J. Hampden Robb

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J. Hampden Robb
Member of the New York State Senate
In office
January 1, 1884 – December 31, 1885
Preceded byRobert Ray Hamilton
Succeeded byWalter Howe
Member of the New York State Assembly
In office
January 1, 1882 – December 31, 1882
Preceded byJoseph Koch
Succeeded byWilliam C. Traphagen
Personal details
Born
James Hampden Robb

(1846-10-27)October 27, 1846
Democrat
Spouse
Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer
​
​
(m. 1868; died 1903)​
RelationsGoodhue Livingston (son-in-law)
Children4
Parent(s)James Robb
Louisa Werninger
EducationL'Institut Sillig
Churchill's Military School
Alma materHarvard College

James Hampden Robb (October 27, 1846 – January 21, 1911) was an American merchant and politician from New York.[1]

Life

Robb was born in

Newcomb College until it was demolished in 1954.[7]

His father's prominent business in New Orleans attracted the attention of Queen

Empress consort of the French attended the wedding which was held at the Tuileries Palace in Paris.[8] Another sister, Charlotte Matilda Robb (1852–1902), married Dr. William Henry Pancoast (1834–1897), a surgeon in Philadelphia who was the son of Dr. Joseph Pancoast, and the other, Mary Robb (d. 1903), who married Joseph O. Miltenberger, a wealthy merchant from St. Louis,[2] and later, Col. Henry Mapleson (1851–1927), and Englishman who was the son of James Henry Mapleson.[10][11]

He attended L'Institut Sillig in Vevey, Churchill's Military School in Ossining,[12] and Harvard University,[1] graduating with the Class of 1866.[4][13]

Career

From 1866 until 1886,[13] and following his graduation from Harvard, he became a banker and cotton broker in New York City.[4]

Robb, a

Democrat, was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York County, 11th D.) in the 105th New York State Legislature, serving from January 1 until December 31, 1882. While in the Assembly, he was chairman of the Committee on Banks and worked hard for the anti-usury laws.[1] He was also a member of the New York State Senate (10th D.) in the 107th and 108th New York State Legislatures, serving from January 1, 1884, until December 31, 1885.[14] While a member of the Senate, "he fought for the appropriation which made possible the State reservation of Niagara Falls."[1] He later served as the treasurer of the original Niagara Falls State Park.[4]

As someone interested in the preservation of the beauty of New York, he was appointed a

New York City Parks Commissioner in 1887 by Mayor Abram Hewitt,[12] serving from May 1888 to December 1890; and was President of the Board of Park Commissioners from May 1888 to May 1889. At the time, a newspaper wrote of him:[1]

Only by eternal vigilance can the parks be maintained and developed as they ought to be, for there is never a time when some one is not trying to 'work' something to his own personal advantage and toe the detriment of the public. If he can't work it he makes a terrible hullaballoo and abuses the Commissioners. Mr. Robb has withstood all these jobs, big and little, and has endeavored to have the parks administered so that the people of New York can get the greatest possible enjoyment and benefit out of them.[1]

An active member of the

Assistant Secretary of State, which Robb declined.[1]

Later career

After retiring from politics in 1888, Robb focused on charitable causes, serving as the president of the Society for Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents which conducts the

People's Symphony Society.[4]

Beginning in 1895, he was a trustee of the

William Penn Memorial.[4]

Personal life

The Robb House, designed by Stanford White

In 1868, Robb was married to Cornelia Van Rensselaer Thayer (1849–1903).

Stephen Van Rensselaer III. Together, they were the parents of four children:[17][18]

In 1892, he moved into a house built for him by

Advertising Club. Robb also had a house at North East Harbor in Maine.[28]

Robb died at his residence, 23 Park Avenue in New York City, from a complication of diseases.[1]

Descendants

Through his son Nathaniel, he was the grandfather of Janet Henderson Robb (b. 1896); James Hampden Robb (b. 1898); and Cornelia Van Rensselaer Robb (b. 1904),[15] who married Dr. Walther F. Goebel.[29]

Through his daughter Louisa, he was the grandfather of Goodhue Livingston, Jr. (1897–1994),[30] who married Joan Livingston Allen (1898–1964), the daughter of Frederick Hobbes Allen in 1919.[31] They divorced in 1931 and in 1932 he married Lorna Mackay (1911–1986). They divorced in the 1950s and he married Ruth Monsch Gordon. They also divorced and, in 1966, he married Dorothy Michelson-Stevens-Bitter-Dick (d. 1994), the widow of William Dixon Stevens and the daughter of Albert A. Michelson.[32] He was also the grandfather of Cornelia Thayer Livingston (1903–1975), who married Frederic Cromwell Jr. (1900–1973) in 1927.[33][34]

