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 IV > Part 45
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In order to facilitate the handling of a large amount of business originating in Buffalo and the extreme western part of the state, in 1920 Mr. Carhart established an up-to-date kodak finishing plant in that city, at No. 700 Main street, conducted along the same high standard that has always prevailed in the Rochester plant. In August, 1923, he opened a store at No. 28 West Genesee street in that city, handling kodaks and supplies, as well as an extensive line of greeting cards. This is the finest store of its kind in Buffalo. Mr. Carhart is sole owner of the business, which reflects his progressive spirit and excellent managerial ability, and his operations are on an extensive scale.
On October 1, 1914, in Buffalo, New York, Mr. Carhart was married to Miss
HARRY D. CARHART
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Emma Goetz, a daughter of George Goetz of Dale, New York. Mr. and Mrs. Carhart have two sons and two daughters, all born in Rochester: Jane Patty, born on the 7th of July, 1916; Orrin Kenneth, who was born December 27, 1917; Harry D., Jr., born October 15, 1919; and Doris Ann, who was born March 4, 1921.
Mr. Carhart is a consistent member of the Central Presbyterian church and con- tributes liberally toward its support. He is also a member of the Young Men's Christian Association and is interested in all those movements and influences that effect the moral welfare of the community. Appreciative of the social amenities of life, he belongs to the Kiwanis Club, the Oak Hill Country Club and the Automobile Club of Rochester. He is a member of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce and his fraternal connections are with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the Ma- sonic order, in which he belongs to the following bodies: Valley Lodge, No. 109, F. & A. M .; Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M .; Monroe Commandery, No. 12, K. T .; and Damascus Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S. Mr. Carhart has reached the thirty-fifth mile- stone on life's journey and stands practically on the threshold of his business career. He may well be proud of his accomplishments, which are remarkable for one of his years, and his rapidly maturing powers have enabled him to establish a new standard of business progress in Rochester. Almost his entire life has been spent in Rochester and his friends, many of whom have known him from boyhood, feel for him a peculiar esteem, not only for his abilities, but for his many congenial qualities of mind and heart. He is numbered among the city's best class of citizens and enjoys a high standing as an enterprising and capable business man. Mr. Carhart's residence is at No. 140 Rockingham street.
WALTER HARRIS SMITH.
Walter Harris Smith has been successfully engaged in law practice in Le Roy for nearly half a century and has been closely identified with the growth and development of his home community. He was born in West Bloomfield, Ontario county, New York, on the 25th of July, 1852, his parents being Nelson H. and Ellen Douglas (Pellett) Smith. The father, a native of East Lyme, Connecticut, was associated with a publish- ing house in Hartford, that state. He spent the greater part of his life in Connecticut, whence he removed to West Bloomfield, New York, where his death occurred when his son Walter was but two years of age.
In the acquirement of an education Walter Harris Smith attended the Le Roy Academic Institute and later Williston Seminary of Easthampton, Massachusetts. During the succeeding three years he studied law in Le Roy, under the preceptorship of Lucius M. Bangs, then county judge of Genesee county, while subsequently he matriculated in the Albany Law School, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of LL. B. on May 8, 1876. Following his admission to the bar he returned to Le Roy, where he began the work of his chosen profession, in association with Judge Bangs. Since the latter's removal, however, he has practiced independently and has occupied the same office since the year 1880. Mr. Smith is accorded an extensive clientage of a general character but has specialized in surrogate practice. He is a charter member of the Genesee County Bar Association.
On the 17th of January, 1878, Mr. Smith was married to Martha Stevens Lawrence, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lawrence, then of Lafayette, Indiana. Mrs. Smith passed away in Le Roy on October 5, 1922. By her marriage she became the mother of three children, two of whom survive: Lawrence H. Smith, a graduate of the Le Roy high school and of Williams College, received the degree of M. D. from the University of Buffalo and is now practicing medicine and surgery in East Aurora, New York. At the time of the World war he was commissioned a captain in the army; Walter Harris Smith, Jr., also a graduate of the Le Roy high school, completed a course in Williams College with the class of 1907. Thereafter he removed to the state of Washington, where he owned and operated a fruit ranch to the time of his death, which occurred July 30, 1913; Miss Beatrice Smith, who was valedictorian of her class at the Le Roy high school and who graduated from Vassar College in 1918, finished a course in the Seymour School of Music in 1922 and is now teacher of music in the exclusive Rye Seminary at Rye, New York.
