USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 19
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
Joseph W. Ogden was born at Chatham, New Jersey, on April 28, 1853. His father prescribed for him a liberal educa- tion, and he accordingly entered Lafayette College, at Easton, Pennsylvania, and pursued its course. He did not remain until the end of the course, and therefore was not graduated with his class. He has, however, received from the college the degree of A. M.
On leaving college, Mr. Ogden entered business life in New York city, his first occupation being that of a clerk in a broker- age office on Wall Street. This was in 1872-73. The panic of the latter year caused a material change in his affairs, and for some years he was engaged in mercantile pursuits. In 1881, however, he returned to finance. He founded at that time the banking and brokerage house of J. W. Ogden & Co., and con- ducted it with marked success for a number of years. That house was engaged in many large financial transactions, and it acquired a well-merited reputation for trustworthiness and for safe and conservative methods. In 1890 Mr. Ogden became a member of the foreign banking house of Kessler & Co., and for
258
1
259
JOSEPH W. OGDEN
six years was identified with it. He then withdrew from that house and devoted his attention to the interests of financial enterprises with which he was connected. He became much interested in anthracite-coal mining, and is now president of the Algonquin Coal Company of Wilkesbarre, Pennsylvania, and is associated with other concerns in the same business.
Mr. Ogden has not held nor sought political office. He is a member of the Union, Riding, and Down-Town clubs of New York, and the Morristown and Morristown Golf clubs of Morristown, New Jersey, where he and Mrs. Ogden - to whom he was married in 1881 - make their home during a part of the year. He is also a member of the New York Stock Exchange, and of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York.
Speaking of Mr. Ogden's career and character, one of his acquaintances has said : " I have known Mr. Ogden from child- hood. When he came to New York he realized that he had few influential friends or acquaintances to push him forward, and that whatever success he attained must come through his own efforts. To this recognition was added unswerving adherence to right principles and high-minded honesty.
"He has naturally had to be bold and courageous to reach the position he now occupies, but his methods have been at all times safe and conservative. He is easily in the very front rank among the younger men in Wall Street, and above all has kept his reputation clean and without a stain. But a small percent- age of those who succeed in the whirlpool of the financial center escape the influence which narrows life to a mere struggle for money. To be one of this small number, to which Mr. Ogden distinctly belongs,- to keep open sympathies and a broad point of view,- is a greater triumph even than the winning of wealth. His carcer has been a remarkable one, and should afford inspira- tion and encouragement to every young man dependent on his own resources."
WILLIAM PECK PARRISH
"THE paternal ancestors of William Peck Parrish were for many generations country gentlemen in the north of Eng- land. His immediate ancestors established themselves in this country, first in Maryland, on an estate covering the present site of the city of Baltimore, and later in King and Queen County, Virginia. Mr. Parrish's maternal ancestors were also English, and settled in this country at Danbury, Connecticut, whence his grandfather, in 1818, removed to Alabama.
Mr. Parrish is the fourth son of the late Dr. John Henry Parrish, a prominent physician and surgeon, and Clarissa Peck Parrish. He was born at Greensboro, Alabama, on April 24, 1860. His education was acquired at home, under private tutors, the latter all being graduates of the University of Vir- ginia. This was in accordance with a theory and faney of Dr. Parrish's, who wanted his sons always under home influence. The tutor was made, for the time being, a member of the family, sleeping, eating, hunting, and fishing with the boys, and thus being their friend and comrade as well as their in- struetor. Mr. Parrish's boyhood days were exceptionally free from care. His father was a prosperous physician, and his mother had inherited a moderate fortune; wherefore the family home was one of luxury and hospitality. In 1873 Dr. Parrish's health failed, and he removed to Cumberland County, Tennessee, in the midst of the blue-grass region. There he bought a fine stoek-farm, and there his sons divided their time between study- ing and the out-of-door sports of that country and time. Mr. Parrish attributes his capacity for hard work and great phys- ical endurance to the training he there received in breaking colts, riding after the hounds, and the free, active life on the plantation.
