USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 1 > Part 31
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and also a Indge of the Court of Appeals. From 1872 to 1874 he was a member of the new firm of Emott, Hammond & Stickney. From 1874 to 1890 he practiced under his own name. In 1890 be formed the firm of Kellogg, Rose & Smith. While engaged in general prac- tice, he has made a specialty of municipal law. He argued before the Judiciary Committee of the New York Legislature for the passage of the Mechanics' Lien Act, establishing the right for material men to lien city moneys. This measure, draffed by him, was enacted into law. He was counsel for the contractors in the Riverside Drive liti- gation and in the Aqueduct suits. He has been a director in a um- ber of corporations engaged in the manufacture of powder, including the Continental Powder Mannfacturing Company and the Phoenix Powder Manufacturing Company. He is now a director in the Wash- ington Insurance Company and the Colonial Insurance Company. He is President of the Colonial Club of the City of New York, and a governor in that cinb and in the Delta Phi Club. He is aiso a mem- ber of the Manhattan, Players, Lawyers', Suburban, Coney Island Jockey. Fort Orange, and Norwood Golf clubs, and the Bar Asso- ciation. Ile is a vestryman in All Angels' Church. He was for several years Chairman of the Charity Organization Society for the Eighth District. His wife is a daughter of the late Major-General John B. Macintosh. U. S. A. Mr. Kellogg is himself a nephew of John Bigelow, formerly United States Ambassador to France.
CHURCH, JAMES CONGDON, lawyer, of Brooklyn, born in Wich- ford. R. J., May 21, 1861, is the son of Thomas T. and Phebe F. Church, both descendants of Colonel Benjamin Church, who settled in Massa- chussetts shortly after the first voyage of the Mayflower, and was in military command of the colonists. Removing at an early age to New Utrecht, L. J., Mr. Church was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, and studied law with Morris & Pearsall. He was admitted to the bar in September, 1883. Continuing with Morris & Pearsall until 1887, he then formed the present partnership with Cor- nelius Furgoneson, Jr. In connection with these corporations he was chilly instrumental in organizing one of the most important street railway systems in the country. He has appeared in many impor- tant cares. He is counsel and an officer of the Nassau Electric Rail- road Company and the Kings County Electric Railway Company.
. BAKER, SEWARD, edneated in the public schools of Poughkeep- sie, studied law with Hon. Milton A. Fowler and with Hackett & Williams, of that city; in ISTS was admitted to the bar; practiced at. Amonia, N. Y .. from 1875 to 1981; during the next two years practiced at Poughkeepsie, and since 1883 has been engaged in general civil practice in New York City, making corporation and real estate law a specialty. Having become a resident of the town of West Chester, he
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was active in connection with its annexation to New York City in 1895. He was special counsel under retainer from the former Cor- poration Counsel, and has been retained by the present incumbent of the office in connection with lands under water and dock privileges, especially in the territory annexed in 1895. He is a member of the City Bar Association, the North Side Board of Trade, and the Tax- payers' Alliance. Born in Union Vale, N. Y., December 30, 1853, he is the son of Ransom Baker and Ophelia, daughter of Peter Lossing, and descends from Thomas Baker, who emigrated from England to Rhode Island prior to the Revolution and subsequently removed to Dutchess County, New York. His maternal ancestors came from Hol- land and eventually settled in the same county. Benson J. Lossing, the late historian, was Mr. Baker's second cousin.
