USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 20
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Mr. Peabody was the chief organizer of the American Stoker Company, in 1897, and was elected its president. In 1898 he retired from that place, and took that of vice-president. In 1900 he was elected chairman of its board of directors, which place he still holds. He organized the Queens Borough Electric Light Company in 1898, and is at present treasurer of it. In 1899 he organized the Standard Manganese Company, of which he is treasurer. He is also a director of the Manufacturers' Insurance Association of Brooklyn, and of the Journey and Burnham Company, one of the foremost dry-goods houses of Brooklyn.
Mr. Peabody is a member of numerous clubs and other organ- izations, and is an active and influential figure in their affairs. Among the organizations with which he is connected may be mentioned the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, the National Manufacturers' Association, the National Civies Club, the Manufacturers' Club, the Reform Club, and the Lawyers' Club, of New York, and the Hamilton Club, Crescent Club, Montauk Club, Lincoln Club, Riding and Driving Club, and Apollo Club, of Brooklyn. He is a member of the Washing- ton Avenue Baptist Church, and has long been active in its affairs. In polities he is an independent Democrat, but he has held no office and taken little part in politics beyond exercising the duties of a private citizen.
Mr. Peabody was married, in 1879, to Miss Georgia Sniffen, daughter of Samuel Sniffen of New York. They have one son, Charles Sniffen Peabody.
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VENNETTE F. PELLETREAU
A MONG the younger real-estate dealers in New York there is none better known or more successful than Vennette F. Pelletreau. He is, as his name suggests, of French extraction. He comes of a Huguenot family that was forced by persecution to flee from France at the end of the seventeenth century. It found a home and safe refuge in America, and for many years has been identified with the interests of this country. Some of the members were conspicuous in the patriotie ranks in the Revolutionary War; wherefore Mr. Pelletreau is a member of the Society of the Sons of the Revolution.
Mr. Pelletreau is the son of Maltby K. Pelletreau, formerly of New York city. He was born in New York on January 30, 1873. When he was only five years of age, however, the family removed to Louisville, Kentucky, and there the rest of his ehild- hood was spent. He was educated in the schools of Louisville, and in Louisville College.
His early inelinations were toward the legal profession, and by the time he was fourteen years old it was agreed between him and his parents that he was to study law and fit himself for the practice thereof. The family moving North again, he entered as a student the law office of George V. Brower of Brooklyn, where he remained for a couple of years.
The contact with the legal profession into which he was brought, however, produced a change in his mind regarding it. Mr. Brower was Park Commissioner, and that faet brought into the office much information concerning the development of Brooklyn and the promise of profit in real-estate dealings. The result was that Mr. Pelletreau left Mr. Brower's office and opened an office of his own as a real-estate broker, when he was
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eighteen years of age. His office was at No. 186 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, where he shared the desk-room with another young man. His difficulties were many, but the indomitable spirit of his ancestors was strong within him, and he made his way steadily forward and upward. Nine years later his office was at the same address, but occupying a fine and spacious suite of rooms, in which is conducted one of the largest real-estate busi- nesses in the borough of Brooklyn, its specialties being the development and improvement of real estate and the placing of mortgage loans.
Mr. Pelletreau's methods of business are unique and decidedly progressive. He attends to everything connected with the transferring of a vacant plot of ground into a block of buildings. He furnishes the surveys, title-searching, and guaranty, prepar- ing of plans and specifications, and fire insurance, to a contrae- tor or builder, all of which is done under his supervision in his own office. Mr. Pelletreau has also contributed largely to the development of Brooklyn, purchasing farm-lands in the out- skirts of the city, cutting and paving streets through it, dividing it into building lots, and selling it for residence purposes.
The Pelletreau family was originally settled, in 1612, at South- ampton, Long Island, where the old family house is still stand- ing and is preserved as a historical landmark by the Daughters of the Revolution. Mr. Pelletreau makes his home, however, in New York city, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He has a fine country residence, where he spends six months of each year, at Summit, New Jersey. There he maintains a fine stock-farm, and indulges his taste for thoroughbred horses.
