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 14
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Were it not for the absorbing work connected with a modern newspaper, Mr. Cobb might have made his mark in pure literature. His letters from Europe during a year's travel abroad exhibited such powers of description and faculty of imparting in- formation in an interesting way as have made the
WILLARD A. COBB
reputation of many writers. His letters from Italy upon the economic, political, and religious condi- tions of that country, and especially his account of an interview with Leo XIII., recently elected Pope, were in great demand by the press.
His experience abroad, coupled with his wide knowledge of practical problems in education, equipped him in a marked degree for the high office conferred upon him by the legislature in 1886, when he was elected a regent of the University of the State of New York. The duties of this position were fully appreciated and faithfully discharged until 1895. He was appointed by Governor Morton in that year one of the three civil-service commissioners of the state, and thereupon resigned from the board
of regents, the law forbidding him as commissioner to hold any other official position.
Though always a strong Republican, an active party worker, and a member of the state committer and of numerous state and local conventions, Mr. Cobb has proved himself an impartial, efficient, and progressive member of the board. At the first meeting of the new commission he was elected president. It has been said by a high authority - one of the United States civil-service commissioners, in fact -that under. Mr. Cobb's administration more has been accomplished than by any former state civil-service commission.
Mr. Cobb has been called upon fre- quently to speak before teachers' associa- tions and editorial conventions, and has always delivered addresses worthy of the occasion. He has been at all times a hard and energetic worker, and has im- pressed himself upon his day and genera- tion. Few men are more widely or more favorably known throughout the state.
Mr. Cobb is a bachelor, and lives in an apartment flat in Lockport.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Willard Adams Cobb was born at Rome, N. Y., July 20, 1842; graduated from Hamilton College in 1864; was a regent of the University of the State of New York, 1886-95 ; has been president of the State Civil Service Commission since 1895 ; has edited the Lockport "Daily Journal" since 1871.
John C. Darrison is one of the most popular citizens of Lockport. Al- though still a young man, he long since made his mark in the community in which he has lived all his life. He is identified with its interests in many ways, and has done his full share in promoting its welfare. His fellow-citizens delight to do him honor, for he has shown himself faithful in small things as well as in great. No interest com- mitted to his care is allowed to suffer from want of attention and of wise counsel. This is true of him. not only as concerns things that have to do with the material and municipal welfare of the city, but also as regards its charities. Mr. Darrison is a man of the people, true to himself and true to others.
It is because of these qualities that he has so often been called upon to occupy positions of great trust and responsibility. He has been prominent in the municipal affairs of the city for some years.
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His first public office was that of alderman, in which in 1892, and school trustee in 1895 ; was appointed supervisor in 1886, member of the board of health in 1889, civil-service commissioner in 1890, railroad commissioner in 1894, and a member of the board of he rendered services of so valuable a character that he was next chosen to be a member of the board of servisors. Here, again, his plain common sense and strict business methods were so marked that in . education in 1895 ; has conducted a flour, feed, and 1-92 he was elected mayor of the city, holding that grain business in Lockport since January, 1873. office for two years. His administration was emi- nently satisfactory to the people of Lockport. At prevent he is one of the railroad commissioners of the city ; a member of the board of education ; treasurer of the Lockport & Buffalo Railway Co. ; al active in an official capacity in various local institutions.
All that John T. Darrison is he owes to his own etorts. He was born in Lockport, and obtained his education in the public schools of that city. When sixteen years old he started out for himself by becom- ing an apprentice in the composing de- jurtiment of the Lockport Journal. But the opportunities there seemed limited, and when, two years later, a chance came to engage in the flour and feed business, young Darrison was glad to make a hange. Unremitting and careful atten- - tion to the business in all its details has been followed by a success that could have been only dreamed of in the beginning. The business has grown steadily and surely, until now Mr. Darrison is at the head of an establishment that occupies three commodious stores equipped with the best appliances for handling, in the most approved manner and with the utmost dispatch, the special kind of mer- . handise concerned. These stores are the i enter of distribution for a very large trade in western New York. The seed depart- ment is particularly well organized, and has business in all parts of the country.
