William Jay Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin ( New York City, April 14, 1866 – April 29, 1955), was an American businessman, philanthropist, and president of the Citizens Union (New York City).

Early life

William Jay Schieffelin was the first son of William Henry Schieffelin and Mary Jay Schieffelin.

William’s mother was the daughter of John Jay, who was the grandson of John Jay. His paternal ancestors were Jacob Schieffelin and Hannah Lawrence Schieffelin.

Personal life

William Jay Schieffelin married Maria Louise Shepard, eldest daughter of Margaret Louisa Vanderbilt Shepard and Elliott Fitch Shepard, in 1891. The wedding of Maria Louise and William was a highly social event and reflected the splendor of the Gilded Age. The wedding took place at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and in the grand picture gallery of William Vanderbilt’s double villa at Fifth Avenue.

The couple had nine children: William Jay, Margaret Louisa, Mary Jay, John Jay, Louise, Bayard, Elliott, Barbara, and Henry.

The family lived on 5 East 66th Street (the building is owned by the Lotos Club since 1947) and moved to 620 Park Avenue in 1925. They also had an estate on Schieffelin Point peninsula in Maine.

Military service

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, William Jay Schieffelin served as a volunteer captain and regimental adjutant of the 12th Regiment of the National Guard.

In 1898 President McKinley called for volunteers for the war with Spain. In August 1898, William Jay Schieffelin served as senior aide on the staff of General Peter Conover Hains. It happened that the Adjutant General of the Division was ill, and William Jay Schieffelin had to act as Adjutant General for some time. General Hains was given command of one of the brigades and he asked William Jay Schieffelin to stay with him. The three regiments of the brigade were the 4th Ohio, the 4th Pennsylvania, and the 3rd Illinois.

First General Hains’ brigade was ordered to Newport News to take ship for Cuba, but then the orders were changed, and the brigade was on a transport for Puerto Rico. The ship was commanded by Captain Sigsbee. It anchored three miles offshore from the port of Arroyo, Puerto Rico. The ship was firing three-inch shells because a troop of Spanish Cavalry had been observed on the beach, but they soon retired. The brigade swarmed on the shore with no opposition. When the brigade entered Guayama, the citizens greeted them with cheers, waving of handkerchiefs, towels, and sheets.

On August 13, 1898, General Miles had ordered an advance against the Spanish forces that were entrenched at Cayey, Puerto Rico. General Hains commanded the column that was to attack the left flank. A total of twelve hundred men forming the 4th Ohio Regiment were on site. The battle was halted upon notification of the armistice between the United States and Spain. A Protocol of Peace had been signed and the column was returned to Guayama.

When he was in Puerto Rico, William Jay Schieffelin was affected by the Army beef scandal, because the troops in the field were supplied with rancid canned meat. His weight had become reduced from 174 lbs. to 124 lbs., and it took him four months to regain his strength after the war. William Jay Schieffelin was on the way home on the transport " City of Chester".

In World War I, 1918, Governor Whitman commissioned William Jay Schieffelin Colonel of the 15th New York Infantry, the (mainly) African American replacement regiment of Colonel William Hayward, 369th Infantry, U.S. Army, which served gloriously in the American Expeditionary Forces in France, where the whole regiment was awarded the Croix de Guerre. The 369th Infantry Regiment was commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters.

William Jay Schieffelin was involved in organizing the Memorial Day parade in 1919. He had recruited 800 men and was presiding at an officers’ meeting, when the orders for the parade were handed to him. He ensured that the 15^th Infantry regiment was the second in line of parade, and it went up Riverside Drive amid cheers, marched to Central Park and finally paraded through Harlem.

Career

William Jay Schieffelin attended Trinity School in Manhattan.

He received further education at the Columbia School of Mines, where he graduated as Ph.B. and member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1887. At Columbia he studied chemistry under Professor Charles F. Chandler.


He then studied for two years at the University of Munich with Professor von Baeyer and received his Ph.D. in chemistry cum laude in 1889.

Schieffelin & Co

Back in Manhattan, William Jay Schieffelin had been a partner in Schieffelin & Co since 1890, its vice president since 1903, its president 1906–1923 and its chairman of board 1923–1929. He managed Schieffelin & Co in the 5th generation after Jacob Schieffelin (1757–1835), who founded the company in 1794 (then Lawrence & Schieffelin, Pharma-Trade, at 195 Pearl Street in Manhattan). Schieffelin & Co was America's longest-running pharmaceutical business.

