Wikipedia

Rufus King Delafield

Rufus King Delafield (November 18, 1802 – February 6, 1874) was an American banker and manufacturer.

Rufus King Delafield
Born(1802-11-18)November 18, 1802
New York City, New York, U.S.
DiedFebruary 6, 1874(1874-02-06) (aged 71)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Resting placeGreen-Wood Cemetery
Spouse
Eliza Bard
​
​
(m. 1836)​
Children7
Parent(s)Anne Hallett Delafield
John Delafield
RelativesRichard Delafield (brother)
Edward Delafield (brother)
Joseph Delafield (brother)
Francis Delafield (nephew)

Early life edit

 
Photograph of members of the Delafield family, c. 1870.

Delafield was born at his father's residence, 16 Wall Street in New York City, on November 18, 1802,[1] and named after Rufus King, the first U.S. Senator from New York who was then serving as the U.S. Minister to the United Kingdom. His godfather was Alexander Hamilton.[2] He was the youngest of nine sons and four daughters born to Anne (née Hallett) Delafield (1766–1839) and John Delafield (1748–1824),[3] a merchant who emigrated to New York from England in 1788 and was a founder and director of the Mutual Insurance Company,[4] becoming one of the wealthiest men in the country.[5] His father's summer residence, built in 1791 on the East River opposite Blackwell's Island, was known as" Sunswick" and was one of the largest and best appointed private houses near New York. Among his siblings were older brothers John Delafield,[a] Joseph Delafield,[b] Henry Delafield,[c] William Delafield, Maj. Gen. Richard Delafield, and Dr. Edward Delafield.[9] His younger sister, Susan Maria Delafield, was married to Henry Parish.[10] Rufus, his father, and his four brothers were painted by Morton H. Bly, which is today owned by the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.[3][11]

His maternal grandparents were Joseph Hallett and Elizabeth (née Hazard) Hallett and his aunt, Mary Hallett, was the second wife of U.S. Representative Benjamin Tallmadge.[12] His paternal grandparents were John Delafield and Martha (née Dell) Delafield, a daughter of John Dell of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England.[9] His nephew, Dr. Francis Delafield, was married to Katherine Van Rensselaer,[13] and was the father of Connecticut representative Edward Henry Delafield.[14]

Career edit

After an education in New York, Delafield engaged in "mercantile business" and served as an officer of the Phenix Bank from 1823 to 1835, and actuary and secretary of the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (which later became Citibank) from 1835 to 1852.[1] He also served as a trustee of the State Agricultural College of New York.[15]

After his banking career, he was the founder and president of the Delafield & Baxter Hydraulic Cement Company,[8][16] located at the High Falls at Rondout Creek, which was previously Ogden & Delafield.[17] Delafield & Baxter, which was headquartered at 54 Pine Street,[18] produced Rosendale cement and their mill was driven by water-power and consisted of "three crackers, and four run of four and half feet stone" and three quarries.[17] His son Henry Parish Delafield was the secretary of the firm,[19] and after his death, his eldest son Edward assumed the presidency of Delafield & Baxter.[1]

Personal life edit

 
Eliza Bard Delafield

On November 8, 1836, Delafield was married to Eliza Bard (1813–1902) of Hyde Park, New York. Eliza was the daughter of Catherine (née Cruger) Bard and William Bard, founder and first president of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company. Among her siblings were Anne Bard (wife of Edward Prime),[20] Susan Bard (wife of Ferdinand Sands),[21] and John Bard (founder of Bard College with his wife, Margaret Taylor Johnston, sister of John Taylor Johnston, founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art).[22] Together, they were the parents of seven children:[23]

