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 25
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PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-John Willoughby Robinson was born in Simcoe county, On- tario, October 14, 1848 ; married Matilda Oxenham
JOHN W. ROBINSON
May 22, 1872 ; was connected with the lumber busi- ness in Detroit, 1873-88 ; established a lumber busi- ness at North Tonawanda, N. Y., in 1888, and has lived in Buffalo since.
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Charles if. Cabor is a Buffalonian whose rejmutation is at least state-wide. That he is thus generally and favorably known is due to the fact that he was the head of the state legal department for four years, and as attorney general had the dis- Įwil of a large number of complicated questions,
.
CHARLES F. TABOR
and the preparation and presentation in court of several cases of the greatest importance.
Mr. labor is a native of the Wolverene State, but he was brought to Erie county, New York, when about two years of age. He received what was then deemed a good education, attending various acade- inies in western New York. that had more than a local reputation. Finishing his school course in 1860, he began at once the study of law ; and in November, 1863, he was admitted to the bar. While studying law Mr. Tabor also taught school for three winters. In 1868 he formed a copartnership with Thomas Corlett, afterward a justice of the Supreme Court. This connection continued for six years. Then Mr. Tabor practiced alone until 1883, when
he formed a partnership with William F. Sheehan. The firmn was afterward enlarged by the admission of E. E. Coatsworth and John Cunneen, and became one of the best-known firms in western New York. Since Mr. Sheehan moved to New York, in the fall of 1894, Mr. Tabor has been associated with L. C. Wilkie.
Like so many lawyers, Mr. Tabor has been for many years intimately connected with politics. He is a Democrat and a strong party man. He has held many public offices, the first of which was that of commissioner of excise for Erie county. He was also a member of the board of supervisors of Erie county, representing the town of Lancaster. He spent two years in the legislature, sent thither by a majority of the voters of the 4th district of Erie county. This was in 1876 and 1877. In 1885 he was ap- pointed deputy attorney general of the state of New York, and served as such for two years. His work here brought him prominently into view, and gave him the Democratic nomination for the posi- tion of attorney general. He was tri- umphantly elected in 1887 and re-elected in 1889. After the expiration of his four years of service at the head of this impor- tant department, he returned to Buffalo and resumed his large private practice.
While acting as attorney general Mr. Tabor was called upon to handle a num- ber of notable cases. One of these involved the constitutionality of the so- called electrocution law, which substi- tuted death by electricity for hanging as the capital punishment of the state. This law was fought with great vigor. The large electrical companies united in opposing it. and it was charged that, impelled by commercial reasons, they supplied the means for fighting the law. They were backed, moreover, by a strong public sentiment, many people believing that elec- tricity was not sufficiently well understood to be used in taking human life. The case was not settled until the Supreme Court of the United States passed upon it. Mr. Tabor came off triumphant. Another important victory was won by Mr. Tabor in the case that established the state's right to tax corporation- for doing business in this state, although their capital might be invested in government bonds.
Mr. Tabor also succeeded, while attorney general. in obtaining the decision of the Court of Appeals
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of this state, that the great sugar trust, formed by the union of different corporations for the purpose of controlling the product and price of refined sugar, was in violation of corporate law, and in securing judgments vacating the charters of the different corporations that had entered the syndicate.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Charles F. Tabor was born at White Pigeon, St. Joseph county, Mich., June 28, 1841 ; was admitted to the bar in 1863 ; married Phebe S. Andrews of Pembroke, V. Y., December 24, 1863 ; was member of assem- bly, 1876-77, deputy attorney general, 1886-87, and attorney general, 1888-01 ; has practiced law in Buf- falo since 1865.
Thomas Tindle was a Yorkshire lad who rame to America to seek his fortune, and who, for the past thirty years, has made his home in Buffalo.
His education was obtained in the common schools of his native place, and ended with his fourteenth year. He possessed an energetic, ambitious spirit, and after a few years' work in England he determined to seek the wider oppor- tunities that a newer country afforded. Accordingly, at the age of nineteen, he came to the United States. He settled in St. Lawrence county, New York, and followed the occupation of a farmer there for the next ten years. But his instincts were those of the trader and manu- facturer, and in the spring of 1865 he disposed of his farm, and became foreman for J. H. Crawford & Co., a firm of canal forwarders at Oswego, N. Y.
