USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume I > Part 6
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Mr. Ceballos continued to be his father's partner until the death of the latter, which occurred in 1886. Thereupon Mr. Ceballos, who was then only twenty-seven years old, became the
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head of the business and assumed entire charge thereof. Shortly afterward he founded the India Wharf Brewing Company, and the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, and began the development of important industrial and commercial interests in Cuba.
At the present time Mr. Ceballos is president of the India Wharf Brewing Company, of the New York and Porto Rico Steamship Company, and of several sugar-plantation and other foreign corporations. He is also a director of the Western National Bank of New York. He is largely interested in the rehabilitation and development of Cuba, and is identified with the trolley-car systems of Havana and other important enter- prises.
Mr. Ceballos is, of course, an American citizen of most loyal spirit, though he naturally has a strong affection for the race and country of his ancestors. When the Infanta Eulalia of Spain visited this country in 1893, in connection with the quadricen- tenary of Columbus, he entertained her and her suite as his guests. Upon the outbreak of the war between the United States and Spain in 1898 he was placed in a trying position, in which he acquitted himself with faultless tact. He promptly resigned the office of Spanish vice-consul, which he had held for some time, in order that there might not be any possibility of misinterpreting his position as an American citizen. Later, when the war ceased and the treaty of peace was signed, he entered into negotiations for the return of the Spanish prisoners to Spain from Santiago de Cuba, and carried out the undertaking to the entire satisfaction of both governments. Still later he similarly managed the transportation of the Spanish prisoners from the Philippine Islands to Spain. Mr. Ceballos has held no political office, and has taken no part in politics beyond that of a private citizen.
He is a member of a number of clubs and other organizations, among which are the Union, New York, Democratic, New York Athletic, and Fifth Avenue Riding clubs.
He was married, on May 10, 1886, to Miss Lulu Washington, who has borne him two children : Juan M. Ceballos, Jr., and Louisa Adams Ceballos.
WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER
AM MONG the scions of distinguished New York families, no one has achieved at an early age a more honorable position than William Astor Chanler. At an age when most young men are concerned principally with the proper fit of their coats or the pattern of their neckties, he was at the head of an exploring expedition in the heart of Africa, and in his later career as a member of the State Legislature, a patriot, and a soldier, he has proved himself a worthy descendant of sturdy ancestors.
For the present purpose it will be sufficient to trace back Mr. Chanler's paternal ancestry three generations. Dr. Isaac Chanler was one of the foremost physicians in this country in colonial times. He served with conspicuous merit as a surgeon in the American army in the Revolutionary War, and was the first president of the Medical Society of South Carolina, his home being at Charleston in that State. His son, the Rev. John White Chanler, will be remembered as a prominent and honored clergy- man of the Protestant Episcopal Church. A son of the Rev. Mr. Chanler was the Hon. John Winthrop Chanler of this city. He was born in 1826, was graduated from Columbia College, and be- came one of the leading lawyers of his day. He was also a political leader, being a member of Tammany Hall, and for three terms a Representative in Congress from a New York city district.
On the maternal side Mr. Chanler is a member of the Astor family, being directly descended from the first John Jacob Astor, founder of that family in America. The latter's son, William Backhouse Astor, married Miss Margaret Armstrong, the daugh- ter of the younger of the two General Armstrongs famed in the earlier history of this nation. General Armstrong became a Rep-
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resentative in Congress from New York in 1787; a Senator of the United States from New York in 1800; United States min- ister to France and Spain in 1804-10 ; a brigadier-general in the United States army in 1812; and Secretary of War in President Madison's cabinet in 1813. One of the children of William B. Astor and Margaret Armstrong Astor was Miss Emily Astor, who became the wife of the Hon. John Winthrop Chanler, named above.
The offspring of the marriage of John Winthrop Chanler and Emily Astor included the subject of the present sketch. William Astor Chanler was born in this city in 1866, and was educated with more than ordinary care, at first by private tutors, then at St. John's School, Sing Sing, New York, then at Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and finally at Harvard Uni- versity. In the last-named institution he pursued a brilliant career, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1887. Later he received the advanced degree of A. M. from his Alma Mater.
