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 50
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It is clear from the foregoing that Mr. Thornton stands in the very front rank of stenographers. This fact has received official recognition, so to speak, at vari- ous times. In 1882 he was elected president of the New York State Ste- nographers' Association, and was again elected to that office in 1896. He was made president of the International Ste- nographers' Association in 1884. In 1882 he published a text-book on phonography entitled "The Modern Stenographer."
Mr. Thornton has now lived in Buf- falo nearly a quarter of a century, and has become well and favorably known in that city. He is a member of the leading clubs there, including the Buf- falo, University, Acacia, Yacht, Whist, and Chess clubs.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-George How- ard Thornton was born at Watertown, Jefferson county, N. Y., April 28, 1851 ; attended Jefferson County Institute, the Watertown High School, and Rochester University, whence he graduated in 1872 ; married Della L. Cragin of Troy, N. Y., May 30, 1874; was assistant stenographer of the Supreme Court, Buffalo, 1872-82; was admitted to the bar in 1882; was elected president of the New York State Stenographers' Association in 1882, and again in 1896, and of the International Stenographers' Asso- ciation in 1884 ; has been official stenographer of the Supreme Court, Buffalo, since 1882.
Nelson O. Tiffany, widely known in Ma- sonic and insurance eireles in western New York, was born in Erie county in 1842. He is of excel- lent New England stock, his ancestors having come to this country over two centuries ago. His mother dying when he was five years old, Nelson was
GEORGE HOWARD THORNTON
brought up by his uncle, William A. Whitney, a farmer and manufacturer of furniture at Scotland, Ontario. His early life was filled with hardship and disappointment. Leaving his uncle's at the age of seventeen he knew no home thereafter until he had made one for himself many years later. After starting out in the world he obtained a place on a farm, where he worked hard from dawn till dark for seven dollars a month. A few months of this sufficed to show that prosperity lay not that way, and the young man sought to improve his posi- tion by taking work as a general laborer in a lumber camp. His duties there were comprehensive, ranging from the driving of oxen in the woods to account- ing, timekeeping, and the measurement of timber.
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In this unsatisfactory way Mr. Tiffany passed his youth. Concluding that a lumber camp was not the best place for a young man ambitious to establish himself in the world, he went to Buffalo, and entered a business for which his training had particularly adapted him. Becoming general foreman in the
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NELSON O. TIFFANY
furniture manufactory of W. Chase & Son, he remained with them about three years; and became, in 1868, general superintendent for the furniture house of A. H. Andrews & Co., Chicago. Not liking the western metropolis as well as Buffalo, he returned to the latter city after about two years, to become superintendent in the factory of Chase & Co. While with them he was much more than a superintendent, as he invented and patented three improvements in school seats and desks, and made illustrative models with his own hands. In 1871 he deemed it best to leave the furniture business, and become a traveler for the Howe Sewing Ma- chine Co .; and for the next ten years he was a man- ager and superintendent of agencies for that house.
Having resigned the position of manager for the Howe company, Mr. Tiffany became the general agent for their goods in Buffalo, where he conducted a successful business for over five years. During this time he figured in a somewhat famous tax suit. The owner of the block in which his store was loca- ted having failed to pay the taxes on the premises, the city attorney directed the tax collector to make a levy on the per. sona! property of Mr. Tiffany in his store. Naturally indignant, Mr. Tiffany protested against what seemed to him an inexcusable outrage. The case finally reached the Court of Appeals, where Mr. Tiffany won. The suit was a great an- noyance to him at first, but proved to be a blessing in disguise, as it advertised his business most effectively.
In 1882 Mr. Tiffany took the manage- ment of the New York office of the Household Sewing Machine Co., con- trolling the trade of the company in New York, Brooklyn, and Jersey City. After conducting the office a year he resigned his position for the purpose of engaging in the business with which he is now identified -that of insuring the lives of Free Masons.
