USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 18
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for twelve years, he was Vice-President and traveling Secretary of the American and Foreign Bible Society, and visited nearly every State of the Union, as well as Europe. In 1850 he became one of the founders of the American Bible Union, was its first Vice-President, and later became its President. A collateral line from the same com- mon stem, the Maclay family of Pennsylvania has furnished two United States Senators and other representatives scarcely less promi- nent. Robert Maclay married, May 18, 1865, Georgiana, daughter of Alfred Barmore. She survives him, with their two sons --- Alfred Barmore Maclay and Robert Maclay, Jr.
MCMAHON, JAMES, President of the Emigrant Industrial Say- ings Bank, of New York, has been connected with that institution for about twenty years as Trustee. member of its Finance Committee. Chairman of the same, and President of the bank. He is Vice-Presi- dent of the Savings Banks' Association of the State of New York, Vice-President and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Irish Emigrant Society, and Vice-President and Trustee of the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He is a trustee of the London and Lancashire Fire Insurance Company, a trustee of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and a director of the People's Trust Company, of Brooklyn. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Catholic and Hardware clubs of New York, and the Columbian Club of Brooklyn. He was born in Franklin County, New York, October 15, 1831, and was educated in the public schools of Rochester, N. Y. At twenty-one years of age he was elected a member of the Board of Education of Rochester, but resigned to go to California. He has also served on the Board of Education of Brooklyn, where he has long been a resident. He was for many years engaged in the book trade. Subsequently, for twenty-five years, he was engaged in the transportation business, under the firm style of Easton & McMahon, which was superseded by the Easton & McMahon Transportation Company. Mr. McMahon retired from the presidency of this corporation about ten years ago.
FAIRCHILD, CHARLES STEBBINS, has been eminent alike in the financial history of the city, in the public life of the city and the nation, and as a leader of the independent and reform element in the Democratic party. Since 1889 he has been President of the New York Security and Trust Company, while he is also President of the Atlanta and Charlotte Air Line Company, is President of the Birkbeck Invest- ment Savings and Loan Company, a member of the Advisory Commit- tee of the Andit Company, Treasurer of the Manhattan East Side Mis- sion, manager of the State Charities Aid Association, a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company, and a director of the Lawyers' Mortgage Insurance Company, the Erie and Pittsburg Railroad Com-
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pany, and the Louisville, Evansville and St. Louis Consolidated Rail- road Company. Born in Cazenovia, N. Y., April 30, 1842, he was gradu- ated from Harvard in 1863 and from Harvard Law School in 1865. He continned his law studies at Albany, was admitted to the bar in 1866, and eventually became a member of the law firm of Hand, Hall & Swartz, of Albany. He was appointed Deputy Attorney-General of the State by Attorney-General Daniel Pratt in 1874, and the next year was the successful Democratic candidato to succeed Mr. Pratt, hold- ing the office two years. He traveled in Europe in 1878 and 1879, and upon his return resumed the practice of law in New York City. In 1885 President Cleveland appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Treasury. Upon the failure of the health of Daniel Manning he be- came Acting Secretary, and in 1SS7 succeeded Manning as Secretary of the Treasury in Cleve- land's Cabinet. He was one of the most prominent leaders in the so-called "anti-snap " movement in this State, which secured the nomination of Grover Cleveland for the Presi- dency in 1892. He was prominent in the munic- ipal reform movement in 1894 which brought about the overthrow of Tam- many Hall and the elec- tion of Mayor Strong. He was again active in con- nection with the Citizens' T'nion which nominated - 44 .. CHABLES S. FAIRCHILD. Seth Low for Mayor in 1897, and subsequently permitted his own nomination as Comptroller of the city to strengthen the ticket. He is a member of the City Bar Association, and the Metropolitan, University. Century, Reform, Law- vers, Manhattan, Democratic, Harvard, and other clubs. He married in 1871 Helen, daughter of Ledyard Lineklean and Helen Clarissa Seymour, of Cazenovia. He is himself the son of the late Sidney T. Fairchild and Helen, daughter of Perry G. Childs, of Cazenovia. His father was graduated from Union College in 1829, and was one of the eminent lawyers and Democratic leaders of his section of the State. He was attorney of the Syracuse and Utica Railroad from 1858 until his death in 1889; general attorney of the New York Central, aud was President of the Cazenovia and Canastota Railroad, Secretary and
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Treasurer of the Great Western Turnpike Railroad Company, a di- rector of the Madison County Bank, and a trustee of the Union Trust Company of New York City.