This proved to be the turning point in his career - the first step which led him ultimately to Buffalo, and to the exten- sive and prosperous business that he now carries on. He had been with Crawford & Co. only a year when they moved their headquarters to Buffalo, taking him with them. Two years later the firm discontinued business, and Mr. Tindle obtained employment with Toles & Sweet, canal forwarders and dealers in woopcrage stock. There he remained for the next twelve years, becoming purchasing agent and salesman, and learning many details of the cooperage business.
In this industry Mr. Tindle discerned a favorable opening, and in January, 1880, he began business for himself as a jobber. A few months later he
extended his operations, and began the manufacture of cooperage stock at mills in Canada. After five years he sold! his interest in these mills, and for the next few years devoted his entire attention to his jobbing business. In 1888 his son-in-law, Willis K. Jackson, was taken into partnership, under the firm name of Thomas Tindle & Co. Under Mr. Tindle's shrewd and careful management the business grew rapidly, and it soon became necessary to undertake once more the manufacture of the stock in which the firm dealt. Five mills, therefore, all located within easy reach of the Michigan forests, were suc- cessively built or otherwise acquired. They turn out a vast amount of cooperage stock, all of which is handled by the firm at its Buffalo headquarters. In addition, a large amount of stock is bought from
THOMAS TINDLE
other manufacturers, including the entire output of several stave mills in Canada. The firm of Tindle & Co. sells its products all over the country, from Maine to California, though New York,
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Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Minnesota consti- tute its principal markets.
Such a business affords ample scope for the talents and energies of any man, and Mr. Tindle has wisely confined his attention to it for the most part. He is, however, a director of the Niagara Bank, a member
ANSLEY WILCOX
and trustee of Asbury Methodist Episcopal Church, and a member of the Ancient Order of United Workmen.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Thomas Tindle was born at Broomfleet, Yorkshire, England, April 7, 1836 ; was educated in common schools in England; came to the United States in 1855, and en- gaged in farming in St. Lawrence county, N. Y. ; was agent for canal forwarders in Buffalo, 1866-SO ; mar- ried Harriet Braithwaite of Ogdensburg, N. Y., April 5, 1856 ; has carried on a jobbing and manufacturing business in cooperage stock at Buffalo since 1880.
Ansley Wilcor is still a young man, having barely passed two score years ; but a strong personal
force, displayed in all his dealings with his fellow- men, has given him a place in the esteem of the community that few men attain at his age. Endowed. with an acute sense of right and wrong in public affairs, and with a sturdy determination to do a lion's share toward the correction of the political and social abuses of the times, Mr. Wilcox has closely identified himself with all the reform movements of recent years, and has been a tower of strength to the cause of good government. He is a type of the best citizenship to be found in Ameri- can life.
Born near Augusta, Ga., just before the breaking out of the Civil War, young Wilcox spent his boyhood amid some of the most stirring scenes of that great and fierce struggle. In the last year of the war his family left the South, and finally settled in Connecticut, which was his father's native state. The second ten years of his life were passed at New Haven, first in attending a preparatory school, and afterward as a student at Yale College. Then came a year of rest and travel, succeeded by a year of post- graduate study at University College, Oxford, England.
Having moved to Buffalo in 1876, and been admitted to the bar two years later, Mr. Wilcox began a brilliant career, and soon attained a foremost rank among the lawyers of western New York. For ten years the firm of Allen, Movius & Wilcox was one of the strongest at the Buffalo bar. Mr. Wilcox, while a forcible and brilliant speaker, has devoted most of his time and attention professionally to office law rather than to the trial of cases in the courts.
He enjoys a large and lucrative practice.
Mr. Wilcox has never had any aspirations in the direction of office holding, and many phases of political life are particularly distasteful to him. In- dependence has been his watchword from the start, and the independent movement in national politics beginning in 1884, appealed most strongly to him, and had his heartiest sympathy and support. He was a leader of the movement in his part of the state.
Outside of politics, also, Mr. Wilcox has labored energetically for the cause of reform. The Buffalo Charity Organization Society --- an association which has been the forerunner of many similar societies in the country, and which is founded on the principle that the best way to aid the poor is to help them to
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help themselves - counted him among its first and most active members. The unqualified success of this practical charity owes not a little to- his energy and devotion to its interests.