Mr. Tiffany has changed his calling several times, but he has always learned thoroughly any business that he has fol- lowed. In the case of insurance he began his preparation by attending a course of lectures in the medical depart- ment of the University of Buffalo in 1883-84. As soon as he had completed this course he was elected secretary and general agent of the Masonic Life Asso- ciation of Western New York. For twelve consecutive years he has been re-elected to this position by the unanimous vote of the board of directors. It need hardly be added that Mr. Tiffany has conducted the affairs of the association with equal skill and success, and that he is regarded among insurance people as an exceptionally able executive officer. During the years 1893-95 he was secretary of the national convention of mutual- insurance underwriters.
On the personal side Mr. Tiffany's biography presents several interesting features. Passionately fond of flowers ever since childhood, he has culti- vated a garden with his own hands for many years. partly from love of the pastime, partly for the sake of the exercise. He is likewise fond of sports, such
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as hunting, fishing, and yachting ; and he is a direc- tor of the Buffalo Yacht Club. Devoted to science and art and general literature, he has accumulated a library of over a thousand standard and choice volumes. In religious opinion Mr. Tiffany was always a Unitarian by instinct, as he says, long before he heard of such a church or creed ; and for twenty- five years he has been a regular attendant of the Church of Our Father, the first Unitarian society of Buffalo. As might be surmised from his occupation, he has been active in Masonry, having taken all the degrees in all the branches of the order except the 33d degree in the Scottish Rite.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Nelson Otis Tiffany was born at Lancaster, N. Y., February 1, 1842 ; worked on a farm and in a lumber camp, 1860-61 ; engaged in the furniture business as man- ager and designer, 1864-67 ; married Julia Charlotte Chase of Buffalo January 28, 1868 ; traveled for the Howe Sewing Machine Co. as manager and superintend- ent of agencies, 1867-77; conducted the sewing-machine business in Buffalo on his own account, 1877-82 : was manager of the New York office of the Household Ser- ing Machine Co. in 1882 ; has been secre- tary and general agent in Buffalo of the Masonic Life Association of Western New York since 1884.
Frank Brundage, essentially a young man, has had a career full of achievement. No lawyer at the western end of the state is more widely or more highly appreciated for professional or personal merit. He commenced the practice of his profession in the little town of Angelica, in Allegany county. He was born and reared in that county, was married there, and still keeps alive his connection with his old friends, neighbors, and relatives in that section. They insist that Frank Brundage is an Allegany boy, though it is twenty-five years since his professional career carried him into broader fields.
His first move was to Lockport. Ten successful and fortunate years were spent there in the practice of the law, mostly in connection with Hiram Gardner and the firm of Ellsworth, Potter & Brundage. Niagara county was a pleasant and appreciative second home. All that it had to give to a lawyer it gave to him. When he had been in the county only three years
he was nominated by acclamation, and elected dis- trict attorney ; and after he had declined a unani- mous renomination to that office he was elected county judge. Niagara county, too, made him its candidate for judge of the Supreme Court in the 8th judicial district, and he came within two votes of being nominated. Few men ever had political experiences pleasanter or more promising than those that surrounded the last seven years of Judge Brundage's life in Lockport.
But for a man with the natural gifts of a trial lawyer, nothing that politics or office has to offer compares in attraction with the active practice of his profession in a great city. Buffalo knew of Judge Brundage's powers as an advocate, and Judge Brundage knew of the opportunities to exercise his abilities which Buffalo could give ; and the inevitable
FRANK BRUNDAGE
happened. When he was barely thirty-five he had received about all that there was to get through politics in his profession. The prospect was bright for promotion in the same lines, but another kind
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of success was infinitely more attractive to him. He decided that, having tried both, he preferred the private to the public station ; and he enrolled himself .in the exceedingly small class of office- holders who have resigned. Subsequent events show that he has not repented his decision, for
FREDERICK HALLER
though temptations have been offered to him he has steadfastly declined to be a candidate for anything.