260
1
Wmo Parrish
f
طبعوات
261
WILLIAM PECK PARRISHI
At the age of eighteen years Mr. Parrish became exchange clerk in the City National Bank of Seha, Alabama. He was thereafter successively general bookkeeper, individual book- keeper, receiving teller, paying teller, and, at the age of twenty- one, assistant cashier. He filled the last-named position from 1881 to 1888, and then, desiring a larger and more independent field for his activities, he organized, with three friends, a whole- sale boot and shoe business in Birmingham, Alabama. The aver- age age of fifteen members of the establishment, including the partners, traveling salesmen, and clerks, was less than twenty- five years. The concern was prosperous. In the first year the sales amounted to two hundred and thirty-four thousand dollars' worth of goods. But Mr. Parrish's conservative bank training made his judgment in the matter of credits more striet than his partners thought necessary, and so, in November, 1889, he sold out his interest in the firm and came to New York city.
Mr. Parrish was entirely without influence or acquaintance in New York when, in January, 1890, he opened an office in the Mills Building, on Broad and Wall streets, as a dealer in bonds and investment securities. He soon acquired a promising pat- ronage, however, and has now a well-established and growing business. He has kept his offices in the same building in which they were opened. He is now president of the Interstate Type- writer Company ; director, secretary, and treasurer of the Colum- · bia Water and Light Company, and director of the Birmingham, Selma and New Orleans Railroad Company. He was the organ- izer and for two years president of the Kitson Hydrocarbon Heating and Incandescent Lighting Company.
Mr. Parrish has taken no active part in political affairs. He is a member of the Sonthern Society of New York, of the National Arts Club, and of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He was married on October 19, 1887, to Miss Clara Minter Weaver, second daughter of William M. and Lucia Minter Weaver of Alabama. Two daughters have been born to them, neither of whom is now living.
-
THOMAS GEDNEY PATTEN
THE old Scotch city of Perth was the former home of the Patten family, whence, two generations ago, an enterprising member came to the United States. His son, Thomas Patten, settled in New York city, and for many years was manager of the great Rhinelander estate, one of the largest and most valu- able landed estates on Manhattan Island. He was its manager until after the death of William Rhinelander, when the estate was divided. Thomas Patten married Maria Louisa Gedney, the daughter of a French Huguenot family that had come from Lille some generations before.
Thomas Gedney Patten, the son of this couple, was born in New York city on September 12, 1861. At the age of nine years, in September, 1870, he was sent to school at the famous Mount Pleasant Academy, which had long been one of the fore- most schools in New York. He was graduated from it in 1876,- and then went for a year to Dr. Anthon's Classical Grammar School. With such preparation he entered Columbia College in the fall of 1877, and pursued its regular course. In his junior year, however, he left the college for the Columbia Law School.
He did not, however, enter upon the practice of the legal pro- fession. His legal studies were pursued in preparation for a mercantile career, for which, indeed, few preparations could be more practical and valuable. On leaving the Law School, he went to Chicago, and purchased a seat in the Board of Trade. There he served for a time with great success as broker for C. T. Yerkes, Jr. Impaired health, however, compelled him to seek a more favorable climate than that of Chicago, and he returned to New York city.
He purchased a seat in the New York Stock Exchange in
262
Thomas Exciter 0
1
263
THOMAS GEDNEY PATTEN
1891, and entered upon a profitable career in Wall Street. He became, however, interested in some outside enterprises, which gradually withdrew his attention from the affairs of the Street, and led to his ultimate retirement from the Stock Exchange. Thus he was appointed superintendent of the New York and Long Branch Steamboat Company, and in 1894 was elected its president. Subsequently he obtained control of the New York and Monmouth Park Steamboat Company, and in 1898 was elected its president. He then decided to give his attention to these lines and to other properties which he had acquired, and accordingly, in 1899, sold his seat, and retired from the Stock Exchange.
Mr. Patten is now president of the New York and Long Branch and the New York and Monmouth Park steamboat companies, the vessels of which are known as the Patten Line, and furnish one of the most popular and delightful means of transit between New York city and the upper part of the New Jersey coast, with its multitude of summer homes and pleasure resorts. He is also interested in much New York city real estate, and in various properties in New Mexico.
Among the social organizations of which he is a member are the Colonial Club, the Players' Club, the Lambs' Club, the Democratic Club, the Delta Kappa Epsilon Club, the Deal Beach Golf Club, and the Suburban Riding and Driving Chib.
