USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 72
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He is a member of various clubs, including the Southern Society, the Reform Club, Monday Night Club, Canoe Brook Country Club, Highland Club, Drug and Chemical Club, and of the Society of Chemical Industry and the Electro-chemical Society. He married, at Hamilton, Ontario, October 12, 1892, Mary Eleanor Wright, and has four children: Clement Leith, Kather- ine Douglas, John Gordon Ferrier and Eleanor Coote Leith Speiden.
846
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
FRANCIS MARION SMITH
847
FRANCIS MARION SMITH
F RANCIS MARION SMITH, president of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, has contributed in a valuable degree to American com- merce and industry by adding an important item to the list of its commoner commodities. He was born in Richmond, Wisconsin, February 2, 1846, being son of Henry G. and Charlotte (Paul) Smith. On his mother's side he is of an old American family, being a descendant of William Paul, an Englishman, who came to America in 1637, and of Lemuel Paul, who served in the Rev- olutionary Army.
He was educated in Milton College, Milton, Wis., until 1863, and remained on his father's farm until he reached his majority. He had an ambitious spirit which longed for adventure and a career, and could not be pent up within the narrow confines of a Wisconsin farm. Therefore, as soon as he was of age he left home. About that time Horace Greeley's advice to young men to "Go West and grow up with the country" was bear- ing deep impress upon the minds and imaginations of the youths of America. So, although his home was comfortable, and his father's farm a good one, he left home in 1867.
Going first to St. Louis, he started from that city up the Mississippi and Missouri rivers to the Territory of Montana, and for five years followed a varied career as prospector, miner and contractor, and continually kept on the alert for any business opportunity. He kept pace with the development of new mining camps in Montana and Idaho, and thence southward into California and Nevada. Every man in the mountain territories of that time had for his chief ambition the discovery of some good mine, and Mr. Smith engaged in nearly every vocation pertaining to mining. He became a con- tractor for teaming and for the delivery of wood and timber to the mines, and while so engaged in 1872, he discovered Teal's Borax Marsh in Esmer- alda County, Nevada.
Miners and prospectors, traveling from place to place in the valleys of the Sierra Country, had cursed their luck for having to pass through an alkali country full of discomforts for a jaded traveler. But Mr. Smith was a college-bred man of alert mind and keen eye, and when he found this large deposit of alkaline material, knew enough to recognize the fact that it was borax, and to have a perception, dim, perhaps, but sufficient to excite him to action, of the possibilities which this discovery opened up to him. Like the rest, he had been seeking for mines of gold and silver; but borax was not to be despised. He secured title to the deposits, and here laid the foundation for the large fortune he now enjoys and began the development of a new American industry.
The market price of borax at that time was thirty-two cents per pound, and the deposits he had discovered aggregated thousands of tons. Mr. Smith
848
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
had found his field of opportunity, and at once applied himself to its culti- vation. Through his energy and enterprise these deposits were developed, the production increased and the price reduced, thereby greatly augmenting the consumption of the commodity, as many industries were enabled to make use of borax that, up to that time, had been prevented from doing so because of the prohibitive price. At the time of the discovery of Teal's Marsh the total consumption of borax in the United States did not amount to more than six hundred tons per annum. It was a costly chemical. Now the consumption amounts to many thousands of tons and it has become an indispensable article, not only in many industries, but also in the households of America. The Nevada deposits were long since exhausted, the supplies of crude material now being procured from Death Valley, California. The industry is con- trolled by the Pacific Coast Borax Company, of which Mr. Smith is the presi- dent. The trade of this company extends to all parts of the continent, and has shown remarkable expansion.
At an early date in his business career he became a permanent resident of Oakland, California, and he has done much to develop that city, particu- larly in its electric car system, and also the Key Route Ferry service between Oakland and San Francisco, which is recognized as being one of the model ferry systems of this country. He is also largely identified with the banking interests of Oakland, being president and director of the Syndicate Bank and of the Twenty-third Avenue Bank in that city, and a director in other banks, and is also president of the Realty Syndicate of Oakland, California, and the Oakland Traction Company, the Oakland, San Francisco and San José Rail- road, and the Tonopah and Tidewater Railroad. He has offices in the Albany Block, Oakland, California, and his eastern offices are at 100 William Street, New York City.
