USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 18
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In New York city young Meyer attended the public schools until the year 1828, when he returned to Bremen. There he re- mained until 1836, finishing his education, and afterward serving an apprenticeship in a large mercantile house of that city. Then he came back to New York city, where he entered his father's office in the business then conducted under the firm-name of Meyer & Hupeden. In four years he was made a member of the firm, which, owing to changes and deaths, was conducted suc- cessively under the style of Theodore Meyer, Sons & Co., Meyer, Schoene & Co., and Meyer & Stucken. It should be said that this house, with which Mr. Meyer was long associated, was one of the first which drew the attention of European capitalists to the opportunities for good investments in American industries and American securities. In 1857 the firm was dissolved, while Mr. Meyer continued in business for himself. The crisis of 1857 having caused severe losses through the investments of the firm, Mr. Meyer set about the difficult task of recuperating the finances of his former associates, and performed this task in an accepta- ble manner, earning the sincere gratitude of his friends.
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Mr. Meyer next took up the Milwaukee and Mississippi Rail- road, then in a low financial condition, and reorganized it as the Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien road. In connection with a number of prominent men he formed committees which secured the assistance of European investors. Mr. Meyer was made chairman of many of these committees. By him a large num- ber of railroads, including the Milwaukee and Mississippi, the Chicago and Mississippi (now the Chicago and Alton), and the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago, were foreclosed and re- ceivers appointed, their affairs being in a critical condition. The result of this policy was eminently successful, as became evident upon the reorganization of the roads and their subsequent pros- perity. He acted as trustee of the Davenport and Northwestern Railroad, which he foreclosed under a first mortgage. Upon its reorganization he afterward became president of this road until its sale to the Milwaukee and St. Paul. By appointment of the bondholders he became trustee under the mortgage executed by the Alabama and Tennessee Railroad Company, at that time absorbed by the Selma, Rome, and Dalton. He successfully re- sisted a suit in foreclosure brought by the bondholders of the latter company. It was a difficult and extraordinary litigation, and the decision is a leading one as to the right of the courts to create a lien through receivers' certificates paramount to a first mortgage. Under the first mortgage of the Denver and Rio Grande he was also a trustee, as he was likewise under the first mortgage on the Mexican National Railroad. He also repre- sented the bondholders in foreclosing the Atlantic and Great Western. He was chairman of the bondholders' committee which foreclosed on the Kansas Pacific. In addition to the above, he was also connected with the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas; North Missouri; Erie, Buffalo, and New York City; Denver and Rio Grande Western; Ohio Central; Scioto and Hocking Valley ; New Orleans, Mobile, and Texas; Utah and Pleasant Valley ; Steubenville and Indiana; Lawrenceburg and Upper Mississippi; Cairo and St. Louis; Paducah and Memphis; Elizabeth and Lexington; New Albany and Salem ; Massillon and Cleveland; McGregor and Western; New Castle and Beaver Valley; Cincinnati, Wilmington, and Zanesville; and the New York and Oswego Midland railroads.
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In 1861 Mr. Meyer purchased the Bowen Homestead, on the Fingerboard Road, Staten Island, at present known as Foxhill Villa, Foxhill being the historical name for the rolling land situ- ated between Clifton and Grasmere, of which Mr. Meyer bought the highest point adjoining his property and overlooking the bay as well as the South Shore. He spent large sums in improving the sanitary conditions and the natural beauties of the enlarged estate, developing it into one of the most attractive suburban homes in the vicinity of New York. To the landscape-gardener's skill he added all that wealth could do in providing every com- fort and luxury. Trees, shrubs, and flowers were an unfailing source of delight to him, and, when free from the exacting de- mands of his business, he found one of his greatest pleasures in experimenting with their cultivation.