MORRISON, DAVID MITCHELL, who has been President of the Washington Trust Company of New York City since its organiza- tion in June, 1889, is also a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank and a director of the North River Fire Insurance Company and the Preferred Accident Insurance Company. He was born in New York City in 1841, attended private schools, and was graduated from Gram- mar School and the College of the City of New York, and after one vear as Clerk with the New York banking house of Drexel, Winthrop & Company, in 1864 established the Wall Street banking firm of Mor- rison & Pntnam, associating with him his brother-in-law, A. E. Put- nam. This firm continued its successful course until 1884, when Mr. Morrison retired from active business. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the New York Stock Exchange, the Union League, Merchants', and Chi Psi clubs of New York, the Hamilton and Riding and Driving clubs of Brooklyn, the Dyker Meadow Golf Club, and the St. Andrew's Society. He is a life member of the New York Historical Society, with which his father, the late James M. Morrison, was so prominently identified. He married, in 1877, Abbie, daughter of the late Captain Nathaniel Put- nam, of Brooklyn, and has four children. Mr. Morrison's grandfather, born in Scotland, in 1790 came to America and became an extensive planter in Louisiana and a well-known author. His wife was the granddaughter of a magistrate of Aberdeen, Scotland, and great granddaughter of the Lord Provost of Aberdeen. Mr. Morrison's father was born in New Orleans, at No. S Bourbon Street, his father's town house. His father dying when he was five years of age, he was taken to Aberdeen by his mother, and there educated. When twenty- four years of age he came to New York City and became prominent as a banker. He was for many years President of the famous Man- hattan Company's Bank, the second oldest bank in New York City, and was holding that position at the time of his death in December, 1880.
ROGERS, THEODORE, President of the Bank of the Metropolis, New York City, since 1894, when he succeeded Robert Schell, had been its cashier from the organization of the institution in 1871 until 1894. He was born in Jamaica, L. I., where he still resides, in October, 1831, the son of Alexander Rogers and Elizabeth Platt. His mother died when he was five years of age, and his father a year later, so that at an early age he was thrown upon his own resources, and became a Clerk in the New York silk and straw goods house of Fisher, Blashfield & Company. In 1849 he entered the employ of the Ameri-
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can Exchange Bank. Four years later he became connected with the old Union Bank of New York, with which he remained as Clerk and Assistant Teller for nine years. Subsequently, for a few years, he served the Shoe and Leather Bank as Receiving Teller and Paying Teller, and later filled the position of Manager of the branch institu- tion which the Shoe and Leather Bank established on Wall Street. When this branch was amalgamated with the Tenth National Bank he became Certifying Teller in the latter; but when it passed into the control of the Jay Gould interests, he resumed as Paying Teller with the Shoe and Leather Bank. From this position he was called to the Cashiership of the Bank of the Metropolis.