Mr. Smith has long rendered valuable service to the people of his community as a member of the board of education, as village attorney and as a member of the board of trustees. He is connected with the Oatka Hose Club of Le Roy and fraternally is identified with the Masonic order, belonging to Olive Branch Lodge No. 39, F. and
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A. M .; Le Roy Chapter No. 183, R. A. M .; and Batavia Commandery No. 34, K. T. His life has been one of activity and usefulness and his many admirable qualities of heart and mind have won for him the high and enduring regard of all with whom he has come into contact.
CALVIN HOTCHKISS.
In business it is the invisible but very tangible and necessary attribute called character that builds confidence, and as the tallest mountain towers above the foot- hills of the range, so will the institution cherishing high ideals of service loom large upon the horizon of the business world. For over eighty years the name of Hotchkiss has, stood as a synonym for business probity and for all that is purest and best in con- nection with the manufacture of essential oils. The firm ships its products to many parts of the globe, and the work begun by his father is being continued by Calvin Hotchkiss, who is ably guiding the destiny of an industry that has been the chief fac- tor in the upbuilding of Lyons and this section of Wayne county. He was the eighth in order of birth in a family of ten children, consisting of three sons and seven daughters, and five of the children are now living, two sons and three daughters.
The parents of Calvin Hotchkiss were Hiram G. and Mary (Ashley) Hotchkiss, the latter a native of Lyons, New York, which was the place of their marriage. The Ashley family is one of the oldest in this locality and the maternal grandfather, Dr. Robert Ashley, was the pioneer physician of Wayne county. Hiram G. Hotchkiss was born in Oneida, Madison county, New York, and was two years of age when his par- ents removed to Phelps, Ontario county, this state. In 1812 his father opened a gen- eral store in the town and at the age of eighteen the son took over the business, which he conducted successfully until 1842. Meanwhile, in 1839, Hiram G. Hotchkiss had embarked in the peppermint oil business and after selling his stock of general mer- chandise in Phelps, he located in Lyons, where he spent the remainder of his life, passing away in 1897, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. He manufactured all the essential oils and gradually increased the scope of his operations until he became the owner of a vast industry, developed by hard work, expert management and un- swerving allegiance to the highest standard of commercial ethics. He was a model business man and citizen, a devoted husband and father, an honor to his own genera- tion and an inspiration to the generations that are to follow.
At the age of sixteen Calvin Hotchkiss entered his father's plant and gradually worked his way through every department of the business, which he mastered in principle and detail. He assumed control of the business in 1897, following the death of its founder, and for a period of twenty-seven years has wisely and successfully directed the operations of the firm, which under his leadership has won and retained a position of world supremacy in the lines in which it specializes. The business is conducted under the name of the H. G. Hotchkiss Essential Oil Company and has grown to mammoth proportions. The firm has the largest factory of the kind in the world and its output is used for medicinal purposes and for flavoring candy. Its prod- ucts are unsurpassed in purity and excellence and have won premiums at every expo- sition in which they have been entered. The executive ability, initiative spirit and in- flexible will which enabled the father to lay the foundation of the business and foster its early growth were qualities inherited in full measure by the son, who is operating the industry along modern lines, proving well worthy of the trust.
Mr. Calvin Hotchkiss was married in Lyons to Miss Elizabeth De Voe, a daughter of David De Voe. Five children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Hotchkiss: De Voe, the eldest, is manager for a Rochester firm; Hiram G. enlisted in the United States Medical Corps when our country entered the World war and won a lieutenant's commission. He was subsequently promoted to the rank of captain and placed in charge of the camp at Indianapolis, Indiana. He received his honorable discharge in 1920, and is now engaged in the practice of medicine in Rochester; Emma, the next in order of birth, resides at home; Elizabeth became the wife of Edmund R. Johnson, who is con- nected with the steel industry, and their home is in the city of Philadelphia; Alice is the wife of Charles L. Brown, manager of the Rochester office of the Travelers Insur- ance Company.
