USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 17
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Immediately upon the outbreak of the Civil War, Mr. Mackey, still in his teens, enlisted in the Federal Army. With two ex- ceptions, he was engaged in every battle of the Army of the Po- tomac, from Dranesville to Gettysburg. Then, on July 11, 1863, he was honorably mustered out, and a month later was appointed a special agent of the United States Treasury in the district of Eastern Virginia and North Carolina. In this place he handled large sums of government money, and conducted the whole busi- ness in an eminently satisfactory manner.
Mr. Mackey resigned the Treasury agency on August 1, 1865, and returned to his native place. There he entered the law firm of Taylor & Gilfillan as a partner. A few weeks later he was admitted to the bar of the State, and then to the bar of the Su- preme Court of the United States. As counsel for various cor- porations, he soon became identified with their operation, and has himself become one of the foremost promoters of great enter-
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prises. Thus he was the projector of the Olean, Bradford and Warren Railroad, and vice-president of the company, projector and president of the Pittsburg, Bradford and Buffalo Railroad, projector and vice-president of the Cincinnati and Southeastern Railroad, a director of the Pittsburg and Western Railroad, pres- ident of the Norfolk, Albemarle and Atlantic Railroad, organizer of the American Oxide Company, the Shenango Coal and Mining Company, the Sterling Steel Company of Pittsburg, president of the Franklin Steel Casting Company, organizer and president of the Columbia Gas-light and Fuel Company, president of the Col- orado and Northwestern Railroad, the Pennsylvania Reduction Company of Boulder, Colorado, the Franklin Natural Gas Com- pany, and the American Ax and Tool Company, and organizer of the National Saw Company, the National Lead Trust, the Colum- bia Spring Company, and other corporations.
In politics he has always been a Republican. He has been Mayor of Franklin, city solicitor for three terms, and member of the City Council for some years. He has been a commanding figure at State and national conventions, and one of the party's most effective stump speakers.
Mr. Mackey is a member of the New York Club, the Colonial Club, the Lawyers' Club, the Army and Navy Club, the Geo- graphical Society, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of New York, the Grosvenor Club of London, England, the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg, and the Nursery Club of Franklin. He is a conspicuous Mason, is passed commander of Knights Templar, and of the Grand Army of the Republic. He is still at the head of the law firm of Mackey, Forbes & Hughes. He was married, on May 9, 1867, to Miss Lauretta Barnes Fay of Columbus, Ohio, who is of an old New England colonial family and is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution. They have six children : Susan Taylor, married to Edward Ever- ett Hughes, of Mr. Mackey's law firm; Myra Fay, married to Cyrus Clarke Osborne, agent of the Standard Oil Company at Rio Janeiro, Brazil; Cyrus Fay, William Chase, Julia Ann, and Marion Paige.
Manny Thomas
THOMAS MANNING
"THERE is, perhaps, no more distinctive American sport than that of yachting. Indeed, we might also call it not merely a sport, but a mode of life ; for life aboard yachts is as certainly, if not as extensively, a feature of American society to-day as life in hotels or in houses.
In the promotion of this interesting feature of American life, one of the most efficient figures is that of Thomas Manning, the head of Manning's Yacht Agency, at No. 45 Beaver Street, New York city. Mr. Manning was born about fifty years ago, in Eng- land - a good nativity for a man who has to do with seafaring matters. Most of his life has been spent in this country, and in New York city, and most of his active business career has been devoted to the enterprise which bears his name.
Manning's Yacht Agency was established in New York city in the year 1873, its aim being to afford adequate facilities for the purchasing, selling, and chartering of yachts. At that time there was no yacht agency in the United States, no yacht list, and no means even for ascertaining what yachts were in existence. There were no established winter quarters for yachts, and no place in New York harbor where a boat could be laid up. A yacht was taken by the sailing-master to be wintered at any place he selected.
In fact, there was no medium of approach between buyers and sellers ; and when, in 1873, Mr. Manning put himself in com- munication with yacht-owners for the purpose of obtaining yacht statistics for publication, a large number of the owners sought his assistance to aid them in selling their yachts, and, in many instances, in obtaining other yachts more suited to their require- ments. At first this was done without any charge for services
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rendered, but the labor at length became so onerous that it was necessary to put the work upon a business basis, and the first yacht agency in this country was established.
