Background
Thomas was born on March 23, 1837 in New York City, New York, United States, the son of Alfred and Elizabeth Ann (Greenough) Stillman.
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Thomas Edgar Stillman
Edit ProfileEducation
He successively attended public school No. 2, in New York City, the Free Academy of New York, and Alfred Academy (now Alfred University) at which latter institution he finished his secondary education and completed two years of college work. In 1857 he entered Madison College (now Colgate University), Hamilton, New York, where he attained a creditable scholastic record, graduating two years later. He remained in Hamilton for the next three years, studying law in the office of Joseph Mason, later county judge and member of Congress.
Career
Under the tutelage of Mason, his brother Charles Mason, who became a judge of the New York court of appeals and was then a justice of the New York supreme court, and David J. Mitchell, a prominent attorney, he received a thorough training for the profession. During this period he took part locally in Lincoln's campaign of 1860.
Having been admitted to the bar in 1862, Stillman moved to New York, where, after a brief period of independent legal activity, he joined the firm of Barney, Butler & Parsons as managing clerk. Shortly afterwards he was admitted as junior partner, Barney and Parsons withdrew, and Thomas H. Hubbard joined the firm, which from 1874 until the date of Stillman's retirement in 1896, was known as Butler, Stillman & Hubbard.
Beginning his career in the field of commercial and general practice, Stillman soon began to give special attention to admiralty problems, gradually forging to the front of the admiralty bar by his able handling of important suits pertaining to this branch of jurisprudence. The first of these litigations was the case of the Circassian, in which he unraveled the tangled skein of legal troubles so successfully as to establish his reputation as an admiralty lawyer.
From his admiralty practice Stillman passed into the field of corporation law, especially as it concerned railroads, and thus gravitated naturally into corporation management. This he first undertook in connection with the administration of the Mark Hopkins estate, valued in the neighborhood of $19, 000, 000, part of which represented substantially one-fourth ownership of the Southern Pacific Company.
Following his retirement from active business he devoted much of his time to travel, spending every summer in Europe. It was while traveling through France that he met his death in 1906 as the result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident.
Achievements
Personality
He was a man catholic in his tastes, with a wide interest in literature, art, and history, public spirited, kindly, and charitable.
He enjoyed the society of a wide circle of friends.
Connections
He had a wife, the former Charlotte Elizabeth Greenman, whom he had married on January 10, 1865. He was survived by four daughters.
