USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 4
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Justice Beekman has, like many other of the "Knicker- bockers," a fondness for the old central or down-town parts of New York city. He has, therefore, not joined the migration to the fashionable up-town region, but still lives in a solid, old- fashioned mansion on East Eighteenth Street. There he has a rare collection of old Dutch colonial furniture, which he inherited from his ancestors, and a valuable collection of paintings and other works of art. He has a large library of well-chosen books, including standard and professional works and the best current literature of a lighter vein, and in it much of his time is spent.
Sincerely yours Danny Bischoff
HENRY BISCHOFF, JR.
TN common with a large number of New York's most active and useful citizens in all professions and business callings, Judge Bischoff is of German descent. His grandfather was a famous church builder at Achim, Prussia, and also a lumber merchant and brick manufacturer. His father, Henry Bischoff, gained prominence as a banker. He was a resident of this city, and here his son, the subject of this sketch, was born, on August 16, 1852.
Henry Bischoff, Jr., was carefully educated, at first in the public schools of New York, then at the Bloomfield Academy at Bloomfield, New Jersey, and then under a private tutor. After- ward came his professional and technical education, which was acquired in the Law School of Columbia College, from which he was graduated, with honorable mention in the Department of Political Science, in 1871. For two years thereafter he read law in the office of J. H. & S. Riker, and then, in 1873, was admitted to practice at the bar.
His first office was opened in partnership with F. Leary, and that connection was maintained until 1878. The partnership was then dissolved, and Mr. Bischoff continued his practice alone, and has since remained alone in it. From the beginning he addressed himself exclusively to civil practice, and especially to cases involving real-estate interests and those before the Sur- rogate's Court. In these important branches of litigation he rapidly rose to the rank of a leading authority.
He had not long been practising before he became interested in politics as a member of the Democratic party, and his ability being recognized, political preferment was presently within his grasp. He was appointed to collect the arrears of personal taxes in this city, a task of considerable magnitude. The duties of that place were discharged by him effectively, and to general
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satisfaction, for nearly ten years. Then, in 1889, he was elected a judge of the Court of Common Pleas. Five years later that court was merged into the Supreme Court, whereupon he became a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he still occupies. With two other justices he holds the Appellate Term, before which all appeals from the lower courts are taken.
Early in his career, during and just after his work in college, Mr. Bischoff had not a little practical experience in his father's banking-house, at times occupying a place of high trust and re- sponsibility there. This business and financial training has proved to be of great value to him in his legal and judicial life, giving him an expert knowledge of financial matters, which are so often brought into court for adjudication, and adding to his professional qualities the no less important qualities of a practical business man.
Mr. Bischoff was one of the founders of the Union Square Bank, and is still a director of it. He belongs to the Tammany Society, the Manhattan and Democratic clubs, the German, Arion, Liederkranz, and Beethoven societies, and various other social and professional organizations. He comes of a music- loving family, and is himself a fine performer upon the piano and other instruments. He is also an admirable German scholar, speaking the language with purity, and cultivating an intimate acquaintance with its literature.
He was married, in 1873, to Miss Annie Moshier, a daughter of Frederick and Louise Moshier of Connecticut. They have one daughter, who bears her mother's name.
Justice Bischoff has invariably commanded the cordial esteem of his colleagues at the bar and upon the bench, and has fre- quently been the recipient of tangible proofs of their regard. A well-deserved tribute to him is contained in James Wilton Brooks's "History of the Court of Common Pleas," in the following words :
" His moral courage, his self-reliance, his independence of char- acter, his firm adherence to the right cause, have rendered his decisions more than usually acceptable to the bar. Though one of the youngest judges on the bench, he has become already noted for his industry, his uniform courtesy, and the soundness of his decisions."
Janus A. Blanchard
JAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCHARD
TAMES ARMSTRONG BLANCHARD was born, in 1845, at Henderson, Jefferson County, New York. His father was of mingled English and French Huguenot and his mother of Scotch descent. When he was nine years old the family moved to Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. A few years later the elder Blanchard died, leaving the family with little means. The boy was thus thrown upon his own resources in a struggle against the handicap of poverty. For some years he worked on the farm, attending the local school in winter.