To-day Manning's Yacht Agency is the largest institution of its kind in the United States or in England. As annexes to its business, basins have been provided in New York harbor in which two hundred yachts can be laid up in the winter, and on the agency books the tonnage of yachts for sale to-day is proba- bly ten times greater than the tonnage of all yachts which were in existence in the United States in 1873, and the estimated market value of the yachts for sale is over five million dollars.
The offices of the Yacht Agency in 1873 were at 318 Broad- way, now occupied by the Forest and Stream Publishing Com- pany. In 1874 Mr. Manning changed his place of business to 53 Beaver Street, occupying offices over the old New York Stock Exchange premises, and in 1887, to cope with the enormous growth of business, he removed to his present commodious quarters at No. 45 Beaver Street.
His offices there might well be described as the business Mecca of American yachtsmen. For, of course, even a sport or a plea- sure must have its business features, especially one that involves the expenditure of so much money as does yachting. The man who wants to buy a yacht, or to sell one, or to exchange one for another, or to have one repaired or remodeled, goes straight to Manning's Agency. Thither goes, too, the man who wants to hire or to charter a yacht for a cruise or for the season ; and the man who wants to have his yacht laid away in safe, snug quar- ters while he spends the winter or other time ashore; and the man who wants his yacht manned and fitted out; and the man, too, who has no concrete, specific wants, but merely "wants to know, you know." All wend their way to Manning's, and there all get their wants supplied.
Philips haund
PHILIP MAURO
TI THE first member of the Mauro family in America was the paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch, Philip Mauro. He came hither from Stuttgart, Germany, about the year 1802, and settled in Baltimore. Thence he removed to Washington, D. C. He was a musician and publisher. He married Catherine Ott of Georgetown, D. C., and to them was born a son, Charles George Mauro. The latter entered the legal profession, and had a distinguished career therein. He went West, to St. Louis, and became one of the foremost lawyers of that city. During the Civil War he was Prosecuting Attorney for the county of St. Louis, and afterward was ap- pointed by President Andrew Johnson to be United States Dis- trict Attorney there. He died 1873. The wife of Charles G. Mauro was formerly Miss Charlotte Emmeline Davis, a member of a well-known family of New York city. One member of that family was Matthew L. Davis, the biographer of Aaron Burr. Several others attained eminence in New York in early years, and their tombs are to be seen in the churchyard of Trinity Church. She was also a direct descendant of General San- ford, a member of Washington's staff in the Revolution, and of the Reinagle family, which included several notable musicians and Royal Academicians.
The son of Charles G. and Charlotte Mauro was born at St. Louis, Missouri, on January 7, 1859, and was named Philip, after his grandfather, the founder of the family in America. He was early intended for the profession which his father adorned, and was educated with that end in view. He pursued courses of study at the Washington University, at St. Louis, and the Emerson Institute of Washington, and was graduated from the Law Department of the Columbian University, Washington, in 1880.
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He became a self-taught stenographer, and so defrayed the expense of his legal education. He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia when he was barely twenty-one. He began to practise at once, and soon attracted a good clientele. He made a specialty of the laws concerning patents, and became a student of the practical arts and sciences.
In 1889 he formed a partnership with Anthony Pollok, whose reputation as a patent lawyer was more than local, and who was prominent as the attorney for Nelson and Charles Good- year, in their famous rubber inventions. This partnership was terminated in July, 1898, by Mr. Pollok's tragic death in the La Bourgogne disaster.
Mr. Mauro has enjoyed an extensive practice in the United States Supreme Court and in the United States circuit courts, especially in the circuit courts for the Southern District of New York.
Since 1893 he has been general counsel of the American Graphophone and the Columbia Phonograph companies, in the former of which he is a director. In the last six years the in- dustries based upon the patents owned by these companies have been developed to large proportions, and Mr. Mauro now devotes a large portion of his time to these affairs. He is also con- nected professionally with the American Bell Telephone, the Willcox & Gibbs Sewing Machine, the Boyden Air Brake, and the Riker Electric Motor companies, the Nickel-Steel Syndicate, the Electric Power Storage Company of London, Schneider & Co. of Creusot, France, and many others. In all matters relating to inventions and patents Mr. Mauro has no superior at the bar. His reputation as a patent lawyer has become national.
