ferguson joined. (Display Ad 69. New York Times,
Jan. 4, 1937 p. 44.) In 1938, Ferry left, and Charles G. Edwards
joined. (Display Ad 64. New York Times, Jan. 3, 1938 p. 38.)
Deutschen Babcock-Wilcox was linked to German General Electric
through a common electric director named Landau. Its role in financing
the Nazis is not known. (Antony C. Sutton, Wall Street and the Rise of
Hitler, Ch. 3.)
In early 1940, so many changes took place in the directorates of banks across the country that it took The New York Times two pages to list them all. (Many Changes Made at Annual Meetings of Banks Here and in Other Cities. New York Times, Jan. 10, 1940.)
Cates was elected to the board of the Central Hanover Bank and Trust in 1940, and was still on the board of the Hanover Bank as of 1957. He was born in Boston and graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1902, and became a timekeeper for the Boston Consolidated Mining Company at Bingham, Utah, which was absorbed by Utah Copper. He was president and a director of the Phelps Dodge Corporation from 1930 to 1947, as well as president and a director of a long list of other mining companies, and a director of the First Security Trust Co. of Salt Lake City. (On Bank's Board. New York Times, Mar. 6, 1940; Louis Cates Dies; Led Phelps Dodge. New York Times, Oct. 30, 1959.) Cates was a member of the M.I.T. Corporation from 1933-38, and was elected a Life Member in 1943. (Elected as Life Member of M.I.T. Corporation. New York Times, Oct. 16, 1943.) He was on the board of the Niagara Fire Insurance Company and Continental Insurance of the America Fore Group, along with James Cabell Bruce of General American Investors (Display Ad 31. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1958 p. 35.) and Dale E. Sharp, president of the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co. (America Fore Adds 2 to Board. New York Times, Jul. 20, 1959.) Fellow Hanover director Auguste G. Pratt was also a director of an America Fore company.
Mrs. Louis S. Cates (Ethyl Lewis) was a patroness of the Flower Homeopathic Hospital, along with Mrs. Webster B. Todd, the mother of anti-smoker New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman, and Mrs. Royal S. Copeland, wife of the U.S. Senator who introduced the legislation establishing the National Cancer Institute. (Patronesses Are Listed. New York Times, Mar. 21, 1937; Senate Votes For $1,450,000 Cancer Center. Washington Post, Jul. 23, 1937.). She was a member of the board of the New York Heart Association, whose chairman was Carl Whitmore, former president of the New York Telephone Company. (Officers Chosen by Heart Association. New York Times, Oct. 30, 1953.) Mr. and Mrs. Louis S. Cates were among the patrons and patronesess of a benefit for the New York City Cancer Committee of the American Cancer Society, who included James S. Adams, Elmer H. Bobst, Charles Dewey Hilles Jr., and Mrs. Albert D. Lasker. (Cancer Society Will Be Assisted At Fete Dec. 12. New York Times, Nov. 9, 1958.)
Culver was chairman of the board of the Continental Insurance Company and the America Fore Insurance Group.
Trustees: William Warren Barbour, William A.M. Burden, Louis S.
Cates, Colby M. Chester, John B. Clark, Jarvis Cromwell, Bernard M.
Culver, George W. Davison, Johnston de Forest, Thomas Dickson, Walter
G. Dunnington, William A. Eldridge, Robert L. Gerry, William S. Gray
Jr., George M. Moffett, John K. Olyphant Jr., Benjamin O'Shea, Eustis
Paine, Auguste G. Pratt, Henry P. Turnbull, William Woodward. (Display
Ad 28. New York Times, Jul. 2, 1943 p. 29.) [Barbour died in 1943].
(Display Ad 31. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1944 p. 28.) Burden left in
1945, and William F.C. Ewing, Lucius F. Robinson Jr., and John P.
Stevens Jr. joined. (Display Ad 122. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1945 p.
26.) In 1946, C. Jared Ingersoll; K.T. Keller, president of the
Chrysler Corporation; and Gwilym A. Price, president of Westinghouse
Electric, joined the board, and George W. Davison became Honorary
Chairman. (Display Ad 153. New York Times, Jul. 2, 1946 p. 44.) The
lineup stayed the same in 1947-48. (Display Ad 32. New York Times, Jan.
2, 1947 p. 32; Display Ad 28. Jan. 2, 1948 p. 32.) In 1949, Gerry and
O'Shea left, and Fred Haggerson, president of Union Carbide and Carbon
Corporation, joined. (Display Ad 35. New York Times, Jul. 5, 1949 p.
35.) In 1950, William A.M. Burden rejoined the board. (Display Ad 204.
New York Times, Jan. 3, 1950 p. 42.) In 1951, de Forest left, Culver
was replaced by Frank A. Christensen, President of America Fore
Insurance Group, and Central Hanover president R.E. McNeill Jr. took a
seat. (Display Ad 261. New York Times, Jan. 2, 1951 p. 88.)