BORNE, JOHN EMIL, President of the Colonial Trust Company, is one of the prominent figures in the oil business in this country, in which he has been engaged since 1873. Long the head of the firm of Borne, Sermyser & Company, he has been its president since it was incorporated as the Borne, Serymser Company. He is also a director of the Mercantile National Bank and the Home Life Insurance Com- pany, and is a member of the Union and. Metropolitan clubs, and the Downtown Association, together with the Hamilton and Crescent Athletic clubs of Brooklyn. He married, in 1877, Nellie M. Law- rence, of New York. They have no children. Mr. Borne was born in Brooklyn, December 1, 1852, his father having been a Russian land- owner before coming to the United States, while his mother was a German. Having been educated in New York City and Germany, his first business connection was as clerk with the Queens Fire Insurance Company. He was twenty-one when he engaged in the oil business, and he rapidly acquired large interests in the oil-producing country of Pennsylvania and established extensive petroleum works. He built one of the notable pipe lines, and established offices in all parts of the world.
OLCOTT. FREDERIC PEPOON. was born in Albany. N. Y., in 1841; at the age of sixteen became clerk in the Mechanics' and Trad- ers' Bank of that city. of which his father, the late Thomas W. Ol- cott, of Albany, was President; subsequently engaged in the lumber business on his own account in Albany. and was successively con- nected with the banking firms in this city of Blake, Brothers & Com- pany and Phelps, Stokes & Company. Since 1884 he has been Presi- dent of the Central Trust Company. This corporation has been fiscal agent and depositary of securities in connection with a large number of notable railroad reorganizations, and Mr. Olcott is a recognized anthority in delicate questions involving the rights of investors. He is President also of the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad Company, Vice-President of the Bank of America. Treasurer of the Union Traction and Electrical Company, and a director of the Na-
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tional Union Bank, the Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, the Audit Company, the Colorado Midland Railroad Company. the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company, the St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad Company, the Magdeburg Fire Insurance Company, and the Popular Photograph Company. He was Comp- troller of the State of New York from 1877 to 1880. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, Manhattan, Riding. Driving, Rid- ing and Driving. Ladies', Barnard, New York Yacht, Morristown, and Essex County Country clubs, and the Downtown Association. He is also a member of the Chamber of Commerce. He married, in 1862. Mary Esmay, and has a daughter, Edith, and a son. Dudley Olcott. He descends from Thomas Olcott, one of the founders of Hartford, Conn., under Rev. Thomas Hooker.
GILBERT, ALEXANDER, elected President of the Market and Fulton National Bank of New York City, November 10, 1896, has been for nearly forty years connected with that institution. In 1859, at the age of twenty, he became its Second Assistant Teller, and rose through various promotions to be its Cashier in 1863 -- at the time the youngest bank cashier in New wanting sineidencial au la it d ' no shame suitable in action mencion to York City. Solicited to become President of the Fulton Bank of this city in 1887, he instead suc- ceeded in bringing about its consol- idation with the Market National Bank, of which he had so long been an officer, thus adding over $1,000,000 deposits to the latter. The present style was adopted at the time of this consolidation. In 1592, Mr. Gilbert was elected Vice- ALEXANDER GILBERT. President as well as Cashier. Of- fered the Presidency of the South- ern National Bank early in 1896, he instead secured its liquidation and the transfer of its business to the Market and Fulton National Bank. thus adding to the latter $1,250,000 of deposits. In 1894 and 1895, Mr. Gilbert was Secretary of the New York Clearing House Asso- ciation. A resident of Plainfield, N. J., since 1866, he served many years as a member of the Common Council of that city, and in 1890 was elected Mayor as the candidate of the Republican party. Ile administered the affairs in thorough independence of partisan polities, and was unanimously elected to succeed himself, no other candidate being nominated. He was also unanimously elected for a third term.
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but positively refused a fourth nomination. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis in 1892, and was a member of its committee to notify Benjamin Harrison of his nomi- nation for the Presidency. He is a member of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation, is one of its directors, and a member of its Committeee on Finance. He is also Vice-President and a director of the Fulton Club, of this city, and has been its Treasurer. He is Treasurer of the Hillside Cemetery and of the First Baptist Church, of Plainfield, N. J., and is a member of the Board of Trade and the Union County and Lincoln clubs of the same city. He is himself a native of Elizabeth, N. J., where he was born, August 10, 1839.
