USA > New York > The men of New York: a collection of biographies and portraits of citizens of the Empire state prominent in business, professional, social, and political life during the last decade of the nineteenth century, Vol. I > Part 11
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After five years in the service of the Union Iron Company, Mr. Smith became western sales-agent of
the Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Company, and afterward organized the firm of Albright & Smith, sales-agents for New York and Canada for the same company. This arrangement with the Reading Company continued until 1892, when the company bought out Albright & Smith, and Mr. Smith's long connection with the anthracite coal trade ceased. For more than thirty years he had been more or less intimately connected with the mining, transportation, and sale of anthracite coal in the interest of the Reading Company. In 1889 Mr. Smith became sales-agent for Carnegie, Phipps & Co., since merged into the Carnegie Steel Com- pany, Limited ; and he is still connected with that company. He is also vice president of the New York Car Wheel Works, of the St. Thomas (Ont. ) Car Wheel Works, of the Canada Iron Furnace
T. GUILFORD SMITH
Company ( Radnor, Que. ), and of other industrial enterprises.
Mr. Smith's life-work has thus been identified with iron, steel, and coal ; and his experience of the
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needs of these great industrial factors has led him to devote much of his energy to the cause of protection to American industry. He has never lost faith in this cause, and deems the necessity for a protective policy as strong to-day as it was years ago.
ยท Most men of force and character have an avoca- tion which affords an outlet for their overflowing en- ergy ; and Mr. Smith is a case in point. While these important extractive industries have been the chief concern of his business life, the cause of edu- cation has received his best attention, and may fairly be regarded as his avocation. He has found no incongruity, as engineer and man of affairs, in cultivating the love of letters that began in his early life. His interest in educational mat- ters culminated in his election by the state legisla- ture in 1890 as a regent of the University of the State of New York. This is a life position, and he will thus have the opportunity, as long as he lives, of assisting in the development of education in this state. In 1891 Mr. Smith was made chairman of the Museum committee, which has charge of the geological and other surveys of the state and of the state Museum. This position brings him into close touch with all matters affecting the mineral resources of the state and the exhibition and study of those resources at the Museum.
Ever since his graduation from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Mr. Smith has had member- ship in various engineering societies, and has always taken a lively and an intelligent interest in them. In 1894 he traveled extensively in Europe and the Orient, and acted as a delegate from the Ameri- can Society of Civil Engineers to the International Congress of Medicine and Surgery in Rome. Mr. Smith belongs to many literary and scientific socie- ties, including the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the Union League of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute, the American Institute of Mining Engineers, and the Historical Society of Pennsyl- vania. He is president of the Charity Organization Society of Buffalo, vice president of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, and president of the Buffalo Library. In 1894 he was made, an honorary member of the Phi Beta Kappa, by Hobart Chapter.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Thomas Guil- ford Smith was born at Philadelphia August 21, 1839 ; graduated from the Central High School of Philadel- phia with the degree of B. A. in 1858, and from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1861; married Mary Stewart Ives of Lansingburgh, N. Y., July 14, 1864 : was with the Philadelphia & Reading rail- road as civil engineer, 1861-65 ; was general mana- ger of the Philadelphia Sugar Refinery, 1866-69 :
was secretary of the Union Iron Co. of Buffalo, 1873- 78; was sales-agent of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Co., 1878-92 ; has been sales-agent of tlie Carnegie Steel Co., It'd, since 1889 ; has been regent of the University of the State of New York since 1890.
E. G. Spanlding - lawyer, financier, states- man -is Buffalo's "Grand Old Man." Born in the same year with Gladstone, he bears the burden of fourscore and seven with faculties unimpaired. What a long, eventful, and useful career has been his, honorable alike to himself, to his state, and to the nation ! Jefferson was President, the second war with England was still to be fought, Napoleon's sun was at its zenith, seventeen states, with less than seven millions of people, comprised the American Union, Buffalo was a mere village -when Mr. Spaulding first saw the light.
