USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 67
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Mr. William M. Fleit- mann lived with his parents in New York from 1861 to 1869, attending the private schools. His further educa- tion was completed in Ber- lin and Cassel, Germany, from 1869 to 1878, and after spending a year at the Textile College at Mülheim- on-the-Rhine, and a year in Lyons, France, learning further details of the textile business, he entered the business of Fleitmann & Company, in 1880, continui- ing in various capacities until January 1, 1887, when he became a member of the firm, to the subsequent and increased success of which he has largely contributed.
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WILLIAM MEDLICOTT FLEITMANN
Mr. Fleitmann is a member of the Deutscher Verein, the Merchants, Riding, New York Athletic, New York Yacht, and Columbia Yacht Clubs; the Automobile Club of Amer- ica, and various clubs at Bar Harbor, Maine.
Mr. Fleitmann married, in Grace Church, Brooklyn, November 7, 1889, Lida M. Heinze, and has three children: Frederick Herman, Lida Louise, and William Medlicott Fleitmann, Jr.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
W ILLIAM RYLE, the founder of the firm of William Ryle & Com- pany, was born in Macclesfield, England, his father (also William Ryle) being a manufacturer of silk fabrics in that city.
William Ryle came to America at the age of seventeen, and engaged in the silk manufacturing business with his uncle, the late John Ryle, who was one of the pioneer manufacturers in that line of this country. William Ryle afterwards engaged in busi- ness as a banker on his own account, and later aban- doned this for a mercantile career.
He conducted the busi- ness in his own name until his death, and built up a large trade as an importer of raw silk, and also sold yarns and other silk mer- chandise on commission for various manufacturers.
After his death in 1881, the business was con- tinued by his eldest son, the late William T. Ryle, under the name of William Ryle.
In 1890 the firm of William Ryle & Company was formed by William T. Ryle, Arthur Ryle and Boe- tius Murphy, and in 1893 William H. Barnard was admitted as a general part- ner. This firm as thus organized continued in WILLIAM RYLE business until December 31, 1899, when the partner- ship expired by limitation. After that the business was conducted for five years by Arthur Ryle, trading as William Ryle & Company.
In January, 1906, Thomas D. Van Dusen and Charles P. Kelly were admitted as general partners in the firm, the business continuing from that time up to the present, under the old established firm name of William Ryle & Company.
WILLIAM POWELL DREWRY
W ILLIAM POWELL DREWRY, president of Farber-Drewry Company, dry goods commission merchants, is a native of Rich- mond, Virginia, born in 1868. The son of John William and Blanche (Powell) Drewry, he is descended on both sides from prominent English families. His father was a Confederate officer, a brother of Major Drewry, of Drewry's Bluff, a famous spot in Virginia during the Civil War. Also a famous ancestor was Sir Robert Drewry, for whom Drewry (now Drury) Lane in London was named in the Sixteenth Century. On his mother's side Mr. Drewry is connected with the Pow- ells, of Virginia, a famous family beginning with the three brothers, Nathaniel, William and John, who came to Jamestown, from England, in 1609. The third brother, John Powell, was a burgess in 1632, and his son, John Powell, Jr., was also a burgess and was elected seven different times. The line descends through his son, William, and the latter's son, James, to John Powell, whose son, Dr. John Norment Powell, was the father of Mr. Drewry's mother.
Mr. Drewry was edu- cated in Virginia. He came to New York in 1895 and. WILLIAM POWELL DREWRY was connected with the house of. Joseph T. Low & Company until 1898, when he became a member of the firm of Farber, Drewry & Company. He is a director of several impor- tant textile corporations in North and South Carolina. Mr. Drewry's long experience and thorough familiarity with the business have earned him a posi- tion of marked prominence among those identified with the dry goods interests of New York.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS
773
CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS
C ORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS, one of the leading American merchants and a citizen of national distinction, is a native of Fall River, Massachusetts, where he was born January 26, 1833, the son of Asahel Newton and Irene Borden (Luther) Bliss. He is of old New England ancestry, descended from a Devonshire family, a Puritan mem- ber of which came to New England in 1633 and settled at Weymouth, Massachusetts, afterward becoming one of the founders of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, where his descendants continued to live for two centuries. There Asahel Bliss was born, afterward removing to Fall River, where he married, and where his son, Cornelius Newton Bliss, was born, the father dying while the boy was yet an infant. The mother afterward remarried and moved to New Orleans, the boy remaining in Fall River with maternal relatives and being educated in the common schools and Fiske's Academy in that city until he was fourteen years old. He then went to his mother in New Orleans and attended the High School of that city.
