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 32
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the office. After that advancement was easy. In 1879 he succeeded his former employer in the busi- ness, and two years later formed the insurance part- nership of North & Vedder, which still continues. His history since then has been one of steadily in- creasing prosperity.
The guiding purpose of Mr. North's life has been, not to serve selfish ends, but to be of use to the world. He has never held nor sought office, but has always endeavored to do his duty in a quiet way as a citizen, in everything advancing the public good. He was an original member of the Buffalo Republican League, was one of six supporters to promise it the necessary financial backing when a permanent organization was planned, and served for two terms as vice president and chairman of the executive committee. He has been vice president of the Buffalo Association of Fire Underwriters, is a director of the Homestead Savings and Loan Asso- ciation, and a director of the Exchange Elevator Co. He is treasurer of the First Presbyterian Church Society, a director of the Oakfield Club, a coun- cilor of the Buffalo Historical Society, and a mem- ber of various other societies and institutions of a semi-public nature. He is especially interested in the study of colonial history and genealogy. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, and of the New England Historical Genealogical Society.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Charles Jack- son North was born at Chasy, Clinton county, N. Y., May 13, 1847 ; was educated at the district school, with a few terms in a private school; worked as a farm hand, 1862-73 ; was a clerk in an insurance office in Buffalo, 1873-79 ; married Dora C. Briggs of Buffalo June 30, 1881 ; has carried on an insur- ance business since 1879, and since 1881 has been a member of the firm of North & Vedder.
James Osborne Putnam has a lineage consistent with and prophetic of his own splendid career. His earliest American ancestor was John Putnam, who came from England in 1634 and settled in Salem, Mass. The family prospered from the beginning, soon acquiring large landed property in Salem, and taking an important part in the affairs of Massachusetts Bay. The branch of the family with which we are immediately concerned moved to Ver- mont in colonial times, and Mr. Putnam's father was born in Brattleboro. He joined the westward pro- cession, and settled in Attiea, N. Y., in 1817. There James O. Putnam was born the next year, on Independence Day.
After studying at Hamilton College in 1834-35, Mr. Putnam entered, as a junior, the Yale class of
1839, first absenting himself a year from college ou account of ill health. He then entered upon the study of law in his father's office. Harvey Putnam was himself a distinguished man, serving for many years in the state senate and the national house of representatives ; and his son could hardly have found, especially in those days of inefficient law schools, a better guide along the difficult road to legal learning. With such advantages of tuition, Mr. Putnam easily obtained admission to the bar in 1842. He then moved to Buffalo and began practice at once. In the early years of his professional work he devoted a good deal of attention to railroad interests, which were already beginning to have an important place in the economic conditions of the country. In 1844 he became secretary and treasurer, and in 1846 attorney and counselor, of the Attica & Buffalo and Buffalo & Rochester railroad companies. These positions he retained until the consolidation of the companies with the New York Central railroad.
Comparatively early in life Mr. Putnam became prominent in public affairs, and he had not lived long in Buffalo before his pre-eminent fitness for positions of trust was recognized. In 1851 he was appointed postmaster of the city by President Fillmore, and held the office through the administra- tion. In 1853 he was elected state senator, and attained national fame by his speeches in the legisla- ture. His most notable work in that body was the authorship of a bill requiring the title of church real property to be vested in trustees. A serious con- troversy had arisen between the bishops of the Roman church, who contended that the title to every church estate should be vested in the bishop of the diocese, and certain congregations, particularly that of St. Louis of Buffalo, which insisted upon independence in their temporalities. The issue thus raised vitally affected the principles of religious freedom, and intense interest was taken throughout the country in the result of the controversy. It is not too much to say that Mr. Putnam's speech of January 30, 1855, in the New York state senate led to the almost unanimous passage of his bill by the legislature. The speech was a model of resistless logic, and was delivered with burning eloquence. It was read everywhere, and the orator acquired fame in a night from one end of the country to the other.
Mr. Putnam was in those days a conservative Whig. He went further, however, than that branch of his party in his opposition to slavery ; and some of his most powerful speeches concerned the "irre- pressible conflict." He was at one time identified with the American party, and he was its candidate for the office of secretary of state in 1857. In 1860
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he was one of the two Lincoln presidential electors at large for New York state.
