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 90
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ALEXANDER JEFFREY PORTER.
Alexander Jeffrey Porter, president of the Shredded Wheat Company at Niagara Falls, is a member of one of the oldest families of Niagara county and with the history of progress in this section of the state the name has been closely and prominently as- sociated for nearly a century and a quarter. He is of English lineage and his great- grandfather, Judge Augustus Porter, was born in Salisbury, Connecticut, in January, 1769. In 1800 he removed to New York state and for a few years was a resident of Canandaigua. He first came to Niagara county in 1795, when this region was situated on the frontier of civilization, and after visiting the Niagara Falls district returned to Ontario county. In the following year he again came to Niagara county, having been chosen head of a party of surveyors commissioned to lay out townships in this sparsely settled district. About 1805 he established his home in Schlosser Landing, this county, and at that time formed the firm of Porter, Barton & Company, which engaged in a general portage business. In 1808 he settled in the little hamlet of Niagara Falls and his legal ability led to his election to the office of county judge, with jurisdiction over the territory now comprising Niagara and Erie counties, Buffalo being the county seat. He was one of the learned jurists of his day and was a member of the convention called to effect the revision of the state constitution, while he also served as the first post- master of Niagara Falls.
His eldest son, Albert H. Porter, was born in Canandiagua, New York, in October, 1801, and was a small child when the family home was established in Niagara Falls. He was one of the prominent business men of Niagara county, and on Bath Island he built and placed in operation the first mill in which paper was manufactured by ma- chinery. He owned much valuable real estate, and in the improving of his various properties added much to the progress of this section. He died January 31, 1888.
Albert Augustus Porter, son of Albert H. Porter, was born in Niagara Falls in 1836 and followed in the professional footsteps of his distinguished grandfather. He was graduated from Amherst College in 1859, studied law under effective preceptor- ship, and was admitted to the bar in 1862. He successfully practiced his profession in Niagara Falls, becoming one of the leaders of the bar in the county. He was a stanch republican in politics and received from President Lincoln the appointment of consul at Clifton, Ontario, Canada, filling that office for several years. He served as a mem- ber of the municipal board of trustees of Niagara Falls, of which body he was presi- dent for some time, and likewise gave effective service as a member of the board of education. He was a man of high character and in his passing on March 15, 1888, Niagara Falls lost one of its foremost citizens. In 1862 he was married to Miss Julia G. Jeffrey of Canandiagua. She was a daughter of Alexander Jeffrey, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and settled in that section of Ontario county, New York, soon after his migration to the United States. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Porter, three sons and three daughters, of whom Alexander Jeffrey was the oldest. He was born in Niagara Falls, June 29, 1863.
The early education of Alexander Jeffrey Porter was acquired principally under private tutors. In 1880, when seventeen years of age, he entered the business world,
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securing a clerical position in the office of D. M. Osborne & Company of Auburn, New York, manufacturers of harvesting machinery. He remained with that firm for eight years and at the time of his father's death returned home, subsequently becoming treas- urer of the Pettibone Paper Company, one of the large industrial concerns of western New York. In 1888 Mr. Porter was made secretary of the Niagara Falls Power Com- pany and acted in that capacity until 1894. In 1900 he assumed the duties of treas- urer of the Natural Food Company, now the Shredded Wheat Company, and subse- quently became its president, filling that office for several years. He was next made chairman of the executive committee and upon the resignation of Fred Mason on September 1, 1921, succeeded him in the office of president. Mr. Porter has executive ability of a high order and also possesses the poise, vision and unerring judgment of the man of large affairs. The plant of the Shredded Wheat Company is a famous model of cleanliness and its output is pure, wholesome and nutritious. The highest degree of perfection has been attained in the manufacture of its product, which is sold ex- tensively in this country, and the corporation maintains branches in many of the lead- ing cities of the United States, while it has also established an office in London, England. Mr. Porter has voice in the management of other important institutions and is a director of the Niagara Falls Hotel Corporation and the Bank of Niagara. He is president of the real estate and insurance concern known as Porter-Bartlett, Incorporated, and is likewise one of the trustees of the Niagara County Savings Bank, the Riverview Ceme- tery Association and president of the Niagara Falls Community Chest.
