USA > New York > Monroe County > Rochester > History of Rochester and Monroe county, New York, from the earliest historic times to the beginning of 1907, Vol. II > Part 87
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Reared under the parental roof and enjoying in youth the advantages of education afforded by the public schools, Henry Morgan afterward became a student in the State Normal School, from which he graduated. He prepared for his profession in Yale Law School and was graduated in 1894. After a brief interval he was admitted to the bar in Rochester and began practice in Brockport, where he has since continued, being a member of the firm of Morgan & Pallace. His knowledge is continually being promoted by his investigation and broad study. He prepares his cases with great care and precision and his legal analysis is fol- lowed by logical deduction and marked by clear reasoning. He is a member of the State Bar As- sociation and of the Monroe County Bar Associa- tion.
Mr. Morgan has for a number of years been re- garded as one of the leaders in republican circles in Monroe county and his opinions carry weight in the councils of his party. In the fall of 1906 he was elected to represent his district in the gen- eral assembly and is now serving on the commit- tees on water, gas, electricity and public educa- tion. He has given close study to the questions and issues of the day and is well informed con- cerning the positions of both parties.
In June, 1895, occurred the marriage of Mr. Morgan and Miss E. May Kingsbury of Brockport. They have four children : Dorothy, Martha, Day- ton and Emily. In the city of his residence, where he has spent his entire life, Mr. Morgan has a very wide and favorable acquaintance, his warm- est friends being among those who have known him from his boyhood to the present time. He is a member of the Genesee Valley Club, of the Rochester Whist Club and the Rochester Yacht Club and possesses a social nature that makes him popular in private life as well as in professional and political circles.
ORLANDO KNOX FOOTE.
Orlando Knox Foote, who since 1885 has prac- ticed his profession as an architect in Rochester, was born at Morrisville, New York, May 12, 1854. His parents were Nathaniel and Olivia Minerva (Knox) Foote, the former a lawyer by profes- sjon.
Having mastered the elementary branches of learning in the public schools, Orlando K. Foote became a student in the Cazenovia (New York) Seminary and afterward pursued a course in ar- chitecture in the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- nology with the class of 1880. For four years thereafter he was employed by architects in Boston and New York city and in 1885 came to Rochester, where he opened an office and has since followed his profession. His continuance therein through a period of twenty-two years is in itself evidence of his success-and success in this calling is always based upon ability. Further proof of his skill, however, is found in many substantial edifices of the city which add to its architectural adornment and beauty.
On the 2nd of June, 1887, Mr. Foote was united in marriage to Miss Hattie A. Burgess, of Rocli- ester, and they now have two sons and a daughter -Edward Burgess, Harold Pool and Alice Knox Foote.
WILLIAM ROY SHOOP.
William Roy Shoop, purchasing agent for the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railway, was born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1865. His father, Captain Samuel John Shoop, was a very prominent business man of the Keystone state, being engaged in the car and lumber business on a large scale. He is now living retired in Denver, Colorado, and he is a member of the Veteran's Association, having taken active part as a de- fender of the Union in the Civil war. His wife, Mrs. Sarah Shoop, a native of Pennsylvania and a representative of an old Pennsylvania Dutch family, died in 1905.
William Roy Shoop was one of a family of twelve children, eight of whom are yet living, and in the acquirement of his education he attended successively the public schools of Carlisle and Har- risburg, Pennsylvania, and Dixon Seminary of Williamsport, where he was graduated in the class of 1883. At that time his father offered him an important and highly responsible position but he preferred to fit himself more thoroughly by actual practical training for a business career, so spent eight years in the car shops at Dauphin, Pennsyl- vania, known as the Dauphin Car Works. In 1888 he came to Rochester and accepted a position with the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railway as clerk in the car foreman's office and later took up outside work in the repair department. Sub- sequently he was appointed superintendent of con- struction of new cars and plants, continuing in that capacity for two years, when he was appointed chief clerk in the purchasing department in 1892
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
Two years ago he was made purchasing agent of the same road and has since acted in this capacity. His long years of practical work had given him splendid equipment for this important and ardu- ous position and although still a young man he stands high in his branch of railway service in this country.
