USA > New York > Genesee County > History of the Genesee country (western New York) comprising the counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Erie, Genesee, Livingston, Monroe, Niagara, Ontario, Orleans, Schuyler, Steuben, Wayne, Wyoming and Yates, Volume III > Part 6
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me fifty dollars during that helpless period, I owe a debt that can never be paid in this world.
"Henry Lomb was to figure largely in my life, and to the end he and I were to travel the road together, trusting each other fully with never a quarrel. We had many opportunities in later years to show that we, too, could be friendly to those in need, and I trust that we made good use of them. Certainly Henry Lomb did; he was one of the great philanthropists of Rochester, giving with almost sacrificial generosity to the Rochester Mechanics Institute, where thousands of young men are offered the chance that he had to fight so hard to get. Men who speak of business as being heartless and cold-a mere game of getting in which the strong take from the weak-know very little of business at its best. It is essentially an enterprise of faith and mutual trust. No man makes a success in it without, at some time, becom- ing richly indebted to the helpfulness of older men; and, generally speaking, he who has the greatest power of meriting friendship and making friends, achieves the largest success.
"To my great joy I found that my injury did not prevent me from returning to my work as a wood-turner. But the accident had affected my nerves; I no longer felt the same confidence in the presence of a buzz saw, and without a buzz saw no one can be a wood-turner. Hence, my thought turned more and more toward the optical business, which had never ceased to hold first place in my heart. My wife sought to dissuade me. With her natural conservatism, she pointed out that our responsibilities were increasing and that another failure would be almost a tragedy. Nevertheless, I determined to take a chance. The chief asset of those who are on the lowest rung of the ladder is that they have not far to fall. I wrote to my brother in the old country to send me a small stock of optical goods, for which I contracted to pay in six months' time. They came and I set forth again in business for myself. It would have been better for me had I remained at my trade for another year. Capital is a requisite, almost as much as courage, and the lack of it makes progress painfully slow. However, I managed to dispose of the goods which my brother had sent me, and at the end of six months I paid the bill and ordered a fresh supply. I arranged for a little store space in the front of a shoemaker's shop. The room was heated by an old-fashioned stove, and during most of the winter we used old shoes for fuel, which did not add greatly to the purity of the atmosphere. From that viewpoint it was perhaps lucky that few customers called, for none would have remained very long. Some weeks I took in scarcely enough to pay for my newspaper announcements, and whenever I had a spare moment I traveled up and down the streets looking for broken windows. I knew the trick of putting rivets in plate glass, and every crack meant fifty cents to me. So with odd jobs I managed to take in about four dollars a week, and on this I lived and kept my family which, by this time, had increased by the birth of our eldest son.
"Henry Lomb was a carpenter, not a master at the trade but a hard worker who also earned about four dollars a week. As he was unmarried, he had been able to save a little money, and, like myself, was ambitious to be in his own business. One day, when I was almost at the end of my rope, I asked him how much he had saved. 'Sixty-two dollars', he answered. 'Lend it to me', I said, 'and when my busi- ness grows large enough, so that it can support us both, you shall have a half interest.' There was never any written agreement between us; we were two honest men who trusted each other. He gave me the sixty-two dollars, and with that investment he acquired a half interest in the business which, before he died, had made him inde- dently wealthy. I moved into a better store, but the rent was too much and I had to move again. I made all sorts of experiments to see whether I could not supplement my slender income. For one thing, I engaged a mechanic who claimed that he could make and sell apothecary scales; but the arrangement proved a complete failure. He had great faith in himself, that young man. He laid claim also to a knowledge of photography, but this claim was equally false. After he had demonstrated that he could not obtain even the shadow of a picture, I sold the photographic gallery, which I had fitted up, for ninety dollars. The buyer had no cash and I was forced to take my pay in trade. Mr. Lomb's luck was hardly better than mine. When, later, I arranged credit in Germany for a somewhat larger supply of optical materials, and he came into the business with me, the receipts were still far too slender to support us. He tried his hand at every honest device to make a dollar. He peddled our stock from house to house, but without success. Once a consignment of deer arrived from Canada. He bought them, and after they had been cut up, he carried the meat about town, offering it at two cents a pound; but even at this price he had great trouble in getting rid of it.
