USA > New York > New York state's prominent and progressive men : an encyclopaedia of contemporaneous biography, Volume III > Part 8
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EDWARD ALSON DRAKE
THE father of Edward Alson Drake was William F. Drake, M. D., born in Massachusetts, who began his career as a successful practising physician in Boston, Massachusetts, and later in London, England, and in New York city. His ances- tors, who were all English, came to Massachusetts, and were notably identified with the political and social interests of that State, and of New England generally, and were connected by marriage and in business with many of the leading New Eng- land families. Dr. Drake practised medicine until 1863. Then, in those flush and piping days of enterprise and speculation, he turned his attention to finance. He joined the Wall Street firm of Drake Brothers, bankers, brokers, and railroad constructors, which was a power in the Street and in general finance until 1876. He married, in 1843, Miss Emma R. Mott, a lady of English birth and parentage.
Of such parentage Edward Alson Drake was born in Boston, on September 15, 1845. He was educated in public and private schools in New York city, and showed himself an apt scholar. A scholarship in the University of the City of New York was presented to him for his proficiency in preparatory studies, but he was too young to make use of it. Instead, he went in June, 1859, to Wall Street, and entered the office of relatives, where he showed business ability as marked as his ability in school had been. He had thereafter various business engagements, and also, while contemplating the adoption of a professional career, a term as assistant to the principal of a celebrated classical school, down to 1867, when he was elected to membership in the New York Stock Exchange, and entered upon the career which has since been marked with more than common success.
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On the retirement of the old firm of Drake Brothers, in 1876, he formed a new firm of that same name, which continued until 1893. He was interested in large operations in gold and stocks, and in railroad construction in various parts of the Middle and Southern States, in all of which enterprises he was generally successful. In 1893 he became identified with the Panama Railroad Company.
At the present time Mr. Drake is connected with numerous railroad and other industrial enterprises, as director or officer. He has been successively secretary, assistant general manager and secretary, and second vice-president and secretary of the Panama Railroad Company. Between 1880 and 1887 he was a member of the board of governors of the Stock Exchange, and chairman of some of the most important committees.
Mr. Drake has long taken an earnest and active interest in the affairs of the Republican party, though he has never held nor been a candidate for public office. Since 1876 he has been prominently associated with every Republican business men's demonstration in city, State, and national campaigns, and has contributed largely to their success and to the prosperity of the party.
He was a member of various social organizations, and one of the governors of the New York Athletic Club, serving actively on the committee in charge of the construction and opening of the old club-house at Fifty-fifth Street and Sixth Avenue.
Mr. Drake was married in this city, on January 9, 1873, to Miss Jeannette L. Bell, the elder daughter of William J. Bell, banker and member of the firm of Merriam & Bell. The union has been crowned with two sons, Alfred E. Drake and Fred Noyes Drake.
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ROBERT DUNLAP
TT may be said of Robert Dunlap that he represents the best type of the American business man. No merchant has been more closely identified than he with the growth and development of New York into a world-city. Honesty, sagacity, and a strong personality have been the forces of his success.
Robert Dunlap was born in New York city on October 17, 1834, the son of Scotch-Irish parents. He received a public- school education, and while yet a youth was apprenticed to a hatter. Having served his time, he was taken into his em- ployer's store as a salesman.
In 1857 he went into business for himself, at No. 557 Broad- way. His entire money capital was less than two thousand dollars, but he had courage, energy, and confidence in himself. He was one of the first merchants in the city to conceive adver- tising as a fine art. This fact, coupled with the more important one of keeping his goods up to the highest standard of excel- lence, soon made his store widely known. He also kept well abreast of the city's up-town movement, and when the Fifth Avenue Hotel was built, he was among the first to open a store there. Since that time Mr. Dunlap has been a recognized leader in his line of business. He has branch stores in Chicago and Philadelphia, and agencies in every large town in the United States. His manufactories in Brooklyn are among the largest in the world devoted to the production of dress hats. More than a thousand people are employed in them, and they are consid- ered model factories.