Frank Brundage, lawyer, of Buffalo, has had about what he desired when he left Lockport. He has practiced law under the most favorable auspices, and with a goodly measure of success. Before he moved to Buffalo he was engaged as counsel in the Lyon case, growing out of the Bork treasury mat- ters ; and succeeded in reversing the conviction in the Court of Appeals after having been defeated in all the other courts. There were not many big cases in Buffalo during the eight years of his con- nection with the firm of Bissell, Sicard, Brundage & Bissell in which he did not make an appearance at some stage of the proceedings. He has had
leisure to travel, and to enjoy the society of his friends ; he has been able to exercise his ardent Republicanism by making campaign speeches with- out recompense ; and, in short, he has found life as a whole well worth living. The only serious cause for complaint that he has had against fortune was a prolonged and severe attack of ill health, the result of an accident. In 1894 this necessitated his withdrawal from the practice of his profession. However, he has recovered his health completely, and since 1895 has been in active practice as the senior member of the firm of Brun- dage & Dudley.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Frank Brundage was born at Allen, Allegany county, N. Y., January 4, 1847 ; completed his education at Friend- ship (N. Y.) Academy ; was admitted to the bar at Albany in December, 1868 ; practiced law at Angelica, N. Y., 1869- 72; married Ella S. Brown of Angelica February 15, 1871 ; moved to Lockport, N. Y., in October, 1872, and resided there until 1883 ; was district attorney of Niagara county, 1875-77, and county judge, 1879-83 ; moved to Buffalo in Feb- ruary, 1883, and has practiced law there since.
Frederick faller was born in Augusta, Ga., two years before the out- break of the Civil War. Becoming an orphan during infancy, he was brought up by relatives. He began to go to school at the age of six, and continued to obtain instruction in fundamental subjects until he was twelve years old.
By that time his people felt unable to provide further education, and he was indentured for a term of three years as an apprentice to a cigar manufacturer at Savannah, Ga. This was not the most ideal method of attaining distinction in the law, but Mr. Haller's career shows that such an end may sometimes follow this beginning.
Serving out the prescribed time, and devoting himself diligently to all parts of his work, Mr. Haller learned the cigar maker's trade from A to Z. Passing mention may be made of his fortunate escape from yellow fever during the epidemic of 1876 at Savannah. In 1880 he left the Empire State of the South, determined to seek the larger opportunities of metropolitan life. Taking up his residence in New York city, accordingly, about the time he
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became of age, he worked at his trade there for the next eight years. The cigar makers of New York have frequently been at odds with their employers, and Mr. Haller, who soon became a leader among his fellow-workmen, was a strong force on the side of the employees. In all controversies he was con- servative and wise in his counsels and leadership.
In 1888 Mr. Haller left New York and betook himself to Buffalo. He carried with him the tools of his trade, and soon found work. He had been in Buffalo only a few months, however, when he made a radical departure from his previous vocation. At the suggestion of Tracy C. Becker, a prominent attorney of Buffalo, who had become interested in Mr. Haller, the latter resolved to study law. This decision was not so strange as it might appear, since Mr. Haller had been for years a persistent reader and student on a small scale. While liv- ing in New York he visited the Cooper Institute frequently, and attended the lectures at that institution. ' Entering the Buffalo Law School in the fall of 1888, he pursued his studies with great energy. His rapid progress, indeed, was remarkable, when the adverse con- ditions under which he labored are taken into account. Not only was he some- what handicapped at the beginning by reason of inadequate preparation, but he was also obliged, in order to support himself and family, to work at his trade while attending the law school. All these difficulties were happily overcome at last, and he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1890.
Admitted to the bar at Buffalo in June, 1891, Mr. Haller began practice at once. His first partnership was formed in that year with James C. Fullerton, with whom he continued to be associated until Jan- uary 1, 1894. After practicing alone for sixteen months, Mr. Haller formed a partnership with L. P. Hancock, under the firm name of Haller & Hancock. This association still exists. Mr. Haller has already established a substantial prac- tice, and attained an excellent position at the bar of Buffalo. His capacity in the law was recognized in January, .. .. 1896, when he was appointed one of the assistant district attorneys of Erie county.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Frederick Haller was born at Augusta, Ga., April 8, 1859; was educated in common schools ; learned the cigar
maker's trade and worked at the same, in Savannah, Ga., and in New York city, 1871-88 ; married Anna Zeip of New York city May 7, 1884; studied lawe, and was admitted to the bar in 1891 ; has been assist- ant district attorney of Erie county since January 1, 1896 ; has practiced law in Buffalo since 1891.