While developing his private business, Mr. Darrison has been fully alive to the opportunities in other directions. He has done his part in local enterprises of a public nature, the successful operation of which has resulted in benefit to the city of Lockport. He is a stockholder in the 1.wr kport & Buffalo Railway Co., the Thompson Milling Co., and the United Indurated Fibre Co.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- 1. in Thomas Darrison was born at Lockport, N. Y., O, tuber 20, 1855 : was educated in the public schools ; r tried Laura A. Lambert of Lockport September 2!), isso : was elected alderman of Lockport in 1885, mayor
Ben. S. Dean is as well known throughout a large part of western New York as any newspaper editor in that section. This fame is not due to his newspaper work alone, but in great part to his activ- ity in politics. He is a man of positive ideas, who always has the courage of his convictions, and never hesitates to make them known. Such a man cannot fail to impress himself upon any community in which he lives. He may make foes -- a positive man al- ways does that ---- but he is never without friends. In
JOHN T. DARRISON
fact, he derives more philosophic satisfaction from the opposition of enemies than pleasure from the support of friends. In politics it is often a compliment to a man that Mr. So-and-So opposes him.
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We think of Mr. Dean nowadays as an old Chau- tauquan, since he has long been a resident of James- town ; but he was born in Randolph, Cattaraugus county. His early education was obtained in the common schools. When someone asked him where his education was completed, the answer was thor-
BEN. S. DEAN
oughly characteristic - " It has never been com- pleted ; I am still a student." Being still a student, Mr. Dean is a growing man : it is only the man that knows it all who ceases to develop.
In 1878, when only eighteen years old, Mr. Dean became a member of the firm of Sampson, Kittell & Dean, who published a paper called the Register at Emlenton, Penn. He next associated himself with the Rev. J. J. Keyes in the publication of the Sun- day Mirror at Olean, N. Y. This partnership con- tinued through 1881 and 1882. From Olean Mr. Dean went to his native town of Randolph in the year last named, and there, in partnership with G. W. Roberts, published the Randolph Register. Here he remained until May, 1885. Jamestown was then, as
it is now, a bustling, growing city, the metropolis of Chautauqua county, and the seat of many prosperous manufactories. The place seemed to offer a fine field for another live newspaper, and in November, 1885, Mr. Dean formed the News Publishing Company. and established the Jamestown News. Of this paper he has been editor ever since, with the exception of five months in 1894, when he served as a member from Chautauqua county of the state constitutional conven- tion. This is the only office to which Mr. Dean has ever been elected, and the only one for which he was ever a candi date.
Mr. Dean is an ardent Republican in political belief, and his journalistic work is largely in the line of political writings. He handles all subjects of that nature with a directness of purpose that can never be mistaken. A spade is a spade to him, and he never hesitates to call things by what he conceives to be their proper names. He has a large fund of information on many subjects, and his edi- torials command wide attention. Though often attacked, he is ever ready with reply, and a controversy is very much to his liking. Besides his journalistic writings he has contributed politico-economic articles to various publications.
Outside of his newspaper work Mr. Dean's activities have been mostly devoted to politics. He has been an earnest worker both with the leaders and in the ranks. Sometimes he has been with the controlling interests of his party and some- times against them, but with one excep- tion he has acquiesced in the decrees of the party conventions in nominations. The fight he led in this exception resulted in the de- feat at the polls of the candidate opposed by him.
Mr. Dean is a firm believer in the free coinage of silver on a basis of sixteen to one, and in govern- mental ownership of essential monopolies. He is opposed to ballot reform, high license, and civil- service reform, all of which he terms " fads." How- ever much others may differ from him on these subjects, it must be conceded that he is honest and fearless in his opposition.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Benjamin S. Dean was born at Randolph, N. Y., May 10, 1860 : began work as a newspaper writer in 1878 ; married Emile C. Blasdell of Attica, N. Y., June 2i. 188.3 ; was elected a member of the state constitutional
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contention in 1893 ; organized the News Publishing Company in 1885, and has edited the Jamestown .. Vetos "since. ...
