99th New York State Legislature

The 99th New York State Legislature, consisting of the New York State Senate and the New York State Assembly, met from January 4 to May 3, 1876, during the second year of Samuel J. Tilden's governorship, in Albany.

99th New York State Legislature
← 98th 100th →
The Old State Capitol (1879)
Overview
Legislative body	New York State Legislature
Jurisdiction	New York, United States
Term	January 1 – December 31, 1876
Senate
Members	32
President	Lt. Gov. William Dorsheimer (D)
Temporary President	William H. Robertson (R)
Party control	Republican (20-12)
Assembly
Members	128
Speaker	James W. Husted (R)
Party control	Republican (72-56)
Sessions
1st January 4 – May 3, 1876

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 (five districts) and Kings County (two 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 Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The Prohibition Party also nominated a ticket.

Elections

The New York state election, 1875 was held on November 2. All seven statewide elective offices up for election were carried by the Democrats. The approximate party strength at this election, as expressed by the vote for Secretary of State, was: Democratic 390,000; Republican 375,000; and Prohibition 11,000.

Sessions

The Legislature met for the regular session at the Old State Capitol in Albany on January 4, 1876; and adjourned on May 3.

James W. Husted (R) was elected Speaker against Richard U. Sherman (D).

William H. Robertson (R) was re-elected President pro tempore of the State Senate.

State Senate

Districts

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

Senators

The asterisk (*) denotes members of the previous Legislature who continued in office as members of this Legislature. L. Bradford Prince, John R. Kennaday, Stephen H. Hammond and Commodore P. Vedder changed from the Assembly to the Senate.

Note: For brevity, the chairmanships omit the words "...the Committee on (the)..."

District	Senator	Party	Notes
1st	L. Bradford Prince*	Republican	Chairman of Privileges and Elections
2nd	John R. Kennaday*	Democrat
3rd	John C. Jacobs*	Democrat	unsuccessfully contested by James Cavanagh (R)
4th	John Morrissey	Anti-Tam. Dem.
5th	James W. Booth*	Republican	Chairman of Literature; died on September 14, 1876
6th	Caspar A. Baaden	Republican	Chairman of Public Expenditures
7th	James W. Gerard	Democrat	unsuccessfully contested by William Laimbeer Jr. (R)[2]
8th	Francis M. Bixby	Anti-Tam. Dem.
9th	William H. Robertson*	Republican	re-elected President pro tempore; Chairman of Judiciary
10th	Daniel B. St. John	Democrat
11th	B. Platt Carpenter	Republican	Chairman of Retrenchment; and of Villages
12th	Thomas Coleman	Republican	Chairman of Banks; of Public Buildings; and of Grievances
13th	Hamilton Harris	Republican	Chairman of Finance; and of Joint Library
14th	Augustus Schoonmaker, Jr.	Democrat
15th	Webster Wagner*	Republican	Chairman of Public Printing
16th	Franklin W. Tobey*	Republican	Chairman of Insurance
17th	Darius A. Moore	Republican	Chairman of Claims; and of Agriculture
18th	James F. Starbuck	Democrat
19th	Theodore S. Sayre	Republican	Chairman of Roads and Bridges; and of Salt
20th	David P. Loomis	Democrat
21st	Benjamin Doolittle	Republican	Chairman of Manufactures
22nd	Dennis McCarthy	Republican	Chairman of Charitable and Religious Societies
23rd	William C. Lamont	Democrat
24th	John H. Selkreg*	Republican	Chairman of Railroads; and of Poor Laws
25th	William B. Woodin*	Republican	Chairman of Cities; of Engrossed Bills; and of Rules
26th	Stephen H. Hammond*	Democrat
27th	George B. Bradley*	Democrat
28th	William N. Emerson	Republican	Chairman of Erection and Division of Towns and Counties; and of Public Health
29th	Dan H. Cole*	Republican	Chairman of Canals
30th	Abijah J. Wellman*	Republican	Chairman of Militia; and of State Prisons
31st	Sherman S. Rogers	Republican	took his seat on January 11; Chairman of Commerce and Navigation; resigned to run for Lieutenant Governor of New York
32nd	Commodore P. Vedder*	Republican	unsuccessfully contested by Judson W. Breed; Chairman of Indian Affairs; and of Internal Affairs of Towns and Counties

