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His
preeminence as a banker and financier was
recognized for nearly a quarter of a
century. In those respects he was one of
the most potent powers that the United
States has ever known, and rivaled even the
strongest men in Europe. In the wonderful
industrial and financial development which
characterized the closing years of the
nineteenth century in the United States, and
especially in the development of that
movement toward the consolidation of
industrial enterprises, Mr. Morgan was not
only prominent, but it nor too much to say
that, at that time, he exercised the most
powerful and helpful financial history ever
displayed by any man in the financial
history of the country. Particularly with
his genius and indefatigable labors in the
organization and development of the United
States Steel Corporation be long remembered
as a masterly achievement, and, in the
opinion of many, as laying the substantial
foundation for the great industrial
prosperity of the county, which followed in
the years immediately after this
accomplishment.
Mr. Morgan
was connected with nearly all notable
financial undertakings of his time, and his
influence was always of the soundest
character and conducive to the public wel-
Page 168a-Picture of
Mr. Morgan
Page 169
fare as well as to
the investing interests. A list
of the important reorganizations of railroad
companies, the negotiations of loans,
and the underwriting of industrial enterprises
which have been handled by him would be
long and imposing. Also in public
affairs were his services to the country
of inestimable value. Especially
in 1894 and 1895, and at other times of
threatened monetary stringency, he contributed
substantially and effectively to protecting
the credit of the United States Treasury.
Although,
when the banking disturbances which
developed in New York City in the autumn of
1907 threatened to overwhelm the entire
country with supreme disaster, he had been
largely retired from active participation in
affairs, Mr. Morgan came forward again to
save the situation. In the grave emergency
which then arose he took the lead in
measures instituted to prevent the
widespread destruction of public credit and
overthrow of industrial and financial
institutions that was imminent. His
leadership in those trying days was
unreservedly accepted by men who were
foremost in the financial world in New York
City, and as well throughout the United
States. among his associates he was relied
upon for initiative and for powerful
influence, and even the national
administration depended upon his advice and
his assistance. After the battle had battle
had been won and confidence restored, it was
everywhere recognized that his financial
genius and his masterly control of men and
affairs had been the main instruments in
saving the country, if not the world, from
the worst disaster that had impended for a
generation. The great masters of finance in
London, Paris, and other monetary centers of
Europe did not withhold their warmest praise
and indorsement of his accomplishment, while
his associates in the American fields of
finance and industry have been profuse in
acknowledgment of the preeminent service
that he rendered to the country.
Mr. Morgan
was also a large investor in the great
business enterprises of the country, and a
director in more than two score financial,
railroad, and industrial corporations.
Typically foremost among the enterprises in
which he held important interests and
exercised pronounced influence in the
direction of their affairs were the
following: The United States Steel
Corporation, the Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Chicago & St. Louis Railway Company, the
First National Bank of the City of New York,
the General Electric Company, the Lake Erie
& Western Railroad Company, the Lake Shore
& Michigan Southern Railway Company, the
Michigan Central Railroad Company, the
National Bank of Commerce of New York, the
New York & Harlem River Railroad Company,
the New York Central & Hudson River Railroad
Company, the New York, New Haven & Hartford
Railroad Company, the West Shore Railroad
Company, and the Western Union Telegraph
Company.
A man of
broad culture and refined tastes, Mr. Morgan
did not confine himself to business
affairs. He was particularly interested in
art, being one of its more generous patrons,
and one of the accomplished connoisseurs of
the world. Some of the finest works of the
great masters of olden times and of the
present were owned by him. His collection
of art objects is recognized as one of the
largest, most important, and most valuable
ever brought together by a single private
individual. A considerable part of this
great collection was acquired during the ten
years or so preceding 1908, and has been
kept in Kensington Museum, London, in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York
City, and in Mr. Morgan's private galleries
in London and New York. It consists not
only of rare and valuable paintings, but
exquisite porcelains, marble reliefs,
bronzes, enamels, fabrics and other
objects.
