Families From Yale

These were the powerful New England family dynasties and alliances that paved the way for the most powerful network of them all, Skull and Bones. These powerful families paved the way for the organization that now controls American media, politics, finance, and intelligence. This page is a wonderful "who's who" of these families which are mostly hidden from our history books.

 

Starting With George Washington - Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War​

On August 21, 1776, the Committee's report was considered by the Congress, which enacted the first espionage act:

RESOLVED, That all persons not members of, nor owing allegiance to, any of the United States of America, as described in a resolution to the Congress of the 29th of June last, who shall be found lurking as spies in or about the fortification or encampments of the armies of the United States, or of any of them, shall suffer death, according to the law and usage of nations, by sentence of a court martial, or such other punishment as such court martial may direct.

It was resolved further that the act "be printed at the end of the rules and articles of war." On February 27, 1778, the law was broadened to include any "inhabitants of these states" whose intelligence activities aided the enemy in capturing or killing British forces.

Background Story of Nathan Hale and Yale

George Washington, Spymaster: Washington had been acquainted with British colonial officials and generals and colonels since his early youth, and he knew how intricately espionage was woven into the entire British military and political enterprise. Any Englishman’s mail could be opened and read if a secretary of state requested it. Throughout Europe every British embassy had its intelligence network.

Thus Washington was not entirely surprised to discover, shortly after he took command of the American army in 1775, that his surgeon general, Dr. Benjamin Church, was telling the British everything that went on in the American camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was surprised to find out, not long after he had transferred his operations to New York in the spring of 1776, that one of his Life Guard, a soldier named Thomas Hickey, was rumored to be involved in a plot to kill him.

In chaotic New York, grappling with a large and aggressive British army, deserting militia, and an inapplicable strategy, Washington temporarily lost control of the intelligence situation. That explains the dolorous failure of Capt. Nathan Hale’s mission in September 1776. Hale, sent to gather information behind British lines, was doomed almost from the moment he volunteered. He had little or no contact with the American high command, no training as a spy, no disguise worthy of the name, and an amorphous mission: to find out whatever he could wherever he went.

There is little evidence that Washington was even aware of Hale’s existence. He was involved in something far more serious: figuring out how to burn down New York City in order to deprive the British of their winter quarters, despite orders from the Continental Congress strictly forbidding him to harm the place. He looked the other way while members of Hale’s regiment slipped into the city; they were experts at starting conflagrations thanks to a tour of duty on fire ships—vessels carrying explosives to burn enemy craft—on the Hudson.

On September 21 a third of New York went up in flames. The timing was disastrous for Hale, who was captured the very same day. Anyone with a Connecticut accent became highly suspect, and the British caught several incendiaries and hanged them on the spot. They gave Hale the same treatment: no trial, just a swift, humiliating death. Hale’s friends were so mortified by his fate, which they considered shameful, that no one mentioned his now-famous farewell speech for another fifty years. Then an old man told his daughter about it, and Yale College, seeking Revolutionary War heroes among its graduates, quickly immortalized him.

Washington never said a word about Hale. His only intelligence comment at the time concerned New York. The fire had destroyed Trinity Church and about six hundred houses, causing no little discomfort for the British and the thousands of Loyalist refugees who had crowded into the city. In a letter, Washington remarked that “Providence, or some good honest fellow, has done more for us than we were disposed to do for ourselves.” 

Noah Webster has been called the "Father of American Scholarship and Education."

After 1790 His blue-backed speller books taught five generations of American children how to spell and read, and made their education more secular and less religious. He enrolled at Yale just shy of his 16th birthday, studying during his senior year with the learned Ezra Stiles, Yale's president (1778–1795).

Ezra Stiles was president of Yale College (1778–1795). Stiles owned at least one slave, named "Newport," whom he freed on June 9, 1778. In 1764, Stiles played an influential role in the establishment of the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations (the original name for Brown University) by contributing substantially to the drafting of its charter and by serving with thirty-five others.

As is well known, the British went to war twice against China in the first half of the 19^th century because of an unfavorable balance of trade and the Qing Emperor's refusal to allow Canton's merchants to continue exchanging beneficial products (silk, tea, porcelain, human labor) for harmful ones (opium and life as a "coolie" in the Americas). Demand for silk was so great that attempts were made during the late 19TH centuries to replicate Chinese success in the American colonies. Americans in large numbers started planting mulberry trees, breeding silkworms, and spooling the silk. 

SILK IN CONNECTICUT

Ezra Stiles, president of nearby Yale College, was one enthusiastic promoter of silk production, and among the notable results of his efforts was the formation, in 1788 in the town of Mansfield, of the first U.S. corporation devoted to manufacturing.⁴⁴

The 1820's and 1830's, in particular, witnessed a sericulture "craze" that prompted dreams of fast riches through home production throughout New England. In the Berlin/New Britain area, Elijah Tinsdale had a mulberry orchard and a silk house that was, following a pattern common since King James' command that silk be produced in Virginia, promoted and partly subsidized by state government.

The mother of Elishama Brandegee, the aforementioned factory owner whose other business interests were in the West Indies, not only ran the family general store but raised silkworms and tended a mulberry orchard on Worthington Street while doing so, exemplifying both the adoption of Chinese technology and the tendency, at this time, of New England women of all social classes to "define their lives through work." But once again, as with the tin industry, local enterprise was thwarted by conditions prevailing far away, and colonial silk production reached a dead end: "The hitch appeared when it became clear that, even with the cost of freight … factored in, New Englanders would not perform the delicate work of unwinding cocoons for rates that could compete with Chinese wages." The one major Connecticut success story was that of the Cheney Brothers, who turned Manchester into a company town with a silk mill that remained active until the early 20^th century.

Salem, Massachusetts Brahmin Family Background

smokershistory.com/before.html

Elias Hasket Derby

Salem merchant Elias Hasket Derby was among the first to send ships to China:

The maritime history of Massachusetts, 1783-1860 ([c1921])

"Since our last, the ship LIGHTHORSE, belonging to ELIAS HASKET DERBY, Esq. and commanded by Capt. ICHABOD NICHOLS, sailed from this port for Canton in China." (Ship News. Salem Mercury, Aug. 12, 1788.)

The Salem Mercury editorialized: "We feel a degree of pleasure in saying that Robert Morris, Esq. is not the only individual, in America, of sufficient ability and enterprise to own an Indiaman and cargo. Elias Hasket Derby, Esq. of this town, has been solely concerned in several voyages to the East Indies:- The ship Grand Turk, Captain West, finished the first voyage made from New-England to Canton, in May, 1787; the ship Three Sisters, Capt. Nichols, sailed from this port in December, 1786, and was sold with her cargo in India; the bark Lighthorse, Capt. Tucker, sailed for that quarter in January 1787, and returned in January 1788; the ship Grand Turk, Capt. Derby, sailed in December, 1787; Ship Juno, Capt. Elkins, in Jan. 1789, but foundered a short time after her departure; ship Lighthorse, Capt. Nichols, last August; and the ship Atlantick, Capt. Elkins, last month:- These vessels, with their valuable cargoes, were all the property of Mr. Derby." (Editorial. Salem Mercury, Oct. 14, 1788.) "Four ships of Mr. Derby, the "Astrea," " Light Horse," "Atlantic " and " Three Sisters," were lying at Canton in the summer of 1789." Thomas Handasyd Perkins was in charge of the financial transactions. (History of Essex County, Massachusetts. Duane Hamilton Hurd, ed., 1888, p. 68.)

History of Essex County, Massachusetts / Google Books

Elias Hasket Derby's daughter, Anstiss Derby, married Benjamin Pickman (1763-1843), Harvard 1784. (The late Benjamin Pickman. Washington, DC, Daily National Intelligencer, Sep. 12, 1843.) Their daughter, Anstiss Derby Pickman, married John W. Rogers of Salem and Boston. (Deaths. Boston Daily Atlas, Sep. 2, 1856.) Their daughter, Anstiss Derby Rogers, married William Shepard Wetmore. (Married. Boston Daily Atlas, Sep. 9, 1843.)

His son, John Derby, Esq., graduated from Harvard in 1786. (Historical collections of the Essex Institute, Vol. IV. Essex Institute, 1862.) John Derby was a director of the Salem Bank between 1819 and 1828.

Historical collections of the Essex Institute, 1862 / Google Books

John Derby's daughter, Mary Jane Derby, married Unitarian Rev. Ephraim Peabody. Peabody was a church and business associate of Rev. James Handasyd Perkins in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 1830s. Their son, Robert Swain Peabody, was an Overseer of Harvard and a member of the Corporation of Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and their daughter was the first wife of Harvard President Charles W. Eliot. (Ephraim Peabody (1807-1856). By Samuel A. Eliot. Harvard Square Library.)

Ephraim Peabody (1807-1856) / Harvard Square Library

In 1811, under the pretext of "imminent danger," the Town of Salem passed a smoking ban, with a fine of three dollars for any person who "shall smoke any pipe or segar in any street, highway, lane or public building within said town, by day or by night." The Selectmen appointed enforcers in every ward to be "Inspectors of the Police for the express purpose of enforcing the above By-Law." The special inspectors included Ichabod Nichols and John Derby. (Extract from the By Laws of the Town of Sale, Salem Gazette, Jun. 28, 1811.) A few weeks before, about 20 miles up the coast, there had been a devastating fire in the town of Newburyport, which followed a series of arsons. (Dreadful FIRE! Newburyport Herald, Jun. 5, 1811.)

"A federal circular has come into our possession, signed by Jacob Ashton, Wm. Orne, Joseph Peabody, John Derby, Samuel Putnam, addressed to the different towns in this District, urging them 'to appoint Committees for every District, and cause the Committee to see every man in the District, to confirm the doubtful and excite those who are firm, to hold frequent meetings of voters to distribute political papers and information,' &c. We hope our Republican friends will be on their guard against the insidious designs of the Junto. Committees are to be appointed to wait on every man to intimidate by threats, by misrepresentations, and falsehoods, the free electors of Essex. Republicans, spurn at their impertinent attempts to mislead you, and convince them that you know your duty, and will perform it." (Editorial. Essex Register, Apr. 1, 1812.)

Dr. Nathan Smith

Mussey's mentor, Dr. Nathan Smith, received a Bachelor of Medicine at Harvard in 1790. He established the medical department at Dartmouth in 1798; became the head of the newly organized Medical Institution at Yale University in 1813; and was involved in establishing Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and the medical schools at Bowdoin in Maine, and the University of Vermont at Burlington. He was the father of Dr. Nathan Ryno Smith, Yale 1817; Dr. John Derby Smith; Yale 1832; Dr. Solon Smith, and Dr. James Morven Smith; and grandfather of Dr. Walter John Smith, Yale 1878. (A cyclopedia of American medical biography. By Howard Atwood Kelly. W.B. Saunders Co., 1920, p. 1073; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 286; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 1291.)

A cyclopedia of American medical biography / Google Books
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 286 / Google Books
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910 / Google Books [scan is defective so download pdf]

The Phillips Family

John Phillips (1701-1763), born in Salem, married Margaret Wendell, a royal descendant of King Edward of England. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 170.) He was the uncle of John Phillips (1719-1795), Harvard 1735, the first major benefactor of Dartmouth College and founder of Phillips Exeter Academy at Exeter, N.H. in 1781. His nephew, Samuel Phillips Jr., had founded Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. in 1778. (Memoirs of Prince's Subscribers. The New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Apr. 1852, Vol. 6, p. 273.) The two academies were the main feeder schools for Harvard and Yale, respectively. John Phillips' great-grandson, Samuel Phillips Blagden, married the sister of George C. Clark, the first president of the American Society for the Control of Cancer.

Americans of Royal Descent, p. 170 / Google Books
New England Historical & Genealogical Register, Apr. 1852, p. 273 / Google Books

THE AMMIDONS

 

Jonathan Russell, the Ammidons, and Russell & Co. - the Mendon connection

Jonathan Russell (1771-1832) was appointed U.S. chargé d'affaires in Paris in 1810 by President James Madison, and in London in 1811. He was U.S. Minister to Sweden and Norway from 1814 to 1818. He was one of the negotiators of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, along with former President Adams' son and future president John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay and Albert Gallatin. Russell was a US Congressman from Massachusetts from 1821-23. (Russell, Jonathan. From Martha Mitchell's Encyclopedia Brunoniana.) James Asheton Bayard Sr. (1767-1815) was a Congressman from Delaware from 1897 to 1812, and the ancestor of Thomas F. Bayard, S&B 1890.

Russell, Jonathan / Brown University

His father, Jonathan Russell (1742-1788), was a merchant in English and India goods (The Providence Gazette, and Country Journal, Dec. 10, 1768;5(257);4; Feb. 26, 1774;11(529):3.) His mother was Abigail Russell, the daughter of James Russell of Holliston. His uncles, William Russell (1739-1825) and Joseph Russell (1732-1792) were partners in Joseph and William Russell, ship owners and merchants of English goods. (Died. Rhode Island American, Feb. 11, 1825; Died. The Newport Mercury, May 28, 1792.) William Russell was a trustee of Brown University, and a member of the committee for its fund-raising lottery, along with John Brown, Esq. and Thomas P. Ives. (Rhode Island College Lottery. The Providence Gazette, Mar. 17, 1798.) William Russell served under the Marquis de Lafayette during the Revolutionary War, and Lafayette was still active in French politics when Jonathan Russell was chargé d'affaires.

Russell Family of Woburn / Ye Old Woburn
Captain Jonathan Russell, Old Cemetery, Mendon, Mass. / M.W. Haynes
Abigail Russell, d. 1838 age 92, Old Cemetery, Mendon, Mass. / M.W. Haynes

Jonathan Russell graduated from Rhode Island College (now Brown University) in 1791. He studied law at his hometown of Mendon, Mass. for a year, then went into the commission business in New York with his brother-in-law, Otis Ammidon, for three to four years, "and then failed for debts to an immense amount. Immediately prior to their failure, Mr. R. formed some kind of connection with Robert Murray & Co. then merchants of New-York, in consequence of which he proceeded (in 1796) to Charleston (S.C.) with a view to make speculations in Carolina produce. Carrying with him letters in credit, or introduction, from some gentlemen known in Charleston; he made speculations [in] the amount, as it afterwards appeared, of more than eighty thousand pounds sterling, or nearly four hundred thousand dollars. These speculations proved abortive, and Mr. R. of course failed.