William Caryl Ely owes his success as a lawyer and man of affairs to an indomitable will con- trolled by sound judgment, wide knowledge, and practical experience. When once he has grappled with a problem, he holds on till a solution is ob- u lled. He has been the projector, organizer, and promoter of a number of important undertakings in the electrical field, and has succeeded in the face of wat discouragements. He has had the faith and the energy that, united, overcome all obstacles. The Lw, it has been truly remarked, has to-day become : business. The old-time, slow-going, pedantic man of books would be out of place in a modern law office or court room. In his stead has come the quiet, accurate thinker, well grounded in the principles and practice of the law, lust possessing in addition a mind adapted to the complicated forms and involved methods of the commercial world as it exists to-day.
To speak of Mr. Ely as a business Lawyer seems natural. Yet he is some- thing more than that, for he is a successful advocate, and has the valuable gift known in the profession as a judicial mind. But his work in connection with such corpora- pons as the Niagara Falls Power Co. and the Buffalo & Niagara Falls Electric rail- way exemplifies and emphasizes the prac- pal side of Mr. Ely's character. He was one of the five original promoters and ww orporators of the power company. He Intejared and had charge of the legislation iritaining to its original charter, and as ted in preparing and had charge of all subsequent legislation ; and he has run a trustee and local counsel of the wanjany from its organization. He was "he principal promoter of the railway stany, and carried the enterprise to a . restul end despite the panic of 1898- ", which threatened at one time to & the project. He is president of the mjxiny.
Mr. Ely is a native of the Empire State, i'd received the greater part of his ele- watary and college training within its borders. '"er a sound preliminary education he took up the 's of law, and was admitted to the bar at East Hunter, N. Y., where he practiced for three years
before settling in Niagara Falls. His career as a law- yer has been unusually successful and brilliant, and the firm of Ely, Dudley & Cohn, numbering among its clients many important corporations and inanu- facturing companies, has to-day the most extensive legal business in Niagara county.
Legislation and law are so intimately connected that lawyers naturally constitute the most numerous class in all legislative bodies. The law, more fre- quently than any other profession, leads to politics, and Mr. Ely has been an active and prominent member of his party for many years. He has served as super- visor and as assemblyman, and in 1891 he received the Democratic nomination for justice of the Supreme Court. While in the legislature he was nominated by his party for speaker, and was the leader of the minority on the floor. He is treasurer of the Demo-
WILLIAM CARYL ELY
cratic state central committee, and is also one of the executive committee of that organization. Al- though thus closely interested in politics, Mr. Ely has declined nominations for offices that would be
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likely to interfere with his paramount duties as an at - torney and counselor at law. His profession has been first with him, as it must be with every lawyer who is determined to win the respect and confidence of his clients and his brethren at the bar.
In social life Mr. Ely holds a high position, and has hosts of friends. He is a member of the Masonic order, and has been a vestryman of St. Peter's Epis- copal Church since 1886. In college he was a member of the Chi Phi fraternity.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-William Caryl Ely was born at Middlefield, N. Y., February 25. 1856 ; was educated at Cooperstown ( N. Y.) Union School, Girard ( Pa. ) Academy, Delaware Literary Institute ( Franklin, N. Y.), and Cornell University ; was admitted to the bar in 1882 ; married Grace Kel- ler of Cobleskill, N. Y., February 13, 1884; was a member of the state assembly, 1883-85 ; has practiced law at Niagara Falls, N. Y., since 1885.
Thomas C. fflagler has had a thoroughly American career - American both in breadth and variety of experience, and in the rewards that have followed upon energy, intelligence, and thrift. His educational advantages were limited to what the common schools afforded nearly three-quarters of a century ago. His first paid employment began when he was eleven years old, and was in a bark mill connected with a tannery. The compensation was board and one shilling a day. From six months' labor he saved ten dollars, which he deposited in a New York savings bank. When he withdrew the deposit, after attaining manhood, the original sum had been fully doubled by interest. At sixteen Mr. Flagler was apprenticed to the printing trade in the office of the Chenango Republican, Oxford, N. Y., at a compensation of board, washing, mending, and forty dollars a year. When his employer died two years afterward, Mr. Flagler formed a partnership and bought the paper. His cash capital was seven- teen dollars. For two years he rode one day each week over the Chenango hills and valleys distribut- ing the paper to the subscribers. After five years' experience in the newspaper business, he sold his interest in March, 1836, and went westward to Lockport with 81,200, the profits of his labor, se- curely beited about his body.