Apart front a common-school education, Mr. Spaulding may justly be called a self-made man. "His early days were spent on his father's farm in central New York ; but he was ambitious to become a lawyer, and on attaining his majority he began the study of law in Batavia, N. Y. Admission to the bar was not so easy and direct in those days as now. First the applicant was admitted to the Court of Common Pleas ; later he was eligible to the office of attorney of the Supreme Court; and finally he might become counselor of the Supreme Court and of the Court of Chancery. After being admitted to practice before the Court of Common Pleas, Mr. Spaulding came to Buffalo, in 1834, an entire stran- ger and without so much as a letter of introduction. Such a beginning, however, befits a man who relies on his own talents and industry. He soon obtained a position as law clerk in the office of a leading firm, and in due time became an attorney and counselor of the Supreme Court, and opened an office for him- self. His success was rapid and on a large scale. After fourteen years at the bar he retired from the legal profession to begin a business career. Mr. Spaulding was instrumental in securing the removal from Attica to Buffalo of two banks that have be- come widely known as reliable money institutions -- the Commercial Bank and the Farmers' and Mechan- ics' Bank. Of the latter institution he was made president. This banking experience was destined to prove invaluable in another field of usefulness, to which he was called in the same decade by the suf- frage of his fellow-citizens at a time of national peril.
Along with his private cares and manifold labors. Mr. Spaulding has frequently accepted the duties and responsibilities of public office. He has been
MEN OF NEW YORK-WESTERN SECTION
city clerk, alderman, and mayor of Buffalo, member of the legislature, state treasurer, and representative in congress. As mayor, nearly half a century ago, he adopted a system of sewerage for the first time in the history of the city; in the legislature, and as treasurer, he was a potent factor in the development of the Erie canal ; in the 31st congress of the United States he stood among the stoutest opponents of slavery, and favored the admission of California as a free state ; in the 36th and 37th congresses, extending from 1859 to 1863, he was again a member of the house of repre- sentatives, and served on the most im- portant committee of that body --- the committee on ways and means. The nation was in the midst of the great Civil War; its resources were taxed to the utmost ; there seemed no way for the government to maintain its credit and meet its obligations. The wisest states- men pondered the perplexing problem in vain till Mr. Spaulding conceived of the " greenback " as the nation's salvation, made necessary and constitutional by stress of war. Mr. Spaulding introduced the bill for the adoption of the greenback as legal tender, and the national currency banking bill, both of which became laws ; and their author has since been known as the "Father of the Greenback." In later years, Mr. Spaulding gave to the world a full account of this important legislation in a " History of the Legal Tender Paper Money issued during the Great Rebellion." In so high estimation was he held as a financier, that upon the resignation of Mr. Chase President Lin- coln, it is said, would have appointed Mr. Spaulding secretary of the treasury, if New York had not been already represented in the cabinet by Mr. Seward.
Since his retirement from public life, Mr. Spaulding has devoted his business time to a bank presidency, the presidency of the Buffalo Gas Company, and to various enterprises of a financial character. He has sought at the same time to vary the routine of busi- ness by filling in his leisure with diversions suited to his age, chief among which have been the build- ing and improvement of his beautiful summer home at River Lawn on Grand Island. At the Centennial Celebration in Philadelphia, he delivered the address to the bankers' association on "One Hundred Years of Progress in the Business of Banking." In
social life he has long been a conspicuous figure. He is a member of the Buffalo Club, and though less active before the public than in years gone by, he retains an adequate interest in the current of passing events.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Elbridge Gerry Spaulding was born at Summer Hill, N. Y.,
E. G. SPAULDING
February 24, 1809 ; received a common-school educa- tion ; was admitted to the bar at Batavia, N. Y., in 1834 ; was city clerk of Buffalo in 1836, alderman in 1841, and mayor in 1847 ; married Antonette Rich of Attica, N. Y., in 1837 ; was member of the state leg- islature in 1848 ; was representative in the 31st, 336th, and 37th congresses ( 1849-51 and 1859-63) ; was treasurer of New York state, 1854-55 : has been presi- dent of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank since 1850.
