Windmuller-Heynen Family Tree

THEODORE SUTRO, Lawyer, was born in Aix-la-Chapelle, Germany, March 14, 1845, son of Emanuel and Rosa (Warendorff) Sutro. He traces his ancestry from its original Spanish source through a long line of German scholars and pro-fessional men, the most distinguished of whom on the maternal side was Eduard Gans, a famous jurist and legal writer, and Professor Extraordinarius at the University of Berlin, who died in 1839. His early education was begun at a Kindergarten in Germany and continued at German and American private schools in Baltimore, Maryland, after which he attended the Baltimore City College and Phillips (Exeter) Academy. Prior to entering Harvard he was engaged in the importing business in Baltimore, and during a portion of his University course he successfully conducted a commission house in Bos-ton. After graduating from Harvard with the Class of 1871, in which he took high rank, he attended the Boston University Law School for a year, and completed his legal preparations at Columbia, tak-ing his law baccalaureate in 1874 and being ad-mitted to the New York Bar the same year. He was subsequently admitted to the United States Supreme Court and the Court of Claims in Wash-ington, District of Columbia, where he practised for a time, and in 1877 established himself in New York. During the years from 1887 to 1893 he spent considerable time in California and Nevada as chief counsel in several important litigations and as President and Counsel of the Sutro Tunnel Com-pany of California and New York. This he reor-ganized into the Comstock Tunnel Company under great financial and legal difficulties, among which was the raising of $1,000,000 in cash in order to accomplish the purpose. From 1889 to 1894 he was a member of a law firm, of which the Hon. Edward Salomon, War Governor of Wiscon-sin, was the senior partner, but with that excep-tion he has practised alone, making a specialty of the laws governing corporations and latterly of those relating to taxation. In this line he has achieved a wide reputation as an acknowledged authority and a successful practitioner. In 1896 he was one of the organizers of the Traders' Fire Lloyds, of New York, and two years later of the Traders' Fire Insurance Company, being Secre-tary and Counsel of the latter and a fellow-Director with Hon. Chauncy M. Depew, Senator Clark of Montana, ex-Senator Warner Miller, ex-Vice President Levi P. Morton, ex-State Comptroller Roberts of New York, John Jacob Astor and Edwin and Howard Gould. Politically Mr. Sutro is a Democrat with decided tendencies toward reform, and in 1894 he was associated with Hon. Carl Schurz, President Seth Low, ex-Secretary of the Treasury Fairchild, James C. Carter, Dr. Parkhurst and others in the reform campaign which resulted in the election of Mayor Strong. In 1895 he was made Honorary President of the German-American Citizens' Union ; was a delegate to the Democratic State Convention for the years 1894 and 1896 and to the National Convention at Indianapolis in the latter year ; was President of the German-American Reform Union in 1896 and has since that time been a member of its Executive Committee ; and for the past three years has been a member of tlie State Committee of the National Democratic Party. In 1895 he was appointed by Mayor Strong Com-missioner of Taxes and Assessments for the City of New York, continuing in office until 1S9S, and was a member of the Dewey Reception Committee of October 1899. He is a Trustee of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, President of the Legal and Medical Relief Society, Director and Counsel of The Commercial Society of New York, and a Di-rector of the Hundred Year Club ; is or at various times has been a member of the Authors', Oratorio and Manuscript, Genealogical and Biographical, American Folk-Lore, American Biographical and German Societies ; Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children and to Animals ; Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor, and the Charity Organization Society ; the German Hospital, German Polyklinik, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston ; and the Harvard, Reform, German Liederkranz, Draw-ing Room, University Glee, Country Cycle, Thir-teen, the National Civic and the Patria Clubs. At Harvard he was elected a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity, and was one of the founders of the Signet. He is a member of the New York City and State Bar Associations, and belongs to the Alumni Associations of the Phi Beta Kappa, of Phillips-Exeter Academy, and of Columbia Univer-sity. Mr. Sutro excels as an orator, poet and musi-cian, and devotes to the Muses every leisure hour which he can spare in his busy Ufe. October i, 1884, he married Florence Edith Clinton, who is distinguished in metropolitan society as a beautiful woman, and an accomplished amateur musician and is a devoted patron of women's work in that art. Mrs. Sutro has a national reputation, and excepting the Princess of Wales is the only woman in the world who has been honored with the degree of Doctor of Music.