USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 12
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It was in 1889, while vice-president of the bank and a resident of Norwich, that Mr. Gibbs became officially interested in life- insurance. He was then chosen to be a trustee of the New York Life Insurance Company. In it he soon saw wider scope for the exercise of financial talents than a bank could afford, and he accordingly turned his attention to it more and more. When a crisis came in the affairs of the company, in January, 1892, he was selected as one of the committee of five trustees for the all- important work of investigation and reorganization. That work was so well done that the company was soon placed on a more satisfactory footing than ever before. How great and important was Mr. Gibbs's share in it may be reckoned from the fact that when the reorganization was completed, in August, 1892, he was
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elected to the treasurership, an office then newly created, and offered to him for the purpose of securing to the company the benefits of his financial ability, and of enabling him to execute in person the plans he had devised for its welfare. In that office, and in that of chairman of the finance committee, which he also holds, he controls no mere million dollars capital, as in the bank, but funds amounting to fully two hundred million dollars. Nor are his energies exhausted by the onerous duties of this place. He is president of the Berkshire Cotton Manufacturing Company of Adams, Massachusetts, of which he was one of the organizers in 1890, and a director of half a dozen or more railroads, trust com- panies, and manufacturing concerns. To all of these he devotes time and attention, and in them all makes his individuality felt as a potent and beneficent force.
These manifold activities have not prevented Mr. Gibbs from cultivating highly the intellectual, domestic, and social sides of life. He was married, in 1867, to Miss Sarah Barker, daughter of George P. Barker, formerly Attorney-General of New York, and they have one daughter, Miss Georgia Barker Gibbs. His home was in Norwich, Connecticut, until 1892, when his duties as treasurer of the New York Life Insurance Company required him to reside in New York. He still retains his Norwich home, however, and spends a portion of his time there. Both his homes are centers of social joys, and are noteworthy for their collections of works of art, of which he has long been a liberal but discrim- inating purchaser. Mr. Gibbs is a member of several of the best New York clubs, including the University, the Metropolitan, and the Players', being qualified for membership in the first-named by receipt of the well-deserved honorary degree of M. A. from Amherst College in 1892.
THEODORE GILMAN
THE name of Theodore Gilman's father, Winthrop Sargent Gilman, unerringly indicates his New England origin. The family came from England and settled at Exeter, New Hamp- shire, in 1638. There it was seated until after the Revolutionary War. Joseph Gilman was chairman of the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, in the Revolution, and was an earnest and active patriot. At the end of the war he went to Marietta, Ohio, with the pioneer colony that founded the State of Ohio, and was appointed territorial judge by President Washington. His son, Benjamin Ives Gilman, was a merchant at Marietta, Ohio, and was one of the leaders in the movement which made Ohio not only a State in the Union, but a free State. Afterward he returned to the East, and was a prosperous merchant in Philadelphia and New York. His son, Winthrop Sargent Gilman, was a conspicuous figure in the early history of the State of Illinois. He was a contemporary and acquaintance of Lincoln, Trumbull, and other eminent men of Illinois. It was in his warehouse at Alton that the martyrdom of Lovejoy took place at the hands of the mob, after he had himself valiantly fought for the protection of Lovejoy and his printing-office and the right of free speech and a free press.
Afterward he came to New York, and was prominent there in business and religious life. His wife was formerly Miss Abia Swift Lippincott.
Of such parentage Theodore Gilman was born, at Alton, Illinois, on January 2, 1841. He was educated at Williams Col- lege, and was graduated there in the class of 1862, of which Franklin Carter, now president of the college, the Rev. John A. French, Professor E. H. Griffin of Johns Hopkins University,
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Professor G. L. Raymond of Princeton, Colonel Archibald Hopkins, J. Edward Simmons, the New York banker, the late General S. C. Armstrong, and other prominent men were also members.
On leaving college Mr. Gilman entered the banking-house of his father, in this city, and has continued in that occupation ever since. He has held no political office, but has interested himself in public affairs. He has written numerous articles for current periodicals on philosophical and financial topics, and has read papers before various societies. He framed a bill for the incor- poration of clearing-houses, which was introduced in the House of Representatives on January 7, 1896, and he appeared before the Banking and Currency Committee of the Fifty-fourth and Fifty-fifth Congresses in its behalf. He has also published a book on "A Graded Banking System."
