Samuel Hay Kauffmann

 

Samuel Hay Kauffmann by Rossiter Johnson 1906

S. H. Kauffmann came to Washington in 1861 to fill a position in the office of the U.S. Treasury under his friend Salmon P. Chase. Previous to which he had been a farmer, a telegraph operator, a printer, editor and publisher in Ohio. See Johnson's Biographical Dictionary, Vol. 6. 1906.

Samuel Hay Kauffmann, The Telegraph Age, Feb. 1, 1902.

The Telegraph Age magazine identifies Kauffmann as “an old-time telegrapher,” and notes that “he taught the 'science of dots and dashes' to Gen. Thomas T. Eckert, now [1902] president of the Western Union Telegraph Company.” 

As his March 15, 1906 obituary in the Washington Times indicates “In 1867, two years after he severed his connection with the Treasury Department, he in company with Crosby S. Noyes, George W. Adams, Alexander R. Shepherd and Clarence B. Baker purchased the Evening Star, with which had been connected in various official capacities ever since. Of late he was president of the corporation.”

Noted Newspaper Man Whose Death is Loss to Washington

Samuel Hay Kauffmann

President of Evening Star Company, Who died After a Long Illness.

The Washington Star on Jan. 1. 1952 published this photo spread of the Star's founders:

These men founded the Evening Star Co. in 1868.

S. H. Kauffmann

The 1966 book, Collection of American Paintings in The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Vol. 1, notes on page 152 that “Samuel Hay Kauffmann was elected Trustee of The Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1881. He became President of the Board of Trustees in 1894, an office he held until his death in 1906.” It describes an 1898 portrait of Kauffmann by James Edward Barclay belonging to the Corcoran but does not illustrate it.

The Corcoran also had this bronze bust of Samuel H. Kauffmann sculpted between 1829 and 1906 by Henry Jackson Ellicott which now resides in the National Portrait Gallery.

Gates' Men of Mark in America, 1905-6, says that Samuel Kauffman “was one of the first to suggest and advocate the establishment at Washington of the National Museum which contains some of the most interesting and important collections illustrative of anthropology.”

He was a member of the Washington Monument Society and was writing a book on “The Equestrian Statuary of the World” which he never finished. You can read an offshoot of this work in his 1902 presentation to the Columbia Historical Society entitled  “Equestrian Statuary in Washington.”

Samuel Hay Kauffman died on March 15 1906 and is buried in the family plot in Rock Creek Cemetery

Samuel Hay

Kauffmann

Apr. 30 1828

Mar. 15, 1906.

beside his wife Sarah and his son Francis.

Sarah Fracker

Kauffmann

May 29, 1827

Apr. 2, 1900

Samuel H. Kauffmann and Sarah Clark Fracker were married on October 12, 1852. She was the daughter of John Tileston Fracker, of Zanesville, Ohio.

Their son Francis Phillips Kauffmann died in 1877 when he was only 17 years old.

Francis Phillips

Kauffmann

Nov.  15, 1859

July  8, 1877

Samuel H. Kauffmann's grandson also named Samuel Hay Kauffmann is also buried here in front of the family memorial.

Samuel Hay Kauffmann

Feb. 24, 1898-Jan. 12, 1971

Samuel Kauffman II worked his way up through the ranks at the Washington Star to become president of the company in 1949. He continued as president until he retired in 1963. See The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1977, for a thorough biography of Samuel Kauffmann II and read his New York Times obituary here.

The family memorial features a representation of “Memory” or “The Seven Ages of Man.” See my examination of this 1897 sculpture by William Ordway Partridge in the Landmarks Blog.