In 1885 Mr. Shoop was married to Miss Minnie Pardoe, of Danville, Pennsylvania, a daughter of Samuel J. Pardoe, and they have three children : Max Pardoe, eighteen years of age, now in Am- herst College; Myriam, eleven years of age, in school; and Wilber Roy, two years old. The family reside at No. 227 Westminster road in a beautiful home which stands in one of the finest residence districts of the city.
Mr. Shoop is essentially a home man, his time being divided between his business and his own fireside in the midst of his charming family. He belongs to the Monroe Avenue Methodist Episco- pal church, of which he is a member of the board of stewards. He was one of the directors of the Rochester Young Men's Christian Association for many years and also of the Railway Young Men's Christian Association, while in politics he is a republican.
JOSEPH W. CHOBOTSKY.
Joseph W. Chobotsky, vice president and gen- eral manager of the Flower City Briar Pipe Com- pany, was born in Newdorf, Australia, October 12, 1857, and in his native land acquired his educa- tion. During his early manhood he lived in Eng- land about four years, where he was engaged in the pipe business. Seeking larger opportunities in this line, he came to America, settling in New York city and later, in 1902, came to Rochester. He located at Mill and Andrews streets, moving from there to No. 18 Commercial street, where the business is located at present. Perhaps it is not generally known that there are only four houses in the world engaged in the manufacture of pipes, and that this concern is one of the larg- est. They have the distinction of being the only house in America that manufactures chipped meerschaum pipes, which are made from the drill- ings of genuine meerschaum with a preparation of their own. It is said to be almost impossible to distinguish this product from the genuine. In the last year Mr. Chobotsky has greatly enlarged his business, employing now one hundred hands and supplying some of the largest factories in the world. He does a strictly wholesale business and finds a large demand for his products, because there is no house in the world that puts out better work.
In 1880 he married Cecelia Stirba, a native of Austria, born in 1865. They have four children, namely: Joseph C., Amelia, Alfred and Irma. Mr. Chobotsky is recording secretary of the Turn Verein Society, also recording secretary of the Austro-Hungarian Society, and a member of the German-American Society of this city. In his political views he is a stalwart republican. A man of great natural ability, his success in business from the beginning has been uniform and rapid. It has been truly remarked that after all that may be done for a man in the way of giving him early opportunities for obtaining the requirements which are sought in the schools and in books, he must essentially formulate, determine and give scope to his own character and his own future, and this is what Mr. Chobotsky has done.
His son, Joseph Chobotsky, who is at present the superintendent of the pipe manufacturing business, was born in Austria and received his schooling in New York city. He is prominently connected with many social organizations, namely : the Young Mens Christian Association; the Roch- ester Turn Verein Society, of which he is treas- urer; the Young Mens Christian Association Track Team, being its assistant manager; the Cross County Team, of which he is captain; the Austro-Hungarian Society, in which he is the financial secretary; and the German Dramatic Club, of which he is manager. He is a stanch re- publican and while he never seeks political offices he has always given his hearty support to those who have. His wife bore the maiden name of Rosa Henryetta Abels and was born in this city, being the daughter of Elizabeth Abels. She re- ceived her education in the public schools and she and her husband reside at No. 60 Scrantom street.
JOHN F. KINNEY.
The history of the. Rochester bar forms an im- portant chapter in its annals. For years the city has been distinguished for the high rank of its bench and bar and there are being continually added to the ranks of the legal profession those whose strong mentality, force of character and laudable ambition are destined to carry them to a foremost place among the legal practitioners here. Such a one is John F. Kinney, a native son of Monroe county. He was born in Ogden on the 20th of June, 1860, his parents being William B. and Julia (Howe) Kinney, both natives of Ire- land, whence they came to the new world in child- hood days, their marriage being celebrated in this county. The father was a merchant at Spencer- port for a number of years and was prominent in public affairs in his community. He served as clerk of the village and was weighmaster on the
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY. 3
Erie canal at Rochester in 1878 and 1879. He was very active in democratic politics, doing all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of the party, and his opinions carried weight in the local party councils.