Mr. Pelletreau is a member of the leading clubs of Brooklyn, including the Union League, the Irving, the Brooklyn, the Aurora Grata, the Brooklyn Chess Club, and the Brooklyn Yacht Club.
He was married, on October 19, 1899, to Miss Florence E. Fisher, daughter of George M. Fisher of Brooklyn.
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AUGUSTUS W. PETERS
A UGUSTUS W. PETERS was a native of the Canadian prov- ince of New Brunswick, and was born in the city of St. John in 1844. He received an academic education there, and then studied law. At the age of twenty-three he came to New York as the representative of the firm of Ralph, King & Halleck in the Gold Exchange. There he soon became more interested in finance than he had been in law, and his attention was there- after turned to operation in Wall Street. He was elected a mem- ber of the Gold Exchange in 1875, and the next year became its secretary. In 1878 he was chosen to be chairman of the Con- solidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange, and he continued to hold that place until the last year of his life.
Soon after his settlement in this city Mr. Peters applied for naturalization papers in order to become a citizen. He was a Democrat in politics, and became affiliated with Tammany Hall. Under the leadership of John Kelly he rose to conspicuous rank in that organization. For several years he was chairman of the Tammany General Committee, and held that office down to the time of his death.
Naturally Mr. Peters was in time put forward for public office, though for a long time he declined to let his name be used in connection with any nomination. In 1894 he accepted the Tammany nomination for president of the Board of Aldermen. But that was the year of the great anti-Tammany revolution in local politics, and he was defeated with the rest of the Tammany ticket. Three years later he was again put forward as the Tammany candidate for president of the Borough of Manhattan in the consolidated metropolis, and this time he was successful. He entered upon the duties of his office on January 1, 1898, the
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date on which the consolidation of the cities took effect, and served until the end of his life.
In his early years Mr. Peters was much devoted to athletic sports. After he came to New York he was for some years a leading amateur athlete, taking part in many contests of strength and skill. He was one of the organizers of the now well-known Staten Island Cricket Club, and took an active interest in various other high-class athletic organizations. In person he was notably powerful and robust. He was more than six feet tall and finely proportioned, and was possessed of a stentorian voice, which made his reading of stock quotations a notable feature of Wall Street life.
Mr. Peters was a member of the Manhattan and various other clubs, and was a sergeant-major of the Old Guard, which latter organization he joined in 1874. He was deeply interested in freemasonry, and had attained the highest degree therein, and was Imperial Potentate of the Mecca Temple of the Mystic Shrine. He was never married, but lived for many years in bachelor apartments on East Eighty-sixth Street.
His death occurred suddenly in the early morning of Decem- ber 29, 1898. He had gone to bed apparently as well as usual, and was found dead in his bed from unsuspected heart-disease. His death put the city into mourning, and his obsequies were imposingly celebrated by the masonic fraternity.
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EDWIN FITCH RAYNOR
A MID the business occupations of which New York is the seat, there is none more important than that which we may call practical finance-the business of the banker and broker. Just as printing has been called the art preservative of arts, so this may properly be called the business promotive of business. For the circulating medium, whether money or serip or securi- ties representing it and convertible into it, is the very life-blood of industry and commerce. Upon its integrity and abundance depend the prosperity and the very conduct of all business. The men who have to do with banking and financial brokerage play, therefore, a supremely important part in the progress and pros- perity of the whole business community.
Such a part is that which has been played by the subject of the present biography, at first as a banker pure and simple, and later and at present as a banker and broker in one. In both capacities his success has been distinctive and gratifying in both reputation and material profits.
Edwin Fitch Raynor, founder and head of the Wall Street firm of E. F. Raynor & Co., is a native of the city in which he has spent all of his life. He was born in New York on July 1, 1855, and received an excellent academie education in the public schools of the city and in the College of the City of New York, which is a part of and the crowning feature of the publie-school system. His inelinations led him from the college straight into the calling to which his business energies have ever since been constantly devoted.
