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 45
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Mr. Marshall is one of the best-known clubmen in Buffalo, resorting habitually to the Buffalo Club (of which he has been a director ), the Saturn Club, and others. He has a summer residence on Beaver island in the Niagara river, and his friends deem " Beaver Lodge " more attractive than any club. This property Mr. Marshall acquired on the disso- lution of the Beaver Island Club, of which he was director and treasurer when Grover Cleveland was president. Mr. Marshall was one of the founders of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, and has been an officer in the organization from the first. He was a director of the Buffalo Library for several years, and in 1887 was elected a member of the real-estate committee. He did not favor, however, the use of the property of the association for hotel purposes, and resigned from the board in 1888. He is at present a director of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, the Buffalo Society of Artists, the Buffalo
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( ity Cemetery, and the Third National Bank. He aus also served as trustee, treasurer, and vice presi- Cent of the Thomas Asylum for orphan Indian . bildren on the Cattaraugus reservation.
Mr. Marshall has been for many years one of the trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Buffalo, and was prominently identified with the movement that resulted in the removal of the church from its former location, where the Erie County Savings Bank now stands, to its present site on the Circle. This step was bitterly opposed ly some of the members of the society, and entailed a long legal contest, which Mr. Marshall's law firm, acting in behalf of the trustees, conducted to a successful Que.
Mr. Marshall takes great interest in cirly American history, and has one of the richest private libraries in this sub- ject anywhere to be found. His father established the library years ago, and collected from a multitude of sources carly and rare pieces of Americana. Since his father's death Mr. Marshall has continued the search for choice editions, and has enriched the library in various respects.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Charles DeAngelis Marshall was born at Buffalo November 14, 1841 ; was edu- cated at public and private schools ; gradu- ated from the Albany Law School, and teas admitted to the bar in 1864; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1864.
Price A. Matteson has lived in Buffalo over forty years, has practiced law there thirty-five years, and has made himself well and favorably known throughout west- ern New York. He was born in Darien, Genesee county, in 1840, and spent his boyhood in that town. He obtained his early education in one of the little red schoolhouses that dot the country landscape, and attended for two years Darien Acad- emy, an institution that was never very robust, and that pined away and died long ago. His scho- lastic training was not carried further, and was thus inadequate to the needs of a professional man. Fortunately Mr. Matteson has a studious disposition add love of learning for its own sake, so that the wanty stock of knowledge originally acquired in the schools of his youth has been augmented throughout his life by systematic and persistent
reading. Literature has always been one of his delights, and he is well acquainted with the standard works of English and American authors.
At the age of fifteen, in 1855, Mr. Matteson left the country for the attractions of city life. Buffalo was growing rapidly at that time, almost doubling
CHARLES D. MARSHALL
its population in the decade before the Civil War : and foretokens of its later prosperity were already at hand. Deciding that a young man who should study law and grow up with the city might reason- ably expect to see his professional practice expand with the population, Mr. Matteson entered the office of Houghton & Clark, Buffalo, and read law dili- gently for several years. His preparatory studies had been insufficient, as we have seen, and he was unable to avail himself of a law school ; but he passed the bar examinations in due season, and be- gan to practice in Buffalo in 1861.
Mr. Matteson was then twenty-one years of age, and thus obtained an early start on his professional career. In 1862-64 he was associated with Judge
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George W. Houghton, with whom he had studied law, under the firm name of Houghton & Matteson ; but otherwise he has practiced alone. The process of building up a legal clientage is not easy, but Mr. Matteson surmounted one obstacle after another un- til his position at the bar was well assured. So
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prominent, indeed, had he become by the year 1877 that he was mentioned as a suitable candidate for the position of city attorney ; and he was elected to the office for a term of two years, 1878-79.