Before he attained his majority, however, he left the farm for the army, enlisting, in the summer of 1864, in the Wisconsin Cavalry. He served through the war, and was honorably mus- tered out in November, 1865. His health had been impaired by the exposures and privations of campaigning, and he went back to the farm for a few months. With health restored, he entered the preparatory course of Ripon College. From that course he advanced duly into the regular collegiate course. He was still in financial straits, and was compelled to devote some time to teaching to earn money for necessary expenses. In spite of this, he maintained a high rank in his class, and was graduated in the classical course, with high honors, in 1871. During the last two years of his course he was one of the editors of the college paper.
On leaving Ripon Mr. Blanchard came to New York and en- tered the Law School of Columbia College. During his course there he supported himself by teaching. He was graduated in 1873, and was admitted to practice at the bar. Forthwith he opened and for eight years maintained a law office alone, build- ing up an excellent practice. In 1881 he became the senior member of the firm of Blanchard, Gay & Phelps, which, the next
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year, moved into its well-known offices in the Tribune Building. The firm had a prosperous career, figuring in numerous cases involving large interests. It was dissolved in 1896, and since that time Mr. Blanchard has continued alone his practice in the offices so long identified with the firm.
For many years Mr. Blanchard has been one of the foremost leaders of the Republican party in this city. He has been presi- dent of the Republican Club of the City of New York, which is one of the best-known and most influential social and political clubs of the metropolis, and he was one of its five members who, in 1887, formed a committee to organize the National Conven- tion of Republican Clubs in this city that year. He was active in the formation of the Republican League of the United States, and for four years was chairman of its sub-executive committee. He was a member of the Committee of Thirty which, a few years ago, reorganized the Republican party organization in this city, and a member of the Committee of Seventy that brought about the election of a reform mayor in 1894.
Although often importuned to become a candidate for political office, Mr. Blanchard steadily refused to do so, declaring that his ambition was to occupy a place upon the judicial bench. This ambition was fulfilled in December, 1898. At that time Justice Fitzgerald resigned his place in the Court of General Sessions to take a place on the bench of the Supreme Court. Thereupon Governor-elect Roosevelt selected Mr. Blanchard to be his suc- cessor, and in January, 1899, made the appointment, which met with the hearty approval of the bar of this city.
Judge Blanchard is a member of the Bar Association, the American Geographical Society, the Union League Club and the latter's Committee on Political Reform, Lafayette Post, G. A. R., and various other social and political organizations. He is mar- ried, and has one child, a son, who is a student at Phillips Exeter Academy.
Comelia M/chão
CORNELIUS NEWTON BLISS
AM MONG the citizens whom this city, and indeed this nation, might most gladly put forward as types of the best citi- zenship, in probity, enterprise, and culture, the figure of Corne- lius Newton Bliss stands conspicuous. As merchant, financier, political counselor, social leader, and public servant, he holds and has long held a place of especial honor. He comes of that sturdy Devonshire stock which did so much for old England's greatness, and is descended from some of those Puritan colonists who laid in New England unsurpassed foundations for a Greater Britain on this side of the sea. His earliest American ancestor came to these shores in 1633, and settled at Weymouth, Massachu- setts, afterward becoming one of the founders of Rehoboth, in the same colony and State. The father of Mr. Bliss lived at Fall River, Massachusetts, and in that busy city, in 1833, the subject of this sketch was born. While Cornelius was yet an infant his father died, and his mother a few years later remarried and moved to New Orleans. The boy, however, remained in Fall River with some relatives of his mother, and was educated there, in the common schools and in Fiske's Academy. At the age of four- teen he followed his mother to New Orleans, and completed his schooling with a course in the high school of that city.