In 1889, William Jay Schieffelin began work in the analytical department of Schieffelin & Co and the company's laboratory, which was on Front Street in Manhattan. His routine work was assaying opium and coca leaves and standardizing concentrated Ethyl nitrite. At that time cocaine was in large demand for local anesthesia, and Schieffelin & Co imported large quantities of coca leaves from Bolivia and Peru, and became the leading manufacturers of the hydrochloride.

Committee work and social commitment

William Jay Schieffelin's social commitment extended to many associations and institutions:

* President of the National Wholesale Druggists Association (1910)
* Vice President of the American Pharmaceutical Association
* Honorary President of the New York College of Pharmacy (Columbia University)
* Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health
* Officer for the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice
* Vestryman in St. George’s Church on Stuyvesant Square
* Manager of the American Bible Society
* President of the American Leprosy Missions (1941)
* Sponsor of th
Schieffelin Institute of Health
- Research & Leprosy Center in Karigiri, India
* President of the Huguenot Society of America (1922–1947)
* Member of the NAACP
* Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute
* Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University
* President of the Armstrong Association
* Treasurer of the Defense Committee for the Scottsboro Boys
* Adjutant 12th New York Infantry, Spanish-American War (1898)
* Colonel of the 15th New York Infantry (the 369th Infantry Regiment), World War I (1918)
* Member of the City Reform Club (1889)
* Chairman of the Membership Committee of the City Club (1892)
* Member of the Committee of Seventy (1894)
* President of the Citizens Union (1908–1941)
* Civil Service Commissioner in New York City (1896)
* Chairman of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control representing the public
* Head of the Committee of One Thousand (1930)
* President of the Men’s League for Women’s Suffrage
* Chairman of the Christian Committee to Boycott Nazi Germany (1941)
* Chairman of the New York State Committee of the League to Enforce Peace (1915)
* New York’s Chairman of the Federal Union, Inc. (1941)
* Chairman of the New York State Committee For World Federation (1943)
* Fellow of the London Chemical Society
* Member of the American Chemical Society
* Member of the Society of Chemical Industry
* Member of the Century Association (1894–1955)

Drug Act of 1906

In 1906, Congress formed a committee to clarify why the United States had a problem with addictive substances in pharmaceutical products, and how this problem could be avoided. William Jay Schieffelin was summoned as an expert before Congress to contribute to the clarification. The statements of William Jay Schieffelin and other experts led to a tightening of drug laws in the USA. The Pure Food and Drug Act was enacted by Congress in 1906.

Volunteer Christian Committee to Boycott Nazi Germany

On January 9, 1939, the Volunteer Christian Committee to Boycott Nazi Germany (VCC), led by Christopher Temple Emmet, Jr., (Secretary) and William Jay Schieffelin (Chairman), was founded by sixty prominent Americans. The Committee waged a campaign for many months, chiefly through newspaper advertising, calling upon Christians to augment the boycott already in effect by American Jews. In March 1939, William Jay Schieffelin asked William Green to link up the American Federation of Labor with the VCC to strengthen America’s anti-Nazi boycott movement. But Green declined. Later, Schieffelin merged his group with others to form the Coordinated Boycott Committee, which continued operations until shortly before America’s entry into World War II.

France Forever

On December 20, 1940, one year before Pearl Harbor, France Forever called a public meeting at Carnegie Hall, and William Jay Schieffelin was asked to speak, representing the Huguenot Society. There where 3,000 people inside the hall, and William managed to be the second speaker. Though his speech was short, he wanted to have it in the newspapers. The crowd liked what he said and soon were applauding and even cheering. The Associated Press gave William’s message two-thirds of the space devoted to the meeting under the heading, ”Soldier Demands That the Slogan ‘Short of War’ be changed to ‘Short of Nothing.’” In his speech William Jay Schieffelin said, ”It is high time to discard that slogan ’Short of War’ which was put in political platforms to placate the isolationists and the pacifists. It is a cowardly slogan encouraging Hitler and Japan, saying we will not stand up like men and fight, even when our National safety and most cherished beliefs are threatened. We must stop Hitler ’Short of nothing’.”

League to Enforce Peace (1915), Federal Union, Inc. (1941), World Federation (1943)

Clarence Streit’s book "Union Now" (published in 1939) made a deep impression nationally and internationally, so the Federal Union Inc., of which William Jay Schieffelin was New York’s chairman, gave a dinner for the Uniting States of the World at the Waldorf Astoria on January 22, 1941.

For William Jay Schieffelin, this was the culmination of a movement begun in 1915, called " League to Enforce Peace" of which former President William Howard Taft was the Chairman. President Lowell of Harvard was chairman of the Executive Committee, which was formed of the chairmen of the various State committees (nearly thirty). William Jay Schieffelin was chairman from New York and met with the committee twice a year in May and November. According to William Jay Schieffelin, “Mr. Taft performed heroic service by speaking at great meetings throughout the country and created a strong desire among his hearers that our country should join the League of Nations with power to enforce peace.”