Mr. Matteson has found relaxation from profes- sional cares in various fraternal societies. He be- longs to the Order of United Friends and to the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is also a member of Queen City Lodge, No. 358, F. & A. M., and of Keystone Chapter, No. 162, R. A. M. He has attended for many years the Delaware Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church in Buffalo. His social life is divided between Buffalo, where most of his practice is carried on and where he usually lives in winter, and Darien, his native town in Genesee
county. He is fond of country life, especially as it is found in Darien ; and he takes delight in spend- ing the summer months amid the scenes of his boy- hood.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Price A. Matteson was born at Darien, N. Y., January 12, 1840 ; was educated in district schools and Darien Academy ; moved to Buffalo in 1855 ; studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1861 ; married Frances E. Brown of Buffalo May 20, 1865 ; was a member of the Eric-county board of su- pervisors in 1864, and city attorney of Buffalo, 1878-79 ; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1861.
Charles G. Dankow, a commis- sioner of public works, and otherwise prominent in the political and commer- cial life of Buffalo, was born near Feld- berg, in the grand duchy of Mecklen- burg-Strelitz, Germany, in 1851. When he was thirteen years of age he came to this country, whither two brothers had preceded him. Forced to look for em- ployment at once, he became an appren- tice in the bakery and confectionery business, and for a long time followed this calling under various employers. His work prevented school attendance during the day, but he did what he could to remedy this privation by at- tending an evening school. By the year 1880, when he was twenty-nine years old, Mr. Pankow felt that he had worked for other people long enough, and that it was time to make a beginning for him- self if he was ever to get ahead in the world. He set up a grocery and saloon, accordingly, in the part of Buffalo where he was well known, and soon had his business on a secure footing. In 1885 he moved his store to its present location at the corner of William and Pratt streets, where he carries on a large and growing business.
The grocery, however, is only one of several enterprises engaging Mr. Pankow's time. He has been connected with the Harmonia Mutual Fire Insurance Co. since its organization in 1877, and has been president of the company continuously since January, 1886. In 1882 he acquired an interest in the Clinton Co-operative Brewing Co .. and has been president of the concern since Janu- ary, 1883, with the exception of the year 1885. Since 1888 he has been president of the Western
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Bottling Co., Limited, which manufactures all kinds of "soft" and carbonated drinks. Since May, 1890, he has been president of the Brewers' Asso- ciation of Buffalo. He is one of the trustees of the United States Brewers' Association, having been elected to the board at Philadelphia, in 1895, for a term of three years.
A man possessed of such business ability as the foregoing record necessarily ascribes to Mr. Pankow, cannot long keep out of politics ; especially if such ability be united to uprightness of character and genial personal qualities. All these conditions coexist in Mr. Pankow, and his political success is only what might have been expected. He first came prominently into public notice in the fall of 1883, when he was elected alderman from the old 5th ward for the term of 1884-85. After that he held no official position for a number of years, though he continued to be an active force in the counsels of Republi- can leaders in his part of the city. In the fall of 1894 he received the nom- ination for the important position of commissioner of public works, and was elected for a term of three years begin- ning January 1, 1895.
Mr. Pankow is highly sociable in his nature and habits, and belongs to various organizations designed to satisfy this healthy instinct of mankind. Among these may be mentioned the Masonic order, the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. He is a member of the Evangelical Lutheran St. John's Church.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Charles George Pankow was born near Feldberg, Germany, January 27, 1851: learned the baker's and confectioner's trade, and worked at the same, 1868-80 ; married Mary Graf of Tonawanda, N. Y., June 30, 1870 ; has conducted a grocery business in Buffalo since 1880 ; was al- derman from the 5th ward, Buffalo, 1884-85; was elected commissioner of public works, Buffalo, in November, 1894. for the term 1895-97.
Lee bb. Smith is well known in Buffalo in both professional and social circles. As a medical practitioner and scientist he has won deserved repute, while in military circles he has attained fame as an expert marksman, having been
for six years inspector of rifle practice in the 74th regiment.