He is very popular among his business associates, as well as in social life and in the clubs. He is a member of the Cosmos and the Chevy clubs of Washington, and belongs to the Sons of the Revolution and the National Geographic Society.
Mr. Mauro was married, June 7, 1881, to Miss Emily Johnston Rockwood, of the well-known Boston family of that name. They have two promising daughters, Margaret Frances and Isa- bel Rockwood Mauro.
Henry & Chayer
HENRY JAMES MAYER
N EW YORK is the most cosmopolitan city of the most com- posite nation in the world. That may be stated without fear of serious contradiction. Men come hither from all quar- ters of the globe, while those who are natives of this city trace their ancestry to all tribes and nations. In the present case our story, to go back only two generations, begins at Mayence and Bremen, Germany, and reaches New York by way of Philadel- phia. In 1825 a family came to this country from Mayence, and settled in New York, to be followed in 1840 by one from Bremen, which settled in Philadelphia. The head of the former estab- lished a fine business in the Quaker City, which is still in pros- perous existence. The head of the latter became a business man and politician to boot in New York. Then a son of the former and a daughter of the latter were married, and settled in New York, and to them was born the subject of this sketch.
Henry James Mayer, son of Siegfried Mayer, was born in this city on June 30, 1871. His early education was gained at the then famous Charlier Institute. Afterward he studied at Pack- ard's Business College, at the Law School of Harvard University, and at the New York Law School. He had previously engaged in mercantile pursuits with his father in New York, but aban- doned them for the legal profession.
His first law work was done in the office of Arthur C. Palmer, the law partner of Judge Gildersleeve. He was in that office for two and a half years, from 1894 to 1896. On being admitted to practice for himself he formed a partnership with S. C. Weill, a lawyer of experience and ability from Wilmington, North Caro- lina, who had been a member of the faculty of the University of North Carolina, and had, during President Cleveland's adminis-
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tration, been United States Assistant District Attorney for that State. On coming to this city Mr. Weill entered political life, and was soon a member of the State Legislature. But Mr. Mayer, although frequently pressed to do so, did not follow his example, but devoted his attention exclusively to the practice of his profession. Mr. Weill died suddenly in April, 1898, and the whole work of the firm, which by that time had become heavy, was thrown upon Mr. Mayer. With his customary application and aggressiveness he assumed it all and successfully bore every detail of it.
Mr. Mayer has acted as counsel for a number of important corporations, including the American Tobacco Company, the National Rice Milling Company, the American Exchange Na- tional Bank, the Southern Railway Company, and others. The late firm also represented the Chemical National Bank, the City National Bank, and the Bank of Montreal. He has made a social study of corporation law, and has become an authority upon it. Among the noteworthy cases in which he has been engaged, apart from that special line, were the litigation over the Hammerstein theatrical enterprises, and the Flechter violin case, in which he was junior counsel. He was also the legal represen- tative of twelve leading New York banks in the matter of the failure of the Commercial Bank of Selma, Alabama.
Mr. Mayer is a member of the Harvard Law Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Society of Medical Juris- prudence, the Harmonie Club, and the New York Bar Association.
Mr. Mayer has entered into a new association of the practice of the law, since October 1, 1898, with Addison G. Ricand, the latter gentleman being the former partner of the late Sol. C. Weill, formerly practising in the city of Wilmington, North Carolina, and at one time having as a partner the present Governor of the State of North Carolina, the Hon. Daniel L. Russell.
HENRY MELVILLE
A MONG the first colonists from Great Britain who settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts, was a family named Mel- ville, which name has since become widely spread and highly honored throughout the nation. From it in time descended Josiah H. Melville, a typical New England farmer of the intelligent, thrifty, and progressive class that contributed so much to the upbuilding not only of New England but of the whole United States. He married Nancy R. Nesmith, a member of the Nesmith family which had for many years been established at Londonderry, New Hampshire, and these two made their home at Nelson, New Hampshire, in the valley of the Ashuelot River and within sight of Mount Monadnock. Mr. and Mrs. Melville could reckon among their ancestors at least a dozen men who had fought in the various colonial wars, and at least ten who had fought in the patriot army in the War of the Revolution.
