The New York genealogical and biographical record (Volume 63) online

season, Mr. Josiah C. Pumpelly, of Morristown, N. J., read a paper on " Mahlon
Dickerson of New Jersey, Industrial Pioneer and Old-time Patriot." At the fol-
lowing meeting, November 14th, Mr. William Nelson, Secretary of the New Jersey
Historical Society, spoke on " Berkeley and Carteret, First Lords Proprietors of New
Jersey." Mr. Nelson has made an exhaustive study of the early history of New Jer-
sey, and he gave, in his addjess, the results of his recent labors in that line. On the
I2th of December Mr. P. H. Woodward, of Hartford, Conn., reviewed the patriotic
services of one of the active, though less known, heroes of the Revolution, Colonel
Thomas Knowlton. At the annual meeting of the Society, held, according to the
by-laws, on the first Wednesday of January, Dr. S. S. Purple, Gen. Jas. Grant Wil-
son, and Mr. William P. Robinson, whose terms as Trustees had expired, were re-
elected for the ensuing three years. On Friday, January g, 1891, Mr. Philip Randall
Voorhees, the well-known lawyer of this city, read a paper on " New Jersey's Flo-
tilla-Men in New York Bay during the Revolution" ; and the February meeting, held
on the 13th, was addressed by Dr. George Stewart, F.R.G.S., President of the
Quebec Historical vSociety, on "Count Frontenac, Governor of New France." The
lecturer traced the early career of the distinguished soldier and statesman, and
described briefly the Salons, the court beauties of King Louis's reign, and the men
and women who swayed the destinies of France. The count's mission to the New
World was then touched upon, Dr. Stewart showing how eager the governor was to
build up the country, and spread the spirit of colonization and Christianity among
the people. He called a convention in 1672, seeking to inaugurate a monarchical
form of government, and, with much pomp, created three estates of his realm, the
Clergy, Nobles, and Commons. The king, however, opposed the scheme, and
Frontenac was sharply reprimanded for his pains. He possessed wonderful power
over the Indians, knowing well when to apply blandishments and when to threaten
and punish. The lecturer gave several examples of l^'rontenac's method of concili-
ating the savage tribes which infested the districts, and gave a graphic account of the
great Indian Council at Fort Frontenac, and the comparative facility with which the
governor turned the tables on the Iroquois, and forced them from antagonism into
submission. His subjection of the bushrangers, and his quarrels with Perrot, the
Governor of Montreal, with Bishop Laval and the Jesuits, and the Sulpicians, with
the Intendants Talon and Duchesneau, and with the Court itself — the latter leading



189 1.] Notes and Queries. iqc

to his recall — were dwelt upon and explained tersely and clearly. Dr. Stewart
brought his valuable address to a close by a brief glance at some of the authorities
who have treated the administration of the count at great length, complimenting
particularly Parkman, Laverdiere, Faillon, Garneau, and h'erland. The lecturer then
presented the Society with a large photograph of the massive bronze statue of Fron-
tenac-, the work of Mr. Hebert, a Canadian sculptor of fine ability, which was
placed last autumn in one of the niches in front of the Parliament buildings in
Quel)ec. At this meeting, whicli was held in the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre, ad-
dresses were also made by Kt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York, Arch-
deacon Mackay Smith, Rev. Newland Maynard, and Gen. Charles W. Darling of
Utica, N. V. The Society has had a prosperous winter and is rapidly growing in
membership and influence. Its library, through the generosity of friends, is be-
coming exceedingly useful and valuable, and it is hoped and expected that before
another year has passed the Society will be comfortably and permanently housed in
a building of its own.

An interesting address was delivered in the Berkeley Lyceum Theatre by Col.
Asa Bird Gardiner, LL.D.. on Friday evening, March 13 : subject, " The Society of
the Cincinnati," of which order Colonel tlardiner is the Secretary-General. At the
close of the address the president paid a touching tribute to his old friend and chief,
General Sherman, an honorary member of the Society.

Among the many prominent persons recently elected members of the .Society are
Mr. John A. King, President of the New York Historical Society ; Col. P'dwin A.
Stevens, Mr. Henry Day, Mr. Lawrence Turnure, Mr. Hamilton K. Fairfax, Col.
Asa Bird (Jardiner, Mr. William G. Verplanck, Mr. Killian \'an Rensselaer, Mr.
William Rhinelander, and the Hon. William C Whitney. In January, the Count of
Paris was jiroposed by the President, and elected as an Honorary Member, and in
February Dr. George Stewart, l-.R.G.S., of Canada, as a corresponding member of
the Society.

