114th New York State Legislature

The 114th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 6 to April 30, 1891, during the seventh year of David B. Hill's governorship, in Albany.

114th New York State Legislature
← 113th 115th →
New York State Capitol (2009)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1891
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. Edward F. Jones (D)
Temporary President	Jacob Sloat Fassett (R)
Party control	Republican (19-13)
Assembly
Members	128
Speaker	William F. Sheehan (D)
Party control	Democratic (69-59)
Sessions
1st January 6 – April 30, 1891

Background

Under the provisions of the New York Constitution of 1846, 32 Senators and 128 assemblymen were elected in single-seat districts; senators for a two-year term, assemblymen for a one-year term. The senatorial districts were made up of entire counties, except New York County (seven districts) and Kings County (three districts). The Assembly districts were made up of entire towns, or city wards,^[1] forming a contiguous area, all within the same county.

At this time there were two major political parties: the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. In New York City, the Democrats were split into two factions: Tammany Hall and the "County Democracy". The Prohibition Party and the Socialist Labor Party also nominated tickets.

Elections

The New York state election, 1890 was held on November 4. The only statewide elective office up for election was carried by the incumbent Judge of the Court of Appeals Robert Earl, a Democrat who was endorsed by the Republicans. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Judge of the Court of Appeals, was: Democratic/Republican 927,000; Prohibition 34,000; and Socialist Labor 13,000.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the State Capitol in Albany on January 6, 1891; and adjourned on April 30.

William F. Sheehan (D) was elected Speaker with 66 votes against 56 for Milo M. Acker (R).^[2]

On January 21, the Legislature elected Governor David B. Hill (D) to succeed William M. Evarts (R) as U.S. Senator from New York, for a six-year term beginning on March 4, 1891. However, Governor Hill remained in office until the end of his term on December 31, 1891, and took his seat in the U.S. Senate only on January 7, 1892.

State Senate

Districts

• 1st District: Queens and Suffolk counties
• 2nd District: 1st, 2nd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th and 22nd Ward of the City of Brooklyn, and the towns of Flatbush, Gravesend and New Utrecht in Kings County
• 3rd District: 3rd, 4th, 7th, 11th, 13th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 23rd Ward of the City of Brooklyn
• 4th District: 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 18th, 24th and 25th Ward of the City of Brooklyn, and the towns of New Lots and Flatlands in Kings County
• 5th District: Richmond County and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 8th, 14th and parts of the 4th and 9th Ward of New York City
• 6th District: 7th, 11th, 13th and part of the 4th Ward of NYC
• 7th District: 10th, 17th and part of the 15th, 18th and 21st Ward of NYC
• 8th District: 16th and part of the 9th, 15th, 18th, 20th and 21st Ward of NYC
• 9th District: Part of the 18th, 19th and 21st Ward of NYC
• 10th District: Part of the 12th, 19th, 20th, 21st and 22nd Ward of NYC
• 11th District: 23rd and 24th, and part of the 12th, 20th and 22nd Ward of NYC
• 12th District: Rockland and Westchester counties
• 13th District: Orange and Sullivan counties
• 14th District: Greene, Schoharie and Ulster counties
• 15th District: Columbia, Dutchess and Putnam counties
• 16th District: Rensselaer and Washington counties
• 17th District: Albany County
• 18th District: Fulton, Hamilton, Montgomery, Saratoga and Schenectady counties
• 19th District: Clinton, Essex and Warren counties
• 20th District: Franklin, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties
• 21st District: Oswego and Jefferson counties
• 22nd District: Oneida County
• 23rd District: Herkimer, Madison and Otsego counties
• 24th District: Chenango, Delaware and Broome counties
• 25th District: Onondaga and Cortland counties
• 26th District: Cayuga, Seneca, Tompkins and Tioga counties
• 27th District: Allegany, Chemung and Steuben counties
• 28th District: Ontario, Schuyler, Wayne and Yates counties
• 29th District: Monroe and Orleans counties
• 30th District: Genesee, Livingston, Niagara and Wyoming counties
• 31st District: Erie County
• 32nd District: Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties

Note: There are now 62 counties in the State of New York. The counties which are not mentioned in this list had not yet been established, or sufficiently organized, the area being included in one or more of the abovementioned counties.

Members

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature.

