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 49
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Born September 23, 1854, at New Orleans, Louisiana, Mr. Guion was a member of one of the splendid old French Huguenot families, so many of which are represented in that city. The Guions came from France, where they had lived in the city of La Rochelle from time im- memorial and settled in the great Hugue- not town of New Rochelle, New York, at an early date. It was from there that Mr. Guion's branch of the family moved to New Orleans while other branches are scattered throughout the country, several of them making their home in California. William Guion, of the Guion Steamship Line, between New York and Liverpool, is an uncle of the Mr. Guion of this sketch. His father was Elijah Guion and his mother before her marriage was Clara Deross, of New Orleans, a lady of Spanish origin.
Mr. Guion left New Orleans, the city of his birth, while still a youth and came to the North after completing his studies in the New Orleans schools. In the North he first lived in Brooklyn but afterwards moved to New York City where he be- came connected in a prominent capacity with the brokerage firm of Works, Strong & Company, on Wall street. He re- mained with this concern during the en- tire active period of his life and was high- ly successful in business. He moved to Mount Vernon, New York, in 1884, and made himself prominent at once in the life of that community where he belonged
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to many important clubs and organiza- tions. He was a member of the Hiawatha Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, and held the office of grand master there. He was also the grand master of the West- chester county branch. The members of his family possessed a strong taste for military matters, his father having been a chaplain in the regular army of the United States, and Mr. Guion joined the Twenty-third Regiment of Brooklyn, New York, National Guard. He was an Epis- copalian in his religious belief and was for a number of years vestryman of the Church of the Ascension of Mount Ver- non and superintendent of the Sunday school.
On September 16, 1882, Mr. Guion was married to Ella Duryee, of New York City, a daughter of Joseph W. Duryee and a member of a very old and honor- able New York family. Mrs. Guion's mother before her marriage was Eliza P. Beadel, a member of a very prominent Long Island family. Mr. Duryee was very prominent in the lumber business and for many years had offices at Cherry street, New York City, moving from there with the progress of business up-town to Thirty-fourth street on the East river, and was a prominent owner of real estate. He died in New York City in 1896 at the age of seventy-two years. His home stood on Forty-second street where the new building of the Corn Exchange Bank is now located. To Mr. and Mrs. Guion two children were born: Alfred Duryee, who married Arla Peabody, of Mount Vernon, and by her had two children, Alfred Pea- body and Daniel Beck; and Elsie May.
WYATT, Francis,
Consulting Chemist, Author.
The people of America is without doubt the most composite in the world to-day,
if not of any time recorded in history. Into this country has poured in an unending stream, the surplus populations of most of the countries of Europe, of many di- vergent races to be finally commingled here, where they shall form, as we ardent- ly believe and trust, the foundation of a new and virile race which will be the first since the aboriginal red men with a valid claim to the name American. But al- though there are so many varying ele- ments, each bringing with it its own par- ticular characteristics, yet there can be no question that there is a certain dominant quality or tone to the people of this land which seems to survive the successive inundations of foreign blood and asserts itself in the conduct of even the most out- landish after a certain period of residence here, and which very probably will char- acterize the coming American race. If one should inquire further as to what this character is, and where it has originated, it will be scarcely possible to avoid the conclusion that, even as in the earliest period of our colonization, we are still dominently English, that our traits, our institutions and customs, our whole social makeup have been derived from this source and that in spite of the fact that for many year we have drawn no recruits from England in comparison to the num- bers that have reached us from other sources, yet, even to-day, we may still confidently congratulate ourselves upon being essentially Anglo-Saxon. Of course, the natural birth increase has been great and has kept a much larger proportion of English blood in our veins than might have been supposed possible, but, in so far as our ideals and customs are concerned, there has been another factor at work. In the first place these ideals and customs are of an extremely definite character and of that positive type that is apt to impress itself upon others. Besides this it has
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always been the case that no matter how great the influx of aliens, these have al- ways been comparatively few to the great mass of the population already impressed with these ideals, so that they too could soon absorb them and be ready in their turn to proselytize among the next group to arrive upon our shores. While this is true, it is always pleasant to welcome to- day additional members of the great people to whom we owe so much of our national life and character, as additional leaven, as it were, for the alteration of the great mass of outlanders forever reaching the United States. More especially should this welcome be a warm one when those who come are of the very best type of their countrymen, men of character and action, intelligence and culture, the most effective unity possible to uphold and make prevail those ideals, that habit of mind in which so many repose our faith for the future of the country. Such a man was the late Francis Wyatt, of Forest Hills, Long Island, and New York City, where, although he was a resident of this country less than half his life, he became most intimately identified with the life of his adopted community, so that his death on February 27, 1916, was felt as a severe loss throughout a very wide circle of friends.