On leaving college he literally had the world before him. In perfect physical health, of admirable intellectual attainments, with ample wealth, and of unsurpassed social standing and con- nections, he had only to choose whatever career he pleased. To the surprise of most of his friends he deliberately turned his back upon the fascinations and luxuries of society, and set out to be for a time a wanderer in the most savage and inhospitable regions of the known - or rather the unknown - world. It was while he was spending a winter in Florida that he conceived the desire - and with him desire and determination were synony- mous- to explore the Dark Continent of Africa. Forthwith he organized an experimental trip, a mere hunting excursion. He went to the savage east coast, and landed in Masailand, perhaps the most perilous region in all Africa. There he boldly struck inland, and spent ten months in the jungle, penetrating to the scarcely known region around Mount Kenia and Mount Kiliman- jaro. His experiences there convinced him of his ability to stand the fatigues and labors of such adventures, and also confirmed him in his taste for African exploration.
He accordingly resolved to make another venture on a more elaborate scale, and one which should be productive not only of
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sport for himself, but of real benefit to the scientific, and possibly the commercial, world. Accordingly, he made his plans with much care and at great expense, bearing all the latter himself. He had only two white companions, one of them being the Chev- alier Ludwig von Hohnel, a lieutenant in the Austrian navy, who had also had some practical experience in African explora- tion. An ample caravan was organized, and on September 17, 1892, the start was made inland from the Zanzibar coast. The first objective point was Mount Kenia, from the slopes of which the sources of the great Victoria Nyanza were supposed to pro- ceed. That mountain was at that time all but unknown, and the wilderness lying at the north of it was still less known, save the fact concerning it that it was infested by some particularly savage tribes. The expedition also proposed to explore the shores of the great Lake Rudolph.
Lieutenant Hohnel wished to explore the river Nianan, which flows into the lake from an unknown source, and, if possible, verify the conjectured existence of another river running into the lake from the northwest. Afterward it was expected to march east-northeast and visit Lake Stephanie and the Juba River, thus covering some five hundred miles of the least-known portion of the earth's surface.
For many months nothing was heard from the party, and much anxiety was felt for their safety. At length a rumor reached civilization that the caravan was stranded at Daitcho, a few miles north of the equator and not far northeast of Mount Kenia. The rumor was subsequently corroborated by information re- ceived by the Geographical Society in London. The report stated that the climate was particularly fatal to the camels and other animals in the caravan. In one day they lost one hundred and fifty donkeys and fifteen camels. In February of the follow- ing year, Mr. Chanler, after being deserted by many of his native followers, and suffering great hardships, succeeded in reaching the coast. The caravan, when it started in September, 1892, consisted of one hundred and fifty porters, twenty interpreters, cooks, and tent-boys, twelve Sudanese soldiers, seven camel- drivers, and a large number of camels, donkeys, oxen, sheep, goats, ponies, and dogs. On October 1 there were left of living things in the expedition one hundred and twelve black men,
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twelve donkeys, Mr. Chanler, Lieutenant von Hohnel, who had been wounded by a rhinoceros and returned to the coast, and Mr. Chanler's servant, Galvin. Notwithstanding the terrible climate and the hardships of the journey, Mr. Chanler's health was not impaired. His expedition was exceedingly fruitful of re- sults, and many important additions were made to the geographi- cal knowledge of Africa. He discovered and mapped a hitherto unknown region equal in area to that of Portugal. He wrote an extremely entertaining account of his experience, entitled "Through Jungle and Desert."
Mr. Chanler resumed his residence in New York, and in 1895 entered political life. Somewhat to the dismay of his family, and to the surprise of all his associates, he joined Tammany Hall, and under that banner was elected to the Assembly from the Fifth District.
In 1898 he made a gallant and successful fight to win congres- sional honors in the Fourteenth District, although the opposing candidate, the Hon. Lemuel Ely Quigg, was very strong in the district and had carried it the year before by ten thousand. The district runs from Fifty-second Street to Spuyten Duyvil, bounded on the east by Central Park and Seventh Avenue, and the other section runs from Fifty-ninth Street to Seventy-ninth Street on the East Side, the East River being the eastern boun- dary, the park the western. The district has a population of three hundred thousand people, and a voting strength of sixty thousand. Rich and poor are to be found among the voters, and Captain Chanler, despite his wealth, won the good will of the laboring man as well as that of the capitalist.
