USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 75
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In 1902 he became a partner in and is now presi- dent of W. H. Parsons & Company ; and he and Hon. Francis C. Whitehouse, are controlling owners of the Bowdoin Paper Manufac- turing Company, Lisbon Falls Fibre Company, Pe- jepscot Paper Company, Bay Shore Lumber Com- pany, and Sagadahoc Tow- ing Company. He is a trustee of the Bowery Sav- ings Bank, and was presi- dent of the American Paper and Pulp Association, 1907- DAVID SMITH COWLES 1908. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Union League, City Midday and Down Town Clubs, New England Society, and various scientific societies; Westchester Hunt, American Yacht and Apa- wamis Clubs; St. George's Club, of Sherbrooke, Quebec; Laurentian Club, of Montreal; and Cumberland Club, of Portland, Maine.
He married, May 26, 1887, Matilda Parsons, and has four children: Ed- ward Boies, David S., Jr., William H. P., and Elsie Parsons Cowles.
889
HENRY F. COOK
H ENRY F. COOK was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1855, son of Dr. Henry and Eloise Augusta (Huntting) Cook. His paternal ancestry runs back to Christopher Cook, an early Devonshire settler of Nor- man origin; and his maternal descent is from Edward Howell, founder of Southampton, Long Island, in 1635, and from Rev. John Huntting, who was the founder of the village of Easthampton, Long Island, in 1639.
On leaving school in 1873, Mr. Cook became an associate of Joseph Fahys, a manufacturer of watch cases in New York City, of whom he became a partner in 1880, and treasurer and secretary of Joseph Fahys & Company when it was in- corporated in 1881. After incorporation the company absorbed the Brooklyn Watch Case Company, of Brooklyn, and The Alvin Manufacturing Company, and are now the largest manufacturers of watch cases in the United States and one of the largest manu- facturers of silverware.
Mr. Cook is president of the Sag Harbor Real Estate Company and the Sag Harbor Water Works Company, vice president of the Peconic Bank, secretary and treasurer of the Sag Harbor Heating and Light- HENRY F. COOK ing Company, trustee of the Sag Harbor Savings Bank, and the Sag Harbor Presbyterian Church. He is interested in the improvement of North Haven, a beautiful one-thousand-acre suburb of Sag Harbor, facing Peconic Bay, where he has his summer home.
He is a member of the Sons of the Revolution, Society of Colonial Wars, Pilgrims' Society, New York Chamber of Commerce, Union League Club, the Down Town Association, and the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences.
890
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SETH EDWARD THOMAS
891
SETH EDWARD THOMAS
S YETH EDWARD THOMAS, until his death treasurer of the Seth
Thomas Clock Company, was born in Plymouth Hollow (now Thomaston), Connecticut, October 9, 1841, the son of Seth and Laura (Andrews) Thomas. His grandfather, Seth Thomas, was born in Walcott, next town east of Plymouth, Connecticut, and in 1810 began the clock business with Silas Hoadley, in the eastern part of the town of Plymouth. They remained together two years, and Seth Thomas then located in the western part of Plymouth, then known as Plymouth Hollow, and this name continued on all Seth Thomas clocks until the early sixties, when the legislature divided the town into two parts and named the western portion, where his works were, Thomaston, in his honor. Seth Thomas died in 1859, having incorporated the company in 1854.
His grandson, Seth Edward, was educated in local schools and in Wil- liston Seminary, at Easthampton, Massachusetts, and was prepared for Yale, but because of his uncle's death entered business when eighteen years old, and became treasurer of the Seth Thomas Clock Company, which office he held until his death, February 6, 1910.
He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce of New York, the Sons of the American Revolution, New England Society in New York, the Union League Club, and others; and he was also a member of the Ameri- can Museum of Art, the New York Zoological Society, and New York Botan- ical Society controlling the Botanical Garden in Bronx Park.
Seth Edward Thomas married, at Hartford, Connecticut, December 13, 1865, Sarah A. Gross, and they had seven children: Sarah Elizabeth, Mary E., Grace I., Annie P., Seth Edward, Jr., Cornelia and Charlotte Thomas. Their son, Seth E., is the fourth Seth Thomas at the head of the business, which will have its centenary in 1913. It is now conducted by the grandsons and one great-grandson of the original Seth Thomas.