Mr. Hotchkiss also contributed his services to the nation and worked untiringly to promote the success of the various measures promulgated by the government during the campaign against Germany. He is identified with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and was formerly a trustee of his lodge; is a Knights Templar Mason and also belongs to the Masonic Club. He is an influential member of the Lyons Chamber of
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Commerce and gives his political support to the democratic party. Mr. Hotchkiss is broad in his views, progressive in his standards and high in his ideals-a fine type of the modern business man-and by his achievements has brought additional luster to an honored name.
GEORGE MILTON OWENS.
The favorite American story of success despite handicaps is again told in the life of George Milton Owens of Painted Post, New York. Reared in poverty, deprived of an education, and forced to shift for himself at an early age, he has brought him- self to the crest as a business man, and a life of effort has earned him a place among the leaders of Steuben county. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri, October 16, 1874, the son of George H. and Emma T. (Trout) Owens, and his parents moved to Elmira, New York, in 1881. Although only seven years of age, he became a newsboy and at twelve was in business for himself. Having established himself as a reliable boy in the community, he purchased property worth four thousand dollars, for which he subsequently was able to pay. He had practically no opportunity for schooling until at the age of twenty-one he attended Miller's Business College in Elmira. One of the happy memories of his youth is the day he attended a great gathering of newsboys and bootblacks who were addressed by Henry Ward Beecher, the famous divine. Mr. Beecher told them it was the finest congregation to which he ever talked.
Mr. Owens began as a junk dealer when only a boy and today he has one of the largest businesses of this nature in southern New York. His enviable business reputa- tion and application to business have brought him wealth and friends and he is noted as a "square shooter" in everything he does. His present yards cover five hundred and fifty feet along the Erie railroad and two hundred and thirty feet in depth. His is one of the reliable enterprises of Painted Post and he stands high with bankers, big steel men and his acquaintances everywhere.
On January 16, 1904, Mr. Owens was married to Miss Sarah Franor, a member of the highly respected family of that name in Steuben county. Mr. and Mrs. Owens have two children: George C. and Elma Mabel. The son is in business with his father. George M. Owens is an active republican and a member of the Episcopal church. He is also a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite Mason, and belongs to Montour Lodge No. 117, F. and A. M., Painted Post; Corning Consistory, and Kalurah Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Binghamton, New York. He also belongs to the Odd Fellows and the Corning Country Club. His hobbies are clean out-of-door sports and his business. He has always been devoted to the latter, and because of this fact has achieved success that places him in a prominent position among the strong and capable business men of this part of the state.
CHARLES A. SIMPSON.
Charles A. Simpson, investment manager of the Guaranty Company of New York, is one of the best known investment security men in Rochester. He entered upon this connection following several years of valuable training and experience with one of the strongest banks in New York city. He was born in Rochester in 1884, his parents being Joseph T. and Isabella (Tytler) Simpson, the former a native of Albion, New York, and the latter of Ontario, Canada, but a resident of this state since childhood. Joseph T. Simpson, like his father before him, was a stone contractor, building stone dwellings of the substantial type constructed for a century of service. He passed away in Rochester in 1884, and for more than thirty years was survived by his widow, who died in 1915. Their family numbered seven children, as follows: Miss Sophie E., of Rochester; Mrs. Isabella L. Buckland, of Irondequoit; Alexander T., vice president of the Genesee Valley Trust Company; Joseph T., secretary and treasurer of the Dudley, Given, Simpson Company, Incorporated; William J., president of the Genesee Valley Trust Company; Frederick M., treasurer of the Willard J. Smith Company, Incorporated, and Charles A. of this review.
Charles A. Simpson acquired his education in the grade and high schools of this city and the University of Rochester, receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from the latter institution with the class of 1906. He taught school in Monroe county for a short time, giving up educational work to accept a position in the Fifth Avenue Bank, New York city, in which connection he remained from 1907 to 1914. In the
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latter year he resigned and went with the bond department of the Guaranty Trust Company. After a thorough course of study in investments he was transferred to Rochester as an assistant to the manager, later on assuming the managership, in which capacity he has since continued.