He then went to Europe with his family and resided some time in France. Returning again to America he retired to Canada to avoid the persecution of creditors. But as a more effectual remedy for this evil Mr. R. soon left his retreat, and came into Providence, in this state, for the purpose of obtaining the benefit of our insolvent act. As it may appear extraordinary to people in this part of the state, that strangers from other states should expect, by moving a short time into this, to be absolved by our government from all obligations elsewhere, it is proper to observe, that in the northern part of the state adjacent to Massachusetts and Connecticut, no practice has been more common. A few weeks residence in Providence is considered as sufficient to warrant a stranger to petition here for the insolvent act; and more or less of such petitions are presented at almost every session of the Assembly." To obtain his residence status, Russell studied law again and was admitted to the bar in 1799. He practiced for about a year, then joined the "counting-house" of John I. Clarke, Esq., as his clerk. Thanks to "great exertions being made in his favor and his creditors living in other states, his petition was carried through at the October session of 1800. This insolvent act, however, would only secure Mr. R. from his creditors while he remained in this state.

The United States bankrupt law, which had then been passed, was much more efficacious; by that law, such debtors as should obtain a certificate of discharge in conformity to it, were relieved from all their debts whenever and wherever contracted. But this law extended only to those who had been traders subsequent to the first day of June 1800, and Mr. R. had not been a trader since his failure in 1796, and was now only a lawyer, or a clerk to a merchant. Mr. R. however soon became a trader agreeably to the intent and meaning of the bankrupt law, by giving his note for 1090 Dollars, to his friends Messrs. ____ merchants in Providence, who took out a commission in bankruptcy against their friend Jonathan Russell, under which he was regularly declared a bankrupt trader, and the necessary process being gone through, Messrs. ____ appeared, and signed the proper certificates; declaring their assent to his discharge from all his debts, and he was accordingly discharged." His friends, the unnamed Messrs., were the only creditors involved in this proceeding, and they reportedly received all their money back. "If this was a mere fictitious demand raised for the purpose of releasing Jonathan Russell from the bona fide debts on his real creditors, it was certainly a very wicked transaction on all hands; but there is one circumstance I had nearly forgotten, which renders it impossible the transaction should have been fraudulent. Mr. Russell made an oath that it was not fraudulent. And perhaps the suspicion, and indeed the certain belief then entertained, of the fraud of this transaction may have arisen unjustly, from a general prejudice then prevailing against bankrupts, and which was produced by numerous frauds of this nature, at that time practiced by many of these persons to such a degree, that the bankrupt law, instead of giving security to creditors, or checking extravagance and fraud in bankrupts, had directly the contrary tendency, and was made by many a mere cover for the grossest swindling and dishonesty.... These shameful practices in others may very possibly have excited some very unjust prejudices against Mr. R. who is now estimated at Providence to be worth 50 or 60,000 dollars, which perhaps he acquired in two successful voyages at sea, as supercargo in the employment of Mr. Clark." Also, "While this gentleman resided in New York, he attracted the notice of Col. Burr, and so good an opinion had the Colonel of Mr. Russell that some time before the explosion of the western plot, he wrote repeated letters to this town containing urgent inquiries respecting Mr. Russell wishing to know, if he was not here, where he could be found. And when informed that Mr. Russell was at sea, he wrote again soon afterwards inquiring whether Mr. R. had returned, and if not when expected." (Communication. The Newport Mercury. Aug. 20, 1808;(2419):3.) Jonathan Russell was a director of the Roger Williams Bank and of the Hope Insurance Company, located just above it. (The Providence Gazette, Mar. 31, 1804 and Mar. 8, 1806.) "The Roger Williams Bank was incorporated in Providence in 1803, through the influence of Thomas Jefferson, who wanted to place government deposits in a Republican-controlled bank. The bulk of the United States deposits in Rhode Island remained there until 1817. The bank continued until 1865, when it was reorganized as Roger Williams National Bank; it was absorbed by the Industrial Trust Company in 1900." (Roger Williams Bank Records. Rhode Island Historical Society, 3/1995.) Russell was replaced in Paris by Joel Barlow.

The swindle was followed by a lawsuit: U.S. Supreme Court. RUSSELL v. CLARK'S EX'RS, 11 U.S. 69 (1812). Nathaniel Russell v. John I. Clark's Executors, and others, Feb. 17, 1812. Clark & Nightingale and Joseph and William Russell were two of three main colonial merchant firms in Providence. The third was Nicholas Brown and Co., which was heavily involved in the slave trade. Nathaniel Russell (1738-1820), the plaintiff, was born in Bristol, R.I. and was sent to Charleston in 1765 as the agent for Providence merchants.

Russell v. Clark's Executors, 1812 / Justia
The Triangular Trade / Wikipedia
Nathaniel Russell House / Historic Charleston Foundation

(Genealogical and Personal Memoirs Relating to the Families of the State of Massachusetts. By William Richard Cutter, William Frederick Adams. Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1910. Russell, pp. 130-134.)

Genealogical and Personal Memoirs / Google Books

The Ammidons

In 1794, Jonathan Russell married Otis Ammidon's sister Sylvia, who died at age 38. (Died. The Rhode Island American and General Advertiser, Jul. 12, 1811). His second wife was Lydia Smith, the daughter of Barney Smith, Esq. (Columbian Centinel, Apr. 7, 1817; Deaths. Christian Inquirer, Dec. 31, 1859.) Otis Ammidon was married to Jonathan Russell's sister Abigail. The Ammidons were the children of Col. Philip Ammidon of Mendon, Mass. (Classified Ad [Otis and Stephen Ammidon sell the late Col. Ammidon's farm at Mendon.] The Providence Pheonix, Jan. 21, 1804.) Otis Ammidon was president and a director of the Providence Insurance Company (Classified Ads. The Providence Gazette, Dec. 26, 1807; The Rhode Island American, Jan. 5, 1810; Jan. 8, 1811); cashier of the Providence Bank (The Providence Gazette, Apr. 6, 1811); a partner of Gilman & Ammidon of Philadelphia, with Benjamin Ives Gilman, who were affiliated with Brown & Ives of Providence (Providence Patriot & Columbian Phenix, Mar. 12, 1814); and of Coffin & Ammidon of Philadelphia, with Hector Coffin, who were associated with B. & T.C. Hoppin (Classified Ad. Rhode Island American, Dec. 21, 1824.) ILLEGAL OPIUM DRUG SMUGGLING pIRATES

 

Jonathan Russell's brother-in-law, Philip Ammidon, advertised his services prior to "embarking for Canton, with the intention of residing there," and cited as references Samuel G. Perkins & Co. of Boston; Brown & Ives of Providence; Le Roy, Bayard & M'Evers of New York, and Gilman & Ammidon of Philadelphia (Classified Ad. Boston Gazette, May 19, 1814; Boston Daily Advertiser, Jun. 3, 1814); and "The subscriber, embarking for Canton, (in China) where he will reside for a considerable time, offers his services to the public for the transaction of the usual business of that place," with references to Israel Thorndike and Richard D. Tucker & Co. of Boston; Brown & Ives of Providence; Le Roy, Bayard & Co. and Lebbeus Loomis, Esq. of New York; Gilman & Ammidon of Philadelphia; and Henry Payson & Co., Baltimore. (Classified Ads. Commercial Advertiser, Jul. 8, 1818; Boston Daily Advertiser, Jul. 15, 1818.)

Philip Ammidon founded Russell & Company with Samuel Wadsworth Russell in Canton, China, in 1824. "Evidently Ammidon made some successful deals with the Parsi opium growers in India, for the partnership was renewed for another four years in November 1826, well in advance of the starting date, January 1, 1828, to allow Russell to return home.... Unable to return in 1828, Ammidon provided Russell with William H. Low, a very capable replacement with business connections in Philadelphia and Salem.

In 1830, when Arnmidon was still unable to return to Canton, another replacement Augustine Heard of Boston, was recommended. Both Low and Russell accepted Heard and Arnmidon was terminated from the partnership." (Samuel Wadsworth Russell House, US National Park Service.) Low was the uncle of Abiel Abbot Low of the New York Guaranty & Indemnity Company.

• Generation Six Part Five John Wing's Line (Sylvia Ammidon & Jonathan Russell and descendants) / pionear504
• Fifth Generation John Wing's Line (Otis, Philip, Stephen and Sylvia Ammidon, and Abigail Russell / pionear504
• Col. Philip Ammidon, Old Cemetery, Mendon, Mass. / M.W. Haynes
• Samuel Wadsworth Russell House / US National Park Service (pdf, 25pp)

"George Russell, son of Jonathan, graduated at Brown University, studied law with the distinguished John Sergeant of Philadelphia, but later turned to commerce and founded the house of Russell & Sturgis in Manila. Returning thence, after eleven years, with a comfortable fortune, he married Sarah (Parkman) Shaw, daughter of Robert G. Shaw." His son, Henry Sturgis Russell, named after his partner, was born in 1838, and graduated from Harvard in 1860. In 1864, he married Mary Hathaway Forbes, the daughter of John M. Forbes, for whose company he worked for three years after leaving the Army. He died in 1905. (Henry Sturgis Russell, 1838-1905. By John T. Morse, Jr. In: Sons of the Puritans: A Group of Biographies. By Francis Cabot, et al.). Henry Sturgis Russell was president and a trustee of the Boston Homeopathic Medical Society from at least 1872 to 1895; and his father-in-law, John Murray Forbes, the head of J.M. Forbes & Co., was a trustee in 1872. (Homeopathic Medical Society. Boston Daily Globe, Oct. 10, 1872; Mass. Homeopathic Hospital. Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 18, 1877; Homepathic Hospital Work. Boston Daily Globe, Jan. 23, 1895.) Henry Sturgis Russell's son, Howland Russell, married a daughter of Eugene Van Rensselaer Thayer Sr.

• Henry Sturgis Russell, The Sons of the Puritans / Google Books

Samuel Wadsworth Russell (1789-1862), co-founder of Russell & Co. with Philip Ammidon, was the uncle of William Huntington Russell, a co-founder of the Russell Trust (Skull & Bones) in 1833. Samuel Wadsworth Russell joined the firm of Hull & Griswold in New York in 1810. John Griswold and Samuel Wetmore (who was the guardian of his younger siblings) were his partners in the first Russell & Co. of Middletown, Conn. When his contract with Hull & Griswold ended, Wetmore got him a position as supercargo on a ship owned by Hoppins & Co. and Edward Carrington & Co., and eventually he went to Canton in 1819 "under arrangements made by Edward Carrington and several leading merchants of Providence."

He operated under their instructions for the first five years. He made friends with John Perkins Cushing, a cousin of James and Thomas H. Perkins, who was left in charge of their Canton office at age 16 after Ephraim Bumstead died. "As early as 1818 Cushing began to turn over the company's commission business to other Canton associates that included James P. Sturgis & Company, the Wilcocks representatives, and Russell & Company. This included Cushing's opium shipments. In 1820 Cushing brought on his cousin Thomas Tunno Forbes to train for the business. Forbes, however, died in 1827 before assuming control of the firm. Cushing, eager for retirement and lacking another suitable heir, made arrangements to dissolve the firm. Honoring a sealed letter left by Forbes requesting that Russell take over all the business and with the knowledge that his cousin and Russell had had a successful dealings in the past, Perkins & Company was absorbed by Russell & Company.

With the concurrence of the Perkins management, Russell, who had expected to leave China in 1830 delayed his departure to set up the management structure of the combined companies, still under the name of Russell & Company." Ammidon was replaced by Augustine Heard, who represented the Perkins interests; Robert Bennet Forbes was given charge of the Russell & Company store ship business on the Lintin station and John Murray Forbes was placed with the firm as an assistant in line for partnership. Russell retired from the company in 1836. (Samuel Wadsworth Russell House, US National Park Service.)

• Samuel Wadsworth Russell House / US National Park Service (pdf, 25pp)

William Huntington Russell, Skull & Bones 1833, graduated from the Yale School of Medicine in 1838. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 241.)

• Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 241 / Google Books
• Matthew Talcott RUSSELL/Mary HUNTINGTON / The Huntington Family Association

His sons, Talcott Huntington Russell, born in 1847 (Obituary Record of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20) and Edward Hubbard Russell, born in 1855, were officers of the Russell Process Company, which licensed patents for metallurgy. (Guide to the Russell Process Company Records. Compiled by Janet Elaine Gertz, Aug. 1982. Yale University, 2006.) Edward H. Russell "in 1895 gave up mining and lived abroad until May, 1928, when he returned to New Haven; spent most of the time in London and devoted himself to the study of sociology and work among the poorer classes." (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1928-1929, pp 219-221) William H. Russell's grandsons who graduated from Yale included Dr. Thomas H. Russell 1906, William Huntington Russell 1912, Philip Gray Russell 1913, Edward S. Russell 1916, and William Low Russell 1920.

• Guide to the Russell Process Company Records / Yale University
• Obituary Record of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20 / Internet Archive
• Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University 1928-1929 / Yale University Library (pdf, 394 pp)

Their brother, Philip Gray Russell, Skull & Bones 1876, was an examiner in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C., from 1878 to 1882, and then a patent lawyer in partnership with George S. Prindle. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 74.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 74 / Google Books

Dr. Thomas Hubbard Russell, Yale 1872, M.D. 1875, was an assistant to Prof. Francis Bacon (M.D. 1853), and a member of the University faculty since 1877. (Obituary Record of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20.) His wife was a sister of Dr. Edward l. Munson, Elihu 1890, who was an assistant to the Surgeon General and professor of preventive medicine at George Washington University from 1915-1916, and the first Professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of California Medical School from 1934 to 1939. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1947-1948, pp. 23-24.)

