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Original handwritten tags for two Fox Sparrow specimens collected by Curtis Young and Harry Floyd on the same day. These specimens, as well as hundreds of others, were collected by these friends, then later donated to Vassar College.
Curtis Clay Young and Harry Webb Floyd
Less than two years of age and one-third of a mile distance separated CC Young and HW Floyd as they grew up in Brooklyn. Young lived at 63 Greene Ave. while Floyd lived at 164 S. Elliott Pl. Likely they attended the same school. They were each interested in birds and both joined the Linnean Society in 1892, so they most assuredly knew each other. Then when Floyd married Young’s stepsister they became brothers-in-law. Eventually both of their bird collections were donated to the Vassar College Museum of Natural History. Their backgrounds are as follows.
Curtis Clay Young
Curtis Clay Young was born Nov. 2, 1874 in New York City. His father was James Hyde Young1 who apparently moved his family to Poughkeepsie in the late 1890s His paternal grandfather, Henry L. Young, was a trustee of Vassar College from 1878 to 1892. Although his grandfather died prior to Young’s collection being donated, it is likely his grandfather left a favorable impression of Vassar.
Young spent much of his early life in Brooklyn. He attended the Brooklyn Latin School and was prepared to enter the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard University when forced by ill health to abandon further formal study. His love of ornithology became his chief interest, and remained so until his death. In spite of increasing physical disability he made collecting trips to Dutch Guiana, Trinidad, and the Bahamas. He joined the AOU in 1891 and published sightings in Auk in 1893, 1894, and 1895.2
Young died at Port Daniel, Quebec, on July 30, 1902. His father donated his collections of about 500 bird skins and 463 birds eggs, some collected in Dutchess County, to Vassar in 1904. Other bird skins are in the American Museum of Natural History, donated prior to his death.
Harry Webb Floyd
Harry Webb Floyd, usually called Webb, was born Aug. 29, 1876 in Brooklyn to Robert Floyd and Annie W. Harrington Floyd. He attended local schools. His interest in birds dates to the early 1890s. He joined the AOU in 1892, but remained a Linnean Society member only through 1896. He published collecting a Western Sandpiper in Ornithologist and Oologist in September 1891, as well as a winter Towhee in Auk, April 1898.
Floyd married Sarah Livingston Young (1875-1960) in Brooklyn on Feb. 9, 1899. They would have three children. Sarah was the daughter of Maria Arrietta Pentz who married James Hyde Young3 in 1888. James Young adopted Sarah, they were always close. Sarah was thus the stepsister of CC Young.
After their marriage, Floyd worked in the Fifth Avenue Bank and the New York Security and Trust Co., then joined the Mutual Alliance Trust Co. in 1905 as assistant secretary but quickly moved up the management chain to vice president in 1909 and president in 1913. He left the bank about 1915 becoming a partner in Weld & Neville, cotton brokers.
A few of his bird sightings were published in the Linnean Society Proceedings prior to 1904 after which his bird interests disappear from the records. He did however pursue stamp collecting and built a valuable collection of early British Colonies.
In 1919 Floyd purchased 20 acres of land on the north side of Poughkeepsie which he donated to the Children’s Home. A new home was built on the land and Floyd became a member of the Home’s board of councilors. Ray Guernsey and Mrs. Allen Frost were both active with the Children’s Home at this time, a time when both Guernsey and Allen Frost were very active birders around Poughkeepsie. It is clear they met each other, but there is no record of their birding together.
Floyd died at his home in New York City on Oct. 19, 1923. It is thought that his bird skin collection was given or sold to Young possibly about 1901 and thus came to Vassar with Young’s collection in 1904.
NOTES
[1] it appears James Hyde Young was first married to Frances M. Taylor, but records of this have not been pursued. If so, she would be Curtis’ mother.
[2] from obituary in Auk, 1903, p.94.
[3] Maria Pentz was previously married to a Mr. Manning as her daughter’s name was legally changed in 1896 from Sarah Livingston Manning to Young.
Stan DeOrsey jsmd@att.net Nov. 2012