When the war with Spain broke out Mr. Chanler was one of the young men of wealth and social standing who disappointed the pessimists by being among the first to offer their services to their country. Mr. Chanler's patriotism went even further. As soon as it was apparent that the government would make a call for troops, he set about recruiting a regiment of volunteers, which he intended to arm and equip at his own cost. He was deeply disappointed when Governor Black intimated that he could not accept the regiment that was being formed by Mr. Chanler. Thereupon he left the city with a few companions, and proceeded to Tampa, with the intention of joining the staff
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of Lacret, the Cuban general. Before he could reach Cuba, however, he was commissioned by the President as an assistant adjutant-general, with the rank of captain, and assigned to General Wheeler's staff. He served throughout the Santiago cam- paign, and was several times under fire, and was mentioned for conspicuous gallantry in action in General Wheeler's despatches to the War Department. On October 3 he was honorably dis- charged by direction of the President, his services being no longer required. At an extra session of the Assembly in July, 1898, the following resolution was unanimously carried by a rising vote :
" WHEREAS, The Honorable William Astor Chanler, one of the members of this body, has gone to the front with a large num- ber of other patriots from this State, and is now at Santiago de Cuba fighting the country's cause upon the field of battle ; there- fore be it
" Resolved, That the Assembly of the State of New York, in ex- traordinary session assembled, sends cordial message of greeting to Captain Chanler, and wishes him and all of New York's gallant, brave soldiers a safe return from the field of battle; and be it further
" Resolved, That Mr. Chanler be, and he is, granted indefinite leave of absence from the House ; and that a copy of this pream- ble and resolution be spread upon the Journal."
Mr. Chanler is a member of the Knickerbocker, Union, Play- ers', Turf, and Field clubs, and of the American Geographical Society. He is unmarried. One of his sisters, Miss Margaret Chanler, is a member of the Red Cross Society.
Mr. Chanler, as already stated, is a Democrat in politics, as was his father before him. He has expressed himself as favor- ing a generous national policy, including the enlargement of the army and navy to a size proportionate to the nation's needs, the construction of an interoceanic canal across the Central Amer- ican isthmus, the establishment of suitable naval stations in the Pacific and elsewhere, the annexation of Hawaii, the control of the Philippines, and perhaps the ultimate annexation of Cuba, whenever the people of that island shall desire it.
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HUGH JOSEPH CHISHOLM
SCOTCH by ancestry, Canadian by birth, true American by choice, is the record of Hugh Joseph Chisholm, the head of the International Paper Company. He was born on May 2, 1847, on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, and was edu- cated in local schools and afterward in a business college at Toronto. Then, at the age of sixteen years, he entered prac- tical business life. His first engagement was in the railway news and publishing line, his business covering four thousand miles of road and employing two hundred and fifty hands. But by the time he had reached his first quarter-century he began to turn his attention to the great enterprises with which he is now identified.
About the year 1882 Mr. Chisholm observed the splendid natural advantages offered by the upper reaches of the Andros- coggin River, in Maine, for manufacturing purposes, in the form of an inexhaustible supply of pure water and practically un- limited water-power. For years he planned and schemed to secure there a suitable tract of land for the establishment of an industrial town. He was then in business at Portland, and made many a trip up the Androscoggin, not merely for hunting and fishing, but with great industrial enterprises in his mind's eye. In the late eighties he got control of the land he wanted, and also of the then moribund Rumford Falls and Buckfield Railroad. The latter he promptly developed into the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway, which was opened to traffic in August, 1892.
In the meantime, with his associates, he improved his eleven- hundred-acre tract of land on the Androscoggin and built the industrial town of Rumford Falls. When he organized the
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Rumford Falls Power Company, in 1890, with five hundred thousand dollars capital, there were two or three cabins at the place. When the new railway was opened in 1892 there was a town of more than three thousand population, with great mills, stores, schools, churches, newspapers, fire department, electric lights, and "all modern improvements." The chief industry of the place is the manufacture of wood-pulp and paper. The Androscoggin furnishes an unsurpassed water-power and water- supply, while the surrounding forests provide the wood. The works at Rumford Falls include everything necessary for the transformation of logs of wood into sheets of paper. There are mills for cutting up the trees, chemical works for making the chemicals used in reducing wood to pulp, and paper-mills for turning out many tons of finished paper each day. The place is an unsurpassed exhibition of the achievements of American ingenuity and enterprise, and a splendid monument to the genius of the man who called it into being.
