William Collins Whitney William Collins Whitney ( July 5 , 1841 – February 2 , 1904 ) was an American political leader and financier and founder of the prominent Whitney family . He served as Secretary of the Navy in the first Cleveland administration from 1885 through 1889 . A conservative reformer , he was considered a Bourbon Democrat . Early life . William Whitney was born at Conway , Massachusetts , of Puritan stock . The family were descended from John Whitney of London , who settled at Watertown , Massachusetts , in 1635 . William Whitney ' s father was Brigadier General James Scollay Whitney ; his mother , Laurinda Collins , was a descendant of Plymouth governor William Bradford . William Whitney had a well known older brother , industrialist Henry Melville Whitney ( 1839 – 1923 ) , president of the Metropolitan Steamship Company , founder of the West End Street Railway Company of Boston , and later founder of the Dominion Coal Company and Dominion Iron and Steel Company in Sydney , Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island . His sister Laurinda Collins " Lily " Whitney married Charles T . Barney , who became the president of the Knickerbocker Trust Company . Another sister , Susan Collins Whitney , married Henry F . Dimock . Educated at Williston Seminary , Easthampton , Massachusetts , Whitney was graduated from Yale University in 1863 , where he was a member of Skull and Bones , and then studied law at Harvard . He left in 1864 to study law with Abraham R . Lawrence in New York City , and in 1865 was admitted to the bar . On October 13 , 1869 , he married Flora Payne , daughter of Senator Henry B . Payne of Ohio and a sister of Whitney ' s Yale classmate , Colonel Oliver Hazard Payne , later treasurer of the Standard Oil Company . The Whitneys had five children : Flora Payne Whitney died in 1894 at age fifty - two . Two years later , William Whitney remarried to Edith May ( widow of a Mr . Randolph ) . In 1898 , she suffered a horse riding accident at their estate in Aiken , South Carolina , in what is now known as Hitchcock Woods and died at age forty - one on May 6 , 1899 . Political career . Whitney was active in organizing the Young Men ' s Democratic Club in 1871 . He was an aggressive opponent of the Tweed Ring , and was actively allied with the anti - Tammany County Democracy of 1871 - 1890 . In 1872 , he was made inspector of schools , but the same year met defeat in the election for district attorney . From 1875 to 1882 he was corporation counsel of New York , and as such brought about a codification of the laws relating to the city , and successfully contested a large part of certain claims , largely fraudulent , against the city , amounting to about $ 20 million , and a heritage from the Boss Tweed regime . In 1882 , he resigned to attend to personal interests . In 1883 , through the Broadway Railroad Company , Whitney became involved in a struggle with Jacob Sharp and Thomas Fortune Ryan for the Broadway street - railway franchise . Sharp initially won the franchise by means of bribery , but in December 1884 Ryan formed an alliance with Whitney and Peter A . B . Widener . By arousing public opinion , instituting court action , and prompting legislative investigation , they defeated Sharp . The Ryan syndicate finally received the franchise in 1886 . During President Cleveland ' s first administration ( 1885 – 1889 ) , Whitney was United States Secretary of the Navy , and did much to develop the United States Navy . The contracts issued under the previous administration were investigated impartially by a committee appointed by Whitney and comprising Commodore Evans , Commodore Belknap and Herman Winter , chief engineer of the Metropolitan Steamship Company . Whitney promoted the adoption by industry of the technology needed for the construction of steel steamships and modern naval guns and the domestic manufacture of plate armor . He also reorganized the finances and logistics of the Navy Department and helped make the Naval War College a success . When Whitney left office in 1889 , steel vessels completed or under construction included the armored cruiser ( later battleship ) ; monitors " Puritan " , " Amphitrite " , " Monadnock " , " Terror " and " Miantonomoh " ; protected cruisers " Atlanta " , " Boston " , " Chicago " , " Newark " , " Charleston " , , " Philadelphia " , and " San Francisco " ; dynamite - gun cruiser ; dispatch vessel " Dolphin " ; gunboats , , and ; and torpedo boat " Cushing " . These constituted the nucleus of the " New Navy " During Whitney ' s four years in the cabinet , his home in Washington , D . C . , was a