Mark Sibley Dubbelt is one of the best- known men in Buffalo and in western New York, although he is barely forty years old. Newspaper men and public officials are necessarily much in the public eye, and he has already won distinction in both lines of activity.
Mr. Hubbell was born in Buffalo, where his father, John Hubbell, was city attorney in 1854-55, and was otherwise prominent as lawyer and citizen for many years. Mark Hubbell's education, begun in
MARK SIBLEY HUBBELL
Buffalo schools, was completed at military academies in Montrose and Newark, N. J. ; and he then entered the office of Bangs, Sedgwick & North of New York city as a law student, with a view to
4
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following his father's profession. After due prepa- ration he was admitted to the bar in 1878, and prac- ticed for about a year in his father's office in Buffalo ; but at the end of that time he determined to yield to his strong predilection for journalism and a literary career.
Mr. Hubbell's first work in the newspaper world was for the Buffalo Express, and it soon became evident that he had acted wisely in changing his profession. Before long an opportunity offered to go to New York, and he spent four years there in the service of the Times and the World. These great dailies proved an excellent training school for the young journalist, and he profited much by the experience gained there. After making a trip around the world, via Australia and the Orient, he returned to Buffalo in 1883, and took a position with the Buffalo Courier. Later he acted as manag- ing editor of the Buffalo Times for two years, and then served on the staff of the News for six years. Buffalo readers do not need to be told of his work during this time. His natural ability, cultivated and enriched by extensive travel and accurate obser- vation, gave him a foremost place among local edi- torial writers. His descriptive style was easy, yet vivid ; his political articles were keen and discrimi- nating ; but the work for which he is best known is his poetry. Here his talent for satire had full play, though he could be also pathetic at times ; and these verses, treating in his own inimitable style the topics of the day, whether of local or more extended interest, did much to influence popular opinion on many important questions.
The change from journalism to the work of a city official is a radical one in some respects, but Mr. Hubbell has acquitted himself with equal credit in the latter calling. Elected city clerk for the year 1894, he has been re-elected each succeeding year, and is now serving his fourth term in that capacity. These continued re-elections sufficiently attest the fact that he has discharged the duties of the office to the complete satisfaction of the common council and of the public generally. He has done much to systematize the working of his department, and has compiled an excellent " Manual " of the city government. He has also prepared and published a unique and most serviceable annotated edition of the " Charter and Ordinances."
Mr. Hubbell's connections with the social life of Buffalo are many and varied. He is a Mason, be- longing to Ancient Landmark Lodge, No. 441, F. & A. M. ; and a member of the Orpheus Society, the Buffalo Historical Society, the Buffalo Repub- lican League, the Press Club, and the Ellicott
Club. His gifts as a writer and public officer, and his ardent devotion to the prosperity of Buffalo, have given him a large circle of friends and acquaint- ances.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Mark Sit .. ley Hubbell was born at Buffalo February 5, 1857 : was educated in Buffalo schools, and in New Jersey military academies ; was admitted to the bar in 187s. and practiced law a short time ; married Elizabeth J. Oliver of Buffalo January 3, 1883 ; was connected with various newspapers in New York and Buffalo, 1882-04 ; has been city clerk of Buffalo since Jant- ary 1, 1894.
George E. Matthews, editor of the Buffalo Express and president of the Matthews-Northrup Co., is following closely the course mapped out for him by nature. He is the son of a distinguished editor and printer, and his career has been the natural result of inheritance and surroundings.
Mr. Matthews was born in Westfield, Chautauqua county, at his mother's old home ; but his parents lived in Buffalo at the time, and he may fairly be regarded as a Buffalonian from first to last. His education was obtained there, in private schools. until he was sixteen years old. He was ready to enter college then, but his parents thought him too young to get the full benefit of a college course. For two years, therefore, he gave up school life, and devoted himself partly to travel and partly to learning the rudiments of the printer's trade as typesetter, copyholder, and proof reader. His father, J. N. Matthews, was at that time editor of the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, and part owner of the large printing plant connected therewith ; and in that establishment Mr. Matthews, while waiting for time to catch up with him before entering college, laid the foundations of his knowledge of the printing and publishing business. By the fall of 1873 he was rather more than eighteen years old. and was ready to go on with his education. Enter- ing Yale, accordingly, with the class of '77, he received in due course the Bachelor of Arts degree.
