llfT-l^ Qfarnell InineroUg ffilibrarg atljata, JJew ^ork FROM' Henry Woodward Sackett, 75 A BEQUEST CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 092 234 438 ^^1 Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924092234438 NEW YORK STATE'S PROMINENT AND PROGRESSIVE MEN AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF CONTEMPORANEOUS BIOGRAPHY COMPILED BY MITCHELL C. HARRISON VOLUME I ^ NEW YORK TRIBUNE 1900 Copyright, 1900, by The Tribtjne Association The De Vinne Press CONTENTS Edward Dean Adams 1 James Waddel Alexander 3 Henry B. Anderson 5 Avery De Lano Andrews 7 Clarence Degrand Ashley 9 John Jacob Astob 12 William Astor 18 William Delavan Baldwin '. 21 William Henry Baldwin, Jb 23 Amzi Lorenzo Barber 25 George Carter Barrett 27 John Eichard Bartlett 29 Henry Rutgers Beekman 33 Henry Bischofp, Jr 35 Jambs Armstrong Blanchard 37 Cornelius Newton Bliss 39 Emil L. Boas 42 Frank Stuart Bond 44 Henry Weller Bookstavbb 46 Henry Prosper Booth 48 Simon Borg 50 Archer Brown 53 Alonzo Norman Burbank 55 Samuel Roger Callaway 58 Juan Manuel Ceballos 60 William Astor Chanler 62 Hugh Joseph Chisholm • 67 William Bourke Cockran 70 William Nathan Cohen 72 Bird Sim Colbr 74 Prank W. Colbr 76 William Nichols Colbr, Jr 78 Washington Everett Connor 80 Henry Harvey Cook 82 Paul Drennan Cbavath 84 George Crocker 86 CONTENTS Joseph Francis Daly 91 Elliot Danfokth 93 JuLiEN Tappan Da vies 95 WILLLA.M GiLBEBT DaVIES 97 Charles Willoughby Dayton 100 Henry Wheeler De Forest 102 Eobert Weeks De Forest 104 EiCHARD Delapield 106 Chaunoey Mitchell Depew 108 Theodore Low De Vinnb Ill Frederick William Devoe 113 Watson Bradley Dickerman 115 Edward Nicoll Dickerson 117 James B. Dill 119 Loms F. Doyle 122 Silas Belden Dutcheb 124 Amos Richards Eno 126 John H. Flagler 128 Charles Eanlett Flint 130 EoswELL Pettibone Flower 133 Charles A. Gardiner 135 Isaac Edwin Gates 137 Edward Nathan Gibbs 139 Theodore Gilman 142 Frank J. Gould 144 George J. Gould 147 Sanpord Shorter Gowdey 149 James Ben Ali Haggin 151 N. Wetmore Halsey 155 Oliver Habriman, Jb 157 George B. McClellan Harvey 159 Charles Hathaway 161 Daniel Addison Heald 164 Arthur Philip Heinze 166 F. Augustus Heinze 168 James William Hinkley 170 Edward H. Hobbs 172 Eugene Augustus Hoffman 174 F. C. Hollins 176 Haeey Bowley Hollins 178 John Hone 180 William Butler Hornbloweb 182 Henry Elias Howland 184 Colgate Hoyt 186 Thomas Hamlin Hubbard 188 CoLLis Potter Huntington 191 Clarence Melville Hyde 193 Frederick Ebastus Hyde 195 Henry Baldwin Hyde 197 CONTENTS Daewin R. James . , 199 Walter S. Johnston 201 James Robert Keene 203 Elijah Robinson Kennedy 206 Henry Scanlan Kerr 209 Robert Jackson Kimball 211 William F. King 214 Darwin Pearl Kingsley 216 Percival Kuhne 218 John Campbell Latham 220 Edward Lauterbaoh 222 Lysander Walter Lawrence 224 James D. Layng 226 J. Edgar Leaycraet 228 David Leventritt 231 Adolph Lbwisohn 233 Leonard Lewisohn 235 Edward Victor Loew 237 Richard Purdy Lounsbery 239 Edward E. McCall 241 John Augustine McCall 243 John James McCook 246 Thomas Alexander McIntyre 248 John Savage McKeon 250 Emerson McMillin . • ., 252 Clarence Hungerford Mackay 254 John William Mackay 256 William Mahl 258 Sylvester Malone 260 Ebenezer Sturges Mason 262 Warner Miller 264 Darius 0(Jden Mills 266 John Pierpont Morgan 272 Levi Parsons Morton 275 Robert Frater Munro 277 Walter D. Munson 279 Lewis Nixon 281 M. J. O'Brien 283 Daniel O'Day 286 Alexander Ector Orr 289 Norton Prentiss Otis 291 Francis Asbury Palmer 293 Stephen Squires Palmer 295 John Edward Parsons 297 William Frederick Piel, Jr 300 WiNSLOw Shelby Pierce 302 Gilbert Motier Plympton 304 Edward Brie Poor 306 Henry William Poor 308 CONTENTS Henry Smallwood Redmond 310 Isaac Leopold Rice 312 Thomas Gardiner Ritoh 314 "William H. Robertson 316 Charles Francis Roe 318 Theodore Roosevelt 320 Elihu Root 323 Harry Godley Runkle 326 Henry Woodward Sackett 328 Russell Sage 331 William Salomon 334 Edward William Scott 336 John Marston Scriener 338 John Ennis Searles 340 Henry Seibert 343 Henry Seligman 346 Isaac Newton Seligman 349 Henry Francis Shoemaker 354 Edward Lyman Short 356 Charles Stewart Smith 358 Ds Witt Smith 360 John Sabine Smith 363 R. A. C. Smith 365 Frederick Smyth 367 Elbridge Gerry Snow 369 George Henry Southard 371 James Speyer 373 - John William Sterling 375 LiSPENARD Stewart 378 William Rhinelander Stewart 380 James Stillman 382 Gage Eli Tarbell 385 Prank Tilpord 387 Charles Whitney Tillinghast 389 Charles Harrison Tweed 391 Cornelius Vanderbilt 393 Alfred Van Santvoord 396 Aldace Freeman Walker 400 John Henry Washburn 402 William Ives Washburn 404 William Henry Webb 406 Charles Whitman Wbtmore 408 Charles Whann 411 Clarence Whitman 414 Stewart Lyndon Woodford 416 A. M. Young 418 George Washington Young 420 PREFACE rriHB history of a modern state is chiefly the history of its -■- prominent and progressive men. Ancient history is starred with the names of monarchs, conquerors, great soldiers, daring adventurers. Only a few great names in industry, commerce, and professional hf e survive. There is some mention, perhaps, of the vastness of the multitude that composed city or nation ; but of those who really leavened the lump there is little. The mer- chant princes, the captains of industry, the practitioners of law, who contributed so largely to the greatness and glory of olden communities, have vanished as completely from the record as have their shops from the forum and their galleys from the sea. The latter-day record is more just. Men of thought and men of action win their places as surely and as securely as those who are bom to theirs. The truth of Emerson's saying is more and more becoming recognized, that " the true test of civiUzation is not the census, nor the crops; no, but the kind of man the country turns out." It is quality, not merely quantity or nimi- bers, that counts. There are to-day plenty of men of pohtical or other distinction, or of vast wealth, known to the world for the reason of those conditions. There is in this closing year of the nineteenth century being taken in the United States a census which will impressively display the aggregated greatness, in numbers and in wealth, of the nation. But " the kind of man the nation turns out " — not the kind of President, or G-eneral, or millionaire only, but the kind of average, every-day man in busi- PEEFACE ness, commercial, industrial, or professional life — is to be shown through other mediums than mere statistics. He is to be shown in the story of his life. It is the aim of the present work, in this and the succeeding volumes, to set forth the life-records of a considerable and repre- sentative number of the prominent and progressive men of the Empire State of the American Union. They are chosen from ail honorable walks of life, pubUc and private. They represent all political parties, all departments of industry and trade, and the various learned professions which fill so large a place m the social economy of the modern community. Some of them are in afflu- ent and some in. moderate financial circumstances. Some of them have finished or are finishing their life-works, and some of them are, seemingly, only upon the thresholds of their careers. There is no intention nor attempt to choose or to compose a class, save as native ability and achieved leadership in affairs may be the characteristics of a class. There are names on the roll that will command instant recognition ; and there are others that may have in these pages their first introduction to the gen- eral pubhc. The one qualification required, which will be found a characteristic of all, is that of such achievement as gives fair title to prominence or to a repute for progress. A work of this kind is of necessity much like a daily newspaper in at least one respect. It deals with things as they are at the moment of publication, and as they have been down to that time. The next day may materially alter them. Before these pages are all read by those who shaU. read them, new items may be added to many a record which will be missing from the book. The biographer cannot forecast the future. He can do nothing more than to make his story as complete as possible down to the time when he lays down his pen, and as accurate as possible, with all research and consultation with the subjects of his sketches. EDWARD DEAN ADAMS EDWARD DEAN ADAMS, as his name migM indicate, comes of Puritan ancestry, and was born in Boston, on April 9, 1846. He was educated at Chauncey Hall, Boston, and Norwich University, Northfield, Yermont, being graduated from the latter in 1864. After two years of travel, chiefly in Europe, he entered the banking business, and has since devoted his life largely to financial enterprises. His first engagement was, from 1866 to 1870, as bookkeeper and cashier for a firm of bankers and brokers in Boston. In 1870 he assisted in organizing the firm of Richardson, Hill & Co. of Boston, and remained a partner in it until 1878. Then he came to New York and became a partner in the old and honored banking house of Winslow, Lanier & Co. For fifteen years he was a member of that house, and with it participated in many of the most important government, railway, and muni- cipal financial negotiations of the active business period from 1878 to 1893. In the last-named year he retired from the firm to devote his attention to various large properties in which he had become individually interested. While in the firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co., Mr. Adams paid especial attention to railroad construction and reorganization enterprises. Thus he organized, in 1882-83, the Northern Pacific Terminal Company, and became its president. In 1883 he organized the St. Paul and Northern Pacific Railway Company, provided its capital, and served as vice-president. In 1885 he organized and constructed the New Jersey Junction Railroad, and planned the reorganization of the New York, West Shore and Buffalo Railway, the New York, Ontario and Western Railway, and the West Shore and Ontario Terminal Company, and in the 1 ^ EDWABD DEAN ADAMS following year his plans were exactly executed. In 1887 he res- cued the New Jersey Central Railroad from a receivership, and in 1888 marketed the new issue of bonds of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The American Cotton Oil Trust was rescued from bankruptcy by him in 1890, and in that same year he be- came president of the Cataract Construction Company, at Niagara Falls. Finally, in 1893, he became chairman of the reorganiza- tion committee of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He is now a prominent officer of the American Cotton Oil Company, the Cataract Construction Company, the Central and South Ameri- can Telegraph Company, the "West Shore Railroad, and the New Jersey Central Railroad. While some men have gained prominence and fortune as "rail- road-wreckers," and as the destroyers of other enterprises for their selfish gain, it has been Mr. Adams's happier distinction to save industrial enterprises from wreck, and to restore them to prosperity. Thus he saved the American Cotton Oil Company from what seemed certainly impending bankruptcy, and played a leading part in reorganizing the West Shore Railroad Company, so as to rescue it from danger and make it the substantial concern it now is. His services to the New Jersey Central Railroad Com- pany were of the highest order, involving the taking it out of a receiver's hands and putting it upon its present solvent and profitable basis. To the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Company, and to more than a few others, he has rendered valu- able services on similar lines. It has been his business mission to build rather than to tear down, to create rather than to de- stroy. This admirable feature of his career has on several occa- sions been formally recognized by his associates and by those whose interests he has benefited. Mr. Adams was married, in 1872, to Miss Fannie A. Outter- son of Boston, and has a son and a daughter. He is promi- nently connected with the National Academy of Design, Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Fine Arts Society, and American Society of Civil Engineers, and is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, City, Players', Lawyers', Tuxedo, Riding, and Groher clubs, and the New England Society, of New York, and the Chicago Club of Chicago. - : ^.. fl^K' ^' • .:^^^lllKii#"'^^^ v* ■''m ^o^^^^^^f ^^r • r^,^. ^kt ' '/ "'.' ^^^L ^^Br^ '> / 'A'^ ^B^v^ ^^B^B^^^^^n^^v \ ^ j^hI ^^^^^I^H ^^^Kjr ^ ^^^^^^^^^Hp^ ^ji^l l^^fiL^ ^^^^ 9H| J^^^Wy /!r^^L^ '^^ ^^R'^ "^^^ '^ ^» ' '/^^^ '4 *^^ 1 ^h^:?>T''v\^j^^i-^lAJ^^~Cd.Jlj^^ CX-^'^ JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER FOR many years one of the foremost preachers, teachers, and writers of the Presbyterian Church ta the United States was the Rev. Dr. James Waddel Alexander, who was pastor of leading churches in New York city and elsewhere, a professor in Princeton College, editor of the " Presbyterian," and author of more than thirty religious books. He was a son of the Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander of Princeton CoUege, and, on his mother's side, a grandson of the " blind preacher," James Wad- del, who was made famous by William Wirt. Dr. Alexander married Miss Elizabeth C. CabeU, a member of the historic Virginia family of that name, of English origin. His own family was of Scotch-Irish origin, and was first settled in this country in Virginia. James Waddel Alexander, the second of the name, was born to the fore-mentioned couple at Princeton, New Jersey, on July 19, 1839, his father being at that time professor of rhetoric and beUes-lettres at the college there. He was educated at home and in various preparatory schools, and finally at Princeton Col- lege, being in the third generation of his family identified with that institution. On the completion of his academic course he adopted the law as his profession, and, after due study, was ad- mitted to the New York bar and entered upon practice in this city. He was a partner in the firm of Cummins, Alexander & Green. In the year 1866 Mr. Alexander became actively identified with the vast business of life-insurance. He had already paid much attention to it in a professional way, and was particularly attracted to it through the fact that his uncle, WiUiam C. Alex- ander, was president of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of 4 JAMES WADDEL ALEXANDER New York, one of the foremost institutions of the kind in the world. In 1866, then, he became secretary of the Equitable, and thereafter gave to that great corporation a large share of his labor and thought, with mutually profitable results. His aptitixde for the business showed itself, and was recognized presently in his promotion to the office of second vice-president. From that place he was again promoted to the office of vice-president, which he still occupies with eminent satisfaction. To his earnest labors and far-seeing and judicious pohcy, in conjunction with those of his associates, is largely due the unsurpassed prosperity of the Equitable. But Mr. Alexander has not permitted even that great corpo- ration to monopohze his attention. He has found time and strength to look after various other business affairs, some of them of the highest importance. He is thus a director of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, of the Mercantile Trust Company, and of the "Western National Bank, of this city. Mr. Alexander has held no poUtical office, and has not figured conspicuously in party management. He has long taken, how- ever, a deep interest in the welfare of State and nation, as a citizen loyally and intelligently fulfilhng the duties of citizen- ship. He has ever been a loyal son of his Alma Mater, the great university with which his father and his grandfather were so conspicuously identified, and has given to Princeton ungrudg- ingly, and to excellent purpose, his time, his labor, his means, and his influence. Mr. Alexander is at the present time president of the Univer- sity Club, and a member of the Century, Metropolitan, University, Athletic, Lawyers', and Princeton clubs, of New York. He was married, in 1864, to Elizabeth Beasley of Ehzabeth, New Jersey, a daughter of Benjamin Wilhamson, formerly Chancellor of the State of New Jersey. They have three children, as follows : Ehzabeth, wife of John W. Alexander, the well-known artist, now resident in Paris, France ; Henry Martyn Alexander, Jr., a prominent lawyer, of the firm of Alexander & Colby, of New York ; and Frederick Beasley Alexander, who is at this time (1900) an undergraduate at Princeton University, in the fourth genera- tion of his family in that venerable seat of learning. ^4^v^.N^ (<^. LAa.vV^>^ ^-4Sa. HENRY B. ANDERSON THE name of Anderson is evidently derived from Andrew's son, or the son of Andrew, and as St, Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland, we may expect to find those who bear this name to be of Scottish ancestry. Such, at any rate, is the fact concerning Henry BnrraU Anderson. His line is to be traced centuries back, among the men who made Scotland the sturdy, enlightened, and hberty-loviag land it is. In colonial days some of its members came to this country and estabhshed themselves in New England, where they contributed no smaU measure to the growth of the colonies and their ultimate development into States and members of this nation. The branch of the family with which we are now concerned was settled several generations ago in Maine. Two generations ago the Rev. Ruf us Anderson was one of the foremost divines of that commonwealth. His home was at North Yarmouth. He was an alumnus of Dartmouth College, and a man of rare scholarship and culture. For thirty-four years he was secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and for a much longer period than that he was noted as a trav- eler, writer, lecturer, and preacher. He died in 1880, as full of honors as of years. A son of the Rev. Rufus Anderson was Henry Hill Anderson. He was bom in the city of Boston in 1827. He was educated at Wilhams CoUege, and was graduated there in the class of 1848. Selecting the law as his profession, he came to New York city to study it and afterward to engage in the practice of it. For many years he was one of the foremost members of the New York bar, and was prominent in other business matters and in social affairs. He was one of the foimders, and for nine years 5 b HENEY B, ANDEBSON the first president, of the University Club of New York. He married Miss Sarah B. Burrall, a daughter of WiUiam P. Burrall of Hartford, Connecticut, and made his home in Gramercy Park, New York city. He died at York Harbor, Maine, in 1896. The eldest son of Henry Hill Anderson was born in this city in 1863, and was named, after his parents, Henry Burrall Ander- son. After a careful preparation he was sent to Yale University, and was graduated there in the class of 1885. Following the example of his father, he turned his attention to the legal pro- fession, and came to this city to study for it. In due time he was admitted to the bar, and became a member of the firm of Anderson, Howland & Murray, of which his father was the head. His attention has since been given with marked earnestness to the practice of his profession, and in it he has already achieved marked success, with ample promise of succeeding to his father's conspicuous rank. Mr. Anderson has not yet held poMtical office of any kind, though he takes an earnest interest in all that should concern a loyal citizen. He is a member of the University Club, of which his father was first president, and also of the New York and City clubs. He is married to Marie, daughter of Joseph La- rocque, the eminent New York lawyer. Leaving the old family home on Grramercy Park, he has moved up-town to East Fifty-seventh Street, and there founded a new home of his own. His summer residence is in the delightful suburb of Great Neck, Long Island. It may be added that his two younger brothers, WiUiam Burrall Anderson and Chandler P. Anderson, followed him at Yale, in the classes of 1886 and 1887 respectively, and then came on to New York and engaged likewise in the practice of law. They are both members of the University Club, perpetuating in that organization the name and memory of its first president, and the elder of them abides at the old home on Gramercy Park. g_ ^^F^ WL\ •i^ ; jHpi^ (,. . V ^■. ^ B W- !^^^m^m, 4%^^^^m^ ' ■^ AVEEY DE LANO ANDREWS HANNIBAL ANDEEWS, mercliaiit, of St. Lawrence County, New York, was of English stock, first settled in this country in Yermont. His wife, Harriet De Lano, was, as her name indicates, of French descent, her first American ancestor having been PhiUp de la Noye, who landed in New England in 1621, and Captain Jonathan De Lano of New Bed- ford, Massachusetts, having been her grandfather. To them was bom at Massena, St. Lawrence County, New York, on April 4, 1864, a son, to whom they gave the name of Avery De Lano Andrews. They sent him to the local Union Free School for a time, and then he became clerk in a village store. Next he was, while under sixteen years of age, sole proprietor of a small job printing-of&ce, the only one within a radius of ten miles. In 1881-82 he attended WiUiston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massa- chusetts, and then (1882) secured an appointment to a cadet- ship at West Point by passing a competitive examination at Ogdensburg, ordered by the Hon. Amasa X. Parker. Mr. Andrews was graduated at West Point in 1886, as No. 14 in a class of seventy-seven members, and on July 1 of that year was commissioned as second heutenant in the Fifth Regiment of United States Artillery. He served in that capacity until September, 1889, when he was ordered to Washington as an aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-Greneral Schofield, commanding the United States army, and filled that place until shortly before November, 1893, when he resigned his commission and returned to civil life. He had been made first lieutenant on November 28, 1892. While stationed at Washington he found time to pur- sue an evening law course at the Columbian University there, and then, in 1891-93, at the New York Law School in this city, 7 8 AVEEY DE liANO ANDREWS in wMcIl latter school he was a prize tutor in 1892-94. After resigning from the army he entered upon the practice of the legal profession in this city, in the firm of "Wells & Andrews, with which he is still connected. He is general counsel for the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, the National Contracting Company, and several other large corporations. Mr. Andrews was, when only thirty years of age, appointed by Mayor Strong a pohce commissioner of New York city, and served in that office from February 13, 1895, to January 1, 1898, being treasurer of the department while Colonel Roosevelt was president. His performance of the duties of the commissioner- ship was of the most admirable character, entithng him to the gratitude of the city. Mr. Andrews's military career did not end with his resignation from the United States army. He was appointed, on November 10, 1893, major and engineer on the staff of General Fitzgerald . of the First Brigade, National Guard of New York, and served untn February 2, 1898. On March 21, 1898, he became com- mander of Squadron A, N. G. N. Y., the famous cavalry organi- zation of New York city. On the outbreak of the war with Spain his services were tendered to the national government, and from May 9, 1898, he was lieutenant-colonel of United States Volunteers. On January 1, 1899, he became adjutant-general of the State of New York and chief of staff to Governor Roose- velt, with the rank of brigadier-general. Mr. Andrews is a member of the Century, University, Law- yers', Reform, and Church clubs, and the Bar Association of New York, the Army and Navy Club of Washington, and the Fort Orange Club of Albany. He was married, on Governor's Island, New York, on September 27, 1888, to Miss Mary Camp- bell Schofield, only daughter of Lieutenant-General Sehofield, U. S. A. They have now two children, Schofield Andrews, aged nine years, and De Lano Andrews, aged five. CXAAy'^.y^C^C d£l.cM CLARENCE DEGRAND ASHLEY IN scarcely any respect is New York city more the metropolis of the nation than in that of law. Hither flock aspiring practitioners from all parts of the land, hoping to win distinction in practice in the courts, as well as fortune in profitable practice. Nowhere is the competition keener, nowhere are the require- ments of success greater, and nowhere is the success to he attained more marked than here. To this city, too, come hosts of young men to study law and gain admission to the bar. They find here several great schools of world-wide reputation, besides the opportunities of private study in innumerable offices. Of these schools none is more widely or more favorably known than that of New York University. This institution was planned in 1836 by the Hon, Benjamin F. Butler, Attorney-General of the United States, though its full organization was delayed until 1859. Associated with it as professors and lecturers have been many of the most eminent lawyers of the last hal£-century, and from its halls have emerged, diploma in hand, a veritable army of practitioners, including a goodly share of those now most dis- tinguished at the bar of this and other States. The present head of the university faculty of law is a man well worthy of his distinguished predecessors. He comes of Puritan ancestry. His forefathers on both sides of the family came from England and settled in Massachusetts soon after the foundation of the latter colony, and were through many genera- tions conspicuously and honorably identified with the develop- ment of the New England States. At the middle of the present century there were living in the ancient Puritan city of Boston one Ossian DooUttle Ashley and Harriet Amelia Ashley, his wife. Mr. Ashley is well known as a successful financier and as 9 10 CLARENCE DEGEAND ASHLEY a writer upon financial and other topics, and has been for many- years president of the Wabash Raih-oad Company. To them was born, on July 4, 1851, in their Boston home, the subject of this sketch. Clarence Degrand Ashley received a typical New England education. After some prehminary instruction in New York city, whither his parents had moved in 1858, he was sent to the famous Philhps Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts, and thence to Yale. From the latter university he was graduated in 1873. He had then decided upon his profession, and in order to make his preparation for the practice of it as thorough as pos- sible he went to Grermany, where he devoted special attention to the Grerman language and at the same time entered the Univer- sity of Berhn, pursuing courses in Roman Law for two years. He then returned to his home in New York, and continued his studies, both in school and in an of&ce. The latter was the office of Messrs. Scudder & Carter. The former was the Law School of Columbia CoUege. He was admitted to the bar of New York in 1879, and the next year was graduated from Columbia Law School with its degree. He now entered upon the practice of the profession in this city, in partnership with Mr. "William A. Keener, under the firm- name of Ashley & Keener. It is interesting to observe that Mr. Keener has since become the dean of the Columbia Law School, as Mr. Ashley has of the university school. A few years later Mr. Ashley became a member of the firm of Dixon, Wilhams & Ashley, the senior member being a brother of the United States Senator of that name from Rhode Island. Upon the death of Mr. Dixon in 1891 the firm was reorganized under the style of Williams & Ashley. In the affairs of these firms Mr. Ashley was always an active and potent factor, and he par- ticipated in many important htigations. In 1898 Mr. Ashley became associated with a new firm, under the style of Ashley, Emley & Rubino, and is still actively engaged in practice with that firm as its senior partner and general counsel. As such he constantly advises in important corporation and raUroad matters. Among his many chents are, or have been, the estates of the late Samuel J. Tilden, WiUiam B. Ogden, and Courtlandt Pahner, and the eminent statesman G-alusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, OLABENCE DEGKAND ASHLEY H whom during six years of litigation he successfully defended against an attempt to iavahdate his title to valuable coal prop- erty in Pennsylvania, formerly owned by the Brady's Bend Iron Company. He successfully contested the sale under foreclosure of the mining property at Houghton, Michigan, belonging to the Centennial Mining Company, and after several months of severe contest succeeded in bringing about a compromise whereby the rights of the stock-holders were preserved and the company reor- ganized upon its present strong basis. He has also for many years represented the Wabash RaUroad Company in Htigation, and advised that company upon many important questions. These are a few of the many matters of active practice which have occupied Mr. Ashley for years. It was not, however, his purpose to confine his activities entirely to the work of any law office, no matter how extended. His tastes were academic, and he soon began planning the estabhshment of a great school of law. His plans were reaUzed in 1891, when the Metropolis Law School was founded. Of that admirable institution he was not only one of the organizers, but also one of its chief instructors, a member of its board of trustees and of the executive com- mittee. For several years he did excellent work there, and the school flourished. It held sessions in the evenings, thus afford- ing facilities for study to many young men who were of neces- sity otherwise employed during the day. But a few years later, and simultaneously, the Metropohs Law School inclined toward absorption into the New York University, and New York University decided upon such reorganization of its Law School as should bring the latter under university direc- tion. The natural and praiseworthy result was the consolidation of the two schools under the university head. Mr. Ashley was made vice-dean, and head of the evening department, a feature retained from the Metropolis School. This was in the spring of 1895. A year later Dr. Austin Abbott, the dean of the univer- sity school, died, and on September 16, 1896, Mr. Ashley was elected to succeed him. In 1895 New York University conferred upon him the honor- ary degree of LL. M., and in June, 1898, he received the degree of LL. D. from Miami University. JOHN JACOB ASTOR THERE is probably no name in America more thoroughly identified in the popular mind — and rightly so — with the possession and intelligent use of great wealth than that of Astor. For four generations the family which bears it has been fore- most among the rich families of New York, not only in size of fortune, but in generous public spirit and in all those elements that make for permanence and true worth of fame. The build- ing up of a great fortune, the estabhshment of a vast business, the giving of a name to important places and institutions, the hberal endowment of libraries, asylums, hospitals, churches, schools, and what not, the administration on a pecuUarly gener- ous system of a large landed estate in the heart of the metropolis — these are some of the titles of the Astor family to remembrance. It was a John Jacob Astor who founded the family in this country and made it great. In each generation since, that name has been preserved, and to-day is borne by its fourth holder. The present John Jacob Astor is the son of Wilham Astor, who was the son of Wilham B. Astor, who was the son of the first John Jacob Astor. He is also descended from Oloff Stevenson Van Cortlandt, who was the last Dutch Burgomaster of New Amsterdam before the British took it and made it New York ; from Colonel John Armstrong, one of the heroes of the French and Indian War ; and from Robert Livingston, who received by royal grant the famous Livingston Manor, comprising a large part of Columbia and Dutchess counties, New York. He was bom at his father's estate of Femchff, near Rhinebeck, on the Hudson, on July 13, 1864, and was educated at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University. He was graduated at Harvard in the scientific class of 1888, and then 12 JOHN JACOB ASTOK 13 spent some time in travel and stndy abroad. He had already made extended tonrs through the United States, from New England to the Pacific coast. His subsequent travels have taken him into nearly every European and South American country, and he has not been content to follow merely the ordinary route of travel, but has made for himself new and interesting itineraries. Upon his return to his native land Mr. Astor entered upon the manifold duties of a good citizen with whole-hearted energy. He first famiharized himself with the details of his own busi- ness, the management of his great estate. That, in itself, was a gigantic undertaking, but it was performed by him with thor- oughness. He also proceeded to improve his estate by the erec- tion of various fine new buildings, which are at once a source of revenue to him and an ornament to the city. He did not seek to avoid even the petty but often onerous duties of a juryman in the local courts, but in that and other ways showed himself willing to assume all the burdens, great and small, of an Ameri- can citizen. He entered into business relations with various enterprises, becoming a director of such institutions as the National Park Bank, the Title Gruaranty and Trust Company, the Mercantile Trust Company, the Plaza Bank, the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equi- table Life Assurance Society, the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company, the Astor National Bank, etc. From an early age Mr. Astor manifested a decided inclination toward hterary and scientific work. While at St. Paul's School he was the contributor of numerous articles of merit to academic pubhcations. In 1894 he pubhshed a volume entitled " A Jour- ney in Other Worlds : A Romance of the Future." In this he dealt with the operations of a new force, styled "apergy," the reverse of gravitation. He adopted the theory that the conquest of nature would be — or actually had been — so far achieved that man had become master of the elemental forces of the universe. Thus air navigation had become a practical agency of communi- cation and transportation. Nor was navigation confined to our ordinary atmosphere. His daring voyagers traversed the inter- planetary spaces, and visited Jupiter as easily as we now cross the Atlantic. They found in the distant planets strange and lux- 14 JOHN JACOB ASTOK miant life, with singing flowers, extraordinary reptiles, spiders three hundred feet long, railroad trains running three hundred miles an hour, and, most marvelous of all, great cities with clean streets and good government. This remarkable hterary and philosophical extravaganza attracted much attention, and was much praised by competent critics for its excellence of style, as well as for its daring imagination. It ran through many edi- tions here and also in England, and was published in France in translation. Mr. Astor has long taken an active interest in military affairs, and his appointment as a colonel on the staff of Grovernor Morton, in 1895, was recognized as a most fitting one. In that office he did admirable service, and identified himself with the best inter- ests of the State troops. But a far more important service was before him. At the very outbreak of the Spanish -American War, on April 25, 1898, Mr. Astor visited Washington, had an interview with the President, and offered his services in any capacity in which he might be useful to the nation. At the same time he made a free offer of his fine steam-yacht, the Nourmahal, for the use of the Navy Department. The latter offer was declined with thanks, after due consideration, the navy officers not finding the yacht exactly available for their purposes. The tender of personal services was gratefully accepted, and on May 13, 1898, Mr. Astor was appointed an inspector-general in the army, with the rank of heutenant-colonel. For the duties of this place his former experience on the staff of Governor Morton gave him especial fitness. On May 15 he went on duty on the staff of Major-General Breckinridge, inspector-general, his first work being a tour of inspection of the military camps which had been estabhshed in the South. In that occupation Colonel Astor found plenty of work, much of it of a by no means pleasant character ; but he performed aU of it with the zeal and thoroughness that have been characteristic of him in all his undertakings. There was no attempt to play the part of "gentleman soldier." The distinctions of wealth and social rank were laid aside at the caU of the fatherland, and the millionaire became the unconventional comrade of every man, rich or poor, who was loyally fighting for the old flag. After some weeks of duty in the United States, Colonel Astor JOHN JACOB ASTOE 15 was ordered to Tampa and to Cuba with the first army of in- vasion, and did admirable service. He served with bravery .and efficiency during the battles and siege of Santiago, and was rec- ommended for promotion by his chief, G-eneral Shafter. He fell a victim to the malarial fever that prevailed there, but his robust constitution brought him safely through an ordeal which proved fatal to many of his comrades. After the surrender of Santiago he was sent to Washington as the bearer of important despatches and other documents to the President. At Tampa, on July 27, he and his feUow-travelers were stopped by the State sanitary authorities and ordered into quarantine for a few days. Colonel Astor took it philosophically, as one of the incidents of the campaign, disregarding the personal discomfort, and only re- gretting the delay in placing before the President the informa- tion with which he was charged. Finally the quarantine was raised, and Colonel Astor proceeded to Washington and delivered his message, and was enabled to do some valuable work for the War Department. On August 11, the day before the formal signing of the proto- col of peace, but after the war was practically ended and the immediate restoration of peace was fuUy assured. Colonel Astor went on a furlough to his home at Femcliff, and was enthu- siastically welcomed by his friends and neighbors of Rhinebeck and all the country round. Worthy of record, also, is his gift to the government of the Astor Battery. At the outbreak of the war he offered to recruit and fuUy equip at his own expense a battery of light artillery. The offer was officially accepted by the government on May 26. The next day recruiting was begun. Volunteers flocked in with enthusiasm. On May 30 drill was begun. The next day saw the battery complete, with one hundred and two men and six twelve-pound Hotchkiss guns. The total cost of it to Colonel Astor was about seventy-five thousand dollars. After spending some time in drilhng, the battery was sent across the continent to San Francisco and thence to Manila, where it arrived in time to take part in the operation against that city and in its final capture on August 13. The guns used by this battery were im- ported from England, and were the best of their kind to be had in the world. The uniforms worn by the soldiers were of the famous 16 JOHN JACOB ASTOE yellow-brown khaki cloth, such as is worn by British soldiers in tropical countries. It was light in texture, cool and comfortable, and in all respects admirable for the purpose. The soldiers also had regular service imiforms, of blue cloth with scarlet facings. Colonel Astor's immediate connection with the battery ceased when he had paid the heavy bUls for its organization and equip- ment, but it continued to bear his name, and its record in the nation's service abides as a lasting memorial of his generous and thoughtful patriotism, which led him to give his own time and labor, and to risk his own hfe, and also to give freely of his wealth to enable others to serve the government in the most effective manner. There are, indeed, few names in the story of the brief but glorious war of 1898 more honorably remembered than that of Colonel John Jacob Astor. Colonel Astof was married, in 1891, to Miss Ava "Willing of Philadelphia. She is a daughter of Edward Shippen Willing and AHce C. Barton "Willing, whose names suggest many a chapter of worthy American history. Thomas Willing, a great-great-grand- father of Mrs. Astor, was Mayor of Philadelphia, and first president of both the Bank of North America and the Bank of the United States. He aided in drawing up the Constitution of the United States, and designed the coat of arms of this govern- ment. Another of Mrs. Astor's ancestors was the Hon. C. W. Barton, who in 1653 was a conspicuous member of the British Parhament. By this marriage Mr, Astor not only allied himself with a family of national distinction, but gained the life-com- panionship of a particularly charming and congenial woman. Mrs. Astor's native talents and refinement have been added to by careful education, well fitting her for the most exalted social position. She is, moreover, fond of and proficient in those open- air recreations and sports into which her husband enters with keen enjoyment. She is an expert tennis- and golf -player, and can sail a boat hke a veteran sea-captain. She also possesses the not common accomphshment of being a fine shot with a rifle or revolver, and on more than one hunting expedition has given most tangible evidence of her skill. Colonel Astor is a member of numerous clubs in this city and elsewhere, including the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Union, Tuxedo, City, Riding, Racquet, Country, New York Yacht, Down- JOHN JACOB ASTOB 17 Town, Delta PM, Newport Golf, Newport Casino, and Society of Colonial Wars. In the fall of 1898 the nomination for Congress was offered to Colonel Astor in the district in which his city home is situated, but he was constrained by his business and other interests to decliue it. Colonel Astor spends much of his time upon the estate which was his father's and upon which he himself was bom. This is Ferncliff, near Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. It com- prises more than fifteen hundred acres, and extends for a mile and a half along the river-bank. About half of it is iu a state of high cultivation, but much of the remainder is left in its native state of wild beauty, or touched with art only to enhance its charms and to make them more accessible for enjoy- ment. The house is a stately mansion in the* Italian style of architecture, standing upon a plateau and commanding a superb outlook over the Hudson River, Rondout Creek, the Shawan- gunk Mountains, and the distant Catskills. A noteworthy feature of the place is the great series of greenhouses, twelve in number, in which all kinds of flowers and fruits are grown to perfection at all seasons of the year. Rhinebeck and its vicinity are the home of many people of wealth and culture, among whom the Astors are foremost. The Astor home iu this city is a splendid mansion built of limestone in the French style of Francis I. It stands at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street, and is one of the chief architectural adornments of that stately part of the me- tropohs. It was designed by the late Richard M. Htmt, and is regarded as one of the masterpieces of that distinguished archi- tect. In this house each season some of the most magnificent social gatherings of New York occur, for, of course, in this city, at Newport, and wherever they go, Mr. and Mrs. Astor are among the foremost social leaders. WILLIAM ASTOR THE Astor family, long representative of that wMch is fore- most in America in wealth, culture, social leadership, and pubhc spirit, was also typically American in its origin — or per- haps we should say in its renascence — on American soil. For there are various versions of its earlier history, some declaring it to have been of ancient and exalted lineage. However that may be, the present chapter of its history opens with a household of moderate means and moderate social rank, at Waldorf, in the grand duchy of Baden, Germany. A son of that family, John Jacob Astor by name, with no means apart from his character and indomitable will, came to America in the last year of the Revolutionary War, to seek a fortune. He found it in the fur trade with the Indians in the Northwest, and invested it and vastly increased it in New York real estate. He lived to be eighty-one years old, and was actively engaged in business in New York for forty-one years. The bulk of his fortune went to his son, William Backhouse Astor, who continued to increase it, and also to use it wisely for the benefit of his fellow-citizens. Then, in the third generation, came one of the best-known members of the whole family. This was William Astor. He was a son of William B. Astor, and grandson of John Jacob Astor, the founder of the family in this country, and he amply inherited the best qualities of both. He was born in this city, in the old Astor mansion on Lafayette Place, adjoining the Astor Library, on July 12, 1829, and at the age of twenty years was graduated' from Columbia Col- lege. Being of a frank and generous nature, respecting himself, loyal to his friends, and enthusiastic and proficient in athletic sports, he was one of the most popular men of his time in college. 