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William Crowninshield Endicott
Photograph of Endicott, c. 1886
36th United States Secretary of War
In office March 5, 1885 – March 5, 1889
President	Grover Cleveland
Preceded by	Robert Todd Lincoln
Succeeded by	Redfield Proctor
Personal details
Born	(1826-11-19)November 19, 1826 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	May 6, 1900(1900-05-06) (aged 73) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Political party	Democratic
Other political affiliations	Whig
Spouse	Ellen Peabody ​ ​(after 1859)​
Education	Harvard University (BA) Harvard Law School
Signature

William Crowninshield Endicott (November 19, 1826 – May 6, 1900) was an American politician and Secretary of War in the first administration of President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889).

Early life

Endicott was born in Salem, Massachusetts on November 19, 1826. He was a son of William Putnam Endicott and Mary (née Crowninshield) Endicott. He was a direct descendant of the Massachusetts governor, John Endecott, and a first cousin three times removed of another Massachusetts governor, Endicott Peabody.

He graduated from Harvard University in 1847 and attended Harvard Law School in 1849–1850. He studied law with Nathaniel J. Lord prior to his admission to the Massachusetts bar in 1850.

Career

In 1852, he was elected a member of the Salem Common Council and, five years later, became City Solicitor. He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1862. In 1853, he entered into a law partnership with J. W. Perry under the name Perry & Endicott, which was dissolved in 1873 upon his appointment to the bench. From 1857 to 1873, also served as president of the Salem Bank.

In 1873, Endicott, although a Democrat (and originally a Whig), was appointed by Republican governor William B. Washburn to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, where he served until 1882. In 1879, he unsuccessfully ran for Congress, followed by an unsuccessful gubernatorial race in 1884. Grover Cleveland appointed Endicott Secretary of War and he served in that capacity in the administration between 1885 and 1889. Endicott oversaw many important changes in the organization of the United States Army, including the establishment of a system of examinations to determine the promotion of officers.

Endicott convened and chaired the Board of Fortifications in 1885 (usually called the Endicott Board), which would provide detailed recommendations and designs for the generation of American coastal defense fortifications constructed in the era of the Spanish–American War. Most of these Endicott Period fortifications served through early World War II.

Personal life

On December 13, 1859, Endicott was married to Ellen Peabody (1833–1927) in Salem. Ellen was the daughter of philanthropist George Peabody and Clarissa Peabody of Salem. Her grandfather was the distinguished Salem ship owner, Joseph Peabody, who made a fortune importing pepper from Sumatra and was one of the wealthiest men in the United States at the time of his death in 1900. Together, William and Ellen had two children:

• William Crowninshield Endicott Jr. (1860–1936), a lawyer who married Marie Louise Thoron (1864–1958), daughter of Joseph Thoron and Anna Barker (née Ward) Thoron, in 1889. William C. Endicott Jr. was the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society for ten years.
• Mary Crowninshield Endicott (1864–1957), who married the British statesman Joseph Chamberlain in 1888. After his death, she married the Anglican clergyman William Hartley Carnegie (1859–1936), in 1916.

Endicott died of acute pneumonia in Boston, Massachusetts on May 6, 1900. His wife lived another twenty-seven years, until her death in Boston on August 20, 1927, after which she was buried with William in the Endicott Lot at Harmony Grove Cemetery in Salem.