In 1884 the company built a watch factory, putting watches on the market in 1887. It now, in normal times, makes 450 watches and about 1000 clocks per day. This should reassure some of Mr. Thomas' friends who at the time he started to make 500 clocks in one lot, thought that would be the end of it and no more would ever be needed.
The company now employs about one thousand people, and the pro- duction consists of many kinds of clocks, ranging from the cheap nickel clocks, which retail at $1, running up through various grades of lever and mantel clocks, wall clocks and regulators, to large tower clocks, ranging from $600 to $6000 each. Seth Thomas clocks are found all over the world, although the export business has diminished because of the com- petition of Germans and Japanese. The production of the company is now about $1,250,000 per annum.
S92
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
M ICHAEL JOHN DEGNON, prominent contractor, was born in Geneva, Ohio, September 29, 1857. He was educated in public schools, and for two years in Baldwin University, Ohio.
He has been engaged in railroad contract work for thirty years, adding, during recent years, extensive operations in interborough and city improve- ment work in New York. In 1897 he built the East River caissons of the
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MICHAEL JOHN DEGNON
New Williamsburg Bridge, on the Brooklyn side; and he constructed the Subway from Forty-seventh Street to the Battery (except the section from Great Jones Street to Forty-first Street), the subway loop, connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges through Centre and Canal Streets; the Belmont Tunnel from Grand Cen- tral Depot to Long Island City; the McAdoo Tunnel from Twelfth Street to Thirty-third Street through Sixth Avenue ; Pennsylvania Railroad Terminal (Sunny- side) yards at Long Island City) ; and he is now (July, 1910) engaged in construct- ing the extension of the Hudson Terminal Tube from Twenty-third to Forty- second Street on Sixth Ave- nue : nine miles of aqueduct water tunnel at New Paltz, Ulster County, New York; and the Cape Cod Canal,
connecting Buzzard's Bay and Barnstable Bay. Massachusetts. Among his railroad contracts outside of New York were the Wabash Railroad, Gould System, terminals at Baltimore and the Baltimore City docks.
Mr. Degnon is a member of the Manhattan, Democratic and New York Athletic and other clubs. He married, first, in 1881, Mary Davis, who died in 1893; and second, in 1900, Gertrude Foxall. and has ten children.
893
JAMES THORNLEY ANYON
J AMES THORNLEY ANYON, dean of the profession of accountancy in the United States, was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, October 31, 1851. The family, originally French, is of the historic house of Anjou, which afterward became modified to Anyou and latterly to Anyon.
Mr. Anyon was educated at Bank Place College, Preston, and entered upon the study of accountancy, in which he became thoroughly proficient, and ultimately, a chartered accountant. It is from England that the idea of scientific accountancy found its way to the United States, the business in the mother country securing its professional standing by a charter granted by Queen Victoria; and it is interest- ing to note that Mr. Anyon was the first chartered accountant to come to this country for permanent prac- tice.
From May, 1881, to October, 1886, he was with the firm of Thomas Wade, Guthrie & Company, char- tered accountants of Man- chester, England, and since October, 1886, he has been with the firm of Barrow, Wade, Guthrie & Company, of New York, Chicago, London and San Francisco, one of the foremost firms in the profession, of which Mr. Anyon is now the JAMES THORNLEY ANYON senior member. The firm's New York office is at 25 Broad Street.
Besides being a chartered accountant he is also a certified public accountant under the laws of New York, and a member of the State Society of Certified Public Accountants. The American Association of Public Accountants was originated at a meeting called by him in October, 1886, and he suggested the name by which it has since been known.
894
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
A NDREW KINNAIRD TOD, who enjoys prominence as a chartered
accountant, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on November 8,
1871. He was educated at George Watson's College and Edinburgh Univer- sity. At the latter he attained athletic distinction, being on the 'Varsity crew for three consecutive years. After completing his university course, he entered the profession of accountancy, in which he has since continued.
Mr. Tod served in the Boer War, with the Scottish Imperial Yoemanry, seeing active service at the front for over a year. He then came to the United States to take up the practice of his profession here and is now a partner in the firm of Marwick, Mitchell & Company, chartered ac- countants, whose head office is at 79 Wall Street, New York, and district offices in Chicago, Min- neapolis, New Orleans and other cities in the United States, as well as in Mon- treal, Winnipeg, London and Glasgow. The firm's clients include many of the largest American, British and Colonial companies.