He began his business experience with a few months in the counting room of the stepfather in New Orleans, then returning in 1848 to the North and entering the employ of James M. Beebe & Company, at that time the leading dry goods importing and jobbing house in Boston. He applied himself to a study of the dry goods trade with such diligence that he advanced in the confidence of his employers and his knowledge of the business and became a partner in the firm which succeeded J. M. Beebe & Company. He there gained the experience and connections which made him recognized as a representative merchant in Boston and one of the best known dry-goods men of the country.
In 1866 Mr. Bliss became a member of the dry goods commission house of J. S. & E. Wright & Company. Upon the death of the senior member the firm was reorganized under the style of Wright, Bliss & Fabyan, but later became Bliss, Fabyan & Company, of Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. There is no more prominent dry goods commission house in the United States, and the firm handles the products of many of the leading American mills, for many of which it has for years held the exclusive selling agency and has for many years enjoyed a trade of vast proportions.
Mr. Bliss has continuously resided in New York City for more than forty years, and in addition to his large interests in the dry goods busi- ness he is a director of the Fourth National Bank and the Home Insur- ance Company, trustee of the Central Trust Company, a director of the American Round Bale Press Company and a director in various manu- facturing companies in Massachusetts. He is vice president of the
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, and a member of its Executive Committee.
In politics Mr. Bliss has long been known as one of the leaders of the Republican party, earnest in his support of its principles and especially of the Republican doctrine of the protection of American industries. He has had a place of prominence in the councils of the party almost from its inception, and has been for many years the friend and adviser of those who have been most influential in formulating its principles and contributing to its success. He served for several years as the president of the Protective Tariff League, and in 1887 and 1888 he was chairman of the Republican State Committee of New York.
When Chester A. Arthur was President, he offered Mr. Bliss a cabinet position, but he declined it, and in 1884 he was appointed chairman of the Committee of One Hundred selected at a general meeting of citizens of New York to urge the renomination of Chester A. Arthur by the Repub- lican party for President of the United States. While always active in politics, he has many times declined nominations to high offices, includ- ing that of governor of New York in 1885, and several times the nomi- nation for mayor of the city of New York. He served for years as a member of the Republican County Committee of New York and was the treasurer of the Republican National Committee from 1892 to 1896, and again from 1900 to 1904. His service in that capacity included the handling of the funds of several presidential campaigns.
He was appointed and served as secretary of the interior of the United States during the first Mckinley administration from 1897 to 1899, his term covering the entire period of the Spanish-American War and extending sev- eral months after the treaty of peace. His business experience and ability were of great value in that cabinet, which succeeded to power following years of panic and business depression, and after a campaign in which the issue of sound money was the dominant feature.
Mr. Bliss is a member of the Metropolitan Club, Century Associa- tion, Republican and Union League Clubs and was president of the latter five years; also member of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D. C., and Jekyl Island Club of Georgia. He is also a contributing member of the National Academy of Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and is a member of the American Geographical Society, New York, and of the New England Society in New York.
Mr. Bliss married, in Boston, Massachusetts, March 30, 1859, Eliza- beth Mary Plumer, and they have two children: Cornelius N. Bliss, Jr., and Lizzie Plumer Bliss.
775
ARTHUR GIBB
A RTHUR GIBB, head of the great Brooklyn retail establishment of Frederick Loeser & Company, is the son of John and Harriet (Balsdon) Gibb and was born in Brooklyn, October 15, 1857. His father, one of the leading merchants of New York, came from Scotland in 1850. His mother was of English birth.
Mr. Gibb was educated at Adelphi College, Brooklyn, and when seven- teen joined his father with Mills & Gibb, of which he is still a director. He went abroad for Mills & Gibb twice a year from the time he was twenty-two until 1897, when he became a partner in Frederick Loe- ser & Company, Brooklyn.
Since 1905, he has been the head of that firm, which holds a leading place among the great department stores of the country. The great success of Frederick Loeser & Company is in largest degree due to Mr. Gibb's executive capacity, mercan- tile experience and singular ability to forecast trade con- ditions.