Mr. Chisholm is the president and controlling owner of the Portland and Rumford Falls Railway, and treasurer, manager, and controlling owner of the Rumford Falls Power Company. But his interests do not end there. He was, before the creation of Rumford Falls, the chief owner of the Umbagog Pulp Com- pany, the Otis Falls Pulp Company, and the Falmouth Paper Company. He is also a director of the Casco National Bank of Portland, Maine. Nor did his enterprise stop with these things. Observing the tendency of the age toward great com- binations of business interests, by which cost of production is lessened, injurious competition obviated, and profits increased to the producer and cost reduced to the consumer at the same time, he planned and with his associates finally executed such a com- bination in the paper trade.
The result was the formation of the International Paper Com- pany of New York, which was legally organized in January, 1898, with twenty-five million dollars cumulative six per cent. preferred stock and twenty million dollars common stock. This giant corporation has acquired by purchase the manufacturing plants, water-powers, and woodlands of thirty paper-making concerns, which produce the great bulk of the white paper for newspapers in North America, and are as follows: Glens Falls
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Paper Mills Co., Glens Falls, N. Y .; Hudson River Pulp and Paper Co., Palmer's Falls, N. Y .; Herkimer Paper Co., Herkimer, N. Y .; Piercefield Paper Co., Piercefield, N. Y .; Fall Mountain Paper Co., Bellows Falls, Vt .; Glen Manufacturing Co., Berlin, N. H .; Falmouth Paper Co., Jay, Me .; Rumford Falls Paper Co., Rumford Falls, Me .; Montague Paper Co., Turner's Falls, Mass. ; St. Maurice Lumber Co., Three Rivers, Quebec, Canada. ; Webster Paper Co., Orono, Me. ; Plattsburg Paper Co., Cadyville, N. Y. ; Niagara Falls Paper Co., Niagara Falls, N. Y .; Ontario Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y .; Lake George Paper Co., Ticon- deroga, N. Y .; Winnipiseogee Paper Co., Franklin Falls, N. H .; Otis Falls Paper Co., Chisholm, Me .; Umbagog Pulp Co., Liver- more Falls, Me .; Russell Paper Co., Lawrence, Mass. ; Haverhill Paper Co., Haverhill, Mass .; Turner's Falls Paper Co., Turner's Falls, Mass. ; C. R. Remington & Sons Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y. ; Remington Paper Co., Watertown, N. Y .; Ashland Mills, Ashland, N. H .; Rumford Falls Sulphite Co., Rumford Falls, Me. ; Piscataquis Paper and Pulp Co., Montague, Me .; Moose- head Pulp and Paper Co., Solon, Me .; Lyons Falls Mills, Lyons Falls, N. Y .; Milton Mills, Milton, Vt .; Wilder Mills, Olcott Falls, Vt.
These various mills produce about seventeen hundred tons of finished paper a day. The company holds the title to more than seven hundred thousand acres of spruce woodland in the United States and license to cut on twenty-one hundred square miles in Quebec, Canada.
Mr. Chisholm is the president of this corporation. Though he has held no public office, he has taken a keen interest in public affairs, and is an earnest member of the Republican party and upholder of its principles. He was married at Portland, Maine, in 1872, to Miss Henrietta Mason, daughter of Dr. Mason of that city, and has one son, Hugh Chisholm.
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WILLIAM BOURKE COCKRAN
"THE legend of the Blarney stone may be a legend and nothing more; but beyond question the Irish race is gifted in a high degree with persuasive eloquence of speech. Some of the most famous orators of the British Parliament have hailed from the Emerald Isle, and in the short-lived Irish Parliament on College Green there were not a few orators of exceptional power. Irish- men in America, too, have been heard from the public platform to signal purpose. And thus it is entirely fitting that one of the most popular and effective political orators of the day in New York should be a man of Irish birth.
