BIOGRAPHY: James S. T. Stranahan; Brooklyn, Kings co., NY
surname: Stranahan, Fitch, Josselyn, Harrison

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A HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO THE PRESENT TIME 
BY PETER ROSS, LL. D. 
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY NEW YORK AND CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT. 1902

JAMES S. T. STRANAHAN

     True men are the crown jewels of the republic. The very names of the
distinguished dead are a continual inspiration and an abiding lesson. The name
Garibaldi thrills the sons of Italy; the enthusiasm of the liberty-loving
Swiss is aroused by the mention of Hofer; Wallace and Bruce are names which
inspire every Scot; and in our own land a feeling of veneration and honor is
felt as those of Washington and Lincoln are uttered. This is not only true of
those who have advanced the spirit of liberty, but of the men who have
broadened the realms of thought; who have opened the fields of knowledge and
contributed in any measure to the progress of the world, their efforts
redounding to the benefit of their fellow men along the lines of material,
intellectual, aesthetic or moral development The work which they perform is a
more enduring monument than any which might be erected of stone or bronze, for
it wins the enduring love of a grateful people, and the story of their lives
is handed down to posterity, and their names are honored throughout time. When
the years have become a part of a long vanished past, history throws around
the great men of earth an idealization, - in other words, only the resplendent
virtues are emphasized; but even in the light of the present, the strong,
practical judgment of the day acknowledged the value of the service which
James S. T. Stranahan rendered to his fellow men, and the city of Brooklyn
largely stands as the visible evidence of a life whose far-reaching influence
has affected for good so many of his fellow men.

     One of the strongest forces in the psychic world is the association of
ideas, and to a student of history the city of Brooklyn can not be mentioned
without bringing to mind James S. T. Stranahan, who left the impress of his
forceful individuality upon almost every line of progress and improvement that
has led to the substantial growth and advancement of the city. His life's span
covered nine decades - years of purpose well directed, plans carefully formed
- an era of splendid achievement

     His life record began on the 25th of April, 1808, at the old family
homestead in Madison county, New York, near Peterboro, his parents being
Samuel and Lynch (Josselyn) Stranahan. He traced his lineage to Scotch-Irish
ancestry; of Presbyterian faith - men of strong, rugged, determined character,
and women of virtue, diligence and culture. The first of the name of whom
record is left was James Stranahan, who was born in the north of Ireland, in
1699. The orthography of the name has undergone many changes, having been in
the following forms: Stranahan, Strachan and Strahan The name, however,, is
derived from the parish of Strachan, Kincardineshire, Scotland. James
Stranahan, the grandfather of him whose name forms the caption of this review,
crossed the Atlantic to the new world in 1725, locating in Scituate, Rhode
island, where he became a prosperous farmer. He afterward removed to
Plainfleld, Connecticut, where he died in 1792, at the advanced age of
ninety-three years. His namesake and eldest son served as a Revolutionary
soldier in the war which brought independence to the nation, and lived and
died in. Plainfleld, Connecticut.

     James S. T. Stranahan lost his father when eight years of age, and his
happy boyhood days were soon transformed into a period of labor, for his
stepfather needed his assistance in the development of the farm and the care
of the stock. However, when the work of the farm was ended for the
season, he entered the district schools, and there acquired his early
education, which was later supplemented by several terms of study in an
academy. From the age of seventeen he depended entirely upon his own
resources. After completing his academical work he engaged in teaching school,
with the intention of later fitting himself for the profusion of civil
engineer; but the occupation of trading with the Indians in the northwest
seemed to offer greater inducements, and in 1829 be visited the upper lake
region. He made several trips into the wilderness, and these, together with
the advice of General Lewis Cass, then governor of the territory of Michigan,
led him to abandon that plan, and he returned to his home.