SEWARD, GEORGE FREDERICK, was Vice-President of the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York City from 1887 to 1892, and since the latter date has been its President. He is also Vice-Presi- dent of the Willson Aluminum Company. Actively engaged in busi- ness in this city since 1880, during the nineteen years preceding he was engaged in the consular and diplomatic service of the United States in the far East. From 1861 to 1864 he was Consul at Shanghai, China, and from 1864 to 1875 was Consul-General, in 1868 being also United States Minister to Korea. In 1867 he likewise discharged a special mission. From 1875 to 1880 he was United States Minister to China. Ile has published "Chinese Immigration in its Local and Economical Aspects," and has written articles on Russia, on " American Shipping Interests," "Partition of China," " Rus- sian Interests in Manchuria," " Chinese Immigration," and " Li Hung Chang." He is a member of the Reform, Lawyers', and University Athletic clubs, the Sons of the Revolution, the New England Society, the Township Improvement Society of Orange, N. J., and the Society of Civics of New York, being a member of the Executive Committee of the latter. He was born in Florida, N. Y., November 8, 1840, and was educated at the S. S. Seward Institute in Florida (founded by his grandfather, Hon. Samuel S. Seward, JJudge of the New York Cir- cuit Court ) and at Uuion College. He is the son of George W. Seward and Tempe W., daughter of John Leddell, and is the nephew of the late William II. Seward, Governor of New York, United States Sen- ator, and Secretary of State in the cabinets of Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. Mr. Seward's great-grandfather, John Seward, was Colonel of the Second Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, in the Revolution.
HUGHSON. FREDERICK. since 1893 President of the New York Savings Bank, was long engaged in the practice of law in New York City, prior to 1883. as the partner of John Webber. He was born at Hughsonville. Dutchess County. N. Y., April 16, 1820, the son of William I. Hughson and Maria Wright, and attended the Hughson- ville Academy, conducted by Rev. Elipbalet Price, for three years
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attended the University of the City of New York, and in 1839 was graduated from Columbia College. He studied law and was for a great many years in active practice. He had been attorney and counsel of the New York Savings Bank since 1867, became its Treas- urer in 1883, and was elected President March 14, 1893. He is de- scended from Thomas Hughson, who came from England and settled at Croton. Westchester County. John, son of William, and grandson of this Thomas, settled at Hughsonville, Dutchess County, giving bis name to the place. His son Jolin, born at Hughsonville, August 15, 1765, was the grandfather of Frederick Hughson, and was remarkable for his inventive skill. He devised and constructed all the imple- ments for which he found use in his employments as farmer and sportsman-cider mills, threshing machines, fanning mills, and boats and tools of almost every kind.
HUTCHINSON, HENRY ELIJAH, since 1890 has been President of the Brooklyn Bank, which was incorporated in 1832, and is the oldest banking institution in that city, and is also a director and Secretary of the Excelsior Steamboat Company, President of the Brooklyn and Rockaway Beach Railroad Company, was an incorpora- tor and is a trustee of the Hamilton Trust Company, is a trustee of the Breevort Savings Bank, and is a director of the Long Island Safe Deposit Company. He is likewise a director of the Brooklyn Club, and is a member of the Union League Club of Brooklyn, the Alpha Delta Phi, Church, and Young Republican clubs of the same city, the Brooklyn Institute, the New England Society of Brooklyn, the Society of Vermonters of Brooklyn, the Long Is- land Historical Society, and the Brooklyn Library. Born in Wind- sor, Vt., July 31. 1837. he is the son of Rev. Elijah Hutchinson and Laura Manning, daughter of John Payson Skinner, is the grandson of Rev. Elisha Hutchinson, the great-grandson of Rev. Samuel Hut- chinson, and the great-great-grandson of Rev. Samuel Hutchinson. He attended the High School of Windsor. Vi., from 1854 to 1856 at- tended Dartmouth College, and in 1858 was graduated from Amherst College. He was a teacher at Montgomery, Ala., from 1858 to 1860, in the latter year was admitted to the Alabama bar, and in 1862 was admitted to the bar at New York City. From 1863 to 1872 he was United States Internal Revenue Assistant Assessor, from 1872 to 1876 was Cashier of the Mechanics' Savings Bank, and from 1877 to 1890 was Cashier of the Brooklyn Bank, of which he has since been President. He was organist and director of music at St. Peter's Epis- copal Church, Brooklyn, from 1870 to 1882. while he was connected with the Brooklyn Choral Society from 1888 to 1892 as Treasurer and President. In June, 1898, he was elected a member of the Advisory Board of the Musical Department of the Brooklyn Institute.