Mr. Gilman belonged to the college fraternity of Kappa Alpha. He is a member of the Union League and various other clubs, the Sons of the American Revolution, in which he is president of his chapter, the New England Society, and the New York Sabbath Committee, of which he has been treasurer since 1880.
He was married, on October 22, 1863, to Miss Elizabeth Drinker Paxson, and has five children, as follows: Frances Paxson Gilman, Theodore Gilman, Jr., Helen Ives Gilman, Robbins Gilman, and Elizabeth Bethune Gilman.
FRANK J. GOULD
T. EDMONDSBURY, England, was the old-country home of the Gould family. Before the middle of the seventeenth century, however, one of its members deserted the old home for a new one in the new land. It was about 1645 that Nathan Gould, the first of the name in America, came over and settled at Fairfield, Connecticut. There he soon became a leading citi- zen, along with John Winthrop, Samuel Wyllys, John Mason, John Talcott, and others, and was with them in signing the petition to the king for a charter for the colony. When the charter was granted, Nathan Gould's name appeared in it as one of those to whom it was granted. He became a major in the colonial troops, and was for many years an assistant to the Governor, or member of the Legislative Council. He was rated as the richest man in the community, and when he died he was recorded in the town archives as " the worshipful Major Nathan Gould."
Nathan Gould's son, Nathan, became Deputy Governor and chief justice of the Supreme Court of the colony of Connecti- cut. His grandson, Abraham Gould, was a colonel in the Revolutionary Army, and was killed in battle at Ridgefield, Connecticut, in 1777. His two brothers were also in the patriot army. Abraham Gould had a son, also named Abraham, who became a captain in the army, and a grandson of the latter was Jay Gould, one of the greatest American financiers of his or any generation. Jay Gould, who was born at Roxbury, New York, in 1836, was at first a surveyor and map-maker, then a tanner, and founder of the town of Gouldsboro, Pennsylvania. Then he came to New York, became a leading broker on Wall Street, and finally became one of the greatest railroad and tele-
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Trink Jay Gould.
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graph proprietors in the world. His identification with the Erie, Union Pacific, Texas and Pacific, Missouri Pacific, Wabash, and Manhattan Elevated railroads, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, is a part of the business history of America. He died in 1892, one of the richest and most influential men in the world. His wife, who died not long before him, had been Miss Helen Day Miller, daughter of Daniel S. Miller, a leading merchant of New York, and a descendant of an old English family which settled at Easthampton, Long Island, in early colonial days. Mr. and Mrs. Jay Gould left two daughters, Helen Miller Gould, and Anna Gould, now the Countess de Castellane of France, and four sons, George, Edwin, Howard, and Frank, all four of whom are now interested in carrying on and even extending the gigantic business enterprises which their father left to them.
Frank Jay Gould is the youngest child of the late Jay Gould. He was born in this city on December 4, 1877, and received the sound home training characteristic of the family. He was edu- cated first by tutors at home, then at the E. D. Lyons Clas- sical School, and then at the Berkeley School in this city. Finally he took a special course at New York University, paying attention chiefly to engineering and the sciences, in which he ranked as an admirable student. He was while in the univer- sity a member of the Psi Upsilon Fraternity, and took an active part in all its affairs. He was the chairman of its building com- mittee, which secured for it the fine new chapter-house at University Heights, for the construction of which Mr. Gould personally turned the first sod in the fall of 1898. On leaving the university he gave to its engineering department several thousand dollars' worth of instruments, and a collection of valu- able mineral specimens. He has taken an active interest in the welfare of the university, and is now a member of its council.
In his boyhood Mr. Gould was taken on extended travels in Europe. He has also made many trips through the United States, on both pleasure and business. He thus spent most of his vacations during school years. Before he was fifteen years old, too, his father introduced him into many of the meetings of his railroad boards, and made him a member of one of the com- mittees of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad Company. In this
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way he was early filled with practical knowledge of the world, and fitted for entrance upon a serious business career.
