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 9
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In 1887, in Rochester, Mr. Gordon was united in marriage to Miss Mary Larke. They became the parents of four children, one of whom, Grace O. Willems, is deceased. Stewart H., who was born in Rochester in 1890, was educated in this city, and is also a graduate of the architectural course in Pennsylvania University. He resides in Rochester with his wife and two children, Mary Alda and Betty; Constance, who was born in Rochester in 1895 and is still a resident of this city, is the wife of Eugene Vincent, and the mother of two sons, Edwin and Robert; Ruth, born in Rochester in 1908, is a high school student of this city.
Mr. Gordon is well known in club circles, belonging to the Rochester Club, the Rochester Ad Club, the Rochester Auto Club, the Rochester City Club, and the Oak Hill Country Club. He likewise has membership connection with the Rochester Art Gallery, the Young Men's Christian Association, and the Rochester Chamber of Commerce.
WARREN WALDO HAWLEY, SR.
Descendant of one of the oldest families in Wyoming county, New York, bearing a name always associated with honorable actions, for many years the directing- head of large industries, Warren Waldo Hawley, Sr., of Warsaw, Wyoming county, New York, was regarded as the leading citizen of his section, whose counsel and support were solicited for every movement for community betterment, and whose disapproval of a project was tantamount to its failure. For more than a century the name of Hawley has been foremost on Wyoming county's honor roll. Sylvanus Hawley, the grandfather of Warren W., was the first of the family to settle in the Genesee section, arriving about 1810 and locating in Rock Glen, living in Wyoming county until his death, as have most of the family. Warren W. Hawley, Sr., was born in Warsaw, March 30, 1851, the son of John Waldo and Juliet Patterson (Thorpe) Haw- ley. John W. Hawley was a merchant and was later the founder of the Hawley Salt Company of Warsaw, passing most of his life in the village, where he died on September 3, 1888.
Warren Waldo Hawley, Sr., received his education in the grade and high schools of Warsaw, supplemented by one year in a business college in Buffalo, New York. He then returned to Warsaw and was his father's assistant in the mercantile business until 1874, when he went to Chicago, Illinois, and engaged in the produce business. Mr. Hawley remained in Chicago until 1881, then returned to Warsaw and entered the Hawley Salt Company, with his father as partner. After the father's death in 1888 the business was incorporated and Warren W. Hawley, Sr., became president of the company, holding the position until the company was sold to the National Salt Company twelve years later. Mr. Hawley remained with the National Salt Company as manager of the plants in his immediate section of New York, was appointed a director of the company and remained one for six years. He then resigned to become president of the Warsaw Button Company, in which position he continued until his
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death, which occurred September 14, 1924. Mr. Hawley was always interested in agriculture, and while actively engaged in industrial enterprises, found pleasure and profit in managing a large modern farm near Batavia, known as Hawley Stock Farms. He always retained his love of agriculture, but in later years turned the farm over to his son, Warren W. Hawley, Jr., who has managed it so successfully that it is con- sidered one of the best farms in the state. Mr. Hawley was also a director in the Oatka Hose Company of Warsaw and in the Warsaw Creamery Company. For four years he was a member of the village council and served as mayor for one term in 1900. He was a member of the Universalist church, and was not connected with any clubs or secret societies.
Mr. Hawley was married on February 3, 1874, in Orangeville, New York, to Anna O. Webster, who resided in that town with an aunt, as her parents had died when she was a small child. Mr. and Mrs. Hawley have two children living: Helen, who be- came the wife of Walter F. Reinheimer, who is in business in New York city and lives in Nutley, New Jersey; their three children being, William Hawley, Janet Webster and Walter Frank; and Warren Waldo, Jr., who attended the agricultural department of Cornell University and who as before stated operates the farm at Ba- tavia where he breeds and develops fine prize-winning blooded stock and poultry. He was married to Emma Charlotte Morris of Warsaw, on December 29, 1916. Their three children are: Warren Waldo (III), Elizabeth Morris and Roy Stephen. Warren Waldo Hawley, Sr., had only one hobby, and that was the farm, which he managed for so many years and on which his son is now repeating his father's success.