References

Notes
  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "J. HAMPDEN ROBB, EX-SENATOR, DEAD; Retired Merchant and Banker Was Once Active in Councils of Democratic Party" (PDF). The New York Times. January 22, 1911. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "The Son of a Poor Widow; How He Rose from Poverty to Affluence". The New York Times. 2 August 1881. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  3. ISBN 9780807869949
    . Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Pennsylvania Society of New York (1912). Yearbook. The Society. pp. 80–82. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  5. ^ "Louisa Werninger Robb". louisianadigitallibrary.org. Louisiana Digital Library. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  6. ^ "From a Historic House; Cleaning Out the Burnside Mansion in New-Orleans". The New York Times. 3 December 1889. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  7. New Orleans Times-Picayune, obituary, June 30, 1881; The New York Times
    , July 12, 15, 16, 1881; Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography (1900)
  8. ^ a b The Centennial Celebration of The Founding of Morgantown, 1785---100---1845 : With Addresses and Papers. Morgantown, West Virginia: The Committee of Arrangements | First Dominion Print. 1902. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  9. ^ Ohio Supreme Court (1896). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of Ohio. Robert Clark. p. 503. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  10. ^ "What Is Doing in Society". The New York Times. January 8, 1903. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  11. ^ Addison, Henry Robert; Oakes, Charles Henry; Lawson, William John; Sladen, Douglas Brooke Wheelton (1900). Who's Who. A. & C. Black. p. 687. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  12. ^ a b c d New York (State) Legislature Assembly (1911). Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York. p. 15. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  13. ^ a b Thayer, William Roscoe; Castle, William Richards; Howe, Mark Antony De Wolfe; Pier, Arthur Stanwood; Voto, Bernard Augustine De; Morrison, Theodore (1911). The Harvard Graduates' Magazine. Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association. pp. 496–497. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  14. Albany New York
    : James B. Lyon and Williams Press. pp. 384f, 403. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  15. ^ a b c The American Historical Magazine. Publishing Society of New York. 1907. p. 138. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  16. ^ Spooner, Walter Whipple (1 January 1900). "Van Rensselaer family". American Historical Magazine. 2 (1). S.l. : s.n. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
  17. ^ The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. 1880. p. 155. Retrieved 18 April 2017.
  18. ^ a b c Reynolds, Cuyler (1911). Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs: A Record of Achievements of the People of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys in New York State, Included Within the Present Counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. p. 26. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  19. ^ Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York (1905). The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-. p. 131. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  20. ^ "Robb, Nathaniel Thayer". the-afs-archive.org. AFS Foundation. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  21. ^ "Mrs. Henderson Robb, Clubwoman, Dies; Trustee of Museum of City of New York". The New York Times. 21 April 1957. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  22. ^ "Robb--Henderson". The New York Times. 27 November 1895. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  23. ^ "Mrs. Goodhue Livingston Dies; Aided Civic and Charity Causes". The New York Times. January 17, 1960. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  24. ^ Times, Special To The New York (4 June 1951). "G. LIVINGSTON DIES; LONG AN ARCHITECT; Practitioner Here for 50 Years Included Hayden Planetarium, Oregon Capitol in His Work". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
  25. ^ "HARRIET BAYARD ROBB". The New York Times. 28 December 1910. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  26. ^ Social Register, New York. Social Register Association. 1892. p. 249. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  27. ^ "DIED. Robb". The New York Times. 29 December 1910. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  28. ^ "Social Notes". The New York Times. 27 August 1910. Retrieved 16 January 2018.
  29. ^ "CORNELIA GOEBEL WED IN SUBURBS; Radcliffe Alumna Is Marrie in Christ Church, Greenwich to Nathaniel Bronson 2d" (PDF). The New York Times. June 13, 1954. Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  30. ^ Pace, Eric (31 August 1994). "Goodhue Livingston, City Planner, Dies at 97". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  31. ISBN 9781462811137
    . Retrieved 17 October 2017.
  32. ISBN 9781462811120. Retrieved 9 January 2018.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  33. ^ "MISS C. LIVINGSTON ENGAGED TO MARRY; To Wed Frederick Cromwell, Son of Late President of New York Stock Exchange". The New York Times. 18 August 1927. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
  34. ^ "MISS LIVINGSTON WEDS F. CROMWELL; Ceremony Performed by Dr. Land at Home of the Bride's Parents in Southampton". The New York Times. 21 August 1927. Retrieved 9 January 2018.
Sources
New York State Assembly
Preceded by New York State Assembly
New York County, 11th District
1882 		Succeeded by
New York State Senate
Preceded by New York State Senate
9th District
1884–1885 		Succeeded by
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