In June, 1894, Mr. Porter was married to Miss Margaret Maud Langmuir, a daughter of John W. Langmuir, president of the Queen Victoria Park Commission and a resident of the province of Ontario, Canada. They became the parents of five children, the oldest of whom, Margaret, was married in June, 1915, to Edwin R. Bart- lett of Niagara Falls, resident vice president of the Hooker Electro-Chemical Company. Their three children are: Edwin Porter, Elizabeth Langmuir and Margaret. Albert Augustus was one of the first Americans to enlist when our nation entered the World war and went to France in March, 1917. He was a member of the United States Am- bulance Corps and furnished his own ambulance, the gift of loyal friends in Niagara Falls. He sacrificed his life on the altar of his country when twenty-one years of age, for on April 28, 1917, a most promising career was cut short. He was a young man of patriotic spirit and high courage and his untimely death was deeply mourned, for his was an admirable character, worthy of all praise; Alexander Langmuir is sec- retary of Porter-Bartlett, Incorporated. He was married in October, 1924, to Isobel Farncomb; Katherine Ralston, who was married to William Keith Schneidau in June, 1924; and Julia Granger.
Mr. Porter has served on the republican state central committee and his opinion carries much weight in the councils of the party. He has given unreservedly of his powers in civic affairs and was a member of the municipal water commission of Niagara Falls, serving under appointment of Mayor A. C. Douglass, while in 1891 he was elected suprevisor of the town of Niagara. He belongs to the local Chamber of Commerce and is a member of the executive council of the National Civic Federation of New York city. He is also a member of the Niagara Club, the Niagara Falls and Buffalo Country Clubs, and the Union League of New York city. He is affiliated with St. Peter's Epis- copal church and contributes liberally toward its support. Possessing a strong per- sonality and keen business insight, Mr. Porter has taken his position among the industrial leaders of the east and in person, in talents and in achievements has proven a worthy scion of his race.
ORVILLE F. RANDOLPH.
Orville F. Randolph is a prominent practicing attorney of Penn Yan and worthy native son of Yates county whose career has been a varied and useful one. He was born in the town of Torry, Yates county, New York, on the 22d of August, 1855, his parents being Jeptha F. and Melissa (Kress) Randolph, the former a son of David F. and Christina (Knapp) Randolph. David F. Randolph, the paternal grand- father of Orville F. Randolph, was born in New Jersey about 1800 and soon there- after was brought by his parents to Yates county, New York. He was an agriculturist by occupation and also preached the gospel as a minister of the Baptist denomina- tion. His son, Jeptha F. Randolph, who was born on the 26th of October, 1835, was long identified with farming and merchandising interests in the towns of Him- rod, Dundee and Penn Yan in Yates county. Penn Yan knew him as an active
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business man for forty years, but the evening of his life was spent in Himrod, where he passed away on February 11, 1924. He served as justice of the peace for several terms and was numbered among the representatives, esteemed and substan- tial citizens of the communities in which he made his home. His wife died on June 12, 1924, at the age of sixty years.
Following his graduation from Starkey Seminary of Lakemont, New York, in 1873, Orville F. Randolph entered Oberlin College of Oberlin, Ohio. In further prepa- ration for a professional career he studied law with the firm of Spicer & Baker in Dundee, New York, for two years, while subsequently he spent a similar period in the law office of Briggs & Knox. From 1888 until 1892 he engaged in law practice in Dundee as Junior member of the firm of Spicer & Randolph, after which he was a law partner of Calvin J. Huston in Penn Yan for two or three years. At the same time, from 1888 until 1894, inclusive, he was employed in the Yates County National Bank of Penn Yan, which he also represented as attorney. As police justice of Penn Yan from 1895 until 1900, Mr. Randolph made a most commendable record by reason of the efficient and capable discharge of his duties. During the period between 1902 and 1905 he resided in Newton, Iowa, as manager of a business concern of that city, while through the succeeding four years he was connected with the purchasing department of the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company, with headquarters at St. Louis, Missouri. Mr. Randolph was next active in the real estate and loan business in Seattle, Washington, from 1909 until 1915. In the following year, however, he returned to Penn Yan, New York, where he was elected justice of the peace and where he has been a successful representative of the legal profession to the present time. He enjoys an enviable reputation as an attorney of marked ability and has been accorded an extensive clientage that has connected him with considerable important litigation.
