USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 6
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A year later a corporation was formed by Mr. Cole for another department of the cooperage trade, and known as the National Cooperage Company, for the manufacture and sale of slack cooperage stock, comprising all the various kinds of woods used
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in the industry. Of this latter company Mr. Cole became and remains the president. The two concerns, covering practically all branches of the cooperage industry, under Mr. Cole's personal management and direction, have greatly prospered and advanced in scope until to-day they stand among the foremost cooperage houses of the United States.
Although still a young man, being well under middle age, Mr. Cole has attained a snecess that must be regarded as exceptional and phenomenal. Hle has done so, however, not by leky chance nor through favorable extraneous influences, but through vir- tue of his inherent worth. He has, in brief, all through his career maintained truly those principles of integrity, energy, enterprise, and devotion to duty which always deserve success and usually command it. In the two companies mentioned, of which he is the undisputed head, he has built up a splendid business, and has placed himself in touch with men of affairs and great capital, and thus has made himself a part of the great industrial fabric of the times. His pleasing and magnetic per- sonality has won him many warm friends and devoted co- laborers.
Mr. Cole has always been an earnest Republican in polities. He has never sought nor accepted publie office, however, but has contented himself with the faithful discharge of the duties of a private citizen. Neither is he known as a " club-man," his men- bership in social organizations being limited to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since 1892 he has been a mem- ber of the New York Produce Exchange, with whose operations his own business is so closely affiliated. He has been a church- member ever since his early boyhood, and has long been actively interested in the Young Men's Christian Association, and has served as treasurer of the Jersey City branch. He was married, on April 7, 1892, to Miss Helen Ames Howlett, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Howlett of Jersey City.
GEORGE DILLWYN COOK
TN the last generation the County of Harford, Maryland, was the home of a group of families of which various members were destined to figure conspicuously in the affairs of State and nation. Among these were the families of Garrett, Jewett, Booth, and Cook. A son of the Cook family, named Elisha, lived on his father's farm, and had for his companions and playmates John W. Garrett, who afterward became presi- dent of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and one of the fore- most railroad managers and financiers of the country ; Hugh J. Jewett, who rose to similar prominence as president of the Erie Railroad ; and the Booth boys, one of whom became the world's greatest tragedian on the stage, and another the perpetrator of one of its greatest tragedies in real life. Elisha Cook was later employed in a dry-goods store in Baltimore, and then went West to Jefferson County, Ohio.
That county is historically one of the most noteworthy in that State. It was the birthplace of Edwin M. Stanton, of General Custer, of William McKinley (within its original limits), of the family of the " fighting MeCooks," of Professor William M. Sloane, the historian, of E. F. Andrews, the artist, of Doyle, the sculptor, of William D. Howells, the novelist, and of numer- ons other men who have attained prominence before the public eye. In that county Elisha Cook settled and pursued the career of a general merchant. One of his partners in the wool trade was John Brown, the famous hero of Kansas and Harpers Ferry. Mr. Cook married Miss Mary Ann Ladd, daughter of Benjamin W. Ladd, formerly of Charles City County, Virginia, the Ladd family ranking among the best in the Old Dominion. It may be added that Elisha Cook and his wife were both life- long members of the Society of Friends.
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Jean Cook
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GEORGE DILLWYN COOK
George Dillwyn Cook was born to this couple at Richmond, Jefferson County, Ohio, on February 27, 1845. Up to the age of twelve years, he was educated at home and at the local public school. For the next two years he attended college at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, and thereafter for a short time he was a student at Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana. While pursu- ing his studies, from his twelfth to his sixteenth year, he was also gaining a practical knowledge of business, being employed in vacations by his father as a wool-buyer for his store. The boy had, by the way, a strong bent toward all mathematical studies, and from his earliest years in school "kept accounts " with more than ordinary care and accuracy. His training in his father's store during his school life was of much value to him in prepar- ing him for the business operations of after life.
