USA > New York > Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New-York : catalogue and biographical sketches > Part 13
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On January 1, 1865, Mr. SHERMAN became Treasurer of the New-York Steam Sugar Refinery, succeeding B. R. MCILVAINE. For years he had also been connected with the banking interests of the City. On September 16, 1846, he was elected a director of the Merchants' Bank ; and on May 27, 1859, was made Vice-President. He was also a director in the Metropolitan Bank from 1851 to 1858. But his best known labors in the financial world were in con- nection with the Mechanics' Bank, of which institution he was elected President, January 1, 1874, succeeding SHEP- HIERD KNAPP. Under Mr. SHERMAN'S management, the bank prospered, and fully maintained the high character it had borne under the management of his predecessor. In 1851 the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool established a branch office in this City, and Mr. SHERMAN became one
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of its directors and a trustee. He was prominent in the organization of the Central Trust Company of New-York, which was chartered in July, 1875, and served as a member of its Executive Committee until the day of his death. He was also a director of the Mutual Life Insurance Company for many years.
While Mr. SHERMAN never entered actively into politics, he endeavored to fulfil the duties of a public-spirited citizen in municipal and national affairs. When the rebellion broke out, he was an uncompromising advocate of national unity, and was an outspoken supporter of the Government. He aided actively in the organization of the Union League Club, and was one of its most energetic members until the close of the war.
He took a great interest in the charitable institutions of this City, and gave largely towards their support. He was one of the founders of the Home for Incurables, at Ford- ham, N. Y., and served as its Vice-President. He was Vice- President of the Juvenile Asylum, and of the New-York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, and a Director in the Eye and Ear Infirmary, in the Peabody Home, and Treasurer of St. John's Guild.
Although brought up in the Quaker faith, Mr. SHERMAN, on his first coming to New-York, attended St. Paul's Church, and when Grace Church was established he became a regular attendant there. Subsequently he was appointed a Vestryman and Warden.
Mr. SHERMAN was elected a member of the Chamber of Commerce May 4, 1852, and always showed an interest in its affairs, and at times took part in its deliberations.
In the early part of December, 1882, Mr. SHERMAN'S health became greatly impaired, and he shortly afterwards resigned the Presidency of the Mechanics' National Bank. Although his health was never fully restored, he still continued to take an interest in the various institutions of which he was a member, and was able to attend their meetings until his death. He died suddenly in this City, on May 2d, 1885, in the seventy-fifth year of his age.
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PRESERVED FISH.
PRESERVED FISH was born in the village of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, July 3d, 1766, and died in New-York City, July 23d, 1846, in the 81st year of his age. His father bore the name of PRESERVED FISH, and was a descendant of the Huguenots. He was a blacksmith by trade, and brought up his son to the anvil until the age of fourteen, when he apprenticed him to a farmer. A farm life did not suit the high spirited boy, and soon after we find him on board a whaling vessel, bound for the Pacific. Storm and tempest had no terrors for him, and he had so mastered the art of navigation that, at the age of twenty-one, he was made Captain. He commanded a number of vessels, and, by shrewdness and tireless energy, accumulated a fortune. He knew no fear, and once, when his vessel sprung a leak, and the crew, on the verge of mutiny, demanded his return to the nearest port, he refused to yield, and eventually brought his ship and cargo of oil safe to their destination.
Captain FISH left the sea in 1810, and settled in New-Bedford as a shipping merchant. CORNELIUS GRIN- NELL was his partner, and the firm was known as FISH & GRINNELL. Through some political disagreement he left New-Bedford, selling his house and effects at less than half their cost. In two weeks after he was settled on a farm at Flushing, L. I., which he had purchased in order to devote himself to agricultural pursuits. He afterwards sold his farm and came to New-York, where he was appointed Harbor Master. Here he became active in politics, and quite a number of lucrative positions were offered to him, all of which, however, he steadily refused. In 1815 he formed a partnership with JOSEPH GRINNELL, and as FISH & GRINNELL the firm did a large business. This house was among the first to establish a regular line of Liverpool packets, their ships varying from 340 to 380 tons burthen. In 1826 FISH & GRINNELL were succeeded by the firm of GRINNELL, MINTURN & Co. In that year
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PRESERVED FISII went to Liverpool, and there formed a partnership with EDWARD CARNES and WALTER WILLIS, two English merchants, and carried on the shipping busi- ness for two years. He unfortunately lost by this con- nection, and returned to this City, being dissatisfied with the English methods of transacting business. His next partner was SAUL ALLEY, with whom he differed on an unimportant matter, which caused a dissolution of the firm in six months. He remained out of business for about seven years, when he was elected President of the Trades- men's Bank, to the interests of which he devoted the remainder of his days. He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce from May 5, 1818, up to the time of his death.
