USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 58
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Politically he was a Democrat of the old school, but was not active in politics and he never held political office. He was formerly a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, but left it because of a difference of view re- garding baptism, and after that was a member of the Baptist Church.
Mr. Driggs married at Redding Ridge, Connecticut, December 24, 1857, Mary Elizabeth Sanford, daughter of Aaron and Fanny Sanford, of Redding, Connecticut, and sister of the late Henry Sanford, president of the Adams Express Company. They had a son, Marshall S. Driggs, Jr., born November IO, 1858, who died in infancy. He had a city residence in Brooklyn, and a country home at New Canaan, Connecticut.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
JOHN GERALD HILLIARD
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JOHN GERALD HILLIARD
J OHN GERALD HILLIARD, who has long held a place of distinc-
tion among the representatives of the fire insurance interest in New York, was born in Scott County, Iowa, August 21, 1858, being the son of Samuel and Jane Eagar (Boate) Hilliard. He is a descendant of the Irish branch of the Hilliard family, through Captain Robert Hilliard, of Crom- well's army, who was of the ancient Hildyard family of Wynestead Hall, in Holderness, Yorkshire, England; and also traces descent through the Blenner- hassetts, Lynns, Nevilles, etc., to Edward III. After the war Captain Hilliard settled in Ireland and from there his descendant, Samuel Hilliard, came to the United States in 1849 and engaged in the lumber business in Davenport, Iowa.
On his mother's side, Mr. Hilliard is a descendant from Gerard Boate, M.D., physician to Charles I, and author of "Ireland's Natural History" pub- lished in London in 1652.
Coming from Iowa in early childhood to Brooklyn, N. Y., which has since been his home, Mr. Hilliard was educated in the public schools of that city, from which he was graduated at the age of thirteen. The following year (1872) he entered the employ of the firm of Frame, Hare & Lockwood, insur- ance agents, in whose office he was, at the age of eighteen, promoted to the position of local underwriter. In 1887 he became a member of the firm of Ackerman, Deyo & Hilliard, and since 1902 has continued the business under his own name as sole principal. At present he is manager for the Metro- politan District for the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company of Edinburgh; the American Central Insurance Company of St. Louis, Missouri; the Security Insurance Company of New Haven; the Liverpool and London and Globe Insurance Company of New York; Girard Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company of Philadelphia; Lumbermans Insurance Company of Philadel- phia; Albany Insurance Company of Albany, N. Y .; German Insurance Com- pany of Wheeling, West Virginia; the Prussian National Insurance Company of Germany, and Standard Insurance Company of Hartford. These are all companies of great financial strength and unimpeachable record for fulfillment of their insurance contracts.
Mr. Hilliard is regarded in the profession as an underwriter of expert ability and trained judgment, whose success has been earned by conservative and sound underwriting, and his agency transacts a very large business.
He is also president of the Underwriters' Building Company, which is engaged in erecting a sixteen-story office building at 51 to 59 John Street, corner of Dutch Street, to be known as the Hilliard Building, a full-page illus- tration of which appears in the historical section of this book. It will cover a plot of 7200 square feet, with frontages of 81 feet on John Street and 87 feet on Dutch Street. The John Street frontage is approximately half the block,
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
and as the remaining half of the block frontage, comprising the William Street corner, has been recently improved with a six-story office building, the nine upper floors of the Hilliard Building will have light on all four sides. Historically it occupies a notable site, being built upon the spot where, on Jan- uary 18, 1770, occurred the conflict between citizens and British soldiers, known as "the battle of Golden Hill," which some have described as the "first conflict of the War of the American Revolution." Architecturally it will present a cheerful relief from the dull monotony of ugly skyscrapers with sawed-off tops. Its three lower stories will be accentuated by a row of limestone pilasters of Corinthian design, the front of the fourth floor being decorated in classic design and the walls thence to the top are of Roman brick and terra cotta, crowned with a roof which is built up on graceful lines of much architectural beauty, and which, silhouetted against the sky, will present a most attractive and striking appearance in comparison with the severely truncated tops of many others of our great business blocks. The Hilliard building is one of the very few of the great office buildings which have been designed with a view to com- bine an architectural exterior expression which will beautify the city, with the most improved features which modern invention has devised for the conven- ience of modern office business. A carved limestone doorway will open from the centre of the John Street front into the vestibule and elevator lobbies which will be finished in bronze and Italian marble. Being built in the heart of the insurance district and intended chiefly for insurance offices the building will excel especially in its advanced desirability from the underwriters' stand- point, and from foundation to roof has exceptional fireproof features far beyond any requirement of law. In interior equipment nothing of value or convenience has been omitted from the design; in short, the building is the completed realization of the last word of modern requirement as to what such a structure should be. The character of the occupancy has already been fixed by the execution of twenty-one year leases to several important fire insurance companies and agency firms. Among these will be that conducted by Mr. Hilliard, which will occupy convenient offices in the building, which is undoubtedly the finest structure in the North insurance district.
