USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 11
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
It happened to Mr. Grosvenor, however, as to many other young men at about the same time, that his career as a student was interrupted by the rude clamor of war and by the calls of his country. He was in the latter part of his junior year at Brown University when Fort Sumter was fired upon. He de-
141
142
JAMES BROWN MASON GROSVENOR
sired to finish his course and take his baccalaureate degree, which he would have taken with honorable rank in his class. But the roar of the guns at Charleston drove studies from his mind. He left college and joined the army. His first enlistment was in the First Battery of Providence, and he remained in the Federal service until the end of 1863.
Then he returned to civil life, but not to " academie shades." Instead, he turned his attention immediately to practical busi- ness pursuits. On January 1, 1864, he became a clerk in a dry- goods commission house in New York city. There he remained for three years. At the end of that period he transferred his services to the firm of Leonard & Rhoades, also a dry-goods com- mission house in New York. Of this latter house he became a partner, the firm-name being changed to Leonard, Rhoades & Grosvenor. In time the name became Rhoades & Grosvenor. The next change was to Grosvenor & Co., and finally it was known as Grosvenor & Carpenter. Under the last style it elosed up its affairs through voluntary liquidation on January 1, 1890. At that time Mr. Grosvenor retired from active busi- ness life, to enjoy a well-earned leisure amid the substantial fruits of his years of industry.
Mr. Grosvenor still retains, however, large proprietary and investment interests in various companies, among them being the Grosvenor Dale Company, of Grosvenor Dale, Connecticut, the United States Casualty Company, and the Driggs-Seabury Gun and Ammunition Company. Mr. Grosvenor is also a trus- tee in the Greenwich Savings Bank of New York.
Mr. Grosvenor has never sought political office, contenting himself with faithful performance of the duties of a private citizen. He is a member of the Union Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, the Ardsley CInb, the New England Society, the American Geographical Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was married, on January 22, 1896, to Minna Jeanne Ludeling, daughter of the late Hon. John T. Ludeling, Chief Justice of the State of Louisiana.
1
4
:
James DHague
JAMES DUNCAN HAGUE
T THE subject of this sketch traces his paternal ancestry to William Hague, a Baptist minister of Yorkshire, England, and, through his father's maternal ancestry, to Joseph Pell, the fourth and last lord of Pelham Manor, in Westchester County, New York, who came from a long line of English ancestors. He is abont one thirty-second American Indian, the daughter of a reigning chief in Westchester having been the wife of the third lord of Pelham Manor. He traces his maternal ancestry to the families of Moriarty, Bowditch, Mosley, and Crowninshield, of English and German origin, early residents of Salem, Massa- chusetts.
James Duncan Hague was born in Boston on February 24, 1836, the son of the Rev. William Hague and Mary Bowditch Moriarty Hagne. He attended school at Boston, and Newark, New Jersey, and entered the Lawrence Scientific School of Har- vard in 1854. The next year he went to Göttingen, Germany, and studied chemistry and mineralogy in the university for a year, and then to the Royal School of Mines at Freiberg, Saxony, where he studied mining engineering for two years.
Returning to New York, he was sent, carly in 1859, to examine Pacific islands in search of phosphatie guano or other resources. He thus spent three years. In 1862-63 he spent some months in the United States naval service at Port Royal, South Carolina, as judge advocate. In 1863 he undertook the management of some copper-mines on Lake Superior, and participated in the discovery and development of the famous Calumet and Hecla and other mines. In 1866 he received an appointment as pro- fessor of mining engineering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which he declined two years later, without having
1-13
144
JAMES DUNCAN HAGUE
entered upon its duties. In the same year he went to the West Indies to examine phosphatie guano deposits there. In 1867 he became assistant geologist of the United States Geological Survey of the Fortieth Parallel, and made an exhaustive report, which was published by the government. After revisiting England in 1871 he went to California, and for seven years was engaged as a consulting expert in mining enterprises. During this period his services were sought by foreign governments or private capitalists in China, Japan, India, and South America. His other engagements caused him to decline many sueh appli- cations, as well as an appointment as juror at the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia. He was a commissioner to and juror at the Paris Exposition of 1878, and made a report on mining industries represented there, which was published by the United States government. Since 1879 he has been engaged in the practice of his profession as a geologist and mining engineer, in New York. In 1892 he visited southern Europe, and exam- ined some of the chief mines of Spain and also briefly visited North Africa. In 1893 he went to Ecuador to inspeet some gold- mining properties. In late years he has been professionally concerned in some of the chief gold-, silver-, and copper-mines of the West. He is personally interested as a proprietor in mines in California. Besides the reports already mentioned, Mr. Hague has written many articles for the leading magazines and reviews.
