USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 29
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Three years after his return to England, however, he made a visit to the United States, which changed the whole course of his life. The advantages and opportunities offered in this coun- try so impressed him that he determined to make this country his home.
For a number of years Mr. Smith was interested to a consider- able extent in the construction and equipment of railroads in Cuba. That was while the island was still under Spanish rule. His ventures were pretty uniformly successful, and as a result he accumulated a handsome fortune, as well as ample capital for further operations. In addition to railroad enterprise he had control of the gas and electric lighting system of Havana, con- solidating into a single corporation the various companies that had originally existed. Finally he undertook the task of com- pleting the waterworks system of the Cuban capital. This was a work that had baffled the enterprise and skill of one engineer and contractor after another. Mr. Smith took the contract and executed it with entire success.
Mr. Smith was for some years manager and vice-president of the gas and electric lighting of both Havana and Matanzas, and was prominently identified with various other enterprises in the island of Cuba. He still retains extensive interests there,
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is president of the American Indies Company, and is connected with the Spanish-American Light and Power Company.
In New York and elsewhere in the United States his business operations are extensive. He is a director of the State Trust Company, and vice-president of the American Surety Company of New York, director and vice-president of the Chicago Union Traction Company, and president of the Connecticut Lighting and Power Company. He consolidated all the gas companies of the city of Rochester, New York, into a single corporation. As an authority concerning that important branch of industry he was made a member of the Committee on Gas at the World's Fair at Chicago.
Although he has held no public office, Mr. Smith has long taken an earnest interest in politics, as a Republican. He was promi- nently identified with the Brooklyn Young Republican Club of Brooklyn, New York, before he removed to New York.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Union League, Republican, Colonial, Lawyers', Manhattan, New York Yacht, Atlantic Yacht, and Larchmont Yacht clubs, and was formerly a member of the Nereid Boat Club. He owns a number of fine horses, and is much given to the sport of driving, as well as to other out-of-door diversions.
Mr. Smith was married some years ago to Miss Alice Williams of Brooklyn, daughter of a former sheriff of Kings County.
FREDERICK SMYTH
THE office of Recorder of the city of New York is one of the most varied and important in its duties of all public places in the metropolitan municipality. The Recorder is not only a judge of the Court of General Sessions, and thus the presiding officer at many of the most important criminal trials, but also a member of the Sinking Fund Commission and of numerous other municipal and charitable boards. The man who holds such an office is therefore to be regarded as a man of parts and mark, enjoying in an especial degree the confidence of the community. Among those who have held it in recent years none is better known than the subject of this sketch.
Frederick Smyth was born in County Galway, Ireland, in August, 1837, of purely Irish ancestry. His father, Matthew Thomas Smyth, was the head of a well-known county family, and for some time filled the important place of Sheriff of County Galway. Misfortune overtook the family, however, and in 1849 young Smyth came to the United States to better his fortunes if possible. He had received an excellent education in Ireland, which served as a good foundation for the legal studies which he began to pursue in New York while he filled the place of an office boy and clerk.
His professional career may be said to have begun with a clerkship for Florence McCarthy, judge of the Marine Court, which he filled with acceptance and promise. Then he became a clerk under John McKeon, and later an assistant of the latter in the office of United States District Attorney. Meantime, in 1855, Mr. Smyth had been admitted to practice at the bar of New York.
When Mr. Mckeon retired from the office of United States
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District Attorney a reappointment as assistant was offered to Mr. Smyth by Mr. McKeon's successor. This was declined, and Mr. Smyth became instead Mr. McKeon's partner in law practice. This partnership lasted, with mutual satisfaction and profit, un- til 1879, when Mr. Smyth was appointed to the office of Recorder. Mr. Mckeon soon afterward became District Attorney and thus chief public prosecutor in Mr. Smyth's court. Mr. Smyth was appointed Recorder on December 31, 1879, to fill a vacancy. In 1880 he was elected to the same office to fill a full term of fourteen years. This term expired on December 31, 1894. In 1896 he was elected a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, which office he still holds.
Justice Smyth is a Democrat in politics, and is a member of the Democratic, Manhattan, and Lotus clubs. He is married, but has no children.