Among other enterprises in which Mr. Dunlap has been inter- ested is the Dunlap Cable News Company, which was organized in 1891. It was intended to supply a demand for a more inde-
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pendent and disinterested news service between the two conti- nents than the existing companies afforded. In less than a year from its establishment it was an acknowledged rival of the older lines. Ultimately the company was consolidated with a Euro- pean eoneern, and is now known as Dalziel's News Agency in Europe. In 1890 Mr. Dunlap, with others, founded the illus- trated weekly "Truth," which he afterward purchased outright and managed with success, but finally sold to the American Lithographie Company.
A lover and patron of literature, the drama, and of art gener- ally, Mr. Dunlap has gathered from all parts of the world a notably fine art collection, in which he takes great pride. He is a member of the American Geographical Society, and a fellow of the National Academy of Design, and the American Museum of Natural History. He is a member also of the following clubs : the Manhattan, the New York, the Colonial, the Coney Island Jockey, the Larchmont, and the New York Yacht.
He has never been ambitious of political honors, but has been content to fulfil his duty as a citizen in favor of good govern- ment by the best men. His principal occupation has been the building up of the industry which bears his name. In this he has been preëminently successful, and his establishment has be- come one of the most honorable mereantile houses in New York.
Mr. Dunlap married, in 1860, a daughter of Dr. T. H. Burras. Mrs. Dunlap is a descendant of the French Huguenots, and her great-grandfather lies in old Trinity Churchyard. They have four daughters, and a son who should be his father's business successor.
JOHN STEWART DURAND
THE name of Durand inevitably suggests that the bearer of it is of more or less directly French origin. In the pres- ent case that suggestion is verified by the facts. Among the French Huguenots who came to this country in early colonial times, in quest of civil and religious freedom and a new and ampler seope for their activities, was Dr. John Durand. He came hither in 1635, and settled in New England. There he married Eliza- beth Bryan of Milford, Connecticut. From this couple was descended a line of worthy citizens of the new commonwealths in which their lot was cast. One of these, in the last genera- tion, was also named John Durand. He became one of the fore- most railroad managers in the United States, and died in 1891, after a successful and honored career.
This second John Durand was married to Martha Boyd Stewart, whose name suggests a mingled Seotch and Irish ori- gin, a suggestion which, like the former, is borne out by the facts. Her forebears were Scotch, belonging to the great fam- ilies or clans of Stewart and MeKenzie. From Scotland they removed, as did so many of their countrymen, to the north of Ireland, and were among those who made the Province of Ulster a thrifty Scottish land. There they intermarried with Irish fam- ilies, and thus was acquired the name of Boyd. Thus the blood of three strong races was mingled in the veins of the ehil- dren of this latter union.
John Stewart Durand, son of John and Martha Durand, was born at Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father was engaged in rail- road enterprises, on October 30, 1859. His parents intended him for a professional career, and accordingly had him carefully edu- cated. After passing through primary courses of study he was
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sent to the Hopkins Grammar School, at New Haven, Connec- ticut, where he received an admirable preparation for college. Thenee he proceeded to Yale University, where he pursued the regular course with high credit to himself. He was duly graduated with the class of 1881. He had already decided to adopt the legal profession, and accordingly came from Yale to New York city, to begin the study of the law. He became a stu- dent in the Law School of Columbia University, and pursued the course with the same diligence and success that had marked his former scholastic career. In 1883 he was duly graduated, and in the spring of that year was graduated to practise his profes- sion at the bar of New York.
Mr. Durand immediately began work as a praetising lawyer in New York, and has ever since made this eity his home and the chief scene of his professional activities. He has not permitted politieal or other interests to distract his attention from the law, but has devoted to the latter the undivided energies of his mind, and thus has attained a gratifying measure of success in both reputation and fortune. At the present time he is a member of the well-known firm of Tyler & Durand, with offices on Broad- way, in the borough of Manhattan. His partner is Mason W. Tyler, a son of the late Professor William S. Tyler of Amherst College.