Everything that pertained to the advancement of the com- munity in which he lived appealed to his interest; to every charitable effort he was a cheerful and liberal contributor - per- haps all the more so for not being guided by exclusive sympa- thies in any one direction or form, but rather by a strong, unfail- ing impulse of helpfulness which made him serve a good cause or a good man whenever an opportunity offered on broad humane principles. Thus anxious to promote the prosperity of the people among whom his lot was cast, either by his influence, his wealth, or his vast experience in business affairs, he took up the re- organization of the Staten Island Savings Bank, became advisory director of the Diet Kitchen, and a willing counselor of a most laborious enterprise, the Savings Society of Edgewater, in which latter institutions his wife - quite as generous and large-minded as her husband - was deeply interested and absorbingly engaged until ill health compelled her to drop the work. To the Staten Island Savings Bank, whose president Mr. Meyer was for ten years, he was a tower of strength, carrying it safely through the panic of 1873, and leaving its affairs at the end of his term of office on a firm and stable foundation.
He died on January 2, 1892, at his Staten Island residence, re- gretted by a large circle of friends and a community who lost in him a benefactor and most useful member.
FRANK EBENEZER MILLER
F RANK EBENEZER MILLER was born on April 12, 1859, in Hartford, Connecticut, and was the only child of Eben- ezer Miller and Mayett Miller, née Deming. After passing through the high school he entered Trinity College, and secured the degree of A. M. in 1880. He was graduated from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He was substitute interné at the New York and Charity hospitals, and resident in- terné at St. Francis's. Recommended by Drs. Shrady and Rip- ley as Assistant Sanitary Inspector, he passed the civil-service examination, and was named for that position by General Franz Siegel.
The following calls brought him into association with shining lights in the profession : assistant to chair of otology, held by Professor Orin Pomeroy ; to Professor Louis Emmet Holt, at Western Dispensary ; to Dr. George Lefferts, Vanderbilt Clinic ; with Professor Joseph Howe, New York University; and with Dr. R. Lincoln, throat specialist; attending physician at the Minerva Home, Wayside Nursery, and St. Joseph's Hospital, and throat surgeon at the Vanderbilt Clinic, 1890-93. In 1890 the Metropolitan College of Music secured Dr. Miller as laryngologist.
All through this busy life Dr. Miller has found it possible to keep a home office, besides publishing some original ideas in the following works: " The Use of Gottstein's Improved Curette for the Removal of Post-nasal Growths "; " Vocal Hygiene: A Study of the Mucous Membrane"; " Views on Tuberculosis"; "Scheme of Diagnosing Voice Failure "; " Observations on the Voice and Voice Failure," written with the physicist, A. Theodore Wange- mann, late with Thomas Edison; and "Compend of Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat," by Drs. John E. Weeks, James McAvoy, and Frank
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E. Miller. In the romance style, Dr. Miller produced an " Essay on the Spirit of Music," and an " Essay on the Force of Habit." His versatility is shown in the wit and satire of " The Trojan Horse."
As a lecturer, Dr. Miller has read his own papers before the School of Expression and Music Teachers' National Association at the Waldorf-Astoria, and at the New York Music Teachers' Association, Troy, New York.
As medical examiner the following organizations have Dr. Miller's services : the Albany Insurance Company, the Ancient Order of Æges, the Royal Oak Benefit Insurance Company, and the Provident Life Insurance Company. He is a member of the medical board of the Loomis Sanatorium and Loomis Home, Liberty, New York; a visiting physician of St. Francis's Hospi- tal, and secretary of its medical board ; also consulting physician to St. Joseph's Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the world for the treatment of consumption. He was an originator and is a director of Armour Villa Park, at Bronxville, New York, and director of the American Paper Goods Manufacturing Company, and the Ajax and Howard Envelope companies.
He is a member of the American Rhinological, Otological, and Laryngological Society, the New York County Medical Society, the Physicians' Mutual Aid Society, and the New York Hospital Graduates' Club.
In the interest of science and humanity, Dr. Miller has kept a close watch upon the cure of consumption. In 1892 he claimed the best successes could be found primarily along hygienic and dietetic lines- prescribing such food (besides milk and raw eggs) as will create a soil hostile to the germ; rest, to check destruc- tive processes; noonday baths for high temperature and the more rapid elimination of ptomaines ; with ventilation and alti- tude as valuable adjuncts. His work entitled “Views on Tuber- culosis " has commanded 'the wide-spread attention of the public and press. When Professor Koch first made his discovery on the cure of consumption known, Messrs. Arkell Brothers considered it of national importance to test the cure, and place the results before their readers. Drs. Shrady and Ripley were chosen as a committee; they selected a Mr. Degnan as subject, diagnosed his case as one of perfect tuberculosis, but, owing to a specific trouble, could not determine. Dr. Miller was consulted, and
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pronounced it tubercular laryngitis. The patient was sent to Pro- fessor Koch, and his diagnosis entirely corroborated Dr. Miller's.
