TH - Canada Southern Railway

12
Mrs. Ryan; spray of Easter lilies,
General and Mrs. Kuhn; wreath of
sweet peas and roses, Railroad Young
Mens' Christian Association; spray
of lilies, Friday Night Club of the
Yale Club; large wreath of Easter
lilies and red roses on a stand, Officials
of the Law, Land and Tax Claim
and Freight Claim Departments of the
New York Central Railroad; spray of
pink roses, Sara T. Wetmore; wreath
of red and tea roses, Mr. and Mrs.
William J. Schieffelin, Mrs. Dave H.
Morris, Mrs. Shepard Fabbri; wreath
of pink roses, violets and lilies, John
D. Rockefeller, Jr.; spray of white
and pink carnations, John N. Beckley;
spray of Easter lilies and red roses,
New York Central Public Relations
Department; wreath of roses, Easter
lilies and violets, Albert Morris Bagby;
wreath of red roses and violets,
Mrs. Twombly; wreath of violets and
tea roses, Pilgrims of Great Britain;
large spray of red roses, Pilgrims of
the United* States; spray of red roses,
Faculty and students of Peekskill
Military Academy; spray of palm
leaves and lilies, Mr. and Mrs. William
Fahnestock; wreath of orchids and
sweet peas, Mrs. Whitelaw Reid;
spray of calla lilies and roses, Dr. and
Mrs. L. W. Alston; wreath of white
roses, The Players; spray of tea roses,
Executive Committee of the Kensico
Cemetery; wreath of white carnations
and Easter lilies from the New York
Central Veterans' Association, Metropolitan
Chapter.
Other offerings were a spray from
Psi Upsilon fraternity; roses from the
officers of the Bankers Trust Company;
roses, Mr. and Mrs. William
Hamilton English; lilies, New York
Central Choral Society; spray red
roses, Mrs. Alfred Hudson Townley;
spray of red roses, Russell Alexander
Alger; wreath of red roses, Mr. and
Mrs. Edmund Lincoln Baylies; lilies,
Mrs. Graham Vanderbilt; roses and
palms, Mrs. Earl Smith; and flowers
from Mr. and Mrs. G. Charles Linthicum,
Henry S. Redmond, Marquis and
Marquise de Pontoi-Pontcaire, Henry
B. Anderson, Mr. and Mrs. William D.
Guthrie and Clarence R. Dugan.
The church was filled with nearly
2,500 persons, most of them notable in
American society, finance, business
and transportation circles. A few of
those present were:
F. D. Underwood, President, Erie
Railroad; Former United States Senator
William M. Calder; Charles S.
Whitman, former Governor of New
York; Charles Evans Hughes; H. B.
Anderson, attorney; Mayor James J.
Walker; Col. Charles E. Waller, Vice-
President, Lincoln Bank; Col. James
K. Apgar, former Village President of
Peekskill; Col. L. B. Gleason, Secretary,
New York State Republican
Committee and Secretary, National
Republican Club; Dr. Charles A. Robinson,
Principal, Peekskill Military
Academy; H. S. Vreeland, former
President, Metropolitan Street Railways;
delegation of sixteen cadets
from Peekskill Military Academy under
command of Cadet Captain La
Spina; Cornelius A. Pugsley, President,
Westchester County National
Bank and former representative;
Louis Wiley, Business Manager, New
New York Central Lines Magazine for May, 1928
Chauncey M. Depew as he appeared on his ninety-first birthday, in his office at
466 Lexington Avenue, New York, where he worked dally until a short time before
his death.
York Times; Stephen Baker, President,
Manhattan Trust Company;
Mrs. (General) M. D. Hardin, St. Augustine,
Fla.; Mr. and Mrs. H. S.
Stone, Syracuse; Harold Colee, representing
city of St. Augustine, Fla.,
Florida East Coast Railway, St. Augustine
Historical Society and Institute
of Science and other Florida organizations;
Col. A. Morgan, Commander
Lloyd Aspinwall Post, No.
600, Grand Army of the Republic;
W. W. Adair, Secretary, Railroad
Y.M.C.A.; R. D. Starbuck, Vice-President,
New York Central Railroad; M.