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"We moved from our first store to another, being presented, in one instance, with two months' free rent by our landlord, because business was so bad; but at no time were we able to take in enough to meet expenses. Mr. Lomb lived at my house and, having no family, was able to put more into the business than I. Hence my indebted- ness to him increased. So we came up to 1861 and the outbreak of the Civil war. I was thirty-one years old; I had struggled day and night for eight years to establish myself in business and the net result of all my struggles was that I had no assets whatever and owed my partner one thousand dollars. If you had told me in those days that there would some day be a plant bearing my name and Mr. Lomb's, employ- ing more than three thousand people and manufacturing fifteen or twenty million lenses a year, I would not even have taken time to smile. I would have thought that you were merely adding to my troubles by having a little cheap fun at my expense. But we were on the verge of a little better fortune, though neither of us suspected it. When the Civil war started Henry Lomb enlisted immediately and was ordered to the front. Every month through the next four years he sent back to me a part of his pay as a soldier-only a few dollars a month, but the value of the gold dollar appre- ciated so rapidly under war conditions that these monthly remittances were an im- portant factor in carrying the little business through. Then there happened that bit of good fortune or luck, or whatever you may call it, which comes once to every man, provided he does not lose his courage while he is waiting for it. I was walking down the street in Rochester one afternoon when my attention was attracted to a little piece of hard rubber on the sidewalk. I picked it up, and immediately said to myself, 'This material would make good eyeglass frames.' Up to this time we had been making all of our frames out of horn. It did not take me long to discover how to adapt rubber to this purpose, and in a few weeks we were turning out a better frame, in rubber, at a very much lower cost. The work of making the frames was still painfully slow. For a long time I rose every morning at five o'clock to prepare our little stock of rubber for the day's needs, heating it on the kitchen stove. A manu- facturer of watches was attracted by the use which we were making of rubber, and placed an order with us for some watch cases. These we produced and, as they found a ready market, he came back for more. The hard rubber spectacle frames were also popular.
"So for the first time a little steady revenue began to dribble into the business, and when Henry Lomb came back from the war I had paid our debts and was able to show him a balance of eight hundred dollars in the bank. You can imagine our delight. We gave ourselves a little celebration. Henry had been with General Grant, who said: 'I intend to fight it out along these lines if it takes all summer.' Well, we had fought it out along the same lines for more than ten years and, at last, we were beginning to win."
The retail department was not discontinued until 1866, when exclusive right to the use of India rubber was secured. In 1864, with the growth of the business, a factory was secured at the corner of Andrews and Water streets and the constantly increasing trade demanded another removal in 1868 to a still larger building at the corner of River and Water streets. In 1866, at the time of the incorporation of the Optical Instrument Company, the manufacturing department was separated from the sales department and Mr. Bausch, becoming manufacturing agent, remained in Roches- ter, while a branch office was opened on Broadway, New York, under the direction of Mr. Lomb. In the department of eyeglass manufacture the company have been pioneers and leaders. They have not only introduced the rubber eyeglass but made a change in the shape of the eye, adopting the oval instead of the round, which was then in use. Variety in style and finish was the next stage of improvement; an adjustable eyeglass was invented by J. J. Bausch early in the history of the concern and contributed much to the growth of the business. Lens grinding was begun in a small way in 1865 to meet emergencies arising from the delay in receiving orders from foreign manufacturers. Now they grind every kind of a lens from the simple spectacle lens to the finest the optician or scientist can demand. Machinery has been devised which performs the work with perfect accuracy and with great rapidity. It is of their own construction and in many cases patented. In 1875 the company began the manufacture of microscopes, which up to that time were produced almost entirely abroad. Their instruments today are in use in the laboratories of nearly all educa- tional institutions of the land, as well as all government departments. The photo- graphic department was the next addition and here again they have attained the high efficiency which has always characterized their work.