Mr. Hilliard is a Republican in his political affiliations; and socially he is a member of the Lawyers' Club of New York, the Down Town Association, the New York Athletic Club, and the Marine and Field Club, Union League Club, Brooklyn, Merchants' Association, and Chamber of Commerce of New York.
He has his city residence at 258 Decatur Street, in Brooklyn, and has a most attractive country place of fifteen thousand acres at Srugrena Chace, in Pike County, Pennsylvania, where his summers are usually spent.
Mr. Hilliard married, in Brooklyn, October 15, 1885, Eleanor L. Swimm.
CARL F. STURHAHN
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C ARL F. STURHAHN, who has attained for himself a position of prominence in the insurance profession in New York City, was born in Osnabrück, Germany, January 25, 1870, and comes of a distinguished Hanoverian lineage, the full family name being Sturhahn von Bärenkempen.
He received a college education in Germany, and afterward filled his required term of military service as an officer in the German Army.
He entered the insur- ance business in 1889, thus embarking upon the profes- sion in which his father had previously been engaged for many years. He has con- tinued actively in the busi- ness of underwriting ever since, having been engaged in the same line in England for seven years before con- ing to the United States.
He was assistant man- ager for the Munich Re-In- surance Company, in New York, prior to October 24, 1903, when he was ap- pointed to his present posi- tion as general manager and attorney for the United States, of the Rossia Insur- ance Company and the Prussian Life Insurance Company. Mr. Sturhahn has applied his advantages of experience and ability with the result of a steady growth in the American business of his company.
CARL F. STURHAHN
He is a member of the American Academy of Political and Social Sci- ence, the Lawyers' Club, Down Town Association, Deutscher Verein, Ger- man Liederkranz, Wykagyl Country Club, and Scarsdale Golf Club, and also of the Union League Club of Chicago.
He married Maie Nunes Carvalho, and their home is in Bronxville, N. Y., and has two sons: Herbert Carl and Edward Marshall Sturhahn.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
JOHN A. KELLY
639
JOHN A. KELLY
J OHN A. KELLY, senior member of the insurance firm of Kelly & Fuller, was born near Manchester, England, in 1861, and was edu- cated in the public schools there.
He began his insurance career in 1882, when the Northern Assurance Company established an independent New York department under the man- agement of Henry H. Hall. At that time Mr. Kelly was made special agent of the Northern in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, but was afterwards trans- ferred to Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia. A few years later Mr. Kelly became connected in a similar capacity with the Queen Insurance Company of Liverpool, covering the Ohio and West Virginia dis- tricts, until 1890, when he entered the service of the Scottish Union and National Insurance Company, first in the district of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee, and afterwards at the headquarters of the United States depart- ment at Hartford, Connecticut, as general agent, and in 1900 became the company's superintendent of agents for the United States and Canada.
