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 44
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No history of the Erie-county bar for the last half of the nineteenth century would be complete without devoting liberal space to Mr. Sprague's work. His comprehensive education, deep learning in the law.
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rare mental powers, and spotless, well-ripened char- acter, all conspired to make him a jurist of the very first rank. One may say of him what a eulogist said of Lord Bowen, " He was so great a lawyer because he was so much else." His ability became evident early in his career at the bar, and within a few years from the beginning of his practice he was entrusted with legal interests of great importance. In 1852 he was appointed the Buffalo attorney of the Great Western Railway Co., and in 1854 of the Grand Trunk Railway Co. Other corporations were quick to seek his aid in the protection of their legal rights, and his work came to be largely of this nature. The Erie County Savings Bank, the International Bridge Co., the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad Co., as well as other large business concerns and individual litigants, made up his clientage. His ability as a lawyer was not confined to a single aspect of practice, but included all the important departments of legal procedure. He was wise and sympa- thetic in advising office clients ; he was painstaking and skillful in preparing legal instruments ; he was alert, resource- ful, and rigidly tenacious of his clients' rights, in jury trials ; he was eloquent, convincing, and perfectly informed, in his addresses before the courts of review.
Political honors might have been Mr. Sprague's for the asking -- or rather for the acceptance, since he was repeatedly solicited to take public office. But he was wrapped up in his profession, and some features of political leadership were particularly distasteful to a man of his independent spirit. He consented, how- ever, in 1875, to supply a vacancy in the state senate for a single session. While there he made a memorable speech advocating a reduction of tolls on the Erie canal ; and he otherwise demonstrated his superior fitness for public life. He declined a re-election, however, consistently with his fixed pur- pose.
Though Mr. Sprague was thus indif- ferent to the charms of political office, he gave himself unsparingly to public life in the larger sense. In all move- ments for the purification of politics, for the efficient and honest administration of public affairs, for the betterment of civic conditions in any respect, he was tirelessly active. Identified with many charitable associations, he served as trustee
of the Children's Aid Society, the Charity Organ- ization Society, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He was at one time secre- tary of the Buffalo Orphan Asylum. For several years he was chancellor of the University of Buffalo. He was president of the Harvard Club of Western New York from the time of its organization in 1881. He was a member of the Civil Service Reform Association, believing earnestly in its principles and supporting actively its work. He was president of the Liberal Club, of the Young Men's Association (now the Buffalo Library ), and of the Buffalo Club. He gave his time abundantly and his best thought to the good of the community. Well might ex- President Hill of Harvard University name Mr. Sprague as one of three men whom he regarded as ideal citizens.
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EBEN CARLETON SPRAGUE
Mr. Sprague was liberally educated early in life. and ever afterward indulged his love of learning and of letters. In June, 1892, the degree of Doctor of . Laws was conferred upon him by Harvard U'niver-
MEN OF NEW YORK
sity. He was minutely acquainted with the best literature of various languages, and his occasional addresses were characterized by beautiful diction and scholarly taste. He was broadly cultured as well as widely read, and enriched his mind with the treas-
THOMAS THORNTON
ures of art and music and nature. His life was well rounded on all sides.
On February 13, 1895, in his seventy-third year, Mr. Sprague was taken ill without warning while reading aloud to his wife an extract from his favorite Shelley. The end came the next day, and a light went out that had illumined a wide area, and had even made the world permanently brighter. Courts adjourned, flags were made an emblem of mourning, and every mark of respect was paid to his memory ; but the sense of personal bereavement that shadowed a multitude of hearts was the most significant tribute to the character and influence of Eben Carleton Sprague.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Eben Carleton Sprague was born at Bath, V. H., November 26.
1822 ; prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Acade- my, and graduated from Harvard in 1843; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1846 ; married Elizabeth H. Williams of Buffalo June 25, 1849; was state senator, 1876-77 ; practiced law in Buffalo from 1846 until his death February 14, 1895.
