USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 16
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NEWBURY DAVENPORT LAWTON
In addition to his legal and real-estate business, Mr. Lawton is associated with numerous companies: the Chicago General Railway Company, of which he is a director, the Lawyers' Title Insurance Company, and others, besides being a stock-holder in a number of other corporations.
Mr. Lawton is a resident of the city of New York, and a member of the New York Club, the Democratic Club, the Alpha Delta Phi, the New York Law Institute, the North Side Board of Trade, the Amateur Comedy Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Atlantic Yacht Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, the New Rochelle Yacht Club, and the Yachtsmen's Club. He has been much interested and taken a very active part in yacht- ing. He has built and owned a dozen or more racing yachts. He has been commodore for several years of the Atlantic Yacht Club, vice-commodore of the Larchmont Yacht Club, and has held numerous other offices in those and other organi- zations. He was chairman of the organization committee of the North American Yacht Racing Union, and is now treasurer of that association.
Mr. Lawton was married in New York city, in 1886, to Miss Hannah B. Callygan, and has two children, Anna Lawton and Newbury Davenport Lawton, Jr.
Theodore E. LEEds
THEODORE EDWARD LEEDS
THEODORE EDWARD LEEDS is a lineal descendant in the eighth generation of Puritan ancestors who landed in Boston in the spring of 1637. The following item concerning them appears in an old and partially destroyed volume, kept in the Rolls Office, London :
Aprille the 12th, 1637. The examination of Richard Leeds of Great Ya'mouth, marrinar, ageed 32 yeares, and Joane, his wife, ageed 23 yeares, with one child, are desirous to passe to New England and there to inhabit and dwelle.
The descendants of Richard and Joane were numerous, and became large landowners and prominent citizens of Dorchester and adjoining towns, and were noted for their benevolence and hospitality. They filled many positions of public and private trust, and are mentioned in the local histories of New England as worthy and upright citizens, ready at all times to bear their share of the burdens of the commonwealth.
On the maternal side Mr. Leeds is descended from Edmund Hobart of Hingham, England, who, in 1633, emigrated with his three children to New England, where, in company with " some other Christians," they formed a plantation which they called Hingham, in the Old Colony. He was joined in 1635 by his brother, the Rev. Peter Hobart, who was graduated at Cam- bridge University, England, and became famous in early New England annals as a preacher and controversial writer.
Theodore Edward Leeds was born on October 4, 1839, in Phil- adelphia, where his parents were visiting. His father, Theodore Churchill Leeds, and his mother, Mary Ann Leeds, were born in Boston, and lived and died there.
Mr. Leeds was educated at home and under private teachers
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until he was ready for admission to Harvard College. His father's business failure, which occurred at this time, prevented him from taking his college course. His studies, however, were continued under the direction and supervision of the Hon. The- ophilus Parsons, then Dane Professor of Law in Harvard Col- lege, and in the office of Ambrose A. Ranney and Nathan Morse of Boston. In January, 1863, he was admitted to practice in all the courts of Massachusetts.
In 1865 he removed to New York and studied practice under the code in the office of George Buckham, Joshua M. Van Cott, and Francis N. Bangs. Following the advice of friends that he should learn business and make acquaintances before opening a law office, Mr. Leeds entered the banking-house of Peabody & Co., and became a member of the New York Stock Exchange.
The study of the law was kept up, and in due course a law partnership was formed with John Sidney Davenport and George W. Dillaway.
Since 1896 Mr. Leeds has pursued his profession alone, acting almost exclusively as counselor to an important clientele, con- sisting principally of trustees for estates, bankers, brokers, and business and manufacturing corporations.
He is a trustee in several benevolent institutions, a life mem- ber of the New York State Bar Association, and the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. He is a member of the Union League, the Lawyers', the Players', the Good Govern- ment, and the Social Reform clubs.
Mr. Leeds married, in 1886, Miss Mary E. Bronson, daughter of Malcolm Bronson of Brooklyn. Mrs. Leeds is also of Puritan stock.
