Isaac Dimond biography, Dimondale, Eaton County, Michigan

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SUBJECT: Isaac Marquand DIMOND
SUBMITTER: Andrew MacLaney
EMAIL: amaclaney@hotmail.com
DATE: May 20, 2000
PASSWORD>
SURNAMES: Dimond, Capen
The Genealogy of the Dimond or Dimon Family of Fairfield, Conn.: Together
with Records of the Dimon or Dymont Family of East Hampton, Long Island,
and of the Dimond Family of New Hampshire / by Edwin R. Dimond / Albany,
N. Y.: Joel Munsell's Sons, 1891 / pages 58-61

Isaac Marquand Dimond, b. Feb. 24, 1804, in Fairfield; d. Dec. 16,
1862, in Brooklyn; m. Apr. 18, 1839, Sarah Capen.

Children.

I. Sarah Capen, b. Feb. 26, 1840, in New York city; d. there Nov.
18, 1840.

II. Miranda Capen.

III. Mary Bates, b. Nov. 18, 1846; now living in Marietta, O.

IV. James Crocker, b. Feb. 7, 1850, in Detroit, Mich.; d. Mar. 8,
1851, in Dimondale, Mich.

V. Henry Cipperly.

Baptized June 4, 1804. (F. Par. Rec.) Restored the final "d"
to the name. He attended the academy at Fairfield, where he prepared
himself for Yale College. Upon the death of his father--after having
been burned out in an enterprise he had undertaken in the South--he
went to New York city, where he was apprenticed to a silversmith,
who did every thing in his power to prevent Isaac from learning the
trade, being jealous of his (Isaac's) uncle Isaac Marquand's influence.
Mr. Marquand at that time controlled the largest retail jewelry trade
in the city.

Having finished his apprenticeship without any particular knowledge
of the business, owing to the peculiar situation in which he had been
placed, Isaac made arrangements to remain one year as a journeyman,
with wages and the privilege of using the tools after the day's work
was done and gathering the dust from the floors of the work-rooms,
from which he procured enough silver to complete a set of spoons for
his mother.

At the end of the year he had $1,000 in bank and, what was more, a
knowledge of his trade.

He succeeded in obtaining better terms from his employer for the next
two years, during which time, by strict economy and the proceeds from
the invention of some labor-saving machinery--the first used in the
silver trade--he had saved enough to lease the establishment for a
year, and at the end of that time he bought it outright and hired
his old employer as a workman.

His success as a manufacturing jeweler and silversmith was phenomenal.
After some years he retired from active business and transferred his
capital into real estate, and was then considered one of the wealthiest
men in the city.

But, unfortunately, having indorsed largely for some young men who
speculated in real estate, and to save himself from their large obligations,
during the financial crisis of 1840 and 1841, he took advantage of
the Bankrupt Act, and gave up all he possessed. The following is from
one of the New York papers of that time.

"United States District Court.--In Bankruptcy.--Before Judge
Betts.

"Isaac M. Dimond, among the many and bitter reverses of fortune,
exhibited by the applications in the Bankrupt court, none stands more
conspicuous than that of this gentleman. A sliversmith by profession,
he rose, by his own energies, to be master, some ten or twelve years
since, of what was supposed to be an almost princely fortune, the
whole of which has been lost in the storm that has wrecked so many
of our most energetic, though, perhaps, in many instances, too adventurous
citizens.

"Mr. Dimond commenced, a long time previous to the speculating
mania, successful operations in real estate--he erected the immense
pile of buildings which stand on Little Green street, in a part of
which were his own works--he also purchased the Thorburne estate,
in Liberty street--(his bonds and mortgages for which, in the sum
of $50,000, to Grant Thorburne and Geo. C. Thorburne, form a part
of his schedule)--and other buildings in the street and vicinity,
and erected nearly, if not quite, all the stores on the northerly
side of Liberty street, from Nassau street to Broadway, thus employing
a vast number of men. He also operated successfully in other parts
of the city, and, although still quite a young man, his future prospects
seemed brilliant and unclouded.

"But what was object of still stronger attraction in the character
of Mr. Dimond, was his proverbial charity in relation to the poor,
and his ever open hand and heart in the cause of religion and benevolence--none
contributed, compared with his means, more liberally than he did to
the many enterprises having for their object the improvement in condition
and the happiness of his fellow beings--the Bible Society, the missionary
institutions, the Temperance cause, and such found in him, not only
in word but in deed, a most active supporter. The subject of free
churches early occupied a portion of his attention, and to him we
owe the celebrated edifice known as the Broadway Tabernacle, he having
in connection with a gentleman named Greene, projected and built it.
Notwithstanding, however, that it was an ornament and great source
of benefit to our city, he lost an immense sum of money in its erection
and support, and was finally obliged to dispose of it.

"Mr. Dimond, however, has lost all, and the mind cannot but deeply
regret that one so apparently deserving should have been borne upon
so heavily by the calamaties which have visited the active business
portion of the land. We have extended this remark further than we
had intended to do, but the case of Mr. D. is one so replete with
considerations as to 'the events of the times, that we thought it
worthy of a passing notice.'

"His wild lands in Michigan were then thought to be of little
value and were given back to him. It was there that he moved after
his financial embarrassment and settled down in mercantile business
in Jackson, Mich. He spent a large portion of his time and energy
for the next twelve years in developing the town of Dimondale (named
for him) in Eaton county, Michigan, where he owned much land. After
getting a flour and saw-mill and many other improvements under way,
he and his wife returned to Brooklyn to live. Two years later he died
of a congestive chill, after an illness of two days.

"Some of his property in New York has since become very valuable.
One lot on Wall street that he gave up for $15,000, was afterward
sold for more than one million dollars.

"He owned that time what is now the best part of Murray Hill
in New York city. His motto was to 'do right' even if it brought disaster
to him and his.

"As requested by him, he was buried at Fairfield by the side
of his mother."

[Founder of Dimondale, Eaton County, Michigan.]