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THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY Second Series By Walter Barrett, Clerk 1863 MERCHANT DESCRIPTIONS CHAPTER 5
The old book-keepers (and there are thousands of this class in the city, regulating the financial records of the merchants,) have had some remarkable men among them. An extraordinary one I remember, named Pierpont, who was book-keeper for many years to G.G. & S. Howland. Another was Richard Wilson, who had been book-keeper in London for the great bankers "Smith, Payne & Smith." He came on here and kept books for Oldfield, Bernard & Co., and Gracie, Prime & Co., and finally went to Baltimore, where he became Secretary to the American Life and Trust Company, started there some twenty-five years ago, and of which a branch was established in this city under charge of Morris Robinson, one of the best financiers of his day. He was a long time cashier of the U.S. Branch Bank in this city. The building stood next door to the Custom House, Wall street, and is now occupied by Sub-Treasurer Cisco. WILLIAM ROBERTS In the first volume of this work I mentioned Charles Henry Hall, who was book-keeper to Thomas H. Smith & Son, the great tea merchants. I mentioned that his successor as book-keeper was William Roberts. Afterwards Mr. Roberts carried on business under his own name at the great store of Thomas H. Smith & Co., 166 South Street. He was there two years up to 1829, then established himself at No. 1 Wall Street, corner of Broadway, in the basement. Probably there was never a finer stock of choice brandies and wines than he kept; and he did a very large business, for he was well known to nearly all the leading business men in the city. His residence in those days, from 1831 and on, was at No. 2 Vesey street, where the Astor House stands. He rented it from John Jacob Astor, whose book-keeper he had been until he went to keep the books of Thomas Smith & Son, the tea importers. Mr. Roberts was a very methodical man in his business, very precise and careful, and was very reliable in all matters of accounts. Long after he had left Mr. Astor's employ, that gentleman used to go and see him to consult about accounts. The famous lawsuit, "Ogden vs. Astor," was settled up by Mr. Roberts, who died only last year (1863) and was living at the time in Prince street, next door to Mr. W.B. Astor's office. Mr. Roberts gave up active business about 1840. He has a son, Dr. Roberts, who lives in University place corner Thirteenth street. He married a daughter of Martin Hoffman, who was a great auctioneer in his day, and father of L.M. Hoffman who died a few days ago. THOMAS HOWELL SMITH Speaking of this firm, Thomas Smith & Son, the tea importers, puts me in mind that I met and shook hands with young Tom only two weeks ago, under St. Paul's statue, and a hearty greeting we had. I never have seen young Tom look better. He invited me to his country house down on Long Island, and seemed quite distressed when I refused to go and drink with him to the memory of the dead, with whom we have both been more or less connected in this and the last century. I do not know the precise day when his father, old Tom, started business in New York city, but it must have been before 1800. His name was Thomas Howell Smith, and he was in 1801 at 196 Front street. He kept a wholesale and retail grocery store. The next year after he took in a son-in-law, George W. Bruen, as a partner. The latter was a son of Mat. Bruen, of the firm of M. & J. Bruen, merchants at 177 Broadway, sixty years ago. It was in 1803 that the firm of Thomas H. Smith & Son began to be generally known. From grocers they rose to be the greatest tea importers in the United States. I suppose in the thirty years that followed, Thomas H. Smith was one of the greatest of the old school merchants. he had some of the most extraordinary men with him as clerks. PETER G. HART Peter G. Hart was one, but it is a very curious circumstance that when Thomas H. Smith & Son moved from their old store, No. 196, in 1806, that Hart should have left their employ, and started the wholesale grocery business in the same place, and there he continued standing for twenty odd years, gaining daily, and becoming very rich, while old Mr. Smith Branched out, and became ruined. Peter G. Hart had his store at No. 196 Front street as late as 1827, when he died. He resided at 35 Beekman street, and the family were attendants of Dr. Milnor's church. He left several charming daughters. The widow, after his death, moved to No. 127 Hudson street. She afterwards moved to 535 Broadway, two doors this side of John G. Coster's house (now Chinese building.) I think that property was left to Widow Peter. She afterwards went to East Sixteenth street. THE HOFFMANS Martin Hoffman was a great merchant once. He was of the house of Hoffman & Seton, auctioneers. Old Hoffman married a Miss Seton. If I was to write all that I could about those Hoffmans, I should have to commence back as far as 200 years ago, when Martin Hoffman was an auctioneer in 1661. I can't swear positively that he was an auctioneer, but I know he was a large tax payer in that year, and of course decidedly Dutch. He lived (the 1661 gent,) in De Heere Straat. Of all the Hoffmans, I am more pleased with the Martin Hoffman who flourished just after the Revolution, and who was father of several children, among them, Lindley Murray and Martin, I remember very well. There was a daughter, Sarah. I think she married a Roberts; she was born in 1783. L.M. Hoffman was born in 1793. He had an elder brother named Daniel M., and another named Martin. Martin (of 1790 memory) was a public-spirited man and took an interest in everything that was going on in New York then. He made three of his children Tontine