Benjamin H. Trask
Benjamin Ishi Hammett Trask (July 4, 1828 – January 11, 1897) was an American merchant and real estate investor.
Early life[edit]
Trask was born on July 4, 1828, at Vineyard Haven on Martha's Vineyard.[1] He was a son of Benjamin I. H. Trask (1800–1871) and Sarah Skiff (née Smith) Trask (1807–1878). He had two brothers, John George Whitwell Trask and Gustavus Dunham Smith Trask.[2] His paternal grandfather was Dr. Benjamin Traski.[3]
He was educated at the Tisbury Academy before he attended the Falmouth Seminary on Cape Cod.[1]
Career[edit]
He began his career as a clerk in the New York office of William Nelson, the agent of a line of New Orleans packets. At twenty-one, he became a member of the firm of Merritt & Trask, who were located at 28 South Street and in 1857, he established the shipping and commission merchant firm of Trask & Dearborn, including the clipper Carrier Dove. In 1864, he was elected president of the Union Navigation Company. He served in that role for two years before his retirement from the shipping business.[1]
In 1866, Trask entered the real estate field and invested heavily in property along Fifth Avenue and in the neighborhood of Central Park. A firm believer in future growth and development of the twenty-third and twenty-fourth wards and owned significant property there.[4] At the time of his death, his office was located at 115 Broadway in New York. He was also an investor in gas properties, including the East River Gas Company, the Equity Gas Company of Brooklyn and the Suffolk County Gas Company.[1]
Personal life[edit]
On November 9, 1848, Trask was married to Harriet N. Pinchbeck (1829–1898).[2] Together, they were the parents of two daughters,[2] only one who survived to adulthood:[1]
- Sarah Skiff Smith Trask (1849–1915),[5] who married Peter Demansk Sturges, son of James S. Sturges, in 1868.[2][6]
- Clara Trask (1853–1853), who died in infancy.[2]
Trask died of heart disease at his residence, 6 East 82nd Street, in January 1897. According to his obituary in The New York Times, "Trask held very pronounced views on funerals, believing that they should be only for the members of the family, and not for show." Because of that, and also of the serious illness of his wife, who had been confined to her bed for several months before his death, the funeral was private and limited to his relatives.[1] He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx.[1] His widow died a year and a half later on July 28, 1898.[7]
Descendants[edit]
Through his daughter Sarah, he was a grandfather of Sadie Trask Sturges (1868–1915)[8] and Adele Sturges (1872–1930),[9][2][10] who married (and divorced) Frank Nelaton Dodd,[11] and Bainbridge Percy Clark.[12]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g "DEATH LIST OF A DAY.; Benjamin I. H. Trask". The New York Times. 13 January 1897. p. 5. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f Dunham, Isaac Watson (1907). Dunham Genealogy: English and American Branches of the Dunham Family. Bulletin Print. p. 118. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Vital Records of Edgartown, Massachusetts, To the Year 1850 (PDF). Boston, Mass.: New England Historic Genealogical Society. 1906. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Supreme Court Appellate Division-First Department. p. 148. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "DIED -- STURGES". The New York Times. 26 March 1915. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "NYC Marriage & Death Notices 1857-1868". www.nysoclib.org. New York Society Library. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ Appeals, New York (State) Court of (1907). New York Court of Appeals. Records and Briefs. p. 264. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "Died -- STURGES". The New York Times. 22 December 1915. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "MRS. CLARK DIES OF HURTS.; Injured in Bay State Crash That Killed Her Husband". The New York Times. 8 August 1930. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ Miller, Tom (8 December 2015). "Daytonian in Manhattan: The Twin Irvington & Rockland Apts. Nos. 136-142 West 16th Street". daytoninmanhattan.com. Daytonian in Manhattan. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
- ^ "FRANK DODD DIES; OPERA EX-OFFICIAL; Secretary of Metropolitan's Real Estate Co. for More Than Four Decades A CERTIFIED ACCOUNTANT He Spoke Several Languages, Among Them the Japanese--Had Talent as Magician". The New York Times. 11 January 1943. Retrieved 27 April 2022.
- ^ "B.P. CLARK LOSES LIFE IN UPSET OF HIS CAR; Wife of New York and Newport Resident Is Badly Hurt in Seekonk Accident". The New York Times. 7 August 1930. Retrieved 15 February 2023.