Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 140

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 140

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In 1784, Robinson & Hale, dealers in European and East India goods, occupied the " North corner opposite the Dutch Church." Major Hale is be- lieved to have been an officer in the Revolution. The names of the following merchants appear this year: Jacob Van Schaick, " in Water street, near the Middle Dock," who advertises a long catalogue of articles under quaint titles; Henry, McClallen & Henry, " next door north of the City Hall," present the most formidable array of goods, " adapted to all seasons, in payment for which they will take cash, Morris's & Hilligas's notes, wheat, corn, pease, flax- seed, boards and plank, and all sorts of Furs." John Blake advertised a variety of goods for sale at Archibald Campbell's store, "opposite Hugh Den- niston's."

Roseboom & Co. sold all kinds of nails near the English Church; Gerardus Beekman advertised a store nearly opposite Wheeler Douglass's; Edward Campston, "at the northeast corner of the Dutch Church," proposed to receive for goods "new emission money of this State equal to gold or sil- ver;" Henry Hart had "a neat assortment of Dry and West India Goods at his store, between the Low Dutch Church and Market House."

The firm of James & Vail dissolved, and Thomas V. James assumed the business at the store in the street opposite the City Hall Dock;" Thomas Sickels sold European and India Goods on the south side of the street that leads from the Dutch to the English Church; John Carey offered, at the store of Cornelise K. Vandenberg, " at the elm-tree in the street leading from the Dutch to the English Church," a quantity of goods which were "just imported from Ireland." George Reab, at his store in the house of Abraham Douw, near the south- west corner of the Market, offered an assortment of Dry and West India Goods adapted to the seasons, in exchange for which he would take cash, R. Morris & M. Hillegas's notes, new emission money, all sorts of public securities; also, flax-seed, wheat and all kinds of country produce.

Joseph Kelly, currier, lately arrived from Ire- land, "opened a shop at Captain John Roff's, near the North Gate," and will have ready in a few days, " good leather, boot-legs and Irish Ben of the best quality." Cornelius and John M. Wendell, oppo- site the Post-office, near the Market-house, im- ported goods from London." Cuyler, Gansevoort & Co. "received by the last vessels from London," an assortment of dry goods suitable for the season, and presented a catalogue of other goods, which, like most of the advertisements of the day, began with rum and ended with brass kettles; Peter D. Van Dyck dealt in a general assortment of goods opposite the southeast corner of the Dutch Church. Benjamin Wallace had "a neat assortment of West India and dry goods at his shop, a little north of the English Church."

Wendell & Trotter carried on a business princi- pally in dry goods, "opposite the southeast corner of the City Hall ;" William Gray was a similar dealer, "near the City Hotel;" Teunis T. Van Vechten advertised Turk's Island and Rock Salt; David Fonda, "next door to General Ten Broeck," kept "dry goods, groceries and liquors" for sale; Abraham Eights, in Water street, sold Muscovado sugar by the barrel, and had "a few excellent English wind-mills for cleaning wheat."

Anthony Helmer, at his store in the house of Harmanus Wendell, sold groceries, German steel, "and a variety of other articles too tedious to be mentioned;" Jacob Van der Heyden, in Pearl street, sold " Dutch mill saws, groceries and dry goods;" Ivie Chambers, "near the Low Dutch Church," sold the usual articles of a general store, "princi- pally liquors;" Elisha Crane, opposite the City Hall, sold "cyder" at 18s. a barrel, and took in payment boards, plank, staves, peas and all sorts of grain, but was careful to inform the public that "money would not be refused." The foregoing embraced all the principal merchants doing busi- ness in Albany about 1785.

In 1790, Cornelius J. Wynkoop deemed it "in- dispensably necessary " that there should be in the city " an auctioneer and vendue master for dry goods, household furniture, etc.," whereupon he opened, at No. 8 Market street, " a licensed auction house," and was without doubt the first auctioneer in Albany.

In 1795, Francis Carbine, a former Albany mer- chant, died. In this year, William Mayell, " hat- ter from London," offered for sale an assortment of hats at the store of T. Fradgley. In 1799. at No. 9 Court street, he dealt in "leather breeches," mittens, gloves, and wall paper. In 1802, the grocery firm of James and William Caldwell dis- solved. The business was afterwards carried on by William Caldwell.

In 1813, Albany had grown to be an important commercial center. Indeed, at this date, we are led to the conclusion that a large percentage of the business men of Albany were engaged in mercan- tile pursuits. The first Directory of the city, pub- lished in 1813, gives the names of nearly three hundred mercantile firms, representing at least four hundred merchants.

