Elias Cornelius Benedict (January 24, 1834 – November 22, 1920) was a prominent

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

banker and yachtsman. He specialized in the gas and rubber industries. He was president of the Commercial Acetylene Gas Company and of the Marine Engine Company. The

Benedict Fjord Benedict Fjord is a fjord in Peary Land, northern Greenland. To the north, the fjord opens into the Lincoln Sea of the Arctic Ocean. The fjord was named by Robert Peary in honor of New York banker and yachtsman E. C. Benedict, one of the prominen ...

in Greenland was named after him by

Robert Peary Robert Edwin Peary Sr. (; May 6, 1856 – February 20, 1920) was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best known for, in Apri ...

Early life

He was born in 1834 in

Somers, New York Somers is a town located in northern Westchester County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the town had a population of 20,434. The nearby Metro-North Commuter Railroad provides service to Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan with a ...

. His father, Henry Benedict (1796–1869), was a Presbyterian clergyman. His mother was Mary Betts Lockwood (1799–1885), daughter of Captain Stephen Lockwood, of

Norwalk, Connecticut , image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg , mapsize = 230px , map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...

. Among his siblings was Henry Martin Benedict, Sarah Jane (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Benedict) Taylor, and Elizabeth (née Benedict) Mead.

Career

At fifteen in 1849, he joined the banking house of Corning & Co., New York. In 1857 he opened his own stockbroker's office on Wall Street. During the

United States Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

he and his brother organized the Gold Exchange Bank. Benedict was close with President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

, and it was on Benedict's yacht, the ''

Oneida Oneida may refer to: Native American/First Nations * Oneida people, a Native American/First Nations people and one of the five founding nations of the Iroquois Confederacy * Oneida language * Oneida Indian Nation, based in New York * Oneida Na ...

'', that Cleveland had his secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his jaw in 1893. Benedict commissioned the architects

Carrère and Hastings Carrère and Hastings, the firm of John Merven Carrère ( ; November 9, 1858 – March 1, 1911) and Thomas Hastings (architect), Thomas Hastings (March 11, 1860 – October 22, 1929), was one of the outstanding American Beaux-Arts architecture, Be ...

to build an estate on the peninsula at Indian Harbor in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. In later life Benedict was

Commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore, a ...

of the

Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club The Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club is one of the older yacht clubs in the Western Hemisphere, ranking 18th after the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron, New York Yacht Club, Royal Bermuda Yacht Club, Mobile Yacht Club, Pass Christian Yacht Club, ...

.Herreshoff Marine Museum Chronicle (pdf)
/ref> EC Benedict Estate in Greenwich CT

Personal life

In 1859, he married Sarah Hart, daughter of Lucius Hart of New York. Together, they had four children: * Frederick Hart Benedict (1860–1901), who married

Henry Flagler Henry Morrison Flagler (January 2, 1830 – May 20, 1913) was an American industrialist and a founder of Standard Oil, which was first based in Ohio. He was also a key figure in the development of the Atlantic coast of Florida and founde ...

's daughter, Jennie Louise; she died after complications from childbirth, along with their child aboard the Benedict yacht ''Oneida'' while on their way to see Henry Flagler in

St. Augustine, Florida St. Augustine ( ; es, San Agustín ) is a city in the Southeastern United States and the county seat of St. Johns County on the Atlantic coast of northeastern Florida. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorers, it is the oldest continuously inhabit ...

, and Frederick was killed not many years later in an automobile accident near

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. * Martha Benedict (1862–1957), who married stockbroker Ramsay Turnbull in 1891. * Helen Ripley Benedict (1865–1936), who married the architect

Thomas Hastings Thomas Hastings may refer to: *Thomas Hastings (colonist) (1605–1685), English immigrant to New England *Thomas Hastings (composer) (1784–1872), American composer, primarily of hymn tunes *Thomas Hastings (cricketer) (1865–1938), Australian cr ...

. * Louise Adele Benedict, who married Clifford B. Harmon. He had been ill for more than a year when he died on November 22, 1920, at his estate in Greenwich.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Benedict, Elias Cornelius 1834 births 1920 deaths People from Somers, New York Businesspeople from New York City