USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 52
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Mr. Oakman married Miss E. C. Conkling, at Utica, N. Y. They have two daughters, and a son who was graduated recently from Harvard.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SIDNEY CECIL BORG
547
SIDNEY CECIL BORG
SIDNEY CECIL BORG, banker, was born in New York City, June 21, 1874, son of Simon and Cecilia (Lichtenstadter) Borg. His father, Simon Borg, who was of German birth, came to the United States in 1857, and became a prominent banker in New York City, and head of the firm of Simon Borg & Company. Mr. Simon Borg was president of the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad Company ; president of the Home for Aged and Infirm Hebrews; trustee of the United States Savings Bank, and member of many charitable and other institutions of New York City. He financed the construction of several, and was promi- nent in the reorganization of many railroad companies; and bore an im- portant place as a financier in New York and the country at large.
Sidney Cecil Borg received his early education in Sach's Collegiate Institute in New York City, and under private tutors; afterward entering Yale University, he was graduated in the Class of 1895 of the Sheffield Scientific School of that University, of which he was the class historian.
After graduation from Yale, he was admitted as a partner to the firm of Simon Borg & Company, bankers, of 20 Nassau Street, in which firm he has ever since continued and of which he is now the senior member. The prestige gained by the house, established by his father, as one of the most substantial and reliable in private banking business in New York City, has been maintained by the conservative and efficient methods of the present head of the house. He has acted as a member of a large number of reorgani- zation and protective committees, including those of the Chicago Great Western Railroad, the Detroit Southern Railroad, Cincinnati, Findlay and Fort Wayne Railroad, Houston Oil, Kirby Lumber Company and other important corporations.
Mr. Borg is a trustee of the United Hebrew Charities, the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society, the Advisory Board of the Madison Avenue Depository and Exchange for Woman's Work, the Advisory Board of the Society of Sanitary and Moral Prophylaxis; member of the Academy of Political Science, National Department of Health, Mount Sinai Hospital, the Educational Alliance, Montefiore Home, Legal Aid Society, the Metro- politan Museum of Art, People's Institute, American Museum of Natural History, Civic Forum, and many other societies.
He is a member of the National Arts Club, the Automobile Club of America, Reform Club, Century Golf Club, Deal Golf Club, and the Economic Club of New York City.
Mr. Borg married, in New York, November 24, 1898, Madeleine Beer, and has two daughters: Margery, born 1899, and Dorothy, born 1902.
He has a city residence at 35 West Seventy-second Street, and a country home, "Quarry Hill," at Irvington-on-Hudson, N. Y.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN
549
JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN
TAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN-The pioneers of California were men of capacity as well as bravery, and among them have developed men of national prominence in many fields of endeavor. The days of '49 are now far distant, and the men who, out of the opportunities of that early day in the land of gold, carved their way to fame and fortune, are getting fewer in number from year to year. Of those who remain James B. Haggin is the best known.
Mr. Haggin is by birth a Kentuckian, born in Harrodsburg, Mercer County, in 1827. His second name is indicative of his maternal ancestry, his mother's maiden name having been Miss Adeline Ben-Ali. His family was one of the foremost in the Blue Grass region, and he was educated at Danville, Kentucky, by the best masters. Being destined for the legal pro- fession, he received a thorough preparation and was admitted to the bar of the State of Kentucky.
He began practice in Shelbyville, Kentucky, but later went to Natchez, Mississippi, and after that to New Orleans, where he was beginning to make his mark as one of the younger members of the brilliant bar of that city, when he, like many other young men of ambition, inspired by reports from the new land of opportunity, made his way to California, arriving there in 1850 via Panama.
The earliest bar of San Francisco included many young men who after- ward became distinguished in jurisprudence, statesmanship or finance. Mr. Haggin's first activities were in the line of his profession, as head of the law firm of Haggin & Latham, his partner being Milton S. Latham, who, like himself, afterward became one of the most distinguished citizens and gover- nor of the Golden State. Subsequently he formed a partnership in the prac- tice of law with Lloyd Tevis, who in time became recognized as the foremost lawyer of San Francisco.