Mr. Gibb is a director of the New York Reciprocal Underwriters, the Thrift, etc .; a member of the Long Island Historical Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Union League Club, New York; the New ARTHUR GIBB York Yacht, Brooklyn, Nassau Country, and Riding and Driving Clubs, and Automobile Club of America. His favorite recreations are automobiling, golfing and yachting. He is an independent Republican.
Mr. Gibb's town house is at 14 East Fifty-fifth Street, and he has a country home at Glen Cove, L. I. He married, November 23, 1908, Emily Josephine Mathews.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
HERMAN SIMON
777
HERMAN SIMON
H ERMAN SIMON, who has a position of much distinction in the silk manufacturing interest, is a native of Frankfort on the Main, Germany, where he was born April 29, 1850, a son of Robert and Marie (Broell) Simon. His father was a tobacco merchant and cigar manufacturer, with business establishments in Frankfort on the Main and at Antwerp, Bel- gium. Two of his great-uncles, Charles and Joseph Simon, came to the United States in 1815, and became prominent dry goods merchants in Baltimore.
After a course in Hassel's Institute at Frankfort on the Main, Mr. Simon followed a technical course in the Royal Weaving School at Mülheim on the Rhine, thus acquiring a practical training which proved to be of the utmost value to him in his later business career. In 1868 he came to the United States and secured a position in the wholesale silk department of A. T. Stew- art & Company, then located at the corner of Reade Street and Broadway. His brother Robert, two years his junior, who had received a technical edu- cation similar to that of his brother, and had specialized in silk weaving, came to America in 1870, and became superintendent of the silk mill of Benkard & Hutton, at West Hoboken, New Jersey.
In 1874 the brothers joined in establishing the silk manufacturing busi- ness ever since conducted under the style of R. & H. Simon, with a plant at Union Hill, which they made one of the most successful in the country and which has since been greatly expanded. In 1883 they established another plant at Easton, Pennsylvania, which is now even larger than the other, cov- ering seven acres of ground. The brothers divided the responsibilities of management until the death of Mr. Robert Simon, July 26, 1901, since which time Mr. Herman Simon has conducted the business alone.
Mr. Simon possesses every qualification for success in this business which technical knowledge and years of experience can confer. The policy pursued in the management of the business has been based upon the maintenance of the highest attainable standard of excellence in products, and to this end the most improved machinery and most advanced processes have been intro- duced, inclusive of some covered by valuable American and European patents owned by the firm. The business has grown to be one of the largest in the country, and the two mills employ in the aggregate about two thousand six hundred persons. This great enterprise owes its prosperous upbuilding to Mr. Simon's personal supervision and high business standards.
In politics Mr. Simon is an active Republican, and he was elected in 1908 a presidential elector on the Taft and Sherman ticket from the Twenty- sixth Congressional District of Pennsylvania. He has residences at Easton, Pennsylvania, and at Union Hill, New Jersey. He is a member of the Ger- man Club of Hoboken, New Jersey; the Deutscher Verein, and National Arts Club of New York, and Pomfret Club of Easton.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
P. R. EDUARD STOEHR
779
P. R. EDUARD STOEHR
P. R. EDUARD STOEHR, the president of the Botany Worsted Mills,
· and one of the most successful textile manufacturers of America, is, like many others of the most representative business men of the country, a man of German nativity and lineage. He was born in Eisenach, Sachsen- Weimar, Germany, March 22, 1846.
From his boyhood days Mr. Stoehr has been continuously connected with the woolen and worsted goods industry, in which he was trained, with Ger- man thoroughness, in the leading establishments. There he devoted himself to a study of the best methods and processes, steadily advancing in knowledge and influence, and while still a young man gaining a position of considerable prominence in the woolen and worsted industry in the old country. In 1879 he founded an important enterprise in this line, which has been conducted suc- cessfully ever since and is now known as the Kammgarn-Spinnerei Stoehr & Company of Leipzig-Plagwitz, Germany.
Mr. Stoehr early became impressed with the superior opportunities which were offered by the United States for the transplantation, under conditions favorable to further development and improvement, of the methods of manu- facture which have earned for Germany its precedence in the worsted and woolen goods industry, and he put his views into practical operation by estab- lishing the Botany Worsted Mills, of which he has been president ever since incorporation.
