USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 66
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James Harper Poor was educated in private schools, and in August, 1880, began his business career as a boy in the dry goods commission house of Jacob Wendell & Company, and in 1883 went to his father's firm of Denny, Poor & Company, and he became a partner in 1892. In 1898, with his brother, E. E. Poor, Jr., he established the firm of Poor Brothers, and in 1901 organ- ized the firm of J. Harper Poor & Company, which, in 1906, consolidated with the dry goods commission house of Amory, Browne & Company, his present firm. Mr. Poor in his long experience in the dry goods commission trade has attained an exceptionally thorough knowledge of the business, and a prominent and representative standard in the commercial service of New York.
He is Republican in his political affiliations, but not especially active in politics beyond exercising his privileges as a voter. He is a member of the New York Yacht Club, the Riding Club, the Automobile Club of America, the Merchants' Club of New York, and the Essex County Country Club; also of the Algonquin Club of Boston, and the Chicago Athletic Club of Chicago. He has his home at East Hampton, Long Island.
Mr. Poor married, in New York City, January 20, 1885, Evelyn Bolton, and they have two daughters: Evelyn Terry, born in New York City, Octo- ber 22, 1886, and married at East Hampton, Long Island, on June 4, 1910, to Philip Parkhurst Gardiner, of New York; and Mildred Harper Poor, born in Garden City, Long Island, October 4, 1890.
48
754
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
GEORGE FREDERICK VIETOR
255
GEORGE FREDERICK VIETOR
G EORGE FREDERICK VIETOR, who for fifty years was en- gaged in the dry goods commission business in New York City, and was one of its most distinguished merchants, was born in Brooklyn, New York, October 13, 1839, a son of Frederick and Marie (Hutterott) Vietor, both of German birth. His father came to this city about 1820, and about 1835 established the dry goods house which has ever since been known under the name of Frederick Vietor & Achelis.
George F. Vietor was educated in Bremen, Germany, and New York, and was prepared from his youth with a view to participation in the business of the house which his father and uncle had established.
In 1860 he entered upon his business career in that house and applied himself to the task of thoroughly learning the business, and in 1872 became a partner and later senior member until his death, on January 29, 1910.
The house of Frederick Vietor & Achelis, now the oldest dry goods house in the city, originally did an importing business almost exclusively, especially in hosiery, but later developed a commission business in the prod- uct of domestic mills until that branch of the business became greater in volume than that in imported goods. This was especially true after Mr. George F. Vietor became the head of the house, which became one of the fore- most in the commission dry goods trade. The house has, however, continued to control important foreign connections and does a heavy importing trade, maintaining branch establishments in Bremen, Chemnitz, Paris and Lyons.
Mr. Vietor possessed ideal qualities as a merchant. His clear insight into the commercial outlook, his quick and alert judgment as to men, which enabled him to decide a question of credit with almost unfailing accuracy, and his strong and well-balanced mental powers, enabled him to so direct his house as to establish for it a business estimated at about $40,000,000.
He was universally esteemed for his inflexible integrity, and his great business ability and financial acumen were known and recognized through the business world. He was a trustee of the American Surety Company, the Franklin Trust Company, German Savings Bank in the City of New York, United States Trust Company, Washington Trust Company; a director of the Credit Clearing House, Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, Jefferson Bank, Kingsbridge Real Estate Company, Mount Morris Bank, National Park Bank of New York, Plaza Bank, Yorkville Bank, and president and director of the Poldehard Silk Company, of Hoboken.
He was a member of the Hamilton, Union League, Rumson Country, Lotos, and Merchants' Clubs, and the Deutscher Verein.
He married, in Brooklyn, Annie M. Achelis, and had four sons and a daughter : Thomas F., Julia M. (now Mrs. J. Lionberger Davis, of Saint Louis, Missouri), Carl L., George Frederick, Jr., and John A. Vietor.
756
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
OSCAR VON PASSAVANT
757
OSCAR VON PASSAVANT
O SCAR VON PASSAVANT, the present head of the internationally prominent importing commission house of Passavant & Co., was born in Frankfort on the Main, Germany, February 1I, 1862, being a son of Hermann Passavant, merchant, and Sophie (von Heyder) Passavant. The Passavants were originally a Huguenot family, who emigrated in 1517 from France to Switzerland, and thence to Germany, where, making their home in Frankfort on the Main, they became prominent as merchants. There was founded the mother house of Gebrüder Passavant, of which Hermann Passa- vant, father of Oscar von Passavant, became the head. Of that old-estab- lished institution, the American house of Passavant & Co., was founded in 1853 by Hermann Passavant and his cousin, Theodor Passavant.
