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 40
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Public affairs have had no great attraction for Mr. Webster ; but he has always believed in doing his duty as a loyal citizen, and in 1873-74 he served as alderman of the old 2d ward of Buffalo. He has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Buffalo for more than thirty years. For the first five years he was a trustee and treasurer, and since then he has been a deacon. For abouty twenty years he has been a life member of the Buffalo Library, and he has belonged to the Buffalo Historical Society nearly as long.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Ellis Webster was born at Eden, N. Y., August 27, 1823; was educated in district schools ; engaged in the grocery and produce business in Buffalo, 1841-68; married Charlotte W. Whitney of Kenosha, Wis., September 11, 1850 ; was alderman of the old 2d ward, Buffalo, 1873-74; has carried on a coal and ice business in Buffalo since 1868.
Abram Bartholomew, who has practiced law in Buffalo for more than a quarter of a century, was born in Collins, Erie county, New York, some- what less than sixty years ago. An affliction of curvature of the spine prevented him from attending school until he was ten years old. He then went to the district schools of Collins for four years, afterward attending the union school at Gowanda one term, and Springville Academy two terms. As his father was not able to provide further education, Mr. Bartholomew resolved to defray his own ex- penses of tuition and board rather than forego the benefits of learning At the unusual age of fifteen, accordingly, he began to teach school in the town of Eden. After teaching for several years at select and distriet schools in various towns of Erie county, he had saved sufficient fands to warrant attendance at the Albany State Normal School ; and he had the satisfaction of graduating from that institution with the class of 1857.
The next year Mr. Bartholomew, having decided to make the legal profession his life-work, began to read law in the office of the late C. C. Severance at Springville. He also studied in the office of W. W. Mann, and in that of John I. Talcott, late justice of the Supreme Court. He was not yet firmly estab- iished in a pecuniary way, and he paid his living expenses while studying law by further school teaching. All difficulties were happily overcome at last, and in November, 1861, he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo. He was then twenty-four years old, and the struggle for a professional education had been long and arduous; but he has never doubted that the result was worth all that it cost in time and labor and privation.
For about two years after his admission to the bar Mr. Bartholomew remained at home taking care of his father, who was an invalid and needed his assist- ance. After spending three years in the Oil-creek region, speculating in oil lands in a vain quest for fortune, Mr. Bartholomew wisely settled down to the steady-going practice of law in Hamburg, N. Y. This was in 1866. He remained in Hamburg one year, but the town was well supplied with lawyers --- ex-Governor Boies of lowa, Judge Robert C. Titus of Buffalo, and three others were practicing there at the same time - and he decided to move to Ebenezer in the same county. At the latter place he practiced two years, and established a good country clientage. The outlook, however, was not sufficiently promising to satisfy his ambition, and in 1869 he took up his residence in Buffalo, where he has practiced ever since with gratifying success. He has considerable office work, but is better known
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as a trial lawyer, as his practice has to do with con- tested cases largely, and takes him into court much of the time. He has conducted his law business without the aid of associates, though of late years his son Niles, who is also an attorney, has occupied offices with him.
Mr. Bartholomew has never thought it worth while to seek political honors ; but he has taken keen interest in public affairs, and has ardently supported the Democratic party. He has taken part in political campaigns for many years, having addressed numerous public meet- ings in Erie county. He is a member of Orient Lodge, Ancient Order of United Workmen, and attends West- minster Presbyterian Church.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY --- Abram Bartholomew was born at Collins, N. Y., February 28, 1837 ; attended Gowanda Union School and Springville Academy ; taught school for a time, and graduated from the State Normal School at Albany in 1857 ; was admitted to the bar in 1861 ; married Florence Cutler of Hol- land, N. Y., December 29, 1864; en- gaged in oil operations, 1864-66 ; prac- ticed law at Hamburg and Ebenezer, N. Y., 1866-69; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1869.
