USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 27
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In politics Mr. Urban is a Republican, and he has spared enough time from his business interests to make himself a factor in the affairs of his party and a force for good government in both city and State. He has consistently declined to accept nomination for public office. He was, however, chairman of the General Republican Committee of Erie County in the years 1892-95, and to him is due much credit for the success of his party in the important and exciting campaigns of those years. He was a Presidential Elector in 1896. Since the latter year Mr. Urban has felt himself constrained to withdraw from active direction of political affairs, but he has by no means lost his interest therein, and he is on the Republican ticket again as candidate for Presi- dential Elector this year (1900).
Mr. Urban was married at Buffalo, in October, 1875, to Miss Ada E. Winspear.
ARTHUR EDOUARD VALOIS
THE name of Valois is unmistakably French and aristo- cratic in its origin. We might reckon it royal but for the fact that the great nobleman who was the great-grandfather of its present owner was so hot a radical that he found it expedient to leave France and come to America. He settled in Canada, where his son was a wealthy landowner at Montreal, and where his grandson became an eminent physician and surgeon at Valois- ville. The last-named, Michael François Valois, took part in the French-Canadian rebellion against England in 1837, and might have been put to death, as some of his comrades were, had he not come to the United States for safety. He remained in Franklin County, New York, until the amnesty was pro- claimed, and then returned to Canada and resumed his practice. His professional reputation was very great, and he attained prominence as a member of Parliament and as Prefect of Jacques Cartier County.
Arthur Edouard Valois is a son of Dr. Valois. He was born at Valoisville, Quebec, on September 30, 1844, and was educated partly in Canada, France, and the United States. In October, 1865, he was admitted to the practice of the law at Montreal, and followed that profession there until September, 1871. He won fine standing in the profession, and was known as a brilliant orator and a strong advocate of annexation of Canada to the United States. In September, 1871, he removed to New York, but his professional success not meeting his anticipation, he remained here only a few years, and then went to Denver, Colo- rado. There he rose quickly into prominence as a lawyer and politician, but his health failed, and in February, 1884, he returned to New York, and was sent to Paris for a short time
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in the branch office of Messrs. Coudert Brothers. Then he opened an office of his own in Paris, with William Morton Grin- nell as his New York correspondent. That was on July 1, 1885. When Mr. Grinnell became an Assistant Secretary of State at Washington, Francis F. Scott, now a Supreme Court justice, became the New York correspondent.
At first Mr. Valois met with only a moderate success in Paris. But he presently became counsel for such men as Mr. Morton, the United States minister, Dr. Evans, the celebrated dentist, and Messrs. Drexel, Harjes & Co., the bankers, and thereafter his high success was assured. In 1889 he was retained as counsel to the United States consul-general, and still holds that place. He is now at the head of two offices, one in Paris and one in New York, and has among his clients many of the leading com- mercial firms on both sides of the ocean, as well as bankers, steamship companies, missionary societies, etc. He is also one of the executors of the estate of Dr. Thomas W. Evans, and the executor and trustee of several other important estates. He divides his time between the two offices, but he retains his legal residence and citizenship in New York.
Mr. Valois has won, through his talents and devotion to his profession, the right to be considered as one of the authorities on international law.
Down to 1896 Mr. Valois was a protectionist Democrat, but in the latter year, revolting against the free-silver craze, he joined the Republican party. At the request of the National Republi- can Committee, he traveled extensively throughout the country and rallied the voters of French and Canadian origin to the sup- port of Mr. McKinley. His efforts were recognized as highly effective, and he was cordially and formally thanked for his ser- vices - which he had rendered without remuneration by the committee, not even for his expenses. In 1897 he was of great service to the Republican party in Ohio, and in 1898 he aided materially in the election of Governor Roosevelt in New York.
