New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II, Part 29

Author: Harrison, Mitchell Charles, 1870-
Publication date: 1900
Publisher: [New York] : New York Tribune
Number of Pages: 1094


USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 29


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29


Immediately after leaving the law school in 1895 he was ad- mitted to the bar of New York. Since 1897 he has been a mem- ber of the firm of Sheehan & Collin, a firm having a large and profitable corporation practice, much of it connected with rail- roads, electric-light companies, and other engineering industries. Its offices are in the Mutual Life Insurance Company Building, in the borough of Manhattan, and in the Brooklyn City Railroad Building, in the borough of Brooklyn, and in each of those major divisions of the metropolis it has a large clientage.


Mr. Werner has naturally come to be interested in a proprie- tary respect in various concerns. Among these may be men- tioned the Albany and Hudson Railway and Power Company, the Queens Borough Electric Light and Power Company, the Amsterdam Electric Light, Heat and Power Company, and the Kings County Elevated Railroad Company, in each of which he is a director.


Mr. Werner has taken little active part in politics, outside of the fulfilment of the duties of a citizen. He is a member of the Manhattan Club, of the Cornell University Club of New York, of the Theta Delta Chi college fraternity, and of the Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity. He is not married.


Cleomar .wiekles,


THOMAS PARMELEE WICKES


I N the private office of Thomas P. Wickes, at No. 100 Broadway, New York, there hangs a portrait of his great-grandfather, Eliphalet Wickes. The latter was born at Huntington, Long Island, on April 1, 1769, and in July, 1779, when he was ten years of age, he carried, on horseback, the news of the taking of Stony Point by "Mad Anthony" Wayne, from Washington's headquarters at Fishkill, New York, to General Gates's head- quarters at Providence, Rhode Island. He became a lawyer at Jamaica, Long Island, was a Representative in Congress, and was appointed by Governor Clinton the first District Attorney of Queens County. He died at Troy, New York, on June 7, 1850.


A grandson of this first Eliphalet Wickes, who also bore the name of Eliphalet Wickes, was a merchant at Albany, New York. He married Ellen Parmelee, and to them, at Albany, on April 17, 1853, was born a son to whom they gave the name of Thomas Parmelee Wickes. The boy was educated at the Albany Acad- emy, at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, at Yale Col- lege, class of 1874, and at the Law School of Columbia College, New York, class of 1876.


Mr. Wickes was promptly admitted to the bar upon graduation, in May, 1876, and forthwith entered upon the practice of his profession in New York. In December, 1876, he was engaged in the Law Department of the city of New York, in the office of the Corporation Counsel. There he made himself of so great use that he was retained year after year, under different administra- tions. Within a short time after his entry into the office he became an Assistant Corporation Counsel, and held that rank for twelve years. At the time of his resignation from the service in the fall of 1889 he was the second assistant.


375


376


THOMAS PARMELEE WICKES


On leaving the municipal service, Mr. Wickes in 1890 engaged in the practice of law on his own account. In this he was suc- cessful, and he soon acquired a profitable patronage. In July, 1892, however, he entered the copartnership of Hatch & Wickes, of which he still remains a member. He has held and has sought no political office other than that in the Law Department of New York city, and he has not conspicuously associated him- self with any business enterprises outside of his own office.


While he was an assistant in the municipal Law Department, Mr. Wickes was assigned by the Counsel to the Corporation to take charge of the opposition made by the city to various rail- road schemes, and it was due to his energy and activity and thorough preparation of the cases against these enterprises that the original cable railway system, which had no merits, and the matter of the Metropolitan Transit Company, and another under- ground railroad scheme were defeated in the courts. Upon resigning from the Law Department, Mr. Wickes was retained in many important city lawsuits, especially in matters con- nected with the acquisition of property for the new water-front. He argued the celebrated Langdon cases at the time they were finally decided by the Court of Appeals. Since leaving the Law Department, Mr. Wickes has been engaged in general practice, being occupied, for the most part, with matters in court. He is best known as a successful trial lawyer. His firm has a large general practice, and represents many corporations. He has also frequently acted as referee in large and important cases, having been appointed on many occasions, especially during recent years, by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court He was also assigned by the former general term of the Supreme Court as counsel to prosecute two delinquent members of the bar.


In early life, especially while in college, Mr. Wickes was noted as the possessor of an uncommonly fine barytone voice, and he frequently sang in public on a variety of occasions.