Employees

• Clerk: Henry A. Glidden
• Sergeant-at-Arms: John W. Corning
• Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms: James L. Hart
• Doorkeeper: Frederick M. Burton
• First Assistant Doorkeeper: Webster Howard
• Stenographer: Hudson C. Tanner
• Janitor and Keeper of the Senate Chamber: George A. Johnson
• Assistant Janitor and Keeper of the Senate Chamber: Robert McIntyre
• Assistant Postmaster: Henry L. Griswold, from January 6
• Chaplain: Ebenezer Halley

State Assembly

Assemblymen

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

District		Assemblymen	Party	Notes
Albany	1st	Peter Slingerland*	Republican
	2nd	Thomas D. Coleman	Democrat
	3rd	William J. Maher	Democrat
	4th	Alfred LeRoy	Republican
Allegany		Sumner Baldwin	Republican
Broome		Rodney A. Ford	Democrat
Cattaraugus	1st	Harrison Cheney	Republican
	2nd	Edgar Shannon	Republican
Cayuga	1st	George I. Post	Republican
	2nd	John S. Brown	Republican
Chautauqua	1st	William H. Whitney	Democrat
	2nd	Theodore A. Case	Republican
Chemung		Edmund Miller	Democrat
Chenango		Isaac Plumb	Republican
Clinton		Shepard P. Bowen*	Republican
Columbia	1st	George H. Power	Republican
	2nd	John T. Hogeboom	Republican
Cortland		Judson C. Nelson	Democrat
Delaware	1st	George D. Wheeler	Republican
	2nd	Isaac H. Maynard	Democrat
Dutchess	1st	Thomas Hammond	Republican
	2nd	DeWitt Webb	Republican
Erie	1st	Daniel Cruice	Republican
	2nd	William W. Lawson*	Republican
	3rd	Edward Gallagher*	Republican
	4th	Charles F. Tabor	Democrat
	5th	Bertrand Chaffee	Democrat
Essex		William E. Calkins*	Republican
Franklin		John I. Gilbert	Republican
Fulton and Hamilton		John J. Hanson	Democrat
Genesee		Newton H. Green*[3]	Republican
Greene		Burton G. Morss	Democrat
Herkimer		Myron A. McKee	Republican
Jefferson	1st	Lotus Ingalls	Republican
	2nd	Lansing Becker	Democrat
Kings	1st	Daniel Bradley*	Democrat
	2nd	Jonathan Ogden	Republican
	3rd	Michael J. Coffey*	Democrat
	4th	Tunis V. P. Talmage*[4]	Democrat
	5th	Albion P. Higgins	Republican
	6th	Jacob Worth*	Republican
	7th	Charles L. Lyon	Democrat
	8th	Adrian M. Suydam	Republican
	9th	John McGroarty*	Democrat
Lewis		Alexander H. Crosby	Democrat
Livingston		James Faulkner Jr.*	Democrat
Madison	1st	Morris N. Campbell	Republican
	2nd	Fred C. Fiske	Republican
Monroe	1st	Willard Hodges	Republican
	2nd	James S. Graham	Republican
	3rd	Heman Glass	Republican
Montgomery		George M. Voorhees	Democrat
New York	1st	Nicholas Muller*	Democrat	on November 7, 1876, elected to the 45th U.S. Congress
	2nd	Felix Murphy	Anti-Tam. Dem.
	3rd	James J. Slevin	Democrat
	4th	John Galvin	Democrat
	5th	George W. Betts	Republican
	6th	Matthew Patten	Democrat
	7th	Isaac Israel Hayes	Republican
	8th	Frederick Gugel Jr.	Republican
	9th	Andrew J. Campbell	Republican
	10th	Joseph Hoffman Jr.	Republican
	11th	Charles A. Peabody Jr.	Republican
	12th	Archibald Watts	Republican
	13th	Robert H. Strahan	Republican	previously a member from Orange Co.
	14th	P. J. Carty	Anti-Tam. Dem.
	15th	M. P. Killian[5]	Democrat
	16th	George Y. Whitson	Anti-Tam. Dem.
	17th	William T. Graff	Republican
	18th	Stephen J. O'Hare	Democrat
	19th	James T. King	Democrat