Dr. Miller is a noteworthy example of a self-made man. His record proves exceptional ability and wise judgment, coupled with penetration, energy, and innate refinement. That it is possible for a medical man to be an excellent all-round physi- cian has been proven at times, but that one can make a double career, one as physician and specialist, and the other as vocalist and musician, is most unusual, especially when the duo-profes- sional is yet in the early prime of life. From Trinity College Glee Club, Dr. Miller was engaged as first tenor for St. Thomas's Church, New York. As one of the original members of the Musurgia Glee Club, he sang "The Nun of Nidaro" at their première concert. Subsequently he was first tenor at Christ Church, the First Baptist Church, Hartford, Connecticut, Church of the Pilgrims, St. Thomas's, and Christ Church, Brooklyn, New York, Holy Trinity, Church of the Puritans, and St. Thomas's Church, New York.
Dr. Miller numbers a large percentage of patients in the pro- fessional line of singers and artists, and many celebrated names in judicial, legal, social, and political life adorn the pages of his history-books. He treats them intuitively, by many and original methods, and with extraordinary success. In observation of the voice, he has established a principle of "Hollow-space reso- nance," which is being recognized and accepted by high authori- ties as the most perfect theory of voice production.
The decoration of the "Busto del Libertator" was conferred on the doctor by President Crespo and Señor Miguel Antich of Venezuela.
On the maternal side Dr. Miller is a descendant of the Tory Governor Tryon, of Miles Standish, and of the Welles family. Henry Deming, his maternal grandfather, built several of the Florida forts.
Dr. Miller and Miss Emily Weston of Yonkers, New York, were married in April, 1892, and two interesting little daughters are the result of their union.
Dr. Miller is of commanding presence, with a genial and sym- pathetic face, and his manners are those of a gentleman of the old school.
John dumay Stulche
JOHN MURRAY MITCHELL
0 LD New York families, on the one side of Irish and on the other of Huguenot origin, are those from which John Mur- ray Mitchell comes. His father was William Mitchell, a justice of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of this State, son of that Edward Mitchell who was a leading Universalist preacher, and who came to New York from the north of Ireland. His mother, Mary Berrien, came of a Huguenot family settled at Newton, Long Island, in 1656, some of whose members were conspicuous patriots in the Revolutionary War.
John Murray Mitchell was born on March 18, 1858, in the house at No. 60 West Ninth Street, in which he has ever since lived. He entered Columbia College at the age of fifteen, joined the Delta Psi Fraternity, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and was graduated as the valedictorian of his class. Two years later he was graduated from the Columbia Law School. He spent a year in travel and study abroad, and then entered the law office of his father and brothers, and served for two years. Then he opened an office of his own and soon built up a good practice. In 1889 he formed a partnership with his two brothers, Edward and William Mitchell, the former of whom was afterward made United States District Attorney. On May 1, 1894, he formed a partnership with John R. and Benjamin F. Dos Passos.
Mr. Mitchell has long taken an active interest in politics, as a Republican. In 1894 he accepted the nomination for Represen- tative in Congress from the Eighth District of this city. It was a strongly Democratic district, and there was no expectation of his success. He made a vigorous campaign, and the result showed a majority of only three hundred and sixty-seven votes against him. Knowing that district to be permeated with ras-
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cality, he set to work with detectives, and, after many months of labor, proved that gross frauds had been committed, and that he was entitled to the seat. He was accordingly seated by the House of Representatives, by one of the largest majorities ever given by it in a contested election case. In the fall of 1896 he was renominated for a second term, and, after another stirring campaign, was elected by twelve hundred and sixty-nine majority.