WILLIAM F. ROEHLEN.
One of the best "stories" in New York state today, to use an expression borrowed from the journalist's profession, is that of a German engraver who, in a dozen years, has built up what is practically a unique industry in the United States. That engraver is William F. Roehlen and the industry is his plant at Rochester, which is the only factory in the entire country equipped to produce the embossing rollers used in the textile, paper and leather industries, etc.
Mr. Roehlen is a craftsman and artist of the first rank. The technical skill and efficiency that comes only as the result of long experience and patient effort are his and he shares his ability with precious few men. Born in Germany fifty years ago- the exact date was December 18, 1874-Mr. Roehlen comes from a family that is noteworthy in this connection because his father, Matthew Roehlen, was a silk weaver by trade. Thus from early boyhood William Roehlen knew of the problems and technique of silk textiles. The father is now deceased, but the mother, who bore the maiden name of Agnes Poscher, is still living and resides in her native land. Four of her five children are living and with the exception of William F. of this review, all have remained in Germany. Henry is a government employe in the postal service at Duesberg; John is engaged in the meat business at Weringen and a sister, Mary, is now Mrs. Van Fondern of Dusseldorf.
As a boy William F. Roehlen was educated in the elementary schools of Germany, following which, from the time he was fourteen until he was twenty, he studied art and engraving in the school of arts, attending the evening and Sunday sessions. This intensive study soon bore fruit. By the time he was eighteen the young man had completed his apprenticeship and had become a journeyman engraver. In the ensuing ten years he worked as a foreman in some of the largest and best engraving estab- lishments on the continent.
In 1911 Mr. Roehlen determined to come to America to try his fortune in the newer land. He, for one, has not been disappointed in the opportunities for rapid advancement the New World has to offer the ambitious and industrious newcomer from Europe. For eight months after arriving in the United States he worked as an engraver for a jewelry company. At the end of that time he had discovered what a field there was for the development of the engraving industry in the direction of making engraved rollers and plates for the textile, paper and leather trades. In 1912 he decided to embark in business for himself, so with the little capital at his command he started a small plant on Frederick park, Rochester. His excellent work soon attracted a large volume of very profitable business and Mr. Roehlen found himself at the head of a going concern. The greatest difficulty that he had to meet was that of obtaining properly skilled workmen, for the industry in America was not producing craftsmen with the technique and experience necessary for the particular type of
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work he seeks to develop. Since the World war he has been able to bring a few skilled men from Germany, where they have had a training similar to his own. Before this was possible, however, he began training his own apprentices and now has in his organization some men who have been with him almost as long as he has been in business. Today his ten best workmen have the distinction of being the highest sal- aried men in the profession in the United States. When he saw that his business was going to fulfill his ambitions for it, Mr. Roehlen purchased the lot at the corner of Marietta and St. Paul streets and erected a building that he had designed to meet his peculiar needs. On the 1st of October, 1923, the new plant was ready for occupancy.
It is, perhaps, not too much to say that the opening of this plant marked the beginning of a new era in certain phases of American industry. Mr. Roehlen was then equipped to render a service to manufacturers in this country that hitherto had been obtainable only in Europe and, of course, at a considerable cost of time and money. While American manufacturers long ago lead the world in quantity produc- tion and mechanical efficiency, it has for years been a just criticism of industry in this country that it could not compete with the skilled craftsmen of the Old World. Firms striving to place on the market textiles, decorated papers and leather goods that will be second to none in beauty and quality, are finding in Mr. Roehlen a friend in need. For instance, a nationally known silk manufacturing company whose name is a guarantee of good taste and quality from Ma'ne to California, purchases its en- graved rollers for embossing its beautiful silks from this Rochester plant. The list of prominent manufacturers that are Mr. Roehlen's regular patrons is an impressive one, and there is no doubt that as his capacity for filling orders increases new firms will enter the artistic fields that his enterprise has made possible.
