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 8
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art of typography. He printed the "St. Nicholas" magazine from 1873, and "The Century" from 1874. He was one of the founders and the first secretary of the New York Typothetæ, and president of the United Typothetæ of America, 1887- 88; a president of the Grolier Club, and a prominent member of the Aldine Asso- ciation, and of numerous art and literary clubs both in the United States and in Europe. He was a frequent contributor to leading art journals and other period- icals, and was author of the following published volumes: "Printer's Price List" (1869); "Invention of Printing" (1876) ; "Historic Types" (1884) ; "Chris- topher Plantin" (1888) ; "Plain Printing Types" (1900); "Correct Composition" (1901); "Title Pages" (1902) ; "Book Composition" (1904) ; "Notable Printers of Italy During the Fifteenth Century" (1910). Columbia and Yale Universities conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts.
He married, in 1850, Grace Brockbank, daughter of Joseph Brockbank, of Wil- limantic, Connecticut; she died May 7, 1905. Mr. De Vinne died February 16, 1914.
JAMES, Henry, Prolific Author.
Henry James was by common consent one of the leading American writers of his day, yet one of the least frequently read by the masses.
He was born in New York City on April 15, 1843, son of the Rev. Henry James, a noted clergyman and Sweden- borgian. His brother, the late William James, attained world-wide fame as a psychologist.
Henry James's education gave wide latitude to his inclinations. After spend- ing many years in the schools of Switzer-
land and France, he returned to Amer- ica and entered the Law School of Har- vard University. In 1911 Harvard hon- ored him with the Degree of Humane Letters. Even before crossing the ocean for the first time as a youth, Mr. James had been deeply interested in the society of other lands. He himself relates how he spent many boyhood hours pouring over the pages of "Punch," absorbing English traditions and atmosphere, for which he held the greatest admiration. While a student at Harvard his literary inclinations were disclosed. It was his wont to shut himself up in his room for several days at a time, refusing food, ex- cept what was brought to him, and de- voting himself entirely to the task of evolving plots, characters, skillful de- scription and dialogue. While at that institution he came under the influence of James Russell Lowell.
In 1869 he went abroad for the second time, on this occasion to make his home in Paris. He soon found, however, that London and nearby spots in England fitted his temperament better. He pur- chased a fine estate at Rye, on the sea- coast of Sussex, about seventy miles from London. He returned to this country but once since, and then after an absence of twenty-five years. The European war, beginning in 1914, seemed to have touched his heart harder than did the American struggle of half a century be- fore. He was deeply disappointed when he realized the United States did not in- tend throwing its armed forces to the as- sistance of the allies and the succor of Belgium.
In 1915 Mr. James became a British subject. In a statement he gave the fol- lowing reasons for changing his allegi- ance: "Because having lived and work- ed in England the best part of forty years; because of my attachment to the
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country, my sympathy with it and its people ; because of long friendships, asso- ciations and interests formed here, all have brought to a head a desire to throw my moral weight and personal allegiance, for whatever it may be worth, into the scale of the contending nations in the present and future fortune."
Mr. James was made welcome by the English. The King bestowed upon him the Order of Merit, through the medium of Lord Bryce. There are only eleven civilian members of this order, which was instituted as a mark of special distinc- tion for naval or military service, or for work in art, literature and science.
Not long afterwards Mr. James was taken seriously ill. While his malady was not of an acute nature, he was told by his physicians that it would prove fatal within a few months. He was one of the few novelists said to have never been interviewed. He always refrained from answering critics and from explain- ing passages in his books. In his works published since 1908 Mr. James wrote a special preface to each, giving its history and certain autobiographical notes which he knew would be appreciated by his many admirers. His use of language was masterly. He was so conscientious of detail that he sacrificed simplicity to such an extent that his long, involved sentences became a tradition. He was noted for his unfailing flow of words, and his subtle blendings and shadings of thought. Throughout his many works were cryptograms of a type most puz- zling to his readers.