Such a career began in December, 1898. At that time he attained his legal majority, and entered upon the possession of that part of his father's great legacy, amounting to many mil- lions, which had thus far been held in trust for him; or, more strictly, he entered upon the enjoyment of the income from it, the principal of the whole estate being held intact by trustees. On December 29, 1898, he entered the financial world of Wall Street by purchasing a seat in the Stock Exchange, for which, besides his initiation fee of one thousand dollars, he paid the sum of thirty thousand dollars, one of the highest prices ever paid for a seat in the Exchange. About the same time he became a director of the St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railroad, one of the great system of the so-called Gould railroads. He has since devoted himself to his business with much of the application and ability that distinguished his famous father.
Mr. Gould has already manifested a marked degree of that benevolent spirit which has been shown by other members of the family. While he was in the university he gave a fine new school-house, with tower, clock, and bell, to his father's native village of Roxbury. His gifts to the university have already been mentioned. He heartily seconded his sister, Miss Helen Gould, in her patriotic work during the Spanish War of 1898 and afterward. He is fond of out-of-door sports, and is an enthusiastic dog-fancier, having in his kennels some of the finest St. Bernard and other dogs in the world.
He is a member of the Psi Upsilon Club, the Ardsley Club, the Knollwood Country Club, the Ocean County Hunt and Country Club of New Jersey, the Lawyers' Club, the St. Nicho- las Skating Club, the Country Cycle Club, and various other organizations.
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GEORGE J. GOULD
"H AVING developed a remarkable business ability, and hav- ing for twelve years devoted himself entirely to my busi- ness, and during the past five years taken entire charge of all my difficult interests."
That fragment of a sentence, taken from the will of one of the greatest financiers of the age, is fittingly applicable to that finan- 'cier's son and successor, whom it was intended to characterize. The name of Jay Gould is a landmark in the financial and indus- trial history of America. Of his eldest son it is to be said that he has well sustained the importance of the name.
George J. Gould was born in the city of New York on Febru- ary 6, 1864. His early education was received at private schools, and was finished at the Cornell School, on Forty-second Street, from which he was graduated in 1880. Then, at the age of six- teen years, he entered his father's office and began the business career that has placed him, at his present early age, in the fore- most rank of the world's financial forces. Inherited ability and the personal guidance of his father's master mind made his progress rapid. At an age when most young men are intrusted with only simple routine matters he acquired an intimate know- ledge of the essential operations of enormous enterprises and was intrusted with their management. Immediately upon at- taining his majority he was elected a director in each of the great corporations under his father's control, and his name soon began to be linked with that of his father, on all but equal terms. He was in time elected to high offices in these corpora- tions, so that on his father's death, on December 2, 1892, he was naturally prepared to succeed him as their executive and con- trolling head. So complete was this readiness, and so great the
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confidence felt by the business world in his ability to discharge the gigantic trust, that not the slightest disturbance in values of securities of those companies was suffered in the making of the change.
Mr. Gould is now the head and master mind of six of the greatest industrial enterprises - railroads and telegraphs- in America, involving six hundred million dollars in stock and bonds, and commanding the services of eighty thousand employees, besides being interested in numerous other con- cerns. For years his properties have been noteworthy for their prosperity, for their admirable service of the public welfare, and for the satisfactory relations existing between the employer and the army of employees.
Business, even of such magnitude, has not, however, monopo- lized his attention. He has found time for much travel in all parts of the world, and for a healthy participation in out-of- door sports and the joys of social life. He has a splendid estate of twenty-five hundred acres of mountain and forest in the heart of the Catskills, the scene of some of his father's early labors. For a time he had a fine house in New York city; but resenting what he deemed the unjust discriminations of the tax officers, he removed his home a few years ago to the beautiful village of Lakewood, New Jersey, where he completed, in 1898, one of the finest country houses in America. Living there on the edge of a great pine forest, he is a leader of his townsmen in the sports of the field. He has also made for himself a name as a generous patron of yachting. He takes no part in politics above that of a private citizen. But in the latter capacity he has shown splendid patriotism, as when, at the outbreak of the war with Spain, he offered his fine steam-yacht Atalanta to the govern- ment, and said, " All I have is at the disposal of the nation."