Mr. Mitchell was not seated for his first term until a few days before the end of the session. In his second term he introduced and secured the enactment of a number of important bills, and there was wide-spread regret at his defeat in the election of 1898, when he was a candidate for a third time. The activity and en- thusiasm with which Mr. Mitchell tackled the subject of sound- money reform, as a member of the Committee on Banking and Currency, is evidenced by the fact that on the birth of his son, during the session of Congress, it was unanimously resolved by the committee that the boy should be named "Currency Bill " Mitchell. A copy of the resolution, engrossed, attested, and ap- propriately framed, adorns the walls of the youngster's nursery.
Mr. Mitchell has long been interested in electrical matters, and built the first five electric railroads in the United States. He was married, in 1896, to Miss Lillian Talmage, daughter of Dr. John F. Talmage of Brooklyn. He is a member of the New York Athletic, St. Anthony, Republican, Down-Town, Lincoln, Blaine, Fencers', Riding, Seawanhaka Yacht, New York Yacht, and Corinthian Yacht clubs, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Academy of Sciences, the New York State Bar Association, the Medicolegal Society, and numerous other organizations in this city, and the Columbia Athletic, Metropolitan, and Army and Navy clubs of Washington. He is vice-commodore of the American Yacht Club, and owns the yacht Bedouin, and sails it himself with masterly skill.
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FRANCIS JOSEPH MOLLOY
A MONG the most widely known and best-liked citizens
of the important city of Troy, New York, a conspicuous place is held by the man who has for three terms been chosen to serve as Mayor of that municipality.
Francis Joseph Molloy is, as his name indicates, of Irish ori- gin. He is himself, however, a native of this country, and of the city with which he is identified, having been born in Troy, on March 21, 1849. Both his parents were natives of Kings County, Ireland. His father, Michael Molloy, who in this coun- try carried on the trade of a wholesale grocer, came of an excel- lent family, the male members of which had for generations been conspicuous in business affairs in Kings County. Michael Molloy married Miss Jane Wilson, the daughter of a farmer, and landowner of independent means. The promise of the New World drew them hither, as it has drawn so many of their coun- try-folk, and they left the "old sod" and came to New York State. They finally settled at Troy, and there Mr. Molloy founded the business of a wholesale grocer. Through his energy and sagacity it prospered, and grew into one of the foremost enterprises of the city.
Francis Joseph Molloy received a good education at St. Jo- seph's Academy in his native city. At that time the institution enjoyed a more than local reputation, attracting students from distant States and the West Indies. It was the intention of the elder Molloy that his two sons should succeed him in busi- ness, and, at the age of seventeen, Francis entered the store as clerk. He subsequently became a member of the firm.
From early manhood Mr. Molloy was an active politician. He has always been prominent in municipal affairs, and has filled
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many offices of trust in the city government. He has been Alderman, has been twice elected Police Commissioner, once serving as president of the board, and has been Mayor of the city three times.
He is a director of the Manufacturers' National Bank, and of the Troy Gas Company, and is interested in the Troy City Rail- way Company.
Mayor Molloy has never married, but, contrary to the tradi- tions of the bachelor man, he is not in the least inclined to a club life. He has persistently and consistently refused to be- come a member of any and all societies and social organizations, the exception being the Troy Club, to which most of Troy's other representative men belong.
Mr. Molloy's reputation as a shrewd politician of the "level- headed " kind brought him into State prominence, and he has been a member of the Democratic State Committee for several years. A warm personal friendship has always existed between him and ex-United States Senator Edward Murphy, Jr., and the Mayor and the ex-Senator have long been confidants in local, State, and national politics.
As Mayor, Mr. Molloy's administrations have been marked by good business methods and an aim to save the people's money, at the same time expending liberally and wisely. He is greatly interested in the public schools. Under his direction three mod- ern buildings have been erected and a new large high school is now being constructed. From time to time he has caused the Public Improvements Act to be amended, permitting extensive work in beautifying the city. He is a member of the Court- house Commission which built Rensselaer County's fine four- hundred-thousand-dollar court-house. Mr. Molloy is a man whose private honor and public integrity are unquestioned and respected. He is mild-mannered and firm in character.