	20th	I. A. Englehart	Republican
	21st	Joseph P. Fallon	Democrat
Niagara	1st	Amos A. Bissell	Democrat
	2nd	Jonas W. Brown	Republican
Oneida	1st	Richard U. Sherman*	Democrat
	2nd	Sylvester Gridley	Republican
	3rd	James H. Flanagan	Democrat
	4th	Walter Ballou	Democrat
Onondaga	1st	Allen Munroe	Republican
	2nd	Carroll E. Smith	Republican
	3rd	C. Fred Herbst	Republican
Ontario	1st	Seth Stanley	Democrat
	2nd	Hiram Maxfield	Democrat
Orange	1st	Thomas W. Bradley	Republican
	2nd	John H. Reeve	Democrat
Orleans		Joseph Drake Billings	Republican
Oswego	1st	George B. Sloan	Republican	elected Speaker pro tempore
	2nd	Thomas W. Green	Republican
	3rd	John Preston	Republican
Otsego	1st	James S. Davenport	Democrat
	2nd	George Scramling	Democrat
Putnam		Hamilton Fish II	Republican
Queens	1st	Townsend D. Cock	Democrat
	2nd	Alvan T. Payne	Democrat
Rensselaer	1st	William V. Cleary*	Democrat
	2nd	William F. Taylor*	Republican
	3rd	Thomas B. Simmons	Republican
Richmond		Kneeland S. Townsend	Republican
Rockland		George W. Weiant	Democrat
St. Lawrence	1st	David McFalls	Republican
	2nd	A. Barton Hepburn*	Republican
	3rd	Lewis C. Lang	Republican
Saratoga	1st	George West*	Republican
	2nd	Isaac Noyes Jr.	Republican
Schenectady		Emmett O'Neill	Republican
Schoharie		John M. Roscoe*	Democrat
Schuyler		William Gulick	Republican
Seneca		Lewis Post	Democrat
Steuben	1st	William B. Ruggles	Democrat
	2nd	Jerry E. B. Santee	Republican
Suffolk		Samuel B. Gardiner	Democrat
Sullivan		Adolphus E. Wenzel*	Democrat
Tioga		Eugene B. Gere	Republican
Tompkins		Samuel D. Halliday	Democrat
Ulster	1st	Thomas Hamilton	Democrat
	2nd	Jacob D. Wurts*	Democrat
	3rd	Davis Winne	Democrat
Warren		Robert Waddell	Republican
Washington	1st	Townsend J. Potter	Republican
	2nd	Henry G. Burleigh	Republican
Wayne	1st	Emory W. Gurnee	Democrat
	2nd	Allen S. Russell*	Republican
Westchester	1st	George H. Forster	Republican
	2nd	Charles M. Schieffelin*	Democrat
	3rd	James W. Husted*	Republican	elected Speaker
Wyoming		Arthur Clark	Republican
Yates		John Southerland	Democrat

Employees

• Clerk: Edward M. Johnson
• Sergeant-at-Arms: George A. Goss
• Doorkeeper: Eugene L. Demers
• Stenographer: Worden E. Payne

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. see A Compilation of Cases of Contested Elections to Seats in the Assembly of the State of New York (1899; pg. 605)
3. Newton H. Green, son of Andrew H. Green who was assemblyman in 1838 and 1839; and brother of Loren Green who was assemblyman in 1863 and 1864
4. Tunis Van Pelt Talmage, son of Mayor of Brooklyn Thomas G. Talmage
5. M. P. Killian, see AN EX-LEGISLATOR'S FALL in NYT on June 19, 1891

Sources

• Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York compiled by Edgar Albert Werner (1884; see pg. 276 for Senate districts; pg. 291 for senators; pg. 298–304 for Assembly districts; and pg. 375f for assemblymen)
• Tribune Almanac for 1876
• Journal of the Senate (99th Session) (1876)
• ASSEMBLY CAUCUSES in NYT on January 4, 1876
• THE LEGISLATURE in Corning Journal on January 6, 1876
• THE COUNTY TICKET in NYT on October 30, 1875 [gives sketches of the Republican Assembly nominees in NYC]