In 1900, on the 29th of May, Mr. Roehlen was married to Miss Anna M. Schaefer of Crefeld, Germany, the daughter of Louis Schaefer. Mrs. Roehlen is an active partner in her husband's business, and fills an important position in the executive branch of the project. They have one daughter: Louise, now Mrs. Kenneth H. Mar- tin, whose husband is a physician in Chicago. She was born in Cologne, Germany, and educated in Germany and Rochester. Mr. Roehlen is a member of the Mennonite church and fraternally is affiliated with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.
HON. ARCHIE D. SANDERS.
Hon. Archie D. Sanders, member of congress from the Thirty-ninth congressional district of the state of New York, formerly and for years collector of internal revenue for his home district, a former state senator and for many years an acknowledged leader in the general civic affairs of Genesee county, where he ever has made his home and where he is a considerable landowner, is a native son of that county and has never ceased to be proud of that fact. He was born in the village of Stafford, on June 17, 1857, and is a son of John and Elizabeth (Dovell) Sanders, who in their generation were among the best known residents of that section of the Genesee country. John Sanders was a native of England, who in 1845 became established in the mercantile business in Stafford, Genesee county, and also became a landowner there and carried on extensive farming operations. For three years he served as supervisor for his district and in 1879 was elected to represent the district in the state assembly and was reelected in 1880. He died in 1882, at the age of sixty years. His wife, who was born in England in 1825, reached the advanced age of eighty-six years. Their four children to reach maturity were: Archie D .; Louise, who died at the age of sixteen years; H. Ralph, who was associated with his father and brother in business in Stafford, where he died in 1907; and Miss Ilette Blanche Sanders, re- siding in Stafford.
Reared in Stafford, Archie D. Sanders received his initial schooling in the local schools and supplemented this by attendance at Leroy Academy and at the Buffalo high school. From the days of his boyhood he had a familiar acquaintance with the details of his father's mercantile business in Stafford and upon leaving school be- came associated with his father and brother, H. Ralph, in that business, with particular reference to its produce department. By inheritance he came into possession of a fine farm tract there and has ever given his attention to the proper supervision of operations on that farm, which has been developed into one of the fine farms of that region. From the days of his young manhood Mr. Sanders has given a good citizen's attention to local civic affairs and has for years been recognized as one of the leaders
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of the republican party in that section of the state. His first public service was ren- dered as highway commissioner in his home district, to which office he was elected in 1887 and for four years he served in that capacity, doing much during that term of service to advance the cause of good roads thereabout, a cause which about that time was beginning to attract the general attention of the people who were waking up to the needs of better highways. In 1892 Mr. Sanders was elected supervisor for his district and by reelection served for two terms in that office. In 1895 he was elected to represent his district in the state assembly and by reelection served for two terms in that office.
It was in 1896, the year of the memorable campaign which resulted in the people of the United States sending William Mckinley to the White House, that at the state convention of the republican party held that year in Saratoga Mr. Sanders was selected to represent his party in his district as a member of the state central com- mittee and was elected a delegate to the Republican National convention held that year in St. Louis, Missouri, which nominated William McKinley of Ohio for the presi- dency. In 1898 Mr. Sanders was appointed by President Mckinley to serve as collector of internal revenue for the twenty-eighth district of New York and so effectively did he perform the duties of that exacting position that for fourteen years, by successive reappointments, he was retained at that post. During the years 1900-1901 Mr. Sanders also rendered service as a member of the state committee of his party. In 1914 he was elected to represent his senatorial district in the New York state senate and two years later, in 1916, was elected to represent the Thirty-ninth congressional dis- trict of the state of New York in the United States congress and in the next year entered upon his duties as the representative from this district in the sixty-fifth con- gress. By successive reelections Mr. Sanders has been retained by the electorate in this highly responsible position and is now (1925) serving his fifth term in congress, thus earning there a degree of seniority that has brought to him a number of very important committee assignments, enabling him to render some very real service, not only in behalf of his own constituency and the state of New York but in behalf of the general affairs of the nation.
Besides his land and other interests Mr. Sanders is a member of the directorate of the First National Bank of Batavia and is one of the substantial citizens of the Genesee country. He is a Mason, a member of Stafford Lodge of Odd Fellows, Batavia Lodge of Elks, the Batavia Club, the Holland Club and the Stafford Country Club, Silver Lake Country Club, member of and vestryman in St. Paul's Protestant Episcopal church, Stafford.
