USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 19
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Mr. Lewisohn married, in 1878, Miss Emma M. Cahn of Phila- delphia, and his domestic life seems to afford him his greatest pleasure. The result of this marriage has been a charming fam- ily of three daughters and two sons. Two of the daughters are married to young and rising merchants of this city.
Mr. Lewisohn has just completed a fine residence at No. 9 West Fifty-seventh Street, the architectural beauties of which have been the subject of much comment.
His summers are spent at his country place at Elberon, known as "Adelawn," which was formerly known as the Childs place, having been built by the late George W. Childs, and which has always been one of the show-places of that beautiful seaside resort. It has been very much improved by the present owner, and is to-day unquestionably one of the most beautiful and effective gentlemen's seats on the New Jersey coast.
In addition to his identification with the firm of Lewisohn Brothers, Mr. Lewisohn is a director in many other prominent enterprises and institutions, though his disposition is such as to render him desirous of avoiding any notoriety; and the same principle prevails in the large charity which he exercises, and of which few know save those who profit by his generosity.
Verward Vewischen
LEONARD LEWISOHN
THE subject of the present sketch, who has long been promi- nent in this city and country as a merchant and financier, comes from a city and from a family long noted for com- mercial and financial achievements. His father, Samuel Lewi- sohn, was for many years one of the best-known merchants in that city of merchant princes, Hamburg, Germany. In that city Leonard Lewisohn was born, on October 10, 1847.
His early life was spent in Hamburg, where he enjoyed the un- surpassed educational advantages afforded by that city. There are no more thorough schools for boys than those of Germany, many of which pay particular attention to instruction and disci- pline in business and commercial matters, and also to physical training. Young Lewisohn was an admirable student in all branches, and when he left school was both physically and intel- lectually equipped for the campaigns of life more completely than most young men.
On leaving school he entered his father's office, and for three years served there, putting into practice the business principles which he had studied in school, and confirming his knowledge of them and his facility in using them. Then, though he had not yet attained his majority, he decided to seek a wider field for his activities than that city afforded. He judged that in the United States he would find the opportunities he craved, and accordingly he came hither in 1865, settling in New York.
It was not necessary, however, for him to enter upon the hard struggles and humble employment which are the lot of so many immigrants. On the contrary, he had the great Hamburg house of his father to back him, and he established himself here partly as its American representative. In January, 1866, when he was
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less than nineteen years of age, he started the firm of Lewisohn Brothers, with offices at No. 251 Pearl Street, conducting it at first as a branch of the Hamburg house. The firm imported bristles, horsehair, ostrich-feathers, and other foreign merchandise, and, from the beginning, did a prosperous business.
In 1868 the importation from Germany of pig-lead, for use in the manufacture of white lead, was engaged in, and later, in 1872, the firm began to deal in copper. From that time Mr. Lewisohn commenced to interest himself in mining industries. In 1879 he purchased several mining properties in Butte, Montana, and a year later formed the Montana Copper Company, and in 1887, with A. S. Bigelow and the late Joseph M. Clark, he formed the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company, with headquarters in Boston. His firm, Lewisohn Brothers, had been selling agents for the Tamarack and the Osceola Copper Mining companies since 1885, and acted in the same capacity for the Boston and Montana Consolidated Copper and Silver Mining Company and other large companies. In 1895 Mr. Lewisohn was active in forming the Old Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company of Arizona, and, in 1897, the Isle Royale Consolidated Mining Company of Lake Superior, with all of which he is still connected.
During the year 1899 Mr. Lewisohn became connected with the organization of several other companies of which much is expected in the future. Among them are the American Smelt- ing and Refining Company, the Santa Fé Gold and Copper Mining Company, and the Tennessee Copper Company. For many years Mr. Lewisohn has been a firm believer in the importance of the American copper-mines, realizing that they must soon be relied upon to furnish the world's supply, the mines of Europe having been all but exhausted for years, and those of South America and Africa having to await the development of railroads and other facilities. The upward movement in the price of copper he regards as natural and not forced, inasmuch as it results from the enormous and increasing demand from all parts of the world for manufacturing and electrical purposes, in comparison with which the visible supply of the metal is small.
