Elias Cornelius Benedict Explained
| Elias Cornelius Benedict |
| Birth Name: | Elias Cornelius Benedict |
| Birth Date: | January 24, 1834 |
| Birth Place: | Somers, New York, U.S. |
| Death Place: | Greenwich, Connecticut, U.S. |
| Occupation: | Banker, yachtsman |
| Children: | 4 |
| Signature: | E.C._Benedict_signature.png |
Elias Cornelius Benedict nicknamed Commodore (January 24, 1834 – November 22, 1920) was a New York City banker and yachtsman. He specialized in the gas and rubber industries. He was president of the Commercial Acetylene Gas Company and of the Marine Engine Company.[1] [2] [3] The Benedict Fjord in Greenland was named after him by Robert Peary.
Early life
He was born in 1834 in Somers, New York. His father, Henry Benedict (1796–1869), was a Presbyterian clergyman. His mother was Mary Betts Lockwood (1799–1885), daughter of Captain Stephen Lockwood, of Norwalk, Connecticut. Among his siblings was Henry Martin Benedict, Sarah Jane (née Benedict) Taylor, and Elizabeth (née Benedict) Mead.[4]
Career
At fifteen in 1849, he joined the banking house of Corning & Co., New York. In 1857 he opened his own stockbroker's office on Wall Street. During the United States Civil War he and his brother organized the Gold Exchange Bank.
Benedict was close with President Grover Cleveland, and it was on Benedict's yacht, the Oneida, that Cleveland had his secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth from his jaw in 1893. Benedict commissioned the architects Carrère and Hastings to build an estate on the peninsula at Indian Harbor in Greenwich, Connecticut.[5]
In later life Benedict was Commodore of the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club.[3] [6]
Personal life
In 1859, he married Sarah Hart, daughter of Lucius Hart of New York. Together, they had four children:
- Frederick Hart Benedict (1860–1901), who married Henry Flagler's daughter, Jennie Louise; she died after complications from childbirth, along with their child aboard the Benedict yacht Oneida while on their way to see Henry Flagler in St. Augustine, Florida, and Frederick was killed not many years later in an automobile accident near West Point.[7]
- Martha Benedict (1862–1957), who married stockbroker Ramsay Turnbull in 1891.[8]
- Helen Ripley Benedict (1865–1936), who married the architect Thomas Hastings.[9]
- Louise Adele Benedict, who married Clifford B. Harmon.[10]
He had been ill for more than a year when he died on November 22, 1920, at his estate in Greenwich.[1]
Notes and References
- News: E. C. Benedict Dies in his 87th Year. Was Sixty-four Years in Wall St. and One of the World's Leading Yachtsmen. Loved Long Cruises in Strange Waters. Once Shipwrecked. Was Cleveland's Friend. . E.C. Benedict, banker and yachtsman, died last night in his eighty-seventh year at his home, Indian Harbor, Greenwich, Conn. Mr. Benedict had been ill for more than a year, and his end came quietly from a complication of diseases incident to old age, shortly before 9 o'clock. . . November 24, 1920 . 2009-02-03 .
- News: Commodore Benedict . Great artist in the difficult art of viability, Elias Cornelius Benedict had nearly eighty-seven years of fortunate life in which there can have been few days of dullness. ... . The New York Times . November 25, 1920 .
- Book: America's successful men of affairs . 1895 . . banker and stock broker, born Jan. 24, 1834, is a son of the Rev. Henry Benedict. His native place is Somers in Westchester county, N. Y. The family was planted in America by Thomas Benedict, an immigrant from Nottinghamshire, England, in 1638. At the age of sixteen, Elias, without means and with only a fair education, began to master the mysteries of stock broker age, as clerk in the employ of Corning & Co., in New York city. In 1857 he opened an office of his own on Wall street, displaying the sign of Benedict & Co., and for nearly forty years has been one of the most active, ingenious and indefatigable operators in the whirlpool of this centre of speculation. ... .
- News: Capt. James C.. Summers. Com. E. C. Benedict, Veteran Yachtsman. The Rudder . June 1916 . 2009-02-03 .
- Ossman, Laurie; Ewing, Heather (2011). Carrère and Hastings, The Masterworks. Rizzoli USA. .
- http://www.herreshoff.org/docs/Chronicle_1992.pdf Herreshoff Marine Museum Chronicle (pdf)
- News: F. H. BENEDICT KILLED UNDER HIS AUTOMOBILE; Machine Upset on a Hill Near West Point, in a Storm. GRENVILLE KANE BADLY HURT Mr. Benedict Was Crushed by the Weight of the Vehicle -- Was Visiting Major Billinger at West Point. . 8 November 2019 . . 20 October 1901.
- Book: Social Register, Summer . 1920 . . 309 . 8 November 2019 . en.
- News: Miss Benedict Married; Becomes the Wife of Thomas Hastings at Greenwich, Conn. . 8 November 2019 . . May 1, 1900.
- News: Times . Special to The New York . MISS BENEDICT TO WED? Engagement of Commodore's Daughter to Clifford B. Harmon Reported. . 8 November 2019 . . 26 July 1904.
