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 20
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Mr. Kipp was ever anxious to aid in the development and progress of the com- munity and in promoting not only its business interests but its moral and social betterment and the general welfare of humanity. For three years he served as a member of the board of trustees of the village, and gave to the public business the same careful attention and honest effort which characterized the conduct of his private affairs. He was interested in the Ossining National Bank, of which he was for some time vice-president, and was a member of the Point Sennasqua Rod and Reel Club of Ossining. With his family he was affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church of Ossining, and was ever a promoter and supporter of all efforts of this body toward the emanci- pation of humanity from sorrow and deg- radation. His influence lent a mighty power to the work of the church, and his departure to a better home on high was very widely and sincerely mourned. In him the youth about him found a most worthy example for emulation, and his noble life and worthy efforts contributed
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to the advancement and moral progress of many who knew him.
He was married, October 8, 1873, in Sing Sing, to Alice Sophia Hapgood, daughter of Thomas Emerson and Nancy Sophia (Brigham.) Hapgood, of that city, descendants of an old New England fam- ily and among the most useful and ex- emplary citizens of Ossining. Mr. and Mrs. Kipp were the parents of a son and daughter: Howard Hapgood, born Feb- ruary 16, 1877; and Dorothy Grace, born June 19, 1892. Together with their mother, they cherish in loving remembrance the virtues and many admirable qualities of a most devoted husband and kind father.
SCULLY, Michael Patrick,
A Leader Among Men.
Yonkers, like most American cities, is rich in self-made men, many of them of foreign birth, but good, loyal citizens, nevertheless. Among these must be num- bered the late Michael Patrick Scully, proprietor of a popular café and the pos- sessor of much political influence. Mr. Scully's career, brief though it was, was exceptionally notable and gave much promise for the future.
Michael Patrick Scully was born in Ire- land, that land of beauty, wit and valor, which has given to the United States some of her most useful and influential citizens. It was in the country of his birth that Michael Patrick Scully received his education, and at the age of sixteen, filled with the bright anticipations of ad- venturous youth, he crossed the sea in quest of fame and fortune. To his adopted country the young man brought some- thing more than ambition, being endowed with the sense and industry necessary for the attainments of his ends. His first em- ployment in Yonkers was that of a driver, and from this humble beginning he ad-
vanced steadily step by step, alert to seize opportunity and ready to turn it to the best account. His means accumulated, his reputation for ability and honesty in- creased with them and a bright future opened before him. In the course of time he became the proprietor of a well known and very successful café.
This progressive and open-minded young Irishman, while always remaining a true son of his native land, identified himself, from the day when he set foot on American soil, with the life of his adopted country. In politics, from the outset, he took the keenest interest, and in order that he might take part in them early proceeded to be naturalized. In 1904 he had the gratification of becoming legally an American citizen and thence- forth to the close of his life was actively associated with the work of the Demo- cratic party. Fitted by nature for leader- ship, it was not long ere he came into his own. Followers flocked around him, at- tracted by his enthusiastic fidelity to what he believed to be the right cause, and at the time of his death he had been for five years the Democratic leader of his ward. With all his devotion to politics Mr. Scully was no office-seeker. Strongly urged to become a candidate for alder- man he steadily refused. Place and pref- erment had no attractions for him. Legi- timate power, domination for worthy ends, influence over the minds and thus over the actions of men he dearly loved and his fellow-citizens were not slow in according it to him. For a number of years there was no more popular man in Yonkers than Michael Patrick Scully.
Emphatically was he a man of large heart, of warm and generous feelings. Never could he resist an appeal from the unhappy and to a story of "hard luck" none ever knew him to turn a deaf ear. His cheery countenance, his hearty greeting,
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his cordial voice in welcome or encourage- ment-all these are still fresh and vivid in the minds of his hosts of friends. Among the organizations to which Mr. Scully belonged were the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, the Moose, the Eagles and the Ancient Order of Hiber- nians. He was enrolled in the Liquor Dealers' Association, and served as treas- urer of the Hawthorne Pleasure Club of Yonkers. He was a member of the Roman Catholic church.
