The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 11

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098

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When he was in his eighteenth year Mr. Flower had an offer to go to Philadelphia (Jefferson Co.) as a clerk in a general merchandise store. His employer was a Mr. Woodward, who failed two months afterward, and the young man, thrown out of employment, was forced to return to Theresa. That spring and summer he did work on his mother's farm, and earned a ton of hay by working nine days and a half in the field, mowing grass and " keeping up his end " with 11 inen in mowing.

During his boyhood he always went bare- foot in the summer months, and he once re- marked in a speech, while running against William Waldorf Astor for Congress, that until he was 15 years old he did not feel at home in the summertime unless he had a stone bruise or two on his feet, and that he had warmed his feet many a morning in the crisp autumn weather on a spot where a cow had lain the night before.

SIX YEARS OF EARLY MANHOOD.

In August, 1853, Mr. Flower had an offer to go into the hardware store of Howell Cooper & Co., at Watertown. After re-

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

maining there about a month he had another offer which was more to his liking and which he accepted. It was to become deputy postmaster at Watertown at $50 a month, and board. He occupied this posi- tion under Postmaster William H. Sigour- ney for 6 years. The first $50 he saved he invested in a gold watch, which he sold a few months later to a young physician for $53, and took his note for it. Mr. Flower still has that note. Mr. Flower managed to save some money out of his wages, and at the end of his term in office had accumu- lated ahout $1,000, with which he purchased the interest of Mr. Sigourney in a jewelry business, the firm name being Hitchcock & Flower, at 1 Court street, Watertown. His aptitude for business enabled him to ad- vance the interests of the firm, and in a couple of years he bought out his partner and continued alone in the business until 1869.

Mr. Flower was married on December 26, 1859, to Sarah M. Woodruff, a daughter of Norris M. Woodruff, of Watertown. Three children were born to them, of whom only one is living, Emma Gertrude. She was married to John B. Taylor, of Watertown, January 2, 1890. While in the Watertown post-office Mr. Flower's spare time was taken up, not in social entertainments, be- cause he bad no money to enter such society, but in reading whatever he thought might be useful to him in the future. He made himself thoroughly familiar with the "Federalist" and kindred works, and hav- ing an idea of some day becoming a lawyer, he got a little knowledge of Blackstone and Kent; but his natural bent was for business, and he never attempted the law.

BUSINESS IN NEW YORK.

In 1869 Henry Keep, the well-known capitalist. who had married Miss Emma Woodruff, a sister of Mrs. Flower, was on his deathbed. Two or three weeks before he died he sent for Mr. Flower to come to New York, and during his sickness gave him a pretty good idea of the character of the men with whom he had been surrounded in the business world. Mr. Keep had been president of the New York Central and treasurer of the Michigan Central and Lake Shore, and was president at the time of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad. He knew it would take a man of good common sense and quick perception to aid his wife in the management of his large property after his death, and in Mr. Flowor he thought he recognized those qualities. In answer to a question by Mr. Flower, in order to get his opinion of Daniel Drew, as to whether Drew was an honest man, Mr. Keep, who was very reticent. did not reply for some ten minutes, and then said: " He is as honest a man as there is in the State of New York, but for fear that somebody else will cheat, he will always begin first." Immediately after Mr. Keep's death Mr.

Flower removed to New York and took charge of his late brother-in-law's estate, the value of which has more than doubled under his management. It was then worth $1,000,000, and now under Mr. Flower's management it has expanded to $4,000,000. The properties in which the estate was in- vested cause Mr. Flower to be a frequent visitor to the West, and since 1870 he has made extended trips all over the United States, and has a personal knowledge of the possibilities and natural resources of almost every section of the country. Governor Flower's fortune, which is estimated in the millions, has not been made by speculation in Wall street, but by shrewd purchasing of properties, which, by careful and prudent management, have developed and proved valuable investments.

HIS CAREER ON WALL STREET.

