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 54
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COTTRELL, George Williamson, Publisher.
The accident of birth places some men at the top of the ladder and some men at the foot, and it is rarely the case that the men who become the world's leaders start other than on the lowest rung. The re- spect of every self-respecting man is
given to him who starts at the zero point, with no assets except ability and purpose, and arrives at a position of appreciable importance in the scheme of things.
Such a man was the late George Wil- liamson Cottrell, well-known publisher of Boston, Massachusetts, and for five years previous to his death a man of public importance in the town of Mount Vernon, which he was influential in incorporating as a city. Mr. Cottrell was born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1823, the son of Benjamin and Elizabeth Cottrell. He was one of thir- teen children, and came to America with the entire family in the year 1830. They settled in the lower part of New York City, where the family conducted a hotel for several years, on a site which is now an old landmark, namely, the corner of Cedar and Greenwich streets. George W. Cottrell attended the local schools, but his education was curtailed by the neces- sity of his becoming self-supporting at an early age. Upon leaving school he secured employment in various mercantile estab- lishments in the city, but gave up this line of work because he saw that it offered no opportunities of advancement to a man without capital. He later became associ- ated with the John Mclaughlin Com- pany, publishers of children's books and games. This was his first connection with the publishing business with which he was connected for the remainder of his business life. A few years later, after he had become thoroughly acquainted with the details of the business, he went to Boston. Here he started in publishing for himself, under the firm name of George W. Cottrell. This business he conducted until the time of his retire- ment in 1890, a prosperous, successful venture at No. 36 Cornhill. During his residence in Boston Mr. Cottrell became associated with the most prominent and influential men of the city, many of whom
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became his fast friends. His place in the business and social life of Boston, where he spent the greater part of his life, was an honored and respected one. In 1890 Mr. Cottrell retired from business, and returning to New York State settled in Mount Vernon, which at that time was merely a village on the outskirts of New York City. Relieved of the necessity of constant participation in business affairs, Mr. Cottrell entered immediately into the public life of the village, and became closely identified with its civic affairs. Mr. Cottrell worked earnestly for the in- corporation of Mount Vernon as a city, and was one of the men most influential in gaining that end. Mount Vernon since that time has grown enormously in both population and industry, whereby proving the sagacity of the judgment of the men who foresaw the possibilities of the little village. Mr. Cottrell was active also in community welfare work.
Mr. Cottrell was twice married. His second wife was Mary Eliza Tisdale, a daughter of Leonard and Ann (Engel) Tisdale, of Dowagiac, Michigan. Their children are: Marie P .; Bertha, married Lyndon Lee; Grace Williamson; George Williamson. Mrs. Cottrell survives her husband and resides at No. 54 Glen ave- nue, Mount Vernon.
Mr. Cottrell's death occurred on Feb- ruary 19, 1895, in his seventy-second year. In his five years' residence in Mount Ver- non he had become widely known, loved and respected, and his death was a cause of genuine sorrow to a vast number of friends.
TIER, Daniel,
Enterprising Citizen.
It has been said of these United States of ours that they have produced no famous liars; which statement is as true
as it is complimentary. Our tendencies as a race are not Machiavellian, nor can we name a character analagous with Bar- on Munchausen. We have had, neverthe- less, our diplomats and have sustained nobly and to our conspicuous advantage our affairs international and domestic, al- ways without resort to double dealing, criminal subtlety, and satanic strategy. Fairness of dealing, sterling character, high moral purpose, worthy aims, no ad- vance or gain at the expense of the weak and defenceless, these have been the goal of America, the rock on which she has built. Is it any wonder then that we have in our new and clean life put forth none to equal Machiavelli and Munchausen, products of an aged and then degenerate civilization.
A true son of America, and a man who devoted his life to an earnest effort to live up to her ideals, and to repay his debt for the wonderful opportunities which she offers every man, was the late Daniel Tier, one of the most prominent realty men of his time in Westchester county, and intimately connected with its de- velopment and growth.
