Frederick Hampden Winston

Frederick Hampden Winston
United States Minister to Persia
In office
1885–1886
PresidentGrover Cleveland
Preceded bySamuel G. W. Benjamin
Succeeded byE. Spencer Pratt
Personal details
Born(1830-11-02)November 2, 1830
Liberty County, Georgia
DiedFebruary 19, 1904(1904-02-19) (aged 73)
Magnolia Springs, Alabama
Political partyDemocratic
RelationsFrederick S. Winston (uncle)
Garrard B. Winston (grandson)
Parent(s)Mary McIntosh Winston
Rev. Dennis Mervyn Winston
Alma materHarvard Law School

Frederick Hampden Winston (November 2, 1830 — February 19, 1904) was an American lawyer who was one of the founders of the law firm that is today Winston & Strawn. He served as the American Minister to Persia from 1885 to 1886.

Early life

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Winston was born in Liberty County, Georgia on November 2, 1830.[1] While he was a child, his family moved to Kentucky. He was a son of Mary (née McIntosh) Winston and the Rev. Dennis Mervyn Winston, a close friend of Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, with whom he graduated from Hamilton College, and studied theology with at Andover Theological Seminary before his death.[2]

His paternal grandparents were Frederick Winston and Susan (née Seymour) Winston. His uncle was Frederick S. Winston, the longtime president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York.[3] His maternal grandparents were Charlotte Pepper (née Nephew) McIntosh and John Hampden McIntosh (son of Gen. Lachlan McIntosh).[4]

After graduating from high school, Winston moved east to study, graduating from Harvard Law School in 1852. Upon graduation, he moved to New York City and was admitted to the bar of New York State.[1]

Career

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After practicing law in New York for a year, in 1853, Winston moved to Chicago to launch a law practice there. From 1853 to 1861, Winston partnered with Norman B. Judd, a prominent Republican who nominated Abraham Lincoln at the 1860 Republican National Convention. In 1861, Lincoln appointed Judd as his Minister Plenipotentiary to Berlin, forcing Winston to find a new partner. He then partnered with Henry Williams Blodgett until 1870, when President of the United States Ulysses S. Grant appointed Blodgett to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. In 1865, Winston began a relationship with what would prove to be a long-term client, the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company of Chicago. Winston later represented three prominent railways: the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railway.[1]

Winston retired from active practice in 1885 and devoted time to his support of the Democratic Party. On October 28, 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed Winston as American Minister to Persia. He was commissioned during a recess of the Senate but was recommissioned on January 13, 1886, after confirmation. Winston presented his credentials on April 5, 1885 and served until he left his post on June 10, 1886.[5] Upon his resignation, he traveled in Russia, Scandinavia, and other countries.[1]

Returning to the U.S. in 1886, he married his second wife in New Orleans. Following a six-month honeymoon in Europe and Africa, Winston returned to Chicago, and became the president of his former client, the Union Stock Yard and Transit Company of Chicago. He also became an organizer of the Lincoln National Bank in the later 1880s. During this period, Winston served as president of the Lincoln Park Commission for twelve years.[1]

Personal life

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Winston's grave at Graceland Cemetery

Winston married Maria Garrard Dudley (1836–1882), daughter of General Ambrose William Dudley and Elizabeth Garrard (née Talbot) Dudley.[6] Before his wife's death in 1882, they were the parents of six children, including:[1]

  • Frederick Seymour Winston (1856–1909), who joined his father's law practice in 1878; he married Ada Fountain (1858–1919) in 1876.[7]
  • Eliza Talbot Winston (1859–1941), who married Thomas Williams Grover (1846–1893) 1881.
  • Dudley Winston (1864–1898),[8] who married Grace Farwell, a daughter of U.S. Senator Charles B. Farwell,[9] in 1888;[10] After his death, she married Robert Greaves McGann in 1906.[11][12]
  • Bertram McIntosh Winston (1868–1933), who married Anne Odell (1869–1950), a daughter of J. W. Odell, in 1901.[7]
  • Marie Winston (1871–1932), who married Wirt Dexter Walker (1860–1899) in 1894.[7] After his death, she married Victor Elting (1871–1956) in 1904.[13]
  • Ralph Talbot Winston (1878–1948).[14]

In November 1896, he married Sallie Reeves Hews (b. 1872), a daughter of Edson Lawrence Hews, at Trinity Church in New Orleans.[15]

In poor health, Winston retired to Florida in his later years, dying near Magnolia Springs, Alabama on February 19, 1904. He was buried at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago.[1] After his death, in 1906 his widow married the Rev. ZeBarney Thorne Phillips, an Episcopal clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Senate from 1927 to 1942.[16]

Descendants

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Through his eldest son, he was a grandfather of Garrard B. Winston, Under Secretary of the Treasury from 1923 to 1927.[17]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Frederick B. Winston dead. Chicago Lawyer, ex-Minister to Persia, Dies in Florida" (PDF). The New York Times. Chicago (published February 20, 1904). February 19, 1904. Retrieved April 22, 2024.
  2. ^ Browning, Charles Henry (2002). Magna Charta Barons and Their Descendants. Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-8063-0056-6. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  3. ^ University, Yale (1910). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University ... Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Alumni. Yale University. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  4. ^ Browning, C.H. (1883). Americans of Royal Descent. pp. 144–146. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  5. ^ "Frederick Hampden Winston - People - Department History - Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute United States Department of State. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  6. ^ Cognets, Anna Russell Des (1898). Governor Garrard, of Kentucky: His Descendants and Relatives. J.M. Byrnes. p. 84. ISBN 978-5-87193-263-6. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  7. ^ a b c John William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis (1911). The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago. A.N. Marquis. pp. 215, 732. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  8. ^ "Dudley Winston's Death.; Chicago Lawyer Expires on the Train While Coming to This City -- A Rumor of Suicide". The New York Times. April 12, 1898. p. 9. Retrieved April 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Mrs. Robert G. M'Gann". The New York Times. March 30, 1949. p. 25. Retrieved June 12, 2020.
  10. ^ "A Fashionable Wedding.; Marriage of United States Senator Farwell's Daughter". The New York Times. December 5, 1888. p. 5. Retrieved November 28, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ^ Times, Special to The New York (June 13, 1906). "R. G. McGann to Wed.; Will Marry Mrs. Winston, a Relative of the De Kovens, To-morrow". The New York Times. Chicago. p. 4. Retrieved November 28, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ^ "Mrs. de Koven's Sister Weds; Mrs. Grace Farwell Winston Becomes Mrs. Robert G. McGann". The New York Times. June 15, 1906. p. 9. Retrieved November 28, 2021 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ College (1718-1887), Yale; University, Yale (1900). Obituary Record of Graduates of Yale University ... Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Alumni. The College. p. 634. Retrieved March 15, 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "Winston-Ralph T. Winston". Chicago Tribune. March 19, 1948. p. 24. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  15. ^ "A Day's Weddings.; Winston-Hews". The New York Times. New Orleans, Louisiana. November 20, 1896. p. 5. Retrieved April 22, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Mistake Killed Chaplain; Dr. Phillips Was Victim of Excess of Narcotics in Prescription". The New York Times. May 22, 1942. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
  17. ^ "Garrard B. Winston, Lawyer, Dies at 73; Under Secretary of Treasury 1923-27". The New York Times. July 29, 1955. Retrieved March 15, 2022.
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