USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 17
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Frank Jewett Mather, their fourth son, was born at Deep River, Connecticut, on January 10, 1835. He was educated at Suffield, Connecticut ; at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island ; and at the Albany Law School, Albany, New York. He also studied and practised law with Judge Selden and with Governor Church at Rochester, New York. He prepared a syn- opsis of the law lectures, approved by the lecturers, and pub- lished by Banks Brothers of New York, while in the law school.
In his earlier years Mr. Mather traveled extensively in all parts of the world. While engaged in the legal profession in New York, he has had many other business interests. Nomi- nation to legislative office has been tendered to him, but declined. He was also urged as a candidate for Minister to Switzerland, under the MeKinley administration, by leading judges and lawyers, bankers, college presidents, and others, and his appointment was requested by Secretary Sherman; but
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domestic and business considerations impelled him to withdraw his name.
Mr. Mather's practice has taken him into the highest courts in many States, federal courts in several States, various depart- ments at Washington, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He has been engaged in cases in association with many of the most eminent lawyers in America. He is a member of the bar of the State of New York, and of the federal courts of this State, of the bar of South Carolina, and of the Supreme Court of the United States. His practice has been more than usually varied in important litigation.
He has been employed as counsel in the federal courts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Ohio, and Wiscon- sin, and in all the State courts of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
He is a member of the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, and of various other social organizations. He received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Williams College in 1889.
Mr. Mather was married, in 1866, to Miss Caroline A. Graves of Brooklyn. Their eldest son, a graduate of Williams College, Fellow and Ph. D. of Johns Hopkins, and student at Berlin and Paris, was assistant professor of Old English and the Romance languages in Williams College, and has been called to one of the literary editorships of the New York " Evening Post." He was selected by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. to edit their Riverside Edition of Chaucer, which he did. Three other sons, all college- bred, are engaged in business and in study. Two daughters are living. One daughter died, at the age of thirteen, in 1896, and one son, Sidney, at the age of twenty-nine, in 1901.
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HUDSON MAXIM
H UDSON MAXIM was born in the town of Orneville, Maine, on February 3, 1853. He was the fourth son of a family of six boys and two girls. His father, Isaac Maxim, was of English and French-Huguenot extraction, and his mother, Harriet, was of purely English blood. The name Maxim is doubtless of French derivation. Both parents were endowed with great physical strength, attractive personality, and remark- able mental qualities. Inventive genius and aptitude at expedi- ents was a strong characteristic of both parents. Isaac Maxim recommended armor-plate and submarine torpedoes, and foresaw the advent of quick-firing guns more than fifty years ago. He invented a revolving machine-gun which he had not the means of building. Harriet Maxim was possessed of a vast store of information concerning the nature and use of the herbs of the field and the treatment of disease. The father died of consump- tion at the age of sixty-nine, and the mother of pneumonia at the age of eighty-six.
Two of the brothers, Leander and Henry, lost their lives in the American Rebellion. Leander, enlisting at the age of fifteen, was not accepted by the enlisting officer until he had lifted a barrel of plaster weighing four hundred pounds, demonstrating that he at least had the strength of a man. All of the brothers were inventors, Frank at the age of twelve inventing a prac- ticable potato-digger, and actually making a wooden clock which kept good time.
Hudson, the subject of this sketch, Hiram, of automatic-gun fame, and Samuel, are now the only survivors of the family. Hiram, the eldest of the family, is thirteen years older than Hudson.
Hudson Maxim was first christened Isaac, after his father,
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but when a boy in school his name was changed to Hudson. His parents were very poor, and Hudson had never a hat nor a pair of shoes until the age of thirteen, although he frequently attended school, at a distance of two miles, after snowfall. He learned the letters of the alphabet at the age of nine. He was obliged to endure extraordinary hardships and privations in order to attend school and provide himself with books, food, and clothing. His studies were therefore necessarily very desultory. But he persistently stuck to his task until the age of twenty-five, when he finished his schooling at Kent's Hill, Maine, possessed of a very good academie education, both scientific and classical. While prosecuting his other studies at school he had prepared himself for college in medicine.