According to William Jay Schieffelin the United States “would have joined the League of Nations had it not been for the six willful men in the Senate and Mr. Taft had almost brought them to making concessions, which President Wilson would accept, when the latter became obstinate and obdurate and the opportunity was lost.” In William’s opinion, the result of the United States never joining the League of Nations was “tragic”.

During the campaign for World Government, William Jay Schieffelin and his wife hosted a lunch party, which they gave in honor of Robert Lee Humber, a co‐founder of the United World Federalists organization, who was waging for a United World, patterned after the United States. They invited Emery Reves, author of The Anatomy of Peace. In 1943, the New York State Committee For World Federation was founded and William Jay Schieffelin was appointed Chairman. After an intensive campaign, lasting about five months, the Legislature of the State of New York passed a resolution, which declared its conviction that an international organization of all nations is an essential condition of the peace. Thus, the State Legislature repudiated isolationism and aggregated worldwide cooperation. The resolution supported U.S. efforts to join the United Nations.

African Americans

William Jay Schieffelin was an advocate for the rights and social progress of African Americans. He was president of the New York Armstrong Association (named after Samuel Chapman Armstrong). The Association was formed as a vehicle to support the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, an all-black agricultural and vocational institution in Hampton, Virginia and to engage with matters of African American uplift. He also served on the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Institute. Simultaneously, William Jay Schieffelin served forty years on the Tuskegee Board, which he chaired for twenty-three years. Schieffelin opened the Tuskegee Institute Silver Anniversary Lecture at Carnegie Hall in 1906. During his years on the Tuskegee Board, he went to Tuskegee once or twice a year regularly. There he met Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver. He knew Carver for about twenty years and visited Carver’s agricultural laboratories to admire amazing products Carver had obtained. William Jay Schieffelin was at Tuskegee in Alabama when the Scottsboro Case happened. When the Scottsboro Defense Committee was formed, he was appointed treasurer.

City Reform Club, City Club of New York, and Citizens Union

When William Jay Schieffelin returned from Europe in the Fall of 1889, his cousin John Jay Chapman, said to him: "Billy, you ought to join the City Reform Club, which is a club of about a dozen young college graduates, nearly all lawyers, who are the only people in town who have the guts to stand up and fight Tammany. The Republican Party, which ought to be doing it, is really in partnership with Tammany, in return for a small share of the patronage. Corruption is rife”.

William Jay Schieffelin joined the group that met at lunch once a week at a restaurant in Vesey Street. Among the regular members besides John Jay Chapman, who was secretary, were William Harris Roome, Boudinot Keith, J. Noble Hayes, Edmond Kelly, Richard Welling, Henry L. Stimson, Charles Bernheimer, and from time to time the group sought advice from Robert Fulton Cutting and Gustav Henry Schwab. Every Autumn before election the group printed a small blue covered pamphlet, "Records of the State Senators and Assemblymen," who came from New York City, and the group was regularly threatened with libel suits.

In January 1892, the newspapers had front page articles announcing that the Legislature of both Houses had passed an Act authorizing the Park Commissioner to construct a speedway along the West side of Central Park, from 59th to 110th Streets, and that the Governor had promptly signed the Bill, which had thus become a law. The City Reform Club saw at once that here was an issue upon which the voters could be aroused. They immediately launched a campaign to stop the construct of the speedway. Many newspapers printed this with double column headings, "Citizens Aroused to Save Central Park". Meanwhile Commissioner Gallup had white cotton strips tied around the trunks of all the trees that were to be cut down to make room for the speedway and the sight of this increased the public indignation. The City Reform Club decided to call a mass meeting in the hall of the Cooper Union. The Cooper Union Meeting was crowded. Dr. William S. Rainsford, Rainsford was one of the speakers, and a large committee of citizens was named to demand the repeal of the Act. The Legislature did repeal the Speedway Law, and Central Park was saved. This taught the City Reform Club that public opinion was all-powerful when aroused in a just cause.

In 1892 a Committee with Senator Clarence Lexow, Lexow as Chairman was appointed, and the Lexow Investigation was one of the milestones in the fight against corruption in New York City. The report of the Lexow Committee was so definite that it amounted to a tremendous indictment and condemnation of Tammany and the system of corruption bribery that existed in the Police Department.