Mr. Morgan's
New York residence was in Madison Avenue,
and he had a country seat, "Cragston," at
Highland Falls, New York. he also had a
house at Roehampton, near Wimbledon, a
suburb of London, and one near Kensington.
Adjoining his New York City residence he had
a fine private art gallery which contains
many of his art treasures. He was a member
of the leading clubs of New York City and
London, was one of the founders and
president of the Metropolitan Club of New
York, and was for several years commodore of
the New York Yacht Club. Particularly
interest in the Metropolitan Art Museum, he
was a generous benefactor to that
institution and was its president. He
arranged to erect in Hartford, Connecticut,
an art building in memory of his father, to
be called the Morgan Memorial; the corner
stone of this edifice was laid April 23,
1908. He was one of the trustees of
Columbia University, a director or trustee
of various other
Page 170
educational and philanthropic
institutions, a member of the Protestant
Episcopal Church, and several times was
a lay delegate from the diocese of New
York to the general conventions of that
religious body.
He married,
(first) Amelia, daughter of Jonathan and
Mary (Cady) Sturgess, of New York City. She
died, and he married (second) in 1805
Frances Louise, daughter of Charles and
Louise (Kirkland) Tracy, of New York City.
Issue: 1. John Pierpont Morgan, born 1867,
graduated from Harvard University, class of
1889, and since then has been engaged in the
banking business with his father. He
resides in Madison Avenue, New York City,
and is a member of the Metropolitan, Union,
University, Riding, New York Yacht, and
other clubs. He married, in 1891, Jane
Norton Grew, daughter of Henry Sturgis and
Jane Norton (Wigglesworth) Grew, of Boston;
she was born in Boston, September 30, 1868.
They have one son, Junius Spencer Morgan,
born in 1892. 2. Louisa Pierpont Morgan,
married Herbert L. Satterlee. 3. Juliet
Pierpont Morgan married W. Pierson
Hamilton. 4. Anne Tracy Morgan.
VAN DER POEL.
The family name of van der Poel is
the Dutch significance for "from
the lake," or marsh, and when the
name was first applied undoubtedly this
family dwelt beside a small body of water,
either damned or hemmed in by natural
or artificial means, and thus, at a time
in history when Christian names only were
in common use, it designated which one
of several bearing the same name was meant.
The family lived originally in Gorichem
(Groningen?) on the Rhine, but dispersed
about the year 1600, the branch which
then went to Amsterdam, Holland, coming
to America not long afterwards, from whom
those of the name living here are descended.
The branch in
America was originated by Teunis (Anthony)
Cornelis van der Poel (alias Spitsbergen),
who had a short existence, for he left no
male descendants so far as is known at the
present time. He was in Beverwyck (Albany)
from 1660 to 1687; married Catrina, daughter
of Johannes Croon; was a magistrate in 1871,
and owned one-half of Constapel's Island in
the Hudson River, opposite Paerde Hoeck.
When he died, about 1687, (his will was made
June 17, 1687), he left a widow and three
daughters, Elizabeth, Maria, and Johanna.
At this time he was still the owner of a
house in Amsterdam, Holland.
(I) There is
evidence of two others of the name having
been early in this country. Jacobus (James)
van der Poel married Margaret Jans in New
York, July 25, 1693, and Gerrit van der Poel,
a widower, married Debora Warren, February
12, 1697.