Mr. Hague is a member of the Metropolitan, Century, Union League, and Down-Town clubs of New York, the Union Club of Boston, and the Pacific Union Club of San Francisco. He belongs also to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, and the American Geographieal Society. He was married, in 1872, to Miss Mary Ward Foote of Guilford, Connecticut, a daughter of George A. Foote, who was the brother of the mother of Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe. Mrs. Hague died in 1898, leaving two daugh- ters, Marian and Eleanor, and one son, William Hague.
-
GEORGE M. HAHN
HERE are few fields of business enterprise and industry in which careers are more interesting to regard, and we might add more instructive to study, than that which is afforded by the financial center of the Western world, comprehensively known as Wall Street. There some of the most meteoric and spectacular successes have been attained. There some of the most disastrous failures have occurred, with sudden wreck and ruin. There, too, some of the most substantial fortunes have been amassed by slow and steady growth along prudent and conservative lines. In fact, Wall Street is the whole business world in epitome. There is no process that is not to be found reflected there.
In like manner, Wall Street engages all kinds of talent and energy. The lawyer, the inventor, the manufacturer, all find in it opportunity for the exercise of their special abilities. One operator displays the temperament of a statesman, another that of a military leader, a third that of the pioneer colonist. Some aet through intuition, some upon mature judgment after full investigation. Caution and rashness, timidity and valor, opti- mism and pessimism, are all commingled there in the great whirl and rush of the mill in which fortunes are made and lost, and the business of a continent largely controlled.
It is to be observed, too, that men enter npon the operations of Wall Street under vastly varying circumstances. Some go there poor, to become rich. Some go there rich, to increase their wealth. Some are young, and grow up with the Street. Some do not go thither until they are far on in the ebb of life. The example at present under consideration is one of those who
145
146
GEORGE M. HAHN
began in Wall Street at an early age and with slender means, and who have achieved a goodly measure of success.
A typical representative of the energy, enterprise, and success of the younger generation of New York business men is found in George M. Hahn, broker and financier, of Nos. 2 and 4 Wall Street. He was born in New York city in 1858, and was edu- cated in its public and private schools. At an early age he entered the Street, and has been engaged in its fascinating operations ever since.
He began work in the world of finance chiefly on his own responsibility and on his own not too ample resources. Energy, integrity, and shrewdness were his most valuable capital, and they served to yield him handsome profits.
Seven or eight years ago he emerged from the subordinate position in which he had at first been employed, as the head of a fine establishment of his own. His success since that time has been noteworthy, and it has been so substantial and so well founded upon business integrity as to reflect the highest credit upon the man who has achieved it. His business comprises the buying and selling of the choicest lines of securities in the market, not only for speculation, but for permanent investment.
He has paid little attention to politics, apart from the duties of a private citizen. Neither has he made himself conspicuous in club life, though he is a member of several first-class organi- zations. Among these are the New York Athletic Club, Pales- tine Commandery of Knights Templar, and Mecea Temple of the Mystie Shrine.
He was married some years ago in this eity to Miss Kitty Hardy.
1
JasHortkurHaushy.
JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY
'THE claims of long descent" are not an empty fiction. Even in this land it is yet impossible to ignore family distinction, or to regard without interest the progress of successive genera- tions of one stock from eminence in the Old World, through loyal distinction in the New, to the highest worth in the latest and present members. Such a family is that of which James Hooker Hamersley is the present representative.