Charles Berrick, a builder and contractor of Buffalo for more than forty years, is an Englishman by birth, and possesses many of the best traits of his native people. His very name discloses his origin, since his family in early times adopted for their cognomen a phonetic spelling of Berwick, the famous town between Scotland and England. Charles Berrick, one of thirteen children, was born at Coleshill, near Birmingham, England, nearly seventy years ago. His education was obtained in the common schools of Warwickshire, his native county. After serving his time as an apprentice to the mason's trade, he worked as a bricklayer for various em- ployers, including Geo. Stephenson & Son, the famous locomotive designers, until he was twenty- three years old. That is not the age at which most men attain breadth of view and sagacious foresight ; but Mr. Berrick was not like other men, and he resolved to escape from the hard conditions of industrial life in overcrowded England, and try his fortunes amid the ampler opportunities of America.
This determination was not long in maturing to the point of action, and the spring of 1850 found Mr. Berrick on board the bark "Henry," outward bound from London for Sandy Hook and the new world. Winnebago, Wis., was his objective point, as he had English friends in that place ; and he started
ABRAM BARTHOLOMEW
thither soon after landing in New York, by way of the Hudson river to Albany, and railroad thence to Buffalo. Fortunately for the latter city, and for Mr. Berrick as well, it would seem, Lake Erie was full of ice, steamers could not leave port, railroads west there were none, and Wisconsin was accessible only by tedious stagecoach traveling. Under such con- ditions, Mr. Berrick decided to stay in Buffalo for a few months, and resume his westward journey in the fall. He obtained employment easily, and became so well satisfied with the outlook by the autumn of 1850 that he postponed indefinitely his trip to Wis- consin, and determined to make Buffalo his perma- nent residence. Time has shown the wisdom of this decision.
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In the middle of the century Buffalo had only 40,000 people, and few buildings that would now be deemed noteworthy in any commendable respect. In the transition from such a city to the present metropolis, with its magnificent public and private structures, Mr. Berriek has had an important part.
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CHARLES BERRICK
His training ou the other side of the ocean had been long and thorough, and he had worked here only a short time before his employer saw his value and made him foreman. But Mr. Berrick had not left his country, and traveled oversea 3000 miles, to become a foreman merely ; and after working for others two years he established himself in business on his own account as a master mason and contractor. His commissions at first were not large, but he did so well such work as was entrusted to him, and showed himself so reliable and honest in all his dealings, that he soon received more important con- tracts. A list of the buildings erected wholly or in part by him would give one an accurate idea of the architectural emergence of Buffalo from mid-century
conditions to the modern city. Among his early contracts were those made with the Lake Shore and Erie railroads for the erection of roundhouses and machine shops at Buffalo. He laid the foundation work and did the masonry of several of the elevator- for which Buffalo is famous. The Tifft House, Ger man Insurance building, Barnes-Hen- gerer block, St. Louis Church, Coal and Iron Exchange, Bank of Buffalo, Hotel Iroquois, and Marine Bank are well- known Buffalo structures of Mr. Ber- rick's. He also built many of the elegant dweilings that adorn Delaware avenue, and other beautiful residence distriets of the Queen City.
Until 1892 Mr. Berrick conducted his business without partners, but in that year his sons, Alfred and John, were admitted to the firm. They had both grown up in the calling with their father. learning it thoroughly under his superior guidance, and they were thus finely equipped for the work of carrying on the large business built up by Mr. Ber- rick in forty years of faithful service. The sons now constitute alone the firm of Charles Berrick's Sons, the father having retired in 1894. He continues, however, to take an active interest in the welfare of the concern, and his advice is of great value in the conduct of the business.
Mr. Berriek has devoted most of his time and energy to his work as a builder. His calling, however, has kept him more or less in touch with real-estate opera- tions ; and he has himself done some- thing in that line, as the marvelous growth of Buffalo, and consequent ex- pansion of real-estate values, encouraged such ventures. Mr. Berrick has never cared for political office, but has taken the interest of all good citizens in the publie well-being. In state and national politics he has always voted the Republican ticket, but in local matters he has voted for the best men without special or exclusive regard to the party ticket on which they ran. He has visited his native land only once since he left it nearly fifty years ago. In 1889 he spent a most enjoyable vacation abroad. traveling on the continent and in Scotland for :: while, but naturally devoting more time to his mother country, and the scenes of his youth and early manhood.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Chario. Berrick was born at Coleshill, Warwickshire, Englan.i.