In 1902 he was made New York manager of the Fire Association of Philadelphia, and in 1904 absorbed the local fire agency of Blagden & Still- man, the firm becoming Blagden, Kelly & Company. In 1905 Mr. Fuller dissolved the firm of Baldwin & Fuller, and became associated with the firm of Blagden, Kelly & Company, the title being changed to Blagden, Kelly & Fuller. Upon the death of Samuel P. Blagden, in 1906, the title was again changed to Kelly & Fuller, as at present constituted. That firm controls a very large business, representing the Boston Insurance Company, Fire Asso- ciation of Philadelphia, Georgia Home Insurance Company, Michigan Com- mercial Insurance Company, Old Colony Insurance Company of Boston, Western Reserve Insurance Company of Cleveland; also the Potomac, Frank- lin, and Commercial Insurance Companies of Washington, D. C .; and the Humboldt and Teutonia Insurance Companies and Pittsburgh Fire Under- writers of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Mr. Kelly is one of the best informed and most experienced of American underwriters; and he is president of the Franklin Insurance Company of Washington, D. C., and a director of the Old Colony Insurance Company of Boston, Western Reserve Insurance Company of Cleveland, Michigan Com- mercial Insurance Company of Lansing, Michigan, and the Potomac Insur- ance Company of Washington, D. C. He is largely interested in the Under- writers'. Realty Company now erecting the Hilliard Building at John and Dutch Streets, in which his firm will have commodious quarters.
He is a member of the Farmington (Conn.) Country Club, and the National Democratic Club of New York.
Mr. Kelly married, in 1896, Miss Hattie Bradley, of New Haven, Con- necticut.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
GEORGE W. BABB
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GEORGE W. BABB
G EORGE W. BABB, who is one of the most prominent representa- tives of the fire insurance interest in New York, is a native of Boston, Massachusetts, where he was born October 17, 1847, the son of George W. and Susan (Ham) Babb, and is, on both sides, of English extraction.
He was educated in public and private schools in Boston, and from school went into business life as employee in a dry goods jobbing house in Boston, where he continued from 1865 to 1870. In the latter year he entered upon his long and honorable career in the fire insurance business by securing a position as managing clerk in a local fire insurance agency in Boston. He developed the qualities that make for success in the underwriting profession, and after five years' connection with the local agency, he was given a local agency of his own in Boston, conducting it successfully from 1876 to 1880.
In 1880 he was appointed general agent of the Commerce Insurance Company of Albany, New York, and removed to Albany, giving nearly three years of efficient service in connection with its agency department.
In 1882, Mr. Babb began a connection with the Northern Assurance Company, Limited, of London, England, which has been continuous ever since. He served the company as special agent until 1885, when he was appointed manager of the New England department of the Northern and removed to Boston, and filled that position with ability for four years, at the end of which service, in 1889, he was appointed manager of the New York department of the Northern, comprising the Middle and Southern States, and was also appointed general attorney and financial agent for that company, removing to New York, where he has ever since resided.
In 1896 he again became manager of the New England department of the Northern Assurance Company, upon its consolidation with the New York department, and he is now the manager of the Eastern and Southern depart- ments of the company and its general attorney in the United States.
Mr. Babb is regarded among fire insurance men as one of the most able as well as one of the most successful men in the profession. He has con- tributed from his experience toward the raising of professional standards and the improvement of insurance methods. He was one of the members of the original Committee of Four, which prepared the Universal Mercantile Schedule, and he possesses a fund of technical knowledge of underwriting which has given him a position of prominence and authority in the insurance world. He was president, 1907-1909, of the New York Board of Fire Under- writers, and is now vice president of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.
Mr. Babb is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, the Merchants' Association, Down Town Association, and the Firemen's Memo- rial Committee. He is independent in politics. He married, in 1886, in Nova Scotia, Janet C. Messenger.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS
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EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS
E MIL LEOPOLD BOAS, resident director and general manager of the Hamburg-American Line, was born in Goerlitz, Germany, Novem- ber 15, 1854, the son of Louis and Minna Boas, and he was educated in the Royal Frederick William Gymnasium in Breslau, and in the Sophia Gymna- sium at Berlin, whence he was graduated in 1873. He entered the banking and shipping house of C. B. Richard & Boas, of which his uncle was a part- ner, and after a year in its Hamburg office came to the New York office.
C. B. Richard & Boas were then American passenger agents for the Hamburg-American Line, which had then no office of its own in this country. Mr. Boas became a partner of the firm in 1881 and left it in 1891. At that time the Hamburg-American Line established its own offices in New York for the purpose of consolidating its interests in America, and Mr. Boas was ap- pointed its general manager, a position which he has held ever since. Since 1906 he has also been resident director of the company.