Of his performance of his high duties as Recorder the follow- ing estimate, made by a competent authority, may fittingly be recalled :
The integrity, the acuteness, the industry, and the faithfulness which he gives , to the performance of his official duties are well known, but fewer persons have an opportunity of knowing some other traits of character which the Recorder shows in private life. As a lawyer he is extremely painstaking, and much of his time out of court is occupied in the reading of law-books. He has examined, in his long practice, a large number of titles to important pieces of property, and discovered not a few imperfections which others have overlooked. His skill as a cross-examiner is remembered by many an opponent at the bar. His careful- ness in financial matters has been of great value in his position as a member of the Sinking Fund Commission. Every voucher before he signs it is carefully scrutinized, and he signs nothing which has not been audited by officers in whom he has confidence. He has made several important reforms in the work of the Sinking Fund Commission, and has saved thousands of dollars to the city by more exact systems of financiering than those formerly in use. As a friend and in social relations he is loyal, kind, and genial. He relates, with much humor, incidents of his early practice at the bar and experiences since he has been a member of the bench. If he were not unwilling that they should be publicly known, his friends could relate many incidents of his charity to dependants and to those who are ill or in trouble. These private virtues, while less known to the public than his sterner ones, go to make up that remarkably vigorous and many-sided personality known to all New-Yorkers as the Recorder of the city.
ELBRIDGE GERRY SNOW
AS S his name indicates, Elbridge Gerry Snow is of New Eng- land ancestry. He is a direct descendant of Stephen Hop- kins, who came over in the Mayflower and was one of the signers of the famous Mayflower compact. Stephen Hopkins's daughter Constance married Nicholas Snow, and from them Mr. Snow is descended. On the paternal side, also, the American ancestry includes Thomas Prence, who was born in Lechlade, England, in 1600, and who came hither by way of Leyden to Plymouth, in 1620-21. He founded Eastham, Massachusetts, in 1643, built the first bark in a New England ship-yard, established the Cape Cod fisheries, led a corps in the Pequod War, and was Governor of the Massachusetts Colony for nineteen years. His daughter Jane married Mark Snow.
On the maternal side the first ancestor of note was Sir Nicho- las Woodruff, who was Lord Mayor of London in 1579. His descendant, Mathew Woodruff, came to this country from Devonshire. Jonathan Coe, another maternal ancestor, was a sergeant in the War of the Revolution.
In the last generation of the Snow and Woodruff families, El- bridge Gerry Snow, M. D., married Eunice Woodruff. They lived at Barkhamsted, Connecticut, and there, on January 22, 1841, their son, Elbridge Gerry Snow, was born. In his early life the boy was taken by his parents to Waterbury, Connecticut, where his father practised his profession. He was later sent to the Fort Edward Institute, at Fort Edward, New York, and there received a good education. Returning to Waterbury, he studied law for a time, and then became a clerk in the office of a promi- nent local insurance agent. This engagement decided the whole bent of his subsequent career.
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About 1862, Mr. Snow, having just attained his majority, came to New York city, and obtained employment in the main office of the Home Insurance Company, which was one of the princi- pal companies which his former employer had represented at Waterbury. He remained in the Home Company's office until 1871, in which year he withdrew from it to become interested in an insurance agency. Two years later, however, he returned and was welcomed back to the Home Company's office, and has ever since maintained his connection with it.
His capacity for insurance work had already been well proved, and he was therefore deemed fit to fill the responsible place of State agent for Massachusetts. His headquarters were in the city of Boston, where he organized the firm of Hollis & Snow, and under his capable direction the business of the company in that city and State was greatly increased. For twelve years he held that agency ; then, in 1885, he was recalled to the main office in New York and appointed assistant secretary. This put him in the line of regular promotion. In 1888, accordingly, he was advanced to be second vice-president and a director of the company. This place he continues to fill, with conspicuous suc- cess. He is also connected with the North River Savings Bank and the Metropolitan National Bank, of New York, and with various other important properties. He has held and has sought no political offices, preferring to devote his attention to his busi- ness affairs, and to the fulfilment of the duties of a private citizen.