stockholders, and it is curious that out of 203 shares, based on 197 lives, Lindley Murray Hoffman was born last, 1793. He died a few months ago. Martin Hoffman was in everything. He belonged to a fire-company, 1791. In 1792 he was a Sachem of Tammany Hall, and in business on his own account at No. 67 Water street that year. He was captain in the first Regiment of Infantry, 1792. He was master of St. Andrew's Lodge (Free Mason.) In 1795 he founded the auction and commission house of Hoffman & Seton; the store was at No. 67 Wall street. His partner was one of the Setons. It was a great family sixty years ago. The head was William Seton, cashier of the Bank of New York, when it was first chartered, 1784. There was Andrew and William, Jr., and James and Charles. William, the older, was of the great house of Seton, Maitland & Co., they did business at 61 Stone street, and old William lived over the counting-room. His partner was William Maitland. I think Charles Seton was the partner of Hoffman & Seton, afterwards H.S. & Co. In 1808, Mr. Hoffman took in a Mr. Glass as a partner, and did the same business at 67 Wall street, under the firm of Hoffman & Glass. That concern continued in business under that style until 1822, when they took in L.M. Hoffman a partner, and added a Co. to it. Old Mr. Hoffman lived up Broadway, near Jones street. In 1823, Mr. Hoffman took in his son L.M., and a Mr. Pell, and the firm was Hoffman, Son & Pell, at No. 65 Wall street. The other son, Martin, Jr., did an auction business on the corner of Wall and Pearl, but lived with his father, while L.M. was keeping house at No. 113 Grand Street. In 1826, both of these sons joined their father, and kept on the auction business at No. 63 Wall street, under the firm of M. Hoffman & Sons. Mr. Pell kept the old store at No. 65, and did business under the firm of W.F. Pell & Co. Never lived in this city a handsomer race of men than those Pells. Old William was a noble old fellow, and his sons William and Waldron were also splendid fellows. I think the old gentleman, Mr. Hoffman, died in 1827. He was buried from No. 691 Broadway, but the firm was not changed for some years, or until the law was passed to the effect that no name should be used in a firm, unless it really was in it. In 1834, the old firm was changed to L.M. Hoffman & Co.___Martin, Jr. being the company___and they moved from the old store near Pearl, down to No. 83 Wall. Some years later, they moved to No. 111 Pearl, in Hanover square, and this firm was not changed, but was there down to 1861. Martin, the brother of L.M., I believe died some years ago at Maranoneck; and I think young L.M. Jr., was in the dry good business. Now these younger ones, grandsons of the famous Martin of 1790, still keep up the old business, under the firm of L.M. Hoffman's, Son & Co., at No. 111. Next door to them, at No. 109, under the style of Pells & Co., are these old neighbors of thirty-five years ago, when one house was at No. 63 and the other at No. 65 Wall street. When L.M. Hoffman died, a few weeks ago, the journals were filled with notices of him. The Chamber of Commerce passed resolutions of condolence. He deserved them all, for he was an honorable merchant, and a useful citizen. He was as mild and gentle as a lamb. I do not know that he ever spoke an unkind word to any one in his life. He never did a mean action since he was born. THE TONTINE BUILDING I had an idea that he would be one of the seven persons that would have inherited that property. His chances were far better than others who still live. There is a curious history yet to be written about that Tontine building, if one could get at all the facts. Here are some of them. The building now standing, and which is the second erected, stands at the north-west corner of Wall and Water streets, and was commenced in 1792 by an association of New York merchants, and completed in 1794. There had previously been no proper place where the merchants could meet to do business. By the constitution, 203 shares were subscribed for $200 a share. Each share entitled the holder to name a life of each sex. Each nominee had his or her age and parentage stated by the nominee. During such nominee's life, the subscriber received his equal proportion of the net income of the establishment. Upon the death of the nominee, the subscriber's interest ceased, and his interest became merged in the owners of the surviving nominees. The original shares were assignable and held as personal estate, and the whole property was vested in five trustees, who were to be continued in trust, or by succession, until the number of nominees was reduced to seven, when the holders of these shares, contingent upon these surviving nominees, became entitled to a conveyance in fee of the whole premises to be equally divided between them. The nominee himself did not necessarily have an interest in the association; for each subscriber, in naming a person, generally a child, looked to such as had a premise of length of days. For instance, old Martin Hoffman nominated before March, 1795,____three of his children____one born 1791___1792____and 1793. L.M. was the latest date___none later. His chance was good for many years. One nominee was born as early as 1752. Martin was born between 1778 and 1790. William Gracie was a nominee. There are now alive Chas. King, born 1789____ John, born 1787____and Archibald Gracie born 1791, and others whose names I don't know. The constitution was signed November 4, 1794. All the meetings of citizens were held in the Tontine Coffee house. All the famous charities of the city were born there. So were banks and corporations. A grievance was remedied by a meeting at the old Tontine Coffee house, and it decided everything. It was a hotel, too. George Frederick Cook died there in 1812. The