Mr. FISH, with all his eccentricities, was an upright and distinguished merchant, and possessed many benevolent traits of character. He was married three times, but left no children. He was brought up a Quaker, but prior to his death became a member of the Episcopal Church. The story that PRESERVED FISH was picked up on the shore of the ocean when a child, and named PRESERVED in consequence, is pure fiction, and it is not necessary, in this brief sketch, to explain its origin. As before stated, his father's name was PRESERVED, and it is highly proba- ble that the same name was given to the son, in order to perpetuate it in the family.
DAVID LEAVITT.
DAVID LEAVITT was descended from JOHN LEAVITT, of London, England, who came to America in 1628, and settled in Dorchester, Conn. DAVID's father was a wealthy merchant, a man of ability, and well and favorably known, not only throughout Connecticut, but also in this City. His son, the subject of this sketch, was born in Bethlehem, on the 29th of August, 1791. His parents earnestly desired to give him a liberal education, and he was fitted to enter
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Yale College, but his early aptitude for business, and his desire to enter upon a mercantile career, led him to choose the office rather than the class-room. Before he was twenty-five years old he was well known as a man of energy, full of nerve and enterprise.
In 1814 he married Miss MARIA CLARISSA LEWIS, a most estimable lady, belonging to a well known family of Goshen, Conn. In 1823 Mr. LEAVITT became interested in the manufacture of white lead, and in that year went to reside in Brooklyn, where his business was established. About this time he was chosen President of the Fulton Bank, in this City. Later on he bought and assumed the management of the newly established ferry to New- York-now the Fulton Ferry. He also became a trustee of the then village of Brooklyn, and an extensive owner of property in the neighborhood of the Heights. In 1838 he became President of the American Exchange Bank of New-York. During his Presidency of this Insti- tution he performed good service to the State of Illinois, in reference to certain bonds held by the bank and its customers, whose value depended upon the completion of the Illinois Canal. He proceeded to England, and, pledg- ing his personal credit, obtained loans which enabled that State to complete the canal, and eventually to pay the bonds, principal and interest.
In 1853 he built a country house in Great Barrington, Mass., and bought a large interest in and became President of the Housatonic Railroad, running through that country, and rapidly developed it.
When HENRY CLAY was nominated for the Presidency, Mr. LEAVITT was one of his most active and liberal supporters. He was a pronounced Abolitionist, though in no sense a leader in that cause.
Many young men were aided by Mr. LEAVITT in their struggles through life. In banking circles he was regarded as a safe and enterprising man, always disposed to help an honest embarrassed merchant, but in no case would he tolerate deception or disingenuousness in any form.
Mr. LEAVITT was an elder in the First Presbyterian
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Church of Brooklyn during the pastorate of the Rev. SAMUEL H. Cox, D. D., and some time later, until he retired from active business and took up his permanent abode in Great Barrington.
He died in the City of New-York, December 30th, 1879, in the eighty-ninth year of his age.
FRANCIS SKIDDY.
FRANCIS SKIDDY was born in Cherry-street, New-York City, February 10th, 1811. His early years were spent in Paris, where he received his education. In 1830 he left France for New-Orleans, and entered into business in that City, which he continued until 1833; in that year he came to New-York, and at once commenced his mercantile career as a sugar broker, locating in Wall-street, a few feet distant from the place he occupied for nearly four decades. He soon gained prominence, and was generally regarded as one of the shrewdest men in the sugar trade. He held an im- portant interest in and connection with most of the large transactions in sugar during the past twenty-five years, and probably was as well acquainted as any man of his day with the important movements and changes in the handling of this great staple. He was a man of great force of character, liberal, enterprising and scrupulously honest. His business was very extensive. During the later years of his life he took a very active part in financial institu- tions, having an interest in the Bank of the Republic, the Central Bank, the Commonwealth, the Resolute and the Commercial Fire Insurance Companies, and later, in the New-York Warehouse and Security Company. He was also the chief promoter of the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad. For many years he was a director in the Mutual Life Insurance Company, and also a director in the Pacific Mail and in the Virginia and Old Dominion Steamship Companies. For quite a period of his life, Mr. SKIDDY was alone in business, but took into partnership, in 1848,
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C. D. UHLHORN. This union was dissolved about three years after, and JOHN F. CARLISLE then became a partner. This partnership terminated at Mr. CARLISLE's death, which was caused by drowning at Long Branch. For a period EDMUND J. WADE and JOHN R. SKIDDY, son of FRANCIS, were partners, but this partnership was dissolved about 1860. In 1863 THOMAS MINFORD and GEORGE G. NEVERS became members of the firm, which was then styled, SKIDDY, MINFORD & Co., the name it now bears. FRANCIS SKIDDY died in this City, May 1st, 1879, in the sixty-ninth year of his age.
