Cornelius Eldert (1850 – January 24, 1930) was an American businessman and philanthropist who served as president of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company.

Early life

Eldert was born in 1850 in Brooklyn, New York and was a descendant of Dutch immigrants to

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

. He was a son of Samuel Eldert (1815–1870) and Aletta Ann ( Stoothoff) Eldert (1818–1898), and his brother was Ditmas Eldert. His maternal grandparents were Mary and John C. Stoothoff, and his paternal grandparents were Luke Eldert and Femmetye Phebe van Wicklen. In his youth Eldert played baseball for the Crescent Base Ball Club of Jamaica, New York, and, in 1861, he had two of his fingers cut off by a straw cutter.

Career

Beginning in 1865 at age sixteen, Eldert became associated with the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company and spent the rest of his career there, focusing on marine insurance. The company, which had been founded in 1838 as the Atlantic Insurance Company as a joint-stock company, became a mutual company in 1842. He also served as president and director of the Board of Underwriters of New York, resigning the presidency a few years before his death. He became president in 1915, succeeding

Anton A. Raven Anton Adolph Raven (September 30, 1833 – January 15, 1919) was a Curaçaoan-born American business executive. Early life Raven was born on September 30, 1833, in Curaçao in what was then a part of the Dutch West Indies. He was a son of John ...

, and remained president until his death in 1930. Eldert also served as trustee of the Seamen's Bank for Savings, vice president and director of the Atlantic Safe Deposit Company, and a director of the Underwriters Salvage Company and of the

Metropolitan Trust Company The Metropolitan Trust Company of the City of New York was a trust company located in New York City that was founded in 1881. The trust company merged with the Chatham and Phenix National Bank in 1925 under the name of the Chatham Phenix National ...

Personal life

Eldert was married to Isabelle Kate Cameron (1852–1935). Isabelle, who was born in

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

, was a daughter of Isabella Catherine ( Groves) Cameron and Donald Cameron. Her sister, Edith Cameron, was the wife of H. A. Graham Driscoll. Together, they lived at 557 First Street in Brooklyn and were the parents of: * Katharine Stoothoff Eldert (1877–1976), who married the Rev. Joseph Percy Smyth, son of Irish immigrant Joseph P. Smyth, in 1905. * Henry Cameron Eldert (1880–1937), a lawyer who married Marion Macmillin. A prominent philanthropist and "generous supporter of diocesan and community charities," he was president of the Life Saving Benevolent Society from 1919 to 1930 and vice president of the Brooklyn Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. Eldert died at his home in Brooklyn on January 24, 1930. After a funeral at St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn (where he had been a vestryman and

warden A warden is a custodian, defender, or guardian. Warden is often used in the sense of a watchman or guardian, as in a prison warden. It can also refer to a chief or head official, as in the Warden of the Mint. ''Warden'' is etymologically identic ...

), he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery. His estate, which was valued at a net $1,750,913, was left to his family. His widow died in 1935.

References

External links

Joseph P. Smyth family papers: 1793-1994
at The

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eldert, Cornelius 1850 births 1930 deaths People from Brooklyn American businesspeople in insurance Philanthropists from New York (state) 19th-century American businesspeople American chief executives of financial services companies