At the age of eighteen years young Cook left home and went to Pittsburg, where he took a thorough course at Duff's Com- mercial College. A few years later he became a business man on his own account, as a member of the firm of Cook Brothers & Co., wholesale provision dealers. That, however, was not altogether to his liking, and in 1869 he went West to Oska- loosa, Iowa, and there established himself in the dry-goods busi- ness. Two years of this undertaking, though profitable, were enough to convince him that he had not yet found his true place, so he sold out and started the financial house of O. M. Ladd & Co., at Ottumwa, Iowa. Its business was chiefly the loaning of money on mortgages for farm improvements, etc. The house soon became highly successful, and so continues to this day under its present ownership.
This was Mr. Cook's start in finance, and from it he proceeded to enlarged activities and greater achievements. He went to Chicago in 1878, and a few years later became interested there in the handling of investment securities. Since that time many millions of dollars' worth of such securities have passed through his hands, without a single default of principal or interest. Mr. Cook has always been careful and conservative in recommend- ing securities to his patrons, and hence has attained a particu- larly substantial form of success. One of his largest under- takings was in assisting the government of Mexico to refund that republic's loan of one hundred and ten million dollars.
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He first heard of its desire to do so in December, 1895. Forth- with he went to the city of Mexico, and had personal conferences with President Diaz and the Minister of Finance, Señor Liman- tour. He convinced them that it would not be necessary to look to Europe for funds, but that all the needed capital for the oper- ation could be secured in the United States. Subsequent to that time, his own company, in 1899, sold in the United States one million five hundred thousand dollars' worth of bonds purchased from the state of Jalisco, Mexico, the first foreign securities of the kind sold in this country. By the last-named operation, and the consummation of the government loan before men- tioned, Mr. Cook made for himself a lasting friendship with President Diaz and other high Mexican officials, to be added to like relations already existing with the leading financiers, rail- road managers, and business men of the United States.
Mr. Cook is now president of the George D. Cook Company, bankers of Chicago and New York; president of the Cook- Turner Company of New York, dealers in high-class industrial, mining, and railroad securities; president of the Mexican Mineral Railroad Company, with headquarters in New York ; and a director of the Mexican Lead Company, with offices in New York.
Amid these multifarious and weighty business interests, in conducting which he has handled hundreds of millions of dol- lars, and has accumulated a handsome fortune for himself, Mr. Cook has had no time for political activities apart from the ordinary duties of citizenship. Neither has he been much of a " club-man " in the common sense of that term. He is a men- ber, however, of the Union League Club of Chicago and the New York Club of New York, as well as of Montjoie Commandery, Knights Templar of Chicago.
Mr. Cook was married, on June 10, 1873, to Miss Dora A. Shaw of Mount Pleasant, Iowa. She died on July 14, 1882, leaving him one child, Laura Wever, who is now the wife of Arthur Blackmore Turner of New York. On January 1, 1890, Mr. Cook married Miss Stella Virginia Sturges, who has borne him two children : Sturges Dillwyn Cook, born April 2, 1891, and Elizabeth Allen Cook, born September 9, 1893.
RICHARD M. CORNELL
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THE Cornell family in America traces its descent from Thomas Cornell, who came hither from England in 1633. In the last generation John H. Cornell was cashier of the Mechan- ies' Banking Association at No. 38 Wall Street, New York. He was the father of the subject of this sketch. On the maternal side Richard M. Cornell is descended from the Buxton family of Derbyshire, England, and also from William Hamilton, an English sea-captain who on retiring from his seafaring life settled in New York, at No. 3 Bowling Green. Before the War of 1812 Captain Hamilton, fearing the city would be bombarded and destroyed by the British, sold his house and invested the proceeds in British consols, and finally lost it all through the failure of a firm of New York merchants with whom he had de- posited it without security. Some of the Cornells were Tories during the Revolutionary War. They lived in New York and were members of Trinity parish.
Richard M. Cornell was born in New York on June 1, 1834, and was educated at the Peekskill Military Academy. At the age of thirteen he went to sea, before the mast, on the ship Lebanon of Boston, and made the voyage to Manila and back. The next year he spent at Trinity School in New York. Then he went to sea on the ship Walpole, sailing around Cape Horn to the Columbia River, Oregon. At this time there was only one house at Astoria and two at Portland, Oregon, and he could have bought the entire site of the present city for $5000, the value of a venture of goods his father had intrusted to his care, and of which an agent ran off with about $3000. Thenee he sailed in the Walpole to Honolulu, Singapore, Calcutta, and so on around the world by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.
