William Collins Whitney
William Collins Whitney ( born July 5, 1841 in Conway, Franklin County, Massachusetts, † February 2nd 1904 in New York City ) was a political leader in the United States, as well as financier and founder of the prominent Whitney family.
Life
Whitney arrived in Massachusetts in a Puritan around the world. He ended successfully in 1863 Yale University, where he was admitted into the society of Skull & Bones. He then continued his studies at the Law School of Harvard University and was a respected lawyer in New York City. His fortune in 1904 an estimated 40 million U.S. dollars in assets he acquired as a major speculator. He was an attacking opponent of the Tweed ring, and was actively associated with the anti- Tammany organizations, the Irving Hall Democracy ( 1875-1890 ) and the County Democracy ( 1880-1890 ).
In the years 1875 to 1882 Whitney worked in the advisory staff of the City of New York. In this position, he fought against the corrupt machinations of the so-called tweed ring, headed by the influential Democratic politician William Tweed was. This was also the leader of the men Confederation St. Tammany Society ( Tammany Hall ).
During the first term of U.S. President Grover Cleveland from 1885 to 1889 Whitney was United States Secretary of the Navy, and sat down for the development of the U.S. Navy, especially in the promotion of domestic manufacturers of plate armor one.
In 1892 he became involved in the election campaign of Cleveland and so made his influential part in the presidential election for the second term claims. Because he disapproved of the so-called free - silver movement, he refused to support the candidate William Jennings Bryan. Whitney increased interest was the development of public transport in New York and he was one of the shareholders of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company.
Together with Colonel Albert Pope, he tried in 1899 a monopoly for electric taxis build in all major U.S. cities, they failed. Instrument for this was the joint company Columbia Automobile Company which was to build vehicles appropriate up to 2,000 annually.
His acquired in the same year holding company Electric Vehicle Company (EVC ) bought the lawyer George Baldwin Selden from the rights to his patent on the automobile. This was led by Henry Ford, vehemently opposed by some manufacturers. Selden led the process followed for the EVC and won in the first instance. On appeal, the court ruled against the patent. After this would in any case only have been even more valid for one year the sentence was accepted.
As a passionate lover of horse racing, he established a thoroughbred racing stable company in competition with the successful stable of the entrepreneur James R. Keene. As a breeder of 26 American betting winners horses, he won in 1901 also England's Epsom Derby.
Whitney was married to Flora Payne, the sister of his wealthy fellow student Oliver Hazard Payne (1839-1917) a Rockefeller business partner, with whom he had five children:
He died in 1904 and was buried in the cemetery Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx borough of New York.
Swell
- Beverly Rae Kimes ( Editor ), Henry Austin Clark Jr.: The Standard Catalogue of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd edition. Krause Publications, Iola WI, 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0. ( English )
- Beverly Rae Kimes: Pioneers, Engineers, and Scoundrels: The Dawn of the Automobile in America. Published by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers ) Permissions, Warrendale, PA 2005, ISBN 0-7680 1431 - X ( hardcover ). ( English )