In 1894 the Committee of Seventy appointed by the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, Chamber of Commerce was really organized and prompted by a group of leading merchants and financial men including Alexander Ector Orr, Alexander Orr, Morris Ketchum Jesup, Morris Jesup, John Stewart Kennedy, John S. Kennedy, and Gustav H. Schwab. They enlisted the most active members of the Chamber and they put William Jay Schieffelin on the Committee and on the Executive Committee. It happened that William Jay Schieffelin was the youngest member of that Committee. The Committee nominated William Lafayette Strong, William L. Strong to be Mayor and got the Republican organization to nominate him. They had a sweeping victory over Tammany. In the same year Mayor Strong appointed Theodore Roosevelt as New York City Police Commissioner.

The City Club was founded in 1892 through the efforts of Edmond Kelly and Robert Fulton Cutting and the members of the City Reform Club. William Jay Schieffelin served as chairman of the membership committee and secured 400 members. The Club elected the eminent lawyer, James C. Carter, as its first president. The members of the City Club and other independent leaders formed Good Government Clubs in many of the city districts. First target of the City Club was Tammany Hall.

In 1896 mayor William Lafayette Strong, Strong appointed William Jay Schieffelin as Civil Service Commissioner in New York City.

In 1897 City Club helped organize Citizens Union of which William Jay Schieffelin was president from 1908 to 1941. The club's mission was not only to fight corruption, but also to generally improve the quality of life in the city, especially to preserve Central Park. In 1924 William Jay Schieffelin proposed banning cars from Central Park. William Jay Schieffelin organized the Committee of One Thousand to remove mayor Jimmy Walker, James J. Walker from office. His complaints against mayor Walker at the hearings led to the mayor’s resignation.

Committee of One Thousand (1930)

William Jay Schieffelin said about Al Smith:

“Al Smith was a fine character. I first knew him when he was candidate for sheriff. He came to my office and he said, ‘The Citizens Union has been unfair.’ I said, ‘Tell me about it.’ He said, ‘It has represented that I want to be sheriff on account of the big fees. As a matter of fact, I want to do away with those fees and just have the sheriff have a salary.’ I said, ‘All right.’ I took it up with our Executive Committee and we decided to endorse Al Smith for sheriff although he was a Tammany candidate.”

William Jay Schieffelin had one controversy with Al Smith in 1926:

“I wrote him several letters asking him, as Governor, to designate the Attorney General to prosecute alleged grafters in the Health Department, whom the former Commissioner, Dr. Harris, had said were profiting by permitting the sale of milk, which did not comply with the standards of the Health Department. After I had written several times to the Governor on behalf of the Citizens Union, he asked me to stop writing, but I answered that I could not do so as long as the abuse continued. He then instructed the District Attorney to call me before the Grand Jury to secure what evidence I might have. This move was regarded as putting me ‘on the grill’ and was intended to silence me. Of course, I had no legal evidence nor had I the power to secure any, but the statement of Dr. Harris was sufficiently factual … The Grand Jury treated me with great courtesy and the District Attorney said, ‘Mr. Schieffelin, we’ll summon any witness you may name who can throw light on this subject.’ I immediately said, ‘Please summon the Mayor and Mr. George Washington Olvany, Olvany and the Health Commissioner, as well as the former Commissioner, Dr. Harris.’ … The Grand Jury finally reported that I had presented no evidence to sustain the charges, but the newspapers gave full publicity to my statement, so, the Governor’s attempt to silence me did not succeed. In fact, the case was one of the things that led to the Hofstadter Committee, Seabury Investigation.”

The Citizens Union realized that the Jimmy Walker, Walker Administration had become ripe for an investigation by a Legislative Committee. To create a popular demand for such action, William Jay Schieffelin organized what was called the “Committee of One Thousand”, which, before many months, became thirty thousand demanding the investigation coupled with the request that Samuel Seabury (judge), Samuel Seabury be named as counsel for the investigating committee. The Legislature acted as requested and named State Senator Samuel H. Hofstadter, Hofstadter as Chairman.

The Committee of One Thousand had formed a large committee of lawyers, who aided in collecting data. Several departments were combed, and so much evidence of wrongdoing accumulated, that Mr. Seabury said to Chairman Hofstadter, he had prepared a letter to send to the Governor summarizing the matter, which would present ample cause for the removal of Mayor Walker.

Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt summoned Mayor Jimmy Walker, Walker to a hearing in Albany, New York, Albany. William Jay Schieffelin had to be present as the complaining citizen. Judge Samuel Seabury (judge), Seabury appeared as prosecutor and Mayor Walker was defended by a lawyer named Curtin. As the hearing progressed, it became so evident that the Mayor would be removed that the Tammany leader, Olvany, advised him to resign, so Mayor Walker resigned.