Dr. Smith is an Ohio man by birth, but went to Buffalo when a boy, and has since resided in the Queen City. He attended the public schools, including the high school, and afterwards entered the medical department of the University of Buffalo. He pursued the regular three-year course, and passed his examinations ; but was not permitted to take his degree, as he had not then attained the age of twenty-one. The degree of M. D. was duly con- ferred upon him the year following. Dr. Smith's remarkable maturity of mind, and natural talent for the science of medicine, are shown by the early age at which he graduated, and especially by his. high rank on commencement day. He took the first Stoddard prize for the best examination in
CHARLES G. PANKOW
materia medica, and shared the Fillmore prize for the best thesis.
Wisely concluding that at his age he could afford to spend a few more years in perfecting his
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professional knowledge, Dr. Smith went to New York, and matriculated at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, the medical department of Columbia University. Having graduated thence in 1881, he returned to Buffalo to begin his professional work. He-has ever since followed his calling in that city.
LEE H. SMITH
Dr. Smith has confined his practice to special lines, chiefly of a surgical nature. Early in his pro- fessional career he was appointed surgeon in Dr. Pierce's Palace Hotel. This magnificent hostelry was destroyed by fire in 1881, and in its place was erected the Invalids' Hotel, with which Dr. Smith has been connected from the first. He has also been for seven years vice president of the World's Dispensary Medical Association, an auxiliary of the hospital. His opportunities there for varied practice have been numerous and valuable.
Dr. Smith belongs to the eclectic school of medi- cine, adopting what is best from all schools. He is president of the board of medical examiners repre- senting the Eclectic Medical Society of the State
of New York. He has written much on subjects connected with his profession. He is a prominent member of various scientific clubs, having been president of the Buffalo Microscopical Club one year, and of the state Eclectic medical society two years. He has been first vice president of the Buf- falo Society of Natural Sciences for the past two years, and devotes all his leisure hours to this institution.
Dr. Smith is an enthusiastic rifleman, and was a member of the 74th regi- ment's rifle team that won the trophy of the state for four successive years. His relations with the military entitle him to the rank of captain. He is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, of the Buf- falo Club, and of Ancient Landmark Lodge, F. & A. M.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Lee Herbert Smith was born at Con- neaut, O., August 10, 1856 ; moved to Buffalo in 1868 ; graduated from the medical department of the University of Buffalo in 1877, and from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York city, in 1881 ; married Corrie Emma Lacy of Buffalo October 5, 1880 ; has been vice president of the World's Dispensary Med- ical Association since 1889.
3obn Strootman, who has been identified with the shoe industry of Buf- falo as a manufacturer for over twenty years, was born in the Queen City of the Lakes. His people are old Buffalo- nians, his grandfather having cultivated a farm in a part of the city that is now covered with business blocks. Mr. Strootman himself was born, and lived for over forty years, in the same house that shel- tered his mother from her childhood.
After attending Public School No. 7, and later a private school, Mr. Strootman at the age of fourteen closed his books to learn his father's business. The latter was for many years a manufacturer of custom shoes, and had in his service some of the best shoe- makers of the old world. In such a school Mr. Strootman could not fail to learn the business per- fectly in every detail ; and the seven years that he spen. in his father's employment gave him the finest possible training for his career as a manufacturer. In addition to this long experience he spent about eighteen months with John Dorschel & Co. of Buf- falo, taking charge of their pattern and shoe-cutting
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department. Soon after attaining his majority he began business for himself, having saved an amount of capital that most people would deem wholly in- adequate. He knew the business so thoroughly, however, and exercised so much care and judgment in his ventures, that success attended his efforts from the first. He enlarged his operations gradually, as his trade relations extended and his capital increased, until to-day his goods are in demand not only in western New York, but in the South, the West, and the Northwest as far as the Pacific coast. His four- teen experienced shoe salesmen reside at convenient points in various states, and visit each important town and city at frequent intervals. For this pur- pose samples of new styles and shapes are made up twice a year, and displayed by the salesmen six months ahead of the season. Mr. Strootman usually sells his specialties to but one store in a town. He manufactures shoes for ladies, misses, and children exclusively. The official records of the factory inspectors show that Mr. Strootman employs more people than any other individual manu- facturer in Buffalo. His interest and amusement from boyhood has been shoemaking and shoe machinery, and his factory contains an unusually com- plete equipment of the finest modern appliances used in progressive shoemak- ing.
