USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 16
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Two years after the establishment of his venture, he was joined by his father, who came to New York from Nantucket, and the name of Josiah Maey & Son was placed over their office door. The next year his brother Josiah G. Maey was taken into the firm, and the name was changed to its historie form of Josiah Macy & Sons. Thus it remained until 1833, when the father retired from business and the name was accordingly changed to Josiah Macy's Sons.
William H. Maey was identified with numerous other impor- tant interests besides the shipping commission business, in all of which he discharged his duties with distinguished probity and success. In 1834 he joined the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, and afterward was its vice-president. He presently turned much of his attention to financial matters, and became one of the foremost bankers of the city of New York.
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Thus in 1845 he became a director of the Leather Manufac- turers' Bank, and on March 5, 1855, was chosen its president. He became a trustee of the Seamen's Bank for Savings on Jan- uary 12, 1848, its vice-president in 1851, and on June 3, 1863, its president, which latter office he filled until the end of his life.
Mr. Macy was also vice-president of the United States Trust Company, and a director of the Bank of Commerce, the City Fire Insurance Company, the National Fire Insurance Company, the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, and some other cor- porations. Owing to his conspicuous integrity and ability, he was chosen to be the trustee of many charities and the executor of several large estates.
Mr. Macy married Miss Eliza L. Jenkins, daughter of Sylvanus F. Jenkins, and had five children : Mary J., wife of William M. Kingsland, Cornelia M., wife of Isaac H. Walker, Sylvanus J., William Henry, and Josiah Macy, Jr.
JOHN AUGUSTUS MAPES
THE THE family of Mapes has for many generations been settled in Orange County, New York, and has been conspicuous there and elsewhere for character and enterprise. It originally came from England and settled on Long Island, whence, about two hundred years ago, one branch of it removed to Orange County. In the last generation Edward Mapes was a successful clothing merchant, residing in the town of Blooming Grove, Orange County, and to him and his wife, Deborah A. Mapes, was born, on January 1, 1833, the subject of the present sketch, John Augustus Mapes.
The boy was educated at first in the local schools. Then he was sent to the Cornwall English and Classical School, at Corn- wall, on the Hudson. Turning his attention to the law, he be- came a student in the law office of Wilkin & Gott, at Goshen, Orange County. At the same time he taught school for a year, and eked out his expenses by writing in the County Clerk's office. Thus he early learned to depend upon his own energies for success, and, indeed, for support, and thus developed the self- reliance and energy which are indispensable elements of high achievement.
Orange County, one of the fairest rural regions in the Empire State, was good enough to be born in, to grow up in, and to pur- sue his early labors in. But the young man was too ambitious to let his professional horizon be bounded by its farms and hills. He had a metropolitan career in view, and aspired to win suc- cess in the field where success is hardest to attain, because the exactions are greater and the competition keener than elsewhere, but where the success is also greatest when it is attained. He
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was admitted to the bar in 1855, and immediately came to New York city to begin the practice of his profession.
He did not at once " hang out his shingle" on his own account, however, but wisely entered an established office. He was so fortunate as to make his first connection with the office of Enoch L. Fancher, then a leader of the bar, and afterward justice of the Supreme Court and a member of the Court of Arbitration. For five years Mr. Mapes was in that office. Then, with his standing well assured, in 1860 he began practice on his own account, and has maintained it with general and gratifying success down to the present time. His practice has been of a miscellaneous and general character, though he has been stated counsel for a num- ber of organizations. He is present counsel for the General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, the New York Produce Exchange Bank, the Garfield Safe Deposit Company, and other large institutions.
His general business interests have been such as naturally have grown out of his legal work. He has taken no active part in political affairs, beyond discharging the duties of a citizen.
Mr. Mapes is a member of the American Institute, the Colonial Club, and the Craftsmen's Club. He has for many years been a leading member of various Masonic bodies,-lodge, chapter. council, commandery, including the Scottish Rite,-and is a Passed Grand Commander of the Order of Knights Templar of this State.
He was married, in September, 1859, to Miss Sarah S. Strong, at Goshen, New York. Of their children only one is now living, a son, named Augustus Strong Mapes, who is a lawyer and is in business with his father.