Mr. Scully married Theresa, one of the eight children of Thomas and Catherine (Conlon) Keenan, natives of Ireland. In his own country Mr. Keenan was a farmer on a large scale. Mr. and Mrs. Scully were the parents of one child: Theresa Marie Scully. Mrs. Scully, a woman of charming personality, was ever the pre- siding genius of her husband's home and his true and helpful comrade, sharing and aiding in the accomplishment of his aspi- rations and ambitions. Notwithstanding his convivial tastes, Mr. Scully was a true lover of home and family. In her widow- hood Mrs. Scully has become the wise and capable manager of her husband's business.
A lover of horses and a fine judge of their good points, Mr. Scully was also ex- tremely fond of motoring, and it was in the enjoyment of this form of recreation that he met his untimely death. On Oc- tober 5, 1915, in an accident to the car in which he was driving, he suddenly passed away, at the early age of thirty-four. Grief for his loss was general and sincere. All felt that a promising career had been abruptly and prematurely cut short. What can be added to a record like this ?- the record of a man of forceful character and noble nature. The eulogy of Michael Pat- rick Scully is written in the hearts of his numberless friends.
WILLS, Charles John,
Representative Citizen.
The talents and abilities of men are as varied and numerous as their occupations and there is no line of activity that has not its great figures who have shown the rest of the world how best to engage therein. But though this is so, and, from an abstract point of view, the world teems with brilliant men, yet in any given time or place it is a comparatively small group of talents that meets with the recognition of this same world, which is always per- fectly definite in its preferences and, while welcoming with ardor the chosen type rigorously excludes all others from its favors and its rewards. In one age it will be courage, in another it may be the gift of song, one land may value wood- craft, another religious fervor and so on up and down the whole gamut of human gifts and characters. However this may be it is quite obvious that the particular quality that this epoch and this people desire and demand with no uncertain voice is the grasp of practical affairs, the insight into material relations that marks the successful business man, the financier and the organizer of industries. It is per- haps equally obvious that of all the civil- ized peoples of the present it is the German race that exhibits in the largest number of its people the highest degree of these par- ticular traits in demand in the world to- day. If any illustration of this fact were needed it might be found in the remark- able number of men of that race who occupy leading places in the business world not only in Europe, but in this western republic, of the citizenship of which they make up so large and impor- tant an element. Typical of the best type of his successful countrymen was the late Charles John Wills, of New York City, whose death there on July 1, 1914, re-
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moved one of the most capable and suc- cessful of the city's hotel men and a citi- zen of broad public spirit.
Born March 28, 1869, in Frankfort-on- the Main, Germany, Mr. Wills passed four years of his life there, coming to this country in 1873 and going to the West, where he remained for a number of years. He made his home in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and it was there that he made his entrance into the business of hotel management, in which he was so successful. This entrance was a humble one and consisted of a position on the staff of the West Hotel in Minneapolis. His talent for business affairs, his clever- ness in grasping detail and his industry in his work quickly drew upon him, the favorable regard of his employers, and he was advanced rapidly to more respon- sible positions. It was to some extent due to this early training, which made it necessary for Mr. Wills to become ac- quainted with every detail of the business, that he later was so capable in the posi- tions that he held, when the management of some of the greatest hostelries in the country devolved in a large degree upon his shoulders. The knowledge that comes from personal, first-hand experience is the most sure, and it was this that Mr. Wills possessed. The skill and capacity dis- played by Mr. Wills in managing the West Hotel were not to remain hidden, and his reputation as a practical man spread beyond the borders of the western city, beyond those of the State and reached as far as the great eastern metrop- olis, New York. Consequently, it was not long after the opening of the Holland House in that city that Mr. Wills was called thither to take the post of assistant manager, in which capacity he was a most able lieutenant of the proprietor, Gustav Baumann. He remained with this famous old hotel for thirteen years as assistant
manager and the last two years as man- ager. At the time of the organization of the company which projected the great Biltmore Hotel in New York City, Mr. Wills became identified with these inter- ests and did considerable work in their cause in California for one year before the actual opening of the hotel in this city. The latter event took place on December 31, 1913, and Mr. Wills was appointed manager thereof with the management of the office force. A few years preceding his installation in his important post Mr. Wills had suffered from a severe attack of typhoid fever and never recovered his health entirely, this probably being due to the fact that he resumed hard work be- fore entirely regaining his strength. A serious affection of the throat glands fol- lowed, involving dangerous operations, and although he afterwards did a great deal of hard work he never experienced the same robust health that he had known prior to his illness. He was not destined to enjoy the prerogatives or labor at the tasks of his new office for long, and it was but a few brief weeks after the hotel's opening that he was obliged to take a rest on account of his health. He was never to return. For a time he travelled in Georgia, seeking to regain his strength, and a short time before his death returned to his home in New York. Mr. Wills was prominent in social circles in New York. He was a member of the Minnesota Soci- ety which is formed entirely of men in the city who have come from the State of Minnesota, and he belonged to the Bay Head Yacht Club. He had a strong taste for outdoor sports and pastimes in gen- eral. He attended the All Angels Epis- copal Church.