Mr. Wickes was married, on December 19, 1877, to Miss Har- riette Douw Alley, who died in May, 1899, leaving him two chil- dren, Henry Parmelee Wickes and Marie Louise Wickes.


RAMON O. WILLIAMS


R AMON O. WILLIAMS was born in Washington, D. C., about seventy years ago. His father was George Williams and his mother Jeannette Anne Young, natives of Washington, and of Colonial and English ancestry.


When a mere child, he went to Cuba with his father, who was to leave him with an aunt born in Maryland, and married to a Spanish merchant established at Havana. She, having no chil- dren, wished to adopt her little nephew, who at her request had been named after her husband as her son. He went to school in Havana. His mother, not wishing to part forever with her son, after a time requested his return to her, which was done. Then he went to school in Alexandria, Virginia, and in Wash- ington. His father having died early, he was taken from school at the age of twelve years and placed to work in the office of Blair & Rives, editors and proprietors of the "Globe." Some time after, he went to the office of the "Madisonian." This paper was the organ of the John Tyler administration. At the age of eighteen Mr. Williams returned to Havana, where he com- pleted his education under private instruction, since which time he has been continually connected with the commerce of that island with the United States.


In the year 1856 he was sought by some of his fellow-country- men, residents of New London and Mystic, Connecticut, to represent them in defense of a proposition they wished to present to the Captain-General of Cuba for the free introduc- tion of live fish from the west coast of Florida into Havana. Prior to the transfer of Florida in 1821, under the treaty of 1819, the west coast of Florida had served as the fishing- grounds for the market of Havana. By effect of this treaty,


377


378


RAMON O. WILLIAMS


these Florida fishing-grounds and the market of Havana had become foreign to each other; and the legislation of Spain reserved the catching and supplying of fresh fish to the retired sailors of the King's navy ; therefore, the Spanish law prohibited the trade. But the law was evaded, and the trade carried on in American smacks, that fished on the west coast of Florida under the American flag, and brought their catches into the port of Havana under the Spanish flag. That is, each of those smacks carried both flags. The famous Don Francisco Marti had the monopoly of supplying fresh fish to Havana. He made an immense fortune out of this business, while the American fisher- men scarcely made a living. It was because of this inequality of conditions that Mr. Williams was sought by the fishermen to represent them before General Concha, then Captain-General of the island. After several months Mr. Williams succeeded against the millionaire Mr. Marti, and fresh fish was supplied to the people of Havana, under the American flag, at from eight to ten cents per pound, whereas under the monopoly of Mr. Marti they had to pay twenty-five cents and upward per pound. The result was, the people of Havana got cheaper fish and the American fishermen better returns for their labor. In this contest against Mr. Marti, Mr. Williams gained his first insight into the econom- ics of Cuba, which subject became a favorite study with him ever afterward.


In 1868, on learning of the tender of the annexation of the republic of Santo Domingo to the United States, by General Baez, he instantly saw, being then engaged in sugar-planting, the disintegrating effect on monarchy and African slavery in Cuba if that proposition was carried out, because of the eco- nomic dependence of the island on the sugar market of the United States, which dependence had then been recently wrought as one of the cyclic events of the destruction of the Louisiana sugar crop, during our Civil War. At the request of the late John E. Develin of New York, he made a sketch of his views, which was read and approved by several Americans of high intellectual standing.


Mr. Williams withdrew from business in 1874, and took up his residence in New York.


In the same year of 1874, at the solicitation of the late Thurlow


379


RAMON O. WILLIAMS


Weed of New York, he showed, for Frederick W. Seward, how the negotiation of reciprocity treaties with other sugar countries than Cuba would effectively solve the Cuban problem without war, and by the mere effect of economic force. A copy of this sketch fell into the hands of the late Charles A. Dana, who headed it with the title of "Some Considerations on the Absurd Commercial Relations between Spain and the United States," and published it in a daily issue of the " Sun," in January, 1876.


Shortly after his return to the United States in 1874, he was requested to go back to Havana to take charge of the United States consulate-general, during General Grant's administration, for three or four months, which he accepted. He soon afterward received the honorary appointment of vice-consul-general. At the end of ten years he resigned this position. In 1884 he was appointed by President Arthur to be United States consul-general at Havana, and was continued during the successive administra- tions of Presidents Cleveland and Harrison.


