USA > New York > New York State's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume II > Part 9
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He was married in 1856, and has a family consisting of four daughters and one son, who is one of his partners, the firm being Dittenhoefer, Gerber & James.
ARTHUR PILLSBURY DODGE
H IGH ideals, persistently aimed at, with native pluck and energy, are the secrets of the success attained by the subject of the present sketch, despite many discouraging and disheartening experiences.
Arthur Pillsbury Dodge is a direct descendant in the eighth generation of Richard Dodge, who came to this country from England in 1630, and a grandson of Joshua and Sarah Fletcher Pillsbury of Concord, New Hampshire. He was born at Enfield Center, Grafton County, New Hampshire, on May 28, 1849, and inherited from his ancestors on both sides those traits of mind and character which make men deserve success in their under- takings. His patrimony amounted to little else, excepting good health, and when he was only thirteen years old he had to shift for himself. He went to Concord, New Hampshire, and became a newsboy, and then, a few months later, bell-boy in a hotel. In the latter place he tried to attend school, but after a few weeks had to give up the attempt, his work taking up all his time. In the early part of 1865 he wanted to enlist in the army, but was rejected as too young and too small. But in April of that year he went South in the government service, as one of a party of mechanics and artisans. He served for a time as orderly in the quartermaster's office at Morehead City, North Carolina, and then returned to Concord and his hotel work. In 1866 he was a hotel clerk at Plymouth, New Hampshire, and two years later a superintendent's clerk on the Boston, Concord and Montreal Railroad. Next a rich retired merchant of Boston, who had watched his career with interest, gave him a place, which he held for some years, meantime studying law.
In 1879 he was admitted to the bar, and began law practice at
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Manchester, New Hampshire, removing in 1883 to Boston, and meeting with good success. But his health now failed, and he had to give up his law office and engage in less exacting labors. In 1886 he founded the "New England Magazine," setting for it a high and unique standard. But his capital was not sufficient to carry the venture to that success which alone would have satis- fied him, so he reluctantly sold it in 1890, and went to Chicago in response to the call of some influential citizens who wanted him to found a similar publication there. But they offered him a capital of only one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, which he deemed insufficient. He determined not to repeat his Boston experience with too scanty capital, and so turned his at- tention to some business in which he might make a fortune with which he could, in time, carry out unhampered his high ideas.
While in Chicago he met Mr. George M. Pullman, the great railroad car maker, who suggested to him the value of a stored- steam motor then being manufactured in his works. This set Mr. Dodge to thinking on the subject of motors. He came to the conclusion that the steam-locomotive could be improved so as to avoid the great loss of power suffered in ordinary machines of that type, and so as not to emit steam, smoke, sparks, and cinders, and thus be at once far more economical and effective, and free from objectionable features for use on city streets and elsewhere. The results of his labors and thoughts are to be seen in the kinetic motor, used in the Dodge stored-steam system of railway motive power. This has been put into practical use and has demonstrated its value and efficiency. In a simple and practical manner Mr. Dodge has solved the great problem which he set out to solve and which innumerable other inventors had previously but vainly striven to solve in all sorts of complicated fashions. Thus Mr. Dodge has attained the success he sought, and has placed himself in the way of securing the financial independence that will enable him to carry out his plans in literary work and other directions.
ROBERT PARKER DOREMUS.
THE story of a Wall Street career may often be told in a few lines, so far as its dates and incidents of public import are concerned. The public knows, and indeed can know, little of the personalities of the men who stand behind the operations of the money market, and of the forces that lead to and control those operations. There is, of course, a vast amount of floating gossip about some of the most conspicuous men in the Street, but it is largely superficial if not imaginative. Of the work of the great majority of forceful and successful financiers in the great metropolis and money center of the Western world scarcely a word is known, save to their personal friends and associates. The written story of the present subject may be brief in these pages, but if all that is between the lines and behind the scenes could be set down in full, a volume would scarcely contain it.
Robert Parker Doremus comes of the two great races which have most contributed to the upbuilding of New York State and city to their present supreme estate. His father's ancestors came from Holland, as members of the sturdy Knickerbocker community which founded the Empire State and its great cap- ital. His mother's ancestors came from England, with the conquering force that made all North America an English- speaking land. His father, Flavel H. Doremus, was a prosperous merchant of New York.