CHARLES HENRY VAN BUREN
MONG the various racial stocks that contributed to the settlement and building up of the North American colonies and the United States, none was more vigorous and persistent, and none retains to this day a more marked individuality, than that of the Dutch from Holland. Those sturdy and thrifty peo- ple were the founders of New Amsterdam, now New York, and were the pioneers in settling a considerable part of New York State, especially the region along both sides of the Hudson River. Here their descendants are to be found to-day, in large numbers, bearing the same old Dutch names that were common in the days of the first Dutch republic.
Conspicuous among the Dutch names of New York State is that of Van Buren, which has been borne by many eminent citi- zens of the State and by one President of the United States. The subject of the present sketch comes from a branch of the Van Buren family that was for several generations prior to his own settled at Ancram, Columbia County, New York. It was there that his father and grandfather were born. His father, however, in early life removed to the village of Williamsburg, on Long Island, which is now an important part of the borough of Brooklyn, city of New York, but which then, in 1844, was a separate village of small size. He was a painter by trade, and conducted that business for many years in Brooklyn, with much success.
Charles Henry Van Buren, the son of Henry and Sarah E. Van Buren, was born in the Williamsburg district of Brooklyn, New York, on December 15, 1861, and was educated in the pub- lic schools and high school of that city.
His early inclinations were toward a mercantile life, and in his
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boyhood he worked for a time in a small retail shop, for a stipend of two dollars a week. From that place he went into an insurance office, where he received three dollars a week. In neither of these places did he find his ambition likely to be realized, and he accordingly set about to find a more auspicious opening.
This was found at last in a broker's office, in New York, where he became an assistant bookkeeper in July, 1878. He found that business to his liking, and devoted himself to studying and mas- tering the intricacies of its details. Promotion followed in due course, and in time he became the manager of the office.
After ten years of such engagement, in 1888, his employer died, and Mr. Van Buren succeeded him as the head of the busi- ness. His career since then has been marked with many stirring incidents, but has on the whole been eminently successful. His firm was a depositor in the Marine Bank at the time of its failure, in the famous Grant & Ward crash on Wall Street. He also went through the Baring panic, and many other crises in the financial world. All of these he survived without material damage, and he kept his business steadily expanding in volume and profits. Beginning with one small room, his offices now include four large apartments down-town, and a commodious branch office up-town.
Mr. Van Buren is a member of the Consolidated Exchange, and is a member of its board of governors, and membership, complaints, and other committees. He is actively interested in religious and philanthropic work, and is treasurer of the Eastern District Branch of the Young Men's Christian Association of Brooklyn, and president of the board of trustees of the New England Congregational Church of Brooklyn.
Mr. Van Buren is not married.
JOHN RUFUS VAN WORMER
THE early Dutch colonists of New York did not by any means confine themselves to planting the city on Manhattan Island, which they first named New Amsterdam. They had in mind to occupy the inland country as well. Thus they made their way up the Hudson River, and colonized the picturesque and fertile lands along its shores, and about the lakes which lie near its head waters. Among these were the ancestors of John Rufus Van Wormer, who is well known in the public service and in business affairs. They came from Holland about the year 1660, and were the pioneer settlers in the region on the Upper Hudson River, and about Lake George and Lake Champlain. There they endured the hardships incident to pioneer life in a savage wilderness, their lives being often in peril amid the Indian hostilities which frequently devastated the country. Their energy, courage, and endurance enabled them, however, to hold their ground, and to aid in developing what is now the Empire State of New York. Jacob Van Wormer, the great-great-grand- father of the subject of this sketch, was noted for his woodcraft, and was one of the ablest scouts and Indian-fighters of his day. During the War of the Revolution he was a lieutenant in De Garma's company of Van Rensselaer's Fourteenth Albany County Regiment, the Hoosick and Schaghticoke Division. His son, Abram Van Wormer, who was born at Sandy Hill, Saratoga County, New York, joined a regiment from his part of the State early in the War of 1812, and marched with it from Greenbush to Sacket Harbor, participating in various engagements with the British.