At that period California was a great field for active and competent law- yers, for laws and property rights were then in their formative period, and great mining and other enterprises were being developed. His professional earnings, like those of many others, went into mining ventures, but unlike the majority, his investments were wisely made, and increased to such a degree that he was finally impelled to abandon law practice for mining and other financial interests. He had succeeded greatly at the bar, but the results attainable in his new field were more alluring. His success in the mining field was constant, and was by no means confined to California. He obtained many interests in mines in that State, and years afterwards was one of the first operators to become interested in the Black Hills of Dakota, where he became chief owner of the famous Homestake and other mines, and in Butte, Mon- tana, he became interested with Marcus Daly in the great copper developments
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
of that region, beside owning valuable mining properties in old and New Mexico and in Arizona.
After leaving the practice of law, Mr. Haggin continued his association with Lloyd Tevis in other matters, the two organizing and retaining the con- trolling interest in the Kern County Land Company of California, one of the greatest land companies ever organized on the Pacific Coast, owning about four hundred thousand acres of land in one of the best farming regions of the State, most of which he still retains.
Mr. Haggin and Mr. Tevis, at an early date, became the owners of a large tract near the City of Sacramento, which he improved, under the name of Rancho del Paso, which became famous. There he added largely to his already great fortune by phenomenal success in the culture of cereals and hops, and also in the raising of vast herds of high-grade cattle and sheep. The fame of the ranch, however, came chiefly from the results attained in the breeding of thoroughbred racing stock. True to his Kentucky origin, Mr. Haggin has always been an enthusiastic horseman, and he established him- self as breeder of many of the best horses on the American turf, and pur- chased as yearlings the celebrated racers, Firenzi and Salvator. In 1886 Mr. Haggin determined to introduce horses of his breeding to the East, and with his son, Ben Ali Haggin, took a choice lot of animals from the Rancho del Paso to Kentucky, and entered them in the best races of the East. They met such success that Mr. Haggin bought the celebrated Elmendorf and adja- cent farms, comprising about eight thousand acres, near Lexington, Kentucky, and established horse-breeding stables there. The Haggin Stable took a lead- ing place on the Metropolitan turf and on all the principal race tracks the Haggin colors went out to frequent victories. Since the death of his son Ben Ali Haggin, who was his partner and associate in his horse-breeding and racing interests, Mr. Haggin has retired from the turf, but still continues on his Kentucky farm and California ranch the breeding and raising of thor- oughbred horses.
While the breeding of the thoroughbred at Elmendorf is an important industry, Mr. Haggin has within the past few years introduced the breeding of the Shorthorn and Jersey breed of cattle on a very large scale, and is per- haps second to none in this or any other country in this line of industry. In a short time he will have completed the best equipped dairy plant in the United States, and Elmendorf is likely to become the Experimental Station, or used as such, by the Agricultural Department of the University of Kentucky, of which Professor Scoville is the chief.
Mr. Haggin's varied enterprises have been so uniformly successful that he has accumulated a very large fortune, not by the fluctuations of stock mar- kets but by judiciously selected and well watched investments. Judgment and
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JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN
not luck constituted the chief factor in his success. As lawyer, miner, real estate operator, agriculturalist and horse-breeder, he has attained leading rank, applying himself with equal adaptability to each of these varied pursuits. He is now president and treasurer of the Homestake Mining Company ; president and director of the Cerro de Pasco Improvement Company ; vice president and director of the Jalapa Railway and Power Company; director of the American Car and Foundry Company; International Steam Pump Company; Louisville and Atlantic Railroad Company; the Oyamel Company; and the Oriental Con- solidated Mining Company.
Mr. Haggin has, probably, a better recollection of the important men and events of the early days of California than any other living man. His position there was, from the first, one of activity and prominence. He saw the opportunities which offered in that new land as clearly and improved them as wisely as any of the Argonauts who went there in that earliest pioneer period. He did his part toward the building up of that wonderful State, with as much thoroughness and efficiency as the best of his contemporaries, and he fairly and fully earned the rewards which came to him. The broaden- ing influences of successful pioneering have helped to give him the self-confi- dence and boldness of initiative which have brought success to his many enterprises and enabled him to be at the head of such a diversity of interests. In New York, as in California, his abilities and executive efficiency have crowned with success his many enterprises.
His business activities have not debarred him from social enjoyment. In San Francisco, which was his home for many years, he was the friend of prac- tically all of the men who were the makers of California; in Kentucky, home of his boyhood and much of his later life, he has hosts of friends, and in New York, which is now his home, he has long enjoyed high social as well as busi- ness standing. He is a member of the Union, Manhattan, Metropolitan, Tuxedo, Riding, and Turf and Field Clubs.
