Clarkson Crolius (bapt. October 30, 1774 – October 3, 1843) was an American businessman and politician.

Life

Born in

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, Clarkson Crolius was the son of Johannes (John) Crolius and Maria Clarkson Crolius. His grandfather Johan Willem (William) Crolius, a manufacturer of stoneware, is said to have come from Germany to New York, and ran a pottery on Reade Street, near

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. William's son John Crolius acquired property on Reade Street, about west of

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, where the pottery and the family residence were maintained for many years, until Clarkson Crolius removed the works to No. 65 and 67 Bayard Street, the home still remaining in Reade Street. In 1811, as Grand Sachem of the

Tammany Society Tammany Hall, also known as the Society of St. Tammany, the Sons of St. Tammany, or the Columbian Order, was an American political organization founded in 1786 and incorporated on May 12, 1789, as the Tammany Society. It became the main local ...

, he laid the foundation stone of the old Tammany Hall in Frankfort Street. At the beginning of the

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, he was a major in the Twenty-seventh Regiment of the State Militia, but resigned his commission and received an appointment to the same rank in the regular service. He finished the war as a colonel. He was an alderman of New York City for many years. He was a member from

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of the

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in 1806, 1807, from 1816 to 1822, in 1824 and 1825, and was

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in 1825. In 1830, he was one of the incorporators of the Canajoharie and Catskill Railroad. In 1831, he was the leader of the

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in New York City. He married Elizabeth Meyer (c. 1774–1856). Their son, Clarkson Crolius Jr. (born 1801), discontinued the manufacture of stoneware in Bayard Street in 1845, and the pottery was afterwards demolished. Crolius Jr. served as

alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

for the Sixth Ward and as State Senator for New York's Fourth Senate District. Crolius died at his home in New York City on October 3, 1843.

References

Sources

History of the NY Fire DepartmentArt InventoryEarly Railroad historyGoogle Books ''The New York Civil List''
compiled by Franklin B. Hough (Weed, Parsons & Co., Albany NY, 1858) {{DEFAULTSORT:Crolius, Clarkson 1774 births 1843 deaths American people of German descent 19th-century American merchants Members of the New York State Assembly Speakers of the New York State Assembly 19th-century American railroad executives 19th-century members of the New York State Legislature