In recent years the subject of gold and silver mining has engaged Mr. Stroot- man's attention to a considerable extent. He has been much more successful in the shoe business than the average manu- facturer ; but the conditions of trade in that industry have become more and 1 more keenly competitive, until the mar- gin of profit has sunk to a point not far removed from zero. Mr. Strootman has filled his factory with expensive labor- saving devices and costly machinery of various kinds ; but competitors have done the same, and the net result has been that customers have bought their shoes at lower and lower prices, while the manufacturers have reaped little or no benefit from the decreased cost of pro- duction. In the case of gold and silver mining the conditions are so far different that improved processes of extracting ores, more productive refining methods, and various economies in getting the metal from the mine to the smelter, are all directly effective in swelling the profits of
the business. Having convinced himself of the soundness of this view, Mr. Strootman next sought an opportunity to apply his reasoning practically. A little research among the mining properties of Colorado discovered such opportunities, and he is now largely interested in some of the most pro- ductive mines of the Centennial State. He is a director of the Buffalo & Colorado Development Co., and is president of the Golconda Consolidated Mining, Milling & Tunnel Co. The former cor- poration has its general offices in Denver, its prop- erty lying in Fremont county, Colorado. The Gol- conda company operates mines and mills in Clear Creek county in the same state.
Mr. Strootman has been much absorbed in his business, and has taken little part in outside matters. He belongs to various clubs in Buffalo and the east-
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JOHN STROOTMAN
ern cities, but rarely visits them. He is a director of the Union Bank, Buffalo.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-John Stroot- man was born at Buffalo April 2, 1851 ; was educated
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in public and private schools ; learned the shoemaker's business, and worked for his father in the same, 1865- 72 ; has been a director of the Union Bank, Buffalo, since 1892 ; has carried on a shoe manufactory in Buffalo since 1873.
DE WITT G. WILCOX
De Wlitt G. Tilcor, who has made himself widely known in Ohio and in western New York as a physician and surgcon, was born less than forty years ago in Akron, Ohio. He attended the public schools of that city, graduating from the high school in June, 1876. In the following September he en- tered Buchtel College, where he pursued elective courses for two years. The Cleveland Homeo- pathic Hospital College was his next educational resource, and in 1880 he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from that institution. He be- gan practice in the same year at Akron, in partner- ship with Dr. William Murdoch.
From the beginning of his medical studies Dr. Wilcox had looked forward to the career of a surgeon rather than that of a general physician ; and
in order to equip himself still more thoroughly for such work, he gave up for a while his practice in Akron, and crossed the water to study under the best surgeons abroad. He spent the year 1882 in the hospitals of London and Paris, thereby acquiring an invaluable experience in the theory and practice of surgery. Dr. Wilcox is one of the few Americans who have received appointments in European hospitals : for six months in 1882 he held the posi- tion of resident house surgeon in the London Temperance Hospital.
Having returned to this country early in 1883, Dr. Wilcox resumed the prac- tice of medicine at Akron, and continued to follow his profession there for the next five years. In 1888-89 he asso- ciated himself with Dr. Joseph T. Cook of Buffalo, taking up his residence in that city February 1, 1888. There was then no member of the homeopathic school in Buffalo who was giving special and exclusive attention to surgery, and several prominent physicians of the city requested Dr. Wilcox to supply the de- ficiency. He did so, as stated, and ob- tained a large practice almost at once. By May, 1890, his surgical patients were so numerous that he found it convenient to establish for their use the Wilcox Private Hospital. This institution served his purpose so well that Dr. Wilcox, at the request of many fellow-practitioners in Buffalo and Erie county, enlarged the hospital, and made it general instead of private. In 1894 the name was changed to the Lexington Heights Hospital. The staff of the institution includes twenty or more of the best-known physicians of Buffalo and western New York, and the enterprise must be regarded from every point of view as highly suc- cessful.