Obituary Record of the Graduates, Yale University 1915-20 / Internet Archive
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, 1947-1948 / Yale University Library (pdf, 254 pp)

Dr. Francis Bacon was one of the organizers of the American Public Health Association, and he was married to a niece of Yale President Theodore Dwight Woolsey. He finished his medical course in 1850, but didn't receive his degree until 1853. "Upon the outbreak of yellow fever in Galveston, Texas, in 1852, he volunteered for service as assistant surgeon in the Galveston Hospital and was there a year and a half." (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 284.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 284 / Google Books

William Huntington Russell, Yale 1912, son of Dr Thomas H. Russell 1872, was a lawyer in New Haven from 1919-1937. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1942-1943, pp. 113-114.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1942-1943 / Yale University Library (pdf, 312 pp)

The Forbes Family

"Francis "Frank" Blackwell Forbes (1839-1908) was the son of clergyman John Murray Forbes (1807-1885), the grandson of James Grant Forbes, and the great-grandson of Rev. John Forbes. He had a brother named John Murray Forbes, Jr. (1844-1921) and a sister named Adelaide Forbes Carmichael. In 1857, after a secondary-school education at the Columbia College Grammar School in New York, Francis Blackwell Forbes went to China, where he became a partner in Russell & Co. He was also active in the Shanghai Steam Navigation Company, which operated a fleet of flat-bottomed steamers up and down the Yangtze River. In 1867, he married Isabel Clarke, and they had three sons: Francis Murray Forbes (1874-1961), who lived with James Murray Forbes while he was in school and starting off in business; Charles Stuart Forbes (1877-1949); and James Grant Forbes (1878-1955). Their daughter Isobel Forbes married Albert de Mimont.... Francis Blackwell Forbes's uncle, Paul Siemen Forbes (1808-1886), also lived in China during the same period. He had three sons: William Howell Forbes (1837-1896), Henry De Courcy Forbes (1849-1920), and Paul Revere Forbes (1860-1940)." (Biographical Sketch. Forbes Family Papers 1732-1931. Massachusetts Historical Society.)

Forbes Family Papers / Massachusetts Historical Society

Rev. John Murray Forbes' son, John Murray Forbes Jr., married J.N.A. Griswold's daughter, Minnie. His groomsmen were George Griswold, E.F. Emmet, and Robert F. Hone, and his ushers were B. Campbell and B. Whitlock.Her bridesmaids were Annie Emmet, Miss Minot of Boston, May Butler Duncan, and Miss S.S. Marié. Mr. and Mrs. Pierre Lorillard and Mr. and Mrs. John Jacob Astor were among the guests. (Four Weddings Yesterday. New York Times, Feb. 17, 1882.) He died in Morristown, N.J. (Died. New York Times, May 2, 1921.)

. Michael Paine was born in New York in 1928, the son of Lyman Paine and his first wife Ruth Forbes Paine. Then Ruth Avery Hyde Paine worked at Germantown Friends School in Philadelphia where she met Michael Paine. Michael's wife Ruth Avery Hyde Paine who took Marina into her home as a guest while Lee Harvey Oswald went to New Orleans.

Russell & Co. Go Out of Business, 1891

Partners of the firm consisted of W.H. Forbes, H.D. Forbes, John M. Forbes Jr. of New York, C. Vincent Smith, George M. Wheeler, S.W. Pomeroy (who opened the New York branch in 1878), and E.H.M. Huntington. (Russell & Co. in Trouble. New York Times, Jun. 4, 1891.) The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation was a creditor, and it had an account at the National Bank of Commerce. Mr. Beaman of Evarts, Choate & Beaman was counsel for the firm. The partners were listed as W.H. and H.D. Forbes of Hongkong, S.W. Pomeroy of London, E.H.M. Huntington of Paris, and John M. Forbes Jr. of New York. Henry Hannah was manager of the New York branch. Former partners included A.A. Low, N.L. Griswold, George Griswold, and Paul Forbes. (The Suspension of Russell & Co. New York Times, Jun. 5, 1891.) The deed assigning it to Henry Hannah, was signed by John Murray Forbes, and listed Howell Forbes of Hong Kong, John Murray Forbes of Morristown, N.J., Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy of London, Charles Vincent Smith of Shanghai, and Charles Alexander Tomes of Hong Kong. (Business Troubles. New York Sun, Jun. 10, 1891.)

Business Troubles, New York Sun, 1891 / Library of Congress

Nathaniel L. and George Griswold

George and Nathaniel Lynde Griswold were grandsons of Rev. George Griswold and Hannah Lynde, of Lyme, Conn. (Descendants of Richard Bray of New England. Ancestry.com.) Rev. George Griswold, Yale 1717, was an uncle of Connecticut Governor Matthew Griswold. Another son, Sylvanus, graduated from Yale in 1757. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Oct. 1701 - May 1745, p. 168.) The Griswolds were a powerful political family. Gov. Griswold was a son-in-law of Roger Wolcott; second cousin by marriage of William Pitkin; brother-in-law of Oliver Wolcott Sr.; uncle by marriage of Oliver Wolcott Jr.; father of Gov. Roger Griswold [Yale 1780], and great-grandfather of Gov. Matthew Griswold (1833-1919). (Wolcott-Griswold-Ellsworth-Pitkin family of Connecticut. Political Graveyard.com.) At least two dozen members of this Griswold family graduated from Yale, and a number of the women married Yalies.

Descendants of Richard Bray of New England / Ancestry.com
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, 1701 - 1745 / Internet Archive
Wolcott-Griswold-Ellsworth-Pitkin family of Connecticut / Political Graveyard.com

George and Nathaniel L. Griswold, Canton merchants, began their partnership in 1794, and "by his enterprise contributed to the withdrawal of the East India trade from Boston to New York." (Obituary. New York Herald, Sep. 7, 1859; Death of an Old New-York Merchant. New York Times, Sep. 7, 1859.) George Griswold was a director of the Columbian Insurance Company, the Globe Insurance Company, the Bank of America, the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, the Bank of the United States, the New York & Erie Railroad, and the Illinois Central Railroad; and a member of the Council of the New University in the City of New York. (N.Y. University. Daily National Intelligencer, Oct. 21, 1830.) He was a director of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company, with property situated on the Bay. (Wall Street. New York Herald, May 26, 1836.) He and Richard Alsop of Philadelphia formed a partnership called "The Bank of the United States in New York," with $200,000. (From the Daily Whig. New York Spectator, Aug. 13, 1838.) Morris Robinson was its President. (The U.S. Bank of New York. Washington DC, Daily National Intelligencer, Dec. 5, 1839.)

Mrs. George Griswold was Elizabeth Woodhull, a Royal descendant of William the Conqueror. Their daughter Sarah married John Cleve Green. (Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 9.) Their daughter Cornelia married J. Woodward Haven [father of George Griswold Haven]. (Married. New York Spectator, Feb. 7, 1833.) Their son, Richard Sill Griswold, graduated from Yale in 1829, and his cousin George Griswold M.D., Nathaniel's son, in 1824. (Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College... later than 1815, pp. 199 and 124.) Another daughter, Matilda, in 1849 married Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, who was Secretary of State under President Arthur. They had six children. (The Death of Mrs. Frelinghuysen. New York Tribune, Feb. 4, 1889.)

Americans of Royal Descent, p. 9 / Google Books
Biographical Notices of Graduates of Yale College... later than 1815 / Internet Archive

George Griswold Jr. was a partner in the business until 1868, when he went abroad with his family. He died in Dresden, Saxony. (Obituary. New York Times, Apr. 27, 1884.) [Friedrich Reiche of Hamburg, Germany, a partner of Russell & Co. from 1855-1858, retired to Dresden, Germany. (New England Fortunes Made in China Through the House of Russell & Co. Boston Globe, Jun. 28, 1908.)] Capt. Constantine von Dziembowski of Dresden, Germany, was a son-in-law. (Died. New York Times, May 9, 1885.) Another daughter, Lydia, married Baron Richard Sterneck. A son died in Klagenfurt, Austria. (Died. New York Tribune, Oct. 15, 1909.) A daughter, Louise Griswold, married Harold de Raasloff, son of the ex-Danish minister to the U.S. (De Raasloff-Griswold. New York Times, Dec. 16, 1897.) Son John Noble Alsop Griswold "traveled to the Far East in 1847 and was within a year appointed United States consul at Shanghai. He held that position until 1854. Upon his return to America, he helped develop several prominent railroads, serving as president of the Illinois Central Railroad Company and chairman of the board of directors of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company. Griswold was also involved in the house of Charles H. Russell & Co." (John Griswold House, p. 15. National Park Service.) He was a Vice President in China of the Medical Missionary Society. (Medical Missionary Society in China. New York Times, May 19, 1853, from the China Mail, Mar. 3, 1853.) He married a sister of Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet in 1861. (John N.A. Griswold Dead. New York Times, Sep. 14, 1909.) J.N.A. Griswold's daughter, Minnie Griswold, married John Murray Forbes, the son of Rev. John Murray Forbes. (Four Weddings Yesterday. New York Times, Feb. 17, 1882.) Another son, Frank Gray Griswold, was an executive of the Lorillard Tobacco Company.

John Griswold House / National Park Service (pdf, 48 pp)

John C. Green was born in New Jersey in 1797. He was a clerk and supercargo at N.L. & G. Griswold. In 1833, he went to Canton, China, where he was connected with Russell & Co. for six years. In 1839, he returned and married George Griswold Sr.'s daughter, and resumed his business in the China trade. He was a director of the Bank of Commerce. He was once president of New York York University, and made gifts to Princeton. He was a brother of [Henry W.] Green, Chancellor of New Jersey. (Obituary. New York Times, Apr. 30, 1875.) He left an estate of $5 million, with $3 million in a trust for his sister, Mrs. Emily A. Livingston, and brother, Charles E. Green. (Wants to Know About the $3,000,000. New York Times, Jan. 12, 1894.) He endowed the Lawrenceville prep school with his estate. (Made Ready For College. New York Times, May 26, 1885.) Mrs. Green gave $50,000 to the Presbyterian Hospital. (New York. Boston Daily Advertiser, Jul. 13, 1877.) He was a director of the New York & Erie Railroad, a stockholder of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, a Governor of the Society of the New York Hospital, and a director of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.

Nathaniel L. Griswold's son, John L. Griswold, went to Peoria, Ill. in 1839, and was a partner of Albert G. Curtenius in the grocery business. "They received goods by the boat-load, selling them through a large territory and did an immense business. They also bought and shipped grain, dealt largely in real estate, and in early days did a banking business." They divided $500,000 when Curtenius died in 1857. Griswold continued with his brother until retiring in 1864. "He was one of the largest stockholders of the Peoria Gas Company and one of the incorporators of the Second National Bank." He left two nephews. (Mortuary Matters. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Jan. 16, 1883.) A daughter of Nathaniel L. Griswold married Peter Lorillard Sr.

 TAFT Mendon, Massachusetts

Skull & Bones co-founder Alphonso Taft's father, Peter Rawson Taft (1785-1867), who immigrated to Cincinnati via Vermont, was born in Uxbridge, a wealthy area near Mendon, Massachusetts, and the Tafts have held family reunions there since at least as far back as 1874 (The Taft Family. Port Jervis, NY, Evening Gazette, Aug. 22, 1874.) "Ninety-six years ago Alphonso Taft called them 'kindred' and 'tribe.' Today the politically famous Taft family has clans in 22 states. Representatives will gather Aug. 15-16, as they have every year since 1874, at the family's place of origin, Mendon, Mass." Annual reunions are also held in "numerous states." "Alphonso was the guiding spirit behind the Taft family gatherings, calling them together for the first time in 1874." (Taft Family Gathers for Clan Reunion. AP. Ada, Oklahoma Evening News, July 30, 1970.) Alphonso Taft was one of the leading trustees of Antioch College, which "designs to devote particular attentions to the study of the laws of health, and every effort will be made to prevent, on the part of the student, any conduct of life that shall violate those laws." (Horace Mann's Antioch College. New York Daily Times, Aug. 10, 1853.) Alphonso Taft died in 1891. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1890-1900, p. 18.) The honorary pallbearers at his funeral were David Sinton, John W. Herron, Aaron F. Perry, George R. Sage, P.P. Mallon, W.S. Groesbeck, J.G. Hollister, Warner F. Bateman, H.D. Peck, Fred W. Moore, H.P. Lloyd and Harry R. Smith, all of Cincinnati. The Rev. George R. Thayer of the Unitarian Church conducted the services. (Laid to Rest. The Atchison Champion, May 29, 1891.)

Taft Family / SourceWatch
Early Taft Genealogy / Access Genealogy
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1890-1900, p. 18 / Google Books

John Williamson Herron (Yale Ph.B. 1891) of Cincinnati was William H. Taft's brother-in-law. His father of the same name was a U.S. District Attorney and state legislator. (Obituary Record of Graduates of the Undergraduate Schools Deceased during the Year 1949-1950 pp. 135-136.) His sister married Thomas McK. Laughlin (Ph.B. 1897), whose brother Irwin B. Laughlin, Scroll & Key 1893, was in the U.S. diplomatic service.

Obituary Record of Graduates, 1949-1950 / Yale University Library (pdf, 221 pp)

Alphonso Taft. In: Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912. By S.J. Clarke Publishing, 1912, p. 800.