His first engagement was in the capacity of a elerk in the Harlem Bank of New York city. where he acquired a thorough practical knowledge of finance and also much of the intellectual
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discipline and well-balanced judgment which have essentially contributed to his success in later years. After four years' satis- factory service in various capacities, he severed his connection with the Harlem Bank and entered the employ of the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company. There, in various important capaci- ties, he spent the next eighteen years, thus gaining an excep- tionally wide and valuable experience in sound and successful finance.
Meantime he was strongly moved by the ambition to be at the head of a financial institution of his own, and to engage in the more varied business of a broker. With such end in view, Mr. Raynor, in April, 1896, purchased a seat in the New York Stock Exchange, one of the prime requisites, or at least desir- abilities, for success in the busy operations of Wall Street. It was not, however, for more than two years thereafter that he established his present business. This was effected in Septem- ber, 1898. On the first day of that month he entered into partnership with Robert A. Fairbairn, under the firm-name of E. F. Raynor & Co., and opened offices at No. 20 Broad Street, in the very heart of the financial district and close by the Stock Exchange. There the firm has since that date been doing a general banking and brokerage business, with increasing pros- perity and prestige.
Mr. Raynor has differed from many, perhaps most, Wall Street men in declining to connect himself with corporations and business enterprises. Many opportunities to do so have come to him, and have at times been urged strongly upon him, with tempting promises of profit. He has, however, invariably declined them all, considering it to his best advantage, in the long run, to devote his attention exclusively to the business of his own office and to the furthering of the interests of his numer- ons clients.
The same is to be said of participation in political affairs. Mr. Raynor is deeply interested in the welfare of the city, State, and nation, and aims to fulfil scrupulously the duties of a loyal and enlightened citizen. But with such private duties he contents himself, neither aspiring to nor accepting public preferment.
Mr. Raynor is not a club-man in the extended meaning of the word, though he is a member of a few select organizations.
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Chief among these are the New York Athletic Club, the Colonial Club, and the New York Club.
It may be added that Mr. Raynor has long interested himself, in a practical but unobtrusive way, in various charitable and benevolent enterprises for the welfare of his less-favored fellow- citizens.
He was married, years ago, to Miss Sarah J. Stewart, who has borne him two sons, Edwin Fitch Raynor, Jr., and Stewart Raynor. The family home is at No. 93 Riverside Drive, New York.
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WILLIAM RICHTER
D URING the century now drawing to a close no European nation has contributed a more useful or desirable element to the population of the United States than the German Empire. Representatives of many of the best families of the various Ger- man states have adopted this country as their home, and they, with their descendants, have established an honorable record for thrift, energy, and intelligence. This fact is evinced by the great number of German names that may be found on the rolls of all departments of business and of the various learned pro- fessions, often representing men who have attained in their respective callings far more than an average measure of success. This is especially true in those callings in which accuracy, appli- cation, and untiring perseverance and scientific skill are the elements of success, such, for example, as the medical profession, of which the subject of the present sketch is a conspicuous member.
The parents of William Richter were among those who, in the last generation, came from Germany to the United States and here founded worthy families. Julius Richter and his wife, Matilda Weber, were both born and educated in Leipzig, Saxony. Mrs. Richter belonged to one of the most estimable families in that kingdom. Her father, John Weber, was a surgeon in the army, and as such accompanied the Grand Army of Bonaparte in the ill-starred invasion of Russia in 1812. He witnessed the burning of Moscow, and shared the terrible sufferings of the imperial army in its retreat. In consideration of his services in this campaign, his son Louis was appointed by royal decree to a sheriffship of Leipzig, a life position, and one which carries con- siderable dignity, there being only three offices of the kind in the entire kingdom of Saxony.
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Julius Richter and his wife came to America in the summer of 1862, and settled in New York city, where Mr. Richter engaged in his occupation, which was that of a tailor. They had two sons, William, born on February 25, 1864, and Oscar, born on December 30, 1865. The latter is now in the practice of law in this city.