The Hamburg-American Line's interests centering in New York have had a prodigious expansion since Mr. Boas became general manager in 1892, and the New York office is the central and controlling factor of the company's regular lines from Europe to Canada, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Nor- folk, Newport News, New Orleans and Galveston; for the services from New York to Eastern Asia, and for the various lines from New York to Plymouth, Cherbourg and Hamburg, to the Mediterranean, the West Indies, Central America, the Spanish Main and Brazil. In New York the company has offices in its own building, 41-45 Broadway, which are said to be the most magnificent of their kind. The company has its own extensive dock property in Hoboken, and a pier in New York. All agencies in the different Amer- ican ports, and all those in the interior, report to New York. Here are also outfitting, supply and repair departments for those steamers whose home port is the harbor of New York. As each new line has been inaugurated by the company, Mr. Boas has been an active participant in the establishing of new trade arrangements with the countries interested.
Mr. Boas has also been able to render valuable services to other nations, which have been recognized by decorations conferred upon him by their rulers. He has received the Order of the Royal Prussian Crown (Third Class), and the Order of the Red Eagle (Third Class), from the Emperor of Germany; Officer of the Order of Francis Joseph, from the Emperor of Austria; Chev- alier of the Order of SS. Mauritius and Lazarus, from the King of Italy; Knight (First Class) of the Order of St. Olaf, from the King of Sweden and Norway; Commander of the Order of Osmanieh, and Commander of the Order of Medjidie, from the Sultan of Turkey; Officer of the Order of the Redeemer, from the King of Greece; Commander of the Order of Bolivar, from the President of Venezuela.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Mr. Boas has made a constant study, theoretical, historical and practical, of the subject of ocean transportation and commerce, upon which he is an international authority. His tastes are literary, and he has a considerable private library of the English, German, French, Italian, and classical liter- atures, possessing a familiar knowledge of these languages. He has also delved into Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, being fond of etymological studies.
Although his business interests are directly connected with Germany, Mr. Boas is a patriotic and public spirited American citizen, and has been active in many public movements, particularly in those having to do with the improvement of the water transportation facilities of New York City. He was a member of the committee for the Extension of the Pier Head Line; on the committee which appeared before Congress to secure an appropriation for the now completed Ambrose Channel to the sea; is treasurer and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Greater New York Canal Association, which took a most influential part in securing the improvement of the Erie Canal, and was a delegate of the State of New York to the National Rivers and Harbors Congress. He is a director of the New York Civic Federation.
Mr. Boas is a member of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, one of the managing directors of the Board of Trade and Transpor- tation, member of the New York Produce Exchange, the Maritime Associa- tion, Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the National Geo- graphic Society, American Museum of Natural History, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Academy of Political Science, American Academy of Political and Social Science, New York Academy of Science, American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science, American Economic Association, American Ethnological Society, the Japan Society, American Scenic and His- toric Preservation Society, and Bibliophile Society. He is also a member of the Lotos, Lawyers', New York Yacht, Grolier, Greenwich Country, and Uni- tarian Clubs, and of the Imperial Yacht Club of Kiel, Germany, as well as of local German organizations, including the Deutscher Verein, Liederkranz, the German Society, and the Germanistic Society of America.
At his country home, "Bonniecrest," Greenwich, Connecticut, Mr. Boas devotes as much time as he can spare to horticulture. He is a gardener of no mean attainments, and in his specialty of orchids has attained a reputation. His city residence is on West Seventy-fourth Street.
Mr. Boas has given much attention to the broadening of intellectual as well as commercial relations between his native and adopted countries, and was the originator and a founder of the Germanistic Society of America, which has for several years past brought noted Germans to lecture in this country.
Mr. Boas married, in New York City, March 20, 1888, Harriet B. Sternfeld, and they have one son.
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WILLIAM HARRIS DOUGLAS
W ILLIAM HARRIS DOUGLAS is one of our foremost American exporters, his firm having world-wide business connections. He was born in New York, December 5, 1855. He is a son of Alfred Douglas, of New London, Connecticut, and Rebecca Ann ( Harris) Douglas, of Pow- hatan County, Virginia. His first American ancestor was William Douglas, who married Ann Mattle, of Ringstead, England, and emigrated to America in 1640. His grandfather, Richard Douglas, fought as a captain at Bunker Hill and throughout the War of Independence.