Politics and connections with the Roosevelt family

In 1906 William Jay Schieffelin went to the White House at Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation to discuss race relations. He disagreed with the way Roosevelt treated the African American soldiers at Brownsville affair, Brownsville.

In 1909 Theodore Roosevelt sent a letter to William Jay Schieffelin in which he wrote: “Did I tell you how much Sir Harry Johnston admired your family? You and yours are pretty good Americans.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s mother, Sara Roosevelt, was a good friend of William's mother, Mary Jay Schieffelin. The Roosevelts lived nearby on East 65^th Street. Sara Roosevelt and William and his wife went to meetings or social gatherings like the Thursday Evening Club, the Hampton meetings, and interracial meetings. Sara Roosevelt often had concerts at her house where she was introducing young foreign musicians. William said: “I didn't run into Franklin D. Roosevelt very often at these meetings at Mrs. Roosevelt’s home. He was generally out in Albany or in Washington.”

William Jay Schieffelin had frequently met Eleanor Roosevelt at the Interrelation meetings (United Nations). He had known Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt for about thirty years and admired her commitment to humanity.

William Jay Schieffelin was a (Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln) Republican, but he came out in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt and voted for him on the American Labor Party Line in 1940.

Woodrow Wilson

William Jay Schieffelin said about Woodrow Wilson: “I only met with Woodrow Wilson a few times. I went to Princeton once when he was President. I think we were on the Civil Service Reform errand. Wilson was very pleasant, and yet he was not a magnetic character. He didn’t radiate good-will the way Teddy Roosevelt and the way Franklin Roosevelt did.”

At the outbreak of the World War I, First World War, William Jay Schieffelin formally offered to raise an African American cavalry regiment, of which he would be Colonel; but the offer was rejected by President Woodrow Wilson. Governor Whitman, however, appointed him Colonel of the 15th New York Infantry (an African American regiment of the New York Army National Guard, State Guard).

Columbia University, New York College of Pharmacy and Professor Charles F. Chandler

At the age of 17, William Jay Schieffelin went to Columbia University, Columbia to study chemistry. In the 1880s, the course at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, School of Mines meant steady work from 9:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon, and there was not much time for "College life". William was taking the course in chemistry under Professor Charles F. Chandler, an inspiring teacher. The students worked in the laboratory, clad in brown jackets and overalls, and went home with their hands covered with coal tar dyes.

Professor Chandler had advised William Jay Schieffelin's parents to send him to Germany for a postgraduate course and a possible degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1887.

William Jay Schieffelin’s great-grandfather, Henry Hamilton Schieffelin, was a founder of the New York College of Pharmacy and was its first President. William Jay Schieffelin became a member of its Board of Trustees during the 1890s. Two of the most noted of its faculty, Dr. Charles F. Chandler, and Dr. Henry Hurd Rusby, H.H. Rusby, attracted many students. The meetings of the Board were often attended by Dr. E. R. Squibb, E.R. Squibb, and Dr. Joseph P. Remington, Joseph Remington. A number of leading druggists raised a fund to erect a college building in West 68th Street and they did William Jay Schieffelin the honor to erect him President. Later the College of Pharmacy became part of Columbia University.

Dr. Chandler died August 25, 1925, and William Jay Schieffelin said the following about him:

"The College of Pharmacy will always cherish Charles F. Chandler as representing its ideals of science and service; his life is an example which inspires us to work hard to acquire true knowledge and to use it to make the world happier.”

"The charm of his personality, that which made a friend of everyone with whom he came in contact, was due to his talent for helpfulness. His cheerful optimism, his delightful humor, his keen sagacity and philosophy made his lectures full of enjoyment.”

"He did much to educate the public in matters important to health and comfort.”

"New York owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Chandler for his wise and fearless leadership as our great pioneer Health Commissioner; his work is permanent and is the means of saving countless lives.”

Social Network

Carl Schurz

William Jay Schieffelin knew Carl Schurz very well and admired him. In the 1890s Schieffelin lived at Briarcliff Manor, New York, Scarborough which was close to Schurz’ home at Pocantico Hills, New York, Pocantico Hills. He once visited Schurz there, and they talked about Good Government topics.

Andrew Carnegie

William Jay Schieffelin knew Andrew Carnegie very well. They were both supporters of the Tuskegee University and African American education. William characterized Carnegie as follows: “Carnegie had a sense of humor, and he had a tremendous interest in education, but he was very emphatic against the church. He was apparently an agnostic and an atheist … He, of course, was appealed to constantly, and he was patient and sympathetic.”