Throughout the war Mr. Putnam was consul at Havre, France, having been sent thither by President Lincoln in 1861. Paris was a rallying-point for loyal Americans on the continent, and Mr. Putnam was frequently called to the capital on national anniversaries and other patri- onic occasions. He wrote the address of American citizens abroad to their govern- ment at the time of Lincoln's assassin- ation. He delivered a notable oration in Paris on Washington's Birthday, 1866. Mr. Putnam was again sent abroad in the service of the government in 1880, receiving an appointment as minister to Belgium from President Hayes. While illing this mission he was appointed by the United States government its delegate to the International Industrial Property Congress held in Paris in 1881.
The foregoing sketch, of necessity largely statistical, etches lightly the out- line of a career that deserves and needs for its proper portrayal a line engraving by a master hand. Beginning life when the century was young, Mr. Putnam has passed through a youth of ambition and preparation, a manhood of struggle and achievement, an age of dignity and honor. Throughout his long career he has been an intellectual and a moral force ever strongly exerted in behalf of right. Every good cause has received support from him. and has gathered added impetus from his contact with it. By pen and voice and personal effort, he has helped forward the good work of the world. The graces and charm of his oratory linger in the memory of thousands. For years no public occasion of importance in Buffalo was complete without his presence and his inspiring interpretation of the meaning of the day. A volume of "Orations, Speeches, and Miscellanies," published in Buffalo in 1880, shows the wide range of his sympathy, the soundness of his judgment, the nobility of his ideals.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-James Os- Forne Putnam was born at Attica, N. Y., July 4, 1818 ; studied at Hamilton and at Yale colleges ; was admitted to the bar in 1842, and began the practice of late in Buffalo ; married Harriet Palmer of Buffalo January 5, 1842, and Kate F. Wright of Woodstock, Tt .. March 15, 1855 ; was postmaster of Buffalo,
1851-52, and state senator, 1854-55; was United States consul at Havre, France, 1861-66, and United States minister to Belgium, 1880-81; has been mem- ber of the council of the University of Buffalo since its organisation in 1846, was for many years its vice chancellor, and is now its chancellor.
JAMES OSBORNE PUTNAM
Boward IR. Rice was born in Indiana, but he is of New England descent on both sides, his great-grandfather having fought for the colonial cause in the Revolution. Combining the tireless energy of the West and the business sagacity of the East, Mr. Rice has built up a commercial house with a wide and splendid reputation for enterprise, fair deal- ing, completeness, and general responsibility.
The son of a Methodist minister, Mr. Rice re- ceived an early home training that insured useful citi- zenship and an honorable business career. He at- tended the common schools of Warsaw, N. Y., and was graduated from the Batavia High School when only fifteen years of age. Having determined to pursue a mercantile career, he became a clerk in a
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retail boot and shoe store in Batavia, and a year later moved to Rochester, to accept a position in a wholesale boot and shoe house in that city. He has been identified with the rubber boot and shoe business ever since he first began to work. He has made a specialty of this business, and no man is more familiar
EDWARD R. RICE
than he with every detail of the trade, and with the varying phases of the market.
After this experience in retail and wholesale houses, Mr. Rice felt sufficient confidence to embark in the business for himself, and he became the senior mem- ber of the firm of Rice & Abell, wholesale dealers in rubber boots and shoes at Dunkirk, N. Y. This firm conducted a satisfactory business for six years, when Mr. Rice made up his mind that Buffalo of- fered facilities for shipping and advantages for en- larging trade superior to any other city between New York and Chicago. Accordingly he moved to Buf- falo in the spring of 1887, and established himself on Pearl street, until the requirements of an expanding business demanded larger quarters for the storage and
display of goods. This increase in business can be safely attributed to Mr. Rice's energy, farsighted- ness, and organizing capacity. He possesses that quality, so valuable in a merchant, of impressing cus- tomers with his fairness and sincerity -an impres- sion in this case that does not belie the reality. Mr. Rice's present business establishment comprises a six-story warehouse and a block seven stories high, perfect in its arrangements and adapted for the con- venient handling of rubber boots and shoes, to which he confines his business exclusively. He has a branch house at Detroit, and another at Duluth. This extensive business is carried on by Mr. Rice alone.
