Brayton Ives
{{Infobox officeholder
| name = Brayton Ives
| image = File:Brayton Ives.jpg
| caption =
| order =
| title = President of Northern Pacific Railway
| term_start = 1893
| term_end = 1896
| predecessor = Thomas Fletcher Oakes
| successor = Edward Dean Adams
| office1 = President of the New York Stock Exchange
| term_start1 = 1878
| term_end1 = 1880
| predecessor1 = Henry Meigs Jr.
| successor1 = Donald Mackay
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1840|08|23}}
| birth_place = Farmington, Connecticut
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1914|10|22|1840|8|23}}
| education = Yale University
| death_place = Ossining, New York
| spouse = {{marriage|Eleanor Anderson Bissell
|6 February 1867}}
| allegiance = United States of America
Union
| branch = Union Army
| serviceyears = 1861–1865
| rank = 35px Colonel
35px Bvt. Brigadier General
| unit =
| commands = 1st Connecticut Cavalry Regiment
| battles = American Civil War
}}
Brayton Ives (August 23, 1840 – October 22, 1914) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1893 to 1896 and was president of the New York Stock Exchange and the Western National Bank of New York. He also served as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Early life
Ives was born on August 23, 1840, in Farmington, Connecticut. He was a son of William A. Ives and Julia (née Root).
He graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1861.
Career
He served in the American Civil War as assistant adjutant general on the staff of Brigadier General Orris S. Ferry and became the Colonel of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry Regiment. He was brevetted brigadier general for gallantry at the battles of Ream's Station, Deep Bottom, Five Forks, and Sailor's Creek.
Ives became a prominent New York financier by 1868 and served two terms as president of the New York Stock Exchange; he was president of the Western National Bank of New York for many years and was chosen president of Northern Pacific Railway on 20 October 1893. At the time of his death he was President of the Hecker-Jones-Jewell Milling Company, the Standard Milling Company, the Kanona & Prattsburg Railway Company, and the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company.{{Citation|title=Gen. Brayton Ives Financier, Is Dead| newspaper=The New York Times |location=New York, New York|date=23 October 1914|url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1914/10/23/100108829.pdf}}Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1914-1915, pp. 756-6.
In 1912, he resigned as president of the Metropolitan Trust Company due to his poor health.{{cite news |title=BRAYTON IVES RESIGNS.; President of Metropolitan Trust Company in Poor Health. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1912/10/17/100553082.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=17 October 1912}}
Personal life
Ives was married to Eleanor Anderson Bissell (1840–1927), a sister of Rensselaer H. Bissell.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Special to The New York |title=MRS. BRAYTON IVES DEAD.; General's Widow Dies in Bar Harbor -- Her Funeral Here Tomorrow. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/09/01/104077995.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=1 September 1927}} on February 6, 1867. Together, they had four children:{{cite news |title=MRS. IVES'S WILL IS FILED.; Estate of General's Widow Is Left to Her Two Daughters. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/09/08/98535409.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=8 September 1927}}
- Sherwood Bissell Ives (1870–1907), who died of an accidental gunshot wound in New Mexico.{{cite news |title=S.B. IVES DEAD IN MEXICO; Son of Gen. Brayton Ive's Shoots Himself by Accident on Friend's Ranch. CARRIED FIFTY MILES His 'Mother and Sister Prostrated by the Shock -- His Father in the South. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/02/19/106740785.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=19 February 1907}}{{cite news |title=HOW DR. S. B. IVES DIED.; Inflicted a Mortal Wound after Vainly probing for Bullet. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1907/02/23/106741475.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=23 February 1907}}
- Winifred Ives (1870–1918), an art collector who died unmarried.{{cite news |title=Miss Winifred Ives |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/05/11/102701045.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=11 May 1918}}{{cite news |title=Mrs. Ives' Estate to Daughters |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1918/07/09/102717661.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=9 July 1918}}
- Eunice Ives (1872–1942), who married Walter Effingham Maynard (1871–1925).{{cite news |last1=Chamoff |first1=Lisa |title=Chateau-style home for $16.5M |url=https://www.newsday.com/classifieds/real-estate/brookville-house-french-chateau-style-on-market-for-16-5-million-1.10344132 |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=Newsday |date=April 29, 2015 |language=en}}
- Frances Ives.
In 1899, they bought the former summer home of Benjamin Moore (father of Clement Clarke Moore), including a brick mansion, stables and riparian rights on the Hudson River for $80,000.{{cite news |title=Brayton Ives Buys a Summer Home. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1899/01/25/117910856.pdf |accessdate=16 January 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=25 January 1899}} Ives was a survivor of the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Republic in January 1909.
He died in Ossining, New York, on October 22, 1914. His widow died in Bar Harbor, Maine, on August 31, 1927. She left her estate equally among her two surviving daughters. Among his descendants is actor Oliver Platt.
=Collections=
Ives was a collector of ceramics and other art objects, and of books. He had a library of more than 6000 volumes including many incunabula. He possessed a Gutenberg Bible, and early printed editions of Euclid and of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He had a collection of 200 rare books pertaining to the early settlement of America.
In addition to the ceramics and art, Ives made a collection of rare and historical swords. When he ceased collecting, the swords were sold, and through the efforts of Mr. Heber R. Bishop, William Thompson Walters and the American Art Association, the valuable sword collection, valued at $15,000, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.Kunz, George F. "Heber Reginald Bishop and his Jade Collection. American Anthropologist. New Series, Volume #5, January–March 1903. Page 116.
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Further reading
- {{cite book| author=Busbey, T. Addison, editor| title=The Biographical Directory of Railway Officials of America, Edition of 1896| location=Chicago, Illinois| publisher=Railway Age and Northwestern Railroader| year=1896| page=244 }}
External links
- {{Internet Archive author |search=("Brayton Ives" OR "Ives, Brayton")}}
- {{Findagrave|121784000}}
{{s-start}}
{{s-bef| before=Thomas Fletcher Oakes }}
{{s-ttl| title=President of Northern Pacific Railway| years=1893 – 1896 }}
{{s-aft| after=Edward Dean Adams }}
{{end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ives, Brayton}}
Category:Northern Pacific Railway people