Thomas Thornton had for many years a prominent part in the commer- cial, philanthropic, and social life of Buffalo. He was an excellent type of the Englishman imbued with American ideas, sturdy in his convictions, con- scientious in all his dealings with his fellow-men, unobtrusive in private life, punctual in the performance of every duty. He left a name untarnished, when he passed away early in 1896, full of years, and rich in the rewards of a career useful to others and honorable to himself.
Mr. Thornton was born in the city of London in the year that marked the outbreak of our second war with Eng- land. His education and early training were received in his native land. He was by profession a physician, and took his degree of Doctor of Medicine be- fore leaving England. Reaching Buffalo when he had just attained his majority, Mr. Thornton practiced his profession there for twelve years. In 1845, how- ever, he turned his attention to the sub- ject of the flour supply of Buffalo. At that time the Queen City, and in fact all the western part of New York, was supplied with flour from Michigan and Ohio, brought thither in sailing vessels. The quality of this flour was very poor, and Mr. , Thornton as a physician became convinced that the health of the community demanded a more whole- some product than the article then in use there.
He entered into partnership, accordingly, with Thomas Chester, under the firm name of Thornton & Chester, and began his career as a flour merchant. The new firm introduced the latest improvements in machinery, selected the best qualities of wheat, and made their famous "Globe " flour so much superior to existing brands that their business rapidly outgrew its original proportions. Thus forced to secure larger accommodations, the firm leased the North Buffalo mills, the Frontier mills at Black Rock, and the Spaulding mills at Lockport. In addition to these they built the National mills, situated on Erie
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MEN OF NEW YORK
street in Buffalo, with a capacity of 1000 barrels of flour a day.
Mr. Thornton's commercial success naturally brought him into intimate business relations with the leading financial men of Buffalo, and he was actively interested in various enterprises having for their object the development of the city. He was a member of the Merchants' Exchange and a trustee of the Board of Trade. He was for a long time president of the Bank of Commerce of Buffalo, and in his later years a large real-estate owner and capitalist.
Mercantile matters, however, could not suppress his interest in letters and fine arts, and in the broader concerns of his fellow-citizens. He was a member of the Buffalo Historical Society and Fine Arts Academy. Reared and confirmed in the Church of England, he was active in works of religion and philanthropy. He was a member of the Young Men's Christian Association and one of its supporters ; and was for several years one of the board of managers of the Church Charity Foundation.
Mr. Thornton's vigorous constitution enabled him to transact a vast amount of business. Even in old age, when most men seek retirement, often equivalent to stagnation, he attended regularly to his duties at his mills, and was at his office the very last day of his life. He was stricken with apoplexy in the afternoon on his return from business, and died the same evening. His death was an- nounced in the public press with tributes of respect and esteem.
While Mr. Thornton's business life was full and varied, his private life was quiet and retired. He was a gentleman in all his social relations, strict in his regard for the conventions and amenities of polite life, but of modest demeanor and habits.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Thomas Thornton was born at London, England, February 11, 1812; took the degree of Doctor of Medicine in London in 1830 ; practiced medicine in Buffalo, 1833-45 ; married Mary Bailey of Vete- bury, Vt., January 1, 1845 ; engaged in the flour-milling business in Buffalo from 1845 until his death February 22, 1896.
George S. Wardwell filled an important place in Buffalo, which was his home for forty years,
and his death deprived the community of a useful and an honored member. As lawyer, judge, and private citizen, his record is worthy of praise and emulation.
Judge Wardwell was born in Providence, R. I., and his ancestors were among the early settlers in the New England colonies, coming to this country in 1636. After an excellent preparatory education he entered Allegheny College, Meadville, Penn., in 1848, and studied there three years. He was ambitious, however, for better advantages than a small college afforded, and in 1851 he entered Harvard as a junior, graduating in the class of '53, with President Eliot as a classmate. He had already decided to make the law his profession, and he entered at once the Dane Law School at Cambridge, from which he received the degree of I.L. B. in 1855.
GEORGE S. WEIRDWELL
The following year he was admitted to the bar at Buffalo ; and in 1858 he opened an office there alone, and for thirty-five years practiced his pro -. fession without a partner. . Such a record is some-
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what unusual in these days of large legal firms, but Judge Wardwell found it possible to build up an ex- tensive practice, and make a place for himself at the Erie-county bar, without the aid of an associate.
