Benjamin Hazard Field


Benjamin Hazard Field was an American merchant philanthropist.

Early life

Field was born on May 2, 1814 at the Field home in Yorktown in Westchester County. He was one the three sons born to Hazard Field and his second wife, Mary Field, who married in 1806. His father was previously married to Frances "Fanny" Wright June.
His paternal grandparents were John Field and Lydia Field, who had sixteen children, of which his father Hazard was the oldest.

Career

After schooling in Westchester and at North Salem Academy, he moved to New York and entered the mercantile business of his uncle, Hickson W. Field, at 170-176 John Street. At the age of 18, Field became a partner in 1832. After his uncle retired in 1838, Field assumed control of the entire business, rapidly gaining "both fortune and fame." Field eventually retired from the business, which his son Cortlandt joined in 1861, and renamed Cortlandt de P. Field & Co. in 1865. He fully retired from business in 1875.
In 1863, Field became vice-president of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, later serving as president in 1884. He was a founder of the New York Free Circulating Library and became involved with the New York Dispensary, the Roosevelt Hospital, the New York Institute for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, and the Home for Incurables in the Bronx which Field helped found in 1866, serving as its first president. He was largely responsible for the Farragut Monument in Madison Square Park.
In 1870, he became the 16th President of the Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York. Field was a member of the New-York Historical Society, serving as its treasurer, vice president, and president beginning in 1885.

Personal life

On January 19, 1838, Field was married to Catherine Matilda Van Cortlandt de Peyster. Catherine was the daughter of Frederic de Peyster and Helen Livingston de Peyster. She was the aunt of author and philanthropist John Watts de Peyster and Frederic James de Peyster. Together, they lived on the northern edge of Madison Square Park at 21 East 26th Street and were the parents of:
Field died on March 17, 1893 in New York City. After a funeral at Grace Church, he was buried at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

Descendants

Through his daughter Florence, he was the grandfather of Cortlandt Field Bishop, a pioneer aviator, balloonist, book collector, and traveler. and David Wolfe Bishop Jr.