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	Edward Hawkins*	Democrat
2nd	John C. Jacobs*	Democrat
3rd	James W. Birkett*	Republican
4th	Patrick H. McCarren*	Democrat
5th	William L. Brown*	Tammany Dem.
6th	John F. Ahearn*	County Dem.
7th	George F. Roesch*	Tammany Dem.
8th	Lispenard Stewart*	Republican
9th	Charles A. Stadler*	Tammany Dem.
10th	Jacob A. Cantor*	Tammany Dem.
11th	Eugene S. Ives*	Tammany Dem.
12th	William H. Robertson*	Republican
13th	William P. Richardson*	Republican
14th	John J. Linson*	Democrat
15th	Gilbert A. Deane*	Republican	died on November 20, 1891
16th	Michael F. Collins*	Democrat
17th	Norton Chase*	Democrat
18th	Harvey J. Donaldson*	Republican
19th	Louis W. Emerson*	Republican
20th	George Z. Erwin*	Republican
21st	George B. Sloan*	Republican
22nd	Henry J. Coggeshall*	Republican
23rd	Titus Sheard*	Republican
24th	Edmund O'Connor*	Republican
25th	Francis Hendricks*	Republican	seat vacated on September 28, 1891, upon taking office as Collector of the Port of New York
26th	Thomas Hunter*	Republican
27th	J. Sloat Fassett*	Republican	President pro tempore; seat vacated on August 1, 1891, upon taking office as Collector of the Port of New York
28th	Charles T. Saxton*	Republican
29th	Donald McNaughton*	Democrat
30th	Greenleaf S. Van Gorder*	Republican
31st	John Laughlin*	Republican
32nd	Commodore P. Vedder*	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: John S. Kenyon
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Charles V. Schram
• Doorkeeper: Edward R. Gibbons
• Stenographer: George H. Thornton

State Assembly

Assemblymen

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued as members of this Legislature.

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	Michael J. Nolan*	Democrat
	2nd	Walter E. Ward	Republican
	3rd	Galen R. Hitt*	Democrat
	4th	John T. Gorman	Democrat
Allegany		Addison S. Thompson*	Republican
Broome		Israel T. Deyo*	Republican
Cattaraugus	1st	Burton B. Lewis*	Republican
	2nd	James S. Whipple*	Republican
Cayuga	1st	George W. Dickinson*	Republican
	2nd	William Leslie Noyes	Republican
Chautauqua	1st	Walter C. Gifford	Republican
	2nd	Egburt E. Woodbury	Republican
Chemung		Robert P. Bush*	Democrat
Chenango		Harvey A. Truesdell	Republican
Clinton		Alfred Guibord*	Republican
Columbia		Aaron B. Gardenier*	Republican	unsuccessfully contested by Henry L. Warner (D)^[3]
Cortland		Rufus T. Peck*	Republican
Delaware		Henry Davie	Democrat
Dutchess	1st	Willard H. Mase*	Republican
	2nd	Edward B. Osborne	Democrat
Erie	1st	William F. Sheehan*	Democrat	elected Speaker; on November 3, 1891, elected Lieutenant Governor
	2nd	Matthias Endres*	Democrat
	3rd	Edward Gallagher	Republican
	4th	Henry H. Guenther*	Democrat
	5th	Frank D. Smith	Democrat
Essex		Walter D. Palmer	Republican
Franklin		William C. Stevens*	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		John Christie*	Republican
Genesee		Francis T. Miller*	Republican
Greene		Omar V. Sage*	Democrat
Herkimer		Henry H. Green	Republican
Jefferson	1st	Henry J. Lane*	Republican
	2nd	Isaac Mitchell*	Republican
Kings	1st	Joseph J. Cahill	Democrat
	2nd	Bernard J. McBride*	Democrat
	3rd	John Cooney*	Democrat
	4th	John J. O'Connor*	Democrat
	5th	John Kelly*	Democrat
	6th	William E. Shields*	Democrat
	7th	Adam Schaaff*	Democrat
	8th	James F. Quigley	Democrat
	9th	Charles W. Sutherland	Democrat
	10th	Thomas F. Byrnes*	Democrat
	11th	Joseph Aspinall	Republican	unsuccessfully contested by Francis H. Reinhard (D);^[4]^[5]
	12th	Mortimer C. Earl	Democrat
Lewis		G. Henry P. Gould	Democrat
Livingston		Elias H. Davis*	Republican
Madison		Samuel R. Mott*	Republican
Monroe	1st	Frank M. Jones*	Republican
	2nd	Cornelius R. Parsons	Rep./Un. Labor
	3rd	William H. Denniston	Republican
Montgomery		W. Barlow Dunlap	Republican	contested,^[6] seat vacated on February 25
		John F. Dwyer	Democrat	seated on February 26^[7]
New York	1st	Patrick H. Duffy*	Tammany Dem.
	2nd	Timothy D. Sullivan*	Tammany Dem.
	3rd	Percival Farquhar	Tammany Dem.
	4th	Patrick H. Roche	Tammany Dem.
	5th	Dominick F. Mullaney*	Tammany Dem.
	6th	Samuel J. Foley	Tammany Dem.
	7th	Martin T. McMahon	Democrat
	8th	John E. Brodsky	Ind. Rep.
	9th	Wright Holcomb	Tammany Dem.
	10th	William Sohmer*	Tammany Dem.
	11th	William M. Lawrence	Democrat
	12th	Moses Dinkelspiel*	Democrat
	13th	James H. Southworth	Democrat
	14th	William Sulzer*	Tammany Dem.
	15th	Louis Drypolcher	Tammany Dem.
	16th	Walter G. Byrne*	Tammany Dem.
	17th	John Kerrigan*	Democrat
	18th	Daniel F. Martin	Tammany Dem.
	19th	John Connelly*	Tammany Dem.
	20th	Myer J. Stein*^[8]	Tammany Dem.
	21st	Dabid M. Hildreth Jr.	Republican
	22nd	Joseph Blumenthal*	Democrat
	23rd	George P. Webster*	Tammany Dem.
	24th	Christopher C. Clarke*	Tammany Dem.
Niagara	1st	Garwood L. Judd	Democrat
	2nd	Levi Parsons Gillette	Democrat
Oneida	1st	Cornelius Haley	Dem./Labor
	2nd	James L. Dempsey*	Democrat
	3rd	Russell S. Johnson*	Republican	unsuccessfully contested by Leonard E. Adsit (D)^[9]
Onondaga	1st	Howard G. White*	Republican
	2nd	William Kennedy	Republican
	3rd	Ignatius Sawmiller*	Republican
Ontario		Frank O. Chamberlain	Republican
Orange	1st	Grant B. Taylor	Democrat
	2nd	Michael N. Kane	Democrat
Orleans		Wallace L'Hommedieu*	Republican
Oswego	1st	Nevada N. Stranahan*	Republican	unsuccessfully contested by William B. Howard (D);^[10]^[11]
	2nd	Wilbur H. Selleck*	Republican
Otsego	1st	Oscar F. Lane*	Democrat
	2nd	Walter L. Brown	Republican
Putnam		Hamilton Fish II*	Republican
Queens	1st	Solomon S. Townsend*	Democrat
	2nd	James A. McKenna	Democrat
Rensselaer	1st	James M. Riley*	Democrat
	2nd	Levi E. Worden	Republican
	3rd	John W. McKnight*	Democrat
Richmond		John Croak	Democrat
Rockland		Frank P. Demarest	Democrat
St. Lawrence	1st	George R. Malby	Republican
	2nd	John C. Keeler	Republican
	3rd	William Bradford*	Republican
Saratoga	1st	Cornelius R. Sheffer*	Republican	contested by Robert O. Davis (D)^[12]
	2nd	Lewis Varney	Republican
Schenectady		Alvin J. Quackenbush	Democrat
Schoharie		Ambrose R. Hunting	Democrat
Schuyler		Charles T. Willis*	Republican
Seneca		William Harrison Dunham	Democrat
Steuben	1st	Grattan H. Brundage	Republican
	2nd	Milo M. Acker*	Republican	Minority Leader
Suffolk		James H. Pierson*	Republican
Sullivan		George M. Beakes	Democrat
Tioga		Royal W. Clinton	Republican	contested by Enoch S. Williams (D)
Tompkins		Nelson Stevens*	Republican
Ulster	1st	George M. Brink	Republican
	2nd	Jacob Rice*	Democrat
	3rd	George H. Bush*	Democrat
Warren		William M. Cameron^[13]	Democrat
Washington	1st	William D. Stevenson	Republican
	2nd	Albert Johnson*	Republican
Wayne	1st	Elliott B. Norris	Democrat
	2nd	Richard P. Groat*	Republican
Westchester	1st	Charles P. McClelland	Democrat	Majority Floor Leader
	2nd	William Ryan	Democrat
	3rd	James W. Husted*	Republican
Wyoming		I. Sam Johnson*	Republican
Yates		Everett Brown	Republican