On quitting school, however, he entered the printing and sub- scription book-publishing business, finally establishing himself at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where, in the year 1883, he used more than twenty thousand dollars' worth of postage-stamps, and his mail matter sometimes amounted to a ton in a day. Of one book he sold nearly half a million copies. He invented a new process for printing in colors. He foresaw the advantage of colored work in the daily press, and experimented by printing in colors one issue of the Pittsfield "Evening Journal," which was possibly the first daily newspaper thus printed.
At the age of twenty-two he reasoned out a method by which he undertook to demonstrate that all matter consists of ultimate, indivisible, solid atoms, having actual dimensions of extension, although infinitely small, and that these atoms hold a similar relation to masses of ponderable matter that the point holds in geometry. He showed by this method of reasoning from self- evident propositions the true principle of force, and that all material manifestations and natural phenomena depend entirely upon the number and mass and relative positions of the ultimate atoms. He published his views on this subject in the "Scientific American Supplement " in 1889.
Upon the introduction of the Maxim gun by the Maxim-Nor- denfelt Guns and Ammunition Company of London in 1SSS, he became the American representative of that company, under a two years' contract. He then made a special study of the sub- jeet of gunpowder, and was the first either to make or submit
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for test smokeless powder in the United States. Upon the expiration of his contract with the said company, Hudson Maxim built two powder-mills at Maxim (a small place named for him near Lakewood, New Jersey), one for high explosives, and the other for smokeless powders. It was there that the Maxim- Schüpphaus smokeless powder was developed, which was after- ward adopted by the United States government. All cannon- powder employed by this government has since been made under his letters patent. He was the first to make multi-perforated smokeless powder, and he recommended its use for throwing high explosives from cannon, and he was the first to design and recommend the use of a powder-gun, of relatively large bore for its weight, for throwing high explosives, and he was the first to invent and patent a fuse for high-explosive projectiles having the detonator placed rearward of the bursting charge, and in a position of safety until after the projectile leaves the gun, when the detonator moves forward into the charge in position to fire it on striking the target.
In the early nineties he also directed his attention to electric furnaces, and the process for making calcium carbide by incan- descence of the carbide formed, now generally in use, was in- vented by him; and he has recently received important United States letters patent on this invention.
In 1896 he produced small diamonds by electro-deposition at Faraday House, London, demonstrating the possibilities of an invention of his for that process.
One of his most recent and most important inventions is Maximite, lately adopted by the United States government as a bursting charge for projectiles, which, although about fifty per cent. more powerful than ordinary dynamite or even pure nitro- glycerin, is so insensitive that it can be fired through the heavi- est and hardest armor-plate without exploding until set off by the fuse after passing through. Twelve-inch Harveyized nickel- steel plate has frequently been penetrated with projectiles charged with this explosive.
Another invention of his which promises to have a revolu- tionary effect in naval warfare is a system of driving automobile torpedoes of the Whitehead type by means of a new fuel sub- stance of his invention known as Motorite, which resembles
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smokeless powder of the cordite class, and which is used to make steam, enabling the employment of from 160 to 200 horse-power for the period of the run of a torpedo, as against about 30 horse-power now available for the same period by the use of compressed air. It takes but one second to get up full steam from the word "go." It is expected to secure a speed of from three quarters of a mile to a mile in a minute by means of this system. Enough has already been accomplished to assure the practicability of the method.
Hudson Maxim is a frequent contributor on scientific subjects to the leading periodicals.
He married, in 1896, Miss Lilian Durban, daughter of the Rev. W. Durban, M. A., a notable linguist and literary man of London, England.
GEORGE WASHINGTON MILLER
A MERICAN nomenclature is largely characteristic. Many citizens of the United States bear names that are instantly indicative of their origin. Indeed, in not a few cases one can tell from his name to what part of the republic, perhaps what State and part of a State, a man belongs. Assuredly the name which heads this sketch must belong to one of American parentage and of patriotic antecedents. Snch may confidently be assumed to be the case, even though he was actually born outside of the limits of the republic.
