Who Was Who In America 1607-1896
PHELPS, William Walter, congressman, diplomat; b. Dandoff, Pa., Aug. 24, 1839; s. John Jay and Rachel (Phinney) P.; grad.Yale, 1860; LL.B. Sch. Law, Columbia, 1863; m. Ellen Maria Sheffield, June 26, 1860, 3 children. Legal rep numerous corps., N.Y.C.; moved to Englewood, N.J., 1869; mem. U. S. Ho. of Reps. (Republican) from N. J., 43d, 48th-50th congresses, 1873-75, 83-89; del. Rep. Nat. Conv.; 1880, 84; apptd. U.S. minister to Austria-Hungary, 1881, to Germany, 1889; commr. Internat. Congress on Samoan Question (apptd. by Pres. Harrison), 1889; apptd. judge N.J. Ct. Errors and Appeals, 1893. Died June 17, 1894; buried City Cemetery, Simsbury, Conn.
Dictionary of American Biography VII
PHELPS, WILLIAM WALTER (Aug. 24, 1839-June 17, 1894), lawyer, business man, congressman, diplomat, was born in Dundaff, [sic] Susquehanna County, Pa. He was a descendant of William Phelps, an English emigrant who came with his brother George to America in 1630 and who settled in Connecticut in 1635. John Jay Phelps, his father, left Connecticut to live for a short time in Pennsylvania and then moved to New York City where he built up a great fortune as an importer and railway promoter. His mother was Rachel Badgerly (Phinney). He attended the Mount Washington Institute, New York City, and then a private school at Golden Hill, near Bridgeport, Conn. he entered Yale before he was sixteen years of age and was graduated second in the class of 1860. On Commencement day, July 26, 1860, he was married to Ellen Maria Sheffield, daughter of Joseph Earl Sheffield [q.v.], founder of the scientific school bearing his name. After an extended bridal tour of Europe, he entered the law school of Columbia University and received the degree of LL. B. in 1863 as valedictorian of the class. A highly successful career in New York City as legal representative of several large corporations was cut short by the death of his father in 1869, when he retired to devote himself to the management of family properties and his own business interests. He transferred his residence to an estate at Teaneck near Englewood, N.J., from which district he was elected as a Republican to Congress in 1872. In the House of Representatives he distinguished himself by vigorous speeches on financial subjects and denunciations of the White League. Yet his independence of judgment led him to turn against his party in the contest over the Civil Rights Bill, with the result that he was defeated for reelection by seven votes. He remained an active party worker, however, supporting Blaine, a close personal friend, in his candidacy for the presidency in the conventions of 1880 and 1884. He was appointed minister to Austria-Hungary on May 5, 1881, but resigned the post within the year and returned to reclaim his seat in Congress, holding it thereafter for three terms. In the convention of 1888 he was supported by Blaine for the vice-presidential nomination (Edward Stanwood, James Gillespie Blaine, American Statesmen, 2 ser., vol. III, 1908, p. 309).
The interest taken by Phelps in the Samoan question during his service on the Committee on Foreign Affairs qualified him for an appointment by President Harrison on Mar. 18, 1889, as commissioner to the Berlin Conference on that question. His judgment in reconciling the conflicting views of his colleagues, John Adams Kasson and George Handy Bates [qq.v.] and in conceding enough minor points to assure fulfillment of the German government substantial concessions without permitting it to dictate the settlement, was largely responsible for the measure of success attained (Alice F. Tyler, The Foreign Policy James G. Blaine, 1927, p. 241). Although the outcome was not wholly satisfactory to Secretary Blaine, the quality of Phelps' work warranted his appointment as minister to Germany in 1889. His principal task during four years' tenure of that post once, as it had previously been at Vienna, the presentation of arguments in favor of the removal of the prohibition against importation of American pork products. Success crowned his efforts in September 1891. His cultivated and genial personality and his familiarity with the language of the country made him a popular representative not only among the Germans, but also among the rapidly increasing American colony in Berlin.
Upon his returned to America, in the summer of 1893, he accepted an appointment on the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals. The confining duties of the position hastened his death within a year of pulmonary tuberculosis. He died in Englewood, N. J., and was survived by his wife and three children. His continued interest in his alma mater was most effectively demonstrated when he became an leader in the "Young Yale" movement which reflected the dissatisfaction of the young alumni with the staid policies of the trustees. A thoroughly stimulating, if somewhat bombastic address delivered by Phelps at an alumni dinner during the commencement exercises of 1870, was largely responsible for the vigor with which the movement was charged from that date (H. E. Starr, William Graham Sumner, 1925, pp. 82 - 90). He was notably a forceful and witty speaker, equally popular in the intimate circle and on the platform. His benefactions from abundant wealth were wisely and gracefully given in many directions.