John F. Kinney acquired his early education in the Union school at Spencerport and afterward at- tended St. Joseph's College at Buffalo, New York. He prepared for his chosen profession in Albany Law School, from which he was graduated with the class of 1881. He was admitted to the bar in June of the same year and has been practicing continuously since in Rochester. He was ap- pointed special county judge of Monroe county by Governor Hill, and in the fall of the same year was elected to the office for the full term, winning a majority of seven hundred and ninety-eight over his republican opponent. His election was all the more flattering and complimentary from the fact that he is the only democrat who has been elected to a county office in Monroe county since 1882. He served most capably and acceptably on the bench, his decisions being strictly fair and impar- tial. He was appointed by the common council as corporation counsel of Rochester in 1898 and served in that position until January, 1904.
Like his father, Mr. Kinney has taken a very active interest in democratic politics since becom- ing a resident of this city and his labors have been untiring and effective in behalf of the party. He was chairman of the executive committee of the democratic county central committee during the campaign of 1904 and is recognized as one of the standard bearers of democracy in this part of the state.
Mr. Kinney was married in October, 1883, to Miss Elizabeth J. Hanlon, of Albany, New York, and they have two sons and two daughters: Wil- liam E., a graduate of the University of Rochester of the class of 1907; Helen R .; John J .; and Dora E.
HENRY A. SCHAEFER.
Henry A. Schaefer is a member of the Schae- fer & Klein Manufacturing Company, which was incorporated in 1905. The business, however, has had a continuous existence since 1883 and consti- tutes an element in the commercial activity of the city. Mr. Schaefer was born in New York city, December 19, 1861, his parents being Charles and Barbara (Schantz) Schaefer, who were natives of Germany but are now deceased. The father was a merchant tailor.
Henry A. Schaefer spent the days of his boy- hood and youth in New York, acquiring his edu- cation in the public schools, and for six months was employed in a wholesale dry goods store. He
came to Rochester in 1883, when a young man of twenty-two years. He is now president of the Schaefer & Klein Manufacturing Company, with Henry Klein as secretary and treasurer. They en- gaged in the manufacture of carriage, casket and hearse trimmings and textile trimmings, and the volume of their business is indicated by the fact that they furnish employment to one hundred and fifty people. The output of their factory is sent to all parts of the country, and their trade is con- stantly growing. Competent workmen are em- ployed and that the product is entirely satisfac- tory to the patrons is indicated by the fact that the business is constantly developing along grati- fying lines.
Mr. Schaefer was married twenty years ago to Miss Kate L. Herman, of New York city. He is a member of the Rochester Club and is well known in Masonic circles, belonging to Rochester lodge, A. F. & A. M .; Ionic chapter, R. A. M .; Cyrene commandery, K. T., and Damascus Temple of the Mystic Shrine. His political en- dorsement has ever been given the republican party, but he is without aspiration for office. His strict integrity, business conservatism and judg- ment have always been so uniformly recognized that he has enjoyed public confidence to an en- viable degree and naturally this has brought him such a lucrative patronage that through times of general prosperity and general adversity alike he has witnessed a steady increase in his business until it is today one of the most flourishing in its line in Rochester.
GIFFORD MORGAN.
Gifford Morgan, with business investments in Buffalo and Brockport and in farming property in Monroe county, is well known as a representa- tive of a prominent family and as one of the coun- ty's native sons. He was born in Brockport-the present place of his residence-in June, 1873, a son of Dayton S. Morgan, for years a prominent merchant, inventor and manufacturer of the county, of whom extended mention is made on another page of this work.
In the public schools of Brockport Gifford Mor- gan acquired his preliminary education, which was supplemented by study in Canandaigua Acad- cmy and later at Union College. His education was liberal and his training and experiences in the affairs of the world have been broad. He is now associated with various business investments, being one of the owners of the D. S. Morgan of- fice building, at the corner of Niagara and Pearl streets in Buffalo, and also owner of two valuable farming properties in the town of Clarkson. He
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
is the president of the Rochester Wheel Company, of Brockport, and from his various properties, well managed, he is deriving a substantial income.
