Daniel Phoenix Ingraham, third Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, was born in New York City April  2, 1800. He was educated at a private school in Morristown, New Jersey, entered Columbia College at the age of thirteen, and was graduated in the class of 1817. During the next four years he studied law in the office of Hon. Richard Riker, Recorder of the City of New York. When of age, Mr. Ingraham was admitted to practice in the Court of Common Pleas, and later in the other Courts of the city. He was elected Assistant Alderman from the Twelfth Ward in 1835, and the two following years represented the same ward in the Board of Aldermen. In 1838 Gov. Marcy appointed him Judge of the Court of Common Pleas in New York City to fill a vacancy. In 1843 he
was re-appointed to hold office until 1846, when by the provisions of the new Constitution, the office became elective. The esteem in which he was generally held  is shown by the fact that he was returned to the office by a large vote and re-elected in 1851. He was chosen First Judge of the Court two years later, and held the office until 1858, and was elected a Justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1857 and re-elected in 1865. In 1870 Gov. Hoffman appointed him Presiding Justice of the Supreme Court of the First District in New York, a position which he filled with honor and dignity until January i, 1874, when, being over seventy years of age and not eligible to re-election, he retired to private life.

Judge Ingraham had many cases of the greatest importance tried before him; among others, that of Schuyler, who was accused by the New York & New Haven Railroad Company of issuing and selling $3,000,000 worth of fraudulent stocks; of Cole for the murder
of Hiscock; and of Stokes for the murder of Fiske. Judge Ingraham's decisions have been acknowledged to be among the soundest and' most impartial in the judicial history of the State. His integrity was incorruptible, and, although he had many political opponents,
he invariably compelled their respect and their acknowledgment of the honesty and purity of his public and private life, and his fidelity to the best interests of the community he served.

As a student, Judge Ingraham devoted much of his spare time to historical and geographical research, and was a member of the New York Historical Society and of the American Geographical Society. He was for many years one of the Elders of the Collegiate Dutch Church in the City of New York. On January 25, 1838, he married Miss Mary Hart Landon, of Connecticut, by whom he had three sons, all now living, and one of whom, Judge George L. Ingraham, was elected a Justice of the Superior Court in 1882, and of the Supreme Court in 1891, and is now one of the seven original members of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court for the First Judicial District of New York. Judge Daniel P. Ingraham died December 12, 1881. His portrait now hangs on the walls of the Supreme Court room, Appellate Division.