Henry Shelton Sanford
Encyclopedia
Henry Shelton Sanford was an American diplomat and businessman who founded the city of Sanford, Florida
.
into a family with deep New England
roots. He was the son of Nancy Bateman Shelton (1800–1880) and Nehemiah Curtis Sanford
, who made his fortune manufacturing brass tacks and served in the Connecticut Senate
for the 16th District. He was a descendant of Governor Thomas Welles
, who arrived in 1635 and was the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. He was also the transcriber of the Fundamental Orders.
Nehemiah C. Sanford's brother was John Sanford
, the founder of the Amsterdam, New York branch of the Sanford family.
in 1839, but did not graduate. Trinity College later conferred on him the degree of L.L.D. in 1849. He was also educated at Heidelberg University, Germany from which institution he received the degree of Doctor of Canon and Civil Law or J.U.D. in 1855. He obtained the title of ‘General,’ which he is often noted by, after donating a cannon
battery to the Union in the Civil War
.
and died on June 1, 1902 at Derby, Connecticut
. She was the daughter of John Dupuy and Mary Richards Haskins.
Henry and Gertrude's children were:
legation
to St. Petersburg. In 1848, he was named acting Secretary to the American Legation in Frankfurt
. President
Zachary Taylor
then appointed him to the same post in Paris
, where he would remain from 1849 to 1854, the last year of which after a promotion to chargé d'affaires
.
President Abraham Lincoln
appointed him as Minister to Belgium
in 1861. There, apart from preventing Confederate recognition, he signed a number of significant agreements, including the Scheldt Treaties, concerning import duties and the capitalization of the Scheldt dues (1863), a naturalization treaty, and a consular convention including a trademark article supplemental to the commercial treaty of 1858.
In addition, Sanford co-ordinated northern secret service operations during the Civil War, arranged for the purchase of war materials for the Union, and delivered a message from Secretary of State William H. Steward to Giuseppe Garibaldi
, offering the Italian patriot a Union command.
After the Civil War he bought an orange grove in St. Augustine, Florida
, from John Hay
, who had been one of President Lincoln's secretaries and later served as U.S. Secretary of State. It was the beginning of a large investment in the state. The St. Augustine grove was later developed as a real estate subdivision in the northern part of the city's historic Lincolnville neighborhood. It includes a Sanford Street as a permanent memory of its origins.
He was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant
in 1869 as U.S. Minister to Spain. His Senate confirmation, which was long discussed, was tabled due solely on the grounds that he was unwilling to move to Spain. As soon as President Grant appointed General Daniel Sickles
U.S. Minister to Spain, he resigned his post at Belgium.
In 1870, Sanford paid $18,400 to former Confederate General Joseph Finegan
to acquire his extensive land holdings along Lake Monroe
and founded the city of Sanford, Florida
. He founded an orange plantation at Lake Monroe
that offered some promise to revive his flagging fortunes, but it did not prove profitable in the long term. In fact he poured quite a bit of precious capital into land speculation and town building in Florida in the hopes of turning around a family economy that spent far more than it took in, but with no success. The commitment of his time and resources to cashing in on the postbellum Florida land boom was a miserable failure in the end. His wife was so disgruntled with his booster schemes that she lamented in a letter to her husband that Florida was "a vampire that... sucked the repose & the beauty & the dignity & cheerfulness out of our lives." Sanford had numerous other business interests, some in the Congo after his work for Belgium, but none were profitable.
The Belgian King Leopold II
used Sanford to convince Henry Morton Stanley
to explore the Congo basin for Belgium in 1878. He then hired Sanford in 1883 as his envoy to the United States to try to gain American recognition for his colony in Congo
.
In 1886, Sanford organized at Brussels and dispatched to the Congo and its tributaries the Sanford Exploring Expedition for the purpose of scientific and commercial discovery and for the opening up of an interior trade. His steamboats "Florida" and "New York" were the first commercial steamers to penetrate the waters of the upper Congo. Sanford employed Roger Casement from September 1886 to February 1888 on the Expedition, working on river transports. His project did not prosper partly because the Congo State was becoming increasingly restrictive in its attitude to other commercial interests.
Sanford remained loyal to the Belgian king until 1889, when serving as the American representative at Leopold’s Anti-Slavery Conference, Leopold betrayed his earlier free trade
plans for the Congo and asked for the imposition of customs duties so as to aid the destruction of slavery in the Congo.
Sanford, Florida
Sanford is a city in, and the county seat of, Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 38,291 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 50,998...
.
Early life
Sanford was born in Woodbury, ConnecticutWoodbury, Connecticut
Woodbury is a town in Litchfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,198 at the 2000 census. The town center is also designated by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census-designated place . Woodbury was founded in 1672....
into a family with deep New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
roots. He was the son of Nancy Bateman Shelton (1800–1880) and Nehemiah Curtis Sanford
Nehemiah Curtis Sanford
Nehemiah Curtis Sanford was an American industrialist and politician.Nehemiah Sanford was the son of Sarah Curtis and her husband Stephen Sandford I...