Mr. Morgan was married to Miss Fannie Rose Baldwin, who was born in Orange, New Jersey, where she acquired her education while spending her girlhood days in the home of her parents, Frank W. and Fannie E. (Love) Baldwin. The mother died many years ago, and the father after- ward married again. The three sons of his first marriage are Ernest, Victor and Frank Baldwin. The father is now the publisher of the Orange (New Jersey) Chronicle. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Morgan have been born two children, Frances and Jocelyn.
Always interested in the welfare of Brockport, Mr. Morgan, from his boyhood days, has been an earnest champion of many progressive public measures. He is now an exempt member of the Silsby Hose Company, of Brockport, and his fra- ternal and social relations extend to the Masonic lodge of Brockport, the Saturn Club of Buffalo, the Genesee Valley Club and the Friars Club of Rochester and the Rochester Yacht Club. In pol- ities he is a republican.
The family residence is a beautiful home at the north edge of Brockport, in the town of Clark- son, tastefully, attractively and comfortably fur- nished. Without ostentation or display, Gifford Morgan, in the county of his nativity, commands universal friendship and regard.
HOWARD W. SNECK.
Howard W. Sneck, self-educated and self-made, denied in youth many of the privileges which other boys enjoy and forced to provide for his edu- cation by his own labo", is now well known in Rochester as a counselor at law and is financially connected with various corporations. His record is a splendid illustration of what may be accom- plished through the force of character, native sa- gacity, strong purpose and laudable ambition. He was born at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, February 7, 1865, his parents being Phillip and Mary J. (Elliott) Sneck, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Pennsylvania. The father was brought to this country by his parents in his in- fancy. In early life he learned and followed the trades of carriage painting and trimming and con- tinued in that line of business during the greater part of his life. He died in 1905 at Renovo, Pennsylvania, where he had resided for a number of years. and Mrs. Sneck still makes her home there. They were the parents of five sons: Wil- liam P., who is boiler inspector for the Pennsylva- nia Railroad Company; Howard W .; Harry, who
is air-brake inspector for the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad at Rochester; Charles, a machinist in the employ of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company at Wilmerding, Pennsylvania; and Phillip, who is in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
Howard W. Sneck acquired his early education in the public schools of Lewisburg and Renovo, Pennsylvania, and when fifteen years of age he began to study locomotive machinery as an em- ploye of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company at Renovo, serving an apprenticeship of four years. Ambitious, however, to enjoy better educational advantages, the day after he left the shops he entered Bucknell Academy and pursued the work of the freshman year in college. During his va- cations he worked in the Renovo shops and in this manner earned enough money to enable him to complete his course. He was graduated from the academy and continued during the college freshman year, after which he came to Rochester in July, 1890, and pursued a part of the work of the sophomore year in the University of Roches- ter under President Hill. In the meantime he determined to enter upon a professional career and decided upon the practice of law as a life work. To this end he became a student in the law office of W. H. and J. P. Bowman, and while pur- suing his course he worked for two summers as a machinist in the shops of the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroad. He next entered the of- fice of the Hon. John M. Davy and subsequently of the Hon. Nathaniel Foote, with whom he spent the greater part of his clerkship, acting as man- aging clerk for a portion of the time.
Mr. Sneck was admitted to the bar in 1894 and the following year began practice alone with great success. He makes a specialty of corporation work and law and is regarded as a safe counselor of wide and accurate knowledge, especially in the line of corporation practice. Moreover, he has extended his efforts into various fields of activity, his opinions being recognized as a valuable factor in the successful conduct of many important en- terprises. He is the president and part owner of the Abend-Post and it was he who brought about the consolidation of the German newspapers of Rochester, now published under the above title. He is likewise president of the Commercial Rec- ord Company; secretary and treasurer of the Piehlers Shoe Company ; secretary and treasurer of the Rochester Heel Company; secretary and treasurer of the Century Show Case Works ; vice president of the Century Men's Wear Company ; and vice president of the firm of Vredenburg & Company, lithographers. Each forward step in his career has brought him a broader view and a wider outlook and today he occupies a command- ing position in business circles as well as at the har of Rochester, being active in the management of various productive, industrial and commercial
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HISTORY OF ROCHESTER AND MONROE COUNTY.
concerns which constitute an element in the city's growth and prosperity, at the same time proving a source of desirable income to stockholders. He has been connected with the organization of a number of these companies and therein displays the initiative spirit which recognizes possibilities and co-ordinates forces that produce excellent re- sults.
