VASSAR VAUX
Vassar, and great-grandson of Baltus Van Kleeck, who emigrated from Holland toward the close of the seventeenth century and built the first house in Poughkeepsie in 1702. He received a limited education, and with his brother Matthew was taken into partnership in his uncle's brewery business in 1832, with which he remained actively connected until 1839, when he retired on account of ill health, and subsequently spent many years in foreign travel. He was made one of the charter trustees of Vassar college, and is the author of: Twenty Years around the World (1861). With his brother, he built and presented to Poughkeepsie the Vassar Brothers' Home for Aged Men; the Vassar Brothers' Scientific and Literary Institute and the Vassar Brothers' Hospital, and gave an equal sum with him of $20,000 to the Vassar college laboratory. His fortune, estimated at $2,000,000, he bequeathed to the several institutions mentioned above and to various charitable organizations in Poughkeepsie and New York city. He died in Poughkeepsie, Oct. 27, 1888.
VASSAR, Matthew, founder of Vassar college, was born in East Dereham, England, April 29, 1792 ; son of James and Anne (Bennett) Vassar, Baptist dissenters, who came with their family to the United States in 1796, and in 1797 settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where James established a brewery for the manufacture of "home-brewed ale" in 1801. His ancestors were from France, and spelled their name Le Vasseur. Matthew Vassar, averse to his father's business, commenced to learn another, but when the brewery was destroyed by fire in 1811, and his brother, John Guy, killed in endeavoring to save the property, he aided his father in reviving the business, and therein accumulated an immense fortune.
He was married, March 7, 1813, to Catharine Valentine, and in 1845 traveled abroad with his wife. Upon his return he conceived the plan of devoting his great wealth to the common welfare. Through the influence of Professor Milo P. Jewett (q.v.) he decided to establish a college for the higher education of women, no such institution being at that time in existence. Vassar college was incorporated, Jan. 18, 1861, and in the following February, a board of trustees appointed, to whom Mr. Vassar donated 200 acres of land and $400,000, on the condition that the college should be under Baptist control but non-sectarian in its teaching. During the first year of the college, 1865, 350 students were enrolled, the faculty consisting of eight professors and twenty instructors, and upon the death of its founder its endowment was increased to $800,000. Mr. Vassar also contributed generously to local charities and erected a Baptist church in his native town. He died while reading his annual address at the third commencement of the college, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., June 23, 1868.
VASSAR, Matthew, philanthropist, was born in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., May 11, 1809; son of John Guy and Margaret (Van Kleeck) Vassar. He attended the common schools, and in 1832 became a partner in Matthew Vassar's brewery. He was a trustee of Vassar college, 1861-81, and its treasurer for several years, and in addition to the institutions founded with his brother, organized a local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, serving as its president until his death. His gifts, amounting to $500,000, include : $100,000 to Vassar college for the founding of two professorships which perpetuate his name, and a fund of $50,000 for needy students. He died in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Aug. 10, 1881.
VAUX, Calvert, architect and landscape gardener, was born in London, England, Dec. 20, 1824 ; son of Dr. Calvert and Emily (Brickwood) Vaux. He attended Merchant and Taylors' and F. A. Reynell's schools of London, where he also studied architecture under Lewis N. Cottingham, 1843-46, completing his education in Europe and becoming a member of the London Architectural association. He came to America in 1850 as assistant to Andrew J. Downing, landscape-gardener (q.v.) with whom he practised in partnership at Newburg, N.Y., 1851-52, and independently, 1852-57, in which latter year he became architect of the Bank of New York, removing to that city. He was married in 1854, to Mary Swan, daughter of James Swan and Mary (Jane) McEntee of Rondout, N.Y., sister of Jervis McEntee, painter (q.v.). The firm of Olmstead & Vaux successfully competed for the landscape designing of Central park, New York city, in 1858, and served as landscape architects and superin[ten]dents of the city, 1866-71. Under their joint supervision, parks were planned in many leading cities, including Riverside and Morningside parks, New York city, and Fairmount park, Philadelphia, Pa. With Samuel Parsons, Jr., Mr. Vaux also designed the grounds of Bryn Mawr college, Trinity cemetery, New York, and several parks. His individual work in New York includes designs for the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and for Mulberry Bend park. He was landscape architect to the commissioners of the state reservation at Niagara