Mr. Snow is a member of various social organizations, among them being the Lotus Club, the Insurance Club, the New Eng- land Society of New York, the New York Geological Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
He was married at Waterbury, Connecticut, on September 5, 1865, to Miss Frances Janet Thompson. One child has been born to them, a son, who bears the name borne by his father and grandfather, Elbridge Gerry Snow.
Geo. HeSouthard
GEORGE HENRY SOUTHARD
A LARGE share of the greatness of New York, as of much of this nation, is derived from New England sources. This is true in the actual family descent of men and in the perpetuation of the characteristic spirit which has made New England itself great and which insures a measure of greatness wherever it pre- vails. Both these conditions are well exemplified in the case un- der present consideration. It was on August 1, 1623, that the ship Ann arrived at Plymouth, bearing among her passengers the widow Alice Southworth, who presently became the wife of Governor William Bradford. Five years later came her two sons, Constant and Thomas Southworth, both of whom became distinguished men in the colony, and whose names and those of their descendants frequently adorn the records of Duxbury and Bridgewater. Especially is this true of Constant Southworth, who was a companion and co-worker of Standish, Brewster, Howland, and the other worthies of those days. He was a resident of Duxbury and one of the original proprietors of Bridgewater, county registrar, treasurer of the colony, and commissary-general in King Philip's War. Thomas South- worth was also eminent for his character and services as a com- missioner of the united colonies and governor of the colony's territories at Kennebec.
Constant Southworth's son Nathaniel married Alice Gray in 1672. Their son Edward married Bridget Bosworth in 1711. Their eldest son, Constant, married Martha Keith in 1734. Their eldest son, Nathaniel, married Catherine Howard in 1762. Their son Nathaniel married Patience Shaw in 1793 and settled at Lyme, New Hampshire. There their son Zibeon Southard was born, the family name having been modified from Southworth.
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Zibeon married Helen Maria, daughter of Ebenezer Trescott, and to them was born, on February 23, 1841, a son, to whom they gave the names of George Henry.
George Henry Southard spent his boyhood in Boston, where his father was an oil and candle manufacturer and member of the Legislature. He was educated at the English High School, graduating in 1856. After working for some years in his father's office, he entered the lumber business with Messrs. James & Pope in 1881. Four years later he removed to Newburg, New York, and was there in the same business. In 1874 he removed to Brook- lyn and founded the lumber firm of Southard & Co., New York. After a successful and honored business career of more than twenty years he became, in 1887, one of the organizers of the National Bank of Deposit, of which he became cashier, and in the next year of the Franklin Trust Company of Brooklyn, of which he became second vice-president and first secretary. In 1892 he became president of the Franklin Trust Company, and still holds that office.
Mr. Southard has long been an earnest member of the Repub- lican party, and an effective worker for good government, though he has accepted no political office. His ability and integrity have made him much sought after as a director of important en- terprises. Thus he was for years a director of the Maritime Ex- change and a member of its finance committee, and is a director of the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Wharf and Warehouse Company, and the New York Fire Insurance Company. He was one of the organizers, first secretary, and a director of the New England Society of Newburg, and is a member of the Hamilton Club, Rembrandt Club, Riding and Driving Club, and New England Society of Brooklyn, and of the Union League Club and Down-Town Association of New York. He is also a trustee of the Brooklyn Hospital, a member of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church, a member and officer of the First Presbyterian Church of Brook- lyn, a trustee of the Brooklyn Presbytery, and a director of the Union Theological Seminary of New York.