     The elemental strength of his character was first clearly demonstrated
by his work in building the town of Florence, New York From his boyhood he had
known Gerrit Smith, the eminent capitalist and philanthropist, who in 1832
made him a proposition according to the terms of which he was to go to Oneida
county, New York, where Mr. Smith owned large tracts of land, and found a
manufacturing town. He was then a young man of only twenty-four years, but the
work was successfully accomplished, and the village of Florence, New York, was
transformed into a thriving little city of between two and three thousand. His
active identification with things political began during the period of his
residence in Florence, for in 1838 he was elected to the state legislature on
the Whig ticket, in a Democratic district.

     A broader field of labor soon engaged the attention and energies of Mr.
Stranahan, who in 1840 removed to Newark, New Jersey, and became an active
factor in railroad-building. In 1844 he came to Brooklyn, and from that time
until his death he was a most potent factor in the commercial life, the
political interests and the general upbuilding of the city. He found it a
municipality with but fifty thousand inhabitants. He went to the city a
comparative stranger. For some decades prior to his death he was known as "the
first citizen of Brooklyn." Therein is found an expression of the high regard
in which be was uniformly held. It is also an indication of the part which he
played in its public affairs, the title being a free-will offering of a
grateful people, who recognized his merit, his ability, and the wonderful work
which he had accomplished for Brooklyn.

     The public, however, is a discriminating factor, and not at once did Mr.
Stranahan gain his exalted position in public opinion. His first official
service was as alderman, to which position he was elected in 1848, and in 1850
he was nominated for mayor, but his party was in the minority and he was
defeated. His personal attributes at that time were not so well known as they
were in later years, and thus he could not overcome the party strength of his
opponent. However, his nomination served the purpose of bringing him before
the public, and in 1854, when the country was intensely excited over the
slavery question, he became a candidate for congress, and, although be was a
strong anti-slavery man and the district was Democratic, be was triumphantly
elected. In 1857, when the Metropolitan Police Commission was organized, he
was appointed a commissioner, and he was one of the most active members of the
board during the struggle between the new forces and the old New York
municipal police force of New York, Brooklyn and Staten Island, who revolted
under the new leadership of Fernando Wood, then mayor. Mr. Stranahan had
joined the ranks of the new Republican party on its organization, and in 1864
he was a presidential elector on the Lincoln and Johnson ticket. In 1860, and
again in 1864, he had been sent as a delegate to the Republican national
convention, and at both times supported the Illinois statesman, Lincoln, for
the presidency. During the Civil war he was president of the War Fund
Committee, an organization formed of over one hundred leading men of Brooklyn,
whose patriotic sentiment gave rise to the Brooklyn Union, a paper which was
in full accord with the governmental policy, and upheld the hands of the
president in every possible way. Its purpose was to encourage enlistments and
to further the efforts of the government in prosecuting the war. Mr. Stranahan
had an unshaken confidence in the ultimate triumph of the Union cause, and his
splendid executive ability and unfaltering determination were of incalculable
benefit in promoting the efficiency of the committee. His labors, too, were
the potent element in carrying forward a work in which this commission was
associated with the Woman's Relief Association, of which Mrs. Stranahan was
president. This work was the establishment of a great sanitary fair, which has
become historical and which was the means of raising four hundred thousand
dollars to carry on the work of the sanitary commission in connection with the
war. Mr. Stranahan never sought public office for himself except in the few
instances mentioned, and then his nomination came as a tribute to his ability.
In 1888, however, he was an elector for Benjamin Harrison, and being the
oldest member of the electoral college, was honored by being appointed the
messenger to carry the electoral vote from the State of New York to
Washington.