Mr. Tod is known as an accountant of the highest skill, who has been identi- fied with much important ANDREW KINNAIRD TOD work in recent years. He is a chartered accountant of Edinburgh, Scotland; member of the American Association of Public Accountants, a certified public accountant under a certificate granted by the University of Illinois, and member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario, Canada. Mr. Tod is a member of the Racquet and Tennis Club, St. Andrew's Society and British Schools and Universities Club in New York, and the Scottish Conservative Club of Edinburgh, Scotland.
ELIJAH WATT SELLS
895
E LIJAH WATT SELLS, born in Muscatine, Iowa, March 1, 1858, is of Dutch Colonial and Revolutionary descent, and son of Elijah and Isabel (Watt) Sells. His father, a prominent lumberman, was legis- lator and secretary of state in Iowa and third auditor of the Treasury in Lincoln's administration.
Mr. Sells was educated in Baker University, Baldwin, Kansas, from which he has an honorary M.A. degree. He began business as a railway ac- countant, filling important official positions and special accounting engagements.
In 1893, with Charles Waldo Haskins (now de- ceased) he organized the firm of Haskins & Sells, of which he is now the head, with Charles S. Ludlum, DeRoy S. Fero and Homer A. Dunn as partners. The firm carries on an interna- tional practice as certified public accountants, with offices in New York, Chi- cago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and London. They have filled important commissions for the Gov- ernment and various muni- cipalities, corporations and firms. Mr. Sells went to Manila for the United States Government to report on a system of accounting for the Philippine Islands, and his firm revised the accounting system of the United States.
ELIJAH WATT SELLS
Mr. Sells is a member and was president, 1906-1908, of the American Association of Public Accountants, and of many of the State societies, as well as many of the best clubs and societies in New York and elsewhere.
He married, at Dubuque, Iowa, April 24, 1884, Mabel E. Graves, and has two daughters.
896
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
SIMON H. BROWN
897
SIMON H. BROWN
S IMON H. BROWN, president of the American Tie and Timber Com- pany, is a native of South Carolina, born at Blackville, in that State, April 24, 1878, the son of Michael and Jennie (Klein) Brown. On his mother's side Mr. Brown is a descendant of an old South Carolina family, descended from Charles Kline, who came to this country in 1749. His father, Michael Brown, was for many years a prominent railroad builder of South Carolina.
Simon H. Brown was educated in McCabe's University, at Petersburg, Virginia, and after completing the courses there, he went for a commercial education to Eastman College, at Poughkeepsie, New York, in preparation for his business career.
At the age of seventeen Mr. Brown secured appointment as private sec- retary and telegraph operator to the general manager of the Carolina Mid- land Railroad Company, which was afterward merged in the Southern Rail- way Company, its line now forming a part of the main line of the Southern Railway System, now being operated between New York and Florida. After a little more than a year in that position he organized the Southern Telephone and Telegraph Company, which built and operated exchanges and toll lines, and inaugurated a system of telephone service in Barnwell and Bamberg Counties, in South Carolina. This system was in active and successful oper- ation for several years before the Bell Telephone Company entered that field. Mr. Brown also became vice president of the Southern Round Bale Cotton Company, one of the first of the organizations formed to establish cylindrical cotton compresses in the South, which established a successful business in that section.
The greater part of the business life of Mr. Brown has been devoted to the timber industry in the South, and especially to the production of railroad cross ties, in which he has been for years one of the leaders. He is now president of the American Tie and Timber Company, which is the owner of large tracts of timbered land in the forest regions of the South, and which is one of the largest producers of railroad cross ties of this country, and is constantly executing large contracts for supplying ties for the leading rail- way systems of the South and other sections, the business having assumed national scope, and Mr. Brown having his office in New York City at II Broadway.
Mr. Brown gives to the business the benefit of long experience, has a wide acquaintance with the timber resources of the country and has so organ- ized the business of his company as to place it upon a basis of the highest efficiency, and enable it most readily to respond to the demands of trade which has steadily increased each year from its organization. Mr. Brown married, March II, 1908, Ida J. Kohn.
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898
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
FRANCIS H. KIMBALL
899
FRANCIS H. KIMBALL
F RANCIS H. KIMBALL is one of the most successful exponents of Gothic architecture in this country whose work throughout the United States, and more particularly in New York City, has placed him at the head of his profession.