J. Alger, Executive Assistant to
President, New York Central Lines;
R. J. Cary, Vice-President and General
Counsel, New York Central
Lines; W. J. Fripp, Assistant Vice-
President, New York Central Railroad;
J. K. Lovell, Freight Claim
Agent, New York Central Railroad;
L. A. Robison, Passenger Traffic Manager,
New York Central Railroad;
Harry Parry, General Passenger
Agent, New York Central Railroad;
A. S. Lyman, General Attorney, New
York Central Railroad; T. W. Evans,
Vice-President, Indiana Harbor Belt
Railroad and Chicago River & Indiana
Railroad Company; G. M. Glazier,
General Auditor, New York Central
Railroad; C. F. Smith, General
Superintendent Passenger Transportation,
New York Central Railroad;
W. B. Pollock, Traffic Department,
New York Central Railroad; J. V.
Neubert, Chief Engineer, Maintenance
of Way, New York Central Lines; J.
Aronson, Attorney, New York Central
Railroad; F. N. Melius, General Superintendent,
New York Terminal
District, New York Central Railroad;
C. E. Hill, General Safety Agent,
New York Central Lines; C. W. Hammond,
Assistant General Safety
Agent; J. L. Ferris, Auditor of Passenger
Accounts, New York Central
Railroad; L. H. King, former Register
of Contracts, New York Central Railroad;
New York Central Railroad Engineering
Department, delegation of
twenty employes, and delegations from
other departments.
New York Central Lines Magazine for May, 1928 13
Chauncey M . Depew's Notable Career
HEN Chauncey M. Depew died,
one of the notable figures in
American history passed from the
stage. In the rare quality of his many
gifts, in the soundness of his judgment,
the diversity of his interests,
in the extraordinary extent of his
friendships among the elect of the
world, in the importance of his
achievements, he ranked among the
foremost men who have contributed
to America's greatness.
But a sad world which takes itself
too seriously for its own good will
remember Chauncey Depew longest
and most fondly as a raconteur who
had no peer throughout his long life.
Newspapers were always glad to publish
Depew's latest, men never tired
of passing his stories along by word
of mouth.
It would be a mistake to under-rate
Depew's rare gift for story telling.
Indeed, it would be hard to over-estimate
its importance. He was an orator
of unusual charm and his stories
were interpolated to drive home a
point or to whip up interest in the
truths he was driving home. In his
after-dinner speeches, in which he was
at his best, Depew sought recreation
and relaxation for himself, as other
men play golf or hunt or fish or ride;
and they served his purpose. He estimated
that he had attended 8,000
banquets and he was a speaker at
many of them. His published speeches
filled nineteen volumes. They constitute
but a fraction of the total.
He had no thought, perhaps, of
turning his genius as an orator to
practical account in promoting traffic,
yet it was undoubtedly a factor the
value of which would be difficult to
compute in shaping the destinies of
the great railroad system with which
he was associated for so many years.
Perhaps it would not be amiss to call
Depew one of the greatest salesmen
America ever produced. In a gathering
of men of affairs his congenial
good fellowship, his wit and humor,
created an impression that could not
fail to continue into the next business
day and, by a natural association of
ideas, bring the mind around to the
railroad whose president had made an
evening delightful.
The Family of Depew
Chauncey Mitchell Depew was born
in Peekskill, N. Y., April 23, 1834, the
son of Isaac and Martha (Mitchell)
Depew.
He was the oldest of the family,
which included two brothers and two
sisters. His father, Isaac Depew, a
prominent merchant, was a lineal descendant
in the sixth generation of
Francois Du Puy, a Huguenot who
fled from France in 1651 to escape
from the religious persecutions of that
period, going first to the Netherlands
and ten years later to New Amsterdam,
where he married Geertje Willems
in 1661. The name Du Puy is
an ancient one, having been prominent
as early as the eleventh century.
It has undergone many changes in its
transformation from French through
Dutch into English, being recorded as
Dupuis, Dupui, Dupuy, Depee, Depuy,
De Pue, Depu, Depew, etc. The village
of Peekskill, founded in 1764, is
on land which belonged to the fatherin-law
of Francois Du Puy and to his
descendants.
On his mother's side, Mr. Depew's
ancestry included the Mitchells, Shermans,
Palmers, Winships, Wellingtons,
Minots and Johnstons, all notable
families.
