USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 2
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Mr. Bennett is a member of many social and other organizations in this and foreign lands. Among those best known locally may be mentioned the New York Club and the Knickerbocker Ath- letic Club. He is a member of the New York Produce Exchange, the Maritime Exchange, the Port Society of New York, and other commercial bodies.
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CHARLES HILDRETH BLAIR
THE Blair family came from Scotland to Virginia in the latter part of the seventeenth century. Its members were Scotch Presbyterians, and they were, in 1693, the founders of William and Mary College, in Virginia, the Rev. James Blair becoming its first president. In the last generation John A. Blair went to Ohio in 1830, and from that time until his death, in 1875, was one of the foremost men in the development of that State. He was also a political leader, being closely associated with Benja- min F. Wade and Salmon P. Chase in the fight against slavery and the organization of the Republican party. He was for years a member of the Ohio Legislature. The Van Voorhis family came from Holland in 1660 and settled on Long Island, their grant of land including what is now Coney Island and a part of Brooklyn. In the last generation Theresa Van Voorhis became the wife of John A. Blair, and to them was born Charles Hil- dreth Blair, at Zanesville, Ohio, on July 5, 1851.
He was educated in the Zanesville schools, Kenyon College, and Cornell University, being graduated at the last-named as A. B. in 1872 and as A. M. in 1876. Then he studied law, and was admitted to the bar in Ohio and New York. From 1873 to 1877 he was engaged in the railroad business at Ithaca, New York, practised law there until 1884, and then came to New York, where he has since resided, and at present is the head of the law firm of Blair & Price. His practice is a large one, and deals chiefly with railroads and other corporations. He is also trustee for several large estates. He has been a director of various railroad companies, and is now president of the Ithaca Calendar Clock Company. In 1890 he was candidate for Congress on the Republican ticket in the Twelfth District in this city, but was
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defeated by Mr. Roswell P. Flower. Since his student days at Cornell he has taken a deep and active interest in military mat- ters. At the university he was captain of cadets. In 1878 he became a captain in the New York National Guard, and was a leader in the movement for rifle practice and expert marksman- ship. In 1880 he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel in the National Guard, and engineer on the staff of Major-General Brinker. Colonel Blair is a keen lover of hunting, fishing, and outdoor life, and maintained for several years a camp in one of the best hunting regions in Wyoming. He has a country place on Staten Island and a residence at Ithaca, where he has a fine stock-farm also. His house at Ithaca was built by Ezra Cornell, the founder of the University, and at its completion, in 1876, was reckoned the finest country house in America.
In college Mr. Blair was a member of the Psi Upsilon Frater- nity, and has cherished a warm interest in it ever since. He was one of the founders of the Ohio Society of New York, and belongs also to the Union League and Cornell University clubs. He was married, in December, 1873, to Miss Emma P. Cornell, the youngest daughter of Ezra Cornell, the founder of Cornell University, and the pioneer of the electric telegraph of America. Three sons have been born to them. The oldest, Ezra Cornell Blair, was graduated at Cornell University in 1897, and in 1898 served throughout the Spanish War in Manila as a member of the Astor Battery. The second son, C. H. Blair, Jr., was gradu- ated at Cornell in 1898, and was a distinguished athlete in the university, being pitcher of the university base-ball team. The third son, John H. Blair, is an undergraduate in the university.
H. K. BLOODGOOD
W ITH all their proverbial devotion to the pursuit of " the almighty dollar," Americans are probably, after all, the most pleasure-loving people in the world. Or perhaps it would be better to say that they are most of all given to the pursuit of manly, healthful, out-of-door sports on land and sea. In no other country is so much attention given to athletic games, to the training and speeding of thoroughbred horses, and to boat- ing and yachting. Indeed, in the breeding of fine horses and dogs, and in the designing and building of fine yachts, the United States may well claim a foremost place among the nations of the world. Nor is this an inconsiderable title to dis- tinction. For the public character is largely denoted, if not largely determined, by the public sports and pleasures. Thus the remorseless cruelty of Rome was well exemplified in the tragedies of the arena, and the Olympic games equally typified a salient characteristic of the Greeks. To-day we shall find among those who love fine horses and the open-air life that is associated with riding and driving, and who find joy in sailing yachts and kindred sports, are possessed of a vital, manly, healthful spirit, at once honorable and strong for achievement.