Just as in an earlier age many of his own countrymen of the most cultured class came to this land to try their for- tunes here, so Mr. Wyatt in more recent times came to try his and with a success not less conspicuous than theirs. He was born in 1854, in Portsmouth, England. Mr. Wyatt's education was an unusu- ally complete one, his early studies be- ing conducted in Winchester, England, and he later traveled to various conti- nental cities where he pursued his stud- ies, especially in Brussels and Paris, re- maining ten years in the two cities. In
1887 he came to the United States and settled in New York City where he took up analytical chemistry and carried on business as a consulting chemist for a considerable period. He soon made a wide reputation as an authority on fer- mentation and ferments generally, and taught a junior class in this subject. About this time he wrote a book upon the phosphates of America and became a fre- quent contributor to the current scientific journals and periodicals, and greatly added to his reputation in this manner, his name becoming very well known in scientific circles and his audience a large one. He became a member of the Ameri- can Chemical Society and founded the Na- tional Brewers Academy with headquar- ters on West Twenty-third street, New York City, and was president of this in- stitution for many years. He was con- nected with many other important scien- tific societies and organizations, among which should be noted especially: The Association for the Advancement of Sci- ence, The British Brewing Institute, and numbers of others of national and inter- national importance.
As a scientist the prominence of Mr. Wyatt was great, but he did not confine his interests and activities to his own pro- fession or even to scientific matters gen- erally. On the contrary, he was unosten- tatiously prominent in the social and club life of this part of the country and be- longed to the most important organiza- tions of this kind in more than one city. He was a member of such representative bodies as the Lambs' Club of New York, the University Club of Philadelphia and the Algonquin Club of Boston. But it was not merely as a formal member of these and other similar organizations that Mr. Wyatt played a part in the social life of the community. He was by nature a charming and genial companion and host
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and he won for himself a remarkably large circle of most devoted friends, who prized his companionship as a privilege. The life of Mr. Wyatt was spent very quietly in his beautiful home at Forest Hills, Long Island, and it was here that he found his greatest happiness, in the intimate inter- course of his household. His chief recre- ation was travel and he was most happily situated to indulge this taste, his work be- ing of a kind that permitted absences from it on his part. During the middle and latter portions of his life, he went nearly every year upon some journey for his pleasure and relaxation, visiting many foreign countries besides various parts of his adopted one, and few better travel- ed men than he was are to be found. The same qualities that made Mr. Wyatt so highly successful in his profession and in scientific matters generally, gave him dis- tinction in other matters of intellect and taste. He was, for instance, an accom- plished musician and a keen and able critic, in that and other arts. He was a great reader and his taste covered a wide range in literature, but his particular hobby was the stories of Dickens, with all of which he was very familiar, holding their author in the profoundest admira- tion. The last two years of his life were somewhat troubled by ill health, but this he did not allow to interfere with his work or other activities until two months before his death it became so marked that he was obliged to submit to it. His cour- age and patience, his honest enthusiasm and good cheer, he maintained to the very end so no one remembers him otherwise than in the full possession of those facul- ties which endeared him to all his associ- ates.
Mr. Wyatt was married, in 1890, to Helen Neville, of Quebec, Canada. Mrs. Wyatt survives her husband and is still a resident of Forest Hills.
VAN HOUTON, Erskine, Man of Affairs.
Little as the majority of people are prone to admit it, talent is a common thing, especially in a democracy such as this country, where the faculties and qualities of men are allowed full development, nay, if they are of a high order fostered, and their possessors aided in their efforts to succeed by a community anxious to avail itself of every man's capabilities. Yes, talent is a common thing among us and it is even true that the average man is talented in some direction or another al- though it does not always appear for lack of opportunity. What is not so generally found, however, is a variety of talents in one and the same person, the person we speak of as versatile and to whom we can trust a great multiplicity of things in the confident assurance that they will all be attended to with good judgment and dis- cretion. Now and then, however, such a man appears and it is rare indeed, if his talents be not totally out of harmony with the ideals and standards of the age, that he does not make a great success of life and come to a position of prominence in the regard of his fellows. Such a man was Erskine Van Houton, the distin- guished gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch, who won distinction in busi- ness and as the head of a great educa- tional institution and whose death on March 18, 1915, was a loss at once to the community where he made his home. Mount Vernon, New York, and to the great city of New York, the scene of his principal activities.
Erskine Van Houton was born March 8, 1853, in New York City, and there made his home with his parents, Henry and Rachel (Ury) Van Houton, highly hon- ored residents of that place, during his boyhood attending the local public schools
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where he gained a splendid education. Upon completing his schooling, he formed a partnership with John Banta, of New York, and engaged in the building and contracting business there. In this enter- prise they were very successful from the outset and built up a large trade of the best type and of a highly remuner- ative character. He became very well known in the city as a skilled contractor to whom might be entrusted any kind of work and who, to his ability to accom- plish it, united the most strict integrity which impelled him to do his best by each customer. Indeed his policy of living up to the spirit of his contract as well as to the letter was one of the chief factors in the success that came to him. Later he removed to Mount Vernon and there made his home until the time of his death.