Alphonso Taft - Cincinnati, the Queen City, 1788-1912 / Google Books

Alphonso Taft moved to Cincinnati in 1840, where he was a crony of James Handasyd Perkins, whose grandson, James H. Perkins, was chairman of the board of the National City Bank and president of the Farmers Loan and Trust. During the 1920s, Farmers became a major stockholder in the American Tobacco Company, and James H. Perkins was on American Tobacco's board of directors between 1926 and 1929. Perkins maintained the family ties with the Taft family as a crony of Alphonso's son, Henry Waters Taft (S&B 1880) was on the advisory committee of Yale's Institute of Human Relations. His brother, Thomas Nelson Perkins, was a Fellow of the Harvard Corporation, which runs Harvard University. In 1922, the Office of Cancer Investigations of the US Public Health Service at Harvard University (which was subsequently merged into the National Cancer Institute), was established at Harvard by Assistant Surgeon General Joseph W. Schereschewsky, who was a member of the Hygiene Reference Board of the Life Extension Institute. Former President William H. Taft (S&B 1878) was chairman of the board of the Life Extension Institute, which was formed in the boardroom of the Guaranty Trust in 1913. Its driving force was anti-smoker Irving Fisher (S&B 1888), and its purpose was to recruit the most powerful businessmen in the country into a conspiracy to impose health fascist tyranny on America.

Ohio History, Skull & Bones, and Health Fascism

Taft descendant Emily Taft was married to Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D-IL), who in 1965 was one of four US Senators who urged President Johnson to veto the Cigarette Advertising and Labelling Act because of its provision postponing the Federal Trade Commission's rule requiring health hazard warnings in cigarette advertising; while their son, Paul W. Douglas, became a director of Philip Morris from 1980-95. And Pres. George W. Bush has more than twenty ancestors who hailed from the Mendon, Massachusetts area in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Ancestry of George W. Bush / William Addams Reitwiesner

Members of The Order have played key roles on both sides of the anti-smoking movement, and the first thing they did was take over the tobacco companies. This is how they engineer the Hegelian false alternatives they inflict on the people!

 

From the Brown Brothers to the Morgan Guaranty Trust

The Brown Brothers Bank in Philadelphia

The first Brown Brother to immigrate from Ireland to Baltimore was Alexander Brown's younger brother, Stewart. Alexander Brown's wife was his cousin Grace Davison, and her sister, Ann Davison, the wife of Dr. George Brown (who is said to have been "no blood relation"), was there also. Alexander Brown's oldest son William, 15, accompanied them, while the others were left at boarding school in Yorkshire, England. Alexander Brown had been a linen merchant in Ballymena, and he was back in business in Baltimore before the end of December 1800. William returned to Liverpool in 1808 and founded Brown, Shipley & Co. (The Browns of Brown, Shipley and Company, Merchant Bankers of Liverpool and London; Letters Home to Lisburn; Davison and Brown Families. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com). "William's friends dispatched their correspondence through William Brown and Company of Liverpool, a means Mary repeatedly asked her family also to use. That letters were thus able to come through in time of war, demonstrates the strength of the Brown family establishment." Notes, Letter No. 17.) William Cumming of Petersburg, Virginia, purchased tobacco for "Mr. Brown and Mr. Oliver in Baltimore." (Letter No. 23, Mar. 9, 1814. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com) John Brown of Baltimore married "Isabella, daughter of John Patrick of Ballymena, who was both a doctor and linen merchany." (Notes, Letter No. 24, June 4, 1814. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com)

The Browns of Brown, Shipley and Company / Lisburn.com
Letters Home to Lisburn / Lisburn.com
Davison and Brown Families / Lisburn.com

Dr. George Brown and his wife had immigrated in 1783. (Notes, Letter No. 5. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com) Their daughter Grace married Alexander Brown's son John A. Brown (1788-1873), and their daughter Ann married Robert Dickey, an Irish merchant in New York City. (Dr. George Brown's Family. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com.) Dr. Brown died in 1822 aged 67. (Deaths. Boston Recorder, Sep. 7, 1822.)

Dr. George Brown's Family / Lisburn.com

Robert Dickey of New-York City

"Robert Dickey was a native of Ballymena. The family originally came from Ayrshire and settled in Ballymena under William Adair as early as 1620. Later they lived at Leighmore, Ballymena. James Dickey of Crumlin was a United Irishman who played a minor role during the later stages of the '98 rising in Ballymena, for which he forfeited his life on the gallows. Like the Browns and many other Irishmen who left the country far America after the '98 uprising, Robert Dickey prospered over there and became immensely rich. He married a daughter of Dr. Brown of Baltimore." (Letters 1 - 8. By Jimmy Irvine. Lisburn.com.)

Letters 1 - 8 / Lisburn.com

"COFFEE. Four hundred and fifty thousand lbs of St. Domingo COFFEE, deliverable in Baltimore (where it can be shipped free of commercial charge, by a house of the first respectability) for sale by ROBERT DICKEY." (New-York Commercial Advertiser, Oct. 16, 1804.) Capt. George Dickey of No. 6 Harman-street, and Mrs. Elizabeth Dickey, widow of Capt. George Dickey, died in New York (New York Commercial Advertiser Aug. 3, 1804; New York Weekly Museum, July 8, 1815); "In North Street, Belfast (Ireland), on the 2d December last, of typhus fever, Mr. Robert Dickey." (New York Commercial Advertiser, Mar. 14, 1818.) Since at least 1809, Robert Dickey lived in "the most fashionable neighborhood for New York's social elite and wealthy merchant class." In 1821, he sold his property at Nos. 71 and 73 Greenwich Street to Charles Denston, after whom several of his descendants have been named (who include three partners of Brown Brothers, a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. and a chairman of the Morgan Guaranty Trust), for $10. (Robert and Anne Dickey House. By Jay Shockley. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, June 28, 2005.)

Robert and Anne Dickey House / New York City.gov (pdf, 19pp)

Robert Dickey's daughter, Ann Thompson Dickey (1809-1893) married Israel Thorndike Jr. in New York in 1832. (Married. New-York Spectator, Jan. 31, 1832; Marriages. Christian Register, Feb. 4, 1832.) She died in Baltimore. (Died. New York Times, Nov. 21, 1893.) "In 1789, vessels were sent from Boston to the East Indies, and to China, and soon became a very profitable commercial enterprise. In proportion to its population, Salem took the lead of Boston in the East, as it had done in the West Indian trade. Teas, silks, napkins and other cotton cloths, sugar, coffee, and spices, were imported; and cargoes of East India products were, by the enterprising merchants of Salem and Boston, exported to ports in the north of Europe. Ginseng formed part of the cargoes shipped to the East Indies, but specie, generally silver current coin, was sent to a large amount to Canton and Calcutta, &c, &c. The merchants who first engaged in the East Indies trade at Salem, were Derby, Gray, Cabot, Thorndike, and Crowninshield." (Commercial Sketch of Boston. Anonymous. The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, Aug. 1839.)

Robert Dickey's son, John G. Dickey, died in Philadelphia at age 24. (Died. North American and Daily Advertiser, Jan. 24, 1840; New-York Spectator, Jan. 27, 1840.) His daughter, Mary Dickey, died at age 19 at the home of her uncle, John A. Brown, in Philadelphia. (North American and Daily Advertiser, Apr. 10, 1840.) His son, George Dickey, died in Baden-Baden, Germany in 1860. (Died. New-York Times, Sep. 18, 1860.) Robert Dickey's daughter, Jane Brown Dickey, died in Baltimore. (Died. New York Times, Feb. 10, 1892.)

Robert Dickey's daughter Elizabeth never married. "She was born in 1816, and was a daughter of the late Robert Dickey, of New York, who married Miss Brown, daughter of Dr. George Brown, celebrated as a physician in Baltimore during the last part of the eighteenth century. She was a relative of the late John A. Brown, once head of the banking firm of Brown Brothers & Co. of Philadelphia, and at one time lived at his residence, on Rittenhouse square, in Philadelphia." (Maryland Obituary. Washington Post, Apr. 26, 1907.)

Robert Dickey's son, Judge Hugh T. Dickey of Chicago, graduated from Columbia University in 1830. His classmates included Hamilton Fish, John M. Forbes, and Lewis C. Gunn. (Commencement of Columbia College. New-York Morning Herald, Aug. 5, 1830.) He married [Frances] Anne Russell De Koven, the youngest daughter of the late Henry L. De Koven. Her brother, Rev. Henry De Koven, performed the ceremony in Middletown, Conn. (Marriages. Boston Daily Atlas, Apr. 24, 1850; Marriages. Christian Inquirer, Apr. 27, 1850.) Hugh T. Dickey petitioned for the estate of John G. Dickey of Philadelphia to be probated in Milwaukee County Court. John A. Brown was the executor. (State of Wisc., Milwaukee Co. Court, in Probate. Milwaukee Daily Free Democrat, Apr. 4, 1856.) He was a director of the Chicago and Galena Railroad (Financial and Commercial. New York Herald, Aug. 31, 1856), and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway. (The Reportorial Racket. Milwaukee Daily Sentinel, Jun. 9, 1879.) He died in New York City at age 80; at his death, he was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad. His wife and a daughter, the wife of Rev. Charles Douglass of Washington, D.C., survived him. (Obituary. New York Times, June 3, 1892.) "Mrs. Dickey was Miss Frances Russell De Koven of Chicago. Her husband, Mr. Hugh T. Dickey, was for many years a partner of Brown Brothers & Co. He died some years ago, and his place in that concern has been taken by his son, Charles D. Dickey, who married Miss Louise L. Whitney of New Haven." (Death List of A Day. New York Times, Oct. 13, 1900.)

Hugh T. Dickey Jr. was actually the first to marry Louise Lawrence Whitney, daughter of Stephen Whitney, who left a fortune of $14 million. The ushers were Francis Hillhouse of New Haven, Edward Morrell of Philadelphia, Newbold Edgar of New-York, and Charles Dickey, a brother of the groom. George B. McClellan was best man. The wedding haul was estimated at $30,000. (Dickey - Whitney. New York Times, Apr. 4, 1888; In Flashing Diamonds. Boston Daily Globe, Apr. 4, 1888.) Hugh T. Dickey Jr. died at age 28. (Died. New York Times, Mar. 12, 1891.) A few years later, Louise married Charles D. Dickey Jr., "a cousin of her late husband," at Grace Church, whose seating capacity was "taxed to its utmost." Norton Goddard and Lawrence Whitney were ushers, and Benjamin R. Kittredge was best man. (Yesterday's Weddings. New York Times, Mar. 15, 1893; [Lawrence Whitney ex-'96 S. died at Yale] Stephen Whitney, Ph.B. 1908. Bulletin of Yale University, Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1929-1930, p 292-294.)

Middletown Vital Records from Barbour, 1668-1852 - D / Rootsweb.com
Yale Obituary Record 1929-1930 / Yale University Library (pdf, 398 pp)

Robert Dickey's son, Charles D. Dickey of Mobile, Alabama, became a partner of Brown Brothers & Co. in 1859. (Copartnership Notices. New York Herald, Oct. 25, 1859; Financial and Commercial. New York Herald, Oct. 27, 1859.) He was believed to be first admission into the house since the death of Samuel Nickinson. (Correspondence of the Courier. Charleston Courier, Tri-Weekly, Nov. 19, 1859.) He died in Islip, L.I. in his 79th year. (Boston Daily Advertiser, Aug. 16, 1897.) His daughter, Sophie Witherspoon Dickey, married Howard Townsend and died in 1892. (Died. New York Times, Feb. 1, 1892.) Charles Denston Dickey Jr., husband of Louise L. Whitney, whose mother was Mary Witherspoon, died at age 59. He was born in Mobile, Alabama, and became the head of Brown Brothers thirty years previously. "He was also interested in the United States Mortgage and Trust Company, the Bank of Manhattan, the Commercial Trust Company of New Jersey, the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Company, the Northern Insurance Company, the Greenwich Savings Bank, and the Northern Assurance Company." (Died; and: Charles D. Dickey, Banker. New York Times, Feb. 5, 1919.) Charles D. Dickey Jr. replaced Hugh T. Dickey as a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad. (Has Thirteen Members. Milwaukee Sentinel, Sep. 22, 1892.) His son, the next Charles Denston Dickey, was a partner of Brown Brothers also, then a partner of J.P. Morgan & Co. and Chairman of Trust Matters of the Morgan Guaranty Trust.

The De Kovens of Middletown, Connecticut and Chicago

Capt. Henry De Koven was the son of Elizabeth Sebor and John Lewis DeKoven, a "foreigner" born in 1748. They married in 1781. And Henry L. De Koven married Margaret T. Sebor. (Former Diplomat Wins New Laurels as Sculptor. By Marie McNair. Washington Post, Sep 14, 1950; Middletown Vital Records from Barbour, 1668-1852 - SABIN to SMITH. Transcribed by Coralynn Brown.) "Taken off a British transport by a colonial privateer and brought in to be interned at Middletown, Connecticut was an officer in the Hanoverian auxiliaries of the British forces, John Lewis DeKoven. He must have been an enthusiastic Mason, and a persuasive fellow, as soon after his arrival in 1783 the lodge at Middletown was resuscitated from its war time dormancy, and DeKoven took the initiative in organizing a 'Grand' Royal Arch Chapter, that is, that is, a chapter which was self constituted and independent, although it was formed under sanction of the local lodge. This was an unusual thing to do in Connecticut, and St. Johns Lodge in Middletown is the only one, and there were a dozen in the state at that time, to lend its sanction to a Royal Arch chapter. It almost looks as though it was revived for that purpose.... DeKoven's enthusiasm was not confined to Masonry. Although he contracted a perfectly respectable marriage, apparently his European gallantry did not fit into the mores of the Land of Steady Habits. He began to wander from the straight and narrow path, and when he was caught chasing a neighbor's wife, the irate husband chased him out of town. On the way out, he sold his mark, the anchor of hope, and he is said to have fled to Canada." (American Masonic Roots in British Military Lodges. WBro. James R. Case, Master, American Lodge of Research, New York City; Researched and Edited by: WBro. Antonio M. Ligaya, PM. In: Cable-Tow, 2006 July;65(2):16-22.) "Wanted Immediately, A Large Sum in Final Settlements, Continental Loan Office Certificates, Interest for Certificates, and Soldiers' Notes, for which CASH and a generous Price will be given, by Elizabeth De Koven, who has just received a New Supply of Excellent Bohea TEA." (Middlesex Gazette, Middletown, Conn. Aug. 22, 1789, p. 4.)