The subject of the present sketch, Mr. H. K. Bloodgood, may be reckoned a typical American devotee of these wholesale sports. He is a native of Mobile, Alabama, and inherits a large measure of the chivalrous nature which is the proverbial pos- session of the people of the South. It was about the year 1892 that he began to pay serious attention to the thoroughbred horse. He interested himself especially in the hackney class, in which at that time this country was supposed to lag considerably behind England. It is largely through his influence that there
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has in recent years been so marked an increase of interest in such horses, and so great an improvement in their form, until now American hackneys and harness horses generally are able to challenge comparison with any in the world. Mr. Bloodgood has for years been esteemed one of the very best judges of hack- ney and harness horses, and one of the most accomplished " gentlemen horsemen " in this country.
Mr. Bloodgood has at the same time become equally prominent in the dog-fancying world. He holds several important places in committees of the American Kennel Club, and is a prominent member also of the Spaniel Club, which latter owes much to his labors, influence, and generosity. In his own kennels he has some of the finest dogs in the United States, and has repeatedly won for them the highest honors at the bench show. He was the judge of the Westminster Kennel Club show in 1899 and again in 1900, and enjoys the confidence of all dog-fanciers for the soundness and impartiality of his judgments. In the late eighties Mr. Bloodgood became prominent in the yachting world, and won the high esteem of all devotees of that noble sport by his spirit of generous rivalry. His victories with the swift Huron are still held memorable in yachting annals. The cups that he has won are many, and the friends he has made in the yachting world are legion.
In addition to his connection with the interests already men- tioned, Mr. Bloodgood is a member of the Union, Racquet, and other prominent clubs of New York.
HUGO BLUMENTHAL
THE subject of the present biography, as his characteristic name would indicate, is of German ancestry -indeed, of immediate German parentage. His father and mother were both born and educated in Germany, and came from that country to the United States in early life. The father was born in 1830, and came to America in 1850, at the age of twenty years. The mother was born in 1837, and was accordingly eighteen years old when, in 1855, she also came to this country. Both of them are still living.
Mr. Blumenthal's father, Isaac Blumenthal, entered mercantile life in New York city, and attained marked success therein. He had a prosperous career for many years at the head of the well- known importing firm of I. & A. Blumenthal, and in 1879 retired from active business pursuits to enjoy the results of his labors.
Hugo Blumenthal, the son of Isaac Blumenthal and subject of this sketch, was born in New York city on February 7, 1862, and was educated in local institutions, the chief of them being the well-known Charlier Institute, facing the southern end of Central Park,- an institution which, unhappily, no longer exists,- and the famous Business College conducted by S. S. Packard, now deceased.
Mr. Blumenthal's inclinations were toward a business rather than a professional career, and it was for such that he was fitted by education. Instead of following his father's footsteps in a mercantile career, however, he turned his attention to financial operations on Wall Street.
His first business engagement was in the capacity of a clerk in a broker's office. He applied himself diligently to acquiring a mastery of the ins and outs of Wall Street, with much success.
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In 1885 he became a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and thus qualified himself to conduct any operations that might be required by his patrons.
In 1890 Mr. Blumenthal became a member of the well-known firm of J. S. Bache & Co., bankers and brokers, and for ten years after that date ranked among the most active and promi- nent brokers in the Stock Exchange. He has in recent years been conspicuous in a number of important syndicate dealings in leather and various stocks. He has been reputed, also, to be a confidential broker for the Standard Oil Company and its varied and extensive interests. He has done a large foreign business in stocks and bonds, grain, coffee, and a number of large corporations. He has, however, taken no official place in any of them, and has never permitted any such interests to interfere with his duties to his firm and to its clients.
He is a member of the Harmonie Club, one of the foremost German social organizations of New York, of the Criterion Club, and also of many other leading social and charitable institutions.
Mr. Blumenthal was married, in 1892, to Miss Estelle Mayer of Cincinnati, Ohio. They have two children.
