The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1895-03-17
rAnILy pEcApENcH

social PHILOSOPHERS nave always uo-
| lighted in the peculiar and interesting
study of the decadence Of prominent fam
lilies. The fact is apparent even to those
who do not pretend to the technical
knowledge of the philosophical inquirer,
and whenever the subject is discussed the
inevitable question obtrudes: Why should
intellectual power decline and the in
stincts of a depraved or ignorant progeni-
tor gain force by transmission through
practically illimitable posterity?
The Field family is offered as an exam
pie of arrested intellectual development.
! This family is. perhaps, the most con-
spicuous for intellectual gifts that the
country at least of the present genera
ton, has known. But. with the passing
away of the Field brothers, this splendid
prestige is now doomed to pass also.
David Dudley Fields most talented son
died in early manhood. One of Cyrus W.
Fields sons recently passed away after
an unsuccessful career, and the other one
can hereafter live only as a tolerated out
law. Justice Field has no heirs who can
maintain the family name, nor has DR..
Henry NJ. Field.
The late Moses Taylor, who in some re-
spects was our greatest tinancier. has al
most passed out OF the memory of this
community, excepting, perhaps, in bank
ing circles. writer in the Philadelphia
Press recently alluded to the fact that the
grandson of this tinancier carries on the
great banking house with which he was
identified, safely, conservatively. but with
out any of those flashes of genius-like
suggestion, such as that one by which
Taylor was enabled to stay the hand OF
panic by creating the clearing house GER
tificate. The grandson does not even bear
Mr.. Taylor's name. for he is the son OF
daughter of Mr.. Taylor, who married
Taylor's junior partner, Mr.. Tyne.
The great lawyers of a generation ago
have, without a single exception, left no
sons to maintain their repute; tradition
alone has done that. Those legal giants
of the Hoffmans are extinct. James L.
Brady was bachelor. Charles O'Conor
left no children. Governor Tilden's heirs
were his nephews and nieces, and they
tore up his will. With the exception of
Hamilton Fish not one OF the greater
politicians OF Pennsylvania had sons who
suggested the intellectual powers OF the
father. Wright, Marcy. Van Buren,, Nor
gan, Fenton, are names known now only
by tradition General James Watson
Webb was the only one of our editors who
created family distinguished for intel
Iectual power The Adams family, the
Sherman and the Wolcott families are the
only ones which have maintained from
revolutionary days the intellectual pre-
eminence of the founders.
The Adams family is the most conspicu-
Gus, since the gifts which made two Of its
members presidents. one most success
full diplomat in a most trying time. and
three sons of fourth generation-Charles
Francis, Henry and John Quincy, have
all been distinguished for commanding
intellectual gifts. Roger Sherman prob
ably bequeathed heritage of intellect
that has been more influential and longer
continued than the records of any other
American family show, but as the strain
runs almost wholly through the female
side of the family. the name itself is not
so prominent. Senator Sherman and his
brother, the General, were collaterally
connected. William NJ. Evarts and George
F. Hoar, who are gran sons, and Chaun-
cey NJ. Depew, who is collateral descend
ant, Sherman's father being his ancestor;
Governor Baldwin of Connecticut. and his
son, the present Justice of the Supreme
Court of that state, were direct descend
ants of Roger Sherman, but upon the ma
ternal side.
Sometimes the intellectual heritage
has skipped for a generation or two, as
in the case of the Wolcotts, one of whom
is now United States Senator from Colo
RADIO, and another Lieutenant-G
of Massachusetts. Connected with this
family and illustrating the literary capacity
that has always been in it, is Bret Harte,
although his relation is through the
Griswalds, who married and intermarried
with the Wolcotts. There were three
generations of Wolcotts who were Gov
errors of Connecticut, the first having also
been a member of Washington's c.; b net
There were three generations OF Griswalds,
also Governors of Connecticut, and the
sons and daughters of the Griswalds and
Wolcotts were given and taken in mar
riage so that those of the third genera
ton on either side had both maternal and
paternal ancestors who were Governors of
that state. The power of the Vanderbilts
to maintain their family influence and
prestige in the commercial world rests
upon single life, that of the young man
who is to be graduated from Yale next