Mr. Durand was at Yale a member of the Psi Upsilon Frater- nity, and is now a member of the Psi Upsilon Club of New York city, as well as of the Yale Club. He belongs also to the National Arts Club, the Bar Association of the City of New York, the Bar Association of the State of New York, the New York Law Institute, the New York Botanical Garden, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the American Statistical Associa- tion, the West Side Republican Club, the West End Association, and the American Historical Association. He was married on April 16, 1887, in New York city, to Emma Weber Ely, and has had two children : Henry Stewart Durand, born August 13, 1890, and John Durand, born August 17, 1893, and died August 23, 1893. In polities Mr. Durand has always been a Republican, and prominently identified with the Republican party, but has never sought any political office.
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CHARLES HENRY EDGAR
F NOREMOST among the learned professions practised in the American metropolis, in point of numbers and activity, is that of the law. Its ranks are thronged with practitioners of all ranks and conditions, from all parts of the country, and indeed from all parts of the world. Nowhere is the profession more crowded, nowhere is the competition keener, nowhere are the requirements for success greater, and nowhere are those require- ments better met and success more surely won.
Prominent among those who have thus won success, not through any adventitious circumstances, but through solid per- sonal merit, is the subject of the present sketch, a native of the city of New York, of Scottish ancestry.
Charles Henry Edgar is a descendant of Thomas Edgar, who was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on October 19, 1681, and who came to America sometime between the years 1715 and 1718. From Thomas Edgar was descended Matthias B. Edgar, who had a son named James A. Edgar. The latter married Mary E. Coe, and was a merchant in New York city. He died on April 1, 1867.
Charles Henry Edgar, son of James A. Edgar and Mary E. Coe Edgar, was born in New York city, on January 4, 1857. Much of his boyhood was spent at Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was a student in the Rev. John F. Pingry's school. For one year he was at St. Paul's School, at Concord, New Hampshire. Thence he proceeded to Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, and was there graduated in the class of 1877. Finally he entered the Law School of Columbia College, New York, and was grad- uated with the class of 1879.
Mr. Edgar was promptly admitted to practice at the bar as an
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attorney and counselor at law, the date of his admission by the Supreme Court of the State of New York being May 29, 1879.
He immediately entered upon the practice of his profession in New York city, and has attained an enviable degree of success. His practice has been general in character, and he has devoted his whole business attention to it. He has not identified him- self with any speculative or other enterprises, nor has he taken part in political affairs, beyond discharging the duties of a pri- vate citizen.
Mr. Edgar is a member of several important professional. social, and philanthropie organizations. Among these may be mentioned the New York State Bar Association, the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Hamilton Club of Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn Children's Aid Society, of which last-named he is a trustee.
Mr. Edgar was married on November 15, 1883, his bride being Miss Ellen L. Husted. Mr. and Mrs. Edgar make their home in Brooklyn. They have two children, daughters, named Louise and Elinor.
JOHN WASHINGTON EISENHUTH
O NE of the most noteworthy developments of modern science and inventive skill is to be seen in the substitution of va- rious types of mechanical motors for horse-power in the propul- sion of vehicles. The multiplication of these devices, and their practical efficiency, give much color to the prophecy that we are on the threshold of an almost horseless age. Already antomo- tive vehicles are widely used, both for business and for pleasure, and the number of them, and their availability, are steadily and not slowly increasing.
Prominent among the promoters of this new industry is John Washington Eisenhuth, an American of remote German origin, his ancestors having come to this country in 1639. He is the son of Thomas Valentine Eisenhuth and Mary Ramsay Eisen- huth, and was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on September 7, 1860. His education was acquired in the schools of Chicago and Springfield, Illinois, whither his parents had removed. He studied sciences and engineering, and he began his business career as a civil and mining engineer. For several years he was a successful operator among the gold- and silver-mines of Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico.