Middletown Vital Records, Sabin to Smith / Rootsweb.com
American Masonic Roots in British Military Lodges / Hawaiian Lodge, F. & A.M.

In March 1822: "Soon after my arrival at Callao, the ship America, Captain De Koven, of New-York, arrived with a full cargo of flour. I believe he brought about 3500 barrels, which were sold at a very great profit. To Capt. De Koven I sold my quicksilver at invoice price, which amounted to about $3500. As all communication was cut off between Lima and the interior, I was unable to dispose of the quicksilver at any price, except to Capt. De Koven. He was bound to Canton, and took the article at invoice price to dispose of it in China. I subsequently lent him $11,500 in dollars (which, together with the quicksilver, amounted to $15,000). and took his bill on the owners of the America, in New-York, for the amount at sixty days sight. The owners of the ship were Messrs. Hoyt and Tom, Elisha Tibbets, and Stephen Whitney." (Voyages to various parts of the world, made between the years 1799 and 1844. By George Coggeshall. Appleton & Co., 1851.) De Koven also mastered the America from Cadiz, Spain (Independent American, Sep. 4, 1816), the ship Clyde, from Cadiz (New York. Farmer's Cabinet, Nov. 20, 1804), the ship Minerva, for Havanna [sic] (New-York Price-Current, Mar. 16, 1805), the Bengal, from Buenos Aires (New-York Price-Current, Nov. 29, 1806), the Culladen, from Montevideo (New York Commercial Advertiser, Aug. 17, 1807), the ship Whampoa, from Spain (Latest News From Spain. Connecticut Journal, Jan. 18, 1810), the Donna Emilia, from New York to Goa, India (Ming's New-York Price Current, Feb. 24, 1810), the Donna Emilia, from New York to Calcutta via Isle of France (Baltimore Price Current, May 18, 1811), and the Sea Nymph between Lisboa and New York, 1823. The ship America, Captain D'Kooven [sic] of New York, was reported left at Whampoa by Capt. Baker, of the brig Comet, of Salem. ([Shipping News.] Salem Gazette, Mar. 7, 1823.)

In 1824, De Koven was among a group of US citizens residing or transacting business in Lima, Peru, who thanked Commodore Charles Stewart, the commander of U.S. Naval forces in the Pacific, for protecting their interests against the revolutionary governments of Peru and Chile. (Letter from William H. Conckling, et al., to Commodore Charles Stewart, May 2, 1824. In: American State Papers [Naval Affairs: Volume 2].)

Letter from Conckling, et al., to Commodore Stewart, May 2, 1824 / Library of Congress

"This paper argues for a revision of the traditional view of the global silver trade with China in the late 18th and early 19th century. Section 1 showed that the existing historiography tended to ignore that silver imports into China continued for longer and at increased levels up to the 1820s. It provided new evidence showing that the structure of the silver trade changed substantially with US merchants becoming the central intermediaries between Latin American silver producers and Chinese 'consumers'. It also demonstrated that Chinese imports of silver consisted increasingly of Spanish American coins, the so-called pillar and bust dollars." (A Trojan Horse in 19th century China? The global consequences of the breakdown of the Spanish Silver Peso standard. By Maria Alejandra Irigoin.)

A Trojan Horse in 19th century China? / London School of Economics (pdf, 31pp)

In 1831, Henry L. DeKoven was one of the incorporators of Wesleyan University. (The Charter of Wesleyan University. Wesleyan University.) He was founder, president and a director of the Middlesex County National Bank from 1830 to 1835. Samuel Russell succeeded him as president from 1835 to 1840, and 1841 to 1846; and DeKoven's relative, Charles R. Sebor, from 1846 to 1878. (Town and City of Middletown. By Henry Wittemore; transcribed by Janece Streig. In: The History of Middlesex County 1635-1885. J. H. Beers & Co., 1884.) On June 25, 1835, Henry L. DeKoven obtained title to land in the heart of Austin, Illinois, which was annexed by Chicago in 1899. The tracks of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad tracks are on its northern boundary. Austin Community Collection 1860-1981, Chicago Public Library.) The town was named for Henry Austin Sr., an Illinois legislator who helped create and pass the Illinois Temperance Act in 1872 to ban the sale of alcohol, and founded a temperance community there. Samuel Russell also owned very valuable property in Chicago, Lot 9 in Block 28 of the Original Town of Chicago, which his daughter Frances Ann Russell inherited. (A Venerable Claim. Chicago Daily Tribune, Oct. 24, 1883.) His land at South Water St. and N. Fifth Avenue was leased out by Mary A. Lewis of New York and Cornelia Russell Green of London, England. "The land was purchased in 1833 by Samuel Russell of Middletown, Conn., grandfather of the lessors, from Thomas Hartzell, who obtained it from the government, and Mr. Russell is said to have been much pleased that for each of the two stores in the building he then erected he was able to secure a rent of $700 a year." (South Water St. Gets Long Lease. Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr. 2, 1912.)

The Charter of Wesleyan University / Wesleyan University
Town and City of Middletown / Rootsweb.com

Capt. De Koven's son, Rev. Dr. Henry De Koven, married Charlotte, a daughter of Jacob R. Le Roy. (Died. New York Times, Oct. 20, 1885.) Jacob Le Roy was the son of Herman Leroy, who founded Le Roy, Bayard & Co., and was one of the five brothers of Mrs. Daniel Webster. (Married. New-York Spectator, December 18, 1829; Funeral of Daniel Webster. New York Times, Nov. 1, 1852; Daniel Webster's Widow. New York Times, Feb. 28, 1882.) His son, the opera composer Reginald De Koven, was married in Chicago to Annie Farwell, the daughter of Sen. Charles B. Farwell. Hugh T. Dickey Jr. was his best man. Mr. and Mrs. J.V. Farwell and Mr. and Mrs. Franklin MacVeagh (S&B 1862) were among the guests. The newlyweds left immediately for Florence, Italy. (Notable Nuptials. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 2, 1884.) Mrs. Hugh T. Dickey left Reginald De Koven and another favorite nephew, Elijah Kent Hubbard, $5,000 each. (Will of Mrs. Hugh T. Dickey. New York Times, Nov. 4, 1900.) "Reginald De Koven was born in Middletown, Conn. in 1861, the son of an Episcopalian clergyman who was descended from an English Army Captain of Colonial Times. His father took up his residence in England in 1872 and sent his son to Oxford." (Reginald De Koven Dies At A Dance. New York Times, Jan. 17, 1920.) Mrs. Reginald De Koven's sister, Grace Farwell, married Dudley Winston, Skull & Bones 1886, and was the mother-in-law of James H. Douglas Jr.

Capt. De Koven's daughter Margaret married Dr. William B. Casey, one of the founders of the state insane asylum. (Mrs. Margaret De Koven Casey. New York Times, Mar. 25, 1900.) His daughter Elizabeth married Chicago pioneer Elijah Kent Hubbard, one of the builders of the Galena and Chicago Union railroad. His son of the same name was the president of the Russell Manufacturing Co. of Middletown, Conn. (Aged Chicago Native Dies. Chicago Daily Tribune, Jun. 27, 1915.) Henry L. De Koven, Elijah Hubbard, and Samuel D. Hubbard were trustees of Wesleyan University. (Wesleyan University. New-York Spectator, Aug. 3, 1830.) His son, again named Elijah Kent Hubbard, was President of the Connecticut Manufacturers Association and a member of the advisory committee of the Institute of Human Relations at Yale. Another son, Louis De Koven Hubbard, was a textile manufacturer in Connecticut. (Louis DeK. Hubbard. New York Times, Jan. 26, 1934.) Another son, Elisha Dyer Hubbard, married Muriel McCormick, daughter of Harold McCormick and granddaughter of John D. Rockefeller. (Muriel M'Cormick Wed in a Garden. New York Times, Sep. 11, 1931.) A daughter, Katharine, married Clarence Seymour Wadsworth, the son of Julius Wadsworth. Samuel Russell Jr. was one of the ushers. (Hubbard-Wadsworth. Boston Daily Advertiser, Oct. 8, 1897.)

[De Koven] Middletown Vital Records from Barbour, 1668-1852 - D / Rootsweb.com

Capt. De Koven's daughter, Cornelia, married Julius Wadsworth, born in Middletown, Conn. "His father was a prosperous merchant and left to his sons a fortune of nearly half a million. Young Wadsworth, the eldest of several brothers, received a good education in the ordinary English branches, and in his father's stores obtained what was of the greatest advantage to him - a good business education. In 1836, at the age of 22, Mr. Wadsworth came West." He and his brother, E.S. Wadsworth, bought real estate in Chicago, and started the Wadsworth Bros. wholesale dry goods house, later Wadsworth, Dyer & Chapin, and eventually acquired by John V. Farwell. In 1848, Wadsworth and Dyer built a packing house, most of whose beef was shipped to Great Britain. His fortune was estimated at $2 to 3 million, including a large block of the preferred stock and bonds of the Milwaukee Road. He died at age 73. (A Business-Man's Career. Chicago Daily Tribune, Jun. 5, 1887.) He left $80,000 to brothers in Middletown, then half the remainder to his wife, and the other half to his only child, Clarence Seymour Wadsworth, with Elijah Hubbard of Middletown and Lucien G. Hoe of Chicago as trustees. (Julius Wadsworth's Will. New York Times, Jun. 19, 1887.) Their grandson, Julius Wadsworth, was vice consul to China, who married Cleome Carroll Miner, a descendant of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Md. (Couple Engaged in China Plan Bridal at Home. Washington Post, Aug. 23, 1934; Vice-Consul Will Wed. New York Times, Sep. 30, 1934.) He was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Co. (Railroad Matters. New York Times, Jun. 6, 1876) and its vice president. David Dows and Jeremiah Milbank were also directors, and Alexander Mitchell was president. (Financial. New York Times, Mar. 7, 1877; The Railroads. Chicago Tribune, Jun. 9, 1878.) Hugh T. Dickey became a director in 1880. (Milwaukee & St. Paul. Chicago Tribune, June 6, 1880.) Wadsworth resigned in 1886, citing ill health. (Resigned His Office. New York Times, Jun. 29, 1886.)

Capt. De Koven's son James was the President of Racine College in Wisconsin. De Koven and his close friend and classmate, George F. Seymour, were embroiled in a church controversy over ritual; in succession a few months apart, both were elected Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Illinois, but were denied confirmation. (Bishop George F. Seymour. In: Past and Present of the City of Springfield and Sangamon County Illinois. By Joseph Wallace. The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, 1904.) He made some remarks about liberty which certain laymen wished to suppress: "A Little Dialogue - Dr. Gregg - I have a word to say in private to these reporters. Dr. McMurdy - Say what you have to say right here. I don't know of anything very secret and dreadful that you should object to having read. Dr. Gregg - I secured this room previously, and wish to speak to these reporters. The Rev. Dr. McMurdy, who is a little fiery, rose 'in a huff,' and cleared out of the room. The reporters of THE TRIBUNE, Times and Inter-Ocean were left alone with the confiding and innocent Dr. Gregg, who held some astonishingly new greenbacks in his left hand, while he oratorically gesticulated with his right. He said: 'A layman has suggested to me the propriety of making you a presentation, so that you may be recompensed for any additional trouble you may have with your reports. We want you to get up a nice report, - to do it in good style, you know. Allow me to offer you each $5 --' TRIBUNE reporter - Do I understand you as offering us money to fix up our reports, Dr. Gregg? Dr. Gregg - Not at all, only, as I have said, to recompense you for extra trouble. TRIBUNE reporter - We are not in that line of business, so far as I am concerned. THE TRIBUNE can afford to pay its employees for 'extra trouble.' Our reporters are not in the habit of accepting gratuities from any source. Times reporter - I think the same way. Our papers cannot be bought at that figure - or at any figure. Inter-Ocean reporter - I think the proposition is d--d cheeky, to say the least of it. Dr. Gregg - I did not mean to offend you, and the suggestion did not come from me. Reporters - Well, that's an end of it now. Dr. Gregg grew very red in the face, and retired looking uncomfortable. At this point, Mr. John De Koven, brother of the Bishop-elect, entered the room, and asked the reporters to have dinner. The journalists, however, felt stung by the insult just offered, and refused the invitation. They left the College, refusing a sleigh which Mr. De Koven had kindly offered to take them down-town, and walked to Congress-Hall, where they made out their reports, and where they were not bored by patronizing churchmen." (The New Bishop. Chicago Daily Times, Feb. 7, 1875.) He died suddenly at age 47, about six weeks after slipping on an icy sidewalk in Chicago and breaking his leg. (Rev. James De Koven, D.D. New York Times, Mar. 20, 1879.) He never married, and two sisters, Mrs. Casey and Mrs. Doyle, kept house for him. (Dr. De Koven. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 20, 1879.) He imitated practices of the Roman Catholic Church, including a confessional where the boys would visit every two or three weeks. (A High Churchman. Some of the Peculiarities of the Late Rev. Dr. De Koven. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 23, 1879.)

Bishop George F. Seymour / Rootsweb.com

Capt. De Koven's son John was born in Middletown in 1833, and came to Chicago when he was about 19. He went to work as a clerk for the Galena road. "A little later, through influence of friends, he secured a place as teller in the private banking house of I.H. Birch & Co." He was later an executor of Birch's estate. He was cashier at the Stock-Yards Bank, then the Northwestern National, then the Merchants' National Bank, "which was the last official place other than director's positions that he held." He married Louise Hadduck, daughter of E.H. Hadduck of Chicago, and they had one daughter. At the time of his death he was a director in the Merchant's Loan and Trust Co., the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railways, the Title Guarantee and Trust Co., the Chicago Telephone Co., and the American Surety Co. He always stayed at the Union League Club on his frequent visits to New York City. (John De Koven Dead. Chicago Daily Tribune, May 1, 1898.) He was one of the founding stockholders of the Knickerbocker Trust Co. in New York, whose other stockholders included J.Pierpont Morgan. (A New Trust Company Up Town. New York Times, Jul. 12, 1884.) His wife, Helen H. De Koven, left $10,000 to St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, and half of her estate, estimated at $600,000, mostly in real estate, to her daughter, Louise H. De Koven. (Chicago Daily Tibune, Mar. 31, 1886.)