(II) Wynant
Gerritse van der Poel, son of Gerrit van der
Poel, originated this line of descent. He
was born most likely in Holland, and was in
Albany as early as 1657. He resided there
until about 1694. He purchased a half
interest ina sawmill located on the eastern
bank of the Hudson River, on what came to be
known for the next two centuries and more as
the Wyants kill, or creek. He bought it in
1674, from Geertruy Pieterse Vosburgh, widow
of Abraham Vosburgh. His last will, made in
1695, shows that he had removed from Albany,
as it was indorsed "The Will of Wynant
Gerritse van der Poel, late of Albany, now
of New York." It was dated February 29,
1695, and was probated April 17, 1702,
so the date of his death must have been in
the interim. For some reason he bequeathed
only six shillings to his son, Melgert, and
gave the residue of his estate to his
son-in-law, William G. van den Bergh. It is
very possible that he provided in the usual
way for his children during his lifetime,
and in old age resided with his daughter
Catryn, who married van den Bergh. Wynant
Gerritse van der Poel married Tryntje
Melgers. Children: 1. Cornelia, married
Cornelis Gysbertse van den Bergh before
1685. 2. Melgert Wynantse (see forward).
3. Gerrit, married Catrina Van Zandt. 4.
Catryn, married William G. van den Bergh,
before 1685. 5. Margariet, married
Johannes Van Zandt, about 1683.
(III)
Melgert Wynantse van der Poel, son of Wynant
Gerritse and Tryntje (Melgers) van der Poel,
resided in Albany, New York. His house, as
also his father's fronted on the Fort on
State Street, in 1675, probably located on
the south side of that principal
thoroughfare where most of the early houses
of leading residents were built. Not
infrequently he wrote his name Melchert, for
so
Page 171
it appears on some
of the records. It is likely that
he died before the year 1700.
Melgert Wynantse van der Poel married
(first) Ariaantje, daughter of Abraham
Isaacse and Maria (Vigne) Verplanck, by
whom he had eight children, and he married
(second) Elizabeth Teller, by whom he
had two children. she was the daughter
of William and Margaret (Donchesen) Teller,
Sr. By her first husband, as shown
by her will, made February 19, 1720, she
had several children, viz.: Margaret,
married Volckert Douw; Maria, married
John Vinhagen; Magdalena, married
Abraham Lansing, and Helena. She
died in the year she had made her will.
Children: 1. Melgert, (see
forward). 2. Maria. 3.
Trynke. 4. Abraham, married
Antje van den Bergh, January 3, 1713.
5. Wynant, baptized October 14,
1683, married Catherina De Hoogen (or
De Hooges), August 17, 1706. 6.
Gelyn, baptized May 17, 1685. 7.
Jacobus (James), born March 9, 1687.
8. Hendrick, baptized June 2, 1689.
9. Wilhelm, born March 19, 1693.
10. Ariaantje, born November 17,
1695.
(IV)
Melgert van der Poel, son of Melgert
Wynantse and Ariaantje
(Verplanck) van der
Poel, was baptized in Albany, New York, and
resided in Kinderhook, Columbia County, New
York, until his marriage, when he removed to
Poelsburgh, New York, where he died. Melgert
van der Poel married, May 17, 1696,
Catharina, daughter of Lourens (Laurence)
and Elbertje (Evertse) Van Alen. She
inherited a large estate from her father,
who was a son-in-law of de Bruyn, to whom a
large patent of land on the Hudson River had
been granted. Children and dates of their
baptism: 1. Elbertje, February 3, 1697,
married Martin Van Deusen, December 23,
1719. 2. Ariaantje, September 3, 1699.
4. Lourens (Laurence), January 26, 1701,
married, October 29, 1726, Ariaantje van den
Bergh. 4. Maria, January 10, 1703, married
November 8, 1724, David Groesbeck. 5.
Johannes, March 4, 1705 (see forward). 6.
Abraham, February 9, 1707, married, October
26, 1738, Elizabeth Quinlen. &. Jacobus
(James), April 17, 1709, married, October
16, 1740, Neeltje Huyck. 8, Isaac, October
14, 1711, married Anna ----------. 9.
Catryna, December 16, 1716.
