Читать книгу History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 2 - Группа авторов - Страница 28

Pierre Cortlandt Van Wyck, M. D., was born at the old Van Cortlandt manor-house, on the banks of the Croton river, September 24, 1824. His father, Philip Gilbert Van Wyck, was the nephew and adopted son of General Philip Van Cortlandt, who died a bachelor and left his large estate, including the Van Cortlandt manor, to be divided between his two nephews, Pierre Van Cortlandt and Philip G. Van Wyck. Dr. Van Wyck's mother was Mary Smith Gardiner, daughter of Colonel Abraham Gardiner, who was one of the lineal descendants of Lion Gardiner, of Gardiner's island.

Coming of a race of those who had from the earliest history of the country been foremost in patriotism, generosity and the development of all the nobler traits of human nature; descended from the Van Cortlandts, Van Rensselaers, Gardiners and Van Wycks, whose names are so intimately interwoven with the early history of our own country, he never forgot the traditions of his ancestry, but was always the genial, high-minded, honorable gentleman.

Beginning life under these favorable auspices, he entered Princeton College and graduated with the class of 1845. He began the study of medicine under the care of Dr. Adrian K. Hoffman. He was afterward a student at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of New York, where he enjoyed the benefit of the instructions of the celebrated Dr. Willard Parker. He graduated in 1849, and was afterward appointed by President Taylor, United States inspector of drugs, at the port of New York. While holding this position he became interested in the firm of Radway & Company, in which he still held an interest at the time of his death.

In 1862 he was appointed by President Lincoln assessor of internal revenue for the fourth district of New York. He organized the district and continued to administer its affairs ably and efficiently until 1871. In January, 1882, President Arthur appointed him superintendent of the United States assay office in New York, to succeed Thomas C. Acton, who was made assistant treasurer of the United States.

In politics he was a Whig until 1856, when he joined the Republican party, during the Fremont campaign. He had always been prominent in the councils of his party, ,and was many times sent as a delegate to state and national conventions, and was one of the famous three hundred and six who voted so persistently for General Grant, at Chicago, in 1880.

When the nomination of General Garfield was announced. Governor Dennison, of Ohio, came to the New York delegation and said that any candidate they named for vice-president would be nominated. Dr. Van Wyck proposed the name of Chester A. Arthur, which was unanimously indorsed. Dr. Van Wyck had been the personal friend of President Arthur for twenty years, and was with him on that memorable night of September 19, 1881, when the sad news came that President Garfield had passed away, and he was one of the nine persons present when the oath of office was administered by Judge Brady to the new president during the silence and solemnity of the midnight hour.

Dr. Van Wyck had a brilliant mind, cultivated by deep study and extensive foreign travel, combined with refined and artistic tastes. He lived ;and died a bachelor. He was a man of domestic habits, and devoted himself to the care and comfort of his sisters, Miss Joanna L. Van Wyck and Mrs. Annie V. R. Wells, who resided with him at the Van Wyck mansion. Grove Hill, in the village of Sing Sing. This had always been the seat of generous and refined hospitality, and it was at this home that he died suddenly, of pneumonia, on the 23rd of April, 1883.

The funeral was largely attended, not only by his associates and friends in his own circle of life, but by all his numerous tenantry and the poor of the surrounding country, who found him always a friend and brother to each and all, irrespective of race or creed. Of him it may well be said: "Write me as one that loved his fellow men." The interment took place in the family burial-ground at Croton, where repose the remains of those sterling Revolutionary patriots, Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt and his sons, General Philip and General Pierre, and his grandsons. General Philip G. Van Wyck and Recorder Pierre C. Van Wyck, and numerous other members of the Van Cortlandt and Van Wyck families.

Of the ancestry of Dr. Van Wyck a few words may be added: Cornelius Barentse Van Wyck came to America in 1660, from Wyck, a town on the river Teck in Holland. He married Anna Polhemus; their son Theodorus, who was born September 17, 1668, and died December 4, 1753, married Margaretta Brinckhoff, February 3, 1685. They were the parents of eight children, one of whom, Abraham, who was born November 7, 1695, married Catharine Provost in 1717. Of their nine children, the eldest, Theodorus, born November 30, 1718, married Helena Sanford, August 2, ,1740, and they were the parents of twelve children; one of their sons, Abraham, was born in 1748, and married Catharine, daughter of Lieutenant-Governor Pierre Van Cortlandt, January 7, 1776. Their children were Theodorus, Pierre Cortlandt, Van Wyck (who was for many years recorder for the city of New York), and Philip Gilbert Van Wyck, who was born June 4, 1786, and married Mary Smith, daughter of Colonel Abraham Gardiner, and granddaughter of David Gardiner, fourth proprietor of Gardiner's island. Their children were Joanna Livingston Van Wyck, now residing at Sing Sing; Catharine, wife of Stephen H. Battin; Philip Van Cortlandt, who died unmarried, January 12, 1842; Eliza, wife of William Van Ness Livingston, who died December 9, 1865; Gardiner, who died unmarried, April 7, 1860; Annie Van Rensselaer, who married the late Hon. Alexander Wells, of the supreme bench of California, and whose only child, Gertrude Van Cortlandt, married Schuyler Hamilton, Jr., great-grandson of Alexander Hamilton; David Gardiner, who died unmarried, December 16, 1848; and Dr. Pierre Cortlandt Van Wyck, the subject of this article.

The Van Wycks of Holland are an aristocratic and wealthy family, and continue to bear the same coat of arms as those brought by the Van Wycks to this country upward of two centuries ago.