Mr. Oscar von Passavant attended the Muster Schule in his native city, and upon completing the educational courses of that institution, went direct to Basel, Switzerland, April 4, 1879, to begin his business training with the silk and ribbon commission house of Gebrüder Passavant, in Basel, which is a branch of the mother house in Frankfort. He continued with the Basel house until 1882, when he returned to Frankfort on the Main to serve his year of military service in the First Hessian Hussar Regiment, No. 13.
On completing his military service he resumed his business training, October 1, 1883, with the commission export house of Kessler Frères et Cie. in Paris, France, remaining there until August 1, 1885. Coming direct to New York, he attached himself to the importing commission house of Passa- vant & Co., 320 Church Street, now 83 Greene Street, where he worked him- self up, and after traveling for business three years in this country, and many years in Europe, he was made a partner, and became head of the firm of Passavant & Co., December 1, 1890. The fiftieth anniversary of the Amer- ican house was celebrated in 1903, and Oscar von Passavant celebrated, on August 14, 1910, his twenty-fifth anniversary with Passavant & Co. The present head of the original Gebrüder Passavant, at Frankfort on the Main, is now Geheimer Commercienrath Richard von Passavant, oldest son of the late Hermann Passavant. The New York partners of Oscar von Passavant are: Arthur W. Watson, H. Lambelet, and H. Sandhagen.
Mr. Oscar von Passavant has developed the business of the house of Passavant & Co. to a standing and magnitude commensurate with the impor- tance of its origin. Socially, he is a member of the German Club, the Mer- chants" Central Club, and others.
He married, in New York City, October 21, 1891, Miss Margaret Schmidt, and they have their home at 24 West Sixty-ninth Street. They have a son, Charles Hermann von Passavant, born July 30, 1892, and two daughters, Marguerite von Passavant, born February 5, 1897, and Helen von Passavant, born November 18, 1902.
758
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
EDWARD E. POOR
259
EDWARD E. POOR
E DWARD E. POOR, head of the firm of Edward E. Poor & Company, was born in Arlington, Massachusetts, December 2, 1861, and is the son of the late Edward Erie and Mary Wellington (Lane) Poor.
The Poor family is of English origin, the earliest American ancestor, John Poor of Wiltshire, England, came to New England in 1635 and set- tled first in Newbury and later in Rowley, Massachusetts. His son Henry took part in King Philip's War, became very wealthy, and among his de- scendants were some of the prominent citizens and soldiers of the colony, after- ward the State of Massachusetts. Benjamin Poor, of the sixth generation, born in 1794 and who married, in 1824, Aroline Emily Peabody, of Salem, a member of the famous Massachusetts Peabody family, was an eminent Boston merchant. His son, Edward Erie Poor, one of eleven children, born in Bos- ton, February 5, 1837, became a prominent dry goods commission merchant. He started his business career in Boston and in 1864 established himself in New York City, and a year later formed the dry goods commission house of Denny, Jones & Poor, which in 1869 became Denny, Poor & Company. He was also president of the National Park Bank of New York from 1895 to 1900; and that important institution prospered greatly during these years under the management of Mr. Poor.
His son, Edward E. Poor, the eldest of seven children, was educated in a private school and in 1878 started as a boy with Denny, Poor & Company, continuing as employee and partner until it ceased business in 1898. He was associated with his brother, J. Harper Poor, in the firm of Poor Brothers for three years, and since March, 1901, has controlled and sold the products of the Passaic Print Works. During the last ten years the print works have been largely rebuilt and the products greatly improved. Three years ago he organized the Queen Handkerchief Works, to make up and market handker- chiefs printed by the Passaic Print Works, which business is growing rap- idly. He is treasurer and director of the Passaic Print Works; director of the Queen Handkerchief Works, and director of the Warehouse Company of Pas- saic, a company formed to store the goods produced by the Print Works and Handkerchief Works.
He is a member of the Union League, Merchants' and New York Athletic Clubs, Chamber of Commerce of New York, and the New England Society:
Mr. Poor married, at North Adams, Massachusetts, January 18, 1888, Susie E. Grimes, daughter of the late Frank Webster Grimes and Mary E. Johnson. They have three children: Edward E., Jr., graduated this year from Amherst College and starting in business under his father; a daughter, Marian, and a young son, Arthur Johnson.