Though an exceedingly busy man, Mr. Rice is mindful of the fact that in a coun- try like ours where political responsibility rests upon the people, every citizen should make public affairs part of his private concern. He is one of the men of inde- pendent action, who, in the last dozen years, rising above party considerations, have endeavored to rescue the politics of our municipalities from the control of the spoilsmen. A reform has undoubt- edly been effected in American cities within the past decade, and this has been due to the activity of business men in local affairs. Mr. Rice has been promi- nent among this class in Buffalo. He was appointed civil-service commissioner by Mayor Bishop, and served for nearly four years, until pressure of business com- pelled him to resign. But he continues his interest in this reform as a member of the executive committee of the Civil Ser- vice Reform Association. To him also is due in large part the organization of the Good Government Club of Buffalo, which has done so much in securing needed reforms. At present he is a member of the central council of this club, repre- senting the 24th ward of the city.
Mr. Rice devotes considerable attention to philan- thropic movements and organizations that commend themselves to his judgment. He is a member of the council of the Charity Organization Society of Buf- falo, a trustee of the Homeopathic Hospital in that city, and president of the Elmwood School, one of the best private institutions in the state. That his mental horizon is not narrow is shown by his mem- bership in the Liberal, Thursday, Saturn, and Buffalo clubs, as well as in the Buffalo Society of Artists and
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the Buffalo Historical Society. In every relation of life, commercial, political, and social, Mr. Rice is noted for earnestness, thoroughness, and up- rahtiess.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Edward Rus- se! Rice was born at Nashville, Ind., June 21, 1856 ; : us educated in common schools, and graduated from :. Batavia High School; was a clerk in boot and ware houses in Batavia and Rochester, 1871-81 ; ,n.lucted a wholesale boot and shoe house in Dun- kuk, V. Y., 1881-87 ; married Mary Langley Fulla- gar of Dunkirk October 18, 1884; has conducted a wholesale rubber boot and shoe house in Buffalo since 1857.
William RRichardson has lived a long and busy life, unsullied by a single questionable trans- ation. All through his career he has adhered steadfastly to the honest princi- ple of avoiding debt, and never incur- ring obligations that he was not sure of being able to meet at maturity. Pes- simists are fond of disparaging the prac- tical utility of the Ten Commandments in commerce and in politics ; but Mr. Richardson's life is a refutation of this demoralizing doctrine. He has engaged in business and in public affairs, and has never felt it necessary, in order to achieve success, to depart from the pathway of integrity and honor.
Mr. Richardson comes of New Eng- land stock. He was born in the old town of Attleboro, Mass., more than seventy-five years ago. Since the year of his birth the country has passed through nineteen presidential campaigns, and as many different Presidents have occupied the White House at Washington. Dur- ing the period covered by his life the United States has witnessed its most mar- velous growth in population, industry, and wealth. Mr. Richardson's parents moved from Massachusetts to Pennsyl- vania when he was an infant. There were no great railroads then, and the family traveled overland in a wagon. Viter a short residence in the Keystone State they moved to De Witt, N. Y., where Mr. Richardson's boyhood was passed on a farm. The Erie canal. a mighty enter- prise of engineering skill for those days, was then in process of construction, and for several years Mr. Richardson was employed by one of the state
contractors charged with repairing the canal between Syracuse and Chittenango. Later he helped build the reservoir covering about 600 acres of land near Cazenovia, as a supply basin for the canal. This employment acquainted him with river and harbor work, and he next became engaged in dredging operations at Detroit.
Hitherto Mr. Richardson had been an employee. He now became a contractor, and had charge of the construction of a large piece of embankment for the Great Western railroad. He also entered the dredg- ing business, and carried on the first work of this kind ever done on the St. Clair Flats in the Detroit river. He also dredged out the channel at Green Bay, Wis. The volume of business on the Erie canal had grown to such proportions by the year 1854 that an enlargement was rendered necessary between Tona-
WILLIAM RICHARDSON
wanda and Black Rock, and Mr. Richardson was employed by the state to do this work. He had now an established reputation as a skillful, conscientious contractor, and he secured many commissions from
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the United States government for the improvement of harbors on the Great Lakes. Steadfast application to his chosen pursuit brought him a competence, so that he was able to retire from active affairs in 1890.