Judge Wardwell began early in lite to take part in public affairs. In 1866 and 1867 he filled the office of city attorney, equivalent to what is now known as corporation counsel. In 1869-70 he was city clerk. In 1872 he began what he always considered his greatest work for the city, and one of which he was justly proud. In that year he was appointed a member of the commission having in charge the building of the new City and County Hall, and in the following year he was made chair- man of the commission, serving without compen- sation. This handsome structure is a noteworthy exception to the majority of public buildings, in that it was built within the appropriation, and that no suspicion of dishonesty ever attached to the job. Time has shown how faithfully the work was done, and Judge Wardwell deserves the gratitude of his fellow-citizens for his conscientious oversight and supervision of every detail. No better monument to his public spirit could be raised than this build- ing, in which he took such disinterested pride.
On the organization of the Municipal Court of Buffalo, in July, 1880, Judge Wardwell was appointed one of two judges to preside over its work, for a term of six and a half years. At the expiration of that time the office became elective, and in the fall of 1886 he was chosen by the people to fill the same position for another six years. The duties of this court are arduous in the extreme, but Judge Wardwell performed them faithfully and efficiently. On his retirement from the bench he resumed the practice of law, taking into partnership his son, George T. Wardwell, and Otto W. Volger, under the firm name of Wardwell, Volger & Ward- well. This association lasted until his death.
Judge Wardwell's interest in all movements for the good of the community was always active. He was one of the supporters of the Young Men's Association, now the Buffalo Library, holding vari- ous offices therein, and becoming its president in 1871. He held a professorship in the Buffalo Law School from its organization. In politics he was a strong Republican and a member of the Republican League. He was a warm friend of Grover Cleve- land, Oscar Folsom, and Lyman K. Bass, from the early days when. as young men, they were all begin- ning the practice of law in Buffalo. Judge Ward- well came of a family of earnest Methodists, and joined the Methodist church when a young man. He was a member of the University Club and the
Harvard C'lub ; but he cared little for club life, and was devoted to his home and to his books. His private library, aside from his law books, was excel- lent, and covered a wide range of subjects. He was not content to own books : he read them, and it was no uncommon thing for him to spend the whole night among them.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- George Smith Wardwell was born at Providence, R. I., August 22, 1829 ; graduated from Harvard College in 18533, and from the Dane Law School, Cambridge, in 1855 : was admitted to the bar at Buffalo in 1856, and began . practice there in 1858 ; married Mary E. Toronsend of Buffalo June 9, 1863 ; was city attorney, 1866-67. city clerk, 1860-70, and judge of the Municipal Court, 1880-92 : died at Buffalo October 18, 1895.
Robert hamilton JSest had a useful, picturesque, and honorable career. He followed a single calling, that of the detective, during most of his life. He worked for a single corporation, the American Express Co., over thirty years. He lived in a single city, Buffalo, eighty-one years. His life was remarkable in many respects.
Mr. Best was born in a little town of central Pennsylvania in the year 1809 -the same annus mirabilis that brought into the world Oliver Wendell Holmes, Tennyson, and Gladstone. The records of the Holland Land Company show that William Best, the father of Robert H. Best, purchased land in what is now Black Rock, Buffalo, in 1810. For a short time during the second war with England the Best family were obliged to flee Buffalo for safety ; but with that exception Robert Best lived in the Queen City from the time he was a year old until his death at the age of eighty-two. When he was taken to Buffalo the place was a country town of twelve or thirteen hundred people, and was just discarding its early name of New Amsterdam. He lived to see the city become the eleventh in the United States in point of population, the first in the country in some important respects, and the first in the world in a few particulars.
Mr. Best was one of the fortunate mortals whom nature obviously destines for certain work, and amply equips with the talents and aptitude appropri- ate to such work. He was a born detective. He came into the world with a mind and a tempera- ment nicely calculated to unveil secret crime. Sagacity, clearness of mental vision, subtlety of insight, strength of purpose, fearlessness, personal integrity - these traits of mind and character Mr. Best possessed in generous measure. His genius in unraveling mysteries was apparent at an early age.
