Brayton Ives

Brayton Ives
President of Northern Pacific Railway
In office
1893–1896
Preceded by Thomas Fletcher Oakes
Succeeded by Edward Dean Adams
Personal details
Born (1914-10-22)October 22, 1914
Farmington, Connecticut
Died October 22, 1914(1914-10-22) (aged 74)
Ossining, New York
Spouse(s)
Eleanor Anderson Bissell
(m. 1867; his death 1914)
Education Yale University
Military service
Allegiance United States of America
Union
Service/branch Union Army
Years of service 1861–1865
Rank Colonel
Bvt. Brigadier General
Commands 1st Connecticut Cavalry Regiment
Battles/wars American Civil War

Brayton Ives (23 August 1840 – 22 October 1914) was president of Northern Pacific Railway from 1893 to 1896 and was president of the New York Stock Exchange and the Western National Bank of New York.[1] He also served as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Biography

He was born on 23 August 1840 in Farmington, Connecticut to William A. Ives and Julia Root, and was graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in 1861. He served in the American Civil War as assistant adjutant general on the staff of Brigadier General Orris S. Ferry and became the Colonel of the 1st Connecticut Cavalry Regiment. He was brevetted brigadier general for gallantry at the battles of Ream's Station, Deep Bottom, Five Forks, and Sailor's Creek.[2]

Ives was married to Eleanor Anderson Bissell on 6 February 1867. [note 1]

Ives became a prominent New York financier by 1868 and served two terms as president of the New York Stock Exchange; he was president of the Western National Bank of New York for many years and was chosen president of Northern Pacific Railway on 20 October 1893.

Ives was a survivor of the sinking of the British ocean liner RMS Republic in January 1909.

Ives was a collector of ceramics and other art objects, and of books. He had a library of more than 6000 volumes including many incunabula. He possessed a Guttenberg Bible, and early printed editions of Euclid and of the Iliad and the Odyssey. He had a collection of 200 rare books pertaining to the early settlement of America.[1]

In addition to the ceramics and art, Ives made a collection of rare and historical swords. When he ceased collecting, the swords were sold, and through the efforts of Mr. Heber R. Bishop, William Thompson Walters and the American Art Association, the valuable sword collection, valued at $15,000, was donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[3]

He died in Ossining, New York.[2] At the time of his death he was President of the Hecker-Jones-Jewell Milling Company, the Standard Milling Company, the Kanona & Prattsburg Railway Company, and the Northwestern Consolidated Milling Company.[1][2]

Notes

  1. ↑ They had four children: Sherwood, Winifred, Eunice, and Frances.[2] Their descendants include actor Oliver Platt.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Gen. Brayton Ives Financier, Is Dead" (PDF), The New York Times, New York, New York, 23 October 1914
  2. 1 2 3 4 Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 1914-1915, pp. 756-6.
  3. ↑ Kunz, George F. "Heber Reginald Bishop and his Jade Collection. American Anthropologist. New Series, Volume #5, January–March 1903. Page 116.

Further reading

  • Busbey, T. Addison, editor (1896). The Biographical Directory of Railway Officials of America, Edition of 1896. Chicago, Illinois: Railway Age and Northwestern Railroader. p. 244.
Preceded by
Thomas Fletcher Oakes		 President of Northern Pacific Railway
1893 – 1896		 Succeeded by
Edward Dean Adams
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