(V) Johannes
van der Poel, son of Melgert and Catharina
(Van Alen) van der Poel, was born on his
father's estate in Kinderhook, Columbia
County, New York, March 4, 1705; died there
April 11, 1777, but was interred at
Poelsburgh. It is thought that he was a
widower (having married on November 8, 1736,
but to whom unknown), when he married
Annatje (Nautje or Annie), daughter of Dr.
Samuel and Catherine (Howarden) Staats.
This marriage took place May 5, 1743, at the
house on "The Flatts" (half way between
Albany and Troy) of Madam Schuyler, "the
American Lady," whose niece and adopted
daughter she was. His wife was
granddaughter of Major Abraham Staats,
surgeon, who came to Rensselaerwyck in 1642
with Dominie Megapolensis, and whose wife
was Catrina Jochemse Wessels. Major Staats
was a prominent leader during Leisler's
administration of the government, and
probably left New York to settle in
Poelsburgh soon after its collapse.
Children: 1. Isaac, born in Kinderhook,
New York, December 8, 1747 (see forward).
2. Maria, married, November 19, 1762,
Laurence Van Dyck. 3. Catherine, married,
October 27, 1767, John Pruyn. 4. Eltje,
baptized, April 22, 1750, married John Van
Valkenbergh. 5. Sarah, Married (first)
John Van Alstyne, (second) colonel jacob
Schermerhorn.
(VI) Isaac
van der Poel, son of Johannes and Annatje
(or Annie) (Staats) van der Poel, was born
in Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York,
December 8, 1747, and was baptized in
Albany, December 25, 1747, with Philip
Schuyler and Geertruy Lansing as sponsors.
He died in Chatham, Columbia County, New
York, December 25, 1807.
He was
commissioned adjutant of the Seventh
Regiment (Kinderhook District), October 20,
1775, and was removed from this position for
disaffection to the American government. He
afterwards joined the British forces and
commanded a company of refugees on Staten
Island. While acting in this capacity he
was taken sick, and it is said that through
the influence of his mother with her
relative, General Philip Schuyler, a pass
through the American lines was secured for
him. She brought him to her home, cared for
him tenderly until his complete recovery,
and then returned him to his company on
Staten Island. His estate was confiscated
by the government, and he
Page 172
Was thus rendered penniless.
He was a man of extraordinary intellect
and of a frank, noble and generous nature,
but he never enjoyed a day of peace after
the mistaken step he took in the Revolution.
Following his marriage, he purchased a
small farm in the village of Chatham,
over the hill and about a mile and a half
from Kinderhook Lake, where he passed
the remainder of his days quietly and
not far removed from the wide circle of
his relatives and boyhood days.
Isaac van der
Poel married Moyca (Mayke, or May),
daughter of Jacobus (James), of Pompaonie,
and Elizabeth (Van Dyck) Huyck. She was
born October 17, 1758, died in Stuyvesant,
New York, November 20, 1827, and was
interred in the Kinderhook, New York,
cemetery. Her mother was the daughter of
Arent and Heyltie (Van Alen) Van Dyck, who
had, beside Moyca, children named Arent and
Burger. Arent Van Dyck, maternal
grandfather of Isaac van der Poel, was one
of His Majesty's justices of the peace for
the colony. He was a gentleman of education
and talents, and the general scribe for the
region in which he lived. He was a lineal
descendant of Hendrick Van Dyck, who was
attorney-general of the Dutch province of
new York, and who came from the West Indies
with Governor Peter Stuyvesant. He and
Stuyvesant were two obstinate Dutchmen, and
seemed to have quarreled all the way from
the West Indies until they arrived at New
York. Children: 1. Anne, born January 3,
1785, died September 5, 1787. 2. James,
born in Kinderhook, New York, January 10,
1787, died in Albany, New York, October 3,
1843; married, April 19, 1808, Anna,
daughter of Rev. George jacob Leonard Doll,
and who was born July 19, 1782; died in
Albany, New York, March 14, 1855. 3. Anne,
born July 30, 1789; died April 3, 1793. 4.