Mr. Doremus was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Febru- ary 19, 1859, and was educated in various New York institutions of learning. He pursued a course in the Columbia Grammar School, and afterward studied chemistry under the late Dr. Henry W. Draper, the eminent scientist of New York Uni-
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versity, and also had some studies in the School of Mines of Columbia College.
On completing his academic career, however, Mr. Doremus did not enter professional life, but turned his attention to financial affairs instead. He began business life as a clerk in the employ- ment of the firm of Jacquelin & De Coppet Brothers. There he remained until the firm was reorganized as De Coppet & Co., when he continued in the employ of that house. Finally, in 1891, the firm of De Coppet & Co. was dissolved, and was suc- ceeded by that of De Coppet & Doremus, in which, as the name indicates, Mr. Doremus is a partner.
Mr. Doremus's rank in Wall Street affairs, and the esteem in which he is held, are indicated by the fact that he is a member of the governing committee of the New York Stock Exchange, and of its committee on arrangements. He is a member of the building committee and a trustee of the building company of the Exchange, and also chairman of the clearing-house committee.
Mr. Doremus is a member of the New York Yacht Club, and of the Atlantic Yacht Club.
He was married, in 1887, to Miss Jessie Raymond, daughter of the late Aaron Raymond, a well-known merchant of New York.
ORLANDO PORTER DORMAN
THE ancestry of Orlando Porter Dorman is traced through New England colonists back to old English and Norman French families. His father, Orlin C. Dorman, was a lineal de- scendant of Thomas Dorman, who came from England in 1631, landed at Boston, and was one of the founders of Boxford, Mas- sachusetts. His mother, whose maiden name was Juliana Doane, could trace her descent from a Norman family of the tenth cen- tury, one branch of which removed to Germany and was elevated to baronial rank. Her first American ancestor was John Doane, who landed at Plymouth in 1621, in the next vessel after the Mayflower. Just before the Revolution, a later ancestor, Colonel Elisha Doane, was reputed to be the richest man in Massachusetts.
Orlando Porter Dorman was born at Ellington, Connecticut. His early life was spent upon a large farm, the management of which chiefly devolved upon him when he was no more than twelve years old. Despite the work and care thus imposed, he found time and strength to attend the local school and high school, from which latter he was graduated at the age of seventeen. The next year he taught school in a neighboring town, and at nineteen years of age he entered mercantile life.
His first occupation was as a salesman in a Hartford, Con- necticut, store. At the end of a year of service he was promoted to be manager of the establishment, and as soon as he was of age he was taken into partnership, the firm being that of Dorman & Baldwin. Two years later it became Dorman & Co., and thus continued for a year and a half longer. Then Mr. Dorman re- moved to New York and became a salesman in the large import- ing house of Lee & Case. In a little more than a year he became a partner, and went abroad to take full charge of its
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foreign interests. Three years later the house was reorganized as W. H. Lee & Co., and he became a leading spirit in its affairs.
During the war, seeing the great financial opportunities of the times, Mr. Dorman left this firm and began a financial career on Wall Street, at first as O. P. Dorman & Co., but a year later as head of the firm of Dorman, Joslyn & Co. The firm did an enormous business, with uniform success. At the end of the war Mr. Dorman went abroad for a season of rest, and on his return he became, in 1866, the president of a large manu- facturing company, and managed that business for ten years. A year's visit to the Pacific coast followed, and then four years of commission business in New York, after which he organized the Gilbert Manufacturing Company, for the manufacture of dress-goods, linings, etc. He has made that company one of the foremost in the world, and is still its president.
Mr. Dorman is an earnest member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and is much given to good works, both within and with- out the activities of the church. He has given much assistance to young men studying for the ministry. One of his recent bene- factions was the founding of a public library at San Juan, Porto Rico, which is called, by authority of President Mckinley, the Dorman Library. For that and other philanthropic works he has been made a Chevalier of France, being the fourth American to enjoy that honor. He married Miss Delia Anna Taylor of Hartford. Their city home is at Seventy-sixth Street and West End Avenue, and their country home is the fine estate of Auvergne, at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson.