In the social life of Buffalo Mr. Wilcox has been conspicuous. He is a prominent member of the Buffalo Club, and was its president in 1893 ; and he has taken a more or less active part in many societies, both social and charitable, of his city. For ten years he has regularly delivered a course of lectures at the University of Buffalo, where he has the pro- fessorship of medical jurisprudence. While in college and in the early years after graduation, Mr. Wilcox wrote several magazine articles ; but in recent times he has found little leisure for purely literary work.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Ansley Wilcox was born at Summerville, Ga., January 27, 1856 ; prepared for college at Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven, Conn., and graduated from Yale College in 1874; studied at University College, Oxford, Eng- land, 1875-76 ; was admitted to the bar in 1878 ; married Cornelia C. Rumsey of Buffalo January 17, 1878, and her sister, Mary Grace Rumsey, November 20, 1883 ; was in the firm of Crowley, Movius & Wilcox, 1882-83, in that of Allen, Movins & Wilcox, 1883-92, and in that of Movins & Wilcox, 1892-93; has been associated with Worthington C. Miner since early in 1894.
Edward Appleyard is a self-made man, whose life illustrates the power of will and honest effort to cope successfully with adverse circumstances. In speaking of him it is difficult to state the facts of his life without seeming to intrude upon his privacy, for he belongs to the class of men who prefer that their work shall be the criterion of their worth. Mr. Apple- vard was born in Yorkshire, England, within sight of the home of the famous Bronté family of novelists. He attended the parish school a short time; but at the early age of eight years was put to work in a factory for half a day, and at thirteen was taken from school alto- Kether and employed in a mill. The boy had, however, learned enough at school to want to know more, and with the aid of night 4 hools and by home study he filled out a given course, took a government examination, and re- «vived a certificate.
About this time he was apprenticed to Messrs. Butterfield Brothers of Bradford, England, to learn the business of a worsted spinner. When twenty- five years old he embarked in business for himself, associating his brother with him a few years later. In the fall of 1872 arrangements were made with William Broadhead for the manufacture of alpaca goods in the United States. The next year, from plans drawn by Mr. Appleyard, the great plant of the Jamestown Worsted Mills was established, and put in operation under his management. In 1876, having severed his relations with this company, he returned to England, and procured for William Broadhead & Sons an equipment for alpaca manu- facture. The plant thus established has grown to mammoth proportions, and to-day constitutes one
EDWARD APPLEYARD
of the most valued and important industries of James- town. Mr. Appleyard is superintendent of the works. Not only in mercantile life, but also in social, lit- erary, and religious circles, has Mr. Appleyard been active. He was the first president of the Sons of
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St. George, and is a contributor to the journal of that body. He is the author of the "History of the Methodist Church in Jamestown," and of numer- ous poems, among which " An Ode to Sympathy " is highly regarded by critics. He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church, a local preacher,
CHARLES H. CORBETT
and a Sunday-school superintendent. He was elected a delegate to the General Conference held in New York in 1888. His continued interest in education is evi- denced by his position as trustee of Allegheny College.
In politics Mr. Appleyard is an ardent Republi- can. While never a seeker for office, he has served for three years as president of the board of health of Jamestown, regarding his incumbency of that posi- tion as a duty to the public. In all the varied rela- tions of his full and active life he has the confidence and respect of business men and neighbors, and can be truly classed among the strong, conservative forces of American citizenship.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Edward Ap- pleyard was born in the parish of Keighley, Yorkshire,
England, April 15, 1840 ; was educated in the parish school and by private study ; was apprenticed to a firm of worsted spinners in 1855, and began business for himself in 1865 ; married Isabella Stott of Hali- fax, England, July 15, 1868 ; has been engaged in worsted and alpaca manufacture at Jamestowm, N. Y., since 1873.
Charles h. Corbett has had an unusually successful business career, and is deservedly popular in the political and social life of the town of Sherman, where he has lived for the past thirty years. For a quarter of a century the firm of Hart & Corbett, of which he is a member, has carried on a dry-goods and general- merchandise business in Sherman. The concern has steadily grown and prospered, and this is due in large measure to Mr. Corbett's energy and ability. He has known how to provide for the wants of the public, and has spared no effort to that end ; and thus his business success may be regarded as fairly earned.
