USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume III, Pt. 2 > Part 24
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CONVERSE. EDMUND COGSWELL. for a quarter of a century connected with the National Tube Works Company, of Boston, of which he is President and General Manager, has for a number of years resided in New York City. and is an officer of various important cor- porations. He is President of the National Standard Insurance Com- pany. General Manager and Director of the Mckeesport Connecting Railway Company, a Trustee of the American Bank Note Company. and a director of the Liberty National Bank. the National Surety Company, the Lafayette Fire Insurance Company, and the Assurance Company, of America. He was born in Boston, November 7, 1849. and educated in the Boston Latin School. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, New York Athletic, and Lawyers' clubs; the Sons of the American Revolution. and the Society of Colonial Wars." He is the son of the late James Cogswell Converse, one of the : founders of the Boston Board of Trade, of which he was also Presi- dent, and from 1869 until his death in 1891. President of the National Tube Works, of Mckeesport. Pa. His wife was Sarah Ann Peabody. The grandparents of Mr. Converse were Rev. James Converse and Me- hitable, daughter of William Cogswell. his grandfather having been a graduate from Harvard. a member of the Vermont Legislature, and
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State Chaplain of Vermont. His ancestor, Edward Convers, who set- tled in Salem, Mass .. in 1630, and subsequently in Charlestown, was born in 1590 in Wakerly, Northamptonshire, being eleventh in descent from Sir Humphrey Convers, of Sockburn, England, who was in turn sixth from Roger Coigneries, of France and Durham, England.
SLAVEN, HENRY BARTHOLOMEW, organized the firm of Slaven Brothers, of San Francisco, large contractors, and in 1878 obtained from De Lesseps the contract to execute the Pacific coast operations connected with the Panama Canal, as well as to do all the preliminary work, including the erection of buildings, on the Isthmus of Panama. In 1880 he went to the Isthmus in person, with two steamers loaded with materials, provisions, and men. Finding the men incapacitated by malaria, he inaugurated the policy of employ- ing native labor. In 1882 his firm closed a contract to construct the Atlantic Division of the canal, from Aspinwall to Bohio Soldado, a see- tion sixteen miles long, the project of the changing of the course of the Chagres River being involved. Coming to New York City, which henceforth became his headquar- ters, Mr. Slaven organized the American Contracting and Dredg- ing Company, of which he was President, the late Eugene Kelly being its Treasurer. The work was done with eight gigantic dredges, the largest in the world, costing HENRY BARTHOLOMEW SLAVEN. $150,000 each. Upon the comple- tion of the contract in 1889, Mr. Slaven's company was paid $25,000,000 by the De Lesseps Company. A further contract, for the completion of the enterprise, was abour to be awarded, when the collapse of the French corporation occurred. At the present time Mr. Slaven is President of the Chase Granite Com- pany of Bluehill, Me., and a director of the Traders' and Travelers' Accident Company. For a number of years he was a director and prin cipal owner of the American Union Life Insurance Company. He was born in Pictou, Ontario, October 19, 1853, the son of Patrick Slaven, a successful stockraiser. He attended the common schools; at the age of ten entered a drug store, also attending night schools; at the age of seventeen was graduated from the Ontario College of Pharmacy. and spent the next two years at a Philadelphia medical college. He held a responsible position in a large wholesale and retail drug estab-
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lishment in Philadelphia, and from 1873 to 1876 managed a similar business in Canada. In 1876 he established at San Francisco the largest drug business on the Pacific Coast, two years later disposing of it to engage in contracting enterprises.
SMITH, G. WALDO, long established in New York City in the wholesale grocers' trade, is President of the Wholesale Grocers' As- sociation of New York and vicinity, Vice-President of the National Board of Trade, and a director of the Home Bank. He is the son of Thomas W. Smith and Emma Mapes, niece of General Jonas Mapes, commander of the forces in this city during the War of 1812, and cousin of the late Professor James A. Mapes. His grandfather, Sam- uel Smith, was great-great-grandson of Colonel Richard Smith, of Smithtown, L. I., where he settled in 1665, becoming sole owner of the entire township under a patent issued March 3, 1665, by Governor Richard Nicolls, of New York, by authority of James, Duke of York. Mr. Smith's father was born in Smithtown, April 17, 1789; his mother was born May 25, 1793.
