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 18
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For about a year after graduation Dr. Fenner practiced medicine in Michigan. first in Goodrich and then in Flint. Then he decided to enter the army. llc enlisted, in 1861, in the 8th Michigan volunteer infantry, served as hospital steward, and was afterward promoted suc. cessively to the rank of 2d and 1st liest- tenant. In 1863 he was appointed assist- ant surgeon in the United States navy. Finally he retired from the service, in 1864, to devote himself to private practice, and re- turned for this purpose to his native county, settling at Jamestown. There he remained until 1869, wher he moved to Fredonia, N. Y., which has since been his home. He conducted a general practice unti: 1872, and still carries on an office practice. In 1:72 he began the manufacture of proprietary medicines. in which he has met with great success.
Dr. Fenner has held various official positions in the line of his profession. He was consulting sur geon to the Chautauqua County Insane Asylum fron. 1866 to 1869. During the same years he was physician to the poor for Jamestown, and from 186! to 1872 he held a similar office in Fredonia. Hic was United States examining surgeon from 1870 to
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1572, and in 1871 and 1872 was president of the Eclectic Medical Society of the State of New York.
This summary of Dr. Fenner's professional career would alone show him to be a busy man ; but he has found time to do many other things. He is sec- tetary and treasurer of the Dunkirk & Fredonia Railroad Co., and has been its manager since 1880. The company maintains an electric street-railroad tween Fredonia and the neighboring city of Dun- Link, and carries on incidentally the business of . ommercial electric lighting and steam heating. Dr. lenner is also engaged in grape and miscellaneous frning. Each branch of his business - manufac- turing, street-car management with its accessories, printing (the Globe Printing House), and farming -- b organized by itself ; but the general supervision of the whole falls upon him. He is a director of the Hubbard Company, the Fredonia National Bank, and the Merchants' National Bank of Dunkirk; is a member of the local ixxindl of the State Normal School at Fredonia ; and was formerly the presi- dent of the Life and Reserve Associa- tion of Buffalo.
Dr. Fenner is most widely known through his political connections. He is an earnest Republican, has been prom- inent as a leader in local politics, and has held various offices. He served his town as supervisor - its highest office -two terms, in 1878 and 1879. In 1880 his district sent him to the legislature as its assemblyman, and the following year he was re-elected. In 1890 and 1891 he was deputy collector of customs of the port of New York.
PERSONAL CHIRONOLOGY- Milton Marion Fenner was born at South Stockton, N. Y., July 28, 1837 ; was educated in the public schools, Ellington N. Y.) Academy, and Allegheny College, Meadville, Penn. ; graduated from the Eclectic Medical Institute at Cincinnati in 1460 : married Georgianna L. Grandin et Jamestown, N. Y., June 5, 1866, and Florence E. Bondeson of Jamestown March 'S, 1883; served in the Union army wat navy, 1861-64 ; practiced medicine in Michigan, 1859-61, and in Jamestown, 1×1-69 ; was member of assembly, 1881- 2, and deputy collector of customs at the port of New York, 1890-91 ; has practiced medicine in Fredonia, V. Y., since 1869, and carried on the manufacture of A Prietary medicines there since 1872.
Benjamin Flagler is an excellent type of the class of citizens to whose progressive spirit and un- tiring energy is due in large measure the material development of the Empire State. This is the class that possesses the ability to organize, and the skill and means to carry out successfully, large operations in the commercial and mechanical fields of industry. In this day of gigantic undertakings, requiring for their execution large numbers of men and vast expen- ditures of money, there is in every community an urgent demand for men of executive ability and high integrity.
Such a man is Mr. Flagler in the community in which he lives. He was educated in the district school and in the Lockport Union School. With this training added to his natural mental endowments, he began his business career. This, however, was
BENJAMIN FLAGLER
destined to be arrested soon by a call to higher duty. The great Civil War interposed between him and his personal interests and commercial prospects. It found him a young man in prosperous condition,
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married, settled in business, looking forward to the steady-going course of commercial and domestic life. The war found many other young men similarly cir- cumstanced. Some heeded the call of their coun- try, and quickly volunteered their services ; others turned a deaf ear to the summons of the nation. Mr. Flagler proved himself a true patriot. He enlisted in the first regiment raised in Niagara county, and served in the model Army of the Potomac until honorably discharged for disability.