In the midst of a busy life Mr. Leeds has found time to culti- vate his taste for music and letters. He is a great lover of Shakspere and a close student of the drama. The American Indian has always excited his interest, and in early manhood he spent several summers hunting with the Sioux in Dakota, and the Utes in the Rocky Mountains. His experiences among them were made the basis of a number of interesting magazine and newspaper articles, which obtained much favorable notice at the time of publication.
Franklin Leonard -
FRANKLIN LEONARD
F RANKLIN LEONARD, the president of the Comstock Tunnel Company, was born at Feeding Hills, Agawam, Massachusetts, on October 29, 1843, and is a descendant of dis- tinguished American ancestry. His boyhood was spent upon his father's farm. At Westfield Academy and at the Normal School of his native State he obtained a liberal education. Thus equipped, he became a clerk in the Hampden Bank, then a State institution. His devotion to business, his integrity and gentle- manly conduct soon attracted the attention of the trustees of that institution, and resulted in his promotion.
After becoming thoroughly conversant with banking, he em- barked in the banking, insurance, and real-estate business on his own account at Westfield, Massachusetts. Early in his career he was overtaken by the great financial panic of 1873, but emerged, confident and conscious of having shown himself a worthy scion of the honest, thrifty, and fearless New England stock from whence he sprung. Having gained the public con- fidence through this experience, his business rapidly increased, and the records of the register's office show him to have been the largest real-estate dealer of that district.
Injuries received in a railway accident compelled his retire- ment from business for a time, and when he again took up his favorite pursuit it was in the city of New York, where he secured a seat in the Consolidated Stock Exchange, of which body he is still a member. In 1895 the Comstock Tunnel Company, a New York corporation, seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy, although it was possessed of a property in the State of Nevada on which over seven millions of dollars had been expended. It was the owner of the Sutro Tunnel, a mining, draining, and ex-
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ploring tunnel seven miles long, together with valuable fran- chises and an immense grant of mineral land of five thousand acres lying wholly within the mineral zone, in which is situated the famous Comstock Lode, which has already added more than a thousand millions to the world's wealth of gold and silver. He was elected president of the company. After becoming familiar with the affairs of the company at New York, he went to Nevada to assume personal supervision of the company's property there. He immediately inaugurated a system of re- forms, brought order out of chaos, and won the esteem and con- fidence of his new acquaintances in the West. All differences between his company and the various mining companies operat- ing on the Comstock Lode were amicably adjusted, to the best interest of all concerned, and as a result the nearly wrecked and sinking concern, of which he assumed control, was made self- sustaining, the debts contracted by former managers were paid, and the tunnel was repaired and placed in first-class condition. Not content with what he has so far done, Mr. Leonard has sug- gested to his company several propositions for extending the tunnel, which, if seen in their true light by those interested, will doubtless vastly increase the value of the company's property, and add materially to the wealth of our country and the world. There seems to be no doubt that Franklin Leonard will thus ere long have opened a new chapter of Nevada's history, which will be far more interesting than any yet written of the marvelous wealth yielded by this storehouse of nature's treasure.
On October 6, 1868, Mr. Leonard married Miss Sarah Lee Smith, daughter of Henry B. Smith, the well-known iron manu- facturer, whose wife, Elmira Mather, is a direct descendant of the famous Richard Mather and Cotton Mather. Five children are the issue of this union.
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard are members of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church of this city, and much interested in all manner of good work.
CLARENCE LEXOW
C LARENCE LEXOW is of German parentage. His father came from Schleswig-Holstein in 1848 and settled in New York and founded here the "Belletristisches Journal," a weekly devoted to the arts, literature, and science. Clarence Lexow was born in Brooklyn on September 16, 1852, and was educated in the public schools and the German-American Collegiate Insti- tute of Brooklyn, the German universities of Bonn and Leipzig, and the Law School of Columbia College. In 1874 he was graduated a Bachelor of Laws, and was admitted to practice at the bar, establishing the firm of Lexow & Haldane, which a few years ago was succeeded by the present firm of Lexow, Mackellar & Wells.