Among his works were: "Watch and Ward," 1871; "A Passionate Pilgrim," 1875; "Doderick Hudson," 1875; "Trans- atlantic Sketches," 1875; "The Amer- ican," 1877; "French Poets and Novel- ists," 1878; "The Europeans," 1878; "Daisy Miller," 1878; "An International
Episode," 1879; "Life of Hawthorne," 1879; "A Bundle of Letters," 1879; "Con- fidence," 1879; "Diary of a Man of Fifty," 1880; "Washington Square," 1880; "The Portrait of a Lady," 1881 ; "Siege of Lon- don," 1883; "Portraits of Places," 1884; "Tales of Three Cities," 1884; "A Little Tour of France," 1884; "Author of Bell- traffic," 1884; "The Bostonians," 1886; "Princess Casamassima," 1886; "Partial Portraits," 1888; "The Aspern Papers," 1888; "The Reverberator," 1888; "A Lon- don Life," 1889; "The Tragic Muse," 1890; "Terminations," 1896; "The Spoils of Poynton," 1897; "What Maisie Knew," 1897; "In the Cage," 1898; "The Two Magiis," 1898; "The Awkward Age," 1899; "The Soft Side," 1900; "A Little Tour in France," 1900; "The Sacred Fount," 1901 ; "The Wings of the Dove," 1902; "The Better Sort," 1903; "The Question of Our Speech and the Lesson of Balzas (lectures), 1905; "American Scene," 1906; "Italian Hours," 1909; "Julia Bride," 1909; "Novels and Tales" (24 vols), 1909; "Finer Grain," 1910; "The Outcry," 1911, and "Small Boys and Others," 1913.
When in 1915 Mr. James took up his permanent residence in England, and be- came a British subject, his health was failing, and his death occurred on Febru- ary 28, 1916, at his residence in Chelsea.
HARRIMAN, Edward Henry, Capitalist, Financier.
Edward Henry Harriman was born at Hempstead, Long Island, February 25, 1848, son of Rev. Orlando and Cornelia (Neilson) Harriman, grandson of Or- lando and Anna (Ingland) Harriman, and great-grandson of William Harriman, a native of Nottingham, England, and a member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers in London, who came to Amer-
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ica in 1795 and settled in New York City. His father was a man of broad education, and as a young man served as junior prin- cipal of the academy at Ossining, New York. He took orders in the Protestant Episcopal Church, was assistant rector at Tarrytown, New York, and for five years was rector of old St. George's Church, at Hempstead, Long Island ; his later years were passed in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Edward H. Harriman was educated at Trinity School, New York City, and in Jersey City, New Jersey. He began his business career as a clerk in a broker's office in Wall street, New York City. He manifested great aptitude for the details of the business, and soon realized the possibilities of large financiering. At the age of twenty-two he opened a brokerage office in his own name and made his ap- pearance on the floor of the Stock Ex- change as a member and trader. In 1872, two years later, he founded the banking firm of Harriman & Company, with James and Lewis Livingston as partners, and his younger brother, William M. Harri- man, subsequently became identified with the firm. Shortly after the year 1890 Mr. Harriman began to give his entire time and abilities to railroad interests, com- mitting the banking business to his brother, William M. Harriman, with Nicholas Fish and Oliver Harriman (a cousin) as partners. From the outset, Edward H. Harriman was successful in his enterprises, and was recognized as an operator of remarkable foresight and judgment. His first active interest in railways grew out of his acquisition of stock in the Sodus Bay & Southern and the Ogdensburg & Lake Champlain rail- roads, two small lines in northern New York, in both of which he became direc- tor. In 1883 he was elected a director of the Illinois Central Railroad Company, and with which his service continued until his death. He was elected vice-
president of the company in 1887, but re- signed the position in 1890. In 1893 he participated in a reorganization of the Erie Railroad Company, undertaken by J. Pierpont Morgan, and his signal suc- cess in this transaction led him to devote his activities toward the constructive re- organization of other lines. Having made a thorough study of railways and railway management, he came to the conclusion that there was urgent necessity for their expansion and improvement-an enlarge- ment of their capacity to serve the public. Many important roads were then in a demoralized financial condition, and some of them practically bankrupt. They were poorly equipped, and various western roads particularly were without adequate traffic on account of crop failures and a general paralysis of business. Mr. Harri- man was made a director of the Union Pacific Railroad Company in December, 1897, was elected chairman of its execu- tive committee, May 23, 1898, and presi- dent, June 7, 1904, which offices he held until his death. The Union Pacific sys- tem. was soon brought to comprise the Union Pacific, the Oregon Short Line, and the Oregon Railway & Navigation roads. After the death of Collis P. Hunt- ington in 1900, the Union Pacific re- sources were used to secure the controll- ing interest in the Southern Pacific Com- pany, this carrying control of the Central Pacific railway, the Oregon & California railroad, the Southern Pacific railroad, the South Pacific Coast railway, and Mor- gan's Louisiana & Texas Railroad & Steamship Company, as well as many short feeder roads. Mr. Harriman be- came a director and chairman of the exec- utive committee of the Southern Pacific Company in April, 1901, and president on September 6, offices he also held until his death. The Southern Pacific Company also operated a line of boats from Galves- ton and New Orleans to New York. The