Hampdendougherty
J. HAMPDEN DOUGHERTY
TTIS patronymic is Protestant Irish, known two centuries ago in the north of Ireland as the O'Doughertys of Innis- howen. His ancestors came to this country with James Ogle- thorpe, and settled in Georgia. His paternal grandfather, a sea- captain and old New-Yorker, carried the declaration of war against Great Britain to France in 1812, and was afterward captured and confined in Dartmoor Prison. His son, Charles H. Dougherty, was a member of the Board of Assistant Aldermen from 1839 to 1841; a justice for six years of the Seventh Judicial District Court ; and a delegate to the convention which framed the city charter in 1849. He was prominent in Demo- cratic politics before the Civil War, and was associated in law practice with Philip A. Hamilton and ex-Judge Samuel Jones. His wife, Elizabeth Taylor, was a lady of Dutch and English extraction.
J. Hampden Dougherty, the second son of this marriage, was born on December 17, 1849. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn and New York, and in February, 1865, entered the Free Academy. After completing his freshman studies, he spent two years in the service of a large dry-goods house, being rapidly advanced in position and salary, but upon the failure of the firm he resumed his college work, and was graduated from the College of the City of New York in 1871 as valedictorian, and in possession of thirteen medals for excellence in a wide range of studies. He became a fellow of the college and an instructor for a year ; also spent a year in the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
He was graduated from the Columbia Law School, and admitted to the bar in 1874. After a few months' novitiate in
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the office of Hilton, Campbell & Bell, he entered the office of Man & Parsons, where he acted as managing clerk for five years. In 1879, owing to increasing personal interests, he opened an office of his own at No. 31 Pine Street. In 1881 he visited Mexico and southern California as representative of large land and mining claims, and upon his return he became a partner of the late William M. Pritchard and Duncan Smith. Since May, 1898, he has practised alone. Outside of the State he has partici- pated in the trial of cases (sometimes acting as chief counsel) in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, and Missouri. He has charge of many private trusts as well as of important foreign interests, and also represents some large concerns and corpora- tions in this city. A noteworthy quality of this able and inde- fatigable lawyer is a fine intuitive judgment, which might be a dangerous gift were it not counterbalanced by temperamental caution and a scholarly habit of exhaustive research. In oral argument, a fine personality, voice, and courtly manners make an impression which fitly supplements clearness of statement and elegance of diction. Though ready in retort, and not devoid of humor, Mr. Dougherty does not resort to small arts or arti- fices, but is rather a modern example of the lofty, irreproachable practitioner so honored in the traditions of the profession. His name is to be found in law reports in connection with many important cases.
In the midst of an active business career he has maintained an interest in literature, especially in legal and constitutional his- tory, and has contributed many articles to magazines and news- papers upon a variety of topics, and delivered addresses before a number of societies in this city. In 1881 an article of his on codification so pleased the late David Dudley Field that he pro- posed to share the expense of publishing it. Two articles on bankruptcy and insolvency appeared in the Albany "Law Jour- nal" in 1880, and one was reproduced in England. A mono- graph on Aaron Burr was favorably reviewed in the same journal in 1890, and a chapter contributed to the "Memorial History of New York " earned extended and flattering comment in the New York "Sun " and other papers. An address on " Legal Dog- matism upon the Subject of Insanity " also appeared in a legal magazine. He has published other articles, including two valu-
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able papers upon the Constitution of the State of New York, printed in the "Political Science Quarterly " in 1888 and 1889. He delivered an address in 1898 on "The Legal Status of the Soldier " before the Society of Medical Jurisprudence; and an address on William H. Seward before the Young Men's Repub- lican Club, which was favorably reviewed at the time in the " Tribune."
Mr. Dougherty was one of the original members of the Law- yers' Club, and is also a member of the Down-Town Association, Civil Service Reform, Commonwealth Reform, and Hamilton clubs, the City, State, and American Bar associations, and the Brooklyn Institute. He was at one time a member of the exec- utive committee of the Brooklyn Young Republican Club, and was a member of the electoral reform committee of the Reform Club when it aided in securing the passage of a reform ballot law. He was also in the Brooklyn Committee of One Hundred, in the Brooklyn Committee of Fifty in the campaign of 1897, and in the Brooklyn League in 1898. He was an active sup- porter of Colonel Roosevelt in the campaign of 1898. His col- lege fraternity is the Phi Gamma Delta.
