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 46
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Mr. Carroll was married. in Yonkers, on June 8, 1903, to Rose V. O'Brien, who was born June 8, 1879, one of the thirteen children of James and Catherine (Dolan) O'Brien, natives of Ireland. Mrs. Car- roll's father, upon coming to America, settled in Yonkers, where he followed for a time the trade of rustic maker. He later
entered Democratic politics and became an assessor. Her mother is still living and a resident of Yonkers.
Mr. Carroll was connected fraternally with many social societies and secret orders, some of which are here given. He was a member of the Troy Council of the Catholic Benevolent Legion, and of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, and of the Knights of Columbus. Mr. Carroll was one of the organizers of the Yonkers Lodge of Moose, and its first dictator. He was also a member of the board of direc- tors of the City Club.
The character of Mr. Carroll was in all respects exemplary, possessing, as popu- lar opinion seems to indicate, not even those minor defects which are willingly and eagerly overlooked in a great and generous nature. He was essentially a home man, though he fulfilled all duties of a social nature incumbent upon a man in public life. In a quiet and unostenta- tious way he gave largely and freely to charity, and because of the quiet way in which he did go about all the details of his life the good which he did cannot be truly estimated. He was extremely popu- lar and had friends in all walks of life, to whom his tragic death as a comparatively young man at the meridian of a success- ful and highly useful career came as a shock, terrible and grievous. The tribute of Mayor Lennon, of Yonkers, to Mr Carroll voices but briefly and inadequate- ly the grief of the entire city at its be- reavement :
The sudden and tragic death of Mr. Carroll was a great shock to me. He was a dear personal friend. As a public official he was zealous and competent. The city has lost a faithful and de- voted public servant. It is significant that even his untimely end came while engaged in the affairs of his office. His characteristic good humor and wit, as well as his other personal quali- ties endeared him to a very large circle of friends to whom his death is a severe blow.
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Upon receiving the news of Mr. Car- roll's death, which occurred on January 7, 1915, in a fatal auto accident while he was about the city's business in one of its own cars, the flags on the City Hall and City Club were lowered and kept at half- mast.
SNYDER, William Wallace, Public-Spirited Citizen,
Prominent in the commercial world of New York and New Jersey, was William Wallace Snyder, whose death on Febru- ary 10, 1915, at the age of sixty-seven years, removed from Mount Vernon, New York, one of its most prominent and pub- lic-spirited citizens and one who had iden- tified himself with its interests most closely.
William Wallace Snyder was born Au- gust 1, 1847, at Orange, New Jersey, a son of John and Almira (Andruss) Snyder, of that city. His paternal grand- parents came from Germany to this coun- try, being the first of this branch of the family to locate here. He spent the years of his childhood and early youth in Orange and there received the prelimi- nary portion of his education, attending the private schools of the city and the Newark Academy. In early youth Mr. Snyder had decided to follow the law as a profession, and with this view he ma- triculated at the New York University and took the law course there. He proved an apt student in this subject and was graduated with honors, but although emi- nently fitted by gifts and acquirements for this profession, Mr. Snyder did not persevere in his practice for any length of time. His attention had become engaged with the mercantile opportunities opened to him in that part of the country and while still a comparatively young man he engaged in the dry goods business, open-
ing four stores, one in Newark, and three in Trenton, New Jersey. He later sold his Newark branch and devoted his time to his three stores in Trenton. His suc- cess in this enterprise was great, the stores prospering highly from the outset. Mr. Snyder's business foresight was un- usually accurate and it was due to his capable management that the business in both places grew to such large propor- tions. He was enabled, after a number of years spent in this occupation, to retire entirely from active business life, and upon his retirement he came to Mount Vernon, New York, and there established his permanent home, at No. 127 Elm ave- nue ; he also had a summer home called "Sunset Hall," at Bedford Hills. New York. He remained a resident of Mount Vernon up to the time of his death, tak- ing an extremely active part in the affairs of his adopted city. He was a leader in many important movements there and be- came a conspicuous figure in Mount Ver- non's general life. He was greatly in- terested in all military matters and a strong advocate of military training for boys and worked practically for his ideal. He became the captain of what was known as the Boys' Brigade, a local or- ganization with many of the ideals of the later Boy Scouts. The Boys' Brigade was connected with the First Presby- terian Church of Mount Vernon, of which Mr. Snyder was a devoted member. He was also prominent in fraternal circles and was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. By right of his mother's lineal descent, he was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution ; likewise all his children are member of the Revolutionary societies. Late in life he joined the Episcopal church and at- tended the Church of the Ascension of that denomination at Mount Vernon.