Political honors are not easily obtain- able by a Democrat in Chautauqua county, but Mr. Corbett has shown that personal popularity and special fitness for public life can overcome even so great odds as confront Democrats in that stronghold of Republicanism. Three years after his removal to Sherman he was elected town clerk, and served for three years, 1874- 76. In 1882 and 1883 he acted as supervisor for the town of Sherman, and in the fall of 1882 he was elected to the legislature from the 1st assembly district of Chautauqua county by a majority of 986 votes. In the legislature he was made chairman of the committee on charitable and religious institutions. His advice and assistance are highly valued by his fellow-Democrats, and he has been for four years chairman of the Democratic county committee, and is at present its treasurer. He is also a member of the Democratic state committee.
Mr. Corbett was a country boy, born in Chantau- qua county and brought up on a farm. He attended the district schools and Westfield Academy, and then took a full commercial course at the Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. He thus acquired an excellent theoretical business training, which he at once proceeded to put to practical use. He entered the dry-goods house of J. T. Green of Sherman as a clerk, and remained there five years.
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At the end of this time he determined to launch out for himself. He accordingly bought the interest of J. M. Coveney in the well - established firm of Coveney & Hart, and began the successful business career outlined above.
Mr. Corbett has taken an active part in all public affairs in Sherman. He was one of the organizers of the State Bank there, and is its vice president. He is also treasurer of the school board of the town, and chief of the fire department. In the Masonic and other fraternities he is a prominent member. In 1891 he was Grand Master of the Ancient Order of United Workmen of the State of New York, and he has been for five years a member of the Grand Lodge finance committee, of which he is at present chairman. He is a Mason of the 32d degree, and a member of the following organiza- tions : Olive Lodge, No. 575, F. & A.
M. ; Westfield Chapter, No. 239, R. A. M. ; Dunkirk Council, No. 25, R. & S. M. ; Dunkirk Commandery, No. 40, K. T. ; Ismailia Temple, O. N. M. S. ; and others.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Charles H. Corbett was born at Mina, N. Y., October 5, 1845 ; was educated in district schools and Eastman Business College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y .; was clerk in a dry-goods store at Sherman, N. Y., 1866-71; married Narcissa Dutton of Sherman May 13, 1869; was elected member of assembly in 1882 ; has conducted a dry-goods and general-merchandise busi- ness at Sherman since 1871.
Wlilliam 3. Glenn has achieved prominence in life at an unusually early age. The Empire State has produced few sons who have displayed more activity, energy, and ambition. In his brief career he has occupied himself in various . pursuits, and has succeeded in so marked a degree that each occupation has become the stepping-stone to a higher one. He has been both printer and editor, and is an all-round newspaper man. His edu- cation was not so thorough as he desired, but he made the most of his opportuni- ties in the village schocl at Dansville, and later at Wellsville Academy, from which he graduated at the age of seventeen years.
After finishing his school life he went to work as a printer in the office of the Wellsville Reporter, which was then edited by the late Enos W. Barnes.
Having learned the printer's trade, and acquired experience in the management of a newspaper, Mr. Glenn purchased the well-known Cuba Patriot, in company with Walter J. Beecher. In this work he soon made himself a factor in the public affairs of western New York, and though he had just reached his majority, older men admired his ability, dili- gence, and zeal.
Newspaper men and lawyers are naturally attracted to participation in political affairs. Mr. Glenn has always been a devoted follower of the Republican party. When only twenty-one years of age he was elected secretary and treasurer of the Allegany- county Republican committee, and held the position four years. Subsequently he was elected chairman of the same committee, and served in this capacity two years. After the inauguration of President
WILLIAM J. GLENN
Harrison Mr. Glenn became a candidate for the office of postmaster at Cuba. He was appointed, and duly confirmed by the senate, in the spring of 1889, and held the position for nearly five years.