When he was about five years old
his mother took him to the school of
Mrs. Westbrook, wife of a pastor of
the Dutch Reformed Church. Mrs.
Westbrook was a highly educated woman
and her husband was a man of
letters as well as a teacher. He specialized
in ancient history and the interest
he aroused in Roman and Greek
culture and achievements continued
with Mr. Depew throughout his life.
Young Chauncey was regarded as a
prodigy and became a leader among
the boys of the village.
To School in His Native Town
Later on Mr. Depew attended
Peekskill Academy, a character-making
institution, the graduates from
which entered professions or business
where they made an unusual record
of success. Depew graduated from
the Academy in 1852. The program
of exercises for that day saw Mr.
Depew launched even then on his long
career as a speaker; for he was down
for several original speeches while the
other boys merely had recitations.
Another educational opportunity of
which Mr. Depew himself spoke more
than once came in his way because one
of his uncles was postmaster at Peekskill.
Through the post office came
several high class magazines and foreign
reviews. There was no rural delivery
in those days and the mail could
only be had on personal application,
and the result was that the subscribers
for these periodicals frequently
left them a long time before they were
called for. Depew was an omnivorous
reader and as a result these publications,
especially the foreign reviews,
became a fascinating source of information
and culture.
Still another unincorporated yet valuable
school which Mr. Depew himself
confessed having attended, was the
frequent sessions at the drug store of
the elder statesmen of the village.
On certain evenings these men would
avail themselves of the hospitable
chairs about the stove and discuss not
only local matters, but general conditions
in the country, some of the
discussions revolving about the provisions
of various measures which had
been proposed and enacted into laws.
They usually related to slavery, the
compromise measures, the introduction
of slaves into new territories, the
fugitive slave law, and they were handled
with much intelligence and information.
The boys of the village
were eager listeners on the outskirts
of this congress. These village store
discussions throughout the country
were the most important factors in
forming that public opinion, especial­
ly among the young, which supported
Mr. Lincoln in his successful efforts
to save the Union at whatever cost.
But perhaps the most important
influence in shaping the character of
young Depew was his mother, a woman
of unusual intellect bordering
upon genius. There were no means
of higher education for girls at that
period, but her father, who was an
eminent lawyer, and her grandfather,
a judge, finding her so receptive, educated
her with the care that was given
to boys who were intended for a professional
life. She was well versed in
the literature of the times of Queen
Elizabeth and Queen Anne and, with
a retentive memory, knew by heart
many of the English classics. She
wrote well, but never for publication.
Attached to these accomplishments
were rare good sense and prophetic
vision. Mr. Depew once said, "The
foundation and much of the superstructure
of all that I have, and all
that I am, were her work."
Isaac Depew had placed Chauncey
in the Academy in the hope that he
would join him in business, but the
youth, influenced probably by his
mother and Dr. Westbrook, had visions
of a more ambitious career. The result
was that he was sent to Yale
University in 1852, graduating in
1856, in a class of 125 that became
famous, partly on account of the general
high standing in the professions
its members later attained, two of
whom reached the bench of the United
States Supreme Court. In this class
Depew made his mark, particularly
by his gifts as a speaker.
Legal Practice Begun
After graduating from Yale, Mr.
Depew entered the office of Edward
Wells, a lawyer of Peekskill, as a
student. He was admitted to the
Bar in 1858 and immediately opened
an office in the village. Here is Mr.
Depew's own account of his first client:
"My first client was a prosperous
farmer who wanted an opinion on a
rather complicated question. I prepared
the case with great care. He
asked me what my fee was and I told
him five dollars. He said 'a dollar and
seventy-five cents is enough for a
young lawyer like you.' Subsequently
he submitted the case to one of the
most eminent lawyers in New York,
who came to the same conclusion and
charged him $500. On account of this
gentleman's national reputation, the
farmer thought that fee was very
reasonable. In subsequent years I
have received several very large retainers,
but none of them gave so
much satisfaction as that dollar and
seventy-five cents which I had actually
earned after having been so long dependent
on my father."
Mr. Depew's political career began
very early. He entered Yale as a
Democrat, his father's party, but the
debates on the campus soon convinced
him that he was on the wrong side
of the great questions of the day. In
1853 he cast his lot with the "Anti-
Nebraska men," who, early in 1856,