Anton Adolph Raven (September 30, 1833 – January 15, 1919) was a Curaçaoan-born American business executive.[1]
Early life
Raven was born on September 30, 1833, in Curaçao in what was then a part of the Dutch West Indies. He was a son of John Rudolf Raven, a merchant in the "Spanish-American Republic of Venezuela", and Petronella (née Hutchings) Raven, who came from "ancestors who came from Holland to New York State and thence removed to Curaçao, West Indies where she herself was born."[2]
After receiving his education in St. Thomas,[1] he came to New York at the age of seventeen in 1850.[3]
Career
On January 4, 1852, Raven joined the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company as a clerk. Atlantic had been founded as a joint-stock company in 1838 as the Atlantic Insurance Company before becoming a mutual company in 1842. He was appointed an underwriter in 1865, fourth vice-president in 1874, third vice president in 1876, and second vice president in 1886. He was elected vice president in 1895 and elected president two years later in 1895. Raven retired as president in 1915 and was succeeded by Cornelius Eldert, formerly vice president.[4]
In 1860, Raven was married to Cleveland born Gertrude Oatman (1840–1914), a daughter of James C. Oatman. Together, they were the parents of five children:[2]
Henry Hutchings Raven (1861–1862), who died young.[5]
William Oatman Raven (d. 1940), who married Angeline Odell in 1899.[6]
Caroline Elizabeth Raven, who married Peter A. MacLean.[2] After his death, she married Charles Strong Van Nuis, an associate of Thomas Edison,[7] in 1930.[8]
John Howard Raven (1870–1949),[10] a professor at Rutgers College who married Elizabeth Grier Strong, a daughter of the Rev. Selah Woodhull Strong and Eleanor Hendrickson (née Van Deursen) Strong,[11] in 1894.[12]
^"Marine Insurance President Retires". Exporters' Review: Issued in Connection with the Exporters' Encyclopædia. Exporters' encyclopædia Company: 34. February 1915. Retrieved April 25, 2022.