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 22
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As a political factor Dr. Dorr is a power in his community, and is invariably found with the active forces of good government. Two things have con- stituted his political creed - the abolition of slavery and the purification of politics. The former he has lived to see accomplished ; the latter is being wrought out at the present time, slowly it is true.
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but no less certainly. He abhorred slavery as a min : as an American he abhors political dishonesty. He has been an active Republican from the days of Fremont. Lincoln was the idol of his life, and the picture of the martyred President graces the most conspicuous wall of his living room. While a resi- dent of Waterford, Penn., he was burgess of the town, and organized its first fire department. In Buffalo he has been elected supervisor, and was once rominated for councilman. In 1888 he was chosen an alternate delegate to the Republican national onvention at Chicago. He is a stanch protection- Ist. In fact, adherence to that doctrine may be called a family trait, resulting perhaps from the destruction of his grandfather's cloth factory by the repeal of a tariff law soon after the war of 1812.
Dr. Dorr is a trustee of the Sentinel Methodist Church, a member of the Masonic fra- ternity, and of many benevolent and hterary societies.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Samuel Griswold Dorr was born at Dans- :ille, N. Y., May 30, 1840 ; was educated att Nunda ( N. Y. ) Academy and Albion State Academy in Wisconsin ; conducted a flour-milling business at South Dansville, V. Y., 1859-64 ; married Rebecca Brad- ley of Dansville July 7, 1804 : engaged in oil refining and in cooperage in Penn- sylvania, 1865-72; graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 1875, and has practiced medicine in Buffalo since.
Charles French Dunbar de- werves the title of "Pathfinder" in recognition of his great services to com- merce and navigation. He exemplifies the truth and power of hereditary in- fluence. It is no mere coincidence that men of his blood invented and operated the first steam dredging apparatus with a revolving crane, and that he gave to the world the first successful submarine drill- ing machine. Deep harbors and channels are to water traffic what massive iron bridges are to railway transportation. If there were no way to deepen shallow places, modern vessels could no more enter some of our chief ports than could mogul engine cross an old-fashioned wooden bridge ; and since large vessels and heavy engines are now a necessity of commerce, the man who facilitates their use does a notable service.
Mr. Dunbar received a common-school education, supplemented by a high-school course of a year or more ; and his whole life has been devoted to study and learning in the practical school of affairs. His knowledge of the dredging business began early, for he was only fourteen years old when he was fireman on a dredge engaged in digging the Des Jardins canal in Ontario, where his father was foreman. His father having turned his attention to railroad con- struction, young Dunbar worked for him for several years on the Utica & Watertown, the Hamilton & Toronto, and the Grand Trunk roads. He then went to Missouri, and helped build the first railroad west of the Mississippi river - the Hannibal & St. Joseph. He was subsequently employed in running the preliminary line of the St. Joseph & Council Bluffs railroad. With this rich experience he went
CHARLES FRENCH DUNBAR
to Buffalo in 1860, where his father was clearing out the entrance to Buffalo creek. Since that time his career has been substantially the history of deep- water navigation.
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.
In 1863 Mr. Dunbar formed a partnership in the dredging business with Franklin Lee, under the firm name of Lee & Dunbar, by the terms of which Mr. Dunbar was to have charge of the mechanical part of the work. This firm was instrumental in deepening the channels and harbors at Buffalo, Dunkirk, Eric,
GUSTAV FLEISCHMANN
Conneant, Ashtabula, Sandusky, Toledo, and Port Colborne on Lake Erie; St. Clair Flats, Port Huron, Bay City, and Au Sable on Lake Huron ; Wilson, Big Sodns, Little Sodus, Pultneyville, Oswego, and Toronto on Lake Ontario ; and Og- densburg on the St. Lawrence. The firm had, in addition, important contracts on the Welland and Murray canals.
It was at Port Colborne that Mr. Dunbar per- fected his drilling machine. He had taken the con- tract to deepen the mouth of the Welland canal. The undertaking was regarded as so hazardous that many of his friends predicted ruin for him ; and the Canadian government, doubting his ability to fulfill the contract, demanded a penalty bond of $25,000.
