James William Beekman was vice president of the New York Hospital.
Background
He was born in New York City on November 22, 1815. His father died in 1833 left him with money, and the death of his uncle, James Beekman, added to his real estate holdings on the East River near Fifty-second street, including the Beekman mansion, "Mount Pleasant", a place of historic interest from its prominence in Revolutionary times.
Education
He graduated from Columbia College in 1834, and studied law with John Landis Mason, but never joined the New York Bar Association.
Career
He was a descendent of Wilhelmus Beekman, who sailed with Peter Stuyvesant to New Netherlands, and was an officer of the Dutch West India Company. In 1861 he, with Erastus Corning and Thurlow Weed, was appointed by a meeting of conservative men in New York to go to Washington and urge President James Buchanan to relieve Fort Sumter. He was vice-president of the New York Hospital, president of the woman"s hospital, and a director of the New York dispensary.
On 4 December 1869, he delivered an address before the Saint Nicholas Society on "The Founders of New York," which was afterward published (New York, 1870).
See "Memoir of James William Beekman," by Edward F. De Lancey (New York, 1877). In February 1876, he published a report on a village of hospitals.
He died in 1877 and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery. The James William Beekman House is a registered landmark in Oyster Bay, New York, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Membership
He was a member of the New York State Assembly (New York Company, 6th Doctorate) in 1849. And of the New York State Senate (5th Doctorate) from 1850 to 1853, sitting in the 73rd, 74th, 75th and 76th New York State Legislatures. He was also one of the early members of the New-York Historical Society, before which he delivered a centennial discourse in 1871 and read papers at different times.