[H. M. Herrick, William Walter Phelps, His Life and Public Service (1904); Foreign Relations, 1891, pp. 505 - 17; Obit. Record of Grads. of Yale University, 1892-1900 (1900); N.Y. Times, June 17, 1894; N.Y. Tribune, June 18, 1894.]
J.V.F.
The National Cyclopedia of American Biography
PHELPS, William Walter, congressman and jurist, was born in New York city, Aug. 24, 1839, son of John J. and Rachel Phelps. He was a descendant of William Phelps, of Gloucestershire, England, whose brother John is said to have been Oliver Cromwell's private secretary. William Phelps emigrated to Dorchester, Mass., in 1630, and thence to Windsor, Conn., of which he was one of the founders. He was a member of the first court or legislature held in Connecticut and served as a magistrate from 1638 to 1643. Many of his descendants were prominent during colonial times and during the revolutionary war. John Jay Phelps was a native of Simsbury near Windsor, where his ancestors had lived for generations. Removing to New York he engaged in business, became very prosperous as an importer, was the organizer of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western railroad, and bequeathed most of his property to his son, William Walter.
The latter was graduated at Yale in 1860, standing second in his class, and after a tour through Europe entered Columbia Law School, where he was graduated valedictorian in 1863. He then began practicing the New York, and notwithstanding his youthful age, became counsel for a number of banks and trust companies and for nine railroads. Pressure of private affairs led him to gradually give up his general practice, and he also declined a position on the bench of the sixth judicial district. The death of his father, in 1869, obliged him to withdraw from practice to devote his attention to the management of his estate and the trusts connected with it. He spent considerable time also in improving the grounds about his country-seat at Teaneck, near Englewood, New Jersey, and in directing local politics. About this time a large number of the alumni of Yale joined in a movement to secure for the graduates of that institution a share in its government, and Mr. Phelps was so influential in carrying the measure through that he was elected to the board of trustees and was repeatedly re-elected.
In 1872 he was nominated for congress by the Republicans of the fifth New Jersey district and was elected by a large majority. During his term in the house, which lasted from Dec. 1, 1873, until March 3, 1875, he made a brilliant record as an orator and as an independent thinker, boldly attacking the franking privilege and the civil-rights bill, and delivering a number of speeches on financial questions that showed thorough understanding of monetary problems. He was a member of the house select committee sent to Louisiana to investigate the outbreak of the White League against the state legislature, and of the committee of banking and currency. He based his opposition to the civil-rights bill on its unconstitutionality, and on his conviction that it would injure rather than help the colored race. This brought about his defeat (by seven votes) when he stood for re-election in 1874. In 1880 and 1884 he was a delegate-at-large from New Jersey in the national conventions of those years, and supported James G. Blaine with great ardor.
His health broke down in 1880, and he sailed for Europe with his wife and daughter, and while absent was (1881) appointed minister to Vienna by Pres. Garfield. The position was an agreeable one, and he filled it with ability, resigning only because a change of administration rendered it necessary. Returning to New Jersey in the summer of 1882, he was nominated for congress from his old district, was elected, and in 1884 and 1886 was re-elected. During this period he served continuously on the committee of foreign affairs, and was one of three commissioners who represented American interests at the international conference on the Samoan question, held in Berlin in 1889. He took strong ground in behalf of a protective tariff while in congress, supported the bill to indemnify the Chinese, who had suffered outrages in the far West, and was prominent in the discussions on the merchant marine and the congressional library.
His services in connection with a settlement of the Samoan question brought him forward as a possible candidate for the office of U. S. minister to Germany, and this position was tendered him by Pres. Harrison on June 26, 1889. In September he presented his credentials to the German emperor and continued to serve until June 4, 1893. His familiarity with the German language and with German customs, his social nature and lavish hospitality, added to an attractive personality, made him very popular, and, in so far as the state of his health would permit, he labored assiduously at his post.
