USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 11
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Nor did real estate monopolize his attention. He made in- vestments in many other directions, with unfailing success. Among his enterprises was the founding of the Second Na- tional Bank of this city, an institution that became so profit- able that in a few years it repaid all its original capital to its stock-holders in a single dividend. In later years Mr. Eno's son, John C. Eno, became president of this bank. In May, 1884, it was found that he had used its funds for private speculations, and the bank was insolvent. Almost heartbroken over his son's conduct, Mr. Eno rose to the occasion with the splendid integ- rity that had distinguished him all his life. At a cost to him- self of nearly four million dollars, he paid all obligations of the bank in full and kept its doors open.
From this blow, however, Mr. Eno never recovered. He was then an old man,- his wife, a daughter of Elisha Phelps of Simsbury, had died in 1882,- and his health now began to de- cline. He devoted himself to the study of Latin, French, and Italian, mastering those languages and reading their best litera- ture at an age when most men who survive to it are becoming senile. Finally, on February 21, 1898, he died peacefully at his New York home. He left six children : Amos F. Eno, John C. Eno, Dr. Henry C. Eno, and William Phelps Eno, of this city, and Mrs. James W. Pinchot and Mrs. Wood. He left, too, a name second to no other in the history of the metropolis for business foresight and ability, and for unfailing and unswerving integrity and honor.
JOHN H. FLAGLER
T THE name of Flagler has long been conspicuously identified with leading financial, industrial, and commercial interests in the city of New York and elsewhere, and is borne by more than one man who has, through the force of personal ability and worth, made his way from the comparatively quiet walks of life to the command of vast enterprises. Of these none is better known or has achieved more positive success than John H. Flagler, the subject of the present sketch.
Mr. Flagler is a native of the Empire State, which has been the scene of a large share of his business activities, having been born at Cold Spring, on the Hudson River, about the middle of the century. He received a good practical education, and then, at an early age, devoted himself to business pursuits. For these, in more than one department of activity and enterprise, he has exhibited an exceptional aptitude, and in them has attained an exceptional measure of success.
Reference is made to business pursuits in the plural advisedly, for Mr. Flagler has mastered the art of keeping a number of irons in the fire without letting any of them get burned. He has long been, and is to-day, associated with a large number of enterprises of different kinds. He is able to devote a due amount of atten- tion to each and all, and to make himself felt as a guiding force in each.
Among the most important of Mr. Flagler's business under- takings is that of the National Tube Works Company. He was the founder and organizer of that great corporation, and has been identified with every step of its development. In that capacity he well earned the title of a "captain of industry." Another manufacturing enterprise with which he is identified, dealing
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with one of the newest products of American ingenuity, and having almost inestimable promise of future development, is the Automobile Company of America. This corporation, of which Mr. Flagler is president, is taking a foremost part in perfecting horseless vehicles of various types, and in supplying the rapidly increasing demand for them. To what extent the world is enter- ing upon a "horseless age " remains yet to be seen. Certain it is that various forms of mechanical propulsion and traction have already taken the place of horse-power, not only on fixed railroad tracks, but for general use on all roads. The practicability and success of some of these seem now to be well established, and in their future extension Mr. Flagler and the corporation of which he is the president and guiding spirit will doubtless maintain a leading place.
In addition to these manufacturing enterprises, Mr. Flagler is actively interested in matters of pure finance, especially as a director of the National Bank of North America, one of the best- known institutions of the kind in New York. His interest and participation in the great business of fire and life insurance are attested by his being a director of the National Standard Insur- ance Company, the Assurance Company of America, and the American Union Life Insurance Company. He is also a director of the Crocker-Wheeler Company and of the National Mercantile Agency Company.