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December 11, 1826 ; was educated in the common schools of England, and learned the mason's trade ; engaged in the same in England until 1850, when he came to this country ; married Margaret Callan of Buffalo December 24, 1852 ; carried on the business of a contractor in Buffalo, 1852-94.
W. 3. Conners is certainly a remarkable man. Twenty years ago he was a dock laborer, and fifteen years ago he was running a saloon on the East Side, Buffalo : to-day he is a powerful factor in the wel- fare of thousands of people, and exerts a wide influi- ence in several important lines of commercial activity - as a brewer, banker, real-estate promoter, newspaper owner ; and his business in the trans- shipment of freight is larger than that of any other individual or any concern in the world. An expla- nation of this marvelous transformation may be found in certain qualities of mind and traits of character -in his unconquerable energy, native shrewd- ness of wit, sound judgment on basic and essential points, fair-mindedness, large-heartedness.
Mr. Conners was born in Buffalo in 1857. He attended the public schools until he was thirteen years old, when he took to the lakes, running for several years between Buffalo and Daluth as a porter on various steamers. Seeing clearly that neither fame nor fortune lay in that direction, Mr. Conners resolved to make a fresh start on shore. He had no money, but he managed to set up a saloon in Buffalo. Good results have sometimes come from poor beginnings, and so it was with Mr. Conners. In a few years he had accumulated sufficient capital, and had acquired sufficient busi- ness experience, to take advantage of an opportunity that led to fortune. In the spring of 1885 he made a contract with Washington Bullard for handling all the freight in Buffalo of the Union Steam- boat Co. Mr. Conners fulfilled his contract with such efficiency, and the superiority of his system was so obvious, that other carriers hastened to make similar contracts with him : and he soon acquired a virtual monopoly of the busi- ness in Buffalo and some other lake ports. The work was done before by many more or less irre- sponsible contractors employing disorderly, un- trained laborers, with incessant changes of foremen.
troubles with the men, and costly detention of steamers in consequence. Mr. Conners made him- self the sole responsible head of the entire business, gained the confidence of his workmen by fair treat- ment, systematized and organized the work in a multitude of ways, and ran the business generally with machine-like smoothness, precision, and effi- ciency. He now has contracts for the loading and unloading at Buffalo, Chicago, Milwaukee, and Gladstone, Mich., of all vessels belonging to the following transportation companies : Union Steani- boat, Western Transit, Lackawanna, Lehigh Valley, Northern Steamship, Union Transit, and "Soo" line. In the season of 1895 Mr. Conners handled 3,300.000 tons of bulk freight. He employs about 3000 men, and is far and away the largest con- tractor in the world in this business. It is a
W. J. CONNERS
remarkable and significant fact that he has never had to. face a strike on the part of his laborers.
This vast industry is by no means the only enter- prise in which Mr. Conners has engaged. In
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February, 1889, he was made president of the Buf- falo Vulcanite Asphalt Paving Co., and conducted the business successfully for several years. In 1890 he acquired a large block of the stock representing the property of the Roos (now the Iroquois) brewery, and carried on the plant for about a year. In the spring of 1895 he made another venture in this business, purchasing a large interest in the Magnus Beck Brewing Co. He has been president of this company since the date mentioned, and has increased the output of the plant fully one third. He owns a quarter interest in the Union Transit Co., operating a line of steamers between Buffalo and Duluth. He is a director in one bank and a stockholder in several others. He is a large owner of real estate, having shown rare judgment in the purchase and development of property in South Buffalo.
December 23, 1895, Mr. Conners bought a con- trolling interest in the Buffalo Enquirer, and since then he has given a large part of his time to the management of the business. He has thoroughly energized the institution, and has increased the cir- culation of the paper threefold. In September, 1896, he established a modern newspaper plant consisting of independent light and power engines, a battery of linotype machines, equipment for photo-engraving, and a Hoe sextuple press weigh- ing sixty tons, consisting of 30,000 separate pieces, fed from three continuous webs of paper, and able to print, paste, fold, register, and count 72,000 eight-page papers an hour.