In 1890 he was called to Washington by order of Secretary Blaine to assist in supporting the proposed amendment of the Mckinley Tariff Bill of that year. To this end he went before Senators Allison, Aldrich, Hiscock, and Jones, the majority mem- bers of the Senate committee then having the subject under consideration, and before Representatives Burrows, Gear, and Hitt of the corresponding House committee, to whom he ex- pressed his views in favor of the proposition which afterward took form under the Aldrich Amendment.


On the breaking out of the Cuban insurrection in 1895, Mr. Williams had to defend, under the treaties between the two governments, many Cubans who had obtained naturalization papers in the United States and had taken part in the insurrec- tion, and having, in consequence, been considered persona non grata by the Captain-General of Cuba (Callejas) and the Madrid government, and also for reasons of self-respect he obtained leave of absence to go to Washington, where he signified his intention to President Cleveland to resign at once. But he returned to Havana, at the request of the President, for a short time, intend- ing to forward his resignation from there. However, with the precedents in his memory of the fate of the Crittenden men at Havana in 1851, and the public execution of their leader, General


380


RAMON O. WILLIAMS


Narciso Lopez, of which act Mr. Williams had been a near-by witness, and of the Virginius men at Santiago in 1873, and from his desire to serve the cause of international peace, knowing that the foundation of Spanish power in Cuba was essentially economic, and fast exhausting itself from the violation of the natural economic law, as defined by Isaiah, in arithmetical ratio, the key to all the physical sciences, in his warning to the mer- chant princes of Tyre (chapter xxiv., verses 1, 2, 3), he remained in Havana a year longer, attending to the many cases of the Cubans with United States naturalization papers. As soon as, in his judgment, a sufficient number of these cases had been settled for the formation of an adequate jurisprudence under the treaties, he then sent his formal and irrevocable resignation to the President. In the full faith of the sufficiency of article 7 of the treaty of 1795, between the United States and Spain, and of the protocol of January 12, 1877, negotiated at Madrid by the late Caleb Cushing, Mr. Williams rejected the pressure brought upon him to ask the government at Washington to station a vessel of war in the harbor of Havana, fully believing in his ability to defend and to obtain all the stipulated rights of American citizens without any such aid, having, besides, reasons to suspect that the calling of a man-of-war might become a doubtful expedient.


His last important official act was the defense of the men of the Competitor expedition, which vessel had been captured with officers and crew while landing arms and recruits for the insurgents in the province of Pinar del Rio on the north coast of Cuba. For his action in this matter he was highly complimented by the Department of State.


Reasoning from the fundamental principles of economics, Mr. Williams frequently pointed out in his consular reports, yet un- published, the disasters that awaited Spanish power in Cuba.


Charles Strillo


CHARLES T. WILLS


THE ancestors of Mr. Wills were orthodox English Quakers, who came to this country with William Penn, and settled on the Rancocas River, near Rancocas, and about three miles from Mount Holly, New Jersey. The original progenitor of his father's family was Dr. Daniel Wills, who had a grant of eight thousand acres of land from King George III. The old home- stead and several hundred acres of land were held by the family under the original charter until a few years ago.


Charles T. Wills is the son of Chalkley J. and Ann D. Wills. The elder Mr. Wills was a builder in New York city, and his son was born in East Tenth Street, December 13, 1851.


He was sent to a Quaker school, known as Westtown Insti- tute, near Westchester, Pennsylvania, where he remained three years, and was prepared for Princeton College. Circumstances interfering with his plans for pursuing a college course, he left the institute in his eighteenth year, and learned the trade of bricklaying. He served his apprenticeship under John T. Con- over, and was made a foreman a year before his time was out. He lived frugally on his wages, and during the winter months added to his income by teaching a country school.


When he was twenty-two he formed a partnership with John Sinclair, which lasted for two years. The hard times making it expedient to end the partnership, and, for the time, all indepen- dent effort, Mr. Wills spent the two years following working at his trade as a journeyman mason. He was foreman under Sam- uel Lowden and Daniel Christie, and had charge of a section of the foundation of the Sixth Avenue elevated road.