JOHN BAPTIST MARSHALL
THE progenitors of the Marshall family came to this country from England in colonial days, and made themselves posi- tive forces in the development of the rising nation. Joseph Marshall, the great-great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a distinguished officer of the American army in the War of the Revolution. Another ancestor, William Beard, a great-grandfather of our subject, was also an officer in that army. On his mother's side, Mr. Marshall's grandfather was William R. Jones, a native of Kentucky, brought up after the manner of a Southern 'gentleman's son of those days. In early life he removed to Ohio, and married Susan Ketring, who came of sturdy Pennsylvania Dutch stock. Then he went to Indiana, where he farmed, taught school, and was prominent among the pioneers of that State. Of his twelve children, the eleventh was Sophia, who became the mother of our subject. Mr. Marshall's father was the Rev. Elbridge Marshall, a Baptist minister, who was born in New Hampshire, educated at Dartmouth College and the Union Theological Seminary of New York, and went to In- diana to preach and teach. There he met Sophia Jones and married her.
John Baptist Marshall, their son, was born at State Line, Warren County, Indiana, on March 1, 1863. While still in his infancy, he was taken by his parents to Kansas, where his boy- hood was spent. He attended the local district schools, which were not then of a particularly high grade. His education was chiefly self-acquired, through home study, for which his facilities were respectable, if not ample. At the age of fifteen he was so proficient in his studies as to be able to teach in a public school with great acceptability. This was in Anderson
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County, Kansas, where he enjoyed much local fame as the "boy teacher." At eighteen years of age, he made a trip in a wagon across the Indian Territory to Texas, accompanied by his eldest brother, Elbridge Moody Marshall. Soon after reaching Texas, they visited a camp-meeting, and introduced themselves to the people, with the result that they both soon secured engagements to teach school.
Mr. Marshall then formed a business partnership with a Miss Houston, a highly educated lady from Illinois, and with her founded the Valley Creek High School, at Valley Creek, Fannin County, Texas. This was both a public and private school, and was attended by pupils from distant parts of the State, as well as from the vicinity. Mr. Howard L. Parmele, formerly of New York, erected the building for it at his own expense.
Feeling the need, however, of a more liberal education for himself, Mr. Marshall returned to Kansas, spent another year in teaching in the public school at Newton, then was Superintendent of Public Schools at Larned, Kansas, and then came to New York to pursue his studies. Here he turned his attention to the law. This was in 1884. Being without means, he was compelled to spend the entire period of his student life as a clerk in a law office. A part of his time was spent in the office of his unele, Jonathan Marshall, and the rest in the offices of Charles E. Hill and Linus A. Gould.
Mr. Marshall was admitted to the bar in March, 1889. His first client was the important dry-goods jobbing house of Lee, Tweedy & Co., whose annual retainer enabled the young lawyer to maintain an office and look for other patronage. The latter came in due time, in generous measure, and Mr. Marshall became what he is to-day-a prosperous and prominent member of the metropolitan bar. His present practice is of a general and mis- cellaneous character.
Mr. Marshall is a member of the Lawyers' Club, the New England Society, Seventh Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y., Common- wealth Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the Baptist Social Union of Manhat- tan Island.
JAMES MADISON MARVIN
J AMES MADISON MARVIN, who has had a long career as a political leader, banker, hotel proprietor, and publie- spirited citizen of New York State, comes of an English family which was settled here in the first half of the seventeenth century. The pioneer, Matthew Marvin, came from England in 1635, and became one of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Later he lived at Norwalk, Connecticut, and in 1654 represented that town in the colonial Legislature. He died in 1680, leaving a son, Matthew Marvin II, who had been born in England, and was among the first settlers of Norwalk and its Representative in the colonial Legislature in 1694 and 1697. His son, Samuel Marvin, was also a Norwalk Representative in the Connectieut Legislature, in 1718. A great-grandson of Samuel Marvin was William Mar- vin of Ballston, Saratoga County, New York, to which place part of the family had migrated. He married Mary Benedict, a daughter of a prominent family of that name, who bore him three sons.
