Samuel B. H. Vance (1814 – August 10, 1890) was an American politician and member of the Republican Party. As president of the New York City Board of Aldermen from 1873 to 1874, he briefly became Acting Mayor of New York City between the death of the elected mayor, William Havemeyer, on November 30, 1874, and the inauguration of his elected successor, William H. Wickham, on January 1, 1875.

Early life

He was born in 1814 to a distinguished family in Pennsylvania.

Career

He served as a captain of volunteers in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the 1 ...

of 1846–1848. In 1854, Vance began participating in a series of firms making gas and electric lighting fixtures in New York City, twice succeeding company presidents who had died. He was elected to the New York City Board of Education in 1860, and to the Board of Aldermen in 1871 and was then chosen to be the latter's president on January 7, 1873, leading in turn to his one-month tenure as acting mayor in December 1874. In 1885, he was one of three commissioners appointed by the New York Supreme Court to study surface transportation on lower

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

between Union Square West and The Battery (what is now New York's

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

). The commission recommended that, because of increased traffic and commercial density in this area, the

Broadway Surface Railroad The M5 and M55 bus routes constitute a public transit corridor in Manhattan, New York City, running along the Fifth / Sixth Avenues / Riverside Drive Line as well as the southern portion of the Broadway Line after the discontinuation o ...

Company be granted a franchise to start and operate a horse (rather than cable) drawn line along this route. (While a horse-drawn line did start in 1885, a traction cable was installed eight years later.)

Personal life

Vance was married to Augusta Blanche Hall. They lived in a mansion at 30 West 57th Street. Together, they were the parents of: * Nannie Mitchell Vance (1860–1912), who married

John Ellis Roosevelt John Ellis Roosevelt (February 25, 1853 – March 9, 1939) was a lawyer with the Wall Street firm of Roosevelt & Kobbe, the president of the Elkhorn Valley Coal Land Company and secretary of the Broadway Improvement Company. He owned the John ...

(1853–1939) in 1879. Although Vance was a Republican, the groom's father, Robert B. Roosevelt, was a former Democratic New York City alderman and congressman (and future ambassador) who was in turn an uncle of

Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt Jr. ( ; October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919), often referred to as Teddy or by his initials, T. R., was an American politician, statesman, soldier, conservationist, naturalist, historian, and writer who served as the 26t ...

, the future mayoral candidate and president. Vance died at his home in Douglaston, Long Island, shortly after midnight on August 10, 1890, at the age of 76. His widow died in

Sayville Sayville is a hamlet and census-designated place in Suffolk County, New York, United States. Located on the South Shore of Long Island in the Township of Islip, the population of the CDP was 16,853 at the time of the 2010 census. History The ea ...

, Long Island on June 19, 1901. They are buried at

Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several blo ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

Descendants

Through his daughter Nannie, Samuel Vance was the grandfather of: * Anita Blanche "Pansy" Roosevelt (1882–1929), who reportedly was "ill from nervous prostration in a sanitarium in New York" in 1903. * Gladys Roosevelt (1889–1926), who married Fairman Rogers Dick (1885–1976), son of Evans Rogers Dick, in 1913. Fairman's sister, Isabelle Mildred Dick (1884–1972) was married to Stuyvesant Fish, Jr. (1883–1952), and stood up in the wedding of Gladys and Fairman. Gladys was killed in a horse riding accident at the Meadow Brook Hunt Club in 1926. * Jean Schermerhorn Roosevelt (1891–1984), who married Philip James Roosevelt (1892–1941), a cousin and the son of

Emlen Roosevelt William Emlen Roosevelt (April 30, 1857 – May 15, 1930) was a prominent New York City banker who held a wide range of positions in numerous organizations and was a cousin of United States President Theodore Roosevelt. He was president of Roos ...

, in 1925.

References

External links

* For Mitchell, Vance & Company, see ''New York's Great Industries'' by Richard Edwards (1884), reprinted in 1973 by Ayer Publishing, , pages 96–97, free preview retrieved on June 1, 2008 from Google Books at https://books.google.com/books?id=ZJi9P1eCf3MC&pg=PA96&lpg=PA96, according to which Mitchell, Vance in 1884 had showrooms on Broadway and factories on Tenth Avenue between 24th and 25th Streets. *

The Encyclopedia of New York City ''The Encyclopedia of New York City'' is a reference book on New York City, New York. Edited by Columbia University history professor Kenneth T. Jackson, the book was first published in 1995 by the New-York Historical Society and Yale Univers ...

, edited by Kenneth T. Jackson (Yale 1995, )
Obituary of Samuel B.H. Vance
in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' of Tuesday, August 12, 1890 retrieved without charge on June 1, 2008 * Miscellaneous articles from the free archives of ''

'', 1861 to 1901, https://www.nytimes.com for details such as dates and party affiliations {{DEFAULTSORT:Vance, Samuel 1814 births 1890 deaths Mayors of New York City New York (state) Republicans United States Army officers American military personnel of the Mexican–American War People from Queens, New York Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery 19th-century American politicians