Louise De Koven Bowen was a daughter of John De Koven, whose estate was valued at $750,000. Francis and Louise Dickey of New York were among those who received bequests. (Will of John De Koven Filed. Chicago Daily Tribune, May 11, 1898.) She was executrix of the $2,000,000 estate of Louisa Hadduck, which left a bequest of $25,000 to St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago. Former trustee John De Koven received fees of $41,925. (Reports on the Hadduck Estate. Chicago Daily Tribune, Apr. 20, 1895.) After her husband's death, she lived for much of her life with Jane Addams, the founder of Hull House, one of her major philanthropic interests. (Roses For Miss Addams. New York Times, Apr. 13, 1916; Jane Addams Dies In Her 75th Year. New York Times, May 22, 1935; Mrs. J.T. Bowen, 94, Leader In Welfare. New York Times, Nov. 10, 1953; Estate Worth $2 Million Left By Mrs. Bowen. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 17, 1955.) Mrs. Bowen was a member of the Republican National Committee National Women's Camapign for Hughes in 1916, and a member of the RNC. (Willcox Has Women Aides. New York Times, Sep. 16, 1916; Mrs. Bowen Takes Republican Post. New York Times, Jul. 18, 1923.) Mrs. Bowen succeeded Addams as president until 1944, and was the treasurer of Hull House for about sixty years, until 1953. (Mrs. Bowen Reaches 81. New York Times, Feb. 27, 1940.)

Her husband, Joseph Tilton Bowen, was Secretary and Cashier of the newly-founded Northern Trust Company of Chicago. Directors were A.C. Bartlett of Hibbard, Spencer, Bartlett & Co.; J. Harley Bradley of David Bradley Mfg Co.; H.N. Higinbotham of Marshall Field & Co.; Marvin Hughitt, President of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad; Charles L. Hutchinson, President of the Corn Exchange Bank, vice president; A.O. Slaughter; Martin A. Ryerson of Martin Ryerson & Co.; Albert A. Sprague of Sprague, Warner & Co.; and Byron L. Smith, President. (Display Ad 6. Chicago Daily Tribune, Sep. 23, 1889.) Bowen was elected to honorary membership in the Hull House Woman's Club. (Woman's Club Awes Man Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 6, 1902.) Joseph Tilton Bowen was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1854. He was educated in the public schools, and married Louise Hadduck De Koven on June 1, 1880. He was in the silk manufacturing business until 1890. After leaving the Northern Trust (?1892), he was resident vice president and manager of the City Trust, Safety Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia. (Joseph Tilton Bowen. Chicago Daily Tribune, Mar. 30, 1911.)

Their son, John De Koven Bowen, married Elizabeth Winthrop Stevens, daughter of Ledyard Stevens [Scroll & Key 1864]. His brother, Joseph T. Bowen Jr., was best man, and Carl A. Lohmann, S&B 1910, was an usher. (Society at Home and Abroad. New York Times, May 29, 1910 and Jun 19, 1910.) John DeK. Bowen was secretary and treasurer of the Sanitary Steel Couch Co. in Chicago, a salesman for William A. Read & Co., Chicago bankers; and for Lage Brothers in New York City until 1924, but had not engaged in any occupation from then until his death from "status lymphaticus." (John De K. Bowen Dies Suddenly in Hospital in N.Y. Chicago Daily Tribune, Nov. 23, 1927; Bulletin of Yale University. Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1927-1928, pp. 175-177.) Joseph T. Bowen Jr. was busted by a theater guard who said that Bowen molested him as they sat side by side in the Clark theater. [He subsequently moved to La Jolla, Cal.] (J.T. Bowen Jr. Arrested By Theater Guard. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 24, 1945; Continue Lewd Behavior Charge Against Ex-Broker. Chicago Daily Tribune, Feb. 25, 1945.) Their daughter, Louise, married Mason Phelps, Book and Snake 1906. They divorced in 1921. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1945-1946, pp. 148-149.) Their daughter, Helen, married William McCormick Blair, S&B 1907, who founded the Chicago investment banking firm of William Blair & Company. Richard Ely Danielson, S&B 1907, was his best man. (Miss Bowen to Wed Wm. McC. Blair. New York Times, Jun. 3, 1911; The Blair-Bowen Wedding. In Town & Country, Feb. 24, 1912.) Mrs. William McCormick Blair Jr. was Vice President of the Lasker Foundation.

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1945-1946 / Yale University Library (pdf, 268 pp)
Yale Obituary Record 1927-1928 / Yale University Library (pdf, 366 pp)

The King Family of Rhode Island

Edward King of Newport was a partner of Russell & Co. from 1837 to 1842; William Henry King from 1843 to 1849; David King Jr. from 1866 to 1872; and Samuel W. Pomeroy Jr. was a partner since 1871. (New England Fortunes Made in China Through the House of Russell & Co. Boston Globe, Jun. 28, 1908.) "The brothers were most likely drawn East through the success of an extended family member, Charles William King, a Canton merchant for forty-five years whose father Samuel King was a senior partner in a New York commission merchant firm, King and Talbot." David King Jr. (1839-1894) was the nephew of the other two. He was a partner of Wetmore, Williams & Co. from 1858 until a position opened at Russell & Co. He married Ella Rives in 1873. Her grandfather, William Cabell Rives, was the U.S. Senator from Virginia from 1832-1845, and Minister to France both before and after his term. In 1882, they moved to Washington, D.C., and became part of the Socialite Lobby in that city. He was a crony of Sen. Nelson W. Aldrich. (Kingscote's Coming of Age. By Holly Collins. The Preservation Society of Newport County, Feb. 24, 2003.) Ella Rives was a Royal descendant of James I, King of Scotland. (Americans of royal descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p. 99.)

Kingscote's Coming of Age / Newport Mansions.org
Americans of royal descent, p. 99 / Google Books

Dr. David King Sr. was born in Raynham, Mass. in 1774. He graduated from Brown University in 1796, and received his medical training from Dr. James Thacher of Plymouth. He came to Newport in 1799, and performed the first vaccination in the state in 1800. (Obituary Notice. Newport Mercury, Dec. 3, 1836.) He married the daughter of Gen. George Gordon of the revolutionary army. His son, Dr. David King Jr., was born in 1812, graduated from Brown in 1831, and Jefferson Medical College in 1834. He married Sarah G. Wheaton, daughter of Rev. Salmon Wheaton. George Gordon King [1807-1870, member of Congress 1849-1853] was his older brother. (Death of David King. Newport Daily News, Mar. 8, 1882.)

Edward King died in Newport in 1875, with an estimated wealth of $5 million. His wife was the daughter of Daniel Leroy. (Obituary. New York Times, Sep. 3, 1875.) Daniel Leroy was a brother-in-law of both Nicholas Fish and Sen. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts. (Daniel Webster's Widow. New York Times, Feb. 28, 1882.) Daniel Leroy's father, Herman Leroy, founded LeRoy, Bayard and McEvers with William Bayard in 1786.

Edward King's son, George Gordon King (1858-1922) married Annie M. Coats, daughter of Sir James Coats of Ayr, Scotland [and granddaughter of John Auchincloss]. His mother was Mary Augusta Leroy. (George Gordon King. Newport Mercury, Apr. 1, 1922.) "He was a deputy to every general convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church since 1898, and for many years was on the Domestic and Missionary Board." (George Gordon King. New York Times, Apr. 1, 1922.) He was an usher at the wedding of Archibald Douglas Russell [also Royal]. (A Wedding at Riverdale. New York Times, Oct. 3, 1884.) He was treasurer of the Episcopal General Board of Missions from at least 1910 to 1916, and was a layman founder of the Christian Unity Foundation, whose members included George Wharton Pepper of Philadelphia. (Christian Unity Foundation Has Been Incorporated. Fort Wayne Sentinel, Jul. 23, 1910; Many Churches Favor Conference. Portsmouth Valley Sentinel, Oct. 18, 1916.)

Philip Wheaton Rives King, Yale 1901, son of David King and grandson of Dr. David King (Brown 1831), was born in Paris, France. His father "was engaged in business in China for many years, as a partner in the firm of Russell & Company, tea merchants." (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1922-1923, p. 278.)

Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1922-1923 / Yale University Library (pdf, 385 pp)

"On July 1, 1866, William H. King had made arrangements to be married in the City of Troy in the State of New-York. He was a resident of Newport, several times a millionaire, and owned valuable property in the place of his residence and in the City of New-York. He had made his money in China, having been engaged in trade there. He was of middle age. His main characteristic at that time appears to have been the habit of drinking to excess. Who the woman was to whom he was to have been married, what her connections were, whether what the King family might have regarded as a mésalliance was contemplated - these things have not yet been made known to the public. No marriage ceremony was performed upon that or any succeeding day, for about the time the marriage was to have taken place, two of King's brothers, Edward King and Dr. David King, arrived in Troy. Edward King was the father of George Gordon King, at present one of Newport's prominent society men, and one of the chief litigants in the case now before the courts. King went back to Rhode Island with his brothers, and within a few days was confined in the McLean Asylum for the Insane in the State of Massachusetts.... the application for his confinement was made by a third brother, George Gordon King, and from that day to this, William H. King has been a prisoner. George Gordon King became the guardian of his insane brother's millions and remained so until he died. Then Edward King, another brother, secured the appointment, and his control of the property was only terminated by death. Following him, the third brother, Dr. David King, was made guardian. He died in 1882." (Famous King Will Case. New York Times, Feb. 12, 1895.) Benjamin D. Silliman deposed that he knew the King family very well, and that Dr. David King was Silliman's father's family physician. He said he had known William H. King very well, and acted as his counsel in a number of transactions, and recalled that King had been sent to an asylum. Another witness, James Bancker, said that he went to China in 1842 and remained there until 1849, when he became an intimate friend of William Henry King. "The witness said that King's brother Edward was a member of the firm of Russell & Co., and when he dropped out William Henry King was taken in." (William H. King's Millions. New York Times, Aug. 8, 1897.)

A woman named Mrs. Eugenia Alethia Webster Ross had been challenging William H. King's imprisonment since 1894. She claimed that the real William H. King had disappeared in China, and that the imprisoned man was really her uncle, Pelatiah Webster Gordon, who had taken King's name to avoid prosecution in Boston. She said that her father was James E. Calhoun, a cousin of the South Carolina statesman. (Fight for the King Fortune. New York Times, Jul. 10, 1898.) There was a Pelatiah Webster Gordon of Fort Gibson, Miss., who was a student at Harvard Medical School in 1832-33, with Dr. James Jackson as his instructor. (Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, for the Academical Year 1832-1833, p. 11.) Port Gibson (aka Fort Gibson, or Gibson's Landing) is a little town midway between Vicksburg and Natchez. About six miles south of it is an even smaller town called Gordon.

Catalogue of the Officers and Students of Harvard University, 1832-1833 / Nat'l Inst. for Technology and Liberal Education (pdf, 36 pp)

The Other King Branch

Charles W. King of the house of Olyphant & Co. died on the Bentinck steamer near Aden, while returning to the U.S. from China. (Died. Boston Courier, Dec., 1845.)

Clarence [Rivers] King, Yale 1862, son of James Rivers King and Florence Little, whose grandfather was William Little (Yale 1777): "His grandfather was one of the pioneer merchants in the Chinese trade, and to this business his father with three brothers succeeded, but died in 1848 in Amoy, China. During the financial crisis of 1857, the family property which had remained in the business was lost." Clarence King was the first Director of the United States Geological Survey. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 195.) Clarence King had supposedly never married. But he pretended to be a black man named James Todd, and secretly married a black woman, Ada Copeland, and they had five children together. "Not until he lay dying of tuberculosis in Phoenix in late 1901, his last desperate hope of a desert cure gone, did James Todd write a letter to his wife telling her who he really was." (Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line. By Martha A. Sandweiss. Penguin Press, 2009.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 195 / Google Books
Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception Across the Color Line / New York Times

Frances Boyd, who married William Little, Yale 1777, was a Royal descendant of Robert Bruce, King of Scotland. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, Vol. III May, 1763-July, 1778, p. 689. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 1903; and: Americans of Royal Descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, p.656.)

Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale 1763-1778 / Internet Archive (pdf, 740 pp)
Americans of royal descent, p. 656 / Google Books

Clarence King's uncle, Robbins Little, Skull & Bones 1851, was superintendant of the Astor Library in New York City. His father was William Little, Harvard 1809, and his mother was the daughter of Asher Robbins, Yale 1782, who was the U.S. Senator from Rhode Island [1825-1839]. (Married. Providence Gazette, Jun. 23, 1824; Newport Improvements. New York Times, Jan. 11, 1891; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 178.) "One subject which engrossed much of his [Asher Robbins'] attention at the close of his Senatorial career was the use of the Smithsonian legacy, which he hoped might found a national university." (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College Vol. IV., July 1778 - June, 1792, p. 231.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 178 / Google Books
Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale, 1778-1792 / Internet Archive

One of William Little HC1809's sisters, Maria Augusta, married a slave owner, Samuel Clement, who had a plantation in Adams County, Mississippi [whose county seat is Natchez]. "Eventually, the plantation passes to daughter Ellen Clement who marries Don Antonio Yznaga (del Valle), a prominent Cuban planter, trader, and entrepreneur, in 1850. They continue to operate and expand the Ravenswood Plantation, as well as their other properties and business interests in Cuba and New York. The 1860 census lists Ravenswood with 145 slaves." (Ravenswood Plantation. Sankofagen Wiki, Accessed May 1, 2009.) Her mother, Mrs. Frances B. Little died in 1834 on board the steamboat Envoy during the passage from Cincinnati to Natchez. (Deaths. Boston Daily Atlas, Nov. 19, 1834; Died. New York Spectator, Nov. 20, 1834.) Natica Yznaga of Ravenswood plantation married Sir John Pepys Lister-Kaye, a British baronet. "Sir John Kaye was created a baronet by Charles I. In 1809 the baronetcy became extinct, but it was renewed in Sir John Lister-Kaye, who married in 1800 Lady Amelia Gray, daughter of George, the fifth Earl of Stamford and Warrington." (Told While the Smoke Curls. NewYork Times, Sep. 4, 1904.)

