RARE "82nd Mayor of NY" Smith Ely Jr Hand Signed 4.5X5.5 Album Page For Sale

Up for sale a RARE/VINTAGE! "82nd Mayor of NY" Smith Ely Jr Hand Signed 4.5X5.5 Album Page. There is a mailing fold in the middle of the page.  

ES-3962D

Smith

Ely Jr. (April 17, 1825 –

July 1, 1911) was the 82nd Mayor of New York City and

member of the United States

House of Representatives from New York. He was born in Hanover Township, New Jersey,

on April 17, 1825. His father, Smith Ely Sr., was a leather merchant who had

been a soldier in the War of 1812 and his paternal

grandfather was Moses Ely, who fought under George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. His

maternal grandfather was Ambrose Kitchell. His siblings lived together in

their adulthood, including elder brother, Ambrose Kitchell Ely (1823–1907), William

Henry Ely (1829–1913) and his wife, Maria Josephine Rogers (d. 1924), Edwin

Augustus Ely (1836–1927), and Maria Louise Ely (1844–1922), who married George

Burritt Vanderpoel (d. 1925). He completed preparatory studies and was

graduated from the University of the City of New York (now New York University) and,

in 1845, from New York University School of

Law. He studied in the law office of Frederic de Peyster, and

was admitted to the bar in

1845, but never practiced law. Instead, he engaged in mercantile pursuits in

New York with Ely, Vanderpoel & Kitchell which was founded in 1868. Like

his father, he was a leather merchant in the Swamp district until the Leather

Trust bought him out and he retired to his farm in New Jersey. He was active in

various public offices including, School Commissioner for the 17th Ward from

1856 until 1860; a New York State Senator from

1858 and 1859; the New York County Supervisor from 1860 to 1870; and the

Commissioner of Public Instruction in 1867. From March 4, 1871, until March 3,

1873, he served as a Democratic Representative

to the Forty-second

Congress. He was not a candidate for renomination in 1872, however

he was again elected as a Representative to from March 4, 1875, until the date of his

resignation on December 11, 1876. While in Congress, he served as chairman

of Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Treasury.

While in office, he gave a speech on July 29, 1876, regarding the method of

manufacturing the circulating notes and securities of the Government. Following

his resignation from Congress, Ely served as the Mayor of New York City from

1877 to 1878, beating former New York Governor Gen. John Adams Dix by 55,000 votes. In 1895, he was appointed

commissioner of parks and served until 1897, when he retired from public life.