In January, 1878, J. N. Matthews became editor and proprietor of the Buffalo Express, and his son entered the service of the paper in the business department. At first only a clerk behind the counter of the public office, he soon rose to more responsible stations, and ultimately held the position of business manager for several years. He also filled various places on the staff of writers. a occasional vacancies made opportunity for such experience. He was telegraph editor for a time, city editor for several periods, and literary editor
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for three years, thus obtaining adequate training for his present work of editor in chief. In the printing business, likewise, Mr. Matthews served a long and wholesome apprenticeship. He was correspondence clerk in the old house of Matthews Bros. & Bryant,' had charge of various depart- ments in the establishment of Matthews, Northrup & Co., and finally became treasurer of the latter concern. He has always been interested in the various arts of typography, and has a comprehensive general knowledge of the subject.
The death of J. N. Matthews in De- cember, 1888, charged his son with the responsibility of managing both the Buf- falo Express and the printing business ; and since then Mr. Matthews has been editor of the paper and president of the Matthews-Northrup Co. As an editor he has obtained generous commendation for independence, sympathy with all movements promoting good government, and consistent and unyielding opposition to " machine " politics. Whatever else has been said of the Buffalo Express, no one has ever seriously thought that it could be frightened off or bought off. Its editor's birth synchronized with the birth of the Republican party, and Mr. Matthews has always been a strong sup- porter of Republican doctrines. He has never been a candidate for public office, but his duties as an editor have made him conversant with some of the discom- forts, as well as some of the pleasures, connected with a public position.
The life of Mr. Matthews has been devoted so exclusively to the business of printing and newspaper making, that it has been fortunate for him that his relations with those having similar interests have always had a strong infusion of friend- ship. He has been for several years president of the Buffalo Typothetae, and of the Buffalo News- paper Publishers' Association. He is a member, though not a very active one, of almost all the leading clubs and many of the associations of Buffalo.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- George Eilward Matthews was born at Westfield, N. Y., March 17, 1855 ; prepared for college in private schools at Buffalo, and graduated from Yale College with the class of 1877 ; held various positions in the business and editorial departments of the Buffalo " Express," and with the printing establishment of
Matthews, Northrup & Co., 1878-88; married Mary Elizabeth Burrows of Buffalo July 12, 1887 ; has been editor of the Buffalo " Express," and president of the Matthews-Northrup Co., since January 1, 1889.
GEORGE E. MAATTIET'S
Ottomar RReinecke, editor of the Buffalo Freie Presse, was born somewhat more than fifty years ago in the German principality of Schwarzburg- Sondershausen, near the romantic Harz mountains. His early education was received in the schools of his native land ; but in his twelfth year his parents came to the new world and settled in Buffalo, and the lad's studies were completed in the public schools of that city. His father was a printer by trade, ingenious and possessed of the sturdy de- termination that compels success. Two years after arriving in Buffalo he started a printing office, with a capital of 880 and no credit, and with a press built by himself of wood and iron. This machine bore more resemblance to the early inventions of Gutenberg than to the sextuple press of a modern newspaper office ; but it served the purposes of its
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maker so well that when he died a dozen years later he left his son a substantial business, which included the publication of a weekly German newspaper, the Buffalo Freie Presse.
From the time the printing office was started, Ottomar Reinecke had helped his father in the
OTTOMAR REINECKE
afternoons while attending school in the morning ; and he soon left school altogether, and devoted his whole time to the office. He was thus well qualified to take charge of the business at his father's death in 1866. The following year he formed a partner- ship with Frank H. Zesch that has continued ever since. Five years later George Baltz was admitted to the firm, and the Freie Presse became a daily journal. This was in 1872, and for the past twenty- five years the paper has held its place as the recog- nized organ of the German Republicans of Buffalo, and under Mr. Reinecke's able leadership has won deserved success. Mr. Baltz retired from the busi- ness after two years, and since then the firm of Reinecke & Zesch have been the owners and pub-
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