Mr. Richardson has not only been an upright business man, but he has made a fine record for
AUGUSTUS F. SCHEU
devotion to civic duties. He has been an efficient member of the board of supervisors of Buffalo, and for three years he was a member of the common council. He is esteemed in financial circles for his sound judgment and conservative views, and holds directorates in the People's Bank and in the Niagara Bank.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- William Richardson was born at Attleboro, Mass., January 5, 1820 ; was educated in common schools at De Witt, N. Y .; married Ann O' Day of Buffalo in Novem- ber, 1852; engaged in canal repairing and in dredg- ing, 1850-90; was a member of the common council of Buffalo, 1884-87; has lived in Buffalo since 1850.
sioner.
Augustus ff. Scheu comes of an old and .
respected Buffalo family, founded more than half a century ago by Solomon Scheu. The latter arrived -in Buffalo in 1844, having come to this country from Germany five years earlier, and soon attained promi- nence in both business and political affairs. He was elected mayor, and held other offices of trust and importance, and made his name known not only in municipal but also in state politics. The traditions of broad- mindedness and integrity left by Solo- mon Scheu have been maintained by his son, Augustus F. Scheu.
Born in Buffalo a little more than forty years ago, Mr. Scheu's whole life has been associated with the city. He is one of the young men who have made the "new Buffalo" what it is. The salient facts of his life can be quickly related. He was educated in the city schools and at the Buffalo Normal School. Upon his graduation he immediately en- tered the malting business established by his father in 1860. Since the death of the latter in 1888, Mr. Scheu has con- tinued the management of the business for the benefit of the estate.
The name of Scheu has stood high in the annals of the Democratic party in Buffalo for many years. Mr. Scheu came naturally by his interest in politics, and he has been prominent in the councils of the local Democracy. He has been a counselor rather than a seeker for office. He received the Democratic nomination for sheriff of Erie county in 1885, but that is the only time he has appeared before the public as a candidate. He also served for a time as police commis- He has represented the 33d congressional district on the Democratic state committee for several years - a field in which he has shown excellent capac- ity for organization.
The most striking characteristics of Mr. Scheu as a man are his liberality of view, his integrity, and his disposition to believe in the good intentions and honesty of others. These are the qualities by which he is known among his fellow-citizens. He has given many proofs of disinterested devotion to public enter- prises aimed at promoting the well-being and happi- ness of his native city. For several years he served as one of the park commissioners. He has also de- voted much time and energy to the Buffalo grade- crossing commission, of which he is now a member.
MEN OF NEW YORK-WESTERN SECTION
As might be supposed from this sketch of his per- sonal characteristics, Mr. Scheu is a man of wide ac- quaintance and many friends. He is of a very social nature, and is affiliated with many societies. He is a trustee of the Charity Organization Society and of the Exempt Firemen's Association of Buffalo. He is an active member of the Buffalo Club, and belongs to the Orpheus and Liedertafel singing societies. He is also a member of Omega Lodge, No. 259, I. O. O. F. His religious affiliations are with the German United Evangelical St. Paul's Church of Buffalo.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Augustats F. Scheu was born at Buffalo November 7, 1855; was educated in the public schools and at the Buffalo Nor- mal School, from which he graduated in 1872 : married Anna Frances Kraft of Buffalo January 8, 1879; was the Democratic candidate for sheriff of Erie county in 1885 ; entered the matting business with his father in 1872, and has managed the business since 1888.
A. D. Southwick has never been satisfied with the present. Looking into the future, and seeing there something worth striving for, he has pushed for- ward, determined to attain his end. It is the dissatisfied men, as distinguished from the discontented, who make their mark in the world, and contribute some- thing to its progress.