MCCALL, EDWARD EVERETT, since his admission to the bar in 1885, has been engaged in law practice in New York City. He was for some time attorney of the New York Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, having charge of its real es- tate examinations for Brooklyn. ITe then formed the present firm of McCall & Arnold. of which he was head. They have devoted them- selves almost exclusively to real es- tate and corporation work. They were formerly attorneys of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. For several years Mr. McCall has been attorney of the New York Life Insurance Company. He is a di- rector of the Park Building and Loan Association, the Lawyers' Engineering and Surveying Com- pany, and the National Exhibition EDWARD EVERETT MCCALL. Company. Mr. McCall was couu- sel of Police Inspector William W. MeLaughlin throughout his recent difficulties, and the latter's con- viction before Judge Barrett he succeeded in reversing in the Court of Appeals, with affirmance of the same by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court. Mr. McCall is a member of the New York Athletic and Lawyers' clubs. He married, in 1886, Ella F., daughter of Thomas S. Gaynor, and has two children. He was himself born in Albany. N. Y., January 6, 1863, the son of John McCall and Catherine McCormac. He attended the Albany High School, was graduated from Union College; in 1SS1 was graduated from the Law Depart- ment of the University of New York, and during the following year
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continued to read law in the office of David R. Jaques, Dean of the Law Department of the University of New York.
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CAHOONE, RICHARDS MOTT, has been engaged in the practice of law in Brooklyn since 1893, during which time he has also been Brief Clerk in the office of the Public Administrator of Brooklyn. He has been engaged in several series of extended litigations arising from some half dozen important estates. He is a member of the Poly- technic and Crescent Athletic clubs, and the Polytechnic Dramatic Association. Born in Brooklyn, June 11, 1872, he was educated at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, the Columbia College Law School, and the New York Law School, and in 1893 was graduated from the latter, cum laude, being admitted to the bar in September of the same year. He is the son of Andrew Mott Cahoone and Mary Rich- ards, daughter of Daniel Penfield Parker and Caroline Fitch Rich- ards; is the grandson of Stephen Cahoone and Matilda Mott; the great-grandson of Stephen Cahoone and Anstis Sayre; the great-great- grandson of James Cahoone and Phoebe Wilcox, and descends from the Scottish clan of Colquehoun, of which the famous John C. Calhoun was a distinguished American representative. His father, Andrew Mott Cahoone, while a resident of Brooklyn, is a well-known stock- broker of New York, a member of the Brooklyn and New York Yacht clubs, and for many years a governor of the New York Stock Ex- change.
GROSS, MICHAEL C., lawyer, was born in this city February 18, 1838, and is of German descent. He attended the German schools of the city until his eleventh year, and during the next three years at- tended English institutions. When sixteen he began the study of law in the office of Daniel Ullmann and Charles C. Egan. In 1837 he became the junior member of the firm of Egan & Gross, although not until 1860 could he be admitted to the bar. In his seventeenth year he became interested in politics. In 1860 he was elected first Vice- President of the German Democratic organization of the city, and subsequently was its President. From 1861 to 1864 he represented the Fifth Senatorial District as Councilman. He was elected to the bench of the Marine (now City) Court in 1865, and was.re-elected in 1869 by the then immense majority of 52,000 votes. While on the bench he established many precedents which were sustained by the higher courts. His sound decision upon the "Legal Tender " ques- tion was based upon the same grounds as given subsequently by the United States Supreme Court. The Marine Court had many suits in which the interests of the shipowners, captains, and sailors were adju- dicated. The complaints of sailors against captains for assault upon the high seas were numerous, and redress was sought in this tribunal. It often occurred that the complaints were either frivolous or un-
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founded, yet, if the courts were not in session, the defendant had to spend a night or more in jail. With the assistance of his associate, JJudge Alker, Judge Gross reformed this abuse. He retired from the bench January 1, 1876, and resumed law practice. He is a member of the State Bar Association, Deutscher Verein, the German Society, the Liederkranz. the German Hospital, and the Isabella Home.
LEVI, JOSEPH CHARLES, lawyer, born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Feb- ruary 27, 1839, is the son of Charles Levi, and grandson of George and Judith Levi. His father came to the United States from England about 1829, married in New York in 1836, and was a merchant in Cincinnati from 1832 to 1843. In 1843 he returned to New York City. Mr. Levi was graduated in 1854 from the Columbia College Grammar School, and studied law with Van Cott & Cady. He was admitted to the bar in May, 1860. Between May and October, 1862, he was with his regiment, the Thirty-seventh, as a non-commissioned officer in the Government service in Maryland. On February 8, 1865, he was married to a danghter of Dr. Manly Emanuel, of Linwood, Pa. Dur- ing his professional career, Mr. Levi has been attorney for varions trusts and associations, and for many years has been counsel for one of the principal metropolitan newspapers. He has given special at- tention to the law of wills, real estate, and equity jurisprudence. He has been a member of the City Bar Association since 1875. Ile was one of the original members and examining counsel of the Lawyers' Title Insurance Company. He is the author of a number of monographs and essays, semi-legal, some of which have appeared in the Albany Lave Journal.
WELLER, AUGUSTUS NOBLE, was born in Chautauqua County, New York, December 5, 1836; attended the Fredonia Academy; stud- ied Jaw, and was admitted to the bar in New York City in 1860. He commenced practice in New York in 1863, but moved into Qneens Connty in 1873. He received the Democratic nomination as Surrogate of Queens County in 1885. and was elected; but the Court of Appeals decided that the term of Mr. Weller's predecessor had not expired. In 1886 he was again nominated by the Democratic Convention, re- ceived the indorsement of the Republican Convention, and was elected without opposition. He married, in 1873, Miss Ouderdonk, daughter of Henry M. Onderdonk, who was a Senator from Ohio; niece of William 11. Onderdonk, who held the offices of District Attorney, Coun- ty Judge, and Surrogate of Queens County, and granddaughter of Bishop Onderdonk of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
FLETCHER, AUSTIN BARCLAY, President of a large corpora- tion in New York City from 1852 to 1884, since the latter date has been engaged in the practice of law in this city. He has acquired
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a wide reputation as an expert commercial reorganizer and represen- tative and adviser of fiduciary institutions. He is counsel for a large number of banks, trust companies, and similar concerns, and is a director of the Eppinger & Russell Company, the Van Wagoner & Williams Hardware Company, and the New York and Staten Is- land Electric Company. In 1892 he succeeded the late Governor William E. Russell, of Massachusetts, as trustee of the Boston Uni- versity. He is a Knight Templar and a member of the Lawyers' and New York Athletic clubs. He married Hortense M. Follett, of Wrent- ham, Mass. He was born in Mendon, Mass., March 13, 1852, and is the son of Asa Austin Fletcher and Harriet Edna Durkee. On both sides he descends from old New England families. His first American ancestor on the paternal side, Rob. ert Fletcher, settled in Concord, Mass., in 1630. Mr. Fletcher at. tended the public schools, Dean Academy, Bryant and Stratton's Commercial College, Wesleyan Academy, in 1876 was graduated from Tufts College, and subse- quently spent three years in the post-graduate departments of Bos- ton University,-the School of Oratory, the School of All Sciences, and the School of Law. He took all the oratorical prizes for which he was permitted to compete. He succeeded the celebrated Professor Lewis B. Monroe as Professor of Oratory in the Boston University School of Theology; became Lee- AUSTIN BARCLAY FLETCHER. turer on Forensic Oratory in the Boston University School of Law, and subsequently accepted the Professorship of Elocation in Brown University. He resigned from this chair to come to New York City in 1882.
RAPALLO, EDWARD SUMNER, was graduated from Columbia University in 1874 and from Columbia University Law School in 1876, having also studied in the law offices of Stephen P. Nash and Aaron J. Vanderpoel. He has practiced law in New York City, Manhattan Borongh, since 1876, -- at first in partnership with Julien Tappan Davies, as Davies & Rapallo, and subsequently as a member of the firm of Holmes, Rapallo & Kennedy. He has been counsel to the Man- hattan Elevated Railway Company, the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, and the Lake Shore Railway Company, and is one of the general counsel of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company. He is a
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member of the Century, University, Manhattan, and Democratic clubs, the New York Law Institute, the City Bar Association, and the State Bar Association. He was born in Cambridge, Mass., September 18, 1853, and is the son of the late Hon. Charles A. Rapallo and Helen, daughter of Bradford Sumner, of Boston. His father was a judge of the New York Court of Appeals from 1870 until his death. His grand- father, Antonio Rapallo, was born on the family estate near the town of Rapallo, Italy, immigrated to New York City, and engaged in law practice with John Anthon, and was counsel for one of the Italian governments. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Captain Benjamin Gould, a Revolutionary officer, who was elected to the Continental Congress, but died before it was convened. Hannah Gould, the poet- ess, was one of his daughters, while another was the mother of Chief Justice Fuller of the United States Supreme Court. B. A. Gould, the famous astronomer of Harvard College and the Argentine Republic, was the nephew of Mrs. Elizabeth Gould Rapallo. Mr. Rapallo's ma- ternal grandmother was a daughter of Chevalier Francis Augustus Alfonso Bartholdi, who was educated at Padua University, studied medicine at the College of Vienna, and became physician to Louis XVIII. and a member of his household when that unfortunate sover- eign was the Compte de Provence. At the time of the French Revo- lution Dr. Bartholdi immigrated to Wrentham, Mass., changing his name to Bertody, and married Ursula Plympton, daughter of a wealthy citizen of Massachusetts.
PINNEY. GEORGE MILLER, JR., born in Windsor, Dane County, Wis., March 8, 1856, is the son of George Miller Pinney, a native of Pennsylvania, and Harriet M. Whitney, of Ohio. He is a lineal de- scendant of Humphrey Pinney, who came to America from Somerset- shire, England, about 1630. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1878, spent two years as tutor, and was graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1882. He came to New York City, and was with the firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate, and its successor, Evarts, Choate & Beaman, from 1882 to 1886. He then formed the firm of Piney & Sterling. In 1890 he practiced alone, in 1891 became a member of the firm of Carter, Piney & Kellogg, and in 1894 formed the firm of Pinney & Thayer, which is now Pinney. Thayer & Hadlock. He has resided at New Brighton, S. I., since February, 188S. In 1893 he was active in the movement to overthrow the regular Democratic machine in Richmond County. Himself a Republican. he stumped the county in 1893, and again in 1894, in support of suc- cessful fusion tickets. In 1895 he was elected Supervisor of the town of Castleton. The same year he was elected District Attorney of Richmond County. On June 9, 1896, Governor Morton appointed him a member of the Greater New York Commission from Richmond County, and at the first meeting of the Commission he was elected
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its Secretary. He married, June 27, 1887, Olive Frances, daughter of the late E. N. Child, of Worcester, Mass., and has four children. IIe is a member of the University, Harvard, Staten Island Cricket and Baseball, Staten Island Polo, Kill von Kull Yacht, and Staten Island Whist clubs, and of the City and State Bar associations.
WHITE, STEPHEN VAN CULLEN, has long been a conspicuous member of the New York Stock Exchange. Born in Chatham County, North Carolina, August 1. 1831, he was reared in Illinois, whither his parents removed shortly after his birth. In 1854 he was graduated from Knox College, from which he subsequently received the degrees of Master of Arts and Doctor of Laws. For one year after graduation he was bookkeeper for a mercan- tile firm of St. Louis, Mo., and then studied law with Brown & Kasson, one member of which firm subse- quently became Governor of Mis- sonri and United States Senator, while the other became United States Minister to Austria and Germany. While studying law Mr. White was an editorial and liter- ary contributor to the St. Louis newspaper press. After his admis- sion to the bar he for ten years practiced law at Des Moines, Iowa. He was eminently successful, and argued many important cases in the United States courts. In 1865, however, he removed to New York City and established the banking STEPHEN VAN CULLEN WHITE. firm of Marvin& White? At the end of two years he engaged in the banking and brokerage business under his own name, while since 1882 he has been head of the firm of S. V. White & Company. In 1886 he was elected to Congress from his home district in Brooklyn. but declined a renomination. For nearly thir- ty years he has been a leading member of Plymouth Church of Brooklyn, of which the late Henry Ward Beecher was long the pastor. lle has long been a member of its board of trustees. He has done notable work as an amateur astronomer. In 1891 he failed for $1.000 .- 000 while manipulating an immense corn deal, through the misappro- priation of his funds by a famous firm of brokers. But within a year he had made another fortune, and paid off every obligation, dollar for dollar, with interest. He is President of the Bower-Barff Rustless Iron Company and a director of the New Jersey Magnetic Conven-
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trating Company. He is a member of the Union League and Hamil- ton clubs of Brooklyn and the Lawyers' Club of New York.
TAPPAN, J. B. COLES, lawyer, was born in Queens County, New York, April 1, 1860, and is the son of De Witt Tappan and Margaret Coles. He descends from the Tappans and De Witts, on his father's side, and is of English descent through his mother. Among his ancestors were Colonel Charles De Witt and Major Christopher Tap- pan, Revolutionary officers. Mr. Tappan's father was a successful physician, who was educated at Yale College and the New York College of Physicians and Surgeons. Mr. Tappan is likewise a Yale mau, having been graduated from that university in 1880. He was also graduated from the Columbia College Law School in 1882. He com- meneed law practice in this city in 1883, and has followed his profes- sion here and in Queens County continuously since. He is now a mem- ber of the firm of Sendder, Tappan, Seaman & Cox. He resides at Glen Cove, L. I., and was one of the organizers of the Glen Cove Bank. He has also served as President of the Village Board of Edu- cation. He is a member of a number of yachting and social organ- izations, including the Seawauhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club of New York, the Hempstead Harbor Yacht Club, the Queens County Golf Club, the Mill Neck Club, and the Yale Alumni. On May 21, 1885, he was married to Caroline Alice, daughter of Mr. James Titus, of Glen Cove.
GREENE, JOSEPH WARREN, member of the New York law firm of Arnold & Greene, was a member of the Brooklyn Board of Civil Service Commissioners from 1894 to 1896, and at the present time is a director of the Home Life Insurance Company, the Niagara Fire In- surance Company, and the Sonth Brooklyn Savings Institution, and is a trustee of the Sheltering Arms Nursery and the Brooklyn Em- ployment Society. He is a Vestryman of Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn, and a member of the Hamilton, Barnard, and Twentieth Century clubs of Brooklyn, and the Lawyers' and Alpha Delta Phi clubs of New York City. He was born in Brooklyn, November 2, 1846. the son of Joseph Warren Greene. Sr., and Mary Augusta Smith, of Jamaica. L. 1. Ilis father was a manufacturer and dealer in jewelry. On the paternal side he descends from John Greene, an apothecary from Salisbury, England. who originally settled in Massachusetts. and subsequently immigrated to Rhode Island with Roger Williams, becoming owner of a large tract of land, acquired from the Indians. One of his descendants was General Nathaniel Greene, of the Revo- lution. On the paternal side Mr. Greene descends from Bullvider Smith, one of the early settlers of Long Island. Having received his early education in the Brooklyn public schools, Mr. Greene was grad- uated from Yale College in 1868, and from the Columbia College Law
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School in 1870. In 1871 he began the practice of law, being the partner of Hon. Edward Paterson from 1874 until the elevation of the latter to the Supreme Court bench in 1888. Since 1888 he has been associated with Lemuel Hastings Arnold, under the firm style of Ar- nold & Greene. He was married, in 1874, to Julia S. Sherman, and has three sons-Joseph Warren, James Taylor, and Herbert Gouverneur, and two daughters-Katherine and Julia Sherman Greene.