     It is almost impossible to give in a brief biographical sketch an
accurate record of the great work which Mr. Stranahan did in connection with
the unbuilding of Brooklyn. His name is a familiar one in the city on account
of his labors in behalf of the park system. Under the legislative act of 1860
he became president of the Brooklyn Park Commission, and he remained in office
for twenty-two years, a period in which the growth of the city made demands
for a park system that under his guidance was developed and carried forward to
splendid completion. Prospect Park is an everlasting monument to him. He was
also the originator of the splendid system of boulevards, the Ocean Parkway
and the Eastern Parkway, which has provided in Brooklyn a connection of the
city with the sea in a system of drives unsurpassed by any in the world. The
concourse on Coney Island also resulted from his instrumentality. The element
which made Mr. Stranahan's work different from that of all others, was that he
could foresee possibilities. It was this which led to the development of Coney
Island, for to him it seemed that the natural boundary of Brooklyn on the
southwest was the Atlantic ocean, and he took steps to secure the rare
advantage of an attractive highway from the city to the sea. It seems that
every work with which he was connected proved of the greatest value to the
city.

     The enterprises which he managed were gigantic in volume and
far-reaching in effect For more than forty years he was a director of the
Union Ferry Company, and under his guidance were developed the great Atlantic
docks. Brooklyn had no warehouse on its water front and the region which is
now the Atlantic docks was shallow water at the edge of the bay when he came
to the city. He foresaw the possibilities for commerce by establishing docks
at this point, and he labored with a courage and patience that ha; scarcely
been equaled in the history of material improvement in the world. It was
twenty-six years from the time he advanced his plans for the dock system
before the Atlantic Dock Company made a dividend to its stockholders, and yet
to-day its shipping returns arc greater than those of almost any other port of
the world. Only to the civil engineer is the scope of the wonderful
undertaking familiar. One who has not studied the science can not conceive of
the amplitude of this work. Mr. Stranahan was also connected with the Brooklyn
Bridge Company from its organization, and was one of the first subscribers to
its stock; he was a member of the board of directors of the New York Bridge
Company, and he served continuously as trustee from the time the work came
under the control of the two cities until June 8, 1885. At the meeting of the
trustees on that date, he occupied the chair as president of the board, and at
that time his term expired. He also served continuously as a member of the
executive committee, and upon nearly all of the important committees appointed
during construction. He foresaw the immense volume of traffic that would be
conducted over this mammoth span, and insisted that the original plans should
be altered to insure to the giant structure strength sufficient to enable it
to carry a train of Pullman cars Mr. Stranahan consulted with Commodore
Vanderbilt, who agreed with him in the opinion that the time would arrive when
solid Pullman trains would run in and out of Brooklyn from and to far western
points.

     The following speech, delivered by Mr. Stranahan, May 8, 1883, at the
annual banquet of the Chamber of Commerce of the City of New York, in response
to the following toast. "The Great Bridge the Engineering Triumph of the
Nineteenth Century: its Originators and Directors, for Their Patience,
Fidelity and Zeal, Deserve Everlasting Gratitude: its Constructors Achieve
Immortal Fame and its Complete Success," is reproduced for three reasons, -
because it is historic, because it is a literary gem, illustrative of Mr.
Stranahan's convincing style of oratory, and because it contains his views in
regard to the union of the two cities:

MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN:

     I cannot, in responding to the toast which you have just read, do less,
and will not attempt more, than to make a brief reference to the East River
bridge.

     That bridge, so long the object of public thought, and not infrequently
the target of newspaper criticism, now substantially finished and destined, in
a short time to be opened for general use, needs no eulogy from my ups. There
it stands, its own orator; and there for generations it will stand, its own
historian. It will for ages be one of the attractions and one of the wonders
of this great metropolitan center. Its fame will be world-wide; and the
foreign traveler who seeks these shores will feast his eyes and gratify his
curiosity in gazing upon a structure that now has no parallel in any of the
products of human art.

     The past history of the bridge is so lost in the reality of the present,
that the briefest reference thereto will suffice for the occasion. I hardly
need say that the construction of this work has, at all times, been under the
supervision of men of acknowledged integrity; and that, for the past eight
years, the mayors and comptrollers of the two cities have been members of the
board of trustees. I know of no public work that has been conducted with
greater economy or a stricter regard for the general good. Though the trustees
have often been sharply criticised by the loose talker and the newspaper
scribbler, they have steadily and persistently pursued their work, confident
that time and the result would be their best indication.