The youngest of these sons of William and Mary Benedict Marvin is James Madison Marvin, who was born at Ballston, New York, on February 27, 1809, a week before the distinguished statesman for whom he was named was inaugurated President of the United States. He received a good education at local schools, and then, at the early age of nineteen years, became the manager of a hotel at Saratoga Springs, New York. A year later, in 1829, he became manager of the American Hotel at Albany. The next year he went back to Saratoga Springs, and became one of the proprietors of the famous United States Hotel. His connection with that house remained unbroken for many years. From 1852 to 1865 he was its sole proprietor. In the last-named year, how-
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ever, it was destroyed by fire, and when rebuilt it passed into other hands.
Mr. Marvin's interest in banking dates from 1841, when, in part- nership with his brother, he established the Bank of Saratoga Springs. Of that institution he was cashier from its opening until January 1, 1894, when it was reorganized as the First National Bank of Saratoga Springs, and he was elected president of it. Mr. Marvin was one of the first water commissioners of Saratoga. For more than thirty years he has been one of the directors of the Schenectady and Saratoga Railroad. He was, in 1859, one of the originators and incorporators of the Saratoga Monument Association, and was for many years its vice-president. He was elected the first president of the Saratoga Club at its establishment in 1891. For about half a century he has been a vestryman of Bethesda Protestant Episcopal Church, at Sara- toga.
Mr. Marvin's political career began in 1845 with his election to the office of Supervisor of the town of Saratoga. In the fall of the same year he was elected to the State Assembly, as a Whig, despite the fact that the country usually went strongly Democratic. When the reorganization of the two great parties began, in 1856, Mr. Marvin affiliated with the Democratic party. and acted with it, in opposition to the new Republican party, until after the outbreak of the Civil War. He was nominated and elected a Representative in Congress in 1862, on what was then known as the Union ticket, his supporters being chiefly Democrats devoted to the maintenance of the Union and the support of the federal government. He was reelected in 1864, and again in 1866, and throughout the three terms gave strong support to the federal government in its efforts to suppress the rebellion and to reconstruet the Southern States. He cooperated with the Republican majority in Congress in enacting the mea- sures rendered necessary by the abolition of slavery, and in securing the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Mr. Marvin was married, in 1838, to Rhody H. Barnum, daughter of Eli Barnum of Ballston Spa, New York.
SELDEN ERASTUS MARVIN
THE first of the Marvin family in America was Reginald Marvin, who came hither from the south of England in the winter of 1634-35. He probably landed at Boston, but soon moved into Connecticut, where many of his descendants are still living. His son, Reinold Marvin, a lieutenant in the army, set- tled at Lyme, and was one of the committee which, in 1665, divided Lyme from Saybrook. In a later generation Selden Marvin was the first of the family to leave New England. He went to Chautauqua County, New York, about 1808. His son, Richard Pratt Marvin, was a justice of the Supreme Court of this State for twenty-four years; married Isabella Newland, and was the father of the subject of this sketch.
Selden Erastus Marvin was born at Jamestown, Chautauqua County, New York, on August 20, 1835. He was educated in the public schools and academy at Jamestown, and afterward in the private school of Professor Russell at New Haven, Connecticut. On leaving school he entered the Chautauqua County Bank at Jamestown, first as bookkeeper and then as teller. In 1859 he was made cashier of the bank, and served in that capacity for three years. Then the call of the nation was stronger than that of business interests. In July, 1862, he was appointed adjutant of the One Hundred and Twelfth Regiment, New York Volunteers, and on the 17th of that month was mus- tered into the service of the nation. He served as adjutant and as assistant adjutant-general of Foster's Brigade, Army of Southern Virginia, until September, 1863, when he was ap- pointed additional paymaster of United States Volunteers, in the Army of the Potomac. On December 27, 1864, he resigned to accept the place of paymaster-general of the State of New
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York, under Governor Fenton, and on the latter's reelection was made adjutant-general.
His subsequent business career may be briefly summed up as follows: From 1869 to 1873 he was a member of the New York banking firm of Morgan, Keene & Marvin; from 1874 to 1885 he was secretary and treasurer of the Albany and Rensselaer Iron and Steel Company of Troy; from 1885 to 1893 he was secretary and treasurer of the Troy Iron and Steel Company ; from 1893 to 1895 he was a director engaged in closing up the business of the last-named company ; and in 1894 he became president of the Hudson River Telephone Company, the Albany District Telegraph Company, and the Albany City Savings Bank, which offices he held for the remainder of his life. He held no political place, save that of a member of the State Board of Charities, to which office he was appointed by Governor Mor- ton in 1895.