Mr. Smith has taken an active interest in political affairs as a Republi- can, and he has several times been elected a presidential elector for the State of California. He is a Congregationalist in his church relations and is a trustee of Mills College, California. His favorite recreation is yachting, and he is a member of the New York Yacht, Atlantic Yacht, and Larchmont Yacht Clubs. He is a member, by virtue of his descent from Lemuel Paul, of the Sons of the American Revolution, and he is also a member of the Union League Club of New York and of the Pacific Union Club of San Fran- cisco, California.
Mr. Smith married, in Oakland, California, January 23, 1907, Evelyn Ellis, and they have two children, Mary Evelyn Smith, born November 8, 1907, and Charlotte Dorothy Smith, born November 25, 1908. Mr. Smith has his home in Arbor Villa, East Oakland, California, and a summer resi- dence at Presdelieu, Shelter Island, New York.
849
WILLIAM STEELE GRAY
W TILLIAM STEELE GRAY, one of the leaders in the chemical trade in New York, is a native of the North of Ireland, of that strong and sturdy race which has given to America so much of its best citizenship. He was born in 1856, the son of John and Sarah Jane (Steele) Gray.
On coming to America, in 1871, he obtained a clerical position, and in 1876 began his connection with the chemical trade. In 188I he founded the present business, which was carried on under his own name until 1901, when it was incorpo- rated under the title of Wil- liam S. Gray & Company, with offices at 76 William Street, New York. The house does a large foreign business, making a specialty of wood product chemicals. which they ship all over the world.
Mr. Gray, in addition to being president of his own concern, is a director in a number of other indus- trial companies; and he is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, The Board of Trade and the Merchants Association.
He is a Republican in politics, and is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Gray served in the Sev- WILLIAM STEELE GRAY enth Regiment, National Guard of New York, and is now a member of the Seventh Regiment Veteran Association. He is also a member of the Union League Club, Lotos Club, New York Athletic Club and Chemists' Club of New York City, and of the Greenwich Country Club.
He married, in 1884, Georgia C. Kinney, and resides with his wife and three children at 39 West Fifty-third Street, New York.
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850
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
H ENRY ROWLEY, son of Thomas and Jane (Rose) Rowley, was born in Woodhouse, Leicestershire, England, April 24, 1855, and was educated in the school there and at St. Andrew's School, Derby, England. He began active life as a newsboy at the Derby railroad station, after- ward becoming, successively, clerk in a large iron works, a public accountant, manager of a coal mine, and foreign and domestic correspondent. He came to America in 1889, and soon afterward became the first and only treasurer of the Adams & Sons Company, of Brooklyn; and was selected as secretary, treasurer and general manager of the American Chicle Company, which absorbed the Adams Company and six other chewing-gum factories in 1899. Their products are sold all over the world, the European countries being supplied from the London factory. The Sen-Sen Com- pany was organized in 1909, Mr. Rowley becoming its president, and has six fac- tories and three branch offices.
Mr. Rowley married Sarah Cartwright, in Roth- erham, England, in 1873, and has two sons, Harry C. and Frederick C., both of whom are married.
HENRY ROWLEY Mr. Rowley is a mem- ber of the Lawyers' Club, of New York City, and of the Montauk Club, of Brooklyn.
Mr. Rowley is an ardent student of literature and languages, and has delivered many lectures on classic and popular literature in England and in this country. He is also an extensive traveler, and has toured all through all countries of Europe, every State in the United States, and also in Canada and Mexico.
851
HENRY JONES BRAKER
H ENRY JONES BRAKER was trained in the school of experience. Entering at eighteen the employ of H. J. Baker & Brother, drug importers, of which his father, Conrad Braker, Jr., was a member, and begin- ning at the bottom, he worked early and late and rose steadily until he became head of the firm and leader in certain lines of trade, making his business a great success and a factor in the markets of the world. To keen judgment he added perfect self-reli- ance, and a splendid courage which rendered no under- taking too large or intricate and no opposition too for- midable. He had many ven- tures outside of his firm's business, including some of the largest real estate trans- actions in the city.
On his social and friendly side he was tender and faithful and was "to those who sought him sweet as summer." He belonged to the Down Town Associa- tion, the New York, New York Athletic, and Drug and Chemical Clubs, and the Automobile Club of Amer- ica
His charities were wide and munificent, including among the more recent, $10,000 in memory of his father, to St. John's Guild, and $10,000 to the Shelter- ing Arms as a memorial to his mother.
