In May of 1892, the New York Tribune published a list of all the millionaires in the United States: Four in Albany, two in Schenectady, and twenty-four from Troy. Twenty-five if you include Lansingburgh, although not annexed by Troy until 1900. So during the Gilded Age, Troy had the most!
LANSINGBURGH
Edward Tracy
Malting, brewing, real estate investments.
NOTE: Sued the Troy and Lansingburgh Railroad Company to prevent them from erecting poles for an electric motor system on a street in Lansingburgh opposite his property. Won a temporary injection but was vacated. He was as a director of the United National Bank in 1890. Owned the Tracy & Russell Brewing Company in NYC in 1864. He was a well known bachelor to his friends and associates in Lansingburgh until his “wife” sued his estate after death claiming otherwise. It appears she did not win.
In 1904 when his sister Sara died in NYC, she left an estate worth $6 million for various charities. Edward left her his fortune when he died and she moved to the city after. He was considered the richest man in Lansingburgh. She even left Edward’s coachman $1000. There is a Sara Tracy Hall at the Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia. Her contributions created the college.
TROY
Est Ralph J Starks
Banking and real estate
NOTE: He was a first director of the National State Bank and president in 1852.
Est John J. Joslin
Manufacturing hemp, flax, and wool; lands in the west and real estate there.
NOTE: He was also one of the first directors of the National State Bank in 1878 (died that year).
Edward Murphy Jr. (of Kennedy and Murphy)
Brewing and real estate
NOTE: Murphy became a congressman and part of Tammany Hall. Didn’t last long. He was mayor in 1875, 1877 and 1879. He was responsible for building Troy’s very first real City Hall on the present site of Barker Park. He is part of the story of the killing of William Ross in the famous trial of Bat Shea.
William Kennedy (of Kennedy and Murphy)
No not the one you’re thinking of.
Brewing and real estate.
NOTE: Associate of Edward Murphy
Est George M Tibbits
Made in part in the tallow chandlery business, but chiefly in farms and real estate in various localities in Northern NY.
NOTE: He also was a member of the Troy and Boston Railroad; helped found Oakwood Cemetery; Mayor of Troy, 1830-36. Green Island was owned by the Tibbits Family for a while and known as Tibbit’s Island, purchased by his father for George and with George Griswold, all three owning a third of the island.
Justus Miller (of Miller, Hall and Hartwell formed in 1884).
Manufacturing shirts and collars; real estate and stocks.
NOTE: His shirt building built is now Hedley’s Building at the corner of Hoosick and River.
Made in manufacturing stoves and hardware
George H. Cramer
Banking, stock in the mowing machine factory of Walter A Wood, and investments in railroads Etc.
NOTE: He was the agent who sold the Cannon Building to William H. Frear in 1891. He was president of the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad in 1898. He was president of the United National Bank in 1889, then director in 1890; a trustee of the Troy Savings Bank in 1877;
Est Mrs. Deborah Powers (widow of William Powers)
Made in manufacturing paints and oils, oil refining, manufacturing oil clothes and private banking in Lansingburgh.
NOTE: She was a powerhouse creating a bank, donating a park, an opera house, and old ladies home.
William H. Frear
Merchandising, dry goods
NOTE: The Frear Building survives and it was Frear that coined the phrase, “Guaranteed Satisfaction or your money cheerfully refunded.”
Got History? Don is the author of a dozen books about his hometown. You can reach him at drittner@aol.com
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