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. II > Part 34
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MEN OF NEW YORK -- GENESEE SECTION
he has occupied the same office on Fitzhugh street, and is still actively engaged in his professional work, though taking time to direct the general manage- ment of a large grain farm in North Dakota, and extensive orange groves and English-walnut or- chards in southern California. He finds bis principal
REUBEN A. ADAMS
recreation and diversion from the tension and con- suming demands of an active practice in occasional visits to these estates.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Reuben A. Adams was born at Marion, N. Y., April 3, 1841; was educated in the public schools and at Marion Col- legiate Institute ; graduated from the Hahnemann Mel- ical College of Philadelphia March 4, 1868, with the degree of M. D. ; served in the Union army, 1862- 65 : married Demmis M. Skinner of Wheatland, N. Y., August 27, 1868 ; practiced medicine at Church- ville, N. Y., 1868-73; has practiced medicine in Rochester since 1873; has interested himself of late in farming and fruit growing in North Dakota and California.
James D. Jackson, proprietor of the famous Jackson Sanatorium of Dansville, N. Y., is descended from an old colonial family. The founder of the American line came from England in the " Defi- ance" in 1635, and settled in Massachusetts. Dr. Jackson's great-great-grandfather was Deacon John Jackson of Weston, Mass., whose son, Colonel Giles Jackson, played an im- portant part in the drama of the Revolu- tion. He was chief of General Gates's staff at the battle of Saratoga, and drew up the articles of capitulation signed by Burgoyne.
Our subject is the third Dr. James Jackson in a direct line, his grandfather. the first of the trio, having been an army surgeon in the war of 1812; and his father, Dr. James Caleb Jackson, the founder of the Dansville institution. which was established in 1858 and orig- inally known as "Our Home on the Hillside." He was a farmer when a young man ; but afterward became prom- inent among the early anti-slavery agita- tors as a lecturer, writer, and editor. He married Lucretia E. Brewster, a direct descendant of Elder William Brewster of the Pilgrim settlement.
The present Dr. Jackson was born at Peterborough, N. Y., and received an academic training at the Dansville Semi- nary. His general education completed, he at once became associated with his father ; and for a number of years acted as business manager of the Dansville in- stitution. During this time he married Miss Kate Johnson, who afterward grad- uated from the College of the New York Infirmary for Women, and with her hus- band took part in the medical conduct of the estab- lishment.
In 1873 Dr. Jackson determined to fit himself to take charge of the professional as well as the business management of the sanatorium ; and he accordingly went to New York city, and became a student in the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he graduated in 1876. Returning then to Dansville, he assumed the position that he has ever since hekdl as head of the medical staff of the sanatorium. The institution, which was one of the oldest in the coun- try, had become also one of the largest and most popular, accommodating several hundred guests, and drawing its patients from every state and territory in the Union and from foreign countries as well. In
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MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION'
1882 the main building was burned, but this disaster proved a blessing in disguise. Dr. Jackson at once set about the erection of a modern fireproof build- ing, which for many years after its completion was the only such structure in the United States outside of a city, used as a hotel or sanatorium. The build- ing is of brick and iron, 300 feet long, and five stor- ies high ; and is thoroughly equipped for hygienic and hydropathic treatment. The situation is unsur- passed, commanding an extensive view of the beauti- ful Genesee valley, with the town of Dansville in the foreground. People of late years have come to appreciate the many advantages to be obtained by invalids in an institution devoted to their care and comfort, and many who are not invalids feel the need occasionally of the rest and relaxation that such an establishment offers ; and no place is more pop- ular with both classes than the Jackson Sanatorium.
Dr. Jackson was for years the cditor of The Laws of Life and Journal of Ilealth, one of the oldest health jour- mals in the country, and a frequent con- tributor to its columns. He is a member of the Livingston County Medical Soci- cty, and was one of the advisory council of the Medico-Climatological Association of the World's Fair Auxiliary Congress. He is a Royal Arch Mason.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- James Hathaway Jackson was born at Peterborough, Madison county, N. Y., June 11, 1841 ; was educated at the Dansville (N. Y. ) Seminary ; was busi- ness manager of his father's sanatorium at Dansville, 1861-73 ; married Kate Johnson of Sturbridge, Mass., September 13, 1864; graduated from the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York city, in 1876 ; has been at the head of the Jackson Sanatorium, Dansville, since 1876.