While Mr. Haggin was a young lawyer at Natchez, Mississippi, he mar- ried the daughter of Colonel Lewis Saunders, who was the leading member of that bar. She died May 23, 1894. There were five children of that mar- riage, two sons and three daughters. Mr. Ben Ali Haggin and one of the daughters died, and the surviving children are Louis T. Haggin, a successful business man of New York, and Mrs. Lounsbery, wife of Richard P. Louns- bery, of Lounsbery & Company, bankers.
On December 30, 1897, Mr. Haggin again married, his second wife being Miss Pearl Voorhies, of Versailles, Kentucky, who was a niece of his first wife, and was a young lady of fine education and culture, and of the best social standing. Since their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Haggin have made their home chiefly in New York, at 587 Fifth Avenue.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
de :
CHARLES HATHAWAY
553
CHARLES HATHAWAY
C HARLES HATHAWAY, head of the firm of Hathaway, Smith, Folds & Company, 45 Wall Street, New York City, was born at Delhi, New York, December 27, 1848, and was educated at the Delaware Academy, Delhi and Williston Seminary, East Hampton, Massachusetts.
His first business experience was as clerk in the Delaware National Bank of Delhi, New York, where he remained until 1871, when he entered the service of the United States Government at Washington as an employee of the Navy Department. One year later Mr. Hathaway was appointed fleet clerk of the Asiatic squadron and was attached to the old flagship Hartford, accompanying the fleet to China and Japan. His appointment was made at the instance of Rear Admiral Edwin Stewart, who was paymaster at that time and who is an uncle to Mr. Hathaway. On the return of the fleet, in 1875, he decided to resign his position with the United States Government. His early experience as a bank clerk had created a desire for financial pursuits and he determined to confine his future efforts in that line. With this end in view he returned from the Orient and associated himself with the firm of Platt & Woodward, where he gained much valuable experience and became a mem- ber of the firm in 1889. Mr. Platt and Mr. Woodward retired from active business in 1894, the firm becoming Charles Hathaway & Company, and its former active members becoming special partners.
In January, 1910, the firm name was changed to Hathaway, Smith, Folds & Company, now one of the best known in the entire country, numbering among its clientele some of the largest mercantile houses and corporations in the United States who borrow money in the open market.
The firm confines itself exclusively to the negotiation of commercial paper and has a high rating in every large city of the United States and abroad.
Its resources in its line are unlimited and the largest transactions are completed in a manner most satisfactory to the many clients of the firm.
Mr. Hathaway is a Republican in politics, but beyond being interested in good government, takes no active part and has never sought public office.
He is well known in club circles, being a member of the Union League of New York City, a governor in the Essex County Country Club of Orange, New Jersey, a member of the Down Town Club, and Saint Andrew's Society of New York City.
Mr. Hathaway was married, in Platteville, Grant County, Wisconsin, on October 5, 1882, to Miss Cora Southworth Rountree, and is the father of four sons: Stewart Southworth Hathaway, born July 25, 1884; Harrison R. Hathaway, born September 3, 1886; Robert Woodward Hathaway, born Octo- ber 20, 1887, and Charles Hathaway, Jr., born September 4, 1893.
Mr. Hathaway's New York address is 45 Wall Street, and he has a hand- some home on Prospect Street, East Orange, New Jersey.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
*
ARTHUR BURTIS LEACH
555
ARTHUR BURTIS LEACH
A RTHUR BURTIS LEACH, head of the banking firm of A. B. Leach & Company, was born in Detroit, Michigan, September 30, 1863, the son of William and Matilda (Shaw) Leach. His father was of English descent, and his mother of Irish and American descent; his father was an accountant by profession.
Arthur B. Leach was a student at the Detroit High School until 1880, when he became a clerk with the prominent firm of Buhl, Sons & Company, of Detroit, Michigan, and a year later went to Fargo, North Dakota, where he was clerk with A. E. Henderson, hardware dealer, for some months. In 188I he organized the firm of Campbell & Leach, hardware dealers, at Devils Lake, North Dakota, which he conducted until 1885, when he became assist- ant cashier of the Bank of Devils Lake, at that place. He was afterward em- ployed by the then prominent banking firm of S. A. Kean & Company, of New York and Chicago, until 1889, when, in association with the late John Farson, he organized the firm of Farson, Leach & Company, continuing in that firm until 1906. He then purchased the interest of Mr. Farson and organized the present firm of A. B. Leach & Company, of 149 Broadway, of which he has since been the head, with offices in New York, Chicago, Bos- ton and Philadelphia. Mr. Leach has established for himself a prominent place in financial circles, and he has greatly enlarged his business in general banking and in placing on the market of large blocks or entire issues of muni- cipal and corporate bonds and other securities.
