Harlan Fiske Stone - Chief Justice of The US Supreme Court

Harlan Fiske Stone b. 1872 in New Hampshire. Supreme Court Chief Justice. Harlan Fiske Stone was born in New Hampshire on October 11, 1872. He grew up on a farm, and his dislike of farm work led him to attend college. After being expelled from Massachusetts Agricultural College, Stone enrolled at Amherst, where he excelled socially, athletically and academically. After graduating from Amherst in 1894, Stone attended Columbia Law School, graduating in 1898. One sign of his intellect was that Columbia almost immediately hired him as a professor after graduation. Like many other professors of law at that time, Stone both taught and practiced law. In 1910, Stone was named Dean of the Columbia Law School, and served in that capacity until 1923. That latter year, Stone became head of litigation at the white shoe (that is, fancy) New York law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. The next year, Stone, a progressive Republican, was named Attorney General by Calvin Coolidge, who had become President after the death of Warren G. Harding. The next year Coolidge nominated Stone to the Supreme Court.

Stone quickly became one of the dissenters on the Court, often joining Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis D. Brandeis. During FDR's first presidential term (March 1933-January 1937), Stone usually voted to sustain New Deal legislation (some decisions of the Court unanimously held particular New Deal legislation unconstitutional), and when the Court was split, Stone was often in the minority. When the Court "switched" in 1937, Stone found himself in the majority. In 1938, Stone wrote the Court's opinion in US v. Carolene Products, which concerned the constitutionality of governmental regulation of economic matters. The Court readily upheld congressional action, but in footnote 4, joined by a plurality, Stone suggested a two-tiered standard of review of legislation. Economic legislation was to be reviewed deferentially by the Court. Legislation that affected discrete and insular minorities, or which impaired the democratic process itself, would be subject to a greater scrutiny by the Court. This rational basis/strict scrutiny dichotomy is commonplace in today's individual rights cases, and traces back to Stone's footnote 4. However, in Hirabayashi v. US (1943), the Court, in an opinion by Stone, affirmed the constitutionality of civil liberties restrictions on Japanese and Japanese-Americans in the US during World War II.

Between mid-1937 and early 1941, seven new members of the Court were named by FDR. The only remaining holdovers from the pre-1937 Court were Stone and Owen Roberts. In order to present an olive branch to the Republican Party, FDR decided to promote Stone from Associate Justice to Chief Justice after the retirement of Charles Evans Hughes in 1941, even though Stone was nearly 69 years old. Stone remained Chief Justice until his death on April 22, 1946, which is the shortest term as Chief Justice in over 200 years.

As a Chief Justice, Stone found himself with a fractious Court. Although most of its members had been appointed by FDR, they often found themselves at odds with one another. Felix Frankfurter and Robert Jackson detested Hugo Black, and William O. Douglas detested Frankfurter and found common cause with Black. Frank Murphy's abilities were derided by Frankfurter, and Black and Douglas had little respect for Owen Roberts. Stone did a poor job of managing these strong personalities.

Lineage Harlan Fiske Stone 1872, son of Frederick Lawson Stone 1836, Hannah Fisk 1810 was the mother of FLS 1836.

Ezekiel Albert Straw

Ezekiel Albert Straw (December 30, 1819–October 23, 1882), was an engineer, businessman, and politician from Manchester, New Hampshire. He was born in Salisbury, but moved with his family to Lowell, Massachusetts, where his father, James B. Straw, was employed at the Appleton Manufacturing Company. Ezekiel A. Straw, eldest of 7 children, attended schools in Lowell before enrolling at Phillips Andover Academy in Andover, where he showed an aptitude for mathematics.

Upon leaving Phillips Andover, Straw was hired in the spring of 1838 as an assistant civil engineer at the Nashua & Lowell Railway, then under construction. On July 4, 1838, he arrived in Manchester, New Hampshire, sent to substitute for a civil engineer at the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company who had become ill. The position soon became permanent. One of his first duties was laying out lots and streets for the new industrial city as envisioned by Amoskeag's cultured treasurer (president), William Amory. He also assisted with the construction of the dam and canal. In 1842, he founded the community's First Unitarian Society. Straw was sent by the mills to England and Scotland in November of 1844 to gather information and machinery for manufacturing and printing muslin delaines, which the Manchester Print Works introduced to the United States. In July of 1851, he was appointed agent (manager) of Amoskeag.

