James William Beekman

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James William Beekman (22 November 1815 – 15 June 1877) was vice-president of the New York Hospital.

[edit] Biography

He was born in New York City in 1815. He was a descendent of Wilhelmus Beekman, who sailed with Peter Stuyvesant to New Netherlands, and was an officer of the Dutch West India Company. The Beekman family was instrumental in the development of New York City, the Hudson River Valley, and in New Jersey. They were also intermarried with many prominent early Dutch families, like the Remsens, the Rapaljes and the Bergens.[1]

After studying under a private tutor, James graduated from Columbia College in 1834, and studied law with John L. Mason, but never joined the bar. His father's death in 1833 left him with money, and the death of his uncle, James Beekman, added to his real estate holdings on the East River near Fifty-second street, including the Beekman mansion, "Mount Pleasant",[2] a place of historic interest from its prominence in Revolutionary times. He married Abian Steele (1819-1897).

In 1861 he, with Erastus Corning and Thurlow Weed, was appointed by a meeting of conservative men in New York to go to Washington and urge President James Buchanan to relieve Fort Sumter.

He was vice-president of the New York Hospital, president of the woman's hospital, and a director of the New York dispensary.

He was also one of the early members of the New-York Historical Society, before which he delivered a centennial discourse in 1871 and read papers at different times. On 4 December 1869, he delivered an address before the St. Nicholas Society on "The Founders of New York," which was afterward published (New York, 1870). See "Memoir of James William Beekman," by Edward F. De Lancey (New York, 1877).

In February 1876, he published a report on a village of hospitals. He died in 1877 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

The James William Beekman House is a registered landmark in Oyster Bay, New York, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places[3].

[edit] References

  1. ^ Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke, William B. Aitken, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912
  2. ^ The house was demolished, after being moved, in 1874. (Edmund Delaney, New York's Turtle Bay p. 4.)
  3. ^ National Register of Historic Places, listed December 12, 1973.