George Washington Miller was born in Canada, at Hamilton, Ontario, on July 20, 1829. His parents were, however, citizens of the United States, and in his infancy returned hither. They made their home at Rochester, New York, a city connected with Canada by close personal and business relations. There, in the public schools, young Miller acquired his general education. At an early age he manifested a decided inclination toward the legal profession, and accordingly, on completing his ordinary schooling, he began the study of law. In it he made gratifying progress, and in 1850, at the age of twenty-one years, he was admitted to practice at the bar of the State of New York.
Most lawyers are compelled to devote their attention for a number of years to comparatively minor cases in the local courts, and thus gradually to work their way into prominence before the larger public. It was Mr. Miller's lot, however, to gain a State reputation in the very first year of his practice. This was done by arguing for the appellant a difficult and important case before the Court of Appeals at Albany, the highest tribunal of the State. His opponent was Nicholas Hill, Jr., who at that time was an acknowledged leader of the Albany bar, and one of the
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foremost lawyers of the State. Mr. Miller succeeded in defeating his distinguished opponent, had the judgment of the lower courts reversed, and won the case for his client. This notable victory, together with other indications of his ability, led to his being made Corporation Counsel of the city of Rochester, before he was twenty-five years old. This was the first step in his public career. A little later he was made United States District At- torney for the Northern District of New York.
Mr. Miller has always been a Democrat, and has taken an active part in political affairs. He has frequently represented his district in State and national conventions, where he has shown unusual facility as a speaker. In the State Convention of 1868 he presented the name of John T. Hoffman for Gov- ernor. In 1870 Governor Hoffman appointed him Superinten- dent of the Insurance Department of the State. Upon retiring from his office, Mr. Miller resumed the practice of law as a partner of the Hon. Hamilton Harris, in Albany. In 1882 he removed to New York city, where he has remained in the prac- tice of his profession. His business has covered almost every branch of the law, and he is well and favorably known in all the courts of this and other States.
Mr. Miller is married, and his family are very popular in society, both here and in London, which latter eity he has had occasion frequently to visit, sometimes on business and some- times for pleasure and recreation.
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ISAAC NEWTON MILLER
T THE names of Miller, Wood, and Greene are conspicuous in American history. The Millers were Puritans, early settled in Connecticut, and giving to that colony and to the whole na- tion in later days many prominent men. Among the present generation of that family is William Henry Harrison Miller, the law partner of ex-President Harrison, and Attorney-General of the United States in his Cabinet. He is a cousin of the subject of the present sketch. The Wood family, of which our subject's mother was a member, also dates back to the early days of New England, and has been connected with that of Greene, the great Quaker general of the Revolution, who was second only to Washington himself.
Isaac Newton Miller was born at Augusta, Oneida County, New York, on October 22, 1851, the son of Isaae C. and Elizabeth Wood Miller. His father's father, Isaac Miller, had removed to Oneida County from Connecticut, and was the first white settler of the town of Kirkland. Isaae N. Miller was sent at first to the distriet school, then to a seminary at Whitestone, New York, and then to the High School at Clinton, New York, where he was prepared for college. At the age of eighteen he entered Hamil- ton College and pursued the regular classical course, to which he added, in the latter half of it, a course in statutory and common law. He was graduated a Bachelor of Arts in 1873, and a year later was graduated from the Law School of Hamilton College, and was admitted to practice at the bar. Instead of entering at once upon the practice of law, he came to New York, and pur- sued a postgraduate course in the Law School of Columbia College. Having completed that, he established himself as a practising lawyer in this city.