In 1872 Mr. Flower was at death's door for several weeks, but after four or five months' sickness he finally recovered. His physi- cians then advised him to take all the out- door exercise possible. At this time the brokerage and banking firm of Benedict, Flower & Co. was dissolved, and Mr. Flower gave his entire attention to the manage- ment of his sister-in-law's estate and other estates which had been placed in his care. He found a New York office necessary, and so established himself at 84 Broadway. His younger brother, Anson R. Flower, was brought to New York from Watertown in order to become acquainted with the busi- ness, that he might take charge of it in Mr. Flower's absence; but, strange to say. the more the latter tried to get out of business the more he got into it, and the firm of R. P. Flower & Co. found itself doing a large com- mission trade without any attempt having been made to push it - so large, in fact, that another brother, John D. Flower, and a nephew, Frederick S. Flower, were taken into the firm, and not until 1890 did Mr. Flower relinquish his interest in the concern and become a special partner. But in the meantime he had managed to get the out- of-door exercise which the doctors had sug- gested, through the State sportsman's club. In 1877 Mr. Flower attended the convention of these clubs at Syracuse and won a prize, consisting of a corduroy hunting suit, over a field of 113 entries. Thirty-two of them had tied at 21 yards' rise, and they had to go back to the 25 yard score. Then all that were left had to go back to 31 yards and shoot until somebody dropped out. Mr. Flower and ex-Attorney-General Tabor were the last competitors in the contest, and Mr. Flower finally won the clothes and still wears them on the hunting expeditions which he frequently takes after woodcock, duck and partridge.

ALWAYS ACTIVE IN POLITICS.

In politics Mr. Flower has always been a Democrat. He cast his first vote for Buch -

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

anan, and has been a constant and active worker for his party. He was chairman of the county committee for several years and helped to start the nucleus of an organiza- which has been known throughout the State as one of the best equipped political organizations within its borders. Mr. Flower was an active Mason in his younger days, being at one time high priest of the Watertown chapter. One day, going down to the grand chapter, at Albany, he met on the cars Samuel J. Tilden and his secretary, John D. Van Buren. Mr. Tilden asked him what he thought about the State, and Mr. Flower replied that he did not believe Mr. Tilden would the next year be chairman of the State committee for the reason that he did not seem to recognize the fact that a man under 50 years of age has any influence in politics. He told Mr. Tilden that it was the young men who would control the party, and that he must extend his acquaintance among them or be prepared to step out. Mr. Tilden replied that he would like to have the young men with him, but that he had no opportunity of coming in touch with them; that his friends didn't seem to think it was worth while. Mr. Flower then told Mr. Tilden that Jefferson County had sent to Colonel Van Buren the year before the best scheme for organization of a party that had up to that time made its appear- ance, and that if he would organize the party throughout the State on the basis of recognizing the merit of young and active workers instead of the "has beens," he would be sure to carry the State at all times, and might continue at the head of the organization as long as he saw fit. Van Bnren confirmed this opinion. About a month later Hon. Allen C. Beach, of Water- town, received a telegram from Mr. Tilden, asking him to come to his home and spend two or three weeks, as he wanted to extend the suggested organization throughout the State. It was thus that the famous " Til- den machine " was started. It was Flower's suggestion to organize it and Tilden's per- severance which extended it. In 1877 Flower was chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee when the party won the cam- paign, though there was a bolt against the ticket.

A TERM IN CONGRESS.

After his son's death, in 1881, Mr. Flower was induced to run for Congress in the Eleventh Congressional district against William Waldorf Astor. The representa- tive of this district had been Levi P. Mor- ton until he resigned to take the position of Minister to France. Mr. Morton had been elected by over 4,000 majority. In that campaign, after Orlando B. Potter had de- clined the Democratic nomination, Mr. Flower accepted it on the platform that he would not purchase a vote to secure the election, and on that he made the issue and was elected by 3,100 majority. In the

Forty-seventh Congress he was appointed a member of the Committee on Banking, and almost immediately took a prominent part in the discussion of financial questions. Mr. Flower recently said to the writer : " When I was elected to Congress, although I was pretty thoroughly conversant with practical banking methods, I knew nothing of the theories of finance, but I soon learned that if I was to be of any use in Congress I must do a little reading, and with the aid of books from the Congressional Library, I soon pretty thoroughly mastered the sub- ject. I found it much the most interesting that I had ever studied. It is better reading than the best novel that ever was written. During his first term in Congress he also made speeches on the Chinese question, on the River and Harbor bill, and a notable one on the reduction of taxes.

A UNIQUE POCKET COMPANION.