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HAYS, WILLIAM H .. was one of the best known bankers and brokers of New York City prior to his death. December 8, 1886. Born in this city in 1814, at fifteen years of age he entered the office of J. D. Beers & Company, bankers and brokers, with whom he remained for five years. In 1834 he engaged in business on his own account, and while the struggle was severe at first, by 1850 lie was firmly estab- lished. He was a member of the old Board of Brokers which pre- ceded the Stock Exchange, and later became one of the founders of the present New York Stock Exchange. In 1858 he was elected President of the Dry Dock Bank, at the corner of Tenth Street and Avenue D. at the head of which he remained until the institution went ont of business in 1865. When he accepted this responsibility he gave his brokerage business into the hands of his brother, Jacob Hays, and his son-in-law, Minthorne Tompkins, Jr. In 1866 he became as- sociated with the banking and brokerage firm of Closson & Hays, which had been established by his son, Jacob Hays. In 1876 he became President of the National Bank of the State of New York. retaining this position until his death in 1886. One of his latest achievements was the reorganization of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad Company, of which he was a director. For many years he was Presi- dent of the Ninth Avenue Railroad Company, as he was also of the Eighth Avenue Railroad Company. He was Treasurer of the Peo- ple's Line of Steamers, and a director of the Seventh Avenue Railroad Company, the Broadway Railroad Company, and the New York and Brooklyn Ferry Company. He married Mary V. E., daughter of Alexander Moore, of New Brunswick, N. J. She died in March, 1887. Their surviving children are two sons-Jacob and Edward St. John Hays, and two daughters-Mary C., widow of Minthorne Tompkins, and Ella H., wife of Charles A. Myers. Mr. William H. Hays was the son of Hon. Jacob Hays, who emigrated to New York from England during the latter part of the last century, and in 1802 was appointed High Constable of the City of New York by Mayor Livingston, a posi- tion somewhat analogous to that of the present Superintendent of Po- lice. (For portrait of Jacob Hays see Volume I., page 356, of this work. ) Being successively retained in office by each succeeding Mayor, he held this position for fifty years. the office being abolished at the time of his death. Ilis sous-Dewitt C. Hays, A. B. Hays, and William H. Hays-were all prominently identified with the banking and financial interests of the City of New York.
HIAYS, JACOB, eldest son of the late William HI. Hays, and grand- son of Jacob Hays, for half a century High Constable of the City of New York. was a member of the banking and brokerage firm of Closson & Hays from 1866 until he retired from active business in 1883. and is still an officer of many financial institutions. He is now President of the Eighth Avenue Railroad Company, is also President
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of the Ninth Avenue Railroad Company, is a trustee and Treasurer of the New Jersey Steamboat Company (known as the People's Line of Steamers), and is a director of the Knickerbocker Trust Company. the Brooklyn and New York Ferry Company, the East River Gas Com- pany of Long Island City, and the Northern Railroad of New Jersey. He is a member of the New York Athletic Club. Mr. Hays was born in New York City, February 13, 1845, received a good elementary edneation, at the age of sixteen became clerk in the New York dry- goods house of Halsted. Haines & Company, and two years later be- came a clerk in the Old Dry Dock Bank, at the corner of Tenth Street and Avenue D, now known as the Eleventh Ward Bank. In 1863 he became clerk to the Wall Street banking firm of Charles R. Marvin & Sons, and in 1864 became Cashier of the firm of Hays & Tompkins. In May, 1866, he was elected a member of the New York Stock Ex- change, and in October of the same year he founded the firm of Closson & Hays. This firm numbered among its clients, Com- modore Vanderbilt. Samuel J. Tilden, George Law, Marshall O. Rob- erts, William R. Travers, Horace F. Clark, Hugh McCulloch, Samuel Sloan, and John B. Trevor. Mr. Hays married, December 12, 1866, Mary Jane, daughter of David Louderback, of New York City, and has a son-William Henry Hays, who was elected a member of the New York Stock Exchange, December 16, 1897-and a daughter, Lizzie, wife of John Scott Browning.
