Frederick S. Winston

Frederick Seymour Winston (October 14, 1806 – March 17, 1885) was an American businessman who served as president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. Early life Winston was born on October 14, 1806, in Ballston Spa, New York, where he received "a good academic education." He was a son of Frederick Winston and Susan ( Seymour) Winston (1782–1856). His father was a native of Virginia, but moved to New York State early in life and became a farmer. His brother, the Rev. Dennis Mervyn Winston, was a close friend of Harrison Gray Otis Dwight, with whom he prepared for college under the instruction of Erastus Clark, graduated from Hamilton College, and studied theology with at Andover Theological Seminary. Through his brother, he was uncle to Frederick Hampden Winston, the U.S. Minister to Persia under President Grover Cleveland. In 1896, at fourteen years old, Winston moved to New York City and entered the merchant's store of Halsted, Haines & Co., as a clerk. Career He spent twenty-seven years as a prosperous merchant in the wholesale dry goods business on Pearl Street under his own name. In June 1853, he was elected president of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, of which he had been a trustee since 1846, and served as president until his death in 1885 at age 79. "When he assumed the office of President, the assets of the company were about $2,000,000, and when he died the assets had swelled to $100,000,000, which is as forcible a comment as could be made upon the business capacity of the President." His tenure as president coincided with the Civil War, during which he honored the policies of all fallen Union soldiers while suspending policies south of the Mason-Dixon line.