Meantime, beginning in 1878, he was experimenting with va- rions devices for automotive vehicles, steam- and gas-engines, and electric motors. He perfected and has in use several styles of horizontal and vertical engines of various sizes, all of which are doing admirable service. He has invented several styles of gas and compressed-air engines for horseless vehicles, and since 1886 has been a leader in the latter enterprise. He was the inventor of one of the most successful clipping-machines for barbers' and horse-clippers' use. He was one of the originators
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of the combined fixtures for gas and electric lights, and designed many novel patterns thereof. In 1883 he built a great sugar- mill for Claus Spreckels, at Hilo, in the Hawaiian Islands. Many of his inventions and devices have been taken up by other people, to their great profit.
Mr. Eisenhuth is now president of the Eisenhuth Horseless Vehicle Company of this city, a concern with ten million dollars capital, which proposes to manufacture on an extensive scale a great diversity of vehicles for all purposes, propelled by engines driven by gas, electricity, carbonic acid, liquefied and compressed air, or other like agent. He is at the head of a great mining company in Alaska, with a capital of two million dollars. In the furtherance of mining interests he was one of a party of sixteen who went up the Yukon River on an exploring expedition. He has also an important private banking business. He has taken no active part in politics, and has held no public office.
It is of interest to recall that his great-grandfather, Bernard Eisenhuth, was one of the leading spirits of the Revolution, and voted to elect George Washington President, and lived to cast his vote for Abraham Lincoln, living until the age of one hun- dred and eleven years and six months, enjoying every faculty, and never using a cane nor glasses; and when asked why he changed his polities in voting for Lincoln, replied that " Lincoln's principles and the platform which he represented were identical with those of Washington."
Mr. Eisenhuth is an enthusiastic yachtsman, and has built a number of pleasure crafts. He is a member of the San Francisco Yacht Club, and of the Western Bankers' Association. He is an honorary member of the Olympia Club, and of the Paris Acad- emy of Inventors, of Paris, France. He was married to Miss Ella Victoria Rodgers, at San Francisco, on December 24, 1884. They have no children.
JOHN LOVE ELLIOT
THE name of Elliot is sufficiently identified with early Ameri- can history to need no explanation here. Two generations back Jonathan Elliot did an inestimably valuable work for the annals of the nation in editing the great series of volumes known as "Elliot's Debates," which contain a synopsis of the doings of Congress in early days and were the predecessors of the official "Congressional Record." He was a resident of Washing- ton, D. C. His son, Henry Elliot, was a successful lawyer, who settled in eastern Tennessee.
Jane Warren Elliot, the wife of Henry Elliot and mother of the subject of this sketch, was a daughter of John Love, who was a native of Charles County, Maryland, a Master in Chancery, and a Representative in Congress from Tennessee. John Love was descended directly from Christopher Love, who played a prominent part in English politics in Oliver Cromwell's time, and met his end under the headsman's ax.
Jolin Love Elliot was born of such parentage and ancestry on July 31, 1865, in Greene County, in eastern Tennessee. His boy- hood was a wandering one, and his education was acquired in schools as widely separated as in Florida, in Virginia, and in Denver, Colorado. These comprised, also, day-schools and night- schools, public schools and private schools.
His first business occupation was as a clerk in a drug store. This lasted for about one year, in 1879-80. Next he was em- ployed in the printing-office of the "Denver Tribune," at Denver, Colorado. There, also, he remained for about one year. His third engagement began in March, 1882, in the shops of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, at Denver. There, for nearly two years, he worked ten hours a day. During all these engage-
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ments he attended night-school, and thus acquired a good educa- tion, of an eminently practical character.
Mr. Elliot entered upon what was to be the chief business of his life in the spring of 1884. He was then employed as a fire- man on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, but he became interested in mining, and sent all his spare earnings to a partner, who worked the mine. After a time the mine was sold, and he left the employment of the railroad to devote all his attention to mining. His second mining enterprise was disastrous, sweeping away nearly all of his capital. Thereupon he came to the East and for a time worked as a salesman in a furniture store in Washington, D. C. That was in 1SSS.
