USA > New York > Monroe County > Landmarks of Monroe County, New York : containing followed by brief historical sketches of the towns of the county with biography and family history > Part 59
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While sheriff of Monroe county, Mr. Sibley was approached by Judge Henry R. Sel- den with the proposition to organize a telegraph company under the House patents. The plan seemed feasible. Mr. Sibley bought the patents, and with other Rochester capitalists organized the New York & Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company on April 1, 1851. The first 100 miles of line were finished that year. Three years later, the company leased the lines of the Lake Erie Telegraph Company. At this time, Ezra Cornell was in possession of valuable grants under the Morse patent and controlled the Erie & Michigan Telegraph Company. Mr. Sibley then opened negotiations with Mr. Cornell and in 1856 the companies controlled by them were united by acts of the Wis- consin and New York Legislatures, under the name of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Of the new corporations Mr. Sibley was a leading member of the Board of Directors for sixteen years, and President of the Western Union Telegraph Company for ten years. It was he who laid before the board the proposition to construct a line to the Pacific Ocean. His associates were unwilling to undertake the enterprise as a company. Cyrus W. Field, Wilson G. Hunt, Peter Cooper and others, engaged in large undertakings at the time, whom he strove to interest in the matter, also deemed the project premature. In August, 1857, Mr. Sibley laid his plans before the North American Telegraph Association with practically no result, With a persistence and confidence in the soundness of his judgment, which were characteristic of him, he then presented his project to Congress and was heartily supported by Howell Cobb, secretary of the treasury. June 16, 1860, an act was passed encouraging the project and granting an annual subsidy of $40,000 for ten years. Mr. Sibley's offer to con- struct the lines was officially accepted on September 22. A year later a contract was executed with Mr. Sibley by Salmon P. Chase, who had succeeded Mr. Cobb in the Treasury. The Overland Telegraph Company was organized in San Francisco about the same time, and the two companies uniting their interests, the Pacific Telegraph Company came into existence in consequence. About five months later it was an- nounced that the line was open from ocean to ocean, and ten years in advance of the railroad. A profitable investment from the start, this line was on March 17, 1864, merged into the Western Union Telegraph system.
Mr. Sibley next took up the project, conceived by P. McD. Collins, of uniting Amer- ica with Russia by a telegraph line through Alaska, and he actually built a line as far as Skeena River in that Territory, Meanwhile, the Atlantic cable was being laid,
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and there was a race between the two companies to establish communications with Europe first. Mr. Sibley was greatly retarded in his labors by the opposition of the Russian-American Fur Company, to which great privileges had been granted by the Czar, and which demanded $750,000 for the privilege of allowing the company to build the line through Alaska. Mr. Sibley was obliged to visit Russia in person, to arrange matters, and was honored in a manner only accorded to those who enjoyed the special favor of royalty. He was recorded in the official blue book of the State Department of St. Petersburg as "the distinguished American," by which title he was generally known. Of this book he had a copy as a souvenir of his Russian ex- perience. His intercourse with the Russian authorities was also facilitated by a very complimentary letter from Secretary Seward to Prince Gortschakoff. While there, the government of Russia offered to sell the fee simple of Alaska to Mr. Sibley and his colleagues for a sum equal to that demanded by the Fur Company. Mr. Sibley hurried back to America to secure a law from Congress protecting him in his rights. The whole proceeding was brought.to an end, however, by the completion of the At- lantic cable. A few years later the United States paid $7,200,000 for the territory, which could have been bought at first for one-tenth of that sum.
In 1868 Mr. Sibley retired from telegraph enterprises, and devoted his attention largely to railroad and land investments. After the war, prompted more by the desire of restoring amicable relations than by the prospect of gain, he made large and varied investments in railroads in the South, and did much to promote renewed business activity. At Saginaw, Mich., he became a large lumber and salt manufac- turer. He became the owner of nearly three hundred and fifty farms in Ford and Livingston counties, Ill., including one of 40,000 acres in Ford county. He pur- chased the Howland Island farm in New York State and possessed much other prop- erty of this description. He also established a large seed raising business in this city, with warehouses in Rochester and Chicago, and undertook to supply seeds of his own importation and raising and others' growth, under a personal knowledge of their vitality and comparative value. He instituted many experiments for the im- provement of plants, with reference to their seed-bearing qualities, and built up a business as unique in its character as it was unprecedented in amount. He was president of the Bank of Monroe and connected with many other Rochester institu- tions. To Cornell University he gave the Sibley College of Mechanic Arts, and to Rochester University the Sibley Hall for Library purposes. A man of the highest character and exceptional abilities, he was one of the most highly respected citizens of Rochester. He was survived by his son Hiram Watson Sibley, now president of the Bank of Monroe and by his daughter Emily, wife of James S. Watson.
