Joseph Jermain Slocum (June 1833 – October 2, 1924)[1] was an American colonel and businessman.[2]
Early life
Slocum was born in June 1833 in
Syracuse, New York. He was a son of Joseph Slocum (1795–1863), one of the pioneer settlers of Syracuse (he was originally from
Rensselaer County, New York), and Margaret Pierson (née Germain Slocum (1804–1891).[3] His sister,
Margaret Olivia Slocum, was the wife of
Russell Sage (from whom she inherited his entire $70 million fortune following his 1906 death). After the
Panic of 1837 and the decline of canal traffic following construction of railroads across the state, her father's businesses and warehouses began to fail.[4]
Slocum served "with honor" in the
Civil War,[6] and afterward resigned from the
Union Army to go into business in Cincinnati. In 1878, he moved to New York to join Russell Sage, his brother-in-law, in business, serving as Receiver, Treasurer, and director of the
Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railway.[7] He served as director of the
Metropolitan Trust Company until his death.[8][9]
Herbert Jermain Slocum (1855–1928),[10] who married Florence Allington Brandreth (1856–1910), a daughter of
Benjamin Brandreth, in 1883.[11] After her death in an automobile accident,[12][13] Mary Eliza (née Ricketson) Carr (1863–1952),[14] a daughter of John Howland Ricketson.[10][15]
Margaret Oliva "Daisy" Slocum (1870–1946),[19] who married Sherman Flint (1869–1954),[20] son of Dr. Austin Flint, in 1899.[21]
Following his sister's death in 1918,[22] he received a bequest of $8,000,000.[23] Joseph and both of his sons were executors of Sage's estate along with the attornets, DeForest Brothers, who were
Robert W. DeForest and
Henry deForest.[24]
His wife Sallie died in September 1895 in New York City. Slocum died on October 2, 1924, at 791
Madison Avenue, his home in Manhattan where he lived with his daughter and son-in-law.[1] In 1928, his children sold three houses, 35, 37 and 39
East 65th Street, to a builder who tore then down to build a "modern apartment house".[25] The three houses had been purchased in 1866 by Russell Sage, who left them to his wife, who then left them to her brother, who left them to the three children upon his death in 1924.[25]
Descendants
Through his son Herbert,[26] he was a grandfather of Myles Standish Slocum (1887–1956)[27] and Herbert Jermain Slocum Jr. (1886–1948)[28] and the great-grandfather of John Jermain Slocum (1914–1997), a diplomat who "gathered what is considered the world's foremost
Joyce collection";[29] he married Eileen Sherman Gillespie, a granddaughter of
William Watts Sherman,[30] who had briefly been engaged to
John Jacob Astor VI.[31]
^"MARRIED". The United States Army and Navy Journal and Gazette of the Regular and Volunteer Forces. Army and Navy Journal Incorporated: 593. February 18, 1899. Retrieved 27 October 2021.