Mr. Snyder married, March 5, 1898, at
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Buffalo, New York, Sarah Whiteneack, daughter of Alfred and Eliza (Hill) Whiteneack, old and highly respected residents of Pleasant Valley, Mercer county, New Jersey. To Mr. and Mrs. Snyder five children were born, as fol- lows: Helen, September 7, 1899, at Irving- ton, New Jersey; William W., January 29, 1901, at Mount Vernon, New York ; Andrew T., March 18, 1902, at Mount Vernon; Gretchen S., October 6, 1905; Edward H., November 12, 1906, both of the latter children being born at Bedford Hills, New York.
William Wallace Snyder brought to the shaping of his career a very happy and unusual combination of character- istics, which won for him his success as a business man and his still greater success as a man. Underlying the rest of his personality and serving as the surest and most imperishable foundation for it, was that strong, practical morality that has so distinguished the hardy race of which he was a descendant. His philanthropy was great and sprang from the sincere kind- ness of his heart, which embraced all men in its regard, and from the culture and enlightenment of his mind which gives intelligence and definite direction to his natural altruism. Closely correlated to this was his sturdy democracy, not in- compatible with a healthy pride in the long line of worthy forbears. In spite of his strong social instincts, he was a man of intense domestic feelings who took his greatest pleasure in the intimate relations of the home and family, and made himself beloved by those who were thus closely associated with him. He had many friends and among them, as in the com- munity at large, he exerted a powerful in- fluence which was always wielded on the side of right and justice.
BARRY, Patrick,
Horticulturist, Financier.
Patrick Barry was the son of an Irish farmer and was born near the city of Bel- fast, Ireland, in 1816. He received a liberal education, and at the age of eighteen became a teacher in one of the Irish national schools. After having taught two years he resigned and re- solved to make the United States his future home and country. Accordingly, in 1836, he came to New York and short- ly after his arrival was offered a clerkship by the Princes, celebrated nurserymen of the period, at Flushing, Long Island, which he accepted. He remained with them four years, during which time he acquired a practical knowledge of the nursery business. In 1840 he removed to Rochester, and in July of that year formed a partnership with George Ellwanger, which continued to the time of his de- mise. The firm of Ellwanger & Barry established, upon seven acres of ground as a beginning, what are now of vast ex- tent and world-wide fame, "The Mount Hope Nurseries," which, transplanted in every State and territory of the Union and in foreign lands, have made the im- press of Patrick Barry's genius upon the face of the earth. His industry was one of genuine production of wealth from the soil. Its creations from nature have, in their fruits and flowers, and trees and shrubs, ministered to those senses of man whose gratification refines life and makes it enjoyable, and it is a pleasure to know that it was duly rewarded by a rich return.
While building up this great industry Mr. Barry acted well many other parts. His pen was not idle. To the instruction and influence flowing from it is horticul- ture much indebted for its advancement during sixty years in this country. Fol-
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lowing many miscellaneous contributions to the literature of that particular field, Mr. Barry, in 1852, published his first popular work, "The Fruit Garden." The edition was soon exhausted and another and larger one followed in 1855. In 1852 "The Horticulturist" passed from the hands of Luther Tucker into those of James Vick, and was removed from Al- bany to Rochester in order that the la- mented Downing, drowned in the "Henry Clay" disaster on the Hudson river, might be succeeded in its editorial chair by Mr. Barry, who conducted it several years and until its purchase by the Messrs. Smith, of Philadelphia. Mr. Barry's chief and most valuable work, however, was his "Catalogue of the American Pomological Society," which is the accepted guide of American fruit growers and is regarded as standard authority throughout the world. But outside of the nursery and the sanctum Mr. Barry was no less busily and usefully engaged. Regular in habit and methodical in action, he was enabled to perform duties as varied in character as they were successful in result.