A quotation from Mr. Sibley's address to the students of Sibley College, during a visit to Ithaca, was illustrative of his practical thought and expression, and a fitting close to this brief sketch of his practical life: " There are two most valuable possess- ions, which no search warrant can get at, which no execution can take away, and which no reverse of fortune can destroy; they are what a man puts into his head -- knowledge; and into his hands-skill."
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WILLIAM S. KIMBALL.
WILLIAM S. KIMBALL, for many years one of the leading business men of Rochester was born in Boscawen, N. H., where he passed his early life, and where he enjoyed such educational opportunities as the district schools of the time afforded. When fifteen years old he became an apprentice in the Lawrence locomotive works and thoroughly mastered the trade of machinist. He then attended school at Derry, N. H., and Andover, Mass., and finished at the Troy Polytechnic Institute, where he studied mechanical drawing and engineering. Afterward he accepted a position in the railroad repair shops in Concord, N. H., where, in rebuilding locomotives, he acquired a thorough and practical knowledge of locomotive engineering and com- pleted his mechanical training. Soon afterward he resigned and moved to Rochester, and upon the breaking out of the Rebellion was appointed master mechanic in the navy, being attached to the South Atlantic squadron under Admiral Dupont at Port Royal, S. C., where he was detailed to repair the machinery of transports and gun- boats. He had charge of two old Nantucket whalers, the India and the Edward, which were fitted up by a force of 100 mechanics.
Resigning his naval appointment in 1863 Mr. Kimball returned to Rochester and engaged in the manufacture of tobacco, in which he was ever afterward interested. He founded the Kimball Tobacco Works, one of the largest concerns of the kind in this country, and established not only a national but a world-wide reputation. He became vice-president of the American Tobacco Company, and enjoyed the distinc- tion of being foremost among the great leaders of the business in the United States. Outside of these interests he acquired an almost equal renown in bringing together a large and valuable collection of orchids, which has long been recognized as one of the choicest floral aggregations in the country. He also collected an extensive library and a distinctively fine art gallery, embracing numerous works from the most famous artists of the world.
Mr. Kimball was for many years actively connected with various business and charitable institutions of the city, to all of which he brought large experience, ability, and talent. He was president of the Union Bank, the City Hospital, and the State Industrial School, vice-president of the Security Trust Company, a director in the Rochester Railway and Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo Railroad Companies, a trustee of the Rochester Savings Bank, and president of the Post-Express Printing Com- pany, holding all these positions at the time of his death, which occurred suddenly at Virginia Beach, Va., March 26, 1895. On that day the Post-Express, in summing up his life, said editorially :
" The death of William S. Kimball must be regarded not simply as a private loss, but as a public calamity. Probably no other man was ever so closely identified with the various social, business, charitable, and educational interests of a community as Mr. Kimball has been identified with those of Rochester. He was a man of great wealth, but, what was much rarer, a man who believed in putting his wealth into . full activity and throwing his personal energy into every movement for the public good. He was the first to be asked where a contribution was needed, where help in the shape of an investment was sought, where individual prestige was required. He was in the full vigor of manly strength, in the full flush of rational enjoyment of life -eager as a boy in the pursuit of new interests, and satisfied as a boy in the practice
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of old pastimes. His alertness and gayety were unfailing; and his frankness, cour- tesy, and good nature were such that his mere presence was enough to win popu- larity. As a business man he was fertile in resource and untiring in effort; but not less characteristic was his enthusiasm in the matter of recreation. He made the wisest choice in his methods of relaxation. He loved the sea and spent much of his spare time beside it; he loved the woods and was an indefatigable sportsman As a natural consequence he loved nature and was deeply learned in much of the lore of forest and stream. Even when most earnestly at work in the establishment of his great manufacturing business he devoted himself to the culture of orchids, and be- came an authority on them as well as on other flowers. In the season of greater leisure he had gathered a magnificent gallery of choice paintings. It is sad to think of a man with so many capacities for what is fair in the world, so many opportuni- ties to be useful, so prompt a disposition to active effort for what is good, cut off, so suddenly, from light and life and the affection of friends and family."
