DEPEW, CHAUNCEY MITCHELL American lawyer and politician, was born in Peekskill, N.Y., on April 23, 1834, of a Huguenot family (originally Du Puis or De Puy). He graduated at Yale in 1856, entered politics as a Repub lican—his father had been a Democrat—was admitted to the bar in 1858, was a member of the New York Assembly (1861-62) and was secretary of State of New York (1864-65) . Through his friendship with Cornelius and William H. Vanderbilt he be came in 1866 attorney for the New York and Harlem railway, in 1869 was appointed attorney of the newly consolidated New York Central and Hudson River railway, of which he soon be came a director, and in 1875 was made general counsel for the entire Vanderbilt system of railways. He became second vice president of the New York Central and Hudson River railway in 1869; president (1885-98), and chairman, in 1898, of the board of directors of the Vanderbilt system. In 1872 he joined the Liberal Republican movement and was nominated and defeated for the office of lieutenant governor of New York. In 1899 he was elected U.S. senator from New York State, and in 1904 was re-elected for the term ending in 191 1. His orations and speeches have been compiled in 12 volumes; in 1922 he published My Memories of Eighty Years. He died on April 5, 1928.
See C. M. Depew, One Hundred Years of American Progress; "Leaves from my Autobiography," in Scribner's Magazine, lxx. (Nov.— Dec. 1921), 664-676; My Memories of Eighty Years 0922).