USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 28
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Mr. Walker belongs to a number of social and business organiza- tions, among which may be named the West End Association, the West Side Republican Club, the New York Caledonian Curl- ing Club, the Builders' League of New York, and the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen. In all of these he is a conspicuous member.
Mr. Walker has been twice married. His first wife, to whom he was married in New York city, on December 6, 1878, was Miss Annie Cameron, who bore him two children : Annie Henrietta Walker and Alexander Cameron Walker. Some years after her decease, on April 15, 1891, he was married in New York city to Miss Margaret Helen Farquharson of Edinburgh, Scotland, who bore him two children : James F. Walker and William F. Walker.
albert de Walker.
ALBERT H. WALKER
A ILBERT HENRY WALKER was born at Fairfax, Vermont, on November 25, 1844, and all his ancestors, for five gen- erations, were New England farmers, deriving their descent from Englishmen who immigrated into Massachusetts more than two centuries ago. All four of his great-grandfathers settled in Ver- mont before the end of the American Revolution.
Mr. Walker's legal education was begun by himself, and was continued through the regular course of the Northwestern Uni- versity at Chicago, from which he was graduated in 1877 with the degree of LL. B. and with the prize for the best legal essay. Within a month after his admission to the Illinois bar, in June, 1877, he was intrusted with the management of several important patent cases. Within six months he argued and won the com- plicated and difficult case of Sayles vs. Dubuque and Sioux City Railroad Company (5 Dillon, 563). Within two years he argued seven of the eight questions involved in the leading Supreme Court case of Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company vs. Sayles (97 U. S., 559). Within three years he was the control- ling counsel in more than two hundred patent suits in more than thirty States; and within four years he personally argued or tried many patent cases in twelve States, and several such cases in the Supreme Court of the United States.
With the knowledge gained in this remarkable career, Mr. Walker largely suspended, in 1881, his active practice of the law, and devoted two years and a half to composing and writing the first edition of "Walker on Patents." That book was published in October, 1883, and immediately received the unqualified indorsement of Chief Justice Waite and many other authorities. A second edition was published in 1889, and a third in 1895;
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and the work has been cited in more than a hundred and twenty opinions of more than forty United States judges.
In 1888 Mr. B. F. Thurston of Providence, Rhode Island, who was then one of the leading patent lawyers of the United States, was asked by the authorities of Cornell University to recommend a non-resident lecturer on patent law for the College of Law of that university, and he at once recommended Mr. Walker as being the fittest man for that post. Mr. Walker was thereupon selected for the position, and has filled it ever since, with approval from the professors and applause from the stu- dents. His success at Cornell led to his selection for a corre- sponding non-resident lectureship in the Law Department of the University of Michigan, in 1896, which lectureship also he has ever since occupied.
During his residence in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1879 to 1898, Mr. Walker was a frequent contributor to political discus- sion, both on the platform and in the press, treating such sub- jects as the tariff and the currency with extensive knowledge and uncommon insight, and taking strong ground for reasonable protection and the gold standard.
But authorship, lectureship, finance, and politics have always been only collateral incidents of Mr. Walker's career as a patent lawyer, in active practice at the bar. Few lawyers, if any, have argued patent cases in so many courts; and the number of the cases which he wins is so much larger than the number which he loses that his proportion of victories to defeats has probably been, for many years, unequaled among patent lawyers.
Mr. Walker is married, but is without children. He was rep- resentative of Hartford in the Connecticut Legislature in 1891 and 1892, and was the leader of his party on the floor of the House. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolu- tion, and of the Royal Arcanum, and of the Phi Delta Phi So- ciety. He has been counsel for the Edison Electric Light Company, the General Electric Company, and many other corpo- rations and persons. His practice of patent law has extended into thirty-three States of the American Union.
V
HENRY CLAY WARD
T
THE English family of Ward was planted in the American colonies at an early date, and some of its members soon rose to prominence in the affairs of their respective communities. Three generations ago one of the Wards was a leading resident of Chatham, New Jersey. His grandson, Sylvanus S. Ward, was a prominent coal merchant in New York city, who retired from that business in 1865, and died in 1871.
