User:Jengod/George B. Cortelyou

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6850514&pt=George%20Cortelyou

Jul. 26, 1862 Death:  Oct. 23, 1940 Long Island City Queens County New York, USA Presidential Cabinet Secretary. Served as United States Secretary of Commerace and Labor from 1903 to 1904, United States Postmaster General from 1905 to 1907 and United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1907 to 1909.

Memorial Cemetery of St. John's Church Cold Spring Harbor Suffolk County New York, USA

http://www.commerce.gov/secretaries.html The first Secretary of Commerce and Labor was George B. Cortelyou.

George B. Cortelyou February 18, 1903 - June 30, 1904

http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/management/curator/collection/secretary/cortelyou.htm In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt appointed George Bruce Cortelyou (1862-1940) to his third cabinet position, as Secretary of the Treasury. Previously, and also under Roosevelt, he had been the first head of the Department of Commerce and Labor and had served as Postmaster General. Cortelyou was Secretary of the Treasury during the devastating Panic of 1907 in which the business of the country was brought to a standstill. Like his predecessor, Secretary Leslie M. Shaw, Cortelyou believed it was Treasury's duty to protect the banking system, but he realized that the Treasury was not equipped to maintain economic stability.

He eased the crisis by depositing large amounts of government funds in national banks and buying government bonds. To prevent further crises, Cortelyou advocated a more elastic currency and recommended the creation of a central banking system. In 1907, the Aldridh-Vreeland Act was passed, providing special currency to be issued in times of panic, and creating a commission, which helped prompt the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913. Cortelyou resigned at the end of Roosevelt's term.

Cortelyou, George Bruce (1862-1940) Born July 26, 1862. Republican. U.S. Secretary of Commerce and Labor, 1903-04; Chairman of Republican National Committee, 1904-07; U.S. Postmaster General, 1905-07; U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, 1907-09. Died October 23, 1940. Interment at Memorial Cemetery, Near Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N.Y.

http://www.whitehousehistory.org/06/subs/06_d02.html The name of George Bruce Cortelyou (1862-1940) is little known today, but he was integral to the administration of Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt. During his tenure as a civil servant in the White House, his organizational skills brought about the consolidation of the executive offices and its operations within the West Wing. Cortelyou was a trusted aide to President Roosevelt and served in his cabinet as Secretary of Labor and Commerce (1903-05), Postmaster General (1905-07) and Secretary of the Treasury (1907-1909).

Cortelyou, eldest child of Peter and Rose Cortelyou, was born in New York in 1862. He was educated at public schools in Brooklyn, Nazareth Military Academy in Pennsylvania, and the Hempstead Institute on Long Island. At the age of 20, he received a BA degree from Massachusetts State Normal School, a teacher’s college in Westfield, Massachusetts.

Cortelyou returned to Hempstead Institute to teach and while there married Lily Hinds, the daughter of his mentor Professor Hinds. He attempted to establish a school of his own, but an unfortunate outbreak of scarlet fever led to the school’s early closure. In search of a more lucrative career, Cortelyou enrolled at a stenographic institute in New York and mastered shorthand.

In 1891, he obtained a position as secretary to the chief postal inspector of New York.. The following year a promotion led to a job as the secretary to the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, D.C. The Cortelyous settled in Washington, D.C. with their two small children and in 1895 President Grover Cleveland hired Cortelyou as his chief clerk on the recommendation of Postmaster General Wilson Bissell.

Cortelyou was an invaluable assistant and President Cleveland recommended him as secretary to his successor, William McKinley. Cortelyou was working on improvements in office efficiency in 1901 when President McKinley was shot in Buffalo.

Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt well knew Cortelyou as President McKinley’s secretary and as an active leader in the campaign that had returned the president to the White House. Roosevelt was glad to have Cortelyou’s assistance after his unexpected succession as president.

The White House offices were crowded with 23 men working in five rooms at the east end of the second floor. In addition, the offices were used by military personnel attached to the White House, as well as coachmen, stablemen, and laborers. The unsatisfactory crowding of the offices at the White House had been a problem for a long time as administrative duties increased. Plans for improving or replacing the White House were considered in the 1860s. In 1900, a vast expansion of the White House was proposed as a means of celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the city of Washington. The plan had included an entire east wing for executive offices and a press room. Cortelyou would have been party to this plan, but the extent is not known. The Roosevelt restoration of the White House, completed in 1902 by architects McKim, Mead, and White included new facilities for the executive offices in a building erected at the end of the west colonnade. The addition was known as the “temporary” Executive Office Building, later called the West Wing.

