Frederick Dwight papers

Frederick Dwight was born September 30, 1873, in Brooklyn Heights, New York, one of the nine children of Frederick A. and Antoinette McM. Dwight. His father was a descendant of Captain Timothy Dwight, who came with his father, John, from England, in 1628, settling in Dedham, Massachusetts, whence later generations moved to Norwich and New Haven, Connecticut. Mr. Dwight, Senior, was prepared for Yale at Phillips-Andover, but ill health prevented him from entering and he became associated with the firm of Henry Trowbridge's Sons, West India shipping merchants. In this he continued until 1881, when he retired from business and led a life of leisure until his death at his country place in Rumson, New Jersey, September 30, 1916. He was born February 18, 1842, in New Orleans, Louisiana, where his father, Amos Trowbridge Dwight, was for some years a cotton factor. On November 1, 1866, he was married to Antoinette Raymond McMullen, of Irish Protestant stock on her father's side and a descendant of the Raymond and Hoyt families of Norwalk, Connecticut, on her mother's. Mrs. Dwight was born at Albany, New York, November 4, 1845.

Of their children four died in infancy and three are Yale graduates: Henry R. Dwight, '93, Amos T. Dwight, '00 S., and the present scribe, who was prepared for Yale at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and Brooklyn Latin School. In college he won a second Berkeley Premium, an oration appointment Junior and Senior years, and was a member of DKE. Upon graduation he entered the Columbia Law School in New York City, and was admitted to the New York Bar in March of that year. From September, 1897, to February, 1899, he was connected with the firm of Simpson, Thacher and Barnum, of New York, leaving to become trust officer of the Manhattan Trust Company, where he remained until February, 1904, when he resigned and took a trip abroad. In January, 1905, he formed a partnership for the general practice of law with William G. Low, Jr., Yale '97, under the name of Dwight and Low. Upon his partner's leaving the law in 1907 he formed a partnership with Edward C. Moen, Harvard '91, Henry B. Barnes, Yale '93, later becoming associated with it. This firm dissolved in October, 1920, by the death of Mr. Moen and since then he has practiced by himself. In politics he is an independent Democrat with Republican leanings, if that means anything. He was a Congregationalist, and a member of the University, Grolier, Down Town, Yale, and DKE clubs of New York City, the Elihu and Graduates clubs of New Haven, and of the Mayflower, Colonial Wars, St. Nicholas, and Historical societies of New York, as well as of the Bar Association. He was a member of the committee on legislation of the Citizens' Union of New York, president of the Brooklyn Guild Association, has engaged in settlement work, was treasurer of Home Garden of New York City, was for ten years secretary of the Society of Colonial Wars in New York, and a lieutenant governor, and treasurer and secretary of the Onteora Club, a summer community. He was successively secretary and president of the Yale Association of Class Secretaries, and for some years a director of the Yale Publishing Association, publishing the Alumni Weekly and Yale Review. In October, 1900, he joined Company K, Seventh Regiment, National Guard of New York, and was discharged April, 1909, being then Post Quartermaster Sergeant on the non-commissioned staff. During the World War, from November 1, 1917, to May, 1919, he was connected with the War Trade Board, New York City office, being assigned for a period to Washington and also to the Postal Censorship in New York, very interesting work. He published a number of brief articles in legal and other periodicals, besides a pamphlet history of the Seventh Regiment (1908), and a "Hand Book for Class Secretaries," in 1910.

He was married at Onteora, New York, September 19, 1911, to Miss Elizabeth King Wakeman, daughter of the late Jesup and Elizabeth (Dutton) Wakeman of New York City, and Southport, Connecticut. Mrs. Dwight died July 29, 1921. He was married a second time, August 5, 1922, to Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Davis Monod of New York City, widow of George Monod of Paris.

He died on December 18, 1958.

(Taken from Quarter Century Record of the Class of 1894, Yale College, pp. 153-156).