Shortly before he sailed for home he was asked by Gov. Werts of New Jersey to become one of lay judges of the court of appeals and errors of that state, and accepted, performing his duties most faithfully until the spring of 1894, when he was compelled to go South for his health. Judge Phelps was an honorary member of the New York chamber of commerce, the regent of the Smithsonian Institution, one of the founders of the Union League and University clubs of New York city, and at the time of his last illness was under appointment as a member of the constitutional convention of New Jersey. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by Rutger's College in 1889. His gifts to Yale College aggregated about $100,000, and he was a liberal giver to the town of Englewood. His estate at Teaneck was enlarged by purchase until it contained over 2,000 acres. He owned a fine collection of pictures and a large library, and in his beautiful home he delighted to gather men eminent in letters as well as men eminent in politics.
Among his more notable speeches are those on the Franking Privilege, Feb. 24, 1874; Sound Currency, Apr. 1, 1874; the Civil Rights Bill, Feb. 4, 1875; Fitz-John Porter's Case, Feb. 1, 1884; the Lasker Resolutions, Mar. 19, 1884; an oration before Gen. Grant and his Cabinet at a Grand Army Reunion in Patterson, New Jersey, on "The Dangers of War," and one at Mouth Holly, N. J., on Decoration Day, 1886; on "The Dangers of Peace," a tariff address before the Agricultural Society of New Jersey, Feb. 5, 1884, and one on Congress before the New England Society, New York, Dec. 22, 1886.
In June, 1865, he was married, at New Haven, Conn., to Ellen, daughter of Joseph E. Sheffield, founder of the Sheffield Scientific School. Mrs. Phelps survives, with three children: Capt. John J., Sheffield, and Mrs. Franz von Rottenberg, wife of the under secretary of the interior in the German government. Judge Phelps died at his home, June 17, 1894.
National Cyclopedia American Biography, vol. 7, p. 451
Hon. William Walter Phelps.
Born about 1854.
For some years the face of William Walter Phelps has been gradually becoming more and more familiar to the readers of the illustrated weekly press. In no way has he made so much noise in the world as by his bangs which the caricaturists have made their own. The gradual growth of a public man into the favor of the caricaturists and his consequent presentation to the great reading public is one of the most interesting things in pictorial journalism.
There is no more interesting figure in the house of congress than the millionaire representative from New Jersey, William Walter Phelps, who, like many other men of wealth, finds in the discussion of public questions of a diversion more agreeable than is furnished by their private affairs. Phelps, who inherited wealth, has in his time been lawyer, railway promoter, diplomat, politician and congressman. He likes a stirring occupation such as the game of politics affords, and he once refused a judgeship tendered by Governor Fenton, of New Jersey, because he did not want to confine his sphere to the business of untangling legal intricacies. In 1881 he was appointed minister to Austria and accepted.
Like all public men, Phelps is better known by certain peculiarities than anything else. The wits and paragraphers have had so much to say about his "bangs" that they have become as famous as Ben Butler's drooping eyelid, Luke Poland's silver-buttoned coat, or Tom Ochiltree's cross-eyes. This mild affectation, together with a certain softness in speech, invariably impresses a stranger with the idea that Phelps is "putting it on." The idea is an incorrect one. Phelps combs his hair over his forehead to conceal the scantiness of his locks, though this device does not serve to hide the enlarging bald spot on the crown of his head. What is regarded as affectation in his speech is really natural, and his addresses are polished, shrewd and sound. He can see as far into a mill-stone as anybody, and he enjoys the lively skirmishes which congressional discussions afford. When "Jim" Belford, who gloried in the title, "red-headed rooster of the Rockies," was representing Colorado in congress, he had a pick at Phelps and made the famous declaration that "no man who banged his hair could run the republican party." However, Belford is now in obscurity while Phelps is in the president-making business.
Phelps dislikes the routine work of politics, and has a man employed by the year to keep him posted on all political changes. He uses this man's information as a sort of animated reference book, and does not bother his own memory for anything of this nature. In the political maneuvering on the floor of the house, Phelp's attitude is significant, owing to the fact that he is regarded as the close personal friend of James G. Blaine. Phelps is supposed to look after Blaines's interests in the house, while Frank Hiscock does the same in the senate. It is not a violent presumption to assume that Mr. Phelps would receive distinguished honors should Mr. Blaine have the opportunity to confer them.
Phelps makes his home in Englewood, New Jersey, and his wealth is reported as fabulous.
Source
Prominent Men and Women of the Day
Copyright 1888 A. B. Gehman & Co.
Author/Editor Thos. W. Herringshaw