Mr. Douglas is presi- dent of the firm of Arkell & Douglas, Inc., the busi- ness having been established in 1857. He has been an extensive traveler, having made two trips around the world and resided for sev- eral years in Europe and Australasia carefully study- ing international trade con- ditions, shipping questions, and our foreign relations.
He served as president of the New York Produce Exchange in 1906 and 1907, and is now president of the American Exporters' and Importers' Association and vice president of the National Board of Trade, is also a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce, Mer- HON. WILLIAM HARRIS DOUGLAS chants' Association, Mari- time Exchange, Union League Club, Republican Club, Sons of the Revolu- tion, etc.
Mr. Douglas is a Republican and has been twice elected to Congress, representing the old Nineteenth and new Fifteenth Congressional districts.
He married, April 11, 1889, Juliet H. Thorne, and they have three children: Ruth Thorne, William Erskine, and Jean Brundrett Douglas.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
WILLIAM ROWLAND
647
WILLIAM ROWLAND
W ILLIAM ROWLAND, who has for many years been one of the recognized leaders in the important industry of ship joinery, is, like many another successful business man of New York, a product of the farm. He was born at Long Bridge Farm, now called Monmouth Junction, in South Brunswick Township, Middlesex County, New Jersey, April 28, 1828, being the oldest son of James and Elizabeth (McDowell) Rowland. His paternal ancestry was Welsh; his earliest American ancestors on his mother's side came to America from Ireland in the early years of the Seventeenth Century. Thirteen members of the family embarked on the one vessel. They brought a large amount of money and valuables with them, and the captain, upon obtaining knowledge of that fact, kept the ship out for many weeks with the intention of starving them and securing the treasure. They suffered great privations and ten of their number actually died, but the remaining passengers and the crew, discovering his intentions, took charge of the vessel and brought it into port, defeating the captain's purpose. Of the descendants of these McDowells, several have served their country well, and Andrew McDowell, grandfather of Mr. Rowland, was a lieutenant in the Revolutionary Army, fighting at Monmouth, Trenton and in other battles.
Mr. Rowland was educated in the country school of his native place, which he attended during the winter months, and during other seasons assisted his father in the work on the farm. When he was eighteen years old he became an apprentice with Youngs & Cutter, the leading shipbuilders of the city, with whom he served for three years, thoroughly mastering the trade at the bench. Upon the completion of his apprenticeship he embarked in business for himself with a small capital, and achieved fair success, but in 1852 he decided to go to the Pacific Coast, and sailed for San Francisco. There he worked for a time as a ship joiner on the steamer "Brother Jona- than," and when she was ready for sea became her carpenter, in which rela- tion he made several trips to the Isthmus of Panama and back, during which he added to his mechanical attainments a practical knowledge of the actual requirements of a ship at sea, so that in his after work he could plan and execute his work from the standpoint of the sailor as well as from that of the shipjoiner.
On his arrival in New York, he began work for William Collier, one of the leading shipbuilders of that period, his first work for him being the construction of a model of the steamship "Warrior," of the New Orleans and New York line. This model was exhibited at the Crystal Palace in New York in 1856, and attracted much attention from visitors. Soon afterward Mr. Rowland again began work on his own account in New York. The careful attention to detail and the thoroughness of the work, the plans and drawings of which were personally made by him, and his per-
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
sonal superintendence of his work, early gained him world-wide repute, and ships of his finishing are to be found on every sea.
Among the earlier vessels finished by Mr. Rowland were the steamers "De Soto" and "Bienville" of the New Orleans Line, the "John P. King" of the Charleston Line, the "Mississippi" of the Savannah Line, and the brig "Handy King." These four steamers were afterward sold to the United States Government, which employed Mr. Rowland to convert them and other vessels into men-of-war for service during the Civil War. Mr. Row- land also did the finishing of the steamers "Narragansett," "Rhode Island" and "Massachusetts" for the Stonington Line.
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