His father, John Kensett Olyphant, was a great-grandson of Dr. David
Olyphant. His mother was Nannie H. Heilman. Robert Morrison Olyphant [Sr.]
was his grandfather. (John K. Olyphant Dies. New York Times, Jun. 23,
1916.) "In 1930, Mr. Olyphant joined what was then the Central Hanover
Bank & Trust Company as a vice president after 11 years with the
Guaranty Trust Company. He was elected a trustee in 1942 and was named
to head the banking division. He was appointed vice chairman of the
board in 1950." (John Olyphant Jr., Hanover Bank Aide. New York Times,
Oct. 6, 1973.) He married Adele Sloane Hammond, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. John Henry Hammond, and granddaughter of William Douglas Sloane.
Samuel E. Peabody of Boston was best man, and ushers were L. Linzee
Weld of Boston, C. Howland Shaw of Washington D.C., and John Henry
Hammond Jr. Her sister Alice F. Hammond married George Arthur Victor
Duckworth [Conservative Member of U.K. Parliament from Shrewsbury,
1929-1945]. (Adele S. Hammond Weds J.K. Olyphant. New York Times, Feb.
6, 1927.) His son, David Olyphant, Harvard 1958, married Pamela Moore,
daughter of William H.
Moore. He was with the First National City Bank of New York.
(Father Escorts Pamela Moore At Her Wedding. New York Times, Apr. 28,
1962.)
George M. Moffett left the board. Trustees: William A.M. Burden,
W.A.M. Burden & Co.; Louis S. Cates, chairman, Phelps Dodge
Corporation; Colby M. Chester, Hon. Chairman, General Foods
Corporation; Frank A. Christenson, President, America Fore Insurance
Group; John B. Clark, President, The Clark Thread Co., Inc.; Jarvis
Cromwell, Chairman, William Iselin & Co., Inc.; George W. Davison,
Honorary Chairman; Thomas Dickson, President, Berlin and Jones Co.,
Inc.; Walter G. Dunnington, Attorney, Dunnington, Bartholomew and
Miller; William A. Eldridge, Vice Chairman; William F.C. Ewing,
President, Alexander Smith, Inc.; William S. Gray, Chairman of the
Board; Fred H. Haggerson, President, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp.; C.
Jared Ingersoll, Chairman, Kansas, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway Co.; K.T.
Keller, Chairman, Chrysler Corp.; R.E. McNeill Jr., President; J.K.
Olyphant Jr., Vice Chairman; Eustis Paine, Chairman, New York and
Pennsylvania Co., Inc.; Auguste G. Pratt, Chairman, The Babcock &
Wilcox Company; Gwilym A. Price, President, Westinghouse Electric
Corp.; Lucius F. Robinson Jr., Attorney, Robinson, Robinson and Cole;
John P. Stevens Jr., President, J.P. Stevens & Co., Inc.; Henry F.
Turnbull, Montclair, N.J.; William Woodward Jr., President, Turner
Halsey Co. (Display Ad 43. New York Times, Jan. 3, 1952 p. 39.)
In 1953, Davison, Haggerson, Paine, and Turnbull left, and were replaced by Morse G. Dial, President, Union Carbide and Carbon Corp., and Joseph H. McConnell, President, Colgate-Palmolive-Peet Co. (Display Ad 43. New York Times, Jul. 2, 1953 p. 39.) In 1954, Eldridge left. (Display Ad 43. New York Times, Jan. 5, 1954 p. 39.) In 1955, the lineup stayed the same. (Display Ad 37. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1955 p. 34.) In 1956, Woodward left the board, while Thomas M. Bancroft, President, Mount Vernon-Woodbury Mills, Inc.; Lester L. Colbert, President, Chrysler Corp.; and Robert G. Page, President, Phelps Dodge Corp., joined. (Display Ad 141. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1956 p. 35.) In 1957, Dickson and Keller left, and were replaced by Robert B. Anderson, President, Ventures Limited; and Richard G. Croft, J.H. Whitney & Co. (Display Ad 126. New York Times, Jan. 4, 1957 p. 31.) Hoyt Ammidon was elected a trustee. (New Trustee Elected By the Hanover Bank. New York Times, Jul. 17, 1957.) He had been with the Hanover Bank for 20 years and was a vice president of it.
Robert Guthrie Page, whose hometown was given as Madison, Wis., was
slapped for Skull & Bones by Frederick McGeorge Bundy. Other
members of Bones that year included Frederick W. Hilles, whose brother,
Charles D. Hilles Jr.,
became a longtime director of the ASCC and its successor, the American
Cancer Society. (Tap Day Exercises Are Held At Yale. New York
Times, May 20, 1921.) He was the son of University of Wisconsin Law
Professor William Herbert Page. He married Mrs. Jerry Townsend Walling
in Santiago, Chile, while on professional business with the law firm
Root & Clark. (Walling-Page Wedding Is Announced Here. Wisconsin
State Journal, Jun. 14, 1931.) Page joined the board of the Hanover
Bank in
1956. He had been the first commissioner
for the southern district of New York of the Securities and Exchange
Commission, until resigning to become president of the Phelps Dodge
Corporation.
In 1961, it became
Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company. In the 1980s, Manufacturers
Hanover was a major source of funds for Kohlberg,
Kravis Roberts (KKR).
cast 01-04-15