For more than twenty years he was president of the Western New York Hor- ticultural Society, which is the most pros- perous and important of its kind in the United States. He was president of the New York State Agricultural Society and a member of the board of control of New York State Agricultural Experimental Station. At times he filled offices of im- portance to the local community, such as alderman of the city and supervisor of the county and has frequently declined the tender of others. The Flour City Na- tional Bank, of which Mr. Barry was president and of which he was also direc- tor nearly from the outset, was one of the largest and most prosperous of financial institutions of Western New York. Be- sides the Flour City National Bank, Mr.
Barry was prominently identified with many other important enterprises of Rochester, filling such positions as presi- dent of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, president of the Rochester City & Brigh- ton Railroad Company, president of the Powers Hotel Company, president of the Rochester Gas Company, a trustee of the Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit Com- pany, member of the commission appoint- ed by the Legislature to supervise the elevation of the Central Railroad track through the city, etc. He aided largely in building up the central business prop- erty of Rochester, of which he was a con- siderable owner, and in developing the valuable water power of the lower falls of the Genesee river, connected with which he had large interests.
In all his walks Patrick Barry was an upright man,-a model of industry, in- tegrity and honor. No one in the city where he lived his busy and eventful life was held in higher esteem by his fellow citizens ; and the life of no man in Roches- ter furnished a better example or stronger incentive to the youth of the present day who would make for themselves a spot- less name and achieve enduring fame.
Mr. Barry married, in 1847, Harriet Huestis, a native of Richfield, Otsego county, New York. Eight children were born of this union, six sons and two daughters. Five sons and one daughter, the eldest, have passed away; the eldest son and the youngest daughter are liv- ing. Mr. Barry died June 23, 1890, and while fruit growing remains an industry of the country his memory will be cher- ished as the promoter of valuable knowl- edge along this line. In his home city, where he was widely known he had a very large circle of friends, and his own life was an exemplification of the Emer- sonian philosophy that "the way to win a friend is to be one."
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GILL, David,
Builder, Real Estate Operator.
It is a theory that receives a general acceptance that that part of a race of people which migrate to distant lands in search of freer institutions, fortune or even adventure, is among the most enter- prising portion of the community and is on the whole a most desirable class for a new country to give welcome to. If one will stop to consider the facts in the case he will receive a strong confirmation of this belief, for surely it is obvious that it requires no mean degree of courage to give up the familiar things that have sur- rounded us in youth and venture forth into a world that is strange to us, and, if we except those comparatively few in- dividuals which are obliged to do so be- cause they have made themselves so un- desirable as to be hunted from home, it is clear that those who leave are the pos- sessors of this courage, a characteristic that in itself is a strong recommendation. Our own country is surely the best in- stance of the truth of this contention, with its virile people, its constructive en- ergy, its immense optimism, springing, as we do, from nothing but just emi- grants from other lands. If an individual case were needed to lend additional weight to the theory, it would be difficult to find a better one than that of David Gill, the distinguished gentleman whose name heads this brief appreciation, who, himself an immigrant and a child of immi- grants, came to this country and became so closely identified with the life of his adopted community, Rondout, Kingston, New York, where his death on June 4. 1910, was felt as a very real loss by the entire community.