  • Edward Delafield (1837–1884),[24] a member of the New York Stock Exchange who married Elizabeth Remsen Schuchardt, daughter of Frederick Schuchardt (nephew of Frederick Gebhard), in 1861.[19]
  • William Bard Delafield (1838–1863), who died unmarried in Staten Island.[19]
  • Rufus King Delafield Jr. (1840–1861), who died unmarried of typhoid fever during the U.S. Civil War.[1]
  • Henry Parish Delafield (1842–1904),[25] who married Elizabeth Blake Moran, daughter of Daniel E. Moran, in 1883. He married Marguerite Marie Dewey in 1896.[22]
  • Bertram DeNully Delafield (1844–1865),[26] who died unmarried of an "accidental gunshot wound while hunting" in Freeborn, Minnesota.[19]
  • Catherine Cruger Delafield (1847–1926),[27] who married John Tonnelé Hall (1831–1895) in 1871. Hall's brother, Valentine Hall Jr., was the maternal grandfather of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.[19]
  • Richard Delafield (1853–1930),[28] who married widow Clara (née Foster) Carey (1845–1909), sister of Frederic de Peyster Foster and Giraud Foster, in 1879. After her death, he married Edith Pauline Fesser (1872–1925) in 1913.[28] He founded the firm of Delafield & Company, of New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.[d][29]

Like his father and brothers, Delafield established a country seat for himself, Rufus' being in New Brighton, Staten Island, where he brought the residence "to the highest state of cultivation."[1] Today, the former Delafield estate in the Livingston neighborhood, is home to the Staten Island Cricket Club.[30]

Delafield died on February 6, 1874, at 253 Park Avenue in New York City, the residence of his son-in-law, John T. Hall.[18] After a funeral at Trinity Church, he was buried at the family mausoleum at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.[31]

Descendants edit

Through his eldest son Edward, he was the grandfather of Rufus Delafield (1863–c. 1925), who married Elizabeth Breeze Morse (daughter of Sidney Morse)[32] in 1886;[22] and Massachusetts legislator Frederick Schuchardt Delafield (1865–1935),[33] who married Anne Oakley Brooks (1872–1941) (daughter of Frederick W. Brooks)[34] in 1894.[1]

Through his daughter Catherine, he was the grandfather of Elsie Bard Hall (1873–1932), who did not marry;[35] Suzette Tonnelé Hall (1875–1929),[36] who married Bryce Metcalf in 1905;[37] and Katharine Cruger Delafield Hall (1879–1920),[38] who married W. S. Groesbeck Fowler (grandson of William S. Groesbeck) in 1910.[19][39][40]