HENRY JONES BRAKER
In his long-cherished desire to benefit business interests and his fellow- men, Mr. Braker established by a gift of $500,000 The Braker School of Commerce and Finance at Tuft's College, a postgraduate school to fit college men for business; and in memory of his parents gave $1,000,000 to found and maintain a home for Old Men and Women. Surely "his works will live after him."
852
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
FRANK TILFORD
853
FRANK TILFORD
R RANK TILFORD, merchant and financier, was born in New York City, July 22, 1852, being the son of John M. and Jane (White) Tilford, one of the original members of the firm of Park & Tilford, estab- lished in 1840.
The family of Tilford was a transplantation into Scotland of an older strain from Normandy, the original name there being Taillefer. It comes from the ancient Counts of Angoulême, who were the founders of the family, and was conferred by Charles the Bald of France upon Guillaume de Taillefer, because of a remarkable act of strength and valor performed by him in war in the year 916. From him the family line is traceable, without a break, to the present generation. When some of the family settled in Scotland the name became Tilford, and it was from that branch that it came to this coun- try. James Tilford, from Scotland, came to the Province of New York about the middle of the Eighteenth Century, and settled at Argyle, near Albany. He became a soldier in the Patriot Army and served through the Revolu- tionary War. His son, also named James Tilford, was a captain in the War of 1812, and was father of John M. Tilford, who became one of the foremost merchants of the City of New York, to which place he came in 1835 at the age of twenty years, and five years later, with Joseph Park, established the now nationally famous grocery house of Park & Tilford.
Frank Tilford, his son, received his early education in the public schools and completed his studies at Mount Washington Collegiate Institute. It was thought at the time that he should embrace a profession, but this not being in accord with his wishes, Mr. Tilford entered his father's establishment and began his apprenticeship at the very lowest rung of the ladder.
He applied himself zealously to the duties assigned him, and steadily advanced in the firm, of which he became a junior partner, and later, upon its incorporation in 1890, a director of the company; his father, John M. Tilford, being at the same time elected vice president and director of the company. To that office Mr. Frank Tilford succeeded upon the death of his father, January 7, 1891.
On June 1, 1906, he bought all the outstanding interests, became presi- dent of the company, and assumed the active general management of the entire business. While the house of Park & Tilford has prospered steadily from its inception seventy years ago, its progress since Mr. Tilford has been at its head has been especially great, and to-day it is conceded to be the leading house in its line in the world.
Mr. Tilford has been identified in a constructive and executive way with many other enterprises; and in 1874, at the age of twenty-two, he was elected a director of the Sixth National Bank of New York, being the youngest bank director in the city; and he later became a trustee of the North River Savings
854
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Bank. In 1889, in association with George C. Haven, he organized the Bank of New Amsterdam, which afterward became the New Amsterdam National Bank. Mr. Tilford was elected vice president of the institution, and in 1896 became its president. In 1901 he sold his interest, the deposits of the bank having increased sevenfold during his presidency, and the market price of the stock from $150 to $725 per share.
He organized and established the Fifth Avenue Trust Company, but afterward sold his interest; and in 1902 organized the Lincoln Trust Com- pany, of which he became vice president, and later president and chairman of the Executive Committee, but retired from the executive management of the institution in 1908, in order to concentrate his entire attention upon his large and constantly expanding mercantile interests.
Mr. Tilford is a Republican in politics and was a presidential elector in 1900, but has never aspired to a political career. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Grant Monument Association, and was very suc- cessful in helping to raise money to complete that great memorial.
In addition, he has been actively identified for a long period with many charitable, patriotic and other public organizations. Realizing that the pre- cepts of early life almost invariably become the fixed principles of maturity, Mr. Tilford, in 1901, donated to each of the public schools of New York a large bust of General George Washington, believing that the constant pres- ence in the schoolroom of a concrete image of "The Father of His Country" would do much to instill in the minds of the young a love of country, inspire lofty ideals, and promote a spirit of true patriotism. For many years, the Christmas dinners to the newsboys and to the "little mothers" have been an important event in philanthropic circles.