Merchants' Exchange was kept in this grand building in the large room, until 1825. It was thirty feet square. I remember how Colonel Gracie used to walk to the looking-glass, pull up his shirt collar, and say: "Don't I look as though my chance for the Tontine, one seventh, is as good as any one else?" Alas, his chances died with him in 1840____twenty years and more ago. I presume the men of that day named all their children who were born then. Rufus King subscribed heavy. So did Archibald Gracie. He named William and Archibald. Among the males yet left, beside those named are G.C. Verplanck, 1786; William Bayard, 1791. It was called the Tontine Coffee House; but the subscribers, when the Exchange opened, got a decree of Chancery authorizing them to let the premises for general purposes, in 1834. In 1843, the legislature altered the title to "Tontine Building." On the 4th of June, 1861, it had existed sixty-seven years. Originally there were 137 males and 66 females, 203; 3 females and 3 males were duplicated, so that really only 197 names were mentioned. Some parties, a few years ago, made a new proposition. They agreed to put up a new building, which should revert to the seven left, provided they, the builders, had the rent of it for the balance of the time. For this they agreed to pay the Tontine trustees the sum of $20,000 per annum. The new building, it was agreed, should not cost less than $40,000. DOCTOR ALEXANDER F. VACHE I now return to William Roberts. He adopted a young lady as his daughter, who afterwards became the wife of the celebrated Doctor Alexander F. Vache, who was an old New Yorker, and loved it too, as he did his own soul. Yet Alexander, the doctor, was born at 28 Liberty street, before this century. It was upon the old house, No. 28, that he mounted his first shingle in 1826, "Alexander F. Vache, M.D." That was a proud hour for the young medical. He had been a favorite pupil with the celebrated Dr. Mott. He was a graduate of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of the University of the city of New York. He was also a great friend of the celebrated Professor Samuel L. Mitchell, who thought the world of the young surgeon. He persuaded young Vache, in 1821, to join a scientific expedition, and sailed from here for the Pacific Ocean in the U.S. ship Franklin, Commodore Charles Stewart, (was is yet living, and the oldest Commodore in the American Navy.) When the party got out to the coast of Chili, mercantile events arising out of the revolutionary condition of the country so limited the field of scientific observation by confining the ship to that immediate coast, that Dr. Vache joined the frigate Constitution, Commodore Ridgeley, and returned to the United States, after an absence of two years. In 1825, the Doctor again went to sea with Captain J. H. Clark, U.S. navy, in the double capacity of mess-mate and surgeon, on a voyage to the river Amazon. The object was to ascertain its navigability and connections with the interior of the South American provinces. The Emperor of Brazil would not permit any outsider to do what he could not do himself, and he ordered them off; refusing positively permission to ascend the Amazon. On her return the ship stopped at several ports and places. In this experience among tropical diseases, the Doctor was fitting himself in an admirable manner for the office of Health Physician at the Quarantine ground, that he afterwards filled. Dr. Vache was very much beloved by all who knew him. He was an active politician in the Sixth Ward. He was a great friend of William Leggett, Richard Adams Locke, Ulysses D. French, and others. The doctor was one of the original Loco-Focos of 1835 and '36. He was a prominent member of the County Convention of the latter year. He was one of the signers of the letter to Colonel R.M. Johnson and to Mr. Van Buren. The course pursued by Dr. Vache elected Edward Curtis and James Monroe to Congress that year. The doctor was the most ingenious casuist of the Loco-Foco party. He spoke at all the meetings in an earnest tone of voice, smooth, low, and he used the nicest words and a style to fastidiousness. The doctor was a great favorite with the highest leaders in the party. All knew him personally. He left a fine family of children, one daughter and several sons. He died some years since. JOHN VACHE Though not a merchant, yet it will not be out of place to mention the son of an old New Yorker, who was old John Vache, and was the first artificial flower merchant and manufacturer that ever lived in New York. He commenced his business at 28 Liberty street in 1790, and he continued it there until he moved to Newark in 1827. I do not know where the old gentleman died, but I believe his family reside in Newark. Charles Henry Hall, who in later years was book-keeper to Thomas H. Smith & Son, had been brought up by the old house of Murray & Mumford, alluded to before this, and was a clerk with them as late as 1804. WILLIAM HUMPHREYS My friend Thomas Quick, suggests that I should give a full description of Mr. Humphreys, who once owned the house of Phil. Hone, in Broadway, next to Park Place (save one door,) and occupied by the commercial firm of young Fred Tracy. His name was William Humphreys, and sixty years ago he lived at 311 Broadway, in 1804, and was of the firm of Humphreys & Whitney in Burling slip. They lasted many years. Source: The Old Merchants of New York City Author: Walter Barrett, Clerk Second series Publisher: Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway Entered according to the Act of Congress 1863 _____________________________________ Researched, Prepared and Contributed by Miriam Medina For the Brooklyn Information Page Back To The OLd Merchants of NYC 1863 Back To BUSINESS Main Return to BROOKLYN Info Main Page