In 1890, so great had been the progress made that an alliance with the world- renowned Carl Zeiss Works of Jena became possible. The importance of this step
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is realized from the fact that Carl Zeiss stands for supreme technical skill and scientific attainment in the world of optics. As a result of this alliance the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company came into the possession of the formulae of the celebrated Zeiss Anastigmat lenses with the sole right of reproducing them in America. Three years later, by virtue of this same arrangement, they began the manufacture of the Zeiss Stereo field glasses. The next move of importance was the incorporation of the Bausch, Lomb, Saegmuller Company for the manufacture of engineering, astronomical and other instruments of precision. Mr. Saegmuller of Washington, who has a world- wide reputation as an instrument maker, removed his factory from Washington to Rochester and the entire output of the company is handled by the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. The gun sights and other instruments manufactured by the com- pany are used by the government of our own and foreign countries, where they have proven their exceeding worth. The employes now number about three thousand. The plants cover twenty-six acres. The constant aim of the founders and promoters of this enterprise has been to manufacture the highest quality of optical instruments and this resolve has made the business what it is today-the largest manufactory of optical instruments in the world. John Jacob Bausch is now an honorary member of the executive committee of the Mechanics Savings Bank, of which he formerly served as president.
Mr. Bausch has been married twice. His first wife bore the maiden name of Barbara Zimmerman. In 1902 he wedded Miss Caroline Zimmerman. His children were six in number, namely: Edward, William, Annie, Carrie, Henry and John. The two last named are deceased. In politics Mr. Bausch is a republican, having stanchly supported the party since he became a naturalized American citizen. He. is a member of the Rochester Club but his interests and attention have been concentrated more largely upon his business than upon club interests. However, a genial disposition and uprightness of character have made him a favorite with all with whom he has come into contact. It has been written of him: "Watching his quick, active movements, or listening, in his office, to his shrewd common sense decisions, you might guess that J. J. Bausch is seventy, perhaps seventy-five. As a matter of fact he is ninety-four, and the industry which bears his name has made its principal progress since he passed the age at which most men retire."
Edward Bausch, the eldest son of J. J. Bausch, was born in Rochester, New York, September 26, 1854. Following the completion of a high school course in this city he entered Cornell University. In 1908 the University of Rochester conferred upon him the honorary degree of Master of Arts. His prominence in business circles here is indicated in the fact that he is a member of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, a director of the Lincoln-Alliance Bank, vice president of the Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit Company, vice president of the Monroe County Savings Bank and a director of the Rochester Gas and Electric Corporation and the Taylor Instrument Company. He has invented several scientific devices, is the author of "Manipulation of the Microscope" and holds membership in the Royal Academy of Science. He is also a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the Amer- ican Microscopical Society. On the 31st of October, 1878, he was married to Miss Matilda G. Morrell of Syracuse, New York.
William Bausch, son of J. J. Bausch, was born in Rochester, New York, March 25, 1861. His early education, acquired in the common schools, was supplemented bv study in the Collegiate Institute, while later he attended L. L. Williams Business University. Soon after leaving that school he entered his father's factory and today occupies the position of secretary of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. He is also an officer of the East Side Savings Bank and a director of the General Railway Signal Company, the Rochester Hotel Corporation and the Seneca Operating Company. William Bausch also serves as president of the Rochester Dental Dispensary and as vice president of the Infants' Summer Hospital and the Hillside Home for Children (Rochester Orphan Asylum). He is a popular member of the Rochester Club, the Genesee Valley Club, the Oak Hill Country Club, the Rochester Country Club, the Old Colony Club, the Rochester Yacht Club and the Rochester Athletic Club. On the 1st of October, 1916, he was married to Miss Kate Zimmer.