     High honor should be awarded to the chief engineers, the elder and the
younger Roebling, the former of whom lost his life, and the latter his health,
in a work second to no other of its kind in any age The skill and pains-taking
labor of the assistant engineers, having the immediate charge of the work,
have attracted the attention and won the admiration of every intelligent
visitor to the bridge.

     The original estimate was that the bridge would cost $7,000,000, and the
land on which it rests has cost $3,800,000, making an aggregate cost of
$10,800,000. The actual cost, including the land taken, is about $15,000,000.
This estimate, however, did not contemplate such a structure as the one that
now exists. The height of the bridge was increased in obedience to the order
of the general government, and its width and strength by the direction of the
trustees. The bridge, as actually constructed, will support the freight and
passenger trains of the trunk railways of the country. It has two carriage
roads, instead of one, as at first intended. The original plan was that the
approaches to the bridge should be simple iron trestlework, for which the
trustees thought it expedient to substitute massive arches of brick and
granite. The cables and suspended structure are composed of steel, instead of
iron. In a word, the bridge, as it now is, if it has cost more than the
original estimate, is not the bridge that was contemplated in that estimate.
It is higher, wider and composed of stronger material. It furnishes an
elevated highway between the two cities that is wider than Broadway. These
changes, in the way of improvement, abundantly explain the increase of cost.
They were needed to make the bridge what it should be.

     I feel confident that, on the opening of the bridge, the opinion of the
general public will confer with that eta distinguished member of the chamber,
who, after a walk with me over the structure, exclaimed, as we came near the
New York side: "Well, I had no idea of the magnitude of this work. it is,
indeed, grand in its conception, and, if possible. grander still in the
courage of its execution." The bridge told its own story to that gentleman;
and that story it wilt repeat in the ears of millions. To stand upon it, and
see it, and see all that it reveals to the eye, is to admire. All sense of
danger and all ideas of weakness at once disappear. The marvel is that human
power, even when availing itself of natural laws, could produce such a result.

     I do not know, Mr. Chairman, whether you have heard it or not; yet I may
as well say that the people of Brooklyn have an idea in regard to this bridge
which is quite sure to reveal itself at no distant period. Brooklyn, as you
are aware, is by the East river isolated from the main land. The people of
that city hope that the bridge will remove that isolation, and put them in
direct railway communication, not only with New York city, but with all parts
of the country. This will greatly serve their convenience and promote their
prosperity. New York will certainly not object, and will not be the loser. If
a bridge over the Harlem river connects New York with the main land, why
should not a bridge over the East river perform a similar service in behalf of
Brooklyn and Long Island? Brooklyn believes in utilizing the bridge to this
end; and fortunately the end can be gained without any serious disturbance of
existing conditions in the city of New York.

     The Second Avenue railway has, between the Harlem river and twenty-third
street, sufficient width for four tracks, and, between this street and the New
York terminus of the bridge, for three tracks; and it is withal so strongly
built as to make it entirely possible to utilize it to the full extent of
giving to Brooklyn and the system of railroads on Long Island an outlet
through the Hudson river and New Haven roads to all parts of the country. This
view contemplates no public or private concessions on the part of the city of
New York. It rests simply upon that business theory which so strongly marks
the great trunk lines of the country, and to which the Hudson river and New
Haven roads are no strangers. Though Brooklyn does not expect to rival the
commercial grandeur of the greater city, she does expect in this way to be put
in rapid and easy connection with the outside world, and, by her extended
water front, by her capabilities of indefinite territorial expansion, and by
her numerous attractions as a place of residence, to maintain, at the least,
her past record in the growth of population and wealth.

