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Up for sale a RARE/VINTAGE! "82nd Mayor of NY" Smith Ely Jr Hand Signed 4.5X5.5 Album Page. There is a mailing fold in the middle of the page.
ES-3962D
Smith
Ely Jr. (April 17, 1825 –
July 1, 1911) was the 82nd Mayor of New York City and
member of the United States
House of Representatives from New York. He was born in Hanover Township, New Jersey,
on April 17, 1825. His father, Smith Ely Sr., was a leather merchant who had
been a soldier in the War of 1812 and his paternal
grandfather was Moses Ely, who fought under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. His
maternal grandfather was Ambrose Kitchell. His siblings lived together in
their adulthood, including elder brother, Ambrose Kitchell Ely (1823–1907), William
Henry Ely (1829–1913) and his wife, Maria Josephine Rogers (d. 1924), Edwin
Augustus Ely (1836–1927), and Maria Louise Ely (1844–1922), who married George
Burritt Vanderpoel (d. 1925). He completed preparatory studies and was
graduated from the University of the City of New York (now New York University) and,
in 1845, from New York University School of
Law. He studied in the law office of Frederic de Peyster, and
was admitted to the bar in
1845, but never practiced law. Instead, he engaged in mercantile pursuits in
New York with Ely, Vanderpoel & Kitchell which was founded in 1868. Like
his father, he was a leather merchant in the Swamp district until the Leather
Trust bought him out and he retired to his farm in New Jersey. He was active in
various public offices including, School Commissioner for the 17th Ward from
1856 until 1860; a New York State Senator from
1858 and 1859; the New York County Supervisor from 1860 to 1870; and the
Commissioner of Public Instruction in 1867. From March 4, 1871, until March 3,
1873, he served as a Democratic Representative
to the Forty-second
Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872, however
he was again elected as a Representative to from March 4, 1875, until the date of his
resignation on December 11, 1876. While in Congress, he served as chairman
of Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury.
While in office, he gave a speech on July 29, 1876, regarding the method of
manufacturing the circulating notes and securities of the Government. Following
his resignation from Congress, Ely served as the Mayor of New York City from
1877 to 1878, beating former New York Governor Gen. John Adams Dix by 55,000 votes. In 1895, he was appointed
commissioner of parks and served until 1897, when he retired from public life.