Henry Bausch, the third son of J. J. Bausch, was born in Rochester, and was educated in the public schools of this city and attended the old high school and Cornell University. In 1875 he entered the factory, working, as did his brothers, at the bench with the other workmen and starting in at the very bottom to learn every part of the business. He was especially interested in the microscope and scientific apparatus department. his early training and natural aptitude making him particu- larly competent to assist in developing the manufacture of these instruments and to
3-Vol. III
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supervise their construction. He gave much time and attention to the manufacture of the optical parts of instruments and this in the face of extraordinary difficulties, for it must be remembered that in the days when he was struggling with this branch of science the opportunities for learning same in this country were few indeed. He became second vice president of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company. In 1888 he was married to Henrietta Schubert of Philadelphia, and they had one daughter, Elsa. Mr. Bausch was a republican in politics and served as a member of the board of park commissioners for some years. He was also on the board of directors of the Infants' Summer Hospital. His demise occurred March 2, 1909.
PATRICK BARRY.
Patrick Barry was born on a farm near the city of Belfast, Ireland, May 24, 1816. He received a liberal education and at the age of eighteen became a teacher in one of the Irish national schools. Ater having taught for two years he resigned and resolved to make the United States his future home and country. Accordingly, in 1836, he came to New York and shortly after his arrival was offered a clerkship by the Princes, celebrated nurserymen of the period, in Flushing, Long Island, which he accepted. He remained with them for four years, during which time he acquired a practical knowledge of the nursery business. In 1840 he removed to Rochester and in July of that year formed a partnership with George Ellwanger, which continued to the time of his demise. The firm of Ellwanger & Barry established upon seven acres of ground as a beginning, what are now of vast extent and world-wide fame. "The Mount Hope Nurseries"-transplanted in every state and territory of the Union and in foreign lands-have made the impress of Patrick Barry's genius upon the face of the earth. His industry was one of genuine production of wealth from the soil. Its creations from nature have, in their fruits and flowers, and trees and shrubs, minis- tered to those senses of man whose gratification refines life and makes it enjoyable; and it is a pleasure to know that it was duly rewarded by a rich return.
While building up this great industry Mr. Barry acted well many other parts. His pen was not idle. To the instruction and influence flowing from it is horticulture much indebted for its advancement during sixty years in this country. Following many miscellaneous contributions to the literature of that particular field, Mr. Barry, in 1852, published his first popular work, "The Fruit Garden". The edition was soon exhausted and another and larger one followed in 1855. In 1852 "The Horticulturist" passed from the hands of Luther Tucker into those of James Vick, and was removed from Albany to Rochester in order that the lamented Downing, drowned in the "Henry Clay" disaster on the Hudson river, might be succeeded in the editorial chair by Mr. Barry, who conducted it several years and until its purchase by the Messrs. Smith of Philadelphia. Mr. Barry's chief and most valuable work, however, was his "Catalogue of the American Pomological Society", which is the accepted guide of American fruit growers and is regarded as standard authority throughout the world. But outside of the nursery and the sanctum Mr. Barry was no less busily and usefully engaged. Regular in habit and methodical in action, he was enabled to perform duties as varied in character as they were successful in result.
For more than twenty years he was president of the Western New York Horti- cultural Society, which was the most prosperous and important of its kind in the United States. He was president of the New York State Agricultural Society and a member of the board of control of the New York State Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion. At times he filled offices of importance to the local community, such as alder- man of the city and supervisor of the county and as frequently declined the tender of others. The Flour City National Bank, of which Mr. Barry was president and of which he was also a director nearly from the outset, was one of the largest and most prosperous of financial institutions of western New York. Besides the Flour City National Bank, Mr. Barry was prominently identified with many other important enterprises of Rochester, filling such positions as president of the Mechanics Savings Bank, president of the Rochester City & Brighton Railroad Company, president of the Flour City (Powers Hotel) Hotel Company, president of the Rochester Gas Company, and original trustee of the Rochester Trust and Safe Deposit Company. member of the commission appointed by the legislature to supervise the elevation of the New York Central Railroad tracks, through the city, etc., etc. He aided largely in building up the central business property of Rochester, of which he was a considerable
Patrick Barry
J. C. Dany
.