Daniel Tier was born in New York City, September 19, 1825, the son of Jere- miah and Euphemia (Hunt) Tier. He attended the local schools in Westchester county, and after completing the course offered by them entered the academy at White Plains. Upon his graduation from that institution he immediately went into business for himself, engaging in a mer- cantile line, in what is now Williams- bridge, a part of New York City, but at that time was known as Williamsbridge, New York. He continued in this occupa- tion for a period of twelve years, at the expiration of which time he entered into the business of the cultivation of flowers, conducting an establishment at Wood- lawn. While engaged in this business he
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became interested in real estate, and after eight years he abandoned his business as a florist and devoted his entire time there- after to realty development. Mr. Tier dealt largely with the development of Westchester, in New York City, and in this pursuit he was one of the earliest men to become prominent. This section, which now teems with population and is now a centre of almost every form of ac- tivity, was at the time when Mr. Tier was engaged in its development comparative- ly unsettled. New York had, in fact, gone only a short distance above the district called Harlem.
On October 13, 1847, Mr. Tier married Susan A. Bussing, of Yonkers, New York, daughter of John and Susan (Briggs) Bussing, members of an old and respected New York family. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Tier are: I. Daniel. 2. Susan, deceased. 3. Mary, married Thom- as C. Arnow and resides in Westchester, New York City. 4. Jeremiah, deceased. 5. Euphemia, deceased. 6. John, deceased. 7. Charles A., living in Mount Vernon, Chester Hill ; he was formerly engaged in the flor- ist business at Woodlawn, now engaged in the real estate business at Mount Vernon, also a builder of houses ; married Jenny L. Arnow. 8. Gertrude, deceased. 9. Irving, died October 1, 1913; after finishing his education he engaged in business pursuits, accumulating thereby a goodly compe- tence.
Mr. Tier's death occurred on Septem- ber 5, 1888.
After all is taken into consideration, our standing in the eyes of our fellows is ex- actly what we make it, no higher and no lower. Men of ability are keen judges of character, and the appreciation of the fair minded is given where it is due. It may without exaggeration be said that in the esteem of his associates in business, in the circle of his friends socially, in all the
gamut of human relations, Daniel Tier held a position high as it was deserved and enviable.
COWLING, John Thomas, Valued Member of Society.
Probably there has never been a period of history nor a part of the earth's surface where so much has been done to alter the material aspect of human life as the sec- ond half of the nineteenth century and the northern half of that part of the United States that lies along the Atlantic seaboard. Causes too numerous even to enumerate here, far less to dwell upon, were responsible for the most remarkable development of the power of mechanical invention, of the application of the new scientific knowledge to the material needs of life, with the result that there sprang up a well nigh infinite number of brilliant inventions, devices of all sorts, the use of which so distinctly marks the life of to-day from that of all other epochs of the world's history. Among these, however, a few inventions stand out as of paramount im- portance, centers, as it were, about which are grouped thousands of other inven- tions, the object of which is but to modify and improve the use of the great mechani- cal principles that had then found its first application. Such, for instance, was the invention of the steam locomotive and the cotton gin and such was the application of electricity to the transmission of power, at first in the discovery of the telegraph and telephone and later on a scale that made possible the operation of machinery at a distance from the origin of the en- ergy. It was with the early history of the telephone, that epoch-making inven- tion, that John Thomas Cowling, the dis- tinguished gentleman whose name heads this brief appreciation, was so closely identified. Mr. Cowling in his youth was
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intensely interested in these inventions and became associated with the practical extension of the systems which were then but beginning to make their way in the business world. The service that he rendered in this connection was of a very marked order and extended into a number of different neighborhoods in Pennsyl- vania and New York and continued un- brokenly up to the time of his death at the age of forty-nine years, on September 18, 1912, so that this sad event was felt as a loss by a large proportion of the community.
