Ashbel P. Fitch: Champion of Old New York

Notes

279 Notes Introduction 1. In a letter to his sister Anna (“Bye”;), June 28, 1896. Roosevelt referred to Fitch as “a contemptible unscrupulous scoundrel, quite shameless if he can only hamper us.” Elting E. Morison, ed., Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press, 1951), 545. 2. Edmund Morris, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan , 1979), 83. 3. William M. Tweed headed Tammany Hall and, with others, stole millions of dollars from New York City’s Finance Department during the late 1860s and early 1870s. 4. Morris, Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, 236–37. 5. Roosevelt spent considerable time ranching and hunting in the Dakota Territory. 6. John Armstrong, Love, Life, Goethe (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007), 461. 7. “Police Board and Mr. Fitch,” New York Tribune, Apr. 15, 1896. 8. The word “Democracy” was commonly used in the nineteenth century as a synonym for “Democratic Party.” 9. “Swallow-tail” refers to the tailcoats of men in full evening dress. The term was used to identify anti-Tammany Democrats. 10. Robert McElroy, Grover Cleveland, the Man and the Statesman, intro. Elihu Root (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1923), viii–ix. 11. “Ashbel P. Fitch,” New York Times Illustrated Magazine Supplement, July 16, 1899, 1–2. 12. Albert Bernhardt Faust, The German Element in the United States (Boston: Houghton Mifflin , 1909), 2:124. 13. Samuel J. Tilden was a prominent New York attorney, a Democratic power, and the party’s 1876 presidential nominee. 14. Kenneth D. Ackerman, Boss Tweed (New York: Carroll and Graf, 2005), 236–40. 15. Thomas Carlyle, Essay on Goethe’s Faust, intro. Dr. Richard Schroeder, trans. Ashbel P. Fitch (New Rochelle, NY: Knickerbocker Press, 1900). 16. Depew was president of the New York Central Railroad, a Republican presidential hopeful, and a noted raconteur. 17. “Hon. Ashbel P. Fitch, the Champion of New York City’s Good Name,” New York Uptown Visitor, Nov. 11, 1893. 1. Forebea rs a nd Ea rly Yea rs, 1848–1885 1. Frances Manwaring Caulkins, History of Norwich, Connecticut 1866 (Chester, CT: Pequot Press, 1976), 148–55. 280 | Notes to Pages 11–14 2. Louis B. Mason, The Life and Times of Major John Mason (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1935), 333. 3. John T. Fitch, 1993, Puritan in the Wilderness: A Biography of the Reverend James Fitch, 1622–1702 (Camden, ME: Picton Press, 1993), 247–50. 4. Roscoe Conkling Fitch, comp., History of the Fitch Family, A.D. 1400–1930, A Record of the Fitches in England and America, including “pedigree of Fitch” certified by the College of Arms, London , England (published privately by the Fitch family, compiled 1930), 2:4, 25. 5. Ashbel B. Parmelee, Biography of Rev. Ashbel Parmelee D.D. (Philadelphia: J. W. Lewis and Co., 1880), 5. 6. Parmelee preached on the death of Dewitt Clinton in 1828 and on the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841, among many other current events. Ibid., 16–17. 7. Ibid., 17. 8. Wheeler added, “Mr. Parmelee was born under the dark shadow of Calvinism and his life and teachings were pervaded by its peculiar tenets. While he was always a cheerful Christian, and on occasion exhibited a refined tenderness, he was intensely and solemnly earnest in squaring away every thought and action by his severe religious standard. . . . In summer’s heat and winter’s cold, in storm and sunshine, he carried the gospel to the remotest cabin in the hamlet. His aggressive nature and intense convictions of duty impelled him to ferret out evil of every nature, and once found, gave it no quarter. He never avoided but courted discussion of his views upon whatever question. Not over tolerant , he always left upon the mind of his opponent a firm conviction of his entire honesty and sincerity, which his daily life never failed to confer. . . . Mr. Parmelee was no less earnest as a citizen than as a Christian. With him, religion and politics were convertible terms. . . . He prayed for good government and did his best to secure it by voting for it. . . . He was intensely American in his nature. He wrote me a letter in Washington during our late war, a few days before his death that bristled with loyalty and patriotism.” “Reminiscences of William A. Wheeler,” Malone Palladium, 1885. 9. “And the sons of Benjamin were Belsh, and Becher and Ashbel, Gera and Naaman, Ehi and Rosh, Muppim and Huppim and Ard.” Gen. 46:21. Also, “the sons of...