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Cornelius Eldert

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Cornelius Eldert (1850 – January 24, 1930) was an American businessman and philanthropist who served as president of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company.

Early life

Eldert was born in 1850 in Brooklyn, New York and was a descendant of Dutch immigrants to New Amsterdam.[1] He was a son of Samuel Eldert (1815–1870) and Aletta Ann (née Stoothoff) Eldert (1818–1898),[2] and his brother was Ditmas Eldert.[3] His maternal grandparents were Mary and John C. Stoothoff,[4][5] and his paternal grandparents were Luke Eldert and Femmetye Phebe van Wicklen.[6]

In his youth Eldert played baseball for the Crescent Base Ball Club of Jamaica, New York,[7] and, in 1861, he had two of his fingers cut off by a straw cutter.[4]

Career

Beginning in 1865 at age sixteen, Eldert became associated with the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company and spent the rest of his career there, focusing on marine insurance. The company, which had been founded in 1838 as the Atlantic Insurance Company as a joint-stock company, became a mutual company in 1842. He also served as president and director of the Board of Underwriters of New York, resigning the presidency a few years before his death.[8] He became president in 1915, succeeding Anton A. Raven, and remained president until his death in 1930.[9]

Eldert also served as trustee of the Seamen's Bank for Savings, vice president and director of the Atlantic Safe Deposit Company, and a director of the Underwriters Salvage Company and of the Metropolitan Trust Company.[10]

Personal life

Eldert was married to Isabelle Kate Cameron (1852–1935).[11] Isabelle, who was born in British Guiana, was a daughter of Isabella Catherine (née Groves) Cameron and Donald Cameron. Her sister, Edith Cameron, was the wife of H. A. Graham Driscoll.[12] Together, they lived at 557 First Street in Brooklyn and were the parents of:[8]

  • Katharine Stoothoff Eldert (1877–1976), who married the Rev. Joseph Percy Smyth,[13] son of Irish immigrant Joseph P. Smyth, in 1905.[14]
  • Henry Cameron Eldert (1880–1937), a lawyer who married Marion Macmillin.[15][16]

A prominent philanthropist and "generous supporter of diocesan and community charities,"[17] he was president of the Life Saving Benevolent Society from 1919 to 1930 and vice president of the Brooklyn Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor.[8]

Eldert died at his home in Brooklyn on January 24, 1930.[8] After a funeral at St. Luke's Episcopal Church on Clinton Avenue in Brooklyn (where he had been a vestryman and warden), he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery.[8] His estate, which was valued at a net $1,750,913,[18] was left to his family.[19] His widow died in 1935.[11]

References

  1. ^ "Cornelius Eldert Dead". Times Union. 27 January 1930. p. 24. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  2. ^ Onderdonk, Henry (1884). History of the First Reformed Dutch Church of Jamaica, L.I. The Consistory. p. 200. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  3. ^ Greene, Richard Henry; Stiles, Henry Reed; Dwight, Melatiah Everett; Morrison, George Austin; Mott, Hopper Striker; Totten, John Reynolds; Pitman, Harold Minot; Ditmas, Charles Andrew; Forest, Louis Effingham De; Mann, Conklin; Maynard, Arthur S. (1979). The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. pp. 29, 79, 201. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  4. ^ a b "Accident". Brooklyn Evening Star. 27 March 1861. p. 2. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  5. ^ "Mary Stroothoff Will". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 22 June 1915. p. 25. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  6. ^ Bergen, Teunis G. (1876). The Bergen Family; Or: The Descendants of Hans Hansen Bergen, One of the Early Settlers of New York and Brooklyn, L. I. J. Munsell. p. 355. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Joseph P. Smyth family papers". archives.nypl.org. New York Public Library. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  8. ^ a b c d e "CORNELIUS ELDERT DIES IN 82D YEAR; President of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company at His Death. SERVED IT FROM AGE OF 16 Former Head of Underwriters--A Leader in Charity Work--Walked Across Brooklyn Bridge Daily". The New York Times. 26 January 1930. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  9. ^ America, Insurance Institute of (1929). Proceedings of the Conferences of the Insurance Institute of America. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  10. ^ "In The Equitable Building". New-York Tribune. 9 Dec 1921. p. 10. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  11. ^ a b "ELDERT". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 18 May 1935. p. 11. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  12. ^ "DRISCOLL-CAMERON WEDDING". The New York Times. 6 January 1898. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  13. ^ Times, Special Lo The New York (14 November 1954). "REV. JOSEPH P. SMYTH". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  14. ^ "Paid Notice: Deaths SMYTH, JOSEPH PERCY". The New York Times. 15 February 2001. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  15. ^ "HENRY CAMERON ELDERT; Member of a Law Firm Here Had Represented Banks". The New York Times. 14 February 1937. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  16. ^ Times, Special to The New York (24 May 1958). "Benton -- Eldert". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  17. ^ The Living Church Annual. Morehouse-Gorham Company. 1931. p. 108. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  18. ^ "ESTATES APPRAISED". Times Union. 27 March 1930. p. 40. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  19. ^ "Insurance Man's Estate Goes to Widow, Children. Cornelius Eldert, an Old Brooklynite, Also Remembers Grandchildren". The Brooklyn Daily Eagle. 30 January 1930. p. 19. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
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