This is an ideal news story for Secretaries Day and Secretaries Week.
Captain Ely was an additional inspiration as a subject and as an ancestor
to Adamson. The author will cooperate with news agencies seeking information
for a story. They may send a SASE to me Bruce Campbell Adamson P.O. Box 1103
Santa Cruz CA 95061-1103.
The Life and Times of Captain George W. Ely. This book was edited by
my cousins George W. Ely, III, and William D. Hawkins and was accepted into
the New York Stock Exchange's archives, New York Public Library, New York
Historical Society and many libraries of the U.S. Department of Army.
George Ely was born January 6, 1840, in West Springfield, Massachusetts
in 1857, at 17, he enlisted in the Seventh Regiment of the New York National
Guard. George William Ely was a soldier in the Civil War and watchdog of
the New York Stock Exchange, a towering figure in both fields. Here is how
Colonel Emmons Clark describes George W. Ely the soldier, in his History
of The Seventh Regiment: "Captain Ely was a thorough soldier, a strict
disciplinarian, and a dashing and popular officer. He was remarkably soldierly
in appearance, with great physical strength and powers of endurance. He
was distinguished for his kindliness and generosity, and he was a social
and genial comrade and a steadfast friend."
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| Photograph is of Captain George W. Ely in July 1862 and the Seventh Regiment. Photograph is courtesy of Leonard Ely. On the far right in white gloves sitting down is publisher Daniel Appleton. |
Ely enlisted in 1857 and went to the front as sergeant of the Seventh
Regiment, and his regiment was the first to be mustered into the Civil War
by Abraham Lincoln on April 26, 1861. In 1862 George W. Ely was the youngest
man (he was then 22) ever elected a captain of the Seventh Regiment. He
figured actively in the Draft Riots in 1863, resigned as Captain in 1864,
was reelected to succeed Captain George Moore Smith as Captain of the Seventh
Company in 1870. Ely was in active service in the Orange Riots of 1871 and
resigned in 1875. In 1886 he became a director of the Society of the Honorable
and Veteran Comrades of the Seventh Regiment, National Guard, State of New
York.
George W. Ely, as Secretary of the Stock Exchange, was designated generally
in outer circles of Wall Street as the man who "owns" the Big
Board. When anyone ever violated the strict rules of the Exchange Ely was
the man who would apply judgment, a lot like a court of law. Upon his death
the New York Times of August 22, 1922 says it all: "No more characteristic
figure in the New York Stock Exchange of a quarter century ago could be
named than George W. Ely, who died on Wednesday at his country home in Onteora
in the Catskills. He became a member of the Exchange in 1869, and in 1874
was elected secretary, serving in that capacity to the end of the century
1900 when he resigned to become President of the Bankers Trust Company.
In 1905 Ely was urged by his former associates to reassume his office
where he again held the fort gallantly against many attempts to evade the
rigid principles of the organization which has held the confidence of the
greatest financiers for many years.
"Mr. Ely was of the old school of New York's men of affairs. Alert,
erect, urbane, his hatred of a cheat and his fidelity to friendship marked
equally his professional and social life. He stayed long in harness for
he wore responsibility easily because it fitted his well-disciplined personality.
His memory will be one of the fine traditions of Wall Street."
Ely remained with the Exchange until after the close of World War I and
resigned in 1919, as the Greatest Secretary in history. During World War
I Ely was in charge of the Liberty Loan Committee on the big board.
On Secretaries Day and during Secretaries Week today rightfully so, we honor
the women all over the country. More than 90 percent of the Secretary's
today are women. During the 1800s men filled about 80 percent of the secretarial
positions in the U.S. With all due respect to the hard working class of
women and setting sex aside, it is my belief that George W. Ely was one
of the greatest secretaries of all time! Because for forty-five years he
ran the New York Stock Exchange. No other institution has had more to do
with our world as we know it. The Exchange, in many ways, has shaped our
country and, by extension, ourselves. It is important, therefore, to know
the minds which formed it.
Ely's son Henry B. Ely was in charge of forming the first military battery
for the United States government by a private citizen which was known as
the Astor Battery. This battery fought in the Spanish-American War in 1898.
Henry B. Ely also worked with his in-law, Abner Bartlett and built the Astoria
half of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for John Jacob Astor, IV. The author has
a brief story on the construction of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel upon special
request, this story is covered in this book.
The Ely book contains seventy photographs including some never before published
of the Civil War.
The Life and Times of Captain George W. Ely sells for only $15.00 and $2.00
postage within the USA. It is on a 5 x 7 format, weighs 14 ounces and is
200 pages (100 back to back).
Bruce Campbell Adamson
P.O. Box 1103 Santa Cruz CA 95061-1103.
All research is copyrighted 1992 - 1995 by Bruce Campbell Adamson
Address for site is: we.got.net/~bca/