Mr. Gould is a member of most of the first-class clubs of New York. He was married, in 1886, to Miss Edith Kingdon, a lady of exceptional beauty and charm, and has made with her a home of singular felicity. Five children have been born to them.
SANFORD SHORTER GOWDEY
ancestors of Sanford S. Gowdey included members of the English, Scotch, and Dutch races. One of his re- mote progenitors of the last-named race was Tunnis Cornelisse Swart, who was one of the first settlers of Schenectady, New York, in 1662, and whose house was at the east corner of State and Church streets, in that place. Mr. Gowdey's father was James Coleman Gowdey, a farmer of Orange County, New York, and his mother's maiden name was Letitia Elliott.
Sanford Shorter Gowdey was born of this parentage at Craw- ford, Orange County, New York, on November 3, 1852. His early education was received at the local schools, both public and private. Later he attended a higher school at Newburg, New York, and finally the Normal College at Albany.
His first business engagement was as a clerk, from 1868 to 1871, in the office of "Wood's Household Magazine," at New- burg. Next, in the same city, he entered the law office of the Hon. James G. Graham. Thence he came to New York city and became a salesman in a lace house. All this was before he was done with schooling. After leaving the Normal College he traveled through the West, and then became principal of schools, successively at Otisville, Orange County, and Little Neck, Long Island. He also taught in a school at Troy. Finally he came to New York again, studied law under ex-Judge Mc- Koon, and in May, 1879, was admitted to the bar at Poughkeep- sie as an attorney, and in December following, at Brooklyn, as attorney and counselor at law.
Mr. Gowdey began the practice of his profession at Blooming- burg, New York, but soon removed to Little Neck, and thence, in 1887, to Middletown, New York. In 1894 he sought the
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larger field afforded in New York city, and at the same time made his home at Flushing, Long Island. He has since that date been in practice in New York, with even more than the suc- cess which had marked his career in smaller places. His prac- tice has been of general character, and has largely absorbed his attention. He has, however, made some profitable investments in real estate in New York city and elsewhere.
In politics Mr. Gowdey is a Democrat. He was a candidate for the office of Recorder of the city of Middletown in 1892. The city had a Republican majority of four hundred, but Mr. Gowdey claimed to have been elected, and to have been debarred from office only by irregular counting of the votes. In that claim he was supported by many of his friends. His opponent was, how- ever, finally declared elected, by eleven votes. Mr. Gowdey de- clined to contest the matter further. The next year he was a candidate for the office of district delegate to the State Consti- tutional Convention, but shared the overwhelming defeat which his whole party suffered in that year.
Mr. Gowdey is a member of various social and professional organizations. Among them are the State Bar Association, the Masonic Order,-including the Free and Accepted Masons, the Royal Arch Masons, Knights Templar, and the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,-the Order of Odd Fellows, the St. Nicholas Society, the American Tract Society, the Flushing Association, etc.
He was married in St. George's Protestant Episcopal Church, Flushing, New York, on January 22, 1891, to Miss Catharine Fowler, daughter of the late Benjamin Hegeman Fowler. Two children have been born to them : Catharine, born on November 2, 1891, and Eleanor, born on August 1, 1893, and died on August 23, 1896.
JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN
"THERE have been few careers, in this land of remarkable performances, more varied and picturesque than that of the subject of the present sketch. From his name one would hesitate to "place " James Ben Ali Haggin in any one part of the Union, and such hesitancy would be judicious, for, as a matter of fact, he belongs to all parts. There would be equal reason for hesitancy in naming Mr. Haggin's occupation in life, for he has had several, and has been successful in them all. He is at once a Kentuckian, a Louisianian, a Californian, and a New-Yorker. He is a lawyer, a miner, a real-estate dealer, a stock-raiser, a patron of the turf, and a gentleman of leisure. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that he is a millionaire many times over.
James Ben Ali Haggin is a native of the Blue Grass State, famous for its brave men, lovely women, and fine horses. He was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, in the first third of the present century, and received as his second name the maiden name of his mother, who was a Miss Adeline Ben Ali. He received the education appropriate to a Kentucky gentleman's son in those days, and was prepared for and admitted to the bar.