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ALFRED P. BOLLER
A LFRED PANCOAST BOLLER comes of German ancestry on the paternal side and of English ancestry on the maternal side. His father, Henry J. Boller, was a man of moderate circum- stances, living a life of retirement from business cares. His mother's maiden name was Anna M. Pancoast, which identifies her with one of the best-known families of Philadelphia. To this couple the subject of this sketch was born, in the city of Philadelphia, on February 23, 1840. He enjoyed the best educa- tional and social privileges obtainable. His regular collegiate course was pursued at the University of Pennsylvania, from which, in 1858, he received the degree of A. M. Thence, his in- clination being toward engineering as a profession, he went to the well-known Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, New York, and was there graduated, in 1861, with the degree of C. E.
After leaving the Rensselaer Institute he engaged actively in his profession, commencing as rodman on the Nesquehoning Valley Railroad, and becoming eventually an assistant engineer and topographer, in which latter capacity he made an elaborate topographical map of the middle and southern anthracite coal- fields, with their various outlets to market. In June, 1862, he was detailed as an assistant on the repairs of the Lehigh Canal, which had been damaged almost to obliteration by the great freshet of that month. In the spring of 1863 he entered the service of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, which had just been leased by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and, attached to the staff of the general manager, attended to various miscellaneous duties to which he was detailed. In 1865 he became engineer of bridges on the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad, planning the International Bridge over the Niagara River at Black Rock
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and the Cattaraugus Viaduct - works never carried out because of the collapse of the railroad company in the same year.
In the fall of 1865 he entered the service of the Hudson River Railroad as chief engineer, which place he resigned to go into the iron business with Samuel Milliken (Milliken & Boller) as agents of the Phoenix Iron Company in New York and Eng- land. In 1870 he became vice-president and engineer of the Phillipsburg Manufacturing Company, which lasted until the panic of 1873. During the existence of that company numerous railroad and highway bridges were built by Mr. Boller.
Since the failure of that concern, Mr. Boller has been practis- ing as engineer and contractor up to the present time, with his office for over twenty-five years at 71 Broadway, New York. During this time he has been engaged on much miscellaneous work : as consulting engineer of the Zaza Railroad, Cuba ; of the Port au Prince (horse) Railroad, Haiti; as chief engineer of the Manhattan Elevated Railroad, New York; as chief engineer of the West Side and Yonkers Railroad (from One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, New York, to High Bridge, and covering the bridge over the Harlem River at Eighth Avenue); as contract- ing engineer for structural work on the New York and Putnam Railroad ; as contractor (Boller & Drake) for building the Bergen County branch of the Erie Railroad; as consulting engineer for the Department of Public Parks, New York, for bridging the Bronx River at several points, and for the superstructure of the Madison Avenue Bridge ; as chief engineer of the Staten Island Rapid Transit Road, including the tunnel under the United States Lighthouse grounds, and St. George Ferry development. He formed the contracting firm of Boller & McGaw, which built the twin gas-holder tanks (one hundred and fifty feet in diameter) for the Bay State Gas Company, Boston; a tank for the Staten Island Gas Light Company ; the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek, Brooklyn, New York; the concrete base foundation block (twelve thousand cubic yards) for the Bartholdi statue pedestal ; and the foundation and masonry substructure for various bridges on the Pennsylvania Railroad ; planned and built the Arthur Kill Bridge, for the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road, and was one of the syndicate for building the Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota Railroad.
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In 1887 he was appointed chief engineer for building the bridge and approaches over the Thames River, at New London, on the Shore Line route to Boston, which was opened in the fall of 1889- one of the most difficult engineering works ever under- taken. He was an expert commissioner for harmonizing the railroad interests centering at Providence, Rhode Island, and for planning a joint terminal system for that city. After the com- pletion of the above works he served as designing and super- vising engineer in building the One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street Viaduct and Central Bridge over the Harlem River, with approaches thereto, for the city of New York, involving an ex- penditure of nearly two million dollars, and also the Harlem Ship Canal Bridge, Kingsbridge Road, in which Professor W. H. Burr was associated with him.
