The Banished Children of Eve (84 page)

ALBERT J. MAXWELL

65 Wall Street

New York City

December 3, 1903

Mayor-elect George B. McClellan

297 East 36th Street

New York City

Dear George,

Mayor-elect! What satisfaction it gives me to put those words before your illustrious name! I know that in the flush of your resounding victory you undoubtedly find yourself besieged by an army of office seekers, petitioners, etc. I hesitate to join that rogues' gallery but my dearest Lolly has prevailed on me, insisting, in her words, “I know George, and he will do his best!” It is at her bidding, then, that I write, and if this letter be judged a breach of friendship or good taste, let the blame be on the distaff side of our union!

During
her recent convalescence, Lolly was attended by a most capable and industrious nursing companion by the name of Mrs. Sheila Noonan. Good-hearted Lolly, as is her wont, managed to drag out of the woman the details of her life story and, worse, to involve herself in rectifying any and all injustices. (Poor Lolly will ever be the victim of her Huguenot blood!) As it turns out, Mrs. Noonan, a widow, has for some time been seeking to collect the military pension of her late husband, a man many years her senior, who served under your father in the Peninsula Campaign, as a member of the 69th New York. Her husband, Mrs. Noonan says, was a full Colonel, with a distinguished record. His later years were apparently spent in a severe state of physical depletion, which exhausted their funds and greatly strained the capacities of Mrs. Noonan.

The unyielding pressure of uxorious concern permits me no alternative but to put this matter before you. Lolly will not rest until Mrs. Noonan's cause is recognized by the government of the United States! And she won't allow me to rest, either!

I will be at the Manhattan Club for the Christmas Eve reception should you wish to discuss the matter. And be forewarned! Since this is the one evening of the year the club is opened to spouses, Lolly shall be there, too.

Sincerely,

Bert

HON. GEORGE B. MCCLELLAN

The House of Representatives

Washington, D.C.

December 19, 1903

Dear Bert,

Your letter of the third has been forwarded to me here in Washington.

I should
love to oblige both you and your lovely bride. Unfortunately, I discovered a very long time ago that if I tried to give a hearing to all the various claims of those who served, or claimed to have served, with my father, I should have no time to do anything else. Besides, I leave Congress now, to attend to the fortunes of our fair city, and such matters are best taken up with my successor or the War Department.

I look forward to Christmas Eve, but let us all agree ahead of time that we shall discuss topics more Suited to the season than Army pensions.

Yours,
Geo.

The Correspondence of the Hon. George B. McClellan, Mayor of the City of New York; Vol. 1: 1903-1905,
published by the city of New York (1914)

DEATH CLAIMS COLONEL VAN WYCK
CIVIL WAR, VETERAN AND BUSINESS
LEADER SUCCUMBS AT AGE 91

Colonel Ezra Van Wyck, 91 years of age, Los Angeles business and club man, Civil War veteran, and prominent supporter of many philanthropic causes, died yesterday at the Clara Barton Hospital after a brief illness. The cause of death was given as high blood pressure and uremia. His body was removed to the Rupps Funeral Chapel, 824 South Figueroa Street, where funeral services will be conducted at a date to be announced later.

Colonel Van Wyck had been identified with a number of business and financial concerns in various capacities during his more than five decades of residence in the state. At the time of his death, he was still actively engaged as a director of the California Trust Bank, the Jefferson Union Fidelity Investment Corporation, and the Arcadia Motion Picture Studio. He was a respected and beloved member of several clubs, fraternities, and social organizations.

Born in Albany, New York, on May 13, 1835, the descendant of ancient Dutch families (his mother was a Van Vliet), Colonel Van Wyck built a successful lumber business in that city before the Civil War. As the Colonel himself often told the story, he might never have participated in the War Between the States if he hadn't lost his business during a card game. “It was the luckiest loss I ever had,” the Colonel told a convention of Elks last March in Santa Monica. “I lost a fortune but found my country.”

In the
fall of 1863, he joined a local regiment being raised in Albany. He saw much action during the Battle of the Wilderness and Grant's campaign against Richmond but emerged unscathed. At war's end, he decided that rather than return to Albany he would seek his future on the frontier. Prior to his arrival in California in 1870, he was a partner in several successful trading companies in the territories.