Sylvanus S. Ward was married twice. His first wife was Abby Merritt, who died in 1849. His second wife, whom he married in 1852, and who died in 1889, was Mrs. Sarah A. Black, whose father was the commander of the steamer Savannah, the first steamship that crossed the Atlantic Ocean, in 1819. He also commanded the first steamboat that went to sea at all, the Phoenix, in 1808. Colonel Seeley, the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch on his grandmother's side, served in the Revolutionary army under Washington.
The subject of this sketch, Henry Clay Ward, was born to Sylvanus S. and Abby Merritt Ward, in the city of New York, about 1850. His education was acquired in private schools in his native city.
His inclination being toward a mercantile life, on leaving school he became a clerk in a wholesale grocery store, then con- ducted by Lahagh & Farington, at No. 115 Broadway, New York. Later he entered the commission merchant's business, in part- nership with his brother. In that enterprise he was profitably engaged for many years, the firm being known successively as J. S. Ward; J. S. Ward, Foster & Co .; Ward & Foster; and Ward & Co.
Mr. Ward retired from all active business in 1888. He remains,
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however, a director of the German-American Insurance Company, a place which he has held ever since 1875.
He has held no political office, and sought none.
Mr. Ward's favorite diversion is yachting, and for the last seventeen years he has been a prominent and important figure in New York yachting circles. During that time he has owned, first, the sloop Sagitta, and for the last seven years the schooner Clytie. He was vice-commodore of the New York Yacht Club in 1895-96, and has frequently served on the nominating and admissions committee of that organization, the foremost yacht club of the western hemisphere.
Mr. Ward is a member of a number of the best clubs of New York city, among them being the Union, the Union League, the Church Club, the Country Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Larchmont Yacht Club, and the Coney Island Jockey Club.
Mr. Ward is a bachelor.
Thos Q. Wat.
THOMAS LISTER WATT
D R. HOLMES has said that the education of a man should begin with his grandparents. If the same rule shall be applied to the history of a man, we shall observe Archibald Watt came from Dundee, Scotland, in the early part of the present century, and settled in New York. He married Miss Mary Goodwin, the daughter of Joseph Goodwin of Boston, Massa- chusetts, and his wife, formerly Miss Susannah Keith of Taunton, Massachusetts. Archibald Watt was for many years one of the foremost merchants of New York, and also one of the city's chief landed proprietors. He had an extensive estate in the upper part of Manhattan Island, reaching from what is now One Hun- dred and Thirty-third Street and Convent Hill to One Hundred and Fiftieth Street and the Harlem River. He also owned a large tract farther south, including what is now the northern part of Central Park. All those regions were then suburban and rural, but the prophetic eye of the canny Scotchman saw clearly that one day they would be included in the thickly built-up part of the metropolis, and be of inestimable value. To the growth of the city in that direction he himself contributed much.
The wife of Archibald Watt was formerly Miss Mary Good- win. Her father, Joseph Goodwin of Boston, was a man of English descent, of more than ordinary force of character and of marked integrity. For fourteen years he was a member of the Legislature of Massachusetts. His maternal ancestors in this country were among the voyagers in the Mayflower. His wife, formerly Miss Susannah Keith of Taunton, was also of note- worthy New England ancestry. She was a little girl at the time of the outbreak of the Revolution, and as such she sat up all night before the battle of Lexington, helping her father and brothers to
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mold bullets for patriotic use on that memorable day. Her fa- ther, Joseph Keith, was an ardent patriot. He raised a company of troops, in the ranks of which were his two sons, and himself led it to do valiant work at Crown Point and Ticonderoga. His house is still standing in the city of Taunton. It is the oldest house in that city, and is preserved intact in its original state, so far as possible, and is used as a historical museum.