The last cabinet meeting of the Roosevelt adminstration, March 2, 1909. Cortelyou was seated directly to the left of President Roosevelt.

George Cortelyou (center) walking in Chicago during the Republican National Convention in 1912.

The new offices represented a significant change from the crowded rooms on the second floor of the White House. Rooms for the staff, press, telegraph operator and messengers flanked a large entry hall. As secretary to the president, Cortelyou’s office was centrally placed with direct access to the main lobby and the front door of the West Wing. The room to the east of the secretary’s office was the president’s workroom with sliding pocket doors connecting it to the adjacent Cabinet Room.

The new offices suited the complete revision of the administrative proceduresof the presidency. Roosevelt charged Cortelyou with putting the presidential organization on a businesslike basis. Cortelyou developed procedures and rules that guided White House protocol and established a formal organizational structure where there had been only personal prerogative.

Cortelyou resigned from public life when the Roosevelt administration ended. He entered private business as the president of the Consolidated Gas Company in New York where he proved to be as successful in private business as he had been in public service. At the time of his death in 1940, Cortelyou could look back over a career that exemplified the belief that hard work and dedication could lead to professional success. His tenure in the White House helped to shape the function of the executive offices and brought them together under the West Wing.

http://www.newsday.com/community/guide/lihistory/ny-history-hs347d,0,7288775.story?coll=ny-lihistory-navigation

Our ancestor Jaques Cortelyou came to the New World in 1652. Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn is named after him. He was a surveyor under Peter Stuyvesant and made the first official map of lower Manhattan.

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/print_friendly.html?page=summer_1999_presidential_press_secretary_1_content.html&title=NARA%20%7C%20Prologue%20%7C%20Prologue%3A%20Selected%20Articles On January 26, 1903, George Bruce Cortelyou, who had been President William McKinley's secretary, wrote a memo for the guidance of the new hands in Theodore Roosevelt's White House on the duties of a presidential secretary. The memo listed among those duties the care of the White House stables. It said nothing about the White House press corps.1

How things have changed. But even in the days of McKinley, Cortelyou's assessment was not entirely accurate. John Nicolay, the former Illinois editor tapped by President Abraham Lincoln to be his secretary, was called upon, much as modern presidential press secretaries have been, to separate the wheat from the chaff for journalists seeking guidance on stories. The editor of the monthly magazine The Century consulted him about "anecdotes, reminiscences, and other hints of startling disclosures." Nicolay's daughter and biographer, Helen Nicolay, said he would usually cast doubt on the stories and discourage their publication, but once in a while he would tell the editor they were interesting and important and should be published.

Cortelyou was described by McKinley biographer Margaret Leach as "the first of the presidential press secretaries."2 This is an overstatement, as Cortelyou handled other duties. Nevertheless, he provided reporters for the first time with work space in the executive mansion, briefed them on developments in the Spanish-American War, handed out news releases, and selected news items to bring to the President's attention.3 During presidential trips, he provided the traveling press corps with advance texts of McKinley's speeches and had stenographers take down his extemporaneous remarks.4

http://www.sacklunch.net/biography/C/GeorgeBruceCortelyou.html Biography of George Bruce Cortelyou Cortelyou, George Bruce. Ex-secretary of the treasury. Born in New York, 1862. Graduated at Hempstead, LI, Institute and State Normal School, Westfield, MA. Graduate of the law schools of Georgetown and Columbian (George Washington) universities. In 1883, general law reporter. Was principal of schools in New York from 1885 to 1889. Entered the public service a private secretary to public officials. Was appointed stenographer to President Cleveland 1895; executive clerk 1896; assistant secretary to President McKinley, 1898; secretary to the president, 1900; reappointed by President Roosevelt. Was appointed secretary of the newly established Department of Commerce and Labor, 1903. Elected chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1904, and conducted the campaign which resulted in the election of President Roosevelt. He entered the new cabinet, 1905, as postmaster-general, and on March 4, 1907, was appointed secretary of the treasury. In 1909, became president of New York Gas Co.