He was married, in 1876, to Miss Alice Hill, daughter of John C. Hill of Yarmouth, England, where Mrs. Dougherty was born. They have six children, four boys and two girls. The eldest, Paul Dougherty, an artist, although but twenty-one, has exhibited in the National Academy of Design, the Boston Art Club, and elsewhere.
JOHN F. DOYLE
THE senior member of the firm of John F. Doyle & Sons, real-estate brokers and agents, was born in New York city, December 1, 1837. His parents were natives of Ireland. He was educated in the public schools of New York, and was gradu- ated from the old Ninth Street School in 1851. Soon afterward he entered the law office of John Gorham Vose, where he re- mained two years, finishing his legal studies in the office of Alex- ander Hamilton, the grandson of the famous first Secretary of the Treasury.
He was admitted to the bar at the general term of the Supreme Court, in May, 1862, and for the five years following he practised law, in conjunction with the management of estates. This part of his business grew to such proportions that he soon found his entire time occupied with real-estate matters. He therefore decided, in 1867, to abandon the general practice of law and to devote his attention solely to real estate. The business thus begun has grown steadily and rapidly through thirty years, in- volving the management of such well-known estates as those of George L. Schuyler, Mrs. Harriet L. Schuyler, John Pyne March, James M. Pendleton, Nathaniel P. Rogers, Francis R. Rives, A. Newbold Morris, James H. Jones, John Steward, Jr., Royal Phelps, Royal Phelps Carrol, William H. King of Newport, and others.
While making a specialty of the management of estates, Mr. Doyle's business has by no means been confined to that, but includes the altering and improving of property for his clients, buying and selling real estate, acting as executor for deceased clients, appraising city property, and giving attention generally to all details of the real-estate business. Several years ago his
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John 7. Doyle
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two sons, Colonel John F. Doyle, Jr., and Alfred L. Doyle, were taken into partnership under the firm-name of John F. Doyle & Sons.
Mr. Doyle is the president and one of the governors of the New York Board of Real Estate Brokers, vice-president of and direc- tor in the Real Estate Exchange, and a trustee of the United States Savings Bank, where he serves on the funding and finance committees.
Outside of his business, Mr. Doyle is an enthusiastic lover of outdoor sports, especially of angling. He has made a record for salmon- and trout-fishing in the streams and lakes of the Adiron- dacks, in the Canadian lakes, and in the Lower St. Lawrence. In his younger days he was equally devoted to pistol- and rifle- shooting.
In the club world he is well known, being a member of the New York Athletic, the Colonial, the Democratic, the Lawyers', the Underwriters', the Nameoki, and the Sullivan County clubs, the West End Association, the Gaelic Society, the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, and the American-Irish His- torical Society.
Notwithstanding his threescore years, Mr. Doyle is still keenly interested in political affairs. He is an ardent sound-money man, and although a lifelong Democrat and a member of the general committee of Tammany Hall, he took an active part in the election of President Mckinley. In the great parade of October, 1896, he was marshal of the real-estate division, and marched up Broadway at the head of sixteen hundred and fifty men of the real-estate fraternity. He was also prominent in the organization of the Sound Money Democratic Club, in the Twenty-first Assembly District, during the same campaign.
HORACE E. DRESSER
H ORACE E. DRESSER was born in New York on June 22, 1841, the youngest son of Horace Dresser, a leading lawyer, one of the original abolitionists, and a founder of the Liberty party. He was educated in the public schools, and was graduated with honors from the College of the City of New York, receiving three years later the degree of A. M. At gradu- ation he was elected for life president of the class of 1859.