Mr. Tilford is a director of the Manhattan Eye, Ear and Throat Hos- pital; New York School of Applied Design for Women; trustee of the New York Historical Society, and a member of the Advisory Committee, National Association for the Prevention of Mendicancy and Crime. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the New York Zoological Society, New York Botanical Gardens, Sons of the Revolution, Colonial Society of America, Sheriff's Jury, and is a life member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
Yachting is Mr. Tilford's favorite recreation, and he was commodore of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club three terms, declining a fourth nomination.
In addition, he is a member of the New York Yacht and Larchmont Yacht Clubs, Automobile Club of America, Automobile Club de France, Tour- ing Club de France, and of the Union League, Lotos, City Lunch, Press, Pen and Republican Clubs of New York; Country Club of Lakewood, Rum- son Country Club, and is a life member of the New York Athletic Club.
855
JOHN C. JUHRING
J
OHN C. JUHRING, merchant, was born in New York, son of John C. Juhring, real estate operator, and of Lena (Stuke) Juhring.
September 22, 1873, he entered the employ of Francis H. Leggett & Company, importing and manufacturing grocers. He advanced rapidly from one position of trusst to another, was admitted to partnership in 1892, became vice president and secretary when the business was incorporated in 1902, and February 4, 1910, president of the company, succeeding Fran- cis H. Leggett, deceased.
Mr. Juhring was a charter member of the Merchants' Association of New York, and vice presi- dent upon its organization in 1879. Through his pub- lic-spirited efforts more than two thousand out-of- town merchants visited New York in 1904 as guests of Francis H. Leg- gett Company, were roy- ally entertained and shown the great business struc- tures and enterprises of New York. Many of them became so impressed with the superior commer- cial advantages of the city that numerous permanent trade connections were built up. In this connection a leading city paper said, "If all Gothamites had Mr. JOHN C. JUHRING Juhring's public spirit and energy; New York would be the best-advertised city in the world."
He is a director of the Coal and Iron National Bank, American Can Company of Maine, Seacoast Canning Company, and trustee of the Citizens Savings Bank; member of the Merchants' and Ardsley Clubs.
Mr. Juhring married, in New York, October 19, 1901, Frances Bryant Fisher, and they have a son, John C. Juhring, 3d, born August 30, 1902.
856
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
GEORGE GENNERICH
857
GEORGE GENNERICH
G EORGE GENNERICH, a leading representative of the wholesale grocery business of the metropolis, is like many of our other successful merchants, a German by birth and lineage. He was born in Scharmbeck, Province of Hanover, November 27, 1853, being the seventh son of Christian Frederick Gennerich, woolen goods manufacturer, and Gesiene (Jantzen) Gennerich. In accordance with an ancient custom of that kingdom, where there is a seventh son and no sisters, King George of Hanover became the godfather of Mr. Gennerich at his christening.
He received a sound education in public and private schools, including valuable instruction in the English language, which made his way easier when he came to New York, in 1868. He began in the wholesale grocery business, as office boy, in 1869; making steady advancement in the business year by year, and becoming, in 1883, junior partner of the firm of A. J. D. Wedemeyer & Company.
Three years later he established the firm of Gennerich & Liss, Mr. Liss retiring in 1889 from the firm, which then became Gennerich & Von Bremen, of which Mr. Gennerich has been the head ever since. The house has pros- pered, steadily enlarging its business, and enjoys an enviable standing in the wholesale grocery trade of New York City as also throughout a number of States in the Union. The firm occupy commodious business premises at 330 and 332 Greenwich Street and 30 Jay Street, New York City.
Personally, Mr. Gennerich holds an especially representative position in the trade, particularly in connection with the New York State Wholesale Grocers' Association, which is one of the foremost mercantile organizations of the United States. He was first vice president of the association, 1908- 1909, and he was elected to the presidency of that organization for the term beginning in January, 1910. He is also a director and an executive officer in the National Wholesale Grocers' Association, a member of the New York Board of Trade, and a member of the Merchants Association.
Mr. Gennerich, who was reared in the Lutheran Church, has always been deeply attached to that communion, and he has been an active member of St. Lucas Lutheran Church, in New York City, continuously since he came here, in 1868. Mr. Gennerich married, in New York City, September 28, 1876, Emma R. Brown, who was also at that time, and has been since, a member of the same (St. Lucas Lutheran) church, in which church they were married. They have three children: a daughter, Annie R., born December 29, 1877; and two sons, William Brown, born May 15, 1880, who married, March 28, 1910; and George, Jr., born March 23, 1885, and married November 18, 1908. Mr. Gennerich formerly had a home in New York City, but sold it five years ago and purchased an old landmark in Passaic, N. J., which he changed into one of that city's fine residences.