Mr. Lewisohn was married, in 1870, to Miss Rosalie Jacobs, with whom he lives happily, surrounded by a large family.
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EDWARD VICTOR LOEW
E IDWARD VICTOR LOEW is a son of Frederick and Sa- lome S. Loew, who came to this country from Strassburg, Alsace, then a province of France, but now a part of the German Empire, in the early part of the present century. He was born in New York city on March 18, 1839, and was educated in the public schools until he was twelve years old. At that time, on account of the death of his father, he was compelled to leave school and go to work for his own support.
His first engagement was in a real-estate office, and he applied himself diligently to learning the details of that business. In time he rose to be chief clerk of the office in which he was em- ployed. He left that place to go into partnership with his brother, Charles E. Loew, now deceased, in the same business. In the meantime he studied law, especially that pertaining to real estate, and in 1868 was admitted to the bar. By making a specialty of real-estate conveyancing and other business of that sort he soon built up a lucrative practice. He also engaged in land speculations and building operations, with much success. Down to the present time he has been interested in the erection of nearly four hundred buildings for residential purposes in New York city.
Mr. Loew has long been active in financial affairs. In 1867 he was an incorporator of the Eleventh Ward Bank, of which he is still a director. Two years later he was an incorporator of the Eleventh Ward Savings Bank, and was the first president of that institution. In 1870 he was one of the incorporators of the Manufacturers' and Builders' Fire Insurance Company, becom- ing its first president and serving for twenty-three years. In 1873 he was an incorporator of the New York Real Estate Guar-
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anty Company. In 1899 he was an incorporator of the New Amsterdam Casualty Company, and has since been its president. He is a director of the Seaboard National Bank, the Knicker- bocker Trust Company, the Trust Company of New York, and the Standard Gas Light Company ; and is vice-president of the American Savings Bank, the Iron Steamboat Company, and the Batopilas Mining Company.
Mr. Loew has, ever since he attained his majority, taken an earnest interest in public affairs, though reluctant to take office. After declining various nominations, however, he was induced, in 1884, to become the candidate of various reform organizations for Controller of the city, and was elected by a handsome ma- jority. He served for a term of three years, and distinguished himself by the intelligence and integrity with which he fulfilled the duties of that important office. In 1887 he was earnestly urged to accept a renomination, but felt compelled, by personal business interests, to decline.
Mr. Loew belongs to a number of the best clubs of the me- tropolis, and is a welcome and influential figure in them. Among them are the Manhattan Club, the City Club, and the Riding Club.
He was married in New York, in 1872, to Miss Julia Goadby, daughter of Thomas Goadby, a retired manufacturer of New York. Mr. and Mrs. Loew have a family of three sons and two daughters : Edward Victor Loew, Jr., William Goadby Loew, Frederick W. Loew, Edna Goadby Loew, and Marguerite Sa- lome Loew. Their home is a center of refined social life and graceful hospitality.
Mr. Loew's fortune and high standing in the community have been won by diligent labor, unswerving integrity, and those elements of perseverance, shrewdness, and just discrimination which make for deserved success. At the same time he has given employment to thousands of men, and thus opened to them the paths of advancement. He has been ready with help- ing hand for the deserving, and has given much of his wealth, discreetly and unassumingly, for philanthropic purposes.
RICHARD PURDY LOUNSBERY
0 NE of the oldest families in the old town of Bedford, West- chester County, New York, and the adjacent region, is that of Lounsbery, who came from Yorkshire, England, in 1643, and settled at Rye, New York. His descendants, or some of them in each generation, remained near the old homestead. Among them was James Lounsbery, who was born at Bedford in 1795, and had a successful career as a New York merchant. He married Ann Phillips Rundle, daughter of Solomon Rundle of Peekskill, New York, whose mother was a direct descendant of the Rev. George H. Phillips, who came over with Governor Winthrop in 1630.