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COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF ALBANY.

Following we give the names of the most prom- inent of these firms.

Joseph Alexander, Lewis Benedict, John R. Bleecker, Jr., Henry Bleecker, Boyd & McHench, Peter & John I. Boyd, I. & G. Hutton, Syl. P. Jer- main, James & Archibald Kane, Chester Bulkley, William Caldwell, Asa H. Center, James Clarke; Anthony M. Strong, successor of Mr. Clarke in the dry goods business, subsequently was a partner of the well-remembered firm of Richard Marvin & Co., and at a later period established the extensive busi- ness house of A. M. Strong & Co. To continue our list, there were Walter Clarke, William McHarg, John & James Mahar, Rhodolphus Crane, John C. Cuyler, Nathaniel Davis, John D. P. Douw, Thomas N. Ford, Nathaniel Judson, Russell For- syth, Thomas, Elias & William Mather, Christian Miller, William Fowler, Matthew Gill, Job & Thomas Gould, Douw W. Williams, W. & Cornelius W. Groesbeck, Paul Hochstrasser, Estes Howe, Ebenezer Pemberton, Pratt & Durant, Valentine Rathbone, Lyman Root, Thomas & Joseph Russel, Sanford & Page, Israel Smith, George B. Spencer, Barent G. Staats, John & Spencer Stafford, Israel Smith, George W. Stanton, Gilbert Stewart, John Taylor & Son, Jacob H. Ten Eyck, John Townsend, Matthew Trotter & J. Tuffs, Philip P. Van Rensselaer, John Van Schaick, Tobias Van Schaick, Willard Walker, Dudley Walsh & Co., Washburn & Knower, Webb & Dummer, John I. Wendell, Jellis Winne.

Till several years after the beginning of the pres- ent century, it is difficult to classify the Albany merchants with reference to any particular line of trade. Most of them sold a general assortment of merchandise, and few restricted their trade to any one line of goods. About the end of the first quarter of this century this condition of trade be- gan to change, and special merchants in special lines began to grow numerous. In the following pages we have aimed to classify the merchants with some reference to the goods sold.

DRY GOODS.

Probably the oldest house in the dry goods trade is represented by the present firm of Strong, Russell & Lawyer. This house was founded in 1824 by Richard Marvin, who commenced a wholesale dry goods business on South Market street, just north of Division street. A few years later he associated with him William Smith. In 1830 Anthony M. Strong became a partner, under the firm name of Richard Marvin & Co. A few years after the firm was dissolved, Mr. Marvin re- tiring, and a new one was formed under the title of Smith & Strong. In 1838 William N. Strong was admitted as a partner, the firm then becoming known as Smith, Strong & Co., and so continued until 1842, when Mr. Smith withdrew, and for many years the concern was successfully managed by A. M. & W. N. Strong. In 1844 they built the building now occupied by Daniel Weidman, and which they first occupied in 1845. In 1857

Thomas J. and Charles H. Strong were admitted as partners, on the retirement of A. M. Strong, when the firm name was changed to Strong Broth- ers & Co. In 1863, James A. Whitney became a partner, under the firm title of Strong & Co. In 1869, Charles A. Lawyer, and in 1872, George W. Russell, became members of the firm, when the name Strong, Whitney & Co. appeared. In 1877 Mr. Whitney died, but, by agreement, business was conducted under the same firm name until 1879, when it was changed to Strong, Russell & Co., but has subsequently been changed to Strong, Russell & Lawyer. The freestone building, Nos. 476 and 478 Broadway, running through to James street, was built in 1860, and since 1861 has been occupied by this firm.

About contemporary with the above house were the dry goods firms of Wilder, Hastings & Co .; Taber & Marks; Conkling & Herring; McMillan & Bagley; Rufus H. King & Co .; Wood & Acres; Sheldon & Sykes; Thomas Dunn; Pruyn & Olm- stead; Parsons & Baker; Jacob Ten Eyck & Co .; Peter & John I. Boyd; Chandler & Starr; David P. Winne & John Garnsey; Jacob De Garmo; Pruyn & Gadner; Wendell & Jenkins; Matthew Gill & James Campbell.

Visscher Ten Eyck & Solomon M. Parker form- ed a partnership in the dry goods business in 1832, and commenced business at No. 60 State street in the store at that time occupied by Young & Ehle.

Of the present dry goods dealers the firms of W. M. Whitney & Co., John E. Myers, Johnston & Reilly, and Isaac White's Sons & Co., are the most extensive establishments in the city, all of which carry on a large wholesale and retail trade.