On October 17, 1892, Mr. Wills was united in marriage with Helen Cynthia Emory, a daughter of William H. and Ada (Herring) Emory. Mr. Emory was
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a native of Maryland and his wife of Gouverneur, St. Lawrence county, New York, while Mrs. Wills was born in Una- dilla, Otsego county, New York. To Mr. and Mrs. Wills was born one child, a daughter, Helen Gertrude. Mrs. Wills survives her husband and at present makes her home at No. 321 West Ninety- fourth street, New York City.
There is always an element of the tragic in the visit of death when it occurs in youth or in the prime of life, and this is but rendered the more acute when the life that is thus untimely brought to an end is one in which noteworthy achievement seems to give promise of an even more brilliant future. This was certainly the case in the career of Mr. Wills, whose powers and faculties were at their prime when his days were thus abbreviated. This sketch cannot be more fittingly closed than by a quotation from a memo- rial written of him at the time of his death by a warm personal friend who had known him ever since his coming to America in his youth. This tribute ap- peared in the "National Hotel Reporter" and read in part as follows :
There was in the case of the late Charles J. Wills that which proves the inscrutability of the ways of Providence. Having worked his way up by sheer force of personal determination, com- pelling respect for his strict probity and unfail- ing dependability, he had attained to large meas- ured facility in his chosen pursuit and was in line for advancement to one of the most responsible positions of practical hotel keeping. Then, right in the prime of vigorous manhood, he was stricken by the hand of disease and, notwith- standing he made a long and heroic fight against its encroachments, was at last compelled to yield and to graduate into an untried field.
Here follows a brief summary of the events in Mr. Wills' life after which the article goes on to say :
Perfect in physical makeup, with no lack of in- tellectual endowment, Mr. Wills schooled and
disciplined his native faculties, expending them with energetic loyalty to the interests of his em- ployer. More than a half decade ago Mr. Willis underwent a siege of typhoid fever. It is prob- able that his devotion to duty and his o'er ween- ing desire for accomplishment tended to his ulti- mate undoing. Against the cautioning of those having his best interests at heart, Wills resumed his work-a-day harness ere he was in full pos- session of normal strength. Poor Wills never fully regained his strength, and although he sub- sequently accomplished an enormous amount of work, very difficult and trying at times, it is evident that he kept going, much of the time, on sheer force of will. But his work here is done; his terrestrial course is completed. He leaves an unblemished record, and those called most keenly to mourn his early taking off possess the consoling memories of an affectionate husband and a kind and considerate father. Hoteldom has suffered the loss of an energetic and re- sourceful factor of a class of which there are none too many.
STANBROUGH, Lyman Truman, Lawyer, Public-spirited Citizen.