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services rendered by Mr. Harriman to the great region served by the Union Pacific and Southern Pacific systems directly, and indirectly to the entire coun- try, are incalculable. While managing the immense interests of his systems so as to make them profitable, Mr. Harriman also devoted them to the service of the public, frequently without compensation. When San Francisco was visited by an earthquake and conflagration, he at once realized that the sufferers could be re- moved from hunger and suffering more quickly than they could be relieved by gathering and carrying supplies to them, and accordingly he removed two hundred thousand people and their belongings to the surrounding country. Besides a gen- erous personal contribution, he ordered his railways to transport without cost the gifts of food and supplies which the American people sent to the stricken city, and in this way his railroads gave prob- ably about a million dollars in free freight service.
In 1899, while planning an outing to Alaska for his family, Mr. Harriman con- ceived the idea of making it a scientific expedition. After consultation with the officers of the Washington Academy of Sciences, a number of noted scientists were made members of the party, among them five biologists and zoologists, three ornithologists, five botanists, three geolo- gists, a glaciologist, an anthropologist, an entomologist, three artists, two physi- cians, a mining engineer, a forester, a geographer, two taxidermists and two photographers. Mr. Harriman bore the entire expense of the expedition, and pub- lished a record of its results in three sumptuous volumes. In 1903-04 Mr. Harriman was president of the New York State Commission appointed by Governor Odell to participate in the Louisiana Pur- chase Exposition, and in that capacity delivered one of the opening addresses.
He was very fond of children, and the most conspicuous illustration of the prac- tical character of this interest is the Boys' Club of New York, the oldest and largest club of its kind in the world, of which he was president from the time he organized it in 1876 until his death. He erected a club house at a cost of nearly $250,000, and habitually paid its financial deficits, at times amounting to more than a thou- sand dollars a month. In the club rooms ten thousand boys from the so-called slums of New York find free facilities for giving expression to their talents and am- bitions, absolutely without any formal attempt at religious or moral instruction.
Unquestionably Mr. Harriman will be remembered as one of the most notable financiers and railroad men of the world. In boldness, broadness and accuracy of conception and in vigor and success of execution, he had no equal in contempo- rary business, and in the short span of years that his activities covered, no single individual in the world's financial and in- dustrial history ever accomplished greater results or rendered more substantial pub- lic service in the development and admin- istration of private enterprise. His bril- liant achievements brought great honor to his name, but their price to him was death, for in the fulness of his success he died a martyr to labor and responsibility. No man of such character and accom- plishments could escape opposition and criticism, but these to Mr. Harriman were but spurs to greater and better endeavors, and the great good he did in the promo- tion of commerce and the development of the resources of the West will be the measure by which his life's work will be tested. Personally Mr. Harriman was a congenial companion, a great favorite among his associates, and always a leader in whatever was going on in the club and social life of New York City.
Mr. Harriman married, at Ogdensburg,
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New York, September 10, 1879, Mary W., daughter of William J. Averell, who bore him six children. He had an intense love for the family circle, and he inculcated in his children a proper regard for the con- ventionalities of fine breeding, a due ob- servance of their responsibilities towards the various charitable institutions of the metropolis. To carry out one of the plans initiated by him, Mrs. Harriman, within a few months after his death, conveyed to the State of New York from the Harri- man estate ten thousand acres and the sum of $1,000,000 for the extension and development of a State park, which was designed through the assistance of other large gifts to preserve as a public park along the west bank of the Hudson river, one of the most picturesque landscapes in the world, extending from Fort Lee to Newburgh, over a distance of sixty miles. While Mr. Harriman maintained a city residence in New York, his country home was on an estate of 25,000 acres at Arden, in the Ramapo Hills, Orange county, New York, where his death occurred, Septem- ber 9, 1909.