At the April meeting of the .Society an address will be delivered by the Rev.
Arthur W. H. Katon on the second P'riday of the month. In May the Rev. Morgan
Dix, D.D., will address the Society on the late John Jacob Astor. and the June ad-
dress will be by CJen. Charles W\ Darling, of Utica: subject, " Horatio Seymour."
The address by Dr. Dix will a]:)pear in the July number of the Record, accompanied
by a fine steel portrait of Mr. Asior.

Mr. James Loder Raymond sends the following extracts from the family Bible of
Wn.i.iAM Du Vali. of 49 Maiden Lane, New York, who during the early part of this
century was a respected merchant and citizen, and for some time trustee of " Old
John Street Church." His father, Thomas Du Vail, was a soldier in the New Jersey
Line of the Continental Army, and for a time prisoner of war in the " Old Sugar
House" in Liberty Street, New York.

Thomas Du Vail of Second River (Belleville), N. J., was born in the year 1739.
He married Ann Ennis. They had the following children :

William, born Febr'y 3d, 1770 ; died July 8th, 1837.

Joseph, " " Novr. 2d, 1832.

John, " 17S3 ; " Septr. 21st, 1841.

Thomas, " " March nth, 1836.

James, " " June, 1819.

Ann, " " March, 1846.

Thomas Du Vail, Sr., died at Belleville, N. J., Augt. 5ih, 1S26.
Ann, his wife, died May ]6th. 1809, oet. 65 years.

William Du Vail married Hannah Stuart, March 16, 1797, at New York City.
They had the following children :

William Stuart, born Jan'y i8lh, 1798 ; died Ap'l 1st, 1847.

Mary Ann, " March 17th, 1800 ; '" in infancy.

Louisa, " Febr'y gth, 1802 ; " Aug't 4th, 1845.

Joseph W., " March 14th, 1804 : " Dec. 3d, 1846.

' Mary Ann, " June 12th, 1806; " Febr'y 6th, 18S7.

Thomas Tyson, " Ap'l 9th, 1808 ; " June 30th, 1832.

John Bullis, " June 3d, 1811 ; " Jan'y 29th, 1858.

Harriet, '" May 22d, 1813 ; '* June 28th, 1866.

Hannah Caroline, •' Aug't i6th, 1816 ; '• Ap'l 13th, 1873.



I06 Notes and Queries. [April,

MARRIAGES.

William Stuart Du Vail to Margaret Brown, March 5th, 1820.
Louisa Du Vail " Daniel Sickels, Septr. 12th, 1830.

Joseph \V. Du Vail, M.D. " Eliza Ogden, Augt. 19th, 1830.

John Bullis Du Vail " Lavenia Seaman, , 1S50.

Hannah Caroline Du Vail " James M. Raymond, June loth, 1835.

William Stuart formerly of New Castle, ^England, came to this country about
1765. Taught school at Second River, N. J. (1766), for many years, at which place
he was married to Ann Dotiington, Nov. 25th, 1770. He died Dec. 24th, 1784.
His wife died June 19th, 1813. They had two children.

1. Mary Ann, bom ; died .

2. Hannah, born Dec. i6th, 1776 ; died Oct. 28th, 1831.
The first married Samuel Bonsall of Spring Valley, N. J.
The second married William Du Vail of New York City.

The life of Mrs. Sarah D. Hyatt, who died January 10 at Honey Meadow Brook,
Dutchess County, at the age of almost loi years, is a striking illustration of the lon-
gevity and good health that result from careful habits and a cheerful mind. Mrs.
Hyatt was a descendant of an old French family originally called De Ville. When
a branch of the family came to this country before the Revolution, the name became
corrupted to Deuel. The progenitor of the Deuel family in this country, who was a
travelling missioner, became a Quaker, and his descendants have all or nearly all been
Quakers. Mrs. Hyatt was born in Dover, Dutchess County, in May, 1790. She mar-
ried James Hyatt at the age of twenty-five, and had a number of children, four of whom
are still living. Her husband died in 1862, and since then she has lived with her eld-
est son at Honey Meadow Brook. At the age ol ninety-five she suffered an accident
by which one of her legs was broken. It was supposed that at her advanced age the
shock would be fatal, but to the surprise of all she recovered, and was able to walk
again in three months. She retained all her faculties up to within three days of her
death, and was always of a pleasant, companionable disposition. She had a taste for
literature, and could quote at length from Whittier, Shakespeare, and others of her
favorite poets. It was her habit never to be idle, but always to employ her faculties
at something. It is to this and careful habits of diet that she attributed her great
vigor and longevity. Another venerable woman, Mrs. Eunice Beers, also died at
the same great age and during the same month, at Omaha, Neb. She was loi years
old, and well connected, being a daughter of the millionnaire baker of New York, the
late Cyrus Strong, and closely related to ex-President Hayes. In the early history of
the Territory of Nebraska she was influential in preventing a number of Indian mas-
sacres. J.G.W.

