David Hunter McAlpin (1816–1901) was a prominent industrialist and real estate owner in New York City. He owned the D.H. McAlpin Tobacco Company. Among his children were a Civil War General and a prominent physician.
Early life
David Hunter McAlpin was born on November 6, 1816, in
Pleasant Valley, New York to James and Jane Hunter McAlpin. His father had immigrated from Ireland in 1811, only five years before his birth
after participating in the
Irish Rebellion of 1798
The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influence ...
. In 1836 McAlpin moved to New York City where he opened a tobacco store at 84 Catherine Street in partnership with William H. Hughes. Over the next few years they opened additional stores in the city and the partnership dissolved in 1839 after which McAlpin continued the business alone.
D.H. McAlpin & Co. Tobacco Company
In 1857 McAlpin became a partner in the firm of John Cornish & Co., tobacco manufacturers. In 1860 he bought out his partner upon his retirement taking sole control of the company and renamed it D.H. McAlpin & Co. His company was the first to introduce
Virginia tobacco
This article contains a list of tobacco cultivars and varieties, as well as unique preparations of the tobacco leaf involving particular methods of processing the plant. (E.g. cavendish tobacco.)
Types
Aromatic Fire-cured
Prior to the Am ...
to the New York market branding it ''Virgin Leaf'' which contributed to the firm's growth.
In 1868 as the firm grew, McAlpin bought two entire blocks and built a large manufacturing facility at 150 Ave D (and 10th street) in Manhattan. After McAlpin's death, the D.H. McAlpin & Co was sold on November 23, 1901, to Consolidated Tobacco Co. for a reported price of $2,500,000.
Directorships
At the time of his death, McAlpin was a director of:
* D.H. McAlpin & Co
* Eleventh Ward Bank
*German-American Real Estate Title and Guarantee Co
* Home Insurance Company
*
Manhattan Life Insurance Company
ManhattanLife began as The Manhattan Life Insurance Company, a life insurance company domiciled in New York. It operates as a subsidiary of Manhattan Life Group in Houston, Texas. ManhattanLife is the brand name for plans, products, and services ...
* National Bank of the Republic
*
Standard Gas Light Company
Standard Gas Light Company was a New York City public utility which had its primary office at 173 Broadway (Manhattan), in 1890. The
business maintained two branch offices at the southeast corner of Lexington Avenue (Manhattan) and 42nd Street (Man ...
* Union Trust Co
Union Theological Seminary
McAlpin sat on the board of the
Union Theological Seminary in New York City from 1872 to his death in 1901, and provided generously for the provision of the Seminary. He endowed a chair in theology, known as the "Skinner and McAlpin" Chair, with $25,000, along with an additional $55,000 from others. In 1884 he donated a multi-thousand volume collection of British history and theology to the seminary's library known as the "McAlpin Collection"
McAlpin erected a church, the Olivet Chapel, on Second Street, Manhattan in memory of his son, Joseph Rose McAlpin.
Marriage
McAlpin was married three times.
His first wife was Adelaide Rose, daughter of
Joseph Rose Jr., whom he married in 1846. The ceremony was held at the Market Street Church, which eventually became the Church of Sea and Land. Adelaide died in 1870. His second wife was Mrs A.D. Chamberlain (Adelia) whom he married in 1873 and who died in 1891. McAlpin's third wife, whom he married in 1892, was Adelaide's sister, Cordelia (Rose) Shackelton, widow of Dr. Judson G. Shackelton.
Real estate interests
McAlpin accumulated several pieces of real estate in Manhattan and the surrounding area. According to the New York Times, he owned the "block on the east side of Broadway between 33rd and 34th streets, and on the southern end of the Alpine apartment house which got its title from the family name. This title retained the final "e" of the family name, which Mr. McAlpin had for many years omitted.
It was on this parcel of land that McAlpin's son, General
Edwin A. McAlpin built the world's largest hotel known as the
Hotel McAlpin
Herald Towers, formerly the Hotel McAlpin, is a residential condominium building on Herald Square, along Broadway between 33rd and 34th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Constructed from 1910 to 1912 by the Greel ...
in 1912.
In 1848, McAlpin purchased in
Monmouth County, New Jersey
Monmouth County () is a county located on the coast of central New Jersey. The county is part of the New York metropolitan area and is situated along the northern half of the Jersey Shore. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the county's population w ...
, in what would become the
Cliffwood section of
Aberdeen Township. This is indicated as his residence in several real estate transactions during the early to mid 1850s. On January 26, 1855, he sold, for $50.00, of land to the Trustees of the Matavan School District No. 1. for school purposes. This remains a part of the campus of the
Cliffwood Elementary School. After 1855 it would appear that he returned to New York City, as that is recorded as his residence in subsequent real estate sales.
Additionally, he owned of land with a summer home at
, which he called ''Glen Alpine'', where he spent time in the summer. He owned additional property in Morristown itself, including a parcel at the corner of Speedwell Ave and Park Place, and properties known as the Postoffice Block and the United States Hotel.
Death
McAlpin died at 4:00 pm on February 8, 1901, at his home at 40 West 48th Street in
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
of stroke. He had spent the day at the company's manufacturing facility followed by a board meeting of the Eleventh Ward Bank, of which he was a director. His son, General
Edwin Augustus McAlpin detected that he was feeling ill and moved him to his home where he was attend by another son, Dr. David Hunter McAlpin. Unable to restore McAlpin to consciousness, the family was called and was at his bedside at the time of his death. Funeral services were held at Brick Presbyterian Church
in New York and he was interred in
Greenwood Cemetery.
Children
McAlpin had ten children, all by his first wife Adelaide, six of whom survived him:
*General
Edward Augustus McAlpin, later Adjutant General of New York
*Dr. David Hunter McAlpin, Princeton graduate and noted physician, who married Emma Rockefeller
*George L McAlpin, graduate of Yale
*Charles W McAlpin, graduated of Princeton
*William W McAlpin
*Frances Adelaide McAlpin who married James Tolman Pyle
Additionally he had two
step-daughters:
*Frances Knox
*Adelaide McAlpin Stiles
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McAlpin, David Hunter
1816 births
1901 deaths
American people of Irish descent
American manufacturing businesspeople
American tobacco industry executives
American chief executives
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Businesspeople from New York (state)
People from Manhattan
People from Pleasant Valley, New York
People from Aberdeen Township, New Jersey
People from Morristown, New Jersey
Union Theological Seminary (New York City) faculty
Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
19th-century American philanthropists
19th-century American businesspeople