POTTER, Henry C.,
Prelate of Protestant Episcopal Church.
Henry Codman Potter was born in Schenectady, New York, May 25, 1834, son of Alonzo and Maria (Nott) Potter, his mother being a daughter of the famous Eliphalet Nott, for sixty-five years presi- dent of Union College. His father was Bishop of Pennsylvania ; his uncle, Hora- tio Potter, Bishop of New York; of his brothers, Clarkson Nott Potter was a Congressman from New York for sev- eral terms; Robert B. Potter was a briga- dier-general in the Civil War; Howard Potter was a distinguished banker; Ed- ward T. Potter was a well-known archi- tect, and Eliphalet Nott Potter was presi-
dent of Union and afterward of Hobart College.
Henry Codman Potter was educated at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, and graduated from the Theological Sem- inary of Virginia in 1857. He was or- dained to the priesthood October 15, 1858, and was at once called to be rector of Christ Church, Greensburg, Pennsyl- vania. In 1859 he was called to St. John's Church, Troy, New York, and seven years later went to Boston as assistant minister on the Green foundation of Trin- ity Church, which position he held for two years. In May, 1868, he was called to the rectorship of Grace Church, New York City, where for fifteen years he labored unceasingly, not only in the serv- ice of the church, but as a citizen devot- ing himself freely to the betterment of the City of New York along social and educational lines. During this period his uncle, Bishop Horatio Potter, of New York, was advanced in years, and, having asked for an assistant, in 1883 Henry C. Potter was elected Assistant Bishop, and was consecrated at Grace Church, Octo- ber 20, 1883. He at once entered upon episcopal duties, Bishop Horatio Potter almost immediately withdrawing from active administration, leaving the burden of the work upon the nephew, and who from the beginning manifested his emi- nent fitness for the task. Bishop Horatio Potter dying in 1887, Henry C. Potter entered upon the bishopric of a diocese the largest in point of population of his church in America, and having, at the time of his death, 405 clergymen, 257 church edifices, 256 parishes and mis- sions, 81,388 communicants, 3,820 Sun- day school teachers, and 41,835 Sunday school scholars.
Bishop Potter's labors in Grace Church, while he was yet a rector, formed an epoch in church history, and, it may also
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be said, made a new chapter in sociology. Here he defined the mission of the church as one that should meet man's human as well as his spiritual needs. The tide of population had been rapidly sweeping northward and away from Grace Church. The question of removal was mooted, but the young rector resolutely turned his face toward the poor, the lowly, the hum- ble, and the needy of the neighborhood, and wrought out a quality of Christian socialism that promoted sociability and drew the neighborhood together in a com- mon interest. Under his rectorship the influence of Grace Church extended itself in many directions. The chapel in East Fourteenth street was continued as a suc- cessful mission. Grace House, Grace Church Day Nursery and the chantry were added to the group of church build- ings, while the beauty of the edifice itself was much enhanced, increased by the ad- dition of the graceful marble spire, the chimes, a new chancel, and new windows. Mr. Potter, while yet a rector, was secre- tary of the State Charities Aid Associa- tion, and one of the founders of the Char- ity Organization Society; and he was also secretary of the house of bishops for fifteen years, a service which was of great value to him and when he himself came to be a bishop. He passed part of one sum- mer at the pro-cathedral in Stanton street, in order to observe for himself the condi- tions under which the poor dwell in one of the most crowded districts of New York. As a member of the National Civic Federation, he was frequently called upon as an arbitrator in controversies between employers and employees. As bishop he administered the diocesan affairs with wisdom and great breadth of view, and his time and strength were spent unceas- ingly to build up, to vitalize and to ex- tend the work of his church. His inter- est extended throughout the entire do- main of conscientious citizenship. On