Mr. Kimball was born at Kennebunk, Maine, September 23, 1845, and received his education in the public schools of his native town. When four- teen years of age he entered the employ of a relative, who was a builder, and his first valuable experience in plain drawing was received while making the simple designs for such buildings as his employer erected. Five years later Mr. Kimball entered the office of Louis P. Rogers in Boston, who later formed a partership with Gridley J. F. Bryant, and after eighteen months of service with this firm he was sent to Hartford, to prepare the working drawings for the Charter Oak Life Insurance Company's building, and during the ensuing two years also prepared plans for a business block for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company.
Mr. Kimball was then employed upon the competition design for the capi- tal of Connecticut, and was later engaged as supervising architect of Trinity College. To familiarize himself with the work Mr. Kimball spent a year in London, and it was during this period that he perfected his knowledge under the tutorage of William Burges, the London architect, who was a master of the French Gothic.
Upon locating in New York City Mr. Kimball's initial work was in con- nection with Thomas Wisedell, since deceased, in the remodeling of the old Madison Square Theatre. The interior produced was one of the most artistic of that period. The Casino, one of the most notable pieces of Moorish archi- tecture in this country, was the work of this firm and the success in this line, led Mr. Kimball to make a prominent specialty of theatrical architecture, the Garrick and Fifth Avenue Theatres being among his most notable creations in that line.
While remodeling the Fifth Avenue Theatre Mr. Kimball encountered an obstacle that led him to adopt a method which has revolutionized foundation construction. It was the application of the caisson system. Up to that period primitive methods were used in building foundations and these were totally inadequate in the work Mr. Kimball was doing. After some thought he de- cided to try a system of cylinders filled with masonry. It was a very slow method, the cylinders being sunk by hand, but the value and practicability of the method was established and it was not long before Mr. Kimball's innova- tion was adopted by every leading engineer in the country and the transition of the cylinders to the pneumatic caisson quickly followed, the first practical test being in the foundation of the Manhattan Life Building, of which Kim- ball & Thompson were the architects.
900
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
Mr. Kimball's versatility is shown by the scope and character of his work. He has planned many beautiful churches for as many different denom- inations in various parts of the country, and has been equally active in design- ing suburban homes, town residences and business warehouses. Probably the greatest of his works, at least those which will last the longest and serve as monuments to his ability, are many sky-scrapers in the city. His first work along this line was the Manhattan Life Building, the pioneer in steel con- struction here. Mr. Kimball had no precedents to govern him in this build- ing and he may be aptly termed the originator of that character of work in the East.
Other notable specimens of Mr. Kimball's achievement in commercial architecture are the Standard Oil, Seligman, Brunswick, Trust Company of America, City Investing, Empire, Trinity, and United States Realty Buildings.
In these days of high realty values it falls to the lot of few architects to have nearly a block of vacant land between two of his creations, and thus give him the opportunity to design two ornate structures that attract every visitor to New York. This chance came to Mr. Kimball when he was selected to pre- pare the drawings for the Empire and Trinity Buildings. Old Trinity churchyard stands between the two and the beautiful exterior of the towering buildings will probably remain unobscured for a century to come.
Possibly one of the best of Mr. Kimball's creations is the City Investing Building. While the frontage on Broadway is small, one is impressed upon entering its doors with the magnitude and beauty of its interior. A rotunda with an unusually high ceiling extends the entire length of the building, and the impression prevails that you are in one of the biggest of New York's many mammoth structures.
The entire building throughout shows character and the decorations are most pleasing. There is probably no other building in the country where mas- siveness, dignity and beauty are more artistically blended.
Mr. Kimball is of English ancestry and the American branch was founded in New England about 1660 .. His father was Samuel Kimball, who married Hannah H. Tasker, also descended from an old Maine family.
During the Civil War Mr. Kimball, at the age of seventeen, enlisted in the United States Navy, and after a short service, resumed his interrupted career. Mr. Kimball married Miss Jennie G. Wetherell, in Haverhill. His residence is at 250 West Eighty-eighth Street, and he has a handsome studio in the Empire Building, 71 Broadway.
He is a Republican in politics but has never been active and has never sought public office. He is a member of the Players', City Lunch and Law- yers' Clubs, and also of the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
901
HENRY PRENTISS
H ENRY PRENTISS, president and treasurer of the Prentiss Tool and Supply Company, was born in Hubbardston, Mass., Septem- ber 25, 1848, the son of Henry and Adaline (Wright) Prentiss and a direct descendant of Valentine Prentiss, who came to America with John Elliott, the apostle, who settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1631.