Direct Cenouik
ROBERT CLARK MORRIS
THERE are few names more conspicuous and more honored in early American history than that of Morris, which was borne by some of the foremost patriots of colonial and Revolu- tionary days, in various parts of the country. North and South, one may to this day note towns and cities, counties, rivers, islands, and what not else, bearing this name, given to them in honor of some distinguished man who bore it. Presumably, all the families of the name in this country are in some degree con- nected. The various branches are, however, widely separated, by the time and place of their settlement in this country, so as often to seem entirely independent of each other.
The first of the branches of the family to be established in this country was that to which the subject of this sketch be- longs. It was founded here by Thomas Morris, who was the eldest of three brothers. He came over from England in the year 1637, and settled in Boston, where he and his sons took prominent rank in business, politics, and social affairs.
British genealogists, and indeed British historians, inform us that the family had for centuries been well and honorably known in the public life of England and Wales. In being transplanted to this New England of the Western World it suffered no change of character or of career. All branches of it became, through one or more members, identified with the progress and upbuilding of this nation. By no means the least worthy of all were the direct descendants of Thomas Morris. These remained New-England- ers down to the present generation. In the last generation, in this line, was Dwight Morris of Connecticut. He was a leading lawyer of that State, a judge of the Probate Court, Secretary of State of Connecticut, United States consul-general at Paris, a
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colonel of Connecticut Volunteers in the Civil War, and -a fact which shows his patriotic ancestry - president of the Connecti- cut Chapter of the Society of the Cincinnati. He married Miss Grace Josephine Clark, a member of another prominent and honored New England family.
Robert Clark Morris was the son of this couple. He was born in Connecticut in 1868, and after a careful preparation was sent to Yale University. There he pursued several courses of study, undergraduate and postgraduate, and received the degrees of Bachelor of Laws, Master of Laws, and finally Doctor of Civil Law.
With such equipment he began the practice of the legal pro- fession in his native State, and achieved a fair measure of suc- cess. He aspired, however, to win greater success in a larger place, and accordingly came to New York city and opened an office. Although conditions here were far different from those in Connecticut, his success was not diminished, but rather enhanced. His practice steadily increased, and his reputation was rapidly extended, not only throughout the city, but in the nation at large. He was in 1896 considerably interested in the affairs of the Territory of New Mexico, and was urged by many prominent citizens and the Territorial Association of the Bar to become a candidate for the chief justiceship of the Territory. He consented thus to be considered for a time, but then with- drew his name, for personal reasons.
In addition to his law practice, Mr. Morris has been since 1895 a lecturer in the Law School of Yale University, where he is highly esteemed as an expounder of the theory and practice of jurisprudence.
Mr. Morris is now a resident of New York city, and is iden- tified with many of its social and professional interests. He is a member of the Tuxedo Club, the Ocean County Hunt and County Club, the Yale Club, the Republican Club, the Associa- tion of the Bar of New York City, the Society of Medical Juris- prudence, the Order of the Cincinnati, the Loyal Legion, and the Sons of the Revolution. He was married at New Haven, in 1890, to Miss Alice A. Parmelee.
Waldo G. Morse.
WALDO GRANT MORSE
C YONSPICUOUS among the founders of the town of Dedham, Massachusetts, was Samuel Morse, who came from England in 1635, and soon afterward Christopher Grant became one of the first settlers of Watertown, Massachusetts. Their descendants lived in that colony and State, intermarrying with the families of Adams of Braintree, Cheever of Boston, Coolidge, Eustis, Mellidge, Rea, Watson, and others. In the seventh generation from the one was born Adolphus Morse, and in the same genera- tion from the other was born Mary E. Grant. These two mar- ried, uniting not only the family names, but the distinctive lines of character that had marked the two families for centuries. In 1850 they removed from Massachusetts and established a new home at Rochester, New York, where was born to them, on March 13, 1859, a son.
Such was the origin of Waldo Grant Morse. He was educated in the schools of Rochester, and in Rochester University, but was compelled to leave the latter institution before graduation on account of impaired health. Two years of rest and travel fol- lowed, and then he took up the study of law in the Rochester office of Martindale & Oliver. He was admitted to the bar in 1884, and began the practice of his profession in his native city, in a new office of his own, and without a partner. The venture was eminently successful. At the end of four years the young man's standing in the legal world of Rochester was well secured. Then his ambition led him to seek a place in a larger world.
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