FREDERICK COOK.
HON. FREDERICK COOK, ex-secretary of state of New York and one of the most prominent citizens of Rochester, was born at Wildbad, a noted watering place in the famous Black Forest district, Germany, December 2, 1833. His father, a contractor, and a man of rare personal characteristics, placed him in one of the best schools in the neighborhood with the view of giving him a thorough collegiate course. While there, in 1846, with the brightest prospects before him, his worthy parent died, leav- ing a family of eight children, whose home in consequence was broken up and them- selves scattered abroad. Thus at the tender age of twelve the lad was thrown almost entirely upon his own resources, but with a brave heart and an indomitable will he promptly faced the storm of life and soon turned towards America as the future field for his activity and work. Bidding adieu to Fatherland in the year 1848 he sailed for the United States and for a short time resided with a married sister in Buffalo. Inheriting the industrious qualities of the German people he resolved upon learning a trade, and first tried shoemaking, but soon entered the employ of a butcher in Ba- tavia, N. Y., where he won friends and reputation by faithfully performing every duty assigned him to the best of his ability. His traits of character were at this period carefully noticed by D. W. Tomlinson, president of the Bank of Batavia, and also heavily interested in railroads, who, because of Mr. Cook's knowledge of the German language, procured for him a position on the Buffalo and Rochester rail- road, whence he was soon promoted conductor of an emigrant train on the Niagara Falls division of the Central-Hudson route. In this capacity he aided many an im- migrant from Germany in locating a new home, and the company, appreciating his services, soon made him a passenger conductor, a position he held until January 1, 1872. When tendering his resignation, December 15, 1871, after a railroad service covering nearly twenty years, he was presented by his fellow employees and patrons of the road with an elaborate set of solid silver plate. He had made the intimate acquaintance of George M. Pullman, and when the latter organized the Pullman
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Palace Car Company Mr. Cook invested the most of his accumulated earnings in that enterprise, a step which resulted in the foundation of his great wealth.
The struggles of his early life were signally crowned with success in the land of his adoption, and in its political interests he was shortly called to take a prominent part. On April 20, 1870, he was appointed by Mayor John Lutes an excise commis- sioner of Rochester, but resigned in 1872, on account of ill health, and sailed for Eu- rope, where he made with his family an extended tour of the continent, Returning to Rochester in the autumn of 1873 he entered actively into politics and upon a career of conspicuous attainments. He had espoused the Democratic principles of the Jef- fersonian school, and being nominated for mayor in a stronghold of Republicanism came within a few hundred votes of an election. On April 19, 1872, Governor Hoff- man appointed him judge advocate with the rank of colonel of the 7th division N. G. S. N. Y., and on July 29, 1875, Governor Tilden made him assistant adjutant-general and chief of staff of the same division, which he resigned November 24, 1877, on account of business. He also interested himself in various manufacturing and finan- cial concerns in Rochester, among them being the Bartholomay Brewing Company, which was organized in 1874 with a capital of $250,000. Mr. Cook was chosen vice- president and served in that capacity until 1889, when he was elected president. January 12, 1876, he was elected president of the Rochester German Insurance Com- pany to succeed the late Col. Louis Ernst, and still holds that position. The same year he went as a delegate to the Democratic National convention at St. Louis which nominated Samuel J. Tilden for president, and in 1880 he officiated in a similar capacity at Cincinnati, Ohio, where he served as vice-president, representing the State of New York. January 13, 1877, he was elected president of the Rochester Driving Park Association, whose financial interests he advanced from the lowest to the highest degree. On May 16. 1878, he was appointed one of the commissioners of Mt. Hope Cemetery and has continuously served in that office to the present time, being chairman of the board for twelve years.
