USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 56
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The New York Biscuit Company, which they had organized, had become involved in a fierce trade war with the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company, a Western combination. Taking hold of this situation, Mr. Moore finally consolidated these two companies and the United States Baking Company into the National Biscuit Company in 1898.
The Moores effected a practically complete consolidation of all important tin plate mills into the American Tin Plate Company, in December, 1898; formed the National Steel Company, in February, 1899, and the American Steel Hoop Company, in April, 1899. They obtained an option on the Carnegie Steel Company, in May, 1899, but the monetary stringency following
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the death of Roswell P. Flower prevented them from carrying out their plans of purchase of that company. They later organized the American Sheet Steel Company, and in March, 1901, the American Can Company.
On February 23, 1901, an agreement was signed by the representatives of a syndicate headed by J. Pierpont Morgan, formed to take over the principal steel interests of the country, among which were the American Tin Plate, National Steel, American Steel Hoop, and American Sheet Steel Companies, controlled by Mr. Moore, now owned by the United States Steel Corporation.
In 1901 Mr. Moore was the leading spirit in the acquisition of the control of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway, in which, besides his brother, he had as associates Daniel G. Reid and William B. Leeds. Mr. Moore planned, and with his associates carried out, a campaign of growth and expansion which has increased the mileage of the Rock Island System from 3600 to 15,000 miles, and its property valuation from $116,000,000 to over $900,000,000. This they accomplished by the purchase of the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railroad, the leasing of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern, the acquisition of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, and other large additions. The control of this great system has made Mr. Moore and his associates recognized in Wall Street as a group of large financial power, familiarly known as "the Rock Island crowd," although their holdings and operations include many other railway and industrial securities.
Mr. Moore is a director of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railway Company, the Rock Island Company, and other Western railroad companies; the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Company, Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, United States Steel Corporation, United States Rubber Company, American Can Company, National Biscuit Company, First National Bank of New York, Continental Insurance Company, Fidelity-Phenix Insur- ance Company, and other corporations.
He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Metro- politan, Union League, Lawyers', Down Town, Army and Navy, Racquet and Tennis, New York Yacht, St. Andrews and Garden City Golf Clubs, Myopia Hunt Club of Massachusetts, Calumet and Chicago Clubs of Chicago.
Mr. Moore finds his chief recreation in horses, and is the fortunate possessor of one of the finest stables of harness horses in the world. He owns the famous "Forest King," winner of the Waldorf-Astoria Cup, and is each year a leading exhibitor at the horse shows in Madison Square Garden. He has offered a prize, known as the Forest King Challenge Cup, for the best horse suitable for a gig.
Mr. Moore married, in Chicago, in 1879, Ada Small, daughter of Edward A. Small, his first law partner, and they have had three sons: Hobart Moore, who died in 1903, Edward Small Moore, and Paul Moore.
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RICHARD CHARLES VEIT
R ICHARD CHARLES VEIT, who has from boyhood been connected with the Standard Oil Company, was born in New York City, November 17, 1855, the son of Charles A. and Ernestine ( Morse) Veit; and is of German descent. He was educated in Public School No. 12, in Brooklyn, until he was twelve years old.
He became, on April 15, 1869, office boy with the firm of Rockefeller, Andrews & Flagler, which afterward changed to the Standard Oil Company. He was given charge of the shipping department when the Standard Oil Company was formed, and in 1880 assumed charge of the Lighterage Department of the Standard Oil Company of New York, now the Marine Department, which operates a fleet of seventy- eight tank steamers and many sailing vessels and barges of its own, besides a very large number of leased vessels. Mr. Veit has been a stockholder of the Standard Oil Company for years, and has interests in other corporations.
He is second vice presi- dent of the J. Hood Wright Memorial Hospital, mem- ber of the American Mu- seum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York RICHARD CHARLES VEIT Zoological Society; is chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Atlantic Yacht Club, member of the New York Yacht Club, and Lotos Clubs, and a governor of the latter.
He married, December 2, 1880, Mary K. Stobo, and they have three sons: Russell C., Arthur Stobo and Kenneth Alden. He resides at 171 West Seventy-first Street, and has a country place at Sea Gate, New York Harbor.