Of this parentage, and of such antecedents, Henry Melville was born, at Nelson, New Hampshire, on August 25, 1858. His parents possessed the characteristic New England love of learn- ing, and accordingly determined to have the boy as thoroughly educated as was possible. They sent him to the best local and pre- paratory schools, and finally to that famous old New Hampshire seat of learning, Dartmouth College. There, after pursuing the regular course with high credit to himself, he was, at the com- mencement of 1879, graduated with the degree of A. B. Follow- ing the common custom, he devoted a short time after leaving college to teaching school. He went to Winchendon, Massachu- setts, and was for two years principal of the high school there. A course at the Law School of Harvard University followed, at the end of which, in 1884, he was graduated LL. B. cum laude,
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and was the representative of the law school at the university commencement, with an oration on "National Regulation of Interstate Commerce." Finally, in that same year, he came to New York and began the practice of his chosen profession.
His first engagement was in the office of Mr. James C. Carter, where he served for a year. Then, in 1885, he was admitted to the bar. Soon he formed business relations with the Hon. Roscoe Conkling, which continued until the latter's death. Then he became a partner of the Hon. Daniel Dougherty, until that connection, also, was terminated by death. Since then he has been the senior partner of the firm of Melville, Martin & Ste- phens, with offices in the Equitable Building on Broadway. The firm's practice is a general one, its range including the representation of large English as well as American interests.
Mr. Melville has held no political office, but has taken an earnest citizen's interest in public affairs. He is a member of the Re- publican party, and was for several years secretary of the Repub- lican Club of New York. He has, moreover, served the State and nation in a most practical way. For more than ten years he has been an active member of the National Guard of the State of New York, for six years in the Seventh Regiment, and for four years as an officer of the Eighth Regiment. In the war with Spain, in 1898, he was captain of Company A, Eighth Regiment, New York Volunteers.
In addition to his legal activities, Mr. Melville has found time to write "The Ancestry of John Whitney," which was published in 1896, and has been pronounced the most elaborate genea- logical work ever produced in America.
Mr. Melville is a member of the Lawyers', University, and Republican clubs, the Bar Association, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Military Order of the Spanish-American War, the New England Society, and the Seventh Regiment Veteran Association. He is un- married.
MaurerBuenoham
MAURICE B. MENDHAM
N TEW YORK is not only the most cosmopolitan of Ameri- can cities, but is also the most national. It has in its society and business life representatives of all the lands of the globe, and it has also representatives of all of the States of this Union. Especially since the Civil War it has had a great influx of active and progressive men from the Southern States, some of whom have here sought personal fortune, and some of whom have sought also to engage Northern capital in the grateful and profitable task of rehabilitating and developing Southern indus- tries and resources.
Among the Southerners who have in late years settled in New York and -as so many of them have done-engaged in financial operations in Wall Street, few have had more suc- cessful careers or attained greater prominence and won higher esteem than Maurice B. Mendham, banker and broker, the head of the well-known firm of Mendham Brothers.
Mr. Mendham is a native of the "Empire State of the South," having been born, about forty years ago, at Augusta, Georgia. His early education was acquired at local schools. Thence he went to pursue more advanced courses of study in the George- town University, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Having completed his studies in that institution, he came on to New York, to engage in business.
His inclinations led him into Wall Street, and there he has remained, for many years now a well-known figure and an excep- tionally prosperous operator. He became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and thus also the "board member " as well as senior partner of the firm of Mendham Brothers, of which the other member is his brother, Louis P. Mendham.
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This firm has been engaged in many of the leading operations of Wall Street during the last dozen or more years, and has attained more than an ordinary measure of success. It is widely and favorably known as a dealer in investment securities and also as a general commission banking and brokerage house. It does a large business in investment securities and all standard stocks and bonds. Its commodious offices are on the seventh floor of the Commercial Cable Company's building at No. 20 Broad Street, and are fitted with all the up-to-date facilities for conducting business.