18 WILLIAM ASTOE 19 On leaving Columbia, lie made a long tour in foreign lands, especially in Egypt and the East, and thus gained a lifelong interest in Oriental art and literature. Mr, Astor returned to this country, and at the age of twenty- four was married, and entered his father's office, then on Prince Street, as his assistant in administering the affairs of the vast properties in houses and lands — in this city and elsewhere — ■ belonging to the family. In time half of that estate became his own by inheritance. He continued to pay to it the closest personal attention, and largely increased its value by improve- ments and by purchases of additional property. Thus he main- tained the tradition of the Astors, that they often buy but seldom sell land. At the same time, Mr. Astor possessed the happy faculty of so regulating his business affairs as to leave much of his time free for recreation and for social engagements. He was fond of country life and of farming, and indulged these tastes to the fuU on his splendid country estate, Femcliff, at Rhiaebeck, on the Hudson River. He was also fond of the sea, and spent a considerable part of his time in yachting voyages. For this purpose he had built the Ambassadress, the largest and probably the finest sailing- yacht ever launched. In her he made many voyages. But this splendid vessel, built in 1877, did not satisfy him. He loved sailing, but wished to be independent of wiad and tide. Accord- ingly, in 1884, he built the Nourmahal, a large steam-yacht with full rigging for sailing as well as steaming. After various coast- ing voyages, he planned to make a trip around the world in the Nourmahal, but did not live to carry out the scheme. The Nour- mahal was left to his son, John Jacob Astor, while the Ambassa- dress was sold to a Boston gentleman and was afterward put to commercial uses. Mr. Astor was the owner also of the famous saihng-yacht Atalanta, which won a number of important races, carrying off as trophies the Cape May and Kane cups. While not given to horse-racing, Mr. Astor was fond of fine horses, and was the owner of many thoroughbreds. Among these were " Vagrant," purchased by him in Kentucky in 1877 ; " Femcliff," raised by him and sold as a yearUng for forty-eight hundred dollars ; and a third which he bought in England in 1890 for fif- teen thousand dollars and sold the next year for double that sum. 20 WILLIAM ASTOR One of Mr. Astor's most important business enterprises was Ms deyelopment of the State of Florida. He became interested in that State during a visit in 1875, and was impressed with the great material possibilities of it. He spent much of the next ten years in leading a movement for the rebuilding of the State and the development of its resources. He built a railroad from St. Augustine to Palatka, constructed several blocks of fine buildings in Jacksonville, and did many other works, besides enlisting the interest of various other capitahsts in the State. So valuable were his services reckoned to the State that the Florida govern- ment voted him, in recognition of them, a grant of eighty thou- sand acres of land. Mr. Astor was married, on September 23, 1853, to Miss Caroline Schermerhom, daughter of Abraham Schermerhorn of New York, and a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished families of that city. For many years Mr. and Mrs. Astor were foremost in the best social gatherings of the metropohs. Their eminent purity of character, discriminating taste, refinement, and generous hospitalities made them the unchallenged leaders of the highest social life of New York city. Their favor assured, and was necessary to, the success of any movement which depended upon social favor. They were both most generous in their charities and public benefactions, and equally scrupidous in avoiding notoriety on account of them. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Astor were the following : Emily, who died in 1881, the wife of James J. Van Alen of Newport, Rhode Island ; Helen, the wife of James Roosevelt Roosevelt ; Charlotte Augusta, who was married to James Coleman Drayton ; Caroline Schermerhom, the wife of Marshall Orme Wilson ; and John Jacob Astor, the fourth of that name and now the head of the family. William Astor made his home in New York city, and at Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. He died, universally re- spected and lamented, in Paris, France, on April 25, 1892. WILLIAM DELAYAN BALDWIN THE Baldwin family, wMcli through, many generations was prominent in many ways in the Old World, was planted in North America by John Baldwin, who in early colonial times came over the Atlantic and was one of the first settlers in Ded- ham, Massachusetts. His descendants played a worthy part in the development of the colonies, and in the upbuilding of the nation, and are now to be found scattered far and wide throughout the States. From John Baldwin is descended the subject of this sketch, William Delavan Baldwin, the well-known manufacturer and merchant. He was born at Auburn, New York, on September 5, 1856. His grandfather on the paternal side, SuUivan Bald- win, was a native of Bennington, Yermont, and lived for part of his life at Hoosac Falls, New York, where his son, Mr. Baldwin's father, Lovewell H. Baldwin, was bom. LoveweU H. Baldwin removed, in his childhood, to Auburn, New York, and there made his home. His wife, Mr. Baldwin's mother, was Sarah J. Munson, the daughter of Oscar D. Munson and Sarah L. (Ben- nett) Munson. Mr. Baldwin was educated in the schools of his native city, completing his studies with the high school course. Then, having a decided bent for the mechanic arts, he entered the works of D. M. Osborne & Co., manufacturers of reapers, mowers, and general harvesting machinery. Beginning in his boyhood, and in a subordinate place, he effected a thorough mastery of the business in both its manufacturing and its com- mercial details. In consequence of his ability and application he was from time to time promoted in the service of the com- pany, and on attaining his majority he was sent to Europe as its 21 22 WILLIAM DELAVAN BALDWIN agent in those countries. For five years he filled that important place, and discharged its duties with great acceptability, being thus instrumental in effecting a great extension of the firm's business, and also of the prestige of American manufacturers in foreign lands. This engagement was brought to an end in 1882, by Mr. Baldwin's resignation, not only of the European agency but of his entire connection with the firm. He took this step in order to be able to devote his fullest attention to another industry which was then growing to large proportions, and in which he had conceived a deep interest. This was the manufacture of elevators for conveying passengers and freight in tall modern buildings. The firm of Otis Brothers & Co. has already estab- hshed a reputation for such devices. On resigning from the D. M. Osborne Company, Mr. Baldwin purchased an interest in the Otis Company, and became its treasurer. He devoted him- self with characteristic energy and effect to the extension of its business and the general promotion of its welfare. He was largely instrumental in bringing about the present organization of the concern as the Otis Elevator Company, and is now the president of that corporation. In addition to this, his chief business enterprise, Mr. Baldwin is interested in various other corporations, and is a director and officer of several of them. In politics Mr. Baldwin has always been a stanch Eepubhcan, and while he was a resident of the city of Yonkers, New York, where the Otis Elevator Works are situated, he took an active interest in pohtical affairs. He is a member of a number of clubs and other social organi- zations, in New York city and elsewhere. Among these are the Union League, the Lawyers', the Engineers', the Racquet and Tennis, and the Adirondack League clubs. Mr. Baldwin was married in the year 1881 to Miss Helen Runyon, daughter of Nahum M. Sullivan of Montclair, New Jersey, a prominent New York merchant. Seven children have been born to them. CL.^cJ~^i(^---x^t^ WILLIAM HENRY BALDWIN, JR. NEW ENGLAND has given to all parts of the land a large proportion of their most successful and eminent men in all walks of life. These are to be found in the ranks of the learned professions, in the standard "old line" businesses which have existed since human society was organized, and also in the newer enterprises which have grown up out of modem inventions to meet the needs of the most advanced modem conditions. Among the last-named the subject of the present sketch is honorably to be ranked. Both his paternal and maternal ancestors were set- tled in New England, in the Massachusetts Colony, in the seven- teenth centmy, and played an honorable and beneficent part in building that colony up into the great State it has now become. At the time of their first settlement, such a thing as a railroad would have been deemed palpable witchcraft and a device of the Evil One. Yet their descendant has become one of the fore- most promoters of that "strange device" in this land where rail- roads are one of the most familiar and most important features of industrial economy. William Henry Baldwin, Jr., the weU-known president of the Long Island Railroad Company, was bom in the city of Boston on February 5, 1863. His mother's maiden name was the good old New England one of Mary Chaffee. His father, William Henry Baldwin, was and is a typical Bostonian, identijfied closely with the iaterests of that city, where' for more than thirty years he has been president of the Young Men's Christian Union. The boy received a characteristic Bostonian education — first in the unrivaled pubhc schools of that city, then in the Roxbury Latin School, and finally, of course, at Harvard University, being graduated from the last-named institution as a member of 23 24 WILLIAM HENRY BALDWIN, JE. the class of 1885. While in college he belonged to the Alpha Delta Phi and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities, the Hasty- Pudding and O. K. clubs, and was president and leader of the Grlee Club, and president of the Memorial Hall Dining Associa- tion, and was actively interested in all athletic sports. After receiving the degree of A. B., Mr. Baldwin took a year's course at the Harvard Law School, and then entered the employ of the Union Pacific Railroad as a clerk in the auditor's office, and later in the office of the general traffic manager at Omaha. From June, 1887, to June, 1888, he was division freight agent at Butte, Montana; then, to February, 1889, assistant general freight agent at Omaha ; and to October, 1889, manager of the Leaven- worth division of the Union Pacific at Leavenworth, Kansas. In October, 1889, he became general manager, and afterward, for a short time, president, of the Montana Union Railroad, a feeder of the Union Pacific and Northern Pacific railroads, under their joint control. In August, 1890, Mr. Baldwin was made assistant vice-presi- dent of the Union Pacific at Omaha. From June, 1891, to July, 1894, he was general manager of the Flint and Pere Marquette Railroad, in Michigan, and from the latter date to October, 1895, third vice-president of the Southern Railroad, with headquarters at Washington, D. C. In 1895 he was made second vice-president of the Southern, in charge of both the traffic and operating departments. On October 1, 1896, he took charge of the Long Island Rail- road as its president, and still occupies that position. He is also interested in various other enterprises on Long Island. In addition to his business occupations, Mr. Baldwin has paid considerable attention to social, economic, and educational questions. He is a trustee of the Tuskeegee Industrial School for negroes in Alabama, and a trustee of Smith CoUege at Northampton,, Massachusetts. He is a member of the University and Harvard clubs of New York, and of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn. Mr. Baldwin was married, on October 30, 1889, to Ruth Stan- dish Bowles of Springfield, Massachusetts, daughter of the late Samuel Bowles, editor of the " Springfield Republican." AMZI LOEENZO BAEBER AMZI LOEENZO BAEBEE is a descendant, in tlie fourth -^^ generation, of Thomas Barber, who, with his two brothers, came to America in ante-Eevolntionary days and settled in Ver- mont. They were of Scotch-Irish stock, but were bom in Eng- land. Mr. Barber's father, the Eev. Amzi Doohttle Barber, was graduated from the theological department of Oberlin Col- lege in 1841. Oberlin was at that time celebrated for its ad- vanced and fearless attitude on the slavery question, just then bitterly agitating aU classes in the United States. The Eev. Mr. Barber, after leaving college, returned to Vermont, where for many years he was pastor of the Congregational church at Saxton's Eiver, Windham County. His wife was Nancy Irene Bailey of Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, a descen- dant of English and French ancestors. Amzi Lorenzo Barber was born at Saxton's Eiver, Vermont, in 1843. In his early childhood his parents moved to Ohio, and he received his education in that State. He was graduated from Oberhn College in 1867, and took a postgraduate course of a few months in theology. He then went to Washington and assumed the charge of the Normal Department in the Howard University, at the request and under the direction of Greneral 0. 0. Howard. After fillin g several positions in the university he resigned from the staff, and in 1872 went into real-estate busi- ness in Washington. He devoted much thought and study to questions of street- paving and improvements,, and they coming finally to claim his entire attention, he went into the occupation of constructing as- phalt pavement on a large scale. In 1883 the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, known all over the country, was incorporated. 25 26 AMZI LOBENZO BAEBEE Besides being at tlie head of this company, Mr. Barber is a director ia the Washington Loan and Trust Company of Wash- ington, D. C, and in the Knickerbocker Trust Company, West- chester Trust Company, New Amsterdam Casualty Company, and other companies in New York. He is a member of the Metropohtan, the University, the Engi- neers', the Riding, and the Lawyers' clubs, the New England and Ohio societies, and the American Geographical Society. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, a patron of the Metropohtan Museum of Art, and a member of the Society of Arts in London. Mr. Barber's favorite diversion is yachting, and he gives much of his time not devoted to business to this pleasure. He keeps a steam-yacht in commission throughout the season, and has made many voyages, with his family, in American waters, the Mediterranean and other European seas. He is a member of the New York, the Atlantic, the American, and the Larchmont yacht clubs of America, and of the Royal Thames Yacht Club of London. Mr. Barber has been twice married. His first wife was Ceha M. Bradley of Geneva, Ohio. She died in 1870, two years after her marriage with Mr. Barber. His second wife was Miss Juha Louise Langdon, a daughter of J. Le Droict Langdon of Bel- mont, New York. They have four children : Le Droict, Lorena, Bertha, and Rowland Langdon Barber. The eldest daughter is the wife of Samuel Todd Davis, Jr., of Washington. Mr. Bar- ber lives most of the year at Ardsley Towers, a large and beau- tiful country estate at L^ngton, New York. It was once the property of Cyrus W. Field. For many years Mr. Barber's town house was the Stuart mansion, at Fifth Avenue and Sixty-eighth Street, now owned by William C. Whitney. His winter home is the beautiful and well-known Belmont at Washington, D. C. Mr. Barber has for many years been a trustee of Oberhn Col- lege in Ohio, and takes great interest in the success of that institution. , \ GEORGE CARTER BARRETT UPON the side of Ms father, the Rev. Gilbert Carter Barrett of the Church of England, Justice Barrett is of English descent. He has in his possession a Waterloo medal which was given to his grand-uncle. Lieutenant John Carter Barrett, for distinguished gallantry on the field of that "world's earth- quake." Upon the side of his mother, whose maiden name was Jane M. Brown, he is of Celtic and Irish descent. George Carter Barrett was bom iu Dubhn, Ireland, on July 28, 1838, and in early life was brought to North America by his father, who was sent as a missionary to the Muncey and Oneida tribes of Canadian Indians. For six years he hved with his father at the Canadian mission, and subsequently went to school at Delaware, Ontario, then Canada West. At the age of fifteen he came to New York and attended Co- lumbia College Grammar-School and Columbia College. At the end of his freshman year he was compelled to leave college to earn his own Uving and to help other members of his family, especially a younger brother, who subsequently died at sea. When he was sixteen years old he began writing for various newspapers. In his work he was greatly aided by Charles G. Halpine (" Miles O'Reilly "), who was a good friend to him. At eighteen he became a law clerk, and devoted his attention to preparing himself to practise law. Upon his majority he was admitted to the bar, and at the age of twenty-five was elected justice of the Sixth Judicial District Court for a term of six years. After serving four years in that place he was elected to the bench of the Court of Common Pleas. There he served for nearly two years in company with Chief Judge Charles P. Daly 27 28 GEOBGE CAETEB BAKBETT and Judge John E. Brady, two of tlie most respected jurists of the day. He then resigned his place and went back to his law office for two years. In 1871 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court by an overwhelming majority, and at the end of his term, fourteen years later, was reelected without opposition, being nominated by Democrats and Republicans alike. When the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court was created, in 1894, Justice Barrett was appointed one of its original seven members. Justice Barrett has held no poUtical office, in his high view of the case judicial offices being entirely non-political. He has, however, taken an important part in political affairs as a lawyer and a citizen. He resigned his place on the Common Pleas bench just as the popular uprising against the corrupt Tweed Ring was taking form. He promptly identified himself with that movement. He was president of the Young Men's Munici- pal Reform Association, which strenuously fought against the Ring, and was a prominent member of the famous Committee of Seventy. He spoke at a great anti-Ring meeting at Cooper Union, with Samuel J. Tilden and Henry "Ward Beecher, and, was one of the counsel for the Committee of Seventy and also for John Foley in the great injunction suit against the Ring, which was tried before Justice Barnard, and which resulted in the appointment of Andrew D. Glreen as deputy controller, and the exposure of the rascalities of the Ring. Justice Barrett is a member of the Century, Metropolitan, Manhattan, Democratic, Barnard, Riding, and Mendelssohn G-lee clubs of this city. He was married in November, 1866, to Mrs. G-ertrude F. Yingut, widow of Professor Francisco Ja- vier Yingut, and daughter of Sumner Lincoln Fairfield, the New England writer and poet. Only one child was born to them — a daughter, Angela Carter Barrett, now deceased. Justice Bar- rett has made his home in New York ever since he came here at the age of fifteen. His father died at that time, and his mother had died before his father and he left Ireland. He has throughout his long and distinguished career commanded the f uUest measure of esteem and confidence of the entire commu- nity, " unsulhed in reputation, either as a man, a lawyer, or a judge." ^'cM^Mir JOHN RICHARD BARTLETT THE paternal ancestors of John Richard Bartlett were, as the name indicates, of English origin. The name of Oakes, borne by Mr. Bartlett's mother, similarly indicates English an- cestry on the maternal side. The Bartletts came to this coun- try about the year 1700, and settled ia Boston, Massachusetts. The name has since that date been conspicuously identified with the growth of the New England colonies and States. The latter fact is equally applicable to the family name of Oakes. In the early part of the nineteenth century, however, some members of the famihes were settled in the British colony of New Brunswick. There Richard Bartlett was successively a school-teacher, a farmer, a lumber manufacturer, and merchant. He married Louisa Oakes, and to them was bom at Eredericton, New Brunswick, on May 17, 1839, the subject of this sketch. John Richard Bartlett was educated at first in the schools of Eredericton, then at St. John, New Brunswick, and finally in Boston, Massachusetts. He was not, however, left to devote his youth undisturbedly to the pursuit of knowledge. At the age of fourteen he was called from school to work for the sup- port of himself and his mother and sisters. Thereafter, with invincible determination, he pursued his studies as best he could at night, on holidays, and during the winter seasons. His first occupation, at the age of fourteen, was that of carry- ing the measuring-line for a party of surveyors. Three years later he was engaged in designing and building carriages of various kinds ; and so great was his success in this work that at the age of twenty he engaged in the business of manufactur- ing on his own account, at Haverhill and in Boston, Massachu- setts. 29 30 JOHN RIOHABD BABTLETT Desiring, however, still more extended scope for his executire abilities, he in 1865 engaged in a mercantile career in Boston, presently embracing New York city also in his business relation- ships. In 1873 he removed his home and office to New York city, and has since been chiefly identified with that city's business hf e. His early training in constructive mechanism and his mercantile experience proved of great service to him in laying the founda- tions of his eminently successful career. Mr. Bartlett is to-day a unique figure in the business Ufe of New York, having for the past fifteen years been the moving spirit in the creation and reorganization of a number of large corporations. A good illustration of his peculiar creative abihty may be found in his conception and successful creation of the great water system now supplying the cities and towns of north- em New Jersey. The needs of these large communities had for many years baffled all attempts at solution, until Mr. Bartlett took up the subject, and gathering about him the necessary legal, engineering, and financial aid, formulated and put into execution the plans which are to-day responsible for the public supplies of potable water to Newark, Jersey City, Paterson, Passaic, Montclair, the Oranges, and other communities. This successftd accomplishment by private enterprise of what the State had been trying in vain to do for years did not proceed without opposition, but he pushed the work with such courage and vigor that in a short time its completion, in spite of all opposition, was an accomplished fact. The accomplishment of this great work engaged his attention between the years of 1885 and 1890. In the latter year he rehnquished the management of the sev- eral water corporations which he had created to others, and responded to a call from stock-holders and bankers of the American Cotton Oil Company, to reorganize and rehabiUtate the manufacturing and commercial business of that corporation in this country and Europe. An idea of the magnitude of this work can be had from the mention of the fact that this com- pany embraced thirty-five separate corporations, with mills and refineries located in seventeen States of the Union, as well as in Europe, and involved a capital of more than thirty-three milhon doUars. On the successful completion of this reorganization, JOHN BIOHABD BARTLETT 31 Mr. Bartlett was elected to the presidency of the company. In 1893, needing rest, he resigned the presidency, leaving the busi- ness in a highly prosperous condition, but was almost imme- diately elected to the chairmanship of the Reorganization Com- mittee of the Nicaragua Canal Company, which had passed into receivers' hands. The reorganization of the Nicaragua Canal presented a rather complicated problem ; but the plan formulated by Mr. Bartlett so weU fuMUed the requirements of the situation that it received unanimous adoption by the stock-holders, and secured to the* American pioneers in this great work a preservation of the rights originally granted the company, and which had been imperiled by the financial distress into which the company had fallen before he was called upon to take control. An outline of the various other enterprises, in the organiza- tion or reorganization of which Mr. Bartlett ha« taken a leading part, would require more space than can be allotted to this sketch; but the largest and perhaps most remarkable of his achievements was the organization of a great British industrial corporation, styled the British Oil and Cake Mills, Limited, with a capital of eleven million two hundred and fifty thousand dol- lars. This corporation is an amalgamation of twenty-eight mills and twelve refineries in Great Britain, engaged in manufactur- ing and refining cotton-seed and linseed oil and cake. It is simi- lar to big industrial consolidations with which we are familiar in the United States, except that, unlike most large American industrials, Mr. Bartlett organized it on a cash basis, with abso- lutely no " water " in the capital stock. He strenuously opposed any attempt at over-capitaHzation, and in this was supported by the leading English interests, the good will of each business being purchased at its cash value. The signal triumph scored by Mr. Bartlett in the creation of this British combination attracted considerable attention, both in this country and in Europe, because it offered a convincing proof that great industrial corporations, against which there is such an outcry in this country, can be formed with facility in Grreat Britain, when undertaken with the intelligence, tact, and good business judgment which Mr. Bartlett displayed in the accomplishment of this work. 32 JOHN EICHARD BABTLETT A catalogue of the places held by Mr. Bartlett in important corporations includes the following: managing director of the Society for Estabhshing Useful Manufactures (founded by Alex- ander Hamilton, in 1772) ; vice-president and treasurer of the Maconpin Railroad; vice-president of the New Jersey General Security Company ; treasurer of the West Milf ord Water Storage Company, and of the Montclair Water Company ; director of the Passaic Water Company, of the Acquackanock Water Com- .pany, of the Fairbanks Company, of the W. J. Wilcox Lard and Refining Company, of the Union Oil Company of New Orleans, of the Maritime Canal Company, of the Pennsylvania Iron Works Company, and of the Siemens and Halske Electric Com- pany of Chicago; and president of the Drawbaugh Tele- phone and Telegraph Company, of the American Cotton Oil Company, of the Niagara Canal Company, and of the Bay State Gas Company of Boston. At the present time Mr. Bartlett is connected with a large number of corporations, in many of which he is a director, and is a member of a number of social organizations of the first class in several countries, among them being the Union League Club, the Lotus Club, the Lawyers' Club, and the New England Soci- ety, of New York, the Laurentian Club of Montreal, and the American Society of London, England. v^^^g^^^^^ HENEY RUTGERS BEEKMAN A MAN who bears a distinguished name, and has himself pur- sued a distinguished career, is the subject of this sketch. On his father's side he is descended from Gerardus Beekman, a sturdy Hollander who was a member of the Council of New Amsterdam at the time of the Revolution of 1688, and was for a time acting Governor of New York early in the eighteenth cen- tury. The father of Henry R. Beekman was WiUiam F. Beek- man, in his day one of the foremost citizens of New York ; and his mother was Catherine A. Neilson Beekman, a daughter of Wilham NeUson, a prominent New-Yorker of Irish origin. Henry Rutgers Beekman was bom in this city on December 8, 1845. At the age of sixteen he entered Columbia College, where he was known as a careful and industrious student. At the end of his four years' course he was graduated in the class of 1865, and at once entered the Law School of Columbia, from which, two years later, he was graduated with the degree of LL, B. He was then admitted to the bar, and at once began the practice of his profession. For many years he was associated in the practice of the law in this city with David B. Ogdeh and Thomas L. Ogden. Although he has taken an interest in public affairs all his life, Mr. Beekman did not hold of&ce until 1884, when he was ap- pointed a school trustee for the Eighteenth Ward. The next year Mayor Grace made him park commissioner. The year after that he was elected president of the Board of Aldermen, on the ticket of the United Democracy. Two years later Mayor Hewitt appointed him corporation counsel, to succeed Morgan J. O'Brien, who had been elected a justice of the Supreme Court. In this latter office Mr. Beekman gained the reputation of being the 33 34 HENRY BUTGEKS BEEKMAN most forcible and effective legal representative New York had ever had before the legislative committees at Albany. Grovernor Hill afterward appointed him a member of the commission on uniformity of marriage, divorce, and other laws. He also served as counsel to the Eapid Transit Commission, Finally, in 1894, he was nominated by the Committee of Seventy for a place on the Superior Court bench, and was elected by an overwhelming majority. When the new constitution went into force, that court was merged into the Supreme Court, and he became a justice of the latter tribunal. While he was president of the Board of Aldermen he secured the enactment of the law creating a system of small parks in this city, and also estabhshed the policy of maintaining pubUc bath-houses for the poor in the crowded parts of the city. In many other directions he gave his attention to promoting the welfare of the people. Justice Beekman is a conspicuous figtire in the best social hfe of the metropohs. He belongs to many organizations, among which may be named the University, Century, Union, Reform, Manhattan, and Democratic clubs. He was married, in 1870, to Miss Isabella Lawrence, daughter of Richard Lawrence, a promi- nent East Indian merchant. They have four children: Jose- phine L., William F., Mary, and Henry R. Beekman, Jr. Justice Beekman has, like many other of the "Knicker- bockers," a fondness for the old central or down-town parts of New York city. He has, therefore, not joined the migration to the fashionable up-town region, but still lives in a soUd, old- fashioned mansion on East Eighteenth Street. There he has a rare coUection of old Dutch colonial furniture, which he inherited from his ancestors, and a valuable coUection of paintings and other works of art. He has a large library of weU-chosen books, including standard and professional works and the best current literature of a hghter vein, and in it much of his time is spent. c^ HENRY BISCHOFF, JR. IN common with a large number of New York's most active and useful citizens in all professions and business callings, Judge Bischoff is of G-erman descent. His grandfather was a famous church buUder at Achim, Prussia, and also a lumber merchant and brick manufacturer. His father, Henry Bischoff, gained prominence as a banker. He was a resident of this city, and here his son, the subject of this sketch, was born, on August 16, 1852. Henry Bischoff, Jr., was carefully educated, at first in the public schools of New York, then at the Bloomfield Academy at Bloomfield, New Jersey, and then under a private tutor. After- ward came his professional and technical education, which was acquired in the Law School of Columbia CoUege, from which he was graduated, with honorable mention in the Department of Pohtical Science, in 1871. For two years thereafter he read law in the office of J. H. & S. Riker, and then, in 1873, was admitted to practice at the bar. His first office was opened in partnership with F. Leary, and that connection was maintained until 1878„ The partnership was then dissolved, and Mr. Bischoff continued his practice alone, and has since remained alone in it. From the beginning he addressed himself exclusively to civil practice, and especially to cases involving real-estate interests and those before the Sur- rogate's Court. In these important branches of Utigation he rapidly rose to the rank of a leading authority. He had not long been practising before he became interested in politics as a member of the Democratic party, and his abihty being recognized, pohtical preferment was presently within his grasp. He was appointed to collect the arrears of personal taxes in this city, a task of considerable magnitude. The duties of that place were discharged by him effectively, and to general 35 36 HENEY BISCHOFF, JE. satisfaction, for nearly ten years. Then, in 1889, he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Five years later that court was merged into the Supreme Court, whereupon he became a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he still occupies. With two other justices he holds the Appellate Term, before which all appeals from the lower courts are taken. Early in his career, during and just after his work in college, Mr. Bischoff had not a httle practical experience in his father's banking-house, at times occupying a place of high trust and re- sponsibihty there. This business and financial training has proved to be of great value to him in his legal and judicial life, giving him an expert knowledge of financial matters, which are so often brought into court for adjudication, and adding to his professional qualities the no less important quahties of a practical business man. Mr. Bischoff was one of the founders of the Union Square Bank, and is still a director of it. He belongs to the Tammany Society, the Manhattan and Democratic clubs, the German, Arion, Liederkranz, and Beethoven societies, and various other social and professional organizations. He comes of a music- loving family, and is himself a fine performer upon the piano and other instruments. He is also an admirable Grerman scholar, speaking the language with purity, and cultivating an intimate acquaintance with its literature. He was married, in 1873, to Miss Annie Moshier, a daughter of Frederick and Louise Moshier of Connecticut. They have one daughter, who bears her mother's name. Justice Bischoff has invariably commanded the cordial esteem of his colleagues at the bar and upon the bench, and has fre- quently been the recipient of tangible proofs of their regard. A well-deserved tribute to him is contained in James Wilton Brooks's " History of the Court of Common Pleas," in the following words : " His moral courage, his self-reliance, his independence of char- acter, his firm adherence to the right cause, have rendered his decisions more than usually acceptable to the bar. Though one of the youngest judges on the bench, he ha;S become abeady noted for his industry, his uniform courtesy, and the soundness of his decisions." ■:ir:„6tan/^-£nii -Ca -PMa. . ^^K-^,i>^-4 ^-«--'*^-*^ JAMES AEMSTRONG BLANCHARD JAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCHARD was bom, in 1845, at Henderson, Jefferson County, New York. His father was of mingled English and French Huguenot and his mother of Scotch descent. When he was nine years old the family moved to Fond du Lac County, "Wisconsin. A few years later the elder Blanchard died, leaving the family with httle means. The boy was thus thrown upon his own resources in a struggle against the handicap of poverty. For some years he worked on the farm, attending the local school in winter. Before he attained his majority, however, he left the farm for the army, enlisting, in the summer of 1864, in the Wisconsin Cavalry. He served through the war, and was honorably mus- tered out in November, 1865. His health had been impaired by the exposures and privations of campaigning, and he went back to the farm for a few months. With health restored, he entered the preparatory course of Ripon College. From that course he advanced duly into the regular collegiate course. He was stiU in financial straits, and was compelled to devote some time to teaching to earn money for necessary expenses. In spite of this, he maintained a high rank in his class, and was graduated in the classical course, with high honors, in 1871. During the last two years of his course he was one of the editors of the college paper. On leaving Ripon Mr. Blanchard came to New York and en- tered the Law School of Columbia College. During his course there he supported himself by teaching. He was graduated ia 1873, and was admitted to practice at the bar. Forthwith he opened and for eight years maintained a law office alone, build- ing up an excellent practice. In 1881 he became the senior member of the firm of Blanchard, Gay & Phelps, which, the next 37 38 JAMES AEMSTBONG BLANCHABD year, moved into its well-known offices in the Tribune Building, The firm had a prosperous career, figuring in numerous cases iuvolving large interests. It was dissolved in 1896, and siace that time Mr. Blanchard has continued alone his practice in the offices so long identified with the firm. For many years Mr. Blanchard has been one of the foremost leaders of the Repubhcan party in this city. He has been presi- dent of the Repubhcan Club of the City of New York, which is one of the best-known and most influential social and pohtical clubs of the metropolis, and he was one of its five members who, in 1887, formed a committee to organize the National Conven- tion of Repubhcan Clubs in this city that year. He was active in the formation of the Republican League of the United States, and for four years was chairman of its sub-executive committee. He was a member of the Committee of Thirty which, a few years ago, reorganized the Republican party organization in this city, and a member of the Committee of Seventy that brought about the election of a reform mayor in 1894. Although often importuned to become a candidate for pohtical office, Mr. Blanchard steadily refused to do so, declaring that his ambition was to occupy a place upon the judicial bench. This ambition was fulfilled in December, 1898. At that time Justice Fitzgerald resigned his place in the Court of General Sessions to take a place on the bench of the Supreme Court. Thereupon Governor-elect Roosevelt selected Mr. Blanchard to be his suc- cessor, and in January, 1899, made the appointment, which met with the hearty approval of the bar of this city. Judge Blanchard is a member of the Bar Association, the American Geographical Society, the Union League Club and the latter's Committee on Pohtical Reform, Lafayette Post, G. A. R., and various other social and political organizations. He is mar- ried, and has one chUd, a son, who is a student at Philhps Exeter Academy. CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS AMONG the citizens whom this city, and indeed this nation, Jl\. might most gladly put forward as types of the best citi- zenship, in probity, enterprise, and culture, the figure of Corne- lius Newton Bliss stands conspicuous. As merchant, financier, political counselor, social leader, and public servant, he holds and has long held a place of especial honor. He comes of that sturdy Devonshire stock which did so much for old England's greatness, and is descended from some of those Puritan colonists who laid in New England unsurpassed foundations for a Greater Britain on this side of the sea. His earliest American ancestor came to these shores in 1633, and settled at "Weymouth, Massachu- setts, afterward becoming one of the founders of Rehoboth, in the same colony and State. The father of Mr. Bliss lived at Fall River, Massachusetts, and in that busy city, in 1833, the subject of this sketch was bom. While Cornelius was yet an infant his father died, and his mother a few years later remarried and moved to New Orleans. The boy, however, remained in Fall River with some relatives of his mother, and was educated there, iu the common schools and in Fiske's Academy. At the age of four- teen he followed his mother to New Orleans, and completed his schoohng with a cotirse in the high school of that city. His first business experience was acquired in the counting- room of his stepfather in New Orleans. His stay there was brief, and within the year, in 1848, he returned to the North, and found employment with James M. Beebe & Co., of Boston, then the largest dry-goods importing and jobbing house in the country. His sterling worth caused his steady promotion until he became a member of the firm which succeeded that of Beebe & Co. In 1866 he formed a partnership with J. S. and Eben 39 40 COBNELIUS NEWTON BLISS Wright of Boston, and established a dry-goods commission house under the name of J. S. & B. "Wright & Co. A branch office was opened in New York, and Mr. Bhss came here to take charge of it. Since that time he has been a resident of this city and identified intimately with its business, political, and social Ufe. Upon the death of J. S. "Wright, the firm was reorganized as "Wright, Bhss & Fabyan. Still later it became Bhss, Fabyan & Co., of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, with Mr. Bhss at its head. Such is its present organization. For many years it has ranked as one of the largest, if not the very largest, of dry-goods commission houses iu the United States, its office and its name being landmarks in the dry-goods trade. Upon his removal to New York, Mr. Bhss became identified with the interests of this city in a particularly prominent and beneficent manner. There have been few movements for pro- moting the growth and welfare of New York in which he has not taken an active part, giviug freely his time, services, and money for their success. He has been influential in business outside of his own firm, being vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, vice-president and for a time acting president of the Fourth National Bank, a director of the Central Trust Com- pany, the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and