Elizabeth, born January 19, 1791; married,
January 16, 1815, Lucas J. Van Alen; died
August 23, 1833. 5. John, born august 24,
1795 (see forward). 6. Aaron, born
February 5, 1799; married (first), September
3, 1821, Harriet Baldwin, who died in April,
1837; married (second), April 2, 1839, Ellen
McBride.
(VII) John
Van der Poel, son of Isaac and Moyca, or
May, (Huyck) van der Poel, was born in
Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York,
August 24, 1796. He resided in the place of
his nativity throughout his life, where he
had an extensive practice as a physician of
repute. He died there October 27,1851, and
was buried in the Kinderhook Cemetery amid
the graves of his ancestors of two
centuries.
Dr. John Van der Poel married at
Goshen, Orange County, New York, January
14,. 1823, Sarah West, daughter of Timothy
Oakley and Sarah Ketchum. She was born in
Deer Park, Orange County, New York, May 1,
1797,, and died at Kinderhook, at the home
of her son, Aaron J. Van der Poel, October
6, 1883. Children: 1. Samuel Oakley, born
February 22, 1824; married, December 10,
1850, Gertrude Lansing Wendell, and died at
Washington on March 12, 1886 (see forward).
2. Aaron John, born at Valatte, Columbia
County, New York, October 24, 1825; married
at Paris, France, August 22, 1887,; married,
August 3, 1852, Adaline Elizabeth, daughter
of Henry C. Van Schaack and daughter of
Adaline Ives, who was born February 28,
1830, died in London, July 27, 1912, by
whom: Mary Cornelia, born October 28, 1854,
married, January 29, 1878, Benjamin W.
Franklin; Henry Van Schaack, born January
19, 1856, died June 13, 1859; Thomas Beekman,
born June 18, 1858, died December 15, 1863;
Augustus Hall, born December 13, 11859, died
April 27, 1911, married, November 25, 1885,
Eliza Granger, at Baltimore, Maryland,
children, born at Orange, New Jersey: A.
Augustus Van der Poel, born July 4, 1888, A.
B., Yale University, 1913, and Eliza G. Van
der Poel, born December 21, 1891; Adaline
Ives, born July 28, 17862, died December 16,
1863; Lydia Beekman, born August 1, 1864;
married Sartell Prentice, 1896; Aaron
Melgert, born January 16, 1867; Margaret,
born December 10, 1870, married Waldo
Newcomer, October 6, 1897. 3. James, born
June 28, 1827; died April 30, 1835. 4.
Jesse Oakley, born June 15, 1831l died
January 25, 1870. 5. John, born December
11, 1834; died in Chicago, Ill., May 29,
1869; married, April 5, 1860, Mary E. Van
der Poel; no issue. 6. Sarah Elizabeth,
born March 21, 1838; died in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, August 11, 1876; married
(first), march 24, 1859, peter Wendell, who
was born July 1, 1827; died May 12, 1868,
son of Dr. Peter
Page 173
Wendell and Elizabeth Van Kleeck; married
(second), December 16, 1873, Major Robert
L. Burnett.
(VIII) Dr.