With the aid of the new invention, however, the contract was satisfactorily performed. Then Mr. Dunbar contracted with the United States govern Ment to excavate the Lime Kiln Crossing at Detroit. This undertaking was likewise most formidable, and a bond of $200,000 was required from the contractor. The work was much retarded and en- dangered by navigation, and required twelve years for its completion. Mr. Dunbar next excavated and deepened the Haylake Channel for a distance of over two miles, securing a depth of twenty-one feet instead of nine as before. In short, it may be said that Mr. Dunbar has left his mark on the principal ports of the Great Lakes, and has profoundly influenced the commercial welfare of many cities.
The success and usefulness of Mr. Danbar's invention have been acknow !- edged by engineers of the highest charac- ter. General O. M. Poe made the inven- tion the subject of a paper read before the American Society of Engineers, and in a letter to Mr. Dunbar's son said, " I regard his [Mr. Dunbar's] adaptation of the method of drilling and blasting rock under water as one of the great feats of modern engineering."
Mr. Dunbar retired from the dredging business in 1895, and now enjoys a well- earned leisure. He finds much pleasure in literature, and is the author of a drama that was brought out in Buffalo in 1881, and was favorably received by the public. While not active in politics, he is a firm Republican, having cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln. During his residence at Erie, Penn., he served one term of two years in the common council. Ile has devoted much time and attention to trotting horses, and is well known on the circuit. He has a large circle of friends, to whom he is endeared by his worth, and freedom from ostentation.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Charles French Dunbar was born at Boston, Mass., January 6, 1830 ; was educated in public schools ; married Mrs. Lucille De Wolf Berston of Pelham, Ont., Oc. tober 28, 1861 ; carried on a dredging business in Buffalo, 1860-94 ; invented a submarine drilling machine in 1873.
Gustav ffleischmann is one of the many sons of the old world who have attained prosperity in this new land, and have contributed their . full
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share to the growth and development of their slopted country.
Mr. Fleischmann was born less than fifty years ago .a Vienna, Austria. He came to the United States at the age of sixteen, and obtained employment with the firm of Casoni & Isola in New York city as a marble cutter and designer, at the same time attending nicht schools and Cooper Institute, and pursuing his studies in mathematics and drawing to fit him for the profession he had adopted. He was obliged to aban- on this vocation, however, on account of ill health ; ind in 1869 he went to Cincinnati, and entered the firm of Gaff, Fleischmann & Co., of which his ? rothers, Maximilian and Charles, were members. There he thoroughly learned the business of a distil- ler and yeast manufacturer. When he had perfected his knowledge of this industry, and was ready to stablish himself in business, Mr. Fleisch- mann began to consider the question of I.x ation. The Buffalo of twenty years ,'o was a different place from the city of to-day, as regards both population and « ommercial prosperity ; but the elements vi her future greatness were there, and it was not difficult for a farsighted and saga- rious man to appreciate her superior advantages. Mr. Fleischmann accord- ingly went to Buffalo, and engaged in the distilling business under the firm name of Frost & Co. A year later Mr. Frost !etired, and Mr. Fleischmann formed a partnership with E. N. Cook, under the style of E. N. Cook & Co. This connec- tion lasted until 1893, when Mr. Fleisch- mann bought out Mr. Cook's interest in the business, and organized the Buffalo D.stilling Co., of which he has since been the proprietor.
The successful business man of the present day is able to carry on an amount of business that would have been deemed entirely impossible by even the most ative man of half a century ago. It is Not surprising, therefore, that Mr. Fleisch- mann is president of the Meadville Penn. ) Distilling Co., and of the Fron- :tr Elevating Co. of Buffalo, in addition i, his ownership of the Buffalo Distilling ti. He also held, for some years, the jicidency of the Merz Universal Ex- Bor tor and Construction Co .; but this position he :signed in favor of his brother, when the main office of the company was moved from Buffalo to New York
Mr. Fleischmann is a member of Meadville Lodge, B. P. O. E. His chief interests are now in Buffalo, and he is the owner of some fine residence property in that city. His greatest recreation from the en- grossing cares of business is in hunting, to which he is passionately devoted. He is a member of the Adirondack League Club, and brings home several fine deer each fall as trophies of his marksmanship.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Gustav Fleisch- mann was born at Vienna, Austria, March 22, 1850 ; came to the United States in 1866 ; married Emilie Robertson of New York city August 24, 1880 ; has been engaged in the distilling business in Buffalo since 1877.
