Charles Tracey

Charles Tracey (May 27, 1847 – March 24, 1905) was a U.S. Representative from New York.

Early life Born in Albany, New York, Tracey graduated from The Albany Academy in 1866. He served in the Papal Zouaves at Rome, Italy between 1867 and 1870 and was taken prisoner during the capture of Rome by the Italian Army. For his service to the Papal States, he was made a chevalier of the order of St. Gregory the Great by Pope Pius IX in 1871.

Political career Tracey was appointed aide-de-camp to Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York with the rank of colonel on January 1, 1875. He was appointed commissary-general of subsistence to Governor Lucius Robinson with the rank of brigadier general on January 1, 1877. This appointment earned him the lifelong title "General". During subsequent terms, Tracey introduced and shepherded passage of measures to strengthen enforcement of the eight-hour workday at federal government offices and jobsites and to implement a project to deepen the Hudson River, permitting sea-going vessels to travel as far north as Albany and Troy, New York. After this was rejected, Tracey voted in favor of the original version of the bill, but did not vote on the final version sent back by the Senate several months later.

Later life and death

Returning to Albany in 1895, Tracey was reappointed to the Board of Managers of the House of Refuge by Governor Levi P. Morton. Returning to his home in Albany, he died there at the age of 57 on March 24, 1905. Tracey was interred in St. Agnes Cemetery, Menands, New York.

Personal

Tracey was the son of John Tracey (died July 12, 1875) and his wife Maria McCarthy Tracey (died February 5, 1880). His mother was born on the Isle of Wight, the daughter of an officer in the British Army.

His older brother John Tracey Jr. (November 30, 1842 – May 17, 1897) was an 1859 graduate of Mount St. Mary's School in Maryland and an 1862 graduate of Albany Law School. He was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Union Army and advanced to lieutenant colonel in the 18th New York Volunteer Cavalry by the end of the Civil War. After the war, John Tracey Jr. was brevetted colonel by New York Governor Reuben Fenton for his service under Col. James J. Byrne and Col. Oliver P. Gooding (his brigade commander) during the Red River campaign. He was later appointed superintendent of charities for the District of Columbia by President Grover Cleveland in 1893.

His younger brother James Francis Tracey (May 30, 1854 – September 19, 1925) studied at the Albany Academy before earning his A.B. degree from Georgetown College, Washington, D.C. in 1874 and his LL.B. degree from Albany Law School in 1875. He then worked as a lawyer in Albany and taught at Albany Law School. After being appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt, James Tracey served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines from 1905 to 1909. He was conferred an honorary LL.D. degree by Georgetown University in 1910.

On June 14, 1883, Charles Tracey married Marie-Anne Marguerite-Hermine Juchereau "Hermine" Duchesnay in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They had a daughter and four sons.