Setb S. Spencer may be said to resemble one of those wheels in a great, complicated machine, which, though inconspicuous to the beholder, are none the less essential to the smooth and perfect
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working of the mechanism. As a rule, in every large city, the men who are the real factors in many mer- cantile and commercial establishments, banks, and factories are not the men best known in the com- munity, popularly speaking. Mr. Spencer belongs to this class of quiet, unassuming men, whose ability
SETH S. SPENCER
and character are fully realized and appreciated only by those who have social or business relations with them. For many years he has successfully managed one of the largest manufacturing bakeries in the United States, so that to-day the name of the founder of the business has become a household word in west- ern New York. Since Mr. Spencer has been at the head of this business the output from the factory has more than doubled in volume - a most creditable showing in these days of keen and active competition.
Mr. Spencer is a native of New York state, having been born in Genesee county less than sixty years ago. His educational opportunities were such as a country school afforded, supplemented by a course in
the Rural Seminary, at East Pembroke, N. Y. Al- though ambitious to do so, he was without the means to enter college and prepare himself by advanced in- struction for the legal profession, which he hoped to make his vocation. Taking advantage of spare hours in his regular occupation, he read law in the offices of F. J. Fithian and William Dorsheimer. both noted lawyers in their day, and was admitted to the bar in 1865.
Stress of circumstances, however, pre- vented him from practicing law. As early as 1857 he had turned his attention to telegraphy, and on mastering this craft he secured a position as local agent and telegraph operator at the railroad station in Lancaster, N. Y. His duties in this connection brought him into contact with the railway mail service, then in its infancy, but destined to be rapidly de- veloped and widely extended in the course of the following decade. In 1861 Mr. Spencer obtained an appointment as a railway mail clerk, and for two years he " ran " between Elmira and Buffalo. Promotion then brought him the route from Buffalo to New York city, one of the most important in the service, which he retained for ten years, or until his resignation in 1873. Whatever may be said of some positions under the govern- ment, that of the railway mail clerk is by no means a sinecure. The work is ex- hausting in an extreme degree, and is often rendered more difficult by the poor facilities provided by railroads. Only a man of vigorous constitution, quick eye, and alert mind is fitted for the position : and the fact that Mr. Spencer endured the labor and strain for twelve years is proof of his sound constitution and capacity for hard work. After retiring from the railway mail service, he became associated in busi- ness with Robert Ovens, manufacturing baker, to whose daughter he had been married in 1870, and who was at that time engaged in building up in But- falo the industry that now bears his name. In 1883 Mr. Spencer assumed the entire management of the business, which he has since conducted on an in- creasingly large scale and with corresponding suc- cess, displaying an energy and method that have marked him as one of Buffalo's most enterprising and farsighted men of affairs. Free from ostentation, and devoted to the responsibilities he undertakes, Mr. Spencer enjoys the respect and confidence of the
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business world, and is held in high esteem by his neighbors and fellow-citizens. In politics he is a Re- publican, but he has generally exercised his preroga- tive to vote for the best man irrespective of party lines, when no great principles were at stake. Mr. Spencer attends the Lafayette Street Presbyterian Church, and is one of the trustees thereof ; he is also a member of the Merchants' Exchange and of the Buffalo Club.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Seth S. Spen- cer was born in the town of Batavia, N. Y., August 25, 1838 ; was educated in country schools and at Rural Seminary, East Pembroke, N. Y .; was a rait- way mail clerk, 1861-73 ; was admitted to the bar in 1865, but never practiced law ; married Mrs. Agnes J. Derrick of Buffalo December 22, 1870 : has been manager of the R. Ovens Branch U. S. Baking Co., Buffalo, since 1883.
Mathias Strauss shows by his career what a man starting without means or influence can achieve through hard work, brains, and honest dealing. Born nearly sixty years ago in Remich, grand duchy of Luxemburg, Germany, he se- cured a limited education ; and at the age of fourteen, allured by glowing reports from America, persuaded his parents to leave their fatherland and seek a new home and fortune across the sea. No writer can adequately describe the pathos, the hope and fear, the complete change that accompanies the sundering of old friendships, the parting with familiar places and objects, and the launching out into an untried world of a family from one of the old countries. It is an experience never to be forgotten. Mr. Strauss recalls it the more vividly because the " promised land " so eagerly sought proved a keen disappointment in many respects. Wages were low and work was scarce ; and the prospect of a strange land, a stranger tongue, no friends, and no business was exceedingly disheartening to the newcomers.