Mr. Flagler was for many years connected with the customs service, holding the offices of inspector, deputy collector, and collector at Suspension Bridge, N. Y., during a period of twenty-three years. While in these positions he established a reputation for courtesy, accuracy, and fidelity that commended him to all classes having business at the custom- house.
Upon his retirement from public service Mr. Flagler directed his efforts to financial enterprises. He became president of the Suspension Bridge Bank on its organization in 1886, and has continued at the head of that institution since then. Another field of activity which he entered about the same time was that of street railways; and he was elected president of the first surface road operated in Sus- pension Bridge. The development of electric power from Niagara Falls, so long a matter of speculation, has now become a demonstrated fact. Among the men deserving of credit and gratitude for this grand illustration of man's dominion over nature, is Mr. Flagler, who was one of the incorporators of the Niagara Falls Power Co., and who has been its vice president since 1891.
Outside business relations Mr. Flagler maintains a worthy and useful connection with various organiza- tions of a social, religious, and philanthropic char- acter. He is a Mason of the highest rank, and Past Grand Master of the order in New York state. For many years he was a trustee and the treasurer of De Veaux College. His political affiliations are with the Republicans, and he has been honored by his party through Governor Morton, of whose staff he is a member, being chief of ordnance with the rank of brigadier general. In politics as in business, Mr. Flagler carries into practice the sound principles of individual opinion and strict integrity.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Benjamin Flagler was born at Lockport, N. Y., December 10, 1833 ; was educated in public schools ; married Martha J. MeKnight of Newfane, N. Y., November 9, 1859 ; served in the Union army, 1861-62 ; settled in Niagara Falls, N. Y., in 1863 ; was in the cus- toms service at Suspension Bridge, N. Y., as inspector,
deputy collector, and collector, 1863-86; has been pres- ident of Suspension Bridge Bank since 1886, and vice president of Niagara Falls Power Co. since 1891.
Tallliam D. henderson of Randolph, N. Y., has won advancement and honor by holding fast to one good profession for a lifetime. At sixteen years of age he entered Fredonia Academy, then the leading institution of its kind in western New York. At eighteen he was reaching. By dint of attending schools when he had the opportunity and teaching between times to earn the means therefor, he was able, at the age of twenty, to graduate from the State Normal College at Albany.
After receiving his diploma Mr. Henderson went to Randolph, N. Y., where for two years more he taught school to defray expenses while studying law. This preparation resulted in his admission to the bar at Buffalo in 1852. Since then Mr. Henderson has practiced his profession continuously at Randolph with but one change in the name of his firm. His first partnership was with J. E. Weeden, upon whose retirement in 1859 Mr. Henderson associated himself with Alexander Wentworth ; and to the present day the firm name is Henderson & Wentworth. As he says himself, "Neither politics nor pleasure nor other business has ever interfered with the practice of my profession."
Professional devotion, however, has not absorbed the whole individuality of Mr. Henderson. He has been ready to contribute his talents to public service, if the office came without any seeking on his part. That he has not been more in public life is due to the fact that he has always belonged to the Demo- cratic party, which has not been uppermost in western New York. When only twenty-three years of age Mr. Henderson was nominated for the office of treasurer of Cattaraugus county. He was ap- pointed county judge by Governor Tilden to fill a vacancy, in 1875. At the next election he was his party's choice for the same office, and succeeded in reducing the Republican majority in the county from three thousand to about three hundred. Shortly afterward Governor Tilden again placed him in office. this time as justice of the Supreme Court for the &th judicial district. That he was popular in his own community was shown by his selection as president of the centennial celebration of his county, which occurred at Olean July 4, 1876. Three years later he was nominated as state senator ; and close upon this honor came that of representing his state as alternate delegate at large in the Democratic national convention that nominated Hancock and English at Cincinnati in 1880. Governor Robinson had been
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elected delegate at large, and Mr. Henderson was der ted his alternate, and at the governor's request Mr. Henderson attended in his stead.