On the 3d of April, 1882, Mr. Randolph was united in marriage to Miss Hattie Sherman of Penn Yan, New York, daughter of Charles Sherman. Mr. and Mrs. Ran- dolph are the parents of a daughter: Helen F., who was born on the 4th of February, 1886, and gave her hand in marriage to the Rev. Cameron S. Morrison, an Episcopal clergyman of Seattle, Washington, who departed this life on the 2d of August, 1922. To the Rev. Mr. Morrison and his wife were born two children: Cameron S., whose natal day was August 14, 1912; and Helen Margaret, who was born on the 30th of August, 1919. Mrs. Morrison and her children are now residents of Penn Yan, New York.
Mr. Randolph gives his political support of the republican party and in religious faith is an Episcopalian. Along strictly professional lines he has membership con- nection with the Yates County Bar Association. Fraternally he is identified with the Masons, belonging to Milo Lodge No. 108, A. F. & A. M., of which he is past master; Penn Yan Chapter No. 100, R. A. M., of which he is past high priest; Ontario Council No. 18, R. & S. M., of which he is past master; Jerusalem Commandery No. 17, K. T., of which he is past commander; Corning Consistory, A. & A. S. R .; and Ziyara Temple, A. A. O. 'N. M. S., of Utica, New York. He is likewise a member of the Eastern Star and of the Penn Yan Club. Mr. Randolph has many friends and is an exponent of all that is most worth while in his relations with his fellowmen.
JOHN P. HERRICK
John Pierce Herrick was born in Muskegon, Michigan, January 27, 1868, eldest son of Joseph Miller and Melissa Ann (Collins) Herrick, and has been a resident of the Genesee Country since 1886, when he established the Ceres Courant at Ceres, Allegany county, at the age of eighteen. When he was four years old the family moved from Michigan to Cameron county, Pennsylvania, where his father engaged in the lumber business. Northern Pennsylvania was then forested with pine and hemlock, and the lumber was rafted and floated down the Susquehanna river to market. The boy attended school at Sterling Run until he was fifteen, when financial reverses and failing health of his father compelled him to leave school and aid his mother in holding the family together. Frequent visits to the lumber camps had given him a working knowledge of lumber jobbing, and he located the family near Costello, in Potter county, a new lumbering district, and made a contract to deliver from the woods to the tannery several hundred cords of bark and five hundred thousand feet of logs. The operation was profitable but after two years an injury compelled a change of occupation and he spent a summer as clerk in the big tannery store of P. C. Costello & Company. In the fall he was engaged as teacher of the district school, having passed
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the required examination to secure a teacher's certificate when sixteen years old. He wanted to be a physician and planned to begin laying the foundation by attending Edinboro Normal School. While teaching he became local correspondent for a Potter county newspaper and a friend suggested that he buy a defunct newspaper in Shingle- house, in northern Potter county. He made an offer for the plant which was declined, went home and packed his trunk for Edinboro. The night before he was to leave a message came saying the owner had decided to accept the offer and the next day he was on his way to Shinglehouse to become a newspaper publisher. Four hundred dollars was involved in the transaction. It was soon apparent that the limited field would not support the Sharon Leader and the printing office was moved to Ceres, five miles down the Oswayo valley, and from this office was issued the Sharon Leader and the Ceres Courant, which were later merged into the Oswayo Valley Mail, still a thriving local newspaper owned by a brother, Charles A. Herrick. Several local newspapers had failed but the enthusiastic young editor "didn't know when he was licked" and finally success came his way.
In 1891, the citizens of Bolivar, seven miles away, urged the young editor to establish a newspaper there. Bolivar had had a big oil boom but it was over, the future not very bright, their local newspaper plant had been moved away and they wanted somebody to "start something." So on August 31 of that year The Bolivar Breeze was born and it was successful from the start, steadily increasing in circulation and influence, championing every good cause and aiding in securing for Bolivar a standard gauge railroad, modern water system, fine high school, electric street railway, modern telephone system, village park and other worth-while things. The motto of The Breeze was: "All things come to him who hustles." Mr. Herrick served as President of the Bolivar Free Library and personally secured from Mr. Carnegie the gift of a library building for Bolivar. The Breeze was a sprightly newspaper and its editorial paragraphs widely quoted. It was first printed on a Washington hand press but as the business prospered a linotype, folder, two revolution press and other modern equipment was added.