A partnership with George Sinclair, under the firm-name of Sinclair & Wills, was next formed, and for a number of years


381


382


CHARLES T. WILLS


did a flourishing business. Since that was dissolved Mr. Wills has carried on a business of his own. He has built some of the finest office buildings, hotels, residences, and churches in this city. A partial list comprises the New York Life Insurance Company's, the American Surety, the Presbyterian, the National Bank of Commerce, the " Mail and Express," the Vanderbilt, the United Charities, the Singer, the University Club, and the Delmonico buildings, the Hotel Martinique, the Court-house on Madison Avenue and Twenty-fifth Street, the Sloane, Ogden, Herter, Berwind, Killiaen Van Rensselaer, and E. C. Converse resi- dences, All Angels', St. Andrew's M. E., Stamford Presbyterian, and Rutgers Riverside churches, the Judson Memorial Church and buildings, and the Brooklyn Tabernacle.


He owns stock in several large corporations. For some years he has been a director in the Garfield National Bank. He is a Knight Templar Mason, a member of the New York Athletic Club, on the building and finance committee of which he served for a long term, and whose governor he was for two years. He belongs to the Colonial Club, and was at one time chairman of the building committee. He has been a commodore of the Columbia Yacht Club, and is now a commodore of the Indian Harbor Yacht Club. He is a member, also, of the American, Larchmont, and Riverside yacht clubs, the Salmagundi and the St. Nicholas Skating clubs, the Geographical Society, the His- torical Society, the Metropolitan Art Museum, and the Art Society of New York, and is a patron of the Fine Arts Society.


Mr. Wills was married, on November 13, 1879, to Miss Carrie Russell of Haddam, Connecticut. Of their five children, one daughter and two sons are living, the eldest of whom is now in Princeton College.


FRANCIS H. WILSON


F IRANCIS H. WILSON, formerly Representative in Con- gress, and now Postmaster of Brooklyn, New York, and one of the foremost figures in society and political life in that borough of the metropolis, is of central New York State origin. He was born at Westmoreland, Oneida County, New York, on February 11, 1844. In his infancy the family removed to Utica, and there the first ten years of his life were spent. The family then returned to the farm at Westmoreland where he had been born, and there his home was made during the remainder of his boyhood.


His early education was gained at the local district school, which he attended in the intervals of his duties as a worker on his father's farm, his boyhood life being similar to that of the average farmer's son in that region. It was not, however, his purpose to spend his days always upon the farm. His ambition was to acquire a college education and enter professional life. With that end in view he attended Dr. Dwight's Preparatory School at Clinton, New York, and was there fitted to enter college. Then he entered Yale, pursued the regular course with success, and was graduated as a member of the class of 1867. He next taught school for four years in an institution of college prepara- tory rank, and thus acquired the means necessary for further pursuit of his own training. Finally, he came to New York city and entered the Law School of Columbia College. There he studied for two years, under Professor Theodore W. Dwight, and then was graduated and admitted to the bar.


Mr. Wilson began the practice of his profession in New York city, in the office of the Hon. Enoch L. Fancher. Two years later he opened an office of his own, and conducted it with


383


384


FRANCIS H. WILSON


gratifying success. But after a time political interests drew him largely away from professional work.


Mr. Wilson established his home in Brooklyn in 1884, and quickly arose to prominent rank in the Republican party there. Thus he was chairman of the Kings County Campaign Commit- tee in the campaign of 1892, was elected to the Fifty-fourth Congress from the Third Congressional District of New York State (Brooklyn), and was reelected to the Fifty-fifth Congress by a plurality of 7553 votes. In Congress he was a prominent member of the committee on naval affairs, and was appointed by Speaker Reed a member of the board of visitors to Annap- olis, in 1897.


He was one of the earliest advocates of President McKinley's nomination in the spring of 1896, and one of his best friends and most earnest workers in Brooklyn. On September 21, 1897, he was nominated to the Senate to succeed Postmaster Sullivan of Brooklyn, and upon his confirmation he resigned his seat in Congress to assume his new duties. Upon the consolidation of the municipalities about the port of New York, the post-offices within the consolidated territory were not united under one jurisdiction, and the responsibility of the Brooklyn office re- mained as before.


Mr. Wilson took a prominent part in the reorganization of the Republican party under the election district plan, and was chairman of the provisional committee on reorganization. He took a prominent part also in the organization of the Union League Club of Brooklyn, of which he was president for four successive years. He is also a member of the Yale Alumni Association of New York.


Mr. Wilson is married and has several children. He makes his home in Brooklyn, in the handsome quarter known as the Prospect Park Slope, and is a leading member of the best so- ciety of the city.