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At sixteen years of age he shipped as third mate on the clipper- ship Sea Serpent, owned by the firm of Grinnell, Minturn & Co., and made another voyage around the world, by way of San Francisco and China. His next voyage was over the same route, in capacity of second mate. On this third voyage around the world he had as passengers, coming home from China, Bayard Taylor, Lieutenant Contee, U. S. N., who was Commo- dore Perry's flag-lieutenant in the famous Japan expedition, and Francis Parkman, the historian. The voyage is described in detail in Taylor's " India, China, and Japan."
While Mr. Cornell was on this voyage his father died, at the age of fifty-six years, leaving a fortune of about $250,000. On reaching home, therefore, he retired from the sea, and estab- lished himself in the shipping and commission business at No. 100 Wall Street, New York, and continued therein until the out- break of the Civil War in 1861. In 1862 he was appointed an acting ensign in the United States navy, and served on the United States steamer Unadilla of the South Atlantic Blockad- ing Squadron. He was present at the first bombardment of Fort Sumter by Admiral Dupont. He was recommended for promotion in connection with the capture of the blockade-runner Princess Royal, and was made acting master and executive officer of the Unadilla, which ship was then ordered home for repairs. On reaching home he was detached from the Unadilla and received leave of absence on waiting orders. During this interval he married Miss Margaret D. MeLaughlin, daughter of Captain MeLaughlin, U. S. N. Then he was ordered to duty as executive officer of the United States steamship Isonomia of the North Atlantic Squadron, afterward of the Gulf Squadron under the command of Captain Simpson, U. S. N.
Mr. Cornell resigned his commission in the navy in 1865, and in the following year became a clerk in the New York banking house of Brown Brothers & Co. On January 1, 1867, he started business on his own account, as a stock and bond broker, at No. 49 Wall Street, and has continued in that business ever since, his present office being at No. 29 Wall Street. His home is at Perth Amboy, New Jersey.
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JOHN SERGEANT CRAM
THE family of Cram is of English origin. It was trans- planted to this country in colonial days, and was settled in 1640 and for some generations thereafter at Exeter, New Hampshire.
In that historie town, in the latter part of the cighteenth century, Jacob Cram was born. In the Exeter Academy he was a classmate of Daniel Webster and Lewis Cass. Instead of turning his attention to the law and public service, however, he studied for the ministry, and then, changing his mind, entered mercantile life. He served for a time in one of the leading stores in Boston, then made a tour of Europe, and then went into business in Boston on his own account. His success there led him to try his fortune in New York, which he saw was the busi- ness capital of the United States.
He came to New York in 1816, and for half a century there- after was a conspicuous and honored citizen of the metropolis and a leader in the business world. Besides being a sound and enterprising merchant, he was a discriminating investor in real estate. He was also the owner of some real estate in Chicago.
Jacob Cram died in 1869, leaving, among other children, a son named Henry A. Cram, a distinguished lawyer of New York. To the latter and his wife, Catherine Sergeant, was born the sub- ject of this sketch.
John Sergeant Cram was born in New York, in the year 1852. He was sent back to the State which had been his ancestors' home for education, and pursued a thorough course at St. Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire. Thence he went to Harvard College, and completed its regular course. He also followed his father's footsteps, taking a course in law and gaining admittance to the
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bar. Having thus qualified, Mr. Cram entered upon the practice of the law. He also became interested in politics, as a Democrat and member of Tammany Hall. He became a close friend of Richard Croker, and rose to influential rank in the councils of the party.
In 1889 he was made a commissioner of docks for the city of New York, and served through that administration. The next administration was a Republican one, which caused his removal. In the fall of 1897, however, the consolidation of all the metro- politan district into "Greater New York " was effected, and a Democratic administration was elected for the city. Upon the installation of that administration, in January, 1898, Mr. Cram was returned to the Department of Docks, being appointed president of the board.
Mr. Cram is a member of the Knickerbocker and Democratic clubs of New York.