Lockport was thenceforward Mr. Flagler's home. For about two years he worked as a journeyman printer, earning the current wages of eight dollars a week. In September, 1838, he bought the Niagara Courier, again embarking in the newspaper business on his own account. The Courier was a Whig paper, and brought him into active participation in
politics. Seward and Marcy were opposing candi- dates for governor, and Mr. Flagler took an active part in the canvass, not only in his paper, but also by accompanying the Whig candidate for congres, about the county and speaking with him at publi. meetings. This speaking tour doubled the subscrip- tion list of the Courier. Mr. Flagler also took a prom. inent part in the presidential campaign of 1840. He made the dedicatory address at the completion of the log cabin at the junction of old and new Main street, in Lockport, before an immense throng of people. Millard Fillmore, elected vice president four years later, delivered an address on the same occasion.
In 1842 and again in 1843 Mr. Flagler was elected to the state legislature. The first year he was chair- man of the committee on grievances, and the second year he was a member of the committee on canals. Only two men are now living who antedate Mr. Flagler in assembly membership.
In 1842 Mr. Flagler sold his newspaper, and en- gaged in the hardware business, retaining an interest therein for twenty-seven years. In 1849 he was elected treasurer of Niagara county, and held the office for three years. In 1852 he was chosen repre- sentative in congress for the district embracing Niagara and Orleans counties. He took part in the struggle over the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and was one of the hundred who voted against it because it re- pealed the prohibition of slavery in those territories. He was almost unanimously re-elected to the next congress, the 34th (1855-57), and took part in the memorable ten weeks' contest over the speakership that ended in the election of Nathaniel P. Banks. Out of the disorganization of parties typified in this contest sprang the Republican party. In 1860 Mr. Flagler was returned to the legislature, and became chairman of the committee on ways and means, and of a special committee which unavailingly proposed legislation preventing railroad discrimination. In this term of the legislature Mr. Flagler took a stand in advance of his time by returning, unused, railroad passes presented to him. He was the only member who did this. The list of Mr. Flagler's public offices closes with his service as a member of the constitutional convention of 1867-68.
In his own community Mr. Flagler has held many positions of trust and honor. He has been, from the beginning, a director of the Lockport Hydraulic Co., which has expended large sums of money in making the surplus canal water, taken from the head of the locks, available for water power. He has thus been instrumental in building up Lockport and making it a manufacturing town. Among the in- dustries so created by this company is the Holly
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Manufacturing Co., organized by Mr. Flagler in 1859 with a capital of $20,000, of which he furnished half. He was made president at the beginning, and has held the office ever since, building the concern into an institution of national reputation. Other enterprises with the organization of which he was connected are the Lockport Gaslight Co., established in 1×51 ; the Niagara County Bank, organ- ved in 1856 ; and the Lockport & Buffalo mailroad, now leased by the Erie. With- out seeking the position, Mr. Flagler has been called almost invariably to the presi- dency of the business organizations with which he has been connected. For many years he has stood at the head of eight Mich organizations. He has shown in many ways his interest in the well-being of Lockport, and lately gave the city a dwelling house for use as a hospital. The city has named the institution the Flagler Hospital.
Mr. Flagler has been active in religious matters since his early manhood, having united with the Congregational church in Oxford in 1831. He was elected a ruling eller of the Presbyterian church in Lock- port in 1840, and still holds the office after fifty-five years' service. From 1855 to 1876 he served as Sunday-school super- intendent, being finally released at his own request and made honorary superin- tendent for life. When the presbytery of Niagara was incorporated in 1875, Mr. Flagler was elected to the board of trus- tres, and has been president of the board vince.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Thomas Thorn Flagler was born at Pleas- ani Valley, N. Y., October 12, 1811 : after attending country schools, was apprenticed to. the printing trade at Oxford, N. Y., in 1827 ; became publisher of the Chenango " Republican" in 1829, and of the Niagara " Courier" in 1838 : was elected to the New York legislature in 1842, 1843, w4/ 1860 ; was treasurer of Niagara county, 1849; was representative in congress, 1853-57 ; was a mem- Fer of the constitutional convention of 1867-68 ; has oved in Lockport, N. Y., since 1836.