He began the practice of his profession at Natchez, Missis- sippi, and continued it at St. Joseph, Missouri, and at New Orleans, Louisiana. At the bar he was a commanding figure, and his undoubted ability in both office and court-room work gave promise of distinguished success.
In the flush of his early manhood, however, Mr. Haggin was seized with the '49 fever, and made his way from New Orleans to California. He was not, however, a prospector or
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a miner at first, but proposed to continue the practice of his profession, rightly reckoning that the new and rapidly growing communities of the Pacific coast, with their vast financial inter- ests, would afford him an unsurpassed field. He practised with much success in San Francisco and in Sacramento, and might have become the leader of the California bar and a leader in political life.
The gold fever was, however, too much for him. He made some investments of his professional earnings in mines, and these turned out so well that he was encouraged to invest more extensively, and presently to withdraw from his law practice and devote his whole attention to mining and similar enterprises.
It has often been said of him, and with more than ordinary justice, that everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. Certainly there were few other mining operators who rivalled his success. Among the more important of the mining properties which he developed, or in which he has a commanding proprie- tary interest, may be mentioned the Homestake, and others at the Black Hills, and the great copper-mines at Butte, Montana. In the latter he has been associated with Marcus Daly. He also owns numerous mines and mining lands in Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
Mr. Haggin's law firm in California was originally Haggin, Latham & Munson. Later and finally it was Haggin & Tevis, his partner being the well-known capitalist, Lloyd Tevis. After leaving the law, Mr. Haggin retained his association with Mr. Tevis, and the two organized the gigantic Kern County Land Company of California. This company owned some four hun- dred thousand acres of land, much of which has been sold, in farm lots at from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars an acre.
A part of this vast domain was appropriated by Mr. Haggin himself for his famous Rancho del Pasco. There he became a successful agriculturist, making a fortune in the culture of hops and fruits. He also raised stock of various kinds, includ- ing sheep and cattle, on a great scale and with much success.
His chief attention, however, as became a son of Kentucky, was given to horse-breeding, and his ranch presently became famous as one of the chief homes in the world of the best thoroughbred racing stock. From the Haggin ranch came,
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year after year, the most noteworthy horses on the American turf. The names of Firenzi and Salvator alone attest their general quality.
It was in the spring of 1886 that the Haggin stable first began to figure on the turf in the eastern part of the United States. At that time Mr. Haggin and his son, Ben Ali Haggin, brought East, to Kentucky, a lot of choice horses, and entered them in the best races. Thereafter the stable was brought on to the New York tracks, and for years the Haggin horses were among the fore- most on the metropolitan turf. For the promotion of his inter- ests on the turf in the East, Mr. Haggin purchased the celebrated Elmendorf Farm, near Lexington, Kentucky, and there estab- lished the greater part of his horse-breeding stables.
Mr. Haggin was married in early life, while he was yet a young lawyer, at Natchez, Mississippi. His bride was Miss Saun- ders, the daughter of Colonel Lewis Saunders, one of the fore- most lawyers of that region. Mrs. Haggin shared all his jour- neys and his triumphs, in the South and on the Pacific coast, and was the loyal partner of his joys and sorrows until he was about seventy years old, when she died.
She bore him two sons and two daughters, who grew to ma- turity. The daughters both married. One of the sons, Lewis Haggin, engaged in business, and still lives and enjoys great pros- perity. The other son, Ben Ali Haggin, was his father's partner and comrade in the horse-breeding and racing enterprises. Some years ago Ben Ali Haggin and one of his sisters died, whereupon Mr. Haggin, aged and bereft, withdrew entirely from the turf. His colors have since then been seen no more in races. But he maintains his farm and ranch, and is still devoted to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred stock.
After Mrs. Haggin's death Mr. Haggin remained for some years a widower. At his Kentucky farm and home, however, he was thrown into the society of Miss Pearl Voorhies of Ver- sailles, Kentucky. She was a niece of his former wife, and a young lady of more than usual beauty of person and mind. She had been finely educated at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Staun- ton, Virginia, and through her Kentucky life and training was in close sympathy with Mr. Haggin's tastes and activities. It was not surprising, therefore, that in the fall of 1897 Mr. Hag-
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