A. M. Crane
ALEXANDER BAXTER CRANE
A LEXANDER BAXTER CRANE was born at Berkley, Bristol County, Massachusetts, on April 23, 1833. He was the son of Abiel Briggs Crane, a merchant, and Emma Tisdale Porter Crane, and came of Puritan and Pilgrim stock. Other families from which Mr. Crane is descended were the Porters, Tisdales, Briggses, Pauls, Axtells, and Hathaways. He was educated in the common schools of Berkley, under a pri- vate instructor, and finally at Amherst College, where he was graduated in 1854. Then he went to Terre Haute, Indiana, and studied law, meantime teaching and preparing young men for college. He was a student in the law office of Colonel Richard W. Thompson, who in after years was Secretary of the Navy.
Mr. Crane was admitted to the bar in 1856, at Terre Haute. In 1862 he raised a company for the army at his own expense, and was mustered in as its captain. He was commissioned as colonel in 1864, but the regiment was depleted to below the required strength, and he was not mustered in as colonel. He served as provost-marshal at Nicholsonville, Kentucky, and pro- hibited a judicial sale of slaves. Again, as judge-advocate at Danville, Kentucky, he accepted the testimony of negroes in court. These two acts created a great sensation, and their legality was challenged, but in the end they were fully approved and sustained. Colonel Crane's field service with Coburn's Brigade was brilliant and effective. In an engagement with Van Dorn's and Forrest's troops, he and many of his comrades were captured. They were sent to Richmond, Virginia, and confined in Libby Prison. After two weeks the private soldiers were released through exchange, but the officers, including Colo- nel Crane, were kept in prison nine weeks. After release
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Colonel Crane rejoined his regiment in Tennessee, and was pres- ently appointed by General Thomas to examine officers for ap- pointment to the command of colored troops. He served in that capacity for some months, and among those whom he examined was Major Shafter, who had been a fellow-prisoner in Libby Prison, and who is now a major-general in the United States army.
He was called home to Indiana, to suppress treasonable or- ganizations and hold that State loyal. He made a tour of part of the State in 1864, at the request of Governor Morton, and was a candidate on the Republican ticket for State Senator for the especial object of organizing the party in Sullivan County, Indiana, where the opposition to the war was great, and the "Sons of Liberty " were in camp to resist the draft.
In the closing months of the war Colonel Crane was with Sherman's army. When he and his regiment were mustered out, a gold watch, engraved with the battles in which the regiment had participated, was publicly presented to him at Terre Haute, by Colonel Thompson, every officer and man in the regiment contributing to the gift. After that he came to New York city, and resumed the practice of law. He is a director of the People's Bank of Mount Vernon, New York, and of the City Bank of New Rochelle, New York. He has been retained in many important litigations, and has been counsel for several large corporations. He was counsel for John I. Blair in his great rail- road enterprises, and for Oakes Ames, Moses Taylor, William E. Dodge, and others in similar works.
Mr. Crane is a member of the Union League Club, the Loyal Legion, Army and Navy Club, Sons of the Revolution, Grand Army of the Republic, Delta Kappa Epsilon Club, and the State and the city bar associations. He is also a manager of the Westchester Temporary Home for Destitute Children. He was married in New York, on July 12, 1865, to Miss Laura Cornelia Mitchell, daughter of John W. Mitchell of New York city. Their children, all of whom are living, are Elizabeth G., Caroline E., Helen C., Aurelia B., Alexander M., and Laura V. Crane. Their home is a beautiful country seat at Scarsdale, New York.
Mange. Crawford.
JOHN JAY CRAWFORD
J JOHN JAY CRAWFORD was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on September 12, 1859, and is the son of Samuel T. Crawford, a well-known lawyer of that city. His mother's maiden name was Love. He was educated at the Chickering Institute in Cin- cinnati, which, until it was closed a few years ago, was one of the best and most widely celebrated seats of learning west of the Alleghanies. Mr. Crawford's first inclinations were toward newspaper work, and coming to New York, he served for some months as a reporter for the "Tribune." He then became pri- vate secretary to ex-Governor Thomas L. Young of Ohio, who was then a Representative in Congress from that State, and the law partner of Mr. Crawford's father. While in Washington he studied law in the Law School of the Columbian University, and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia.
