Ivins

sage a week to return with the Rev. Hugh Galla-
gher [g.z>.] and thus missed death on the ill-fated
Arctic which sank with his baggage.

In his Trials of a Mind in its Progress to
Catholicism: a Letter to his Old Friends (1853),
Ives explained his reason for abandoning his po-
sition in the Protestant Episcopal Church and
for seeking admission, as a layman, into the
Catholic Church, with no prospect but "peace of
conscience" and "salvation" (p. 11). With a
wife and no resources, he was indeed without
prospects and became a burden on the Catholic
bishops who were urged by Rome to look after
his material welfare until he found his niche as
an instructor in English in St John's College,
Fordham, N. Y., and in St. Joseph's Seminary,
and as a lecturer at the convents of the Sacred
Heart and Sisters of Charity. Although a found-
er and first president of the Catholic Male Pro-
tectory and a promoter of the House of the Holy
Angels, as well as president of the New York
conference of the St. Vincent de Paul Society,
he never attained prominence in the Catholic
Church.

[H. G. Batterson, A Sketch-book of the Am. Epis-
copate (1878) ; F. E. Tourscher, The Kenrick-Frenaye
Correspondence (1920) ; J. J. O'Connell, Catholicity in
the Carolinas and Georgia (1879) ; C. B. Gillespie, A
Century of Meriden (1906) ; J. G. Shea, A Hist, of the
Cath. Ch. Within the Limits of the U. S.f vol. IV
(1892) ^Cath. Encyc., vol. VIII (1910) ; A Review of
the "Trials of a Mind in its Progress to Catholicism"
(1855) J Freeman's Jour.t Jan. 29, Feb. 12, 1853, Apr.
28, 1855; Church Rev. and Ecclesiastical Reg., Apr.
1853, July 1854; Cath. Mirror, Jan. i, 8, Feb. 12, 1853,
Oct. 19. 1867; Metropolitan (Baltimore), Mar. 1853;
N. Y. Times, Feb. 8,1853, Oct. 15,1867; N. Y. Herald,
Oct. 15,1867.] R.J.P.

IVINS, WILLIAM MILLS (Apr. 22, 1851-
July 23, 1915), lawyer, reformer, was born in
Freehold, N. J., the son of Augustus and Sarah
(Mills) Ivins. He was a descendant on his fa-
ther's side of Isaac Ivins, an English Quaker
who settled in Mansfield, N. J., in 1711; his an-
cestry on his mother's side was French Hugue-
not During-his early boyhood, his parents moved
to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he w'as educated at
Adelphia Academy. After his graduation he was
employed for a brief while by the publishing firm
of D. Appleton & Company; he left their employ
to enter the law school of Columbia University,
from which he was graduated in 1873, being ad-
mitted to the bar the same year. On Feb. 3,1879,
he married Emma Laura Yard, the daughter of
James Sterling Yard of Freehold and Trenton,
N. J. Early in his career Ivins took an active
interest in political reform and was a member of
the group which forced the retirement in 1880 of
Hugh McLaughlin, the head of the so-called
"Brooklyn Ring." William R. Grace

Ivins

shortly after his election in 1880 as mayor of
New York City, appointed Ivins his private sec-
retary and later, city chamberlain. His expert
knowledge of municipal and financial adminis-
tration was acquired in this office, as was also his
abiding hatred of the Tammany chieftains. From
1886 to 1888 he was also judge-advocate general
of the state of New York. In February 1889 he
resigned as city chamberlain to become a partner
in the firm of W. R. Grace & Company, the lead-
ing South American merchants of the day, but
shortly, tiring of commercial life, resumed the
practice of law, resolving at the same time to de-
vote his energy and ability to the cause of politi-
cal reform.

As a reformer, Ivins interested himself in three
problems: the reform of the election laws, control
of public utilities, and the reform of municipal
government. In 1890 the committee on cities of
the New York Senate, undertaking a study of
the administration of cities, retained the firm of
Tracy, McFarland, Ivins, Boardman & Platt as
counsel. Ivins was very active in the investiga-
tion, and the report of the committee (New York
Senate Document 72, Apr. 15,1891), which has
become a classic of its kind, was in large measure
the product of his labor. In 1907, under commis-
sion from the legislature, he drafted a revised
charter for New York City which, though it was
not adopted, is still followed as a model. For ten
years he worked to have the blanket ballot adopt-
ed in New York City and he was successful in
having the first Australian-ballot reform bill
passed through the legislature. As special coun-
sel to the New York Public Service Commission
in 1907 he was notably successful in the services
he rendered during the investigation of the In-
terborough-Metropolitan and Brooklyn Rapid
Transit systems. He was a pioneer in the move-
ment for modern public service commission acts
and many of the reforms for which he stood have
been adopted in different states (see his article
"Public Service Commissions," Century, May
1909, and the preface to the admirable legal trea-
tise, The Control of Public Utilities, 1908, of
which he was joint author with H. D. Mason).
In 1905 he accepted the Republican nomination
for mayor of New York City, with the admitted-
ly forlorn hope of keeping Tammany out of the
City Hall, and in the election received 137,049
votes to 228,851 for McClellan and 225,166 for
Hearst. He offered his services as counsel to
Hearst in the recount forced by Hearst's charges
of ballot-box stuffing, and, four years later, when
Hearst ran again for mayor, Ivins managed his
campaign.

The breadth and accuracy of his learning and

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