Mr. Patten was married, on October 30, 1892, to Miss Henri- etta Floyd, daughter of the late William Floyd, of Wallack's Theater. They have no children.
-
WILLIAM JAMES PATTERSON
TILLIAM JAMES PATTERSON was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, on December 18, 1850, the son of Robert and Margaret Patterson. He was the oldest child and only son in the family. His father, an architect and builder, was of Irish ancestry, and was the son of John Patterson, who had come as a young man from Ireland early in the present een- tury, and had settled as a farmer in Columbiana County, Ohio. Later John Patterson had removed to the neighborhood of Pitts- burg, Pennsylvania, where he resided for the rest of his life. On the maternal side Mr. Patterson's ancestors lived for several gen- erations in and around the city of Pittsburg, his mother being descended from the Springer family, whose members were large landowners in that part of Pennsylvania.
When William J. Patterson was only a year old his parents removed to Hancock County, Virginia. The boy received his early education in private schools. At the age of sixteen years he went to an academy at Hayesville, Ohio, conducted by the Rev. Dr. Dieffendorf, at which John K. Cowen, now president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and other prominent busi- ness and public men were also students.
In 1870 Mr. Patterson went to Bridgeton, New Jersey, and for two years thereafter was a teacher in the West Jersey Academy, of which Dr. Dieffendorf had become principal At the same time he continued his studies preparatory to entering college. He entered the University of Wooster, Ohio, in 1872, in the junior class, and was graduated in 1874.
His next move was to Kansas, where, during the winter of 1874-75, he was principal of the public schools in the town of Garnett, Anderson County. At the same time he began the
264
A& Patterson
---
265
WILLIAM JAMES PATTERSON
study of law. The next spring he entered the office of Messi's. Thacher & Stephens, at Lawrence, Kansas, one of the most prominent law firms in the State. In 1876 he was admitted to the bar.
He then entered the practice of his profession with Judge S. O. Thacher, Judge Stephens having been elected to the beneh. During 1880-81 he acted as assistant dean to the Law School of the State University of Kansas. In 1881 his professional rela- tions with Judge Thacher terminated, and he became the attor- ney of a number of corporations engaged in real-estate, banking, and railroad operations in western and southern States. This connection continued prosperously for fifteen years, and afforded to Mr. Patterson a widely extended practice in commercial, real- estate, and corporation law, in both State and federal courts. Finally, in 1895, he became attorney for the North American Trust Company of New York city, and since that date has had 110 connection with any important companies of properties. except those connected, directly or indirectly, with that trust company. He has held no political office, and has sought none.
One of Mr. Patterson's most noteworthy legal contests was that arising out of Populist legislation in Kansas. By act of legislature the period of real-estate mortgages after judicial sale was arbitrarily extended to one and a half years, the appoint- ment of receivers in foreclosure was prohibited save in special cases, in which latter cases rents and profits were to go to the mortgager, leaving the holder of the mortgage to pay the taxes without the ability to collect either principal or interest. This act was made to apply to existing mortgages as well as to those thereafter made. Mr. Patterson attacked the constitutionality of the act as applied to existing mortgages, and though defeated by the decision of a Populist judge, won his case in the Supreme Court of the State. A final decision in his favor was given by the Supreme Court of the United States.
Mr. Patterson is a member of the Bar Association of the City of New York, and of the Knickerbocker Athletic Club. He is unmarried.
LOUIS F. PAYN
THE late Roscoe Conkling has been credited with the remark that the best practical politician in New York State was Louis F. Payn. Certainly the authority of Mr. Conkling's judg- ment on such matters is not lightly to be challenged; and certainly Mr. Payn's success as a practical politician does no discredit to such an estimate.
