USA > New York > Encyclopedia of biography of New York, a life record of men and women whose sterling character and energy and industry have made them preeminent in their own and many other states, Vol. 2 > Part 13
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Having been elected sheriff of Mon- roe county in 1843, Mr. Sibley removed to Rochester, where he afterward con- tinued to reside. Previous to this time he had become deeply interested in the experiments of Professor S. F. B. Morse and Stephen Vail in telegraphy, and in 1840 had gone to Washington with Pro- fessor Morse and Ezra Cornell to secur an appropriation of forty thousand dol- lars from Congress to build a telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore. They were successful in their mission, and the success of the line and the sub- sequent development of telegraphic com- munication is now a matter of history. Quickly following on the successful estab- lishment of this pioneer line, several tele- graph companies were organized but they met with financial disaster. With firm faith in the invention and with a keen foresight which recognized possibilities and the influence it would have on the world's progress, Mr. Sibley bought the house patents and with other Rochester capitalists organized the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company on April 1, 1851. The first hundred miles of the line were finished
that year. Three years later the company leased the lines of the Lake Erie Tele- graph Company. At this time Ezra Cor- nell was in possession of valuable grants under the Morse patent and controlled the Erie & Michigan Telegraph Com- pany. Mr. Sibley then opened negoti- ations with Mr. Cornell, and in 1856 the companies controlled by them were united by acts of the Wisconsin and New York legislatures under the name of the Western Union Telegraph Company. For ten years Mr. Sibley was president of the new company and for sixteen years a leading member of its board of directors. During the first six years of his presi- dency the number of telegraph offices was increased from one hundred ar .. thirty-two to four thousand and the prop- erty rose in value from two hundred and twenty thousand to forty-eight million dollars.
It was Hiram Sibley who projected the Atlantic and Pacific line to California, an it was built under his direction and con- trol. His associates of the Western Union were unwilling to undertake the enterprise as a company and Cyrus W. Field, Wilson G. Hunt, Peter Cooper, and others, engaged in large undertakings at the time, whom he strove to interest in the matter, also deemed the project pre- mature. With a persistence and confi- dence in the soundness of his judgment which were characteristics of the man, he then presented his project to Congress and was heartily supported by Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury. June 16, 1860, an act was passed encouraging the project and granting an annual su !! sidy of forty thousand dollars for ten years, and on September 22, his offer to construct the lines was officially accepted. The Overland Telegraph Company was organized in San Francisco, and, the two companies uniting their interests, the Pacific Telegraph Company came into
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existence. Five months later the line was opened from ocean to ocean-ten years in advance of the completion of a trans- continental railroad ! A profitable invest- ment from the start, this line, March 17, 1864, was merged into the Western Union Telegraph system. Before the success of the Atlantic cable was assured Mr. Sibley was interested in a project to unite the old and the new world electrically by way of Behring Strait. In the furtherance of that enterprise he made a visit to Russia in 1864-65, and was received most cor- dially by the Czar, who assigned to his American guest the second place of honor at state functions, the French ambassador alone taking precedence of him. The Russian government entered into hearty cooperation with the American projectors for the establishment of the line, which would undoubtedly have been built had not the Atlantic cable been put into suc- cessful operation about that time.
The purchase of Alaska by the United States government was first suggested during an interview Mr. Sibley was hav- ing with regard to the projected Behring Strait telegraph line with Prime Minister Gortschcoff. Mr. Sibley was asked how the American company proposed to ac- quire right-of-way across the territories of British America and the Hudson Bay Company. He replied that he thought there would be little difficulty in securing a right-of-way over the territory referred to, except in the case of the Hudson Bay Company ; that while in London he had submitted the matter to the directors of the Hudson Bay Company, who did not welcome the proposition with enthusiasm and as a consequence he thought it might be necessary to acquire a considerable interest in the Hudson Bay Company.
The minister asked him what would be the probable cost to the American com- pany, to which Mr. Sibley replied stating
a considerable sum which drew from the minister the remark that it was not worth any such sum ; that Russia would sell the whole of Alaska for a sum not much bigger. At the end of the interview Mr. Sibley asked the minister whether he intended his remark in regard to Alaska to be taken seriously and whether he might bring it to the attention of the United States government. To which the minister replied that he was quite serious and had no objection to the sug- gestion being made to the United States government. Mr. Sibley lost no time in communicating this suggestion to Gen- eral Cassius M. Clay, at that time minister of the United States at the Court of Russia, who in turn at once communi- cated the information to Secretary Se- ward at Washington. The result, of course, is known to everybody.