Although a graduate in law and duly admitted to the bar it was not as a lawyer that Lyman T. Stanbrough was known and respected, but as a capable, upright business man who honorably conducted his own private business and faithfully administered many important trusts com- mitted to him. He was a man of genial, generous nature, very companionable and neighborly, a fine type of the American citizen and business man, whom all de- light to honor. From earliest infancy until death he was a resident of Owego and from the termination of his college years in 1888 had been actively engaged in business in Owego, a village for which he felt all the affection of a "native son". He took an active interest in all that tended to advance and elevate the com- munity and whether in business, church, civic improvement or fraternity bore a full part. Public spirited and charitable, he gave largely of his means but ever
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refused all offers of political preferment, believing he could best serve as a private citizen ; and in the language of his breth- ren of the Tioga county bar, in resolu- tions of respect, "The community has lost one of its foremost, strongest, most gener- ous and progressive citizens, whose judg- ment and advice in matters of public in- terest and public improvement, were uni- versally sought and appreciated, and whose assistance was freely given."
Lyman Truman Stanbrough was born in Newburgh, New York, January 11, 1864, died in Owego, Tioga county, New York, early Sunday morning, October 19, 1913, at his residence on Front street. He was the eldest son of John Blake Stan- brough, Doctor of Dental Surgery, and business man of Newburgh and Owego, and his wife, Adeline Truman. At the time of his birth his father was practicing dentistry in Newburgh, but the following May located in Owego where he ended his days, proprietor of a prosperous hard- ware and plumbing business. Dr. Stan- brough died January 20, 1908; his wife, Adeline (Truman) Stanbrough, is now a resident of Owego.
Lyman Truman Stanbrough began his education in Owego Free Academy and after graduation from that institution passed to Cornell University. Deciding upon the profession of law, he studied under Charles A. Clark, and H. Austin Clark, of the Tioga County bar, and with McFarland, Boardman & Platt, of the New York City bar, being admitted to practice in 1887. He then took a course at Columbia Law School, receiving his degree of LL. B. class of "88". During his student years he received appointment to a cadetship in the United States Mili- tary Academy at West Point, but resigned the honor before matriculation.
Although learned in the law and duly qualified Mr. Stanbrough never practiced
actively, but as counsel and executor of large estates, his legal learning was of the greatest value to him and the interests he represented. After his father's death he conducted the hardware and plumbing business for the benefit of the J. B. Stan- brough estate, during the course of his career settled several large estates, was executor and trustee of the Lyman Tru- man (his maternal grandfather) estate, until his death, and completed his legal life work in effecting the reorganization of the Champion Wagon Company, In- corporated, of which he was vice-presi- dent. His broad knowledge of the law, his high sense of honor, and his strict integrity, would have placed him in the front rank at the bar, had he used his talents and gifts in general practice, but even in his limited professional associa- tion with his brethren of the bar they learned fully to appreciate him most highly.
Public spirited and generous he gave freely to church, charity and village. One of his gifts made in conjunction with his aunt, Mrs. Emily Gere, was the complete outfitting of Defiance Hook and Ladder Company, with new uniforms. He was a vestryman of St. Paul's Protestant Epis- copal Church, an office to which he was elected to succeed his honored father. He consented to serve the village as super- visor from 1896 to 1900 and in the man- agement of public affairs as well as in his private business he demonstrated his busi- ness ability and efficiency.
He entered into close relations with his townsmen in the various fraternal orders and other organizations, belonging to Ahwaga Lodge, No. 587, Free and Ac- cepted Masons; Jerusalem Chapter, No. 47, Royal Arch Masons; Sa-sa-na Loft Tribe, Imperial Order of Red Men; De- fiance Hook and Ladder Company, of the Owego Fire Department ; and was at one
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time trustee of the local lodge of Elks. grandson was another Geoffrey, famed as His out-of-town club was the New York Athletic, his college fraternity Kappa Al- pha, of Cornell University.
He had been for years a member of the board of directors of the First National Bank of Owego, and in that body, as well as in the vestry of St. Paul's, his views, opinions and propositions were listened to with respect, his sound judgment as well as his legally trained, acute mind rendering him a wise counselor as well as a safe leader. He rests in Evergreen Cemetery, remembered as the kindly, genial friend, the public spirited citizen, the loving son, husband and father.
Mr. Stanbrough married, January 27, 1904, Jane Barton, daughter of George W. and Mary (Watson) Barton, who sur- vives him with one daughter, Margaret.
GATES, John Warne, Manufacturer, Man of Affairs.
