Joseph Harvey Ladew, Sr.

Joseph Harvey Ladew, Sr.
Ladew and family circa 1913
Born	April 10, 1865 Shokan, New York
Died	February 16, 1940 (aged 74) LeRoy Sanitarium Manhattan
Education	Columbia University
Known for	Fayerweather & Ladew
Partner(s)	Daniel Burton Fayerweather
Children	Joseph Harvey Ladew, Jr. (April 1904-?) Oliver Ladew (1906-1979)
Parent(s)	Harvey Smith Ladew I (?-1888) Rebecca Krom (?-1904)
Relatives	Edward R. Ladew, brother

Joseph Harvey Ladew, Sr. (April 10, 1865 – February 16, 1940) was one of the largest leather manufacturers in the world with Fayerweather & Ladew, and he was a yachtsman.^[1][2]

Biography

He was born on April 10, 1865 to Rebecca Krom (?-1905) and Harvey Smith Ladew I (?-1888) in Shokan, New York.^[3][4][5] He attended Columbia University in 1885 and left the program to join the family run Fayerweather & Ladew in Glen Cove, New York. The company was started by his brother, Edward R. Ladew in 1898.^[6] He became a partner in the company on February 1, 1889.^[4][7]

On November 27, 1901 he married Jennie Bennett House.^[8] They had two children: Joseph Harvey Ladew, Jr. (1905-?) and Oliver Ladew (1906-1979). Ladew died on February 16, 1940 at LeRoy Sanitarium in Manhattan.^[2]

Yachts

He had two yachts, both named Columbia built, the first built by Cramp Shipbuilding launched from Philadelphia on August 23, 1893.^[9][10] Turned over to the United States Navy for the Spanish American War in 1898, the yacht was renamed the USS Wasp and was used in the blockade of Cuba. In 1909 the ship began a nine year long loan to the New York Naval Militia.^[11] The yacht was brought back into active naval service 7 April 1917 for World War I service and continued in naval service until decommissioned at Norfolk on 1 December 1919.

In 1898 he ordered a new yacht from the Crescent Shipyard in Elizabethport, New Jersey for $200,000.^[12] The second Columbia, constructed in 1899 and delivered 1900, was designed for possible conversion to a naval auxiliary and modeled after the United States Coast Survey steamer Pathfinder that had been built in the same shipyard.^[13][14] In 1913 it was briefly impounded by the Japanese at Wakayama.^[15][16] That yacht served in World War I as HMCS Stadacona.