the Home Insurance Company, and governor and treasurer of the New York Hospital. In politics Mr. Bhss has always been an earnest Repubhcan, devoted to the principles of that party, and especially to the national policy of protection to American industries. For some years he has been the president of the Protective Tariff League. From 1878 to 1888 he was chairman of the Eepubh- can State Committee. President Arthur offered him a cabiaet office, but he dechned it. In 1884 he led the Committee of One Hundred, appointed at a great meeting of citizens of New York to urge the renomination of Mr. Arthur for the Presidency. In 1885 he declined a nomination for Governor of New York and he has at various other times dechned nomination to other high offices. For years he was a member of the Republican County Committee in this city, and also of the Eepublican National Committee, of which latter he was treasurer in 1892. He has been active in various movements for the reform and strength- COENELIUS NEWTON BLISS 41 ening of the Republican party in this city, and has often been urged to accept a nomination for Mayor. He was a leading member of the Committee of Seventy in 1894, and of the Com- mittee of Thirty, which reorganized the Republican local organ- ization. Mr. Bliss accepted his first pnbHc office in March, 1897, when President McKinley appointed him Secretary of the Interior in his cabinet. He was reluctant to do so, but yielded to the President's earnest request and to a sense of personal duty to the public service. He filled the office with distinguished abil- ity, and proved a most useful member of the cabinet as a general counselor in all great affairs of state. At the end of 1898, how- ever, having efficiently sustained the President through the trying days of the war with Spain, and having seen the treaty of peace concluded, he resigned office and returned to his busi- ness pursuits. Mr. Bhss is a prominent member of the Union League Club, the Century Association, the Repubhcan Club, the Metropohtan Club, the Players Club, the Riding Club, the Merchants' Club, the American Geographical Society, the National Academy of Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New England Society of New York. EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS THE name of Boas is of Englisli origin. The family which bears it was, however, prior to the present generation, settled in Germany. Two generations ago Louis Boas was a prosperous merchant, and he was followed in his pursuits and in his success by his son. The latter married Miss Mina Asher, and to them Bmil Leopold Boas was bom, at Goerlitz, Prussia, on November 15, 1854. The boy was sent first to the Royal Frederick William G-ymnasium, at Breslau, and then to the Sophia Gymnasium of Berlin. At the age of nineteen he entered the office of his father's brother, who was a member of the firm of C. B. Richard & Boas of New York and Hamburg, bankers and general passenger agents of the Hamburg- American Line of steamships. After a year he was transferred to the New York office. In 1880 Mr. Boas was made a partner in the Hamburg end of the firm. He had scarcely arrived there, however, when he was recalled and made a member of the New York firm also. Ten years later he withdrew from the firm, and took a vaca- tion. During that time the Hamburg- American Line established offices of its own in New York. Mr. Boas was thereupon ap- pointed general manager of the Hamburg- American Line, which office he has continued to hold up to the present time. He now has supervision and management of all the interests of the Hamburg- American Line on the American continent. He is also president of the Hamburg-American Line Terminal and Navigation Company. It may be mentioned that the Hamburg- American Line, owning over two hundred vessels, is probably the largest steamship enterprise in the world. Mr. Boas has acted in a semi-public capacity as the represen- 42 -^UA^:^y/ EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS 43 tative of the New York shipping interests on a number of occasions, taking the lead in urging upon Congress the need of a deeper and more commodious channel from the inner harbor of New York to the ocean. He has taken a similar part in the movement for the extension of the pier and bulkhead lines so as to meet the enlarged requirements of modem shipping, and in the improvement of the New York State canals, being treasurer and chairman of the finance committee of the Canal Association of Grreater New York. Mr. Boas has found time to travel extensively in America and Europe, and to devote much attention to hterature and art. He has a private library of thirty-five himdred volumes, largely on his- tory, geography, pohtical economy, and kindred topics. The German Emperor has made him a Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle, the King of Italy a Chevaher of the Order of St. Mauritius and St. Lazarus. The King of Sweden and Norway has made him a Knight of the first class of the Order of St. Olaf , the Sultan of Turkey a Commander of the Order of Medjidjie? and the President of Venezuela a Commander of the Order of BoHvar, the Liberator. In New York Mr. Boas is connected with numerous social organizations of high rank. Among these are the New York Yacht Club, the New York Athletic Club, St. Andrew's Golf Club, the National Arts Club, the Deutscher Verein, the Lieder- kranz, the Unitarian Club, the Patria Club, the German Social and Scientific Club, the American Geographical Society, the American Statistical Society, the American Ethnological Society, and the American Academy of Pohtical and Social Science, the New York Zoological Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the German Society, the Charity Organization Society, the Maritime Association, the Produce Exchange, and the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. Mr. Boas was married in New York, on March 20, 1888, to Miss Harriet Betty Stemfleld. They have one child, Herbert Allan Boas. Mrs. Boas came from Boston, Massachusetts, and is identified with the New England Society, the Women's Phil- harmonic Society, the League of Unitarian Women, and various other organizations. FRANK STUART BOND THE Bond family in England is an ancient one, its authen- tic records dating as far back as the Norman Conquest, and many of its members have risen to eminence. In the United States, or rather in the North American colonies, it was planted early. Its first member here was William Bond, grandson of Jonas Bond, and son of Thomas Bond of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, who was brought to this country in his boy- hood, in 1630, by his aunt, Elizabeth ChUd. They settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, on the Jennison farm, which re- mained in the possession of the family for more than one hun- dred and seventy years. From Wilham Bond, the sixth in direct descent was Alvan Bond of Norwich, Connecticut, an eminent Congregational minister, who married Sarah Richardson, and to whom was bom, at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1830, the subject of this sketch. Frank Stuart Bond was educated at the Norwich Academy, and at the high school at Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He then entered the railroad business, which was beginning to develop into great proportions. His first work was in the office of the treasurer of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, in 1849-50. Next he went to Cincinnati, entered the service of the Cin- cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, and became its secretary. In 1856 he came to New York, and from 1857 to 1861 was secre- tary and treasurer of the Auburn and Allentown and Schuylkill and Susquehanna railroads. The war called him into the service of the nation. He was in 1862 commissioned a lieutenant of volunteers in the Connec- ticut State troops, and went to the front as an aide on the staff of Brigadier-General Daniel Tyler. He served under General 44 FRANK STDAET BOND 45 Pope in Mississippi, at Farmington, and in other engagements leading to the capture of Corinth. Then he went upon the staff of General Eosecrans, commanding the Army of the Cum- berland. He was at Stone River, TuUahoma, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Finally he went into the Missouri campaign, and served until November 18, 1864, when he resigned his commis- sion. He returned to railroading in 1868, when he became connected with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, then recently organized. He resigned its vice-presidency in 1873, and became vice-president of the Texas and Pacific Company, in which capacity he served until 1881. He then became for two years president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, in a trying time in the history of that company. From 1884 to 1886 he was president of five associated railroad companies — the Cin- cinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, the Alabama and Great Southern, the New Orleans and Northeastern, the Yicksburg and Meridian, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific. The combination operated some eleven hundred and fifty-nine miles of completed road. Then in 1886 he became vice-president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and stiQ remains in that office, with headquarters in the city of New York. Mr. Bond has not been conspicuous in public life, nor has he taken more than a citizen's interest in pohtics. He is a mem- ber of the MUitary Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and also of the' Society of the Sons of the American Revo- lution, Union League, Union, Century, and Metropolitan clubs. Mr. Bond's life-work has been given, save for his mihtary career, almost exclusively to railroading, which has long been one of the foremost industries of this nation. It has, however, been sufficiently varied in its scope to give him a wide experience and knowledge of the land of his birth, and of the people who are his countrymen. He has put his personal impress upon many important lines of transportation in various parts of the Union, and of the developments of American railroads in the last fifty years can truly say, " All of them I saw, and a large part of them I was." HENRY WELLER BOOKSTAYER BTJCHSTABE was the original form of the name now known as Bookstaver, and it was borne, in the sixteenth centm-y, by a notable rehgious reformer of Switzerland, Henry Buchstabe. The family thereafter removed to Germany and to Holland, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century one Jacobus Boock- stabers, a hneal descendant of Henry Buchstabe, came to this country and settled in Orange County, New York. One of his direct descendants was Daniel Bookstaver, who married Miss Alletta WeUer, a lady of Teutonic descent, and Hved at Mont- gomery, Orange County, New York. To this latter couple was bom at Montgomery, on September 17, 1835, a son, to whom they gave the name of Henry, in memory of his famous ancestor, the Swiss reformer, and that of WeUer, in memory of his mother's family. The boy was educated at the academy at Montgomery, and then at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. From the latter institution he was graduated A. B., with high honors, in 1859, and from it he subsequently received the degrees of A. M. and LL. D. Henry WeUer Bookstaver then decided upon the practice of the law as his life-work. He entered as a student the of&ce of Messrs. Brown, Hall & Yanderpoel in this city, and by 1861 was able to pass his examination and be admitted to the bar. A ht- tle later he was made a partner in the firm with which he had studied. Since that time he has constantly been in successful practice of the law in this city, with the exception of the con- siderable period during which he has been on the judicial bench. He has had a large and lucrative private practice, and has also been attorney to the sherife, counsel to the Police Board, and counsel to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections. 46 HENEY WELLER BOOKSTAVEK 47 His defense of Sheriff Reilly gave him the reputation of one of the most eloquent pleaders at the bar of this city. Mr. Bookstaver was elected a justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1885, and had an honorable career on that bench. He was retained in that office until 1896, when the- Court of Com- mon Pleas was merged into the Supreme Court, and then he became a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he stUl adorns. The judicial office is, of course, in a large measure removed from politics. Considerations of politics are not supposed to enter into the influences which determine judicial decisions. Nevertheless, under our system judges are largely elected on poUtical tickets, as party candidates, and it not infrequently hap- pens that an earnest partizan becomes an impartial and most estimable judge. Such is the ease with Justice Bookstaver. He has long been an active member of the Democratic party, and was, before his elevation to the bench, interested in its activities. His engagements as counsel to various city officers and depart- ments were semi-pohtieal offices. For fifteen years, however, he has been on the bench, the dispenser of impartial justice without regard to party politics. Important as his professional and official work has been, it has not entirely absorbed Justice Bookstaver's attention. He has found time to cultivate hterary and artistic tastes, and to do much for their promotion in the community. He has often served as a pubhc speaker at dinners and on other occasions. He is a member of the Archaeological, Geographical, and Histor- ical societies of this city, and also of the MetropoUtan Museum of Art and of the Museum of Natural History. He has retained a deep interest in the welfare of his Ahna Mater, Rutgers Col- lege, -and is a member of its board of trustees. Justice Bookstaver is a member of the Manhattan, St. Nicho- las, and Zeta Psi clubs of this city, and was one of the founders of the last-named. He is also a member of the Casino Club of Newport, Rhode Island. He was married, on September 6, 1865, to Miss Mary Bayhss Young of Orange County, New York. HENEY PROSPER BOOTH ONE of the foremost names in tlie shipping world of New York to-day is that of Henry Prosper Booth, long identi- fied with the famous " Ward Line " of steamships. He is of New England ancestry, and was horn in New York city on July 19, 1836. His education was acquired in local schools and in the Mechanics' Institute, and was eminently thorough and practical. His business career was begun as a clerk for a firm of shipping merchants, and thus was begun his lifelong alliance and identifi- cation with the commercial interests of the port of New York. In 1856 he was admitted to partnership in the firm of James E. Ward & Co., and in time became the head of that firm, and finally president of the New York and Cuba Mail Steamship Line, commonly known as the " Ward Line." He is a member of the Manhattan and Colonial clubs of New York, and is well known in social circles. The dominant feature of his busy hfe, however, has been his devotion to shipping and commercial interests, and the true and characteristic record of his life is found in the great commercial estabhshment of which he is the head and of which he has long been the directing force. The Ward Line is one of the most important fleets of coast- wise steamships in the world. Its hoine port is New York. From New York its swift, stanch vessels ply with the regularity of shuttles in a loom to the Bahamas, Cuba, and Mexico. They touch at numerous ports of Cuba and all the Gulf ports of Mexico, and with their extensive railroad connections afford access to aU parts of those countries. There are practically four distinct routes from New York, and many more short side routes in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, in all covering about ten thousand miles of service. 48 a4^C?^>^^ HENRY PROSPER BOOTH 49 The fleet comprises the steamers Havana and Mexico, of 6000 tons each ; the Vigilancia and Seguranca, of 4115 tons each ; the Yucatan and Orizaba, of 3500 tons each ; the Matansas, of 3100 tons ; and the Saratoga, City of Washington, Santiago, Niagara, Cienfuegos, City of San Antonio, Santiago de Cuba, Hidalgo, Cometa, Hebe, Juno, Manteo, Edwin Bailey, Atlantica, and Moran, of from 2820 tons down. At this writing there are under con- struction two more steamships of 5000 tons each and one of 7000. The steamers of the Ward Line embrace as stanch and com- fortable ships as are in service from any part of the world. They are new full-powered steamers, of most modem construc- tion, built expressly for the service, and they offer all the luxu- ries of travel, including a most excellent and weU-maintained cuisine, large and well- ventilated state-rooms, perfect beds, electric Mghts, handsome smoking-rooms and social haUs, baths and barber shops, and all details necessary to insure comfort to the traveler in the tropics. The freight facihties of these steamers have also been carefully provided for, and they are equipped with necessary appliances to provide not only for heavy machinery, etc., but also for fresh vegetables, fresh beef, etc., which places them in the lead of all means of transportation for rapidly advancing commercial indus- tries between this country and its Southern neighbors. SIMON BOEG A FINE example of the " self-made " man is found in Simor Borg, tlie well-known banker and railroad president. H( is of Grerman origin, having been born on April 1, 1840, a1 Haupersweiler, a village in the Rhine Province of Prussia. His father, Model Borg, was a merchant, and was of German birth, though his ancestors came from HoUand and, stiU earUer, from Sweden. His mother, Babetta Borg, was of pure German stock, Simon Borg was educated in Germany until he was fourteer years old. Then he was left an orphan, both his parents dying within about fifteen months. He was the eldest of four chil- dren, and was largely thrown upon his own efforts for support. For a couple of years he remained in Germany, seeking to find a promising opening in some business, but without success. He then decided to emigrate to the United States. This he did, landing in New York, and thence proceeding to Memphis, Ten- nessee. At Memphis he apprenticed himself to the firm of N. S. Bruce & Co., carriage manufacturers, in the trimming department, and from his seventeenth to his twenty-first year worked at the trade. His wages were two dollars and a half a week the first year, three dollars and a half a week the second year, five doUars the third, and seven dollars the fourth year of his apprenticeship. He was, however, permitted to work overtime and to earn extra pay, and thus he was enabled to make a comfortable hving. Moreover, he received much encouragement from his employ- ers, who appreciated his efforts and took an interest in his wel- fare. After completing his apprenticeship Mr. Borg worked for sev- eral years as a journeyman. But the Civil War had so im- 50 *"i • f> '^ ^^ — ■ "2 A.-'^E. ^ |K|2l Ps ^B 1 i >^ ^ yi ' SIMON BOBG 51 poverished tlie people of the South that for a time there was little demand for fine carriages, and he was accordingly moved to seek another occupation. He became a cotton-buyer, but in that business met with another difficulty. Most of the planters would take nothing in payment for cotton except Southern bank- notes. As these notes varied according to the financial condition of the banks, dealings in them became necessary in order to facihtate the purchase of the cotton. Such dealing in notes increased in volume, while it became more and more the custom to leave the purchasing of cotton to the spinners and their agents. Mr. Borg accordingly gave up the latter business and devoted his entire attention to dealing in notes. The State of Tennessee, however, imposed so heavy a tax upon this busi- ness as to discourage him from pursuing it in its simple form, and he decided to become a fully fledged banker. He accordingly entered into a partnership with Mr. Lazarus Levy, and the two opened at Memphis, Tennessee, a banking house under the firm-name of Levy & Borg. A little later Mr. Jacob Levy was also taken iato the firm, and the business was successfully conducted for many years. The next change came when the State and city began to consider the adoption of legis- lation oppressive to private banking enterprises. Messrs. Levy & Borg then, in self -protection, applied to the State for a State bank charter, and thus established the Manhattan Bank of Memphis. Under this name the business went on prosperously for a time. Then it was transformed into the Manhattan Sav- ings Bank and Trust Company, which is stiU in profitable exis- tence and in which Mr. Borg still has an interest. The closing of the old State banking system did away entirely with the State bank currency and with the business of dealing in it. But at this time the Southern people were in great need of funds, and accordingly began to sell their city and railroad bonds. Mr. Borg's bank engaged largely in the business of pur- chasing these securities and placing them upon the market, chiefly in New York. It became necessary for some one to attend to the business in New York as the bank's representative, to sell the securities in the money market of that city, and Mr, Borg was chosen for the task. He came to New York in 1865, and since that date has spent most of his time here. In 1869 he 52 SIMON BOEG established the firm of Levy & Borg in New York, and it re- mained until 1881, when it was dissolved by mutual consent, and the present banking firm of Simon Borg & Co. took its place. Mr. Borg has been much interested in railroads as weU sa banking. For five years, during its construction period, he was president of the New York, Susquehanna and Western Railroad, Under his direction the road was built from Stroudsburg tc Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, about sixty-five miles, and from Little Ferry Junction to Edgewater, on the Hudson, with a double-track tunnel a mile long under the Pahsades. He wag also instrumental in constructing various other railroads, and in the development of the coal and coke industry at Lookout Mountain, and has served on the reorganization committees oi many of the railroads throughout the United States. Mr. Borg has held no pohtical office. Neither has he actively entered into club life. He is interested in many benevolent enter- prises, however, being president of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews, a trustee of the United Savings Bank, a member of the Board of Trade and Transportation, and similarly connected with the Mount Sinai Hospital, the Montefiore Home for Chronic Invahds, the Hebrew Technical Institute, the Young Men's Hebrew Association, the Young Men's Christian Association, the Charity Organization Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the New York Postgraduate Hospital, the New York Juvenile Asylum, the Children's Aid Society, the Dewey Arch Committee, and many others. He was married, on August 10, 1870, to Miss Cecilia Lichten- stadter of New York, who has borne him seven children : Morti- mer S., Sidney C, Myron I., Walter B., Beatrice C, Edith D., and Elsie H. Borg. He declares that what success he has had in Hfe is largely to be attributed to the good influence and wise counsel of his wife, and to the happy domestic life which she has created for him, and to the fact that he has taken pleasure in the faithful performance of his daily duties. AECHER BROWN A BOUT the time of the Eevolutionary "War, or a Httle before -^-A- it, two families, named respectively Brown and Phelps, came from England, settled in Conneoticnt, and then migrated as pioneers to what is now the central part of New York State. Thomas Brown, a member of the one, became a member of the New York Legislature from Chenango County. He was blessed with no less than sixteen children, of whom the youngest was E. Huntington Brown, a farmer of Otsego County. Elisha Phelps, a member of the other family named, was a farmer who, because of his enthusiasm in Whig politics, left his crops un- harvested and took the stump to speak and sing for " Tippecanoe and Tyler, too ! " His daughter, Henrietta Phelps, became the wife of E. Huntington Brown, but was soon left a widow with a six-months-old boy, the subject of this sketch. Some years later she married Hiram Adams of Phnt, Michigan, and removed to the latter place. Archer Brown was born near the village of New Berlin, Otsego County, New York, on March 7, 1851. In 1859 he was taken by his mother, as above stated, to Flint, Michigan, and was pre- pared for college in the schools of that place. In 1868 he en- tered the University of Michigan, and four years later was graduated with the degree of A. B. During his college life he showed a strong inchnation toward literary and journalistic work, and was one of the editors of the " University Chronicle." On leaving the college in 1872, Mr. Brown decided to enter the newspaper profession. He accordingly went down to Cincinnati and became attached to the staff of the Cincinnati "Gazette," then controlled by Richard Smith. He was successively telegraph editor, correspondent, reporter, and managing editor, holding the 53 54 ABCHEE BEOWN last-named place for five years, ending in 1880. In 1874 he wrote a history of the famous Woman's Temperance Crusade in Ohio, from which he reahzed enough money to pay for a European trip. During his life in the " Grazette " office he served as correspondent for the New York " Times " and Chicago " Tribune." In the faU of 1880 Mr. Brown gave up newspaper work, and joined "W. A. Rogers in forming the pig-iron firm of Rogers, Brown & Co. of Cincinnati. His capital was eight thousand dollars, the savings of his years of newspaper work. The firm identified itself with the new iron district then being developed in Alabama, and prospered. It soon established a branch in St. Louis, then another in Chicago, and later six more in other lead- ing cities. In 1890 an enlargement and reorganization of the firm took place, Mr. Rogers going to Buffalo, New York, to take charge of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company as president. Five years later Mr. Brown came to New York to direct the affairs of the firm in the East. At the present time the firm is reputed to handle about one third of the iron marketed in the United States. Mr. Brown is vice-president of the Tonawanda Iron and Steel Company, chairman of the executive committee of the Em- pire State Steel and Iron Company, and a director of the Piano Manufacturing Company of Chicago. He has held no poUtical of&ce, save that of member of the School Board of Avondale, Cincinnati. He is a member of the Commercial Club of Cin- cinnati, the Lawyers' Club of New York, the Essex County Club, New Jersey, and is president of the Mosaic Club of East Orange, New Jersey. He removed his home to East Orange in 1896. He was married, on June 29, 1880, to Miss Adelaide Hitchcock, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Luke Hitchcock, of Hitch- cock & Walden, the Methodist Book Concern firm of Cincinnati. They have four children : Archer H., LoweU H., Marjorie, and Constance. c:3. ALONZO NORMAN BURBANK IT is not only in new lands and places that great new enter- prises are undertaken. Yast is the development and wonder- ful is the enterprise of our Western States, beyond aU question But in the oldest States of the East, even of that New England which is now so old, we may find energy and enterprise, and op- porininity too, equally great. Many of the pushing, successful men of the West have gone thither from the East, or are sons of those who did so. But those who remain behind in New England and the Middle States are not lacking in the same success-compel- hng quahties. We shall find that in these old States some of the greatest of the new enterprises have been conceived, organized, and developed iato fuU success, and that by those who began life in the more quiet and conservative ways of their ancestors. There is, for example, no more settled and conservative State than the old commonwealth of New Hampshire. Its citizens have for generations been pursuing their routine ways of agri- culture, manufactures, and shipping. Its name is not identi- fied with " hustling " or " booms " ; yet we shall find some of its citizens taking leading parts ia some of the greatest new enter- prises of the day. Peleg N. Biu-bank, in the last generation, was a steady and successful shoe manufacturer at Franklin, New Hampshire. To him and his wife, Sarah, was born, at that place, on October 9, 1843, a son, to whom the name of Alonzo Norman Burbank was given. The boy was sent to the common school at Franklin, and then to the local high school or academy. These were excel- lent iastitutions, as were most New England schools, though, of course, not of coUegiate rank. Young Burbank was an apt scholar, and learned, with practical thoroughness, aU there was 55 56 ALONZO NORMAN BUEBANK to learn in those schools, and a great deal besides from inquiry and observation outside of the school-room. His training was not, however, of a professional type, and he was apparently des- tined to enter some such occupation as his father's. His first work, indeed, was in his father's factory, and consisted of the simple task of putting strings and laces into shoes. That was work he was able to do in his childhood. Later he became a clerk in a local store, dealing out dry-goods, groceries, and what not, to the rural customer. From the counter of the " general store " he went to the railroad, and became a brake- man, and then a station agent and telegraph operator. Such have been the occupations of thousands of New England youths who have never risen to more lucrative or important places. There was Uttle to indicate that this one was to make a " new departure." But he presently did so. From the railroad he went to a paper-mOl, as bookkeeper. That was in the old days of paper-making, when the materials used were hnen, straw, old paper, etc. But the trade was on the verge of a mighty revolution, of which New England and New York were to be the chief scenes. The experiment of making paper from wood was essayed. At first success seemed doubtful. But persistence won the day. It was found that paper could be made thus, with a promise of far greater cheapness than from any other mavterial. The vast spruce and hemlock forests with which the New England hills were clothed thus became store- houses of raw material, while close at hand, in the unfailing mountain streams, lay the water-power that would transfer the logs into ptilp and then into sheets of paper. The first process was to reduce the logs to pulp by grinding mechanically. Later, the same end was attained by chemical treatment. Thus, within the last quarter of a century, the paper trade of the country, and indeed of the world, has been completely revolutionized. Nor is it merely the paper trade, in itself, that is thus revolu- tionized. The publishing trade in all its branches is equally affected. The reduction of the price of paper stock to a small fraction of what it formerly was, has made possible the reduction in price of newspapers, magazines, and books, in a manner not dreamed of a generation ago. This has caused an enormous increase in the circulation and sale of publications of all kinds, ALONZO NOKMAN BUEBANK 57 and a conunensTirately wider diffusion of knowledge and exten- sion of those influences wMcli are exerted through the agency of the printing-press. In brief, this great cheapening of paper is to be ranked second only to the invention of printing itself. It has been Mr. Burbank's lot to play a prominent part in this work, and last of aU to be a member of the gigantic corporation which has combined within itself a large proportion of the paper- manufacturing business of the North American Continent. To this his clerkship in the paper-mill directly led. Without enu- merating all the successive steps in his advancement it will suf- fice to say that he has been treasurer of the Fall Mountain Paper Company, and an of&cer also of the Winnipiseogee Paper Com- pany, the Grreen Mountain Pulp Company, the Mount Tom Sul- phite Company, and the G^arvin's FaUs Company. Finally, when a short time ago the International Paper Company was organ- ized, including within itself more than a score of the leading paper, pulp, and sulphite works in the country, and dominat- ing the major part of the paper trade of America, Mr. Burbank became an active and influential member of it. In addition to these interests, Mr. Burbank is a director of the International Trust Company of Boston, and of the Mercantile Trust Company of the same city. Mr. Burbank now makes his home in New York, and is here a member of the Metropolitan and Colonial clubs. He is also a member of the Algonquin, Temple, and Exchange clubs of Boston, and of the "Westminster Club of Bellows Falls, Ver- mont. Mr. Burbank was married in 1865, at Andover, New Hamp- shire, to Miss Anna M. G-ale. They have four children : Etta M., Frederick W., Margaret H., and Harriet. JUAN MANUEL CEBALLOS ALTHOUGH the Spaniards planted no colonies on the North -t\. American continent north of the Floridas, there is a con- siderable sprinkling of their race in the northern parts of the United States, and especially in the city of New York. Some of these Spanish residents and citizens are of comparatively recent immigration to these shores, "whUe others, of the purest blood, have been settled here for several generations. Among them are not a few who occupy the foremost rank in business affairs and in social life. Conspicuous among these is Juan Manuel Ceballos, who, while a native of New York city, may be taken as a representative Spaniard. Indeed, he is peculiarly representative of all Spain, for his father, Juan M. Ceballos, long established in New York as a merchant, came from Santander, in the north of Spain, while his mother, whose maiden name was Juana Sanchez de Herrera, came from Malaga, in the southern part of the peninsula. Of this parentage Mr. Ceballos was born ia New York on September 19, 1859. He was educated at the then famous Charlier Listitute, up to the age of fifteen years. Being an apt scholar, and maturing early, as is the rule with the Southern Latin races, he then left school and entered his father's office to begin the career of a merchant. There he showed an aptitude similar to that displayed at school, and consequently soon mas- tered the details of the business and won promotion. Before he was twenty-one years old he was invested with full power of attorney, and was admitted into the firm as a partner. Mr. Ceballos continued to be his father^s partner until the death of the latter, which occurred in 1886. Thereupon Mr. Ceballos, who was then only twenty-seven years old, became the 60 JUAN MANUEL CEBALLOS 61 head of the business and assumed entire charge thereof. Shortly afterward he founded the India Wharf Brewing Company, and the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, and began the deyelopment of important industrial and commercial interests in Cuba. At the present time Mr. Ceballos is president of the India Wharf Brewing Company, of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, and of several sugar-plantation and other foreign corporations. He is also a director of the Western National Bank of New York. He is largely interested in the rehabilitation and development of Cuba, and is identified with the trolley-car systems of Havana and other important enter- prises. Mr. Ceballos is, of course, an American citizen of most loyal spirit, though he naturally has a strong affection for the race and country of his ancestors. When the Infanta Eulalia of Spain visited this country in 1893, in connection with the quadricen- tenary of Columbus, he entertained her and her suite as his guests. Upon the outbreak of the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 he was placed in a trying position, in which he acquitted himself with faultless tact. He promptly resigned the office of Spanish vice-consul, which he had held for some time, in order that there might not be any possibility of misintei^reting his position as an American citizen. Later, when the war ceased and the treaty of peace was signed, he entered into negotiations for the return of the Spanish prisoners to Spain from Santiago de Cuba, and carried out the undertaking to the entire s^isfaction of both governments. Still later he similarly managed the transportation of the Spanish prisoners from the Phihppine Islands to Spain. Mr. Ceballos has held no political office, and has taken no part in pohtics beyond that of a private citizen. He is a member of a number of clubs and other organizations, among which are the Union, New York, Democratic, New York Athletic, and Pifth Avenue Riding clubs. He was married, on May 10, 1886, to Miss Lulu Washington, who has borne him two children: Juan M. CebaUos, Jr., and Louisa Adams CebaUos. WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER AMONG- the scions of distinguislied New York families, no J\. one has achieved at an early age a more honorable position than William Astor Chanler. At an age when most young men are concerned principally with the proper fit of their coats or the pattern of their neckties, he was at the head of an exploring expedition in the heart of Africa, and in his later career as a member of the State Legislattire, a patriot, and a soldier, he has proved himself a worthy descendant of sturdy ancestors. For the present purpose it will be sufficient to trace back Mr. Chanler's paternal ancestry three generations. Dr. Isaac Chanler was one of the foremost physicians in this country in colonial times. He served with conspicuous merit as a surgeon in the American army in the Revolutionary War, and was the first president of the Medical Society of South Carolina, his home being at Charleston in that State. His son, the Rev. John White Chanler, will be remembered as a prominent and honored clergy- man of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A son of the Rev. Mr. Chanler was the Hon. John Winthrop Chanler of this city. He was bom in 1826, was graduated from Columbia College, and be- came one of the leading lawyers of his day. He was also a political leader, being a member of Tammany Hall, and for three terms a Representative in Congress from a New York city district. On the maternal side Mr. Chanler is a member of the Astor family, being directly descended from the first John Jacob Astor, founder of that family in America. The latter's son, WiLiam Backhouse Astor, married Miss Margaret Armstrong, the daugh- ter of the younger of the two G-eneral Armstrongs famed in the earlier history of this nation. GTeneral Armstrong became a Rep- 62 l/j &v/-^ 0/.^^,.