Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/226

 SAGE

SAGE

tude work in the territories for the U.S. corps of engineers. He was a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Scieui-es: associate of the Royal Astronomical society of England; a mem- ber of the Astronomische Gesellschaft. Leipzig; a member of the Deutscher Geometer Verein, and a Fellow of the American As.sociation for tiio .\dvancement of Science. In 187S "Williams college gave him the degree of Ph.D. He pub- lished a continual star catalogue for Williams college, and two jMjlar-star catalogues for Har- vard obst-rvatory. He edited volumes IV and V of the '• -Vnnals of Harvard College Observatory," and is the author of: Mathematical Teaching ami lis Moilern Methmls. He died in Newark, X.J.. June 13. IDOL

SAGE, Henry Williams, pliilanthropist, was born in Mi.UlK-towii. Conn.. Jan. 31, 1814; son of Charles and Sally (Williams) Sage; grandson of William and Elizabeth (Cook) Sage and of Josiah and Charity (Shaler) "Williams, and a descendant of David Sage, Middletown, 1652. His father was shipwrecked on the Florida coast in 1838, and murdered by the Indians. He had prepared for college, but in 1833 removed to Ithaca, N.Y., and eng;iged in the mercantile business with his uncle. He tnarried, Sept. 1, 1840. Susan, daughter of William Linn of Ithaca. In 1854 he became in- terested in the lumber regions of Canada and the west, bought e.xtensive tracts of timber land, and became successful as a lumber merchant. Later he erected the largest saw-mill in the country at Winona, Mich, He was a Whig member of tiie New York assembly in 1847; re- moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1857, and returned to Ithaca in 1880. He was a trustee of Cornell university, 1870-97; president of the board, 1875- 97; and gave to the university $306,000 for the Sage college for women; *50,000 for the Susan Linn Sage chair and $200,000 for the Susan Linn Sage School of Pliilosophy; .$200,000 and an endowmt-nt of $300,000 for the University Lib- rary building; $20,000 to the Museum of Classical Arclueology; $11,000 for the erection of a house for the Sage professor of philosopliy, and $30,000 toward paying off a floating indebtedness. His other benefactions include the endowment of the Lyman Beecher lecture.ship on preaching at Yale college, the building and endowment of several churches and schools, and a public library at West Bay City, Mich. After his death his resi- dence, valued at ^"^0.000, together with an endow- ment of $100,000, was given to Cornell for a .stu- dents' hospital, by his sons Dean and William H. Sage. He died in Ithaca, N.Y.. Sept. 17. 1897.

SAQE, Russell, financier, was born in Shenan- doah. Verona township, Oneida county, N.Y., Aug. 4, 1816; son of Elishaand Prudence (Risley) Sage. His parents removed to Durhamville,

Oneida county, in 1818, and there lie worked on his father's farm, and attended the district school. In 1828 he became erraiul-boj' in the grocery store of his brother, Henrj' Risley Sage, at Troy, and in 1837 engaged in partnership with his eUler brother, Elisha Montague Sage, in a retail grocery store in Troy. A few years later, Ru.ssell bought out Ids brother's interest, and in 1839 made the business a wholesale concern, taking JiAin W. Bates as his partner. Tiie business rapidly increased, and lie interested himself in politics, serving as alder- man of Troy, 1845-48. and treasurer of Rensselaer county for several years. He was a delegate to the Whig national convention in 1848, where he supported Henry Clay as Presidential candidate; was the defeated Whig candidate for representa- tive in the 32d congress in 1850, and was elected a representative in the 33d and 34t}i congre.sses, serving, 1853-57, defeating Horatio Seymour, 1852. His father died in 1854, while he was in congress. In 1857 he engaged in financial business, tiirough the influence of Jay Gould, and in 1863 removed to New York city, and opened a broker's office in Wall Street, dealing principally in railroad stocks and bonds. He purchased a seat in the New York stock exchange in 1874, and, in association with Jay Gould, became one of the most prominent operators on the street, amassing one of the largest private fortunes in the United States, liis hold- ings being estimated in 1903 at about $75,000,000. He was vice-president and president of the Mil- waukee and St. Paul railroad for many years; a director of the Union Pacific railroad, and a manager of Wabasli, St. Louis and Pacific, the Missouri Pacific, the Missouri, Kansas and Texas, the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and the St. Louis and San Francisco railroads. He was a manager of the American Cable company, the Western Union Telegraph company, a director of the jNIanhattan Elevated Railway company, pre- sident of the Standard Gas Light company of New York, and a director of the Merchants' Trust company and the Fifth Avenue bank of New York city. He presented the Troy Female seminary with a new dormitor)' costing $200,000, in honor of his second wife and the memory of Mrs. Willard, who was Mrs. Sage's instructor, and also gave $50,000 to the Woman's Hospital in the State of New York, of which Mrs. Sage was a patron, for the erection of a new building. He was twice married; first, in 1841, to Maria, daughter of Moses J. Winne of Troy, and secondly, in 1867, to Oliva, daughter of the Hon. Joseph Slocum of Syracuse, N.Y., and a graduate of the Troy Female seminary.

SAQE, William, author, was born in Manches- ter, N.II., May 8, 1864; son of Daniel and Abby (Sage) McFarland. He assumed liis mother's maiden name, attended the celebrated "'Gunnery"