Mr. Henderson holds a directorate in the First National Bank of Salamanca, in the People's Bank of East Randolph, and in the State Bank of Ran- dolph, of which he was for ten years president of the board of directors. Suc- sive preferments, political or profes- sional, have attested the high esteem in which both his ability and his integrity are regarded at home and in official vircles.
Two very important trusts have been assigned to Mr. Henderson and faithfully discharged by him. For many years he was the legal adviser of Benjamin Cham- Ikilain, the founder of Chamberlain institute, and was thus intiniately ac- quainted with that gentleman's philan- thropic and educational ideas. Since 1576 Mr. Henderson has been president of the board of trustees of Chamberlain Institute, and has carried out the benef- hent projects of the founder with dis- tinguished success. For a period almost equally long he has been president of the board of trustees of the Western New York Society for the Protection of Home- les and Dependent Children. To this worthy charity he has given his most earnest thought and labors. Under his guidance a "Home" has been built which now cares for about one hundred and forty children, and in which they Ite educated and trained until homes are found for them.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- William H. Henderson was born at Tully, V: F., December 4, 1828 ; was educated at Fredonia Academy and at the State Normal College at Albany, V. Y. ; was nominated for treasurer of Cattaraugus wanty in 1851 ; was appointed county judge of Catta- taugus county in 1875, and justice of the Supreme Court for the 8th judicial district in 1876 ; was delegate is the Democratic national convention in 1880 : married .inna M. Morris of Ellicottville, N. Y., June 3, 18, and Emily A. Thompson of Randolph, N. Y., J.&9, 1885 ; has practiced law in Randolph since 1852.
frank VI. figgins has a large part in the Isiness and political life of southwestern New York, . his father had before him. As the owner of three Cores in Olean, in addition to various mining and
lumber interests in the West, and as representative of the 50th senate district in the legislature, Mr. Higgins gives in his daily life evidence of great energy and unusual power of concentration and organization.
His education began in the district school of his native town, and was continued in the seminary at
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WILLIAM H. HENDERSON
Pike, Wyoming county, and in the Riverview Mili- tary Academy at Poughkeepsie. At the age of eighteen he began business life in Chicago as the western sales-agent of an eastern refinery of lubricat- ing oils. He continued this business for only a short time, going from Chicago to Denver, Col., where he spent parts of the years 1875 and 1876. Returning again to the middle west, in November, 1876, he bought an interest in the mercantile firm of Wood, Thayer & Co. at Stanton, Mich. The following year he purchased the interests of his partners, and con- tinued the business in his own name.
Mr. Higgins's father, O. T. Higgins, was at this time extensively engaged in mercantile business in Olean and other towns of western New York and
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northern Pennsylvania. The firm of Higgins, Blodgett & Co., in which the elder Higgins was senior partner, had nine stores scattered through this territory, chiefly at Olean. In February, 1879, Mr. Higgins sold his interests in Michigan, and bought a partnership in this firm ; and after five years he
FRANK W. HIGGINS
bought the Olean stores from his partners, and he now owns three stores in Olean. His talent for organization is such that he has been able for the last eight years to devote most of his time to pine and iron lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where he has large holdings.
Mr. Higgins took an early interest in politics. He was elected a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago in 1888. In 1893 he was nominated and elected state senator from what was then the 32d district, consisting of Allegany, Cat- taraugus, and Chautauqua counties. His service was distinguished by strict integrity, close attention to legislative business, and honest independence. Thus he early acquired strong influence, and before the
close of his term was recognized as among the leaders in the upper house at Albany. His constituent. showed their appreciation of his services by giving: him a renomination without opposition, his district. the 50th, consisting under the new constitution o Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. The Deme. crats, Prohibitionists, and Populists 6! his district made no nominations again : him, and his re-election lacked little .: being unanimous. He is chairman of the important committee on taxation and retrenchment, to which the famo :. , Raines excise bill was referred in Feb- ruary, 1896.