From Albany County Records, copied for the New York Genealogical Society
by B. Fernovv.

Soldiers in garrison at Fort Albany, on the 26th of October, i68g, who took the
oath of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary :

Charles Rodgers, ^S • t- Ralph Grant.

Christopher Barrisford, P ^ ' William Haaton.

John Holman, ) William Hatter.

John Gilbert, - Corporals. Stephen Hooper.

John Thomson, ) William Rodger?.

Thomas Rodgerson, Drummer. John Radecliffe.

Gerret Arentse. Richard Tunnel!.

Robert Barritt. Elias Van Ravesteyn.

John Carter. Richard While.

John Denny. Richard Wilson.

William Ellis. Thomas Wakefield.

Robert Farringhton.

Stationed at the Half Moon, and sworn in on the loth of November:
Tobyas Henderson. James Willet.

James Tarmond. Joshua Grant.

William Powel.

Thomas Sherer refuses.



1 89 1.] Notes and Queries. I07

Within the last two or three years the Record has been able to give accounts
of two undoubted Centenarians, Mrs. Sarah Smith, of New Orleans, and Mrs.
Agnes Allen Kissam, of Brooklyn. In both these cases the records are in existence
and the evidence is complete. A third. Miss Fanny Allen, of Fredericlon, N. B.,
who died in 1S76, was, according to her own statement and the belief of her family,
a girl of twelve years old when she went with her father from New York to St. John
in 1783. There can be no reasonable doubt that the record of her baptism was in one
of the register books of Trinity Church which were burnt in the great fire of 1776.
Curiously enough, the family records perished in the fire which almost destroyed St.
John a few years ago. The Church Times of December 24, 1890, contains an ac-
count of a fourtn centenarian, still living, the Rev. John Elliott, the oldest clergyman
of the Church of England. Though it is the rule of the Record to print nothing but
original matter, we think that the interest and value of this item will justify us in reprint-
ing it. "A venerable clergyman, the oldest indeed in the Church, has just entered
upon his one hundredth year. The Rev. John Elliott, vicar of Randwick, Gloucester-
shire, was born on December 19, 1791. Educated at Oxford, he was ordained deacon
in 1817 and priest in 181S. In the following year he was appointed to the living of
Randwick, so that he has held his present position for a period of over seventy years.
He has not officiated for the past few years, his duties being performed by his curate,
the Rev. E. W. Edwards ; but as late as September, 1890, he delivered a short ad-
dress in his church to about fifty school-masters and school-mistresses." A later
paper mentions the death of Mr. Elliott on Sunday, the 4th of January.

A PHENOMENAL instance of literary vandalism has lately occurred in the city of
Buffalo, where all the valuable letters and other documents relating to the admini; -
tration of Millard Fillmore were destroyed by the executor of the ex-President's only
son, whose will contained a mandate to that effect. Why he should have wished
in this way to destroy an important part of the history of his country, as well as of his
father's honorable career, or why any intelligent lawyer should have consigned to the
flames thousands of papers by Webster and other illustrious men without at least
causing copies of the most valuable of them to be made, is entirely beyond the compre-
hension of ordinary mortals. To the writer, in pointing out his carefully preserved
papers, the ex-President said, "In those cases can be found every important letter and
document which I received during my administration, and which will enable the future
historian or biographer to prepare an authentic account of that period of our country's
history." As a Buffalo correspondent writes to me, " The only opportunity probably
that ever would present itself for properly defending and explaining the signing of the
Fugitive Slave bill — the existence of an unquestioned and strong public sentiment in
favor of the President's doing so — the recommendations that the act be done, made
by Mr. Fillmore's most eminent advisers — the proof of all these things unquestion-
ably would have been presented by the letters and documents referred to ; and now
every one of these is gone ! " j. g. \v.