GUSTAV SCHWAB.
GUSTAV SCHWAB was born in Stuttgart, Germany, No- vember 23d, 1822. He came of a family distinguished for its literary and scientific attainments, his grandfather, JOHN CHRISTOPHER SCHWAB, having been invited by FREDERIC THE GREAT, of Prussia, to become a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and Professor at the Military School in Berlin, and his father, GUSTAV SCHWAB, the author of many works of prose and poetry, which to- day endears his memory to numerous readers, both in Germany and the United States.
Until the age of seventeen GUSTAV SCHWAB resided in Stuttgart, enjoying the advantages of his father's refined and cultured home, and pursuing the studies of the Latin school of that City, which were to fit him for the duties of his opening career.
Guided by a strong preference for mercantile pursuits, and with the approbation of his friends, he entered the counting-house of H. H. MEIER & Co., of Bremen-a large shipping and commission firm-where he served (as was the custom) an apprenticeship of six years.
Energetic, enterprising and laudably ambitious, young SCHWAB desired a wider field of opportunity and action, and with that instinctive judgment which has guided to
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our shores so many of his countrymen, he decided to make the New World his future place of residence.
In 1844, as soon as his term of apprenticeship was ended. he came to New-York and entered the office of OELRICHS & KRUEGER, the correspondents of MEIER & Co. in the United States. There he remained for several years, and until the formation of the firm of WICHELHAUSEN, RECK- NAGEL & SCHWAB, of which he was the junior partner, and which continued in business till 1859.
Meanwhile the firm of OELRICHS & KRUEGER had been succeeded by that of OELRICHS & Co., and in the year above named Mr. SCHWAB became one of its members, and so continued till the period of his death. Soon after his association with this firm it was appointed the New-York agents of the North German Lloyd Steamship Company, and to the thoroughness and efficiency of his management is largely due the eminent success of that Trans-Atlantic line.
In adopting the United States as the field where his en- larged and intelligent ideas could have full play, and for his home, it was the desire and aim of Mr. SCHWAB to give to it what he could of his time and his talents in return for the great benefits he was privileged to enjoy, and of which no man was more thoroughly appreciative. He soon became prominent in local works of charity and philan- thropy, and many of the financial and commercial institu- tions of New-York asked for and received the assistance of his sound mercantile judgment in the operation of their affairs. He was a director, and for some time President of the German Society, founded in 1784, for the care and assistance of his foreign fellow countrymen in this City. He helped to found the German Hospital and Dis- pensary, and was one of its Board of Directors, and fulfilled the arduous duties of Treasurer until the fatal sickness came which terminated in his death. He was for some time a Commissioner of the Board of Edu- cation, and in all movements affecting the public wel- fare he took an active part, always giving that conscientious attention to matters of detail which made his service
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so very effective, and for which he was so justly noted. Among other institutions of finance he was the senior di- rector and Vice-President of the Merchants' National Bank, a director of the Central Trust Company, the Washington Life Insurance Company, and many others of a like character.
To the New-York Produce Exchange he gave much of his valuable time, was one of its managers, and Chairman of some of its most important Committees ; and he assisted in organizing, and continuously served as a Trustee of the Gratuity Fund of that institution. On March 1st, 1860, he became a member of this Chamber, and at once took a very prominent place in its counsels. His intelligent interest in its affairs, and in all the many questions of mercantile ethics which it discussed, was unfailing; and with a continuous liberality he gave of his time, and from the rich stores of his experience and scholarly attainments, whatever seemed most needful to minister to the solution of the problems he was called upon to expound.
The records of the Chamber bear abundant testimony of his great capacity for work; they are studded all throughout with his masterly reports, the last of which (relative to a subject in which he took the deepest interest, because of the benefits which he enjoyed under it,) sent into the Chamber, when he was too ill to come upon our floor and present it in person, protested against the pro- posed legislation by Congress to "Restrict Immigration into the United States."