GODDARD, JOSEPH WARREN, in 1848 founded, and, until his · death, September 18, 1890, was the head of the drygoods house of J. W. Goddard & Sons, one of the largest in the country and with few peers in its specialty of linings, silks, and mohairs. He was Vice-President of the Greenwich Savings Bank, a trustee of the Wom- an's Hospital, a member of Dr. Bellows's Church and his active sup- porter in the work of the sanitary commission, while, during the Civil War, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the Union League Club. When the threat was made to mob the first colored regiment organized in this city during the war, he was one of forty members of the Union League Club who marched down Broadway at the head of the troops. He married, in 1854, Celestine, daughter of Baldwin Gardiner, and eighth in lineal descent from Lionel Gar- diner, of Gardiner Island. He was himself born in New York City, June 11, 1829, the son of Joseph Goddard, of Brookline, Mass, and - Elizabeth, daughter of Birdseye Norton, of Goshen, Conn. At the age of nineteen he started in the drygoods business in this city. at 45 William Street. In 1851, his brother, F. N. Goddard, became a partner under the style of Goddard & Brother. For five years they were at 55 Maiden Lane, a Mr. Merrill being a partner for one year. They removed to 20 Park Place in 1857, to 331-33 Broadway in 1861. and to 461-67 Broadway in 1876. F. N. Goddard retired in 1879, while Warren N. Goddard, son of the founder, became his partner, January 1, 1880, under the firm style of J. W. Goddard & Son. In 1882 they removed to 516 Broadway. January 1, 1883, the younger son. F. Norton Goddard, became a partner, under the style, since con- tinned, of J. W. Goddard & Sons. Both sons were graduated from
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Harvard. Warren N. is a trustee of the Greenwich Savings Bank. After the death of Mr. Goddard they removed to the present location on Bleecker Street.
KNAPP, SHEPPARD, is President of Sheppard Knapp & Com- pany, the large carpet firm, which he founded in 1855, and is also President of the Knapp Rubber Binding Company. President of the Review Publishing Company. and a director of the Leadville Mining Company and the Small Hopes Consolidated Mining Company. He originated the Smyrna American carpet. Born in Yorktown, Westches- ter County, N. Y., August 30, 1839, he is the son of Jacob Frost Knapp, and is lineally descended from Moses Knapp, who, born in New England in 1655, immigrated to Westchester County, was one of the trustees' names in the royal charter of White Plains, March 13, 1721. and died at the advanced age of 101. Mr. Knapp came to this city in 1852, at the age of thirteen, secured a clerkship, and saved enough to procure for him a year's course at the Bordentown (N. J.) Academy. Returning, he was employed in the fancy drygoods trade, and later in a carpet store. In 1855, at the age of sixteen, he formed a part- nership with a fellow clerk and established the carpet firm of Shep- pard Knapp & Company. He was married. in 1863, to Sarah E .. daughter of Hiram Miller, of New York City, and has five children.
DORMAN, ORLANDO PORTER, President of the Gilbert Manu- facturing Company since 1881, when he organized it and secured its incorporation, is one of the largest manufacturers of dress linings in the United States. He is Senior Warden of the Church of the Heavenly Rest, as he is also of the Church of the Holy Spirit. He has furnished the means for the education of several young men for the ministry and has been otherwise active in benevolent work. He is a member of the New England Society. He married, in 1850. Delia Ann Taylor, of Hartford, Conn., and has a daughter, Mrs. Franklin H. Smith, Jr., and a son, Harry I. Dorman, now in business with his father. Born in Ellington, Conn., February 3, 1828, Mr. Dorman received an academic education, and entered a drygoods store in Hartford. Coming to this city five years later, he entered the employ of the late William H. Lee and eventually became a member of the firm of Lee, Case & Company, and of its successor, William H. Lee & Company. He retired from this business before organizing the Gilbert Manufacturing Company. The son of Hon. Orlin C. Dorman and Juliana Doane, on the paternal side he is descended from Thomas Dorman, who became a freeman of Ipswich, Mass., in 1636, and was subsequently a founder of Boxford, Mass., and on the maternal side descends from John Doane, who arrived at Plymouth in 1621. and became Assistant and Deputy.