Dr. Wilcox was one of the original staff members of the Erie County Hospital, and he is still an at- tending surgeon in the institution. He is likewise one of the staff of the Buffalo Homeopathic Hospital. He has membership in the New York State Homeo- pathic Medical Society, in the American Institute of Homeopathy, and in the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences ; and he has been president of the Homeo- pathic Medical Society of Western New York. He has frequently written on professional subjects in various medical journals. In 1891 he delivered be- fore the Society of Natural Sciences a lecture on
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" Heredity of Crime," which was published in the Buffalo Express.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-De Witt Gilbert Wilcox was born at Akron, O., January 15, 1858 ; was educated in the Akron public schools and Buchtel ( O.) College ; graduated from the Cleveland Homeopathic Hospital Medical College in 1880 ; married Jennie Irene Green of Alfred Centre, N. Y., September 5, 1888 ; practiced medicine in Akron, 1880-88, with the exception of a year spent in surgical study abroad ; has practiced in Buffalo since 1888, devoting himself especially to surgical and hospital work.
James A. Campbell, one of the most popu- lar insurance men of Buffalo, is a native of Canada, having been born in Niagara Falls, Ont., forty- odd years ago. His parents moved to Buffalo, however, when James was seven years old, and the boy's education was received at Public School No. 1 in that city, and at Bryant & Stratton's Business College.
Mr. Campbell made an early begin- ning in the business of his life thus far, entering at the age of sixteen the office of the old Buffalo City Insurance Co., of which William G. Fargo, then mayor of the city, was president. Mr. Camp- bell found the business congenial from the first, and devoted himself assiduously to his duties. He received rapid promo- tions, and had attained a position of considerable importance when the great Chicago fire of 1871 forced his company into bankruptcy, together with many others throughout the country. So able an assistant as Mr. Campbell had proved himself had no difficulty in finding a new opening, and he soon entered the general insurance office of Worthington & Sill as policy clerk. The following year he was promoted to take charge of the fire business of the firm, holding that position for several years. Having made himself thoroughly familiar with the working details of the establishment, L Mr. Campbell determined to start in business for himself. Accordingly, in October, 1876, he obtained the local agency for several prominent companies, and opened an office in Buffalo. For seventeen years he carried on alone a prosperous business. Writing all kinds of insurance-life, fire, accident, plate-glass, and steam-
boiler - he has established a reputation for courte- ous and business-like dealing, and prompt and satis- factory adjustment of losses, that easily accounts for his success. By October, 1893, his business had grown to such proportions that it became desirable to obtain the help of an associate, and he consoli- dated his agency with that of John S. Kellner. At the same time they moved their offices to prominent and spacious quarters on Niagara street, where the firm of Campbell & Kellner has continued to the present time, doing a large and steadily increasing business.
When the Buffalo Association of Fire Under- writers was organized in August, 1879, Mr. Camp- bell was one of the incorporators of the institu- tion, and he has always taken an active part in its work. He was president of the association in 1889.
JAMES A. CAMPBELL.
Aside from his lifelong connection with the busi- ness of insurance, Mr. Campbell is known through- out the state for his interest in co-operative savings and loan associations. As early as 1871, when such
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societies were a good deal of a novelty, he helped to organize the Prospect Hill Savings and Loan Association, and was made its president. This com- pany was conducted on the old "limited " plan, and in 1877 the stock matured, and the company liquidated its obligations and passed out of exist- ence. In January, 1884, the Erie Savings and Loan Association was organized in Buffalo, and Mr. Campbell was made one of the directors. This position he soon resigned to accept the office of president of the Irish-American Savings and Loan Association, organized in the following April. He remained at the head of the management of this institution for a number of years, finally resigning in January, 1894. During this time he was active in promoting a union of similar associations through- out the state, and when the New York State League of Co-Operative Savings and Building-Loan Associa- tions was organized at Rochester in June, 1888, Mr. Campbell was chosen second vice president. The following year he was unanimously elected president of the state association, and ably discharged the duties of the office.
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