3obn AD. Milne, principal of the Genesco State Normal School, is a Scotchman by birth, having been born in that country somcwhat less than fifty years ago. When he was two years old his parents came to America with a family of five children, of whom John was the youngest, and settled in Monroe county, New York, afterward moving to Orleans county. Charles Milne, the father, was a miller by oc- cupation, and a man of excellent character, who,
throughout a long life, enjoyed the respect and esteem of all who knew him.
John M. Milne began his education in the com- mon schools of Holley, Orleans county ; but as soon as he became old enough he was put to work on a farm, attending school only during the winter. Ile was fond of study, however, and ambitious for a pro- fessional life ; and at the age of seventeen he entered the Brockport Normal School, from which he gradu- ated four years later with high honors. He was now qualified to act as a teacher, but in order still further to perfect his mental equipment, he spent a year at the University of Rochester.
With this excellent preparatory training Mr. Milne began his professional work in January, 1$72, as instructor in Greek and Latin in the Geneseo Normal School, and filled that position for the next eighteen
JAMES H. JACKSON
years. This school was opened in 1871, and Pro- fessor Milne has therefore been connected with it 'almost from the beginning. In November, 1889, he was appointed principal of the institution, and
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MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION
has since discharged the responsible duties of that position. The school to-day is the largest and per- haps the most popular of the normal schools of the state, and much of this prosperity is unquestionably due to Professor Milne's efforts. Its membership roll numbered in the year 1896-7 nearly fourteen
JOHN M. MILNE
hundred pupils, and the graduating class numbered one hundred and seventy five : while the substantial and well equipped buildings are valued at $226,000. Professor Milne has fully demonstrated his fitness for the management of such an institution, and has attained an excellent reputation throughout the state as an educator of uncommon ability. He has kept in touch with the wonderful improvements in educa- tional methods during the last ten or fifteen years, and his success in his profession has been conspictions.
The four walls of the schoolroom have not monop- olized Professor Milne's whole attention. On the contrary, he is a practical man of affairs. actively interested in all that concerns the welfare and prog- ress of the community. In the fail of 1896 he was
elected president of the village of Geneseo, and he is now exercising in the management of town affairs the same executive ability that has long dis- tinguished his conduct of the school.
Professor Milne is a prominent member of the Masonic body, belonging to Geneseo Lodge, F. & A. M .; Hamilton Chapter, R. A. M., Rochester ; and Monroe Commandery, K. T., Rochester. In 1889 he was ap- pointed District Deputy Grand Master of the 22d Masonic district. He is a men- ber of the Episcopal church, and be- longs to the Rochester chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. The degree of A. M. was conferred upon him by his alma mater in 1882, and that of Ph. D). by the University of the State of New York in 1890.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - John M. Milne was born at Grange Hill, Scotland, March 3, 1850; came to the United States in 1852; was educated at the Brockport Normal School and the University of Rochester; has been a teacher in the Geneseo State Normal School since 1872, and its principal since 1889.
Charles ID. TRowe, one of the leading lawyers of Dansville, N. Y., and district attorney of Livingston county, is a grandson of Erhard Rowe, one of the early settlers of that part of the state, who reared a family of seventeen chil- dren, and died there at the advanced age of ninety-seven. Mr. Rowe's father, George Rowe, died in Dansville in 1895, aged seventy-nine ; and his mother, Sarah Rowe, is still living there. at the age of seventy-eight.
Mr. Rowe was born on a farm in the town of Springwater about forty years ago, but moved to Dansville when he was thirteen years old. After completing the course at the Dansville Seminary, he attended Cook Academy at Havana, N. Y., from which he graduated in 1876. For the next two or three years he read law in Dansville offices, at first with Judge John A. Van Derlip, and later with Noyes & Hedges. He was admitted to the bar January 17, 1879, and at once began practice in Dansville. For about ten years he practiced alone : but in 1890 he formed a partnership with John H. Coyne of Geneseo, under the style of Rowe & Coyne, that lasted for about a year. Again he practiced
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MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION
alone for several years; but in May, 1896, he established with Edward T. Fairchild the present i rin of Rowe & Fairchild.