His first business experience was acquired in the counting- room of his stepfather in New Orleans. His stay there was brief, and within the year, in 1848, he returned to the North, and found employment with James M. Beebe & Co., of Boston, then the largest dry-goods importing and jobbing house in the country. His sterling worth caused his steady promotion until he became a member of the firm which succeeded that of Beebe & Co. In 1866 he formed a partnership with J. S. and Eben
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Wright of Boston, and established a dry-goods commission house under the name of J. S. & E. Wright & Co. A branch office was opened in New York, and Mr. Bliss came here to take charge of it. Since that time he has been a resident of this city and identified intimately with its business, political, and social life. Upon the death of J. S. Wright, the firm was reorganized as Wright, Bliss & Fabyan. Still later it became Bliss, Fabyan & Co., of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, with Mr. Bliss at its head. Such is its present organization. For many years it has ranked as one of the largest, if not the very largest, of dry-goods commission houses in the United States, its office and its name being landmarks in the dry-goods trade.
Upon his removal to New York, Mr. Bliss became identified with the interests of this city in a particularly prominent and beneficent manner. There have been few movements for pro- moting the growth and welfare of New York in which he has not taken an active part, giving freely his time, services, and money for their success. He has been influential in business outside of his own firm, being vice-president of the Chamber of Commerce, vice-president and for a time acting president of the Fourth National Bank, a director of the Central Trust Com- pany, the Equitable Life Assurance Company, and the Home Insurance Company, and governor and treasurer of the New York Hospital.
In politics Mr. Bliss has always been an earnest Republican, devoted to the principles of that party, and especially to the national policy of protection to American industries. For some years he has been the president of the Protective Tariff League. From 1878 to 1888 he was chairman of the Republi- can State Committee. President Arthur offered him a cabinet office, but he declined it. In 1884 he led the Committee of One Hundred, appointed at a great meeting of citizens of New York to urge the renomination of Mr. Arthur for the Presidency. In 1885 he declined a nomination for Governor of New York, and he has at various other times declined nomination to other high offices. For years he was a member of the Republican County Committee in this city, and also of the Republican National Committee, of which latter he was treasurer in 1892. He has been active in various movements for the reform and strength-
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ening of the Republican party in this city, and has often been urged to accept a nomination for Mayor. He was a leading member of the Committee of Seventy in 1894, and of the Com- mittee of Thirty, which reorganized the Republican local organ- ization.
Mr. Bliss accepted his first public office in March, 1897, when President Mckinley appointed him Secretary of the Interior in his cabinet. He was reluctant to do so, but yielded to the President's earnest request and to a sense of personal duty to the public service. He filled the office with distinguished abil- ity, and proved a most useful member of the cabinet as a general counselor in all great affairs of state. At the end of 1898, how- ever, having efficiently sustained the President through the trying days of the war with Spain, and having seen the treaty of peace concluded, he resigned office and returned to his busi- ness pursuits.
Mr. Bliss is a prominent member of the Union League Club, the Century Association, the Republican Club, the Metropolitan Club, the Players Club, the Riding Club, the Merchants' Club, the American Geographical Society, the National Academy of Design, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the New England Society of New York.
EMIL LEOPOLD BOAS
THE name of Boas is of English origin. The family which bears it was, however, prior to the present generation, settled in Germany. Two generations ago Louis Boas was a prosperous merchant, and he was followed in his pursuits and in his success by his son. The latter married Miss Mina Asher, and to them Emil Leopold Boas was born, at Goerlitz, Prussia, on November 15, 1854. The boy was sent first to the Royal Frederick William Gymnasium, at Breslau, and then to the Sophia Gymnasium of Berlin.
At the age of nineteen he entered the office of his father's brother, who was a member of the firm of C. B. Richard & Boas of New York and Hamburg, bankers and general passenger agents of the Hamburg-American Line of steamships. After a year he was transferred to the New York office. In 1880 Mr. Boas was made a partner in the Hamburg end of the firm. He had scarcely arrived there, however, when he was recalled and made a member of the New York firm also.