The paternal side of the house is traced back to Hugo le Kinge, who went from Provence, France, to England about 1366 and acquired a large estate, which was named Hamersley. Sir Hugh Hamersley, a great merchant in the East and West Indies trade, was Lord Mayor of London in 1627. His great-grandson, William Hamersley, was an officer in the British navy. He settled in New York about 1716 and planted his family here. He was a leading merchant of this city and a vestryman of Trinity Church. His son, Andrew Hamersley, was an important merchant and landowner in this city, and Hamersley Street, now West Houston Street, was named for him. He married Margaret Stelle, a grand- daughter of Thomas Gordon, one of the original proprietors of New Jersey, and chief justice of that State. They had three sons, William, Thomas, and Lewis Carre, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Lucretia. The third of these sons married Elizabeth Finney of Virginia, and had one daughter, who never married, and two sons, Andrew Gordon and John William. Of these two sons. the elder, Andrew Gordon, was a lawyer and an attaché of the American Legation in Paris under Mr. Rives. He married Sarah Mason and had one son, Louis Carré, who married Lily Price, daughter of Commodore Price, U. S. N. The last-named
147
148
JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY
lady, after her husband's death, married the Duke of Marl- borough, and now, by her third marriage, is Lady Beresford. The younger son of the first Lewis Carré Hamersley, John Wil- liam Hamersley, was educated at Columbia College, practised law with success, traveled widely, and devoted much attention to religious and literary work. He was a founder of the Union Club and a member of the Century Club and St. Nicholas Society. He was conspicuously concerned in persuading Con- gress to recognize the Mexican republic, and in encouraging the Mexicans to throw off the French-Austrian yoke. Captain Mayne Reid made him the hero of his novel, " The Lone Ranch." Mr. Hamersley married Miss Catherine Livingston Hooker, daughter of Judge James Hooker of Poughkeepsie, and had one son, James Hooker Hamersley, the subject of this sketch, and three daughters: Virginia, the wife of Cortlandt de Peyster Field ; Catherine Livingston, the wife of John Henry Livingston, great-grandson of Chancellor Livingston ; and Helen Reade, wife of Charles D. Stickney, Jr.
Other ancestors of James Hooker Hamersley were Joseph Reade, one of the Provincial Council of New York, from whom Reade Street took its name; Robert Livingston, member of the Colonial Assembly, and founder of Livingston Manor on the Hudson River ; Pilyp Pieterse van Schuyler, captain in provin- cial forces in 1667 ; Brant Arentse Van Schlictenhorst, Governor of the colony of Rensselaerwyck in 1648; Thomas Hooker, one of the founders of Connecticut ; and Henry Beekman, who ob- tained from Queen Anne a grant of a large tract of land in Dutchess County, a portion of which is in Mr. Hamersley's possession, and has always been owned by the family since the original grant.
James Hooker Hamersley was born in New York city on January 26, 1844. He was first sent to school in Paris, France, afterward at the Poughkeepsie Collegiate Institute, and finally at Columbia College. He was graduated with high honors and was a commencement orator in 1865, then entered the Law School of Columbia, and was there graduated in 1867. He then studied law further in the office of James W. Gerard, then a leader of the New York bar, and was admitted to practice at the bar. From his Alma Mater he received the degrees of A. B. and
T F ra
D
-
149
JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY
A. M. For about ten years he practised his profession with success. He was connected with a number of cases of the highest importance, including that concerning the opening of Church Street in this city, in which he was defeated in the lower courts, but which he persistently carried from one tribunal to another, until at last the Court of Appeals gave a unanimons decision in his favor.
He retired from the bar to manage his own large estate, and to devote his attention to travel, literature, and philanthropic works. At one time he planned a public career. He was sent to the Republican State Convention in 1877, and later was nominated for the State Assembly in the Eleventh Distriet, but withdrew in favor of his friend William Waldorf Astor, to whose success at the polls he largely contributed. For many years he was a director of the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company. He has made numerous voyages to Europe, and has traveled from the Mediterranean to the Arctic Ocean. Before he was twelve years old he had climbed Vesuvius afoot, seen several crowned heads and nearly a score of European capitals, and been presented to Pope Pius IX. A lover of books, he possesses a fine library and spends much time therein. His contributions to current literature have been numerous in poetry and prose, on topics connected with travels, religion, politics, and others that are of living interest to the age in which he lives. It is for his poems, however, that he will be best known and longest re- membered. A charming volume of these was published in 1898, entitled "The Seven Voices," to wit: the Voice of Cupid; Voice from Rivers, Lakes, and Mountains; Voice from the Sea; Voice from Foreign Climes; Voice of the Past; Voice of the Future; and Voice from Everywhere. These topics show the range of Mr. Hamersley's literary interest. Among the most popular of the poems are "The Countersign," "Yellow Roses," "Fog Curtain," "The Midnight Sun," "Ronkonkoma," "Masconomo," and "Voice of the Breakers."