William Richter was educated at Grammar School No. 40 and the College of the City of New York. After completing the course of study in the latter institution, he entered the Medical College of New York University, from which he was graduated with honors in March, 1886. Thence he went to the University of Leipzig, where he supplemented his education in this country by a postgraduate course, covering a year and a half, in obstetries, gynecology, and surgery. Returning to his native city in Octo- ber, 1887, Dr. Richter immediately commenced the practice of medicine, for which he was so well fitted by both heredity and training.
He chose the upper East Side for his field of labor, his first location being in East Nineteenth Street, and he has never desired nor made a change. He has a large and substantial practice, has many friends both professional and social, and is now one of the recognized physicians of eminent skill on the East Side.
Dr. Richter is too devoted to his profession to take an active part in public affairs, or to belong to elubs or social organiza- tions. He is a member of the Medical Society of New York County, and of the New York City Physicians' Mutual Aid Association.
He was married, on February 22, 1898, at Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church, at Twenty-first Street and Fourth Avenue, to Miss Marie Burgmeier. Mrs. Richter was born in Bordeaux, France, was educated in Paris and in Bern, Switzerland, where her parents now live. Dr. and Mrs. Richter have a charming home at No. 320 Second Avenue.
SAMUEL RIKER
SAMUEL RIKER, one of the best known of the retired law- yers of New York, is of Dutch and English ancestry. His father, John L. Riker, who in his day was a leading lawyer of New York, was lineally descended in the fourth generation from Abraham Rycken, who came from Holland to New York, then New Amsterdam, in 1638. His mother, whose maiden name was Lavinia Smith, was of English descent. He was born on April 10, 1832, at Newtown, Queens County, New York, which place is now a part of the Borough of Queens, city of New York. His education was acquired in the local public school and at home, where he pursued an extended course of reading, especially of historical works and poetry. Thus a high degree of literary culture and general information was acquired.
When the time eame for choosing his life-work, he unhesi- tatingly turned to the legal profession. To it, indeed, he be- longed by heredity and environment: for not only, as already stated, was his father a lawyer, but .his unele, Richard Riker, was a prominent member of the bar and was for ten years District Attorney and for twenty years Recorder of the city of New York; and his brother, Henry L. Riker, and his cousins, John H. Riker and D. Phoenix Riker, occupied prominent and honorable places in the profession. He pursued his legal studies in the office of his cousin and brother, J. H. & H. L. Riker of New York, and shortly after attaining his majority, in May, 1853, was admitted to practice at the bar of New York.
Mr. Riker devoted his professional attention chiefly to matters connected with real estate. His practice included the searching of titles, the drawing of wills, of marriage settlements, and of trust deeds, and similar work. He was often engaged as the
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adviser and counselor of executors and trustees, and had to do with the settlement of many estates in the surrogate's court. Many questionable titles to real estate were cleared and perfected by him, either through judicial proceedings or through special legislative action procured by him.
In this branch of legal practice Mr. Riker came to be esteemed as one of the foremost authorities, and his opinions were fre- quently sought in the interpretation of wills, deeds, and other documents dealing with real property. He seldom appeared in court. excepting in cases involving titles to real estate, wills, etc., and even in such matters the bulk of his work was done in his own office. He numbered among his clients many prominent persons and corporations, and participated in some of the most noteworthy cases of the times. For more than thirty years he was attorney and counsel for the Sailors' Snug Harbor corpora -. tion, during which time he prepared all the leases and other instruments relating to its great landed estates in New York city and on Staten Island. He was the executor of the wills of Sarah Burr and her sisters, and in that capacity distributed be- quests amounting to some millions of dollars among various charitable institutions in New York. The histories of the legal profession, and reports of noteworthy cases, contain numerous references to his long and important practice.
Mr. Riker continued in the active and most successful pursuit of his profession for a fraction less than forty years. Then, on January 1, 1893, he retired to enjoy a well-earned rest. He has held and has sought no political office, and has been identified with no business enterprises outside of his own legal work. He has inclined to domestic life rather than to clubs, but has spent much time in foreign travel. He lias amassed a fine library, among whose volumes his leisure hours have been largely spent.
He was married at Newtown on October 11, 1865, to Miss Mary Anna Stryker, who has borne him two children : Julia Lawrence Riker and John Lawrence Riker.