J. Pierpont Morgan

William Jay Schieffelin knew J. P. Morgan, J. Pierpont Morgan very well, because both were active in St. George's Episcopal Church (Manhattan), St. George Church. Morgan was a senior warden and held meetings at his house on Madison Avenue. William ran into some exhibitions of Morgan’s temper. Once he went to Morgan’s office and said: “I want to talk to you about Civil Service Reform.” Morgan replied: “What do I care about civil service reform!” – William described J. P. Morgan as a masterful man, and that Morgan’s employees had tremendous respect for his knowledge, his sagacity as to investments and as to money policy. However, William also thought that Morgan sometimes missed out in his investing, especially in his later years.

Wendell Willkie

William Jay Schieffelin said about Wendell Willkie: “When Wendell Willkie had completed his memorable tour and had printed his book ‘One World (book), One World’ he ranged himself beside President Roosevelt as leaders in the campaign for World Government. I had the honor of knowing him and felt deep admiration for his ability and force of character.”

George McAneny

William Jay Schieffelin knew George McAneny when he was quite young. McAneny was Secretary of the New York Civil Service Reform League. The New York Civil Service Reform League persuaded Mayor William Lafayette Strong, Strong to appoint William Jay Schieffelin as Civil Service Commissioner. George McAneny was the one who suggested William’s appointment as Commissioner.

William Jay Schieffelin said that George McAneny “was a young man very much interested in human rights. That made him interested in Hampton Institute and Tuskegee … and he worked with me when I was President of the Armstrong Association for Hampton Institute. We had great meetings at Carnegie Hall. At these meetings we had Grover Cleveland, Joseph Hodges Choate, Joseph Choate, Colonel Henry Watterson, Theodore Roosevelt, and President William Howard Taft, Taft. George McAneny was a good fellow ...”

Fiorello La Guardia

The selection of Fiorello La Guardia as Fusion candidate for Mayor was the result of a conference held at the House of the New York City Bar Association, Bar Association Building, between the Republican leaders and the independent citizens, who were represented by Samuel Seabury (judge), Samuel Seabury, Charles Culp Burlingham, C. C. Burlingham, Adolf A. Berle, A. A. Berle, and others. William Jay Schieffelin joined the conference as a representative of the Citizens Union. There were twenty representatives in all. At first the majority were for naming General John F. O'Ryan, John F. O’Ryan. Finally, it was voted to ask General O’Ryan whether he would withdraw and support La Guardia, and over the telephone the General patriotically consented to do so.

William Jay Schieffelin knew Fiorello H. La Guardia very well. He knew him first when La Guardia ran for Mayor and was defeated. He said about La Guardia: “When he became Mayor for the first few years he let me come right into his office without sending in my name. He’d listen, and then he’d talk and he generally did most of the talking when I had an interview with him. He was very forthright, very just, and full of enthusiasm for clean, honest government. He knew what non-partisanship was. He appointed men regardless of their political background, solely according to their ability and fitness for the job.”

In the beginning of the La Guardia Administration, William Jay Schieffelin made the recommendation to appoint Professor Russell Forbes as head of the Municipal Purchasing Department. Schieffelin said, "The city departments are buying supplies and duplicating by showing favoritism and you should have a unified buying department for the entire city headed by an expert, and I want to suggest that you have a talk with the Chairman of the National Municipal League Committee on Municipal Purchasing. For ten years he’s been Chairman and has worked out a plan that is being effectively used in other places. If he will serve as head of the Purchasing Department, I hope he will be appointed." Mayor La Guardia appointed Forbes.

William Jay Schieffelin said about La Guardia:

“La Guardia was a very colorful character. He had the defects of his good qualities but nine times out of ten he was right. I always felt that I could completely trust him. I felt that sometimes his thinking was too much on the socialistic side but we’re in a changing era and public opinion is more and more varying toward the left which, in plain terms, means the difference between the underprivileged people and the big business people. La Guardia wanted justice; he wanted fair opportunity for every man and woman.”

“Mayor La Guardia’s long administration was the best New York City had ever had – absolutely honest and non-partisan. His appointments were good, some of them were outstanding, notably that of the Commissioner of Parks, Robert Moses, whose vision, initiative and courage not only enlarged and beautified the Park areas and Parkways, but greatly improved the motor approaches to the City, the most important of which was the Triborough Bridge.”

George Richard Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin’s father William Henry Schieffelin and George Richard Schieffelin bought together a piece of land on Lake Agawam, Southampton (village), New York, Southampton, Long Island. They each put up a comfortable cottage and for ten or twelve years, the families enjoyed the cool and simple life at Southampton. There were only about 15 cottages there then and they all had Catboat, catboats and used to race on the lake. One end of the lake was near the beach and there was a building on the dunes, which had been a lifesaving station and it has been transformed into an Episcopal Chapel called "St. Andrews-By-The-Sea". They sailed to Church on Sunday, and after the service, of course, they all started together and there was a race home. Often Sunday clothes were spattered. William Jay Schieffelin said: “I remember one Sunday I was sailing George Schieffelin’s boat and he and his wife were in it, when I upset the boat and all of us got wet above our shoulders. Happily George was good-natured and his wife was one of the dearest and most amiable of women.”

