A descendant of William Ives, a seventeenth century settler in the Massachusetts Colony who led the exodus which founded New Haven, Brayton Ives was born in Farmington, CT, in 1840. Ives graduated from Yale in 1861, and had a distinguished career in the military. He began his service with the Fifth Connecticut Volunteers on the front during the Civil War. He later became a Major, then a Colonel, with the First Connecticut Cavalry. Still later he was attached to the Army of the Potomac, and took part in Sheridan's raid, from 9 - 26 May 1864. Ives commanded General Grant's escort to Appomattox. At the end of the war Ives was twenty-four years old and one of the youngest Brigadier Generals in the service. In 1867 Ives went to New York, where he began a career as a broker. He was elected President of the New York Stock Exchange, and served as one of the Governors of the Exchange for thirteen years. Ives retired from brokering in 1889 to become President of the Western National Bank; he was also President of the Northern Pacific Railroad and the Metropolitan Trust Company. At his death in 1914 Ives was President of numerous other companies. From early in his life Ives was a collector of art, including ceramics and rare books. He married the former Eleanor A. Bissell, and had three daughters: Winifred, Frances H., and the future Mrs. Walter E. Maynard. Ives died 22 October 1914 at Chelsea, his country home in Ossining, N.Y.