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BARRETT, CLARENCE TYNAN, a director of the First National Bank of Staten Island, and of Barrett Nephews & Company, Old Staten Island Dyeing Establishment, was long President of the latter corporation, in 1880 succeeding in that position his uncle, the late Colonel Nathan Barrett, founder of the establishment. Major Clar- ence T. Barrett was a sanitary engineer by profession at the time of his election as President, and he at once inaugurated great improve- ments in the arrangements of the works and the operating plant, while also introducing new machinery and sinking artesian wells. He was born at Rahway, N. J., August 19, 1840, the son of John Thorndike Barrett and Alice Tynan. His great-grandfather, Captain Nathan Barrett, and his great-great-grandfather, Colonel James Barrett, were Revolutionary soldiers, commanding troops at the Battle of Concord. Their ancestor was Humphrey Barrett, who was born in Kent, England, in 1592, and settled in Concord, Mass., in 1639. Mr. Clar- ence T. Barrett was educated in public and private schools, and studied landscape architecture. During the Civil War he entered the service of the Union as Second Lieutenant of the One Hundred and Seventy-fifth New York Volun- teers, and saw service in the De- partment of the Gulf. He was, successively, Adjutant of his regi- ment, Acting Assistant Adjutant- General of the Third Brigade, Sec- ond Division, Nineteenth Corps; Aid-de-camp to General C. Grover, Acting Assistant Adjutant-Gen- CLARENCE TYNAN BARRETT. eral on the staff of General W. H. Emory, and Aid to General E. R. S. Canby. He was commissioned Captain, and, for meritorious services in the siege of Spanish Fort, was brevetted Major. Returning to civil life, he resumed his profession of landscape architect and civil engineer. For seven years he was a Police Commissioner of Richmond County, and for five years was Superintendent of the Poor. He has also been a school trustee. ITo is a trustee of the S. R. Smith Infirmary, and a member of the Loyal Legion and of various Masonic bodies. He married Anna E., daughter of William D. Hutchings and Elizabeth Parmly ..
POST, GEORGE B., President of the Architectural League of New York, and Secretary and Trustee of the Post Building Company. is one of the most eminent architects of the United States. The edi-
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fices erected by him include the Equitable, Times, World, Mills, and Havemeyer buildings; the New York Hospital, Chickering Hall, the Produce Exchange, the Cotton Exchange, and the Fifth Avenue resi- dence of C. P. Huntington. He enjoys high social position, and is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Century, and Knickerbocker clubs. Born in this city, December 15, 1837, he was graduated in civil engineering from the New York University in 1858, and attended the Architectural School presided over by Richard M. Hunt. In 1861 he formed a partnership with Charles D. Gambrill, a classmate. Ile went to the front during the Civil War as Captain of a company in the Twenty-second New York, and rose to the rank of Colonel. During the battle of Fredericksburg he was Aid on the staff of General Burn- side. He was married, in 1863, to Alice M., daughter of William W. Stone, a prominent merchant of this city and Boston. One of his sons, George B., Jr., is a stockbroker; another, Allison Wright, is a lawyer; a third, William Stone, is an architect, in business with his father.
HUNT, RICHARD HOWLAND, the well-known architect, is the son of the late Richard Morris Hunt, long one of the famous architects in the United States, and the President of the American Institute of Architects at New York from 1887 until his death in 1895. He is the grandson of Hon. Jonathan Hunt. Member of Congress, and Lieu- tenant-Governor of Vermont. His mother was Catherine Clinton, daughter of the late Samuel Shaw Howland, senior partner of the mercantile firm of Howland & Aspinwall, and a lineal descendant of John Howland, who came over in the Mayflower. Born in Paris. France, March 14, 1862, Mr. Hunt was educated at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Ecole de Beaux Arts, Paris. He then became his father's business associate until the death of the latter, since which time he has continued his profession alone. He is a mem- ber of the Chamber of Commerce, the American Institute of Architects. the New York Chapter of American Institute of Architects, the Na- tional Sculpture Society, the Architectural League of New York, the Society of Beaux Arts. Architects, and the Municipal Art Society. He is also a member of the Century, Tuxedo, Players', Racquet and Tennis. Meadow Brook, Garden City Gun, Carteret Gun, American Kennel. French Bull Dog, and Boston Terrier clubs. He was married in Eng- land, September 16, 1885, to Pearl Carley, and has three children- Richard, Francis, and Jonathan.