Joint Board of Sanitary Control

Because William Jay Schieffelin was Chairman of the Citizens Union, other opportunities of service occurred from time to time. One was the Chairmanship of the Joint Board of Sanitary Control in the Needlework Industry. In 1910 the cloakmakers, numbering nearly 80,000 men and women, struck against intolerable conditions existing in Sweatshop, sweatshops. Their leader was Joseph Barondess. The strike lasted for months. The Union had no funds and when in the Autumn the manufacturers gave in, the workers were literally starving. William Jay Schieffelin presided at a great mass meeting in the hall of the Cooper Union, and he could never forget how ghastly the crowd looked. Able men representing employers and the Union drew up an agreement called the protocol, which established a body called the Joint Board of Sanitary Control, to adopt standards to safeguard the health and safety of the workers.{{Cite news , date=1925-05-10 , title=WOMAN SHOPPER IS URGED TO DISCOURAGE SWEATSHOPS , url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/05/10/archives/woman-shopper-is-urged-to-discourage-sweatshops.html , access-date=2024-04-29 , work=The New York Times , language=en-US , issn=0362-4331

The Board was composed of seven people, three representing the public, two representing the employers, and two representing the labor union. The lawyers, who drafted the protocol were: Louis Brandeis, Louis D. Brandeis from Boston, Meyer London, Morris Hillquit and Julius Henry Cohen. The three representatives of the public on the Board were: Lillian Wald, Lillian D. Wald, head of the Henry Street Settlement; Henry Moskowitz (activist), Henry Moskowitz, head of the Madison Street settlement; and William Jay Schieffelin, head of the Citizens Union.

The Joint Board of Sanitary Control gradually adopted a series of 29 standards, which to a large extent, abolished the sweatshops and provided decent sanitary conditions, proper ventilation, ample lighting, and adequate access to the fire escapes, and, in general, common-sense requirements. These standards became the foundation for the immense improvement throughout the Needlework Industry, which today cares for the health of its workers and has been notably free from strikes.

William Jay Schieffelin knew Judge Louis Brandeis. Brandeis came down to New York City from Boston before he was on the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court and outlined a protocol, as it was called, which ended the Cloakmakers’ Strike in 1910. William Jay Schieffelin was impressed with the sympathetic attitude of Brandeis. He said that Brandeis “was a very able lawyer but before that he was a humanitarian. I found that the great Jews are great humanists, like Barney Baruch, Judge Brandeis, and Meyer London, very fine characters.”

William Jay Schieffelin about his Ancestors

John Jay

William Jay Schieffelin said about his maternal ancestor John Jay:

“After serving as the First Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court, and as Governor of New York, John Jay retired to his farm of eight hundred acres, Bedford House, where he welcomed many friends. Among them were James Fenimore Cooper, Fenimore Cooper, to whom he told the story of the spy, and Harvey Birch, whom Jay had employed to work along the Hudson River in the Westchester County, New York, Westchester area. Cooper wrote one of his best books based on the facts told him by John Jay. Jay opposed slavery and took the lead in abolishing it in New York.”

William Jay

William Jay Schieffelin said about his great-grandfather, William Jay (jurist), William Jay, that he “took the lead in the Anti-Slavery Campaign”.

John Jay

William Jay Schieffelin said about his grandfather John Jay:

"John Jay, my Grandfather, took up the torch in the Anti-Slavery Campaign and defended runaway slaves. It is said, in the 1850’s, he was the only lawyer in New York who would volunteer to defend African American fugitives.”

“He helped to arrange the Cooper Union meeting for Abraham Lincoln to make his Cooper Union speech, keynote address, and during the American Civil War, Civil War would journey to Washington to confer with the President.”

“Once he took my Mother, 14 years old, to see the President, and Lincoln stooped down and gave her a kiss. Her brother, William Jay (colonel), William Jay, was on the Staff of General John E. Wool, Wool, in command of Fort Monroe, Fortress Monroe. Her Father took her to see her brother, arriving at the General's Headquarters, at the moment when the CSS Virginia, Merrimack was sinking the Union ships on Battle of Hampton Roads, Hampton Roads. They went up to a large room at the top of the house and found the General seated at a table and the Staff Officers around him. His face was buried in his hands, which were wet with tears. A messenger arrived with a dispatch, the General opened it, read it, stood up and said, ‘Thank God, Gentlemen, the Ericsson has arrived’. They all hastened to the flat roof and looking down Chesapeake Bay, saw the USS Monitor, Little Monitor looking like a cheese-box on a ship pushing steadily through the water. Soon she reached the scene of action and engaged the terrible ironclad CSS Virginia, Merrimack. Neither vessel damaged the other much, but finally the Merrimack withdrew, and the Union was saved.”