Mr. Mendham is intimately associated with a number of rail- road presidents and other heads of corporations and leaders of finance with whom his business has brought him into contact. With them his relations are most cordial and marked with mutual confidence.
He has long taken an active interest in politics, as a Repub- lican, and was one of the most ardent supporters of James G. Blaine for the Presidency of the United States. He has, how- ever, neither held nor sought political office.
Mr. Mendham is a member of the Lotus, Progress, and other clubs.
ymonito
ISRAEL JOHN MERRITT
TN olden times the " wrecker" was one who lured vessels to de- struction by displaying false lights, in order to get booty from the shattered hulk. In these days the wrecker is one who saves ships from being wrecked, or raises and restores them after they have been sunk. To speak of the subject of the present sketch as one of the foremost wreckers of the world is, therefore, to pronounce him a particularly useful member of society and a benefactor of the shipping world.
Israel John Merritt is of New York city birth, having been born here on August 23, 1829. His ancestry is varied. His fa- ther lived in Westchester County, and was descended from French stock and from Indians of the Powhatan tribe. His mother came from Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was of French parentage. One of his grandfathers served honorably in the War of the Revolution. The boy was educated in the public schools of New York, and at an early age began working for his own support. Between the ages of ten and fourteen he was employed as a mule-driver and in other capacities on the old Raritan Canal, across New Jersey from New York to Phila- delphia. Then he became a boatman on Long Island Sound. Then he was employed in the wrecking business by Captain Thomas Bell of Long Island, and adopted that as his life-work.
For twenty years, from 1860 to 1880, he was the general agent of the Coast Wrecking Company. In the latter year he estab- lished the now famous Merritt's Wrecking Organization, of which he is still the head, his son, I. J. Merritt, Jr., being his partner in it. In 1865 he invented, and two years later pat- ented, a pontoon or dry-dock for raising sunken vessels, and with this and other devices he has pursued his business with
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extraordinary success. His firm has its main office in this city, and extensive storehouses and docks on Staten Island and at Norfolk, Virginia, and owns a large fleet of tugs, steam and sail- ing vessels, pontoons, etc. Among the equipments are thirty steam-pumps, capable of pumping from twenty to seventy bar- rels of water a minute each. Their derricks, cables, etc., for hoisting, are also remarkably complete and powerful. In fact, it is one of the most completely equipped wrecking concerns in the world. Whenever a vessel goes ashore or otherwise gets into trouble on the Atlantic coast, the first thought is to send for the Merritts, and it is seldom that they are not able to rescue the craft that otherwise would be a total loss.
The firm is now known as the Merritt & Chapman Derrick and Wrecking Company, and Mr. Merritt is president of it. He is also vice-president of the Harwood Dyewood and Extract Manufacturing Company, and a director of the Flushing Bank, at Flushing, Long Island. He rendered important services to the Navy Department in the Civil War. He has received numerous letters of commendation and medals for saving life at sea. He served his full time in the old volunteer fire department of this city. In 1894 the Board of Underwriters presented to him a fine silver service in commemoration of the fiftieth anni- versary of his career as a saver of life and property at sea. Among the recent noteworthy cases in which this firm has been engaged was that of endeavoring to save some of the Spanish war-ships which were sunk in the battle off Santiago de Cuba in the war with Spain in the summer of 1898.
Mr. Merritt makes his home at Whitestone, on the Sound. He has for many years been a trustee of that village and of the village school. He is a member of the Larchmont and Knicker- bocker yacht clubs and of the Marine Society. He was married, in 1852, to Miss Sarah L. Nicholson, and had ten children-four sons and six daughters.
LEWIS HENRY MEYER
AM MONG the men of renown who have made Staten Island their home and added to the prestige and prosperity of the place, Lewis Henry Meyer held a prominent place. He was born in Bremen, Germany, in October, 1815, the only son of Theodore Meyer. The elder Meyer, at the time of his son's birth, was engaged in the management of a line of packets be- tween Bremen and New York. When only five months old, young Lewis was brought to America on one of his father's ships, under the command of Commodore Perry, whose masterful operations on Lake Erie formed such an important part of the War of 1812.
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