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COPYRIGHT
BY PACH BAOS THE
JAMES JEROME HILL
609
JAMES JEROME HILL
J AMES JEROME HILL, premier railroad man of America, and chief of the practical developers and expansionists of the domestic and in- ternational commerce of the country, is of Canadian birth and Scotch and Irish ancestry. He was born on a farm near Guelph, Ontario, September 16, 1838, his parents being James and Ann (Dunbar) Hill.
He assisted in the work of the home farm and attended Rockwood Acad- emy, a local school under the auspices of the Society of Friends. After his father's death, in 1853, he went to work in a country store.
In 1856 he came across the border, and after a tour from the Atlantic Coast west to Minnesota, he became a shipping clerk with J. W. Bass & Com- pany, agents for the Dubuque and Saint Paul Packet Company's line of Mis- sissippi River steamboats. From that time on he became a student of trans- portation problems, and in 1865 became agent for the Northwestern Packet Company's line of Mississippi River steamboats until 1867, when it was merged with the Davidson Line, and he engaged in a general transportation and fuel business.
The Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad had been built and put into operation from a terminus near the steamboat landing in Saint Paul, westward through Minneapolis to the prairie country beyond, with a branch up the Mississippi River toward Saint Cloud. Mr. Hill became station agent in Saint Paul for that company, organized Hill, Griggs & Company, a fuel and warehousing firm, in 1869, and in 1870 formed the Red River Transportation Company, operating steamboats on the Red River of the North between Minnesota and Manitoba points. He was the first to place coal on the Saint Paul market; and established, in 1872, the first regular through transportation service be- tween Saint Paul and Fort Garry. With C. E. Griggs, E. N. Sanders and William Rhodes, he formed, in 1875, the Northwestern Fuel Company, ever since the leading coal organization of the Northwest, but in 1878 sold out his interests in fuel and steamboat companies.
With associates Mr. Hill gained control, in 1878, of the bankrupt Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad Company, through the purchase of its bonds, and reorganized it in 1879 as the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Rail- way Company, with Mr. Hill as general manager. He became its vice presi- dent in 1882 and its president in 1883. He pioneered the project for a trans- continental railway from the Great Lakes to the Pacific, between the Inter- national boundary on the north and the Northern Pacific Railway on the south, and practically realized it by beginning, in 1880, the extension of the Hill Lines westward. By 1893 the system had been extended to Puget Sound, with a branch starting from the main line in Central Montana by way of Great Falls and Helena, to Butte. In 1890 the Saint Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway Company and its properties were taken over by the Great
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Northern Railway Company, of which Mr. Hill was president until April I, 1907, and has since been chairman of the Board of Directors.
For the better handling of trans-Pacific trade the Great Northern Steam- ship Company was organized, and two of the finest and largest steamships ever, up to that time, constructed in an American shipyard were built for the trade. But one of the ships was lost and American ownership of seagoing vessels was found to be too much of a handicap. So that the effort to main- tain a regular Asiatic trade has not been continued; but at the other end the company operates large and swift passenger steamers connecting Duluth with Chicago and Lake Erie ports.
Mr. Hill's great success has resulted from indomitable energy and superior business capabilities, greatly augmented by persistent optimism in regard to the great Northwest. That region has been benefited greatly by the practical way in which he has worked to make his forecasts of future de- velopment come true. Mr. Hill, while remaining at all times at the helm of control in Great Northern affairs, has also large interests in other railroad companies and banks, and he is a director of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, Colorado and Southern Railway Company; the Chase National Bank, First National Bank, First Security Company, Man- hattan Trust Company, and Mercantile Trust Company, of New York; and the First National Bank of Chicago.
Mr. Hill's entire career has been constructive, and his connection with an enterprise has always resulted in development. He has especially been a sup- porter of measures for the welfare of Saint Paul and the Northwest, and although not of that communion, has aided the efforts of Archbishop Ireland by large benefactions to his work, giving $1,500,000 of the $5,000,000 required for the building of the Roman Catholic Cathedral at Saint Paul and $500,000 toward establishing the Catholic Theological Seminary in the same city. Without regard to denomination he has endowed many colleges, and has taken an interest in the growth of colleges of various denominations.