Born March 4, 1824, at Quebec, Canada, Mr. Gill was a son of Alexander and Jane (Kerr) Gill, natives of Ireland, who had
come from there to the western province in their youth. Mr. Gill spent his own child- hood in the city of his birth and there received his education, attending for this purpose the excellent schools of Quebec, where he proved himself an apt scholar and gave signs of that industry and in- telligence which so markedly character- ized him in later life and was the founda- tion of his great business success. After completing his schooling in Quebec he applied himself to mastering the trade of carpentry and with much success, making himself an expert in his craft so that he easily secured work in the city. His par- ents dying, Mr. Gill came to the United States in the year 1848, at the age of twenty-four, and settled in Rondout, Kingston, which was his home and the scene of his busy activities thereafter un- til the close of his life. He had entered the lumber business before leaving Can- ada and in this he continued, plying his trade as a carpenter also. He was a young man of small means when he came to this country, but his capacity for hard work and a quick, almost intuitive insight into business values soon pushed him for- ward into the first rank of the city's men of affairs. By dint of industry and thrift he soon began adding to his small capital and as soon as it became possible began to build small houses on his own account and sell them at moderate figures. In this venture he was very successful and was soon traveling the road to fortune. His method, as time went on, was to pur- chase undeveloped properties, preferably on both sides of a street, grade them and erect attractive houses upon them. His taste in designing these, together with the reputation that he soon earned of putting only the best of material and workman- ship into them, brought him ready pur- chasers and kept him busy building more. Indeed, there are few men who have done
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so much toward developing this section of the city on the most attractive and desirable lines as Mr. Gill. He never, in the pursuit of his own interests, forgot for a moment his obligations to the com- munity and it was always with this in sight that he carried on his developing operations, thus keeping up and improv- ing the general tone of the locality and greatly increasing real estate values there. After engaging in this enterprise for up- wards of thirty years, Mr. Gill gave it up and devoted his attention to another busi- ness that had grown up in connection with it. This was the sale of coal and cement, which he purchased by the boat load from other places and then retailed throughout the city. In 1893, at the age of sixty-nine years, Mr. Gill's health, which until then had been excellent, suc- cumbed to a severe rheumatic trouble which forced him to give up his active life. The great business that he had de- veloped was carried on by his eldest son, David Gill, Jr. The last seventeen years of Mr. Gill's life were spent in the midst of his family and in pursuance of less arduous duties than that of conducting his business operations. Though a man of leisure in one sense of the word, he was of far too active a nature to sink into idleness and took part in the social and religious life of the community to as great an extent as his painful malady permitted.
Besides his extremely important busi- ness activities, Mr. Gill had through all the years of his residence in Rondout been a prominent figure in the general life of the place. In politics, in the social circles, both club and military, he was well-known and his energetic work in the cause of education and the schools was of a kind to draw the grateful attention of his fellow citizens. He allied himself to the local organization of the Republican party, the principles and policies of which
he staunchly advocated, and did much to aid the Republican cause in the city. He was no seeker of office, but he did con- sent to take the candidacy for the asses- sorship of the city, was elected and held that post for three years. He was treas- urer of the school at Puckscookie for many years and under his skillful man- agement the affairs of that institution prospered greatly. In the year 1850 the military body known as the Jackson Rifles was organized in Kingston and Mr. Gill became a member. He was also a member for a considerable period of the fire company there. In the matter of religion he was a Presbyterian and great- ly interested in the welfare of the church of that denomination in Rondout, of which he was a faithful member.
In March, 1857, Mr. Gill was united in marriage with Isabella Caldwell, who was, like himself, a native of Canada, but whom he met and married in the Ameri- can city where both had made their home. Mrs. Gill was a daughter of Francis and Isabella Caldwell, natives of Scotland, who had come to Canada in their youth. To Mr. and Mrs. Gill were born four children as follows : I. David, Jr., who now conducts the great coal and cement busi- ness founded by his father; married Emma Steward, and they are the parents of five children: Earl, Ruth, Dorothy, Helen and Bessie. 2. Walter, now sur- rogate of Ulster county ; married Mar- garet Van Kurran, by whom he has had three children: Walter, LeRoy and Flla. 3. Thomas, late a successful practicing physician at Hobart, Delaware county, New York, but now deceased. 4. Alfonzo, died in infancy.