In the summer of 1896 Mr. Conners launched the - yacht "Enquirer," which has brought him addi- tional fame and pleasure. She is one of the hand- somest steam yachts in existence, and her record of over twenty miles an hour at top speed is said to make her the fastest boat on fresh water anywhere in the world.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-William James Conners was born at Buffalo January 3, 1857; at- tended public schools, but began work as a porter on lake steamers at the age of thirteen ; has carried on a freight-transfer business at Buffalo and other lake ports since 1885 ; married Catherine Mahany of Buf- falo in November, 1881, and Mary A. Jordan of West Seneca, N. Y., August 2, 1893 ; has been president of the Enquirer Co., and of the Magnus Beck Brew- ing Co., Buffalo, since 1895. .
Daniel 3. 1kenefick cannot be said to exem- plify the maxim that old men should be chosen for counsel and young men for action - hardly that, as he was born in the midst of the Civil War, and is
thus a young man still ; but his success in the trying office of district attorney shows that the common practice need not in all cases be followed. Mr. Kenefick, indeed, has the energy and enthusiasm of youth tempered and governed by the wisdom and discretion of maturity -a particularly happy com- bination of qualities for the chief prosecuting officer of a populous county.
Born in Buffalo thirty-two years ago, Mr. Kenefick has lived there all his life. He was educated in the public schools of the city, pursued his professional studies in a Buffalo office, sought out his life com- panion among the charming daughters of Buffalo, and has otherwise been thoroughly loyal to the place of his nativity. Public School No. 4 was his first source of educational inspiration, followed by the high school, from which he graduated with the class of '81. Foregoing the advantages of a system- atic training in a law school, Mr. Kenefick carried on his legal studies in the office of Crowley & Movius, and in that of their successors, Crowley, Movius & Wilcox. With some drawbacks, there are in like manner certain advantages in that method of reading law. and Mr. Kenefick must have mini- mized the obstacles and made the most of the off- setting advantages ; for he was admitted to the bar in October, 1884, having accomplished that end in about the same time that a course in a law school would require.
He began at once the laborious and sometimes discouraging task of building up a clientage. His progress was as rapid as could be expected, and was somewhat facilitated, perhaps, by his early profes- sional enlistment in the public service. After prac- ticing only slightly more than a year, he was appointed to a clerkship in the law department of the city. He retained this position throughout the calendar year 1886, and then resigned to accept an appointment as second assistant district attorney under George T. Quinby, then district attorney. Hoiding this position five years, and ably discharg. ing its duties, he was appropriately rewarded, on January 1, 1893, by an appointment as first assistant district attorney. On the resignation of Mr. Quinhy, in November, 1894, Governor Flower appointed Mr. Kenefick district attorney for the unexpired term.
Mr. Kenefick had now been in the office of the district attorney nearly eight years. Throughout this period he had performed zealously and efficiently the work assigned to him ; and in the latter part of his service, owing to the illness of the district attor- ney, the chief responsibility of the office rested upon him, and was adequately borne by him. Quite properly and naturally, therefore, the Republican
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party in 1894 placed Mr. Kenefick in nomination for the office of district attorney. The choice of the convention was emphatically ratified at the polls, as Mr. Kenefick was elected by the surprising vote of almost two to one. That the judgment of the Republican party and of the voters was sound has been amply demonstrated by Mr. Kene- fick's efficient service. Always alert and vigorous in protecting the legal interests of Erie county, he is at the same time regardful of the rights of others, and scrupulously careful not to overstep the proper bounds of his author- ity. His evident fair-mindedness and just disposition of the difficult questions constantly arising in the district attor- ney's office, have gained for him uni- versal respect and confidence among his professional associates.
Mr. Kenefick's first legal partnership was formed with Joseph V. Seaver. On the latter's election as county judge, Mr. Kenefick associated himself with Messrs. Cuddeback and Ouchie. This connection lasted until May, 1893, when Mr. Kenefick and William H. Love combined forces in the existing success- ful firm of Kenefick & Love.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Daniel Joseph Kenefick was born at Buf- falo October 15, 1863; was educated in the public schools of the city, and graduated from the high school in 1881; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1884 ; married Maysic Germain of Buffalo June 30, 1891; was second assistant district attorney of Eric county, 1887-92, and first assistant dis- tritt attorney, 1893-94; was appointed district attorney by Governor Flower to fill an unexpired term in November, 1894, and was elected to the office the same year ; has practiced late in Buffalo since 188.4.