In the spring of 1880 Mr. Cook was one of fourteen citizens appointed as a commis- sion on behalf of the city to guard the public interests during the work of elevating the New York Central railroad tracks inside the corporate limits, and in the fall of the same year he became a trustee of the Rochester Savings Bank, which position he still holds. In February, 1882, he was appointed by Gov. Alonzo B. Cornell a mana- ger of the Western House of Refuge, to which position Governor Cleveland reap- pointed him in 1883. On September 29, 1885, he was elected secretary and treasurer of that institution. March 25, 1882, he was elected president of the Bank of Roches- ter, the predecessor of the German American Bank, which office he has ever since held. During all this time as well as afterward politics engrossed a large share of his attention. He was regarded by his party as one of its best and strongest represen- tatives, and frequently called to take a leading part in directing public affairs. In 1885 he was nominated by the Democrats for secretary of state, and after a stirring campaign was elected by a majority of 14,608 over Col. Anson S. Wood. So accept- ably were his services during his first term that he was unanimously renominated at Saratoga in 1887 and elected over Col. Frederick Grant by 17,677 plurality, the high- est given to any candidate on the Democratic ticket. In February, 1887, he was elected president of the Rochester Title Insurance Company, a position he still holds. in the same year he was chosen a life member of the New State Agricultural Society
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and on December 19 a corresponding member of the Oneida County Historical Society. In the spring of 1889 Mr. Cook suffered a severe attack of pneumonia con- tracted while attending the centennial celebration of the first president of the United States in New York city. He recovered, however, and spent some months at his old home, Wildbad, and also at Marienbad, returning to America in September.
On January 1, 1890, after declining a renomination as secretary of state, Mr. Cook retired permanently to private life, and has since devoted his attention wholly to the care of his large and varied business interests. December 31, 1889, just before re- tiring, Governor Hill, on behalf of himself and his official associates, presented him with a costly watch with chime attachments, while the clerical force of the office gave him a much-prized collection of photographs representing the employees during his two terms, or four years, of service. But the crowning mark of universal esteem and popularity in Mr. Cook's brilliant political career was manifest at the Democratic State convention in 1894, when he was urgently solicited by a large majority of the party leaders to accept the nomination for governor of New York. With an untar- nished record of public service, and enjoying the full confidence not only of members of his own party, but of many influential Republicans as well, thoroughout the State, the probability of his election was exceptionally favorable, but to the regret of his numerous friends he steadfastly declined that exalted honor.
It is impracticable to enumerate all the positions that Mr. Cook has filled. His has been a very active life, one of unceasing responsibility, and the sterling attributes with which he is liberally endowed make his name a power in business, political, charitable, and social circles. He has served as president of the Genesee Falls Rail- way Company and is extensively interested in numerous enterprises besides those already mentioned. On June 1, 1891, he was appointed by Governor Hill as one of the managers of the Rochester State Hospital for a term of nine years, and upon the organization of the board was elected president and re-elected every year since. He has been a Mason since February 17, 1862, when he became a member of Valley Lodge, No. 109, F. & A. M. He was a charter member of Ionic Chapter, No. 201, and on June 11, 1867, joined Cyrene Commandery K. T. February 12, 1878, he was made a charter member and installed the first T.P.G.M. of Germania Lodge of Per- fection. He is also a member of Rochester Council Princes of Jerusalem, and was created sublime prince of the Royal Secret 32d degree in Rochester Sovereign Con- sistory, A.A S.R. He is a member of the Rochester Mannerchor, which was organ- ized in 1854, and served as its president in 1874 and 1875; became a member of the Liederkranz on February 24, 1882; and was made an honorary member of Selye Citizens Corps 8th Separate Company N. G. S. N. Y. on January 8, 1887, and of the Albany Excelsior Corps on January 26, 1888. He is also a member of the Rochester Historical Society, and in February, 1893, he presented Peissner Post, No. 106, G. A. R., with a handsomely bound " Memorial Record Book," one of the finest works of the kind in existence.