, who made his fortune manufacturing brass tacks and served in the Connecticut Senate
Connecticut Senate
The Connecticut State Senate is the upper house of the Connecticut General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The state senate comprises 36 members, each representing a district with around 94,600 inhabitants. Senators are elected to two-year terms without term limits...
for the 16th District. He was a descendant of Governor Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles
Thomas Welles is the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. In 1639, he was elected as the first treasurer of the Colony of Connecticut, and from 1640–1649 served as the colony's secretary...
, who arrived in 1635 and was the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary. He was also the transcriber of the Fundamental Orders.
Nehemiah C. Sanford's brother was John Sanford
John Sanford (1803)
John Sanford was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in Roxbury, Connecticut, he was the second son of Sarah Curtis and her husband Stephen Sandford I...
, the founder of the Amsterdam, New York branch of the Sanford family.
Education
Henry Shelton Sanford enrolled in Trinity CollegeTrinity College (Connecticut)
Trinity College is a private, liberal arts college in Hartford, Connecticut. Founded in 1823, it is the second-oldest college in the state of Connecticut after Yale University. The college enrolls 2,300 students and has been coeducational since 1969. Trinity offers 38 majors and 26 minors, and has...
in 1839, but did not graduate. Trinity College later conferred on him the degree of L.L.D. in 1849. He was also educated at Heidelberg University, Germany from which institution he received the degree of Doctor of Canon and Civil Law or J.U.D. in 1855. He obtained the title of ‘General,’ which he is often noted by, after donating a cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
battery to the Union in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Marriage and family
He married on September 21, 1864, in Paris, France, Gertrude Ellen Dupuy, born on June 27, 1841 at "du Puy Place", Banks-of-the-Schuylkill, Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
and died on June 1, 1902 at Derby, Connecticut
Derby, Connecticut
Derby is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 12,391 at the 2000 census. With of land area, Derby is Connecticut's smallest municipality.The city has a Metro-North railroad station called Derby – Shelton.-History:...
. She was the daughter of John Dupuy and Mary Richards Haskins.
Henry and Gertrude's children were:
-
- Henry Shelton Sanford, Jr., born on July 17, 1865, at the U. S. Legation, Brussels, Belgium, and died on October 1, 1891 in New York City.
- Gertrude Ellen Dupuy Sanford, born on November 16, 1869, in Brussels, Belgium, and died on April 28, 1893, New York City.
- Frida Dolores Sanford, born on February 28, 1871, at Brussels, Belgium
- Ethel Sanford, born on September 2, 1873 at Brussels, Belgium. She married her cousin on February 17, 1892 at Sanford, Florida, John Sanford (1851)John Sanford (1851)John Sanford was an American businessman, a prominent owner/breeder of Thoroughbred racehorses, and a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 20th congressional district.-Early life:...
, the eldest son of Hon. Stephen SanfordStephen SanfordStephen Sanford was an American businessman and a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York's 18th congressional district.-Life and career:...
and Sarah Jane Cochran and a grandson of John Sanford (1803)John Sanford (1803)John Sanford was a U.S. Representative from New York.Born in Roxbury, Connecticut, he was the second son of Sarah Curtis and her husband Stephen Sandford I...
, a U.S. Representative from New York and founder of a carpet manufacturing firm in New York. - Helen Carola Nancy Sanford, born April 10, 1876, Brussels, Belgium
- Leopold Curits Sanford, born July 27, 1880, at Brussels, Belgium and died December 1, 1885, at Chateau de Gingelona, Belgium
- Edwyn Emeline Willimine Gladys McKinnon Sanford, born on November 27, 1882, Brussels, Belgium
Career
Sanford began diplomatic work in 1847, when he was named the Secretary of the AmericanUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
legation
Legation
A legation was the term used in diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an Ambassador, a legation was headed by a Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary....
to St. Petersburg. In 1848, he was named acting Secretary to the American Legation in Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
. President
President
A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
then appointed him to the same post in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where he would remain from 1849 to 1854, the last year of which after a promotion to chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
.
President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
appointed him as Minister to Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
in 1861. There, apart from preventing Confederate recognition, he signed a number of significant agreements, including the Scheldt Treaties, concerning import duties and the capitalization of the Scheldt dues (1863), a naturalization treaty, and a consular convention including a trademark article supplemental to the commercial treaty of 1858.
In addition, Sanford co-ordinated northern secret service operations during the Civil War, arranged for the purchase of war materials for the Union, and delivered a message from Secretary of State William H. Steward to Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and fled Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and...
, offering the Italian patriot a Union command.
After the Civil War he bought an orange grove in St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is a city in the northeast section of Florida and the county seat of St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Founded in 1565 by Spanish explorer and admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, it is the oldest continuously occupied European-established city and port in the continental United...
, from John Hay
John Hay
John Milton Hay was an American statesman, diplomat, author, journalist, and private secretary and assistant to Abraham Lincoln.-Early life:...