A. V. V. francbot has the honor of being the first man elected to hold the office of mayor of the city of Olean. A study of the census report of 1.90 reveals the interesting fact that of the increase of five thousand in the population of Cattaraugus
county in the previous ten years, almost the entire number may be credited to Olean, the slight losses and gains in the other portions of the county about offsetting each other As a result of this increase of population, Olean applied for and obtained a city charter, and the first election of officers for the new
THOMAS T. FLAGLER
city was held in February, 1894. When a com- munity first takes its place among the cities of a great state it is of the utmost importance that it choose for its chief magistrate a man who will ad- minister the municipal affairs with due dignity and with sound business judgment. The voters of the city of Olean chose Mr. Franchot, who had been for nearly twenty years one of its well known and highly respected citizens, prominently identified with its business, political, social, and religious interests.
Mr. Franchot is not a native of western New York, but was born in Otsego county, and was educated in Schenectady. He prepared for college there, at Union School, and graduated from Union College in the class of 1875 with the degree of B. A. At
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that time the oil fields of Pennsylvania offered a tempting opening for ambitious young men, and Mr. Franchot, like many others, turned aside from the professional paths to which his college training in- vited him, and embraced a commercial career, trusting to industry and natural ability to win suc-
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V. T. T. FRANCHOT
cess. Immediately after his graduation he went to Millerstown, Penn., where he was employed by a pipe-line company as ganger, and afterwards as division superintendent. After spending two years in Millerstown he was able to begin business foi himself as an oil producer. He went to Olean, and formed a partnership with his brother and with A. N. Perrin, under the firm name of Franchot Bros. & Co. In 1888 Mr. Perrin sold out his interest in the business, and the firm has since been known as Franchot Bros.
Mr. Franchot has always been a staunch Republi- can, and he served his party well, as chairman of the county committee for three successive years, and as delegate to the national convention at Minneapolis
in 1899. He was honored by the nomination for mayor in 1894, in recognition of his executive ability and of his consistent devotion to the prin- ciples of the Republican party.
Mr. Franchot is a prominent figure in the busines, life of Olean, and is in the forefront of all the schemes for advancing the prosperity of the city. While still maintaining his interest in the firm that bears his name, he is at the same time president of the Olean Improvement Co., and a director of the Olean Electric Light & Power Co., and of the Exchange National Bank of Olean.
Mr. Franchot has not allowed himself to become so occupied with his numerous business cares as to neglect the other aspects of our complex nineteenth-century life. He has been active in the work of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church ever since he first came to Olean, and for many years has been a member of its vestry. He is president of the City Club of Olean, and a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity of Union College. He was elected a life trustee of Union College in June, 1895. He is a nonresident member of the Genesee Valley Club of Rochester, and of the University Club and the Sigma Phi Club of New York city.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Nicholas Van Vranken Franchot was born at Morris, Otsego county, N. Y., August 21, 1855 ; was educated at Union School and at Union College, Schenectady, grad- uating from the latter institution in 1875 ; married Annie Coyne Wood of Warren. Penn., November 5, 1879; was elected mayor of Olean, N. Y., in February, 1894; has been in business in Olean, as an oil producer, since 1878.
Joshua Gaskill has been prominently con- nected with the growth of Lockport for over thirty years, and has done much to enhance its material de- velopment and prosperity. Born in the town of Royalton, Niagara county, N. Y., his education was begin in the district schools, and continued in Lock port Union School, Wilson Collegiate Institute, and Gasport Academy. For three years he taught a dis- trict school in the winter, and worked on his father's farm in summer, accumulating sufficient funds in this way to enable him to enter the University of Rochester
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