Charles Augustus Peabody, Jr. (April 11, 1849 – April 26, 1931)[1] was an American politician, lawyer, and prominent figure in New York banking and insurance.
Early life
Peabody was born on April 11, 1849, in New York City. He was one of four children of Judge Charles Augustus Peabody (1814–1901)[2] and, his first wife, Julia Caroline (néeLivingston) Peabody (1816–1878) who married at Trinity Church in 1846.[3] Among his siblings was brother Dr. George Livingston Peabody (who married Jane de Peyster Huggins),[4] Philip Glendower Peabody and Julia Livingston Peabody (the wife of Charles J. Nourse).[5][6] After his mother's death in 1878, his father remarried to Mary Eliza Hamilton. Mary was a cousin of Mrs. Astor, a daughter of John Church Hamilton and granddaughter of Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States.[7] His father served one term on the Supreme Court of New York and was appointed a Provisional Judge in the District of New Orleans by President Abraham Lincoln.[7] After Mary's death in 1887, he married for a third time to Athenia Livingston (née Bowen), the widow of James Bowen (his "old-time warm friend and associate")[8] and daughter of Anthony Rutgers Livingston (brother to U.S. RepresentativeRobert Le Roy Livingston).[5]
A Boston Brahmin, his paternal grandparents were Samuel Peabody (son of Capt. Richard Peabody of the Revolutionary War who commanded a Company at Fort Ticonderoga and Lake George) and Abigail (née Wood) Peabody. His maternal grandparents were James Duane Livingston and Sarah (née Swift) Livingston.[3] Among his maternal family, all descendants of Robert Livingston, the 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor,[3] was aunt Alice Craufurd Livingston (wife of John Howard Tillotson), uncle Charles James Livingston (husband of Charlotte Lucia Merry) and aunt Louisa Livingston (wife of Oliver Hewlett Jones).[9]
After his admission to the bar in the 1870s, Peabody became a member of his father's firm, Peabody, Baker & Peabody, a law office at 2 Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. In 1875,[13] Peabody was elected to represent New York County's 11th district in the 99th New York State Legislature,[14] serving from January 1 until December 31, 1876,[15] when he was succeeded by Elliot C. Cowdin. His father ran for Surrogate in 1876.[16][17]
After his father's death in 1901, the firm continued under the name Baker & Peabody with Fisher Ames Baker as senior partner.[18] Baker was the uncle of George Fisher Baker, former president of Astor National Bank,[1] of which Peabody served as the first vice-president upon its formation in 1898.[19]
After the "sensational insurance investigations by the Armstrong committee," Peabody was appointed president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company on January 1, 1906,[20] and worked from 32 Nassau Street.[23] When asked for an autobiography at the time of his appointment, he replied:
"I am a lawyer and have practiced in this city for about thirty years. There is nothing very exciting about my professional career. The only break in it was a short period during which I served in the State Legislature. The story of my life is just like that of a hundred other lawyers who work all the time at their profession and take an occasional day off on which to play."[1]
On January 27, 1880,[11] Peabody was married to Charlotte Anita Damon (1842–1912),[26] the daughter of Anita (née Fales) Damon and John Wade Damon.[27] Together, they lived at 224 Madison Avenue in New York and had a country place at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island. Charlotte and Charles were the parents of two boys and one girl, including:[28]