In the mercantile world he was a power for great good. His solidity of character, his manliness, his sound judg- ment and unswerving integrity, together with his great willingness to do honest and hard work in furthering the commercial and charitable interests of his adopted city and country, won for him the universal regard and respect of his fellow-citizens.
Although apparently almost continuously occupied in secular and philanthropic affairs, Mr. SCHWAB found time for thoughful and extensive reading. He was also a deeply religious man, and of the Protestant Episcopal faith, from
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the inner piety of whose heart came a Christian humility that was a very beautiful and marked feature of his character. He was as courteous in manner as he was wise in counsel, as clear of discernment as he was open to suggestion, and, with all, there was a quiet modesty in all that he did and said as engaging as it is memorable, and almost unique. Such was the character of GUSTAV SCHWAB.
Mr. SCHWAB died at his residence on Fordham Heights, New-York City, on the 21st day of August, 1888, in the sixty-sixth year of his age .- ALEXANDER E. ORR.
ELLIOT C. COWDIN.
ELLIOT CHRISTOPHER COWDIN was born in Jamaica, Ver- mont, on the 9th of August, 1819. His grandfather, Cap- tain THOMAS COWDIN, of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, was a zealous patriot of the Revolution, and filled numerous offices of trust and honor, among which may be mentioned his election for many successive years to a seat in one branch of the Legislature of Massachusetts. His father died when ELLIOT, his youngest son, was a child. His elder brother, General ROBERT COWDIN, now deceased, was a man of business, who inherited his grandfather's aptitude for military affairs, and on the outbreak of the war of the Rebellion led, as Colonel, one of the first regiments which started for the defence of Washington. ELLIOT, as a boy, was under the special care of his second brother, JOHN, an importing merchant of Boston, who, at one period, took a marked interest in the politics of the State, and served at different times in both branches of the Legisla- ture of Massachusetts. At his house ELLIOT resided, with various interruptions, for more than twenty years. He re- ceived the usual education of a youth destined for business life. At the age of sixteen he became a clerk with ALLEN & MANN, dealers in ribbons and millinery goods. Here he remained for about nine years. After the death of the elder partner a new firm was formed, under the title of W. H.
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MANN & Co., Mr. COWDIN, then twenty-five, entering the house as a partner.
In 1846 he made his first voyage to Europe as a purchaser of goods for the house. This was but the beginning of a series of journeys from New-York to Paris, Lyons, St. Etienne and Basle, which at last became so familiar a fact in his experience, that he came to consider taking passage in an ocean steamer as ordinary persons consider a trip on a ferry boat. At the time of his death he had crossed the Atlantic eighty-six times.
It is curious that Mr. COWDIN was never in Paris at any time of his life, when the American colony there was aroused by an assertion of republican principles, that he did not take a prominent part in the consequent demon- stration of American principles of government. It was his good fortune to witness the French Revolution of 1848.
In the spring of 1853 Mr. COWDIN dissolved his connec- tion with W. H. MANN & Co., and established a new firm in this City, under the name of ELLIOT C. COWDIN & Co., with a branch in Paris. In the autumn of the same year he married Miss SARAH KATHARINE WALDRON, of Boston.
In the autumn of 1858 Mr. COWDIN had established his family in New-York, he, in the meanwhile, making his two yearly visits to France. He was one of those men who are seemingly never idle for a moment.
Although an ardent Republican in politics, and a man of strong convictions, as well as a facile public speaker, Mr. COWDIN did not appear very prominently before the public until the stirring times of the war, when he assisted in the foundation of the Union League Club, and through and with the Club exercised considerable influence in political affairs.
In the autumn of 1862 Mr. COWDIN was nominated, in the Eighth District of New-York, as the Union candidate, to represent that district in the national House of Repre- sentatives, and though not elected, ran largely ahead of his ticket. After the war had ended in the triumph of the national cause, Mr. COWDIN's warm and intelligent interest in public affairs hardly seemed in the least to abate.
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He seemed both to understand and to perform public duty, and this understanding and performance of public duty he carried into all the complicated questions which came be- fore the Chamber of Commerce, into the New-England Society, of which he was at one time President, into every well considered attempt to reform the municipal ad- ministration of the City of New-York, as well as into national and State politics.
Mr. COWDIN was one of the Commissioners of the United States to the Paris Exposition of 1867, and his report, made to the Department of State on silk and silk manufac- tures at the close of the Exposition, is a careful and thorough investigation of this important industry in all its branches. The report abounds with detailed statements of fact and conclusions, and has been extensively circulated in this country and in France.