Mr. Hill has a beautiful residence on Summit Avenue in Saint Paul, and another on Sixty-fifth Street, near Fifth Avenue, in New York City, where he has a notable collection of paintings and a comprehensive library; for he is a man of artistic and cultured tastes, and now, as always, a student. He is an authority on economic subjects, and his views on matters pertaining to the public welfare, especially upon those that are continental in their sweep, are regarded as authoritative, and are constantly sought.
He is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Down Town, Larchmont Yacht, New York Yacht, Manhattan, and Jekyl Island Clubs.
Mr. Hill married, at Saint Paul, Minnesota, August 19, 1867, Mary Theresa Mahegan, and they have nine children.
611
LOUIS J. HOROIVITZ
L OUIS J. HOROWITZ, president of the Thompson-Starrett Com- pany, was born in Chenstochowa, Russia, January 1, 1875, the son of Salo A. and Anna (Cohen) Horowitz.
He was educated at the Chenstochowa University, and in 1892 came to New York. His only assets were a purpose to succeed, exceptional business ability and untiring energy, and in 1900 he engaged in the real estate business in Brooklyn. He became president of the Brooklyn Heights Improvement Com- pany, 1902-1903; president of the Assembly Catering and Supply Company, 1903- 1904; secretary of the Brooklyn Amusement Com- pany, 1903-1904; and treas- urer of the Standard Arms Realty Company, 1904-1905.
In 1903 the Thomp- son-Starrett Company, one of the best known of the building corporations of the country, had become some- what crippled because of lax and inefficient organization. Some leading financial in- terests which had acquired a large proportion of the company's stock selected Mr. Horowitz as the finan- cial man to take up the re- habilitation of the company, and in 1904 he was elected its vice president and gen- eral manager. Although LOUIS J. HOROWITZ the panicky period of 1907 intervened, the company is now the most successful organization of its kind in this country; and is building scores of the most important buildings now under construction in the principal cities east and west.
He is a member of the Railroad and Democratic Clubs of New York and the Laurentian Club of Montreal. He married, in Brooklyn, July 14, 1903, Mary C. Decker.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SAMUEL REA
613
SAMUEL REA
S YAMUEL REA was born in Hollidaysburg, Blair County, Pennsyl- vania, September 21, 1855. His mother, who died in 1908, was a daughter of Thomas Blair Moore, of that county, and his father, James D. Rea, who died in 1868, was a well-known resident of Hollidaysburg.
Mr. Rea entered the railway service in 1871, and was for two years engaged in engineering work on Morrison's Cove, Williamsburg and Bloom- field branches, Pennsylvania Railroad; from 1874 to 1875 he held a clerical position with Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Company; in 1875 reentered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was for two years assistant engineer in charge of construction of chain suspension bridge over Monongahela River at Pittsburgh; 1877 to 1879, assistant engineer Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Rail- road; 1879 to 1880, assistant engineer in charge of construction of extension of Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railway; 1880 to 1883, engineer in charge of surveys in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and revising and rebuilding Western Pennsylvania Railroad; 1883 to 1888, principal assistant engineer Pennsylvania Railroad; 1888 to 1889, assistant to second vice presi- dent same road; 1889 to April, 1891, vice president Maryland Central Railway and chief engineer Baltimore Belt Railroad; April, 1891 to May, 1892, out of service on account of ill health; July 1, 1892, to February 10, 1897, assistant to president Pennsylvania Railroad; February 10, 1897, to June 14, 1899, first assistant to president same road; June 14, 1899, to October 10, 1905, fourth vice president Pennsylvania Railroad System East of Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania; October 10, 1905, to March 24, 1909, third vice president; March 24, 1909, to date, second vice president; and in connection with his former duties was placed in charge of engineering and accounting depart- ments; also second vice president Northern Central Railway, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington Railroad, and West Jersey and Seashore Railroad Companies, and a director of Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and others.