John Rufus Van Wormer was born on March 14, 1849, at Adams, Jefferson County, New York, and was educated in an
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academy and military school at that place. In his boyhood he acquired a taste and aptitude for political affairs, which became strongly developed in mature years. His first business was that of a telegraph operator, which he followed for a number of years. By the year 1872 he ranked as an expert operator. At that time he lived in Oswego, New York, and he served there, and else- where in that part of the State, as a political correspondent of the New York "Times " in the exciting Presidential campaign of that year.
Such was his success as a correspondent that in 1873 he removed to Albany and devoted himself entirely to newspaper work. After four years of it, through the influence of George B. Sloan, Speaker of the New York Assembly, he was appointed private secretary to Roscoe Conkling, United States Senator from New York, and also clerk of the committee on commerce of the United States Senate.
At a later date Mr. Van Wormer was for some time chief clerk of correspondence in the New York post-office, and the confiden- tial associate of Postmaster Thomas L. James. When Mr. James became Postmaster-General in the Cabinet of President Garfield, Mr. Van Wormer was appointed his private secretary, and almost immediately thereafter was made chief clerk of the Post-office Department, and representative of the Postmaster-General in confidential and important matters.
Mr. Van Wormer resigned his place in the Post-office Depart- ment in January, 1882, in order to accept a place in the Lincoln National Bank of New York. He devoted himself to the inter- ests of this institution with characteristic energy and efficiency, until his services were desired by his associates as secretary and general manager of the Lincoln Safe Deposit and Warehouse Company, which place he continues to fill. Hard work, steady, unflagging energy, and natural executive ability, have made Mr. Van Wormer successful in all that he has undertaken.
GENERAL EGBERT L. VIELE
THE Viele family was among the early colonial settlers of Manhattan Island. It is descended from the ancient Euro- pean family of that name, the possessors of the historic feudal Castle of Rhäzüns, the foundations of which were laid before the birth of Christ. On the maternal side it is descended from the family of Knickerbocker, which gave to the State the Prince of Schaghticoke, Hermann Knickerbocker, whom "Diedrich Knickerbocker," refers to as "my cousin the Congressman." In the last generation John Ludovicus Viele was a judge of the New York Court of Errors, and was associated with De Witt Clinton in promoting the construction of the Erie Canal.
Egbert Ludovickus Viele, the son of John L. Viele, was born at Waterford, New York, on June 17, 1825, and was educated at the United States Military Academy, West Point. He was graduated in the class of 1847, and was assigned to service in Mexico, under General Scott, as a second lieutenant. After- ward he served under General Zachary Taylor. In 1853 he resigned, and took up his residence in New York city.
From 1854 to 1856 he was State Engineer of New Jersey, and conducted a geodetic survey of that State. His design for Cen- tral Park, New York, was adopted by the Board of Park Com- missioners, and he was appointed chief engineer. This led to his being chosen to design Prospect Park, Brooklyn, in 1860; but the outbreak of the Rebellion caused him to leave his plans in the hands of others. Meantime he had instituted in New York a strong movement toward sanitary reform. To his initiative is largely to be credited the system of official supervision of sanitation.
Reentering the United States service, he was the first to open the passage of the Potomac to the defense of the national capital.
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He was commissioned brigadier-general of volunteers on Aug- ust 17, 1861. In 1862 he was assigned as second in command of the land forces of the South Atlantic expedition. The capture of Fort Pulaski was due to him; also the capitulation of Norfolk, Virginia. Here he held the position of military governor for a year and a half. Being called upon to superintend the drafting of troops, he went to northern Ohio for that purpose, and on October 20, 1863, he retired from the service.
In 1885 he was elected a member of the Forty-ninth Congress from the Thirteenth New York District, and served on the official board of visitors to West Point. The report of the board by him resulted in the execution of some noteworthy improvements in the academy. He also secured the action of the government that led to the construction of the Harlem Ship Canal.
His "Handbook for Active Service" was extensively used during the Civil War. His " Life of General Robert Anderson " is highly interesting and instructive. Numerous magazine ar- ticles on scientific and other subjects have appeared from time to time from his pen. His "Topographical Atlas of New York City" is a monumental work.