Ravenswood Plantation / Sankofagen Wiki

Natica Yznaga's friend, Sally Whiting, named her daughter Natica in her honor. Natica Rives was the only child by her first marriage to Oliver H.P. Belmont. Her second husband was George L. Rives, and Natica took her stepfather's name. (The Burden-Rives Engagement. New York Times, Jan. 20, 1907.)

The Pomeroy Family

Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy Jr., the partner of Russell & Co., was a Royal. A great-grandfather, George Wyllys, Yale 1729, was the son of the Colonial Secretary of Massachusetts and Connecticut, married Mary Woodbridge, who was of Royal descent from Alfred the Great of England. His grandfather, Eleazar Pomeroy, married Mary Wyllys in 1764; she was a descendant of King Edward III of England. (Americans of royal descent. By Charles Henry Browning, 1891, pp. 55 and 110.) Another great-grandfather, Rev. Benjamin Pomeroy, Yale 1733, was one of the original trustees of Dartmouth College; his uncle, Samuel Pomeroy, graduated from Yale in 1705, and married a daughter of one of the original trustees of Yale. (Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, October, 1701 - May, 1745. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter, 1885, pp. 399, 485 and 39.)

Americans of royal descent, p. 55 / Google Books
Graduates of Yale College, October, 1701 - May, 1745 / Internet Archive

Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy Sr. purchased the land that became Pomeroy, Ohio in 1804. It included most of the coal lands for four miles along the Ohio River. "Pomeroy organized a coal company with his two sons, Samuel and Charles and sons-in-law Valentine B. Horton and C.W. Dabney, and called it Pomeroy and Sons Co." Horton married Clarissa Pomeroy. They operated tow boats for hauling coal destined for Boston. (Coal Important in Settling Pomeroy, Meigs County. By Beulah Jones. Athens Messenger, Jan. 11, 1976.) Valentine B. Horton was born in Windsor, Vt., and moved to the area soon after finishing his education as a lawyer. He was engaged in mining and manufacturing, and served two terms in the U.S. Congress. Mrs. Horton was the daughter of Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy and Clarissa Alsop. She was born in Boston in 1804. (Sandusky Register, Sep. 28, 1894, p.4.) In 1828, S.W. Pomeroy Jr. wrote to his father describing the earthquake in Lima, Peru, mentioning damage to the house of Alsop, Wetmore & Co. (Further Particulars. Pittsfield Sun, Aug. 7, 1828.)

David King Jr.'s sister, May J. King, and S. Wyllys Pomeroy of Boston were married in Paris by Rev. J.B. Morgan. (Married. Newport Daily News, Dec. 13, 1873.) He left for China again in 1882. (Newport Mercury, Apr. 15, 1882.) In 1883, the Ohio Valley Coal Co. was incorporated at Pomeroy by S. Dana Horton, George B. Pomeroy, E.J. Horton, C.C. Shayne and Frank Dabney. (Neighboring Counties. Athens Messenger, May 31, 1883.) S.W. Pomeroy and Miss Pomeroy were in Paris with DeCourcey Forbes [a former partner of Russell & Co.]. (Local Briefs. Newport Daily News, Nov. 3, 1898.) Samuel Wyllys Pomeroy, whose wife was Mary King, was a son of Samuel Wyllys and Catherine Boyer Coolidge Pomeroy. He died in Genoa, Italy. (Death List of A Day. New York Times, Apr. 10, 1901.) Their son, Samuel Wyllys Wyllys-Pomeroy, graduated from Eton School in England, and Harvard in 1902. He was a coal mine operator in Oklahoma. (Harvard College Class of 1902. Quindecennial Report, June 1917, p. 321.) Mrs. S.W. Wyllys Pomeroy married Col. Charles Sidney Haight. Their son was George Winthrop Haight [Skull & Bones 1928]. He was with Cravath, de Gersdorff, Swaine & Wood of New York (Mary L. Uppercu Becomes a Bride. New York Times, Sep. 3, 1933), and later one of the original conferees at the United Nations Law of the Sea Conference in 1974. (George W. Haight. New York Times, Aug. 14, 1983.)

Harvard College Class of 1902, 1917 / Internet Archive
George W. Haight / New York Times

George A. Butler, a "Black" Partner of Russell & Company

Around 1876, Russell & Co. sold their boats and other property to the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company. After a period of mismanagement, George A. Butler was appointed manager of the company. "Mr. Butler as a colored man and an American merits some attention. He was the son of a colored clergyman in Washington, and was sent to France and Germany to be educated, where he improved his time so well that he became a master of French, German, and Italian. He also acquired a general knowledge of several other tongues. He attracted the attention of Anson Burlingame, who brought him to China as his private secretary. He remained in China after Mr. Burlingame's return and went into the employ of Russell & Co., where he remained til 1879, holding a position of importance and greatly respected; while Superintendant of the China Merchants' Company he had almost sole control under Tong King Sing, Chief Executive. After he went with his chief to Europe the company fell into the hands of natives, by whom it was brought to the verge of bankruptcy. They visited Brazil to further a scheme the company had of building several steamers of 4,000 tons burden, which should go round the Cape of Good Hope to Brazil, stopping at Mauritius and Senegal on the way. They were to take emigrants from China to Brazil, a cargo of Brazilian products from Rio de Janeiro to New York, and return thence by Suez, bringing such lading as suited the Chinese market. While in Portugal news came of disasters to the company, and the two envoys hastened home." Butler negotiated the sale back to Russell & Co. for $7,000,000. As for Russell & Co., after Samuel Russell retired, "it passed principally into the hands of Paul S. Forbes, who retired some eight years ago and is now living in the American colony in Paris. There are now several partners, of whom the three principal are William Forbes, Decourcy Forbes, and C.N. Smith." (The Flowery Kingdom. Chicago Tribune, Nov. 12, 1884.)

"George A. Butler, the son of a colored clergyman of Washington, was educated in Europe, and went to China as the private secretary of Anson Burlingame. Mr. Butler remained in China after the retirement of Minister Burlingame, and prospered in business. He is now the possessor of great wealth, and is the trusted advisor of Chinese statesmen and business men. Just now he is in New York." (One Thing and Another. New York Evangelist, Dec. 9, 1886.) Henry Hannah, assignee, filed suit against unknown heirs of George Augustus Butler to recover $4,206.69 by the sale of lot 7 of square 80 in Washington: "Mr. Butler, though a citizen of the United States, lived for many years abroad, representing the firm of Russell & Co., and died recently at Hong Kong, China, leaving a widow, whom the plaintiff thinks resides in England. In the year 1890 he obtained loans of Russell & Co., to whom he handed the title deeds to secure the loans. The firm then took steps to obtain a deed of trust, and while they were corresponding with him he died." (Suit Against George A. Butler's Heirs. Washington Post, Dec. 22, 1891.) Richard V. Hartnett & Co. sold 58 "claims, judgements, and demands of Russell & Co. of China, against persons, firms, Governments, associations and corporations. The sale was by order of the Atlantic Trust Company, substituted assignee, in Supreme Court proceedings, and the amount realized was $85. Of the claims, one was against the estate of the late George A. Butler for $9,789.58. Another, against the Chinese Government, was for $366,485.84." (Russell & Co. Claims Sale. New York Times, Jun. 9, 1898.)

Perkins & Co.

(Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, Philadelphia, June 19, 1804.)

The subscribers give notice, That they have formed a COMMERCIAL ESTABLISHMENT at Canton, in China, With Mr. Ephraim Bumstead, under the firm of Ephraim Bumstead & Co. WHOSE services in the purchase of China Goods, Sales of Merchandise, or the transaction of other business, they now tender to their friends and the public. The terms on which they execute business, entrusted to them, may be known on application to Messrs. GRANT, FORBES at New York, JOHN STILLE & Co. at Philadelphia, or at their Comptinghouse in Boston.

James & Thomas H. Perkins. Boston, June 1, 1804.

When John Stille Sr. died in 1802, John Stille Jr. continued the business. His son, Dr. Afred Alfred Stillé, Yale 1832, was a founder of the American Medical Association; and his son, Charles Janeway Stillé, Yale 1839, married Anna Welsh Dulles, daughter of Joseph Heatly Dulles, Yale 1814, and sister of Joseph Heatly Dulles, Yale 1839; Rev. John Welsh Dulles, Yale 1844, the grandfather of C.I.A. Director Allen W. Dulles; and Andrew Cheves Dulles, Yale 1853.

James Perkins (1761-1822)

James Perkins was the eldest son of James Perkins, a son of Edmund Perkins, and Elizabeth Peck, daughter of Thomas Handasyd Peck. He had five sisters and two brothers, Thomas Handasyd and Samuel Gardiner Perkins. Their father died in 1771, and his mother "took her husband's place in the counting house, actively participated in its affairs, and was so far recognized as a partner that business letters were sometimes addressed to her from Holland with a masculine prefix." He began in business about 1782, at Cape François on the island of Santo Domingo, and continued through the slave uprising in 1791 until at least 1798. He was first elected a member of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1792. (Memoir of James Perkins. Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 1, 1791-1835, p. 353.)

Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. 1, 1791-1835 / Google Books

James Perkins of the house of J. & T.H. Perkins died at his seat in Roxbury in 1822. (Deaths. Boston Commercial Gazette, Aug. 5, 1822.) An editorial in the Commercial Advertiser noted that he gave $20,000 to the Boston Atheneum in 1821, and bequested $25,000 to Harvard University, and lamented that "We are astonished that capitalists, in their liberal moments, never think of Yale College. Cambridge, before, had so much money that they hardly knew what to do with it - while modest and unassuming Yale... is left to struggle along by its own merits solely, and comparatively without funds." (Reprinted in Connecticut Mirror, Hartford, Aug. 19, 1822.) The ship Canton Packet, belonging to the late firm of J. & T.H. Perkins, was sold by order of the Executors of the will of the late James Perkins, Esq. (Advertisement. Independent Chronicle & Boston Patriot, Nov. 30, 1822.)

James Perkins Jr. (1794-1828) and Thomas H. Perkins Jr. were partners of Samuel Cabot Jr. from 1817 to 1821. (Advertisements. Boston Repertory, Jan. 16, 1817, and Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 4, 1821.) James married his cousin once removed, Eliza Greene Callahan (1789-1860). Their sons were James Amory Perkins b. 1814, Edward Newton Perkins b. 1820, Charles Callahan Perkins b. 1822, and James Henry Perkins b. 1826. Their daughter, Sarah Paine Perkins b. 1818, married Henry Russell Cleveland. (Marriages. Boston Atlas, Feb. 3, 1838; Cleveland - Perkins Family Papers. From Eliza Callahan Cleveland. New York Public Library.) James Perkins Jr.s' great grand niece, Helen Bruce Cleveland, was the wife of Clement J. Smith, business crony since 1919 of Cornelius Vander Starr, who helped found American International Group (AIG) in China.

Cleveland - Perkins Family Papers / New York Public Library (pdf, 8 pp)

Of their sisters: "The eldest, Elizabeth, (born 1756), became the wife of Russell Sturgis, a fur merchant who also had learned his trade under Thomas Handasyd Peck. The second, Ann Maynard (1759), married Robert Cushing and was the mother of John Perkins Cushing, a China trade merchant and noted horticulturalist. Mary (1769) married Benjamin Abbot, headmaster for many years of Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H., and Esther (1771) married first Thomas Doubleday and after his death the merchant Josiah Sturgis, a brother of Russell Sturgis. Margaret Mitchell (1773), the youngest, was married to Ralph Bennett Forbes of Milton..." Their grandfather Peck was "a friend and frequent host of John Murray, the founder of Universalism in America." During the siege of Boston, the family took refuge with Squire Edward Bacon in Barnstable, Mass. (Elizabeth Peck Perkins. In: Notable American Women, 1607-1950, Vol. 2. By Edward T. James et al., 1971, pp. 50-51.)

Notable American Women, 1607-1950, p. 50 / Google Books

Norwich, Connecticut

Daniel Wadsworth Coit (1787-1876)

Daniel Wadsworth Coit was indentured to Gilbert and John Aspinwall in New York City, after which he was an assistant to his friend and cousin, David Greene Hubbard. In 1818, with his his cousins G.G. and S.S. Howland as partners, he accompanied a cargo of military supplies to Peru. On the return trip in 1821, he visited his cousins, Mr. and Mrs. George M. Woolsey in Liverpool, England. He married Harriet Coit, daughter of Levi Coit and granddaughter of Joseph Howland, whose mother was his cousin. His father, Daniel Lathrop Coit, died in 1833. He lost his properties in Europe in 1837, and began buying land in Michigan and Iowa. He went to Mexico in 1845 and in 1848 with Howland & Aspinwall. In 1849, he went to California, and with Mr. Drusina, he represented the Rothschilds in buying gold dust, and also bought land in San Francisco. His brothers were Joshua and Henry Coit, and his sister Eliza was the mother of the author this memoir and of Daniel Coit Gilman, to whom he gave his drawings of San Francisco when Gilman went there to head the University of California in 1872. (A Memoir of Daniel Wadsworth Coit of Norwich, Connecticut, 1787-1876. By William C. Gilman [Jr.], 1908.)