The former firm of Farson, Leach & Company, and the present firm of A. B. Leach & Company have been identified with many large financial trans- actions, and the business is one of national scope, the house taking a promi- nent part as bankers in the financing of large enterprises. Mr. Leach brings to the business the benefit of wide experience, trained judgment and the pres- tige of success, and has made his firm one of the leading private banking insti- tutions of the country.
Mr. Leach is a Republican in politics and an active supporter in the prin- ciples and candidates of the party. He has served as presidential elector for the State of New Jersey, of which he is a citizen, having his residence at 321 Scotland Road, South Orange, New Jersey.
He is president of the Michigan Society of New York; a member of the Union League of New York, the Union League of Chicago, New York Club, the Railroad Club of New York, the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, the Algonquin Club of Boston, Arts Club of Philadelphia, and the Queen City Club of Cincinnati, Ohio.
He was married, at Detroit, Michigan, February 3, 1889, to Maud Camp- bell, and they have four children: Helen, Maude, Ferry W. and Margaret Leach.
556
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
ROBERT HENRY MCCURDY
557
ROBERT HENRY MCCURDY
R OBERT HENRY MCCURDY, banker and now head of the banking and brokerage firm of McCurdy, Henderson & Company, was born in New York City, May 26, 1859, the son of Richard A. and Sarah Ellen (Little) McCurdy. His ancestry is derived from Scotland and the North of Ireland, his first American ancestor, John McCurdy, coming to this country about 1740, and settling in Lyme, Connecticut, where the family became dis- tinguished in business and the professions, one of the family, Hon. Charles J. McCurdy, having been lieutenant governor of the State, and afterward a judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. Another, Robert H. McCurdy, born in Lyme, Connecticut, in 1800, who was the grandfather of the present Robert H. McCurdy, became one of the most prominent merchants of New York, being head of the great commission dry goods firm of McCurdy, Aldrich & Spencer, from 1828 until his retirement, in 1857. He was one of the founders and a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, trustee of the Conti- mental Insurance Company, director of the Merchants' Exchange Bank, and the American Exchange National Bank, and a prominent member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, where his portrait now hangs. He was a citizen of much distinction, organized the Union Defense Committee at the outbreak of the Civil War, and was one of the founders of the Union League Club. He died in 1880. His oldest son, Richard Aldrich McCurdy, who was born in 1835, was graduated from the law school of Harvard University, in 1856, and afterwards practised law in New York City with Lucius Robin- son, afterward governor of New York. He became attorney to the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1860, was elected its vice president in 1865, and its president in 1885, holding that office until 1906, when he resigned. He married Sarah E. Little, who died at Morristown, New Jersey, May 1, 1910.
Their only son, Robert Henry McCurdy, enjoyed the advantage of an excellent education. He spent two years at school in Europe, and was fitted by a private tutor for Harvard College, from which he was graduated in 1881.
Upon leaving college in 1881, after a few months of travel, he entered, in December of that year, the service of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, in its New York agency, where he became a close and accurate student of the underwriting profession, and where he remained until 1886. In that year the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York decided to do business in foreign countries, and in pursuance of that determination it estab- lished a foreign department for that business, and Mr. Robert H. McCurdy was made superintendent of that department, holding that position contin- uously until 1903.
The company's new departure in that direction imposed upon Mr. Mc- Curdy many problems of great importance in connection with the organizing
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
of the plans and programs of publicity for the extension of the company's busi- ness in various foreign countries where the national laws and customs were so variant as to make the establishing of the company's business in each one a separate proposition. Mr. McCurdy proved to be in every respect equip- ped for this unique international task, and met every difficulty as it arose with consummate ability. The result was that the Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany soon became an international institution, and the business of the company in its foreign department grew with remarkable rapidity. During the period covered by Mr. McCurdy's management the business of the company was ex- tended to all of the countries of Europe and to Mexico, Australia, and South Africa. During the period between 1886 and 1905, the premiums collected by the foreign department amounted to over $98,000,000, and the insurance issued and paid for exceeded $488,000,000. On July 1, 1903, Mr. Robert H. McCurdy was elected a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York and was appointed its general manager, continuing in that relation until December, 1905, when he resigned.