Mr. Boller was consulting engineer of the Findlay, Fort Wayne and Western Railroad, the Cape Cod Ship Canal project, the Sault Ste. Marie power development, and various other enterprises and interests ; consulting engineer to the city of Newark for the track elevations of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Central railroads ; chief engineer of the great four-track railroad and highway bridge between Duluth and West Superior, completed in the summer of 1897; and consulting engineer to the city of New York on important structural work in the Twenty-third Ward. In 1899 he was consulting engineer for the building of the Melrose Avenue Viaduct in the borough of the Bronx, and of the Ninety-sixth Street Viaduct for Riverside Drive, in the borough of Manhattan.
As an author, Mr. Boller has written a work on bridge-build- ing, and has contributed to the technical papers. He is a mem- ber of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Civil Engineers, London, the American Institution of Mining Engineers, the Century Association of New York, and the Republican Club of East Orange, New Jersey.
Mr. Boller was married, in Philadelphia, in April, 1864, to Miss Katharine Newbold, daughter of William Henry Newbold. They have five children: Margaretta, William Newbold, Alfred Pancoast, Richard Emlen, and Mary Newbold.
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Albert Bostwick
ALBERT C. BOSTWICK
THE name of Bostwick first appears in the annals of the New England colonies at an early date in the seventeenth century-not long, indeed, after the foundation of those com- munities. It was transplanted thither from Great Britain, and was borne by men of energy and character, such as befitted those who were to take part in the founding of a new nation. In the course of a few generations the members of the Bostwick family became distributed throughout nearly all of the North American colonies. They intermarried with other prominent families, and ranked among the most forceful elements of the communities in which they were settled.
One branch of the family was established at an early date in Delaware County, New York, or in the region which now forms that county. There it attained prosperity and prominence. The head of it in the last generation was the grandfather of the sub- ject of the present sketch. He lived at Delhi, and there his son, Jabez Abel Bostwick, was born. When the latter was in early boyhood the family removed to Ohio, and in that State Jabez A. Bostwick was educated and grew to manhood. His proficiency in his studies enabled him to finish his schooling at an early age, and then to go at once into business. He lived successively in Cleveland, Ohio, Lexington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and was engaged in business in each of those cities. His busi- ness comprised both banking and commercial operations, and he amassed a handsome fortune and rose to the foremost rank in the business world of the central West.
New York, however, is the natural goal of the most enterpris- ing careers, wherever begun. Mr. Bostwick rightly deemed that in the nation's metropolis he would find amplest scope for the
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exercise of his business talents, as well as the highest enjoyment of the fruits of his labors. Accordingly, in 1866 he came hither and established the firm of Bostwick & Tilford, cotton brokers. His partner was John A. Tilford, son of his own first employer at Lexington, Kentucky. The firm was successful, but its busi- ness was only a stepping-stone to a vastly greater undertaking. At that time the mineral oil industry was just being developed. Mr. Bostwick was quick to recognize its importance and the wonderful possibilities it afforded to shrewd business men. He accordingly devoted much attention to it, with his characteristic energy and foresight, and took a leading part in the organization of the Standard Oil Company, which has now become one of the largest and wealthiest corporations in the world, if not, indeed, the largest. For many years Mr. Bostwick was treasurer of that company.
But not even its vast interests monopolized his activities. He was also engaged in railroading on an extensive scale. He was for some time president of the New York and New England Railroad Company, and the principal owner of the Housatonic Valley Railroad, and personally directed the affairs of them. He was likewise associated prominently with many other busi- ness concerns, in manufactures and commerce. In social and other spheres in New York he was a conspicuous figure. He belonged to many of the principal clubs, and was a member of the Stock Exchange, Cotton Exchange, and other like bodies. He was a member of the Baptist Church, and contributed lib- erally to its support, building and endowing at his own expense the Emanuel Church in Suffolk Street, New York. He also gave large sums of money to Wake Forest College, North Carolina, Richmond College, Virginia, and other educational, religious, and charitable institutions. He died in New York in 1892.
Mr. Bostwick was married, in 1866, to Miss Helen C. Ford, daughter of Smith R. Ford of New York city, and to them were born three children. One of these is the widow of the late Francis Lee Morrell of New York city. Another is the wife of Captain Albert Carstairs of the Royal Irish Rifles. The third is the subject of this sketch.