References

1. ^ "William C. Endicott Dead; Ex-Secretary of War Succumbs to Acute Pneumonia at Boston" (PDF). The New York Times. Boston. May 7, 1900. p. 7. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
2. Mass. Vital Records
3. Rand, John C., ed. (1890). "Endicott, William Crowninshield" . One of a Thousand: A Series of Biographical Sketches of One Thousand Representative Men Resident in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, A. D. 1888–'89. Boston: First National Publishing Company. p. 203.
4. ^ "William C. Endicott" (PDF). The New York Times. September 11, 1884. p. 3. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
5. American Antiquarian Society Members Directory
6. "The Massachusetts Democrats. William C. Endicott Nominated for Governor—Blaine Denounced" (PDF). The New York Times. Worcester, Massachusetts. September 4, 1884. p. 2. Retrieved March 17, 2022.
7. ^ "Mrs. Ellen P. Endicott. Widow of Secretary of War Under Cleveland Dies at 95" (PDF). The New York Times. August 21, 1927. p. 26. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
8. Walter Muir Whitehill, Captain Joseph Peabody: East India Merchant of Salem (1757–1844) (Salem, Massachusetts: Peabody Museum, 1962), 179.
9. "William C. Endicott: Son of the Secretary of War in Cleveland's First Cabinet" (PDF). The New York Times. November 29, 1936. p. N8. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
10. Catalogue note for a painting of Mrs. William Crowninshield Endicott Jr. by John Singer Sargent
11. "William Crowninshield Endicott Papers, 1828-1936". Peaboby Essex Museum.
12. "The Death of William C. Endicott" (PDF). The New York Times. London. May 13, 1900. p. 7. Retrieved March 17, 2022.

External links

• William Crowninshield Endicott at Find a Grave
• Biography in Secretaries of War and Secretaries of the Army a publication of the United States Army Center of Military History.

v t e United States secretaries of war and the Army
Department of War (1789–1947)	Secretaries of war B. Lincoln Knox Pickering McHenry Dexter Dearborn Eustis Armstrong Monroe W. Crawford Calhoun Barbour P. Porter Eaton Cass Poinsett Bell Spencer J. Porter Wilkins Marcy G. Crawford Conrad J. Davis Floyd Holt S. Cameron Stanton Schofield Rawlins Belknap A. Taft J. Cameron McCrary Ramsey R. Lincoln Endicott Proctor Elkins Lamont Alger Root W. Taft Wright Dickinson Stimson Garrison Baker Weeks D. Davis Good Hurley Dern Woodring Stimson Patterson Royall Assistant secretaries of war Scott Watson Tucker Wolcott Dana Eckert Grant Doe Meiklejohn Sanger Oliver Breckinridge Ingraham Crowell Williams Wainwright D. Davis MacNider Robbins Hurley Payne Woodring L. Johnson Patterson McCloy Petersen Under secretaries of war Patterson Royall Draper
Department of the Army (1947–present)	Secretaries of the Army Royall Gray Pace Stevens Brucker Stahr Vance Ailes Resor Froehlke Callaway Hoffmann C. Alexander Marsh Stone West Caldera White Harvey Geren McHugh Fanning Esper McCarthy Wormuth Under secretaries of the Army Draper Gray Voorhees A. Alexander Bendetsen E. Johnson Slezak Finucane Milton Ailes Ignatius Resor McGiffert Beal BeLieu Staudt Augustine LaBerge Ambrose Stone Shannon Reeder Walker Rostker Dahlberg Brownlee Geren Ford Westphal Carson Murphy McCarthy McPherson Camarillo

v t e Cabinet of President Grover Cleveland (1885–1889)
Secretary of State	Thomas F. Bayard (1885–1889)
Secretary of the Treasury	Daniel Manning (1885–1887) Charles S. Fairchild (1887–1889)
Secretary of War	William Crowninshield Endicott (1885–1889)
Attorney General	Augustus H. Garland (1885–1889)
Postmaster General	William F. Vilas (1885–1888) Donald M. Dickinson (1888–1889)
Secretary of the Navy	William Collins Whitney (1885–1889)
Secretary of the Interior	Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar (1885–1888) William F. Vilas (1888–1889)
Secretary of Agriculture	Norman Jay Colman (1889)

• 1826 births
• 1900 deaths
• Crowninshield family
• United States secretaries of war
• Politicians from Salem, Massachusetts
• Lawyers from Salem, Massachusetts
• Justices of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Cleveland administration cabinet members
• Massachusetts Democrats
• Harvard Law School alumni
• Burials at Harmony Grove Cemetery
• 19th-century American judges
• Massachusetts Whigs
• Peabody family