The son of Archibald and Mary Goodwin Watt was Thomas Watt, who inherited his father's fortune and landed estate. He married Miss Julia Hawks, who was a niece of the Rev. Dr. Francis L. Hawks, the well-known rector of Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church, in this city. Miss Hawks was also a direct descendant of the famous Indian princess, Pocahontas. To Thomas Watt and his wife were born, at their home in the upper part of Manhattan Island, five children. The first of these was Mary Watt, since deceased. The second, Thomas Lister Watt, is the subject of the present sketch. The third was Julia Watt. The fourth was Archibald Watt, who was commodore of the American Yacht Club, and designer and builder of some famous yachts. The fifth was Grace Watt. To such a family the sub- ject of this sketch belongs, and to such Scotch and English ancestry, with its sterling worth, can his integrity and capacity be traced for its origin and inspiration.
Thomas Lister Watt was born on the family estate in this city, on February 24, 1859. His education was acquired in some of the best private schools of the metropolis, finishing with the Gibbons and Beach School. His tastes then led him to enter upon the unique career of a fancy farmer and sheep- raiser in New York city. For this purpose he occupied a portion of the family estate, and had fine flocks of sheep ranging where now are asphalted streets and solid blocks of buildings. In this fascinating occupation he was remarkably successful, and he accordingly gradually extended his interests and occupations until he was engaged in general stock-raising. He bred on his metropolitan farm sheep, horned cattle, horses, and Shetland ponies. Of the last-named interesting little animals he made a specialty, and presently became possessed of what competent judges declared to be the finest herd in the world. The recent and present great popularity of these ponies is largely attrib-
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utable to his culture of them. Mr. Watt has been a frequent exhibitor of various kinds of stock at the best shows in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, and has taken many prizes for the excellence of his entries.
It is interesting to remember, as we have said, that the spa- cious farm on which Mr. Watt's father and grandfather lived, and on which he began his own successful career as a stock-fancier, included what is now a handsomely built-up and densely popu- lated part of the city. Mr. Watt was no obstructionist against the growth of New York. On the contrary, he put himself in line with the development of the city in that direction. He sold tract after tract of his estate for building purposes, realizing, of course, enormous increases upon the original value of the land. He saw fine avenues cut through his sheep pastures, and the fields on which his cattle used to graze turned into solid blocks of brick and stone houses. He did not, however, dispose of all of the old estate. To this day he retains a part of it, and keeps it in its former condition and use, and is thus enabled to boast of owning and operating the only stock-farm on Manhat- tan Island. There is probably not another farm in all the world so close to the heart of a great city.
With the diminution in size of his farm, however, Mr. Watt was compelled to diminish correspondingly the scope of his stock-raising in both numbers and variety. Inevitably, too, his interest in that pursuit decreased, and he began to turn his sur- plus attention to other directions. Nothing was more natural than that he should become interested in real-estate operations, seeing that he was already a large owner and seeker thereof. He became, therefore, actively interested in the purchase and sale of real estate, and in building operations, not only on his own estate and in that part of the city, but throughout the metrop- olis generally. His attention has been, however, chiefly given to the upper part of the city, with which his family has for three generations been conspicuously identified. He has for years been a leader of business affairs in the part of the city commonly known as Harlem, and is a member of the Harlem Board of Commerce. For some years he was a director of the Mount Mor- ris Bank, one of the principal financial institutions in that part of the city, and then became vice-president of it. Finally, on
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May 1, 1898, he was elected to its presidency, and being then only thirty-nine years old, was the youngest bank president in New York. His success as a financier was from the outcome marked, and bids fair to surpass that which he achieved as a stock-raiser. He possesses in goodly measure the mercantile and financial ability that made his grandfather, Archibald Watt, a leader in his day and generation.
Mr. Watt is a Democrat in politics. He has, however, held no public office, and has sought none, nor has he taken any part in political affairs beyond the intelligent and conscientious dis- charge of the duties of a private citizen. He is a member of the Democratic Club of this city, now the foremost social organi- zation of that party. In its affairs he has not sought to make himself conspicuous, but his presence is always welcomed, and his influence often materially felt.
He is, as might naturally be expected, fond of out-of-door sports, and is a generous patron of them. He is a member of the American Yacht Club, the Hudson River Boat Club, the Sub- urban Riding and Driving Club, the American Shetland Pony Club, the National Horse Show Association of America, Limited, and of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the affairs of all these organizations he is an earnest and efficient participator.