The house of W. M. Whitney & Co. was founded in 1860, by W. M. Whitney, as a branch of Ubs- dell, Pierson & Co. of New York, a history of which successful enterprise will be found in the biographical sketch of Mr. Whitney published in this volume. The individual members of the firm are William M. Whitney and S. M. Van Santvoord. William H. Pangburn, who was an active member of this firm several years, died in December, 1885.

The firm of Isaac White's Sons was founded in 1871 by Isaac White and John J. White, his son. The present members of the firm are John J. and Frank White, sons of Isaac White, and A. B. Wells. A history of the firm will be found in connection with the biographical sketch of Isaac White.

The following are the other leading retail dry goods dealers: P. Bloomingdale; Mann, Wald- mann & Co .; B. Stark & Co .; and S. M. Waldman.

WILLIAM J. FRYER

was born August 1, 1808, in the town of Guilder- land, Albany County, N. Y. His father, John Fryer, was one of the largest farmers in that section of the State. Of Dutch ancestry, to be traced back for many generations in Holland, William not only inherited those qualities of honor, industry and perseverance as creditable as they are common to those of Knickerbocker origin, but received that

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

early Christian training so necessary for the eleva- tion of character. His educational advantages were only such as the district school at that time afforded, but all experience serves to illus- trate and inforce the lesson that there is an educa- tion not to be learned from books or acquired by any amount of literary training; that in the busy haunts of men the best practical education is soon- est acquired in all that tends to discipline a man truly and fit him for the proper performance of the duties and business of life. At the age of fourteen he left the family homestead to engage in a mer- cantile business in the village of Catskill, on the Hudson. After some eight years' experience, he became the junior partner in an established ship- ping business at Oakhill Landing, nearly opposite Catskill, and a few miles below the City of Hudson. This was before the advent of railroads, when even steamboating was in its very infancy, and sail was almost exclusively used for the very important river traffic of those days.

In the early part of 1837, Mr. Fryer removed to Albany and established a wholesale dry goods house, sharing in the general belief at that time that Albany, as the terminus of the Erie Canal, was to become the most important business center for supplying Western merchants. The building of the Boston and Albany Railroad, which diverted trade to the greater eastern city, the marvelous de- velopment in river steamboating, and the construc- tion of a railroad running parallel with the Hudson River, forever settled the fate of Albany, to the ad- vantage of the great City of New York.

On the 10th day of February, 1836, just prior to his removal to Albany, Mr. Fryer married Margaret Livingston Crofts, granddaughter of Robert Thong Livingston, at the Livingston Manor House, in the town of Livingston, Columbia County. From the very day of beginning in Albany, his business was large and successful, increasing year by year up to the time of the great fire of August 17, 1848, which laid in ashes the business portion of the city. Mr. Fryer's two stores, with their contents, and several other buildings which he owned, were destroyed. A large number of insurance companies were made bankrupt by the fire, so that the insured received little or nothing from their policies. That mis- fortunes never come singly, is illustrated in Mr. Fryer's case by the fact that, in addition to his losing a large sum as above stated, he also lost another large sum in consequence of the noted failure of the Canal Bank of Albany, in which he was a director and stockholder, with personal lia- bilities, which occurred on the 10th day of the previous month of the same year. To the true worker losses only stimulate to renewed efforts and evoke new powers. Mr. Fryer not only met all his liabilities in full, but he rebuilt his warehouses and re-established his business and continued its management up to 1858, when he practically re- tired from active mercantile life. Since that time he has continued to look after the real estate and other property in which he is interested. During his long and honorable business career no note of his was ever protested, and all his business obliga-

tions were promptly paid. For a period of nearly fifty years, Mr. Fryer has been intimately associated with the business enterprise, the growth and the prosperity of the City of Albany, justly earning the confidence and respect of all his fellow-towns- men. Possessed of a strong will, great energy, and the accuracy and judgment required for the efficient conduct of business, Mr. Fryer is of a modest and retiring nature, kind and gentle in his manners, charitable in thought and deed, and finds his chief pleasure within his own family circle and home surroundings. The death of Mrs. Fryer occurred on the 11th day of April, 1882.