^^^ WILLIAM ASTOK OHANLER 63 resentative in Congress from New York in 1787 ; a Senator of the United States from New York in 1800; United States min- ister to France and Spain in 1804-10 ; a brigadier-general in the United States army in 1812 ; and Secretary of War in President Madison's cabinet in 1813. One of the children of Wilham B. Astor and Margaret Armstrong Astor was Miss Emily Astor, who became the vnte of the Hon. John Wiathrop Chanler, named above. The offspring of the marriage of John "Winthrop Chanler and Emily Astor included the subject of the present sketch. William Astor Chanler was born in this city in 1866, and was educated with more than ordinary care, at first by private tutors, then at St. John's School, Sing Sing, New York, then at PhilUps Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and finally at Harvard Uni- versity. In the last-named institution he pursued a brilhant career, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1887. Later he received the advanced degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater. On leaving college he literally had the world before him. In perfect physical health, of admirable intellectual attainments, with ample wealth, and of unsurpassed social standing and con- nections, he had only to choose whatever career he pleased. To the surprise of most of his friends he dehberately turned his back upon the fascinations and luxuries of society, and set out to be for a time a wanderer in the most savage and inhospitable regions of the known — or rather the unknown — world. It was while he was spending a winter in Florida that he conceived the desire — and with him desire and determination were synony- mous — to explore the Dark Continent of Africa. Forthwith he organized an experimental trip, a mere hunting excursion. He went to the savage east coast, and landed in Masailand, perhaps the most perilous region in all Africa. There he boldly struck inland, and spent ten months in the jungle, penetrating to the scarcely known region around Mount Kenia and Mount Kiliman- jaro. His experiences there convinced him of his abihty to stand the fatigues and labors of such adventures, and also confirmed him in his taste for African exploration. He accordingly resolved to make another venture on a more elaborate scale, and one which should be productive not only of 64 WILLIAM ASTOB CHANLEB sport for himself, but of real benefit to the scientific, and possibly the commercial, world. Accordingly, he made his plans with much care and at great expense, bearing all the latter himself. He had only two white companions, one of them being the Chev- alier Ludwig von Hohnel, a lieutenant in the Austrian navy, who had also had some practical experience in African explora- tion. An ample caravan was organized,, and on September 17, 1892, the start was made inland from the Zanzibar coast. The first objective point was Mount Kenia, from the slopes of which the sources of the great Victoria Nyanza were supposed to pro- ceed. That mountain was at that time all but unknown, and the wilderness lying at the north of it was still less known, save the fact concerning it that it was infested by some particularly savage tribes. The expedition also proposed to explore the shores of the great Lake Rudolph. Lieutenant Hohnel wished to explore the river Nianan, which fiows into the lake from an unknown source, and, if possible, verify the conjectured existence of another river running into the lake from the northwest. Afterward it was expected to march east-northeast and visit Lake Stephanie and the Juba River, thus covering some five hundred miles of the least-known portion of the earth's surface. For many months nothing was heard from the party, and much anxiety was felt for their safety. At length a rumor reached civihzation that the caravan was stranded at Daitcho, a few miles north of the equator and not far northeast of Mount Kenia. The rumor was subsequently corroborated by information re- ceived by the Greographical Society in London. The report stated that the climate was particularly fatal to the camels and other animals in the caravan. In one day they lost one hundred and fifty donkeys and fifteen camels. In February of the follow- ing year, Mr. Chanler, after being deserted by many of his native followers, and suffering great hardships, succeeded in reaching the coast. The caravan, when it started in September, 1892, consisted of one hundred and fifty porters, twenty interpreters, cooks, and tent-boys, twelve Sudanese soldiers, seven camel- drivers, and a large mmiber of camels, donkeys, oxen, sheep, goats, ponies, and dogs. On October 1 there were left of living things in the expedition one hundred and twelve black men, WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLEB 65 twelve donkeys, Mr. Chanler, Lieutenant von Hohnel, who had been wounded by a rhinoceros and returned to the coast, and Mr. Chanler's servant, G-alvin, Notwithstanding the terrible chmate and the hardships of the journey, Mr. Chanler's health was not impaired. His expedition was exceedingly fruitful of re- sults, and many important additions were made to the geographi- cal knowledge of Africa. He discovered and mapped a hitherto unknown region equal in area to that of Portugal. He wrote an extremely entertaining account of his experience, entitled "Through Jungle and Desert." Mr. Chanler resumed his residence in New York, and in 1895 entered pohtical life. Somewhat to the dismay of his family, and to the surprise of aU his associates, he joined Tammany Hall, and under that banner was elected to the Assembly from the Fifth District. In 1898 he made a gallant and successful fight to win congres- sional honors in the Fourteenth District, although the opposing candidate, the Hon. Lemuel Ely Quigg, was very strong in the district and had carried it the year before by ten thousand. The district runs from Fifty-second Street to Spuyten Duyvil, bounded on the east by Central Park and Seventh Avenue, and the other section runs from Fifty-ninth Street to Seventy-ninth Street on the East Side, the East River being the eastern boun- dary, the park the western. The district has a population of three hundred thousand people, and a voting strength of sixty thousand. Rich and poor are to be found among the voters, and Captain Chanler, despite his wealth, won the good will of the laboring man as well as that of the capitalist. When the war with Spain broke out Mr. Chanler was one of the young men of wealth and social standing who disappointed the pessimists by being among the first to offer their services to their country. Mr. Chanler's patriotism went even further. As soon as it was apparent that the government would make a call for troops, he set about recruiting a regiment of volunteers, which he intended to arm and equip at his own cost. He was deeply disappointed when Governor Black intimated that he could not accept the regiment that was being formed by Mr. Chanler. Thereupon he left the city with a few companions, and proceeded to Tampa, with the intention of joining the staff 66 WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER of Lacret, the Cuban general. Before lie could reach. Cuba, however, he was commissioned by the President as an assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, and assigned to General Wheeler's staff. He served throughout the Santiago cam- paign, and was several times under fire, and was mentioned for conspicuous gallantry in action in G-eneral Wheeler's despatches to the War Department. On October 3 he was honorably dis- charged by direction of the President, his services being no longer required. At an extra session of the Assembly in July, 1898, the following resolution was unanimously carried by a rising vote : " Whereas, The Honorable Wilham Astor Chanler, one of the members of this body, has gone to the front with a large nmn- ber of other patriots from this State, and is now at Santiago de Cuba fighting the country's cause upon the field of battle ; there- fore be it " Resolved, That the Assembly of the State of New York, in ex- traordinary session assembled, sends cordial message of greeting to Captain Chanler, and wishes him and all of New York's gallant, brave soldiers a safe return from the field of battle ; and be it further " Resolved, That Mr. Chanler be, and he is, granted indefinite leave of absence from tbe House ; and that a copy of this pream- ble and resolution be spread upon the Journal." Mr. Chanler is a member of the Knickerbocker, Union, Play- ers', Turf, and Field clubs, and of the American Geographical Society. He is unmarried. One of his sisters. Miss Margaret Chanler, is a member of the Red Cross Society. Mr. Chanler, as already stated, is a Democrat in pohtics, as was his father before him. He has expressed himself as favor- ing a generous national policy, including the enlargement of the army and navy to a size proportionate to the nation's needs, the construction of an interoceanic canal across the Central Amer- ican isthmus, the estabhshment of suitable naval stations in the Pacific and elsewhere, the annexation of Hawaii, the control of the Philippines, and perhaps the ultimate annexation of Cuba, whenever the people of that island shall desire it. yj 9 A HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM SCOTCH by ancestry, Canadian by birth, true American by choice, is the record of Hugh Joseph Chisholm, the head of the International Paper Company. He was bom on May 2, 1847, on the Canadian side of the Niagara Eiver, and was edu- cated in local schools and afterward in a business college at Toronto. Then, at the age of sixteen years, he entered prac- tical business life. His first engagement was in the railway news and publishing line, his business covering four thousand miles of road and employing two hundred and fifty hands. But by the time he had reached his first quarter-century he began to turn his attention to the great enterprises with which he is now identified. About the year 1882 Mr. Chisholm observed the splendid natural advantages offered by the upper reaches of the Andros- coggin River, in Maine, for manufacturing purposes, in the form of an inexhaustible supply of pure water and practically un- limited water-power. For years he planned and schemed to secure there a suitable tract of land for the establishment of an industrial town. He was then in business at Portland, and made many a trip up the Androscoggin, not merely for hunting and fishing, but with great industrial enterprises in his mind's eye. In the late eighties he got control of the land he wanted, and also of the then moribund Rumford Falls and Buckfield Railroad. The latter he promptly developed into the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway, which was opened to traffic in August, 1892. In the meantime, with his associates, he improved his eleven- hundred-acre tract of land on tbe Androscoggin and built the industrial town of Rumford Falls. When he organized the 67 68 HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM Eumford Falls Power Company, in 1890, with five hundred thousand dollars capital, there were two or three cabins at the place. When the new railway was opened in 1892 there was a town of more than three thousand population, with great mills, stores, schools, churches, newspapers, fire department, electric lights, and " all modern improvements." The chief industry of the place is the manufacture of wood-pulp and paper. The Androscoggin furnishes an unsurpassed water-power and water- supply, while the surrounding forests provide the wood. The works at Rumford Falls include everything necessary for the transformation of logs of wood into sheets of paper. There are mills for cutting up the trees, chemical works for making the chemicals used in reducing wood to pulp, and paper-mills for turning out many tons of finished paper each day. The place is an unsurpassed exhibition of the achievements of American ingenuity and enterprise, and a splendid monument to the genius of the man who called it into being. Mr. Chisholm is the president and controlling owner of the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway, and treasurer, manager, and controlling owner of the Rumford Palls Power Company. But his interests do not end there. He was, before the creation of Rumford Falls, the chief owner of the Umbagog Pulp Com- pany, the Otis Falls Pulp Company, and the Falmouth Paper Company. He is also a director of the Casco National Bank of Portland, Maine. Nor did his enterprise stop with these things. Observing the tendency of the age toward great com- binations of business interests, by which cost of production is lessened, injurious competition obviated, and profits increased to the producer and cost reduced to the consumer at the same time, he planned and with his associates finally executed such a com- bination in the paper trade. The result was the formation of the International Paper Com- pany of New York, which was legally organized in January, 1898, with twenty-five million dollars cumulative six per cent, preferred stock and twenty million dollars common stock. This giant corporation has acquired by purchase the manufacturing plants, water-powers, and woodlands of thirty paper-making concerns, which produce the great bulk of the white paper for newspapers in North America, and are as follows : G-lens Falls HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM 69 Paper Mills Co., Glens Falls, N. Y. ; Hudson Eiver Pulp and Paper Co., Palmer's Falls, N. Y. ; Herkimer Paper Co., Herkimer, N. Y. ; Piercefield Paper Co., Piercefield, N. Y. ; Fall Mountain Paper Co., Bellows Falls, Vt. ; G-len Manufacturing Co., Berlin, N. H.; Falmouth Paper Co., Jay, Me. ; Rumford Falls Paper Co., Rumford Falls, Me. ; Montague Paper Co., Turner's Falls, Mass. ; St. Maurice Lumber Co., Three Rirers, Quebec, Canada. ; Webster Paper Co., Orono, Me. ; Plattsburg Paper Co., Cadyville, N. Y. ; Niagara Falls Paper Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y. ; Ontario Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Lake George Paper Co., Ticon- deroga, N. Y. ; "Winnipiseogee Paper Co., Franklin Falls, N. H. ; Otis Falls Paper Co., Chisholm, Me. ; Umbagog Pulp Co., Liver- more Falls, Me. ; Russell Paper Co., Lawrence, Mass. ; Haverhill Paper Co., Haverhill, Mass. ; Turner's Falls Paper Co., Turner's Falls, Mass. ; C. R. Remington & Sons Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Remington Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Ashland Mills, Ashland, N. H. ; Rumford Falls Sulphite Co., Rumford Falls, Me. ; Piscataquis Paper and Pulp Co., Montague, Me. ; Moose- head Pulp and Paper Co., Solon, Me. ; Lyons Falls Mills, Lyons Falls, N. Y.; Milton MiUs, Milton, Yt.; Wilder Mills, Olcott FaUs, Vt. These various miUs produce about seventeen hundred tons of finished paper a day. The company holds the title to more than seven hundred thousand acres of spruce woodland in the United States and license to cut on twenty-one hundred square miles in Quebec, Canada. Mr. Chisholm is the president of this corporation. Though he has held no public office, he has taken a keen interest in public affairs, and is an earnest member of the Repubhcan party and upholder of its principles. He was married at Portland, Maine, in 1872, to Miss Henrietta Mason, daughter of Dr. Mason of that city, and has one son, Hugh Chisholm. WILLIAM BOUEKE COCKRAN THE legend of tlie Blarney stone may be a legend and nothing more ; but beyond question the Irish race is gifted in a high degree with persuasive eloquence of speech. Some of the most famous orators of the British Parliament have hailed from the Emerald Isle, and in the short-lived Irish Parliament on CoUege Grreen there were not a few orators of exceptional power. Irish- men in America, too, have been heard from the public platform to signal purpose. And thus it is entirely fitting that one of the most popular and effective political orators of the day in New York should be a man of Irish birth. William Bourke Cockran was born in Ireland on February 28, 1854. He was educated partly in Ireland and partly in France, and at the age of seventeen, in 1871, came to the United States, landing at New York. His first occupation in this country was as a teacher in a pri- vate academy. Later he was the principal of a pubhc school in Westchester County, near New York city. Meantime he dili- gently improved his knowledge of law, and ia due time was ad- mitted to practice at the bar. In that profession he has attained marked success, ranking among the leaders of the bar of New York. Among the noted cases in which he has been engaged may be recalled that of the Jacob Sharp " Boodle Aldermen," and that of Kemmler, the murderer who was the first to be put to death by electric shock in the State of New York. Early in his career Mr. Cockran became interested in politics in New York city. He was a Democrat, and was a prominent member and leader of Tammany Hall. His power as a speaker made him a force in public meetings and at conventions. He first became prominent in politics in 1881, and in 1890 he was 70 ^ ^^ WILLIAM BOURKE COCKEAN 71 elected to Congress from a New York city district as a Tammany Democrat. He had made a notable speech in the National Democratic Convention in 1884, opposing the nomination of Grover Cleveland for the Presidency, and had thereby won a national reputation which fixed much attention upon his appear- ance at Washington. In Congress he had a successful career, but foimd the place not altogether to his liking. He served for six years, but in 1894 declined a further reelection, in order to attend to his private interests. At the National Democratic Con- vention of 1892 he again opposed the nomination of Mr. Cleveland in a speech of great power. Mr. Cockran practically withdrew from Tammany Hah in 1894, and thereafter for a time was an independent Democrat. In the Presidential campaign of 1896 Mr. Cockran, with thou- sands of other Democrats, as a matter of principle, openly repu- diated Mr. Bryan's free-silver platform and supported the Eepub- lican candidate for President, Mr. McKinley. Mr. Cockran was a frequent and most effective speaker in that campaign, and con- tributed much by his persuasive and convincing eloquence to the phenomenal size of the majority by which Mr. McKinley carried the State of New York. Mr. Cockran was married, in 1885, to Miss Rhoda E. Mack, the daughter of John Mack. She had a fine fortune in her own right, and became a social leader at the national capital when Mr. Cockran was in Congress. In 1893 her health began to fail, and various visits to places of sanatory repute failed to check the progress of the malady. She died in New York on February 20, 1895. WILLIAM NATHAN COHEN " "IT/^IT ^^ yo^ come to forty year " was the genial satirist's T T injunction to thoughtless youth. The mentioned age is one at which a man should still be young, though fixed in character and in estate. Beyond it lie many possible achieve- ments, and what is gained at forty is not necessarily to be taken as the full measure of a man's doings. In the present case we shall observe the career of one who began work at an early age and in the humblest fashion, who, by dint of hard work, privations, and inflexible determination, made his way steadily upward, and who, at exactly " forty year," attained of&cial rank which placed him at the head of his chosen profession. WiUiam Nathan Cohen, son of Nathan and Ernestine Cohen, was born ia this city on May 7, 1857. His father was a G-erman, whose ancestors had come from Bavaria, and he followed the business of a dry-goods merchant. William was first sent to the public schools of the city, and then became a clerk in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spingam. He began this work at the age of thirteen years, and remained in the same of&ce until he was seventeen. Then he determined to acquire a higher educa- tion which would fit him for a learned profession. In four months of private study he fitted himself for the highest class in Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and after a year in that institution he entered Dartmouth CoUege, selecting it because it seemed most accessible to a youth of his limited means. During his whole college course he worked his way, in the summer as a law- office clerk and in the winter as a school-teacher. He was graduated in the class of 1879, taking the prize for the greatest improvement made in four years. It should be added that one of his employers, Siegmund Spingam, generously assisted him in his early struggles. 72 WILLIAM NATHAN COHEN 73 On leaving Dartmouth he came to New York and entered the Columbia CoUege Law School, at the same time maintaining his service as clerk in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spin- garn. Two years later, in 1881, he was graduated and admitted to the bar, and on the death of Mr. Spingarn, in 1883, he was made a member of the firm in which he had so long been em- ployed. He remained in the firm, under its new style of Hoadly, Lauterbach & Johnson, until he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court. This appointment was made by Governor Black in September, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Sedgwick. While at the bar Mr. Cohen had a distinguished career. Be- sides a large general practice, he was counsel for a number of business corporations and benevolent institutions, among them being the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad Company, the Third Avenue Railroad Company, the Edison Electric Illuminating Company, the Consolidated Telegraph and Electrical Subway Company, the Hebrew Benevolent Orphan Society, and the Mount Sinai Training School for Nurses. Justice Cohen was nominated for his place on the bench in 1898, at the earnest recommendation of the Bar Association and the bar generally, without regard to pohtics. He was, however, opposed by the Tammany organization because of his indepen- dence of pohtical considerations, and was defeated in the election, to the general regret of the bench and bar. He is a member of the Bar Association, the State Bar Associ- ation, the American Bar Association, the Lotos Club, the Alpha Delta Phi Club, the University Athletic Club, the Harmonic, Republican, and Lawyers' clubs, the Arion Society, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, the Society of Pine Arts, the Dart- mouth CoUege Alumni, and the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity. He is immarried. Mr. Cohen takes high rank as a lawyer, owing to his training, reading, and accurate insight into legal problems, and his career on the bench showed him the possessor of a judicial mind, a master of good English, and the possessor of that inflexible in- tegrity and impartiality that should distinguish the acceptable administrator of justice. BIRD SIM COLER ABOUT a century ago a family named Coler came to this J\. country from the quaint old German city of Nuremberg, and soon became thoroughly identified with the yoimg re- pubhc. Half a century ago its head, WiUiam N. Coler, was a leading lawyer and Democratic politician of Ilhnois. He was for a time a member of the Democratic State Committee. After that he went to Chicago and became a banker, and became interested in lands and railroads in the Southwest. Finally, he came to New York city, making his home in Brooklyn, and engaged here in the business of a banker and broker. He married Cordelia Sim, a lady of Scotch descent, related to G-eneral. Hugh Mercer of Revolutionary fame. Bird Sim Coler, son of the foregoing, was bom at Champaign, Champaign County, Illinois, on October 9, 1868. Two years later the family removed to Brooklyn, and there, in time, the boy was educated at the Polytechnic Institute, afterward taking a course at Philhps Andover Academy. On leaving school, he entered his father's banking house in New York city, and was initiated into the ways of Wall Street. He was at first a mere clerk and secretary in his father's office, but in 1889 had so far mastered the business as to be deemed worthy of a partnership. He also became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, not for speculative purposes, but in order to conduct a brokerage business for customers. The house was a large dealer in munici- pal bonds, and to these Mr. Coler paid particular attention. He traveled extensively in the West and Northwest, examining the financial condition of the cities whose securities he dealt in, and thus became an expert authority on municipal finance, a circum- 74 ^^-^-^ p BIRD SIM OOLEE 75 stance which, was destined to have an important bearing upon his after career. From an early date Mr. Coler took a keen interest in pohtics, as a Democrat. He became a member of his ward association in Brooklyn, and then of the County Committee. For several years he was chairman of the Finance Committee of the County Com- mittee. He enjoyed the confidence of the party leaders, and was regarded as one of the rising men of the party. In 1893 he was nominated for the of&ce of alderman at large, but that was a Republican year in Brooklyn, and he was defeated. He ran far ahead of his ticket, however. In 1897 his chance came again. The consoUdation of the cities of Brooklyn and New York was about to go into effect, and officers were to be elected for the whole metropohs. Mr. Coler was nominated by the Democrats for the office of Controller, the chief financial post in the municipal government, and, after a hot campaign, he was elected. The term being four years, he is still in that office. In addition to the Stock Exchange, Mr. Coler is a member of the Democratic, Brooklyn, and Groher clubs. As his member- ship in the last-named club indicates, he is a book-lover, and has collected in his Brooklyn home a large and valuable library. He has traveled much, including several trips around the world. He is a lover of fishing, hunting, and similar sports. He is a member of one of the leading Methodist Episcopal churches of Brooklyn, and is active in all its work. Mr. Coler was married, on October 10, 1888, to Miss EmUy Moore, daughter of Benjamin Moore of Brooklyn, and they have one son, Eugene Coler. FRANK W. COLER THE Coler family, which was planted in this country more than a hundred years ago, is of German origin. The ancient history of Nuremberg reveals the fact that some of its members were wardens or custodians of the great forests of that part of the empire in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Their services to the crown were such as well entitled them to nobiliary distinction, but through their own persistent choice they remained commoners. In the Reformation period the family became pretty widely dispersed throughout Europe, in various lands and nations, and members of it rose to distinction under more than one govern- ment. In late years one member of it has been made a baron for services rendered by him as Medical Director of the German army. The first of the family in America settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, soon after the close of the War of the Revolution. He had brought his wife and two sons with him from Germany. Two more sons were bom to him in Philadelphia, and from one of them, Isaac Coler, the subject of this sketch is descended. Isaac Coler, after his father's death, went West and became a farmer in Knox County, Ohio. His son, WiUiam Nichols Coler, was born and brought up on the Knox County farm. He served aU through the Mexican War as a private in an Ohio regiment. Then he came home and studied law. He was admitted to the bar at Bloomington, Illinois, in 1849, and opened an of&ce at Urbana, Champaign County, Ilhnois, where he soon became a leading practitioner. He was also interested in political affairs, and was a personal fnend of Abraham Lincoln. At the outbreak of the Civil War 76 '^.-u- FRANK W. COLES 77 Mr. Coler organized the Twenty-fifth Illinois infantry regiment, and went to the front as its colonel. After the battle of Pea Ridge he resigned his commission and returned to Urbana and resumed his law practice. He made a specialty of laws relating to municipal bonds and finance, and became an authority upon that branch of practice. That fact finally led him, in 1870, to come to New York city and found the house of W. N. Coler & Co., bankers and brokers, which has since enjoyed a highly prosperous career. Colonel Coler married Miss Simm of TJrbana, Illinois, a de- scendant of Greneral Mercer, of Revolutionary fame, who bore him several sons. One of these is the subject of the present sketch. Frank W. Coler was bom at Urbana, Illinois, on August 22, 1871. He was brought to New York city in his infancy, and was educated at first in its schools. Then he studied succes- sively at Cornell University, at the University of HaUe, Germany, at the School of Economics and PoUtical Sciences, Paris, France, and at the Law Department of the Northwestern Uni- versity, Evanston, Ilhnois. With such preparation he entered upon the practice of the law in the city of Chicago. He was a partner there of Judge Adams A. Goodrich and of Judge Wilham A. Yincent. After three years of successful practice, however, he withdrew from it and left Chicago for the metropolis. In New York Mr. Coler entered the banking house of W. N. Coler & Co., which had been founded by his father, and of which his father was head and his two brothers partners. In 1895 he became a partner in it, and still maintains that connec- tion. His father having retired from active business, Mr. Coler's elder brother, W. N. Coler, Jr., became, in 1898, the head of the firm. The third brother, Bird S. Coler, was in 1897 elected Controller of the city of New York. Mr. Coler was married, on July 7, 1894, to Miss CecUe Ander- son. They have one child, Kenneth Anderson Coler. WILLIAM NICHOLS COLER, JK THE remote ancestors of the subject of tMs sketch were men of parts and substance in central and southern Ger- many. The archives of Nuremberg tell that, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, members of the family were wardens or custodians of the great forests which form so important a part of that region. Their services entitled them to elevation to noble rank, but, through their own choice, they steadfastly re- mained commoners. In later years the family became more widely dispersed throughout Europe, in various nations. In comparatively recent years one of its members was prevailed upon to accept the rank of a baron, in recognition of his services as Medical Director of the G-ermany army. The family was first settled in America soon after the War of the Revolution. The pioneer member of it settled in Phila- delphia, Pennsylvania, and there two sons were bom to him. One of these, Isaac Coler, removed to Knox County, Ohio, and became a farmer. There a son was born to him, to whom he gave the name of William Nichols Coler. The latter has had an interesting career as a private in the Mexican War, a law student and a practising lawyer at Bloomington, lUinois, a lead- ing lawyer and friend of Abraham Lincoln in Urbana, HUnois, a colonel in the Civil War, and the founder and head of a bank- ing house in New York city. He married a Miss Simm, who was maternally descended from General Mercer of Revolutionary fame, and she bore him several sons. The oldest of these re- ceived his father's name. William Nichols Coler, Jr., was bom at Urbana, Illinois, on July 6, 1858. His education was received in the pubhc schools of that place and in Illinois University. While he was yet in 78 WILLIAM NICHOLS COLEB, JB. 79 his boyhood Ms father left Urbana to become a banker in New York city, with a home in Brooklyn, and young Mr. Coler, of conrse, came with him to the metropolis. His inclinations were toward the business in which his father was so successfully engaged, and he, therefore, entered his father's counting-house, at first as an employee to learn the business, but soon as a partner. With that house, W. N. Coler & Co., bankers and brokers, he has been continuously connected ever since. His father retired from the head of the firm on November 1, 1898, and Mr. Coler, Jr., succeeded hitn in that place. Mr. Coler has been eminently successful in his business life, and has won the esteem and confidence of his acquaintance and of the public in an enviable degree. He has become officially connected with numerous other corporations, chiefly banks and trust companies. Many of these are out-of-town banks and other institutions. Among those in the metropoKs may be mentioned the Western National Bank of New York, the Amer- ican Deposit and Loan Company of New York, the Brooklyn Bank of Brooklyn, and the Fidelity Trust Company of Newark, New Jersey, which, by reason of its proximity to New York, may practically be reckoned a metropolitan institution. Of all these Mr. Coler is a director. Mr. Coler has held no poHtical office, and taken no especially active part in pohtical affairs, although his younger brother, Bird S. Coler, was, in the faU of 1897, elected Controller of the city of New York for a term of four years. Mr. Coler is a member of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, the Lawyers', Calumet, and Knickerbocker clubs of New York, and the Essex Club of Newark, New Jersey. He was married, on February 8, 1888, to Miss Lilhe E. Seeley, and has two sons : William Nichols Coler HI, bom in August, 1889, and Eugene Seeley Coler, bom in January, 1896. WASHINGTON EVERETT CONNOE THE "old Ninth Ward" of this city was the birthplace of Washington Everett Connor — the old village of Green- wich, where his father and grandfather had hved, and indeed been bom, before him. He was born on December 15, 1849, and was educated at the public schools and the College of the City of New York. He was an excellent scholar, especially in mathe- matical studies. On leaving college at the end of his first year, he entered the banking and brokerage house of H, C. Stimson & Co. as a clerk, and there acquired a thorough training in the business of Wall Street, and made the acquaintance of many leaders of finance. Mr. Connor became a member of the Stock Exchange on Oc- tober 6, 1871, and soon became a conspicuous figure in. that body. Clear-headed, prompt, devoted to the interests of his clients, and agreeable in manner, he won a large number of important patrons. He soon attracted the notice of Jay Gould, and was intrusted by him with some important commissions. These Mr. Connor executed with brilliant success, and the result was that Mr. Gould, a keen judge of men, in 1881 formed a partner- ship with the young broker, under the name of W. E. Connor & Co. Of this firm George J. Gould became a member on attain- ing his majority. For many years Mr. Connor was Jay Gould's confidential representative, and had the management of most of his important operations on Wall Street. Mr. Connor was also a favorite broker of Russell Sage and other prominent capitalists. In all his operations Mr. Connor has been distinguished by his abihty to keep his own counsel. When, for example. Jay Gould made his famous Western Union Telegraph campaign, which re- 80 WASHINGTON EVEEETT CONNOR 81 suited in the transfer of the control of that corporation from the Vanderbilts to him, Mr. Connor personally conducted all the operations, and did it so skilfully that Wall Street was under the impression that his firm was heavily short of the stock, when, in fact, it was the principal buyer of it. In the panic of 1884 it was ascertained that W. E. Connor & Co. were borrowers to the extent of twelve milhon dollars, and a combination was promptly formed to drive them into bankruptcy. The attack was made chiefly upon Missouri Pacific stock. But Mr. Connor and Mr. Grould were more than a match for the Street. They not only held their own, but, when the day of reckoning came, no less than one hundred and forty-seven houses were found short of Missouri Pacific, and were forced to " cover " at heavy losses to themselves, and at great profit to W. E. Connor & Co. Mr. dould retired from Wall Street in 1886, and a year later Mr. Connor, having amassed an ample fortune, followed his example. He retained, however, an active interest in many railroad and other corporations. Among these are the Louis- ville, New Albany and Chicago, and the Wheeling and Lake Erie railroads, the Western Union Telegraph, the Credit Mobilier, the Texas and Colorado Improvement Company, the Manhattan Elevated Railway, the New Jersey Southern Railroad, and the Central Construction Company. Mr. Connor has a fine home in New York city, and a summer home at Seabright, New Jersey. He is devoted to yachting and other forms of recreation, and is a conspicuous figure in metropohtan society. He belongs to the Union League, Lo- tus, Repubhcan, American Yacht, and various other clubs, the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural His- tory, and the Metropolitan Opera House Company. He is a member of the highest standing of the Masonic fraternity. In 1877-78 he was master of St. Nicholas Lodge 321 ; in 1879 he was District Deputy Grrand Master of the Sixth Masonic Dis- trict ; in 1884 he was Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of New York, and in 1887-89 Grand Treasurer of the same. He has also been Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of England. HENRY HAEYEY COOK FROM ancient records it appears that Captain Thomas Cook of Earle's Colne, Essex, England, came to Boston early in the seventeenth century, and in 1637 settled at Taunton, in the Plymouth Colony, of which place he was one of the pro- prietors, and finally, in 1643, removed to Pocasset, now Ports- mouth, Rhode Island. His family in England was of noble extraction, with annals datiag hack almost to the Norman Con- quest. In New England the family became conspicuous for its private virtues and its energy in promoting the pubhc weal. In the last generation Judge Constant Cook hved at Warren, New York, and married Maria Whitney. To them was bom at Cohooton, New York, on May 22, 1822, a son, to whom they gave the name of Henry Harvey Cook. The boy was sent to school at Cohocton until his eighteenth year, and then to an academy at Canandaigua for two years, thus completing his studies. After leaving school he served for a year as a dry-goods clerk at Auburn, New York, and then another year in the same capacity at Bath. Then, in 1844, he opened a store of his own at Bath, and conducted it with such success that at the end of ten years he was able to retire from it with a handsome fortune. Mr. Cook's next venture was the organization, in company with his father, of the Bank of Bath, a State institution, in April, 1854. Of it he was cashier, and it had a prosperous career for just ten years. Then, in April, 1864, it was organized as a national bank, and again for just ten years Mr. Cook served as its cashier, and its prosperity remained unabated. In 1874 his father, the president of the bank, died, and Mr. Cook was elected its president in his place, and still holds that office. The presidency of the bank was not sufficient, however, to 82 HENBY HAEVEY COOK 83 engross all his attention. In 1875 he came to New York and entered its financial and railroad businesses, in which he has achieved marked success. He has become a director of the Union Pacific, the New York, Lake Erie and Western, and the Buffalo, New York and Erie railroads, the American Surety Com- pany, the State Trust Company, the National Bank of North America, and the Washington Life Insurance Company. Mr. Cook has made his home chiefly in this city since 1875, his house on the upper part of Fifth Avenue ranking among the finest on Manhattan Island. He has also a splendid place at Lenox, Massachusetts, which he has named " Wheatleigh," after the estate of one of his ancestors. Sir Henry Cook of Yorkshire, England. In his houses he has large and valuable libraries and collections of paintiags and other works of art. The clubs of which Mr. Cook is a member include the Union League, Metropohtan, and Riding, of New York, and he belongs also to the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the American Natural History Museum, the American Fine Arts Society, the New York Greological Society, and the New York Historical Society. Like his father, he belongs to the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is a vestryman of St. Thomas's parish in New York. Mr. Cook was married, on September 27, 1848, to Miss Mary McCay, daughter of WiUiam Wallace McCay of Bath, New York, who for many years was the principal agent and manager of the Poultney estate. They have five daughters : Mariana, wife of Chnton D. McDougall of Auburn, New York; Maria Louise, wife of Judge M. Rumsey Miller of Bath ; Sarah McCay, wife of Charles F. Gansen of Buffalo ; Fanny Howell, wife of John Henry Keene of Baltimore, Maryland ; and Georgie Bruce, wife of Carlos de Heredia of Paris, France. PAUL DRENNAN CRAVATH THOSE wlio remember the days " before the war," the days of antislavery agitation and of the reahnement of pohtical par- ties, will readily recall the name of Orren B. Cravath, of Homer, New York. He was one of the most earnest of antislavery men, and one of the founders of the Republican party in the State of New York, being a delegate to its first State Convention. He had come to New York from Connecticut, and his ancestors, originally from England, had hved for five generations in Massa- chusetts. His son, Erastus Milo Cravath, became a clergyman, hved for some years in Ohio, and has now been for a long time president of Fisk University, at Nashville, Tennessee. He mar- ried Miss Ruth Jackson, daughter of Caleb Sharpless Jackson of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, a prominent abolitionist and member of the Society of Friends, and descendant of a family that had come from England and had hved in Chester County, Pennsylvania, for six generations before him. To the Rev. Dr. Erastus Cravath a son was born at Berlin Heights, Ohio, on July 14, 1861, to whom he gave the names of Paul Drennan, and whom, when he became old enough, he sent to that institution beloved of antislavery folk, Oberhn College. There Paul D. Cravath was graduated in 1882. Four years later he was gi-aduated from the Law School of Columbia College, receiving the first prize in mxmieipal law and the prize appointment as instructor in the law school for three years following graduation. It may be added that he had gone from Oberlin to MinneapoHs in 1882, and had read law at the latter place for some months, until his studies were interrupted by illness. Then he traveled and engaged in business for more than a year, not coming to Columbia until the fall of 1884. 84 PAUL DBENNAN CRAYATH 85 After graduation in law, and while acting as instructor in Colum- bia, he served as a clerk in the law office of Messrs. Carter, Hornblower & Byrne. That firm was dissolved in 1888, and Mr. Cravath then became a member of the firm of Carter, Hughes & Cravath. Two years later it, too, dissolved, and then the firm of Cravath & Houston was formed, which still exists. Mr. Cravath has since his admis- sion to the bar applied himself exclusively to the practice of his profession, and has achieved marked success. He has been for some years coimsel for the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and several important electric illuminating companies in New York, Brooklyn, and elsewhere. His professional work has, in fact, been largely in connection with corporations. Mr. Cravath has long taken a loyal citizen's interest in public afEairs, and has lent his time and influence to the cause of good government. He has been conspicuously identified with various movements for pohtical reform, but has never allowed the use of his name as a candidate for office. His only approach to office-holding was his service as a delegate to the Repubhcan State Convention in 1898. He is a member of the Union League Club, the University Club, the Lawyers' Club, the New England Society, and the Ohio Society, and takes an active interest in promoting the prosperity of them all. In 1893 Mr. Cravath was married to Miss Agnes Huntington, a member of the well-known New York family of that name, who was at that time famed as one of the most accomplished siagers of the world. They have one child, who bears the name of Vera Agnes Huntington Cravath. GEORGE CROCKER THE history of the world is rudely divided into the records of various so-called ages. There is the half-mythical stone age. There is the golden age, of which we have prophecy of a better repetition in this land. There are the dark ages. And so the story goes, each era being designated according to its most conspicuous feature. The present age has many claims to dis- tinction for many of its salient features. Perhaps it might be as worthily known as in any way as the age of railroading, or, at any rate, of engineering. It is probable that no feature of nine- teenth-century civilization has been more potent for changing the face of the world and improving the condition of the race than the use of steam-power for transportation on land and sea, and especially on land, for the contrast between the saihng- ship and the steamship is scarcely as great as between the stage- coach and the express-train. There were also, of old, certain classes of men who dominated their respective ages, such as the knights in the age of chivalry. There were merchant princes in the days of Tyre and Sidon who almost vied with monarchs in wealth and power. We have to- day our merchant princes and captains of industry. But to none are we to give higher rank than to the railroad kings, who have literally cast up a highway and made the rough places smooth. They have covered the lands of the earth with roads for the facilitation of commerce, of industry, and of social inter- course. They have all but abohshed time and space. They have made near neighbors of those who dwell at opposite sides of the continent. The careers of such men are supremely typical of the genius of the century which produced them, and which they, in turn, so 86 GEOBGE CEOOKER 87 largely shaped ; and among them, in this country, there are none more worthy of attention than the members of that remarkable group of men who developed the interests of the Pacific coast, and connected that region with the Eastern States, and with all the nation, with great highways of steel. The Crocker family is of Enghsh ancestry, and was settled in the United States several generations ago. In the last genera- tion it rose to especial distinction in the person of Charles Crocker, the son of a storekeeper at Troy, New York. He was compelled by his father's reverses in his early boyhood to take to seUing newspapers and other occupations for seK-support. His earnings went into the common fund of the family, which in time amounted to enough for the purchase of a farm in Indiana, whither the family removed when he was fourteen years old. Three years later the boy left home to make his own way in the world. He successively worked on a farm, in a sawmill, and at a forge, getting what schoohng he could meanwhile. At twenty- three he started iron- works of his own at Michawaka, Indiana, and conducted that enterprise successfully for four years. Then, in 1849, gold was discovered in California, and he joined the great procession of fortune-seekers that removed to the Pacific coast. Mr. Crocker did not, however, spend much time in the mines. He opened a dry-goods store at Sacramento, which soon became the leading concern of the kind in that place, and proved highly profitable. In 1854 he was elected to the Common CouncU, and in 1860 to the Legislature. Then he became impressed with the importance of having railroad communication between Cahf omia and the Eastern States, and in 1861 gave up his other business and devoted all his energy, abihty, attention, and fortune to the task of building the Central Pacific Railroad. He was one of the four men who agreed to pay, out of their own pockets, for the labor of eight hundred men for one year, and who pledged their entire fortunes to the accomplishment of the great task before them. The others were Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, and CoUis P. Huntington. Bach of these men played a separate part in the enterprise. Mr. Crocker was the superintendent of construction. He personally directed the building of some of the most difficult parts of the line over the Sierra Nevada, and never relaxed his efforts until the line was completed in 1869. 