Edward C. fhawks, the son of Thomas S. Hawks, is a lawyer of standing and a man of business
EDWARD C. HAWKS
affairs. In the branch of the law covering real estate he is an especially well-qualified counselor. He has confined himself almost exclusively to office practice in recent years, and to the care of his personal
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interests, and is rarely seen in court. He has, how- ever, figured in important litigation, and as city attorney of Buffalo was engaged in several exciting and momentous contests. As a trial lawyer he was an adversary at once full-armed and unfaltering, and when convinced that he was in the right nothing could move him from the position he had taken. But the continual struggle of the court room, the de- lays in bringing causes to trial, and the disproportion of the issue to the time and labor involved, have made the office of counselor more attractive to most lawyers in these busy days than the pleading of cases at the bar.
A Buffalonian by birth and education, Mr. Hawks has taken more than ordinary interest and pride in the growth and development of the city. He gradu- ated from the Central High School, and studied law in the office of Sprague & Fillmore, then one of the leading law firms of western New York. For seven years he was managing clerk of their large legal busi- ness, and had entire charge of the real-estate transac- tions of the Erie County Savings Bank, a client of the firm. After this thorough and extensive ex- perience, Mr. Hawks opened an office of his own.
While never a seeker for political office as a means of livelihood, Mr. Hawks in the early part of his legal career had, as nearly every energetic lawyer at some time has, an ambition for public life. Usually a short experience in that direction cures the aspirant, and sends him back to his profession a wiser if not a sadder man. Mr. Hawks held the office of city attorney two years, and frankly admits that that sufficed him so far as public office was concerned. Yet it is just such men who ought to be in office, for they have the welfare of the community at heart, and discharge their duties conscientiously. Mr. Hawks's term as city attorney was marked by a distinguished service to Buffalo. A generous council had voted to sell a railroad corporation the South Channel land for $12,000, and directed the city attorney to facili- tate the transfer. Mr. Hawks, who knew the prop- erty to be worth far more than the price named, demurred to the authority of the council over him, regarding himself as the attorney of the city, and not of one of its departments. Consequently he refused to effect the transfer. Thereupon the common council attempted to oust him from office on written charges, and he was formally tried before Mayor Brush. The mayor dismissed the charges as entirely unfounded. It may be added that the railroad company did not get the property for $12,000, but paid the city, for less than half of it, $150,000.
Private affairs have engrossed Mr. Hawks's atten- tion in recent years, and he has become largely
interested in land improvement and grain elevators Richmond avenue may almost be said to have been laid out and improved by him. He was one of the builders of the International elevator at Black Rock, and is interested in grain elevators elsewhere. ! 1; business he has the same courage and backbone that he displayed as a city official. When the forgerics and rascalities of the Sherman brothers threatened to ruin several Buffalo banks and permanently injure the city's grain commerce, Mr. Hawks with two asso- ciates assumed a liability amounting to more than half a million dollars, and thus re-established the con- fidence of shippers and financial houses in the integrity and soundness of the local elevators. Mr. Hawks has immense land holdings in Massachusetts, owning five miles of sea beach at West Gloucester. In connection with his property there, he has given much thought to road building, and published a series of articles on "Good Roads and How to Build Them."
Mr. Hawks is prominent in many of Buffalo's literary and art societies, and is an honorary member of the Art Students' League - an unusual distinction. He is a Fellow of the Buffalo Society of Artists, and a member of the Merchants' Exchange.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Edward Clin- ton Hawks was born at Buffalo July 26, 1846 : graduated from the Central High School in 1865 : was admitted to the bar in 1869 ; was city attorney. 1880-81; married, on June 5, 1879, Amanda Smith of Buffalo, a lincal descendant of Richard Smith, Jr., the crown patentee of Narragansett, Rhode Island, 1641 ; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1811.
Denry Ulapland Dill, the son of Martha P'. (Hall) Hill and of Dyer Hill, a member of the Vermont state legislature in 1849-50, is a country boy who has risen to prominence as a lawyer and legislator. He was born in the Green Mountain State, where he passed his youth on his father's farm. He took a four years' classical course at the University of Vermont, graduating therefrom with honors in 1876. He received the degree of A. B. at this time, and was admitted to membership in the Phi Beta Kappa society. Four years later his alma mater conferred upon him the degree of A. M.