Mr. Flower would hardly be called a good speaker, but he was called on fre- quently in his county to talk from the plat- form, particularly during the Seymour and Blair campaign of 1868. Endeavoring to fill that want of many public speakers - the possession of the copy of the Constitu- tion of the United States in convenient size to carry in his pocket - he searched the book stores of Watertown but was unable to find one. Happening into a little corner shoe-store he saw tacked to the bench of a grizzled old cobbler a little primer contain- ing inside the Constitution and outside the advertisement of a fire insurance company. James Muldoon, the shoemaker, gave Mr. Flower the book, and he has it yet, always carrying it in his pocket for easy reference. In 1876, when visiting Chicago, Mr. Flower had his memorandufn book stolen, which contained the present of the cobbler. While in Europe some months later he received a note from the proprietor of the Grand Pacific Hotel saying that his book had been found in a lumber yard, and would he re- turned to him. The Constitution turned up inside in perfect order, and in 1883, when making a speech in Congress on giving power to the President to veto separate items in the Appropriation bill, Mr. Flower produced the cobbler's copy of the Constitu- tion, and, considering its adventures and the value a pamphlet copy would be to many persons, as it had been to him, he asked that it, together with the substantial amend- ments. be printed in the Record to accom- pany his remarks, that with them, it might be distributed to the people. Over 500,000 copies of this somewhat unique document were circulated by himself and other mem- bers of Congress.

A GUBERNATORIAL POSSIBILITY AND ALREADY A NATIONAL LEADER.

In 1882 there was a general demand throughout the State for his nomination to

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the office of Governor. In the Democratic convention. Mr. Flower received 134 votes against the same number for Gen. Slocum, and 61 for Grover Cleveland, of Buffalo. The strife between Tammany and the County Democracy was so great at that time that it was thought better politics to nominate a man outside the City of New York. Consequently Mr. Flower made way for Cleveland, who was declared the choice of the convention. In this same year, 1882, Mr. Flower refused a renomination for Con- gress, having stated in his first canvass that he would not accept a second nomination and that he would leave the district in such a condition after one term that any good Democrat. no matter how shallow his pocket. might be nominated and elected in it. He was at this time otfered the unani- mous nomination of both factions of his party, and was assured that the Republicans would make no nomination if he would con- sent to run, but he preferred to carry out his pledge to the people when he ran against Mr. Astor. Orlando B. Potter was nomin- ated and elected in his place, Mr. Flower taking the stump for him. Mr. Flower has been a member of the State Executive Com- mittee every year since that time, and has given valuable aid to the Democratic party managers. In 1885 he attended the Demo- cratic State Convention as a looker-on ; not as a candidate for office. The convention nominated David B. Hill for Governor. Several delegates had asked Mr. Flower to accept the nomination for Lieutenant Gov- ernor, but he refused. He left Saratoga the morning before the convention adjourned, but when he arrived at his country home in Watertown he found that he had been unanimously nominated for Lieutenant-Gov- ernor. He immediately declined the honor, stating his reasons for doing so. The State Committee was called together, and nomin- ated in his place Colonel Jones, of Bingham- ton, " him who pays the freight."

Mr. Flower, in 1882, was made chairman of the Democratic Congressional Committee, and ran the campaign that year that resulted in a majority in the House of 50 for his party. In the Presidential campaign of 1888, Mr. Flower was selected as one of the four delegates-at-large to the National Democratic Convention, at St. Louis, which nominated Mr. Cleveland for President, and was chosen chairman of the delegation. In the same year, when it seemed probable that the two Democratic factions in the Twelfth district might each run a candidate for Congress, they united on Mr. Flower and asked him to accept the nomination. This he did, with some hesitation, and only in order to help the election of the Presiden- tial and Gubernatorial nominees.

AGAIN IN CONGRESS.

In the Fifty-first Congress Flower was ap- pointed a member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and also a member of

the Committee on the World's Fair. His efforts toward securing the location of the Fair in New York have heen recognized by the City and State, and his speech on that subject contained about all the points in favor of New York that could be put into 30 minutes.