Ten years later he withdrew from the firm, and took a vaca- tion. During that time the Hamburg-American Line established offices of its own in New York. Mr. Boas was thereupon ap- pointed general manager of the Hamburg-American Line, which office he has continued to hold up to the present time. He now has supervision and management of all the interests of the Hamburg-American Line on the American continent. He is also president of the Hamburg-American Line Terminal and Navigation Company. It may be mentioned that the Hamburg- American Line, owning over two hundred vessels, is probably the largest steamship enterprise in the world.
Mr. Boas has acted in a semi-public capacity as the represen-
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tative of the New York shipping interests on a number of occasions, taking the lead in urging upon Congress the need of a deeper and more commodious channel from the inner harbor of New York to the ocean. He has taken a similar part in the movement for the extension of the pier and bulkhead lines so as to meet the enlarged requirements of modern shipping, and in the improvement of the New York State canals, being treasurer and chairman of the finance committee of the Canal Association of Greater New York.
Mr. Boas has found time to travel extensively in America and Europe, and to devote much attention to literature and art. He has a private library of thirty-five hundred volumes, largely on his- tory, geography, political economy, and kindred topics. The German Emperor has made him a Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle, the King of Italy a Chevalier of the Order of St. Mauritius and St. Lazarus. The King of Sweden and Norway has made him a Knight of the first class of the Order of St. Olaf, the Sultan of Turkey a Commander of the Order of Medjidjie, and the President of Venezuela a Commander of the Order of Bolivar, the Liberator.
In New York Mr. Boas is connected with numerous social organizations of high rank. Among these are the New York Yacht Club, the New York Athletic Club, St. Andrew's Golf Club, the National Arts Club, the Deutscher Verein, the Lieder- kranz, the Unitarian Club, the Patria Club, the German Social and Scientific Club, the American Geographical Society, the American Statistical Society, the American Ethnological Society, and the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the New York Zoological Society, the American Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the German Society, the Charity Organization Society, the Maritime Association, the Produce Exchange, and the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York.
Mr. Boas was married in New York, on March 20, 1888, to Miss Harriet Betty Sternfield. They have one child, Herbert Allan Boas. Mrs. Boas came from Boston, Massachusetts, and is identified with the New England Society, the Women's Phil- harmonic Society, the League of Unitarian Women, and various other organizations.
FRANK STUART BOND
THE Bond family in England is an ancient one, its authen- tic records dating as far back as the Norman Conquest, and many of its members have risen to eminence. In the United States, or rather in the North American colonies, it was planted early. Its first member here was William Bond, grandson of Jonas Bond, and son of Thomas Bond of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England, who was brought to this country in his boy- hood, in 1630, by his aunt, Elizabeth Child. They settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, on the Jennison farm, which re- mained in the possession of the family for more than one hun- dred and seventy years. From William Bond, the sixth in direct descent was Alvan Bond of Norwich, Connecticut, an eminent Congregational minister, who married Sarah Richardson, and to whom was born, at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1830, the subject of this sketch.
Frank Stuart Bond was educated at the Norwich Academy, and at the high school at Hopkinton, Massachusetts. He then entered the railroad business, which was beginning to develop into great proportions. His first work was in the office of the treasurer of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad, in 1849-50. Next he went to Cincinnati, entered the service of the Cin- cinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad, and became its secretary. In 1856 he came to New York, and from 1857 to 1861 was secre- tary and treasurer of the Auburn and Allentown and Schuylkill and Susquehanna railroads.
The war called him into the service of the nation. He was in 1862 commissioned a lieutenant of volunteers in the Connec- ticut State troops, and went to the front as an aide on the staff of Brigadier-General Daniel Tyler. He served under General
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Pope in Mississippi, at Farmington, and in other engagements leading to the capture of Corinth. Then he went upon the staff of General Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the Cum- berland. He was at Stone River, Tullahoma, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Finally he went into the Missouri campaign, and served until November 18, 1864, when he resigned his commis- sion.
