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COURTLANDT PALflER, merchant, born in Stonington, Conn., Nov. ii, 1800,.
died at his home in New^ York city. May 10, 1874. A son of Amos Palmer, a promi¬
nent citizen and at his death Mayor of Stonington, he was a descendant of Walter
Palmer, one of the two founders of the town. Courtlandt gave to his sisters his share
of their father's moderate property, and with $100 of capital came to New York at the
age of eighteen to seek his fortune. Securing employment in a hardware store
belonging to an older brother on Maiden Lane and Pearl street, he continued there until
he was about twenty-one years of age when, determined to start for himself, he
obtained a small credit from each of three auctioneers with whom he had become
acquainted, bought a stock of hardware, and established a store for himself. His
energy and capacity won speedy success. Several flattering offers of partnership were
made to him, and he flnally allied himself with Stark & Whiting and established a
branch house in New Orleans. This firm soon became one of the leading houses in
the United States. The panic of 1837 proved disastrous to them, however, and they
met with heavy losses, but Mr. Palmer emerged with a small amount of capital, which
he invested in real estate. By judicious purchases thereafter, he became a wealthy
man, holding much valuable city real estate as well as Western land. His property
included the Manhattan Market on the West side, between 34th and 35th streets.
Many positions of trust were bestowed on Mr. Palmer, including the first presidency
of The Stonington & Providence Railroad, which he held 1844-1848. He was a director
and one of the founders of The Safe Deposit Co. and a director of a prominent savings
bank and The Mutual Benefit Trust Co. About 1872, he was appointed commissioner
to appraise the real estate owned by the city, and all disputes were referred to him for
settlement by his associates. In 1824, Mr. Palmer married Eliza, daughter of Gov¬
ernor Thurston of Connecticut. She died in 1828 without issue. In 1832, he married
a daughter of Richard Suydam. Mrs. Palmer died in 1867. Four children were born
to them, Courtlandt and Charles Phelps Palmer, Mary Ann, wife of Henry Draper,
and Richard S. Palmer, the latter dying before his father.—His son, COURTLANDT
PALMER, lawyer and author, born in New York city, March 25, 1843, died at Lake Dun-
more, Vt., July 23, 1888. Mr. Palmer attended Mount Washington Institute for a time,
entered Columbia College, and left in his junior year to enter Williams College.
He studied law at the Columbia College Law School, and graduated, May 19, 1869, a
LL.B. While the law interested him greatly, he found abundant occupation in the
management of his father's estate. Mr Palmer's tastes were strongly literary. He
was an advocate of technical education and liberal ideas, an earnest student and
thinker, becoming advanced and radical in his beliefs and a positivist of the school of
Auguste Comte. He established the Nineteenth Century club in 1880, and as the
president of that organization delivered many addresses and contributed largely to the
literature of free thought. In 1865, he married Catharine Amory Bennett, daughter-
of Joseph Bennett, and their children were Robert Amory, Mary Ann Suydam, Court¬
landt and Evelina Palmer.
 

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