Young Strauss realized that his parents, with a large family, had come to this country chiefly on his account, and hie resolved to take upon his shoulders all the burden they could bear. For over a hundred years in the old country, his father and grandfather had carried on in their native town the business of wool and sheep-leather manufacturing. So naturally he applied for work with his father in the
same business here, and both obtained employment in the sheepskin tannery of Breithaupt & Schoellkopf of Buffalo - the father at 75 cents, and Mathias at 37 16 cents a day. Bitterly regretting that he had left his native country, the young man determined neverthe- less to make the most of his opportunities and to do 'his full duty to his parents, whom his youthful en- thusiasm had brought to the United States. He was glad of the chance to work and to learn a trade ; and so diligently and intelligently did he apply himself to his duties that in five years he was promoted to be foreman of the department for dyeing and finishing fancy-colored sheep leather, and was regarded as the best man in that line in Buffalo.
To every industrious and faithful young man an op- portunity such as he wishes finally comes. When Mr.
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MATHIAS STRAUSS
Strauss was twenty-four years old, the firm for which he worked was dissolved, and the tannery be- came vacant. On a capital of two hundred dollars, which he had slowly accumulated, he rented the old
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establishment, and started in business for himself. He there laid the foundation for the immense business which came to him with the passing years, and which to-day requires a large force of men and huge build- ings for its adequate operation. Mr. Strauss at- tributes much of his success, especially at the begin- ning of his career, to the influence of his wife, who was Miss Elizabeth Brosart, daughter of Charles Bro- sart. As an illustration of Mr. Strauss's continued activity, pluck, and energy, the fact may be cited that when his establishment was burned to the ground in the spring of 1895, he set to work at once to re- build, kept all his workmen employed at full wages, and in six months had the great plant again under roof and in complete operation. Two of Mr. Strauss's sons are employed in the business : John A. is head bookkeeper, and Charles is foreman and buyer.
Not only has Mr. Strauss impressed himself upon the community as a manufacturer and employer, but he has also served the people of Buffalo in a political capacity, as an active, progressive citizen. He has twice been elected a councilman, and in performing the duties of that office he has been faithful to his own ideals, and has done at all times what he be- lieved would meet the approval of the people and the taxpayers of the city, in common with whom he has large and varied property interests affected by public action. In politics he is an ardent Democrat.
Mr. Strauss has been active in church, social, and philanthropic work for many years. A member of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, one of the founders of a church, an orphan asylum, and a work- ing boys' home, he has shown his devotion to re- ligious and charitable institutions and their wants. He is a member of the Old German Society of Buf- falo, and an honorary member of the Knights of St. John, thus maintaining in addition to business rela- tions a broad participation in the moral and social life of the community, and proving himself in every way a worthy citizen of the country of his adoption.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Mathias Strauss was born at Remich, Germany, April 15, 1836 ; married Elisabeth Brosart of Buffalo Novem- ber 15, 1859 ; was elected councilman of the city of Buffalo for the year 1892, and again for the years 1893-95 ; went to Buffalo in 1850, and has been en- graged there since in the manufacture of leather and wool.
Charles H. Sweet has long been one of the recognized, quiet-working forces in the commercial, social, and political life of Buffalo. A man may be no less a factor in a community because he is naturally
unobtrusive, devoted to business affairs, and opposed to notoriety of every sort. Mr. Sweet is a type of a class of men happily to be found in all our large cities, who constitute the strong, conservative element, whose influence and support are always sought whenever any great enterprise or important measure is under consideration or is being projected.