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Mr. Miller entered into no partnerships, but carried on his office and his practice alone. Steadily, year by year, he won important patronage, and held it fast by virtue of his devotion to the interests of his clients and his success in maintaining them. The only approach to a partnership was his assumption of the management of all the cases of the late Henry Brewster dur- ing the last years of that venerable lawyer's life. Mr. Miller's prac- tice has been for some years almost exclusively in disputed cases before the Supreme Court of this State. He conducted the case of Clare vs. the Providence and Stonington Steamship Company, and was the only lawyer who succeeded in recovering damages from that company for loss of life in the great disaster of June 11, 1880, when some twoscore lives were sacrificed. The litigation in this famous case extended over about eight years. The case of Ledyard vs. Bull was another of his of exceptional interest. In it the administrators of Asa Worthington, formerly United States minister to Peru, brought suit for an accounting by H. W. Worthington, and a number of unique law points were involved, which Mr. Miller's thorough grasp of legal principles enabled him to conduct to an issue favorable to his client. He has also had charge of several important cases before the British Court of Appeals, necessitating frequent visits to England. In these he has been uniformly successful.
Mr. Miller has always been a Republican in politics, though he has preferred to devote his attention to his profession rather than to the duties of public office. He makes his home and main- tains his legal residence in New Jersey, and has in that State a large law practice, necessitating the keeping of a branch office in Jersey City. His home is at Lakeview, near Paterson, New Jer- sey, where he has one of the handsomest houses in that part of the State, and private greenhouses of exceptional size and com- pleteness. His reputation among all who know him person- ally is that of a good neighbor and a man of high character and sterling worth in all the relations of life.
Withother For Meillo.
WILLIAM MCMASTER MILLS
TT is a common circumstance that a business man of greatest L'influence is one of the least known to the general public. There are those whose sensational speculations or other achieve- ments make them the theme of world-wide gossip and their names familiar as household words. But, on the other hand, there are those whose solid achievements form the very basis and framework of the financial structure, who are little in the public eye, and who are known outside their own circle of friends and associates merely as names and nothing more.
The subject of this sketch is by no means unknown to the public of New York, but his repute is of the conservative, substantial kind ; and at the same time, his part in the complex financial and commercial world of the metropolis is one of prime importance. There are no more important members of the business community than the bankers, the very name of whom has long been synonymous with confidence and stability. Among bankers the president of a large metropolitan bank holds a place of unsurpassed importance.
William McMaster Mills, president of the Plaza Bank of New York city, is a Canadian by birth. He was born in the city of Toronto, Canada, on November 4, 1860, the son of Montraville Walsingham Mills and Mary Josephine (Goadby) Mills. His education was acquired in the excellent schools of his native city, and he was fitted for a business and financial career.
To such a career his life has been devoted, with marked suc- cess. He began work as a bank-clerk, and has never departed even for a day from that business. He is now president of the Plaza Bank of New York city, and has held that place for four years. In that time the deposits in the bank have been increased
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by two million dollars, a fact which in itself is a fine indication of Mr. Mills's success as the chief officer of the institution. The Plaza Bank, as its name suggests, is situated on the plaza which forms the Fifth Avenue approach to Central Park. That is one of the most important spots in New York, in the heart of the richest residence region and near the chief clubs and some of the foremost hotels. Naturally the bank does a large business, and it is accounted one of the important financial institutions of New York. Associated with Mr. Mills as directors of the bank are many of the most prominent capitalists of the city, including John Jacob Astor, August Belmont, Stuyvesant Fish, Harry Payne Whitney, A. Newbold Morris, Hermann Oelrichs, Joseph Park, John E. Borne, Richard Delafield, George F. Vietor, Charles Seribner, John L. Riker, and H. B. Hollins.
In addition to being president of the Plaza Bank, Mr. Mills is a trustee of the Union Dime Savings Bank, at Broadway and Sixth Avenue, one of the foremost savings banks of the United States.
He is a member of the Metropolitan, New York Athletic, Automobile, Riding, and New York Yacht clubs.
Mr. Mills was married, in 1885, at the Church of the Incarna- tion, New York, to his cousin Miss M. Augusta Mills.
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JOSEPHI MUIR. M. D.
A MONG the most successful of the younger members of the medical profession in New York is Dr. Joseph Muir. who has won an enviable reputation as a general practitioner, as a specialist and hospital operator, and as a writer on medical topics. Dr. Muir is the son of Joseph and Sarah Muir of New York. He was, however, born in Russia during a sojourn of his parents in that country, on August 10, 1864. He was brought back to America by his parents in his infancy, and spent his early life in New York. His general education was acquired in the schools of this city, and was made comprehensive and thorough. His inclinations tending toward a professional career. he entered the Medical College of New York University, and was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1884, at the age of only twenty years.
