James William Beekman

James William Beekman (22 November 1815 – 15 June 1877) was vice president of the New York Hospital.

Biography

He was born in New York City on November 22, 1815. He was a descendent of Wilhelmus Beekman, who sailed with Peter Stuyvesant to New Netherlands, and was an officer of the Dutch West India Company.^[1]

He graduated from Columbia College in 1834, and studied law with John Landis Mason, but never joined the New York Bar Association. His father died in 1833 left him with money, and the death of his uncle, James Beekman, added to his real estate holdings on the East River near Fifty-second street, including the Beekman mansion, "Mount Pleasant",^[2] a place of historic interest from its prominence in Revolutionary times. He married Abian Steele (1819–1897).

He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 6th D.) in 1849; and of the New York State Senate (5th D.) from 1850 to 1853, sitting in the 73rd, 74th, 75th and 76th New York State Legislatures.^[3]

In 1861 he, with Erastus Corning and Thurlow Weed, was appointed by a meeting of conservative men in New York to go to Washington and urge President James Buchanan to relieve Fort Sumter.

He was vice-president of the New York Hospital, president of the woman's hospital, and a director of the New York dispensary.

He was also one of the early members of the New-York Historical Society, before which he delivered a centennial discourse in 1871 and read papers at different times. On 4 December 1869, he delivered an address before the St. Nicholas Society on "The Founders of New York," which was afterward published (New York, 1870). See "Memoir of James William Beekman," by Edward F. De Lancey (New York, 1877).

In February 1876, he published a report on a village of hospitals. He died in 1877 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

Legacy

The James William Beekman House is a registered landmark in Oyster Bay, New York, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places^[4]

References

1. Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke, William B. Aitken, The Knickerbocker Press, 1912
2. The house was demolished, after being moved, in 1874. (Edmund Delaney, New York's Turtle Bay p. 4.)
3. The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 136ff; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
4. National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.

Further reading

• New York Times; June 16, 1877, Wednesday; Obituary.
• New York Times; June 20, 1877, Wednesday; Funeral for Mr. Beekman.
• James William Beekman at Find a Grave
• James William Beekman in the 1850 US Census