He entered business in the wholesale hosiery house of John J. Hinchman & Co., in New York. A few months later he became a clerk in the Naval Office, and was soon promoted. He remained there four years, and during that time was a frequent contributor to the "Tribune" and other papers, chiefly on statistical and financial topics. In 1863 he compiled "The Battle Record of the American Rebellion," and also an edition of the United States revenue laws in popular form, which latter was published by the Tribune Association. He made other compilations of those laws at later dates, which had wide vogue. In 1863 he reentered the employment of John J. Hinchman & Co., and two years later became managing partner. He is now senior partner of the firm of Dresser & Olmsted, of this city.
Mr. Dresser made his home in Brooklyn in 1876. He was ap- pointed a member of the Board of Education in 1882, and was reappointed in 1885 and 1888. At the end of his third term he was not again appointed, for political reasons; but in 1894 he was persuaded to reënter the board, and was reappointed for a fifth term in 1897. When the cities were consolidated that board became the School Board of the borough of Brooklyn. The Board of Education of the city of New York had supreme authority over the whole metropolis. Mr. Dresser was elected a
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Horace E Dresser.
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member of this latter body, retaining his place in the Brooklyn board. In February, 1899, he was reelected a member of the Board of Education of the city of New York, and was elected vice-president.
From his first entry into the Brooklyn board Mr. Dresser strove to develop the high-school system. At that time there was in Brooklyn only one high school for both sexes, with an attendance of about five hundred. Now, largely through his efforts, there are four, with a fifth about to be established, and the Girls' High School alone has an enrolment of more than twenty-two hundred. Mr. Dresser was a founder of the Brooklyn Training School for Teachers, and was instrumental in introducing the kindergarten system into the public schools. He was the head of the committee of the Brooklyn board which at the time of consolidation of the cities watched over the educa- tional interests of Brooklyn. In 1899 he was chairman of a special committee appointed to oppose, before the Legislature, bills that the Brooklyn Borough board deemed detrimental to the school system.
Mr. Dresser has always been a Republican in politics, and has been an officer of the local party organization. In 1889 a nomi- nation for the State Senate was offered to him, where nomination was equivalent to election, but he declined it. In 1891 he was nominated for supervisor at large of Kings County, and ran far ahead of most of the ticket. The next year he was a Republican candidate for Presidential Elector. In 1897 he declined nomina- tion for the office of President of the Borough.
Mr. Dresser is a member of the Union League Club and of the New England Society of Brooklyn, of the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternities, and of the Grand Army of the Republic.
ANDREW DUTCHER
A NDREW DUTCHER was born on August 29, 1832, at _ East Springfield, Otsego County, New York. His father, Parcefor Carr Dutcher, was the son of John Dutcher of Salis- bury, Connecticut, a man of Holland Dutch descent, who mar- ried Silvey Beadsley, a woman of English descent, and moved to Otsego County about 1784. The maiden name of Andrew Dutcher's mother was Johannah Low Frink. She was the daughter of Stephen Frink, who went from Rhode Island to Cherry Valley, New York, and there married Ann Low, daughter of Captain Low of the American army in the Revolution. Captain Low's wife was Nellie Ten Eyck, a woman of Dutch descent.
Andrew Dutcher was educated in the public and private schools of Otsego County, New York. In the intervals of attending school he worked on his father's farm, and after finishing his own schooling he continued for some years to work on the farm in summer while teaching school in winter. Thus he was engaged until 1844, when he went to Ontario, La Grange County, Indiana, and began the study of law. He was admitted to the bar at Fort Wayne, Indiana, in August, 1845, and at once began the practice of the profession. In 1847 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for La Grange County for three years. Impaired health, however, led him to leave Indiana in 1851, and to make his home at Trenton, New Jersey, where he remained until 1868, when he re- moved to Elizabeth, New Jersey, and finally, in 1876, he settled in New York, in which city he has practised law since 1868.
While in Trenton, Mr. Dutcher was a member of the School Board, and of the City Council, City Attorney, and captain of a military company. He was a member of the State Assembly in
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Andrew Butcher
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1856-57, and in the latter year Speaker of the House. From 1856 to his resignation in 1865 he was reporter for the Supreme Court of New Jersey, and published five volumes of reports. From 1862 to 1869 he was clerk of the United States Circuit Court of New Jersey. In Elizabeth he was City Attorney, and held other municipal offices, and in 1872 was a member of the Legislature from Union County.
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