In politics Mr. Fryer has always been an ardent Democrat, helping the Democratic party with his purse and his influence, and clinging to its fortunes through good and evil report, and although fre- quently urged to accept party honors, he has stead- ily refused to do so. As far back as 1845 he declined the nomination for Mayor on account of private business, and at a later date he again re- fused a nomination for the same office. In religion he has ever held a fixed and decided attachment to the Dutch Reformed Church, from his earliest re- membrance of the teachings of the Rev. Harmanius Van Husen, the pastor of his devoted Christian father and mother, at the Reformed Dutch Church in Salem, Albany County. On locating in Catskill in 1822, Mr. Fryer came under the pastorate of the Rev. I. N. Wyckoff, D. D., who was the leading minister in that denomination, and who accepted a life call from the Middle Dutch Reformed Church in Albany in 1837, in which latter church Mr. Fryer continued his connection and repeatedly served as an officer.

ISAAC WHITE.

This gentleman is descended from two of the old families of Duanesburgh, Schenectady County. His paternal grandfather was Ichabod White, who at an early date removed from Nine Partners, Dutchess County, and located a mile west of the village of Duanesburgh, near Duane's Bush, the old country seat of James Duane, soon removing two miles southwest to the place now in possession of the family, and known as the White homestead. His son, Isaac White, married Mary Jenkins, whose father, Christopher Jenkins, was of English descent, and had been a seafaring man in early life, and removed to Duanesbugh from Rhode Is- land, settling on a large farm near Quaker street. Isaac and Mary (Jenkins) White had three sons and five daughters, who grew to be men and wo- men, and all of whom, except the subject of this notice and one of his sisters, were born in Duanes- burgh. Somewhat late in life, Mr. White disposed of his property in Duanesburgh and removed to Otsego County, where he bought a farm, which he subsequently lost through a flaw in the title, and thence, in 1828, to the vicinity of Palmyra, Wayne County, and lived there four years, after which he returned to Duanesburgh. His son, Isaac White, was born in Maryland, Otsego County, February 10, 1820. He passed his boyhood on the farm

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COMMERCIAL INTERESTS OF ALBANY.

and in attending the winter schools, and at fourteen years of age hired out at farm labor for eight months for twenty dollars and his living. From that time, until he was seventeen, he worked for different farmers, and succeeded in saving fifty dollars, which he expended in attending the academy at Gallupville, Schoharie County. During the next four years, he attended and taught school near home. Then he taught the public school at Sau- gerties, Ulster County, three years. Returning to Duanesburgh, he married Miss Ann Eliza Cramer, October 30, 1848. He taught a school in that neighborhood the following winter, and in the spring of 1844 set out on a trip through the then Far West to see the country, with a view to invest- ment and settlement. He proceeded to Buffalo by canal, thence to Cleveland by steamer, thence to a point on the Ohio River, below Pittsburgh, by stage, and thence to St. Louis by the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, going thence on foot sixty iniles to Vandalia, where he remained a short time mak- ing a small investment in land. Not favorably im- pressed with the West, he returned to New York State, and taught school the following winter at Voorheestown, Montgomery County. The six years following he was in charge of the public schools of Fultonville, Montgomery County, and Gloversville, Fulton County, when, his health failing, his physi- cian advised him to seek some traveling employ- ment. During the succeeding six years he was selling gloves and mittens at wholesale, on the road, for a manufacturing firm in Gloversville. For about a year, in 1857 and 1858, he kept a store in Gloversville. Removing to the neighbor- hood of Quaker Street, in Duanesburgh, he pur- chased a farm on which he lived for some years. In 1861-66 he was again on the road, selling boots and shoes for Wilburs & Co., of Quaker Street. Removing to Albany in 1866, he became a sales- man in the employ of George A. Woolverton & Co., traveling almost constantly for some years. During this period his sons, John J. and Edgar M. White, had acquired an intimate knowledge of the Yankee notion and fancy goods trade, in the establishment of George H. Knowlton, and the former had saved some capital with a view to going into trade on his own account. Mr. White had strictly adhered to a rule adopted early in life, to live so much within his income as to save some- thing each year, and by this time had consider- able available means, and, in March, 1871, Isaac and John J. White bought the business of Mr. Knowlton, and conducted it under the style of Isaac White & Son till 1874, when the firmn name was changed to Isaac White & Sons, by the admis- sion of Edgar M. White, who withdrew early in 1883, his brother Frank White taking his place in the firm, which has since been known as Isaac White's Sons & Co. In January, 1885, Edgar M. White again purchased an interest in the concern. Charles White, another of Mr. White's Sons, is employed in the house. This business was be- gun upstairs at No. 61 Broadway. Larger quar- ters being demanded, it was removed to No. 67 Broadway, and thence to Nos. 63 and 65

Broadway. The firm do a safe, successful and growing trade, and its members are favorably re- garded in business circles in Albany and else- where.