John Thomas Cowling was not an American by birth, having been born in England, near the border of Wales, De- cember 21, 1862, a son of William and Jane (Jones) Cowling. His family was an old and prominent one in that region, the members of which had for many gen- erations taken an active and conspicuous part in public affairs. When he was three years of age his parents came to the United States and settled in the great anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania, at first near the town of Shamokin and later at Wilkes-Barre. In the latter place the lad received his education, attending the excellent public schools of the city and proving himself an apt and intelligent pupil. It was during this period that he began to develop the keen interest he felt in electricity that he afterwards turned to such practical account. Upon leaving school, he secured a position as night operator and manager of the first tele- phone company in that section of the State and thus commenced his long con- nection with this great business at a time when it was in its infancy. For several years Mr. Cowling was connected with the Excelsior Electrical Company, taking charge of the construction work and superintending the installment of new plants in various points in that region,
among which should be mentioned Dan- ville, Freeland and Plymouth. He re- mained in the employ of that company until he attained the age of twenty-six, gaining an intimate acquaintance with the practical side of the business and per- fecting his theoretical knowledge until he was an expert in his line. In 1888 he re- moved to Philadelphia, severing his con- nection with the Excelsior Electrical Company which afterwards was absorbed in the great trust that has grown out of the merging of the separate and opposed interests in the field. In Philadelphia he was employed by the Powelton Com- pany of that city in the same line of work, but in the responsible position of super- intendent of that large concern, with which he remained for more than ten years. In 1900 he took up his residence in Tarrytown, New York, and there made his home for about six months, having received an offer of the position of chief electrical engineer in the great Westches- ter Lighting Company, his work there be- ing a brilliant success. From Tarrytown he moved to New Rochelle and thence, after about two years, to Mount Vernon, which became his permanent home.
Mr. Cowling took a conspicuous part in the various departments of the com- munity's life besides that of business, and he was a prominent citizen in each of the places where he made his home. He was a Baptist in religion and a valued mem- ber of that church in Mount Vernon and had served as trustee for a number of years. He was active in social circles and especially so as a member of the Masonic order, in which he took many of the highest degrees. He was a member of Hiawatha Lodge, Free and Accepted Ma- sons; Royal Arch Masons; Royal and Select Masters; Knights Templar ; Mecca Temple, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and all the local Masonic bodies.
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On December 25, 1893, Mr. Cowling was united in marriage with Grace M. Sturdevant, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylva- nia, a daughter of Sinton and L. Augusta (Stilwell) Sturdevant, of that city. Mrs. Cowling is a member of the old and hon- ored Sturdevant family that for more than a hundred years has lived in and about Wilkes-Barre and has been so prominently identified with its growth and development. To Mr. and Mrs. Cow- ling two children were born, as follows: Donald, now employed in the Westches- ter Lighting Company; and Grace, who makes her residence in Mount Vernon with her mother.
The brilliant career of Mr. Cowling was abruptly cut short by his untimely death before he had reached his fiftieth year and just at the time of life when his powers were at their prime. Begun as it had, it certainly gave the flattering prom- ise for a future that he was, unfortunate- ly, never to know. A pioneer in one of the largest and most important of the business enterprises of the country, a business that in its nature is more than a business and really forms one of the essential functions of modern society, he had already won a place for himself, a place in the regard of the community that might well be envied by those who had enjoyed their full three score years and ten. Neither was it through any mere fortunate combination of circumstances that this achievement came about, but purely through his own efforts, for Mr. Cowling deserved in the highest degree the only title that passes current in demo- cratic America, that of self-made man.
McNELLIE, William E., Architect, Builder.