Richard Purdy Lounsbery, son of James and Ann Phillips Lounsbery, was born at Bedford on August 9, 1845. His education was acquired in his native village under the direction and instruction of the Hon. James W. Husted, the Rev. Robert Bolton, and Professor Albert Williamson. His business career was begun as a clerk in the office of Mills, Knickerbaker & Co., bankers and brokers, of New York. In 1867 he opened an office of his own on Broad Street, and in 1868 became a member of the New York Stock Exchange. His firm has been successively known as Lounsbery & Franshawe, Lounsbery & Haggin, and Louns- bery & Co. As the head of that house he has participated in many of the largest financial operations of the last third of the century. He has been engaged in the business of a banker and broker continuously, since his entrance into it, with the exception of five years, 1871-76, when he was engaged in practically learning the mining business in Utah.
The knowledge of mining affairs thus gained has enabled him since to take a leading part in dealing in mining securi- ties in the New York market.
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Mr. Lounsbery has taken part in the organization of various mining corporations, and is at present officially connected with several. He is thus connected with the Ontario Silver Min- ing Company of Utah, the Homestake Mining Company of South Dakota, the Anaconda Copper Mining Company of Mon- tana, the American Mining Company of Mexico, the Terrible Mining Company of Colorado, and the Last Dollar Mining Company of Colorado. He is also a director of the West- chester Trust Company.
His club and social affiliations are numerous. He belongs to the Union League Club, New York Yacht Club, Players' Club, Lambs' Club, Grolier Club, Riding Club, New York Athletic Club, City Club, Museum of Natural History, American Geo- graphical Society, New England Society, St. Nicholas Society, Lawyers' Club, and other organizations in New York city, the Coney Island Jockey Club, the Knollwood Country Club, the St. James Club of Montreal, and the Forest and Stream and St. Jerome clubs of Canada. He is a vestryman of St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal Church at Bedford. He is devoted to hunt- ing, fishing, yachting, and similar out-of-door sports.
Mr. Lounsbery was married, at San Francisco, California, on August 21, 1878, to Miss Edith Hunter Haggin, daughter of James B. Haggin, the well-known mine-owner and patron of the turf. They have three children : James Ben Ali Haggin Lounsbery, Edith Lounsbery, and Richard Lounsbery.
The family home in New York is at No. 12 East Thirty-Fifth Street. In the country - the latter being the real home -it is Jocuistita Hall, a splendid place at Bedford, New York.
Edward Ell Call
EDWARD E. McCALL
A THOROUGH New-Yorker, though born not in the metrop- olis, but the political capital of the State, is the subject of the present sketch, albeit a member of that Scotch-Irish ele- ment in our cosmopolitan population which has so often proved its grit and manly worth.
A typical New-Yorker, too, he may be called in his profes- sional and business life. For he is a member of that learned profession which finds in the metropolis its most important field of action, its most numerous adherents, and its most distin- guished members. In the practice of the law, moreover, he is especially associated with those branches which are connected with the great business interests of the city. A lawyer may attain success anywhere. But the lawyer making a specialty of financial corporation practice must seek his field in the city where such corporations have their seat. The name of Mr. McCall's cousin, John A. McCall, is inseparably identified with insurance interests in the State and city of New York. It has fallen to Mr. McCall's lot to be similarly identified with the legal interests of the vast business of insurance.
Edward E. McCall was born on January 6, 1863, at Albany, New York, the son of John and Katherine McCall, the former of whom is now deceased. His childhood was spent in his native city, and his early education was obtained in its schools. He was prepared for college in the Albany High School, and then came to New York city to pursue a higher course of study. This he did in New York University, or, as it was then known, the University of the City of New York.
Before coming to New York he had decided to follow the legal profession, and upon leaving the university he took direct
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steps to that end. He began his practice alone, but soon formed a partnership with William C. Arnold. This association con- tinued for some time and then was dissolved, since which disso- lution Mr. McCall has taken no other partner, but has continued in highly successful practice alone.