JOHN SERGEANT WISE


J COHN SERGEANT WISE, son of Henry A. Wise of Virginia, and Sarah, daughter of the Hon. John Sergeant of Phila- delphia, was born at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on December 27, 1846, when his father was United States minister to Brazil. After 1847 he lived at the paternal residence in the county of Accomac, Virginia, and in Richmond, when his father was Gov- ernor, from 1856 to 1860. He attended several preparatory schools, and entered the Virginia Military Institute at Lexing- ton. There he remained until May, 1864, when the school corps joined General Breckenridge in the Shenandoah Valley to repel General Siegel. In the battle of New Market, May 15, 1864, Mr. Wise was wounded. In the summer of 1864 he was lieuten- ant in the provisional army of the Confederacy, and was in the battle of Saltville. The next winter he was adjutant of a reserve battalion of artillery, and when Richmond was evacuated he was despatch-bearer from Jefferson Davis to General Lee. Mr. Wise communicated with General Lee, and bore the last despatch from him to Mr. Davis at Danville. While bearing return despatches he learned of the surrender of Lee's army, and turning south- ward, joined the army of General Johnston, with which he surrendered.


Mr. Wise returned to his studies after the war. At the Uni- versity of Virginia he gained the debater's medal of the Washing- ton Society, and was graduated in law in 1867. He began the practice of his profession in Richmond, and two years later mar- ried Miss Eva Douglas of Nashville, Tennessee. He was part- ner of his father until the death of Governor Wise in 1876. About the year 1875 he became interested in a controversy for a Virginia Senatorship between Colonel Knight and General John-


385


386


JOHN SERGEANT WISE


ston, and published a series of newspaper letters arraigning the party managers for their corrupt methods. The prominence thus gained made him leader of the reform element in Richmond politics. It was largely through his influence, in 1877, that Gov- ernor Holliday was nominated. In 1878 he declined a nomina- tion for Congress in favor of General Joseph E. Johnston. The breach between Mr. Wise and the Democratic organization culminated in his finally separating from that party.


In 1880 he was independent candidate for Congress against his cousin, George D. Wise, Democrat, and was defeated. In 1881 he was appointed United States attorney for the Eastern Dis- trict of Virginia.


In 1882 he was elected Congressman at large from Virginia. In Congress he voted with the Republican party, and in May, 1885, he was the Republican candidate for Governor of Virginia, but was defeated, according to the returns, by General Fitzhugh Lee, a result never acquiesced in as a true return by Mr. Wise or his supporters.


In the year 1887 he became counsel for an electric company constructing in Richmond one of the first electric railways in the United States. In consequence of this employment, he removed to New York in 1888, where he has since resided and practised his profession.


A great national controversy arose between the electric rail- ways and the telephone companies. Mr. Wise had charge of this, and for several years was engaged in it almost exclusively, and became a leading legal authority upon subjects pertaining to that controversy. Recently he has turned his attention to general practice, particularly to railroad reorganizations and cor- porations. He has also been prominent in politics as a Repub- lican and in society, is a member of several leading clubs, and has a national reputation as a campaign orator.


Of late Mr. Wise has devoted his leisure time to literary pur- suits, and produced two books, "Diomed " and "The End of an Era," which have been widely read and added to his reputation.


PETER MANUEL WISE


A1 MONG the many settlers of German extraction in Pennsyl- vania, there were, in the first half of this century, two families, named respectively Wise and Croop. A son of the former, Joseph Wise, a farmer by occupation, married a daughter of the latter, Elizabeth Croop, and they, in 1840, removed from Pennsylvania and were among the earliest settlers at Clarence, Erie County, New York. There, on March 7, 1851, a son was born to them, to whom the names of Peter Manuel were given.


The boy grew up on his father's farm, attending the local public school. A course at the Parker Classical Institute fol- lowed, and then, adopting the healing art as his life-work, young Wise went to Buffalo, and entered the medical department of the university of that city. It had been intended that he should have a full college education, and he was prepared for matricula- tion at the age of fifteen years. But the death of his father altered his plans. He spent a year as clerk in a store in Buffalo, and then began the study of medicine. Three years of study completed the course, and he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine.


