William H. Van Benschoten

William Henry Van Benschoten (January 15, 1872 – August 11, 1928) was an American lawyer and lay leader in the Methodist Episcopal Church. Van Benschoten served as co-counsel with Bowers & Sands for former president Theodore Roosevelt in the 1910s during his two prominent successful libel suits. As a civic leader, he chaired a commission that recommended modernizing the freight transportation system of New York City.

Life and career Van Benschoten was born in Addison, New York, the third child and only son of Henry R. and Mary Ann Van Benschoten. Belonging to old Dutch stock, Henry was a Methodist Episcopalian pastor active in upstate New York for fifty years. Mary was educated at the Methodist Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, which would become Syracuse University, and in middle age was a temperance activist. Van Benschoten was also actively involved in YMCA organization, serving as a delegate at its 1893 Saratoga conference.

Van Benschoten was a record clerk at New York's constitutional convention of 1894 and then chief clerk at the office of the state's Attorney General.

Van Benschoten represented his "close friend", former president and then Progressive politician Theodore Roosevelt, in his two libel actions. In 1913, Van Benschoten "assisted memorably" Roosevelt's main attorney, James H. Pound, in the case against Republican newspaper editor George A. Newett. Newett wrote in the Ishpeming, Michigan Iron Ore during the 1912 presidential election that Roosevelt was a drunk. Newett could not prove his claims, retracted and apologized.

Two years later, Van Benschoten was co-counsel with Bowers in Roosevelt's case against William Barnes Jr., publisher of the Albany Times Union and conservative Republican party boss. Barnes was suing Roosevelt for $50,000 after he alleged in 1914 that Barnes and Albany County's Democrat boss, Charles Francis Murphy, were "of exactly the same moral and political type" and "will always be found fighting on the same side openly or covertly". The trial, held at Syracuse, was treated by both parties as political theatre, and Roosevelt hoped by winning to kill Barnes's political ambitions.

Though a Republican, Van Benschoten passionately defended Roosevelt, citing his popular record as president. Van Benschoten's opening speech characterized the trial as one between "a corrupt government" and "political liberty and freedom". He said: "The plaintiff stands above all things else for political power, machines and bosses. The defendant stands for the rights of the citizens, the welfare of the people and honest, decent government."

Van Benschoten's address was "widely praised" and got included in a 1925 book called Famous American Jury Speeches. Eventually, counsel successfully showed that Barnes was corrupt and did collude with Murphy — before New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a successful libel defense had to prove the allegations were not libelous but true. and Van Benschoten entered into the reformed Bowers & Gerard with James W. Gerard, the former U.S. Ambassador to Germany. In 1918, Bowers and Gerard were joined by New York Supreme Court justice Frank N. Scott. A Newark newspaper called Scott, Gerard and Bowers "one of the best known law firms in New York City" and Van Benschoten "regarded as one of the rising young attorneys of that city." Later that year, however, Van Benschoten left for Duer, Whitehead & Strong, where he remained until his death. Further, metropolitan freight infrastructure was outdated and inadequate. Since 1906, both state governments had established commissions to examine the issue. A severe fuel shortage during the winter of 1917–18 further highlighted the problem with relying on waterbound transportation.

The Commission's report of January 1918 blamed "politics, prejudice, personalities, indifference, and incapacity" for stranding coal across the Hudson River in railyards or on the shore of New Jersey:

The Commission recommended building at least one railway tunnel under the Hudson, as well as a subway or elevated freight terminal, to be managed by a new Terminal Improvement Commission.

Religious work Following his parents, Van Benschoten was an active Methodist. He was trustee and legal counsel to the New York City Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church and reportedly thought of himself as "Counselor of the Kingdom of God". He supported Methodist activities and societies and attended the 1920 and 1924 general conferences and the 1921 Ecumenical Methodist Conference at Westminster. His address at the 1921 Conference also shows he traveled the battlefields of Belgium and France after World War I and favored general arms control.

Outside of Manhattan, Van Benschoten remained trustee at his then-Methodist alma mater, Syracuse University, as well as Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, New Jersey, now Drew University. Harriet supported Methodist missionary work and at her death in 1935 was helping manage an elderly care home. wife of George W. Cairns (m. 1926 – his death 1947) and Lowell Shumway (m. 1957) William Henry Van Benschoten Jr. (b. August 9, 1901) He also belonged to lawyers' and Republican clubs. His death was reported in The New York Times, where he was cited as a "well-known lawyer" and a "prominent Methodist Episcopal layman." Funeral services were held on August 14 at St. Paul's Methodist Church. He was buried at Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla.