USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 2 > Part 17
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LOW, SETH, President of Columbia University, was born in Brook- lyn, N. Y., January 18, 1850, and is one of the sons of the late Abiel .1. Low, referred to elsewhere. (For portrait of Seth Low, see Volume
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II. of this work, page 272.) He attended the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and in 1870 was graduated from Columbia College at the head of his class. During the last year of the course he also attended law lectures. In 1875 he entered his father's tea-importing business, becoming manager of the firm business. "He became a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He was one of the founders of the Young Men's Reform Club of Brooklyn, and became its first President. In 1881 he was elected Mayor of Brooklyn as an independent candi- date, while in 1883 he was re-elected. Ile won distinction by his economical administration and his efforts to introduce the principle of civil-service examinations in connection with municipal offices. At the end of his second term he visited Europe. Returning he re-entered his father's business, subsequently closing up the enterprise. In 1890 he was elected to succeed the late Dr. F. A. P. Barnard as President of Columbia College. He at once secured a close union of the several departments, all of them being controlled by a university council. In 1890, for the first time. the New York College of Physicians and Sur- geons held its annual commencement at the same time as the other departments of the college. By act of the Legislature, March 24, 1891, it was made an organic part of the corporation of Columbia University. A new site for the University was obtained by the purchase of Bloom- ingdale Asylum and grounds on Morningside Heights, the payment of $2,000,000 for this property being consummated in 1894. The institu- tion now occupies the new buildings erected there. Mr. Low devoted one-half of his private fortune, the sum of $1,000,000, for the erection of the new library building. In 1893 was established the Columbia Union Press for the publication of valuable documents and treatises. Mr. Low was also a founder of the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, and was its first. President. He is President of the Archeological Institu- tion of America, and is Vice-President of the New York Academy of Sciences. By Governor Morton he was appointed one of the commis- sioners to draft the present charter of the City of New York. In the first election for Mayor of the consolidated city, in the fall of 1897, he was the candidate of the Citizens' Union, Mayor Van Wyck, Benjamin F. Tracy, and Henry George being the other candidates. His resig- nation as President of Columbia University was not acted upon during the campaign, and, after his defeat, was withdrawn.
ROOSEVELT, THEODORE, Governor of the State of New York, was born in New York City, October 27, 1858. He is the son of the late Theodore Roosevelt and a nephew of the present Robert B. Roose- velt and the late James A. Roosevelt. He was graduated from Har- vard College in 1880. and began the study of law in New York. He served in the New York Assembly in 1882, 1883, 1884, and 1885, rep- resenting the Twenty-first District of New York City. In 1886 he was Republican candidate for Mayor of New York, in a triangular con-
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test, Mayor Abram S. Hewitt and Henry George being the other can- didates. By President Cleveland, during the latter's first adminis- tration, he was appointed a Republican member of the United States Civil-service Commission, and distinguished himself in this position by his vigorous efforts in enforcing civil-service regulations. He re- signed from this office, May 1, 1895, to accept his appointment by Mayor Strong as Police Commissioner of New York City, while, by the Board of Police Commissioners, he was elected its President. After a vigorous administration in this capacity, he resigned to accept his appointment by President Mckinley, April 6, 1897, as Assistant Sec- retary of the Navy. He held this position during the period of preparation for the Spanish War, and then resigned to accept the commission of Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment of so-called "Rough Riders," which had been organized to serve under him. This command participated in the Santiago campaign, while, after its engage- ment at Siboney, Roosevelt was commis- sioned Colonel. Returning to the United States with his troops, he became the Repub- THEODORE ROOSEVELT. lican candidate for Governor of New York, and was elected to this office November 8, 1898. He is the author of " Naval War of 1812," " Life of Thomas II. Benton," " Life of Gouver- neur Morris," " Ranch Life and Hunting Trail," " The Winning of the West," " History of New York City," " Essays on Practical Politics," " The Wilderness Hunter," " American Political Ideals," and, in col- laboration with Henry Cabot Lodge, "Hero Tales from American History."
BEAL, WILLIAM REYNOLDS, was Superintendent of the Gas Light Company of Yonkers, N. Y., from 1855 to 1866; was President and Manager of the Central Gas Light Company of New York City from 1866 to 1897, and is now President of the Central Union Gas Company of this city. He originated the Northern Gas Light Com- pany of New York City, and the William R. Beal Land Improvement Company, and is a director of both corporations. For several years he was a School Trustee in the Twenty-third Ward, and Chairman of the Board of School Trustees. He is Vice-President of the Young Men's Christian Union of Harlem, is a trustee of the Young Women's Christian Association of Harlem, and is a vestryman of Holy Trinity Church ( Episcopal ), of this city. He is a member of the New York Yacht, Larchmont Yacht, Church, and Harlem clubs, and of Alex- ander Hamilton Post, Grand Army of the Republic. He was born in Newark, N. J., May 13, 1838, and was educated in Grace Church School of that city. His parents, James R. Beal and Elizabeth Austen,
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who died when he was a child, were both natives of England. His mother was of the same family as Jane Austen, the authoress.
PARSONS, CHARLES, has been President of the Rome, Water- town and Ogdensburg Railroad Company since 1883, and is President of the South Carolina and Georgia Railroad Company, and President and Receiver of the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad. He is Vice-President of the Oswego and Rome Railroad Company, and a director of the Utica and Black River Railroad Company, and the National Bank of the Republic. He was Chairman of the Purchasing Committee of the New Jersey Midland Railway Company, which bought that property under foreclosure sale, and having reorganized it, was its president prior to its consolidation with the New York, Susquehanna and Western. In 1892 he was elected President of the New York and New England Railroad Company. As President of the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg, he increased the earnings from $1,600,000 to $3,500,000, through the purchase of the Syracuse, Pho- nix and Oswego, and the Rochester and Ontario Belt Railway, the building of the Norwood and Montreal Railroad, and the lease and consolidation of the Utica and Black River Railroad. As thus reor- ganized he leased the lines to the New York Central in 1891. He is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the New York Stock Ex- change. Bom in Alfred, York County, Me., February 6, 1829, he is the son of William Parsons, and seventh in lineal descent from Joseph Parsons, who came from England in 1635 and settled in Springfield, and subsequently in Northampton, Mass. He enjoyed a good academic education. In the winter of 1853-54 he shipped produce to the North from New Orleans. He was in the commission business at Savannah, Ga. from 1854 to 1861, when the war forced him to discontinue. Forming a partnership with his brother, Edwin Par- sons, in 1862, he has since resided in this city.
WELLS, JAMES L., is President of the North Side Board of Trade. President of the Real Estate Auctioneers' Association, a trustee of the Dollar Savings Bank. and a director of the Twenty-third Ward Bank. He has been actively engaged in the real estate business for twenty-six years, and has been a director of the Real Estate Ex- change. He has divided into city lots and successfully marketed nearly all the large properties in the Borough of the Bronx during the - past twenty years. From 1884 to 188S he acted as Official Appraiser for New York City in acquiring lands (about 4,000 acres) for the " new parks" and parkways. By appointment of Mayor Strong he was Commissioner of Taxes and Assessments in 1895, 1896. and 1897. He was a Member of the Assembly in 1879, 1880. and 1892; a member of the Board of Aldermen in 1881, 1882, and 1883, and was a member of the Board of Education of the town of West Farms from 1869 until
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its annexation by the city in 1874. As an Alderman he obtained the charter under which was constructed the Suburban Elevated from One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street to Tremont, while as an Assem- blyman he introduced and passed the bill compelling the running of continuous trains and the carrying of passengers from the Battery to Tremont for a single fare of five cents. Active in the citizens' movement which secured a separate Department of Street Improve- ment in the annexed district, he twice refused nomination as Com- missioner of this Department. In 1897 he refused the Republican nomination as President of the Borough of the Bronx. Ile was one of the founders of the North Side Board of Trade, one of the founders of the Twenty-third Ward Bank. and one of the founders of the Dollar Savings Bank. An Episcopalian, he was Vestryman and Warden of Grace Church, West Farms, and subsequently of St. Ann's Church, Morrisania. He was born in West Farms. now a part of New York City. December 16, 1843, and is the son of English parents, his father removing to this country in 1817. He married Florence Edith Fowler, and has a daughter.
FOSDICK, CHARLES B., for many years prior to his death was prominent both as a leather merchant and financier. He was born in New York City, August 31, 1824, and was descended from one of the old New York Huguenot families. Having received a common school education, he began a commercial education at the age of twelve, and was very soon thereafter launched upon a business career, which con- tinued until his death. For forty- five years he was engaged in the tanning and leather business. He was chosen President of the Hide and Leather National Bank, upon its organization, in June, 1891. This institution, under Mr. Fos- dick's direction, became excep- tionally successful, acquiring a large volume of business in a short time. He was also interested as a CHARLES B. FOSDICK. director in such institutions as the Second National Bank, the Hamilton Bank, the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and other enterprises. A remarkable feature of his career has been thus described : " There is no man in New York who has served so often upon the Grand Jury as he has; and owing to his thorough mastery of everything relating to the work of that
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august tribunal-the . Palladium of Liberty,' as Horace Greeley des- ignated it-Mr. Fosdick was invariably made foreman, and the pre- sentments upon matters of great public moment were usually drawn up and read by him in open court. Many of the suggestions that he made from time to time in his official capacity have been embodied in the laws and statutes of this Commonwealth." He served con- tinuously as foreman of the Grand Jury for more than ten years. He was foreman when the " Boodle " Aldermen were indicted, and when the case of Sheriff Flack was investigated, as well as upon a number of other important occasions. Le served as a. Commissioner of Lunacy in the celebrated Stephanie murder case, and found Stephanie sane after a previous commission had pronounced the culprit insane. The report of this second commission was confirmed, and Stephanie was subsequently tried and sentenced to State's prison for life.
KORTRIGHT, LAWRENCE, was one of the notable merchants of this city of the Revolutionary period. He was joint owner of several privateers during the colonial war with the French. In 1770 he was one of the original incorporators of the New York Chamber of Com- merce. He acquired large tracts at Kortright, N. Y., which would have been erected into a manor, had not the Revolution swept away this English institution. He was descended from Jan Bastiaensen Kortright, who came to New Amsterdam in 1663 from Beest, Gelder- land. By his wife, Hannah Aspinwall, Lawrence. Kortright had one son-Captain John Kortright -- and daughters who became the wives. respectively, of President James Monroe and Nicholas Gouverneur. head of the famous firm of Gouverneur, Kortright & Company.
DOTY, ETHAN ALLEN, has been a resident of Brooklyn since 1847, and by appointment of Mayor Seth Low in 1883 became Chair- man of the Civil-service Commission of the City of Brooklyn. Since 1889 he has been President of the Edison Electric Illuminating Com- pany of Brooklyn. He is also a director of the Fifth Avenue Bank of Brooklyn, and of the Franklin Safe Deposit Company of the same Borough. He is a member of the Union League, Lincoln, Hamilton, Manufacturers', and Whist clubs of Brooklyn, and the Hardware and Unitarian clubs of New York, and has been active in politics in Brooklyn as an independent Republican. He was born in New York City, June 14, 1837, and was educated in the public schools and the College of the City of New York. The son of the late Warren S. Doty and Sarah M., daughter of Rev. Caleb Child and Sarah Bramhall, he is eighth in lineal descent from Edward Doty, who came over in the Mayflower. He also descends from Benjamin Child, who emigrated from England to Roxbury, Mass., in 1630, while his first American ancestor in the Bramhall line was one of the early settlers of Ply- mouth, Mass. In 1852. Mr. Doty became Assistant Librarian of the
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Mercantile Library of New York City, and a year or two later became Librarian of a large library in Brooklyn. He was subsequently book- keeper with a firm of publishers, while in 1857 he entered the employ of the manufacturing firm of Doty & Bergen, of which his father had been founder and head, and some time subsequent to the death of the latter succeeded to his father's interest in the business. In 1862 he purchased the interest of Mr. Bergen, and formed the firm of Doty & MeFarlan. This firm, with manufactory in Brooklyn and ware- house in New York, for many years has been one of the largest houses engaged in the manufacture of fancy papers in the United States.