In addition to his labors for the intro- duction of the telegraph, Mr. Sibley was largely instrumental in promoting other enterprises, for with wonderful foresight he believed in the rapid development of the western country. After the war, prompted more by the desire of restor- ing amicable relations than by the pros- pect of gain, he made large and varied investments in railroads in the south and did much to promote renewed business activity. He became extensively inter- ested in lumber and salt manufacturing in the west and was the owner of nearly three hundred and fifty farms in Ford and Livingston counties, Illinois. At one time he possessed forty-seven thousand acres in Ford county alone, and on his land he made splendid improvements of a substantial and extensive character. He also established a large seed-raising busi- ness in Rochester, with warehouses in this city and Chicago, and undertook to supply seeds of his own importation and raising and others' growth, under a per-
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sonal knowledge of their vitality and comparative value. He instituted many experiments for the improvement of plants, with reference to their seed-bear- ing qualities, and built up a business as unique in its character as it was unpre cedented in amount. He was president of the Bank of Monroe and connecte with many other Rochester institutions that led to the upbuilding of the city.
His broad, humanitarian spirit, how- ever, was manifest in many other ways. His deep appreciation of the value of education and his desire for the mental improvement of America was substantial- ly manifested in a most practical way. He endowed a number of institutions for the promotion of learning and established Sibley Hall for the use of the library of the University of Rochester, at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. He gave to it many valuable volumes and provided for the free use of the library by the public. He was one of the trustees to incorporate the Reynolds Library. He also endowed the Sibley College of Me- chanical Arts at Cornell University at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars, and thus set in motion a movement of intel- lectual advancement, the influence of which is incalculable.
Mr. Sibley was particularly happy in his home life. He married Elizabeth M. Tinker, a daughter of Giles and Zilphia (Knight) Tinker, who were natives of Connecticut. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Sibley were born the following named children: Louise, who became the wife of Hobart F. Atkinson, and died in 1868, at the age of thirty-four, leaving two children- Elizabeth, wife of Arthur Smith, and Marie L., who married Harry H. Perkins ; Giles B., who died at the age of two years; Hiram Watson, of Rochester ; and Emily, the wife of James S. Watson. Like her husband, Mrs. Sibley delighted
in doing good, and was long actively con- nected with the Church Home of Roches- ter, to which she was a generous con- tributor. Mrs. Sibley also erected St. John's Episcopal Church, in North Adams, Massachusetts, her native village, at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars, and a few years later she added a chancel at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars more. Her private charities and benefac- tions were many, for her heart was most sympathetic, and the worthy poor never sought her aid in vain. She has passed away, and Mr. Sibley died July 12, 1888, after reaching the eighty-first milestone on life's journey, but as long as the his- tory of America and its progress shall be recorded his name will be closely inter- woven therewith, for what he did in the promotion of its telegraphic and railroad interests and also by reason of his efforts for educational advancement. Of him a contemporary biographer has said: "He amassed wealth, but was most generous and helpful in his use of it. His asso- ciation with one of the most important inventions the world has ever known, would of itself class him among the fore- most men of the nineteenth century, but his nature was so broad, his resources so great and his mentality so strong, that his efforts in that line were but the initial step in a most active and useful career, whereby the world has been enriched materially, mentally and morally."
JONES, W. Martin, Lawyer, Humanitarian.
At the head of the legal profession are some of the finest characters and the most undoubted talents produced by twentieth century civilization, and the honor of a place in this list was the just due of the late W. Martin Jones, of Rochester, New York. There is no career that offers
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greater opportunities for a man of the incisive type of mind than the practice of the law. Here the man whose mental gifts are of the highest order finds scope for their use and opportunity for con- tinual improvement in the contact with others that are pitted against him. But it was not in his legal practice alone that Mr. Jones earned the commendation and won the admiration of all right thinking men ; he was a well known leader in the cause of temperance, and it is owing largely to his efforts that that cause has made the forward strides it has achieved in recent years. As a statesman Mr. Jones also proved his worth, as a perusal of the following lines will show. He was a son of Thomas P. Jones, born in Builth, Wales, and Lodoiska (Butler) Jones, wno was born at Crown Point, New York, and who was related to Benjamin F. Butler. She was a woman of brilliant mind and strong character, traits which she transmitted in rich measure to her son, the subject of this sketch.