George Bancroft gave up horseback riding two years ago, but almost to the
very end continued to take long walks for a man of his great age. About a year be-
fore his death he one afternoon invited General Grant Wilson to accompany him, and
they walked out to Georgetown. As they were returning a street-car approached,
and the general, thinking the old gentleman of eighty-nine had gone far enough on
foot, suggested that perhaps they had better ride, when the historian asked in vigor-
ous tones, "Are you fatigued, sir?" They returned on foot, a distance of some
three miles, and that evening met again at a dinner table, when Mr. Bancroft, none
the worse for his long walk, merrily related how he had tired out his young New
York friend. About the same time Mr. Brady made a fine photograph of the vener-
able man, the last portrait taken of him. Among the many letters written during
the past quarter of a century by the historian to the president of oui Society, is the
following, dated Washington, May 3, 1882: " I am constrained to look upon life here
as a season for labor. Being more than fourscore years old, I know the time for my re-
lease will soon come. Conscious of being near the shore of eternity, I wait without
impatience and without dread the beckoning of the hand which will speedily sum-
mon me to rest."

A LARGE number of families of Dutch descent in Germany are incensed and
troubled over a recent decision of the Prussian College of Heraldry. Heretofore the
Dutch families with the prefix "van" to their names have considered themselves



I O 8 Obituaries. [April,

members of the German nobility and equal in every respect to the German families
which were entitled to the use of " von." According to the investigations of the
Heralds, however, " van " is not a nobiliary particle, but was used simply to designate
the town or village from which the person came. Hereafter, therefore, the " vans"
in Germany are not to be considered members of the nobility, or to be entitled to its
privileges. J. G. w.

Information is desired as to the parentage of Elizabeth Kierstede, who died,
[anuary 26, 1760, aged 81. She was the wife of Hans Kierstede, born August 20,
"1673 ; sponsors, Balthasar and iMaria Bayard. They had, with other children, Maria,
died, November, 1762, aged 59 ; married. May 18, 1723, to James Livingston. Hans
Kierstede was the son of Dr. Hans Kierstede. died, May 14, i6gi, and his wife
Jannetie Lookermann (N. Y. G. & B. Record, Vol. XIII., p. 24). M. L. D.

Those pleasant harbingers of returning spring, the robins and red birds, first
appeared in the Central Park on the seventh of March, and the little crocuses ap-
peared in sunny corners of the Ramble a week later. J. G. W.

In the sketch of Rev. Dr. Charles W. Baird. in the October Record, the name
of his mother should have been Fermine Du Buisson, instead of Firmine D. Boisson.



OBITUARIES.



Clinton Bowen Fisk was born December 8th, 1828, at Clapp's Corners, now
called Griegsville, a little country cross-roads near York, in Livingston County, N. Y.
He was the fifth son of Benjamin Fisk, a sturdy New England blacksmith, who traced
his Lincolnshire ancestry back to the year 1700, and Lydia Aldrich, of Killingly, Con-
necticut, of "Welsh descent. In May, 1S30, the family removed to Lenawee County,
Mich., where Captain Fisk, as he was called, established himself at a place known as
Clinton, which consisted of little else than the blacksmith shop with its log house
attachment, a rude frontier inn, and a small country store. Two years later he died,
leaving a widow with six sons, a quarter section of uncultivated land, with the log
house and blacksmith shop. At nnie years of age Clinton was apprenticed to a farmer
named Wright, for whom he was to work until twenty-one years old, the terms of the
agreement being that he should have " three months of schooling each year," for four
years, and when of age, he should receive $200 in money, a horse, saddle, bridle, and
two suits of clothes.

The energetic and ambitious boy's hunger for an education soon overleaped the
narrow bounds of " Deacon " Wright's farm, and he was kindly released from his
contract after two years' honest and faithful work. The story of the next few years
is that of a youth struggling successfully against adverse circumstances to educate
himself, and also to contriljute to the support of his widowed mother. At seventeen
he was a clerk in a shop at Manchester, and at twenty he entered the service of the
leading firm of Coldwater. Two years later Fisk married Miss Jeannette A. Crip-
pen, daughter of the senior member of the firm, who bore him two sons and a daughter.
He soon became a partner in the house, and assumed the care of its banking interests.
When the financial crash came in 1857, Mr. Fisk was successful in meeting all the
obligations of the firm, and in the following year he removed to St. Louis, where he
was made .the western financial manager of the yl'ltna Fire Insurance Company, of
Hartford, Conn. He was chiefly instrumental in organizing the Union Merchants'
Exchange, the old exchange having become disloyal to the Federal Government. The
newexchange soon became the great financial body of St. Louis, and Mr. F'isk served
as its secretary in its early days.

