Chauncey M. Depew.
Chauncey M. Depew owes his rise to native abilities and the friendship of the Vanderbilt family, which he has thoroughly merited. He made the acquaintance of Wm. H. Vanderbilt about the year 1866 and became the attorney of the New York and Harlem Railroad. On the union of the New York Central and Harlem roads, in 1869, he was appointed attorney of the consolidated company, and in 1875 he was made general counsel. A few years previous he had been elected director of the New York Central road, and subsequently became a director in the Chicago and Northwestern, Michigan Central, St. Paul and Omaha, the Lake Shore and the Nickel Plate. In 1882 he was elected second vice-president of the New York Central, and in 1885 succeeded Mr. Rutter as president of that great railroad. He was born in Peekskill in 1834, and comes of an old French Huguenot family. He still owns the homestead purchased two hundred years ago by his ancestors. His mother is a descendant of the brother of Roger Sherman, of revolutionary fame. Mr. Depew was graduated from Yale College in 1856, and three years later was admitted to the bar. In 1862 he was elected to the New York Assembly and acted as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means and part of the time as Speaker. In 1863, the year after Governor Seymour’s election, Mr. Depew was a candidate for Secretary of State on the Republican ticket, overcame the Democratic ascendancy, and was elected by about thirty thousand votes. He declined re-election and was appointed Minister to Japan by Secretary Seward. He held the post several years, and resigned it to resume business. His commission as Collector of the Port of New York was once made out by President Johnson, but in consequence of Senator E. D. Morgan’s refusal to sustain Mr. Johnson’s veto of the Civil Rights bill the President never sent the nomination to the Senate, but tore it up in a rage. In 1872 Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Governor of New York on the Liberal-Republican ticket, and was defeated. Two years later the Legislature elected him Regent of the State University. He served one year as one of the Commissioners to build the new Capitol at Albany. In the memorable contest for the United States Senatorship in 1881, Mr. Depew for eighty-two days received the votes of three-fourths of the Republican members, retiring then to ensure the election of Warner Miller. Mr. Depew is President of the Union League and a member of many other clubs and societies, and is very popular wherever he is known. He is one of the wittiest and readiest after-dinner speakers in this country, and when occasion requires, rises to the height of a born orator. His tastes seem to be those of a statesman and a scholar rather than those of a financier in the ordinary acceptation of the term, but his conservative and able administration of his office as President of one of the greatest trunk lines in this country, reveals a thorough apprehension of railroad problems and a natural capacity for whatever duties may be imposed upon him. His great versatility is exemplified by the fact that he has succeeded in law, politics and railroad management.
Russell Sage