On the 9th of September, 1896, Mr. Sneck was married to Miss Grace L. Avery, of Rochester. He belongs to Genesee Falls lodge, A. F. & A. M., and to the Phi Kappa Psi Greek letter fraternity. Mr. Sneck has the force of character and ability which would win him success in politics had he desire to enter that field, but he has been too busy in other ways to take an exacting part in public affairs. His views upon questions of public pol- icy are pronounced, however, and his influence may always be counted upon in behalf of good govern- ment and the advancement of the interests of the whole people. His clients find him a safe coun- selor and various business interests have profited by his resolute spirit, his firmness and decision of character and his enterprise. Among his friends, and they are many, he is always a cour- teous, affable gentleman, and his life record is a splendid example of the opportunities afforded for advancement in the new world.
CHARLES HASTINGS WILTSIE.
Charles Hastings Wiltsie was born in Pittsford village, New York, on January 13, 1859. He is the oldest of three children born to James Martin Wiltsie and Emily Ward Hastings, and is of the ninth generation in the male line from Philippe Martin Wiltse, a soldier, who came from Holland to Manhattan island in 1623 in the ship New Netherlands, and who was one of those detailed to build Fort Orange, at Albany. On his mother's side he is of pure colonial English stock, Emily Ward Hastings being a descendant of Thomas Hastings, a Puritan of noble lineage, who emi- grated with his family from Ipswich, England, in the ship Elizabeth, in 1634, and settled in Water- town, Massachusetts.
He attended the village school at Pittsford until the age of fourteen, and the Brockport State Normal School for the next three years, entering the University of Rochester in 1876 and gradu- ating in the class of 1880, ranking second for the full four years' classical course and receiving vari- ous prizes and honors. He was a student in the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin in Germany during 1880-81. In 1883 he was admitted to practice law in Rochester, New York, where he has continued to reside and practice his profession.
In 1885 Mr. Wiltsie published a monograph on "Parties to Mortgage Foreclosures," and in 1889 a treatise of 1150 pages on "The General Law and Practice of Foreclosing Mortgages," which has long been a standard among attorneys. He traveled extensively in Enrope, Asia and Africa in 1889-90 and made a trip around the world in 1892-93, writing two series of descriptive travel ictters for local newspapers.
He was married October 5, 1893, to Harriet Potter Hart, of Rochester, New York, and has one child, Mary Emily, who was born October 8, 1897. He is a republican in politics and is a member of the college fraternity of Delta Psi, the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution, the Roch- ester Historical Society and the Genesee Valley Club. He is also a director in the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute, and a trustee of the First Presbyterian church.
CONSTANTINE D. KIEHEL.
Constantine D. Kiehel ranks among the fore- most lawyers of the Rochester bar, being accorded by the profession and by the consensus of public opinion a place as one of its distinguished repre- sentatives. His success achieved at the bar and in political life is but the recognition on the part of the people of Monroe county of those qualities of integrity, industry and prudence which have al- ways characterized him. Moreover, he is fortunate in having back of him an ancestry honorable and distinguished. The line can be traced back to the sturdy and liberty loving emigrants who came to America with William Penn and took part in the the arduous task of subduing the wilderness that extended over the territory now comprised within the borders of the Keystone state. But while Mr. Kiehel is proud of his ancestry, as he well may be, he has not depended upon family name to aid him in his professional career. On the contrary he has recognized the fact that he has chosen as a profession one in which individual merit alone counts and his earnest study and devotion to the duties which have devolved upon him have led to his advancement as a member of the bar.
Mr. Kiehel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, September 9, 1856, and acquired his ad- vanced education in Pennsylvania College, from which he was graduated in 1876. He came to Rochester the following year and at once entered upon the study of law. He thoroughly mastered the tasks that were set him and acquainted himself so familiarly with the principles of jurisprudence that following his admission to the bar he was elected in 1881, upon the republican ticket, to the office of city attorney, which position he filled with
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