     Mr. Chairman, Brooklyn has another idea, and has long had it, the
accomplishment of which she hopes will be facilitated by this bridge The
Thames flows through the heart of London, and the Seine through the heart of
Paris; but in neither case have you two cities, It is London on both sides of
the Thames, and Paris on both sides of the Seine. The corporate unity is not
dissevered by either river. Numerous bridges make the connection between the
two sides in both cities; and it is best for both that it should be so. The
population on neither side would be advantaged by being split up into two
municipalities. Here, however, we have our New York city and our Brooklyn,
with the East river rolling between them. They are distant cities, in
immediate contiguity with each other, and separated by a water highway. Is
this distinctness of municipality any advantage to either? I think not. Would
the consolidation of these two cities into one municipal corporation be any
harm to either? I think not. The people are the same people, have the same
manners and customs, and have common commercial and social interests; and one
municipal government would serve them quite as well as two, and at far less
cost. I know of no reason why this distinctness should be continued other than
the fact that it exists; and I confess I see no good reason why it should
exist at all. I may be mistaken, but I think that the public sentiment of
Brooklyn would cordially welcome a consolidation of the two cities under the
tale of New York. The East River bridge, now superadded to the ferry system,
will, as Brooklyn hopes, so facilitate their mutual intercourse that both,
without any special courtship on tither side, will alike ask the legislature
of the State to enact the ceremony of a municipal marriage; and if this shall
be done, then I venture to predict that each will be so happy and so well
content with the other that neither will ever seek a divorce.

     I have thus, Mr. Chairman, briefly responded to the toast upon which I
have been asked to speak; and, as I close, I cannot forbear to express the
solid satisfaction which the trustees, who have for years given an unpaid
service to the construction of the East River bridge, Dow feel, not only in
view of its completion, but also of the character of the result attained. They
will pass away; generations will come and go; but the monument wilt live.
Centuries will roll away; and the bridge, though it may grow old in years, and
in the far distant future be studied and used as the product of a by-gone age,
will gill retain its strength. The cables will not snap, and the towers will
not fall. The anchorages will be true to their trust. The massive arches will
rot collapse. The steel and granite will not rot. Fire will not burn the
bridge. Freight trains and Pullman cars will not break it. The winds will not
shake it. Time and toil will not fatigue it.. Its youth and age will be alike
periods of vigor. That bridge, Mr. Chairman, was built to stand; and stand it
will - so long that we may well call it immortal.

     Mr. Stranahan's work in another regard largely brought about the union
of Brooklyn and New York Long before the consummation of the project, he was
one of the strongest advocates; in fact, he was the first than to put forth
the idea. He viewed the question from the standpoint of a statesman, and
worked upon the subject with the ability and skill of a diplomat. He realized
that the completion of the Brooklyn bridge was a step toward the ultimate
success of this condition. He realized that the cost of maintaining one
central city government would be much less than two, and the work in all the
departments might be far more effective, and lie lived to see the consummation
of his hopes.

     Mr. Stranahan was twice married. In early manhood he wedded Marianne
Fitch, who was born in Westmoreland, Oneida county. New York. and was a
daughter of Ebenezer R. Fitch. For three years, from 1837 until 1840, they
resided in Florence, New York, and during their four years' residence in
Newark, New Jersey, their two children were born. Mrs. Stranahan died in
Manchester, Vermont, in August, 1866, after twenty-two years' residence in
Brooklyn. Mr. Stranahan afterward married Miss Clara C. Harrison, a native of
Massachusetts. Before her marriage she was one of the leaders in educational
circles in Brooklyn, and for a number of years was principal of a private
seminary for the higher education of young ladies, which had an enrollment of
two hundred pupils, and fourteen teachers and professors in its various
departments She is a graduate of Mrs. Emma Willard's far-famed seminary, of
Troy, New York She took a very active part in the great sanitary fair as a
member of the committee on art, and of the committee on the postoffice and
"Drum Beat," the latter a paper issued daily during the continuance of the
fair, and of which Dr. Storrs was editor. From the postoffice many hundred
letters of greatly varied character were distributed. A volume of autograph
letters, chiefly from statesmen conspicuous at that time, were collected and
bound through her agency, and brought several hundred dollars into the
treasury. Mrs. Stranahan has ever been an active promoter of educational
interests. She is a "founder" and the Brooklyn trustee of Barnard College. She
is also vice-president of the alumnae association of her alma mater. She is an
ardent advocate of the higher education of women, and in that direction is
always ready to respond to the call for any aid which her influence, her
presence or her pen can give. She has become widely known throughout the
country as one of the most prominent members of the Daughters of the American
Revolution. Tracing her ancestry from those who fought for the liberty of the
colonies, she became a member of the organization and was elected one of its
vice-presidents-general, the highest tributes they have paid to her ability as
a presiding officer and as a parliamentarian; but her prominence in these
lines is not less pronounced than her fame in the field of literature She has
written much upon many articles of interest to the public at the time when her
pen gave to the press the written documents, and her opinions have carried
weight and influence. These, however, having sen-cd their purpose, have passed
from the public mind, yet she has a masterpiece of literature in her volume,
called "A History of French Painting." The fly-leaf of the work is inscribed
as follows:

