Jonas P. Phoenix

Jonas Phillips Phoenix (January 14, 1788 – May 4, 1859) was a U.S. Representative from New York.[1]

Jonas P. Phoenix
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives
from New York's 3rd district
In office
March 4, 1849 – March 3, 1851
Preceded byHenry Nicoll
Succeeded byEmanuel B. Hart
In office
March 4, 1843 – March 3, 1845
Preceded byCharles G. Ferris, Fernando Wood, James I. Roosevelt, John McKeon
Succeeded byWilliam S. Miller
Personal details
Born(1788-01-14)January 14, 1788
Morristown, New Jersey, U.S.
DiedMay 4, 1859(1859-05-04) (aged 71)
New York City, New York, U.S.
Political partyWhig
SpouseMary Whitney
Parent(s)Daniel Phoenix
Anna Lewis Phillips
RelativesWhitney Warren (grandson)
George Warren II (grandson)
Lloyd Warren (grandson)

Early life

Phoenix was born in Morristown, New Jersey on January 14, 1788 and received a limited schooling.[1] He was the son of Daniel Phoenix (1737–1812) and Anna Lewis (née Phillips) Phoenix (1765–1854).[2] His father was a prominent citizen of Long Island who moved to Morristown in the Province of New Jersey when the British occupied Long Island. After the Revolutionary War, the family moved to New York and his father served as city treasurer.[3]

His paternal grandparents were Alexander and Cornelia Phoenix, descendants of English immigrants to New Amsterdam.[2] His maternal grandfather was Jonas Phillips of Morristown and his mother was the great-granddaughter of Rev. George Phillips,[3] the progenitor of the New England Phillips family in America.[4]

Career

From 1810 to 1814, he was partners with Thomas Alsop in the merchant firm of Phoenix & Alsop at 27 Front Street in New York City. From 1814 to 1827, the firm was known as J. P. Phoenix & Co. and was located at 22 South Street in New York City.[2] The business continued to be run by his brother, John Doughty Phoenix under the name of Phoenix & Co., located at 65 Water Street.[2]

Political career

Phoenix served as an Alderman of the first ward in 1840, 1842, and 1847. In 1842, he was appointed a commissioner of the Croton Aqueduct Works.[1]

Phoenix was elected as a Whig to the Twenty-eighth Congress from March 4, 1843 until March 3, 1845. He declined to be a candidate for renomination in 1844.[1]

He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1846 to the Thirtieth Congress and served as chairman of the Whig General Committee in 1846 and 1847. He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Co., 1st D.) in 1848, serving in the 71st New York State Legislature.[1]

Phoenix was again elected to the House of Representatives, serving from March 4, 1849 until March 3, 1851 as part of the Thirty-first Congress. While renominated in 1850, he declined to be a candidate.[1]

Personal life

Phoenix was married to Mary Whitney (1810–1876).[5] Mary was the daughter of Harriet (née Suydam) Whitney and Stephen Whitney, one of the wealthiest merchants in New York City.[2] Together, they were the parents of:[6][7]

  • Whitney Phoenix (1830–1833), who died young.[2]
  • Mary Caroline Phoenix (1832–1901), who married George Henry Warren (1823–1892), a lawyer, in 1851.[2]
  • Phillips Phoenix (1834–1921), a Harvard Law School graduate and lawyer in New York City.[2]
  • Harriet Whitney Phoenix (b. 1835), who married Isaac Bronson (b. 1835), a lawyer who was the son of Dr. Oliver Bronson, in 1859.[2]
  • Anne Lewis Phoenix (1837–1858), who died unmarried.[2]
  • Stephen Whitney Phoenix (1839–1881), a Columbia College and Columbia Law School graduate who lived in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island.[2]
  • Lloyd Phoenix (1841–1926), a U.S. Naval Academy graduate who lived in New York City.[2]

Phoenix died at his home, 18 State Street in New York City, on May 4, 1859.[2] He was interred in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Morristown, New Jersey.[1]

Descendants

Through his daughter Mary, he was the grandfather of nine, including Harriette Warren (1854–1912), who married Robert Goelet (1841–1899), the parents of Robert Walton Goelet; prominent Gilded Age architect Whitney Warren (1864–1943), who married Charlotte Tooker (1864–1951);[8] Lloyd Warren (1868–1922), who was also an architect,[9] and George Henry Warren II (1855–1943),[10] a stockbroker who was the father of Constance Whitney Warren.[11]

References
  1. "PHOENIX, Jonas Phillips - Biographical Information". bioguide.congress.gov. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  2. Phoenix, Stephen Whitney (1878). The Whitney Family of Connecticut, and Its Affiliations: Being an Attempt to Trace the Descendants, as Well in the Female as the Male Lines, of Henry Whitney, from 1649 to 1878. Priv. Print. [Bradford Press]. p. 821. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  3. "Mrs. Daniel Phoenix (1765-1854)". www.nyhistory.org. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  4. Bond, Henry and Jones, Horatio. Genealogies of the Families and Descendants of the Early Settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts, Including Waltham and Weston: To which is Appended the Early History of the Town. New England Historical and Genealogical Society, 1860, pgs. 872-882
  5. Moore, Jacob Bailey; Drowne, Henry Thayer (1883). Memorial Sketches of Stephen Whitney Phoenix. Press of D. Clapp & Son. p. 1. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  6. Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. 1915. p. 55. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  7. Flint, Martha Bockée (1897). The Bockée Family (Boucquet) 1641-1897. A.V. Haight. p. 30. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  8. "WHITNEY WARREN, ARCHITECT, 78, DIES; Designer of the Grand Central Terminal and Rebuilding of Louvain Library, Belgium HAD PRACTICAL APPROACH Specialized With His Partner, C. D. Wetrnore. in Railroad Structures, Hotels, Offices". The New York Times. January 25, 1943. p. 13. Retrieved 13 July 2018.
  9. "Sleep-Walk Plunge Kills Lloyd Warren; Famous Architect Falls From His Sixth-Floor Apartment in Early Morning. Suicide Theory Discarded. Victim Had Suffered From Somnambulism. Created BeauxArts Institute". The New York Times. October 26, 1922. Retrieved 2010-07-25. Lloyd Warren, architect, was found dead yesterday morning in an areaway below his bedroom at 1 West Sixtyfourth Street. It is believed that he fell accidentally while opening the window of his apartment, which is on the eighth floor. Mr. Warren who was founder of the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, and a brother of Whitney Warren, the architect, ... Subject to Sleep-Walking. Not a Suicide, Says Doctor.
  10. Weeks, Lyman Horace (1898). Prominent Families of New York: Being an Account in Biographical Form of Individuals and Families Distinguished as Representatives of the Social, Professional and Civic Life of New York City. Historical Company. p. 604. Retrieved 1 March 2018.
  11. "George H. Warren ... A Founder of Concern That Once Owned Metropolitan Opera's Home, Dies at 87. Kin Of Noted Architect. Graduate of Columbia and Its Law School, but Never Had Practiced. Formerly Broker". The New York Times. June 4, 1943. Retrieved 2010-07-25. Warren's wife, Georgia ... Warren, died on Feb. 21, 1937. Surviving are a son, George Henry Warren, Jr.; a daughter, Constance Whitney Warren, ...
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