Mr. Flagler has not put himself forward in political matters beyond the worthy rank of a private citizen. In clubs and other social organizations he is well known, being a member of a num- ber of the best of them in New York city and elsewhere. Among those to which he belongs are the Lotus, the Lawyers', the Democratic, the American Yacht, the New York Yacht, and some other clubs of New York city, the Lake Hopatcong Club of New Jersey, the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, the Scars- dale Golf Club of Scarsdale, New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
CHARLES RANLETT FLINT
TN the year 1642 Thomas Flint, an emigrant from Wales, ar- rived in Salem, Massachusetts, and settled in that part of the township which is now South Danvers. One of his numerous descendants was Benjamin Flint, a ship-owner of Thomaston, Maine, who in 1858 removed to New York city, where he be- came a successful merchant. His son, Charles Ranlett Flint, was born in Thomaston, Maine, on January 24, 1850. He was educated in the schools of his native town, and in those of Brooklyn, the family residence after their removal to New York, and was graduated from the Brooklyn Polytechnic In- stitute, president of his class and one of its brightest members.
Electing a business career, Mr. Flint became, in 1872, one of the founders of the firm of W. R. Grace & Co. In 1874 he made the first of his many visits to South America, and in 1876 he organized the firm of Grace Brothers & Co. of Callao, Peru. Mr. Flint remained on the west coast of South America nearly a year, and upon his return to New York was appointed consul for the republic of Chile. In 1878 Mr. Flint organized the Export Lumber Company, Limited, now one of the most successful lumber concerns in the United States, with yards in Michigan, Ottawa, Montreal, Portland, Boston, and New York, and handling over two million feet of lumber per year.
In 1880 he was identified with electrical development, being elected president of the United States Electric Lighting Com- pany. He visited Brazil in 1884 and established a large rubber business on the river Amazon. Upon his return he was ap- pointed consul of Nicaragua at New York, and represented that country in negotiations which resulted in concessions being granted to Americans to build a canal. He has also been in
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recent years consul-general of Costa Rica in this country. In 1885 Mr. Flint retired from the firm of W. R. Grace & Co. and entered the well-known firm of Flint & Co., composed of his father, Benjamin Flint, and his brother, Wallace Benjamin Flint. This firm succeeded to the shipping business established by Benjamin Flint in 1840, and the lumber, rubber, and general commission business created by Charles R. Flint. During the winter of 1889-90 Mr. Flint was appointed a delegate of the United States to the International Conference of American Republics, which was held in the city of Washington. His inti- mate knowledge of the South American continent enabled him to render important services as a member of that conference.
Mr. Flint's financial ability has been conspicuously exhibited during the last few years by the consummation of several under- takings of great importance. In 1891 he united the manufacturers of rubber boots and shoes in this country into one large concern under the title of the United States Rubber Company, having a capital of forty million dollars, of which corporation he became the treasurer. In 1892 he brought about a union of five companies manufacturing rubber belting, packing, and hose, under the title of the Mechanical Rubber Company, with a capital of fifteen million dollars, of which concern he is a director and chairman of the finance committee.
A little later he was sent by the United States government on a confidential mission to Brazil to negotiate a reciprocity treaty. His relations with the Brazilian republic have been very close, and when the reestablishment of the empire was threatened Mr. Flint was empowered by the President, General Peixoto, to purchase vessels and munitions of war. Through his efforts Ericsson's Destroyer, the two converted yachts which became torpedo-boats, and the steamships made into the armed cruisers America and Nictheroy, were turned over to the Brazilian republic. Mr. Flint's generous services to the United States government in affairs relating to South America earned him the esteem and warm personal friendship of James G. Blaine and many other public men. In 1894-95 he brought about the consolidation of the export department of his firm with the Coombs, Crosby & Eddy Co., under the corporate name of Flint, Eddy & Co., of whose board of directors he is chairman.
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In the summer of 1896, upon the death of Woodruff Sutton, the firm of Flint & Co., which has continued in the general banking and shipping business, established the Flint & Com- pany Pacific Coast Clipper Line between New York and San Francisco. In 1899 Mr. Flint brought about the consolidation of the chief rubber companies of the United States under the title of the Rubber Goods Manufacturing Company, having a capital of fifty million dollars. He is the chairman of the executive committee and member of the board of directors.