Mr. McCall's practice is chiefly in civil law, and deals largely with banking, insurance, and financial matters in general. He is now counsel for the three largest life-insurance companies in the world, namely, the Mutual Life, the Equitable Life, and the New York Life Insurance companies, of New York, and also for the International Banking and Trust Company of New York, and for the Munich Reinsurance Company. The duties con- nected with these vast corporations are enough to occupy a large share of his time. He is able, however, to add to them much other professional and business activity.
He is a director, as well as counsel, of the International Bank- ing and Trust Company, and president and director of the International Automobile and Vehicle Tire Company.
Mr. McCall is affiliated with the Democratic party, but has never held nor sought public office, and has taken no active part in politics aside from discharging his duties as a citizen.
He is a member of the Manhattan Athletic, Democratic, Har- lem, Catholic, and Lawyers' clubs, of New York.
He was married at Albany, New York, to Miss Ella F. Gaynor, daughter of Thomas S. Gaynor of that city. Two children have blessed their union, who bear the names of Ella Gaynor McCall and Constance McCall.
JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL
"THERE are few contemporary careers in the State of New - York more perfectly illustrative of what has been called the "genius of accomplishment " than that of the man who, as president of the New York Life Insurance Company, is one of the foremost figures, not only in insurance, but in finance, in this financial center of the western hemisphere. He began his work in a humble station, pursued it faithfully and diligently for many years, and at last, by sheer force of merit, won his place at the head of his chosen calling.
John Augustine McCall is of Scotch-Irish ancestry on both sides of the house. His father, who also bore the name of John A. McCall, was a merchant at Albany, New York. His mother's maiden name was Katherine MacCormack. He was born to them at Albany on March 2, 1849, and spent his boyhood under their care and training. He was sent to the public schools of Albany, and thence to the Albany Commercial College, at which latter institution he received a good business training. He was a good average student, making no especial record for him- self, but doubtless mastering his studies well, and at the same time enjoying the sports and recreations common to boys of his age.
At the age of eighteen he faced the first crisis of his career. He had then to begin taking care of himself, and was called upon to choose his vocation in life. At once his native bent for finance asserted itself. He applied for a place in the banking depart- ment of the State government, and although he had no especial backing or "pull," he presently secured an engagement in the Assorting House for State Currency, at sixty dollars a month. There he worked for some time, but a little later transferred his
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activities to another place, in the great business to which his whole life has since been devoted.
This new place was that of a bookkeeper in the office of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, at Albany. The business of life-insurance was not then nearly as prosperous and important as it is now, but he realized its possibilities with pro- phetic eye, and decided to stick to it. From the office of the Connecticut company he went, at the age of twenty years, into the State Insurance Department at Albany, of which George W. Miller was then the head. He began with a subordinate clerk- ship, but steadily worked his way upward, through rank after rank. Thus he passed through the actuarial and statistical bureaus, and in three years was an examiner of companies.
Mr. McCall remained an examiner for four years, and then was promoted on his merits to the place of deputy superinten- dent of the Department of Insurance, and thus became the prominent figure that he remained for so long a time. He was a Democrat in politics, and places in the Insurance Department were commonly reckoned political places. Yet so assured was his official worth to the people of the State, and so great and general was the confidence in his administration of the duties of his office, that he was retained in his place through two Repub- lican State administrations.
In fact, it would be difficult to overestimate the value of Mr. McCall's work to the insurance interests, and to the people of this State. When he began his official work at Albany there was a vast amount of dishonesty in both life- and fire-insurance, through which great losses were occasioned to insurers, and confidence in the whole system sorely shaken. Mr. McCall ex- posed it mercilessly, and did incalculable good for the benefit of policy-holders all over the world. No less than twelve untrust- worthy fire-insurance companies were compelled to retire from business, and eighteen unsound life-insurance companies of this State and fifteen of other States were similarly brought to book. Nor did his reformatory work stop there. Several companies persisted in dishonest ways, until he was compelled to resort to the severest measures. The presidents of two of them were convicted by him of perjury, and were sent to the peniten- tiary. Since that time the insurance business of this State has
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been on a far sounder basis than ever before, and failures of companies and losses by policy-holders have been few indeed.