In 1853 Mr. Cook was married to Miss Catherine Yaky, of Rome, N. Y., who died in 1864. In 1865 he married Miss Barbara Agne, his present wife, by whom he has one daughter.
Mr. Cook's career, as distinguished as it has been successful, affords an illustration how, under our form of government, even the humblest citizen may attain the highest
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positions of honor and trust. His life is an example of a self-made man, his work the result of his individual efforts, and his achievements the crowning glory of youth- ful struggles.
DON ALONZO WATSON.
DON ALONZO WATSON was born in Palmer, Mass., June 17, 1807, and died suddenly at his home in Rochester, N. Y., January 1, 1892. Within that period of less than eighty-five years was compassed a life of unostentatious success, a career of quiet but marked usefulness, and a full measure of rare business achievements. As a boy Mr. Watson received the educational advantages that his town and time afforded, and supplemented them with practical experience and application. While yet a youth he went to Boston and mastered the machinist's trade, which he followed for a time in Skaneateles and Newark, N.Y. In 1832 he came to Monroe county, stop- ping first in Rochester, but going soon afterward to Honeoye Falls, where he met the Hon. Hiram Sibley, whose warm friendship he retained until the latter's death. The two formed a partnership and purchased the Tinker manchine shop there, the village at that time being known as Sibleyville. They continued a large and suc- cessful business for eight years, or until Mr. Sibley's election as county sheriff in 1840, when the firm was dissolved and the shop sold. Mr. Watson very soon fol- lowed Mr. Sibley to Rochester and engaged in discounting commercial paper for several years, in which he became more extensively interested than all the local banks combined.
Immediately after his marriage in 1855 to Miss Caroline M. Manning, of Gilberts- ville, N. Y., he went to Europe, and during his absence Mr. Sibley inaugurated the movement which led to the formation of the Western Union Telegraph Company. Upon his return Mr. Watson was induced by his life-long friend to become a heavy stockholder in that great corporation. At the same time he invested large sums in railroad stock of the Vanderbilt system, and probably became the heaviest holder of. Central-Hudson securities outside of New York city. He was a firm believer in the future of the country, and although it was then (1857) in the throes of a disastrous panic, he bought thousands of railroad shares at a small figure. His motto was to buy with good judgment, and never sell, and these investments were the foundation of his great wealth. A man of quick perception he made few if any business errors; he was a personal friend of Commodore Vanderbilt and co-operated with the latter's sons and grandsons. He was a trustee of the Reynolds Library, but excepting this never held office, invariably refusing positions of trust, although frequently urged to accept them. In religion he was an Episcopalian.
He was a man of retiring disposition, and always shrank from public life, yet he manifested a keen interest in the city's prosperity and general welfare. Charitable, benevolent, and unostentatious, he liberally supported all worthy objects and regu- larly contributed to the maintenance of various local institutions; his endowment of the Chair of Political Economy in the University of Rochester is but a single in- stance of this. He bore the confidence and esteem of all who knew him. His widow and three children - James S. Watson, Mrs. G. A. Hollister, and Miss Elizabeth C. Watson, all of Rochester-survive him.
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SIMON L. BREWSTER.
SIMON L. BREWSTER, son of Elisha Belcher and Eunice (Hull) Brewster, was born in Griswold, Conn., July 27, 1811, and is a descendant of Elder William Brewster, who came over with the Pilgrim Fathers in the Mayflower in 1620. He received his education in the common schools of his native county. At the age of twenty-one he engaged in manufacturing in Jewett City, Conn., and continued about ten years, when he moved to Rochester. He was engaged in merchandising until 1859, when he retired from business. For a number of years he had been connected with what is now the Traders National Bank as its vice-president and a member of its board of directors. In 1863 he was elected its president and took charge of the bank, in which he has ever since continued. Under his able administration the business of the bank has grown from a discount line of less than $300,000 to $3,000,000; the surplus fund from a few thousand to over $700,000; and the bank has become the leading fiduciary institution in the city. During the past twenty-five years his son, Henry C. Brewster, now representative in Congress from this district, has been associated with him in the management of the bank as its cashier and later as vice-president. Besides this son he has one daughter, who is unmarried.
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