Mr. Watt was married at St. Thomas's Protestant Episcopal Church, in this city, on November 8, 1888, to Miss Annie S. Cary. They have five children, namely : Annie Pinckney Watt, Thomas Lister Watt, Jr., Cary Thomas Watt, Grace Farrington Watt, and James Lawrence Watt.
Elin Harry Motherbia
EDWIN HENRY WEATHERBEE
THE Weatherbee family is of remote Norwegian origin, but since the eleventh century, or perhaps earlier, has been settled in England, where the town of Wetherby is named for it. Members of it were among the earliest settlers in the New Eng- land colonies, and thence their descendants have spread through- out the country, until in nearly every State of the Union at least one representative is honorably known. In the last generation Henry M. Weatherbee of Chatham, New York, was a successful lawyer, merchant, and politician, and a man of broad culture and highly esteemed by all who knew him.
The Angell family, well known in England from early times, was well represented in the original colonies from which this nation has sprung. Thomas Angell was a comrade of Roger Williams in the settlement of Rhode Island. Three generations ago Colonel Joshua Angell removed from Providence, Rhode Island, to Chatham, New York, taking with him his son John, at that time a mere boy. John Angell spent most of his life at Chatham, and died there, at the age of eighty-six, in 1874. His six children all became the heads of prominent families in that part of the State. One of them, Mary Angell, married the Henry M. Weatherbee already mentioned.
The son of this couple, Edwin Henry Weatherbee, was born at Chatham, on September 23, 1852. His childhood was largely spent in travel in various parts of the United States. He was prepared for college at the Hudson River Institute, Claverack, New York, at Amenia Seminary, Amenia, New York, and at the Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Connecticut. In each of these he had high social and scholastic rank. Thence he went to Yale, and was graduated in the class of 1875. After spending
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two years in travel he entered the Law School of Boston Uni- versity, thence went to the Law School of Columbia University, New York, and was graduated from the latter and admitted to the bar in 1879.
For four years Mr. Weatherbee was an Assistant United States District Attorney under General Stewart L. Woodford. In 1882 he became connected with the great dry-goods firm of Arnold, Constable & Co. in a legal capacity. His career throughout has been marked with success, and has commanded the sincere esteem of all who know him.
Mr. Weatherbee is devoted to out-of-door sports, especially horsemanship. He is a member of the Country Club, New York Jockey Club, Riding Club, Riding and Driving Club, Casino Club, and the New York, Larchmont, and American Yacht clubs of New York. He belongs also to the Union League, Univer- sity, City, and Metropolitan clubs of New York, the Chamber of Commerce, the New England Society, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the American Museum of Natural History. He is a member and generous supporter of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His wife and her father, brother, and sister presented to the parish of Mamaroneck, New York, the splendid church building, in memory of her mother, Henrietta Arnold, daughter of the founder of the house of Arnold, Constable & Co.
Mr. Weatherbee was married, on November 15, 1881, to Miss Amy Henrietta, daughter of James Constable of the firm of Ar- nold & Constable. They have three children: Hicks Arnold Weatherbee, Henrietta Constable Weatherbee, and Mary Angell Weatherbee. Their country place at Mamaroneck is called "Wayte's Court," after a place of that name at Brixton, Isle of Wight, England, which was in the possession of the Arnold family for several centuries, and from which Mrs. Weatherbee's grandfather, Aaron Arnold, came to this country.
FRANCIS LEWIS WELLMAN
F RANCIS LEWIS WELLMAN, the successful lawyer who forms the subject of the present sketch, is a son of Wil- liam A. Wellman, a banker, and Matilda Governer Wellman, and is a direct descendant of Francis Lewis, who was the third signer of the Declaration of Independence, Mayor of New York city, and Governor of New York State. He was born at Brookline, Massachusetts, on July 29, 1854, and received his early educa- tion in the public schools of that town. From the high school he was sent to Harvard University, entering the class of 1876 with honor at the age of only eighteen years.