Immediately after graduation he went to St. Louis, and spent a year there in hospital work. He served there as a city physi- cian through the smallpox epidemic of 1872-73. Then, in the summer of the latter year, he returned to the East, and soon became second assistant medical officer in the Willard Asylum for the Insane, on Seneca Lake, New York. There he remained for eighteen years, being promoted to the place of first assistant, and then, in 1884, to that of superintendent, which latter he filled for six years. In 1882 he made an exhaustive study of the official systems of caring for the insane in Great Britain and


387


388


PETER MANUEL WISE


France, and made a report thereon. In 1886 he was appointed by the governor as one of five commissioners to locate a hospital for the insane in the northern part of the State and to submit plans for the same, and the designs and plans prepared by him were substantially accepted and executed. In 1890 he resigned his place in the Willard Asylum to become medical superintendent of the St. Lawrence State Hospital, at Ogdensburg, New York. In the summer of 1896 he was prevailed upon by the governor to accept the presidency of the State Commission in Lunacy, for a term ending in May, 1901.


In addition to the duties of these various places, which he has performed with signal acceptability, Dr. Wise has made many valuable contributions to medical literature, and has published several highly esteemed text-books for nurses, on the care of the insane. He held for a number of years the chair of psychi- atry and lecturer on insanity in the University of Vermont, and retired, in 1896, on account of the press of official work. His business interests include the presidency of the Copper Hill Mining Company of New Mexico, and a directorship of the Santa Marta Mahogany Company.


Dr. Wise is a member of the Lotos Club of New York, the Fort Orange Club of Albany, the Century Club of Ogdensburg, the American Medico-Psychological Association, the New York State Medical Society, and various other organizations. He was married, on October 6, 1875, to Miss Annie Heston of Alabama, New York, and has two daughters and one son, the latter following his father in the medical profession.


BENJAMIN WRIGHT


THE ancestors of Benjamin Wright belonged to the Quaker stock of England, that came to this country in colonial times and contributed much to the upbuilding of the colonies into States and a nation. His father, who also bore the name of Benjamin Wright, was a prosperous farmer on Long Island, and a man of culture and high character. The maiden name of his mother was Eliza Miller, and she was a member of a family honorably known since early colonial times.


Benjamin Wright, son of Benjamin and Eliza Wright, was born at Flushing, Long Island, New York, in 1843. His early education was acquired in the common schools of that village. Thence he proceeded to the Flushing Institute, in which he pursued the regular course, and finally he pursued the course given at the Jamaica Academy.


With that preparation, Mr. Wright came to New York city, and entered upon the study of the law. He effected this in the old-fashioned way, in the office of a prominent lawyer. For four years he was thus engaged, acquiring not only a thorough knowledge of what was to be learned from the books, but also the practical knowledge which was only to be acquired through actual office work, and, which was not least important, the dis- cipline and mastery of professional ethics which were to be gained by daily contact with a leader of the profession.


In 1868 his studies were sufficiently completed for Mr. Wright to be admitted to the bar. He thereupon began the practice of the profession, devoting himself to civil law, and soon secured a large and profitable clientage. One of his early patrons was the Dry Dock Savings Institution, one of the foremost savings- banks in New York, which retained him as its permanent coun-


389


390


BENJAMIN WRIGHT


sel; and that important engagement proved to be only the first of a series of such. Other corporations which have thus engaged Mr. Wright are the Stuyvesant Insurance Company, for which Mr. Wright has been counsel for nearly a score of years, and the New York and New Jersey Bridge Company, which proposes to construct a bridge across the North River.


In political matters Mr. Wright has always been a steadfast Republican. He has, however, not held nor sought public office, nor taken any part in politics beyond fulfilling the duties of a private citizen. Similarly, he has joined no clubs, though of an eminently social disposition, preferring to spend his leisure time in the company of his family. He is fond of driving, and seeks recreation and pleasure upon the road, behind a good horse, oftener than in any other way.


Mr. Wright was married in 1868, in New York city, and has two children, a son and a daughter. The son has adopted his father's profession as his own, and indeed studied and prepared himself for the practice of it in his father's office. Upon gain- ing admission to the bar he entered into legal practice in partnership with his father, and now bids fair to rival the pro- nounced success which his father has attained. For of Mr. Wright's success there can be no question. He has not often figured in sensational suits, nor got his name into the papers in staring head-lines. But in the solid and substantial work of the profession he has attained an enviable rank, winning at once a handsome fortune for himself and the cordial esteem of all his associates at the bar.





Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.