Louis F. Payn was born on January 27, 1835. His native place was Ghent, Columbia County, New York, and he has made his lifelong home in that town, most of the time in the village of Chatham, one half of this village being in the town of Ghent. His education was acquired at the local schools, and was of a thorough and practical character. At an early age he became actively interested in politics, and he has never since permitted that interest to flag. His first vote was cast for Frémont. He took an active part in the contest for Lincoln in 1860, favoring his nomination against Seward, and "won his spurs" by his support of him all through his administration. He always acted with Horace Greeley in his struggles against Thurlow Weed. His first important public office was that of Harbor Master of the Port of New York, to which he was appointed by Governor Reuben E. Fenton. He had already been a deputy sheriff and a Republican leader in Columbia County. He remained harbor master during Mr. Fenton's administration, but when Mr. Fen- ton retired from Governorship to the United States Senate, and was succeeded at Albany by a Democrat, Mr. Payn was also retired from his place and went home to Chatham. He has, by unanimous consent, represented his congressional district as a delegate in every Republican National Convention since 1868, and generally in State and other Republican conventions, and
266
ـمطه
Sonis 2 Pay un
-
1
267
LOUIS F. PAYN
was one of the famous three hundred and six in the Chicago Convention of 1880. In 1872 came his political parting from Mr. Fenton, to whose fortunes he had hitherto been attached. Mr. Fenton at that time joined the Liberal Republican move- ment, while Mr. Payn remained with the old party organization. The two always remained, however, elose personal friends. In 1876 Mr. Payn supported Mr. Conkling's candidacy for the Pres- idency as long as there was a prospect of its success. He then voted for Blaine, though a large majority of the New York dele- gation voted for Hayes. In February, 1877, Mr. Payn was appointed by President Grant to be United States Marshal for the Southern District of New York, and Senator Conkling secured the confirmation of the appointment. General Grant is reported as afterward saying that he appointed Mr. Payn because at that particular time he wanted a marshal in New York who could be relied on in any emergency. Four years later Mr. Payn put forward Mr. T. C. Platt as a candidate for a seat in the United States Senate, and secured his election thereto as Senator Conkling's colleague. A little later came the famous resignation of the two New York Senators, and in the protracted struggle for their reelection Mr. Payn was their foremost cham- pion. After Mr. Conkling's retirement from politics, Mr. Payn attached himself to the organization led by Mr. Platt, and has ever since been one of its most powerful members.
One of the most clever pieces of work in his whole career was performed in 1896. He then brought forward Mr. Black, a Rep- resentative in Congress, as a candidate for Governor of New York, and secured his nomination in the face of other suppos- edly more powerful candidates. He managed in great measure the campaign which followed, and which resulted in Mr. Black's election by an overwhelming majority. Governor Black after- ward appointed Mr. Payn to the important office of State Super- intendent of Insurance.
Mr. Payn is a man of powerful physique and strictly temperate habits. Despite his more than threescore years, he is as active and energetic as ever in his youth, and bids fair to enjoy a score or more of years still, as an active and successful practical poli- tieian.
SERENO ELISHA PAYNE
"THE family of Payne was one of the earliest settled in North America from England, and in many generations its mem- bers have been conspicuous for their attainments and achieve- ments in public and private capacities in this country. Of the branch of it under present consideration, the head in the last generation was William W. Payne of Cayuga County, New York, a prosperous farmer and man of influence in his commu- nity, who served as a member of the State Legislature in 1859- 60. He married Betsey Sears, daughter of David Sears, who was also the descendant of an old colonial family.
Sereno Elisha Payne, son of this couple, was born at Hamil- ton, New York, on June 26, 1843. He began his studies at the local school, continued them at the Auburn Academy, and finally entered Rochester University. At the last-named institution he was graduated in the class of 1864. He had already decided to be a lawyer, and immediately upon leaving college he began his studies for the profession in the office of Cox & Avery, at Auburn, New York. He was admitted to the bar of the State of New York at Rochester in June, 1866, and soon afterward opened an office at Auburn, which he has successfully main- tained ever since.
Mr. Payne undertook the general practice of his profession, limiting his attention to no special branch of law. At the same time he interested himself in politics, as a Republican, and soon attained leadership in that party. He was elected City Clerk of Auburn in 1867, and served for two years. The next two years he held the office of Supervisor, and then, for the six years beginning with 1872, he was District Attorney. From 1879 to 1881 he was president of the Auburn Board of Education.
