Michael Ulshoeffer

Michael Ulshoeffer (March 30, 1793 – September 6, 1881) was a New York City lawyer, politician and judge.

Early life Ulshoeffer was born in New York City March 30, 1793. He was the son of Margareth Miller and George Ulshoeffer (1748–1836), a Hessian who was born in Creglingen, Germany, and who was forced into the British service and sent to America in 1777. After the war ended, his father came to New York where he was a music teacher until his death in 1836.

Ulshoeffer studied law in the office of T.W. Smith at 3 Cedar Street and later became Smith's partner. He became corporation attorney, and later corporation counsel, occupying the latter office for four years.

In 1862, Ulshoeffer was appointed as one of the Commissioners of Estimate for the extension of Central Park in the vicinity of 106th and 110th Streets and Fifth and Eighth Avenues.

Personal life In 1823, Ulshoeffer was married to Mary Ann Gracie (1805–1876), daughter of the late William R. Gracie, Esq., who owned a large area of Brooklyn Heights and occupied one of the most imposing mansions on Washington Street when it was Brooklyn's most fashionable address. (Other sources indicate that Mary Gracie was the daughter of Scottish born shipping magnate and merchant, Archibald Gracie (1755–1816).) a nephew of Washington Irving, Sarah M. Ulshoeffer (1831–1882). Mary Gracie Ulshoeffer (1836–1911), who married in William Bayard Hoffman (1817–1880), the son of Dr. William Hoffman, in 1865. He was previously married to Mary Lorillard Wolfe (1823–1847), the granddaughter of Pierre Lorillard II and sister of Catharine Lorillard Wolfe (1828–1887), the philanthropist. William Gracie Ulshoeffer (1837–1904), a Columbia University educated lawyer who did not marry.

He died in New York City on September 6, 1881, at the age of eighty-eight. and Mary Ulshoeffer Hoffman (1868–1951), who were both painted by Fredrika Weidner in 1898.