The Botany Worsted Mills were incorporated in May, 1889, with a capi- tal of $1, 100,000. From that time on the record of the company has been one of material advancement as the result of the use of the best equipment and the most improved processes of manufacture and methods of distribution.
The company owns a large plant located at Passaic, N. J., which is not only one of the most extensive and most admirably equipped in the country, occupying at this time about thirty acres of ground and giving employment to a force of more than five thousand people, but is as distinguished for the merit of its products as for its capacity for production.
The company's capital stock, which has been several times increased since its organization, now amounts to $3,600,000, fully paid in, without any mortgage bonds, and there is a reserve fund of $4,450,000.
The company manufactures fine worsted, dry-spun yarns and all kinds of woolen goods, the entire plant being operated by steam and electric power. The company have their New York salesrooms in the Fifth Avenue Build- ing at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Twenty-third Street, and their prod- ucts are sold directly to the retailers throughout the United States, and are known for uniformity of grade and high quality in their manufacture.
Mr. Stoehr has been a leader in the higher development of the worsted and woolen industry of the United States.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
CHARLES LOUIS AUGER
781
CHARLES LOUIS AUGER
C HARLES LOUIS AUGER, who occupies a position of much dis- 1 tinction among the representatives of the silk industry of the coun- try, is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in which city he was born September 26, 1860, being the son of Peter F. and Marie F. (Clement) Auger. His father, Peter F. Auger, was of French nativity, and had been engaged in the silk-weaving industry in France, coming from that country to the United States in 1860, a few months before the birth of his son.
Mr. Charles Louis Auger received a common and business school edu- cation. His father after coming to this country had engaged in business as a silk weaver, and his son had his efforts attracted in that direction and has been connected with the silk industry ever since leaving school. Beginning as a boy, he obtained a practical knowledge of the silk business in all its various departments, but especially of silk dyeing, and he has been actively engaged in business as a principal since 1884.
He is interested in various banks and financial, industrial and other com- panies, in several of which he is a director. He is also a director in the National Silk Dyeing Company, in which he has held the office of president since its organization in 1908. This is a consolidation of several of the most important silk-dyeing plants located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other sections of the country, in organization of which he played a prominent part. His business headquarters are in Paterson, New Jersey, and New York City.
Mr. Auger has enjoyed the advantages which come from extensive travels, which have covered the United States, Canada, and Mexico. He has also made several visits to various parts of Europe.
Mr. Auger enjoys pleasant social and business relations, is a member of the Automobile Club of America, and of other clubs in New York City; of the Hamilton Club of Paterson, New Jersey, the North Jersey and Arcola Coun- try Clubs, Cercle Republicain of Paris, France, and the Society of Chemical Industry of London, England, and also of numerous other clubs, charitable associations, and societies of various kinds in America and Europe.
In his own special line of business effort as well as in the financial field, Mr. Auger has obtained a position of favorable prominence and the rank of a leader, demonstrating in his management of the large enterprise in his charge, not only advanced technical knowledge, but a high order of administrative executive, as well as financial ability.
He married, in Paterson, New Jersey, in June, 1881, Mary Mirandon, who died the following year, and in April, 1884, he was again married, to Emma Chadwick. Five children were born: Frank C., in February, 1885; Emma M. C., in April, 1887, who married Frank H. Powers, May 11, 1910; May C., in June, 1889; Charles L., Jr., in December, 1901, and Louis F., in January, 1905. There were no children from the first marriage.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SETH MELLEN MILLIKEN
783
SETH MELLEN MILLIKEN
S' ETH MELLEN MILLIKEN, dry goods commission merchant, was born in Poland, Maine, January 7, 1836, the fourth son of Josiah and Elizabeth (Freeman) Milliken, and descendant in the seventh generation from Hugh Milliken, who came from Scotland to Massachusetts in 1650. His father was born in Buckfield, Maine, and after his marriage lived in Poland, Maine, and carried on a farm, a tannery, and a lumber business.
Seth M. Milliken attended the public schools in Poland, followed by a year in the Academy in Hebron, Maine, then for a year was engaged in a flour mill at Minot, Maine, then one year in the Academy at Yarmouth, Maine, and later taught school at Mechanic Falls, Poland, Maine.