88 GEOBGE CEOOKEE Then he joined his three associates in building the Southern Pacific RaUroad, and became its president in 1871, as well as vice-president of the Central Pacific. He personally superin- tended the building of much of the Southern road. He was also a large purchaser of land in California, including much of the water-front of Oakland. He was the principal owner of the Crocker-Huffman Land and Water Company at Merced, and his estate now owns the assets of that enterprise, comprising forty- two thousand acres of land, a lake of seven hundred acres, and eighteen miles of irrigating canals. Late in life Mr. Crocker made his home in New York, where he had a fine house, with notable collections of paintings, bronzes, and ceramics. He was married, in 1852, to Miss Mary Ann Deming, a lady of EngUsh origin, and granddaughter of Seth Read, a lieutenant-colonel in the Revolutionary army. He left four children : Colonel Charles F. Crocker, lately vice-president of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and director of the corporation of Wells, Fargo & Co., who married Miss Easton, a niece of Mr. D. O. MiUs ; G-eorge Crocker ; William H. Crocker ; and Harriet Crocker, wife of Charles B. Alexander of New York. George Crocker, the second son of Charles Crocker, was born at Sacramento, California, on February 10, 1856. He was educated at first in the schools of that city, and afterward at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, New York. After leaving the latter in- stitution, he spent some time in European travel. On his return to the United States he naturally turned his attention to the business in which his father had won so great distraction. His father's wealth made it unnecessary for him to engage in any struggle for a liveUhood, but in order thoroughly to acquaint himself with the business he began at the bottom of the ladder, in a clerkship in the operating department of the Southern Pacific Railroad. After a time he purchased an extensive cattle-ranch ia Utah and tmdertook the management of it. From the last-named enterprise he was recalled, in August, 1888, by the death of his father. He then joined his elder bro- ther in assuming the management of the vast railroad and other interests of the estate, devoting his attention chiefly to the rail- roads. He has, indeed, since that time, been following the railroad business with exceptional zeal. GEORGE OROCKEB 89 Mr. Crocker is now second vice-president of the Southern Pacific Eaih-oad Company, of which his brother, the late Charles F. Crocker, was first vice-president. He is also president of the Oriental and Occidental Steamship Company, president of the Crocker Estate Company, president of the Carbon Hill Coal Company, president of the Rocky Mountain Coal and Iron Company, president of the Promontory Ranch Company, vice- president of the Pacific Improvement Company, and a special partner in the brokerage firm of Price, McCormick & Co. He is also interested as an investor in many other enterprises. In the early fall of 1899 it was announced that the Crocker interests in the Southern Pacific Railroad had been purchased by an Anglo-American syndicate of which CoUis P. Huntiagton was the head. These holdings, it was said, amounted to some three hundred and forty thousand shares of stock, of which the value was variously stated at from ten million dollars to fifteen million dollars. It was said that the figures paid by the pur- chasers were a httle above the latter amount, and that Greorge Crocker's share of the proceeds of the sale would be something better than four million dollars. This sum he was reported to be about to invest in real estate, largely in New York, but to some extent in San Francisco and Chicago. It was also stated that henceforth Mr. Crocker will make his home chiefly in New York, out of deference to the desire of his wife. Mr. Crocker has made his home in this city for a great part of the time in recent years, and is a f amihar figure in the best social circles of the metropolis. He is a member of the Metropolitan, New York, Lawyers', New York Athletic, Transportation, West- chester, and Stock Exchange Lunch clubs, and is a governor of the Eastern Fields Trial Club. In San Francisco, where he is equally at home, he belongs to the Pacific, Union, University, Country, and Olympic clubs. He was married at St. Thomas's Church, in this city, on June 5, 1894, to Mrs. Emma Hanchett Rutherford of San Francisco. He owns a home at the comer of Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fourth Street, having recently built it, where he fives when in New York. Mr. Crocker has become interested in New York real estate and business buildings to the extent of several millions of dollars. 90 GEOEGE CEOCKEB Mr. Crocker made, in the summer of 1879, one of the swiftest railroad rides on record in the United States. He was in New York when he heard of the hopeless illness of his elder brother, Charles F. Crocker, and was informed that only the utmost ex- pedition would offer him any promise of seeing him alive. At the earhest possible moment the start was made, in a desperate race against time from one side of the continent to the other. It was then seen what the highest achievements and resources of modem engineering, acting in response to the dictates of un- hmited wealth, could do. All the way across the continent phe- nomenal time was made, and on the home stretch all former records were broken. The run from Ogden to Oakland was by far the quickest ever made on that section of the Pacific Rail- road. A few days before, the younger brother, W. H. Crocker, had made a flying trip over it on the same errand, but George Crocker surpassed his record by some hours. Leaving Ogden at 12:49 p. M., the wharf at Oakland was reached at 9:10 A. M. the next day, the run of eight hundred and thirty-three miles being made without a stop. A swift ferry-boat bore him to the other side of the bay, where another special train was in waiting, to bear him to San Mateo. He reached the latter place to find Ms brother still ahve, though unconscious. Colonel Charles P. Crocker, to whose death-bed his brother thus hastened, was the eldest of the family, being two years older than Greorge Crocker. He received an education similar to that of G-eorge Crocker, and then devoted himself to the railroad and other interests of his father. He was also interested in educa- tional and other affairs, being president of the California Academy of Sciences, and a trustee of Leland Stanford University. On his death he left one daughter and two sons. The daughter. Miss Mary Crocker, reached the age of eighteen years in the fall of 1899, and at that time came into possession of the great fortune bequeathed to her by her father and held for her by the trustees of his will. This fortune, amounting to about four million dollars, made her the wealthiest unmarried woman in California. JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY THE distinguished jurist whose name heads this sketch is of pure Irish ancestry. His father, Dennis Daly of Limerick, was a purser's clerk in the British navy, and afterward came to this country and engaged in the shipping trade. In Jamaica, West Indies, he met EUzaheth Theresa Duffey, daughter of Lieutenant John Duffey of the British army, and married her in this city. Afterward he settled at Plymouth, North Carolina, in the house once occupied hy John Randolph of Roanoke, and there were bom his two sons, Augustin, the eminent dramatic manager, and Joseph Francis. The latter was born on December 3, 1840. At the age of niae years he was brought by his widowed mother to New York, and was educated in the pubUc schools. In 1855 he became a clerk in a law of&ce, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar. He soon rose to prominence, especially in the movement for reform of the municipal government. He was associated with Charles O'Conor, Benjamin D. SiUiman, and other eminent men, and drafted many statutes which are still on the books as bulwarks of good government. In 1865 he appeared before the governor to argue for the prosecution of unfaithful officials. In 1870 he was elected a judge of the Coiirt of Common Pleas for a term of fourteen years, and in 1884 he was reelected for another such term. In 1890 his associates chose him to be chief judge of that bench, and when that court was consohdated with the Supreme Court, he became a justice of the latter, and thus served out the remainder of his term. Upon the bench Justice Daly was eminently dignified and im- partial. He was unwilling to submit to any political or other extraneous influences. On more than one occasion he refused to 91 92 JOSEPH FRANCIS DALY obey the dictates of the "boss "of the Democratic party. The latter accordingly marked him for punishment, and, on the expi- ration of his term in 1898, directed that he should not be re- nominated. Justice Daly's eminent fitness for the bench was generally recognized. The RepubUcan party, though he was a Democrat, nominated him for reelection, and the Bar Associa- tion enthusiastically approved its action and worked for his suc- cess. He was recognized to stand for the principle of a pure and impartial judiciary. But the power of the " boss " was too great, and he was defeated, though such defeat was no dishonor. Justice Daly has long been a favorite orator on public oc- casions, and a strong friend of Ireland in her struggles for self-government. As a trustee of the National Federation of America he presented the address of welcome to the Earl of Aberdeen on his visit here ia 1892, and as president of the Cathohc Club he welcomed the Lord Chief Justice of England, Lord Russell of Killowen, in 1896. He was chairman of the joint committee of the Cathohc Historical Society and Catholic Club on the quadricentenary of the landing of Columbus, and presided at the meeting of citizens on May 5, 1898, in honor of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the episcopate of the Archbishop of New York. In 1889 he, with his brother Augustin, Edwin Booth, Lawrence Barrett, Joseph Jefferson, and others, incorpo- rated the now famous Players' Club. He is still a member of it, is president of the Catholic Club, member of the Metropoh- tan, Manhattan, and Democratic clubs, the Southern Society, Dunlap Society, Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, G-aehc Society, Law Institute, Bar Association, American-Irish Historical Soci- ety, American Geographical Society, Legal Aid Society, Cathohc Summer School, Champlain Club, manager of the Roman Cath- olic Orphan Asylum, and member of the advisory board of St. Vincent's Hospital. In 1883 he received the degree of LL. D. from St. John's College, Fordham. He married, in 1873, the stepdaughter of Judge Hamilton W. Robinson, Miss Emma Robinson Barker, who died in 1886, leav- ing him two sons and a daughter. In 1890 he married Miss Mary Louise Smith, daughter of Edgar M. Smith. ELLIOT DANFORTH ELLIOT DANFORTH, who for many years has been promi- nent as a lawyer, political leader, and pubhc official in the State of New York, was born at Middleburg, Schoharie County, New York, on March 6, 1850. His mother, whose maiden name was AureUa Lintner, was of German descent. His father, Peter Swart Danforth, was of Enghsh descent, and was a State Senator in 1854r-55, and became a justice of the Supreme Court of the State in 1872. Elliot Danforth early manifested a particularly studious dispo- sition, and this led to his acquiring the most thorough education possible, in the common schools and in Schoharie Academy. He then turned his attention to legal studies in his father's office, and at the age of twenty-one years, in 1871, was admitted to practice at the bar. For a few years he practised in his native village with much success. Then, in 1878, he removed to Bain- bridge, Chenango County, where he formed a partnership with the Hon. Oeorge H. Winsor, one of the foremost lawyers of that part of the State, and that association lasted imtil Mr. Winsor's death, in 1880. Mr. Danforth's legal career has since that date been marked with much success, and he has served as a member of numerous committees of the State Bar Association. Mr. Danforth began in his childhood to take an ardent interest in pohtics, and upon reaching years of manhood he became what might be termed a practical politician, identified with the Demo- cratic party. His first public office was that of President of the village of Bainbridge, to which he was elected for several terms. He was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1880, and was the youngest of all the New York State delegates. In the fall of that year he was unanimously nominated for Rep- 93 94 ELLIOT DANFORTH resentatiye in Congress by the Democratic Convention of Ms dis- trict, but decUned the nomination. He was also widely men- tioned as a candidate for State Treasurer. Four years later he was again a delegate to the National Democratic Convention, and in that year's campaign gave earnest and efEective support to the Presidential candidacy of Mr. Cleveland, who was elected. Soon after the election of L, J. Fitzgerald as State Treasurer, in 1885, Mr. Danforth was appointed to be his Deputy, and at the expiration of his term was reappointed, thus serving through the years of 1886-89, At the Democratic State Convention in 1889 he was unanimously nominated for State Treasurer, and was duly elected by more than 16,000 plurality. Two years later he was renominated for another term in the same office, and was reelected by about 50,000 plurality. Mr. Danforth was the Democratic candidate for Lieutenant- Grovemor in 1898, but was defeated, although leading the head of the ticket by 12,000 votes. He was a delegate to the National Democratic conventions of 1892 and 1896, chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee in 1896-98, and chairman of the executive committee of that committee in 1899. He was for several years president of the First National Bank of Bain- bridge, New York, and also president of the Board of Education of that place. Mr. Danforth is now practising law in the city of New York, and is identified with its professional and social activities. His law offices are in the Home Life Insurance Company's Building, on Broadway, opposite City HaU Park. He is a member of the Democratic Club, the chief social organization of the Democratic party, the Lotus Club, and the orders of Free Masons, Odd Pel- lows, Knights of Pythias, and Elks. Li 1874, on December 17 of that year, Mr. Danforth married Miss Ida Prince, the only daughter of Dr. Gervis Prince, presi- dent of the First National Bank of Bainbridge. She died in New York city on October 5, 1895, leaving him two children, Edward and Mary. He married a second time, in New York, on Novem- ber 30, 1898, his second bride being Mrs. Katharine Black Laim- beer. / r(2) C>^~-\-JX-J2_^ JULIEN TAPPAN DAYIES JULIEN TAPPAN DAYIES, who ranks among the most suc- cessful lawyers of the metropolis, is of Welsh descent. His family hne is traced back to Rodic Maur, from whom the seventh in descent was the famous Cymric Efell, Lord of Eylwys Eyle, who lived in the year 1200. From him, in turn, was descended Robert Davies of Grwysany Castle, Mold, Flintshire, who was bom in 1606, and who was high sheriff of Flintshire and Knight of the Royal Oak. A descendant of Robert Davies, named John Davies, came to America in 1735, and settled in Litchfield, Con- necticut. He was a man of wealth and influence. From him, in ttim, was descended the late Thomas John Davies, judge of St. Lawrence County, New York. The three sons of the latter were Professor Charles Davies, the eminent mathematician, the late Chief Justice Henry E. Davies of New York, and Major-General Thomas Alfred Davies. The subject of this sketch is the fourth son of the late Chief Justice Henry E. Davies. He was bom in New York city on September 25, 1845, and was carefully educated. He was sent to the famous Mount Washington Collegiate Institute, on Washington Square, New York city. Next he studied at the Walnut HUl School, at Greneva, New York, and thence pro- ceeded to Columbia College. From the last-named institution he was graduated in 1866, with the degree of A. B. Upon leaving college, Mr. Davies, who had already fixed upon the law as his profession, entered as a student the law office of Alexander W. Bradford of New York, and there was prepared for admission to the bar. Such admission was secured on No- vember 6, 1867. Such early entrance to the bar was due to the responsibilities which had been thrust upon him by the death of 95 96 JUIilEN TAPPAN DAVIES Mr. Bradford. That gentleman left the conduct of his business, by will, to his partner, Mr. Harrison, and to Mr. Davies. This made it necessary for Mr. Davies to seek immediate admission to the bar. He also entered into partnership with Mr. Harrison, and thus came into a large law practice. At the same time he eontiuued his studies in the Law School of Columbia College, from which he was graduated in 1868 with the degree of LL. B., at the same time receiving the degree of A. M. from the college. Mr. Davies was afterward associated in practice with his father, who retired from the bench and resumed legal practice in January, 1869. Mr. Davies joined the Twenty-Second Regiment, N. Gr. N. Y., ia 1863, as a private, being then only eighteen years old. He saw active service ia the campaign which culminated at Gettys- burg. The law practice of Mr. Davies has been chiefly in connection with two great corporations. He has been for many years coun- sel of the Manhattan Elevated Railway Company, and carried through the courts a most important series of cases establishing its franchises and the principles of its liability for damages to property. He is also counsel for and a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company. He is a Republican in politics, and is actively interested in the duties of citizenship and the eleva- tion of the standard of municipal administration, but has held no pohtical of&ce. Mr. Davies is a member of various professional and social organizations of the highest class. He was married on April 22, 1869, to Miss Alice Martin, daughter of Henry H. Martin, a banker of Albany, New York. WILLIAM GILBERT DA VIES THE name of Davies is unmistakably of Welsh origin. It has been well known in Wales and the adjacent parts of England for centuries, and is at the present time a common one there, and is borne by many men of Ught and leading. The branch of the Davies family now under consideration traces its history back to ancient times in Fhntshire, where its members were among the foremost men of their day, and the family one of the most distinguished. From Fhntshire some members of it removed, centuries ago, to the town of Kington, in the Welsh- English county of Hereford, and there John Davies was born and hved to manhood. He came to this country in 1735, being the first of his family to do so, and settled at Litchfield, Connec- ticut, within sight of the hills which reminded him to some degree of his native hills of Wales. He married Catherine Spencer, a lady of Enghsh ancestry, and for many years was one of the foremost citizens of Litchfield, and indeed of the western part of Connecticut. A son of this couple, also named John Davies, married Ehza- beth Brown, and continued to hve at Litchfield. His son, the third John Davies, married Eunice Hotchkiss. His son, Thomas John Davies, removed from Litchfield to St. Lawrence County, New York, in 1800, and became sheriff and county judge. His son, Henry E. Davies, the fifth of the hue in this country, be- came a lawyer, came to New York city, and was long a prom- inent figure in professional and public life. He was successively an alderman, corporation counsel, justice of the Supreme Court, and chief justice of the Court of Appeals. He married Rebecca Waldo Tappan of Boston, a niece of the abohtionist leaders, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, and a descendant of one of the most 97 98 WILLIAM GILBEET DAVIES distinguished of New England families. Miss Tappan was also related by descent to the Quincys, Wendells, Salisburys, and other New England families, and also to that famous Anneke Jans whose heirs have so often laid claim to vast possessions in New York city. "William Gilbert Davies is a son of Henry E. Davies and Ee- becca Tappan Davies, and was born in this city on March 21, 1842. He acquired collegiate education at Trinity College, Hart- ford, Connecticut, where he was graduated in 1860, and at the University of Leipzig, Grermany. In 1863 he was admitted to practise law at the bar of the State of New York, and entered earnestly upon the pursuit of the profession his father had so greatly adorned. During the Civil War, then raging, he served for a time in the Twenty-second Eegiment, New York Militia, during the Gettysburg campaign. It was in the law office of Slosson, Hutchins & Piatt, and in the Law School of Columbia College, that Mr. Davies was pre- pared for his career as a lawyer. His first partnership in prac- tice was formed with Henry H. Anderson, but on August 1, 1866, the partnership was dissolved, and Mr. Davies entered the serAdce of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. The law department of that corporation was fully organized in September, 1870, with J. Y. L. Pruyn as solicitor, and with Mr. Davies as his assistant. In that place Mr. Davies remained untU May 20, 1885, when he became the head of the department. The law of Mfe-insurance was then practically an unknown quantity, the system itself being in its infancy, and but few questions having been presented to the courts for decision. During the succeeding quarter of a century, with the enormous growth of that form of insurance, new problems were constantly presented for solution, and Mr. Davies, as counsel for one of the leading companies, was largely instrumental in establishing the rules of law relating to that subject as they exist to-day. He resigned his position in December, 1893, to resume the active practice of his profession, since which time he has been chiefly engaged as a referee and in street-opening proceedings, having received many appointments to such positions. His most con- spicuous service of this character was on the commission for widening and extending Elm Street from Great Jones Street to WILLIAM GILBEET DAVIES 99 the City Hall, wMcli great public improvement was carried througli in an iinprecedentedly short time, thus effecting a great saving of expense to the city, and greatly diminishing the in- jury to the property-owners. Important as have been the duties of his profession, they have by no means monopohzed Mr. Davies's attention. His ripe scholarship and finished hterary style have made him a welcome contributor to current literature. His discussion of "Myste- rious Disappearances and Presumptions of Death in Insurance Cases " has been published and become a classic. He was en- gaged as a lecturer in the New York University Law School in 1891. He was one of the chief promoters of the Medico- legal Society, and from 1886 to 1889 was chairman of its board of trustees. A paper on " Medical Jurisprudence and its Relations to Life- insurance," read before the Insurance Convention held at Chi- cago during the Centennial Exposition of 1893, was widely quoted and favorably commented upon by the insurance press at the time. Mr. Davies is a prominent member of numerous professional and social organizations. Among these are the New York His- torical Society, the New York Biographical and G-enealogical Society, the Medicolegal Society, the New England Society, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the New England His- torical-Grenealogical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, the Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association, the Liederkranz Society, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Century Association, and the Union, University, Lawyers', Manhattan, Tuxedo, Grroher, Democratic, and St. Nicholas clubs. He belongs also to the American, New York State, and New York City bar associa- tions, and the Law Institute. He was married, ia 1870, to Miss Lucie Rice, daughter of the Hon. Alexander H. Rice, who was for three terms Grovemor of the State of Massachusetts. His New York home is at No. 22 East Forty-fifth Street. CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON CHAELES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON'S American ances- try has included merchants, authors, soldiers, physicians, and statesmen. His grandfather, Charles Willoughby Dayton born at Stratford, Connecticut, became a leading merchant of New York. He married a daughter of Francis Child, of Hugue- not descent, and they had a son named Abraham Child Dayton, who was a contributor to some of the foremost periodicals of his day, and was also a leading member of the New York Stock Exchange. His wife was Marie A. Tomlinson, a daughter of Dr. David Tomlinson of Derby, Connecticut, and afterward of Rhinebeck, New York, a member of the New York Legislature and a prominent member of the medical profession. Dr. Tom- hnson's wife, Cornelia Adams, was a granddaughter of Andrew Adams, one of the signers of the Articles of Confederation, Speaker of the Continental Congress, and chief justice of the State of Connecticut. The son of Abraham Child Dayton and Marie Tomhnson Dayton, who forms the subject of this present sketch, was born in Brooklyn, New York, on October 3, 1846, but since childhood has lived in the city of New York and the borough of Manhat- tan. He entered the College of the City of New York in 1861, and was graduated from the Law School of Columbia University in 1868, and has since been a practising lawyer of this city. From his youth Mr. Dayton has been an ardent Democrat and has taken an active part in political affairs. In the campaign of 1864 he took the stump and made many effective speeches for General McClellan. In 1881 he was a member of the State Assembly and of its judiciary committee. The next year he organized the Harlem Democratic Club, and was a leader of the 100 CHABLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON 101 Citizens' Eeform movement, wliicli gave Allan Campbell seventy- eight thousand votes for Mayor after a campaign of only ten days. In 1884 he was secretary of the Electoral College of the State of New York. In 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1892 he was a dele- gate to Democratic State conventions, and in 1893 he was elected a member of the New York State Constitutional Convention. In the last-named year he was appointed by President Cleve- land as Postmaster of New York. In that office he introduced many reforms which were appreciated by the employees, the public, and his superiors at Washington. His resignation as postmaster, on May 22, 1897, was followed, in June of that year, by a banquet tendered to him by fifteen hundred letter-carriers at the Grrand Central Palace. There is now in the New York Postmaster's room a bronze portrait bust of Mr. Dayton, the cost of which was provided by fifty-cent subscriptions from four thousand postal employees, inscribed as follows : CHARLES WILLOUGHBY DAYTON, Postmaster at New York, Appointed by President Cleveland June 3, 1893. Erected February, 1897, by tbe employees of the New York Post-Office, who desire to perpetuate Mr. Dayton's record for efficiency, discipline, justice, courtesy, and kindness. In the Democratic convention of 1897 he was the most popular candidate for Mayor of Grreater New York. His nomination did not suit the purposes of " Crokerism," which so dominated the " leaders " that his name was not presented, notwithstanding the imminence of a stampede in his behalf. He is a member of the Bar Association of New York city, and one of the executive committee of the State Bar Association. He is a member of the Harlem Democratic, Sagamore, and Players' clubs, the Down-Town Association, and Sons of the Revolution, and is a governor of the Manhattan Club. He is a director of the Seventh National, Twelfth Ward, and Empire City savings-banks, and the United States Life Insurance Company. He was married, in 1874, to Laura A. Newman, daughter of John B. Newman, M. D., and has three children. HENRY WHEELER DE FOREST IT has long been a truism that ours is the most composite of nations. Within its borders may be found men of every tribe and nation, some of recent arrival upon these shores, some descended from those who settled here centuries ago. Fittingly, too, the chief city of the nation is the most cosmopolitan of all. At least three separate nationalities contributed to its founding, while, as the principal gate of entry into the United States, it has long received the vast majority of all new-comers into the land. Conspicuous among those who have contributed to the growth of the city, and indeed one of the three founders of it, are the French, and especially the Huguenot French, who came hither with the Dutch. The De Forest family, which has long enjoyed deserved prom- inence in this country, is of French Huguenot origin. Its first representative in America was Jesse De Forest, who fled from France to Leyden, and thence came to New York in 1623. A direct descendant of his, in the last generation, was Henry Grrant De Forest of New York city. He married Miss Juha Mary Weeks, and to them the subject of this sketch was bom. Henry Wheeler De Forest was bom in New York city on Oc- tober 29, 1855. His schooling was begun in New York. Later he was sent to boarding-school at Deerfield, Massachusetts, and thence to WiUiston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. He entered Yale at the age of sixteen, and was graduated there in the class of 1876. From Yale he returned to New York, and entered the Law School of Columbia University, where he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. in 1877. Upon his graduation from the Columbia Law School Mr. De 102 HENEY WHEELER DE FOEEST 103 Forest was admitted to the bar of New York, and forthwith entered upon the practice of his profession. In 1878 he became associated with his brother, Robert Weeks De Forest, first under the firm-name of De Forest & Weeks, and more recently under the present title of De Forest Brothers. In addition to an extensive law practice, Mr. De Forest is or has been connected with various business enterprises, corpora- tions, and charitable associations. He was for some years president of the New Jersey and New York Railroad Company, and is a director of the Knickerbocker and Hudson Trust com- panies, and of the Niagara and British-American Insurance companies, a trustee of the Bank for Savings, and of the New York Infirmary for Women and Children, and one of the gover- nors of the New York Hospital. Mr. De Forest has never been actively engaged in pohtics, be- yond discharging the ordinary duties of a citizen. He is a member of various clubs and other social organizations, including among others the Union Club, the University Club, the Metropohtan Club, and the Down-Town Association. He was married, on August 22, 1898, to Miss Julia G^ilman Noyes. ROBERT WEEKS DE FOREST THE De Forest family in this country is of French Huguenot descent, its first ancestor here having been Jesse de Forest, who came to New York in 1623 from Leyden, whither he had fled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Robert Weeks De Forest was born in this city on April 25, 1848, the son of Henry G. and JuUa Brasher Weeks De Forest. His father was a son of Lockwood De Forest, a South Street mer- chant, and his mother was a daughter of Robert D. Weeks, the first president of the New York Stock Exchange. After receiving a primary education in this city, Robert Weeks De Forest was sent to WiUiston Seminary, at Easthamp- ton, Massachusetts, where he was prepared for college. Then he entered Yale, and was graduated with honors in the class of 1870. Returning then to New York, he entered the Columbia College Law School, and received therefrom the degree of LL. B. in 1872, Meantime he had been admitted to practice at the bar of the Supreme Court of New York in the spring of 1871. A brief period of postgraduate study followed at the University of Bonn, Germany. Mr. De Forest began the practice of his profession in the firm with which his father had been connected, and of which his uncle, John A. Weeks, was the head. At his entry it assumed the name of Weeks, Forster & De Forest. Later he was a member of the firm of De Forest & Weeks, and since 1893 he has been associated with his younger brother in the firm of De Forest Brothers. The law practice of these firms has been general in its scope. Mr. De Forest has for many years, however, been general counsel for the Central Railroad of New Jersey, having become profes- 104 EGBERT WEEKS DE FOEEST 105 sionally connected with that corporation in 1874. Since 1885 he has been president of the Hackensack "Water Company, and he is a director or trustee of a number of corporations, among them being the Niagara Fire Insurance Company and the Conti- nental Trust Company of this city. He has never sought nor held poHtical office, but has been prominent in various public enterprises of a benevolent or educational character. Thus he was a leader in the movement for a systematization of charitable work, and has for a number of years been president of the New York Charity Organization Society. He was one of the founders of the Provident Loan Society, an admirable philanthropic insti- tution intended to obviate the evils of the ordinary pawnbroking system. It was founded in 1894, at a time of great social distress in this city, when there was exceptional need of some means whereby the poor could raise money on temporary loans on per- sonal property, on equitable terms. Mr. De Forest was chosen the first president of it, and much of its success was due to his wise direction. He also succeeded his father as one of the man- agers of the Presbyterian Hospital of this city, and also as one of the managers of the American Bible Society. In 1889 he was elected a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has ever since been retained in that place. Mr. De Forest is a member of a number of clubs, their variety showing the wide range of his tastes and iaterests. Among them are the Century, University, Grolier, Seawanhaka Yacht, and Jekyl Island. He was married, on November 12, 1872, to Miss Emily John- ston, the eldest daughter of John Taylor Johnston, president of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, and of the council of the University of the City of New York. Since 1880 they have lived at No. 7 North Washington Square, in the stately old mansion built by Mrs. De Forest's grandfather, John Johnston, in 1833. Their country home was for many years at Seabright, New Jersey, but is now at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Mr. and Mrs. De Forest have four children. The two sons, Johnston and Henry Lockwood, were graduated at Yale in 1896 and 1897 respectively. The two daughters are named Ethel and Frances Emily. RICHARD DELAFIELD THE Delafleld family of England and America descend from the Counts de la Feld of Alsace, whose lineage is one of the oldest in France. Authentic records of them appear before the year 1000. The ancient castle which stiU bears their name is situated in a pass of the Vosges Mountains, near the town of Colmar. Pope Leo IX. is said to have rested there on his way to Strasburg. In the cathedral of that city were monuments to two of the De la Felds, and a perpetual chantry with a pension of two marks per annum to provide masses for the repose of the soids of their dead. The first of the name in England was Hubertus de la Feld, who came over with the Conqueror and received grants of land in the coimty of Lancaster. The names of his descendants are numbered among the wealthy nobles under succeeding monarchs. Many of them were distinguished at arms and rendered services to their country for which they were rewarded with lands and titles. John Delafield, bom in 1647, entered the service of the Emperor of Germany, fought against the Turks under Prince Eugene of Savoy, and was created a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a dignity which descends to aU his male posterity. The great-great-grandson of John, Count Delafield, came to America late in the last century, married Anne HaUett of Hal- lett's Cove, now Astoria, in New York, and became the founder of the American family of his name. One of his sons, Rufus King Delafield, married Ehza Bard, daughter of William and Katherine Cruger Bard. Richard Delafield is their son. He was bom at New Brighton, Staten Island, on September 6, 1853, was educated at the Anthon Grrammar-School, New York •city, and at the age of twenty embarked on his business career 106 -^^>c:^ 6^-^£>^ <:>CiJi. RICHABD DELAFIELD 107 as a clerk in a New York mercantile house. His talent for affairs soon made itseK apparent, and he was rapidly advanced to the position of manager. In 1880 he founded the house of Delafield & Co., and commenced business in the California trade. The firm, which is conducted on old conservative principles, is one of the most prosperous establishments in New York. Mr. Delafield is at its head as senior partner and capitalist in New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and San Francisco. He is vice-president and director of the National Park Bank, vice-president of the Colonial Trust Company, and has been president of the Mercantile Exchange. He has taken no active part in pohtics, except to serve as president of the New York Commission for the World's Colum- bian Exposition, and as a member of the Committee of One Hundred at the New York Columbian Quadricentennial Cele- bration. He is actively interested in the affairs of the Episcopal Church and is a vestryman of Trinity Church Corporation. His clubs are the Union League, the Tuxedo, the Merchants', and the New York Athletic. In musical circles he is prominent, having been president of the Staten Island Philharmonic and secretary of the New York Symphony societies. Among the many charitable institutions with which he is identified are the Seaside Home on Long Island, of which he is president, and the Varick Street Hospital, of whose executive committee he is a member. Mr. Delafield was married, in 1880, to Miss Clara Foster Carey of New York, whose family is one of the oldest in the city. Her great-uncle was Phihp Hone, Mayor of New York in 1826. Dr. Kane, the arctic explorer was also a relative. CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW IT is probable that if at almost any time in tbe last twenty- years the question has been asked who was the best- known and most popular citizen of New York, or indeed of the United States, a large plurality of replies, given both here and in foreign lands, would have been, " Chauncey M. Depew." Nor would the selection have been in any respect an unworthy one. In business and in politics, in public and in private, in society and in philanthropy, — indeed, in aU honorable activities of human life, — Mr. Depew has come into contact with the American public to a greater extent than almost any other man of the age, and above most Americans of this or any generation is fairly entitled to the distinction of being regarded as a representative American and as a citizen of the world. Chaimcey Mitchell Depew was bom at PeekskiU, New York on April 23, 1834, the son of Isaac and Martha (Mitchell) Depew. His father was of Huguenot origin, descended from a family which had settled at New EocheUe two centuries ago, and was himself a man of remarkable physical prowess, mental force, and spiritual illumination. He owned country stores, farms, and vessels on the Hudson. Martha MitcheU, Mr, Depew's mother, was of English Puritan ancestry, a member of the distinguished New England family which produced Roger Sherman, William T. Sherman, John Sherman, William M. Evarts, and George F. Hoar; a woman of grace and kindliness, who exerted a strong and enduring influence upon the character of her gifted son. The boy was educated at PeekskiU Academy and at Yale College, and was graduated from the latter in 1856. Then he studied law at PeekskiU in the office of William Nelson, and was admitted to the bar in 1858. 108 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 109 In the year of his graduation from Yale Mr. Depew cast his first vote. It was for John C. Fremont, the Repubhean candi- date for President of the United States. Two years later he was a delegate to the Republican State Convention. In 1860 he was a stump speaker in behalf of Abraham Lincoln. His first public of&ce came to him in 1861, when he was elected to the State Assembly. He was reelected in 1862, and was Speaker pro tem. for a part of the term. In 1864 he was nominated by the Republicans for Secretary of State of the State of New York, and was elected by a majority of thirty thousand. In this campaign he estabhshed his place as one of the most effective popular ora- tors of the time. At the end of his term he declined a renomina- tion, and, after holding the commission of United States minister to Japan, given to him by President Johnson, for a few months, he retired from politics. Mr. Depew had already attracted the attention of Commodore Vanderbilt and his son, William H. VanderbUt. He was ap- pointed by them, in 1866, attorney for the New York and Harlem Railroad Company. Three years later he became attorney for the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and afterward a director of that company. His influence grew with the growth of the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and in 1875 he became gen- eral counsel for the entire system, and was elected a director in each of the hues comprised in it. Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Grovernor on the Liberal Republican ticket in 1872, and shared the defeat of his ticket. In 1874 he was chosen Regent of the State University, and one of the commissioners to build the Capitol at Albany. He narrowly missed election as United States Senator in 1881, and declined, in 1885, to be a candidate for the same of&ce. His influence in railroad circles had been constantly increasing meanwhile, and in 1882, when William H. Vanderbilt retired from the presidency of the New York Central, Mr. Depew was elected second vice-president, succeeding James H. Rutter in the presidency three years later, holding that place until 1898, when he succeeded Cornelius Vanderbilt as chairman of the board of directors of the entire Vanderbilt system of raiboads. Mr. Depew was a candidate for the Presidential nomination at the National Repubhean Convention of 1888, and received the 110 OHAUNCET MITCHELL DEPEW solid vote of the State of New York, and on one ballot ni^^^" nine votes. At the National Repubhcan Convention of 1892 Mr. Depew was selected to present the name of President Harrison. In January, 1899, Mr. Depew was elected a United States Senator from the State of New York. His appearance at Washington commanded much personal iaterest, and he soon won recognition as a Senatorial orator. Mr. Depew is stiH Regent of the University of the State of New York, an active member of the St. Nicholas Society, the Holland Society, the Huguenot Society, and the New York Chamber of Commerce ; a director of the Wagner Palace Car Company, the Union Trust Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equitable Life Assurance Society, St. Luke's Hospital, the Niagara Bridge Company, the American Safe Deposit Company, the New York Mutual (las Light Company, and of other indus- trial companies and corporations too numerous to mention. He was for seven years president of the Union League Club, and on retiring was elected an honorary life member. For ten years in succession he was elected president of the Yale Alumni Associa- tion, and he is now president of the Republican Club. Mr. Depew married Elise Hegeman on November 9, 1871, and has one child, a son, Chauncey M, Depew, Jr. Mrs. Depew died on May 7, 1893. Mr. Depew has long been known as foremost among the hu- morous and ready public speakers of the time, and there are none New-Yorkers love better to hear. He has been the orator on three great national and international occasions — the unveihng of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the first President of the United States, and the opening of the World's Fair at Chicago. He was selected by the Legislature to deliver the oration at the centen- nial celebration of the formation of the Constitution of the State of New York, the centennial of the organization of the Legis- lature of the State of New York, and the services held in New York in memory of President Grarfield, Greneral Sherman, Gren- eral Husted, and Grovernor Fenton. He also delivered the ora- tions at the unveiling of the statues of Alexander Hamilton in Central Park, of Columbus in Central Park, and of Major Andre in Sleepy Hollow. Bij TtyWillw.ms yeuXjrU TL. ,<^.