BROWER. GEORGE VANDERHOOF, prominent lawyer and public citizen of Brooklyn, was born in Paterson, N. J., October 18, 1843, is the son of Richard Brower and Margaret Van Buskirk, and is descended from an old family, established in Brooklyn from early colonial times. His great-grandfather, Abraham Brower, was an officer in the Continental Army, and was joint owner, with Jere- miah Brower, of the old tidemill at Gowanus. By order of General Washington, this mill was burned during the Battle of Long Island to prevent the grain and other property from falling into the bands of the enemy. Mr. Brower was prepared for Princeton Col- lege, although the outbreak of the Civil War prevented him from pursuing his studies at that insti. tution. Ile subsequently entered the law office of the late Judge Charles W. Waller, of Honesdale, Pa. In 1866 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar, while he was admitted to the New York bar, in New York City, in March, GEORGE VANDERHOOF BROWER. 1867. He has practiced law in Brooklyn continuously since the latter date, arquiring a large real estate and commercial business. He is counsel and one of the trustees of the Kings County Trust Company. He was appointed General Appraiser of the Port of New York by President Cleveland, January 3, 1885, and administered the office with ability until 1889, when, upon the expiration of Mr. Cleveland's first term, he resigned. In July, 1889, he was appointed by Mayor Chapin one of the Park Commissioners of the City of Brooklyn, under the law limiting the Park Commissioners to three, and by his colleagues was at once elected President of the Board. Subsequently, the Park Department being made a single-headed commission, Mr. Brower was appointed the Commissioner, and retained the position until February 1. 1894. He was one of the organizers and original members of the
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Rembrandt Club of Brooklyn, and is a member of the Atlantic Yacht Club, the Brooklyn Club. the Montauk Club, and other social organi- zations.
FLEMING, JOHN, has been engaged in the practice of law at Jamaica, L. L., since 1866; served for six years as a member of the Board of Trustees of that village, and ou October 27, 1883, was ap- pointed by Governor Grover Cleveland District Attorney of Queens County, New York, to succeed, B. W. Downing, who had been removed from office. In November of the same year Mr. Fleming became the Democratic nominee for the same office, and was elected for the term of three years. His administration was signalized by his success- ful prosecution of a phenomenally large number of murder cases. His successor in office, Thomas F. Gowan, having been removed with- in three months, in August, 1887, Mr. Fleming was once more ap- pointed District Attorney, this time by Governor Hill, while in the following November he was again elected to the office, and subse- quently re-elected, discharging its duties until January 1, 1894. He prosecuted pool sellers, gamblers, and prize fighters in Queens County, as well as the officers of the Western Union Telegraph Company for permitting the use of its wires in furtherance of such illegal enter- prises. In the fall of 1896 he was the Democratic nominee for Justice of the Supreme Court, as successor of Hon. Charles F. Brown, but went down with the entire Democratic ticket. On January 5, 1898, Mayor Van Wyk appointed him, for a term of seven years, a Justice of the Court of Special Sessions of the Second Division of the City of New York. Mr. Fleming was born in County Monaghan, Ireland, June 1, 1842, the son of William Fleming and Mary O'Neill. De- prived of both parents at the age of five, he was reared by his uncle, James O'Neill, who carefully educated him. Coming to the United States at the age of fourteen, he attended the public schools of Ja- maica, L. T., and the private school of Rev. Matthew Hunting. At the age of seventeen he entered the employ of a New York City house engaged in the Southern commission business, and so remained until the Civil War brought this business to a close. He then for three months studied law with John J. Armstrong, of Jamaica, and enlisted in Company A of the One Hundred and Sixty-fifth New York Volun- teer Infantry, with which he remained in active service for three years. He participated in movements along the James River, in the battles of Cedar Creek and Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley, and in the engagements of Plains Store, Pouchatoula, Sabine Cross Roads, Pleasant Ilil!, Cane River, and Mausura Plains, Louisiana, and the assaults upon Port Hudson. He responded to the call of General Banks for volunteers for the last desperate assault upon Port Hudson. Returning, he resumed his law studies, and was admitted to the bar in Brooklyn, in December, 1866.
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