Albert C. Bostwick was born in New York in 1877, and was carefully educated. His father's great wealth made it unneces-
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sary for him to earn his own living or to pass through any of the business struggles of the average young man. Neverthe- less he did not propose to be an idler. Being inclined toward the financial operations of Wall Street, he entered the brokerage firm of Walter C. Stokes & Co. in a subordinate capacity, and served faithfully until he was master of the business. He then became a special member of the firm, with a large invest- ment of capital in its business.
Mr. Bostwick is an enthusiastic and successful horseman, figuring conspicuously in the leading clubs devoted to riding and driving, and in the great New York horse shows. His fine four-in-hand, composed of Lady Ursula, Lady Flavia, Lord Chumly, and Lord Chesterfield, which cost him some ten thou- sand dollars, won the blue ribbon at the horse show of 1898. He has one of the finest stables of horses for riding and driving, in New York, and is a most accomplished master of them, on the road or in the field.
He is a member of the Riding Club, the Suburban Riding and Driving Club, and the Meadowbrook Hunt Club. Of the last- named organization he is one of the crack polo-players, and has dis- tinguished himself by contributing to many a "famous victory." His love for horses does not, however, prevent Mr. Bostwick from appreciating the merits of horseless vehicles. He was one of the first owners of automobile carriages in New York city, and became an expert in the management of them. He is one of the founder members of the Automobile Club of America, and is one of the committee on runs, exhibitions, and tours. He is also devoted to the sports of the sea, and is a member of the New York Yacht Club and the American Yacht Club. He be- longs to the Westchester Country Club, and is prominent among those who have made it conspicuous in suburban sports and festivities.
Mr. Bostwick was married, in June, 1898, to Miss Marie L. Stokes, daughter of Henry B. Stokes, president of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company of New York.
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ELMER FRANCIS BOTSFORD
"THREE generations ago Warren Botsford, then a young man, removed from Sharon, Connecticut, where the family had long been settled, and founded a new home at Burke, in the northern part of New York State. His son, Loren Botsford, be- came one of the first supervisors of the town of Burke. The latter's son, Henry Botsford, also spent his life at Burke as a farmer. He married Miss Jennie Bromley, and to them Elmer Francis Botsford was born, at Burke, on November 24, 1861.
After studying in the local schools, the boy was prepared for college at Franklin Academy, Malone, New York, and in the fall of 1882 entered Dartmouth College. His course at Dartmouth was variegated with periods of work at school-teaching, selling goods for a nurseryman, hotel service, etc., as were common with students there who were not blessed with riches. But in June, 1886, he was creditably graduated with his class. After some more hotel work and school-teaching, he studied law at Platts- burg, New York, and on November 26, 1889, was admitted to the bar at Albany. He had meanwhile been, in two successive years, a candidate for school commissioner, first in Franklin County, and then in Clinton County. But Mr. Botsford was a Demo- crat, and the districts in which he was a candidate were strongly Republican. There was, therefore, little hope of his election. He made a vigorous fight, however, and won many voters over to his support. The result of the last polling showed him to be defeated, but by a margin of only twenty-eight votes in a district which usually gave a Republican majority of sixteen hundred. That was, in a measure, gratifying to his pride, but it did not encourage him to seek further for political preferment. Instead,
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he withdrew his attention from politics and devoted it more ear- nestly to the pursuit of his profession.
On being admitted to the bar, he opened an office at Platts- burg, and conducted it on his own account for one year. Then, in the spring of 1892, he formed a partnership with George H. Beckwith, under the style of Beckwith & Botsford, with a branch office at Saranac Lake, New York. After several changes, the firm is now known as Botsford & Cotter.
Mr. Botsford has been for three years Corporation Attorney of Plattsburg. He is a director of the First National Bank of Plattsburg; the Plattsburg secretary and member of advisory board of the Commercial Union Cooperative Bank of Albany; secretary and treasurer of the Golden Wedge Mining Company of Rossland, British Columbia; secretary, treasurer, and general traffic manager of the Ladue-Yukon Transportation Company ; and secretary, treasurer, and director of the Joseph Ladue Gold Mining and Development Company of Yukon, which latter he organized with Joseph Ladue, the founder of Dawson City, whose personal attorney he has been since Mr. Ladue returned from the Klondike.
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