social center of great attraction . In 1888 , Yale conferred upon him the honorary degree of LL . D . Whitney joined Charles T . Barney , Henry F . Dimock , W . E . D . Stokes , Francis W . Jenks , and others in forming the New York Loan and Improvement Company in 1890 . This concern developed the Washington Heights section of New York City . Barney was president of the company when he died in 1907 , three years after Whitney . In opposition to Tammany , Whitney was instrumental in bringing about the third nomination of Cleveland in 1892 , and took an influential part in the ensuing presidential campaign . Whitney joined his brother Henry in organizing the Dominion Coal Company Ltd . in 1893 , and the Dominion Iron and Steel Company Ltd . in 1899 , to exploit the mineral resources of the Sydney district of Cape Breton Island . Other early investors included Henry F . Dimock , Almeric H . Paget and Charles T . Barney . In the next general election , in 1896 , disapproving of the " free - silver " agitation , Whitney refused to support his party ' s candidate , William Jennings Bryan . Thoroughbred horse racing . William Whitney was also a major investor in thoroughbred horse racing , hiring the best trainers , buying the best horses , and engaging the services of the best jockey of the day . He established Westbury Stable with a string of Thoroughbred race horses , competing against the successful stable of business associate , James R . Keene . At his vast summer estate near Old Westbury on Long Island , Whitney built an stable with 84 box stalls and an adjoining mile - long training track . Around the start of the 20th century , in the United States his horses were trained by future U . S . Racing Hall of Fame inductee John W . Rogers and in England by John Huggins . Whitney maintained a city residence in New York , a Venetian palace and 5 , 000 acres in Wheatley Hills , near Jamaica , L . I . ; a Sheepshead Bay house , with a private track covering 300 acres ; a mansion with 700 acres at Lenox , MA ; October Mountain summer cottage , 10 , 000 acre estate including 800 acre fenced - in game reserve , in Washington , MA ; Stony Ford Farm , New York , used as an auxiliary to his Kentucky Stock Farm ; an Adirondack game preserve of 16 , 000 acres ; a lodge at Blue Mountain Lake with a fine golf course , a Blue Grass farm of 3 , 000 acres in Kentucky . Whitney also spent time in the equestrian community of Aiken , South Carolina revamping a local cottage into a winter residence with 69 - rooms , 15 bathrooms , a full - size ballroom , a squash court and a stable to house 30 horses . His involvement in Aiken along with that of Thomas Hitchcock , the Vanderbilt family , the Astor family and other equestrian minded business associates helped establish the premier Aiken Winter Colony . Aiken remains a haven where horses are brought in from the north to train and enjoy a more temperate winter . He was the breeder of twenty - six American stakes winners , including the great filly Artful from his stallion Hamburg . On June 5 , 1901 , Whitney won England ' s Derby with Volodyovski , leased by him from Lady Valerie Meux . On October 24 , 1903 , the " New York Times " reported that W . C . Whitney had entered into a ten - year lease deal with A . J . Alexander for one thousand acres ( 4 km² ) of the Wood Stud farm property at Spring Station , Kentucky . Later life . Whitney was a member of Ward McAllister ' s Patriarch Society until its dissolution in April 1897 . After Flora ' s death on February 5 , 1893 , Whitney married a widow named married Edith Sibyl Randolph ( née May ) . He commissioned McKim , Mead and White to build for her a residence in the Italian Renaissance style at Fifth Avenue and 68th Street . She died in a riding accident on May 6 , 1899 at their estate in the Aiken Winter Colony in Aiken , South Carolina . At his residence , 871 Fifth Avenue , Whitney gave a debutante ball for his niece , Helen Barney , on January 5 , 1901 . He remained active in street - railway affairs until the reorganization of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company in 1902 . At that time he retired from all personal identification with the company . William Collins Whitney died on February 2 , 1904 , and was interred at Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx , New York . At the time of his death he was one of the largest landowners in the eastern United States . The " USS Whitney ( AD - 4 ) " was named in his honor when launched on October 12 , 1923 at the Boston Navy Yard . The William C . Whitney Wilderness Area of the Adirondack Park is also named in his honor .