After his graduation Mr. Hill was principal of the academy at Swanton, Vt., for two years, and then accepted a similar position at Chateaugay, N. Y. During his career as a teacher he organized a college preparatory course in the academies at Swanton and Chateaugay, and fitted several classes for college. His standing among educators was recognized by his election to a term as president of the Franklin County ( N. Y. ) Teachers' Association.
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While he was occupied in teaching, Mr. Hill devoted his leisure hours to the study of law, and successfully passed the New York state bar examina- tion in 1884. In that year he moved to Buffalo, and became a member of the law firm of Andrews & Hill. As a lawyer his career has been marked by unusual skill in the conduct of legal busi- ness. He has also taken an active interest in civic affairs, and is among the best known of Buffalo's younger generation of public men. He has the qualities that læring success in the arena of political activity.
In the fall of 1893 Mr. Hill was elected a delegate to the New York constitutional convention, and served in that body on the suffrage, education, and civil-service committees. He was an able and a useful member of the convention, and was selected as one of the committee of five to determine the order of business, and arrange the calendar of the convention. He formulated several of the amendments that are now a part of the fundamental law of the state. To Mr. Hill is due in large part the amendment for improving canals. He organized sentiment in its favor, made one of the principal speeches on the subject, and after the convention had taken adverse action on the proposi- tion, he secured a reconsideration of the matter and the passage of the amendment.
One of Mr. Hill's most eloquent and scholarly speeches in the convention de- fended the use of the Niagara river for power purposes. Among other things, he said :
" The diapason of Niagara is being translated into the hum of industry. The music of nature will continue, while the factories of Buffalo, Rochester, and the -taller cities of western New York pulsate in unison with the waters of the great cataract. Shall Niagara remain but the rendezvous of poets and wedding tourists, and its waters be permitted 'to flow on unvexed to the sea,' or shall they be utilized for the good of man ? The beauties of Niagara will remain, the charm of the thousands who visit it, although ies potent energies be conserved to contribute to the welfare of butnanity. Hitherto, Niagara has spent its great energies in vain, and now that the time has come when they may be made to propel the wheels of industry, it is proposed to prohibit the 'itter by constitutional inhibition. Why not prohibit the use of the waters of the Hudson, the Mohawk, the Susquehanna, of the St. Lawrence? Why not erect a barrier to the use of il the waters of the fate ?" Why not deny to commerce access to lake Champlain, Lake Erie, or the inland lakes of the state ? Natural streams of water, ever since the morning of time, have been made to serve the purposes of man. . The legislature
may be entrusted to grant only such franchises for the use of the waters of Niagara river as will be for the interest of the people of the whole state."
Mr. Hill's services in the convention and on the stump were noteworthy and duly appreciated, for they led to his nomination and election to the legis-
HENRY WAYLAND HILL
lature of 1896 by a plurality of 4,860, the largest Republican plurality received by any member of the New York assembly in that year. The press of Buffalo strongly supported his candidacy, declaring him to be " the peer of any man that ever went to the assembly from Erie county." Mr. Hill was assigned to the committee on affairs of cities and the committee on canals. The latter assignment was particularly appropriate, because Mr. Hill had strongly advocated, in 1895, the meastire whereby the state appropriated 89,000,000 for canal improve- ment. He has shown himself to be an earnest legislator, seeking at all times courageously to rep- resent the interests and to record the wishes of his constituents, and strenuous in the advocacy of
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measures favoring. Buffalo and its expanding com- merce. Mr. Hill is an active Republican, and for several years has been a member of the Erie- county Republican committee, and .of the Buffalo Republican League. He is a believer in home rule for cities, and spoke ably on that subject in
EDWARD J. HINGSTON
the constitutional convention. is also an earnest promoter of the commercial interests of the state.