%in:^ THEODORE LOW DE VINNE THE " art preservative of arts " has had many worthy pro- fessors and practitioners, from Gutenberg, Caxton, and Aldus down to the present day, but none more earnest and effec- tive than the head of the well-known De Yinne Press of New York. He is of New England birth and Huguenot-Dutch and French-Irish parentage, and has served, as a true workman should, in all grades of his profession, from the lowest to the highest. His father, Daniel De Vinne, was born at Londonderry, Ireland, of French and Irish parentage, but was brought to this country in infancy, and had a long and useful career as a Methodist preacher and an antislavery advocate. His mother was Joanna Augusta Low of New York, of Huguenot and Dutch descent. Theodore Low De Yinne was born at Stamford, Connecticut, on December 25, 1828. He was educated at the common schools in the various towns in which his father was stationed in the Methodist itinerancy, and finally at Amenia Seminary, Amenia, New York, which he left at the age of fourteen, to begin work. His first work was in a printing-of&ce at Fishkill, New York, and then, in 1844, in the of&ce of the " Newburg (New York) Ga- zette." In 1849 he came to this city and entered the employ of Francis Hart, one of the best printers of that day. Eight years later he became a partner in the establishment, and on the death of Mr. Hart, in 1877, he became the practical head of the firm. In 1883 the firm changed its name to that of T. L. De Yinne & Co., and is now best known as the De Yinne Press. From the beginning of his career as a managing printer, Mr. De Yinne has persistently and intelligently striven to improve the appearance of books and to elevate the general character of American typography. In this he has achieved marked success. Ill 112 THEODOBE LOW DE VINNE For years his publications have ranked at the head of American press work, and the peer of any in the world, and orders have come to him from aU parts of this and other countries from those who wish their books to be printed in the highest style of art. His influence has also extended outside of his own office, and has strongly tended to improve the general art of printing in America and throughout the world. He has been the printer of the " St. Nicholas Magazine " since it was started in 1873, and of the "Century Magazine" since 1874. The "Century Dictionary," one of the largest works ever undertaken by a printing-office, was brought out by him. In 1886 he removed his establishment to a fine building in Lafayette Place, specially designed by him as a model printing-office. Mr. De Vinne is a prominent member of the National Typo- thetse, of which he was the first president. He belongs also to the Grroher, Authors', and Century clubs, and the Aldine Asso- ciation. He has been a writer as well as a printer of books, and, in addition to magazine articles, has put forth " The Printer's Price List " (1871), " The Invention of Printing " (1875), " Historic Types " (1886), " The Practice of Typography : Plain Printing Types " (1900), and other works. He was married, iu 1850, to Miss Grace Brockbank, and has one son, Theodore Brockbank De Vinne, who is associated with him in the management of the De Vinne Press. Mr. De Vinne has taken no part in politics other than that of an intelligent private citizen, and has f oimed no important business connections outside of his own office. He has been content to devote his life to the one great work of bringing the illustration, printing, and publishing of books to the highest possible perfection, and in that he has succeeded beyond the achievements of most of his predecessors in this or any land. ^^^ i^t^^cS^-, FREDERICK WILLIAM DEYOE FREDERICK WILLIAM DEYOE, the well-known manu- facturer and merchant, comes of a family of distinguished record which in ancient times was resident in the district of Veaux, in Normandy, and which has variously been known as De Veaux, De Yaux, De Yeau, and De Yos. Its first member in this country was Matheus de Yos, a Huguenot, who came to New Amsterdam, now New York, for refuge and freedom. Later came Daniel and Nicholas de Yaux, and settled in Harlem, on Manhattan Island. Finally Erederick, the brother of these lat- ter, a native of Annis, France, escaped massacre by flight from home, grew to manhood at Mannheim, G-ermany, became a mer- chant, and came to New York. He too settled in Harlem, married Hester Terneur, owned the great Cromwell farm near what is now Central Bridge, and was a man of much note in the community. He had a son named Frederick, who also had a son of that name, who had a son named John. The last-named married his cousin Rebecca de Yoe, and had eleven children. One of these, John, served in the War of 1812, married Sophia, daughter of Thomas Farrington of Yonkers, and had ten children, of whom the youngest is the subject of this sketch. Frederick William Devoe was bom in New York city on Jan- uary 26, 1828, and was educated in private schools. In 1843 he became a clerk in the store of his brother Isaac, at Spotswood, New Jersey. Three years later he returned to New York and entered the drug and paint establishment of Jackson and Robins, in which his brother John was a junior partner. In 1848 he became clerk for Butler and Raynolds, and four years later under- took business on his own account as a member of the new firm of Raynolds and Devoe. 113 114 rBEDERIOK WILLIAM DEVOE The firm was reorganized, in 1864, under the name of F. W. Devoe & Co., a name which hecame, through many years, one of the landmarks of the oil and paint trade in the United States and, indeed, in the world. Apart from the great business of this firm in oils, paints, and artists' materials, Mr. Devoe for some years did a large business in the refining and sale of petroleum, under the name of " Devoe's Brilliant Oil." This enterprise was afterward carried on imder the name of the Devoe Manufacturing Company, and then, in 1873, was sold to other parties. In 1890 the F. W. Devoe Company was incorporated, with Mr. Devoe as president, as the successor of the firm of F. W. Devoe & Co., and in 1892 it was consolidated with the important house of C. T. Raynolds & Co., under the present name of the F, W. Devoe and C. T. Raynolds Company, The corporation still occupies the large building at the comer of Fulton and WUKam streets, New York, which F. W. Devoe & Co. made the center of the American paint trade. Mr. Devoe has cared Kttle for politics. He has, however, served the public in various offices. In 1880, Mayor Cooper appointed him a member of the Board of Education, and he was reappointed by Mayors Edson, Hewitt, and Grant. He resigned in 1891. While in the board he exerted a most beneficent infiuence upon educational affairs, and did much for the establish- ment of the valuable industrial school system. Governor Hill appointed Mr. Devoe a trustee of the Middletown Asylum for the Insane in 1890. Mr. Devoe is also a trustee of the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. He became a director of the New York Juvenile Asylum in 1890, vice-president in 1893, and is now its president. Mr. Devoe was married, in 1853, to Sarah M., daughter of Wal- ter Briggs, who has borne him five children. Of these a son and two daughters died in childhood. The other two, daughters, are living. The family home is a charming place on Jerome Avenue, in the borough of the Bronx. Mr. Devoe has always preferred home life to club life. He is, however, a member of the HoUand and St. Nicholas societies, and of the New York Microscopical Society, and he is a warden of the Protestant Episcopal Church of Zion and St. Timothy. ^(^^^;^Z^txZ'*^4-'-<=<;''Zn/--^""^ WATSON BRADLEY DICKERMAN T^T^ATSON BRADLEY DICKERMAN has every claim to T T the title of an American citizen, Ms ancestors in direct line and in all collateral branches having settled in New Eng- land prior to 1660. His father, Ezra Dickerman, was a lineal descendant of Abram Dickerman of New Haven, who was a deputy to the Connecticut General Assembly from 1683 to 1696. His son Isaac was also a deputy to the Assembly for a long term of years — from 1718 to 1757. Mr. Dickerman's mother was Sarah Jones, a daughter of Nicholas Jones of Wallingford, Con- necticut, and was descended from William Jones of New Haven, Deputy Governor of Connecticut in 1660. Watson B. Dickerman was bom at Mount Carmel, Connecti- cut, on January 4, 1846. His early life was spent on his father's farm, and he was educated at the Williston Academy, East- hampton, Massachusetts. At the age of seventeen years he went West, and in 1864 be- gan his business life as a clerk in J. Bunn's Bank at Springfield, lUinois. Beheving that the metropohs offered the largest chances of success, even while accompanied with the greatest hazards, he returned to New York in 1867, and engaged in the brokerage business. In November, 1868, he was admitted to membership in the Stock Exchange. In June, 1870, he formed a partnership with William Gayer Dominick, under the name of Dominick & Dickerman. In 1899 he became associated with the firm of Moore & Schley. Wilham Gayer Dominick died suddenly, on August 31, 1895, at the age of fifty. He belonged to an old New York family, and was a man of distinction in the business and social world. He served seventeen years in the Seventh Regiment, including 115 116 WATSON BRADLEY DICKEBMAN ten years as a first lieutenant. He was captain of the Ninth Company of the Veteran Association, and a governor of the Seventh Eegiment Veteran Club. In 1892 he, with his brothers, presented to the Metropolitan Museum of Art the fine picture by Schrader, " Queen Elizabeth Signing the Death- Warrant of Mary Stuart," in acknowledgment of which a life membership of the museum was bestowed upon him. Mr. Dickerman's reputation for business sagacity, and his well- known integrity, added to other attractive qualities of mind and heart, led to his election, in 1890, as president of the New York Stock Exchange, and his admirable administration of that important office assured him an easy reelection in the following year. He has taken a lifelong interest in politics as an intelligent and loyal American citizen, and has been consistently affiliated with the Eepubhcan party, to the success of which in its cam- paigns he has often materially contributed. He has, however, never been an office-seeker, and, indeed, has never accepted nomination to any public office. He is connected officially with a number of large business corporations in various parts of the country. Among these may be mentioned the Norfolk and Southern Railroad Company, of which he is president, and the Long Island Loan and Trust Company, of which he is a trustee. Mr. Dickerman belongs to several of the best clubs of the me- tropolis, their character well reflecting his tastes and iachnations in social matters. Among these are the Century Association, with its distinctively literary and artistic flavor; the Union League Club, the stronghold of Repubhcanism ; the Metropohtan, a purely social organization ; and the Westchester Country Club, with its fine mingling of social and sportsmanlike qualities. He was married, on February 18, 1869, to Miss Martha Eliza- beth Swift, a daughter of Samuel and Mary Phelps Swift of New York. His only son died in infancy in 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Dickerman made their residence in Brooklyn until 1885, and in June of that year removed to Mamaroneck, New York, where they have a beautiful country place, Hillanddale Farm, which has been their home ever since. EDWARD NICOLL DICKERSON THE ancestors of Edward N. Dickerson came from Eng- land in 1630, and settled at Southold, in the eastern part of Long Island. They afterward removed to New Jersey, near Morristown, where they hecame prominent and useful citizens. His grandfather, Philemon Dickerson, served one term as Grov- emor of New Jersey, and was a United States district judge. Mahlon Dickerson, district judge of New Jersey and Secretary of the Navy under President Jackson, was his great-uncle. Mr. Dickerson is a son of Edward Nicoll Dickerson, a patent lawyer, and Mary Caroline Nystrom, and was born at Newport, Rhode Island, on May 23, 1853. He was prepared for college at the historic St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire, and matriculated at Trinity College, from which latter institution he was graduated with honors in 1874, the valedictorian of a large class. From Trinity he passed to the Law School of Columbia College, and from there to his father's of&ce, where his legal studies were completed, he after- ward becoming a member of the firm. Mr. Dickerson is at present at the head of the firm of Dicker- son & Brown. He is counsel for many important corporations, among which are the Bell Telephone Company, the Western Union Telegraph, the Greneral Electric, the Barber Asphalt Paving Company, the Farben Fabriken, and others. He is officially connected with several other large corporations, such as the Electro Gas Company, the Union Carbide Company, the Pressed Steel Car Company, and the American Car and Foundry Company. Mr. Dickerson is a member of the Manhattan, the Lawyers', the Tuxedo, the St. Nicholas, the New York Yacht, the New 117 118 EDWAED NICOLL DICKEKSON York Riding, the Fencers', and the Rockaway Hunt clubs, the MetropoUtan Club of Washington, the Order of the Cincinnati, the St. Nicholas Society, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Psi Upsilon Fraternity. He was married, on January 5, 1898, to Miss Charlotte Surget Ogden, at Bartow, on the Sound, New York. Their infant daughter's name is Lillian Louise. Mr. Dickerson is possessed of a striking personality, to which are due, in large measure, the successes he has achieved. He is gifted with a clear, strong mind, great energy and industry, and a wonderful versatihty. He is an expert chemist, and as good a machinist and electrician as most men who make those things a profession. He is an all-around sportsman, and can manage a yacht, ride, and drive a four-in-hand with equal skiU. In the practice of his profession he has the reputation of drawing the most doubtful case up to the fighting-point, and his pleadings are distin- guished for their lucidity and power. He well exemphfies the advantages of hberal education of the most ample scope and thoroughness in the prosecution of business or professional duties. He is equally at home in the discussion of a point of law, or a question of chemistry, electrical science, or higher mathematics. It is, indeed, largely because of such complete intellectual equipment that he has been so successful in the practice of his profession. He has not had to depend upon the assistance of experts in preparing and conducting his cases, but has been his own expert, and has displayed the exceptional faculty of dealing with the most abstruse case in a manner con- vincing to the scientific mind, and at the same time perfectly lucid to the average unskilled layman. A like thoroughness and masterfulness in all the activities of life have made him an ex- ceptionally forceful figure in all relationships and associations. JAMES B. DILL PROBABLY tlie most important phase of tlie economic de- velopment 6f the United States during the last few years has been the movement for the consoUdation of the manufac- turing and mercantile firms and companies into large corpora- tions, and with that movement no one has been more promi- nently identified than James B. DiU of New York, whose repu- tation as an authority on corporation law is more than national. Mr. Dill is still in early middle hf e, having been bom on July 24, 1854, at Spencerport, near Rochester, New York. He is of New England descent on both sides, his father, the Rev. James H. Dill, having been a native of Massachusetts, and his mother, Catharine Brooks Dill, a member of the well-known Brooks family of Connecticut. In 1859 the Rev. Mr. Dill removed, with his family, from western New York to Chicago, where he was installed as pastor of the South Congregational Church. When the Civil War broke out he went to the front as chaplain of the famous " Illinois Railroad Regiment." The exposure and privation incident to active campaigning resulted in his death, in 1862. In 1868 the boy entered the preparatory department of Oberhn CoUege, and four years later was admitted to Yale, among his classmates being Arthur T. Hadley, now president of the university. Upon his graduation from college in 1876, young Dill took up the study of the law, reading in an office for one year to such good purpose that at the end of that period he was enabled to enter the New York University Law School as a member of the senior class. He was graduated in 1878 from the law school, being salutatorian of his class, although coincidently with his attendance at the law lectures he had been engaged in teaching at Stevens Institute. 119 120 JAMES B. DILL The first case of importance in which he was engaged was connected with the failure of the commercial agency of McKiUop & Sprague. The directors of this corporation had neglected to file certain statements required by law, and were therefore held to be personally liable for its debts. This responsibility they disputed in court, but were beaten — or all but one of them. That one had retained Mr. Dill as counsel, and he won the case on a novel point of law. That was the beginning of Mr. Dill's career as a corporation lawyer. The opening of the era of industrial consolidation, two or three years ago, found the corporation laws of New Jersey at once the most flexible and the most equitable to be discovered on the statute-books of any State, and the projectors of the giant industrial combinations of to-day turned to New Jersey as the State in which to incorporate their new companies. The beginning of this period also found one lawyer preeminently well versed in the intricacies of New Jersey corporation law and cor- poration practice — Mr. DiU. As a natural result Mr. DiU was concerned in the incorporation of a large number of the more important consohdations, either drawing up the charters himself, or, as consulting counsel, pass- ing upon the work of other attorneys. Among the host of com- panies the incorporation of which he has effected, and of which he is a director as well as counsel, are the National Steel Com- pany, the American Tin Plate Company, and, latest and greatest, the Carnegie Company, with its unwatered stock and bond issue of three hundred and twenty million dollars. The incorporation of the Carnegie Company represented probably the most pro- nounced success of Mr. DiU's professional life, for it became possible only as the result of the adjustment of the differences between Andrew Carnegie and Henry C. Frick, the suspension of the htigation begun by the latter, and the ascertainment of a basis on which the two men and their respective associates in the old Carnegie Steel Company should enter the new Carnegie Company, in the negotiations on all of which matters Mr. Dill took an active part, receiving for his services a fee said to have been the largest ever paid to an American lawyer. Mr. Dill was chairman, a year or two ago, of a State com- mission which revised the laws of New Jersey relating to banks, JAMES B. DILL 121 trust companies, and safe-deposit companies ; he is a director of the North American Trust Company of New York, and of the People's Bank of Orange, New Jersey, vice-president of the Savings Investment and Trust Company of East Orange, New Jersey, and chairman of the executive committee of the Corpora- tion Trust Company of New Jersey. He is also a director in more than thirty additional companies. He has heen counsel for the Merchants' Association of New York since the organization of that active and influential body, and for twenty years has been counsel to the Loan Rehef Association of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York city. Despite the drafts made upon his time and his strength by his corporation practice, Mr. DiU contrives to find opportunity for work on collateral hues also. "Dill on New Jersey Corpora- tions," of which book he is the author, is the standard authority upon the subject. The Financial Laws of New Jersey are in part his handiwork, and he has also annotated and compiled for the State its banking laws and general corporation laws. Mr. Dill was one of the framers of the Corporation Act, prepared for New York upon the suggestion of Grovernor Roosevelt, the New York Business Companies Act of 1900, and early in 1900 was called upon by the government of Quebec to assist in framing a similar act for that Canadian province. He has also delivered addresses before economic and scientific bodies and at colleges on the subject of the so-called " trusts," pointing out in these addresses the dis- tinctions between the honest and dishonest " trusts," and urging compulsory publicity as to methods of operation as the most efficacious remedy for " trust evils." Mr. Dill married, in October, 1880, Miss Mary W. Hansell of Philadelphia, and has three daughters. Their home is at East Orange, New Jersey, and they also have a summer cottage at Huntington, Long Island, and a camp in the Rangeley region in Maine. Mr. Dill is a member of the Lawyers' Club and the Merchants' Club of New York, president of the Orange Riding Club of Orange, New Jersey, and a member of the Essex County Country Club. The style of his law firm is Dill, Bomeisler & Baldwin, with offices at No. 27 Pine Street, New York. LOUIS R DOYLE THE lawyers of New York hold an important position among its influential men, not only by their work in the courts, but quite as much by their share in guiding great commercial and financial transactions. Louis F. Doyle has a recognized place among the successful lawyers of his native city, and among its prominent men. Bom in the city of New York, on June 7, 1861, the son of James Doyle and his wife, Lucinda M. Loss, both also natives of the city, and the former long engaged in mercantile pursuits there, Louis F, Doyle, before he came of age, had chosen his career and entered himself as a student in the Law Department of the University of the City of New York. Before and during his course at the law school, he was also a student in the ofl&ce of Douglass & Minton, a firm doing a large commercial business, and counsel for R. G. Dun & Co. of the well-known mercantile agency. In this of&ce Mr. Doyle not only had wide experience in the practice of law, but also laid the foundation of that prac- tical acquaintance with business which is so necessary to the modern lawyer. In 1882 Mr. Doyle was graduated from the university with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. After contin- uing for about three years in the office of Douglass & Minton, he opened an office of his own, at 317 Broadway, and began practice independently. In 1889 he removed to the New York Times Building, where he now has one of the best-equipped offices in the city. From the beginning of his practice, Mr. Doyle has given his attention chiefly to the law of banking and commerce. Since 1885 he has acted as an attorney for the National Park Bank of New York, and for several years past he has been the general attorney and counsel of that bank. Among the impor- 122 c^^^<^ ^^ LOUIS F. DOYLE 123 tant cases, involving new and doubtful points of commercial law, in which, he has been engaged, are those of Harmon vs. the National Park Bank, reported in the 79th Federal Reporter 891 and in 172 United States Supreme Court Reports 644 ; the Chn- ton National Bank vs. the National Park Bank, reported in 37 Appellate Division Reports 601 ; Washington Savings Bank vs. Ferguson, reported in 43 Appellate Division Reports 74 ; and the litigation over the affairs of the Domestic Sewing Machine Com- pany, which was finally disposed of by the decision of the New Jersey Court of Errors and Appeals, reported as Blake vs. Domes- tic Manufacturing Company in 38 Atlantic Reporter 241. Mr, Doyle has always taken an earnest and practical interest in politics as a Democrat and a member of the local poUtical organization, but he has never been an of&ce-seeker and has held no pubhc of&ce. He is a member of the Manhattan and Demo- cratic clubs, of the American, New York State and New York city bar associations, and, among purely social organizations, of the Metropolitan, New York Athletic, and Suburban Riding and Driving clubs. He is unmarried and hves alone in apart- ments at Fifth Avenue and Forty-third Street, his only near relative being a sister, the wife of Colonel John M. Carter, Jr., of the Baltimore " News." SILAS BELDEN DUTCHER THE Butcher family in New York is descended from Ruloff Butcher and his wife Jannettie Brassy, who came to this country from Holland early in the seventeenth century. Their son Grabriel married Ehzabeth Knickerbocker, a granddaughter of Harman Janse van Wye Knickerbocker of Butchess County, New York. They were the great-grandparents of Silas B. Butcher. Mr. Butcher's parents were Parcefor Carr Butcher and Johanna Low Frinok. The latter was a daughter of Stephen and Ann Low Frinck. She was descended from Cornehus Janse Vanderveer, who came from Alkmaan, Holland, in the ship Otter^ in 1659, and settled in Flatbush, Long Island, and also from Conrad Ten Eyck, who came from Amsterdam in 1650, and was the owner of what is now known as Coenties Shp, New York city. Her grandfather, Captain Peter Low, was an officer in the Continental Army. Silas Belden Butcher was born in Springfield, Otsego County, New York, on July 12, 1829. He attended the pubhc schools of his native town, and for a short time the Cazenovia Academy. From sixteen to twenty-two he taught school during the winter months, working on his father's farm in the summers. From 1851 to 1855 he was employed in the building and operation of the railroad running between Elmira and Niagara Falls. In 1855 he came to New York and for some years was engaged in a mercantile business. In 1859 he became a charter trustee of the Union Bime Savings Institution, of which he was presi- dent from 1886 until 1891, and with which he is still connected. He is president of the Hamilton Trust Company and of the Ramapo Water Company, treasurer of the Columbia Mutual Building and Loan Association, a director of the Grarfield Safe 124 ^/I. SILAS BELDEN BUTCHER 125 Deposit, the Kings County Electric Light and Power, the Nassau Electric Railway, the Grerman- American Real Estate Title G-uar- anty, and the Metropolitan Life Insurance companies. The last-named trusteeship he has held for over twenty years. Since his early manhood Mr. Butcher has been a prominent figure in the political world. Originally a Whig, he has been a Republican since the organisation of the party, has given his services as a speaker in nearly every Presidential campaign until 1888, and has been a delegate to several national conventions. In 1858-59 he was president of the Young Men's Republican Committee of New York city, and in the following year was president of the Wide- Awake Organization of New York. He removed to Brooklyn in 1861, and for four years was president of the Kings County Republican Committee. He was chairman of the Repubhcan Executive Committee in 1876, and was for many years a member of the Republican State Committee. He has held a number of important State and United States of&ces, among them those of supervisor of internal revenue, United States pension agent. United States appraiser of the port of New York, superintendent of public works for the State of New York, and manager of the Long Island State Hospital. Mr. Dutcher was one of the earhest and most ardent advocates of the idea of consolidating the different boroughs which now form the city of New York, and did much to effect the consumma- tion of the plan. In recognition of his services, Q-ovemor Morton appointed him one of the commission which framed the charter for G^reater New York. Mr. Dutcher was married, on February 19, 1859, to Rebecca J, Alwaise, a descendant of French Huguenots who came to Philadelphia in 1740. They have six children. Their home is in Brooklyn, where Mr. Dutcher is a member of several well- known clubs of the Masonic fraternity, and of many charitable and benevolent societies. AMOS RICHARDS ENO THE name of Eno is often met with in early American his- tory, always in some worthy connection. Its first owners in this country settled at Simsbury, Connecticut, about 1635, hav- iag come from England and spent five years at Dorchester, Massachusetts. They soon came into prominence through their unsuccessful efforts to resist unjust taxation. They became owners of much land at and around Simsbury, and some of it remains in the possession of the family to this day. The late Amos R. Eno had his summer home there, on land that had belonged to his ancestors for more than two hundred and fifty years. Several members of the family rendered distinguished services in the colonial and Revolutionary wars. One of them married a daughter of Ethan Allen. Amos Richards Eno was bom at Simsbury on November 1, 1810. He was educated at the local school, and at an early age set out to make his own way in the world. He was for a time a clerk in a dry-goods store at Hartford, among his friends and feUow-clerks at that time being E. D. Morgan, afterward Gov- ernor of New York, and Junius S. Morgan, the banker. In the spring of 1833 he was able to estabhsh himseK in the wholesale dry-goods trade in New York, soon after taking his cousin, John J. Phelps, into partnership with him. The firm of Eno & Phelps was thereafter for years one of the foremost in the city, and second to none in reputation for integrity. The firm was dissolved in 1850. Mr. Eno then began investments in real estate on a large scale. In 1854 he bought land at Fifth Avenue and Twenty-third Street and built the Fifth Avenue Hotel. This was regarded at the time as a mad undertaking, and the hotel was dubbed " Eno's Folly." 126 AMOS EICHAKD8 ENO 127 But it soon became, wliat it has ever since been, one of tbe best- paying hotels in the world. Mr. Eno purchased various plots of ground on Broadway, Fifth Avenue, the Boulevard, and else- where, all of which investments proved profitable. He lived to see much of his property increase in value a hundredfold. Nor did real estate monopolize his attention. He made in- vestments in many other directions, with unfaihng success. Among his enterprises was the founding of the Second Na- tional Bank of this city, an institution that became so profit- able that in a few years it repaid all its original capital to its stock-holders in a single dividend. In later years Mr. Eno's son, John C. Eno, became president of this bank. In May, 1884, it was found that he had used its funds for private speculations, and the bank was insolvent. Almost heartbroken over his son's conduct, Mr. Eno rose to the occasion with the splendid integ- rity that had distinguished him all his hfe. At a cost to him- self of nearly four million dollars, he paid all obligations of the bank in fuU and kept its doors open. From this blow, however, Mr. Eno never recovered. He was then an old man, — his wife, a daughter of Ehsha Phelps of Simsbury, had died in 1882, — and his health now began to de- cline. He devoted himself to the study of Latin, French, and ItaUan, mastering those languages and reading their best htera- ture at an age when most men who survive to it are becoming senile. Finally, on February 21, 1898, he died peacefully at his New York home. He left six children : Amos F. Eno, John C Eno, Dr. Henry C. Eno, and William Phelps Eno, of this city, and Mrs. James W. Pinchot and Mrs. Wood. He left, too, a name second to no other in the history of the metropohs for business foresight and ability, and for unfailing and unswerving integrity and honor. JOHN H. FLAGLER THE name of Flagler has long been conspicuously identified ■with leading financial, industrial, and commercial interests in the city of New York and elsewhere, and is borne by more than one man who has, through the force of personal ability and worth, made his way from the comparatively quiet walks of life to the command of vast enterprises. Of these none is better known or has achieved more positive success than John H. Flagler, the subject of the present sketch. Mr. Flagler is a native of the Empire State, which has been the scene of a large share of his business activities, having been bom at Cold Spring, on the Hudson River, about the middle of the century. He received a good practical education, and then, at an early age, devoted himself to business pursuits. For these, in more than one department of activity and enterprise, he has exhibited an exceptional aptitude, and in them has attained an exceptional measure of success. Reference is made to business purstdts in the plural advisedly, for Mr. Flagler has mastered the art of keeping a number of irons in the fire without letting any of them get burned. He has long been, and is to-day, associated with a large number of enterprises of different kinds. He is able to devote a due amount of atten- tion to each and all, and to make himself felt as a guiding force in each. Among the most important of Mr. Flagler's business under- takings is that of the National Tube Works Company, He was the founder and organizer of that great corporation, and has been identified with every step of its development. In that capacity he well earned the title of a " captain of industry." Another manufacturing enterprise with which he is identified, deahng 128 JOHN H. FLAGLEE 129 with one of the newest products of American ingenuity, and having ahnost inestimable promise of future derelopment, is the Automobile Company of America. This corporation, of which Mr. Flagler is president, is taking a foremost part in perfecting horseless vehicles of various types, and in supplying the rapidly increasing demand for them. To what extent the world is enter- ing upon a "horseless age" remains yet to be seen. Certain it is that various forms of mechanical propulsion and traction have already taken the place of horse-power, not only on fixed railroad tracks, but for general use on aU roads. The practicability and success of some of these seem now to be well established, and in their future extension Mr. Flagler and the corporation of which he is the president and guiding spirit will doubtless maintain a leading place. In addition to these manufacturing enterprises, Mr. Flagler is actively interested in matters of pure finance, especially as a director of the National Bank of North America, one of the best- known institutions of the kind in New York. His interest and participation in the great business of fire and life insurance are attested by his being a director of the National Standard Insur- ance Company, the Assurance Company of America, and the American Union Life Insurance Company. He is also a director of the Crocker- Wheeler Company and of the National Mercantile Agency Company. Mr. Flagler has not put himself forward in pohtical matters beyond the worthy rank of a private citizen. In clubs and other social organizations he is well known, being a member of a num- ber of the best of them in New York city and elsewhere. Among those to which he belongs are the Lotus, the Lawyers', the Democratic, the American Yacht, the New York Yacht, and some other clubs of New York city, the Lake Hopatcong Club of New Jersey, the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, the Scars- dale Golf Club of Scarsdale, New York, the Metropohtan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Grenealogical and Biographical Society. CHARLES RANLETT FLINT IN the year 1642 Thomas FUnt, an emigrant from Wales, ar- rived in Salem, Massachusetts, and settled in that part of the township which is now South Danvers. One of his numerous descendants was Benjamin Fhnt, a ship-owner of Thomaston, Maine, who in 1858 removed to New York city, where he be- came a successful merchant. His son, Charles Ranlett Flint, was born in Thomaston, Maine, on January 24, 1850. He was educated in the schools of his native town, and in those of Brooklyn, the family residence after their removal to New York, and was graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic In- stitute, president of his class and one of its brightest members. Electing a business career, Mr. Flint became, in 1872, one of the founders of the firm of "W. R. Grrace & Co. In 1874 he made the first of his many visits to South America, and in 1876 he organized the firm of Grrace Brothers & Co. of CaUao, Peru. Mr. Flint remained on the west coast of South America nearly a year, and upon his return to New York was appointed consul for the republic of Chile. In 1878 Mr. Flint organized the Export Lumber Company, Limited, now one of the most successful lumber concerns in the United States, with yards in Michigan, Ottawa, Montreal, Portland, Boston, and New York, and handhng over two million feet of lumber per year. In 1880 he was identified with electrical development, being elected president of the United States Electric Lighting Com- pany. He visited Brazil in 1884 and established a large rubber business on the river Amazon. Upon his return he was ap- pointed consul of Nicaragua at New York, and represented that country in negotiations which resulted in concessions being granted to Americans to build a canal. He has also been in 130 ^m.hiWimamsNsiiMrlt CHAELES KANLETT FLINT 131 recent years consul-general of Costa Eica in this country. In 1885 Mr. Flint retired from the firm of W. R. Grace & Co. and entered the well-known firm of Flint & Co., composed of his father, Benjamin Flint, and his brother, Wallace Benjamin Flint. This firm succeeded to the shipping Wsiness established by Benjamin Flint in 1840, and the lumber, rubber, and general commission business created by Charles R. Flint. During the winter of 1889-90 Mr. Flint was appointed a delegate of the United States to the International Conference of American Republics, which was held in the city of Washington. His inti- mate knowledge of the South American continent enabled him to render important services as a member of that conference. Mr. Flint's financial ability has been conspicuously exhibited during the last few years by the consummation of several under- takings of great importance. In 1891 he united the manufacturers of rubber boots and shoes in this country into one large concern under the title of the United States Rubber Company, having a capital of forty million dollars, of which corporation he became the treasurer. In 1892 he brought about a union of five companies manufacturing rubber belting, packing, and hose, under the title of the Mechanical Rubber Company, with a capital of fifteen million dollars, of which concern he is a director and chairman of the finance committee. A little later he was sent by the United States government on a confidential mission to Brazil to negotiate a reciprocity treaty. His relations with the Brazihan republic have been very close, and when the reestablishment of the empire was threatened Mr. Flint was empowered by the President, Greneral Peixoto, to purchase vessels and mxmitions of war. Through his efforts Ericsson's Destroyer, the two converted yachts which became torpedo-boats, and the steamships made into the armed cruisers America and NictJieroy, were turned over to the Brazilian republic. Mr. Flint's generous services to the United States government in affairs relating to South America earned him the esteem and warm personal friendship of James Gr. Blaine and many other public men. In 1894-95 he brought about the consolidation of the export department of his firm with the Coombs, Crosby & Eddy Co., under the corporate name of FUnt, Eddy & Co., of whose board of directors he is chairman. 