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owner, and in developing the valuable water-power of the Lower Falls of the Genesee river, connected with which he had large interests.
In all his walks Patrick Barry was an upright man-a model of industry, integrity and honor. No one in the city where he lived his busy and eventful life was held in higher esteem by his fellow citizens; and the life of no man in Rochester furnished a better example nor stronger incentive to the youth of the present day who would make for themselves a spotless name and achieve enduring fame.
Mr. Barry was married in 1846, to Harriet Huestis, a native of Richfield, Otsego county, New York. Eight children were born of this union, six sons and two daugh- ters, of whom three sons and one daughter lived to adult age but only the daughter is now living. The sons were: William C., of whom extended mention is made else- where in this work; Dr. John H., who married Grace Huestis and had one son, Alfred E .; Charles P., who married Julia Wald and had three children, Harriet L., Thomas F. and Alfred W .; and the daughter is Harriet E., the wife of Bernhard Liesching of Rochester, New York.
Mr. Barry died on the 23d of June, 1890, and while fruit growing remains an industry of the country, his memory will be cherished as the promoter of valuable knowledge along this line. In his home city, where he was widely known, he had a very large circle of friends, and his life was an exemplification of the Emersonian philos- ophy that "the way to win a friend is to be one."
WILLIAM C. BARRY.
The death of William C. Barry on December 12, 1916, was a distinct loss to Rochester, where his activities had for many years been a most valuable and impor- tant factor in the business, financial and civic life of the city. He was a native son and was born September 17, 1847, the eldest son of Patrick and Harriet (Heustis) Barry, of whom a more extended mention will be found elsewhere in this work.
William C. Barry received every educational advantage that wealth and his inclinations could satisfy. He was privately tutored and subsequently entered Seton Hall College in New Jersey, then conducted by Rev. Bernard J. McQuaid, later bishop of the Rochester diocese. After completing his studies at Seton Hall, Mr. Barry was sent to Europe and studied at Heidelberg and Louvain. Returning to America, he began his business career in connection with the extensive nursery firm of Ellwanger & Barry that was founded by his father and George Ellwanger in 1840. His connec- tion with that firm was continued during the remainder of William C. Barry's life, and for a number of years prior to his death he was its president and treasurer. From the time he entered the nursery business, as a young man, his natural business ability and inherited enthusiasm for nursery development soon brought him to a position of prominence in that industry and upon the death of his father, which occurred on the 23d of June, 1890, he was highly capable of assuming the additional responsibilities that fell upon him. In November, 1906, George Ellwanger passed away, and for the decade following, until his death, William C. Barry was the executive and financial head of the vast interests of Ellwanger & Barry that have exerted such a valuable influence in Rochester's development.
Although William C. Barry devoted the greater part of his time to the interests of his firm. he was one of Rochester's best known men in financial circles and the active part he took in civic affairs made him one of the city's highly valued citizens. Notwithstanding the extent and importance of his private interests, it can be truth- fully said that he was ever ready to serve on any important committee or body hav- ing as its object some city betterment or improvement. He was a member of the orig- inal city park board and served until its dissolution in 1915. He was no small factor in the placing of the Ellwanger & Barry Children's Memorial pavilion in Highland Park. and the ranid development of Rochester's park system was in a large measure due to his efforts. It was in 1888 that Ellwanger & Barry. through its founders, George Ellwanger and Patrick Barry. presented to the city of Rochester the twenty acres of land from which Highland Park has been developed. This munificent gift strange to say, had been offered to the city a number of times and William C. Barry had no little to do with bringing about its final acceptance. His vision and that of his predecessors and appreciation of the possibilities of the tract for park purposes is fully borne out, bv the scene it presents todav. Highland Park, while one of the smallest of the city's narks. is the most attractive of all. with its botanical display, particularly of the lilacs in their season, and the great number of different kinds of
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