MOORE, WILLIAM HENRY HELME, was graduated from Union College in 1844, studied law, and in 1847 was admitted to the bar, and was long prominent in New York City in the adjustment of marine losses. He became Third Executive Officer of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, being for thirty years its Second Vice-President. from 1886 to 1895 was its First Vice-President, and since 1895 has been its President. He is a trustee of the Atlantic Trust Company, and the Seamen's Bank for Savings, and is a director of the Phenix National Bank. He is President of the Life Saving Benevolent As- sociation, President of the Workingmen's Protective Union, President of the New York Port Society, is one of the vice-presidents of the American Geographical Society, and since 1882 has been a trustee of Union College. In 1890 he was elected President of the Union College Alumni Association. He is a member of the Union League and Re- form clubs, and the City Bar Association. He married Adelaide L. Lewis. Born in Sterling. L. I., in 1824, he is the son of Colonel Jere- miah Moore, and descends from Thomas Moore, born in England about 1615, who married Martha, daughter of Rev. Christopher Youngs, Vicar of Reydon, Suffolk, England, emigrated to Salem, Mass., in 1636, and eventually settled at Southold, L. I., where he was the largest taxpayer, was Representative to the Connecticut Gen- eral Court. was Chief Town Officer, and a Member of the first New York Provincial Assembly. Through his mother, Julia Brush, he also descends from Rev. George Phillips, one of the founders of Watertown, Mass .. in 1630, who had been born in Rainham, England, in 1593, and was graduated from Cambridge University, England.
MACKEY, CHARLES WILLIAM, head of the law firm of Mackey, Forbes & Hughes, of Franklin, Pa., spends the greater portion of his time in the office which he has long maintained in New York City. He is President of the Indiana Central Railroad Company, President of the Franklin Steel Casting Company, President of the Pennsylva- nia Mining and Milling Company, President of the Anglo-American Oxide Company, Vice-President of the Firth Sterling Steel Com- pany, and Vice-President of the Wheeler Sterling Projectile Com-
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pany. He is President of the American Axe and Tool Company. He is Vice-President of the New York Connecting Railway Company, having in hand the project of building a bridge across the East River between Morrisania and Brooklyn. IIe is Vice-President and General Counsel of the Colorado and Northwestern Railway Com- pany. He is President of the Columbia Gas Light and Fuel Company, which supplies natural gas to.Sharon, Mercer, Meadville, Oil City, and other places in Pennsylvania, having been its organizer. He organ- ized and is President of the Franklin Natural Gas Company of Franklin, Pa. He was President of the American Oxide Company prior to its recent sale to the National Lead Company. He is Presi- dent of the Pennsylvania Reduction Company, which has recently erected at Boulder, Col., one of the largest plants for the reduction of gold and other ores in the United States. He is Vice-Presi- dent of the Shenango Coal and Min- ing Company, one of the largest coal companies of Western Penn- sylvania. IIe is a director of the Savings Bank of Franklin, Pa., the Emlenton Bank of Emleuton, Pa., and the Edenburgh Bank of Eden- burgh, Pa. He organized the Co- lumbia Spring Company, a combi- nation of nearly all the manufac- turers of springs in America, and was for some time one of its officers. He also organized the National Lead Trust, the American Axe and Tool Company. and other notable consolidations. He was for many CHARLES WILLIAM MACKEY. years Attorney of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, a branch of the Pennsylvania system. He projected the Olean, Bradford, and Warren Railroad, subsequently absorbed by the Western New York and Pennsylvania system, and was its Vice-President and General So- licitor. Of the Pittsburg, Bradford and Buffalo Railroad, now linked with the Pittsburg and Western, he was both projector and Presi- dent. He was one of the organizers of the Cincinnati and South Eastern Railroad, now a part of the Chesapeake and Ohio system, and was its Vice-President and General Solicitor. He was a director and General Solicitor of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad Com- pany. Formerly President of the Norfolk and Virginia Beach Rail- road Company, under his management it established at Virginia Beach, near Norfolk, one of the well-known winter resorts of the country. He was born in Franklin, Pa., November 19, 1842, re-