, who had been one of President Lincoln's secretaries and later served as U.S. Secretary of State. It was the beginning of a large investment in the state. The St. Augustine grove was later developed as a real estate subdivision in the northern part of the city's historic Lincolnville neighborhood. It includes a Sanford Street as a permanent memory of its origins.
He was nominated by President Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
in 1869 as U.S. Minister to Spain. His Senate confirmation, which was long discussed, was tabled due solely on the grounds that he was unwilling to move to Spain. As soon as President Grant appointed General Daniel Sickles
Daniel Sickles
Daniel Edgar Sickles was a colorful and controversial American politician, Union general in the American Civil War, and diplomat....
U.S. Minister to Spain, he resigned his post at Belgium.
In 1870, Sanford paid $18,400 to former Confederate General Joseph Finegan
Joseph Finegan
Joseph Finegan was an attorney, politician, and railroad builder in Florida, but is primarily known as the general who commanded the Confederate States Army in its victory at the Battle of Olustee....
to acquire his extensive land holdings along Lake Monroe
Lake Monroe
Lake Monroe may refer to one of the following lakes:*Lake Monroe in Florida, a lake on the St. Johns River*Lake Monroe in Monroe and Brown counties, Indiana*Lake Monroe in Monroe County, Mississippi...
and founded the city of Sanford, Florida
Sanford, Florida
Sanford is a city in, and the county seat of, Seminole County, Florida, United States. The population was 38,291 at the 2000 census. As of 2009, the population recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau was 50,998...
. He founded an orange plantation at Lake Monroe
Lake Monroe (Florida)
Lake Monroe is one of the lakes that make up the St. Johns River system. The port city of Sanford is situated along the southern shore, while DeBary and Deltona are located along the northern shore. Two major central Florida roadways that run near the lake are State Road 415 and Interstate 4...
that offered some promise to revive his flagging fortunes, but it did not prove profitable in the long term. In fact he poured quite a bit of precious capital into land speculation and town building in Florida in the hopes of turning around a family economy that spent far more than it took in, but with no success. The commitment of his time and resources to cashing in on the postbellum Florida land boom was a miserable failure in the end. His wife was so disgruntled with his booster schemes that she lamented in a letter to her husband that Florida was "a vampire that... sucked the repose & the beauty & the dignity & cheerfulness out of our lives." Sanford had numerous other business interests, some in the Congo after his work for Belgium, but none were profitable.
The Belgian King Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
used Sanford to convince Henry Morton Stanley
Henry Morton Stanley
Sir Henry Morton Stanley, GCB, born John Rowlands , was a Welsh journalist and explorer famous for his exploration of Africa and his search for David Livingstone. Upon finding Livingstone, Stanley allegedly uttered the now-famous greeting, "Dr...
to explore the Congo basin for Belgium in 1878. He then hired Sanford in 1883 as his envoy to the United States to try to gain American recognition for his colony in Congo
Belgian Congo
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of his personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Congo Free State, 1884–1908:Until the latter...
.
In 1886, Sanford organized at Brussels and dispatched to the Congo and its tributaries the Sanford Exploring Expedition for the purpose of scientific and commercial discovery and for the opening up of an interior trade. His steamboats "Florida" and "New York" were the first commercial steamers to penetrate the waters of the upper Congo. Sanford employed Roger Casement from September 1886 to February 1888 on the Expedition, working on river transports. His project did not prosper partly because the Congo State was becoming increasingly restrictive in its attitude to other commercial interests.
Sanford remained loyal to the Belgian king until 1889, when serving as the American representative at Leopold’s Anti-Slavery Conference, Leopold betrayed his earlier free trade
Free trade
Under a free trade policy, prices emerge from supply and demand, and are the sole determinant of resource allocation. 'Free' trade differs from other forms of trade policy where the allocation of goods and services among trading countries are determined by price strategies that may differ from...
plans for the Congo and asked for the imposition of customs duties so as to aid the destruction of slavery in the Congo.
Death
Sanford died at White Sulphur Springs, Virginia on May 21, 1891. He is buried in Long Hill Cemetery, Shelton, Connecticut.Legacy
In her will of 1901, Gertrude Sanford expressed a desire that the city of Sanford, Florida have her husband's library as his memorial. Her daughter, Carola Sanford-Dow fulfilled this wish and in 1957 the Henry Shelton Sanford Memorial Library and Museum was built to house the books, papers, and decorative arts collection of Gen. Sanford. The museum was expanded in 1973 and again in 1993, at which time the name was changed to the Sanford Museum.External links
- The Different Systems of Penal Codes in Europe: Also, a Report on the Administrative Changes in France since the Revolution of 1848 by Henry Shelton Sanford.
- Sanford Museum
- Hochschild discusses King Leopold's Ghost at the Miami International Book Fair, starting 4 minutes into this video.
- Review from the New York Times
- Interview with Adam Hochschild on AlterNet about King Leopold's Ghost