It was undoubtedly due to his reputa- tion as a man of business and affairs that he first became connected with the other department in which he won distinction, that of education. He had always been keenly interested in educational matters, especially in that practical kind of educa- tion to which schools are turning more and more to-day and which has for its object the fitting of boy or girl for the actual struggle of life by instructing them in trades and various handicrafts. This interest, which was well known, added to his business ability, was what caused his name to be mentioned in connection with the general superintendency of the great New York Trade Schools situated at Sixty-seventh street and First avenue in the city, when the question of filling that office arose. The post was finally offered him and he accepted at once, feel- ing that it was one in which he could do a great service to the community gener- ally and put into practice a number of his theories which he felt sure would aid the movement materially. The problem
which rested on his shoulders in his as- sumption of his post was indeed a vast one, consisting as it did of that of bring- ing hope and opportunity into the lives of that innumerable multitude of children that is forever struggling up to a partial manhood and womanhood and as con- stantly renewed in the great "East Side" of the city. Perceiving, as he did, the threat that such an unguided growth as that which the average poor child re- ceives constituted to the future of the community, Mr. Van Houton threw him- self heart and soul into his task of in- creasing the power of each child in the school to meet the well-nigh overwhelm- ing problems which were offered to them by life, to increase the personal coeffi- cient, to give knowledge and the con- fidence that springs from knowledge to all. Of no man can it be said that he has solved this problem, for it is a problem that in its very nature must continue as long as poverty and its attendant evils shall endure, but of some it may be said, and of Mr. Van Houton among the num- ber, that they gave their best endeavors to its solution and did much to alleviate conditions in the case of those who came under their immediate observation. All his life he remained intensely interested in these trade schools and his incumbency in the office of general superintendent was the occasion of many improvements being added to their equipment and a general development in the efficiency of the institution.
Mr. Van Houton was one of those men whose energy is so great that they take upon their shoulders all manner of obli- gations and duties, yet always seem able to discharge them. Besides his work as school superintendent and his somewhat exacting business, he found time to mingle in the general life of the commu- nity and in some of its departments to
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take a conspicuous part. He was active in the social and club circles and was a member of several important organiza- tions. His interest in the problems of the working man was always keen and he was a prominent member of the Me- chanics' Society, and he was also a mem- ber of the Building Society. In the matter of religion Mr. Van Houton was brought up in the Dutch Reformed church, but in later years he joined the Methodist church and during the re- mainder of his life was a faithful at- tendant on divine service at the church of that denomination in Mount Vernon.
In 1887 Mr. Van Houton was united in marriage with Clara K. Gregor, of New York City, a daughter of William and Katherine Gregor, old residents of the city. To Mr. and Mrs. Van Houton were born five children as follows: Richard, Erskine, Leonard, Katherine and Clarence.
Erskine Van Houton was one of that extremely valuable type of man in which are combined high ideals and a capacity for practical affairs, for, in the modern vernacular, "getting things done." A valuable type because, in contrast with some of his fellows to-day, the things that he gets done are things very well worth while doing, not only from the standpoint of his own personal interests, but from that of the community's generally. To him does the city, and especially that great element of the poor and downtrod- den whom he labored so many years to aid, owe a great debt of gratitude difficult to discharge.
LOWN, David,
Business Man.
To a certain class of men the idea, much less the reality of dependence, beyond a certain point on the will and inclinations in any relation in life of another, is in-
tolerable. The ability and hence the sheer necessity for controlling power is para- mount in them and interference is rancor- ous. But let it not be implied that these men are blind to the necessity for man- agement. They recognize the fact that without it all would be chaos, wherefore are they the more ambitious to attain to it. To the inferior mind, direction as to where it shall apply its energies, and as to how it shall apply them, is indispen- sable. Responsibility is a thing unde- sired, much less sought after. This is un- hesitatingly relegated to those men whose aim and hope it is-the men upon whom the restraint of supervision is degrading to themselves in their own eyes, and therefore galling. These men are the or- ganizers, the masters whose creative in- tellects provide the material upon which the underling does the mechanical work. With the ideal of achievement in the future as their goal, they sacrifice un- daunted to their hope, silently striving toward the independence which is the essential factor in their lives and happi- ness. A mere principle impossible except to a chosen few, laudable but the cause of unrest among the majority, you may say! The answer is,-Yes, but it is the spirit which made possible this free land of ours !
