Elbert Adrain Brinckerhoff, Sr. (November 29, 1838 – March 23, 1913) was the

Mayor of Englewood, New Jersey Englewood, New Jersey was incorporated on March 17, 1899. Beginning in 1980, Englewood switched from a Mayor-Council form of government to a modified Council-Manager plan of government in accordance with a Special Charter granted by the New Je ...

and the founder of Brinckerhoff, Turner and Company. He was president of Merchants' National Bank and president of

Columbia Presbyterian Hospital The NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital is a nonprofit academic medical center in New York City affiliated with two Ivy League medical schools, Cornell University and Columbia University. The hospital comprises seven distinct campuses located in the New Y ...

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 ...

and vice president of the

American Bible Society American Bible Society is a U.S.-based Christian nonprofit headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As the American member organization of United Bible Societies, it supports global Bible translation, production, distribution, literacy, engage ...

Early life

He was born on November 29, 1838, in

Jamaica, Queens, New York Jamaica is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. It is mainly composed of a large commercial and retail area, though part of the neighborhood is also residential. Jamaica is bordered by Hollis to the east; St. Albans, Springf ...

. He was a son of Mary (

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 ...

Adrain) Brinckeroff and John N. Brinckeroff, principal of Union Hall Academy in Jamaica. He was a grandson of Irish-American mathematician

Robert Adrain Robert Adrain (30 September 1775 – 10 August 1843) was an Irish political exile who won renown as a mathematician in the United States. He left Ireland after leading republican insurgents in the Rebellion of 1798, and settled in New Jersey an ...

, who is chiefly remembered for his formulation of the

method of least squares The method of least squares is a standard approach in regression analysis to approximate the solution of overdetermined systems (sets of equations in which there are more equations than unknowns) by minimizing the sum of the squares of the res ...

.Hall, Henry (ed.
America's successful men of affairs: An encyclopedia of contemporaneous biography, Vol. I
p. 111 (1895)

Career

In 1854, at age 16, he traveled to

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

aboard the ''Adelaide'' and he took a job with

Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company is an American multinational financial services company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco, California; operational headquarters in Manhattan; and managerial offices throughout the United States and intern ...

where he delivered the first

pony express The Pony Express was an American express mail service that used relays of horse-mounted riders. It operated from April 3, 1860, to October 26, 1861, between Missouri and California. It was operated by the Central Overland California and Pik ...

package from San Francisco to

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

. He later joined the

San Francisco Committee of Vigilance The San Francisco Committee of Vigilance was a vigilante group formed in 1851. The catalyst for its formation was the criminality of the Sydney Ducks gang. It was revived in 1856 in response to rampant crime and corruption in the municipal govern ...

during the presidency of William Coleman. He returned to

in 1860. In New York City, he became associated with Fox & Polhemus, cotton manufacturers and brokers, where he later became an owner. He later became senior member of the firm and it was renamed Brinckerhoff, Turner & Co. For many years, he also served as president of the Merchants' National Bank, president of

, vice president of the

and a director of the Harriman National Bank. He was elected

in 1899 and recommended an increase in the police force from seven police officers to nine police officers. He also recommended the building of the

city hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...

Personal life

He moved to

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

in 1867. On April 22, 1869, he was married to Emily Augusta Vermilye (1846–1921), a daughter of Col. Washington Romeyn Vermilye, a banker. They were the parents of one son and six daughters, including:Decennial record of the class of 1896, Yale College
p. 659 (1907) "Elbert Adrain Brinckerhoff, Jr., was born June 6th, 1874, at Englewood, NJ. He is the only son of Elbert Adrain Brinckerhoff and Emily A. Vermilye, ... * Emily Vermilye Brinckerhoff (1870–1945), who married Frederick Smyth Duncan (1868–1953). * Mary Elizabeth Brinckerhoff (1871–1931), who married James Douglas Armstrong (1866–1939) in 1894. * Elbert Adrain Brinckerhoff Jr. (1874–1943), who married Edna Connor (1874–1938). * Elizabeth Lathrop Brinckerhoff (1876–1950), who married William Bushnell Chapin (1875–1914) in 1901. After his death, she married widower Lt. Col. Frederick Butterfield Ryons (1877–1946) in 1923. * Helen M. Brinckerhoff (1881–1953), who married Maxwell Van Buskirk (1871–1952). He died in Englewood on March 23, 1913 and was buried in Brookside Cemetery there.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brinckerhoff, Elbert Adrian Mayors of Englewood, New Jersey 1838 births 1913 deaths American Bible Society Burials at Brookside Cemetery (Englewood, New Jersey) 19th-century American politicians