In 1804, he purchased and later improved some 500 acres at Pavonia, now a part of Jersey City, N. J., and such was his business acumen that in addition to the large purchase price paid by the Erie Railroad Company for its present pier site, his heirs have since received over three million dollars in cash and mortgages from the property.

His many interests prevented Mr. Coles from serving more than one year as president of the Eagle. With the exception of the year 1814, when he was in Europe on business, he never failed in attendance at the meetings of the board and was an active participant in the company's affairs until his death in 1827.

The first name on the stock subscription list was Moses Rogers, senior partner of William W. Woolsey of the hardware importing firm of Rogers & Woolsey. Mr. Rogers was conspicuous in public charities and philanthropic affairs generally. In 1793, he was secretary of the society for the manumission of slaves. He owned the famous old Sugar House on Liberty Street. He had married a sister of Mr. Woolsey.

William Walton Woolsey, who succeeded Mr. Coles as president of the Eagle in January, 1807, and served for one year, was a native of Long Island, where he was born in 1766. He died in New York in 1839. Few of the old time merchants of the city were as successful or occupied more positions of confidence and responsibility in public affairs than Mr. Woolsey. Originally in partnership with his brother-in-law, Moses Rogers, in the hardware business, he retired at an early age, having made a considerable fortune. He was vice-president of the Manufacturers' Society, and for a long time on the board of governors of the New York Hospital. As

treasurer of the American Bible Society, however, for many years, he was conspicuously before the general public as a tried and trusty official. He was one of the "New Jersey Associates" who owned the land upon which Jersey City now stands. He was a member and for a time president of the Merchants' Exchange, and on retiring from that presidency received a handsome

service of silver plate suitably inscribed, as a memento of the high regard in which he was held by the members. For the purpose of educating his sons, he removed to New Haven in 1808; returning to New York, however, and re-entering business-life again in 1815. His wife was a sister of Rev. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale

College, who himself married a sister of Mr. Woolsey. One of Mr. Woolsey's two sons, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, later became a professor in Yale, and afterward became and continued for twenty-five years, president of the College. Mr. Woolsey was one of the original founders of the New Haven Tontine Society which built the hotel of that name. He was also president of the Boston & Providence Railway Company.

Henry I. Wyckoff was another historical character, as, in fact, were all of the original directors of the Eagle. His baptismal name was Hendrick, and he was born in 1778, a son of John Wyckoff in direct descent from Pieter Claesen Wyckoff who came from Holland in 1636. In 1794, he was a member of the firm of Suydam & Wyckoff, dealers in teas, wines, liquors and groceries. He was what Barret's History terms “a good old-fashioned Alderman" representing the famous First Ward. In the nineties he was captain of a military brigade and active in the organization of charitable institutions. In 1802, he was chosen Governor of the New York Hospital, which position he held until his death in December, 1839. He was one of the organizers of the Merchants' Bank in 1803. From 1806 to 1839 he was treasurer of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He succeeded Mr. Woolsey as president of the Eagle, May 10, 1808, and served in that position until May 3, 1816.

There was hardly a more notable character in America at the beginning of the Nineteenth century than Archibald Gracie. He was a native of Scotland and had already made a record for himself in the commercial world at the head of the well-known shipping house of Reid, Irving & Company of London, before he sailed for New York

in 1787. He was then twenty-nine years of age. While engaged in business at Petersburg, Va., he married a daughter of Moses Rogers, the New York merchant, before mentioned. He continued his business in Petersburg until 1793, in the meanwhile developing and enlarging it to that extent, that, when he established in New York, he was already a veritable merchant prince with ships carrying the American Flag into every port in the world. His business house at No. 22 Whitehall Street, "caused all the citizens of New York a surprise on account of its magnitude." He made money rapidly but spent it freely in practical charity. He is described by an early historian as "a god-like, white-headed old man universally beloved." His habits as a man of business were those of great self-reliance, great promptness and great decision. His city home was at No. 7 State Street, but his country home at Gracie's Point or Horen's Hook, which juts into the East river toward Hell Gate, was the scene of magnificent hospitalities. There were entertained at various times all the celebrities of the day, including Lafayette, Louis Philippe, John Quincy Adams, Tom Moore, Thomas Addis Emmet, Josiah Quincy, De Witt Clinton, and others. Cooper, the novelist, in the “Spy” mentions Mr. Gracie as the leading shipping merchant of New York. A list of the financial and commercial institutions with which he was connected as a director or officer would be practically a list of all in existence during the period of his business activity.

Mr. Gracie was for twenty-five years vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, an incumbent for a longer period of years than any other official of that body at any period. He was a personal friend of George Washington

and was selected by the citizens of New York as one of the Committee of Three "to consider some appropriate mode of testifying regret for the irreparable loss sustained by the nation in the death of the father of his country. He was the first president of the Bank of United States and the first vice-president of the Bank of America.

It is said that no deserving charity ever appealed to Mr. Gracie in vain, and many of the charitable institutions of the present day owe their beginnings to his efforts. Many young men also owed their start in life to his great mercantile house. During the war of 1812 his business. suffered severe loss from the depredations of the French on one side and the English on the other. Having so many ships on the sea he suffered in greater proportion than other merchants. He was never compensated by the United States Government for the property that had thus been seized by the warring nations, although his claims had been recognized by France and are said to have been traded off by Jefferson in the purchase of Louisiana. Therefore, in his old age he became comparatively poor. He continued as an active director of the Eagle Fire Company until November of 1817. He died in 1829. Two of his daughters married sons of Rufus King, the United States Minister to England. Many old families of the Metropolis-the Gracies, Kings, Dures, Lawrences and others are descended from this old New York merchant, whose good name and fragrant memory remain a pride and inheritance to his descendants.

Thomas Farmar served on the board of directors of the Eagle until 1823. He was for a long time one of the Port Wardens of New York. He is also mentioned by