Mr. Higgins attends the Episcopa! church. He has been Eminent Com. mander of St. John's Commandery, No. 24, of Olean, and is trustee of the Randolph Home for Friendless Children. and of the Chautauqua Assembly. Il. has always taken deep interest in the growth and improvement of the city where he has his home, and of the sur. rounding locality.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Frank Wayland Higgins was born a: Rushford, N. Y., August 18, 1856 ; ta, educated in the public schools and at River. view Military Academy, Poughkeepsie. N. Y .; was in business in Chicago and iv Denver, 1874-76; was in business at Stanton, Mich., 1876-79; married Kate C. Noble of Sparta, Wis., June 5, 1878. was a delegate to the Republican nation ... convention in 1888 ; was elected state ser: ator in 1893 and re-elected in 1895 ; ha. conducted a general mercantile business 15 Olean since 1879.
John William bumpbrey, 3r., has led an active, energetic life, full of enterprise and useful- ness. He was born in New England, in the thrivir_ town of New Britain, Conn., less than half a con tury ago. At an early age he was sent to boardir. school at Saybrook, Conn., a delightful old villa,c situated on Long Island sound at the mouth of the Connecticut river. His parents having moved & Chicago, his elementary education was completed : the public schools of the western metropolis. The. he entered the Northwestern Seminary at Evanston. Ill., to prepare for Beloit College, where he finishe . his scholastic studies.
At the age of twenty-one Mr. Humphrey launche out into business, acquiring a half interest in an
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well at Pithole, Penn. He soon extended his opera- tions in the oil district, and became interested in valuable properties near Titusville. The allied busi- ness of coal mining also engaged his attention, and this he carried on with a partner under the firm name of Huniphrey & Co. He next devoted a period of two years to manufacturing at Erie, Penn., and re- tired from the coal and oil business. About this time railroading became attractive to him, and for some months he was in the service of the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio railroad at Meadville, Penn.
In 1877 Mr. Humphrey chose a new and entirely different field for his activities and talents, becoming the proprietor of the Tuna Valley House at Brad- ford, Penn. This was the beginning of his career as an owner and a manager of hotels. He soon pur- chased the St. James hotel, which he carried on successfully for several years, when he disposed of it, removed to Jamestown, N. Y., and acquired possession of the hotel that now bears his name - the Humphrey House. The success of this hotel is proof of Mr. Humphrey's ability. Few kinds of business require so many and varied talents as hotel-keeping. It demands brains, executive ability, and velvety tact. The hotel has assumed in modern life an importance undreamed of in the days when travel was limited to short distances. Hotels are the homes of a large class of people. To meet the wishes of the traveling public and to provide for their wants, is a task that taxes a man's resources at all points. Mr. Humphrey has set a high standard for the conduct of his hotel, and has main- tained that standard under all circum- stances, however trying.
In addition to his hotel business Mr. Humphrey, since his father's death in October, 1893, has carried on the manu- facture of carriages and implements, a . business that his father had built up to large proportions.
Political affairs have always interested Mr. Humphrey, and while he has not sought office, he has been an active Re- publican in both state and national poli- tics. He is a Mason of the 32d degree and a Knight Templar.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-John William Humphrey, Jr., was born at New Britain, Conn., December 5, 1846 ; was educated in various pre- paratory schools and at Beloit College, Beloit, Wis. ;
was an operator in oil and coal in Pennsylvania, 1868-72 ; married Mary E. Irwin of Erie, Penn., October 81, 1872 ; was engaged in the hotel business at Bradford, Penn., 1877-82; purchased the Hum- phrey House at Jamestown, N. Y., March 1, 1883, and has conducted the same since.
3. TR. Jewell is prominent in legal circles in Cattaraugus county, where he has practiced his pro- fession with distinguished success for nearly thirty years.
After an education received at Rushford and Ar -. cade academies, both well-known institutions of southwestern New York, in 1865 he entered the law office of Cary & Bolles in Olean as a student. Two years later he was admitted to the bar. The firm with which he had studied was one of the most
JOHN WILLIAM HUMPHREY, JR.
successful in the county, and the fact that Mr. Jewell was immediately admitted to partnership shows that he had already displayed marked ability. The new firm of Cary, Bolles & Jewell established itself in
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Little Valley, which had just been made the county seat, and remained there for the next six years.