He returned to railroading in 1868, when he became connected with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad Company, then recently organized. He resigned its vice-presidency in 1873, and became vice-president of the Texas and Pacific Company, in which capacity he served until 1881. He then became for two years president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, in a trying time in the history of that company. From 1884 to 1886 he was president of five associated railroad companies - the Cin- cinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific, the Alabama and Great Southern, the New Orleans and Northeastern, the Vicksburg and Meridian, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific. The combination operated some eleven hundred and fifty-nine miles of completed road. Then in 1886 he became vice-president of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad, and still remains in that office, with headquarters in the city of New York.
Mr. Bond has not been conspicuous in public life, nor has he taken more than a citizen's interest in politics. He is a mem- ber of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and also of the Society of the Sons of the American Revo- lution, Union League, Union, Century, and Metropolitan clubs.
Mr. Bond's life-work has been given, save for his military career, almost exclusively to railroading, which has long been one of the foremost industries of this nation. It has, however, been sufficiently varied in its scope to give him a wide experience and knowledge of the land of his birth, and of the people who are his countrymen. He has put his personal impress upon many important lines of transportation in various parts of the Union, and of the developments of American railroads in the last fifty years can truly say, " All of them I saw, and a large part of them I was."
HENRY WELLER BOOKSTAVER
B UCHSTABE was the original form of the name now known as Bookstaver, and it was borne, in the sixteenth century, by a notable religious reformer of Switzerland, Henry Buchstabe. The family thereafter removed to Germany and to Holland, and at the beginning of the eighteenth century one Jacobus Boock- stabers, a lineal descendant of Henry Buchstabe, came to this country and settled in Orange County, New York. One of his direct descendants was Daniel Bookstaver, who married Miss Alletta Weller, a lady of Teutonic descent, and lived at Mont- gomery, Orange County, New York.
To this latter couple was born at Montgomery, on September 17, 1835, a son, to whom they gave the name of Henry, in memory of his famous ancestor, the Swiss reformer, and that of Weller, in memory of his mother's family. The boy was educated at the academy at Montgomery, and then at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, New Jersey. From the latter institution he was graduated A. B., with high honors, in 1859, and from it he subsequently received the degrees of A. M. and LL. D.
Henry Weller Bookstaver then decided upon the practice of the law as his life-work. He entered as a student the office of Messrs. Brown, Hall & Vanderpoel in this city, and by 1861 was able to pass his examination and be admitted to the bar. A lit- tle later he was made a partner in the firm with which he had studied. Since that time he has constantly been in successful practice of the law in this city, with the exception of the con- siderable period during which he has been on the judicial bench. He has had a large and lucrative private practice, and has also been attorney to the sheriff, counsel to the Police Board, and counsel to the Commissioners of Charities and Corrections.
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HENRY WELLER BOOKSTAVER
His defense of Sheriff Reilly gave him the reputation of one of the most eloquent pleaders at the bar of this city.
Mr. Bookstaver was elected a justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1885, and had an honorable career on that bench. He was retained in that office until 1896, when the Court of Com- mon Pleas was merged into the Supreme Court, and then he became a justice of the latter tribunal, which place he still adorns.
The judicial office is, of course, in a large measure removed from politics. Considerations of politics are not supposed to enter into the influences which determine judicial decisions. Nevertheless, under our system judges are largely elected on political tickets, as party candidates, and it not infrequently hap- pens that an earnest partizan becomes an impartial and most estimable judge. Such is the case with Justice Bookstaver. He has long been an active member of the Democratic party, and was, before his elevation to the bench, interested in its activities. His engagements as counsel to various city officers and depart- ments were semi-political offices. For fifteen years, however, he has been on the bench, the dispenser of impartial justice without regard to party politics.
Important as his professional and official work has been, it has not entirely absorbed Justice Bookstaver's attention. He has found time to cultivate literary and artistic tastes, and to do much for their promotion in the community. He has often served as a public speaker at dinners and on other occasions. He is a member of the Archaeological, Geographical, and Histor- ical societies of this city, and also of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and of the Museum of Natural History. He has retained a deep interest in the welfare of his Alma Mater, Rutgers Col- lege, and is a member of its board of trustees.
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