MEN OF NEW YORK
and he was made a police detective in Buffalo at the beginning of his active life.
Aside from Mr. Best's public career, of which more anon, the business of his life was his work as a detective for the American Express Co. In this trying and difficult calling he was signally success- ful. He served the company faithfully from the time of its early and uncertain ventures until it had become one of the great corporations of the land. In the course of this service he traveled over all parts of the United States on impor- tant and sometimes dangerous missions, and was concerned with some of the most famous cases in the annals of crime. Beginning in a subordinate capacity, he rose to the chief position in his depart- ment, and was fully trusted by all the high officers of the great corporation. In the later years of his life his health was such that he could not perform per- sonally some of the duties of his posi- tion ; but his counsel was so highly regarded and his previous work so much valued, that the company made him a confidential adviser, and continued his salary as if he were still in active service.
In public life Mr. Best held various offices suited to his special talents. His first position was that of constable on the police force of Buffalo. Later in life he became chief of police of the city, and had an important part in organizing the detective work of the police depart- ment. Up to 1858 the chief of police was elected by the people : but in 1857 an important change in the law was made, in virtue of which the mayor was authorized to appoint the chief of police and subordinate officers. Mr. Best was the first chief of police under the new arrangement. He began his duties, at the head of eleven police con- stables, in 1858, resigning at the end of his term of three years. Soon after this he was elected sheriff of Erie county. Both as chief of police and as sheriff, he served the public with rare fidelity. In political affairs Mr. Best was a lifelong Democrat, and was prominent in the councils of party leaders.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Robert Ham- ilton Best was born at Melrose, Penn .. April 28, 1809 ; married Ann Elizabeth Kortright McGowan of New York city November 16, 1835 ; was chief of police of Buffalo, 1858-60, and sheriff of Erie county, 1862-64 ; was in the detective service of the American
Express Co. at Buffalo from 1856 until his death May 1, 1891.
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f. S. Dease made his name known in the trade of an important staple over a large part of the commercial world. Aside from his prominence in
ROBERT HAMILTON BEST
business, he gained distinction as a musician and an inventor. He was versatile, but not superficial. He was, indeed, so thorough in whatever he under- took that he carried along these diverse interests as though each were his chief concern in life.
Mr. Pease was born in Rochester, near the close of the year 1822, and lived there for fifteen years. He then went to Buffalo, which was already giving promise of its later supremacy among the cities of western New York. Becoming interested in the manufacture of lubricating oils, he determined to make himself an expert in the subject. Buffalo had at that time only sixteen or seventeen thousand people, and its manufactures were neither large nor varied : so that Mr. Pease was obliged to visit eastern
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cities for the experience and working knowledge that he needed. He left Buffalo, therefore, after only a brief stay there. and spent the next ten years in various parts of the East. This long period of business preparation he devoted chiefly to special study of lubricating oils. He investigated exhaus-
F. S. PEASE
tively the chemical properties of the best existing oils, and thoroughly mastered all that was then known about the subject.
Returning to Buffalo in 1848, Mr. Pease estab- lished on lower Main street the nucleus of a business that was destined to expand and ramify until the industrial world was covered. Success so extraor- dinary could hardly have been predicted at the start ; but the foundations of substantial success had been laid in the years before. The original store was small, but additions were required from time to time, and the establishment soon became one of the most important in Buffalo. The Pease lubri- cating oils were brought to the attention of con- sumers over a wide territory, and won their way to
favor wherever introduced. As early as 1862 a prize medal was awarded to the F. S. Pease product at the London Exposition ; and similar awards were afterwards made at Paris, Vienna, Santiago, and Philadelphia. Even in distant Australia prizes were taken at Sidney and at Melbourne. Seven medals were received at the National Exposition of Railroad Appliances held at Chicago in 1883.