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STEPHEN WOOD ROACH
YTHE name of Roach is inseparably and honorably associated with the industry of shipbuilding in the United States, and with the development of American shipping, both naval and mercantile. It was brought to this country by a lad of fifteen years, by name John Roach. He was born at Mitchelstown, Ireland, on Christmas day, 1813, coming of a family of gentle blood and once of wealth, which had become impoverished by the generosity of his father in indorsing notes for friends. John Roach, therefore, was denied even the privilege of a good educa- tion, and at an age when he should have been preparing for col- lege he came to America in the steerage of a sailing-ship, and landed in New York without money and without friends.
His first regular employment was in the old Howell Iron Works in the pine woods of Monmouth County, New Jersey, where now stands the " deserted village " of Allaire. He then went to New York and learned his trade in the Allaire Iron Works, where he acquired, by frugal saving, some capital. Soon after learning his trade he became one of the members of a cooperative iron foundry, which grew into the Ætna Iron Works, and in time Mr. Roach became its sole proprietor. At the end of the Civil War Mr. Roach was at the head of a splendid business, and then he began to turn his attention to shipbuilding. In 1868 he pur- chased four important iron works, all in New York, and consoli- dated them under the name of the Morgan Iron Works. Three years later he purchased a large shipyard at Chester, Pennsylva- nia, and gave it the name of the Delaware River Iron Ship- building & Engine Works. In a dozen years thereafter he launched one hundred and twenty-six steamships for commerce and for the United States navy, employing in the works more
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F MIR DALLe of Roach is inseparably and honorably associat of the industry of shipbuilding in the United States, wij. tu development of American shipping, both naval au It was brought to this country by a lad of fifte- Jobu Roach. He was born ot Mitchelstow,
ley, 1812, coming of a family of ger 00. Fluch had become impoverished imlesing notes for friends. Jol
He privilege of a good -due
bere been preparing for co.
Failing-ship. au An friends.
. How ell Iron Work w forsey, where no He then went to Nel p & L Works, where I
et comme capital, Soon after learning
" maread the members of a cooperative ico BoLey. Ah 1 Seen pro Dortna Tror Works, and in time M Peach i Sono Da sole proprietor. At the end of the Civil W: De Compostos the head of a splendid business, and tion In zert to Trex hi attention to shipbuilding. In 1865 h . pu Ple d how apportant iron works, all in New York, and co, sol Tel them. peder th . nan . of the Morgan Iron Works. Thi wat ter at migchased a large shipyard at Chester, Per chi The Pnl some ff ffe name of the Delaware River In Sh Laitdie: . Drviny Works In a dozen years flur 1: r )
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than two thousand men. When, under the administration of President Arthur, the work of building a new navy for this coun- try was begun, the first contraets were given to Mr. Roach, and fulfilled by him in the most admirable manner. But his stanch Republicanism and advocacy of the American system of protec- tion had made him the especial object of partizan hatred, and in the next administration, which was Democratic, he was bitterly persecuted.
The goverment refused to accept the ships built by him, and thus drove him into the hands of a receiver. The shock of this hastened his death; but the ships were finally accepted, and proved to be the best and most efficient in the navy, and John Roach's name has gone into history as the father of the new navy. He died in 1887, mourned by the nation, at a time when ninety per cent. of the American mercantile marine (steam) in the coastwise and foreign trade had been built by him.
John Roach was married, in 1836, to Miss Emeline Johnson, and the union resulted in nine children, the eighth of whom is the subject of this sketch. Stephen Wood Roach was born in New York city on January 11, 1858, and was educated in the public schools and at the Columbia Grammar School. At the latter place he was prepared for Columbia College, but instead of entering college he entered the Morgan Iron Works and learned his father's business. There he served as a elerk for some years, and afterward became treasurer. He became asso- ciated with his two surviving brothers in conducting the business founded by his father. He is now manager of the Morgan Iron Works, and vice-president of the Delaware River Iron Shipbuild- ing & Engine Works, at Chester, Pennsylvania.
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