Since the formation of this partnership Mr. Rowe has been much occupied with his duties as district attorney of Livingston county, a position to which he was elected in the fall of 1896 by the Repub- !: cans of the district. It is a gratifying evidence of his popularity in the county, and of his recognized fitness for the office, that he received at that time a Luger number of votes than the candidate for any other office, either national, state. or county. He
was already well known in public life in Dansville, where he had filled several important offices. May, 1890, he was appointed postmaster of the place, and served until July 31, 1894. He had been three times justice of the peace, and once trus- tee of the village : and in 1895 had acted as corporation counsel of Dansville. Since his election as district attorney he has displayed the same ability and faith- fulness in managing the legal affairs of the county that he has always shown in guarding the interests of his clients.
Mr. Rowe has been an active member of the Protectives Fire Company of Dans- ville ever since he left college. and has filled successively all the different offices in the local fire department. He is a director of the Merchants' and Farmers' National Bank of Dansville ; and acts as attorney for that institution. as also for the Dansville Loan Association, which he helped to organize. He is an Odd Fellow, and a member of the State Bar Association and the Rochester Whist Club ; and attends St. Peter's Church, Dansville. His political success as a Republican in a Democratic town is only one evidence of his popularity, due to his agreeable personal qualities and gen- eral high standing in the community.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Charles H. Rowe was born in the town of Springwater, Livingston county. N. Y .. May 17. 1856 : was circated at the Dansville ( N. Y.) Seminar; and at Cook Academy, Havana. N. Y. : saddict laws, and was admitted to the tar ir: 1819; married Adina Krein of Dansville August 29. 1883 ; was postmaster of Dansville, 1890-94, jus- tice of the fract, 1883-06, tru care of the village in 1894, and corporation counsel in 1805 ; has been district attorney.of Livingston count since January 1, 1897.
Orlando JF. Thomas, one of the leading business men of Lyons, N. Y., was born in Brook- lyn about forty years ago. The family is descended from Scotch ancestry through later English branches, and finally became established in New York state. Mr. Thomas's grandfather, Clarence Erastus Thomas, was a farmer ; and his father, Benjamin Franklin Thomas, was a lumber dealer in Brooklyn for many years before his death in 1884.
Mr. Thomas received his education in the Brook- lyn Polytechnic Institute, and afterward at Hines's Military Academy at Garden City, Long Island. He left school, however, when about fifteen years of age, and began business life. His first position was that of office boy in a Brooklyn sugar refinery, ami he afterward became shipping clerk in a coffee ware- house. With some unimportant exceptions these
CHARLES H. ROWE
two positions occupied his time for nearly ten years. and in both he gave ample evidence of the excellent business qualifications that have since been so fully displayed.
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MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION
When he was about twenty-four years old Mr. Thomas made a business engagement that laid the foundation for his remarkably successful career. He accepted a position as traveling salesman for the Manhattan Silver Plate Co., then a very modest establishment in New York city, in which James
ORLANDO F. THOMIS
Hyde Young was the controlling partner. Mr. Thomas not only sold the goods of the company successfully, but suggested and instituted improve- ments that materially increased the prosperity of the business. Three years later he purchased the inter- est of Mr. Young's partner, and assumed charge of the factory. Under his management the line of goods manufactured was considerably increased, and within a short time the company moved into a fac- tory of their own in Brooklyn. In 1885 the busi- ness was incorporated, under the style of the Man- hattan Silver Plate Co., with a capital of $50,000, Mr. Young becoming the president of the concern, and Mr. Thomas its secretary. Since that time the success of the enterprise has been continuous and
rapid. In 1889 the factory and general offices were moved to Lyons, N. Y., and the capital stock increased to $75,000 ; and this has since been fur- ther increased to $100,000. Mr. Thomas now holds a controlling interest in the corporation, and is its president and treasurer. In addition to the factories and salesrooms in Lyons, the company maintain branch offices in a number of the most important cities of the world, including New York, Chi- cago, St. Louis, San Francisco, London, Paris, Melbourne, and Sydney. All these offices are managed from the head- quarters at Lyons, and Mr. Thomas would be a busy man if he did nothing else but oversee the affairs of the Man- hattan Silver Plate Co.