858
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
CHARLES WALTER MCCUTCHEN
859
CHARLES WALTER MCCUTCHEN
C HARLES WALTER MCCUTCHEN, who enjoys well-earned dis- tinction as a merchant in New York City, was born in Williams- burg, New York (as the Eastern District of Brooklyn was then called), Janu- ary 2, 1845, the son of William Moore and Eliza (St. John) Mccutchen. His lines of ancestry, on both sides, are Scotch-Irish, his earliest American ancestor having come to America in the latter part of the Eighteenth Century. Mr. Mccutchen's father was long a successful contractor in Brooklyn.
Mr. McCutchen was educated in the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, being graduated in the Class of 1862, and he thereafter entered upon a busi- ness career. In 1879 he entered as a partner the flour and grain firm of Holt & Company, with which he has ever since been continuously connected, and of which he has now for some years been the senior member.
Although New York has been a business centre for nearly three cen- turies, the number of business houses that have been in continuous existence for more than one of these centuries does not probably exceed a dozen, but among them is that of Holt & Company, which has been carried on with a record of honorable success ever since it was established in this city in 1802. Its trade, which is principally with foreign countries, has grown with the growth of New York, and the sound and conservative methods which have given it prestige and honor in the past have been steadily maintained under Mr. Mccutchen's direction. His long experience and executive ability have well upheld the excellent repute of this old-established house.
He is a director of the Corn Exchange Bank of New York, the Plainfield Trust Company of Plainfield, New Jersey, and of the People's National Bank of Westfield, New Jersey, and a director, secretary and treasurer of the Adi- rondack Company. He is a member of the New York Produce Exchange, and of the Maritime Exchange of New York, and of the Chamber of Com- merce of the State of New York.
He is a Republican in his political views, but independent, and has never sought to enter public life; and his religious affiliations are with the Baptist Church. He is fond of travel, and has gratified his tastes in that direction by several visits to Europe, and trips to Egypt, to the West Indies, the Pacific Coast, and elsewhere. Among his favorite recreations are sailing, golf, rid- ing and driving. His home is at Plainfield, New Jersey, and he has a coun- try place at Lake Placid, New York.
He is a member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the New England Society in New York, the Union League Club, Atlantic Yacht Club, National Arts, Plainfield Country, Park, Park Golf, and Lake Placid Yacht Clubs.
Mr. Mccutchen married, at Annapolis, Maryland, April 28, 1880, Mary Isabella Simpson, and they have two children: Magaret Wilson Mccutchen and Brunson Simpson McCutchen.
860
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SAMUEL TATE MORGAN
861
SAMUEL TATE MORGAN
S AMUEL TATE MORGAN, president of the Virginia-Carolina Chem- ical Company, was born in Wake County, North Carolina, May 15, 1857, son of Samuel Davidson and Talithia Adaline (Tate) Morgan. He is a descendant of the old Virginia Morgan family. His grandfather was Ste- vens Morgan, who married Mary, daughter of General Chambers, of Person County, North Carolina, and his father, Samuel Davidson Morgan, who was born in Virginia, moved to Wake County, North Carolina, in 1851.
Samuel Tate Morgan was educated in Horner's Military School at Ox- ford, North Carolina, and Bingham's Military School, until he was seventeen years old, when he returned to the home plantation, farming and manufactur- ing tobacco, but afterward took up merchandising and the lumber business, until 1879, when he located at Durham, North Carolina, in the wholesale trade in grain and provisions, also doing a commission business in fertilizers.
Conceiving the idea that fertilizers could be made in Durham as well as at other places, especially as tobacco stems, a waste product of the Durham fac- tories, were known to be rich in phosphates and especially valuable as a fer- tilizer for tobacco crops, he associated with himself Eugene Morehead, of the Morehead Banking Company, and his brother, William M. Morgan, who was cashier of the same company, forming a partnership under the name of Dur- ham Fertilizer Company. Mr. Morehead died in 1889, and a stock company was formed with Mr. Samuel T. Morgan as president. Branches were later established at Richmond, Virginia, and Blacksburg, South Carolina.
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