Upon first arriving in California, Colonel Van Wyck settled in Sacramento, where he met his wife, Emma Curtis Van Wyck, the daughter of Marcus Curtis, himself a well-known member of the State Bar and a director of the Union Pacific Railroad. Mrs. Van Wyck survives her husband.

A resident of Los Angeles for the past
twenty-seven years, Colonel Van Wyck was sergeant at arms of the California GAR from 1912 through 1915 and was a staunch supporter of the movement for national defense and closer cooperation between the U.S. Army and the National Guard. He was also a member of the First Americans Society, a Shriner, and a member of the Masonic Lodge of Sacramento, the Santa Monica Lodge of Elks, and the American Legion.

Described by all who knew him as a vigorous, gregarious man, much admired for his patriotism, good judgement, and business acumen, the Colonel was working at home on Monday last when he was removed to the hospital, suffering from a high fever and severe abdominal pain. He died the following night in his sleep.

Besides his widow, Colonel Van Wyck leaves two sons, Bedford, 49, and Charles, 46, both of Los Angeles.

—The Los Angeles Times,
December 16, 1926

AMID PAGEANTRY, FORDHAM
INSTALLS NEW PRESIDENT

A BRONX NATIVE

Sunday afternoon, in a ceremony of pomp and circumstance presided over by Patrick Cardinal Hayes and attended by two bishops, ten monsignori, and the presidents of several other Jesuit colleges and universities, Fordham University inaugurated the Reverend Augustine J. Dunne, S.J., as its twenty-fifth president.

The ceremony was conducted in the auditorium of the University's splendid new building, Keating Hall, which was recently completed at a cost of $1,343,000 and whose clock tower has become, almost instantly, a landmark of the Fordham neighborhood.

POLITICAL DIGNITARIES IN ATTENDANCE

After a Mass of Installation in the University Church, the Cardinal led a procession into the new hall. In attendance were also a number of political dignitaries. Included were: Bronx Borough President James Lyons; Bronx District Attorney Samuel J. Foley; Congressmen Patrick Fitzsimmons, Michael B. Brady, Francis X. O'Hara, and Vincent A. Hickey, all of the New York delegation; Justices Aloysius Flynn, William Purcell, and James P. McManmon, all of the State Supreme Court, First Department; Assemblymen John J. Hanley, Robert E. Murphy, Peter M. O'Donnell, Ignatius O'Rourke, and John Jude Francis Cassidy; New York City Police Commissioner John Moore; Fire Commissioner Morgan Kennedy; and Commissioner of Docks and Terminals Charles Parnell O'Brien. Many of the dignitaries are graduates of the University or its law school.

WORDS FROM FATHER DUNNE

The invocation was given by the Cardinal and was followed by a rousing rendition of the national and university anthems by the Fordham Glee Club. The heads of each academic department made an address of welcome.

In his
response, Father Dunne, who served previously as the Regent of the Fordham University Law School, thanked all in attendance. He said that in deciding to found a Catholic college in what was then “a small village on the far periphery of New York City,” Archbishop John Hughes had shown “prophetic foresight.”

“First of all,” Father Dunne said, “Archbishop Hughes knew in his heart what today is obvious to every eye: This neighborhood would become once and forever Irish.” This remark was greeted with warm applause and laughter.

“Second, the Archbishop understood that as New York rose to prominence among the cities of the world, it would require institutions that rested not upon the shifting sands of opinion but upon the Rock of Truth.”

ANCESTOR WAS RESTAURATEUR

Father Dunne is the first native son of the Bronx to be made Fordham's president. Born in 1890, in what was then referred to as the Annexed District or the North Side, he attended St. Luke's Grammar School and Xavier Academy before entering the Society of Jesus. He is the son of James A. and May Dunne, both now deceased. His father, longtime leader of the Tecumseh Democratic Club, owned and operated the Morrisania Insurance Brokerage. His grandfather was a well-known restaurateur in the lower part of the city.

—The Bronx Home News,
September 1, 1936