The appearance of this volume was hailed with a chorus of critical commendation from many sources. "Mr. Hamersley has an ear for melody and a facility in rhyming," said the "New York Herald." "I praise Mr. Hamersley as a poet first of all," said the "Home Journal's" reviewer, "because he is simple and
150
JAMES HOOKER HAMERSLEY
unaffected, the sentiment of the verses pure and sweet. In this beautiful volume Mr. Hamersley has strewn the trail of his travels from the ever-imposing Hudson, over the sea, to many 'an old poetic mountain,' with flowers of thought as sweet as those 'Yellow Roses' of which he sings. But there are many poems in this volume which will give keen pleasure. . . . I do not believe any New-Yorker can read his 'Voice on the Hudson and Adirondacks' without an answering throb." "Mr. Hamers- ley's verse," said the "Buffalo Express," "is fluent and musi- cal." "He has the true poetic instinct," said the "New York Observer." "A collection of sweet, tender, and noble lines," said the "Boston Globe."
Mr. Hamersley is a member of many important social organi- zations, among them being the University, Metropolitan, City, and Badminton clubs, the St. Nicholas Society, the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of Colonial Wars, the New York His- torical Society, the New York Law Institute, the American Geographical Society, and the Knickerbocker Bowling Club, of which latter he is president. He is a member of the executive committee of the Twenty-third Street branch of the Young Men's Christian Association, vice-president of the Babies' Hos- pital, an honorary manager of the Protestant Episcopal Society for Seamen, and is interested in many other benevolent works.
He was married, on April 30, 1888, to Miss Margarent Willing Chisolm, a daughter of William Eddings Chisolm, who was a member of a distinguished South Carolina family. Mrs. Han- ersley's mother was a daughter of John Rogers, an honored citizen of New York, as a memorial to whom the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Communion was built by his widow. Mrs. Hamersley is also a grand-niece of William Augustus Muhlenberg, the famous Protestant Episcopal preacher and writer, and founder of St. Luke's Hospital. Her charming disposition, fine culture, and benevolent heart have made Mrs. Hamersley equally a favorite in society and a fellow-worker with her husband in his philanthropic efforts. Mr. and Mrs. Ham- ersley have had three children : Margaret Rogers, who died in infancy, Catherine Livingston, born on May 8, 1891, and Louis Gordon, born on July 20, 1892.
-
-
1
CHARLES AUGUSTUS HARNED
MONG the comrades of William Penn in his settlement in this country were three brothers named Harned. They were fellow-members with him of the Society of Friends, and came hither to escape from the persecution that was directed at their faith. They settled at the place now known as Woodbridge, in New Jersey, and there their descendants have largely made their homes. One son of the family three generations ago went to Richmond, Virginia, and settled there, and there his son and that son's son were born. The last-mentioned descendant, Samuel Walker Harned, was a ship-builder. He married a young lady of Newark, New Jersey, and lived for some time at Port Byron, New York.
Charles Augustus Harned was born of this parentage, at Port Byron, on March 30, 1840. He was entered as a student at the Boys' Academy and Normal School at Albany, but at an early age was compelled to leave school and work for a living. This was before he was fairly "in his teens." He worked for Hugh J. Hastings in the office of the Albany " Knickerbocker" news- paper. At fifteen he was employed in the office of the New York Central Railroad at Albany. Then, while on leave of ab- sence from that place, through the influence of Thurlow Weed he secured a place as page in the State Assembly for half a term. On account of his intelligence, industry, and general merits he was reappointed for the remaining half of that term. Then he went back to the railroad office. In 1858 he again got leave of absence, and improved it by securing, through Gideon J. Tueker, Secretary of State, the appointment of messenger and secretary to Thomas J. Alvord, Speaker of the Assembly, in which place he was industrious and capable, and received one
151
152
CHARLES AUGUSTUS HARNED
hundred dollars pay for extra services. At the end of the session he returned to the railroad, and then, in 1859, came to this city.