A man whose life was one long and ardent dedication to this principle, which he held as sacred, was David Lown, a representative and important citizen of the city of Poughkeepsie, New York. Mr. Lown was the son of Jacob Lown, and was born in the town of Red Hook, Dutchess county, New York, in the year 1820. His boyhood was spent in his na- tive town, where he received his educa- tion, which, because of his distaste for the inactivity of school life, stopped when he reached the age of seventeen. At this time he went to New York City and there
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commenced to learn the trade of cooper- ing. His work was interrupted, but soon after assumed, and the course of his train- ing in his trade finished at Nyack in Rock- land county, New York. This work he followed for some years as a journeyman. David Lown's young manhood covered that wonderful period following the War of 1812, when the whole country went for- ward apace, when the merchant marine grew and spread its influence into the farthest ports, bringing in its wake in- creased commerce, prosperity and na- tional advance. The spirit of progress entered him as it did every true son of the soil and desire for independent pursuits was rampant in him. Finally, in 1845, he grasped the opportunity extended to him and established himself independently in a manufacturing line of the trade which he had learned. This was at Barrytown, Dutchess county, New York, and in 1857 he removed to Poughkeepsie, New York, and there engaged in the same industry on a larger scale at the Whale Dock, the firm which he established being at one time known as Lown & Paulding. In 1871 Mr. Lown erected the present fine cooperage plant in Bridge street, and was actively identified with this enterprise un- til the time of his death. He was honored and respected as only a gentleman of impeccable honesty and wise and judici- ous business ability can be honored by his employees, who numbered in the neigh- borhood of fifty for many years. To these he was a fatherly friend and adviser as well as competent employer.
On July 9, 1845, Mr. Lown married Jane Maria Coon, daughter of Jacob and Elizabeth (Rockefeller) Coon, of Cler- mont. Mrs. Lown died January 28, 1916. Six children survive them.
Mr. Lown was a member of the frater- nal order of Masons, which took charge of his funeral, and was also a member of
Steam Engine Company, No. 4, of Pough- keepsie, which placed its flag at half-mast out of respect to his memory. Though he had no other fraternal connections the circle of his friends at all times was very large. He possessed that magnetism of personality which becomes an important factor in the making of friends of the ac- quaintances of business, as well as those met in social life. The sterling qualities of his character, the generosity of his na- ture and the openness and fairness of all his dealings made him a man sought as a confidant and adviser by all manner of men. His influence in the city was one for good and for municipal advance and he was at all times active in its interests and reforms, a benefactor whose loss was a serious one. The death of Mr. Lown occurred after an illness of long duration, at his home on North Clover street, Poughkeepsie, May 23, 1877.
MYERS, William Everett, Representative Citizen.
We are always duly interested and properly impressed by the success won by unusual talents and powers out of the common ; it appeals to a very fundamen- tal trait in all of us, the account of the exploits of others more gifted than our- selves; we find it vastly entertaining to read of some coup which we feel utterly beyond the reach of our own humble abilities, we are delighted at hearing a report of how St. George disposed of the dragon. But it may be questioned if such matters are of as really vital interest to us, certainly they are not so important, as that other class of record which describes how worth has won its way upward, through doubts and difficulties, from humble beginnings to a recognized place in the regard of men, and trusted to no power but its own indomitable courage
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and indefatigable patience for the result. It is in the latter kind rather than the for- mer that a lesson is contained for the rest of us, and it is a story not uncommon in this western land of ours. Like many of the other common things of life, however, it is perennially inspiring and with each repetition, each reappearance under new circumstances we feel a reawakened sym- pathy, a renewed wonderment regarding the forces and traits of character that have thus triumphed over obstacles and difficulties, and a strengthened determin- ation to emulate them. Such an example we may find in the life of William Everett Myers, of Yonkers, New York, who by sheer perseverance and hard work gradu- ally forced his way upward from the posi- tion he held to one of influence and con- trol in the financial and industrial world.
William Everett Myers was born at Rhinebeck, New York, April 5, 1865. He was a son of Virgil and Gertrude (Cole) Myers, old and highly respected residents of that place, who were the parents of two other children: Anna, died at the age of seventeen years. David, married Eliza- beth Niffen, of Yonkers; he was con- nected like his brother, William E., with the Otis Elevator Company; he died in 1912; they had one child, Gertrude. The youthful associations of William Everett Myers are not with Rhinebeck, however, but with Yonkers, New York, whither he moved with his parents at the age of five years. It was here also that he received his education, attending the excellent pub- lic schools of the city for that purpose and proving himself an ambitious student. Immediately after leaving school he secured a position with the Otis Elevator Company of Yonkers, New York, the largest concern engaged in this business in the world. Mr. Myers' association with the Otis people was a most satisfactory one for all concerned and he rapidly
worked his way up the ladder until he became superintendent of the costs and stocks department of the company. For twenty-three years he remained with the Otis Company and it was only his death, which occurred on September 1, 1915, which severed the connection.
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