Mr. Gill was that type of man whose presence is most valuable in a commu- nity, the versatile man whose activities are of so varied an order that there is scarcely a department in the life of his
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fellow citizens in which he is not promi- nent. A man of enthusiastic, though quiet public spirit, who was ever ready and able to take the lead in any important movement undertaken with the commu- nity's interests in view. A generous and liberal giver to all good causes, he was highly respected by his fellows who felt keenly the obligation that the whole place were under to him. He was devoted to his own home and nothing gave so much or such unalloyed happiness as the inti- mate intercourse with his family and per- sonal friends about his fireside. That he was able to indulge this taste amply dur- ing his declining years was a fact on which he often dwelt with pleasure, and it was certainly a great compensation even for that most painful of afflictions, rheumatism, with which those years were burdened. The possessor, at once of the fundamental virtues, and a most attrac- tive personality, he gathered and held about him an unusually large and devoted circle of friends who felt and still feel that his death has left a gap quite impos- sible to fill.
VALENTINE, George, Business Man, Public Official.
In the carrying on of our public affairs we often find men of large capability who adequately perform the functions that the community entrusts to them and even men of brilliancy in some line of activity who are chosen to this or that office be- cause their capacities seem to be in line with the work to be done, but a real talent for public affairs as such is very unusual and almost invariably means advance- ment of a high order for its possessor. Such a talent, however, was the posses- sion of George Valentine, late of New Rochelle, New York, whose death there on February 27, 1915, was felt as a seri-
ous loss by the entire community, a talent for taking care of community affairs of any and every nature, for perceiving the real advantage for the city and seeking it with insistence amid all the confusion of political debate and the conflicting pur- poses of other men not so disinterested as he. In spite of the fact that he was but forty-three years of age, the record that Mr. Valentine had established in his city's service was equalled by very few, even among men who had completed the full measure of human life.
Born in New Rochelle, October 3, 1872, Mr. Valentine made that city his home during the whole of his all-too-brief life and it was there that his associations were all formed and his affection centered. He was the son of George and Jane (Golden) Valentine, old and well-known residents of the place, and it was there that he re- ceived his education, attending the ex- cellent local public schools for that pur- pose. Upon completing his studies, he entered politics and it was in this depart- ment of affairs that his career lay. In the year 1898, when about twenty-six years of age, he entered into partnership with his brother, William Valentine, and the two young men established themselves in a plumbing business in which they inet with eminent success. The location of this establishment was No. 11 Lawton street, and here Mr. George Valentine continued until the time of his death. The reputation which the young men won as men of the most scrupulous business integrity and probity, whose obligations were kept to the letter, was one of the principal factors in the great success that they had, another contributing cause be- ing the extremely attractive personality of Mr. Valentine.
One of the earliest connections with the public service of Mr. Valentine was that as a member of the New Rochelle Fire
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Department in which he quickly worked up to the post of captain in which he served for a number of years. His career in this organization was in a manner typical of his entire life, for in whatever sphere of action he found himself he en- tered into the work with so much enthu- siasm and spirit that he rendered himself invaluable to his fellows and rapidly rose to first place. He was elected a member of the fire commission in the year 1911, and quickly became chairman of the board and shortly afterwards, in the same year, he was the successful candidate to the City Council from the Third Ward. From that time until the close of his life he was returned to this body and during the period of his service there proved himself a most valuable and disinterested servant of the people. For a period of about fourteen months before his death he was president of the Council and in that ca- pacity became automatically a member of the board of estimate. He had proved himself one of the dominant factors in the Council and it was because of his inde- fatigable work and the recognition on the part of his fellow members that he was naturally a leader of men that he had been chosen president, and now on the board of estimate he was equally active and equally successful. In some ways his work on this body was the most valuable that he performed for the city, and al- though, of course, all men in such a position necessarily have their opponents, none were so bold as to call into question the sincerity of his intentions or the hon- esty of his methods. Certainly his con- stituents were most enthusiastic in their approbation and always stood behind him with their approval in all his policies and official acts. The same talent in practical affairs, the same power of a strong and attractive personality that made him so successful in his business, he applied to
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