Samuel Oakley Van der Poel, son of Dr. John
and Sarah W. (Oakley) Van der Poel, was born
in Kinderhook, Columbia County, New York,
February 22, 1824, and died at Washington,
D. C., March 12, 1886.
Like his
father, he was a physician of celebrity, and
as health officer of the port of New York
for a great many years gained wide
prominence. His boyhood and youth were
spent in his native place, and the outdoor
life of that healthful locality helped him
to develop a vigorous and robust
constitution. He completed his preparatory
training at an early age in the Kinderhook
Academy and then entered upon his collegiate
course in the University of New York, of
which institution the venerable and
scholarly Theodore Frelinghuysen was then
the chancellor. Receiving his diploma, he
returned to begin the study of medicine with
his father, and after a thorough course at
home and in the institution, graduated at
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in
the spring of 1845. For the next two years
he was associated in practice with his
father; but he still regarded his education
and early practice as only preparatory to
the real professional career he had marked
out, so in the fall of 1847 he went to Paris
to pursue his studies with the superior
advantages belonging to that brilliant
capital. It was a remarkable period, when
Dr. Van der Poel began his serious
post-graduate course in medicine. Paris was
in the midst of profound agitation. The
unpopular ministry of Guizot and the
trembling throne the citizen kind were
tottering to their fall. This political
ferment culminated in the violent revolution
of February, 1848, ending in the abdication
of Louis Phillipe and the proclamation of
the Second Republic. He was a witness of
these memorable and turbulent scenes, and,
as the seething tumult was unpropitious to
the calm prosecution of studies, he traveled
through the south of France, and Italy,
witnessing at Lyons, Marseille, Naples,
Rome, Florence and Milan the various acts of
the revolutionary drama then exciting all
Europe. Immediately after the bloody days
of June he returned to the French capital
and remained for a considerable period.
In the spring
of 1850, Dr. Van der Poel came to Albany,
New York, where he settled and speedily
acquired a remunerative practice which
continued to be both flattering and
progressive, and it was in this year that he
married there. In 1857, Governor John Alsop
King appointed him surgeon-general of new
York State, and three years later he was
chosen president of the Albany County
Medical Society, being re-elected the
following year as an endorsement of his wise
administration. In 1861 he was again
invited to hold the office of
surgeon-general, this time by Governor Edwin
D. Morgan. The position proved in this case
not one of mere empty honor or a sincere.
The inauguration of the civil war shortly
after his term began, imposed duties and
responsibilities far more arduous, delicate
and important than had ever before devolved
upon that or any other similar position in
this country. It became necessary, without
the guide of precedent or experience, to
improvise a vast and systematic bureau
meeting every requirement attaching to the
complete medical organization of a great
force. There were many militia regiments to
be promptly provided with medical supplies
and instrument as they hurried to the
field. There were numerous volunteer
regiments rapidly assembling, requiring
immediate care for their sick and attention
to their permanent organization. There were
hundreds of surgeons and assistants coming
from every section of the state representing
every grade of the profession, whose
qualifications were to be examined and
decided. New regiments were uninterruptedly
organized, and old regiments demanded
constant attention, even after they had
passed into the service of the United
States, in order that a competent medical
staff might be maintained. This last duty
was made particularly harassing and
exhausting by the crude system of the
general government during the first two
years of the war. In many cases the medical
officers no sooner became conversant with
their duties than the novelty and romance
vanished, their resignation were offered and
accepted, and the surgeon-general required
to fill the vacancies with such promptitude
that the public service should suffer no
detriment. The magnitude of the
responsibility and the severity of the labor
thus imposed may be
Page 174
judged from the fact
that there were between six and seven
hundred positions upon the medial staff
to be kept filled with competent officers.
A still more significant testimony
is embodied in the statement that at one
time the surgeon-general was called upon
to make over five hundred appointments
in the space of six weeks. Nor was
this all. He was obliged to establish
and perfect a system of promotion which
should be just, without favoritism, and
confer reward without impairing the efficiency
of the service. His patronage was
immense. With hundreds of officers
in this department, upon whose respective
merits none but himself could decide;
it required a nice sense of honor and
a wise discrimination to distribute the
appointments in such a way that the good
of the general service might be harmonized
with a recognition of just personal claims.
Nothing could put the professional acquirements
and the executive talents of a man to
a severer test than these varied, complicated
and difficult duties; and it is but to
repeat the judgment of the highest authorities
to say that they were performed by Dr.
Van der Poel with signal ability.
His successful administration elicited
the official approval of both the Secretary
of War and the governor of the state of
New York, and constitutes an important
chapter in the association of New York
with the great contest.
In 1867, Dr.
Van der Poel was appointed to the chair of
General Pathology and Clinical Medicine in
the Albany Medical College, which position
he held for three years and then resigned.