Dr. Southwick was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, and spent his youth there, acquir- ing a high-school education. Soon after attaining his majority, however, he left his native place for the greater advan- tages apparently offered by Buffalo. This was in 1849, in the early days of steam- boating on the Great Lakes, when there were few railroads to compete for business to the West. Buffalo was then preemi- nently a commercial city, the terminus for all lake traffic, and naturally an attract- ive place for an ambitious and pushing young man who had already learned something of the duties and responsibili- ties of a steamboat engineer. For sixteen years Dr. Southwick devoted himself to the engineer's vocation, finally reaching the important position of chief engineer of the Western Transit Co.
Even then his ambition was not satisfied. He had reached the top of his calling, but he felt that there were better things in other directions. After some hesitation he took up the study of dentistry,
and in 1862 he decided that it was time for him to make a name for himself in his chosen profession. A successful record of over thirty years, broken only by the lapse of a twelvemonth, has made him one of the best-known members of the profession in the state. He was active in the organization of the State Dental Society in 1868, and was one of the first candidates for a diploma to appear before the society's board of censors. In 1877 Dr. Southwick was elected to that board, and became soon after- ward its president. He retained the presidency until August i, 1895, when the law was changed, creat- ing a board of state commissioners, and Dr. South- wick was made president of this board. When the department of dentistry of the University of Buffalo was organized, Dr. Southwick, by reason of his long experience and undoubted ability, was chosen to the
டிரஸ்டிடூ காது கு
A. P. SOUTHWICK
important position of clinical professor of operative technics. He has written frequent papers on pro- fessional subjects, and his views are always received with respect by his brethren.
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Though dentistry has been Dr. Southwick's pro- fession, it has by no means been his only occupation. He is actively interested in all that concerns his fellow-men. He is a deep thinker, and is positive in his opinions. To Dr. Southwick more than to any other man, probably, is due the law that
JAMES B. STAFFORD
substituted electricity for the rope in cases of capital punishment in the state of New York. Becoming convinced that hanging is brutal, he promulgated his views as widely as possible, and the agitation traceable directly to him resulted in the creation of a state commission "to investigate and report upon the most humane and practical method of car- rying into effect the sentence of death in capital cases." The members of this commission were Elbridge T. Gerry, Alfred P. Southwick, and Mat- thew Hale. They reported in favor of killing by greatest opposition their recommendations were adopted. Dr. Southwick in this way won the sobri- quet of " Old Electricity."
Like all good citizens, Dr. Southwick takes a deep interest in public questions, but his active participa- tion in politics has been confined to two occasions when his party forced nominations upon him, once for alderman and once for councilman. He is of a genial disposition, and is a member of the Buffalo Club and of other social organizations.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Alfred Porter Southwick was born at Ash- tabula, O., May 18, 1826 ; was educated in the public schools ; engaged in the steam- boat business, 1844-62, becoming chief engineer of the Western Transit Co. at Buffalo in 1855 ; married Mary M. Flinn of Buffalo May 26, 1853 ; has practiced dentistry in Buffalo since 1862.
James J6. Stafford has had a career that is full of inspiration to young men with a noble ambition to succeed. He was compelled to leave school when but eight years of age, began to earn his living a few years later as an errand boy, and advanced step by step until to-day he stands in the front rank of Buffalo's busi- ness men. Yet he is only about forty- three years of age.
Hard work, undaunted perseverance, studious habits, quick adaptability, and uncompromising integrity, may be set down as the mainsprings of Mr. Stafford's success. As a boy he won the confi- dence of substantial men with whom he came in contact ; and as a man he made rapid headway when he started in busi- . ness for himself. When other boys played after work he applied himself to books, and in time made up for the lack of early education. In maturer years he has been a voracious reader ; and when he took the high place in the community that his industry and public spirit had earned, he was mentally fitted to adorn it. "Knowledge," he has been heard to say, "is easily carried, and it is a man's best possession."
Mr. Stafford was born of Scotch-Irish parentage, in Dublin, Ireland. On the death of his mother, when he was eight years of age, he was brought to the United States by his father, and soon afterward found employment in the store of S. N. Callender, means of the electric current, and in the face of the . a Buffalo grocer. The boy rapidly mastered busi-
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