Page:Lamb - History of the city of New York - Volume 3.djvu/40

 368 HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.

the treasurer of the New York Society Library. He took an active part, indeed, in the inception of many of the city institutions, contributing liberally to their support. He was also connected with almost every mercantile institution of his day. His name is particularly and pleas- antly identified with the history of the Wall Street Presbyterian Church, of which he was a trustee from 1772 to 1812, and the manager, almost exclusively, of its financial concerns.!

The treasurer of the State at this time was Gerard Bancker, of the wealthy Dutch family whose representatives had filled positions of re- sponsibility in city and State affairs during every generation of that remarkable century. The auditor was Peter T. Curtenius. The latter united with many other citizens, as the spring opened, in an indignant protest against cutting away the beautiful trees with which the streets of the city were ornamented in accordance with an order of the corpo- ration to be executed before the first of June. Some medical philoso- pher had convinced the authorities that the public health demanded the sacrifice, but the public taste was wounded in a vital point, for the trees were of a rich variety, and had been selected and planted with care.

The news of the death of Franklin, April 17, produced a profound sen- sation in New York; a resolution moved in Congress by James ‘Madison was unanimously adopted, that the members should wear mourning badges for one month as a tribute of respect and veneration.

April 17.

1 Daniel Phoenix was the son of Alexander Pheenix, and the great grandson of the Alexander Pheenix traditionally reported to have been a younger son of Sir John Fenwick, Bart. of the great Northumbrian family of Fenwicks, who removed to New York City in 1640, and whose descendants have ever since been among the substantial citizens of the metropolis. Daniel Phenix was born in 1742, and died in 1812. He was liberally educated, and early entered into the business of importing goods from Great Britain, and amassed a large fortune. He was a patriot, and adhered strictly to the non-importation measures, although they fell with special severity upon himself, entirely suspending his business for several years. He was one of the Committee of ‘‘ One Hundred,” and when the British entered the city retired to Morristown with his family. Upon his return, in 1783, he found his house had been burned. and much of his property irretrievably lost. But he soon reinstated himself in the com- mercial world, and was honored by his fellow-citizens with the highest trusts. He married, first, Elizabeth Treadwell ; second, Elizabeth Platt. It is recorded as a curious fact, that at the funeral of the latter, in 1784, ‘the pall-bearers were ladies.” His children were : Gerard, died in infancy ; Alexander, graduated from Columbia College in 1794, and became pastor of the Congregational Church at Chicopee, Massachusetts — born in 1777, died at Harlem in 1868 ; Elizabeth, married Nathaniel Gibbs Ingraham, and was the mather of Judge Daniel P. Ingraham of the Supreme Court of New York ; Rebecca, married Eliphalet Williams of Northampton, Massachusetts ; Amelia, died in infancy ; Jennet, married Richard Riker, the well-known District Attorney and Recorder of New York ; Sydney, died in 1800, unmarried.

The male line of the descendants of Daniel Phenix was continued only in the children of his second son, Alexander. — Contribution by Stephen Whitney Phenix, in Chamber of Com- merce Records.