ALLEN, JOEL ASAPH, naturalist, author, and Curator of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology in the American Museum of Nat- ural History in New York City since 1885, was born in Springfield, Mass., July 19, 1838, and was educated at the Wilbraham Academy,
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and under Agassiz at the Lawrence Scientific School, Harvard Uni- versity. He accompanied Agassiz to Brazil in 1865, and was a mem- ber of scientific expeditions to Florida in 1869, and to the Rocky Mountains in 1871. He was Assistant in the Ornithological Depart- ment of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., from 1871 to 1885. In 1871 he took the Humboldt Scholarship. In 1873 he was Chief of the Scientific Staff of a Government expedition in connection with the survey for the Northern Pacific Railroad. From 1876 to 1883 he was Editor of the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornitholog- ical Club, and from 1883 to 1898 of The Auk, an ornithological quar- terly, and also Editor of the publications ( Bulletin and Memoirs) of the American Museum of Natural History. He was President of the American Ornithologists' Union from 1883 to 1891, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the National Acad- emy of Sciences. Professor Allen received the title of Doctor of Phi- losophy from Indiana University in 1886. He has published many works on natural history, and has been joint author with Professor Elliott Coues. Among his publica -. tions are : " Mammals and Winter Birds of East Florida " (1871), " The American Bisons, Living and Extinct " (1872) ; " Monographs of North American Rodentia " (with Elliott Coues, 1877); "The Geo- graphical Distribution of the Mam- malia " (1878), "History of the North American Pinnipeds" JOEL. ASAPH ALLEN. (1880), " The Geographical Origin and Distribution of North American Birds" (1893), and also several hundred papers relating to the mammals and birds of North and South America. He descends from Samuel Allen, who was born in Brain- tree, Essex County, England, in 1588, in 1632 settled at Cambridge. Mass., and subsequently removed to Windsor, Conn., where he died in April, 1648. On his mother's side he is descended from John Trum- bull, who came from Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, about 1637, and in 1639 settled at Roxbury, Mass.
HUME, WILLIAM HENRY, one of the eminent architects of New York City, is the designer of the New Netherland Hotel, built for William Waldorf Astor (see Volume I. of this work, page 540, for cut ) :
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the Mutual Reserve Building, Broadway and Duane Street; the Emi- grant Savings Bank, the North River Savings Bank, the Hotel Nor- mandie, the Wynkoop Building, the Spingler Building, the Presby- terian Church and Lecture Hall, Central Park West; the Hebrew Orphan Asylum, the Asylum of St. Vincent de Paul, the Lotos Club- house, the drygoods store of II. C. F. Koch & Company, and many other edifices in this city, as well as the Masonic Home, at Utica, N. Y. He is a director of the East River National Bank, the Mu- tual Reserve Fund Life "Association, and the Lotos Club; while he is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce, the Ser -. enth Regiment Veterans, Lotos, and Republican clubs, and the U'p- town Association. He was born in New York City, March 22, 1831, the son of Alexander Hume, a merchant of New York City, and Anne Clayton. He is of Scotch ancestry. He was educated in this city and pursued his professional studies with one of the most eminent architects of the last generation. He engaged in business for himself in 1857. He was an officer in the Seventh Regiment, National Guard of the State of New York, for some time, including the period of the Civil War, and participated in the campaigns of 1861, 1862, and 1863. He was Adjutant of the regiment during the campaign of 1863. He married, in 1856, Elizabeth Humphreys Norris, and has three sons -- William A., Frederic T., and Henry M. Hume, and a daughter, Eliza- beth L., all of whom were born in this city. In 1893 the present firm of William H. Hume & Son was formed, Frederic T. Hume becoming his father's partner. The eldest son, William A. Hume, is a physician. engaged in practice in Manhattan Borough, New York City. The youngest son, Henry M. Hume, is engaged in banking, as head of the firm of H. M. Hume & Company, and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
AUDSLEY, WILLIAM JAMES, head of the well-known firm of architects, W. & G. Audsley, formerly of Liverpool and London, Eng- land, and now of New York City, was born in Dufftown, Banttshire. Scotland, October 21, 1833. Like his distinguished brother, George Ashdown Audsley, he early exhibited a taste for architectural drawing and design. Having removed to Liverpool in 1856, the brothers were engaged on Ripley Hospital at Lancaster, England, and the Public Li- brary and Museum of Liverpool. In 1861 they began practice as archi- tects in Liverpool, about the same time publishing " The Sermon on the Mount, Illuminated," a study in medieval ornamental arts. Among the important edifices designed by them in Liverpool are the Welsh Church, Prince's Road; Christ Church, Kensington; the Church of St. Margaret, Belmont Road; the Jewish Synagogue, Prince's Road: the Racquet Club and Courts, Parliament Street, and the Liverpool AArt Club Gallery. St. Margaret's is said to have the most beautiful brick
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interior of any church in England. In 1876 both brothers were elected Fellows of the Royal Institute of British Architects. In 1884 they removed their office to London, where they had erected the West End Synagogue, Bayswater. Other specimens of their work are the Church of St. Mary, Lancaster, England; churches at Wrexham, Chester, Rhyl, and Garston, in the same country, and the English Church at Grasse, France. In 1892 they removed to New York, and are the designers of the notable Bowling Green Offices of this city. The Lay- ton Art Gallery, of Milwaukee. Wis., designed by them, has also at- tracted much attention.