He is a director in the National Bank of the Republic, the Produce Exchange Bank, the Knickerbocker Trust and the State Trust companies. He is also treasurer of the Hastings Pavement Company, the Manaos Electric Lighting Company, and the Manaos Railway Company, and was chairman of the reorganization committee which has recently consolidated the street railroads of Syracuse under the name of the Syracuse Rapid Transit Railway Company. He is one of the council of New York University, and is prominent in the club world, being a member of the Union, the Metropolitan, the Riding, and the South Side Sportsmen's clubs, the New England Society and the Century Association, and of the New York, Seawanhaka-Co- rinthian, and Larchmont yacht clubs. As a yachtsman Mr. Flint is well known as the sometime owner of the fast yacht Gracie, and as a member of the syndicate which built and raced the Vigilant. He is an equally enthusiastic sportsman with rod and gun, and has shot big game in the mountains and wildernesses of both North and South America.
He was married, in 1883, to Miss E. Kate Simmons, daughter of Joseph F. Simmons of Troy, New York. Mrs. Flint is a musician and a composer of great talent.
ROSWELL PETTIBONE FLOWER
E X-GOVERNOR FLOWER, who for many years was one of the most foremost figures in the financial and political world of the Empire State, and, indeed, in that of the whole Union, was remotely of Irish and French ancestry. The first of his name in this country was Lamrock Flower, who came from Ireland in 1685 and settled in Connecticut at Hartford. He had a son Lamrock, whose son Elijah moved to New Hartford, Con- necticut, and married Abigail Seymour. Their son George was one of the founders of Oakhill, Greene County, New York, and he married Roxaline Crowe of New Hartford, Connecticut, whose ancestors had come from Alsace, France. Their son Nathan, born in 1796, married Mary Ann Boyle, daughter of Thomas Boyle, the builder of the first waterworks in New York city. Nathan and Mary Ann Flower lived at Theresa, Jefferson County, New York, where the former was justice of the peace for many years, and to them at that place, on August 7, 1835, was born the subject of this sketch.
Roswell Pettibone Flower was left fatherless at the age of eight years. He was enabled, however, to acquire as good an education as the local schools could afford. Then he became a school-teacher himself, and engaged in various businesses. For a time he was a clerk in the post-office at Watertown, New York. Having amassed a small capital, he opened a jewelry store at Watertown, and conducted it with marked success. In the meantime he was a diligent student of law, history, and other branches of learning, fitting himself for the higher duties toward which his ambition tended.
A change came to his affairs soon after his marriage in 1859. His bride was Miss Sarah M. Woodruff of Watertown, New
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York, a sister of the wife of Henry Keep, a leading New York capitalist. Through this connection Mr. Flower became inter- ested in finance, and on the death of Mr. Keep, in 1869, he be- came administrator of the large estate left by him. Accordingly he moved to New York city and entered upon the career of a banker and broker. His first firm was that of Benedict, Flower & Co., the next R. P. Flower & Co., and finally Flower & Co.
The story of Mr. Flower's financial career would be a story of Wall Street for all the years in which he was in New York. He was one of the most influential and most trusted men in New York finance, his activities including banking and brokerage, and railroads.
Mr. Flower was an earnest Democrat, and in 1881 came con- spicuously before the public as a successful candidate for Con- gress from a New York city district, defeating William Waldorf Astor. The next year he was urged to become the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York, but declined in favor of Grover Cleveland, with results of great moment to the whole nation. He also declined renomination for Congress and nomi- nation for the Lieutenant-Governorship. In 1888 he was, how- ever, reëlected to Congress, and in 1891 he was elected Governor of New York State.
Mr. Flower was an officer in many important railroad and other companies, and a prominent member of numerous clubs of the best class. He was a man of wide and discriminating charities, setting apart one tenth of his income for such purposes. He built the St. Thomas House in New York, a center of work among the poor, the Flower Hospital in New York, and the Presbyterian Church at Theresa, New York, as a memorial to his parents. With his brother, Anson R. Flower, he built Trinity Episcopal Church at Watertown, New York. Of his three children only one is living, Mrs. John B. Taylor of Watertown. Mr. Flower died on May 12, 1899, and was succeeded in the bulk of his business by his brother, Anson R. Flower.