Mr. Marvin was a prominent member of the Protestant Epis- copal Church, and held various high lay offices therein, including that of treasurer of the Diocese of Albany for more than twenty-four years. He was a member of the board of directors of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Church in the United States, and of the Chapter of All Saints' Cathedral, Albany. He was a member of the Fort Orange Club of Albany, the Albany Country Club, the Army and Navy Club of New York, and the Loyal Legion. He was married, on September 24, 1868, to Katherine Langdon, daughter of Judge Amasa J. Par- ker of Albany, and had four sons and two daughters, namely, Selden Erastus, Jr., Grace Parker, Langdon Parker, Edmund Roberts, Richard Pratt, who died in infancy, and Katherine Langdon.
Mr. Marvin died on January 19, 1899, suddenly, in this city, whither he had come for medical treatment.
THOMAS FALES MASON
THOMAS FALES MASON was descended from an old fam- ily whose founder, Sampson Mason, came from England and settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts, where he resided in 1649. He lived in Rehoboth in 1657, becoming one of the pro- prietors of that town and a man of wealth. He was one of the signers of the agreement setting off the town of Swansea, Mas- sachusetts, where many of his numerous descendants lived and have been influential in public affairs as statesmen, soldiers, preachers, and scholars, and some tillers of the soil. Among the last named in the latter part of the last century was one Joseph Mason, who was also the son of a farmer. His wife was Sarah Fales, of a family that came over in the Mayflower. To this couple was born, at their old Swansea home, on January 6, 1815, a son, to whom they gave the name of Thomas Fales Mason, and whom they destined for a farmer. They gave him as good a common-school education as he could get in the first fifteen years of his life, and then he went to work on the farm.
His destiny was more in his own hands, however, than in his parents' intentions. He learned the duties of a farmer, even at that early age showing his mind to be original and his will mas- terful. But the work was not to his taste, and at the age of sixteen he left it, taught school for a time, and then entered a grocery store. It was no part of his plan, however, to remain a clerk : so at the age of nineteen he formed a partnership with a friend and opened a clothing store on his own account, at Woonsocket, Rhode Island, where he won a moderate success, gained experience, and increased ambition. His next move was to Rochester, New York, where he opened a general dry-goods establishment.
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About 1848 he became interested in mining, a subject then coming to the fore in the publie mind, and with a party of friends he went to Michigan on a prospecting tour. The mines they found did not seem to them worth investing in. But they determined not to let their trip be altogether without result, so Mr. Mason and two of his friends purchased a large tract of wild land. On this they had noticed indications of copper deposits. and further investigations confirmed their estimate. On this land they presently developed the famous Minnesota Copper Mine, in Ontonagon County, Michigan, one of the richest known at that time. Later Mr. Mason bought and developed the great Quincy Mine, which is still highly productive, and also some other mining properties of considerable value. He organized and to the end of his life controlled the Quiney Mining Com- pany, and was actively interested in various other mining enter- prises. All his early associates, such as John C. Tucker, S. J W. Barry, William Pearsall, Moses A. Hoppock, William E. Dodge, William Hickok, and E. C. Roberts, died before him. But he remained hale and vigorous, his exemplary habits of life and his practice of spending much of his time in the open air in the Lake Superior region having given him marked immunity from the ills of the flesh. He died, however, in 1899.
Mr. Mason was a member of the Union League Club. He never entered political life. In 1845 he was married to Jane Bissell Watson of Rochester. They had one child, Thomas Henry Mason, a prominent New York banker.
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HIBBERT B. MASTERS
C YONSPICUOUS among the leaders in business, social, and political life who have been given to this country by other lands, neighboring or remote, is Colonel Hibbert B. Masters, a native of Nova Scotia, a resident of Brooklyn, and a business man of New York, Florida, and Alabama. He was born at Kentville, Nova Scotia, in 1839, and in his early years was brought to Boston, Massachusetts, where his boyhood was spent. His education was begun in the schools of Boston, and was pur- sued later in the academy at Hebron, Maine.