His first work here was as shipping-elerk in the office of G. W. Powers & Co. A month later he was made receiving-elerk also, and at the end of five months more he resigned the places and went to Savannah, Georgia, to seek railroad employment. Finding no suitable place open, he went into the trading and ex- press business. This was interrupted by the Civil War. He found that he must either east in his lot with the secessionists or come North. He chose the latter, and returned to New York.
He had only twenty-six dollars when he arrived here, and was hungry. But he would not ask for aid, but only for employ- ment. This he found at last in a butter store, where he worked day and night, Sundays and holidays, and got five dollars a week. After eleven months he left the place because his employer would not increase his salary, and got into the Appraiser's stores, and then the United States Weigher's office, but after a brief experience there he decided to set up in business for himself. In 1869, shortly before "Black Friday," he began in Wall Street. By hard work he made enough to buy himself a seat in the Stock Exchange in 1871. Since that time he has been steadily and successfully operating in Wall Street. He has passed through several serious panies in the Street, but has never failed to meet all his obliga- tions, and has always commanded the respect and confidence of all with whom he has come in contaet.
Mr. Harned is a member of Ivanhoe Lodge, F. and A. Masons, and was the Master thereof in 1873 and 1874. He was married at Albany, in 1863, to Miss Caroline L. Barnard, by whom he has had eight children. Of these, six are now living: Mrs. Carrie H. Birdseye, Mrs. Daisy H. Freeman, Miss Mamie Harned, Miss Grace Harned, Miss Jennie Harned, and Norman Harned.
-
Harper
EDWARD BASCOMB HARPER
M ORE than three centuries ago Sir William Harper was Lord Mayor of London. He was a member of a family already honored and worthy of honors in England. In a later genera- tion some of its members emigrated to this New England of the West and settled in Delaware. There, in Kent County, in the early half of the century, lived Charles Harper, a merchant well known for his ability and integrity. He was married to Martha Hardcastle, a member of an excellent Southern family settled in Maryland, and to them was born on September 4, 1842, a son, to whom they gave the name of Edward Bascomb.
When the boy was only thirteen years old he was left father- less, and the estate was not large. Therefore he promptly set out to earn his own living and at the same time to educate him- self. For six years he was a clerk in a store at Dover, Delaware. Then, young as he was, he organized a company of troops for the Federal Army in the Civil War. For some reason it was not accepted, and young Harper thereupon went back to his preparation for a business career. After a brilliant career as student in a business college, he entered a Philadelphia banking house, and was rapidly advanced through successive grades until he was the firm's chief manager.
In 1868 Mr. Harper turned his attention to life-insurance, in which important business his best work was thereafter to be done. His first work was done as Western manager of the Commonwealth Company of New York, in which he was so suc- eessful that he was quickly promoted to the place of general superintendent. He remained with that company until it went out of existence. Then other places were offered to him on every hand. He accepted that of New York manager of the
153
154
EDWARD BASCOMB HARPER
John Hancock Company of Boston, and in it achieved further success. He induced the company, for the first time in America, to adopt the "prudential," or "industrial," system of insurance for people of small means, a system which has since attained enormous proportions.
In 1880 Mr. Harper severed his connection with the John Hancock Company and carried into effect his long-cherished scheme of founding a new company on a purely "mutual" basis, with no stock-holders nor trustees save the policy-holders themselves, among whom all the profits of the business should be divided. It was to be a cooperative organization, insuring the lives of members at cost. The venture was greeted by many with ridicule and denunciation. But the rapid growth and vast success of the Mutual Reserve Fund Life Association have amply vindicated Mr. Harper's wisdom. On September 16, 1881, Mr. Harper became president of the association, and held that place until his death. In the first month of his presidency the business of the association amounted to $1,000,000. The month before his death the new business of the home office was nearly $8,000,000, all claims were paid, and a reserve fund of nearly $4,000,000 was on hand. The association had 100,000 members, with over $300,000,000 insurance. Then, on July 2, 1895, Mr. Harper died.
He had been a conspicuous force in polities on the Republican side. He had reached the highest degree in Masonry. He was an active member of the Baptist Church. He was a member of the New York Board of Trade, and of the Constitution, Lotos, Manhattan, Athletic, Arkwright, Church, and Patria clubs of New York, of the New York Geographical Society, and of the St. George's Club of London. He was married to Emma Under- hill, a member of the distinguished Westchester County family of that name.
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.