CHARLES A. GARDINER
CHARLES A. GARDINER was born in 1855, and is ノ descended from a long line of distinguished Scotch ances- try. His father's family has been prominent in Scotland for many generations, and includes to-day large landowners and members of the Scottish aristocracy. His mother belongs to one of the oldest families in Glasgow, whose members have long been leaders in the commercial, professional, and public life of that city.
When thirteen years of age he entered the academy at Fort Covington, New York, and completed the academic course at seventeen. He then attended the Hungerford Collegiate Insti- tute at Adams, New York, and was graduated after a two years' course, winning the Hungerford Prize for highest general scholar- ship, which entitled him to a four years' course at Hamilton College. In 1876 he was admitted to Hamilton College, and was graduated as valedictorian of his class in 1880, with the highest rank in scholarship of all graduates but one up to that date.
After graduation Mr. Gardiner studied law in the Hamilton College and Columbia law schools, and received the degree of LL. B. He then took a two years' postgraduate course in con- stitutional history and constitutional law at Syracuse University, and upon examination the university conferred on him the de- grees of A. M. and Ph. D.
In June, 1884, he came to New York and entered the law office of ex-Judge Horace Russell, where he remained until December of that year, when he entered the office of Messrs. Davies & Rapallo. In 1888 he became a member of that firm, and has retained his connection with it ever since.
The firm in 1884 numbered among its clients the elevated rail-
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road companies of the city of New York, and Mr. Gardiner at once became and has ever since been prominently identified with the defense in the celebrated elevated-railroad litigation.
In January, 1897, the officers and directors of these companies decided to establish a separate law department in connection with the general offices of the companies in the Western Union Build- ing, No. 195 Broadway, New York, and Mr. Gardiner was placed at the head of the department and made attorney of record for the entire system, comprising the Manhattan Railway Com- pany, the New York Elevated Railroad Company, the Metro- politan Elevated Railway Company, and the Suburban Rapid Transit Company.
It is no disparagement to the other learned and able counsel who have devoted their talents to the interests of the elevated railways to say that behind many of their most brilliant victories in the courts has been the work of the attorney who planned and shaped the methods of defense, and who, by the manner in which he prepared the material for their use, has done much to make their victories possible. Mr. Gardiner occupies to-day a unique and enviable position among the corporation lawyers of New York. But two or three as young as he can be said to have attained equal standing and reputation, or to have secured so excellent results for the corporations and individuals they represent.
Mr. Gardiner has maintained his interest in constitutional, historical, and social problems, has contributed to the "North American Review " and other publications, and has delivered addresses before historical and other societies on these subjects. He has done much original work in his favorite studies, and has collected with care a private library of several thousand volumes on constitutional and historical subjects.
He was married, in 1890, to Miss Alice May Driggs, and their home is at No. 697 Madison Avenue, New York city. He is a member of the Metropolitan and Democratic clubs, the Ardsley Country Club, the Association of the Bar, the Phi Beta Kappa Society, the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, and other societies and associations.
I. EGates
ISAAC EDWIN GATES
"THE founder of the Gates family in this country was Stephen Gates, who came from Norwich, England, and settled in Bos- ton, Massachusetts, in 1638. Thereafter members of the family in successive generations filled their places as members of the young commonwealth, contributing to its material and moral growth. The Hewitt family was also planted in New England at an early date, and both there and in other parts of the Union has had a conspicuous and honorable record.
In the last generations of these two families, Cyrus Gates and Patty Hewitt were married and lived in New London County, Connecticut, their home being a typical New England farm. There, at Preston, Connecticut, on January 2, 1833, their son, Isaac Edwin Gates, was born. The family was in modest circum- stances, and the boy, when he became old enough, had to " do chores " and perform the labors incident to farm life. It was his ambition, however, to acquire a first-class education, though to do so he had to work his way and pay his own expenses.