760
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
MATTHEW CHALONER DURFEE BORDEN
761
MATTHEW CHALONER DURFEE BORDEN
M ATTHEW CHALONER DURFEE BORDEN, merchant and manufacturer, has long been recognized as one of the leaders in the dry goods trade, both in its selling and manufacturing branches. He was born in Fall River, Mass., July 18, 1842, being the son of Colonel Rich- ard Borden, who was a leading manufacturer of Fall River, connected with its pioneer enterprises as early as 1821, and identified with the development and prosperity of the city until his death, in 1874. In its earliest historic origin the Borden family is of Norman-French derivation, being of the ancient village of Bourdonnay, in Normandy, and thence going to England with William the Conqueror, who granted to them an estate in the County of Kent, to which, and the parish there created, they gave the name of "Borden."
His first American ancestor was Richard Borden, who came to America in 1635, and settled in Rhode Island; and his son, Matthew Borden, was the first child born of English parents on Rhode Island soil, the date of his birth being recorded in the Friends' Book of Records as 1635. From him the line of descent is distinctly traceable to Matthew C. D. Borden, and in the same line have been included many men who have taken prominent places in vari- ous lines of usefulness.
Mr. Borden was educated in the famous Phillips Academy at Andover, Mass., and in Yale College, whence he was graduated in the Class of 1864. Upon leaving college he determined upon a mercantile career, in the dry goods trade, and entered the employ of a leading dry goods jobbing house in New York to learn the business, beginning as a stock boy and then working in vari- ous capacities until, in 1868, he became a member of the firm of Low, Harri- man & Company, where he represented the American Print Works as selling agent, and continuing in that capacity until the print works failed, when he left that connection.
Mr. Borden and his eldest brother, after the failure of the American Print Works, set to work to rehabilitate that business, reorganizing it under the name of the American Printing Company, in January, 1880. In the same year Mr. Borden became connected with the dry goods commission house of J. S. & E. Wright & Company, now Bliss, Fabyan & Company, with which firm he remained until July, 1910, when he established his own house of M. C. D. Borden & Sons, at 90 Worth Street.
In 1887, Mr. Borden bought out his brother's interest in The American Printing Company, and has ever since conducted it as sole owner, maintain- ing for that enterprise the prestige of recognized leadership, and making it the criterion by which all other enterprises of its kind are compared. After Mr. Borden secured control of the business it increased its capacity so rapidly that it became desirable to make a part of its own supply of cloth so as to be not entirely dependent upon the open market, and in 1889 he built a large
262
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
mill. Subsequent improvements and enlargements have been made in both plants, until now seven large mills constitute the plant, supplying about one- half of the cloth required by the printing establishment. These two enter- prises constitute important factors in the industrial welfare and progress of Fall River, employing a large force of well-paid operatives. In the entire list of those identified with the textile industries of the United States, no name is better known, or stands higher in the approval of the trade at large than that of Mr. Borden.
To the distributing end of the business Mr. Borden, in his new firm, brings the advantage of forty-two years of experience, and a trade connection which extends to all parts of the world where American made printed goods are sold. In the house with which he has been connected for the past thirty years, he carried and managed the business he has himself built up. He has been remarkably and worthily successful in his undertakings, conducting his enterprises upon thoroughly sound, conservative and at the same time pro- gressive lines.
At various times Mr. Borden has been identified with several financial institutions, and he is now a director in the Lincoln National Bank of the City of New York, a trustee of the Lincoln Safe Deposit Company, and a director of the Manhattan Company Bank.
In politics Mr. Borden has been a Republican ever since he was a voter, and an earnest and uncompromising advocate of the doctrine of protection to American industries. He has been active in charitable and philanthropic en- terprises ; has served as treasurer and trustee of the Clinton Hall Association, and a governor in the Woman's Hospital in the State of New York. He has always identified himself in a public-spirited way with progressive measures for the city's welfare; is a contributing member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and of the American Museum of Natural History. He has never sought political preferment, but he served for six years as Commissioner of Parks of the City of New York, during which term he devoted a large part of his time to the promotion of the welfare and upbuilding of the park system of the city.
He is a member of the New England Society in the City of New York, and of the Union League, Metropolitan, Republican, Down Town, New York Yacht and other leading clubs, and the Yale Alumni Association, and he has always held a prominent place in the social as well as the business life of the city.