About the same time he was appointed a
manger of the State Lunatic Asylum at Utica,
New York, a position in which he did
effective work. In February, 1870, he was
elected president of the Medical Society of
the State of New York, the highest
recognition in the power of his professional
brethren. The next step in his noteworthy
career was equally if not more important, as
affecting innumerable persons. In 1872,
Governor John T. Hoffman placed him in
charge of the quarantine department of the
port of New York as health officer. The
irregularities of this office for many years
had been the theme of discussion in
legislative councils, and commercial
conventions, for nothing in the way of a
reform seemed to have been at all
effective. The antagonism of commerce and
quarantine were developed to the fullest
extent. In this field, with all its
complications, there was full scope for the
exertion of his remarkable executive
ability, which he had previously displayed.
In many respects this is the highest medical
office in the world, and to Dr. Van der Poel
belongs the credit of restoring it to its
true position. His first action was to
reduce the various part of it to form one
perfect system. The enormous expenditures
had grown into a heterogeneous organization
without much system. Taking charge of it
purely as a sanitary interest, he placed in
the hands of those who owned merchandise and
ships the work which has to be done on their
vessels, and which thus could be done by
them under the ordinary business rules that
controlled such matters elsewhere. The
quarantine law, which ad grown by successive
administrations to an authority for
oppressive administration was codified and
relaxed from some of its provisions, only
retaining what was necessary of sanitary
restraint for the public safety, and these
changes were urged forcefully upon the
legislature. for the first time in the
history of quarantine, one found that
commerce was actively sustaining it.
Mercantile associations passed complimentary
and approving resolutions, and petitioned
the legislature in favor of every change
which he recommended. Branches of trade
which had left New York apparently forever,
to avoid the expenses \incident to their
quarantine dentition, began soon thereafter
to return. In all this acute change of
conditions, there was not the slightest
relaxation of sanitary restraint necessary
to the protection of the entire northern
frontier and Western United States, which
depend upon this port for their
immigrations; but sanitary regulations,
which Dr. Van der Poel considered as his
legitimate care, were made more strict than
ever before. In January, 1876, he was
elected to the chair of Theory and Practice
of Medicine in the Albany Medical College, a
position which he sustained with credit to
that institution's advancement. It is of
common repute that as a physician he was
equally learned in theory as skilled in
practice. To large native endowments he
added the highest cultivation. He delighted
in the acquisition of an enormous medical
library, which he enriched with rare and
important foreign works. He was known to
his friends
Page 175
as a gentleman of large,
public spirit and possessing an attractive
quality of broad, genial culture.
Dr. Samuel
Oakley Van der Poel married, at Albany, New
York, December 10, 1850, Gertrude Lansing
Wendell, who was born in Albany, January 15,
1824, died in Cazenovia, New York, August
13, 1906, daughter of Dr. peter Wendell and
Elizabeth Van Kleeck.
It is desirable to include a few facts
regarding the parentage of Mrs. S. O.
Van der Poel,. Dr. Peter Wendell
was a man of prominence in Albany.
He was born there June 3, 1786, died at
his resident on Elk Street, in that city,
October 29, 1849. He was the son
of Jacob Harmanus Wendell (born October
21, 1754, died March 23, 1826, son of
Harmanus Wendell and Catherine Van Vechten),
who married, about 1785, Geertruy (Gertrude)
Lansing (born September 3, 1758, daughter
of Peter Lansing and Elizabeth Wendell).
His wife (Elizabeth Van Kleeck) died in
Albany, November 11, 1846. He studied
medicine with Dr. William McLellan of
Albany; attended lectures at the University
of Pennsylvania; commenced practice in
1807 at Albany; received the degree of
M. D. from his alma mater in 1823,
at which time he was selected a Regent
of the University of the State of New
York, of which body he became chancellor
in 1842, filling that office until his
death.
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