On the 30th of October, 1915, Mr. Simpson was married to Miss Eunice Hall Linsly, a daughter of J. J. Linsly of Northford, Connecticut, and a member of one of the old and prominent families of New Haven county, that state. Mr. and Mrs. Simpson have a son: Josiah James Linsly Simpson, born in Rochester, December 18, 1920. Mr. Simpson is a member of the First Presbyterian church, the Rochester Chamber of Commerce, the University Club, the Oak Hill Country Club and the Washington Club. He enjoys a wide acquaintanceship in Rochester and many of his best friends have known him since boyhood. Mr. Simpson's residence is at No. 609 Mount Hope avenue.
JOHN GLEN MAYO.
One of the best known of Rochester's younger business men is John Glen Mayo, president of the Mayo Nurseries. He was born September 21, 1892, in the city of Rochester, and is a son of Emerson S. and Grace (Allan) Mayo. Both parents are natives of the town of Waldoboro, Maine. They came to Rochester in the early '80s, where Emerson Mayo established what is now widely known as Glen Brothers, In- corporated. The father and mother are still living in Rochester. Their children are Mrs. Grace Belden, Mrs. Ellsworth Harris, Raymond A., and John Glen Mayo.
In his boyhood John Glen Mayo attended the public schools of his native city. Upon leaving the high school he entered the preparatory school at Andover, Massa- chusetts, and in 1915 was graduated in the academic course at Yale University. Returning to Rochester, he became associated with his father in the nursery business and a little later the Mayo Nurseries were incorporated under the laws of New York. The principal offices of the company, of which Mr. Mayo is now president, are located in the Ellwanger & Barry building. For many years it has been a cardinal principle of this company to represent its stock just as it really is, and the Mayo Nurseries have acquired a reputation for square dealing that has extended the trade over a wide expanse of territory.
On June 14, 1917, Mr. Mayo was married in New York city, to Miss Katherine Edwards, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. Edwards, a prominent family of Dayton, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Mayo have three children: Kathrine, born in 1918; Joanne, born in 1922, and Kale, born December 17, 1924. Mr. Mayo is a member of the Rochester Country Club, the Yale Club and the University Club of Rochester, and his church affiliations are with the Third Presbyterian church. While he takes an interest in public questions, particularly those affecting the local welfare, he has never been active in politics.
PAUL A. SETTER.
Paul A. Setter is the general manager of Setter Bros., Incorporated, of Cattar- augus, successor to the business built up in this section of New York beginning more than forty years ago when Antone J. Setter, grandfather of the Paul A. Setter of this sketch, started the woodworking industry which during the years since its inception has grown to be one of the leading industries in the Genesee country, and whose inter- ests have ever been carried on in the Setter family.
This industrial enterprise had its inception in Collins Center in Erie county in 1885, in which year Antone J. Setter and his two sons, Alonzo G. and Joseph A. Set- ter, began the fanufacture at that place of printers' wood engraving blocks. In pass- ing, it is proper to say that the basswood engraving blocks put out by the Setters have long been recognized in the trade as standards in that line, other products which came along in the natural evolution of the plant also holding an equally high place in the estimation of the various trades into which they enter. Antone J. Setter was born in Erie county and grew up there thoroughly familiar with the woodworking industry and quite competent, when the time came, to take a leading part in the de- velopment of that industry. His parents were of German stock and some place along the line he inherited what his friends always regarded as a positive genius in wood- craft and woodworking generally. His two sons, Alonzo and Joseph, possessed the same interest and when the Setter plant came to be a going concern all worked to-
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JOHN G. MAYO
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gether in the utmost harmony, in their respective departments, this notable "team work" naturally producing results that in time brought about the present gratifying expansion of the initial industry.
The Setter interests were not confined to the one line. In 1895 the Setters estab- lished the Collins Center waterworks plant and in that same year constructed a small telephone system there, a plant later taken over by the Bell interests. In the mean- time their woodworking industry had gained a reputation that was attracting more and more attention to the superior quality of its output and the energies of the Set- ters were finding an outlet in other directions. The success of their public service enterprises in Collins Center brought from the people of Cattaraugus a request for the Setters to come to that town and put up there an electric light and power plant. This they did, forming the company known as the Cattaraugus Electric Light & Power Company. Electric energy generated was developed by water-power on Cat- taraugus creek until 1918 when water-power was abandoned and supply power was purchased from Setter Bros. Incorporated, who manufactured power in their plant, and same was controlled until 1924, when the plant was sold to the Olean Electric Light & Power Company. It was in 1902 that the woodworking industry of the Setters was moved from Collins Center to Cattaraugus and the initial unit of the present extensive plant was erected there. In 1904 the industry was organized under the name of Setter Brothers Company, with A. J. Setter as president of the corpora- tion, J. A. Setter as secretary and treasurer and A. G. Setter as vice president.