SMITH, BRYAN HOOKER, long and successfully engaged in bus- iness, from which he retired in 1891, has been President of the Brook- lyn Savings Bank since 1893, and is a director of the Hanover Insur- ance Company. Since 1896 he has also been President of the Packer Collegiate Institute of Brooklyn. While having retired from the active management of the business, he still retains his interest in the wholesale drygoods establishment on Worth Street, Manhattan Bor- ough, with which he has been for so many years connected. He is a member of the Union League and Hamilton clubs of Brooklyn, where he resides. The son of Cyrus Porter Smith and Lydia Hooker, he was born in the Borough of Brooklyn, January 29, 1829, and was educated in the Brooklyn public schools. On the maternal side he is lineally descended from the famous Rev. Thomas Hooker, founder of the Col- ony of Connecticut.
. CANNON, HENRY WHITE, Comptroller of the United States Cur- rency from 1884 to 1886, and President of the Chase National Bank during most of the period since, is a director of a number of important corporations. These include the Manhattan Trust Company, the United States Guarantee Company, the Brooklyn Union Gas Com- pany, the Clinton Hall Association, the Great Northern Railroad Com- pany, the Lake Erie and Western Railroad Company, the New York,
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Ontario and Western Railway Company, and the Jamestown and Lake Erie Railway Company. He was appointed Aqueduct Commis- sioner by Mayor Grant, and by President Harrison was appointed a member of the Assay Connnissions of 1891 and 1892. He has been a member of the New York Clearing-house Committee for a number of years, including the period of the panic of 1893. President Har- rison appointed him one of five United States Commissioners to the International Monetary Conference at Brussels in 1892. The Council of the Bimetallic League of Great Britain invited him to attend the monetary conference in London in May, 1894. He has written much on financial subjects. A member of the Royal Statistical Society of London, he has three times served on its Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures in this country. Born in Delhi, N. Y., Septem- ber 27, 1850, he is the son of George Bliss Cannon and Ann Eliza White, a descendant of Peregrine White, who was born on the Mayflower. In honor of his grandfather, Ben- jamin Cannon, Tompkins, N. Y., was renamed Canonsville. . He began his business career in the employ of the First National Bank of Delhi, and in 1870 entered the employ of the Second National Bank of St. Paul, Minn. A little later, at the age of twenty-one, he organized the Lumberman's National Bank of Stillwater, Minn., and for thirteen years was its cashier, carrying it through the panic of 1873. He be- came known to Eastern bankers through his activity in purchasing 1 Government bonds for the banks of HENRY W. CANNON. Minnesota dining the refunding process, and as the successful nego- tiator of loans for the city of St. Paul. He was accordingly sup- ported warmly as successor of the famous John J. Knox, so long Comptroller of the Currency, and was appointed to that office by President Arthur in 1884. Ilis administration was short but bril- liant, and it was against President Cleveland's wish that he re- signed in 1886. Coming to this city he was elected Vice-President of the National Bank of the Republic, of which JJohn J. Knox was then President, but resigned in November, 1886, to become President of the Chase National Bank.
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