It was during his first year in Little Valley, and when he was little more than twenty-five years old, that Mr. Jewell achieved his first brilliant success, and established his reputation as a lawyer of splendid
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J. R. JEWELL
promise. Throughout Cattaraugus county men of middle age and over still remember the "celebrated Burdick case," as it was called. The man was indicted for the murder of a negro, and was convicted. The public sentiment against him was so strong that the judge before whom the case was tried committed an error in his charge to the jury, and on this ground Mr. Jewell obtained for his client a second trial. Here, too, the prisoner was convicted, but his indefat- igable young lawyer succeeded in having the sentence commuted by Governor Hoffman to imprisonment. Mr. Jewell conducted the entire case without the aid of other counsel ; and the legal learning, tact, and untiring perseverance that he displayed at once
brought him into prominence, and secured for him the beginnings of the lucrative practice that he ha. since enjoyed. Although he has not confined hill- self to criminal cases, it is worthy of note that during his professional life he has defended twelve men who were on trial for their lives, and not one of them lia- been executed.
In 1883, when Judge Bolles retired from the firm, Mr. Jewell returned to Olean, and was associated with Mr. Cars. and later with his brother, M. B. Jewell Since 1893 he has practiced alone.
Mr. Jewell is a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, and received a nomina. tion for district attorney in 1873. His county was strongly Republican, and he was of course defeated ; but he ran about four hundred votes ahead of the party ticket. This is the only political office for which he has ever been a candidate : but in August, 1894, he was appointed by President Cleveland United States agent for the Indians of New York state. and this position he still fills.
A very notable achievement in the practical application of the law of real property has recently been accomplished by Mr. Jewell. Congress having author - ized the secretary of the interior to nego- tiate with a land company for the pur- chase of whatever title, if any, the company had in the lands of the Seneca nation of Indians in New York state. Mr. Jewell was called upon to investigate the title of the lands in question. The merits of the case were exceedingly diffi- cult to ascertain, as the controversy went back to the year 1624, when the state of Massachusetts claimed the territory. Grants were made of certain rights by Massachusetts and by New York before the constitu- tion of the United States was adopted, and after that conveyances were made under the grants fron! the two states. The determination of the title att this time, therefore, was a most difficult legal prob- lem ; and the proper solution of the problem ly Mr. Jewell, to the satisfaction of the United States government and of eminent lawyers interested in the case, must be regarded as striking evidence of his legal ability. He presented an exhaustive report o: the subject, which was approved by the United State- department of justice and adopted by it : and the report will be a permanent record in the archive- of the government, and will doubtless have a most
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important influence, in case the question shall ever arise again.
Outside of his profession Mr. Jewell finds interest and recreation in farming. He owns a small farm not far from Olean, to the management of which he devotes considerable attention, and from which he derives much pleasure. Mr. Jewell is not a member of any church, but his sympathies are with the Methodists.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Joseph R. Jewell was born at Machias, N. Y., April 15, 1842 ; was educated in the district schools and in Rushford and Arcade academies ; was admitted to the bor at Buffalo in 1867 ; married Julia E. Lamper of Cone- wango, N. Y., September 5, 1870; practiced law in Little Valley, N. Y., 1867-73; was nominated for district attorney of Cattaraugus county in 1873 ; was appointed United States agent for the New York Indians August 26, 1894 ; has practiced law in Olean since 1873.
Tu. b. Mandeville, the son of John Drake Mandeville and Susan Man- deville, is an excellent type of the men who have made our country what it is to-day -one of the world's greatest nations ; for, as is well known, it is not the few phenomenal geniuses who raise a people to the foremost rank among the families of the earth, but the solid rank and file of intelligent, educated, energetic, and public-spirited citizens, who are always ready to help forward any project for good in the community in which they live.
Mr. Mandeville has been all his life most prominently connected with the in- surance business, that great feature of our modern life which, as has been well said, is more than almost any other typical of our American civilization. Engaging first in this business when a young man, with his father, in Belmont, N. Y., he moved soon afterward to Olean, which has ever since been his home. In a few years he became prominent in insurance circles, and was elected president of the Cattarau- gus-county board of underwriters: this po- sition he has held for the past thirty years.
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