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He was called to party service in 1890 as a member of the Republican state committee for the 34th congressional district, to which he was re-elected five times. The election of a Republican house of representatives in 1894 was followed by the re- organization of the executive offices of the body
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CHARLES HICKEY
at the opening of the 54th congress in December, 1895. The members of the New York delegation in the house selected as their candidate for the posi- tion of doorkeeper William J. Glenn of Cuba, and after a spirited contest Mr. Glenn was nominated in caucus for the office, and was duly elected. The position is one of great responsibility, and involves the care of much government property, and the supervision of a large force of employees. Mr. Glenn is probably the youngest man ever chosen to the office -- a fact that attests the esteem and respect of his friends and supporters. His success in secur- ing this responsible post has done much to increase his prominence in the ranks of Republican party leaders in western New York.
Mr. Glenn believes in fraternal societies, and is a member of several such organizations, including Cuba Lodge, No. 306, F. & A. M :; Valley Point Chapter, R. A. M., Cuba ; St. John's Commandery, K. T., Olean ; Star Tent, No. 12, K. O. T. M., Cuba. He attends the Episcopal church.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- William Johnson Glenn was born at Dans- ville, N. Y., July 2, 1862 ; was educated in common schools and at Wellsville ( N. Y.) Academy ; learned the printer's trade, and worked on newspapers, 1870- 83 ; married Jessie A. Goodrich of Wells- ville December 31, 1882 ; became one of the proprietors and editors of the Cuba " Patriot" January 1, 1883; was post- master of Cuba, N. Y., 1889-94; was elected doorkeeper of the house of repre- sentatives of the 54th congress in Decem- ber, 1895.
Charles Mickey, county judge and surrogate of Niagara county, has risen by his own unaided efforts, and in the face of many obstacles, to a high place in the regard of the community. This becomes the more noteworthy when it is remnem- bered that Judge Hickey is not yet forty years old, and that, owing to lack of scholastic opportunities in early life, he was in his twenty-eighth year when ad- mitted to the bar.
Judge Hickey is a native of Niagara county, and his early education was re- ceived in the district schools of the town of Somerset. His father died when Charles was a young lad, and his mother was left with no means and with a large family on her hands. Under such cir- cumstances each one must do his part, and from the time he was ten years old Charles worked for the neighboring farmers whenever there was work to be done. He had, however, a great desire to obtain an education ; and in the winter months, when farm work was not pressing, he made good use of such opportunities as the country schools afforded. When he was seventeen years old he decided to try his fortunes in the West, and betook himself to the lumber regions of Michigan, where for two years he was engaged in rafting logs on the rivers, and in general work in the mills and pine woods of that state. He then returned to his native county, and spent two years in the service of the Rome, Watertown & Ogdensburg railroad, where
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he was employed in construction work and on gravel trains.
He was now a young man of twenty-one, with considerable experience in different kinds of work ; but his earnings up to this time had been freely given to his widowed mother, and the fulfillment of his desires for a better education and a more important place in the world seemed still far off. Feeling that the time had come when, if ever, he should devote himself to these ends, he entered Lockport Union School. He was obliged to inter- rupt his course of study from time to time to earn money by teaching, and in this calling he met with such success that in a short time he was chosen president of the Niagara County Teachers' Associa- tion. But he had determined to become a lawyer, and while still in school he began reading law in the office of John E. Pound. Finally, in 1884, he was admitted to the bar. The following year he commenced prac- tice in Lockport as a member of the firm of Hickey & Hopkins ; and for the past ten years his practice has grown steadily, and he has established an enviable repu- tation for ability, fairness, and integrity. He practiced alone from 1891 till 1894, when he formed a partnership with Augustus Morris, under the firm name of Hickey & Morris, that lasted until Judge Hickey's elevation to the bench January 1, 1896.
Like many able lawyers, Judge Hickey has given considerable attention to poli- . tics. Soon after his admission to the bar he was elected justice of the peace for the city of Lockport, but resigned after one year's service. Later, in 1892, he was appointed city attorney of Lockport, and held the position until he became county judge. The people of Lockport have cause to be grateful to him for his skill- ful care of their interests during these four years, for in all that time not a single judgment was rendered against the city. Judge Hickey was elected to his present office by a majority of 2700, probably the largest ever received by a candidate in Niagara county. He is the first person to hold the combined offices of county judge and surrogate in his county ; and the prediction may safely be made that he will fill the responsible position with credit and distinction.
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