Straw was a Republican state representative from 1859 to 1864 and a state senator from 1864 to 1866. In his second year in the state senate, he served as its president. In 1869, he was appointed to the staff of Governor Onslow Stearns. From 1872-1874, he served two terms as Republican governor of New Hampshire. Straw was treasurer and principal owner of the Namaske Mill from its organization at Manchester in 1856 until it was purchased by Amoskeag in 1875, and director of the Langdon Mills after Amoskeag acquired it in 1874. He was a principal figure in creation of the Manchester waterworks, gas light company and public library. In addition, he served as president of the Blodget Edge Tool Manufacturing Company, New England Cotton Manufacturers' Association and New Hampshire Fire Insurance Company.

On April 6, 1842, he married Charlotte Smith Webster, who bore him 4 children before dying on March 15, 1852. Their son, Herman F. Straw, would become agent of the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company from 1885 until 1919. Ezekiel A. Straw was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1860. He died in 1882 at Manchester and is buried in Valley Cemetery.

Lineage Ezekial Albert Straw 1819 was the son of Mehitable Fisk 1800

George Leonard Andrews - Civil War General

George Leonard Andrews b. 1828 in Massachusetts. George Leonard Andrews (1828-99) was an American soldier, serving as a general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

In 1851 graduated at West Point at the head of his class. For two years (1854-56) he was assistant professor of engineering at West Point. He then resigned from the service and was engaged in engineering work until the beginning of the Civil War, when he entered the Union Army as a lieutenant colonel.

He served in the Shenandoah Valley in 1861, took part in Pope's campaign in 1862, was raised to the rank of brigadier general in November, 1862, and bore a prominent part in General Bank's expedition to New Orleans. He was commander of the Corps d' Afrique from 1863 to 1865, and for "faithful and meritorious services in the campaign against Mobile" was brevetted major-general of volunteers in March 1865.

He was United States marshal in Massachusetts from 1867 to 1871, and was professor of French at West Point from 1871 to 1882, and of modern languages from 1882 until his retirement in 1892.

George Leonard Andrews married Sarah Bridge Fiske.

Harvey Fisk - Wall St. Financier

Harvey Fisk b. 1831 in Vermont. FISK & HATCH, BANKERS AND DEALERS IN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES, 1862-1885

Three achievements entitle the firm of Fisk & Hatch to have their name inscribed in the financial history of the United States. They were among the largest distributors of government bonds during the dark days of the Civil War and for the entire period of their business were known throughout the land for large dealings in government bonds. Secondly, they financed the construction of the western end of the first transcontinental railroad and marketed the United States subsidy bonds for the entire line. Thirdly, they financed the construction of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad from tidewater to Louisville, Kentucky. They temporarily suspended operations in 1873 but soon resumed business. The partnership was dissolved in 1885

Pliny Fiske - Banker

Pliny Fiske was born in 1860 in New Jersey. The oldster was Pliny Fisk and his fun began in 1881 when he graduated from Princeton to the investment banking house of his father, Harvey Fisk, who had made a fortune helping the Union finance the Civil War. Four years later Pliny Fisk became the firm's trader on the floor of the Exchange, was there christened by his bearded fellow-members the"apple-cheeked boy of Wall Street." But Broker Fisk soon cut a man-size figure. In a few minutes one afternoon he sold $2,000,000 worth of securities to Hetty Green—after the doorman had tried to eject her because of her shabby clothes. By the turn of the century he was head of Harvey Fisk & Sons, which was known in Wall Street as one of "The Big Four" (with Morgans, First National and National City Banks).

In 1901 Pliny Fisk had pegged the Government bond market at 110. One day, he happened to be standing behind the late Edward H. Harriman on the floor of the Exchange when Harriman, who had gone heavily short, attempted to break the market by a sudden offer to sell $500,000 worth at 90. Fisk promptly accepted, offered to take all others at 110.

When Harriman admitted he couldn't deliver, Fisk let him off for $50,000 but blandly extracted a promise that Harriman would try to compose his battle with J. P. Morgan Sr. over the Northern Pacific R.R., which was then depressing the market. Harriman was soon closeted with Morgan, and Pliny Fisk thereupon put every available dollar into the market. When peace was announced next morning, he had an overnight profit of $800,000.

Resource Material

Since I dove into the deep end of the genealogical pool last year I have found and some very helpful resources.

Wickam Skeith parish records which holds the birth, death and marriage records for the parish which is located in Suffolk County, England. Time period for these records is 1700-late 1800's

Genealogies of the Families and Decendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown Massachusetts by Bond. This is a very nice resource as it covers many families in detail from the first settlers of Massachusetts to mid 1800's. This is one of my resources for my Fiske and Bigelow lines. Since there are a handful of Warrens already in my lines I will most likely be adding them as well once I get caught up.