HAROLD GILL FOWLER.
Harold Gill Fowler, one of Dansville's native sons and loyal citizens, has taken cognizance of his opportunities, utilizing them to the best advantage, and is ably discharging the duties of secretary of the F. A. Owen Publishing Company, one of the largest firms of the kind in the east. He was born on the 24th of April, 1889, and his grandparents were Thomas M. and Harriett G. (Everett) Fowler. The former was a successful merchant of Dansville and became prominent in public affairs, repre- senting Steuben county, New York, in the general assembly for two terms-1872 and 1874. His son, Miller H. Fowler, was born in Springwater, New York, September 29, 1862, and was four years of age when the family removed to Wayland, this state. He went to Lima, New York, in 1874 and two years later arrived in Dansville. He attended the old Dansville Seminary and completed his education in the Genesee Wesleyan University. He became interested in the printer's trade when a boy of thirteen and as a young man opened a job printing office in Dansville. In 1883, in association with Joseph W. Burgess, he founded the Dansville Breeze, one of the pioneer newspapers of Livingston county, and met with gratifying success in that venture. In 1885 he was married to Minnie A. Lemen, a daughter of Archibald Lemen, one of the early settlers of Dansville. Mr. and Mrs. Miller H. Fowler became the parents of Harold Gill Fowler of this review.
Harold Gill Fowler obtained his education in the grammar and high schools of his native town and his first business experience was acquired in the office of B. H. Ober- dorf, with whom he remained for two years. His connection with the F. A. Owen Publishing Company dates from 1906, when he became a compositor in the printing department, and by diligence and devotion to duty he has worked his way upward from that position to the office of secretary. He has practically grown up with the
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business, which he entered at the age of seventeen, and the confidence reposed in him has been amply justified, for his cooperation and intelligently directed efforts have been valuable assets to the firm. The company publishes the Normal Instructor and Primary Plans, an educational journal, and Frederick A. Owen, the founder of the business, was the pioneer in correspondence instruction. The business had its incep- tion in 1888 in the attic of a country grocery store at South Dansville and today the company owns and operates a plant which covers three acres, occupying a position of leadership in the publishing field.
On the 17th of June, 1920, Mr. Fowler was united in marriage to Miss Lucy E. Kennedy of Ossian, New York, and they have two daughters: Dorothy A. and Jean F. Mr. Fowler is a consistent member of the Presbyterian church and gives his political support to the republican party, while along fraternal lines he is connected with the Masonic order. He is a typical young business man of the present day- alert, progressive, broad-minded-and a zealous supporter of every measure conducive to the welfare and advancement of Dansville and its citizens.
ARTHUR T. HAGEN.
Arthur T. Hagen founded and developed one of the important industrial enter- prises of Rochester and for over forty-five years was identified with the business life of the city, where he was numbered among the most substantial and highly respected citizens. He was born August 26, 1852, at Islington, near London, England, a son of Oliver and Sarah Hagen, and was about ten years old when his parents came to the United States in 1862 and established the family home at West Farms, New York. The parents of Arthur T. Hagen were Quakers, and his father was one of the old- time watchmakers, noted for his skill and expertness in the days when watches were all made by hand. He was a resident of Rochester in the latter years of his life and maintained a shop in the Powers building, where he carried on his trade.