Immediately upon graduation, Dr. Muir went abroad to con- tinue his medical studies. For two years he attended lectures and clinics at St. George's Hospital, London, and made much progress in the practical knowledge of his profession. Next he went to Germany, and for several years enjoyed the advantages of study and practice in the Moabit and Charity hospitals of Ber- lin. In the latter city he came into contact and learned from some of the foremost German specialists.
Dr. Muir returned to the United States in 1893, and soon established himself permanently in New York city, where he has built up a large and profitable practice. Like many of the most successful physicians, he early adopted a special line of practice, to which he chiefly devotes himself. His specialty in- cludes all aihnents of the respiratory organs and the heart. His chief attention is paid to surgery of the nose and throat, and
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& Wolfe Mulle Sung
F. ADOLFO MULLER-URY
S YWITZERLAND is a small country, and its people are pro- verbially home-loving and not given to emigration to other lands. Nevertheless some of them have their way hither, to add their valuable element to the cosmopolitan mass of the American nation. Prominent among these is the well-known artist F. Adolfo Muller-Ury.
His ancestry comprises almost an epitome of the history of the Swiss people. On both sides of the house his forefathers were soldiers, both warring for the rights and liberties of Swit- zerland, and at times serving in the armies of other lands. Thus both of Mr. Muller-Ury's grandfathers were officers in the French army, and two more remote ancestors were in the service of the King of Spain ; all four of them, it may be added, having been ennobled by the sovereigns whom they served, in recognition of their merits and achievements. Mr. Muller-Ury's father, Louis Muller-Ury, was the presiding justice of a can- tonal court, and ranked among the foremost Swiss jurists of his time. His mother was a member of the Lombardi family, dis- tinguished for its public services in many directions, especially in connection with the famous hospice of St. Gothard.
The subject of this sketch was born at Airolo, Switzerland, in 1863, and at an early age evinced so pronounced an artistic taste and ability that he was encouraged by his parents to adopt the profession of an artist. Accordingly he was sent for instruction and training to the art centers of Italy, France, and Germany, where he was an inmate of some of the most famous studios. Among his instructors were Cabanel, the portrait- painter; Vela, the sculptor; and Von Deschwanden, the Swiss painter. His artistic culture embraced all branches of art, but
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he most inclined toward portrait-painting, and in time came to devote himself chiefly thereto.
Mr. Muller-Ury has made the United States his home since 1885, and has done most of his later work here. His bachelor apartments and studio are in the well-known art center at West Fifty-seventh Street and Sixth Avenue, New York city, where he has a veritable museum of antique furniture, tapestry, pic- tures, and bric-à-brac. He is a frequent visitor to Europe, and spends a part of each year in Paris. He also maintains a coun- try home at Hospenthal, in Switzerland. He is a well-known figure in New York society, and is much given to such out-of- doors recreation as golf, cycling, and riding.
He has painted portraits of many well-known Americans, as well as of eminent foreigners, among his subjects being Cardinal Satolli, Mme. Calve, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncey M. Depew, Cardinal Gibbons, Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Havemeyer, Archbishop Ire- land, Mrs. Hobart C. Chatfield-Taylor, Mrs. Charles T. Yerkes, Mrs. Charles Oelrichs, Mr. and Mrs. James J. Hill, Mr. Con- stable, Governor and Mrs. Merriam, and Adjutant-General Cor- bin. The late President MeKinley gave the last sitting for his portrait to Mr. Muller-Ury. This one portrait is not only the most perfect likeness of the late President, but may be the most lifelike portrait the artist has ever painted. It represents the President standing making a public speech. Mr. Muller-Ury is very fond of etching. He considers this work a great relief from the hard work of painting portraits. Among the important etch- 'ings of the artist are portraits of Senator Chauncey M. Depew and Mr. James J. Hill. His works have frequently been exhib- ited in public, and have commanded much admiration.
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