Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/339

 COLGATE

COLGATE

suddenlj' while preparing to conduct religious services in a sclioolhouse, at the age of sixty-five years. James Boorman was prepared for college in schools in New York city and in Connecticut. When sixteen years old he decided to abandon a college course and devote himself to a business life. He began as shipping clerk and rose to the

fOLOATE, LIBRARY -

position of book-keeper in the house of Boorman, Johnston & Co., importers. After seven years' service as clerk he made a trip to Europe for the benefit of his health and on his return in 1843 engaged in the wholesale dry goods business, organizing the firm of Colgate & Abbe. In 1852 he associated himself with John B. Trevor as Trevor & Colgate, dealers in stock and other securities. In 1857 they added to the business a tullion and specie department to which Mr. Col- gate gave his personal attention. He helped to organize and was for three years president of the first gold exchange. In 1873 the firm name was changed to James B. Colgate & Co., and the firm was still in business on Wall street at the close of the nineteenth century. In this long period of existence, covering nearly half a century, it never felt the effect of a panic so as to fail to meet a single obligation. Mr. Colgate was a close student of the principles underlying and governing the financial dealings of the world and was a strenuous advocate of the remonetization of silver. His papers on this subject were very widely read. When a clerk receiving fifty dol- lars a year as salarj", he reserved a portion for benevolent ijurj^oses and continued the practice during his life. In 1869, with his partner, Mr. Trevor, he built and presented to the Warburton avenue Baptist church, Yonkers, N.Y., appro- priate church buildings, and subsequently one for the use of the colored Baptists of Yonkers. To Madison university, of which institution his father was an incorporator and he a trustee from 1861, and president of the board of trustees from 1864, he repeatedly contributed, not only to its endowment but to its material equipment.

He erected Colgate academy and Colgate library as a memorial to his parents. In 1890 the board of trustees, with the consent of the alimmi, in view of the benefactions of the Colgate family for several generations, changed the name of the institution to Colgate university. In 1891 Mr. Colgate established the Dodge memorial fund in memory of President Ebenezer Dodge. The principal, §1,000,000, is held by three trustees, and the interest is paid, one half to the uni- versity and one half added to tlie principal. In 1903 he gave $100,000 more. To Colby academy, New London, N.H. ; to Rochester university ; to Peddie institute; to Columbian university, Washington, D.C. ; to Rochester theological sem- inary ; to Cook academy, and to numerous needy churches and associations he was a liberal bene- factor. Mr. Colgate was married in 1844 to S. Ellen Hoyt of Utica, N.Y., by whom he had one son, William Hoyt Colgate. Mrs. Colgate died in 1846 and in 1851 he was married to Susan F., daughter of Gov. Anthony Colby of New London, N. H. His children by this marriage were Mary and James Colby Colgate.

COLGATE, Samuel, pliilanthropist, was born in New York city, N.Y., March 22, 1822; son of William and Mary (Gilbert) Colgate; grandson of Robert and Mary (Bowles) Colgate; and a descendant of Stephen Colgate of the count}' of Kent, England. He learned the business of soap making in liis father's establishment and suc- ceeded him, not only in the business, but also in carrying forward his great charitable and re- ligious benefactions. He was chairman of the board of education of Madison, (afterward Col- gate) university, and one of its most liberal patrons. He was a member of the finance committee of the American tract society ; presi- dent of the New York Baptist educational society, and of the Society for the suppression of vice, for eighteen years ; and for three years president of the Baptist home mission society. He gave to Colgate univei'sity over 40,000 pamphlets bearing on the history of the Baptist denomination. He died in Orange, N.J., April 23, 1897.

COLGATE, William, philanthropist, was born in HoUingbourn, Kent county, England, Jan. 25, 1783; son of Robert and Mary (Bowles) Colgate. He immigrated to America in 1795 with his parents, who fled from England to escape per- secution as avowed friends of the American revolutionists, and settled in Harford county, Md., removing subsequently to Delaware count}-, N.Y. In 1804, on attaining his majority, he apprenticed himself to a tallow-chandler in New York, and having acquired a thorough knowledge of the business, he established himself in that city and gained a wide reputation in the business world. He used his first earnings to pay for the