In the ranks of those who secretly drilled for the Union cause before the com-
mencement of the Civil War in i86i was Clinton B. Fisk, and he enlisted as a private
for three months' service in the Missouri Home Guards. In 1862 he was authorized
to recruit a regiment to be equipped and sent to the front by the Union Exchange.
Of this organization, which was completed in September, he was commissioned colo-
nel. In October he was ordered to leave his regiment, the Thirty third Missouri Vol-
unteers, in the field and to return to St. Louis and form a brigade. Of this he was
made the commander, receiving his commission as brigadier-general November 24.



1 8 9 1 . J Obituaries. j qq

The brigade was sent to Helena, Ark., where it participated in various operations of
the war. In January, 1863, General Fisk was assigned to the command of the Sec-
ond Infantry Division of the Army of East Arkansas, and took part in the unsuccess-
ful Yazoo Pass expedition. Early in the summer of the same year he returned to
Missouri, when he relieved General Davidson in command of the Department of
Southeast Missouri, with head'iuarters at Pilot Knob. In March, 1S64, he was trans-
ferred to Northern Missouri, and when General Sterling Price attacked the State cap-
ital he was defeated and driven out of Missouri by General Fisk, and the State saved
to the Union.

On March 13, 1865, Fisk was breveted major-general of volunteers, having ])re-
viously received the full rank of major-general from the State, and the thanks of the
Missouri Senate and House of Representatives. His resignation was pending at the
war department when the assassination of Lincoln occurred. It was not accepted,
and he was assigned to duty as assistant commissioner of the Freedman's Bureau for
the States of Kentucky and Tennessee, with headquarters at Nashville. Here he set
to work to restore confidence between the whites and blacks ; to readjust the relal ions
of society, and to bring about a revival of industry. General Fisk's executive ability,
his mild but firm methods, and his calm judgment, served him well in making the
♦Bureau a success ; and when he resigned from the army, September i, 1866, he iiad
won the confidence and esteem of the people whom he had so efficiently aided. Dur-
ing this period he established the Fisk School of Freedmen, and from this humble be-
ginning grew the P'isk University of Nashville, of which he was president of the Board
of Trustees until the date of his death. Returning to St. Louis he was appointed
Missouri State Commissioner of the Southwest Railway, and later he was made its
vice-president and land commissioner, continuing his connection with the company
until 1S77. Five years before this time he had removed to New York, and in 1874
General Grant appointed him a member of the Board of Indian Commissioners, which
Board immediately elected him president, and this office he held at the time of his
death. In 1S77 General Fisk, on the advice of his physician, visited Europe, and
since that time was occupied with his private affairs as well as with the business of
various institutions and corporations with which he was connected. He was president
of the East Tennessee Land Company, and of the New York Accident Insurance
Company, a member of the Book Committee of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and
a trustee of several colleges connected with that denomination.

General Fisk first became prominently associated with the Prohibition movement
in 1884, when he was urged to accept the nomination for the presidency on that ticket,
but he persistently declined. He was the F^rohibition candidate for Governor of New
Jersey in 18S6, having had, for many years, a summer residence at Seabright. He
worked during the campaign with characteristic energy, making some six score
speeches, and never missing an engagement. In r8S8 he received the nomination for
the presidency against his wish and protest. He made but a few addresses, and did
not enter actively in the canvass. He received 251,147 votes.

His active and busy career closed Wednesday morning July 9, 1890, at his New
York home. No. 175 West 58th Street. The immediate cause of his death was heart
failure brought on by rheumatic fever. He passed away in the presence of those near
and dear to him, in the possession of all his faculties, and in the confident hope of
a blessed immortality. Almost his last utterance was the second verse of Newman's
" Lead, Kindly Light." His funeral services were held in New York on July 11, in
the Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church, and his remains were interred in
Oak Grove Cemetery, Coldwater, Alich. Memorial services in his honor were held
in the Lenox Lyceum, New York, and in many other cities and towns throughout
the country.

Clinton Bowen Fisk was a strong, sturdy type of American manhood — a soldier,
statesman, philanthropist, and successful man ofaffairs. He was a true patriot, the
foremost layman of tiie Methodist Church, a friend of the Indian and Negro, and
deeply interested in the wide field of charitable and missionary work. Deliberate in
council, decisive in action, success followed all his many undertakings. Whatever he
believed at all he believed with his whole soul. His concentrated and persistent energy
in such widely contrasted fields of activity mark him as a model for his young count ry-
men. He was blessed with a strong mind and a vigorous frame, possessing, what
Fuller quaintly calls, " a handsome man-case ;" and he was assuredly a shining exam-
ple of brave old Sam Johnson's assertion, that " useful diligence will at last prevail."

J. c. W,



J JO Book Notices. [April,