Mr. Flower once remarked to the writer that his success in Congress was chiefly due to the fact that on whatever committee he was placed he tried to learn as much about his work if not more than any other mem- ber of the committee. On the Ways and Means Committee in the Fifty-first Con- gress, by the questions he asked at the hear- ing held before that committee, he showed his familiarity with many subjects, and with distant sections of the country and their industries. There was no just claim before Congress for the pension of a Union soidier that he did not champion, believing that if a soldier received a pension to which he was not entitled the Government was to blame and not the soldier, for there are in each Congressional district three surgeons by whom the soldier is examined before he is allowed a pension. Mr. Flower also made a strong speech in the Fifty-first Con- gress in favor of the election of post- masters by the people, and offered an amendment to the Constitution to that effect. Because of his thorough knowledge of the West and its needs he was enabled to make in Congress a speech on the irriga- tion question, which attracted a great deal of attention, and which was made the basis of the Senate Committee's report on that subject.

THE CANVAS OF 1890.

Mr. Flower was chairman of the Demo- cratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 1890. The committee had very small means, but his organizing powers were brought into play with great success. The campaign was quietly but systematically conducted. Campaign documents were circulated in large numbers, and the result was the largest Democratic Congressional majority ever obtained in an election in the United States. Mr. Flower created the im- pression that he was doing nothing, even counseling some of the leading newspapers of his party to pitch into and accuse him of in- action, in order to arouse the Democratic rank and file to the necessity for active effort on their part. He believed that a full vote of his party meant a great Democratic triumph, and the outcome justified his belief.

Mr. Flower was nominated for Governor at the Democratic State Convention of 1891, and was elected by a plurality of 47,937 over Jacob Sloat Fassett.

HOW HE SPENDS HIS MONEY.

Mr. Flower has never turned his back on any charitable institution that he could con- sistently befriend, as the people of the north- ern portion of the State can testify. He has

THE GROWTH OF A CENTURY.

always made it a rule to give away in char- ity a certain portion of his income-for many years all that he did not need for his own living expenses - believing that when a man had wealth he should distribute it while he is alive, in order that there may be no contest over it when he dies.

Mr. Flower's parents were Presbyterians, and on a visit to Theresa a number of years ago he found that the church which he had attended as a small boy had run down, and that the building itself was in a dilapidated condition. At considerable expense he had the church rebuilt, and it is now a beautiful little structure - a fitting memorial to Mr. Flower's parents. On the death of his son, Henry Keep Flower, in 1881, Mr. and Mrs. Flower gave St. Thomas' Church, in New York city, of which Mr. Flower is a vestry- man, $50,000 to erect on Fifty-ninth and Sixtieth streets and Second avenue a four- story building, to be known as St. Thomas' house, to be used for parish work. The structure has rooms occupied by an Ameri- can Sunday school of 500 children, a German Sunday school and a Chinese Sunday school. On the lower floor is a diet kitchen, and on the second floor an institution to teach young girls how to sew and mend. The next floor is a club-room, where the boys play checkers and backgammon. and on the up- per floor is found a library for a club of young men. All these institutions are car- ried on by the charitably disposed in St. Thomas's Church. On the inside of the building, on the wall, is a marble slab, upon which is inscribed: "Erected to God by Roswell P. Flower and Sarah M. Flower, in memory of their son, Henry Keep Flower."

Mr. Flower's brother, Anson, is a vestry- man in Trinity Church, in Watertown, and Mr. Flower joined him in building a $100,- 000 home for that parish. The homoeopathic school of physicians in New York city were erecting. a few years ago, a college, but had no hospital in which to teach young students anatomy and the use of the knife in practi- cal surgery. Mr. Flower erected for them, at the corner of Avenue A and Sixty-third street, the Flower Hospital, which supplies this need. But this by no means completes the list of beneficiaries of the family. Henry Keep's widow has erected, at a cost of $100,- 000, in the suburbs of Watertown, a home for old men and women, called " the Henry Keep Home." As Mr. Flower truly says: "What better nse could be made of the money of Henry Keep, whose father died in the poor-house, than to erect, with some of it, a home for aged men and women ?" Mr. Keep's widow has also given $100,000 for the Ophthalmic Hospital at Twenty-third street and Fourth avenue, New York.