Mr. Borden married, at Fall River, Mass., in 1865, Harriet M. Durfee. They have had seven children, of whom three sons are still living: Bertram Harold, Matthew Sterling, and Howard Seymour Borden. Two of his sons are associated with him in the new firm.
263
CEASAR CONE
C EASAR CONE, president of the Cone Export and Commission Company and the Proximity Manufacturing Company, was born in Jonesboro, Tennessee, April 22, 1859, the son of Herman and Helen (Gug- genheimer ) Cone. He was educated in Jonesboro, Tennessee, and Baltimore, and at the age of fourteen he entered his father's wholesale grocery firm of H. Cone & Sons, Baltimore, in which he was later a partner until 1891.
Later, with his brother, Moses H. Cone (who died December 8, 1908) he es- tablished the Cone Export and Commission Company, now a leader in this coun- try in handling of Southern cotton goods, with head- quarters at Greensboro, North Carolina, and 74-76 Worth Street, New York. The brothers also en- gaged in manufacturing, purchasing several hundred acres in and around Greens- boro, North Carolina, in 1895, and built the large cotton mills of the Prox- imity Manufacturing Com- pany, since greatly en- larged, and later erected the White Oak Mill, the largest cotton mill in the South and the largest denim manufacturing plant in the world. These mills employ about four thousand people, consume 28,000,000 pounds CEASAR CONE of cotton annually and turn out over 56,000,000 yards of cloth. Two attractive villages have been built under Mr. Cone's supervision, for the workers, with schools, boarding houses, hotels, churches, and all conveniences. He has served as president of the Central Carolina Fair Association and the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. He married, in New York City, June 4, 1894, Jeannette Siegel, and has three sons: Herman, Benjamin, and Ceasar, Jr.
764
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
THOMAS MORGAN TURNER
765
THOMAS MORGAN TURNER
T HOMAS MORGAN TURNER, now president of the Consolidated Cotton Duck Company, was born in Chicago, Illinois, September 28, 1856, the son of J. Spencer and Cornelia ( Eddy) Turner. He is of mixed Welsh and Scottish lineage, his first American ancestor, John Turner, having come to America and settled in Pennsylvania in the time of William Penn. His father, J. Spencer Turner, was long and successfully engaged in business as a commission merchant with a specialty in the handling of cotton duck.
Mr. Thomas M. Turner was educated in the Brooklyn Polytechnic School, and having completed the courses in that institution, he began his mercantile career in the cotton-duck business in 1875, and has continued in it ever since. He gained a familiarity with the business in all its details, and an acquaint- ance with the market for cotton-duck products which is surpassed by no other man connected with that trade, and he has long held a leading and represent- ative position among those engaged in this branch of commercial activity, both in the mercantile and manufacturing branches. He has long held a prominent place in the directorates of manufacturing corporations in the cot- ton-duck industry and in 1905 was elected president of the J. Spencer Turner Company, cotton goods manufacturers and commission merchants, and in 1910 was elected president of the Consolidated Cotton Duck Company, the leading corporation among those engaged in the cotton-duck industry, of which he had for several years before been a director. He is also president of the Tallassee and Montgomery Company; and is director of the H. B. Wiggin's Sons Company, Mount Vernon-Woodberry Cotton Duck Company, Yarmouth Duck and Yarn Company, Cosmos Cotton Company, Tallassee Falls Manufac- turing Company, and Greenwood Company. He has his business headquar- ters at 86-88 Worth Street, in New York City, and from that centre gives able and experienced executive direction to the large manufacturing and com- mercial interest of which he is now the head.
Mr. Turner is a Republican in his political views, and he is also actively interested in Masonry, being a member of Kane Lodge. He is a member of the Republican Club of the City of New York, of the Union League Club of New York, and The Lambs, and he is also a member of the Maryland Club, of Baltimore, Maryland.
Mr. Turner has for several years been especially interested in yachting, in which he finds his most favored recreation, and he has long been a mem- ber, and is now commodore, of the Riverside Yacht Club. He has his city residence at 80 West Fortieth Street, New York City, and a country place at Shelter Island Heights, New York.
He married, in Brooklyn, New York, in 1881, and has two sons: Harold McLeod Turner and Spencer Turner. The former married, April 17, 1906, Martha L. Strong, of New York.
766
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
JOHN TAYLOR SHERMAN
767
JOHN TAYLOR SHERMAN
J JOHN TAYLOR SHERMAN, who was for many years prominent
as a merchant in New York City, was a native of Suffield, Con- necticut, where he was born November 10, 1831, being the son of Colonel Charles and Jennet Frances (Taylor) Sherman.
