William Walter Phelps
[pg. 957]
Hon. Wm. Walter Phelps, b. New York City, 24 Aug., 1839, m. 26 Jan., 1860, Ellen Sheffield, daughter of Joseph E. Sheffield, founder of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. She was b. New York City, 4 Aug., 1838.
Mr. Phelps was a graduate of Yale college in the class of 1860. He was married on the day of his graduation. He graduated from Columbia College Law School in 1863, and before his 25th year had gained a large practice, and had become counsel for several large corporations, some of which he became largely interested in at a later period. The death of his father in 1869 compelled him to relinquish general practice, and he soon after removed to Hackensack, N.J., where he went into politics and was elected, in 1872, to the 43rd Congress by an overwhelming majority. His position on the salary grab, the banking bill and the franking privilege established his reputation as the speaker of sound judgment and political worth, though it resulted in alienating many of his political friends. In the discussion of the civil rights bill Mr. Phelps found his courage sorely tried, denouncing the measure as improper and unconstitutional, and maintaining that it would never be enforced, and the result showed that he was right, for it remained a dead letter for 15 years, and the Supreme Court took the ground he had taken at first.
His services on the special congressional committee appointed to inquire into the White League, the Kuklux and other societies, gained him high honors and the city of New Orleans tendered him a public dinner in recognition of their value.
He was offered the position of assistant secretary of the treasury by President Grant, but declined it.
In 1881 he was appointed by President Garfield as minister to Austria, where he was highly commended for his diplomatic abilities.
On President Arthur's succession he resigned his office, and two years later was elected to a second term to Congress, and served several times, until he declined further re-election. At this time he acted as one of the regents of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1889 he was appointed by President Harrison a member of the Samoan commission, and by his masterly management of the treaty negotiations with the English and German commissioners won high honors. On his return to Washington the president personally handed him the appointment as minister to Berlin, where he added to his reputation as a diplomat of the first rank.
His old homestead in Simsbury now belongs to the Rev. Mr. Dodge who married his only sister.
His own estate New Jersey is known as Teaneck and includes over a thousand acres, lying between the Hackensack and Hudson Rivers. A fire destroyed the house with many valuable pictures and papers in 1888, and a new one has been built.
Mr. Phelps was for a long time one of the trustees of Yale College. While in Germany he caused to be erected a monument to the memory of John Phelps, one of the clerks of the court tried Charles I, and who, with other regicides, took refuge in Vevey, Switzerland. Reference has been made to this in the early pages of this work.