various public occasions his voice was raised at moments when it found an echo throughout the land, three instances being especially notable. The first was on the occasion of the Washington centennial celebration, of which President Nicholas Murray Butler, of Columbia University, said: "I like to remember the service Bishop Potter did-and it was a bold service-when he stood on a historic occa- sion in the pulpit of old St. Paul's and in the presence of a President of the United States said what was in his heart about corruption in our public life and the cor- roding influence of the spoils system in politics. The whole nation, east and west, north and south, rose to its feet in splendid appreciation, not only of his courage, but of the sure instinct which led him to seize that dramatic moment to say to every American what under other circumstances perhaps but few Americans would have heard." Again, in 1895, there was a movement for the re- form of city politics, and an effort to throw off the yoke of Tammany, but the men to whom the city should have been able to turn in her hour of need had no better remedy to suggest than an alliance with the machine of the opposing political party. Only a group of citizens, members of the comparatively unimportant good government clubs, had the courage to protest against such a sacrifice of princi- ple. In vain they appealed to the leading men of New York to aid them in their effort, but only Bishop Potter clearly saw the issue and made it plain in a letter which was posted on the boardbills all over the city as a campaign appeal. The third occasion was when the alliance be- tween the city police and criminals had been forced upon his knowledge by the neglect and insolence with which the pro- tests of the vicar of the pro-cathedral in Stanton street were received by the local police captain, and where the conditions
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were such that the young girls of the neighborhood were not safe in the streets. His public letter to Mayor Van Wyck opened the eyes of the people to the ex- istent frightful conditions, and caused a real moral awakening, if not the defeat of the Tammany candidate at the ensuing election. Characteristic of his entire career was his activity in public affairs, and he valued such extra-clerical oppor- tunities as a part of the prophetic func- tion of his ministry. At the same time he was never too remote a Christian to be out of reach of human relations, nor too much a man of the world to forget the sacredness of his calling.
The project of building the magnifi- cent Cathedral of St. John the Divine, though conceived in the mind of Bishop Horatio Potter, would have ended in failure but for the unceasing efforts of his bishop-nephew, Henry C. Potter. In- corporated in 1873, the work progressed slowly with no great degree of public in- terest, but, after many vicissitudes during a period of eight years, the cornerstone was laid in 1892, and at the time of his death about $3,500,000 had been contrib- uted for its erection. The honorary de- grees conferred upon Bishop Potter were: Doctor of Divinity by Harvard, Union and Oxford (England) ; Doctor of Laws by Union, University of Pennsylvania, Yale, Cambridge (England), and St. An- drews (Scotland), and Doctor of Civil Law, Bishops College (Canada). He was the author of "Sisterhoods and Deacon- esses" (1873) ; "The Gates of the East" (1877) ; "Sermons of the City" (1881) ; "Waymarks" (1892); "The Scholar and the State" (1897) ; "Addresses to Women Engaged in Church Work" (1898) ; "God and the City" (1900) ; "The Industrial Situation" (1902) ; "Man, Men and Their Masters" (1902) ; "The East of To-Day and To-morrow" (1902) ; "Law and Loyalty" (1903) ; "The Drink Problem"
(1905) ; "Reminiscences of Bishops and Archbishops" (1906). Bishop Potter was married first, in 1857, to Eliza Rogers Jacobs, of Spring Grove, Lancaster, Penn- sylvania ; and (second) in 1902, to Mrs. Elizabeth Scriven Clark, widow of Alfred Corning Clark, of Cooperstown, New York. Bishop Potter died at Coopers- town on July 21, 1908, and on October 20, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his conse- cration, his body was placed beneath the floor of the altar in the crypt of the great cathedral which owed so much to his effort.
ALVORD, Thomas G., Lawyer, Legislator.
Thomas Gold Alvord was born at Onondaga, New York, December 20, 1810, of English and Dutch antecedents. His paternal ancestor, Alexander Alvord, emi- grated to this country from Somerset- shire, England, in 1634, and settled in East Windsor, Connecticut. His mater- nal ancestor, Abram Jacob Lansing, came from Holland in 1630 and located at Fort Orange (now Albany), New York. He became the patroon of Lansingburgh, which place is named after him. A num- ber of his ancestors were soldiers in the Revolution, and his paternal grandfather served also in the French and Indian wars. His father, Elisha Alvord, mar- ried Helen Lansing, at Lansingburgh.
Thomas Gold Alvord received his early education at the academy at Lansing- burgh, New York, and afterward matri- culated at Yale College, from which he was graduated at the age of eighteen. He subsequently studied law, and in October, 1832, was admitted to the bar. In January, 1833, he entered upon the practice of his profession at Salina, now a portion of Syracuse, New York. In 1846 he gave up his law practice and engaged in the manufacture of lumber and salt, in
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