He was of old and distinguished New England lineage, descended from Captain John Sherman, who came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts, about 1635, and who was the progenitor of a family which contained many men of distinction. Especially noteworthy in the line of descent was Roger Sherman, great-grandfather of John Taylor Sherman, who was born at Newton, Massachusetts, April 19, 1721, and died in New Haven, Connecticut, July 23, 1723. Leaving the farm he first became a mechanic and later a lawyer and judge in the colony of Connecticut, and during the Revolution was one of the strongest and ablest members of the Continental Congress, was one of the committee to prepare the draft of the Declaration of Independence and one of the signers of that immortal document. He was also an active member of the Connecticut Com- mittee of Safety, and later a member of the Constitutional Convention which drafted the United States Constitution. At the time of his death he was mayor of New Haven, and had been for nine years. His grandson, Charles Sherman, who was father of John Taylor Sherman, was a farmer, a colonel of Connecticut Volunteers, and in charge of the port of New Haven during the War of 1812.
John Taylor Sherman was bred upon the paternal farm and was edu- cated at the Academy of Derry, New Hampshire. In 1847 he came to New York City, and was for a short time in the employ of E. D. Morgan, but later entered the employ of his cousin, Thaddeus Sherman, and his brother-in-law, William Watt, who composed the firm of Watt & Sher- man, and he was ultimately, about 1859, admitted to partnership in that firm, and continued in business in New York City as a merchant in white goods, until his death in 1906. The business is now conducted by his sons, as the Sherman & Sons' Company, at 62-64 Leonard Street, of which his eldest son, Charles A. Sherman, is the president.
In politics he was independent, with Republican leanings, but always interested in measures for furtherance of the best business and social interests.
He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, the New England Society in New York, the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn and various sportsmen's clubs, and he had his summer home at Oyster Bay, Long Island, and town address, 35 Remsen Street, Brooklyn.
He married, in Brooklyn, New York, May 10, 1859, Julia C. Deming, and they had eight children: Louise D., Charles A., Alice, Henry, Gertrude, Helen D., Frederick D., and Jessie T.
768
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
F REDERICK THEODORE FLEITMANN, dry goods commission merchant, was born in New York City, March 26, 1856, the son of Hermann Fleitmann, American citizen of German birth, and of Louisa Har- riet (Medlicott) Fleitmann, born in Bristol, England.
Mr. Fleitmann lived with his parents at Düsseldorf, Germany, 1859-1861, then in New York, where he went to school until his mother died, in 1866,
FREDERICK THEODORE FLEITMANN
after which he attended the Gymnasium at Elberfeld, Germany, for three years, finishing in Berlin.
After two years ap- prenticeship in the large ribbon mill of Abr. & Gebr. Frowein in Elberfeld, he returned to New York about 1876, to enter the house of Fleitmann & Com- pany, founded by his father, Hermann Fleitmann, in 1850, dry goods commission merchants, becoming part- ner January 1, 1884. He spent a year at Lyons in the firm's agency, to study the silk business, in 1880, at Düsseldorf, Germany, 1881- 1884, and at Berlin 1884- 1886, then returning to America. On the death of Ewald Fleitmann, in 1906, he became senior partner. He is a trustee of the Ger- man Savings Bank and a director of the Citizens' National Bank.
Mr. Fleitmann is a member of the Deutscher Verein, the Automobile Club of America, and the Riding, Lotos, New York Athletic, Merchants', and Mer- chants' Central Clubs, and the Chamber of Commerce of New York; also the Club von Berlin, and the Imperial Automobile Club of Berlin.
He married, at Wiesbaden, Germany, June 12, 1894, Amelia Lingdens, and has a son, Hermann Frederick Francis Fleitmann.
WILLIAM MEDLICOTT FLEITMANN
769
W ILLIAM MEDLICOTT FLEITMANN, of the well-known dry goods commission firm of Fleitmann & Company, was born in Düsseldorf, in Germany, on January 30, 1860, during a visit of his parents abroad, and is the son of Hermann and Louisa Harriet ( Medlicott) Fleit- mann, his father being a native of Germany and his mother having been born in Bristol, England. His father came to the United States in 1850 and established the firm of Fleitmann & Company, dry goods commission mer- chants, ever since success- fully engaged in business in New York City.
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