He made his home in this city until 1881. He then, while maintaining his office in New York, removed his home to Nyack, in Rockland County. There he soon became a leader of the Re- publican party. In 1887 he was nominated for the office of county judge, but was defeated by a narrow margin. In 1890 he accepted the Republican nomination for Congress in a Demo- cratic district. Again he was defeated, but his county was the only one in the State that showed a Republican gain. In 1892 he was a delegate to the National Convention at Minneapolis, and in 1893 he was nominated for State Senator, and was elected by an overwhelming majority.
In January, 1894, he introduced the resolution which brought about an investigation into the municipal affairs of the city of New York. He was chairman of the committee, and the burden of the inquiry devolved largely upon him. The investigation began in April of that year, and lasted, with few intermissions, until the 31st of December, and was so searching and un-
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compromising that it became historic and added a new phrase to our vocabulary. The astounding disclosures of official corrup- tion then brought to light gained world-wide publicity, and cul- minated in a political upheaval, resulting in the election of a non-partizan Mayor, a Republican Governor, and an overwhelming Republican majority in both branches of the Legislature.
On the reconvening of the Senate in 1895, he presented the report and proceedings of the Lexow Committee, accompanied by a number of important bills, which were adopted. In the autumn of that year he was chosen permanent chairman of the Republican State Convention, and then was reelected to the Senate from the Rockland-Orange District by an increased majority.
In 1895 he introduced and advocated the bill creating the Greater New York, which then failed of passage on a tie vote. In 1896 he again introduced the measure, and secured the appointment of a special committee, of which he was chosen chairman, to investigate the propriety of municipal con- solidation. On the conclusion of the inquiry, he drafted and submitted a report recommending the passage of the Consoli- dation Act, and creating a commission to prepare a charter. Then followed the passage of the bill which created the " Greater" city, and of a resolution which authorized Senator Lexow's committee to act as an auxiliary to the Charter Commission.
In 1897 Senator Lexow introduced a resolution to create a joint legislative committee empowered to investigate unlawful combinations in restraint of trade, and to recommend remedial laws. As a result he drafted and presented an exhaustive re- port accompanied by two bills radically changing and extend- ing the anti-trust laws, both of which were adopted.
In the session of 1898, primary elections reform was the con- spicuous subject. After six weeks of conference and discussion, he presented a bill which provided for a complete system of pri- mary reform so fair and practical that it received the remark- able indorsement of a unanimous vote of both branches of the Legislature. These are only a few of the more conspicuous mat- ters with which he has been identified. At the end of his term in 1898, the Senator declined a unanimous renomination, although coupled with the offer of the presidency pro tem. of the Senate.
Luikopan
THOMAS M. LOGAN
THOMAS M. LOGAN, who was a unique figure in the Civil War, and who has had a notable career since as a lawyer and railroad manager, is of Scottish ancestry, being de- scended from the well-known family of Logan of Restalrig, Scotland. His father, the late George William Logan, was one of the foremost lawyers of Charleston, South Carolina, and was for some time judge of the City Court of that city. Judge Logan married a daughter of Dr. Joseph Glover, a leading physi- cian of Charleston, and to them the subject of this sketch was born in Charleston, on November 3, 1840.
The boy spent his early years on his father's country estate, a plantation in St. Paul's Parish, South Carolina. In his thir- teenth year he began school life in Charleston, and three years later entered the sophomore class of Charleston College. In June, 1859, he entered the junior class of South Carolina College, and in December, 1860, he was graduated with highest honors at the head of a large class.
At that time secession was the issue of the day. Young Logan was a loyal son of South Carolina, and of militant dis- position. Immediately after leaving college he joined the Wash- ington Light Infantry of Charleston, and served with it in the attack upon Fort Sumter in April, 1861. After the fall of that fort and the actual beginning of the war he organized Company A of the well-known Hampton Legion, and was chosen its second lieutenant. He was with it at Bull Run, and thereafter was elected captain. At the reorganization of the army in the spring of 1862, he was made captain of his company. He was wounded at Gaines's Mill, but was able to take part in the second battle of Bull Run. In 1862 his regiment was part of
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Hood's Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia. In the fall it was transferred to Jenkins's Brigade, and he became lieutenant- colonel. In 1863, when General Butler threatened Richmond, he was chosen by General D. H. Hill to lead a reconnaissance and develop the strength of Butler's force. He did this with great success, and was frequently afterward chosen for like duty. He was with General Longstreet in the Chattanooga and Knox- ville campaigns, and did fine work. In 1864 he was colonel of mounted infantry in Gary's Brigade, and was sent to attack the head of Grant's army as it crossed the Chickahominy, and delayed its advance until Lee could get between it and Rich- mond. This he did effectively, though he was himself severely wounded. In December of that year, M. C. Butler of South Carolina was made major-general, and on his recommendation Logan was made brigadier-general, to succeed him in command of Butler's Brigade. Logan was then the youngest brigadier- general in the Confederate Army. He was with General John- ston in North Carolina until the end of the war, and made the last Confederate cavalry charge near Raleigh. He was present at the surrender of Johnston to Sherman.