To
My Husband
J. S. T. STRANAHAN
This work is affectionately inscribed in recognition of thy rare qualities of
his service to others through his ready perception of the ties of kinship,
citizenship, humanity.

     The work received the highest praise in artistic and literary circles in
this country and in Europe. The following extract from a review of the work by
the able editor of the Eagle, Mr. McKelway, is here produced:

MRS. STRANAHAN'S PEN.

     Of the things which she might have done and still have had her book pass
current as a history, Mrs. Stranahan did neither. She might have contented
herself with the dates and names and general allusions, or she might have made
a pleasant little trip along the path of French art development, picking up a
few flowers here and there, tying them into chapters and calling them a
history. There are few cases in all literature in which the application of the
word history is not to a great extent a sort of beneficent libel, but that of
Mrs. Stranahan's production is a most notable exception. It needs the eye of
no artist, either amateur or professional, to see at a glance what she had to
do. There is not a page of the book that does not tell its own eloquent story
of toil, which would have shaken the purposes of any but the most resolute of
women. The work would have been arduous enough if all the materials which she
has utilized had been, by some impossible literary legerdemain, placed at her
disposal with due reference to chronology and sequence. What she would still
have had to do, even under those conditions, would have been exacting enough
to justify the highest praise, for the manner in which she has done it.

     Those who know how busy a woman she is, in other than a literary sense,
are at a loss to comprehend how she found time to search out what she wanted,
to wander among the shadows of the centuries that are gone, and to give them a
substance as tangible as if they belonged to yesterday. Tributes to her energy
and determination might be made as strong as words can make them, but they are
entitled to no precedence over other acknowledgments, upon which her claim is
just as dear: the intuitive perceptions of a woman have been reinforced by a
grasp and virility usually incident to a masculine intelligence. As a matter
of fact, many have fallen into the error of supposing that the name on the
title page, C. H. Stranahan, belonged to one of the sterner sex. There is not
the least sign of uncertainty about the touch anywhere between the covers of
the book. It is affirmative, vigorous and decisive, without a suggestion of
dogmatism. If the material that is to be lifted into place is right, it is
handled with a delicacy that is not effeminate; if it is ponderous, there is
always in reserve for it a surprising degree of strength.

     In tier sense of relative importance of things, the author is
exceedingly fortunate. Lilliputians are not exaggerated into Goliaths, and
giants are not dwarfed into pigmies. It is impossible not to admire the
discrimination which has been shown throughout. Evidently Mrs. Stranahan's
first care was to see that her own powers of assimilation were in excellent
working order. While it is palpable that her appetite for relevant facts was
perfectly omnivorous, it is equally manifest that nothing was hastily
devoured. It is one thing to set a trap for. the artistic honor of by-gone
times in France; it is another thing to catch it. Then comes the exercise of
the supreme faculty of portrayal, and it is here that Mrs. Stranahan gives a
momentum to her work which sends it with a sweep into the front rank. There is
much in what she herself says about the true art that is suggestive of her
purpose and of the manna in which she fulfills them.

