This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2010) |
Members of the Hazard family were among the first settlers of the State of Rhode Island. Descendants have been known for military achievement, business and political success, philanthropy, and broad social activism spanning such causes as abolition of slavery, treatment of the insane and alcoholics, family planning, and innovative employee programs.
The family fortune was initially generated through large-scale farming across multiple land holdings in Narragansett Country, Rhode Island. This work was primarily done with the unpaid labor of dozens of enslaved black people. [1] Eventually, the business interests evolved and the family wealth largely came from its textile manufacturing business at Peace Dale, Rhode Island, mining, railroad, and chemical interests, including the Solvay Process Company.
Hazards have been known through generations for many contributions: [2]
The family in Central New York was long active in May Memorial Unitarian Church, Syracuse, which linked many social activists. The family has been known especially for social concerns such as abolition of slavery, treatment of the insane and of alcoholics, as well for innovative employee programs. Guild Hall, built in 1890 by the Solvay Process Company to serve as a community center, provided the first public library facility which served the high school as well. Guild Hall was the first of five such buildings the company constructed for health and recreational use of the entire community.
The family's Peace Dale textile manufacturing company was one of the first in America (1878) to distribute a percentage of profits to employees. Mrs. Frederick R. Hazard (Dora G. Sedgwick) of Solvay was daughter of the prominent Syracuse lawyer and abolitionist Charles B. Sedgwick. The Sedgwick residence was a landmark designed by important American architect, Alexander Jackson Davis. Dora Sedgwick Hazard was an early American proponent of family planning, an organizer in central New York of the National Women's Party, and of programs for African-American young people (which evolved into the Dunbar Center). Mrs. Hazard founded the Solvay Guild in 1887 and was instrumental in establishing its many local programs in areas of education, public health medical and dental clinics, day care center, sewing, cooking and Americanization classes, and the first kindergartens not merely in Solvay but in Syracuse. The Hazard Branch of the Onondaga County Library System contains a memorial plaque recalling the public service of Dora Sedgwick Hazard.
The Hazard family has been culturally oriented. Historic artifacts collected by Rowland G. Hazard II (1855–1918) became the Museum of Primitive Culture Records at Peace Dale, The family commissioned architects to design their projects. Douglas Smyth designed the company headquarters (1888) and probably designed nearby Guild Hall (1890), both of which are now razed.
The Hazards contributed land and resources for the Village of Solvay to grow. The residential neighborhood of Piercefield was developed as Upland Farm, the Hazard estate. The landmark Hazard mansion, designed by the nationally distinguished architect, Joseph Lyman Silsbee (1848–1913), unfortunately was demolished about the time of World War II. Silsbee also designed a fine residence and carriage house for Solvay Process Company engineer Edward N. Trump (1889), extant at 1912 West Genesee Street, Syracuse. Trump was one of the first company engineers, hired in 1882. Silsbee is well known for his landmark Syracuse Savings Bank building on Clinton Square, Syracuse. After moving his practice to Chicago, Silsbee employed the major American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Two architecturally notable homes of Hazard daughters remain nearby in Piercefield, the Edwin Witherby House, c. 1912 (515 North Orchard Road) and the Martin Knapp House, 1910 (404 Piercefield Drive) Taylor and Bonta, architects, New York City. They were also architects of the University Club (extant, Washington Street on Fayette Park) and YWCA building (East Onondaga Street, demolished), both in Syracuse, New York.
Dorothy Hazard and husband Edwin Chaplin Witherby had three children: Constance Witherby, Thomas Hazard Witherby, and Frederick Roland Hazard Witherby, all born at Solvay. Edwin Chaplin Witherby died at Boston. Dorothy Hazard remarried at Narragansett, Rhode Island and with second husband, Stephen Foster Hunt, had a daughter, Deborah Hunt. Sarah Hazard and husband Martin Hobart Knapp moved from Solvay to Cazenovia, New York There were four Knapp children: Robert Hazard Knapp, Peter Hobart Knapp, Sarah Knapp Auchincloss, Judith Knapp. Hazard family houses at Upland Farm, Piercefield in the Village of Solvay appear in that article.