W. Martin Jones was born in Manlius, Onondaga county, New York, July 24, 1841, and died after a year's illness, May 3, 1906. He was a child of tender years when his parents removed to Knowles- ville, New York, and there obtained his elementary education. He prepared for college at Albion Academy, from which he was graduated, and was about to matriculate at Yale College when the out- break of the Civil War caused him to change his plans. He had formed the acquaintance of Edwin D. Morgan, the War Governor of New York, and when this gentleman became a United States Sen- ator, Mr. Jones was selected to act as his private secretary, an office he filled two years. He became the private secretary of Secretary of State William H. Seward in 1864, acted in the same capacity to his son, Frederick W. Seward, and so capable
did he prove himself in this responsible post, that he was advanced to the post of chief clerk of the Consular Bureau in the State Department. Almost morbidly conscientious in looking after all the details of this office personally, the close application this necessitated frequently kept him at work until long after mid- night in order to prepare the necessary instructions to United States representa- tives in all parts of the world, watching Confederate blockade runners, and guard- ing the interests of the republic in foreign countries. During this time he was in close touch with everything that con- cerned the President and his cabinet, and was frequently made aware of plots against the government or those high in office, and took the necessary steps to counteract all such plans. He was present in Ford's Theatre, not twenty feet away from President Lincoln when the latter was assassinated. At the close of the war Mr. Jones was appointed United States Consul at Clifton, Canada, his resignation from the Consular Bureau being very regretfully accepted by Mr. Seward. He was in Clifton five years, and while giving faithful attention to the discharge of his consular duties, utilized his spare time in the study of law, and upon his return to the United States in 1871 took up his residence in Rochester, New York. In due course of time he was admitted to the bar, and it was not long before he had climbed the legal ladder, achieving a position of such prominence that some of his cases are quoted as authoritative all over the country.
The cause of temperance engaged the attention of Mr. Jones at a very early age. He was but ten years of age when he became a Cadet of Temperance, and some years later became a member of the order of Sons of Temperance. He affili-
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ated with the Order of Good Templars in 1867, and soon became a leading spirit in that organization; he was elected Grand Chief Templar of New York State in 1879, was the incumbent of this office for four consecutive years, and served as treasurer of the International Body of Good Templars for a period of seven years. Politically a Republican for many years, he yet regarded the Prohibition movement as the most important issue of the time, and when the Republican party failed to redeem its temperance pledges, made at the Richfield Springs Convention of 1882, he gave his entire support to the Prohibition party, and was a pioneer candidate on its tickets, at a time when he knew he would only invite ridicule and persecution, but he had the courage of his convictions and remained true to his principles. He was a candi- date for Attorney-General in 1885, and for Governor in 1888, of the State of New York, upon the Prohibition ticket, and in the following campaign he received the largest Prohibition vote ever cast in the State of New York, running ahead of the National ticket. In the Free Silver campaign of 1896, Mr. Jones took a posi- tion in favor of the gold standard, and as the Prohibition party failed to recog- nize any issue except the cause of temper- ance, and as the Republican party ap- peared to recognize the merit of this cause, Mr. Jones again gave his support to the Republican party, and stumped the State of Michigan against the Hon. John P. St. John, who had been the Prohibition candidate for President of the United States in 1883, and who was then advo- cating free silver.
Mr. Jones entertained most decided opinions on the question of international peace and was a decided supporter of international arbitration. In 1896, when the Venezuela boundary question was the subject of heated discussion, Mr. Jones'
opinions were well known, and at a meet- ing of the New York State Bar Asso- ciation he was chosen as a member of a committee of nine, appointed for the purpose of considering the question of arbitration between Great Britain and the United States. Hon. Chauncey M. Depew and Professor John Bassett Moore, of Columbia University, were appointed advisory members of this committee. Mr. Jones set forth his views at the first meeting of this committee, and called attention to the difficulties attending arbitration where only the litigants are the arbiters, and forcibly advocated the establishment of a "permanent interna- tional court of arbitration" composed of representatives of several nations. At this meeting he and Hon. Walter S. Logan, of New York, were appointed a sub-committee, and had in charge the duty of devising and presenting to che full committee a plan for such a court ; the duty of drafting the desired resolutions fell upon Mr. Jones, and the report which he prepared was successively approved, without alteration or amendment, by the sub-committee, the whole committee and the Bar Association itself, at a special meeting called to consider the matter, and a committee was then appointed to present the memorial to the President of the United States. Hon. Edward G. Whitaker, president of the Bar Associ- ation, Judge William D. Veeder, chair- man of the committee, and Mr. Jones made this presentation, April 21, 1896, and the ablest journals of the day com- mented favorably on both the memorial and the report, and the Albany Law Jour- nal, having published both in full, closed an approving editorial as follows: "We believe the plan of the Bar Association is well devised and properly considered and it should be, if nothing more, at least a step toward some practical result." The memorial is here given in full :
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To the President:
The Petition of the New York State Bar Association respectfully shows:
That impelled by a sense of duty to the State and Nation and a purpose to serve the cause of humanity everywhere, your Petitioner at its annual session held in the City of Albany on the 22nd day of January, 1896, appointed a commit- tee to consider the subject of International Arbitration, and to devise and submit to it a plan for the organization of a tribunal to which may hereafter be submitted controverted inter- national questions between the governments of Great Britain and the United States.
That said committee entered upon the per- formance of its duty at once, and after long and careful deliberation reached the conclusion that it is impracticable, if not impossible, to form a satisfactory Anglo-American Tribunal, for the adjustment of grave International controversies, that shall be composed only of representatives of the two governments of Great Britain and the United States.