In 1886 he was appointed a Chief of Division in the office of the Controller of the Currency, in the Treasury Department, at Washington, and had charge of a part of the legal business of the Controller's office. In 1889 he returned to New York, and was admitted to the New York bar, and has been engaged in the active practice of his profession ever since. In 1895 he was en- ployed by the Commissioners on Uniformity of Laws to prepare a codification of the law of commercial paper. In 1896 his draft of the Negotiable Investment Law was submitted to the confer- ence of commissioners at Saratoga, and approved by that body. The next year the law was enacted by the Legislatures of New York, Connecticut, Florida, and Colorado, and since then has been adopted in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, North Caro- lina, Tennessee, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and the District of Columbia. This statute has been ap-
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proved by the American Bar Association and by the American Bankers' Association, both of which have urged its adoption by all the States of the Union. It has been pronounced by many competent judges, both in this country and in England, to be a work of the highest skill, and a model of simplicity and clear- ness. Mr. Arthur Cohen, Q. C., who was one of the committee that framed the British Bills of Exchange Act, in a letter to the president of the conference of commissioners, said : "In my opinion, the language of this bill is singularly felicitous; it is more clear, concise, less stiff and artificial, than that of our Bills of Exchange Act, and in this respect this draft is an improve- ment on our act." And what is no less remarkable than the clearness of statement, is the admirable judgment which was able to produce an act acceptable in all parts of the country, with the divergence of views and traditional practice prevailing in the various States. But while Mr. Crawford's name is thus closely associated with the commercial law of the country, it is as a litigating lawyer that he is best known in New York. He is constantly engaged in the trial of cases, or in the argument of appeals, and in this branch of the practice he bas met with singular success. He has been connected with some of the most important cases decided within the last few years.
Mr. Crawford was married, in 1882, to Miss Fanny Lyles, daughter of the late Dr. William D. Lyles of Mississippi, who was one of the most prominent men of that State. They have one son, Lamar Crawford, who is at this writing still at school, at the Hamilton Institute, New York.
JOHN VINTON DAHLGREN
THE name of Dahlgren, prominent and honored in American history, is of Swedish origin. In earlier generations it was borne by well-known men in Sweden. Johan Adolf Dahlgren and Bernhard Ulric Dahlgren were among the eminent alumni of the University of Upsala, and performed important public services. A son of the latter was that John A. Dahlgren who was among our admirals in the Civil War, and whose inventions revolutionized the ordnance system of the navy. The second wife of Admiral Dahlgren was Madeleine Vinton, daughter of the distinguished Ohio statesman and member of Congress, Samuel Finley Vinton. She has become favorably known to the world as an author of various historical memoirs and works of fiction. Among the sons of Admiral Dahlgren by his first wife were Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, U. S. A., who after gallant service was killed in the Civil War; Captain Charles Dahlgren, U. S. N., who also did fine service in the war; and Lieutenant Paul Dahl- gren, U. S. A., who on retiring from the army entered the con- sular service.
John Vinton Dahlgren, a son of the admiral by his second marriage, was born at Valparaiso, Chile, on April 22, 1868. He received his early education in a Jesuit school, and was gradu- ated from the University of Georgetown, D. C., as valedictorian of the class of 1889. In the fall of that year he entered the law school of the same university and was graduated in the spring of 1891, receiving the degree of LL. B. A few weeks later he received that of A. M., and in 1892 that of LL. M. Then he came to New York city and began the practice of law, first as a clerk in the office of Lord, Day & Lord, and then, in November, 1894, on his own account. One of his first clients was Mr.
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Stevenson Constable, who in 1895 was appointed superintendent of the Department of Buildings in this city. On March 27, 1895, Mr. Dahlgren was appointed first assistant attorney of that department, the attorney being the Hon. Thomas Ewing, for- merly of Ohio, and eminent as a soldier, lawyer, and statesman. For nine months Mr. Dahlgren did faithful work in that place, among other things compiling the valuable handbook known as the " Dahlgren Building Law Manual." On December 31, 1895, Mr. Ewing resigned his place and Mr. Dahlgren was promoted to fill it, which he did with marked success, resigning the place at the end of the year on account of impaired health.
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