AUDSLEY, GEORGE ASHDOWN, of the firm of W. & G. Auds- ley, architects and decorative artists, has a world-wide reputation as a writer and critic on architecture, as well as one of the most artistic and original of designers. Before reaching the age of seventeen he had designed two cathedrals. The work which he published in 1861, in conjunction with his brother, " The Sermon on the Mount, Illumi- nated," remains the most beautiful of modern illuminated books. It induced a London publishing firm to invite him to prepare his " Guide to the Art of Illuminating and Missal Painting." An illuminated copy of " The Prisoner of Chillon " followed, while Mr. Audsley also published a " Handbook of Christian Symbolism." His " Cottage, Lodge, and Villa Architecture " is an illustrated essay on artistic house-building. He is the author of the published volumes of the " Popular Dictionary of Architecture and the Allied Arts." Among other notable volumes, all magnificently illustrated, we may mention " Polychromatic Decoration as Applied to Buildings in the Medieval Styles," published in English, French, and German, and character- ized as " a grammar of Gothic Decoration," " Outlines of Ornament in all Styles " (1881), "The Practical Decorator," " The Keramic AArt of Japan " (two volumes ), " The Art of Chromolithography," and " The Ornamental Arts of Japan." The volume last mentioned treats of " Drawing, Painting, Engraving, Color Printing, Embroidery on silk, Ornamental Weaving in silk and gold, Application, Incrusting and Inlaying in various colored materials, Lacquer Working on dif- ferent materials, Carving in wood and ivory, Metal Working in gold. silver, bronze, and iron, and Cloisonne Enameling." Mr. Andsley delivered lectures, " Notes on Japanese Art," before the Architec- tural Association of London in 1872; " The Influence of Decorative Art and Art Workmanship in Household Details," before the Social Science Congress in 1876, and on " Household Taste," in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1883. He has received the degree of Doctor of Laws. He was born in Elgin, Elginshire, Scotland, September 6, 1838. A bio- graphical and critical account of his work, by the distinguished novel- ist. T. II. Hall Caine, was published in 1881.
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SCHICKEL, WILLIAM, senior member of the well-known firm of Schickel & Ditmars, architects on Fifth Avenue, was born in Wies- baden, Germany, in 1850, was educated as an architect in Germany, traveled in Italy, France, and Germany to complete his professional studies, and since 1873 has been established in business as an archi- tect in New York City. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a member of the Architectural League, the New York Chamber of Commerce, the German and Catholic clubs, and the Up town Association. Among the notable examples of his work are St. Ig- natius Church of this city, the Constable Building, at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Eighteenth Street; the residence of I. Stern, on Fifth Avenue, and St. Joseph's Seminary, of Valentine Hill, Yonkers, the advanced theological seminary of the Archdiocese of New York for the higher education of the Catholic clergy. The latter is a notable structure. On the occasion of its dedication Cardinal Satolli, the. Papal Delegate, characterized it as a " marvelous building,
grand in its architectural design," while Bishop McQuaid described it as " a seminary the like of which does not exist anywhere in the world." The main building is 360 feet long, with wings which project SO feet, while its highest point is 150 feet from the ground. It is built with a stone quarried from the seminary grounds. The chapel, 40 by 130 feet, is an exquisite specimen of architectural art. The cor- nerstone was laid May 17, 1891, while the completed edifice was dedi- cated August 12, 1896. In the souvenir volume published in 1896. "The History of St. Joseph's Seminary of New York," the obligation to the architects is thus acknowledged: " The architects, William Schickel & Company, were intrusted by His Grace with the planning and the execution of this great work, and they have certainly suc- ceeded in embodying the noble thoughts of its founder, in designing a building monumental in character, useful and well adapted in its arrangements, and solid and substantial in construction, so that for ages the Seminary will stand as the cradle and home of the priesthood of the Archdiocese."
FERNBACH, HENRY, the architect, who died in New York City, November 12, 1883, designed many prominent buildings in New York City, including those of the Staats Zeitung, the German Savings Bank, the Institution for Deaf Mutes, the Eden Musée, and the Harmonie Club. He also designed the Temple Emanu-EI, on Fifth Avenue; the Synagogue Ahavath Chesed, on Lexington Avenue, and the first Jew- ish Orphan Asylum, at Seventy-first Street and Third Avenue. He took the first prize in architecture at the Centennial Exposition at Phil- adelphia in 1876, with his design of the Mutual Life Insurance Build- ing, Philadelphia. He was born in Breslau, Silesia, Germany, in April. 1829, and came to New York City in 1848, when nineteen years of age. He had been educated as an architect in a technical school in Germany.
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