Mr. Masters came to New York in 1860, when he was twenty years of age. It was his purpose to devote his attention at once to a mercantile life, and he did actually enter business. The outbreak of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, however, altered his plans. The call of his adopted country was stronger than that of shop and market. He was among the first to go to the front, in the ranks of the Eighth Regiment, New York State militia, and served for three months. During that time he par- ticipated in the first battle of Bull Run. At the end of the three months for which the troops had been called he was, with his comrades, mustered out of the service. He was not content, however, to return to peaceful pursuits when there was need of soldiers in the field, so he secured a commission from the Gov- ernor of the State of New York, and recruited an independent company of infantry in New York city, which was presently incorporated into the Fifty-fifth Regiment, New York Volun- teers, under Colonel De Trobriand. His next service at the front was as acting quartermaster of Peck's Brigade, in McClel- lan's army. His duties in that place were interrupted by his capture by General J. E. B. Stuart, and his consequent impris-
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onment as a prisoner of war at Richmond. He escaped from prison, and made his way as far as Walkerton, where he was recaptured and returned to Richmond. A second time he escaped, and a second time he was recaptured at Miller's Tavern. His captivity was finally ended by exchange, while the Federal Army was at Harrison's Landing. After the second battle of Bull Run he was assigned to staff duty as commissary of sub- sistenee, with the rank of captain. In that capacity he served until the end of the war, when he was honorably mustered out with the brevet rank of major "for gallant and meritorious service."
On the return of peace Colonel Masters came back to mercan- tile life, and for a year was in business in Portland, Maine. The great fire of 1866 in that city disturbed him, and he then came to New York city and entered the employment of the great dry- goods firm of S. B. Chittenden & Co. At a later date he was employed by Messrs. Eldredge, Dunham & Co. After twelve years of service, marked with steadily increasing sueeess, he de- cided to be his own employer. He accordingly entered the com- mission business on his own account, trading with houses in the principal cities of the South. In this career he prospered, and at the present time he has a large commission business in New York, is proprietor of one of the largest mercantile houses in the State of Florida, and is partner in a large establishment in Mobile, Alabama.
Colonel Masters is a strong Republican in polities, but has held no public office, and has not identified himself conspieu- ously with party management. As president of the Union League Club of Brooklyn, however, he is regarded as a represen- tative and influential member of the party. He was elected president of the Union League Club in the spring of 1900, after having been its first vice-president, chairman of its Social Com- mittee, member of its Art Committee, ete. He is also a member of the Loyal Legion, Commander of E. T. Tefft Post, Grand Army of the Republic, and member of the Salmagundi Club and other organizations. For fifteen years he served on the staff of Major-General Shaler, commander of the First Division of the National Guards of the State of New York.
While he was serving the country in the Federal Army, Colo-
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nel Masters found time and opportunity to begin a domestic life. He was married on February 13, 1863, to Miss Clara Lovell Everett of Wrentham, Massachusetts, who has borne him two sons and three daughters.
Colonel Masters has for many years been a resident of Brook- lyn, where his business enterprise, public spirit, and high culture have made him a marked figure in society. He is a fine Shak- sperian scholar, and a man of high literary and artistic culture, as well as of genial and attractive personality. He has the rare distinction, which is a source of great satisfaction to him, of never in all his life having even tasted any spirituous or malt liquor.
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FRANK JEWETT MATHER
THE name of Mather has been conspicuous in New England history ever since Richard Mather came from England in 1635 and settled at Boston. His son and grandson, Increase and Cotton Mather, were among the foremost men of their day. In a later generation Joseph Higgins Mather built the first store, the first wharf, and the first manufactory at Lyme, Connecticut, was a prominent book-publisher at Hartford, and was a member of the State Legislature. He married Sarah Selden Jewett, a daughter of David Moody Jewett of Lyme, one of the most noted lawyers of the State. Their eldest son was a famous mathematician and Hebrew scholar at Newton Theological In- stitution. Their second son was a gallant officer of the United States navy.
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