Mary Jay

William Jay Schieffelin said about his mother Mary Jay: “My Mother, who was beautiful, became engaged to a Cavalry Officer, Major William Henry Schieffelin, of the 1st New York Mounted Rifles Regiment, 1st New York Mounted Rifles, serving in the Peninsula campaign, Peninsular Campaign. I arrived on the 14th of April, 1866. My Mother placed a black velvet ribbon around my arm, to honor the memory of Abraham Lincoln, who died a year before, and whom she revered.”

William Henry Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin said about his father, William Henry Schieffelin, that “he was fond of shooting and fishing, of driving fast horses and farming (he imported one of the first herds of Alderney cattle). He was good-looking and sang charmingly and presented a fine figure as a cavalry officer in the American Civil War, Civil War. In his later years my father was faithful in his attendance at St. George’s Church when Dr. William S. Rainsford, Rainsford was rector. He was a member of the vestry and had charge of the corps or ushers. A tablet in generous appreciation of his services is on the wall of the church at the eastern end near the door.”

Jacob Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin said about Jacob Schieffelin: “Jacob Schieffelin, the founder, had great enterprise and wide vision. His first partner was his brother-in-law, John B. Lawrence, who withdrew from the firm in 1799, because he thought Jacob was reckless in insisting on owning ships, which on some voyages were most profitable, but sometimes became victims of the British-French war. So, Jacob carried on alone until 1805 when he took his son, Henry Hamilton Schieffelin, into partnership.”

Henry Hamilton Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin said about Henry Hamilton Schieffelin that he “was a graduate of Columbia College and a practicing lawyer, with a scientific trend of mind. He was fond of animals, natural history, and fishing. He used to set his watch by making a solar observation with a sextant. He was easy going and once, when a note had to be signed, the cashier had to run down to the Battery, where he found the head of the firm sitting on the edge of the waterfront, fishing.”

Samuel Bradhurst Schieffelin

William Jay Schieffelin said about his grandfather, Samuel Bradhurst Schieffelin, that he was “most energetic. In fact, he earned the nickname, ‘Steamboat Schieffelin’ by grace or his initials, S.B. He was fundamentally religious and held prayer meetings with his forty clerks. He published several books on religious subjects, which showed keen apprehension and true sincerity. He had a fine collection of ancient coins.”

Early Childhood in Paris and Vienna, 1871 – 1875

William Jay Schieffelin said about his early childhood:

“I can remember the Franco-Prussian War, Franco-German War and the picture in Harper's Weekly, Harper’s Weekly of the big Castor and Pollux (elephants), elephant in the Jardin d'Acclimatation, Jardin d’Acclimatation, being shot to feed the starving people during the Siege of Paris (1870–1871), siege of Paris.”

“My Mother’s Father had been appointed the American Envoy to Austria, and she took my sister, Eleanor (two years older than I) and me, to Vienna. We stopped in Paris. It was just after the Paris Commune, Commune, and the barricades were still in the streets, and the Tuileries Palace, Palace of Tuileries was all burned out with black holes instead of the round windows.”

Death

William Jay Schieffelin died on April 29, 1955, six years after his wife Maria Louise. He was buried in the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum.

References

Further reading

* ''One Hundred Years of Business Life, 1794–1894.'' New York: W.H. Schieffelin & Co., 1894.
* ''Over 200 Years of Growth.'' New York: Schieffelin & Somerset Co., 2002.
* Birmingham, Stephen (2016). ''America’s Secret Aristocracy: The Families That Built the United States.'' First Lyons Press edition. ISBN 978-1-4930-2476-6.
* Scheufele, Michael (2022). ''Jacob Scheuffelin, currently in Pennsylvania … Five Hundred Years of the Schieffelin Family.'' wbg Academic in Herder. ISBN 978-3-534-45006-0. eBook (PDF): 978-3-534-45007-7.
* Gellman, David N. (2022). ''Liberty’s Chain: Slavery, Abolition, and the Jay Family of New York.'' Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1501715846.

External links

William Jay Schieffelin
at Century Association
1866 births
1955 deaths
Philanthropists from New York (state)
Jay family
Schieffelin family
Burials at the Vanderbilt Family Cemetery and Mausoleum