That in order that the subject might receive more mature and careful consideration, the mat- ter was referred to a sub-committee, by whom an extended report was made to the full committee. This report was adopted as the report of the full committee, and at a special meeting of the State Bar Association called to consider the matter and held at the State Capitol in the City of Albany, on the 16th day of April, 1896, the action of the committee was affirmed and the plan submitted fully endorsed. As the report referred to contains the argument in brief, both in support of the contention that it is imprac- ticable to organize a court composed only of representatives of the governments of Great Britain and the United States, and in support of the plan outlined in it, a copy of the report is hereto appended and your Petitioner asks that it be made and considered a part of this Peti- tion.
That your Petitioner cordially endorses the principle of arbitration for the settlement of all controversies between civilized nations and it believes that it is quite within the possibility of the educated intellects of the leading Powers of the world to agree upon a plan for a great central World's Court, that, by the common consent of nations, shall eventually have juris- diction of all disputes arising between Independ- ent Powers that cannot be adjusted by friendly diplomatic negotiations. Holding tenaciously to this opinion, and conscious that there must be a first step in every good work, else. there will
never be a second, your Petitioner respectfully but earnestly urges your early consideration of the subject that ultimately,-at least during the early years of the coming century-the honest purpose of good men of every nation may be realized in devising means for the peaceful solu- tion of menacing disputes between civilized nations. Your Petitioner therefore submits to you the following recommendations:
First: The establishment of a permanent International Tribunal to be known as "The International Court of Arbitration."
Second: Such court to be composed of nine members, one each from nine independent states or nations, such representative to be a member of the Supreme or Highest Court of the nation he shall represent, chosen by a major- ity vote of his associates, because of his high character as a publicist and judge and his recognized ability and irreproachable integrity. Each judge thus selected to hold office during life, or the will of the Court selecting him.
Third: The court thus constituted to make its own rules of procedure, to have power to fix its place of sessions and to change the same from time to time as circumstances and the convenience of litigants may suggest and to appoint such clerks and attendants as the Court may require.
Fourth: Controverted questions arising be- tween any two or more Independent Powers, whether represented in said "International Court of Arbitration" or not, at the option of said Powers, to be submitted by treaty between said Powers to said Court, providing only that said treaty shall contain a stipulation to the effect that all parties thereto shall respect and abide by the rules and regulations of said Court and conform to whatever determination it shall make of said controversy.
Fifth: Said Court to be opened at all times for the filing of cases and counter cases under treaty stipulations by any nation, whether rep- resented in the Court or not, and such orderly proceedings in the interim between sessions of the Court in preparation for argument and sub- mission of the controversy as may seem neces- sary, to be taken as the rules of the Court pro- vide for and may be agreed upon between the litigants.
Sixth: Independent Powers not represented in said Court, but which may have become parties litigant in a controversy before it, and by treaty stipulation have agreed to submit to its adjudication, to comply with the rules of the Court, and to contribute such stipulated amount
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to its expenses as may be provided for by its rules or determined by the Court.
Your Petitioner also recommends that you enter at once into correspondence and nego- tiation, through the proper diplomatic channels with representatives of the governments of Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, The Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil and the Argentine Republic for a union with the government of the United States in the laudable undertaking of forming an International Court, substantially on the basis herein outlined.
Your Petitioner presumes it is unnecessary to enter into further argument in support of the foregoing propositions than is contained in the report of its committee, which is appended hereto, and which your Petitioner has already asked to have considered a part of this petition. Your Petitioner will be pardoned, however, if it invite especial attention to that part of the report emphasizing the fact that the plan herein outlined is intended, if adopted, at once to meet the universal demand among English-speaking people for a permanent tribunal to settle con- tested international questions that may here- after arise between the governments of Great Britain and the United States.
While it is contended that it is wholly im- practicable to form such a tribunal without the friendly interposition of other nations on the joint invitation of the Powers who united in its organization, it is very evident that a most acceptable permanent International Court may be speedily secured by the united and harmoni- ous action of said Powers as already suggested. Should obstacles be interposed to the accept- ance by any of the Powers named by your Peti- tioner, of the invitation to name a representa- tive for such a Court, on the plan herein gen- erally outlined, some other equally satisfactory Power could be solicited to unite in the creation of such a Court.
Believing that in the fulfillment of its destiny among the civilized nations of the world, it has devolved upon the younger of the two Anglo-Saxon Powers, now happily in the en- joyment of nothing but future peaceful pros- pects, to take the first step looking to the permanency of peace among nations, your Peti- tioner, representing the Bar of the Empire State, earnestly appeals to you as the Chief Executive officer of the government of the United States, to take such timely action as shall lead eventually to the organization of such a tribunal as has been outlined in the foregoing recommendations. While ominous sounds of
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