James A. Roosevelt

James A. Roosevelt, like all of his race, was prominent in the business and social life of this city. Although engrossed with the cares of a large and prosperous business, he gave largely of his time and unstintedly of his means to the cause of charity and to the public service. He had great executive ability, and held many positions which called for its exercise. He was vice-president of the Chemical Bank of which his father, Cornelius Van Schaick Roosevelt, was one of the founders; a director of the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company and the Eagle Fire Insurance Company; he was president of the Roosevelt Hospital, and trustee of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and was at one time president of the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific Railway, and for several years was one of the commissioners of the Department of Parks in this city, and served as a member of the Committee of Seventy at the time of the overthrow of the Tweed ring. He was a fine specimen of the gentlemen of the old school, and reflected credit upon an honored name and upon his native city.

Henry E. Howland
1899 Century Association Yearbook