During the comparatively brief years in which this country has enjoyed existence
as a Nation, the immense scale of the practical problems that it has had to solve has in a measure turned its thoughts from other things so that many of those things in which peoples of a more leisurely habit of life excel in have been to some extent neglected here. In conquering a Conti- nent we have found no time to devote to those sides of life that are generally con- sidered to give it its final beauty and grace, such, for instance, as the arts and all those matters which have no very definite material results, which do not lead to things tangible, that we can han- dle and measure. In some quarters this has grown from a mere unconscious neglect to something like a contempt for anything merely beautiful, and there are some who actually pride themselves on their indifference to these things. Among the majority, however, it is simply a very natural and excusable preoccupation with other things, the things that properly should come first, the necessities of phy- sical life. There is one exception to this rule in so far as the arts are concerned, however, and architecture, profiting by its dual character as an art and as one of the most elementary of practical crafts, has flourished. There are some critics who will not grant even this and claim that though there is much building here, archi- tecture, properly so-called, is conspicuous chiefly in its absence. There is, of course, a certain basis for this unkind criticism for the same interest in practical problems has led us to consider this side, rather than that of the beautiful, in our struc- tures, but in architecture, the two are so intimately related that it is impossible to deal with either without considering the other, since there, if anywhere, that defi- nition of beauty is true which considers it merely as fitness for use. Certainly anyone who beholds the aspect of our great cities, and especially that of New
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York, cannot fail to be deeply impressed with a sense of the beautiful, the rugged- ly beautiful perhaps, yet none the less the beautiful, in the vast and beetling piles, so strikingly appropriate to their purpose, that rise as the very stronghold of wealth and. power that they are; nor can any- one who is acquainted with the facts deny that we have produced men of high artis- tic achievement as he recalls the names of those who have labored in this field. A worthy member of this professional brotherhood, and one who was concerned in the erection of some of the great New York buildings, was William E. Mc- Nellie, late of New Rochelle, New York. whose death in the Post-Graduate Hos- pital in New York City, on April 12, 1915, removed an active and public-spirited citizen from both communities.
Born August 18, 1854, in Mt. Diablo, Contre Costa, California, a son of William E. and Margaret (Jardine) McNellie, William E. McNellie possessed many of the strong and enterprising qualities fos- tered in the virile West. He passed the years of boyhood and early youth in his native region and there gained an ex- cellent education. When fourteen years old he came to the East and settled in the city of New Rochelle, New York, which was his home from that time until the close of his life, although his business was carried on in the metropolitan center, New York. Greatly interested in the sub- ject of architecture, Mr. McNellie sought an entrance into the ranks of that profes- sion here and was fortunate enough to become associated with the well-known firm of J. D. & J. Jardine, of New York City. For many years he remained in this association, rapidly rising to a post as supervising architect for the company, in which capacity he had charge of the erection of many important buildings in the city, among which should be mention- ed the great structure for the New York
"Times," one of the most imposing, both from design and location, in the city; the National City Bank Building and the New York residence of Andrew Carnegie. Each of these is one of the most perfect examples of its particular kind of struc- ture in the city, the arrangement and equipment of the bank and the dwelling possessing a remarkable excellence. Be- sides his work in the city, Mr. McNellie did a great deal in his home town of New Rochelle and it was under his direction that the New Rochelle Hospital, the Na- tional City Bank of New Rochelle and the Public Library there, all large modern buildings of handsome design and admir- ably adapted to their uses, were erected. In both New York and New Rochelle Mr. McNellie was extremely well-known in building circles and was regarded as one of the leaders in his profession.
But Mr. McNellie did not allow his ac- tivities in his home city to be limited to his business interests. On the contrary he was active in many aspects of the community's life and was a leader in many movements undertaken with the advancement of the public interests in view. He was a conspicuous figure in the social life of the place and was a member of a number of prominent organizations, notably of Lenox Council, No. 882, Royal Arcanum, of New York City. In the matter of religion Mr. McNellie was a Presbyterian, a member of the North Avenue Church of that denomination, and prominent in the work of the congrega- tion. Mr. McNellie erected a handsome mansion for himself on Argyle avenue, New Rochelle, and there dwelt during the remainder of his life, as do the members of his family at the present time.
On November 19, 1885, Mr. McNellie was united in marriage with Helen Beach. of New York City, a daughter of Henry and Louise (Wohning) Beach, old and highly respected residents of that place.
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To Mr. and Mrs. McNellie was born one child, William E., boat builder of Stam- ford.