JAMES SPEYER
THE name of Speyer, belonging to one of the best-known business houses and to the family which founded it, is said to be taken from the name of that famous town of Speyer, or Spires, as we commonly have it, in the Rhine Palatinate, Germany, which was the scene of the Diet of Spires in Reformation days, and which has otherwise largely figured in history. The present family of Speyer has, however, been for many generations settled at and identified with the still more famous city of Frankfort- on-Main, which has played so great a part in the politics of Ger- many and in the finances of the world. As early as the four- teenth century the family was settled there. One of its members was Michael Speyer, who died in 1586. That the family was one of the foremost of the city was well attested at the close of the last century; for when, in 1792, the French general Custine brought three leading citizens of Frankfort-on-Main to Mayence as hostages to guarantee the payment of a war-tax, one of them was Isaac Michael Speyer, who at that time was the imperial court banker of the old German, or Holy Roman, Empire. The family was, indeed, through many generations, prominently identified with the business and other interests of Frankfort, and of Germany, and was also, as it still remains, conspicuous in that practical philanthropy for which the Hebrew race, to which the family belongs, is so honorably distinguished.
Coming down to the present time, Gustavus Speyer was a prominent financier in New York, in the house of Speyer & Co., formerly Philip Speyer & Co., bankers. This house will be re- membered as one of the foremost supports of American credit during the Civil War, working with singular effect to place United States bonds with German investors, and to maintain
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the repute of such securities abroad. It has also been instru- mental in selling large amounts of American railroad and other securities abroad, notably those of the Central and Southern Pacific railways. It has direct connections with the parent house at Frankfort, and with branches in London and elsewhere. Gustavus Speyer married Miss Sophie Rubin, and to them was born the subject of this sketch, James Speyer, at their home in this city, in 1861. The boy was educated chiefly at Frankfort- on-Main, and there, at the age of twenty-two, he began practical business life in the banking-house of his fathers. Thence he was in time transferred to the branches in London and Paris, to com- plete his business education. Finally he came to New York and entered the New York banking-house of Speyer & Co. (formerly Philip Speyer & Co.), of which he is now the head. Mr. Speyer is also a partner in the firms of Speyer Brothers of London, and L. Speyer Ellissen of Frankfort-on-Main.
Mr. Speyer is a trustee of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and also of the German Savings Bank.
In politics he has always been independent, but he was an active member of the executive committee of the Committee of Seventy, and in 1896 he was appointed a member of the Board of Education by Mayor William L. Strong. He served as school commissioner, however, only one year, resigning in 1897.
In many of the most intelligent and well-directed philanthropic movements of the city Mr. Speyer has taken a prominent part. He is treasurer of the University Settlement Society, and the Provident Loan Society, of which he was one of the founders, made him its president in 1896.
Mr. Speyer is a member of numerous leading clubs and social organizations of the city. In November, 1897, he was married to Mrs. John A. Lowery, a daughter of the late John Dyneley Prince of this city.
M
JOHN WILLIAM STERLING
TE THE family of Sterling is one of the most ancient and famous ones in the history of the British Isles, where its name has for centuries been borne by an important city. The family line is traced back to Walter de Streverlying of Kier, Scotland, who was born in 1130, and among whose descendants were numerous knights, barons, and other peers of the realm.
In the early part of the seventeenth century, however, one of its members, John Sterling, removed from Scotland to Hertford- shire, England, and established a branch of the family there. He had two sons, Sir John Sterling and David Sterling, who migrated to the New World. David Sterling came over in 1651, and settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts. He had a son named William Sterling, who was born at Charlestown, but on reaching manhood removed to Haverhill, Massachusetts, and thence, in 1703, to Lyme, Connecticut. One of his sons, Jacob Sterling, in turn removed from Lyme to Stratford, Fairfield County, Connecticut, and there founded the branch of the family from which came the subject of this sketch.
On the maternal side Mr. Sterling is descended from John Plant, who came from England about the year 1636, and was one of the early settlers of the town of Branford, Connecticut. From John Plant was descended David Plant, who was Lieuten- ant-Governor of Connecticut for four years, 1823-27, Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, three times a State Senator, and for one term Representative in Congress.
In the last generation Captain John William Sterling of Strat- ford, Connecticut, son of David and Deborah (Strong) Sterling, was a man of high culture and much force of character. He was for many years commander of important ships in the South
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American and China trade. He married Miss Catherine Tom- linson Plant, daughter of the David Plant above mentioned. To them was born, at Stratford, Connecticut, in May, 1844, a son to whom the name of his father was given.
