He lived in Riverdale, New York. ®135 ®134On 1 June 1880 Henry S. Spalding, lived in New York City between Riverdale Avenue and the Hudson River. He was age 60, had been born in Vermont, as had both his parents, and was President of the Central Trust Company. He lived with his wife, Kate D., age 51, born in North Carolina, and no children. Boarding with them were Kate’s sisters, Cornelia Beckwith, age 30, born in North Carolina, and Nancy C. Beckwith, age 25, born in North Carolina. Also boarding with them were Margaret Schley, 27, born in New York, her children Henry S. Schley, age 2, New York, and James M., 11 months, New York, and 7 servants. ®2734 “Henry Foster Spaulding, merchant, banker and financial advisor, was born in Brandon, Vermont on April 24th 1817 and died July 17th 1893 at his summer home in Riverdale-on-the-Hudson. Henry F. Spaulding was universally regarded in business and social circles in New York City.
Henry Spaulding was a son of Samuel Browne Spaulding and Anne [née Grey] Spaulding. Henry moved to New York City at the age of fifteen, with less than $20 of capital. He sought employment from store to store and found it in the house of Clark, Weyman & Co., importers of woolen goods. Having thus secured a foothold, he rose by unsparing labor from one position to another. About 1850, his name appeared in the title of the firm, which then became Weyman, Spaulding & Co. When the firm reorganized as Spaulding, Vail & Fuller, the clerk had at last risen to the head of a house into whose employment he had entered a poor lad. Owing to changes in the partnership, the house was known later as Spaulding, Hunt & Co., and Spaulding, Swift & Co.
Mr. Spaulding was the first president of The Central Trust Co., and held the office for eight years. His salary went entirely to charity. He remained a director the rest of his life and was also a director of The Continental Insurance Co. and The Mechanics' National Bank and a member of the Chamber of Commerce and of the Committee of Seventy. The stone upon which the bronze statue of Washington stands at the Sub-Treasury building is the identical one, upon which Washington stood at his first inauguration. It was traced and rescued by Mr. Spaulding from a place in the walls of Bellevue Hospital. He was exceedingly philanthropic and served as treasurer of the fund for the pedestal of Bartholdi's statue of Liberty, president of The Home for Incurables and Commissioner for Appraisal of Lands for the new Croton Aqueduct, and belonged to the Century, Manhattan, Reform, Country and Down Town clubs and New England Society, and aided in the support of the public museums of the city.
In 1850, he married Rose Thompson, of Penn's Manor, Pennsylvania, who died four years afterward. Of their three children, two survived to adulthood, Thomas Hunt Spaulding and Margaret Thompson, wife of Dr. James Montfort Schley. In 1857, he married Miss Katherine Devereux Beckwith, of Petersburg, Virginia. There were no children born to this union.”
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