During the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, both Mr. Pease and his product acquired fame. All the machinery of the exposition, including nearly three miles of shafting and 20,000 bearings and journals of every kind, was run with Pease's Improved Oils. The exposition lasted six months, and in all that time the Pease oils did their work perfectly, and not a single bearing be- came overheated. Probably this was the most severe test of lubricating oils ever made. Mr. Pease superintended personally his exhibit at the Centennial, and came to be regarded as an authority on the production and manufacture of oils in this country. In compliance with requests from foreign commissions he prepared special reports and samples for many countries, and thereby established a high reputation among scientists inter- ested in the subject.
Mr. Pease was a many-sided man, as has been said, and his genius as an in- ventor was evident in numerous practical appliances. Examples may be found in his raking platform for harvesting mna- chines, cast-iron movable teeth for mow- ers and reapers, compound repeating and printing telegraph instrument, appliance for the testing of oil by electricity, and an aeolian attachment for the guitar. This last invention brings to mind Mr. Pease's love for music. For many years he was the principal tenor in the Buffalo Episcopal churches, and he was also a composer of music.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Francis Stebens Pease was born at Rochester December 22, 1822 ; moved to Buffalo in 1837 ; engaged in chemical studies in castern cities, 1838-48 ; married Lucretia Goodale of Buffalo in 1845, and A. de Etta Blood- good of New York city May 7, 1885 ; established the manufacture of lubricating oils in Buffalo in 1848, and carried on the same until his death November 6, 1890.
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Enos Tal. Barnes, for many years one of the strongest forces in the journalisin of the South- ern Tier, was born in Yates county, New York, in 1836. His father,. Enos Barnes, a prominent physician of central New York, moved his family to Geneva, at the foot of Seneca lake, in 1839, and there our present subject spent his boyhood. After attending the common schools of Geneva until he was seventeen years old, Mr. Barnes resolved to finish his education at the printer's case. This has proved a veritable college for many an eminent writer, from Howells in our own day back to Frank- lin at the dawn of American literature.
Beginning his long career in the newspaper world in the office of the Steuben County Advocate at Bath in 1853, Mr. Barnes rose rapidly in his chosen calling. In 1856, when only twenty years old, he became local editor of the Bath Courier, and eight years later he acquired a half interest in the paper. Remaining in Bath for the next decade, Mr. Barnes changed his base of operations to Wells- ville in 1875, when he assumed the own- ership and management of the Allegany County Reporter. He was now a trained journalist of marked ability, and the results of his new venture were so en- couraging that he established in 1880 the Wellsville Daily Reporter. This enter- prise was likewise successful from the start. These papers were enlarged from time to time, and improved in various ways, and are still owned and published by Mr. Barnes's sons, E. Willard and Charles M. For about a year, in 1886- 87, Mr. Barnes extended his operations to the neighboring state of Ohio, pub- lishing a family paper styled the Colum- bus Telegram. Failing health caused him to dispose of this property, and to give up some other promising plans con- nected with his publications.
In selecting newspaper work as his life occupation Mr. Barnes made no mistake. He was a leader in thought and in ac- tion, and made this leadership effective through his writings for the press. He possessed a forceful style -sometimes much too forceful for the comfort of his political opponents. His contests, how- ever, were against principles, not against men per- sonally : and he never cherished a grudge, nor displayed any kind of meanness in his controver- sies. He was, indeed, incapable of such things,
and was singularly loyal in his friendships. It is worthy of note that he always kept his publica- tions - scrupulously clean and elevating in their moral tone.
Mr. Barnes filled various public positions with distinction. During his residence in Bath he was for four years assistant assessor and deputy collector of United States internal revenue. For somewhat more than a year he held the office of special United States pension examiner, resigning the position in 1883. In 1886 Governor Hill appointed him one of the three commissioners of the state of New York on prison-labor reform. The arduous work of this body fell largely into Mr. Barnes's hands ; and the report of the commission, which is regarded as a valuable public document, was written entirely by him.
ENOS W. BARNES
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Enos Whit- tlesey Barnes was born at Rock Stream, N. Y., March 4, 1836 ; attended Geneva public schools ; went to Bath, N. Y., in 1853 to learn the printer's trade ;
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