John William Sterling, the second of the name, was carefully educated in preparation for college at Stratford Academy, an in- stitution of high rank. At the end of his course there he was graduated with the rank of valedictorian. He then entered Yale College, where he soon gained eminence as a student and in the social life of the institution. He took one of the much-coveted Townsend prizes, and enjoyed the likewise much-desired distinc- tion of election to Skull and Bones, one of the famous secret societies of the senior class, membership in which is limited to fifteen and is supposed to be the highest social honor in uni- versity life. He was also a member of Alpha Delta Phi, one of the foremost of the Greek-letter fraternities. At the end of his course he was chosen a member of the distinguished graduate fraternity of Phi Beta Kappa, and was graduated from Yale with high honors in the class of 1864. The following year he spent in special study of English literature and history under Pro- fessor Noah Porter, who was afterward president of Yale. Mr. Sterling next came to New York city and entered the Law School of Columbia College, where he pursued a brilliant career, and was graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1867.
At about the time of his graduation from the law school Mr. Sterling was admitted to practice at the bar of New York. He then entered the employment of the distinguished lawyer, David Dudley Field, being the youngest clerk in his office. In May, 1868, he left Mr. Field to become managing clerk in another office, but in the following December he returned to become, not a clerk, but a partner of Mr. Field, in the firm of Field & Shear- man. This firm pursued a prosperous and distinguished career for a number of years. In September, 1873, however, Mr. Field retired from it, and the firm-name was thereupon changed to that of Shearman & Sterling, the senior partner of it being Thomas G. Shearman.
This firm has been connected with a number of the most famous cases in recent American jurisprudence. It had com- plete charge of the interests of Henry Ward Beecher in the
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litigation brought against him by Theodore Tilton and others, which began in 1874 and lasted two years. The great trial con- sumed six months, and ended in the defeat of the plaintiffs and their payment of the costs. In 1876, also, Shearman & Sterling were retained as counsel in a number of suits arising out of the famous "Black Friday " in Wall Street in 1869.
In recent years Mr. Sterling has given his attention largely to railroad interests. He has been personally concerned in the formation, foreclosure, and reorganization of various important companies. Among those with which he has been thus con- nected are the International and Great Northern of Texas, in 1879; the South Carolina Railroad, in 1881; the Columbus, Chicago and Indian Central, the Canadian Pacific, and the Chicago, St. Louis and Pittsburg, in 1882; the Great Northern, in 1890; and the Duluth and Winnipeg, in 1896.
He aided in organizing the New York and Texas Land Com- pany in 1880. He is counsel for many trust estates, and for many British corporations and investors. He is vice-president of the Pennsylvania Coal Company, and a director of the National City Bank, the New York Security and Trust Company, the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company, the Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic Railway Company, and the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company.
Mr. Sterling is a member of numerous clubs and other organi- zations of the highest class. Among these may be mentioned the Union League, University, Lawyers', Yale, Union, Tuxedo, and Riding clubs, of New York ; the Down-Town Association, the New England Society of New York, the American Fine Arts Society, and the Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Delta Phi fraternities.
He has retained and cultivated, throughout all his busy life, his early love of literature, and has amassed a fine private library of several thousand volumes, included in which are some rare editions and works of exceptional value.
He has also retained a warm interest in the welfare of his Alma Mater. Osborn Hall, at Yale, was the gift of one of his clients, and was built under Mr. Sterling's supervision, at a cost of nearly two hundred thousand dollars. Yale conferred upon him, in 1893, the degree of LL. D.
LISPENARD STEWART
COTCH, Huguenot, and German blood mingle in the veins S of the subject of the present sketch. The Stewart family is Scotch, bearing the name of the last Scottish kings. Lis- penard Stewart is in the seventh generation of direct descent from Charles Stewart of Garth, an officer in the army of William III, who won distinction at the battle of the Boyne. The Lis- penards were French Huguenots, and their first American repre- sentative was Antoine Lispenard, who came hither in 1690. Mr. Stewart is his lineal descendant, in the seventh generation. The father of Mr. Stewart, Lispenard Stewart, Sr., married Mary Rogers Rhinelander, a member of a distinguished New York family of German origin.
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