In May, 1856, when twenty years old, he began his mercantile career, opening a general store in Minot, Maine. Four years later he removed to Portland, Maine, and engaged with his brother-in-law, Daniel W. True, in the wholesale grocery business, under the firm name of True & Milliken. In 1865, in association with William Deering, he established the wholesale dry goods house of Deering, Milliken & Company, at Portland, and in 1866 he established the dry goods commission house under the same name in New York City. William Deering left the firm to engage in harvester manufacturing business in 1869, and since then Mr. Milliken has been head of the house.
Mr. Milliken is president of the Madison Woolen Company, Cowan Woolen Company, Farnsworth Company, and Pondicherry Company of Maine; Great Falls Woolen Company of New Hampshire, George W. Olney Woolen Company of Massachusetts, Lockhart Mills of South Carolina, Gainesville Cotton Mills of Georgia, and Dallas Manufacturing Company of Alabama; also a director of the Cascade Woolen Company, Forest Mills Company, Pacolet Manufacturing Company, Lockwood Company, Poland Paper Com- pany and Worumbo Manufacturing Company, of Maine; Abbeville Cotton Mills, Darlington Manufacturing Company, Drayton Mills, Hartsville Cotton Mills, Laurens Cotton Mills, Mills Manufacturing Company, Monarch Cotton Mills, Reedy River Manufacturing Company, Spartan Mills and Whitney Manufacturing Company, of South Carolina; and the Saco and Pettee Machine Shop of Massachusetts. He is a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company and the Bowery Savings Bank, and director of the Trust Company of America and the Fidelity Bank.
Mr. Milliken is an active Republican and has served as presidential elector; and he is a member of the Union League, Metropolitan, Merchants', Republican, Riding and Suburban Riding and Driving Clubs, the New Eng- land Society in New York, and Cumberland Club of Portland, Maine.
He married, in Dover, New Hampshire, in 1874, Margaret L. Hill, who died in 1882, and has three children: Seth M. Milliken, M.D., Gerrish H. Milliken, and Margaret L., wife of Harold L. Hatch.
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HISTORY OF NEW YORK
STANLEY THAYER COZZENS
285
STANLEY. THAYER COZZENS
S® TANLEY THAYER COZZENS, who is now at the head of the extensive lace and embroidery house of Goldenberg Brothers & Com- pany, is a native of New York City, born December 31, 1859, being the son of Sylvanus Thayer Cozzens, who was the proprietor of the Cozzens Hotel at West Point, New York, and his wife, Susan Allen ( Wilson) Cozzens. On the paternal side he is of English descent through Leonard Cozzens, who came from England to America in 1648, and who was the ancestor of a large family, which has included many men who have made their mark in business and professional life. One of his descendants, well known in liter- ary circles, was Frederic S. Cozzens, author of The Sparrowgrass Papers and other books, who was the first cousin of Sylvanus Thayer Cozzens, father of Stanley Thayer Cozzens. On the maternal side his ancestors lived in Belfast, Ireland.
Mr. Cozzens was educated in public and private schools until 1875, when he entered upon a business career in the old established dry goods house of Arnold, Constable & Company, with which he continued for seven years, becoming connected with the firm of Goldenberg Brothers & Company in 1886, in which house he has ever since continued, becoming the president of the firm in March, 1909, upon the retirement of Samuel L. Goldenberg, the former president, who has since lived abroad. The house of Goldenberg Brothers & Company holds a distinguished place among those representing their line in this market, being extensive importers of laces and embroideries from the leading manufacturing centres in those lines. Mr. Cozzens gives to the executive end of the business the benefit of his own practical experience with the result that the volume of trade of the company continues to increase with the years.
Since 1882, Mr. Cozzens has been an extensive traveler in foreign lands, chiefly on business, but also for recreation; and he has also become thoroughly acquainted, by visits to its various sections, with his own country. He is Republican in his political affiliation.
Mr. Cozzens served from 1880 to 1885 a full term in the Twenty-second Regiment of the National Guard of the State of New York. He is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, the Union League Club, Aldine Club, Old Guard, Essex County Country Club of New Jersey, and the New England Society of East Orange, New Jersey. He has a city residence at 2 East Sixty-third Street, New York City, and a country place at 145 Har- rison Street, East Orange, New Jersey.
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