In 1876 his friends in the Chamber of Commerce were desirous that he should accept a nomination to the As- sembly of the State, in order that he might be instru- mental in passing important reform measures. He was elected to this popular branch of the Legislature, and took his seat in that body January, 1877. At that time not only was party spirit singularly embittered, but, as a conse- quence, public spirit was at a low ebb. Mr. CowDIN entered at once on what may be called a campaign of reason and good sense against deep seated prejudice and bitter partisanship. He left the Assembly with the reputa- tion of being the most hospitable and hard working member in it, but one who had anticipated the period when it was possible to establish useful and needful reforms. Probably he considered this period of his life, short as it was, as at once the most honorable and the most mortifying test to which his sense of public duty had been subjected.
Mr. COWDIN died in this City on April 12th, 1880, having reached the age of sixty-one years.
From the minute prepared by Mr. A. A. Low, and adopted by the Chamber of Commerce, May 6, 1880, we quote the following just estimate of his character, enter- tained by his fellow members :
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" As a result of his long and repeated stay in Paris, Mr. COWDIN became widely known to many of our public men, and very intimately acquainted with BURLINGAME, SUM- NER and WASHBURNE. His liberal hospitality, genial manners and cultivated tastes, brought around him other of his countrymen at home, who were equally conspicuous in public life with those above named. It may be said of him, as he once said of another, 'He enlarged and im- proved his mind by study and reflection ; he dispensed a liberal hospitality ; he cultivated enduring friendships ; he won troops of friends by manners peculiarly genial and frank.'
" Mr. COWDIN became a member of the Chamber Feb- ruary 3, 1859, and he continued his membership during all the years of his subsequent residence in Paris.
" He was elected a member of the Committee on Home Trade and Commerce, May 19, 1870. He was elected a member of the Executive Committee, May 7, 1874, and as Chairman, May 4, 1876.
" How he met every appointment as a member of this body, and how he discharged his duties as Chairman of the Executive Committee, we all know ; but as an in- centive to others, as well as in justice to his memory, it should be recorded, that he was ever active, always inter- ested, prompt, faithful and efficient.
" In the discussion of such public measures as have engaged the attention of the Chamber during these latter years, his efforts and influence were largely felt.
" An ardent spirit of patriotism, and a lively interest in commercial pursuits wrought in him with a worthy pride and laudable zeal for the advancement of every good and noble purpose.
" Bearing in mind the excellence of his character, his love of rectitude, his fidelity to duty, his efforts to do good, his success as a writer and speaker, and the peaceful and pleasant relations we were permitted for so many years to enjoy with him, this Chamber will ever hold in honor the memory of ELLIOT C. COWDIN."
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KINLOCH STUART.
KINLOCH STUART was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, born in 1775, and was in early life a large candy manufac- turer in that City, but having endorsed for his brothers- in-law, builders, who failed, he surrendered his entire property for the satisfaction of the claims thus created. Notwithstanding this, however, there still remained due some seven thousand dollars, which he was unable to pay. Leaving Edinburgh, then in his thirtieth year, he arrived with his wife in New-York on the 13th of September, 1805, after a passage of fifty six days. His capital, with which to start in life anew in a strange country, consisted of a robust constitution, indomitable energy, a clear head, stern integrity and one hundred dollars in money. In these days of cable telegrams and steamships it is difficult to comprehend what a forlorn hope the prospect of ever again seeing Mr. STUART or their money must have seemed to his creditors. But of one thing they were certain, and this was, that his integrity would not allow distance and difficulty of communication to weaken his sense of his obligations to them. How fully their confidence in him was justified, is shown by a parchment in the possession of his son ROBERT, bearing date 1812, attesting the receipt, by his eighteen creditors, of twenty shillings in the pound, and their appreciation of his conduct in devoting his earliest earnings, the fruit of close industry for sixteen to eighteen of the twenty-four hours (six days in the week) to the settlement of the outstanding indebtedness in Edinburgh. Three payments to the absent creditors were remitted in sums of one hundred pounds at a time, as fast as the money was earned, and before Mr. STUART had fully furnished his house, He did not wait to become rich before paying his debts. At the time Mr. STUART arrived in New-York the yellow fever was raging among its inhabitants, and for safety he decided to take up his residence at some other point. He went to Hudson, but this place presenting no profitable opening to his special
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