Mr. White retired from active business January I, 1883, and is resting from the labors of a well- spent life. He is conspicuous among the self- made men of Albany. His ruling ideas in busi- ness have been industry, safety and prudence, and he lias succeeded where many another man less in- dustrious and more venturesome has failed. He has never taken an active part in politics; but, formerly a Whig, has been a Republican since the organization of the party.

W. M. WHITNEY.

For more than a quarter of a century, Mr. W. M. Whitney has occupied a prominent position in the commercial circles of Albany, and in the ex- tent and character of the business of which he is the recognized head, he has done much towards attracting that large trade which is the pride of the city and the foundation of much of its substantial prosperity.

Mr. Whitney was born in Boston, Mass., Jan- nary 12, 1827, a scion of the old Massachusetts family of that name, and a grandson of Colonel Josiah Whitney, of revolutionary fame, who partic- ipated in all of the engagements in the struggle for American independence, from the fight of Con- cord to the surrender of Cornwallis. Daniel Whit- ney, his father, was a builder of ability and promi- nence, who, in 1828, when the present leading merchant of Albany was only one year old, remov- ed with his family to New York City, where Mr. Whitney was reared and educated, and, at a com- paratively early age, he found his first employment in a retail dry goods store. From this position he went, in 1844, to another, in a wholesale dry goods house in William street, near Wall. It is worthy of note that Mr. Whitney's career in the wholesale dry goods trade embraces the period during which the merchants have moved from the section of New York now known by the comprehensive title of " Wall street," to other locations uptown, and given place to the bankers, brokers, insurance men and others who, for years past, have so notably represented the great financial interests of the conn- try. He became so well acquainted with the dry goods trade that he was recognized as an expert buyer, and from 1852 to 1859 he was chiefly en- gaged in purchasing goods for large dry goods houses in different parts of the country. At the latter date he engaged exclusively with the firm of Ubsdell, Pierson & Co., Broadway, New York, who had branch stores in Albany and St. Louis. The success of the Albany branch having been assured, it was decided January 1, 1860, to make it a per- manent enterprise and Mr. Whitney was put in charge, giving his personal attention to the pur- chase of goods and the receipt and fulfillment of all orders. When the New York house retired from business, the Albany firm was continned by Mr. Whitney, who, as the senior member of the firm of

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

W. M. Whitney & Co., remains at the head of its affairs.

When the house was first opened, a store 25 by 120 feet in dimensions was all that was required for the accommodation of its stock. The premises at present used consist of a building 86 feet wide, running back 216 feet, from North Pearl street to James street, and having five floors. This extensive store is divided into twenty-five distinct depart- ments, all under separate heads, and so systemat- ized that each department can show its own re- sults from season to season. From three hundred to four hundred employees find occupation with the firm, the number varying with the exigencies of the season. The total floorage utilized at first was about 3, 000 square feet; to-day the twenty-five departments of the business cover over 103,000 square feet, or a little less than three acres of sur- face, a fact which exemplifies not only the remark- able growth of this great representative house, but the rapid advance of Albany as a source of supply for all kinds of manufactured goods. Albany owes to Mr. Whitney the introduction of electric lights in the city, and his store is brilliantly lighted by electricity on all of the five floors, and elevators run to the top of the building, practically bringing all of the vast rooms on a level. The guiding principles of the house have ever been-good goods and adequate values; low uniform prices to all; close attention to business, and to the comfort and demands of patrons; and the fairest and most liberal treatment of all classes of the public. And the ap- plication of these principles has resulted in the rapid growth of a well-managed business, which is now of such dimensions as to leave no doubt that W. M. Whitney & Co. are the largest retail dis- tributors of dry goods between New York and Chicago.

FANCY DRY GOODS.

The first store devoted exclusively to trade in fancy dry goods in Albany was opened by J. B. Spelman in 1824. In 1836 Benjamin R. Spelman bought his brother's interest and a new co-partner- ship was formed, with B. R. & R. L. Spelman as the firm name. This continued without change for forty years, when the firm dissolved, R. L. Spelman retiring and W. D. Spelman continuing the business, which he still conducts, at No. 582 Broadway. Among other dealers in this class of goods we may name Flud & Bochlowitz; E. Gips & Co .; M. M. Hydeman; D. S. La Monte; R. Lansing; J. Laventall; F. Martineau; S. M. Val- kenburgh & Co .; and Isaac White's Sons.

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 140

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452