William Bourke Cockran was born in Ireland on February 28, 1854. He was educated partly in Ireland and partly in France, and at the age of seventeen, in 1871, came to the United States, landing at New York.
His first occupation in this country was as a teacher in a pri- vate academy. Later he was the principal of a public school in Westchester County, near New York city. Meantime he dili- gently improved his knowledge of law, and in due time was ad- mitted to practice at the bar. In that profession he has attained marked success, ranking among the leaders of the bar of New York. Among the noted cases in which he has been engaged may be recalled that of the Jacob Sharp "Boodle Aldermen," and that of Kemmler, the murderer who was the first to be put to death by electric shock in the State of New York.
Early in his career Mr. Cockran became interested in politics in New York city. He was a Democrat, and was a prominent member and leader of Tammany Hall. His power as a speaker made him a force in public meetings and at conventions. He first became prominent in politics in 1881, and in 1890 he was
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elected to Congress from a New York city district as a Tammany Democrat. He had made a notable speech in the National Democratic Convention in 1884, opposing the nomination of Grover Cleveland for the Presidency, and had thereby won a national reputation which fixed much attention upon his appear- ance at Washington. In Congress he had a successful career, but found the place not altogether to his liking. He served for six years, but in 1894 declined a further reelection, in order to attend to his private interests. At the National Democratic Con- vention of 1892 he again opposed the nomination of Mr. Cleveland in a speech of great power.
Mr. Cockran practically withdrew from Tammany Hall in 1894, and thereafter for a time was an independent Democrat. In the Presidential campaign of 1896 Mr. Cockran, with thou- sands of other Democrats, as a matter of principle, openly repu- diated Mr. Bryan's free-silver platform and supported the Repub- lican candidate for President, Mr. McKinley. Mr. Cockran was a frequent and most effective speaker in that campaign, and con- tributed much by his persuasive and convincing eloquence to the phenomenal size of the majority by which Mr. McKinley carried the State of New York.
Mr. Cockran was married, in 1885, to Miss Rhoda E. Mack, the daughter of John Mack. She had a fine fortune in her own right, and became a social leader at the national capital when Mr. Cockran was in Congress. In 1893 her health began to fail, and various visits to places of sanatory repute failed to check the progress of the malady. She died in New York on February 20, 1895.
WILLIAM NATHAN COHEN
W TAIT till you come to forty year" was the genial satirist's injunction to thoughtless youth. The mentioned age is one at which a man should still be young, though fixed in character and in estate. Beyond it lie many possible achieve- ments, and what is gained at forty is not necessarily to be taken as the full measure of a man's doings. In the present case we shall observe the career of one who began work at an early age and in the humblest fashion, who, by dint of hard work, privations, and inflexible determination, made his way steadily upward, and who, at exactly " forty year," attained official rank which placed him at the head of his chosen profession.
William Nathan Cohen, son of Nathan and Ernestine Cohen, was born in this city on May 7, 1857. His father was a German, whose ancestors had come from Bavaria, and he followed the business of a dry-goods merchant. William was first sent to the public schools of the city, and then became a clerk in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spingarn. He began this work at the age of thirteen years, and remained in the same office until he was seventeen. Then he determined to acquire a higher educa- tion which would fit him for a learned profession. In four months of private study he fitted himself for the highest class in Kimball Union Academy, Meriden, New Hampshire, and after a year in that institution he entered Dartmouth College, selecting it because it seemed most accessible to a youth of his limited means. During his whole college course he worked his way, in the summer as a law-office clerk and in the winter as a school-teacher. He was graduated in the class of 1879, taking the prize for the greatest improvement made in four years. It should be added that one of his employers, Siegmund Spingarn, generously assisted him in his early struggles.
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On leaving Dartmouth he came to New York and entered the Columbia College Law School, at the same time maintaining his service as clerk in the office of Morrison, Lauterbach & Spin- garn. Two years later, in 1881, he was graduated and admitted to the bar, and on the death of Mr. Spingarn, in 1883, he was made a member of the firm in which he had so long been em- ployed. He remained in the firm, under its new style of Hoadly, Lauterbach & Johnson, until he was appointed a justice of the Supreme Court. This appointment was made by Governor Black in September, 1897, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Justice Sedgwick.
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