Upon the removal of the Setters to Cattaraugus the products of their plant grad- · ually were extended to include general veneers, skewers not only for the meat trade but for the candy trade, and a miscellaneous line of kindred wood products, including splints, dowels, drawing boards and the like, the Setter products thus coming to enter a wide variety of industries. Much finished material for use in the manufacture of piano cases also is sent out from this plant, the activities of which are carried on in a factory comprising a half dozen or more buildings and covering a ground area that hardly would have been considered possible by the founders of the industry when they were working out the problems of their "day of small things" forty years ago. The working force of the old plant did not exceed fifteen men. There are now more than three hundred persons on the Setter pay roll. In July, 1911, the Setter plant was wholly consumed by fire. Immediate plans were effected for rebuilding on a better and larger scale and in March, 1912, the concern was going again under full steam and humming in all departments.
It is commonly claimed that the Setters have one of the best woodworking plants in the country. The beautiful veneers turned out there enter into the manufacture of high-grade furniture that is distributed all over the country. The skewers turned out there are distributed all over the United States and England. The "kiddies," bliss- fully holding the stick of an all-day sucker, owe their gratification to the candy sticks which are turned out by the Setter plant. In this connection, and by permission, the following fitting expression of Percy A. Beach in a copyrighted booklet, "Setters of Cattaraugus" (Fred Bann, 1922), published by Roycrofters, is here reproduced :
Load after load, up the hill go the logs; Two horses, three horses, and four horses Pull the beech and maple up to Setters. At times Main street is lined with the log sleds. Men crack their whips, the horses slip and fall; But while there's snow, the logs go up the hill. Patiently, slowly, doggedly, the men Walk beside their loads, clucking to their teams. It's work; it's their midwinter livelihood.
· The trees had to be felled, branches trimmed off, Then sawed into logs with a killing cross-cut; Then they were skidded to the road and piled. No romance in hauling logs to Setters For the farmers. But yesterday I heard One kid say to another, "See them logs? They're goin' up t' Setters' mill, to Be made into sticks for all-day suckers!"
Following the expansion of their activities after they got into the new plant which rose from the ashes of the original plant in Cattaraugus, the Setters began to operate
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through a series of subsidiary organizations for the marketing of their several va- rieties of products, the first of these subsidiaries having been the American Panel Company, which manufactured high-grade veneer panels known as plywood. In 1919 the Cattaraugus Wood Products Company was formed for the manufacture of the same line of plywood products. When more power was needed the Setters secured an extension from Gowanda of the feeder lines of the Iroquois Utilities, Incorporated, purchased an interest in that corporation and Paul A. Setter became a vice president and director of the same. When the World war came on the facilities of the Setter plants were largely directed to war work, particularly with reference to its plywood department, and a record was made in the output of plywood for aeroplanes as well as other items that were essential to the government in the prosecution of the war. In 1922 the various Setter interests, known as the American Panel Company, the Cattaraugus Wood Products Company and Setter Brothers Company, were consoli- dated under the name of Setter Brothers, Incorporated, which was incorporated wiith a capital stock of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and which has since been carrying on the various details of the rapidly growing industry. The present officers of this corporation are: Alonzo G. Setter, president; Paul A. Setter, first vice president and treasurer; B. T. Setter, second vice president; C. P. Setter, secre- tary, and Corydon A. Setter, assistant secretary. Joseph A. Setter died in 1923. Antone J. Setter, founder of the business, retired in 1922. The products of Setter Brothers, Incorporated, are distributed in various ways, the plywood for use in furniture being sold directly to the furniture manufacturers. Many other products are sold direct to the manufacturers, while some are handled principally by agents throughout the United States. Foreign representatives look after the growing export trade. Antone J. Setter invented and perfected many woodworking machines neces- sary to the conduct of some lines of the business. The Setter plant is located on the main line of the Erie Railroad, between Salamanca and Dunkirk.
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