For many years Mr. Rea was interested in and was one of the incorpora- tors of the North River Bridge Company, chartered by Congress to bridge the Hudson River and establish a terminus in New York for railroads using ferries from the New Jersey side. When other railroads failed to join the Pennsylvania Railroad in this project, that company, after very careful exam- ination and report, determined to build its own tunnels under the Hudson River and the East River with a large station in New York City, and Mr. Rea was given direct charge of this work. As part of this project, may be considered the construction of the New York Connecting Railroad jointly by the Pennsylvania and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Companies; which, with the tunnel extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, will form a through route for railroad transportation between Southern, Western and New England States.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
RALPH PETERS
615
RALPH PETERS
R ALPH PETERS, president of the Long Island Railroad Company, was born in Atlanta, Ga., November 19, 1853, and is a descendant of the Pennsylvania family of that name.
The family is of English and Scotch extraction and was founded in America in 1740, by William Peters, at one time commissioner in the colony of Pennsylvania. Richard Peters, his son, was a great friend of Washington and head of the family during the Revolution. He was a commissioner for war and afterwards secretary of war under the Continental Congress. Fol- lowing the Revolution, Richard Peters was made judge of the United States District Court for Pennsylvania, famed for his learning and his lavish enter- tainments in his beautiful mansion at Belmont, in Fairmount Park.
This was the great-grandfather of Ralph Peters, whose parents were Richard (distinguished engineer) and Mary Jane (Thompson) Peters.
Ralph Peters was educated in public and private schools in Atlanta and Baltimore and was graduated B.A. from the University of Georgia in 1872.
He then entered the service of the Atlanta Street Railways and relin- quished their superintendency to go to the Pennsylvania Railroad, becoming successively division superintendent of the Logansport, Ind., and Cincinnati divisions, and eventually general superintendent at Columbus, Ohio, until 1905. During his early career with the company he had filled other positions with subsidiary lines and when elected president and general manager of the Long Island Railroad, was one of the best equipped railroad men in the country.
Taking hold of a property that was struggling under many disadvantages and looked upon as a summer excursion proposition, without equipment or facilities to meet the demands of the busy season, and with no business to meet the expenses of the dull season, Mr. Peters has made it an all-year- round proposition and developed a railroad property having gross earnings of $26,433 per mile per annum; a most valuable adjunct to the Pennsylvania Railroad as a distributor of its traffic in the greater city of New York, besides bringing into close touch with the city a great and productive area.
In addition to his railroad interests, Mr. Peters is a director of the Equi- table Trust Company, Franklin Trust Company, Queens County branch of Corn Exchange Bank, and the Matawok Land Company.
He is a member of the Lawyers Club, Railroad Club of New York, New York Yacht, Garden City, and Garden City Golf Clubs; the Sons of the Revo- lution, Ohio, Georgia and Southern Societies, and Society of Colonial Wars in Ohio.
Mr. Peters has offices in the Pennsylvania Station in New York City, and his residence is at Garden City, Long Island. He married Eleanor H. Good- man, in Cincinnati, June 7, 1882, and has six children: Eleanor Hartshorn, Pauline Faxon, Ralph, Jr., Dorothy, Helaine Piatt, and Jane Brentnall Peters.
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GENERAL EDWIN AUGUSTUS MCALPIN
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GENERAL EDWIN AUGUSTUS McALPIN
G ENERAL EDWIN AUGUSTUS McALPIN, who has attained dis- tinction in business, political and military life, was born in New York City, June 9, 1848, the son of David Hunter McAlpin and Adelaide (Rose) McAlpin. His paternal grandfather, James McAlpin, of sturdy Scotch- Irish stock, came from Belfast, Ireland, and settled in Dutchess County, New York, where he was a grocer. His forbears were among the Scots who emi- grated from Scotland to Ireland in Cromwell's time, and were of the ancient Clan Alpine, famed in history and song.
Edwin A. McAlpin attended the public schools of New York, and Phil- lips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, being graduated during the early part of the Civil War. He ardently desired to take part in that memorable con- flict, and twice actually enlisted, but his father's authority was interposed to keep him from the risks and dangers of war during his days of immaturity and adolescence. The war closed before he was seventeen years old.
His father, who established himself in the tobacco manufacturing business several years before the war, took Mr. McAlpin into the office of his manu- factory, on Avenue D, and he afterward became a partner in the firm and later corporation, and, after his father's death, its president, until the entire business, then the largest of its kind, was sold to the American Tobacco Com- pany. He has now largely retired, except for a few directorships, from the activities of business life, devoting his attention to his property interests.