For more than a quarter of a century he has been profession- ally active in promoting the improvement of the Harlem River. He has planned and is now superintending the improvements of the East Harbor, an important addition to the commercial facilities of the metropolis.
He is a member of many of the leading clubs and other social organizations, is vice-president of the American Geographical Society, a trustee of the Holland Society, and president of the Aztec Society. He was invited by a committee of the British House of Lords, in 1895, to advise them upon the systems of municipal improvement and legislation in America, with a view to their adoption in England, and thereafter was invited by the Duke of York to the Palace of St. James.
Acting as a member of the International Congress of History, composed of representatives from all the nations, including those from the Orient, that convened at The Hague in 1898, he de- livered the closing address to the congress.
WILLIAM BELL WAIT
W ILLIAM BELL WAIT is a descendant of one of the Mayflower Pilgrims and a number of other early colonists who came from England to this country prior to the year 1700.
His Mayflower ancestor was Richard Warren, who landed at Plymouth in 1620. The first of the Waits in this country was Thomas Wait of Rhode Island, who planted the family in that colony, and who was made a freeman at Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 1641. In a later generation, the great-grandfather of Mr. Wait was Beriah Wait of Kingston, Rhode Island, whose valuable services to the colonies in the War of the Revolution are frequently mentioned in both State and national records. He was Messenger of the Rhode Island Assembly, an ensign of the Third Company of North Kingston, and a lieutenant of the Third Company of the Second Battalion of Rhode Island troops. Beriah Wait's son, Christopher Brown Wait, removed from Rhode Island to New York State soon after the Revolution, and settled at Fundy's Bush, in the northern part of the State. His son, Christopher Brown Wait, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch, was a carpenter and builder at Amsterdam, New York.
The maiden name of Mr. Wait's mother was Betsey Grinnell Bell, and she came of an old Connecticut family. Her father was William Bell of Stamford, for whom the subject of this sketch was named, and her grandfather was Captain Jesse Bell of western Connecticut, one of the most notable men contrib- uted by that region to the colonial forces during the Revolu- tionary War. He served continuously from 1775 to 1783, and was in numerous battles and skirmishes with the British and Indians.
William Bell Wait, the son of Christopher Brown Wait, Jr.,
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and Betsey Grinnell Bell, his wife, was born at Amsterdam, Montgomery County, New York, on March 25, 1839. He was educated in the public schools of Albany, New York, in the Albany Academy for Boys, and in the Albany Normal School (now College), from which he was graduated in the class of 1859. Upon his graduation Mr. Wait adopted the profession of teaching, and accepted a position at the New York Institution for the Blind, in New York city, where he was engaged until the out- break of the Civil War, when he enlisted in the Seventy-first Regiment, New York State Volunteers, and served with that regiment until it was mustered out, a few months later. Having studied law while engaged in teaching, he entered the law office of the Hon. Lyman Tremain of Albany as a student, and in December, 1862, was admitted to the bar of the State of New York.
He seemed to be destined, however, to devote his life to edu- cational work rather than to the practice of the legal profession. Under a law passed in 1863 a number of district schools in the city of Kingston, Ulster County, New York, were placed under the jurisdiction of a board of education, and in September of that year Mr. Wait was elected Superintendent of Schools of that city. He accepted the position, and entered upon the task of grading and organizing the schools into one harmonious system.
At Kingston, however, his stay was brief. Soon after he be- gan his work there the office of superintendent of the New York Institution for the Blind became vacant, and the managers of that institution, remembering his admirable work as teacher, elected him to fill it. Mr. Wait made a satisfactory arrangement with the Kingston Board of Education, and in October, 1863, came to New York, and began his work as superintendent, after- ward principal, of the New York Institution for the Blind, which position he has held continuously from that time to the present, and in which he has done a work of incalculable value.