A Memoir of Daniel Wadsworth Coit / Google Books

His brother, Joshua Coit (1800-1881), Yale 1819, made a fortune as a lawyer in New York City and retired in 1860. He lived the rest of his life in New Haven, and left $2500 to Yale. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 66.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1870-1890, p. 66 / Google Books

His son, Daniel Lathrop Coit, Yale 1864, died the same year while working with the Sanitary Commission on the James River. (Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870, p182.) His other son, Charles Woolsey Coit, Yale 1862, moved to Grand Rapids, Mich. to develop his father's real estate interests. He was a trustee of Olivet College for several years. He married a daughter of Lucas Guernsey Merrill of Kenosha, Wisc., and had three sons. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 163.)

Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870 / Internet Archive
Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 163 / Google Books

His grandson, Albert Merrill Coit, Yale 1905, sold bonds for timber lands, and since 1901, was a trustee of the Coit Estate in Grand Rapids, and secretary and treasurer of Fentress & Co. investment bankers in Chicago. In 1913, he married a daughter of Robert Hall Babcock M.D. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University Deceased during the Year 1930-1931, pp. 167-168.) Babcock was a blind doctor who was the author of the medical textbooks/anti-tobacco screeds, Diseases of the Heart and Arterial System (1903) and Diseases of the Lungs (1907). He was also a first cousin of Samuel Denison Babcock of the Guaranty Trust and the Central Trust. (Descendants of Joseph Miner - Seventh Generation. The Thomas Minor Society.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1930-1931 / Yale University Library (pdf 345 pp)
Diseases of the Heart and Arterial System, 1903 / Google Books
Diseases of the Lungs, 1907 / Google Books
Descendants of Joseph Miner- Seventh Generation / The Thomas Minor Society

Another native of Norwich, Conn., Benjamin Billings Coit M.D., Yale 1822, also moved from New York City to San Francisco in 1849. (Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870, p. 238; and: Record of the meetings of the class of 1822, Yale college, held in 1862 and in 1867, with biographical sketches of the members of the class. Yale University Class of 1822, pp. 17-18.) He was the father of Benjamin Howard Coit, who married Lillie Hitchcock, who built the Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill.

Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870 / Internet Archive
Biographical Sketches, Yale Class of 1822 / University of Michigan Library
Benjamin Billings Coit / Rootsweb, Ancestry.com

Joseph Rothschild, who graduated from Yale Law School in 1873, was born in San Francisco in 1855. He was the son of Henry Rothschild. (Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1926-1927, p. 296; and: Rothschild, Joseph. In: Notables of the West. Press Reference Library, International News Service, Vol. II, 1915.)

Obituary Record of Yale Graduates 1926-1927 / Yale University Library (pdf, 346 pp)
Rothschild, Joseph, Notables of the West / Google Books

The Perit Brothers

Daniel W. Coit's sister, Maria, was the wife of Pelatiah Perit, Yale 1802, a partner in the shipping house of Goodhue & Co. from 1817 to 1861, and President of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York from 1853 to 1863. He left $15,000 to Yale College, which endowed a Professorship of Political and Social Science. (Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870, p. 119; Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. V, September, 1792 - September, 1805. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter. University Press, 1911, p. 528 [543].) He was one of the founders of the Bank of Commerce in New York. (Free Banking. Boston Courier, Jan. 17, 1839), and was a member of the Council of the University of the City of New York. (The University. New-York Spectator, Mar. 18, 1839.) Partners of Goodhue & Co. at its dissolution on Jan. 1, 1861 were Robert C. Goodhue, Charles C. Goodhue, Pelatiah Perit, Richard Warren Weston, and Horace Gray. The business was continued by Weston and Grace. (Boston Daily Advertiser, Jan. 15, 1862.)

Obituary Record, Yale 1859-1870 / Internet Archive
Pelatiah Perit - Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, 1792-1805, p. 528 / Google Books

Pelatiah Perit's brother, John W. Perit, graduated from Yale in 1801. He was a partner of Samuel Cabot and Joseph Cabot in 1820 (The Repertory, Boston, Jan. 27, 1820); then a partner of Russell Sturgis & Company in Manila, with copartners George R. Russell, Russell Sturgis, and Henry P. Sturgis, from 1834 to 1839. The firm was represented in the United States by Goodhue & Co. (Notice. Salem Gazette, Dec. 5, 1834 and Jan. 30, 1835; Philadelphia North American, May 6, 1839.) John W. Perit's son, James D. Perit, died in Canton "[a]t the factory of his father" at age 21. (Died. New York Spectator, Aug. 21, 1834.) J.W. Perit's daughter, Anna, married Joseph S. Ropes of Boston. (Marriages. The Boston Daily Atlas, Nov. 27, 1848) He died in 1845. (John Webster Perit. Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College with Annals of the College History, Vol. V, September, 1792 - September, 1805. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter. University Press, 1911, p. 453 [468].)

John Webster Perit, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College, 1792-1805 / Google Books

The Perit brothers were grandsons of Rev. Pelatiah Webster, Yale 1746. (A Genealogical Regiater of the First Settlers of New England: To which are Added Various Genealogical and Biographical Notes, Collected from Ancient Records, Manuscripts, and Printed Works.By John Farmer. Carter, Andrews & Co., 1829; Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale College [1745-1763]. By Franklin Bowditch Dexter. Holt, 1885, p. 97.)

Pelatiah Webster, A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England / Google Books
Biographical sketches of the graduates of Yale, 1745-1763 / Internet Archive

W. Ropes & Co.

William Ropes was born in Salem, Massacusetts, in 1784. "When arrived at a suitable age, he entered the counting room of Mr. Derby, and, while in his employ, made several voyages to Calcutta. In the year 1815 he removed to Boston, and in successive years was associated in partnership with Colonel Benjamin Pickman and his son, with Mr. Noyes, with Mr. Thomas Ward, and the present Mr. B.T. Reed. In 1832 Mr. Ropes went to St. Petersburg [Russia], and established the house in which he was interested at the time of his decease. In 1842, having spent five years in St. Petersburg, and five years in London, he returned to Boston, which since that date has been his usual residence. Mr. Ropes was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of the late B.T. Reed of Marblehead, by whom he had children, and six of them are now living. His second wife was Miss Codman, sister of Rev. Dr. John Codman; one of the sons of this marriage was killed at Gettysburg." (The Late William Ropes. Boston Daily Advertiser, Mar. 12, 1869.) "Those American merchants who settled down permanently in St Petersburg usually took on the status of foreign guests. William Ropes, who came to St. Petersburg in 1831, was a first guild merchant from 1847 onwards... Purchase of Russian goods was usually easier and cheaper if a merchant had Russian citizenship. This was claimed to be the most easily acquired in Finland. For example William Hooper Ropes, who followed his father from Boston to St. Petersburg, wrote in 1834 of having registered as a merchant in Hamina and subsequently becoming a merchant of the second guild in St. Petersburg" [p. 122]. "Initially Ropes worked under the protection of Baron Stieglitz... The establishment of the independent firm of William Ropes was announced in a printed circular of March 1833. Baring Brothers and Co. of London, Goodhue & Co. of New York and Thomas W. Ward of Boston were named as its backers." They also carried cargos consigned to Peabody, Riggs & Co. [p. 128]. Ropes' son-in-law William C. Gellibrand was from St. Petersburg [p. 131]. William H. Ropes was consul from 1850 to 1854 [p. 137]. (From Sugar Triangle to Cotton Triangle, Trade and Shipping Between America and Baltic Russia, 1783-1860. By Kalevi Ahonen. University Library of Jyväskylä, 2005.)

From Sugar Triangle to Cotton Triangle / University of Jyväskylä (pdf, 574 pp)

William Ropes' son, Joseph S. Ropes, moved to St. Petersburg with his father, where he graduated from the Gymnasium and the Imperial University. He joined W. Ropes & Co. in 1847. He was a member of the board of Trustees of Phillips Academy and Andover Theological Seminary from 1874-1898. He moved to Norwich, Conn. in 1894 to live with his wife's nieces, the Misses Huntington. He married Anna Rumsey Perit, daughter of John W. and Margaretta (Dunlap) Perit in Philadelphia in 1848. (Joseph Samuel Ropes. The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, January 1904. New England Historical and Genealogical Society.)

Joseph Samuel Ropes, NEHGS / Google Books

William Ropes' daughter, Martha Reed Ropes, married Charles Hooper Trask, Skull & Bones 1849, who established a branch of W. Ropes & Co. in New York City. After she died, Trask married a daughter of William Hooper Ropes. (Marriages. The Boston Daily Atlas, Oct. 11, 1849; Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 541.) His father, Captain Richard Trask, sailed for James Andrews. (For Havana. Boston Courier, Apr. 24, 1828.) The entire Trask family changed their name from "Tink" in 1826. (AN ACT to change the names of the several persons therein mentioned. Boston Commercial Gazette, Jun. 29, 1826.) In 1903, Charles H. Trask's son, Frederick Kingsbury Trask, married a daughter of John H. Jacquelin and became a partner of Jacquelin & de Coppet in New York City. (Married. New York Times, Apr. 17, 1903; Frederick K. Trask. New York Times, Dec. 16, 1939.) Frederick K. Trask Jr. was a vice president of the American Heart Association. (Elected As President of Heart Association. New York Times, Jun. 8, 1951.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1900-1910, p. 541 / Google Books

William Ropes' son, John Codman Ropes, founded the Boston law firm Ropes & Gray with John Chipman Gray in 1865. Harvard University was one of their first clients. Thomas [Nelson] Perkins became a name partner in 1914. (Company History. Ropes & Gray, accessed Nov. 1, 2008.) (A Memoir of the Life of John Codman Ropes, LL.D. By Joseph May. The Merrymount Press, 1901. [This book is "With the Compliments of William. Ropes Trask."])

A Memoir of the Life of John Codman Ropes, LL.D. / Google Books

William Hooper Ropes' son, Charles Joseph Hardy Ropes, who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, graduated from Yale in 1872 and became a professor of sacred literature. (Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 793.)

Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale, 1910-1915, p. 793 / Google Books

Ernest C. Ropes was a secretary for the YMCA in Russia and Estonia from 1919 to 1922. He joined the US Commerce Department's Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce in 1923, and retired in 1947 as chief of the Russian Unit. He was born in Brooklyn and attended schools there and in St. Petersburg, "where his family long had had business interests," and was chairman of the American Russian Institute. (E.C. Ropes, Expert on Soviet Trade, 72. New York Times, Oct. 14, 1949.)

George Smith & Co.

George Smith was "a Scotch farmer, who had reached Chicago in 1834 with a view of purchasing farming lands. Friends of his who were bankers soon joined him, and turned his mind toward banking... An insurance charter granted him in Illinois, while denying banking privileges in bulk, conferred some of them in detail." Daniel Wells of Milwaukee was his friend in the Wisconsin Legislature. The bill he drew up "allowed the company, besides insuring on ship and shore, to receive money on deposit, give certificates, loan on the same terms as individuals, and employ its surplus capital in the purchase of stock and other moneyed operations, 'provided nothing herein contained shall give banking privileges.'" "[A]ll competitors were legally expelled from Wisconsin for thirteen years." Alexander Mitchell came to Milwaukee from Scotland in 1839 to serve as secretary of the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company. He had been sent by the Aberdeen law office of Adam & Anderson, "for the money with which Smith operated was largely theirs." The company's main business was loaning money to buy land. (Alexander Mitchell, the Financier. By James D. Butler. Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.)

Alexander Mitchell, the Financier / Wisconsin Historical Society
Mitchell, Alexander 1817 - 1887 / Wisconsin Historical Society

Rival bankers attempted to wreck the bank with runs. "Finally, however, Smith wearied of the persecution instigated by his business rivals, and established a collateral bank in Atlanta, Ga., abandoning the Milwaukee office. George Smith's bank notes were thereafter issued from the Georgia capital, and the distance was so great between Chicago and Atlanta that he was able to protect himself better against sudden demands for gold." He never retaliated although he had enough of his attackers' notes to shut them down. Charles B. Farwell, later U.S. senator, was chief teller of the bank. "The astute financier foresaw the war of the rebellion and the troublous times that were ahead. About 1856 he called in his Georgia circulation, wound up his business and invested his immense fortune in securities that have since quadrupled in value." He invested in the Northwestern, the St. Paul, and the Rock Island railroads. He moved to London and spent his final days at the Reform Club in London, with Peter Geddes as the active manager of his affairs in the United States. His fortune was estimated at $30 to $40 million. (George Smith, Banker. Milwaukee Sentinel, Aug. 18, 1893.)

Peter Geddes

Peter Geddes was a director of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad since at least 1875, when "Mr. Mitchell succeeded in carrying out his design of eliminating from the directory Russell Sage, which we regard as a favorable sign for Wisconsin. In the new board appear two well known Wisconsin men, Jonathan Bowman, of Kilbourn City, and J.G. Thorp, of Madison." Other directors were Alexander Mitchell and John Plankinton of Milwaukee, Selah Chamberlain of Cleveland; Walter S. Gurnee, Julius Wadsworth, Elias L. Frank, James Buell, David Dows, and John M. Burke of New York; and F.A. Mueller of Rotterdam, Holland. (The New Milwaukee & St. Paul Directory. Wisconsin State Register, Jun. 19, 1875). He was the road's oldest living director when he retired in 1906 at age 84. (Obituary Notes. New York Times, Oct. 10, 1913.) He was a director of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad from at least 1876 to 1889 as well.

Charles Ferdinand Ilsley of Eastport, Maine came to Wisconsin in 1847 and found work as a clerk at the the Wisconsin Marine & Fire Insurance Company. He joined Samuel Marshall's banking business in 1849, which did private banking as the Marshall & Ilsley Bank until 1888. Marshall & Ilsley also chartered the State Bank of Madison in 1853. He was a director of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. (Ilsley, Charles Ferdinand. Wisconsin Historical Society.)

Ilsley, Charles Ferdinand 1827 - 1904 / Wisconsin Historical Society