     She was again before the public as a member of the Woman's Board,
appointed by the New York state commissioners to carry on the work of the
World's Columbian Exposition, and at once was assured an active part in
organizing the Woman's Board of Managers for the Empire state, and was chosen
vice-president of the board, her brilliant intellect, broad knowledge of
affairs and rare executive ability well qualifying her for that exalted
position. She took a firm stand in opposition to the opening of the fair on
Sundays, and was the only member of the board who voted in favor of closing
the exposition on the Sabbath She was as resolute in her objections as she was
enthusiastic and helpful in her support of many lines of work which
contributed to that triumph of American art, genius and intellect. Since her
marriage she has given her influence in support of the charities of the city,
and for a quarter of a century was president of the Kings County Visiting
committee of the State Charities Aid Association, and for twenty-seven years
was corresponding secretary of the Society for the Aid of Friendless Women and
Children. The labors of Mrs. Stranahan rounded out and supplemented those of
her honored husband, and no line of marked advancement in the city but felt
the beneficence of their aid.

     Private business investments and enterprises claimed the attention of
Mr. Stranahan, and his operations along such lines were mammoth, yet he always
found time and opportunity to devote to the public good. He realized as few
men seem to do the great needs of humanity in the department of material,
mental and moral advancement, and his labors were so far-reaching and of such
varied nature that in almost every connection Brooklyn can truthfully
acknowledge her debt of gratitude to him. His position in the city is
indicated by the fact that through private subscriptions by his fellow
citizens, a statue was erected to his honor in Prospect Park. The Rev. Richard
Salter Storrs, D. D., led the movement in an address before a meeting of the
Hamilton Club, called for that purpose, in which he gave a characterization
remarkable in history. The site was certainly appropriately chosen - in this
park made possible by the effort of Mr. Stranahan. This is well expressed by
quoting as the inscription upon the monument, what is said of Sir Christopher
Wren: "If you ask for a monument of what he has done, look around you." The
idea of erecting the monument was heartily endorsed, and no one was permitted
to subscribe more than a hundred dollars, but the necessary amount was soon
collected, and the commission for the work given to Frederick MacMonnies. the
famous Brooklyn celebrity now residing in Paris. He not only had marked
ability, but also the very necessary civic pride which spurred his genius to
its highest effort, and has produced a statue which, when it was seen in
public, was voted by critics, among them being St. Gaudens, and - the press
generally, to be one of the best examples of artistic sculpture in America.
For many years prior to his death there was no living man in Brooklyn who had
such a deep hold upon the hearts of the people, and when before was ever the
statue of a private citizen erected in his home city during his own lifetime?

     He passed away in Saratoga. September 3, 1898, and his funeral cortege
was the first that ever took its way to the cemetery through Prospect Park. On
this occasion the workmen of long-time service stood in lines of honored
respect. His remains were laid to rest in Greenwood, but the very wide circle
of his influence is felt and will be felt throughout all time. A contemporary
biographer has said of him: "To citizens throughout Brooklyn and the state who
were acquainted with his character, he stood for all that is desirable in a
finely developed manhood. If his word could be secured, it was as good as any
bond that was ever solemnize by signature or seal; if his friendship could be
won - and true worth could always win it - it was as loyal as truth is to
itself, and if social order or social advancement needed a support that never
bent or weakened, it could find it in him." Through all his busy career he was
the soul of honor, believing honesty and integrity the best capital that a man
could possess. His one particular delight was on each Sunday-school
anniversary to drive up before the reviewing stand in Prospect Park and watch
the inspiring spectacle of thousands of little ones, attired in bright
garments. with their banners waving in air under sunny skies, marching down
the long meadow which was the creation of his genius. Shakespeare's words
would be a fitting epitaph for him:

"He was a man. Take him for all in all,
I shall not look upon his like again?"