The Laupersville Family from The Dallenbachs in America. This covers Montgomery/Herkimer County in New York from 1710-1935. The primary name of course is Dallenbach, Dillenback or other various spellings but in close knit communities there is alot of intermarrying between families. That was true in the early Massachusetts colonies and it is true here as well.

Genweb One county may not take genealogy with the same amount of effort as the next county. In Jefferson County NY where I am from for instance has an abundance of information such as cemetary records for the majority if not all the cemetaries. There is information on pioneering settlers of the various townships. All in all it is a terrific site for information. Compartively, if you visit the genweb site of the county to the north you get mainly links to off site pages. Perhaps there is just not the same interest.

I have also found some very helpful information which has helped in solving one or two family questions in various newspapers mostly of which were obituaries. One of these is the Northern New York Library System which has copies of many local newspapers in seven counties in Northern NY. There are a few that date back to 1850's.

Another resource for newspaper archives is Old Fulton Post Cards which has a larger selection of newspapers

For the Fisk(e) surname there is the Fiske Family Papers and for the Bigelow surname there is the Bigelow Society so if you are doing any research on either of these two families at all these two resources are priceless.

Wall Street Financier

James Fisk, Jr. (April 1, 1834 – January 6, 1872), known variously as "Big Jim," "Diamond Jim," and "Jubilee Jim," was an American stock broker and corporate executive. Fisk was born in Bennington, Vermont. After a brief period in school, he ran away in 1850 and joined Van Amberg's Mammoth Circus & Menagerie. Later, he became a hotel waiter, and finally adopted the business of his father, a peddler. He adopted what he learned in the circus to his peddling and grew his father's business. He then became a salesman for Jordan Marsh, a Boston dry goods firm. A failure as a salesman, he was sent to Washington D.C. in 1861 to sell textiles to the government. By his shrewd dealing in army contracts during the Civil War, and, by some accounts, cotton smuggling across enemy lines (in which he enlisted the help of his father), he accumulated considerable wealth, which he soon lost in speculation.

In 1864 he became a stock broker in New York and was employed by Daniel Drew as a buyer. He aided Drew in his war against Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad, which resulted in Fisk and Jay Gould becoming members of the Erie directorate. Subsequently, a well-planned raid netted Fisk and Gould control of the railroad. The association with Gould continued until his death. They carried financial buccaneering to extremes, their program including an open alliance with Boss Tweed, the wholesale bribery of legislatures, and the buying of judges (all standard business tactics of the day.) Their attempt to corner the gold market culminated in the fateful Black Friday of September 24, 1869.

Fisk married Lucy Moore in 1854; he was 19, she 15. Lucy was an orphan, reared by an uncle, from Springfield, MA. She tolerated Fisk's many extramarital affairs and lived with a woman friend, suggesting the possibility that she was a lesbian.[1] Regardless, they remained close, with Fisk visiting her in Boston every few weeks and spending summers and vacations with her.

Josie Mansfield

In New York, Fisk had a relationship with Josie Mansfield, a show-girl and by many accounts a prostitute. Fisk housed Josie in an apartment a few doors down from the Erie Railroad headquarters on West 23rd Street and had a covered passage built linking the backdoors of the headquarters and her apartment building. Fisk's relationship with Mansfield scandalized New York society. Mansfield eventually fell in love with Fisk's business associate Edward S. Stokes, a man noted for his good looks. Stokes left his wife and family for Mansfield and Mansfield left Fisk. In a bid for money, Mansfield and Stokes tried to extort money from Fisk by threatening the publication of letters written by Fisk to Mansfield that allegedly proved Fisk's legal wrongdoings. A legal and public relations battle followed, but Fisk refused to pay Mansfield anything. Increasingly frustrated and flirting with bankruptcy, Stokes shot and killed Fisk in New York City on January 6, 1872. He is buried in the Prospect Hill Cemetery in Brattleboro Vermont.

Fisk was vilified by high society for his amoral and eccentric ways, by many pundits of the day for his business dealings, but was loved and mourned by the workingmen of New York and the Erie Railroad. During the Stokes trial, his quick assistance to the victims of the Great Chicago Fire was remembered in a song, "Jim Fisk (He Never Went Back on the Poor)."

(Actor Edward Arnold portrayed Fisk in the 1937 movie The Toast of New York, which starred Arnold and Cary Grant. The movie was a fictionalized account of the lives of Fisk and Stokes.)