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ceived a good education, acquired the printer's trade, and published a newspaper when a boy. At the age of eighteen he studied law with his brother-in-law, Hon. Charles E. Taylor, subsequently Presi- dent-Judge of the Venango District, Pennsylvania. After the firing upon Sumter, he assisted in organizing the first company raised in his county for the Civil War, which became Company C of the Tenth Regiment, Pennsylvania Reserve Volunteer Corps; rose to the rank of First Lieutenant, and, when mustered out, July 11, 1863, had par; ticipated in numerous battles, from Dranesville to Gettysburg, and served as Ordnance Officer on the staffs of General M'Call and Gen- eral E. O. C. Ord. By appointment of Secretary Chase, from August, 1863, to August 1, 1865, he served as Special Agent for the United States Treasury for the Eastern Virginia and North Carolina District. At the close of the war he became a member of the law firm of Tay- lor & Gilfillan, of Franklin, Pa. In 1875 he was admitted to prac- tice in the Supreme Court of the United States, on motion of Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, formerly Attorney-General of the United States. Mr. Mackey was the Republican candidate for Congress in the Twen- ty-seventh Pennsylvania District in 1884, and again in 1886, but failed of election, though receiving the largest majorities received by a Republican in the district for many years. He did effective work as a campaign speaker in New York and New Jersey in 1888. He was Captain in the Pennsylvania National Guard in 1872 and 1873. IIe is Past Commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, a mem- ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, of the New York Medi- co-Legal Society, the Army and Navy, Lawyers', Colonial, and Hard- ware clubs of New York City, the Grosvenor Club of London, the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg, and the Nursery Club of Franklin, Pa. He is a Knights Templar, District Deputy Grand Master of Masons of Pennsylvania, and District Deputy Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons of Pennsylvania. He married, May 9, 1867, Lauretta B., daughter of the late Cyrus Paige Fay, of Columbus, Ohio. She descends from an old New England family, which settled at Hard- wick, Mass., in 1645. She is a member of the Daughters of the Revo- Intion, both her paternal grandfather and her maternal great-grand- father being distinguished officers in the Revolution. Mr. and Mrs. Mackey have six children -- Susan Taylor, wife of Edward Everett Hughes, her father's law partner; Myra Fay, wife of Cyrus Clarke Osborne. Representative of the Standard Oil Company at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Cyrus Fay, William Chase, Julia Ann, and Marion Paige Mackey.
CHANDLER, ALBERT BROWN, has long been prominently iden- tified with some of the most important telegraph corporations, and latterly has also interested himself in electric lighting. At the pres- ent time he is President of the Sprague Electric Company, President
L
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of the Electric Building, Loan and Savings Association, Acting Presi- dent of the Pacific Postal Telegraph Company, Vice-President and General Manager of the New York Quotation Company, Trustee of the Dime Savings Bank of Brooklyn, and a director of the Commercial Cable Company, the Postal Telegraph Cable Company, the Brooklyn District Telephone Company, the American District Telephone Com- pany of Philadelphia, the United States and Hayti Telegraph and Telephone Company, the Commercial Cable Building Company, the Sprague Electric Elevator Company, and the Van Kannel Revolving Door Company. In 1858, at the age of eighteen, he became Manager of the Western Union Telegraph office at Bellaire, Ohio, and sub- sequently was employed in Pittsburg. In 1863 he became cipher operator in the War Department at Washington, and was also Gen- eral Eckert's Disbursing Clerk. Upon the consolidation of the tele- graph companies in 1866 he became Chief Clerk in the Superintend- ent's office, Eastern Division, and had charge of the transatlantic cable service. Becoming Assistant General Manager of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, in January, 1875, he was successively Secretary, Trustee, Treasurer, Vice-President, and in 1879 President, so remaining until its absorption into the Western Union in 1882. In 1881 he had been elected President of the Fuller Electrical Company. In December, 1884, John W. Mackay employed him as counsel of the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company, and in 1885 he was appointed Receiver of the same. Upon its reorganization he was elected Presi- dent and Manager. He also became President of the Commercial Telegraph Company, Vice-President of the Commercial Cable Com- pany, Vice-President of the Pacific Postal Telegraph Company, and Manager of the United Lines Telegraph Company. He was likewise President of the Brooklyn District Telephone Company. Through his exertions the New York Stock Exchange obtained control of the Commercial Telegraph Company. In 1887 he arranged uniform rates with the Western Union, terminating a severe competition.
MAIRS, WILLIAM II., as the head of William H. Mairs & Com- pany, whose establishment he founded in 1857, has long ranked as the leading manufacturer of wall paper in the United States, and he is now Treasurer of the National Wall Paper Company. He was born in Utica, N. Y .. June 29, 1834, the son of John Mairs and Rachel. daughter of James Van Deusen, of Leeds, N. Y. ITis grandfather was a Presbyterian clergyman. Rev. James Mairs, who came from the north of Ireland to Saratoga County, New York, about 1790. He is also seventh in descent from JJan Franse Van Hussam, who came from Holland about 1645, and made large purchases of land in the vicinity of Fort Orange, now Albany. His father, for a quarter of a century a merchant in Utica, removed to Brooklyn in 1845. Mr. Mairs attended the Brooklyn Mechanics' Institute. From 1850 to
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