During his incumbency of this position, Mr. Wait has traveled widely in this and in other countries, with a view to studying the methods of instructing the blind as elsewhere practised, and has kept in close touch with the educational, industrial, social, and psychological progress of the age, as related to the education of the blind. He is author of the following named works : "The
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New York System of Tangible Point Writing and Printing for the Blind"; " The New York System of Tangible Music Nota- tion "; " The Normal Course of Piano Technic "; and "The Ele- ments of Harmonic Notation."
Mr. Wait is also the inventor of a number of devices. One of these, the kleidograph, is a machine for writing both literature and music according to the New York Point System. Another, the stereograph, is a machine for embossing metal plates, to be used instead of types for embossed printing. Both the machines have attracted much attention, and seem destined to come into wide practical use. After perfecting and patenting these devices, Mr. Wait assigned all his interest in them to the New York Institution for the Blind, without profit to himself, in order that that institution might permanently possess, for its use and the benefit of its pupils, and incidentally for the benefit of the blind everywhere, these practical results of many years of study and experiment.
Mr. Wait is a trustee of the American Printing House for the Blind, and chairman of its publication committee, and a charter member of the American Association of Instructors of the Blind, and chairman of its executive committee, a position which he has filled almost uninterruptedly since the organization of the association in 1871. He is a trustee of the New York Free Cir- culating Library for the Blind, the Society for Publishing Reli- gious Literature for the Blind, and the American College of Musicians, and is a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, the American Geographical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
On October 27, 1863, at Potter Hill, Rhode Island, he was married to Miss Phœbe J. Babcock, by whom he has had seven children, five daughters and two sons, three of whom - Lucy Bell, now Mrs. Frank Battles of Philadelphia, William Bell, Jr., a lawyer of New York city, and Dr. Oliver Babcock Bell of Philadelphia - now survive.
Alexander Walker.
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ALEXANDER WALKER
THE strain of canny, thrifty Scottish blood is an important one in the cosmopolitan constitution of the American na- tion. It was planted here at an early date in colonial history, and quickly and permanently made itself felt for good. Intelli- gent, progressive, industrious, frugal, and intensely patriotic, the Scotchmen of colonial and Revolutionary times were among the best citizens of the rising nation. The history of those times is thickly dotted with Scottish names in civil and military life, not a few of them illuminated with highest honor. Nor are all the Scotchmen of America those of early establishment. The stream of migration hither from the "Land o' Cakes" has not ceased. Each year adds to the number of our Scotch citizens. And the later comers invariably display and exercise the same admirable characteristics that distinguished their forerunners of a century or two ago. Scotchmen are to be found in all walks of life- among artisans, merchants, financiers, professional men, and in the public service. In every department of activity they make themselves felt with the same vital force that has made their native or ancestral land herself a marvel among the nations of the world.
The subject of the present sketch, Alexander Walker, is of pure Scottish origin, and belongs to the immigration of the present generation. He was born in Scotland, on June 25, 1852. His father, James Walker, was a farmer. His mother's maiden name was Helen Smith. The family was in humble circum- stances, and it was impossible for the boy to acquire a collegiate education. He made the most, however, of the facilities for cul- ture which the local schools of his native place afforded, and on coming to this country and settling in New York city before
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reaching years of manhood, he supplemented his former schooling with a course in an evening high school.
Mr. Walker selected the trade of a stone-cutter for his first oc- cupation, and learned it thoroughly through an apprenticeship. He worked at it for several years as a journeyman stone-cutter in New York city, putting the marks of his workmanship upon the walls of many a building. Then be became an employer and contractor in the same business as a member of the firm of Gillis & Walker.
From stone-cutting the transition was easy and natural to general building operations and to dealing in real estate and houses. In these vocations he was a member of the firm of Walker & Lawson for some time. At present, as for some years past, he conducts the business alone, under the simple name of Alexander Walker.
His other business connections are not numerous, but are im- portant. He has for the last four years been and now is presi- dent of the Colonial Bank at Eighty-third Street and Columbus Avenue, New York, which institution is a marvel of success, and is also president of the New York Land and Mining Company. He has held no political office, and has taken no active part in political affairs, save the performance of his duties as a good citizen and a member of the Republican party.
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