In due time Mr. Wellman was graduated from Harvard, after taking every first prize offered during the four years for oratory and essay-writing. He then adopted the law as his profession and entered the Boston Law School in the fall of 1876. After a brilliant career there as a student he was graduated as valedic- torian of his class, delivering the oration, and then appointed instructor in the school for one year and afterward lecturer for a term of four years. He also lectured to large private classes in the Harvard Law School on " Courts and Court Practice," and was for some years connected with the "American Law Review," and wrote much for other legal publications. Imme- diately after his graduation in 1878 he was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, and three years later entered into partnership with ex-United States Senator Bainbridge Wadleigh, that con- nection lasting about two years.
Mr. Wellman came to New York in 1883 and was at once ad- mitted to the New York bar. He was appointed junior assistant to the Counsel of the Corporation of the City of New York, under the Hon. George P. Andrews. In 1884 he was made senior
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assistant under Corporation Counsel Lacombe, and in that capacity had charge of all petty trials in which the city was defendant. He was also the head of the Negligence Depart- ment.
His next office was that of Assistant District Attorney under Delancey Nicoll, which he held for four years. In that position he demonstrated his remarkable ability in the management of com- plex and difficult criminal cases. In many noteworthy actions he represented the State, and the skill with which he conducted the prosecution made him one of the most talked-about men in the city. The conviction of Carlyle W. Harris for wife-poison- ing - the first conviction for poisoning in New York for thirty- two years-and the later convictions of Dr. Buchanan and Henry W. Meyer, also involved poisoning cases, have marked him as one of the most efficient prosecutors of criminals in the United States. The fact that in those cases he was opposed by the best legal talent obtainable further emphasizes the capabili- ties of the man.
In 1894, Mr. Wellman resigned from the District Attorney's office to devote his attention to his very extensive personal practice, which, in the matter of trial of cases, probably exceeds that of any other member of the New York bar, he being con- ceded to be one of the very best lawyers in New York in that particular line of work. He is the leading counsel for the Metropolitan Street Railway Company, which operates one of the largest systems of street traction in the world.
Mr. Wellman has been married three times -to Miss Cora Allen, to Miss Edith Watson, and to Miss Emma Juch, and has three children, Roderick, Allen, and Edith. He is a member of the University, Racquet, and Lawyers' clubs.
Charles He Vernes
CHARLES HAIN WERNER
THE State of Pennsylvania has long been one of the fore- most of the Union in industrial development, and espe- cially in the various branches of engineering, including railroads, mining, and iron and other mechanical manufactures. Natives of that State have been prominent and successful in the prose- cution of such industries, not only in their own communities, but in other parts of the United States and of the world. A con- spicuous example of such achievement is found in the career of Charles Hain Werner, who has been successful and has made his mark both as an engineer and as a member of the legal profession.
The families of Werner and Hain have been settled for more than a hundred years in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Their rank in that community is indicated by the fact that the village of Wernersville takes its name from its founder, a member of the Werner family of two generations ago. This was William Werner, a man of marked ability and enterprise. His son, Henry B. Werner, who also lived at Wernersville, married Miss Eva Hain, a member of another equally prominent family of that region. Their son is the subject of the present sketch.
Charles Hain Werner was born at Wernersville, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1868, and was thoroughly and broadly educated. After passing through the primary schools he went to the excel- lent boys' high school at Reading, Pennsylvania, and was there prepared for college. After taking a course at a business col- lege he went to Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, and thence to Cornell University, where he pursued the scientific course and received the degree of B. S. Finally he entered the Law Department of Cornell, and in due time was graduated with the degree of LL. B.
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Thus his interests were somewhat divided between science, particularly mechanical engineering, and the law. While at Cor- nell he was managing editor of the "Sibley Journal of Engineer- ing," one of the chief college publications of that institution, and after graduation he became for a time associate editor of " Cas- sier's Magazine," the well-known scientific and engineering re- view. The latter had, by the way, been founded only a few months before he became connected with it.
Previous to taking up the study of law he had been employed by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in its engineering de- partment, and also in that of the Norfolk and Western Railroad. He served for a time in the drafting-rooms of the Pond Ma- chine Tool Company at Plainfield, New Jersey, and the Frick Company at Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. In all these various capacities he served with great acceptability, evincing the thoroughness and practicality of his scientific training.
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