The success of Mr. McNellie in his chosen profession was due to the posses- sion by him of a combination of virtues and talents greatly in demand in this world. At the basis of his character, as they are at the basis of all character that amounts to anything, were the funda- mental virtues of sincerity and courage, a sincerity which rendered him incapable of taking advantage of another and a courage that kept him cheerful and deter- mined in the face of all obstacles. To these he added a practical grasp of affairs and an idealism which kept his outlook fresh and his aims pure and high-minded. Both these qualities, it is hardly neces- sary to point out, are most valuable ones in the profession of architecture where, as has been already remarked, the practical and the artistic are so closely wedded. His work as an architect amply showed this happy union of qualities, combining as it did an intelligence in plan and ar- rangement with a beauty of design quite remarkable. In all the relations of his life, in all his associations with his fel- lows, these same qualities stood out in a marked manner and gained for him the admiration and affection of all who came in contact with him, even in the most casual way. In his family life his con- duct was of the highest type, a devoted husband and father who found his chief happiness in the intimate intercourse of his own household by his own hearth- stone.
CUNNINGHAM, James, Manufacturer, Philanthropist.
Among the captains of industry of the past generation, those who laid the foun- dations upon which was built the splendid industrial prosperity of the Rochester of
the present, the name of James Cunning- ham stands forth with a prominence not equalled by many. His was a life of busi- ness activity which contained no "labor lost," but one in which every movement championed by him was brought to a successful realization. He was the pro- moter, founder and prime factor in estab- lishing the extensive manufacturing busi- ness which is to-day conducted under the name of James Cunningham, Son & Com- pany, one of the leading industrial enter- prises of the city of Rochester.
Mr. Cunningham was born in County Down, Ireland, the fourth child in a fam- ily of five, which was bereft of the father when the children were still young, James being only five years of age. The mother, with the bravery of her race, decided to come to America, and bringing her little flock with her settled at Cobourg, Canada. Here the young lad was educated in the country schools, and in his spare time assisted to the best of his ability with the farm work. He early manifested a pro- clivity for the vocation in which he subse- quently was so successful, having a most decided fondness for working in wood, and also an unusual talent for designing. Under these circumstances it was readily seen that farm labor did not furnish the outlet for his energies and he sought em- ployment at carriage-making in Canada. After a visit to an uncle who was an arch- itect in New York, he passed through Rochester on his homeward way, stop- ping there for a brief period and engag- ing in work. He returned to Cobourg, but was convinced that the United States furnished a more satisfactory field of operation for business, and accordingly, in 1834, at the early age of nineteen years, he returned to Rochester. He then took up the carriage-making trade with a view to mastering it in every detail, and his perseverance, ambition and energy soon gained for him advancement as his ability
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and skill increased. In 1838 he became a member of a firm of carriage manufac- turers operating under the name of Kerr, Cunningham & Company. This was the nucleus of the present large enterprise, one of Rochester's most important busi- ness concerns. His next location was on Canal street, where he was a resident for a considerable period, and the present location of the James Cunningham, Son & Company carriage factory. The origi- nal purchase did not represent by any means the holdings of the present day, but subsequent additions have been made until now the grounds include four acres, while the buildings and equipment are among the most extensive of their kind in the world. The first factory building was erected in 1847 by Mr. Cunningham and others have been added as growth and increase in trade rendered their erec- tion necessary. The public was not slow in recognizing the excellence and dura- bility of their product and the firm gained a reputation for reliability and conse- quently a rapidly increasing business. Mr. Cunningham gave his personal super- vision to the work, not merely the finan- cial end of the enterprise, but also to the mechanical labor, and as a result of his study and investigation, combined with his inventive genius, he produced several machines which simplified the construc- tive process and at the same time brought forth better work than could have been secured by the old methods. As the busi- ness increased year by year the company found themselves not following the lead of other carriage manufactories, but were themselves setting the pace by introduc- ing many new styles of carriages, as well as more desirable methods of construc- tion. In 1881, Mr. Cunningham being then sixty-six years of age, formed a stock company and thereby transferred the management of the business to younger
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