Mr. Prentiss was educated in public and high schools of Hubbardston and Worcester and began business life with William Dwight, Boston. He re- moved to Cincinnati in 1861, and became secretary and treasurer of the White Water Railroad, now part of the "Big Four" system.
In 1875 he removed to this city and started the manufacture of taps, dies and machinists' small tools, and ten years later the Pren- tiss Tool and Supply Com- pany was incorporated.
From this beginning, the company, under the per- sonal guidance of Mr. Pren- tiss, has developed a busi- ness in the sale of metal- working machinery which is one of the largest in the United States, the annual sales running into millions of dollars, necessitating branches in Boston, Mass .; Buffalo and Syracuse, N. Y .; and Scranton, Pa.
HENRY PRENTISS
He is a member of the Executive Committee of the National Supply and Machinery Dealers' Asso- ciation. He belongs to several clubs in New York and elsewhere.
He married, June 9, 1870, Anna E., daughter of Rev. Reuben Jeffery, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and has four children living: Julia H., Ella J., Valerie and Marshall Prentiss. He resides at Rutherford, N. J., and his business address is 115 Liberty Street.
902
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
GEORGE CARSON SMITH
903
GEORGE CARSON SMITH
G EORGE CARSON SMITH, now vice president of Westinghouse corporations, and largely identified with the transportation interests of the country, is a native of Granville, N. Y., where he was born March 4, 1855, son of Harvey J. Smith, a merchant, and Oliva Cordelia (White) Smith. He is of English ancestry, descendant from Isaac Smith, who came to New England between 1750 and 1760; and is grandson of Rev. George Smith, a prominent clergyman of New York, whose uncle, Judge Hollister Smith, was a distinguished jurist of Connecticut.
Mr. Smith attended North Hebron Institute in Washington County, New York, until 1872; then was at Castleton Seminary in Vermont for two years, and after that in Adrian College, Michigan, from which he was graduated A. B., 1877. Following his graduation he was appointed private secretary to the governor of Michigan, and after four years' service in that capacity he entered railroad service, in 1881, as secretary to the general manager of the Texas and Pacific and International and Great Northern Railways. In 1887 he was appointed assistant to the vice president of the Missouri-Pacific System, and from 1890 to 1894 he was assistant general manager of the Missouri-Pacific System, and general manager of the Kansas City, Wyandotte and Northwestern Railroad. From 1894 to 1900 he was president and general manager of the Atlanta and West Point Railroad and of The Western Railway of Alabama, then general manager of the St. Louis-Louisville Lines of the Southern Railway until 1901, when he became actively identified with the Westinghouse interests.
Mr. Smith is now president of The Lackawanna and Wyoming Valley Rapid Transit Company, the Grand Rapids, Grand Haven and Muskegon Railway Company, and the Westinghouse Inter-Works Railway Company; is vice president of the Manila Electric Railroad and Lighting Corporation, Electric Power Securities Company of Niagara Falls, Niagara, Lockport & . Ontario Power Company and The East Pittsburgh Improvement Com- pany ; and a director in The Westinghouse Air Brake Company, Westing- house, Church, Kerr & Company, Union Switch and Signal Company, Electric Properties Company, Atlanta Water and Electric Power Com- pany, Westinghouse Lamp Company, and other Westinghouse companies.
In politics Mr. Smith is a Republican, but his career has not been active along political lines. He is a member of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburgh, and of the Engineers' and Railroad Clubs of New York.
He married, in Pittsburgh, Pa., May 15, 1878, Jennie Prosser, and they have four children. The eldest, a daughter, Olivia, was married in 1901 to Harry Allen Cornelius, of Pittsburgh. The others are sons, including Somers H., born September 1, 1884, now practising law in Seattle, Wash .; George C., Jr., born September 10, 1888, undergraduate at Cornell University, and Charles Warren, born August 16, 1890, undergraduate at Dartmouth College.
904
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
EDWARD R. STETTINIUS
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905
EDWARD R. STETTINIUS
E DWARD R. STETTINIUS, now president and treasurer of the Diamond Match Company, was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, Feb- ruary 15, 1865, the son of Joseph Stettinius, who settled in Saint Louis, Mis- souri, about 1830, and was identified until his death, in 1868, with the whole- sale grocery trade and the shipping and insurance interests of Saint Louis.
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