Mr. Hill has done much work of a literary charac- ter, and has delivered many addresses of an educa- tional or historical nature. Especially noteworthy is his address, delivered before the Buffalo Historical Society, on the " Development of Constitutional Law in New York." Mr. Hill is much given to the philosophic study of the development of civil insti- tntions, and this address, covering the subject from the ancient Roman codification in the Twelve Tables to the latest aspects of organic law in the Empire State, shows deep research and wide learning. Mr. Hill is recording secretary of the Buffalo Historical
Society, and a member of the State Bar Association and of the. University Club of Buffalo.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Henry Way- land Hill was born at Iste La Motte, Vt., November 13, 1853 ; prepared for college in the public schools, and graduated from the University of Vermont in 1876 : was principal of Swanton ( Vt. ) Academy, 1877-79, and of Chateaugay (N. Y.) Academy, 1879-83 ; married Miss Harriet Augusta Smith of Swanton August 11, 1880 ; was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1884 ; was elected member of the News York constitutional convention in 1893, and of the New York assembly in 1895 ; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1884.
Edward 3. bingston has had a unique experience. He was born in the United States, and educated in England, where his mother's family resided. His original intention was to pursue a literary occupation, and he was ambitious to win distinction in the field of journalism. In early years he showed a predilection for books and study, and for several years taught school in Liverpool. But fate had in store for him a decidedly practical career, and to-day he is a mem - ber of the firm of Hingston & Woods, celebrated in Buffalo and all lake ports as skillful dredgers and contractors for foundation and sewer work.
Thomaston, Maine, was Mr. Hingston's birthplace, but his childhood and youth were spent in England, where he attended the National School at Liverpool. Having returned to America at eighteen years of age, and settled in Buffalo, he concluded to follow the advice of his ship-building uncle, and learn the latter's trade. In this occupa- tion he spent five years, and the experience thus acquired has proved of distinct service in his present line of business. Additional valuable training followed this, as he became bookkeeper for a leading firm of Buffalo dredgers, holding the position for ten years. He then embarked in the business for himself, in partnership with Arthur Woods, under the firm name of Hingston & Woods.
The specialties to which Mr. Hingston bas de- voted his energies are dredging, excavating, and laying water mains and submarine structures. An enumeration of the important contracts undertaken and successfully carried out by him and his partner would fill a page. Among the more noteworthy
£
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achievements of the firm may be mentioned the Ichigh Valley slips at Buffalo, the inlet pier of the Buffalo waterworks, water mains at Rochester and trie'; and similar mains for Syracuse at Skaneateles Lake. Extensive rock-removal contracts at Oswego, Infalo, Erie, Sault Sainte Marie, and New Bruns- wick, N. J., have been successfully fulfilled. In this business are employed a large force of men, with twelve dredges, tugs, mud scows, pumping Larges, etc.
Mr. Hingston is also interested in other enter- prises. He is a member of the firm of Leh & Co., dock builders, and for several years has been senior member of the firm of Hingston, Rogers & O'Brien, Known as the International Dredging Co. Mr. flingston is an active, forceful man, with executive ability and strict methods of business. His success has been well earned, and his ability has been demonstrated by the diverse and difficult pursuits he has followed, in all of which he has proved himself capable and competent. His leisure hours are devoted to literary studies, and were it not for the exactions of business, some form of literary activity would be most congenial to him as a life occupation. Mr. Hingston is a Free Mason, and a member of the Lafayette Street Presbyterian Church and of the l'affalo and Oakfield clubs.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- F.heard J. Hingston was born at Thomas- son, Me., January 22, 1844 : was educated in the National Schools, England : taught school at Liverpool, 1858-62; returned to the United States, and settled in Buffalo in 197;2: learned the shipbuilder's trade, 1962-67 ; married Mary E. Rees of Buffalo July 22, 1872; has been engaged w; the dredging business in Buffalo since January 1, 1878.
William f. hotchkiss, though still a young man, even if the term be narrowly interpreted, has already made a Haine for himself, and accomplished much .xml in a field of usefulness cultivated ' w little by men of his standing and dj-tcity. He is a type of the young ¡ rofessional men, of liberal education and Å-11-developed talent, who interest themselves in . .. Mic affairs for the public good. He was pre- jared for college at Glidden's Classical School in Jamestown, N. Y., going from there to Hamilton
College, where he graduated at the age of twenty- two with the degree of A. B. He secured the much coveted .. Phi Beta Kappa key, besides honors in literature, oratory, debating, Greek, Latin, and mathematics, and delivered the Head prize oration and Latin salutatory. Three years after his gradua- tion, his college conferred on him the degree of A. M.
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