This he did with admirable success. He first attended the local public school. Then he sought preparation for college at the Connecticut Literary Institution, at Suffield, Connecticut. From the latter he proceeded to Madison (now Colgate) Univer- sity, at Hamilton, New York. At the latter institution he was also a student in the Theological Seminary, and upon the com- pletion of his course he was received into the ministry of the Baptist Church. He remained in that profession for nine years, his pastorate being quite successful. On May 1, 1869, however, he resigned his pastorate and retired from the ministry, on account of impaired health.
He then went into the railroad business. His first engagement
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was made on May 11, 1869, with the Central Pacific Railroad Company, and it took him into a part of the country favorable to the restoration of his health. He has maintained his connec- tion with that company, and with its successors, down to the present time. He has also been connected with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, the Elizabethtown, Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad, and the Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad, as secretary and treasurer.
Mr. Gates is now president of the Texas and New Orleans Railroad; acting vice-president and assistant secretary of the Southern Pacific Company ; treasurer of the Newport News Ship- building and Dry Dock Company ; treasurer of the Old Dominion Land Company ; assistant secretary of Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad and Steamship Company ; and assistant treasurer of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad.
Mr. Gates has never held nor sought political preferment, and has confined his political activities to the performance of the duties of a private citizen.
He is a member of the Quill Club of New York city, the New England Society of Orange, New Jersey, the Washington Society of New Jersey, and the Madison (now Colgate) University Chap- ter of the Phi Beta Kappa Fraternity.
He was married, in 1861, to Miss Ellen M. Huntington, who has borne him one daughter, Helen, now the wife of Archer M. Huntington.
EDWARD NATHAN GIBBS
T THE tide that, "taken at the flood, leads on to fortune," is found sometimes by chance, sometimes by earnest seeking. The former method may be the more spectacular; the latter is the more usual and by far the more certain of success. For every one who gains great wealth or power by happy chance, there are many who do so by virtue of fixed determination and patient effort. It is as true in business as in literature and art that genius is a capacity for hard work and for taking pains. Of this an admirable exemplification is found in the career of the subject of this sketch. In his very childhood he conceived the ambition to become a banker and financier. By stress of circumstances he was at times forced into other occupations ; but his mind remained fixed upon that single purpose, and his course was at every opportunity shaped toward that end, until in a more than ordinarily successful degree the ideal of his youth was realized and he became a prosperous banker and an ac- knowledged power in the financial world.
Edward Nathan Gibbs is of English ancestry and of New England birth. He was born at Blandford, Massachusetts, in January, 1841, and received his only class-room education in the public and high schools, ranking as an apt and attentive pupil. At the age of sixteen, when many of his comrades were thinking of entering college, he was constrained to lay aside his school- books for the account-books of a business office. First he became a clerk on the Berkshire division of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. He soon perceived, however, that in such a service-as in the army, according to "Benny Havens"- "promotions 's very slow," and that his rate of progress toward a bank presidency was infinitesimal; wherefore he presently gave
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up that place and became an accountant in a large dry-goods store at Pittsfield, where he remained three years, and then found the long-sought opening. He became discount clerk in the Thames National Bank at Norwich, Connecticut. Thus, before attaining his majority, he was engaged in a work that was not only congenial to him, but was a realization of the life-plans he had made. The feeling that he was at last in his chosen voca- tion added energy to his ability and integrity. His services were appreciated by the higher officers of the bank. He became a marked man, marked for successive promotions, from rank to rank, through all the grades. He was now indeed a banker, whether as clerk, teller, cashier, or vice-president. At last, in 1890, the final step was taken : he was elected president of the bank; and the ambition of the boy was gratified in the achieve- ment of the man. His twenty-six years of service in various capacities gave him the best possible preparation for the respon- sibilities that now rested upon him. The bank was one of the oldest in the State. Under his presidency it became one of the strongest and one of the soundest and best managed in all the land. Its capital stock was one million dollars. Before he left its president's chair it amassed a surplus and undivided profits of about eight hundred thousand dollars. He resigned the presidency of the bank in 1897, but by no means retired from active business life. On the contrary, he remained, as he is to- day, conspicuously identified with even more important financial undertakings.
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