In 1889, however, Mr. Elliot returned to the mining industry. He went to Mexico in 1892, and there built and operated three large stamp-mills during the six years that he spent there. At one time he employed in such works more than three thousand men.
Mr. Elliot has now returned from Mexico, but retains exten- sive interests there, as well as in various parts of the United States. He is officially connected with the Mexican Coal and Coke Company, the Conquista Coal Railroad Company, the South Dakota Consolidated Mining Company, the Magruder Mining Company, and the Cornwall Copper Mines.
He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the Ardsley Club, New York Athletic Club, and Lawyers' Club of New York, and the St. Botolph's Club of Boston.
FREDERICK T. ELLITHORPE
THE Ellithorpe family comes of fighting New England stock. Some of its members were conspicuous in the War of the Revolution. Two generations ago John Ellithorpe was a leader of " Green Mountain Boys" in the War of 1812. He led a com- pany to the defense of Plattsburg. His home was on a farm near St. Albans, Vermont, and there were born his six sons, of whom the youngest was Albert C. Ellithorpe. The latter went to Chicago in 1839 and became a lumberman, carpenter, and builder, and also, at odd times, a school-teacher. Then he took to wagon-building, and constructed the first coach ever made in Chicago. He sold out his business and entered Knox College at Galesburg, Illinois. After two years he left college and returned to wagon-building. In 1849 he went to California, but soon returned to Chicago and entered a stone-quarry. He invented a stone-crusher, and again went West to introduce it as a quartz- crusher in the mines of Colorado and California. At Denver he had a picturesque carcer as editor and politician, and took a leading part in securing for that city its first orderly govern- ment. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was baek in Chicago, energetically taking part in the regular army, and was sent by President Lincoln to the Indian Territory to undo the work of the secession. This he did, and he led a body of Indian troops with great gallantry in various engagements in the field, and thus won promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. Since the war he has lived in Chicago, devoting himself to business of various lines. Conspicuous among the inventions which he has made are the dredge with iron knees for river and harbor work, and the air-brake and air-cushion for passenger and freight elevators.
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Colonel Ellithorpe married Miss Maria L. Sammons, a native of Oswego County, New York. Her father, Frederick Sammons, is said to have been the first to raise a "liberty tree" in America. He was a Revolutionary patriot, and also served as a soldier under General William Henry Harrison. In the Revolu- tion he was taken a prisoner of war by his Tory neighbor, Sir John Johnson, in the Mohawk valley. Mrs. Ellithorpe died in Chicago on March 27, 1891.
The son of Colonel and Mrs. Ellithorpe, Frederick T. Elli- thorpe, was born in Chicago on February 7, 1856, the youngest of four children. He was educated in the local schools, and was graduated from the grammar schools of Chicago. For a time he was a student also at the Illinois Industrial University.
On reaching mature years he became associated with some of his father's business enterprises, especially in the manufacture of elevators, and in the invention and promotion of a higher degree of elevator safety. He is now president of the Ellithorpe Safety Air Cushion Company, and takes an active part in its operations. He has himself, indeed, made important inventions in connection with the air-cushion, so that he is regarded as the inventor of the device as it exists to-day. He has repeatedly given exhibitions of the efficacy of his device by causing eleva- tors to drop precipitately from great heights. Again and again he has the rope supporting an elevator cut, at a height from one to two hundred feet, and in one case at a height of two hundred and eighty-seven feet. In a number of cases he was himself seated in the ponderous car, with eggs and glasses full of water on the floor beside him. The elevator has invariably been stopped after its headlong fall, without injury to its passengers and without breaking an egg or spilling a drop of water. The air-cushion principle has saved many lives, and is fast coming into general use.
Mr. Ellithorpe was married on September 13, 1890, to Miss Minnie Gilbert of Ohio. They have two sons, Gilbert Sammons Ellithorpe and Frank Edwards Ellithorpe. Mr. Ellithorpe is an active member of the Roseville Baptist Church of Newark, New Jersey, and one of its trustees.
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