This is but one of his many enter- prises, however, although the most im- portant one. He is largely interested in several silverware factories in the United States and Canada ; and is presi- dent of the Standard Silverware Co. of Toronto, and the New Haven Silver Plate Co. of Chicago. Some years ago he conceived the idea of uniting the malting establishments of the country ; and in company with Seymour Scott of Lyons he planned and organized the American Malting Co., commonly known as the Malt Trust. Mr. Scott is now man- ager of the company, and Mr. Thomas a member of the board of directors.
In 1895 Mr. Thomas, in company with other leading citizens of Lyons, organ- ized the Bank of Wayne, a corporation with a capital of $50,000 and a surplus of over $10,000, and became its president. He is also connected with the Mercantile Supply Co., which has branch offices throughout the United States. He was one of the incorporators of the Lyons Board of Trade, and has taken an active part in its work from the beginning.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Orlando Franklin Thomas was born at Brooklyn November 12, 1856 : was educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and Hines's Military Academy ; was employed in various Brooklyn offices, 1871-80 : married Emma Van Cleaf of Brooklyn June 25, 1880 ; became con- nected with the Manhattan Silver Plate Co., now of Lyons N. Y., in 1880, and has been its president since 1890 ; has been president of the Bank of Wayne at Lyons since its organization in 1895, and is largely interested in a member of business enterprises.
MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION
henry El. Chitos is most favorably known to the bar of western New York. His integrity is beyond dispute, his perception of legal points clear, quick, and sound, and his trained mind dispatches business with ease ; while his affability, both on the bench and in private life, is such as to win the con- fidence and esteem of all with whom he comes in contact.
Justice Childs was born at Carlton, Orleans county, New York, and was edu- cated at Albion and Macedon academies. In the spring of 1859 he moved to Medina, N. Y., where he was admitted to the bar in the following year, and where he has lived ever since. While his early education had been good, the train- ing that made him the successful advocate and justice was received after he had completed his school life. It was, in fact, the friction with the world, the active practice of law, and the ideas received from men of affairs, that prepared this young lawyer to assume at an early age a prominent place in the legal and politi- cal world of western New York. In 1860 he became associated in the practice of law with the firm of Sickels & Graves. and until 1867 the new firm of Sickels, Graves & Childs was well known through- out the western part of the state. in 1868 Mr. Childs was elected district at- ยท torney of Orleans county, and continued to hold that office until 1877. In 1873 he formed a partnership with Edmund L. Pitts, which lasted until 1883, when Mr. Childs was raised to the bench.
In business enterprises outside of his profession Justice Childs has never be- come interested, having given his whole time and attention to the theory of law and its practical application to the questions constantly coming before him. His decisions in the General Term and the Circuit Court are conceded to be good law. and are almost universally affirmed by the Court of Appeals, where his legal mind, wide reading, and sound judgment are fully appreciated. Always willing to listen and give attention to any new phase of legal questions, he rarely makes a mistake in the settlement of a test case. Like the rocking stones reared by the Druids of old, which the finger of a child can vibrate to the center, but which the might of an army can hardly stir from position, Justice Childs possesses a mind that cannot be swayed from the fundamental principles of justice and equity,
though yielding to others in nonessentials and the technicalities of the law.
In the Republican state convention at Saratoga in 1895, Justice Childs was favorably mentioned as a candidate for associate judge of the Court of Appeals ; but the question of locality told against his candidacy,
HENRY .1. CHILDS
the elevation of Justice Haight to that court a year before having given western New York a representa- tive. In politics Justice Childs has always been a stanch Republican, not because of the political pre- ferment to be gained from the party, but because of his belief in its principles. His courteous personality and evident desire to do strict and impartial justice according to the spirit and letter of the law, have won golden opinions from men of all political faiths, who agree that he has done much to bulwark the judiciary of western New York against the rising tide of popular rancor that has assailed the bench in New York city.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- Hoy Augustine Childs was born at Carlton, Orleans county,
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MEN OF NEW YORK-GENESEE SECTION
N. Y., July 17, 1836 ; was educated in the common schools of Orleans county, and at Albion and Macedon (N. Y. ) academics ; married Julia B. Freeman No- vember 16, 1859; was admitted to the bar in 1860, and began the practice of law in Medina, N. Y., the same year ; was district attorney of Orleans county,
JAMES G. CUTLER
1868-71 ; was elected justice of the Supreme Court in November, 1883 ; received the degree of LL. D. from Williams College in October, 1893.