William C. Ikrauss, though he has practiced his profession only a few years, has already become recognized as an authority in his specialty of nervous diseases. Present-day life, with its many undeni- able advantages, has also some drawbacks ; and one of the greatest of these is the excessive demand that it makes on human energy. Men of business, women of fashion, even the very school-children, break down under the strain, and become the vic- tims of nervous ailments of one kind or another, until one doubts whether any healthy minds or
bodies will be found in the years to come. Under such circumstances it is but natural that many of the younger generation of physicians should devote themselves to special investigation of such troubles ; and few have done this more exhaustively, or with brighter promise of brilliant success, than Dr. Krauss.
DANIEL J. KENEFICK
Born in Wyoming county in 1863, he obtained his preparatory education in the Attica Union School, from which he graduated in 1880 as the valedictorian of his class. He then entered Cornell University, receiving the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1884, as well as a two-year certificate for extra work done in the medical preparatory course. From the beginning his studies were directed in the line to which he has steadily devoted himself ; since this preparatory work at Cornell, under Dr. Burt G. Wilder, concerned the anatomy and histology of the nervous system. Dr. Krauss's medical degree was obtained from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College in 1886, when he stood second in the honor class. After spending the summer of that year in Bellevue
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Hospital, he went abroad in the fall, and passed three years in the special study of nervous and mental diseases. He attended the famous universi- ties of Munich, Berlin, and Paris, receiving the degree of M. D., magna cum laude, from the Uni- versity of Berlin in 1888. In the spring of 1889
WILLIAMML C. KRAUSS
he visited the London medical schools, returning home in June of that year.
Dr. Krauss had some acquaintance with Buffalo, where his father was well known in commercial circles ; and he had already acquired a reputation among the members of his profession there as special correspondent of the Buffalo Medical Journal during his years of study abroad. He decided, therefore, to settle in that city. So long and thorough a prep- aration for any calling could hardly fail to ensure success therein -certainly not when united with such natural ability as Dr. Krauss possesses. His success has been uninterrupted, and he has already built up a large special practice. He has also made a reputation as an expert on insanity, and has been
called upon to testify before the courts in nearly every important case calling for such testimony in central and western New York.
As a medical writer and instructor Dr. Krauss has been prominent ever since he began practice. lle has been professor of pathology in the medical depart- ment of Niagara University (1890-95 ), and is now professor of nervous diseases there. In 1890 he delivered a course of lectures at Cornell University. He is associate editor of the Buffalo Medical Journal, and of several other medical publications in both Europe and Amer- ica. He has published sixty-five scien- tific papers, treating of a variety of subjects, and embodying the results of much original research in his special line. Ilis connection with professional societies is unusually extensive : he is a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Soci- ety of London, and of the American Neurological Association ; he is a mem- ber of the American Microscopical Soci- ety (of which he is secretary ), the Buffalo Microscopical Society ( of which he was president in 1892-93), the New York State Medical Society, the Medical Association of Central New York (of which he was elected first vice president October 20, 1896), the Lake Erie Medi- cal Society, and the Erie County Medi- cal Society. He was one of the found- ers of the Buffalo Academy of Medicine in 1892, and was its secretary for several years. In 1890-92 he was secretary of the Buffalo Obstetrical Society. He be- longs to the Buffalo Medical Club, as well as to the Liberal and University clubs of Buffalo, and the Buffalo Associa- tion of Cornell Alumni. He holds the position of neurologist in a number of the city hospitals, includ- ing the Erie County Hospital, the Sisters of Charity Hospital, and the Asylum and Hospital of the Sister- of St. Francis.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-William Christopher Krauss was born at Attica, N. Y., October 15, 1863 ; graduated from Cornell Univer- sity in 1884, and from Bellevue Hospital Medica! College, New York city, in 1886 ; studied in Euro- pean universities, 1886-89 ; married Clara Krieger of Salamanca, N. Y., September 4, 1800 ; has prat- ticed in Buffalo since 1890, confining his work to dis- cases of the mind and nervous system ; has been pro- fessor in Niagara University since 1891.
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