After the war General Logan settled at Richmond, Virginia, and engaged in the practice of the law. About 1878, he organ- ized a syndicate of New York and Richmond capitalists for the purpose of consolidating various railroads in the South into a harmonious system. At that time the Richmond and Dansville Company controlled about three hundred miles of road. Within two years, under the direction of General Logan, it had secured more than two thousand miles, and, as the Southern Railway, is now one of the great railroad systems of the country.
General Logan is now equally well known in Richmond and New York, as well as elsewhere throughout the country. He is a member of various social and business organizations, prominent among them being the Richmond Chamber of Commerce, and the Westmoreland and Commonwealth clubs of Richmond, and the Manhattan Club of New York, of which last-named he is a non-resident member.
eca
HENRY D. McCORD
THE McCord family of Scotland is kin to the clan MacDonald, the Lords of the Isles, and is one of the most distinguished in the Highlands. The American branch of it is descended from James McCord, who flourished in Argyleshire in the seventeenth century. His son John married Sarah MacDougall, and had a son James, who married a cousin, Sarah McCord. The sons of this latter couple came to America at the middle of the last cen- tury, and settled in Westchester County, New York, where their descendants are numerous at this day. One of these sons was Benjamin McCord of Scarsdale, New York. His second wife was Catherine Devoe, of the well-known New York family of that name, and one of their sons was Jordan H. McCord. The latter was twice married, his second wife being Rachel Tompkins, a niece of Governor and Vice-President D. D. Tompkins. Their son, Lewis McCord, married Nancy Mangam, and lived at Sing Sing.
To this last-named couple was born, at Sing Sing, on Septem- ber 15, 1836, the subject of this sketch, Henry D. McCord. He received a common-school education in his native town, and then was left an orphan and had to go to work and care for himself. He was a boy of natural intelligence and shrewdness and of in- domitable energy, and he soon reached a business standing far beyond his years. His first work was in a mercantile establish- ment at Sing Sing, but at the age of twenty-one he came to this city and entered the office of an uncle, William D. Mangam, a dealer in grain, on lower Broad Street. There he remained until Mr. Mangam's death in 1870, and then himself succeeded to the head of the business. It is a noteworthy fact that he is still in the selfsame building and office in which he began work as a
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subordinate more than forty years ago. At that early date, under Mr. Mangam, the house had an enviable standing. It has now become one of the very foremost in the grain trade in all the country.
His prominence in business, and his high character and sound judgment, appropriately led to Mr. McCord's election to the office of president of the Produce Exchange for several years in suc- cession. In that place he used his great influence for the general promotion of trade and for the improvement of commercial facili- ties in the harbor and port of New York. His activities in such directions have often led to the suggestion of his name in con- nection with public offices, when a nomination would be equiv- alent to election; but he has invariably declined such offers, deeming his best usefulness, not only to himself, but to the trade and the community, to lie in private business efforts.
Mr. McCord is a member of the Colonial Club of New York, and of many other organizations, social, business, and philan- thropic. Although not a public advocate of total abstinence, he has long been interested in temperance efforts, and lends his personal influence strongly in that direction. He has a fine city home on West Seventy-third Street, and also a large country estate at Scarborough, not many miles from his birthplace and in the region which has been the chief home of his kinsmen in this country for several generations.