James G. Cutler is a man of busy brain and fertile ideas. He has an artistic temperament, and is at the same time endowed with the inventive instinct so characteristic of the genuine Yankee, but not confined to him. Quick to appreciate the need of improvements, he has been equally quick to supply them. Mental activity and bodily vigor are his chief characteristics : and though he has not yet passed the half-century marl:, the length of his life is not to be measured by his years, but by what be has accom- plished.
Mr. Cutler was obliged to leave school when only sixteen years of age, and to go to work in a carriage factory. A few years later he began the study of architecture in the office of Nichols & Brown in his native city of Albany. After three years' study and apprenticeship in this office, he moved to Rochester to become the principal assistant in the office of architect A. J. Warner. He held this position for several years, and was then Mr. Warner's partner for one year. Beginning the practice of his pro- fession alone in 1876, he met with ex- cellent success ; and the city of Rochester contains to-day many buildlings designed and erected by him.
The need of better mail facilities in modern office buildings and apartment houses set Mr. Cutler's inventive mind to work, and the result was the mail chute now so generally used in large buildings. Mr. Cutler is the patentee of this device, and in company with his brother he owns and conducts the extensive business of the Cutler Manufacturing Co., which is engaged in the construction of mail chutes and the Cutler system of mail boxes. During the last twelve years Mr. Cutler's time has been so fully occupied with this concern and with other mer- cantile enterprises that he has found it desirable to relinquish his professional work. Few men in Rochester are more prominently identified with the com- mercial life of the city. He has large real-estate interests ; and he is president of the Rochester Chamber of Commerce. vice president of the Alliance Bank, and a trustee of the Post-Express Printing Co. In public life Mr. Cutler is a growing political factor. An ardent Republican, he has been frequently honored by his party. In 1895 he was appointed a commissioner to prepare laws for the government of cities of the second class, and in 1896 he was nominated as a presidential elector. In social and church life he is equally prominent. He is president of the board of trustees of St. Peter's Presbyterian Church, a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and a member of numerous social clubs, including the Genesee Valley, Roch- ester Whist. Thistle Golf, Half Moon Bowling, and Rochester Country clubs. Of ante-revolutionary stock, he belongs to the Society of Colonial Wars in the State of New York and to the Sons of the American Revolution.
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MEN OF NEW YORK -- GENESEE SECTION
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY -- James Goold Cutler was born at Albany, N. Y., April 24, 1848 ; attended Albany Academy three years ; studied archi- lecture, and practiced his profession at Rochester, 1872-84 : married Anna Katharine Abbey of Kings- ton, N. Y., September 27, 1871; invented and patented the mail chute, and organized the Cutler Mfg. Co., makers of the same : has been manager of this company since 1884.
frank l. fhawley has pushed his way to prominence by several untried paths. Aggressive, rad- ical, fearless, sanguine, Mr. Hawley is a splendid type of the progressive business man of to-day. He has striven successfully to harness modern inventions to the practical arts, and to apply the triumphs of science to every possible improvement in living ; and he is to-day one of the best known and most interesting young business men in New York state.
On the completion of his course in Canandaigua Academy, at the age of nineteen, Mr. Hawley went to Rochester, and commenced reading law with one of the leading firms of that city. At the same time, in order to make his way un- aided, he undertook the duties of a reporter for one of the local newspapers. Journalism proved more attractive than the law ; and after qualifying himself for admission to the bar, Mr. Hawley closed his law books, and took up the pen of the newspaper correspondent. His letters appeared in such papers as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Press, and attracted such attention as to indicate that marked suc- cess awaited him in journalism, should he not turn his attention to other things.
When but twenty-two years of age Mr. Ilawley became a member of a firm that had important contracts for building a section of the Northern Pacific railroad and other large works. There he found unrestricted chance for the display of his energy and the development of his sug- gestive ideas ; and so well did he meet his responsibilities that within three years he had been named as a director in many important boards, and as a member of numerous committees of organization and reorganiza- tion, in both New York and Chicago. His ability as an organizer brought him into confidential rela- tions with the men who have been prominent in the
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