Through the marriage of Commodore Mathew Hazard Perry's daughter Caroline Slidell to financier August Belmont the extended Hazard family includes brothers Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858–1908), American socialite, United States Representative from New York, and builder of Belcourt Castle, Perry Belmont (1851 – May 25, 1947), United States statesman, and August Belmont Jr. (1853–1924), American financier, builder of New York's Belmont Park racetrack, and major owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses.
Solvay is a village located in the town of Geddes, Onondaga County, New York, United States, and a suburb of the city of Syracuse. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,645. The village is named after the Solvay brothers, Belgian inventors of the chemical process employed by the Solvay Process Company, formerly the major industry of the village.
The Vanderbilt family is an American family who gained prominence during the Gilded Age. Their success began with the shipping and railroad empires of Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the family expanded into various other areas of industry and philanthropy. Cornelius Vanderbilt's descendants went on to build grand mansions on Fifth Avenue in New York City; luxurious "summer cottages" in Newport, Rhode Island; the palatial Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina; and various other opulent homes. The family also built Berkshire cottages in the western region of Massachusetts; examples include Elm Court.
Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont was an American banker, socialite, and politician who served one term as a United States Representative from New York from 1901 to 1903.
Peace Dale is a village in the town of South Kingstown, Rhode Island. Together with the village of Wakefield, it is treated by the U.S. Census as a component of the census-designated place identified as Wakefield-Peacedale, Rhode Island.
Perry Belmont was an American politician and diplomat. He served four terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1881 to 1888.
Christopher Raymond Perry was an officer in the United States Navy who was appointed Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas for Washington County, Rhode Island, in 1780 and served until 1791. He was the father of Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry.
Joseph Lyman Silsbee was a significant American architect during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He was well known for his facility of drawing and gift for designing buildings in a variety of styles. His most prominent works ran through Syracuse, Buffalo and Chicago. He was influential as mentor to a generation of architects, most notably architects of the Prairie School including the famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
The Solvay Process Company was an American chemical manufacturer that specialized in the manufacture of soda ash. A major employer in Central New York, the company was key in the origin of the village of Solvay, New York, where it was headquartered.
Richard Mead Atwater, Sr. was a chemist and public official in New Jersey and Pennsylvania involved in early scientific glass-making.
Rowland Hazard III was an American businessman and member of a prominent Rhode Island family involved in the foundation and executive leadership of a number of well-known companies. He is also known as the "Rowland H." who figured in the events leading to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous.
Rowland Hazard may refer to:
The Common Burying Ground and Island Cemetery are a pair of separate cemeteries on Farewell and Warner Street in Newport, Rhode Island. Together they contain over 5,000 graves, including a colonial-era slave cemetery and Jewish graves. The pair of cemeteries was added to the National Register of Historic Places as a single listing in 1974.
Rowland Gibson Hazard was an American industrialist, politician, and social reformer.
James DeWolf Perry was an American Episcopal clergyman and prelate. He was the 7th Bishop of Rhode Island (1911–1946) and the 18th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church (1930–1937).
Alva Erskine Belmont, known as Alva Vanderbilt from 1875 to 1896, was an American multi-millionaire socialite and women's suffrage activist. She was noted for her energy, intelligence, strong opinions, and willingness to challenge convention.
Thomas Hazard was one of the nine founding settlers of Newport on Aquidneck Island in the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. He settled in Boston and Portsmouth before settling Newport, but later returned to Portsmouth. His descendants include Commodores Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew C. Perry and three colonial Rhode Island deputy governors.
Thomas Robinson "Shepherd Tom" Hazard was an American author, social reformer, and advocate of Modern Spiritualism.
George Champlin Mason Sr. (1820-1894) was an American architect who built a number of mansions in Newport, Rhode Island, during the Gilded Age. He helped to found the Newport Historical Society as well.
The Perry family is an American naval and political dynasty from Rhode Island whose members have included several United States naval commanders, naval aviators, politicians, artists, clergymen, lawyers, physicians, and socialites. Progeny of a mid-17th-century English immigrant to South Kingstown, Rhode Island, the Perry family patriarch, Captain Christopher Raymond Perry, and his two sons Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry and Commodore Matthew C. Perry, were seminal figures in the legitimization of the United States Navy and establishment of the United States Naval Academy.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)