With the period in which American in- dustries expanded most rapidly, the name and fame of John W. Gates are insepara- bly associated. He wasn't a product of the time; he was one of the compelling forces that created new conditions. No captain of industry had a stronger person- ality. In many respects he was selfmade But his Americanism, his shrewdness, his generosity, his grit, he inherited. He came from a family that wasn't afraid.
For nine generations in America the Gates family persevered, despite adver- sity. Stephen Gates, who came from England to Massachusetts on the good ship "Diligent" and settled in Hingham in 1638, could trace his ancestry back ten generations to Thomas Gates, the sturdy squire of Higheaster and Thur- steubie. The grandson of this Thomas Gates was Sir Geoffrey Gates, a knight much celebrated in his day. Sir Geoffrey's
a warrior. To the two Sir Geoffreys were attached the chiefest titles ornamenting the Gates family tree. Yet from Thomas Gates onward, the Gates family in Eng- land, in each succeeding generation, was represented by men of substance and standing, men who championed their own opinions.
Tenth in descent from Thomas Gates, the squire of Higheaster, a man worthy of note in 1323, Stephen Gates, the founder of the Gates family in America, receives mention in the early history of Massachu- setts chiefly because of his force of char- acter.
From Stephen Gates, who first settled at Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1638, to John Warne Gates, who was born in Tur- ner Junction, now West Chicago, Illinois, on May 18, 1855, the story of the Gates family is like unto the annals of other pioneers. They migrated always west- ward not proceeding great distances, yet each generation generaly lived very near the edge of civilization. As wilderness after wilderness was penetrated to be con- quered, a succeeding Gates family was with the vanguard.
From Massachusetts Bay over the Blue Hills of Connecticut and from thence eventually to Otsego county, New York, the Gates family progressed. Warham Gates, born and raised in Otsego, moved to Ohio so soon as he attained manhood. At Parkham, Ohio, his son, Ansel Avery Gates, first saw the light. True to family tradition when he was grown, Ansel Avery went West to assist in subduing the wild country. Locating at the edge of the "big woods" in North Central Illi- nois, he confronted the difficulties that beset a farmer in a new region.
Ansel Avery Gates married into a family of American antecedents almost equal to his own. He wedded Mary
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Warne, the descendant of Thomas Warne who, arriving in America in 1682, was one of the twenty-four proprietors of the Eastern Division of New Jersey. Thomas Warne, the New Jersey proprietor, though. coming from Dublin, could count among his ancestors many noblemen and others that performed important service for Eng- land in the battle of Agincourt and else- where, inasmuch as the written genealogy of the Warnes begins with a bold-hearted hero who was made sheriff of Shropshire in 1066.
Mary Warne, who had a twin sister named Susan, was born in Warren county, New Jersey, on March 22, 1826. Through life she was distinguished for piety, kind- ness, and good deeds. Particularly, with the utmost truth, it could be said of her that she was all that a wife and mother should be. Members of the Gates family were bound together by ties of unusual affection. The wife of Ansel Avery Gates was best known as the mother of John W. Gates. The magnificent hospital at Port Arthur, Texas, which he richly en- dowed is her enduring memorial.
Ansel Avery Gates had four sons; the eldest, George W., was a volunteer in the Union army during the Civil War and gave his life for his country before he attained the age of twenty ; the next two, Gilford and Gilbert W., were twins. Gil- ford died in infancy; Gilbert W., at the age of nineteen, met a more tragic fate. Adventurous, self-reliant, keen to do busi- ness, Gilbert W. Gates had gone to Kan- sas. Returning, he had for a traveling companion an older man named Alex- ander Jester. To secure the team, wagon, goods and what money the young man had, Jester murdered Gates. Caught, tried, convicted and sentenced to be hung, Jes- ter managed to escape from the prison in Missouri where he was confined. For more than thirty years he remained at
liberty. Eventually he was met by his sister who recognized him, denounced him as a murderer and caused his arrest. Retried for the murder of Gilbert W. Gates, he again escaped punishment ; this time because Jester was eighty-one years old, the jury allowed him the benefit of a possible doubt as to his identity.
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