Employees

• Clerk: Charles R. DeFreest
• Clerk for the Committee on Cities: Morris Jacoby
• Sergeant-at-Arms: Michael B. Redmond
• Doorkeeper: Edward A. Moore
• First Assistant Doorkeeper: Lawrence D. Fitzpatrick
• Second Assistant Doorkeeper: Kenneth D. L. Nivin
• Stenographer: Thomas Hassett

Notes

1. Except New York City where the wards were apportioned into election districts, and then some whole wards and some election districts of other wards were gerrymandered together into Assembly districts.
2. REED TACTICS IN ALBANY in NYT on January 7, 1891
3. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 633f)
4. See AID FROM THE UNION LEAGUE in NYT on February 17, 1891; and REINHARD'S CLAIM DROPPED in NYT on March 15, 1891
5. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 632f)
6. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 622–631)
7. DUNLAP STARTS FOR HOME in NYT on February 26, 1891
8. Myer J. Stein, brother of assemblyman Joseph L. Stein (in 1877)
9. The Committee on Elections delayed the proceedings in the usual manner, and Adsit withdrew his claim on March 20; see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 619f)
10. see THE BOUNCING COMMITTEE in NYT on January 8, 1891
11. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 631f)
12. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 621f)
13. William M. Cameron, grandson of assemblyman Duncan Cameron (in 1818 and 1822), and nephew of assemblyman James Cameron (in 1845)

Sources

• The New York Red Book compiled by Edgar L. Murlin (published by James B. Lyon, Albany NY, 1897; see pg. 384f for senate districts; pg. 403 for senators; pg. 410–417 for Assembly districts; and pg. 508f for assemblymen)
• Biographical sketches of the members of the Legislature in The Evening Journal Almanac (1891)
• THE ASSEMBLY SLATE FIXED in NYT on January 6, 1891