In 1869 he entered the National Guard of New York as a private in the Seventh Regiment. He resigned from that regiment, January 29, 1875, to accept a commission as first lieutenant in the Seventy-first Regiment, of which he was later promoted successively captain, major and colonel. After eigh- teen years of service he resigned with the record of one of the ablest of regi- mental commanders, but in 1895 Governor Morton appointed him adjutant general of the State, with rank of major general. His skill and zeal bore their impress in marked improvements in the service under his administration.
He became a resident of Ossining in 1878, served a term as postmaster there, and another as mayor and has several times been an elector on the Re- publican presidential ticket. He became one of the leaders in the League of Republican Clubs movement, was president of the New York State League, 1889-1892, and president of the National League of Republican Clubs in 1895. He is a member of the Board of Trade and Transportation, Chamber of Com- merce, St. Andrew's Society, Society of Colonial Wars, and the Army and Navy, Union League, Lotos, New York Athletic and Republican Clubs.
He married, in New York City, October 27, 1870, Annie, daughter of Dr. Benjamin Brandreth. Mrs. McAlpin died March 10, 1908. General McAlpin has five sons : Colonel Benjamin B., Rev. Edwin A., Jr., David H. 3d, Dr. Kenneth R., and J. Roderick McAlpin.
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GEORGE BRUCE CORTELYOU
619
GEORGE BRUCE CORTELYOU
G EORGE BRUCE CORTELYOU has had a career in life which, in its details, is one of the most inspiring in our age. It is that of a man whose advance, while rapid, has been step by step, who, to use a common expression, has "made good" in every sphere of service to which he has been called, and who has shown breadth and capacity in every phase of duty, from the daily routine of clerkship to the highest places of public and business life.
Mr. Cortelyou is a New Yorker of one of the oldest families, his first American ancestor having been Captain Jacques Cortelyou, who, coming from Holland to New Amsterdam about 1642, during the administration of Wilhelm Kieft as director general of the province, became founder of New Utrecht, one of the "five Dutch towns" of Long Island, and served for a considerable period as surveyor general of the colony of New Netherland.
George Bruce Cortelyou was born in New York City, July 26, 1862, son of Peter Crolius Cortelyou, Jr., and Rose (Seary) Cortelyou, his father being in business as a type founder.
After attending the public schools for several years, Mr. Cortelyou pur- sued his further education in the Nazareth Hall Military Academy, 1873, was graduated from the Hempstead (L. I.) Institute, 1879, State Normal School, Westfield, Mass., 1882, entered the New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, 1883, and attended and graduated from Walworth's Stenographic Institute, 1883-1884. He engaged in general law and verbatim reporting in the City of New York in 1883, and served as principal of preparatory schools in New York from 1883 to 1889. Several years later he took the law course in Georgetown University and in Columbian (now George Washington) University, graduating from the former in 1895, with the degree of LL.B. and from the latter in 1896, with the degree of LL.M. The degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon him by Georgetown University, University of Illinois, and the Kentucky Wesleyan University.
Mr. Cortelyou had become a stenographer of surpassing excellence and accuracy, and this accomplishment was a stepping-stone in the remarkable advancement which attended his career in the public service from 1889, when he was appointed secretary to the Appraiser of the Port of New York. He was afterward, consecutively, private secretary to the post-office inspector in charge at New York, the Surveyor of the Port of New York, and the Fourth Assistant Postmaster-General at Washington. He was selected as confidential stenographer in November, 1895, and executive clerk in February, 1896, to President Cleveland, remaining in the Executive Mansion in the same capacity when the Mckinley administration came in, in March, 1897; was appointed assistant secretary to President Mckinley on July 1, 1898; secretary to the President, April 13, 1900; reappointed March 15, 1901 ; and on September 16, 1901, reappointed by President Roosevelt.
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Both of these great Presidents showed great regard for Mr. Cortelyou, and a high appreciation of his administrative and executive ability, and when, in 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was created, with a secretary, who became the ninth member of the President's Cabinet, Mr. Roosevelt nominated Mr. Cortelyou, February 16, 1903, for the place, and he was confirmed the same day. He filled it for a year and a half, when he . resigned the post in order to be free to take up the duties of chairman of the Republican National Committee, to which office he was elected June 23, 1904.
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