Soon after locating at Bolivar Mr. Herrick began writing for metropolitan news- papers and for years contributed regularly to the New York Sun, Illustrated Buffalo Express and other publications. The oil region is a fertile source of newspaper stories, for more romance is found there than elsewhere. Among the Sun stories were "Richburg's Year of Glory," "Christmas on Chipmunk Run," "Spirits That Smell Oil," and "Annihilation in Cans." To secure material for the latter he spent a day in a nitro-glycerine factory studying the making of the high explosive. Among the Genesee country stories were "An Historic Mansion on the Upper Genesee," a story of the Church estate at Belvidere; "Calvin Fairbank-Martyr," interview with the great abolitionist and friend of Lincoln who sleeps in the Angelica cemetery; "One Consul at Manila," graphic story of Frank G. Stebbins, witty Allegany county editor who weighed only ninety pounds but was an intellectual giant; "First Republican Convention," which was held in the historic old courthouse in Angelica; "The El Dorado of the Snows," an interview with the first western New York man to return from the Klondike with a pot of gold. Once he spent all night in Chinatown in San Francisco with a policeman as guide to get material for "A Tenderfoot in Chinatown." For "Bull Fighting as it Is," a New York Sun story, he attended seven bull fights in the City of Mexico. Mr. Herrick devoted several weeks of each year to traveling, getting acquainted with his country and developing material for newspaper sketches. This was his way of taking a vacation. His travels led him in time to Porto Rico, the English islands in the Car- ribbean, and to the beautiful Hawaiian group in the mid-Pacific, where he climbed to the rim of the House of the Sun, ten thousand feet above the sea and to the crater of the House of Everlasting Fire, the world's greatest living volcano, perched on the slope of the great snow-capped mountain, Mauna Loa.
Mr. Herrick was one of the organizers of the Allegany County Press Association, which made friends of the publishers instead of competitors, and served as first president. Through membership in the New York Press Association his newspaper acquaintance became state wide. The Republican State Editorial Association honored him by choosing him as president. For more than twenty-eight years he has been a member of the National Editorial Association, visiting with the membership every state in the Union, Mexico, Canada and Cuba. He still retains an interest in the Bolivar Breeze, which is managed by a younger brother, Frank A. Herrick, to whom he taught the business. Mr. Herrick is a frequent contributor to The Breeze as well as to some of the influential oil journals of the country. The summer of 1913 he spent in Europe writing a series of thirty travel sketches.
In 1901 he became interested in the oil business as a producer at Bolivar and
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gradually increased his holdings from time to time. His travels led him to the oil fields of Wyoming, Texas, Kentucky, Oklahoma and California and from time to time he made moderate investments in likely looking oil companies operating there, some of which proved profitable. He was one of the organizers and for five years president of the New York State Oil Producers Association, now serving as chairman of the board of directors. The International Petroleum Congress elected him a member of the board of governors, and the American Petroleum Institute named him as one of their board of counselors. The Northwestern Pennsylvania Producers' Association elected him an honorary life member. He is a strong believer in co-operation within the oil industry and has devoted much time helping bring it about.
In politics he has always been an ardent republican. He served three terms as postmaster of Bolivar, holding commissions under Mckinley, Roosevelt and Taft. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a thirty-second degree Mason, a member of the Mystic Shrine, an Elk and Kiwanian. He is a member of the City and Bartlett Country Clubs of Olean, National Republican Club of New York, Buffalo Athletic Club, Society of The Genesee, American Petroleum Institute, International Petroleum Congress and World's Press Congress. He is fond of the woods and streams. His hobby is trout fishing. Last year he had fishing licenses in three states. The upper reaches of the Platte river in Wyoming, a mile and a half above the sea, is his favorite fishing grounds.