208
269
SERENO ELISHA PAYNE
In the office of District Attorney Mr. Payne was called upon to conduct a great number and variety of cases, and did so with exceptional diligence, skill, and success. The late JJustice Rum- sey of the Supreme Court related that Mr. Payne once tried before him, at an extraordinary term of court, five capital cases in six weeks, and seeured a conviction in each of them, and in three of them for murder in the first degree, although he was opposed by some of the ablest lawyers in that part of the State. During his six years as District Attorney Mr. Payne conducted fifteen prosecutions for murder and secured convictions in twelve of them.
For a time Mr. Payne was associated in legal practice with the late John T. M. Davie, until the latter was elected Surrogate. In 1883 he formed a partnership with the late John W. O'Brien, which continued until the death of the latter in 1895. He is now associated with John Van Siekle.
Mr. Payne was first elected a Representative in Congress in the fall of 1882, and with the exception of a single term he has served in that capacity continuously ever since. The Forty- eighth Congress was under Democratic control, and he was assigned to comparatively unimportant committees. Late in the session, however, he went as a member of a special committee to investigate some riotings and murders at Hot Springs, Arkansas. He won much favorable notice on both sides of the House for his energetic and effective conduct on that committee, and as a consequence was advanced to better committee places in the next Congress, the Forty-ninth, though it was also under Demo- cratie control. He was the leader of the Republicans on the Elections Committee, and by his arguments turned the scale in the case of Romeis rs. Hurd. He was kept out of the Fiftieth Congress by a gerrymander, but was elected to the Fifty-first, and became a member of the Ways and Means Committee, in which he has ever since been conspienous and of which he is now chairman. He took a leading part in the framing of the Mckinley Tariff Bill, and was a leader in debate against the Wilson Bill. His chief work in tariff matters was, however, done in connection with the Dingley Bill, in 1897. Upon the death of Mr. Dingley, Mr. Payne naturally and properly suc- ceeded to the chairmanship of the committee. In the Fifty-
1
270
SERENO ELISHA PAYNE
fourth Congress he was also made chairman of the Committee of Merchant Marine and Fisheries, and under his leadership a dozen or more bills in the interest of American shipping were passed by the House.
Mr. Payne has been called upon to act as Speaker of the House pro tem. perhaps oftener than any of his colleagues, and he was the choice of a large number of them for the office of Speaker in 1899. He has frequently been spoken of as a can- didate for Governor of New York, and for Vice-President of the United States. To such suggestions he has given no per- sonal encouragement, contenting himself with the faithful dis- charge of the duties of his Congressional place, but their wide- spread extent and earnest character are fine tokens of the esteem in which he is held by his colleagues in public life and by his general constituents.
-
L
Loyal Peabody
ROYAL CANFIELD PEABODY
THE name of Peabody has long been well known in Massa- chusetts and elsewhere in New England, and, indeed, members of the family, through their enterprise, wealth, and philanthropy, have attained a world-wide repute of enviable character. The family of Canfield has long been settled and honorably known in Connecticut.
In the last generation George H. Peabody married a daughter of the Canfield family, and the two lived, before the Civil War, in Columbus, Georgia, where Mr. Peabody was a general mer- chant. There, on February 12, 1854, was born to them a son, whom they named Royal Canfield Peabody. Although born in the South, the boy was in 1865 transplanted to the North, and spent the rest of his early life chiefly in the city of Brooklyn, with which he has ever since been identified. He was educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, principally in the well-known No. 15, and by virtue partly of his excellent instruction, and partly of his natural aptitude for intellectual improvement, he acquired a general culture well fitting him for success in business as well as for a leading place in the social world.
On leaving school Mr. Peabody went to the West for a year or two, to acquaint himself with the country and to observe its opportunities. He soon decided, however, that the East was more suited to his taste, and consequently returned to New York and Brooklyn. He then entered the dry-goods house of T K. Horton & Co. of Brooklyn. From it he went to the hardware firm of Walbridge & Co. of New York. Thence he went into the dry-goods commission-house of White, Payson & Co.
These, however, were only tentative employments. He was to find his true field of activity later, in the vast developments
271
272
ROYAL CANFIELD PEABODY
of the eleetrie industries. In the latter his first engagement was with the Electric Time Company of Brooklyn. From it he stepped into the Edison Electric Light Company of Brooklyn, upon the organization of that corporation, becoming its secretary and treasurer, and later, as at present, its vice-president.
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.