Arthur T. Hagen was a boy of about fifteen years when in 1867 he entered the Wheeler & Wilson factory to learn sewing machine repair work. He was naturally of a mechanical turn of mind and readily adapted himself to this intricate work, which he followed for about four years. This training proved highly valuable to him in the subsequent years of his business activity and the proficiency he attained in the work he was learning probably had much to do with his coming to Rochester. In 1871 he came to this city as an expert sewing machine mechanic, to keep in repair the large number of sewing machines then used by the Sibley, Lindsay & Curr Com- pany in the manufacture of ladies' lingerie. Mr. Hagen's duties in this connection found him with leisure moments, during which he familiarized himself with factory operations and other mechanical lines. In 1874 Mr. Hagan went into business for himself and opened a store for the sale and repair of sewing machines, also custom shirts. His room-mate in those days was a young man named Peter Myers, a travel- ing salesman, who took orders for custom-made shirts as a side line. It occurred to these young men that they could profitably manufacture stock shirts and thus estab- lish an industry of their own. Thus began a business association between Mr. Hagen and Mr. Myers that proved both profitable and congenial and was not terminated un- til Mr. Myers' death in August, 1888. Their initial experience in manufacturing shirts, while attended by difficulties, developed their resourcefulness and really was responsible for their going into the laundry business that proved so successful. The greatest drawback in the shirt business at that time was the lack of good laundry facilities, and after a large number of shirts had been made up it was almost im- possible to get them properly laundered. One of the laundries doing this work for them was anxious to sell out, and thinking that they could do the work right and thus build up a great stock shirt business, they agreed to buy out the laundry known as the Star Steam Laundry and took possession December 9, 1874. This was their beginning in the laundry business, then conducted on the second and third floors of an old building twenty by forty, under the name of Hagen & Myers, Star Steam Laundry. Their start in the laundry business was by no means under favorable cir- cumstances. It was a new business to these young men whose capital was limited, and on numerous occasions their resourcefulness, persistency and good business manage- ment and judgment pulled them through situations that would have caused many less endowed with these characteristics to give up in despair. With a more practical knowledge of the business came new ideas of management and system and the enter- prise began to prosper. Larger quarters were secured and occupied until 1884,
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when the building at Nos. 61 to 65 North street was erected and has since been oc- cupied by the business. In 1898 the large plant on Ormond street was erected, being then the last word in laundry construction and equipment. When the Palace Laundry was absorbed the name was changed to the Star Palace Laundry, under which name the business was incorporated and has since been conducted.
Mr. Hagen's inventive genius found ample scope for constructive work and con- tributed largely to labor-saving laundry machinery. He perfected a number of valu- able devices, among them a shirt body ironing machine, in 1883, which helped solve his own particular problem. A great deal of the modern laundry machinery in use today is simply improvements on many of the original ideas of Mr. Hagen. He established the A. T. Hagen Company and was its president, until with five other companies it united to form the present American Laundry Machinery Company, of which he was a director until his death. Mr. Hagen's business interests were varied and extensive. He was a director of the Fidelity Trust Company and a trustee of the East Side Sav- ings Bank. He was fond of travel and circled the globe more than once, visiting nearly every land in both hemispheres. He was an admirer of a good horse and took a great interest in yachting, at one time being commodore of the Rochester Yacht Club. In the latter years of his life he relinquished not a few of his business cares and responsibilities and consulted his pleasures and inclinations for recreation. He had applied himself closely to business from his youth, achieved notable success and was a self-made man in the fullest meaning of the term. He persevered in his under- takings and was always esteemed for his honesty of purpose and strict integrity. The generosity, kindness and consideration that marked his treatment of employes made him well liked. He was not only a successful man but one of high ideals whose personal worth was recognized by all, and throughout his life he stood for those things which have real value as constructive elements in the world's work. He was a member of the Brick church. His death occurred in Rochester, January 13, 1917, and was survived by his widow and his son, Roscoe Arthur. Of the latter more extended mention will be found elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Hagen, previous to her marriage, was Miss Emma Chapman, a daughter of Robert M. Chapman.
FRANK J. BANTLEY.
Frank J. Bantley, secretary of the board of fire commissioners of Corning, has been closely identified with the business and social life of that city for many years. An experienced railroad and business man, he has found time to serve the public as well in the capacity of alderman and secretary of the board of health. He has enjoyed life, too, with the sort of pleasure which makes for culture, for he has one of the finest libraries in the county and is a man of erudition. He was born June 3, 1866, in West Hickory, Forest county, Pennsylvania, the son of John and Fredericka (Roth- fuss) Bantley. His father was in the oil business most of his life and when Frank J. was a boy the family lived in Bradford and later Duke Center, Pennsylvania. His father and mother had been married in Corning, New York, in 1856, however, and they subsequently returned to New York state. Both were natives of Germany.
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