Notes

1. The National cyclopedia of American biography. 1910. When the senior Ladew died in 1888, a brother, J. Harvey Ladew, acquired an interest in the business and became a member of the firm. ... The firm of Fayerweather & Ladew acquired extensive tanneries at Chattanooga, Tenn.; Flintstone, Ga., and Cumberland, Md.; Paw Paw and Davis, W. Va.; Clearfield, Everett, Philipsburg and Tecumsch, Pa., which were sold to the United States Leather Co. and allied companies in 1893. The firm also owned two large leather belting plants in New York city, which were not sold with the tanneries, but retained. The manufacture of leather belting was carried on here until 1903, when the plant was partially destroyed by fire and was rebuilt at Glen Cove, L. I. This factory at Glen Cove, probably the largest of its kind in the world, was carried on by Edward R. Ladew up to the time of his death, and for a while he operated a branch factory at Charlotte, N. C.
2. "J. Harvey Ladew, Yachtsman, Dead. Wealthy Leather Merchant of This City Succumbs to Long Illness at Age of 73. His Yacht Seized In Japan. Entry Into a Closed Port on World Tour Also Caused the Arrest of All on Board". New York Times. February 18, 1940. Retrieved 2009-11-29. J. Harvey Ladew, wealthy leather merchant, well-known yachtsman and member of an old New York family, died on Friday at the LeRoy Sanitarium, 40 East Sixty-first Street, after an illness of nearly four months. His age was 73
3. "Mrs. Rebecca K. Ladew.". New York Times. April 27, 1905. Retrieved 2009-12-05. Mrs. Rebecca K. Ladew. Ladew, the widow of Harvey Smith Ladew, who was for many years one of the ...
4. George Graham Lake. America's Successful Men of Affairs: An Encyclopedia of Contemporaneous Biography. Joseph Harvey Ladew, tanner, son of the late Harvey S. Ladew, a young man of good ability, was born in New York April 10, 1864 [sic]. He received his education at Columbia College, and then found occupation as an assistant to his father in the management and operation of the leather business and the manufacture of belts. He was admitted to partnership in Fayerweather & Ladew, Feb. 1, 1889. He has already shown application and good management and promises to rank among the prominent merchants of this generation. He is a director in The United States Leather Co., holds a prominent position in the direction and management of the company, and also conducts the business of Fayerweather & Ladew with his brother, Edward R. Ladew. His clubs are the Union League, Riding, American Yacht, New York and Stamford Yacht, and Hide & Leather. He is owner of the steam yacht Columbia, 380 tons, a beautiful vessel built in 1893 [sic], 205 feet in length, and 23 feet deep, having a speed of 18 knots an hour.
5. US Passport application of 11 December 1912
6. "Edward R. Ladew Dead. He Was a Well-Known Leather Manufacturer. Member of Many Clubs". New York Times. August 31, 1905. Retrieved 2009-11-30.
7. Joseph Harvey Ladew. Columbia University. 1911. Joseph Harvey Ladew attended the School of Mines in the freshman year of the Class of '85, leaving the course the next year to enter the leather trade in the important firm of Fairweather & Ladew, New York. He is now President of the J. H. Ladew Co. He was born in Shokan, Ulster County, N. Y., April 10, 1866 [sic], was married Nov. 27, 1902 [sic], to Jennie House, of Rochester, N. Y. They have two children: Joseph Harvey Ladew, Jr., age 6, and Oliver Ladew, age 4 years. He is a member of the Union League Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Riding Club, the Lambs Club and the Automobile Club of America. His height is 5 ft. 10i/2 in.; present weight, 170 II)., and he sports a small moustache. He resides at 813 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y.
8. "J. Harvey Ladew Weds. Miss Jennie B. House the Bride, After a Brief Courtship. Honeymoon Aboard a Yacht.". New York Times. December 26, 1901. Retrieved 2009-11-29. A Christmas surprise was sprung on the friends of J. Harvey Ladew, the wealthy and well-known yachtsman, when it was published yesterday that on Nov. 27 Mr. Ladew had been married to Miss Jennie Bennett House of Rochester, N.Y. Mr. Ladew, who was the partner of the late Daniel Burton Fayerweather, is a member of many prominent clubs, among them the Union League and the New York and Larchmont Yacht Clubs.
9. "Launch of The Columbia. Mr. Ladew's Yacht Promises to be Among the Fleetest in These Waters". New York Times. August 24, 1893. Retrieved 2009-12-05. At 10:45 o'clock this morning the steel steam yacht Columbia was launched at the shipyard of the Charles Hillman Company. The Colombia is the property of J. Harvey Ladew of New-York. The Messrs. Cramp are the original contractors for her construction and the builders of her machinery, the Charles Hillman Company having built the hull by sub-contract.
10. Colton, T. (September 30, 2014). "Cramp Shipbuilding, Philadelphia PA". T. Colton. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
11. Naval History And Heritage Command. "Wasp VII". Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. Naval History And Heritage Command. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
12. "J. Harvey Ladew's Columbia Can Be Used as a Cruiser.". New York Times. August 27, 1899. Retrieved 2009-11-29. J. Harvey Ladew, a member of the New York Yacht Club has had constructed at the Crescent shipyards, at Elizabethport, N. J., a yacht which is almost a duplicate of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey steamer Pathfinder. The name of the new yacht is Columbia, and the cost $200,000.
13. Railroad Gazette (1899). "The Crescent Shipyard". Railroad Gazette (New York) 43 (June 30, 1899): 467–468. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
14. Colton, T. (September 30, 2014). "Bethlehem Steel Company, Elizabethport NJ". T. Colton. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
15. "J. Harvey Ladew and Guests Taken Into Custody; Vessel Pokes Nose Too Close to Port Fortifications; Obsolete Law Is Invoked in International Affair.". Los Angeles Times. June 12, 1913. Retrieved 2009-11-29. The American Yacht Columbia, with its owner, J. Harvey Ladew of New York, and his party aboard, was seized today by the Japanese authorities at Wakayama, on the Inland ...
16. "Ladew Yacht Released". New York Times. June 15, 1913. Retrieved 2009-11-29. As was expected, the so-called seizure by the Japanese authorities of the yacht Columbia, owned by J. Harvey Ladew of New York, has proved to be less alarming than newspaper accounts at first made it appear. The yacht has not been detained and the prosecution of its Captain has been dropped.