In 1908 Mr. McCurdy associated himself with Norman Henderson and Lewis H. Hatzfeld, surviving partners of the old established banking firm of Henderson & Company, taking the place of the late Mr. Charles R. Hender- son as senior partner, under the firm name of McCurdy, Henderson & Com- pany, at 24 Nassau Street, New York. The firm has membership in the New York Stock Exchange, and conducts a general banking and stock exchange business. Mr. McCurdy is a director of the First National Bank of Morris- town, New Jersey, the International Bell Telephone Company, Limited, O'Rourke Engineering Construction Company, Registrar and Transfer Com- pany of New York, and the Windsor Trust Company of New York; and is interested in other companies.
Mr. McCurdy is a Republican in national politics, but has held no politi- cal or public offices, and has not taken any very active part in political affairs. He has the best social connections, and he is a member of many of the lead- ing societies and clubs, including the Chamber of Commerce of New York, Union Club, University Club, Harvard Club, Down Town Association, City Lunch Club, New York Yacht Club, Morristown Club, Morris County Golf Club, Okeetee Club, Flat Brook Valley Club, Whippany River Club, Rock- away Hunting Club, and several others. He has his city residence at 39 East Fifty-first Street, and a country place at Morris Plains, New Jersey.
Mr. McCurdy has traveled frequently and extensively in all the countries of Europe, Northern Africa, the Levant, Cuba, Mexico and in various other countries.
He was married, in Morristown, New Jersey, on September 19, 1898, to Mary Suckley.
559
SAMUEL S. CONOVER
S AMUEL S. CONOVER, president of the Fidelity Trust Company, was born in Passaic, New Jersey, January 13, 1869, the son of Jacob B. and Arabella (Bogart) Conover. He is of Dutch descent through Wol- fert Gerretsen van Couwenhoven, who emigrated from Amersfoort, Holland, in 1630, and settled near Albany, New York, afterwards residing on Manhat- tan Island, and in 1657 being enrolled among the burghers of New Amster- dam. Mr. Conover began has active business career in 1891, with the Fourth National Bank of New York, as private secretary to J. Edward Simmons and James G. Cannon, president and vice president of the bank, remaining with that institution for about ten years and becoming man- ager of the credit depart- ment of the bank. His training under these dis- tinguished bankers was an admirable preparation for the responsible positions he has since filled. He was elected vice president and director of the Irving Na- tional Bank in 1902, and became president of that bank in 1906, resigning in 1907, to accept the presi- dency of the Fidelity Trust Company. Mr. Conover gives to his duties abilities of a degree that insures for the institution a safe and SAMUEL S. CONOVER efficient administration. He is also trustee of the Irving Savings Institution of New York, and a trustee of the Hahnemann Hospital. He is a member of the Union League Club, Lawyers' Club, and the Chamber of Commerce, and resides in New York.
Mr. Conover married, in 1894, Emma F. Shaffer, and they have one daughter.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
PERCY RIVINGTON PYNE, 2D
561
PERCY RIVINGTON PYNE, 2d
P ERCY RIVINGTON PYNE, 2d, now the head of the firm of Pyne, Kendall & Hollister, bankers and brokers, was born in New York City, June 23, 1882, the son of Moses Taylor and Margaretta (Stockton) Pyne.
Both paternally and maternally Mr. Pyne is of ancient English descent, his paternal grandfather, Percy R. Pyne, having come to this country from England in 1828. The old Pyne family house in England was the "Shute" House, in Devonshire, which still stands. Among the famous English rela- tives in this line were: Colonel John Pyne, member of Parliament, of Curry Mallet, mentioned in D'Israeli's life of Charles I (volume 5, page 4), 1638; James Pyne, who lived at Brook House, Kent, until he sold it to Sir William Cheney, 1400; John de Pyne, member of Parliament, 1332; Sir Thomas de Pyne, 1314; Sir Robert de Pyne, 1243; Sir Thomas de Pyne, of Combe Pyne and Shute (High Sheriff of Devon) 1240; Sir Herbert de Pyne, 1225; Nich- olas de Pyne, crusader under Richard I, 1191; Gilbert de Pyne, who com- manded the troops employed in the siege of the Castle of Brionne under the Duke of Normandy, 1090; and the Sire des Pyne, who settled in England in 1066, being of the one hundred and eighteen knights who fought at Hastings.
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