References edit

Notes
  1. ^ John Delafield (1786–1853) first married Mary Roberts (parents of Mary Ann Delafield DuBois). After her death, he married Harriet Wadsworth Tallmadge (1797–1856), daughter of Delafield's uncle U.S. Representative Benjamin Tallmadge (from his first marriage to Mary Floyd).[6]
  2. ^ Joseph Delafield (1790–1875) was married to Julia Livingston (1801–1882), daughter of Recorder of New York City Maturin Livingston.[7]
  3. ^ Henry Delafield (1792–1875) was married to Mary Parish Monson (1838–1870), a daughter of Judge L. Monson of Delaware County.[8]
  4. ^ Delafield & Company was founded in 1880 as the Delafield, Morgan, Kissel & Co. and primarily traded California and Pacific slope products.[28]
Sources
  1. ^ a b c d e f Pelletreau, William Smith (1907). Historic Homes and Institutions and Genealogical and Family History of New York. Lewis Publishing Company. pp. 279-280. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  2. ^ The Banker's Magazine. Warren, Gorham & Lamont, Incorporated. 1899. p. 709. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Five Delafield Brothers and the Father". npg.si.edu. National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  4. ^ The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time, Vol. XI. New York: J. T. White & Company. 1909. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  5. ^ "JOSEPH DELAFIELD" (PDF). The New York Times. February 14, 1875. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  6. ^ Talmadge, Arthur White (1909). The Talmadge, Tallmadge and Talmage genealogy; being the descendants of Thomas Talmadge of Lynn, Massachusetts, with an appendix including other families. New York: The Grafton press. Retrieved November 10, 2016.
  7. ^ Livingston, Edwin Brockholst (1910). The Livingstons of Livingston Manor. New York: Knickerbocker Press. p. 562.
  8. ^ a b Bolton, Robert (1881). The History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester: From Its First Settlement to the Present Time. C. F. Roper. pp. 624–627. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  9. ^ a b Browning, Charles Henry (1969). Americans of Royal Descent: Collection of Genealogies Showing the Lineal Descent from Kings of Some American Families. Genealogical Publishing Company. pp. 103–105. ISBN 9780806300542. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  10. ^ "Henry Parish's Estate | A Will Contest that Made A Stir Forty Years Ago". The New York Sun. 23 May 1897. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  11. ^ Middendorf, Henry S. (1993). The Portrait Collection of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. p. 10. ISBN 9781877692055. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  12. ^ The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. 1905. p. 45. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  13. ^ "FRANCIS DELAFIELD, PATHOLOGIST, DEAD; New York Surgeon Succumbs to Apoplexy, at 73, at His Sister's Home in Noroton, Conn. EMERITUS OF COLUMBIA Author of Many Standard Medical Works, and Consulting Physician When McKinley Was Shot". The New York Times. 18 July 1915. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  14. ^ Times, Special To The New York (2 December 1955). "EDWARD H. DELAFIELD". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  15. ^ Cutter, William Richard (1926). American Biography: A New Cyclopedia. American Historical Society. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  16. ^ Copy Papers on Appeal, Case and Exceptions. 1900. p. 76. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  17. ^ a b Gillmore, Q. A. (2000). Limes Hydraulic Cement and Mortars. Watchmaker Publishing. pp. 50–51. ISBN 9780972178624. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  18. ^ a b "Sudden Death of a Merchant" (PDF). The New York Times. 8 February 1874. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  19. ^ a b c d e f Bergen, Tunis Garret (1915). Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. pp. 806–807. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  20. ^ Hall, Henry (1895). America's Successful Men of Affairs: The city of New York. New York Tribune. p. 527. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  21. ^ Johnson, Dale T. (1990). American Portrait Miniatures in the Manney Collection. Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 193. ISBN 9780870995972. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  22. ^ a b c Helffenstein, Abraham Ernest (1911). Pierre Fauconnier and His Descendants: With Some Account of the Allied Valleaux. Press of S. H. Burbank & Company. p. 95. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  23. ^ Delafield, John Ross (1945). Delafield: The Family History. Priv. print. pp. 981, 988, 1014. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  24. ^ "Edward Delafield" (PDF). The New York Times. 30 November 1884. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  25. ^ "DIED. DELAFIELD" (PDF). The New York Times. July 3, 1904.
  26. ^ "Died. Delafield" (PDF). The New York Times. 31 July 1865. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  27. ^ "Mrs. Katherine C. Delafleld Hall" (PDF). The New York Times. November 4, 1926. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  28. ^ a b c "RICHARD DELAFIELD, BANKER, DIES AT 76; Chairman of Board of National Park Bank Succumbs at Tuxedo After Long Illness. MEMBER OF NOTED FAMILY He Was President of Bank for 22 Years and Official or Director of Other Corporations" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 August 1930. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  29. ^ Van Pelt, Daniel (1898). Leslie's History of the Greater New York: Encyclopedia of New York biography and genealogy. Arkell Publishing Company. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  30. ^ Bavanandan, Rajadurai. "History". Retrieved 2009-07-11.
  31. ^ "The Late Rufus King Delafield" (PDF). The New York Times. 10 February 1874. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  32. ^ "MRS. E.M. DELAFIELD, KIN OF SAMUEL MORSE; Descendant of Philip Schuyler Dies in Her Home Here" (PDF). The New York Times. 20 April 1939. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  33. ^ "F. S. DELAFIELD DIES IN THE BERKSHIRES; Member of Distinguished New York Family Succumbs After Operation at 70" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 May 1935. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  34. ^ "Mrs. F. S. Delafield" (PDF). The New York Times. 27 December 1941. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  35. ^ "Will of Miss E. B. Hall Filed". The Gazette. 7 November 1932. p. 9. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  36. ^ "MRS. BRYCE METCALF.; Funeral Services Are Held in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn" (PDF). The New York Times. 5 February 1929. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  37. ^ "Weddings of a Day.; Metcalf--Hall" (PDF). The New York Times. 3 November 1905. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  38. ^ "Died. FOWLER" (PDF). The New York Times. 2 February 1920. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  39. ^ "Miss Hall to Wed W. S. G. Fowler" (PDF). The New York Times. 4 August 1910. Retrieved 16 August 2019.
  40. ^ "MISS HALL BRIDE OF W. S. G. FOWLER; Daughter of Mrs. John T. Hall Weds in Church of Transfiguration -- Beautiful Decorations" (PDF). The New York Times. 9 December 1910. Retrieved 16 August 2019.

External links edit

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