Among the things that determine success in life are parentage, place of birth, education, and oppor- tunity, for none of which are we primarily responsi- ble. What we make of the " raw material " of life, as it may be called, is really the sum total that the individual can claim as his own. Applying this standard impartially, it is possible to estimate the credit due to any given person. Mr. Sweet was fortunate in being born of old New England stock, amid the picturesque scenery of Berkshire county, Mass. What education he was able to secure was limited to the three " R's," and had to be obtained in the winter months when there was no work on the farm. But the training of the home supplied a discipline and a standard of living that schools, and colleges even, do not undertake to furnish. His life was that of the farmer's son-an apprenticeship that has proved of invaluable benefit in fitting young men for the practical work of the world.
In 1862, when twenty-six years of age, Mr. Sweet made Buffalo his home, and engaged in the transpor- tation business on Central wharf. Here, undoubt- edly, he gained many of those traits of accu- rate dealing, and that sound business judgment. which have characterized his career in the more dif- ficult and responsible field upon which he entered in 1881, when he became president of the Third National Bank of Buffalo - a position he continues to occupy.
A busy life has left him little leisure for many diversions so agreeable to those who have time for them. Mr. Sweet has, however, realized that he had duties as a citizen as well as a business man, and every public movement commending itself to his judgment has received his active support. A Demo- crat in politics, he has influenced his party in the right direction on all occasions ; and his personal interest in local affairs, together with his readiness to contribute of his time and means to his party's suc- cess, has given him a power in the community that he has always employed for its good. Though frequently urged by his friends to be a candidate for various offices, he has uniformly declined, and has never accepted a distinctly political office.
One public office, however, he did consent to fill in 1892, when he was appointed by the governor of New York one of the nonpartisan board of General
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Managers having charge of the manifold representa- tion of the Empire State at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. The complete and successful exhibit of New York at that superb exposition is a matter of history, and the volume and variety of the work performed by the General Managers is best illustrated by their comprehensive report to the state legislature, comprising a de- tailed account of the labors of the board.
Mr. Sweet was president of the Buf- falo Board of Trade when that institution was still on Central wharf. He was presi- dent of the Young Men's Association before it was changed to the " Buffalo Library." He served many years as one of the trustees of the City and County Hall, having been appointed to that posi- tion by the Superior Court. He served many years, also, as trustee of the State Normal School at Buffalo. He was one of the organizers of the Citizens' Gas Com- pany, and is now vice president of the same. He was one of the organizers of the Delaware Avenue Methodist Church, and is president of the board of trustees of that institution. He has been con- nected with many associations of a re- ligious and philanthropic character.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Charles Augustine Sweet was born at Hancock, Mass., February 16, 1836 ; was educated in country schools ; went to Buf- falo and engaged in the transportation busi- ness in 1862 ; was a member of the board of General Managers for New York state at the World's Fair, 1893 ; has been presi- dent of the Third National Bank of Buf- falo since 1881.
James Tillingbast may be justly regarded as a typical American railroader, though his diversified experience in connection with the transportation industry has rarely been paralleled in this or any other country. He began at the bottom of the lad- der, and ended at the top ; and the story of his life is at once interesting, instructive, and inspiring.
Mr. Tillinghast inherited his mechanical ability from his father, and as a schoolboy spent much of his leisure time in his father's machine shop, where he became practically conversant with the use of tools and the methods and processes of mechanical work. At the age of fifteen he entered a country store in Brownsville, N. Y., as a clerk. A year later he accepted a similar position at Dexter, N. Y.,
where his duties included, besides clerical work, making fires, sweeping the store, waiting on custom- ers, and keeping track of a miscellaneous stock of drugs, hardware, dry goods, groceries, and notions. For all this he received the princely sum of eight dollars a month.
CHARLES A. SWEET
In 1843 Mr. Tillinghast embarked in the lake trade, making his first venture as supercargo of a sailing vessel that carried passengers and freight from Sackett's Harbor to Chicago. The passengers sup- plied their own provisions, and slept in the hold. On the return trip he brought a cargo of wheat, which was the second that had ever been shipped from Chi- cago to Buffalo. Mr. Tillinghast soon abandoned this lake traffic, and engaged in business with his father for several years: but in 1851 he began the railroad career in which he was to attain such success. Beginning as extra fireman on a gravel train, he became assistant superintendent of the Rome & Watertown railroad the following year : and since that time he has held high official positions on
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