132 CHAELES EANLETT FLINT In the summer of 1896, upon the death of Woodruff Sutton, the firm of FHnt & Co., which has continued in the general banking and shipping business, estabhshed the Fhnt & Com- pany Pacific Coast Clipper Line between New York and San Francisco. In 1899 Mr. Fhnt brought about the consolidation of the chief rubber companies of the United States under the title of the Rubber Goods Manufacturing Company, having a capital of fifty million dollars. He is the chairman of the executive committee and member of the board of directors. H.e is a director in the National Bank of the Republic, the Produce Exchange Bank, the Knickerbocker Trust and the State Trust companies. He is also treasurer of the Hastings Pavement Company, the Manaos Electric Lighting Company, and the Manaos Railway Company, and was chairman of the reorganization committee which has recently consohdated the street railroads of Syracuse under the name of the Sjrracuse Rapid Transit Railway Company. He is one of the council of New York University, and is prominent in the club world, being a member of the Union, the Metropolitan, the Riding, and the South Side Sportsmen's clubs, the New England Society and the Century Association, and of the New York, Seawanhaka-Co- rinthian, and Larchmont yacht clubs. As a yachtsman Mr. Flint is well known as the sometime owner of the fast yacht Grade, and as a member of the syndicate which built and raced the Vigilant. He is an equally enthusiastic sportsman with rod and gun, and has shot big game in the mountains and wildernesses of both North and South America. He was mai-ried, in 1883, to Miss E. Kate Simmons, daughter of Joseph F. Simmons of Troy, New York. Mrs. Flint is a musician and a composer of great talent. / ^ ROSWELL PETTIBONE FLOWEH EX-OOVEENOR FLOWER, who for many years was one of the most foremost figures in the financial and pohtical world of the Empire State, and, indeed, in that of the whole Union, was remotely of Irish and French ancestry. The first of his name in this country was Lamrock Flower, who came from Ireland in 1685 and settled in Connecticut at Hartford. He had a son Lamrock, whose son Ehjah moved to New Hartford, Con- necticut, and married Abigail Seymour. Their son Gleorge was one of the founders of OakhiU, Greene County, New York, and he married Roxaline Crowe of New Hartford, Connecticut, whose ancestors had come from Alsace, France. Their son Nathan, born in 1796, married Mary Ann Boyle, daughter of Thomas Boyle, the builder of the first waterworks in New York city. Nathan and Mary Ann Flower lived at Theresa, Jefferson County, New York, where the former was justice of the peace for many years, and to them at that place, on August 7, 1835, was born the subject of this sketch. RosweU Pettibone Flower was left fatherless at the age of eight years. He was enabled, however, to acquire as good an education as the local schools could afford. Then he became a school-teacher himself, and engaged in various businesses. For a time he was a clerk in the post-office at Watertown, New York. Having amassed a small capital, he opened a jewelry store at Watertown, and conducted it with marked success. In the meantime he was a diligent student of law, history, and other branches of learning, fitting himself for the higher duties toward which his ambition tended. A change came to his affairs soon after his marriage in 1859. His bride was Miss Sarah M. Woodruff of Watertown, New 133 134 BOSWELL PETTIBONE FLOWER York, a sister of the wife of Henry Keep, a leading New York capitalist. Through this connection Mr. Flower became inter- ested in finance, and on the death of Mr. Keep, in 1869, he be- came administrator of the large estate left by him. Accordingly he moved to New York city and entered upon the career of a banker and broker. His first firm was that of Benedict, Flower & Co., the next R. P. Flower & Co., and finally Flower & Co. The story of Mr. Flower's financial career would be a story of Wall Street for all the years in which he was in New York. He was one of the most influential and most trusted men in New York finance, his activities including banking and brokerage, and railroads. Mr. Flower was an earnest Democrat, and in 1881 came con- spicuously before the public as a successful candidate for Con- gress from a New York city district, defeating William Waldorf Astor. The next year he was urged to become the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, but declined in favor of Grrover Cleveland, with results of great moment to the whole nation. He also declined renomination for Congress and nomi- nation for the Lieutenant-Grovemorship. In 1888 he was, how- ever, reelected to Congress, and in 1891 he was elected Grovernor of New York State. Mr. Flower was an officer in many important railroad and other companies, and a prominent member of numerous clubs of the best class. He was a man of wide and discriminating charities, setting apart one tenth of his income for such purposes. He built the St. Thomas House in New York, a center of work among the poor, the Flower Hospital in New York, and the Presbyterian Church at Theresa, New York, as a memorial to his parents. With his brother, Anson R. Flower, he built Trinity Episcopal Church at Watertown, New York. Of his three children only one is Uving, Mrs. John B. Taylor of Watertown. Mr. Flower died on May 12, 1899, and was succeeded in the bulk of his business by his brother, Anson R. Flower. CHARLES A. GARDINER CHARLES A. GARDINER was born in 1855, and is descended from a long line of distinguished Scotch ances- try. His father's family has been prominent in Scotland for many generations, and includes to-day large landowners and members of the Scottish aristocracy. His mother belongs to one of the oldest families in Glasgow, whose members have long been leaders in the commercial, professional, and pubhc life of that city. When thirteen years of age he entered the academy at Fort Covington, New York, and completed the academic course at seventeen. He then attended the Hungerford CoUegiate Insti- tute at Adams, New York, and was graduated after a two years' course, winning the Hungerford Prize for highest general scholar- ship, which entitled him to a four years' course at Hamilton College. In 1876 he was admitted to Hamilton CoUege, and was graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1880, with the highest rank in scholarship of all graduates but one up to that date. After graduation Mr. Gardiner studied law in the Hamilton College and Columbia law schools, and received the degree of LL. B. He then took a two years' postgraduate course in con- stitutional history and constitutional law at Syracuse University, and upon examination the university conferred on him the de- grees of A. M, and Ph. D. In June, 1884, he came to New York and entered the law office of ex-Judge Horace RusseU, where he remained until December of that year, when he entered the office of Messrs. Davies & Rapallo. In 1888 he became a member of that firm, and has retained his connection with it ever since. The firm in 1884 numbered among its chents the elevated rail- 135 136 CHABLES A. GABDINEE road companies of the city of New York, and Mr. G-ardiner at once became and lias ever since been prominently identified witb the defense in the celebrated elevated-railroad htigation. In January, 1897, the officers and directors of these companies decided to estabUsh a separate law department in connection with the general offices of the companies in the Western Union Build- ing, No. 195 Broadway, New York, and Mr. Gardiner was placed at the head of the department and made attorney of record for the entire system, comprising the Manhattan Railway Com- pany, the New York Elevated Railroad Company, the Metro- pohtan Elevated Railway Company, and the Suburban Rapid Transit Company. It is no disparagement to the other learned and able counsel who have devoted their talents to the interests of the elevated railways to say that behind many of their most brilliant victories in the courts has been the work of the attorney who planned and shaped the methods of defense, and who, by the manner in which he prepared the material for their use, has done much to make their victories possible. Mr. G-ardiner occupies to-day a unique and enviable position among the corporation lawyers of New York. But two or three as young as he can be said to have attained equal standing and reputation, or to have secured so excellent results for the corporations and individuals they represent. Mr. Gardiner has maintained his interest iu constitutional, historical, and social problems, has contributed to the " North American Review" and other pubhcations, and has dehvered addresses before historical and other societies on these subjects. He has done much original work in his favorite studies, and has collected with care a private hbrary of several thousand volumes on constitutional and historical subjects. He was married, in 1890, to Miss Alice May Driggs, and their home is at No. 697 Madison Avenue, New York city. He is a member of the Metropohtan and Democratic clubs, the Ardsley Country Club, the Association of the Bar, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, and other societies and associations. ISAAC EDWIN GATES THE founder of tlie G-ates family in this country was Stephen Gates, who came from Norwich, England, and settled in Bos- ton, Massachusetts, in 1638. Thereafter members of the family in successive generations filled their places as members of the young commonwealth, contributing to its material and moral growth. The Hewitt family was also planted in New England at an early date, and both there and in other parts of the Union has had a conspicuous and honorable record. In the last generations of these two families, Cyrus Gates and Patty Hewitt were married and hved in New London County, Connecticut, their home being a typical New England farm. There, at Preston, Connecticut, on January 2, 1833, their son, Isaac Edwin Gates, was born. The family was in modest circum- stances, and the boy, when he became old enough, had to " do chores " and perform the labors incident to farm hf e. It was his ambition, however, to acquire a first-class education, though to do so he had to work his way and pay his own expenses. This he did with admirable success. He first attended the local pubhc school. Then he sought preparation for college at the Connecticut Literary Institution, at Suf&eld, Connecticut. From the latter he proceeded to Madison (now Colgate) Univer- sity, at Hamilton, New York. At the latter institution he was also a student in the Theological Seminary, and upon the com- pletion of his course he was received into the ministry of the Baptist Church. He remained in that profession for nine years, his pastorate being quite successful. On May 1, 1869, however, he resigned his pastorate and retired from the ministry, on account of impaired health. He then went into the railroad business. His first engagement 137 138 ISAAC EDWIN GATES was made on May 11, 1869, with the Central Pacific Raih*oad Company, and it took him into a part of the country favorable to the restoration of his health. He has maintained his connec- tion with that company, and with its successors, down to the present time. He has also been connected with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, the Ehzabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy RaUroad, and the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad, as secretary and treasurer. Mr. Grates is now president of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad; acting vice-president and assistant secretary of the Southern Pacific Company ; treasurer of the Newport News Ship- building and Dry Dock Company ; treasurer of the Old Dominion Land Company ; assistant secretary of Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company ; and assistant treasurer of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad. Mr. Gates has never held nor sought poUtical preferment, and has confined his political activities to the performance of the duties of a private citizen. He is a member of the QuUl Club of New York city, the New England Society of Orange, New Jersey, the "Washington Society of New Jersey, and the Madison (now Colgate) University Chap- ter of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity. He was married, in 1861, to Miss Ellen M. Huntington, who has borne him one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Archer M. Huntington. EDWARD NATHAN GIBBS THE tide that, " taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," is found sometimes by chance, sometimes by earnest seeking. The former method may be the more spectacular ; the latter is the more usual and by far the more certain of success. For every one who gains great wealth or power by happy chance, there are many who do so by virtue of fixed determination and patient effort. It is as tme in business as in Hterature and art that genius is a capacity for hard work and for taking pains. Of this an admirable exemphfication is found in the career of the subject of this sketch. In his very childhood he conceived the ambition to become a banker and financier. By stress of circumstances he was at times forced into other occupations; but his mind remained fixed upon that single purpose, and his course was at every opportunity shaped toward that end, until in a more than ordinarily successful degree the ideal of his youth was realized and he became a prosperous banker and an ac- knowledged power in the financial world. Edward Nathan Gribbs is of Enghsh ancestry and of New England birth. He was born at Blandford, Massachusetts, in January, 1841, and received his only class-room education in the pubhc and high schools, ranking as an apt and attentive pupil. At the age of sixteen, when many of his comrades were thinking of entering college, he was constrained to lay aside his school- books for the account-books of a business office. First he became a clerk on the Berkshire division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He soon perceived, however, that in such a service — as in the army, according to "Benny Havens" — "promotions 's very slow," and that his rate of progress toward a bank presidency was infinitesimal ; wherefore he presently gave 139 140 EDWABD NATHAN GIBBS up that place and became an accountant in a large dry-goods store at Pittsfield, wliere lie remained three years, and then found the long-sought opening. He became discount clerk in the Thames National Bank at Norwich, Connecticut. Thus, before attaining his majority, he was engaged in a work that was not only congenial to him, but was a reaUzation of the life-plans he had made. The feehng that he was at last in his chosen voca- tion added energy to his ability and integrity. His services were appreciated by the higher ofl&cers of the bank. He became a marked man, marked for successive promotions, from rank to rank, through all the grades. He was now indeed a banker, whether as clerk, teller, cashier, or vice-president. At last, in 1890, the final step was taken : he was elected president of the bank ; and the ambition of the boy was gratified in the achieve- ment of the man. His twenty-six years of service in various capacities gave him the best possible preparation for the respon- sibilities that now rested upon him. The bank was one of the oldest in the State. Under his presidency it became one of the strongest and one of the soundest and best managed in all the land. Its capital stock was one million doUars. Before he left its president's chair it amassed a surplus and undivided profits of about eight hundred thousand dollars. He resigned the presidency of the bank in 1897, but by no means retired from active business life. On the contrary, he remained, as he is to- day, conspicuously identified with even more important financial undertakings. It was in 1889, while vice-president of the bank and a resident of Norwich, that Mr. Gribbs became officially interested in life- insurance. He was then chosen to be a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company. In it he soon saw wider scope for the exercise of financial talents than a bank could afford, and he accordingly turned his attention to it more and more. When a crisis came in the affairs of the company, in January, 1892, he was selected as one of the committee of five trustees for the all- important work of investigation and reorganization. That work was so well done that the company was soon placed on a more satisfactory footing than ever before. How great and important was Mr. Gibbs's share in it may be reckoned from the fact that when the reorganization was completed, in August, 1892, he was EDWABD NATHAN GIBBS 141 elected to the treasm-ership, an office then newly created, and offered to him for the purpose of securing to the company the benefits of his financial ability, and of enabling him to execute in person the plans he had devised for its welfare. In that office, and in that of chaiiman of the finance committee, which he also holds, he controls no mere million dollars capital, as in the bank, but funds amounting to fully two hundred million dollars. Nor are his energies exhausted by the onerous duties of this place. He is president of the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company of Adams, Massachusetts, of which he was one of the organizers in 1890, and a director of half a dozen or more raih-oads, trust com- panies, and manufacturing concerns. To all of these he devotes time and attention, and in them all makes his individuality felt as a potent and beneficent force. These manifold activities have not prevented Mr. Gribbs from cultivating highly the intellectual, domestic, and social sides of life. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Sarah Barker, daughter of Greorge P. Barker, formerly Attomey-Greneral of New York, and they have one daughter. Miss Georgia Barker Gribbs. His home was in Norwich, Connecticut, until 1892, when his duties as treasurer of the New York Life Insurance Company required him to reside in New York. He still retains his Norwich home, however, and spends a portion of his time there. Both his homes are centers of social joys, and are noteworthy for their collections of works of art, of which he has long been a liberal but discrim- inating purchaser. Mr. Gibbs is a member of several of the best New York clubs, including the University, the Metropolitan, and the Players', being qualified for membership in the first-named by receipt of the well-deserved honorary degree of M. A. from Amherst CoUege in 1892. THEODORE OILMAN THE name of Theodore Oilman's father, Wintkrop Sargent Oihnan, unerringly indicates his New England origin. The family came from England and settled at Exeter, New Hamp- shire, in 1638. There it was seated until after the Revolutionary War. Joseph Oilman was chairman of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, in the Revolution, and was an earnest and active patriot. At the end of the war he went to Marietta, Ohio, with the pioneer colony that founded the State of Ohio, and was appointed territorial judge by President Washington. His son, Benjamin Ives Oihnan, was a merchant at Marietta, Ohio, and was one of the leaders in the movement which made Ohio not only a State in the Union, but a free State. Afterward he returned to the East, and was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia and New York. His son, Winthrop Sargent Oilman, was a conspicuous figure in the early history of the State of Illinois. He was a contemporary and acquaintance of Lincoln, Trumbull, and other eminent men of HUnois. It was in his warehouse at Alton that the martyrdom of Lovejoy took place at the hands of the mob, after he had himself vahantly fought for the protection of Lovejoy and his printing-of&ce and the right of free speech and a free press. Afterward he came to New York, and was prominent there in business and religious life. His wife was formerly Miss Abia Swift Lippincott. Of such parentage Theodore Oilman was bom, at Alton, Illinois, on January 2, 1841. He was educated at Williams Col- lege, and was graduated there in the class of 1862, of which Erankhn Carter, now president of the college, the Rev. John A. French, Professor E. H. Oriffin of Johns Hopkins University, 142 ^:¥^^ THEODOBE GILMAN 143 Professor G. L. Eaymond of Princeton, Colonel Archibald Hopkins, J. Edward Simmons, the New York banker, the late General 8. C. Armstrong, and other prominent men were also members. On leaving coUege Mr. Grilman entered the banking-house of his father, in this city, and has continued in that occupation ever since. He has held no pohtical office, but has interested himself in public affairs. He has written numerous articles for current periodicals on philosophical and financial topics, and has read papers before various societies. He framed a bill for the incor- poration of clearing-houses, which was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 7, 1896, and he appeared before the Banking and Currency Committee of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses in its behalf. He has also published a book on "A Graded Banking System." Mr. GUman belonged to the college fraternity of Kappa Alpha. He is a member of the Union League and various other clubs, the Sons of the American Revolution, in which he is president of his chapter, the New England Society, and the New York Sabbath Committee, of which he has been treasurer since 1880. He was married, on October 22, 1863, to Miss Elizabeth Drinker Paxson, and has five children, as follows: Frances Paxson Gilman, Theodore GUman, Jr., Helen Ives Gilman, Robbins GOman, and Ehzabeth Bethune Gilman. FRANK J. GOULD ST. EDMONDSBUEY, England, was the old-country home of the G-OTild family. Before the middle of the seventeenth century, however, one of its members deserted the old home for a new one in the new land. It was about 1645 that Nathan G-ould, the first of the name in America, came over and settled at Fairfield, Connecticut. There he soon became a leading citi- zen, along with John Wiathrop, Samuel WyUys, John Mason, John Talcott, and others, and was with them in signing the petition to the king for a charter for the colony. When the charter was granted, Nathan G-ould's name appeared in it as one of those to whom it was granted. He became a major in the colonial troops, and was for many years an assistant to the Grovemor, or member of the Legislative Council. He was rated as the richest man in the community, and when he died he was recorded in the town archives as " the worshipful Major Nathan Gould." Nathan Gould's son, Nathan, became Deputy Governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the colony of Connecti- cut. His grandson, Abraham Gould, was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and was killed in battle at Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1777. His two brothers were also in the patriot army. Abraham Gould had a son, also named Abraham, who became a captain in the army, and a grandson of the latter was Jay Gould, one of the greatest American financiers of his or any generation. Jay Gould, who was bom at Roxbury, New York, in 1836, was at first a surveyor and map-maker, then a tanner, and founder of the town of Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. Then he came to New York, became a leading broker on Wall Street, and finally became one of the greatest railroad and tele- 144 FRANK J. GOULD 145 graph proprietors in tlie world. His identification with the Erie, Union Pacific, Texas and Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Wabash, and Manhattan Elevated railroads, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, is a part of the business history of America. He died in 1892, one of the richest and most influential men in the world. His wife, who died not long before him, had been Miss Helen Day Miller, daughter of Daniel 8. Miller, a leading merchant of New York, and a descendant of an old Enghsh faniUy which settled at Easthampton, Long Island, in early colonial days. Mr. and Mrs. Jay Grould left two daughters, Helen Miller Grould, and Anna Gould, now the Countess de Castellane of France, and four sons, George, Edwin, Howard, and Prank, all four of whom are now interested in carrying on and even extending the gigantic business enterprises which their father left to them. Frank Jay Gould is the youngest child of the late Jay Gould. He was bom in this city on December 4, 1877, and received the sound home training characteristic of the family. He was edu- cated first by tutors at home, then at the E. D. Lyons Clas- sical School, and then at the Berkeley School in this city. Finally he took a special course at New York University, paying attention chiefly to engineering and the sciences, in which he ranked as an admirable student. He was while in the univer- sity a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and took an active part in all its affairs. He was the chairman of its building com- mittee, which secured for it the fine new chapter-house at University Heights, for the construction of which Mr. Gould personally turned the first sod in the fall of 1898. On leaving the university he gave to its engineering department several thousand dollars' worth of instruments, and a collection of valu- able mineral specimens. He has taken an active interest in the welfare of the university, and is now a member of its council. In his boyhood Mr. Gould was taken on extended travels in Europe. He has also made many trips through the United States, on both pleasure and business. He thus spent most of his vacations during school years. Before he was fifteen years old, too, his father introduced him into many of the meetings of his railroad boards, and made him a member of one of the com- mittees of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company. In this 146 FRANK J. GOULD way lie was early fiUed with practical knowledge of the world, and fitted for entrance upon a serious business career. Such a career began ia December, 1898. At that time he attained his legal majority, and entered upon the possession of that part of his father's gi'eat legacy, amounting to many mil- hons, which had thus far been held in trust for him ; or, more strictly, he entered upon the enjoyment of the income from it, the principal of the whole estate being held intact by trustees. On December 29, 1898, he entered the financial world of WaU Street by purchasing a seat in the Stock Exchange, for which, besides his initiation fee of one thousand doUars, he paid the sum of thirty thousand dollars, one of the highest prices ever paid for a seat in the Exchange. About the same time he became a director of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern RaOroad, one of the great system of the so-caUed Grould railroads. He has since devoted himself to his business with much of the apphcation and ability that distinguished his famous father. Mr. Gould has already manifested a marked degree of that benevolent spirit which has been shown by other members of the family. "While he was in the university he gave a fine new school-house, with tower, clock, and beU, to his father's native village of Roxbury. His gifts to the university have already been mentioned. He heartily seconded his sister. Miss Helen Gould, in her patriotic work during the Spanish "War of 1898 and afterward. He is fond of out-of-door sports, and is an enthusiastic dog-fancier, having in his kennels some of the finest St. Bernard and other dogs in the world. He is a member of the Psi TJpsilon Club, the Ardsley Club, the KnoUwood Country Club, the Ocean County Hunt and Country Club of New Jersey, the Lawyers' Club, the St. Nicho- las Skating Club, the Country Cycle Club, and various other organizations. ^-;<- JAMES WILLIAM HINKLEY 171 den, and other Democrats of national reputation. The period of his chairmanship was marked with many noteworthy triumphs of the party at the polls, reflecting the highest credit upon him and his heutenants for their sMU and energy in political cam- paigning. Mr. Hinkley is president of the Poughkeepsie City and Wap- piagers Falls Railway Company, and has various other railroad interests, aU of which he has directed with consummate skill. He was president of the Walker Electric Company, which has recently been consoUdated with the Westinghouse Electric Com- pany. He is interested in other business and manufacturing enterprises of magnitude, and makes himself felt as force in each and aU. He was a close personal and poUtical friend of the late ex-Governor Roswell P. Flower, and was associated with him in many of his great financial undertakings. One of his most notable business connections at present is that with the United States Casualty Company of this city. For some time he was chairman of the executive committee of its board of directors, and in that place his services were dis- tinguished by soundness of judgment and directness of action which conduced to the great prosperity of the corporation. He was then promoted to the presidency of the company, and still holds that office with great acceptabihty. Under his lead the company has risen to a foremost place among institutions of that kind, and in the last few years has more than doubled its assets and surplus. Mr. Hinkley stiU makes his home at Poughkeepsie, where he has a beautiful mansion and spacious grounds, commanding an unrivaled prospect over the Hudson River and surrounding country. He spends, however, much of his time in this city, and is well known in its business, pohtical, and social life. He is a member of the Manhattan Club, Lawyers' Club, Down-Town Business Men's Club, and other organizations. EDWARD H. HOBBS EDWARD H. HOBBS, for many years one of the represen- tative lawyers and political leaders of Brooklyn, was born at EUenburg, Clinton County, New York, on June 5, 1835. His father, Benjamin Hobbs, was a farmer, a descendant of Josiah Hobbs, who came to New England in 1670. His mother, whose maiden name was Lucy Beaman, was a descendant of Gramahel Beaman, who came from England in 1635, and was one of the members of the Massachusetts Bay Company, and a settler of Boston. He was educated at the district school at Ellenburg, and then at the Franklin Academy at Malone, New York, work- ing, meantime, on his father's farm. He was sixteen years old when he went to the Franklin Academy and began to prepare himself for college. The outlook for a college career was not bright, for his means were sorely hmited ; but his ambition and determination were strong, and not to be daunted by hard work and lack of money. He entered Middlebury College, at Middle- bury, Vermont, and made his, way through it in creditable fash- ion, paying his own way, for the most part, by teaching school and working at various other occupations. Having thus got a good general education, he adopted the law as his profession, and began to prepare for the practice thereof. He entered the Al- bany Law School, an institution of the highest rank in those days, and pursued its course with distinction. Admission to the bar and entry upon professional practice followed. His college course was interrupted by the Civil War. Early in that struggle he enlisted as a private in the Union army, being then in his senior year at Middlebury. He served through- out most of the war in. the Army of the Potomac, and also ia North and South Carolina, and was promoted to be lieutenant 172 -^r^r^^'i^J^ EDWAED H. HOBBS 173 and adjutant, and acting assistant adjutant-general. After the war lie made Ms home in Brooklyn, and has ever since been identified with that city. He began the practice of law in New York city, and soon attained marked success, building up a large and profitable business. The firm is now composed of four members, under the name of Hobbs & G-ifford, Mr. Hobbs is counsel for a number of large industrial and manufacturing corporations. He is also a director of the Bedford Bank of Brooklyn. For many years there have been few men in Brooklyn poHtics, on the Repubhcan side of the fence, more widely known and respected than " Major " Hobbs, as he is familiarly called. He has all his hfe been a consistent and energetic Republican, with his party loyalty founded, not upon personal interest, but upon intelligent principle. He has been a scholarly and eloquent advocate of the doctrines of that party, and has contributed much to its success in campaigns by his effective speaking. He was long a member of the County and State Republican com- mittees, and has been a delegate to at least one national con- vention and probably a score or more of State conventions. In such places his influence has been felt and his services have been recognized. He might have had nominations and elections to various important public offices, had he so chosen; but he preferred to remain in private Ufe, and, accordingly, has never held any public office. He is a member of various social organizations, including the Union League Club of Brooklyn, the New England Society of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club of New York, of which last-named he is one of the founders. Mr. Hobbs was married at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1868, to Miss Julia Ellen Buxton. He has one child, a son, Charles B. Hobbs, who is now one of his law partners. EUGENE AUGUSTUS HOFFMAN THE name of Hoffman is one tliat has for many generations been conspicuous in American history for the services of its bearers to the nation in various important directions. In peace and in. war, in church and in state, the descendants of Martinus Hoffman, who came to this country in 1640, have made their marks and made them creditably. In the present case we have to do with one of the family who has employed more than ordi- nary talents and more than ordinary wealth in a singularly beneficent manner for the intellectual advancement, the social interest, and, above aU, the spiritual elevation of his fellow-citi- zens and fellow-men. The Very Rev. Eugene Augustus Hoffman, dean of the General Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in New York city, is the son of Samuel Verplanck Hoffman, and was bom in this city on March 21, 1829. His education was acquired at the Columbia College Grammar- School, at Rutgers College, and at Harvard University, the last- named institution conferring upon him in course the degrees of B. A. and M. A. In 1848 he entered as a student the theologi- cal seminary with which he has now long been identified as dean, and was graduated from it in 1851. Shortly afterward he was ordained a deacon of the Protestant Episcopal Church by Bishop Doane of New Jersey. Two years of active mission work at Ehzabethport, New Jersey, followed, and then he became rector of Christ Church, Elizabeth, New Jersey. There he established one of the first and most successful free churches in America, and did notably good parish work. He was also able, at the same time, to build up self-supporting churches at Millbum and at Woodbridge, New Jersey. In 174 ^*^ -/^^'f jitrf-f,.^c EUGENE AUGUSTUS HOFFMAN 175 1863 lie went to Burlington, New Jersey, as rector of St. Mary's Church. He found that church heavily encumbered with debts, and with characteristic energy and ability he set to work to clear them off. Within a year he had not only done this, but had also raised enough money to secure for the church the fine bells which now occupy its stately spire. Then, in 1864, he became rector of Grace Church, on Brooklyn Heights, and remained there five years, resigning on account of the ill effect of the strong air of the Heights upon his health. His next charge, from 1869 to 1879, was the parish of St. Mark's in Philadelphia, where he estabhshed the first Workingmen's Club in an American church, and did other valuable work. After twice dechning the nomination. Dr. Hoffman was in 1879 elected dean of the General Theological Seminary. That institution was then in straitened circumstances, and needed wise direction and financial aid to save it from disastrous de- cline. It received both from its new head. Dr. Hoffman's admiuistrative abihty, his devotion and energy, and the munifi- cence of himself and his family soon made it a far stronger school than its projectors had ever ventured to expect. A great group of fine new buildings, improved grounds, new professorships, and rich endowments are among the fruits of his labors at Chelsea Square. Dr. Hoffman is a member of the boards of numerous rehgious and charitable organizations, a member of most of the learned societies of New York, and of the Century and some other lead- ing clubs. He has represented the Diocese of New York at the last seven General Conventions of the church. He has received the degree of D. D. from Rutgers College, Eaciae College, the General Theological Seminary, Columbia College, Trinity Col- lege, and the University of Oxford, that of LL. D. from King's College, Nova Scotia, and that of D. C. L. from the University of the South and from Trinity University, Toronto. He has written a number of books on rehgious and ecclesiastical themes. He is married to Mary Crooke Elmendorf, and has Hving one son and three daughters. F. C. HOLLINS FC. HOLLINS was bom in Philadelphia, but has been a resi- • dent of New York since boyhood. At the age of seven- teen he entered the agency of the Bank of British North America in New York, where he rose to the position of assistant cashier. At the age of twenty-one he took charge of the Coles estate in Jersey City, and sold for that estate to the Erie and Morris and Essex Railroad companies a large part of the dock and terminal properties now occupied by them. He served for two years as a director in the Board of Education in Jersey City. Upon his retirement he received a testimonial from the taxpayers for his devotion to their interests. In 1879 he became a junior partner in the banking and brokerage firm of H. B. HoUins & Co., of New York. In 1886 he organized the present banking and brokerage house of F. C. Hollins & Co. In 1886 Mr. Hollins became a director of the Lake Erie and "Western Railway Company, and afterward was appointed chair- man of the stock-holders' committee of reorganization. He car- ried his plans through and secured the road for the stock- holders. He was also a director in the Peoria, Decatur and Evansville Rail- way Company, and, as one of the executive committee, sold the road to Columbus C. Baldwin and the Hanover Bank interests of New York, whereby George I. Seney, who had become finan- cially embarrassed, was enabled to pay off his indebtedness. He was also a director in the St. Louis, Alton and Terre Haute Rail- way Company for three years, during which time the common stock appreciated in value from fifteen to eighty-five dollars per share. In 1886 and 1887 he furnished the money for the comple- tion of a large portion of the Toledo, Ann Arbor and North Mich- igan and the Detroit, Bay City and Alpena (now the Detroit and 176 F. C. H0LLIN8 177 Mackinac) railways. In 1887 and 1888 he built the St. Louis and Chicago and the Litchfield and St. Louis railways in lUinois. In 1888 he also purchased and completed the Central Missouri and the Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas City railroads, then m. course of construction, and sold the two roads to a syndicate of contrac- tors. The contractors were unable to carry out their plans, and Mr. HoUins joined with others and bought the properties. Mr. HoUins was elected president of the roads, and was in 1891 successful in selling them to the Missouri, Kansas and Texas and the Missouri, Kansas and Eastern Railway companies. In 1889 the president of the St. Louis and Chicago Railway, and outside speculations of his partner, iuvolved the firm in some financial difficulties. Mr. HoUins immediately dissolved the firm, assumed all the liabilities tadividuaUy, both of the firm and of his partner, who died shortly after, and paid every creditor in full, besides taking up two hundred thousand dollars of St. Louis and Chicago Railway bonds sold to him by the president of that road, which were afterward claimed to have been an over- issue. In 1894 Mr. Hollins again became active in business. He was one of the committee which reorganized the Indianapolis, Decatur and Springfield Railway Company, after which the road was sold to the Ciuciunati, Hamilton and Dayton Railway Com- pany. In 1897 he was appointed chairman of the stock-hold- ers' committee of reorganization of Peck Brothers & Co. of New Haven, and saved the property to the stock-holders. In 1898 he was active in the consoUdation of the Meriden Britannia Com- pany with fourteen other silver and silver-plate companies, under the name of the International Silver Company, and became the largest subscriber to the purchase of the bonds of that company. Since that time, he has been engaged in several other large en- terprises, including the purchase of the Consohdated Railway Electric Lighting and Equipment Company. HARRY ROWLEY HOLLINS HARRY ROWLEY HOLLINS is of English ancestry. His father, Frank HoUins, was a son of WiUiam HoUins, who came from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England, and settled in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1795, and, with his brother John, founded a counting-house in that city, Frank Hollins married EUzabeth Coles, a descendant of Robert Coles, who set- tled at Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1630. The Coles family in 1700 removed to Long Island, and a branch of them settled at Dosoris — now Glen Core. John B. Coles, a great-grandfather of Mr. Hollins, was a prominent merchant of New York city, and was one of the founders of the original Tontine Association. Harry Bowley Hollins was born in New York city on Septem- ber 5, 1854, and was educated in local schools and in the Univer- sity of the City of New York, now New York University. His inchnations were strongly turned toward financial operations, and on beginning business life he first sought a clerkship in the house of Levi P. Morton & Co. That was in 1870. Next he was a clerk in the house of D. P. Morgan & Co. In 1872 he became cashier for Oakley & Co., and in 1873 cashier for John D. Prince & Co. In 1874 he made a trip around the world, and in 1875 he started in business on his own account. At that time Mr. Hollins organized the insurance brokerage firm of Grundy, HolHns & Martin, at No. 28 Pine Street. Two years later, in 1877, he formed the firm of H. B. Hollins, stock- brokers. Finally, in 1878, he founded the firm of H. B. Hollins & Co., bankers and brokers, at No. 74 Broadway, with whom he is still identified. This firm from the time of its organization transacted the bulk of the YanderbUts' operations on Wall Street, until they discontinued their dealings there. Mr. Hollins 178 HARRY BOWLEY HOLLINS 179 was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker Trust Company, which was organized in 1884 with a capital of $300,000. In 1886 his firm acquired control of the Central Eaiboad and Banking Company of Georgia, of which Mr, HoUins was thereupon elected vice-president, and also of the ferries afterward operated by the Metropolitan Ferry Company of New York. The firm was the first to engage in industrial enterprises, and also to become interested in international financial institutions. In 1888 it organized a syndicate which pm*chased control of the Banco Hipotecario de Mexico, and founded the International Mortgage Bank of Mexico, of which Mr. Holhns is now vice-president. In that year the firm also acquired control of all the gas-light companies in St. Louis, Missouri, and consolidated them under the name of the Laclede G-as Light Company. It also acted as bankers in the organization of the United States Rubber Com- pany, financed the electrical equipment of the Brooklyn City Railroad Company, and organized the Long Island Traction Company and the Brooklyn, Queens County and Suburban Rail- road Company, which companies now form part of the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Corporation. It financed the following ferry companies, of which it obtained control : the Twenty-third Street Ferry Company, the Union Ferry Company, the Hoboken Ferry Company, and the Brooklyn Ferry Company. It also financed the East River Gras Company, which has its plant at Ravens- wood, borough of Queens, and supphes gas to Manhattan Island through a tunnel under the East River. It was the first New York banking house to enter Havana, Cuba, after the war, having in 1899 organized the Havana Commercial Company. Mr. Hollius is connected with the Brooklyn Ferry Company, the New Amsterdam Gras Company, the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railway, the International Mortgage Bank of Mexico, the Laclede Gas Company of St. Louis, the Plaza Bank of New York, the Knickerbocker Trust Company, and other corpora- tions. He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Racquet, and Knickerbocker clubs of New York, and the South Side Club of Long Island. He married, in 1877, Miss Evelina Knapp, daughter of WnUani K. and Maria M. Knapp, and granddaughter of Sheppard Knapp and Abraham Meserole. They have four sons and one daughter. JOHN HONE THERE are no names more honorably distinguished in the history of this country than those of Hone and Perry. The founder of the former family in America came from Ger- many and settled in New York. One of his descendants, the great-gi-andfather of the present subject, was the head of the noted auction house of John Hone & Sons, and another was that Philip Hone who is remembered as one of the best mayors this city ever had. The father of the present subject was John Hone, a Columbia College alumnus, and a successful lawyer of this city, while his mother was Jane Perry Hone, daughter of that Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry who commanded a squadron in the Mexican War and afterward won immortal fame by " opening " Japan to intercourse with the world. Of such parentage John Hone was bom in this city on De- cember 14, 1844. He was educated at the weU-known Charlier Institute in this city, and entered Columbia CoUege in 1861. But the call of patriotism led him to leave college, and on May 25, 1862, he was mustered into the service of the nation as a private in the New York Seventh Regiment. He was called into active service at the time of Stonewall Jackson's raid in the Shenandoah Valley, and then, in September, 1862, was mustered out and returned to college. A second time he forsook college for the army, in June, 1863, when he went to the front with the Seventh Regiment. A few weeks later the regiment was recalled to this city to suppress the Draft Riots. These absences from college were objected to by the president of Columbia, and accordingly Mr. Hone severed his connection with Columbia and was not graduated. But the university — as it had then be- come — vindicated his record many years later by giving him, in 180 JOHN HONE 181 June, 1894, the A. B. degree, wMcli, but for his patriotism, he would have taken in 1865, After leaving college, Mr. Hone entered a banking-house in New York, and then transferred his services to the house of August Belmont & Co., where he remained until January 1, 1869. At that date he opened the house of Hone & Nicholas, of which he was the head. It had a successful career until 1876, when it went into liquidation. In 1877 Mr. Hone became a member of the Stock Exchange, and junior partner of the firm of Smalley & Hone. This connection lasted until 1881, since which time he has been in business alone. Mr. Hone has been a member of the governing committee of the Stock Exchange, and was for two years vice-president of the Exchange, in 1890-91. He is a director of the Evansville and Terre Haute and of the EvansviUe and Indianapohs railroad companies, and has been treasurer and a manager of the Man- hattan Club. Mr. Hone has taken some interest in political matters, though he has held no public office. He was a member of the New Jersey Democratic State Committee for three terms, twice a del- egate to the New Jersey Democratic State Convention, and ia 1892 he was a delegate at large from New Jersey to the Demo- cratic National Convention. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club, the Manhattan Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, the Sons of the Revolution, the Sons of the "War of 1812, and the Grrand Army of the Re- public. He has been a member also of the Union, Knicker- bocker, and New York Yacht clubs. WILLIAM BUTLER HORNBLOWER THE first American member of the Hornblower family was Josiah. Hornblower, an eminent English civil engineer who, at the request of Colonel John Schuyler, came to this coun- try in 1753. He became the manager of some copper-mines at Belleville, New Jersey, and there set up the first stationary steam-engine in America. He was a captain in the French and Indian War, a vigorous patriot in the Revolution. There- after he was Speaker of the Lower House of the New Jersey Legislature, a State Senator, a member of Congress, and a jus- tice of the Court of Common Pleas in New Jersey. His son, Joseph C. Hornblower, was a lawyer by profession. He was a Presidential Elector in 1820, chief justice of the State of New Jersey in 1832, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1844, professor of law at Princeton in 1847, vice-president of the first RepubUcan National Convention in 1856, president of the New Jersey Electoral College in 1860, and one of the foun- ders of the American Bible Society. His son, WiUiam Henry Hornblower, was a prominent Presbyterian clergyman, a mis- sionary, pastor of a church at Paterson, New Jersey, for twenty-seven years, and professor in the Theological Seminary at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for twelve years. He married Mathilda Butler of Suffield, Connecticut, a woman of Puritan ancestry. William Butler Hornblower, the second son of this last-named couple, was bom at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1851. He was educated at the Collegiate School of Professor Quackenbos ; then at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1871 ; and at the Law School of Columbia College, where he was graduated in 1875. Between leaving Princeton and entering Columbia he spent two 182 WILLIAM BUTLEB HORNBLOWEB 183 years in literary studies. In 1875 he was admitted to practise law at the bar of New York, and became connected with the firm of Carter & Eaton, with which he remained until 1888. In that year he formed the new firm of Homblower & Byrne, which later became Homblower, Byrne & Taylor. Mr. Homblower has long been one of the most successful lawyers of New York, Since 1880 he has been counsel for the New York Life Insurance Company. He was counsel for the receiver in the famous Grrant & Ward bankruptcy cases, and has made a specialty of bankruptcy cases and insurance suits. His practice in the federal courts has been extensive, and among the cases in which he has appeared may be named the Virginia bond controversy, and railroad bond cases of the city of New Orleans. Mr. Homblower has long taken an active interest in politics as an independent Democrat. He has on more than one occa- sion been among the foremost leaders of his party ia this State, especially during the administrations of President Cleveland, of whom he was an earnest supporter. He also took a prominent part in the sound-money campaign in 1896. He has often been suggested as a fitting candidate for office, and in 1893 was nomi- nated by President Cleveland for a place on the bench of the Su- preme Court of the United States. His fitness for the place was universally conceded, but his independence in pohtics had dis- pleased some party leaders, and his nomination was not con- firmed. He marriedj in 1882, Miss Susan C. Sanford of New Haven, Connecticut, a woman of Puritan descent, who died in 1886, leaving him three children. In 1894 he married Mrs. Emily Sanford Nelson, a sister of his first wife and widow of Colonel A. D. Nelson, U. S. A. His home in this city is on Madison Avenue, and his summer home is Penrhyn, Southampton, Long Island. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club and the Bar Association, and of various other social and professional organizations. HENEY ELIAS ROWLAND THE last STirvivor of the historic company that came to the New World in the Mayflower was John Howland, who died at a great age, after a life full of heroism and adventure. He married Elizabeth Tilley, also a Mayflower Pilgrim, and they had a large family, which spread into the various New England States and New York. Henry Elias Howland comes of the New England branch of the family, and is a lineal descendant, in the seventh generation, from John Howland of Plymouth Colony. His great-grand- father was the Rev. John Howland, who was for nearly sixty years a famous Congregational clergyman in the town of Carver, Massachusetts. Judge Howland's parents were Aaron Prentice Howland and Huldah Burke, who also came of a family dis- tinguished in New England annals. Edmund Burke of New Hampshire, member of Congress for many years, and Commis- sioner of Patents under Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, was a near relative. Henry EUas Howland was bom at Walpole, New Hampshire, in 1835. He was prepared for college at the Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and entered Yale College, from which he was graduated in 1854. He took a course in the Harvard Law School, receiving his degree of LL. B. in 1857. After his admission to the bar he came to New York city and began to practise law, which he has continued uninterruptedly, except for a short period in 1873, when he was appointed to fill an unexpired term on the bench of the marine court. As a practitioner he has had an extraordinary success, and he has established a high reputation as a speaker, both in court and in political meetings. He is a hfelong Republican, and has 184 i^CCcC^ HENEY ELIAS HOWLAND 185 been active in municipal politics. He was an alderman of the city in 1875 and 1876, president of the Municipal Department of Taxes in 1880, nnder Mayor Cooper, and has been the party nominee for judge of the Court of Common Pleas and for the bench of the Supreme Court. He is president of the Society for the Relief of the Destiilute Bhnd, president of the board of the Manhattan State Hospital of New York, and a member of the corporation of Yale University. Judge Howland is a member of the Metropohtan, the Century, the Union League, the University, the Players', the Repubhcan, and the Shiunecock HUls GroLf clubs, and the New York State Bar Association. He is secretary of the Jekyl Island Club, secretary of the Century Association, Governor-Gleneral of the National Society of Mayflower Descendants, and Governor of the New York Society, president of the Meadow Club of South- ampton, and vice-president and a member of the council of the University Club. He was married, in 1865, to Miss Louise Miller, daughter of Jonathan and Sarah K. Miller, and granddaughter of Edmund Blunt, the famous author of Blunt's " Coast Pilot." They had six children : Mary M., Charles P., Katherine E., John, Julia Bryant, and Frances L. Howland. Of these three only are living. The Howland town house is at 14 "West Ninth Street, and they have a beautiful country home at Southamp- ton, Long Island. COLGATE HOYT COLGATE HOYT is a son of James Madison Hoyt, who was born at TJtica, New York, was educated at Hamilton Col- lege, married Miss Mary Ella Beebes of New York city, and settled in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had a distinguished career as a lawyer, real-estate operator, and leader in the benevolent activities of the Baptist Church. Colgate Hoyt was bom in Cleveland, on March 2, 1849. After receiving a careful and thorough primary education he was sent to Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts. Owing to trouble with his eyes, he was, however, compelled to leave school at the end of his first year there. He then returned home to Cleveland, and was for a time employed in a hardware store in that city. Later he joined his father in his real-estate operations, and soon became himself the owner of some valuable pieces of property. From 1877 to 1881 he was largely engaged in loaning money on the security of real estate. Mr. Hoyt came to New York city in 1881, and became a partner in the firm of J. B. Colgate & Co., bankers and dealers in bullion. He maintained that connection with much success until the death of Mr. Trevor, in 1890, when the firm was dissolved. In 1882-84 he was a government director of the Union Pacific Rail- way, and was thereafter for some years a company director of the same road. He joined Charles L. Colby and Edwin H. Abbot in the Wisconsin Central Railroad enterprise in 1884, and the three became trustees of the entire stock of the corporation, and made the road a through hue from Chicago to Milwaukee and St. Paul. They also built the Chicago and Northern Pacific Railroad as a terminal, with fine passenger stations in Chicago. Mr. Hoyt has been a director and active spirit in the Oregon 18{) COLGATE HOTT 187 Railway and Navigation Company, the Northern Pacific Raih'oad Company, and the Oregon and Transcontinental Company, He reorganized the last-named as the North American Company in 1890, under trying circumstances but with entire success. In 1888 Mr. Hoyt bought the whaleback steamboat patents of Cap- tain Alexander McDougall, and organized a company with five hundred thousand dollars, known as the American Steel Barge Company. Of this corporation he became president and trea- surer. It has great shipyards and other works at West Superior, Wisconsin, and gives employment to some fifteen hundred men. Another of Mr. Hoyt's enterprises is the Spanish- American Iron Company, which has a capital of five million doUars, and is engaged in the development and operation of the Lola group of iron-mines in Cuba. Mr. Hoyt was one of its arganizers and its treasurer. He is also proprietor of extensive orange groves in Florida, and is a director and first vice-president of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad of Texas. He is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and has exercised no little influence in Wall Street affairs. Mr. Hoyt was married, in 1873, to Miss Lida W. Sherman, daughter of Judge Charles T. Sherman and niece of G-eneral WiUiam T. Sherman and ex-Secretary John Sherman. They have four children hving. Mr. and Mrs. Hoyt make their home in Oyster Bay, New York. Mr. Hoyt is a member of the Metro- politan, Union League, Lawyers', Riding, New York Yacht, and Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Ohio Society, and the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church. He is a trustee of Brown Uni- versity, Providence, Rhode Island. He was the originator of the novel missionary scheme of operating chapel cars on railroads. He was also the chief organizer of the famous First Troop of Cleveland, one of the finest cavalry organizations in the country, which served as escort to President Garfield and President McKinley at their inaugurations. Mr. Hoyt has held no political offices. He is a brother of the Hon. James H. Hoyt of Cleveland, one of the foremost members of the Ohio bar, and of the Rev. Dr. Wayland Hoyt, the eminent Baptist clergyman. THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBARD THE names of Hamlin and Hubbard are both well known in the history of New England, and of the State of Maine in particular. The former has been borne by an eminent college president, and by a vice-president of the United States. The latter has been conspicuous in the State of Maine for the greater part of the century, and is inseparably identified with one of the most noteworthy incidents in the political and social history of that commonwealth. That incident was the adoption of the so-called Maine Law, a law absolutely prohibiting the manu- facture or sale of intoxicating hquors of any kind in that State, save as chemicals for purely scientific use. The author of that famous statute was Greneral Neal Dow. The man who enforced it and made it splendidly successful was Dr. John Hubbard. This pioneer of prohibition rose into political prominence in Maine in the first part of the century. In 1843 he was elected a member of the State Senate, and exerted a marked influence in that body in directing and shaping important legislation. In 1849 he was elected Grovemor of the State, and served in that capacity for four years. It was during his administration that the Maine Law was enacted, and it fell to his lot, accordingly, to put it into force. That was no easy task, for Maine had been a hard-drinking State, and prejudice against the new order of things was strong. Important property interests and political influences were arrayed against it. But Grovemor Hubbard was tremendously in earnest. He took up the matter with inflexible determination and unflagging zeal. In a short time he put the law into force as fully as any other law on the statute-book, thus achieving what innumerable critics had pronounced impossible. 188 THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBABD 189 To Mm, therefore, the success of the law and its permanent retention upon the statute-hooks of the State are due. G-overnor Hubhard had a wife who was a worthy companion for so zealous and masterful a man. Sarah Hodge Barrett, as her name would indicate, was of pure New England stock. One of her grandsires was a minute-man at Lexington, and a gaUant soldier in several engagements in the War of the Revolution, and was killed in the second battle of StiUwater, just before the surrender of Greneral Bm-goyne. A large measure of his patriotic spirit descended to his granddaughter, Sarah Hodge Barrett, who became the wife of Doctor, afterward Governor, Hubbard. Of this parentage Thomas HamUn Hubbard was bom, at Hal- lowell, Maine, on December 20, 1838. He received a careful preparatory education, and in 1853 was matriculated at Bowdoin College. There he pursued a studious career, and was graduated honorably in 1857. His bent was toward the practice of law, and he at once began studying with that end in view, in a law office at Hallowell. In 1860 he was admitted to practice at the Maine bar. But he was not himself fully satisfied with his attainments, and so went to Albany, New York, and entered the well-known law school there. On May 14, 1861, he was admitted to practice at the bar of the State of New York, and actually began such practice, with fine prospects of success. It was not, however, for long. An important interruption was at hand. That interruption was the one which came to thousands at about the same time. The outbreak of the Civil War aroused all the young man's patriotic ardor — an element not lacking in the sons of Maine — and impelled him to offer his services to the national government. He went back to Maine, to his old friends and neighbors, and in 1862 joined the Twenty-fifth Regi- ment of Maine Volunteers, with the rank of first Heutenant and adjutant. During a part of his service he was acting assistant adjutant-general of his brigade. On July 11, 1863, he was mus- tered out, but immediately reentered 'the service. He was actively engaged in raising the Thirtieth Regiment of Volun- teers, and on November 10, 1863, was commissioned heutenant- colonel in that regiment. In that capacity he served through the Red River campaign, and soon was promoted to the command of the regiment, and led it in the assault upon Monett's Bluff. 190 THOMAS HAMLIN HUBBABD He assisted in the construction of the famous Red River dam, by means of which the depth of water in the river at that point was increased sufficiently to float out the Federal gunboats and thus save them from serious embarrassment. He also helped to bridge the Atchafalaya River with a line of boats, for the passage of the army. A colonel's commission came to him on May 13, 1864, and he was transferred with his regiment to the Shenandoah Yalley, in Virginia. He there served throughout the remainder of the war, sometimes in command of his regiment, sometimes in com- mand of a whole brigade. He also served as presiding judge of a court martial. In April, 1865, he was ordered to Washington, and there, in the following month, participated in the grand final reviews. Later he was sent to Savannah, Georgia, to con- duct examinations of officers of the volunteer army who wished to be transferred to the regular army. And, finally, on July 13, 1865, he received the commission of a brevet brigadier-general, and then was honorably mustered out of the service. General Hubbard then returned to the law practice, which had been so completely interrupted three years before. He came straight to New York city, and for a year or more was associated with the Hon. Charles A. RapaUo. Then, in January, 1867, he be- came a partner in the firm of Barney, Butler & Parsons. Seven years later the firm was reorganized into its present form and style of Butler, Stillman & Hubbard. In its affairs General Hubbard has from the first played a leading part, and he has long been recognized as one of the leaders of the New York bar. His engagements as counsel have included many cases in which enormous commercial interests were involved. Much of his practice, indeed, has been in the interest of corporations and great industrial entei^rises, and to that branch of professional work he has paid particular attention, and in it he has become an assured authority. Such professional practice has naturally led him into other business relations with corporations. Thus he is a director and vice-president of the Southern Pacific Rail- road Company and president of several other railroad companies affiliated therewith. COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON THE village of Harwinton, in picturesque Litchfield County, Connecticut, was the native place of Collis Potter Hun- tington, where he was born on October 22, 1821. He was the fifth of nine children, and at the age of fourteen years left school and began the business of hfe. For a year he was engaged at wages of seven dollars a month. In 1837 he came to New York and entered business for himself on a small scale. Then he went South, and gained much knowledge of the region in which some of his greatest enterprises were afterward to be conducted. At the age of twenty-two he joined his brother Solon in opening a general merchandise store at Oneonta, New York, and for a few years appUed himself thereto. But he longed for more extended opportunities, and found them when the gold fever of 1849 arose. Mr. Huntington started for CaUf omia on March 15, 1849, on the ship Crescent City, with twelve hundred dollars, which he drew out of his firm. He reached Sacramento some months later with about five thousand dollars, having increased his capital by trading in merchandise during his detention on the Isthmus. He at once opened a hardware store there, which is stiU in existence. Business was good, profits were large, and by 1856 he had made a fortune. Then he turned his attention to railroads, especially to a line connecting the Pacific coast with the East. In 1860 the Central Pacific Railroad Company was organized, largely through his efforts, and he came back to Washington to secure government aid. He was successful, and the sequel was the building of the first railroad across the continent. He was one of the four who gave that epoch-making 101 192 COLLIS POTTEE HUNTINGTON work to tlie nation, the others being Messrs. Hopkins, Stanford, and Crocker. The Central Pacific road was completed in May, 1869. Later Mr. Huntington and his three associates planned and built the Southern Pacific road. When Colonel Scott sought to extend the Texas Pacific to the west coast, Mr Huntington hurried the Southern Pacific across the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico, and met the Texas line east of El Paso. Thence he carried his Hne on to San Antonio. In the meantime he had acquired various Hues east of San Antonio, including the Gral- yeston, Harrisburg and San Antonio, the Texas and New Orleans, the Louisiana Western, and the Morgan's Louisiana and Texas railroads. In 1884 he organized the Southern Pacific Company, and under it unified no less than twenty-six distinct corporations, with some seven thousand miles of railroads and some five thousand miles of steamship lines in the United States and five hundred and seventy-three miles of railroads in Mexico. Even these stupendous enterprises did not exhaust the energy nor satisfy the ambition of Mr. Huntington. He and his asso- ciates acquired the Gruatemala Central Railroad, probably the best railroad property in Central America, and opened coal- mines in British Columbia. Not content with his railroad system from the Pacific to the Grulf, he reached out to the Atlantic as well, gaining a controlling interest in various Eastern railroads, and estabhshing at Newport News, Virginia, where the system terminated, one of the greatest shipyards in the world, and a port for commerce which already has secured a large share of the foreign trade of the United States. Of late years Mr. Huntington has resided most of the time in this city. Despite his long career and advancing age, he still exhibits the energy and ambition of youth, and the abihty thereof for hard and continuous work, his fine native consti- tution having been kept unimpaired. ^c CltAJUJ^^ :^ti^ JAMES D. LATNG 227 the Cleveland and Mahoning Railroad ; in January, 1856, chief engineer of maintenance of way; and in April, 1858, superin- tendent of the SteubenviUe and Indiana Railroad ; in October, 1865, superintendent of the eastern division of the Pittsburg, Fort "Wayne and Chicago Railroad, into which the old Ohio and Pennsylvania road had been transformed; in July, 1871, assistant manager, and in August, 1874, general manager of the Pennsylvania Company's lines, including the Pittsburg, Port Wayne and Chicago, formerly Ohio and Pennsylvania, so that thus, after twenty-five years, he became general manager of the very road on which he began his work as a surveyor's rod- man. In July, 1881, he became general superintendent of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. Since January 1, 1884, he has been general manager of the West Shore Railroad ; from April, 1887, to July, 1890, he was president of the Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati and Indianapohs Railroad ; since July 1, 1890, he has been vice-president of the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad ; and since December 1, 1890, he has been general manager of the Beech Creek Railroad. At the present time Mr. Layng is vice-president and general manager of the West Shore Railroad, vice-president of the C, C, C. & St. L. Railroad, general manager of the Wallkill Yalley Railroad, general manager of the Beech Creek Railroad, vice- president of the Illinois Zinc Company, and a director of the West Shore Railroad, the New York & Harlem Railroad, the C, C, C. & St. L. Railroad, the Wallkill Valley Railroad, the New Jersey Junction Railroad, the West Shore & Ontario Terminal Company, the Lincoln National Bank of New York, the- City Trust Company of New York, and the Iron City National Bank of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. With this imposing array of business interests, Mr. Layng has found no time for ofi&ce-holding or for active participation in poUtics, apart from the duties of a private citizen. He is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, and Transportation clubs, and the Ohio Society of New York. Mr. Layng was married, on February 13, 1862, to Miss Agnes Means of SteubenviUe, Ohio. Their children are named Frank S., Addie M., Mary L., Agnes W., and James Dawson Layng, Jr. J. EDGAE LEAYCRAFT J EDGAR LEAYCRAFT is a native of New York, and a • son of the late Anthony D. Leaycraft, who was also of New York birth. He was bom in the Ninth Ward, and his first education was had in the public school on Thirteenth Street, near Seventh Avenue. Prom it he was graduated to the Eree Academy, which has since become known as the College of the City of New York. In the latter institution he was able to remain only one year, at the end of which he decided to bid farewell to school, and to enter practical business hfe. His first engagement was in a broker's office on Pine Street. He was then a mere boy, and began with a boy's work and a boy's pay. But his diligence and apphcation secured him advancement, so that at the age of eighteen years he was cashier and bookkeeper of a firm doing a large banking and brokerage business. Not long after this the firm dissolved, and he was compelled to look elsewhere for employment. He promptly decided to find it in an office of his own. Mr. Leaycraft accordingly began operations in the business which has engaged his chief attention ever since. He opened on his own account a real-estate office on Eighth Avenue, near Forty-second Street. He was a stranger in that part of the city, with no friends and no patrons. But he started in to win them, and soon succeeded. He did a large business in selling and leasing, and secured the permanent management of a number of pieces of property. Year by year his patronage increased, until now he is said to have the largest in all that quarter of the city, as well as a splendid business in other districts. He represents the trustees and executors of a number of estates, and is agent for some of the most extensive personal and 228 'p^T^ J. EDGAK LEAYCKAFT 229 corporate estates in New York, as well as for a whole army of clients. He has successfully negotiated many important sales of property in various parts of the city, and has often been called to serve as an appraiser. He has for several years been a direc- tor, and for three years treasurer, of the Eeal Estate Exchange and Auction Rooms, Limited, and was one of the founders and first directors of the Real Estate Board of Brokers. These lat- ter places are indicative of the good will that is felt toward Mr. Leaycraft, and of the confidence that is felt in him, by his asso- ciates and rivals in the real-estate business. Apart from his business, strictly speaking, though ia a great measure because of his success and integrity in business, Mr. Leaycraft's interests are varied, numerous, and important. His regard for the real-estate business and his unceasing efforts to raise its standard naturally led him into the movement on the upper West Side of the city which culminated in the formation of the West End Association, of which he has been treasurer and a most influential and active member for a number of years. Similarly, he was among the first members of the Colonial Club, the chief social organization in that part of the city. He was chosen a member of its committee on site, and it is largely be- cause of his judgment and foresight that the club now possesses its fine club-house in an unsurpassed situation. Mr. Leaycraft maintains an active interest in the club, being a member of its board of governors, and also its treasurer. Mr. Leaycraft has been for a number of years a trustee of the Franklin Savings Bank, and at the present time is a member of its finance committee and chairman of the committee in charge of the erection of its new building. He is a member of the Board of Trade and Transportation, the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, the Union League Club, the New York Historical Society, the American Museum of Natural His- tory, the Up-Town Association, the Merchants' Association, the Republican Club of the City of New York, of which he has for a number of years been treasurer, of the Colonial Club, as already stated, and of the West Side Repubhcan Club, of which he has been president and a member of the executive committee since its foimdation. He is a strong and consistent Republican, and has been a member of the County Committee of that party for 230 J. EDGAB LEAYCKAFT some years, though he has never been an ofi&ce-seeker nor a candidate for any ofS.ce. In 1889, however, he was appointed by Governor Roosevelt a member of the State Board of Tax Com- missioners, a place for which his expert knowledge of real-estate values pecuUarly fitted him. This appointment was made with- out sohcitation by Mr. Leaycraf t, or the exercise of any influence in his behalf, and was accepted by him at the G-ovemor's request. Mr. Leaycraft has long been a member of the Methodist Epis- copal Church, and a member and officer of the Madison Avenue Church of that denomination. He is also treasurer of the New York City Church Extension and Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to the work of which he gives generously of his time, his labor, and his means. From this brief outline of his busy and honorable career it will readily be concluded that Mr. Leaycraft has been, in the best sense of the term, the architect of his own fortunes, the builder of his own character and success. His unfaihng integ- rity, his soundness of judgment, his devotion to business, his mastery of its principles and details, his energy, his foresight and enterprise, are chief among the elements which have attained for him the high success which he now enjoys, and which none of his rivals in business, not even those whom he may have far outstripped, can have just cause to begrudge him. ayiAyOcA-^'i\J^ DAVID LEYENTRITT DAVID LEVENTRITT, justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, is a Southerner by birth, but a New- Yorker by education and long residence. He was bom at Winnsboro, South Carohna, on January 31, 1845. When he was nine years old premonitions of troublous times in that part of the country were not lacking. The spirit of antagonism between North and South was steadily growing, and threatening to burst into violent conflict. In those controversies Mr. Leven- tritt's family took little actual part. But in 1854 his parents decided to remove to the North. Whether purposely or not, they thus avoided the cataclysm of war and disaster that pres- ently came upon the Palmetto State, and spent the remainder of their days in the peace and security of the Northern metropoHs, and the boy grew up here as a New York boy. He attended the pubhc schools of the city, and thence pro- ceeded to the College of the City of New York, then known as the Free Academy. Throughout his school life he was noted as a fine student, and when he finished his course in the Free Academy he was graduated, in 1864, as the salutatorian of his class. He then adopted the law as his profession, and entered the Law School of New York University, or the University of the City of New York, as it was then called. There he was a diligent and receptive student, and he was in due time gradu- ated. Admission to practice at the bar followed, and then the young man opened an office and began work. His excellent preparation and his natural gifts and aptitude assured him success. This was not won without hard work, but from that he did not shrink. He soon gained by practice a wide and valuable familiarity with aU important branches of law 231 232 DAVID LEVENTEITT especially of commercial law. He was employed as counsel in many noteworthy cases, and achieved a high average of success, especially as a trial lawyer. In the last twenty years few law- yers in New York have appeared in court more frequently or to more successful purpose than he. He was special counsel for the city in the proceedings for condemnation of land for the Washington Park, in which the property-owners claimed more than fifteen hundred thousand dollars. After a hard legal and argumentative battle, the case was settled at less than half that figure. Mr. Leventritt has long taken an active interest in politics as a Democrat and a follower of Tammany Hall. He was never an office-holder, however, until 1899, except as, by appointment, chairman of the Commission for the Condemnation of Lands for the new Third Avenue Bridge over the Harlem River. In the f aU of 1898, however, he was nominated by the Democratic party for a place on the Supreme Court bench of the State. The campaign was a somewhat embittered one, but Mr. Leventritt ran ahead of his ticket, and was triumphantly elected. At the beginning of 1899 he took his place upon the Supreme Court bench, and was immediately designated as one of the justices of the Appel- late Term, a distinction not heretofore accorded to a judge during his first year of service. ADOLPH LEWISOHN THE subject of tMs sketch was bom in Hambm-g, Grermany, on May 17, 1849. Adolph Lewisobn comes of an old and honorable family, whose connection with mercantile affairs in Hamburg is part of that city^'s history. His father, Mr. Samuel Lewisohn, conducted a large business, with headquarters in Hamburg, but with connections which were world-wide. The importance of the American branch of the elder Mr. Lewisohn's business brought Adolph Lewisohn to this country as a yotmg man, and he at once commenced to build up the foundation of that brilliant career which has brought him into the front rank of the business men of the metropohs. In early Mfe Mr. Lew- isohn was a great student, and even in his boyhood a remarkable master of mathematical propositions, having been especially proficient in algebraic problems; and this faculty has largely been brought into play in later life, as apphed to the serious matters always entering into extended business operations. Mr. Lewisohn's remarkable success is largely due to his wonderful judgment in selecting business associates, he having always been careful to surround himself with the very best material for whatever particular purpose there might be in point. The assistants with whom he thus surrounded himself, being con- trolled by the calm, judicial mind, the self-contained, forceful character of Mr. Lewisohn, have been no small aids in\the devel- opment of the important business now represented by the pow- erful firm of Lewisohn Brothers, of which Adolph Lewisohn is general manager. The possession of wealth, and the ability to enjoy all that wealth can purchase, are two distinct and separate things, not always found in happy combination ; but in the case of Mr. Lewisohn 233 234 ADOLPH LEWISOHN this most happy result is achieved. As a lover of art in aU its branches, as a connoisseur of paintings, as an educated master of the beauties of architecture, Mr. Lewisohn stands prominent ; and his knowledge in these directions, his refined tastes, and his appreciation of fine literature have resulted in a private life which affords not only happiness to himself, but delight to his family and to aU those who are fortunate enough to be classed among his friends, Mr. Lewisohn married, in 1878, Miss Emma M. Cahn of Phila- delphia, and his domestic life seems to afford him his greatest pleasure. The result of this marriage has been a charming fam- ily of three daughters and two sons. Two of the daughters are married to young and rising merchants of this city. Mr. Lewisohn has just completed a fine residence at No. 9 West Fifty-seventh Street, the architectural beauties of which have been the subject of much comment. His summers are spent at his country place at Elberon, known as "Adelawn," which was formerly known as the Childs place, having been built by the late G-eorge W. Childs, and which has always been one of the show-places of that beautiful seaside resort. It has been very much improved by the present owner, and is to-day unquestionably one of the most beautiful and effective gentlemen's seats on the New Jersey coast. In addition to his identification with the firm of Lewisohn Brothers, Mr. Lewisohn is a director in many other prominent enterprises and institutions, though his disposition is such as to render him desirous of avoiding any notoriety ; and the same principle prevails in the large charity which he exercises, and of which few know save those who profit by his generosity. Z^o^yO^^^^^ LEONARD LEWISOHN THE subject of the present sketcli, wlio has long been promi- nent in this city and country as a merchant and financier, comes from a city and from a family long noted for com- mercial and financial achievements. His father, Samuel Lewi- sohn, was for many years one of the best-known merchants in that city of merchant princes, Hamburg, Germany. In that city Leonard Lewisohn was born, on October 10, 1847. His early Mfe was spent in Hamburg, where he enjoyed the un- surpassed educational advantages afforded by that city. There are no more thorough schools for boys than those of Germany, many of which pay particular attention to instruction and disci- pline in business and commercial matters, and also to physical training. Young Lewisohn was an admirable student in all branches, and when he left school was both physically and intel- lectually equipped for the campaigns of hfe more completely than most young men. On leaving school he entered his father's office, and for three years served there, putting into practice the business principles which he had studied in school, and confirming his knowledge of them and his facility in using them. Then, though he had not yet attained his majority, he decided to seek a wider field for his activities than that city afforded. He judged that in the United States he would find the opportunities he craved, and accordingly he came hither in 1865, settling in New York. It was not necessary, however, for him to enter upon the hard struggles and htmible employment which are the lot of so many immigrants. On the contrary, he had the great Hamburg house of his father to back him, and he estabUshed himself here partly as its American representative. In January, 1866, when he was 235 236 LEONAED LEWISOHN less than nineteen years of age, lie started the firm of Lewisohn Brothers, with offices at No. 251 Pearl Street, conducting it at first as a branch of the Hamburg house. The firm imported bristles, horsehair, ostrich-feathers, and other foreign merchandise, and, from the begianing, did a prosperous business. In 1868 the importation from Grermany of pig-lead, for use in the manufacture of white lead, was engaged in, and later, in 1872, the firm began to deal in copper. From that time Mr. Lewisohn commenced to interest himself in mining industries. In 1879 he purchased several mining properties in Butte, Montana, and a year later formed the Montana Copper Company, and in 1887, with A. S. Bigelow and the late Joseph M. Clark, he formed the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company, with headquarters in Boston. His firm, Lewisohn Brothers, had been selling agents for the Tamarack and the Osceola Copper Mining companies since 1885, and acted in the same capacity for the Boston and Montana Consohdated Copper and Silver Mining Company and other large companies. In 1895 Mr. Lewisohn was active in forming the Old Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company of Arizona, and, in 1897, the Isle Royale Consohdated Mining Company of Lake Superior, with aU of which he is still connected. During the year 1899 Mr. Lewisohn became connected with the organization of several other companies of which much is expected in the future. Among them are the American Smelt- ing and Refining Company, the Santa F^ Gold and Copper Mining Company, and the Tennessee Copper Company, For many years Mr. Lewisohn has been a firm believer in the importance of the American copper-miaes, realizing that they must soon be relied upon to furnish the world's supply, the mines of Europe having been all but exhausted for years, and those of South America and Africa having to await the development of railroads and other facihties. The upward movement in the price of copper he regards as natural and not forced, inasmuch as it results from the enormous and increasing demand from all parts of the world for manufacturing and electrical purposes, in comparison with which the visible supply of the metal is small. Mr. Lewisohn was married, in 1870, to Miss Rosalie Jacobs, with whom he hves happily, surrounded by a large family. EDWARD YICTOR LOEW EDWARD VICTOR LOEW is a son of Frederick and Sa- lome S. Loew, who came to this country from Strassburg, Alsace, then a province of France, but now a part of the German Empire, in the early part of the present century. He was bom in New York city on March 18, 1839, and was educated in the pubhc schools until he was twelve years old. At that time, on account of the death of his father, he was compelled to leave school and go to work for his own support. His first engagement was in a real-estate office, and he appUed himself diligently to learning the details of that business. In time he rose to be chief clerk of the office ia which he was em- ployed. He left that place to go into partnership with his brother, Charles E. Loew, now deceased, in the same business. In the meantime he studied law, especially that pertaining to real estate, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar. By making a specialty of real-estate conveyancing and other business of that sort he soon built up a lucrative practice. He also engaged in land speculations and building operations, with much success. Down to the present time he has been interested in the erection of nearly four hundred buildings for residential purposes in New York city. Mr. Loew has long been active in financial affairs. In 1867 he was an incorporator of the Eleventh Ward Bank, of which he is still a director. Two years later he was an incorporator of the Eleventh Ward Savings Bank, and was the first president of that institution. In 1870 he was one of the incorporators of the Manufacturers' and Builders' Fire Insurance Company, becom- ing its first president and serving for twenty-three years. In 1873 he was an incorporator of the New York Real Estate Guar- 237 238 EDWAED VICTOR LOEW anty Company. In 1899 he was an incorporator of the New Amsterdam Casualty Company, and has since been its president. He is a director of the Seaboard National Bank, the Knicker- bocker Trust Company, the Trust Company of New York, and the Standard Gas Light Company ; and is vice-president of the American Savings Bank, the Iron Steamboat Company, and the Batopilas Mining Company. Mr. Loew has, ever since he attained his majority, taken an earnest interest in pubUc affairs, though reluctant to take office. After decKning various nominations, however, he was induced, in 1884, to become the candidate of various reform organizations for Controller of the city, and was elected by a handsome ma- jority. He served for a term of three years, and distinguished himself by the intelligence and integrity with which he fulfilled the duties of that important office. In 1887 he was earnestly urged to accept a renomination, but felt compelled, by personal business interests, to decline. Mr. Loew belongs to a number of the best clubs of the me- tropolis, and is a welcome and influential figure in them. Among them are the Manhattan Club, the City Club, and the Riding Club. He was married in New York, in 1872, to Miss Julia Goadby, daughter of Thomas Goadby, a retired manufacturer of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Loew have a family of three sons and two daughters: Edward Victor Loew, Jr., William Goadby Loew, Frederick W. Loew, Edna Goadby Loew, and Marguerite Sa- lome Loew. Their home is a center of refined social hfe and graceful hospitality. Mr. Loew's fortune and high standing in the community have been won by dihgent labor, unswerving integrity, and those elements of perseverance, shrewdness, and just discrimination which make for deserved success. At the same time he has given employment to thousands of men, and thus opened to them the paths of advancement. He has been ready with help- ing hand for the deserving, and has given much of his wealth, discreetly and unassumingly, for philanthropic purposes. 1 III III III III III III III III 1 '"III . 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