Such work could not go without recognition. At the begin- ning of 1883 the insurance companies of the State wished to urge his appointment to the head of the department. He refused to let them do so. But he could not prevent a host of represen- tative business men of all parties from sending to the Governor a monster petition for his appointment as superintendent. "His indefatigable industry, enlightened endeavor, and uncompromis- ing fidelity to duty have given abundant proof of his fitness," they declared. And so Governor Cleveland appointed him to the office. Governor Hill, who succeeded Governor Cleveland, offered him a reappointment, but he declined it, and became con- troller of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, a place he was ideally fitted to fill. Then a crisis came in the affairs of the New York Life Insurance Company, and he was called upon to become its president and to rehabilitate the great institution from the evil ways into which it had been led. He accepted the call, and has fulfilled the trust with magnificent success.
Mr. McCall is also connected with the New York Surety and Trust Company, the National City Bank, the Central National Bank, the National Surety Company, the Munich Reinsurance Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and the Ingersoll Sergeant Drill Company. He is a member of the Metropolitan, Colonial, Lawyers', Catholic, Merchants', Manhat- tan, New York Athletic, Norwood Field, the Arts, and City clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Albany Society, and the National Arts Club.
He was married at Albany, in 1870, to Miss Marry I. Horan of that city, and has seven children : Mrs. Albert McClave, Mrs. D. P. Kingsley, John C. McCall, Ballard McCall, Leo H. McCall, Sydney C. McCall, and Clifford H. McCall.
JOHN JAMES McCOOK
LL young, all gallant, and all successful." That is the de- scription given by James G. Blaine, in his Memoirs, of a family that became famous during our Civil War and has ever since been known as "the fighting McCooks." There were two divisions of them-cousins, the children of Daniel and John McCook, brothers. They came of that sturdy and canny Scotch- Irish stock which has given to this country so many of its ablest men. Of the sons of Daniel McCook there were nine. The first was named John James, but he was lost at sea, a midshipman in the navy, and his name was transferred to the youngest son, who was born three years later.
The subject of this sketch was born at Carrollton, Ohio, on May 25, 1845. He was a student at Kenyon College when the war broke out, and forthwith joined the Sixth Ohio Cavalry. He was then only sixteen, the youngest of the "fighting Mc- Cooks," and by no means the least gallant or least successful. He began, of course, as a private soldier. In a few months he was promoted to be an officer. At seventeen years old he was a lieutenant, at eighteen a captain, at nineteen a brevet major, and at twenty, at the close of the war, a brevet colonel. He served in many campaigns in both the East and West. He fought at Perryville, at Murfreesboro, at Chickamauga, in the Wilderness, and around Petersburg. He received his first brevet for gallan- try on the field at Shady Grove, where he was seriously wounded. It may be added that his father was killed while leading a party to intercept Morgan the raider, and that seven of his brothers were in the army, five of them rising to the rank of general.
At the close of the war the young soldier was not yet of age. He went back to Kenyon College and took up his studies where
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he had laid them down, and in due course of time was gradu- ated with honorable standing. Then he went to Harvard and pursued a course in its law school. Having got his second diploma and been admitted to practice at the bar of Ohio, he came to this city, where the pursuit of his profession is at once most arduous and most promising of success and distinction.
For many years he has been a member of the well-known firm of Alexander & Green, and as such has been identified with many important cases in both the local and the United States courts. He was for a number of years general counsel for the Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fé Railroad, and when that road fell into difficulties he was made its receiver, and in that capa- city reorganized it. He is also legal adviser and a director of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of the Mercantile Trust Company, of the American Surety Company, and, in one capacity or another, connected with various other important business corporations.
In politics Colonel McCook is a stanch Republican. It was a matter of regret to his many friends when he declined President McKinley's invitation to enter his cabinet as Secretary of the Interior, a position for which his legal training and business experience exceptionally qualified him.
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