The writer has known Governor Flower from his earliest infancy, having at one time been a law student in the office of the Gov- ernor's father, and upon terms of daily in- timacy with that estimable family of chil- dren, all of whom have grown up into use-

ful and honored members of society. The Governor's most pronounced trait of charac, ter is his ability to level up to the demands of every situation in which he has been placed. When a boy, he could do more work than any other boy of his age in his native town, and Theresa was full of smart, ath- lethic young fellows. Roswell was in "dead earnest" all the time, thorough in whatever he undertook. of a pushing, vigor- ous manner, ever on the alert, and putting the best foot forward every time. He was always hard at work, but when he had made half-a-dollar by industry he was liberal with it-ready to divide with his brothers or with the neighbors' boys. He was always a "trusty " boy-his word would go as far when 15 years of age as any full-grown man in Theresa. He had a self-possessed and honest way that gave him standing. It is not remarkable that a boy with such traits has made a successful, trusty, bonest man. I have read his speeches in Congress and his state papers since he became Governor. Their erudition and ability, and their matter-of- fact way of dealing with public affairs have not surprised me, for I knew the boy and the quality of the stock from which he sprang. His father was a nobleman if ever there was one in Northern New York, and his mother was one of the most faithful, industrious and home-making women of her day.

It is easy to say, and easier yet, perhaps, to suspect that what we print here may be largely due to the desire men usually feel to compliment and. perhaps, flatter men who have reached high positions or acquired great wealth. Governor Flower is too well known in his native country to need aught but honest praise from any source. Though a tireless partisan and an uncompromising Democrat, he has never lost a friend from any political divergence of view. Honest in his own opinions. he does not hesitate to ac- cord those who differ with him the same honesty of purpose. Springing from the middle walks of life, neither poor nor rich, nor yet a college graduate, but graduated from that wonderful developer of practical common sense, every-day, human expe- rience, he possesses the robustness and men- tal health which such an origin might be expected to transmit. His face is all ex- pression, showing an exquisitely penetrat- ing and mobile intellect, easily stirred to noble emotions and brimming over with goodness. He is a delightful companion, welcome in every circle, but shines bright- est and most hopefully to those who share his daily life and " know him best of all." His life has been a blessing to so many, here and elsewhere, that his personal popularity is not so remarkable when we consider the foundation upon which it is built - an un- selfish desire to do good.

THE WATERTOWN RESIDENCE.

Although Mr. Flower has for some 20 years had a winter home in Fifth avenue,

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New York, he still spends his summers in Watertown, where, upon Arsenal street, he occupies a cozy, pretty house. There are fifty dwellings in Watertown surpassing it in splendor of appearance, more modern, with a greater evidence of the luxuries of life, but none having more the look of a real home. The house was built over fifty years ago, by Norris M. Woodruff, Mrs. Flower's father, and has the rambling, comfortable look of that period in architecture. It is a wooden building painted white-a cleanly, dazzling white, which seems to have been so attractive in the eyes of the last genera- tion-and it has the usual accompaniment of bright green blinds. The house stands a little back from the street, having sufficient space for some handsome beds of flowers and a perfectly-trimmed green lawn, while back of the house one sees a fine garden and clumps of handsome trees. Mr. Flower has gathered in his Watertown library the many valuable documents that he collected while in Congress He has, among other things. every message that has been sent by a Presi- dent to Cougress since Washington's day, and there are very few of them with which he is unfamiliar.

HIS LIFE IN ALBANY.

Since its occupancy by the Governor and Mrs. Flower, the Executive Mansion has un-

dergone a complete transformation. Both Cleveland and Hill were bachelor Governors, so that there has been no woman at the head of the establishment since the Cornell ad- ministration. Mrs. Flower has brought her own pictures, added materially to the other furnishings, and has given to the big house an attractive, homelike air, which it has never known until now. The Governor stays at home until office hours, when he goes to the Executive Chamber, never, by the way. using the Governor's private staircase, but going up one of the elevators like any ordi -. nary citizen. His business affairs are at- tended to in New York, where he has able assistance, and they do not take up much of his time here in Albany. The callers whom he sees are comparatively very few, as they are carefully sifted before they are admit- ted to him. Those whom he does see are men of importance, who attend to their business promptly. The office hours are only five, and one of them he takes to go to the Executive Mansion for luncheon. Like the good business man that he is, he neither smokes himself nor permits smoking about him during office hours. He is thoroughly democratic in all his ways, and is more easily approached than any other Governor the State has ever had. His democracy is in- grained, not grafted, his manner really friendly, not assumed. J. A. H.

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The growth of a century: as illustrated in the history of Jefferson county, New York, from 1793-1894, Part 11

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823- Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company Number of Pages: 1098

Author: Haddock, John A., b. 1823-
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Albany, N. Y., Weed-Parsons printing company
Number of Pages: 1098