gwmain May 20: Colonel Abraham Vosburgh, while serving in the Civil War commanding the 71st New York National Guard, died of disease on this date in 1861; President Abraham Lincoln laid a wreath on Vosburgh’s casket a few days later.
May 19: On this date in 1850, Heinrich Englehard Steinweg departed Hamburg for America; he would make his fortune in America in the piano business as Henry Steinway.
May 18: James Truslow Adams, the historian who coined the term coined the term “American Dream” in his 1931 book The Epic of America, died on this date in 1949.
May 17: German-immigrant toymaker F.A.O. Schwarz died on this date in 1911.
May 16: On this date in 1870, John Egbert Farnum, adventurer, indicted slaver, and Civil War general, died.
May 15: John Wolfe Ambrose, for whom the Ambrose Lightship (now docked at South Street Seaport) at the mouth of New York Harbor was named, died on this date in 1899.
May 14: William Donaldson Dickey, who won the Medal of Honor during the Civil War when he “refused to leave the field, remaining in command after being wounded by a piece of shell, and led his command in the assault on the enemy’s works on the following day,” died on this date in 1924.
May 13: On this date in 1847, the 14th Regiment of the New York State Militia, was formed. It would achieve fame in the Civil War as the 14th Brooklyn, and was commanded at the Battle of Gettysburg by Colonel Edward Fowler.
May 12: Merchant James M. Constable, who joined with Aaron Arnold to create Arnold, Constable, & Co., a clothier which outfitted New Yorkers for 150 years, died on this date in 1900.
May 11: John M. Bradstreet, whose named was given to the legendary firm of Dun and Bradstreet, which pioneered research on business creditworthiness, died on this date in 1863.