In 1912, after twenty-six years of continuous service in the newspaper field, Mr. Herrick moved from Bolivar to Olean, where he established a successful real estate business. Two years later he was elected president of the newly organized Olean Trust Company and remained at its head until it was well established, then retired to devote his time to the work of life insurance counselor, in which he has been very successful, with offices in the First National Bank Building. For seven years he has served as president of the Young Men's Christian Association, an Olean institution that is kept free from debt and always has a surplus. In this work he has been ably assisted by a group of associates of exceptional business ability.
It was while traveling in old Mexico many years ago with the National Editorial Association that Mr. Herrick had the good fortune to meet Miss Nellie Brown Young, only daughter of Lafayette Young, editor of the Des Moines Capital and former United States Senator from Iowa, and on June 10, 1902, at Des Moines, Iowa, he and Miss Young were united in marriage. Mrs. Herrick passed away in February, 1923, leaving her husband and children and her many friends disconsolate, for she had been a fine and gentle influence in the lives of all with whom she came in contact in her general and widely helpful relations in life. Her life is best summed up in a single sentence from the Chinese, which is engraved on the headstone at her grave: "A good woman confers a blessing on the world by merely living." Mr. Herrick has four children, two daughters, the Misses Marjorie and Virginia Herrick, the latter having finished her preparatory work at Penn Hall enters Vassar this year (1925), and two sons, John Lafayette Herrick, who graduated from Olean high school this year and enters Law- renceville this fall to prepare for Princeton, and Paul Young Herrick, who is attending Saint John's School at Manlius, New York. Miss Marjorie Herrick graduated from Miss Burnham's School at Northampton, Massachusetts, and is now a Sophomore at the University of Iowa.
WILLIAM MULFORD COOPER.
William Mulford Cooper, assistant sales manager of the American Sales Book Company (Limited) of Elmira, and widely recognized in commercial circles in that city as one of the community's most alert and progressive "boosters", was born in Elmira and has lived there all his life, thus having been a witness to the amazing development that has been brought about there during the past forty years and more and thoroughly familiar with local conditions. He was born May 5, 1882, and is a son of John N. and Fanny (Tuthill) Cooper, the latter of whom also was born in Elmira, September 4, 1849, a daughter of David Howell and Sarah Jane (McQuhae) Tuthill. David Howell Tuthill came to Elmira (then New Town) when a young man. He was a representa- tive in the sixth generation in direct line of the family founded in America by John Tuthill, who came to the colonies from England in 1640 and established his home on Long Island. John N. Cooper was born in Ithaca, New York, July 18, 1839. His parents came to this country from England about 1830 and before taking up their residence in Ithaca-were for a few years residents of Long Island.
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Reared in Elmira, William Mulford Cooper finished his local education in the Elmira Free Academy and then entered Williams College at Williamstown, Massachusetts, and in 1903, the year in which he attained his majority, he was graduated from that insti- tution with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He became connected with the office staff of the wholesale grocery firm of C. M. & R. Tompkins (Incorporated) in Elmira and was thus connected with that concern's operations for two years (1903-4). After some further preparation for an extension of his commercial activities, in 1906 Mr. Cooper became associated with the American Sales Book Company (Limited) of Elmira, was made assistant sales manager of that widely known concern and has since been serv- ing in that capacity. Mr. Cooper has other substantial interests in Elmira and is a member of the directorate of the Chemung Valley Loan Association.
On October 24, 1911, in Elmira, William M. Cooper was united in marriage to Miss Helen Sabin Cooper, who was born in the city of San Francisco, California, in 1891, and who is a granddaughter of one of California's '49ers. By right of descent through the Sabin and Morse families Mrs. Cooper is a member of the Society of May- flower Descendants. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper have four interesting children: Two daugh- ters, Mary Sabin and Jane Tuthill; and two sons, John Newton and Charles Bruce Cooper. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper are members of the First Baptist church of Elmira, of the congregation of which Mr. Cooper is one of the trustees. They are republicans, and both are members of the Elmira Country Club and take an interested and helpful part in the general social and cultural activities of their home town. Mr. Cooper is a member of the Rotary Club, the City Club and the Kappa Alpha Society.
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