He was married, in 1860, to Miss Esther E. Noe, daughter of Richard O. Noe of this city. They have three children, all now grown to maturity. The eldest is William M. McCord, who was married, in 1887, to Miss Helen Washburn. The second is Minnie E., now Mrs. Charles L. Schwartzwaelder, of this city. The third is Clara Belle, now Mrs. Robert Sherrard Elliot.
Almen Fre kanley
ABNER MCKINLEY
TE western part of Scotland was the old home of the McKinley family. Thence it migrated, in the reign of Charles II, to the north of Ireland. In both places its members were distinguished for their sturdy and robust virtues. Some twenty-five years before the battle of Bunker Hill, two of the McKinleys, brothers, came to America, and settled in Pennsyl- vania. In the Revolutionary War they and their sons were active patriots. After the War of 1812 they settled in Ohio. There William McKinley married Nancy Allison, a woman of Scotch stock, like his own. To this couple were born eight chil- dren. One of these was named William, who became a soldier, a lawyer, a Representative in Congress, the leader of his party, the spokesman of the protectionist policy, Governor of the State of Ohio, and President of the United States. Another son, nearly seven years younger, is the subject of this sketch.
Abner Mckinley was born at Niles, Trumbull County, on No- vember 27, 1849, and was educated in the local schools and acad- emy at Poland, Ohio. In the spring of 1864 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Regiment, Ohio National Guard. This regiment was mustered into the service at Camp Dennison, on May 8, 1864. The next day it started for New Creek, West Virginia. Thence it was ordered to Martinsburg until June 3. Thence it was sent to Washington, and thence to White House. It served in the Winchester Valley and at Bermuda Hundred. At City Point it was a part of the guard of Grant's headquarters, and of the force that guarded the passage of his army over the James River. It also assisted in taking care of the wounded at the battle of the Wilderness. At the end of June it went on duty near Norfolk. On July 26 Abner Mckinley was among the five
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hundred men of that regiment who formed part of the expedition to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and Albemarle Sound. The march was made by way of the Dismal Swamp, and extensive raiding was done, and important captures of cotton, tobacco, etc., were effected. The troops were then mustered out, after such services as not many have seen in so short a time.
Having been honorably discharged from the army a few days before his fifteenth birthday anniversary, Abner Mckinley re- sumed his schooling, and then was employed as a clerk in a store. In 1867 the family removed to Canton, Ohio, where William McKinley opened a law office. Abner decided to become a law- yer also, and after studying in his brother's office was admitted to practice at the Ohio bar. He then formed a partnership with his brother, under the firm-name of W. & A. Mckinley.
When William McKinley entered political life, Abner took the stump in his behalf, and then assumed the burden of conducting the law office. In time the elder brother was compelled by stress of public duties to leave practically all the law business to the younger. The latter, after some years, came to New York and opened a law office, but the bulk of his attention was given to other enterprises. He first became interested in a printing and writing telegraph, which, although it did not succeed as greatly as had been expected, is still in considerable use in bank- ing-houses and other establishments in this city and Chicago. Some other electrical inventions were highly successful and profitable. Mr. McKinley was admitted to the New York bar in March, 1898, and maintains an office in this city. He has taken no part in political matters, except in his brother's inter- est, as already noted.
Mr. Mckinley was married, at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to Miss Annie Endsley, and has one child, Miss Mabel Mckinley. He has a fine country place at Somerset, Pennsylvania, near the old home of his ancestors, where much of his time is spent, and where he has entertained many guests in hospitable style. He and his family made their New York home at the Windsor Hotel, on Fifth Avenue, until the burning of that famous house in March, 1899.
Engrandiby Samuel Sarcin Phil
Que. Br Mackey
CHARLES WILLIAM MACKEY
MONG the sons of Pennsylvania who have contributed to the advancement of that State, and at the same time have extended their business influence and achievements far beyond its borders, Charles William Mackey is conspicuously to be men- tioned. He comes of stock whose name has figured in history from the time of Robert Bruce, and which was transplanted from Scotland to Ireland, and thence to the North American colonies. He was born in Franklin, Venango County, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1842, and studied in the local schools. He then entered a printing-office, and before he attained his majority was himself editor and publisher of a newspaper. At eighteen he began studying law in the office of his brother-in-law, the Hon. Charles E. Taylor.
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