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 6
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the location with excellent judgment, recognizing its natural adaptation to fine landscape and archi- tectural effects, he foresaw the ultimate physical beauty of the developed project, and bent his
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energies to the enterprise. He is now comptroller of the Cemetery Association ; and the ideal, which was to him a vivid reality at the start seven years ago, is being rapidly actualized. He is also inter- ested in the Forest Lake cemetery at Washington, D. C. ; in the Druid Ridge cemetery at Baltimore,
JOSEPH H. CHOATE
Md. ; in the Lake Side cemetery at Buffalo ; and in the Lake Side cemetery at Erie, Penn. All of these are organized under the same new system used in the successful development of the Kensico cemetery.
While Mr. Carpenter was carrying on the iron business in New York he lived in Brooklyn, and was a member of Dr. Noah Schenck's church - old St. Ann's on the Heights ; and was for years an active and effective worker in promoting all the undertakings of the church. Mr. Carpenter now lives in New York during the winter, but spends his summers at his country residence near Kensico cemetery, going to the city daily to attend to the details of his steadily enlarging business.
PERSONAL. CHRONOLOGY - Reese Car- renter was born at Mile Square ( nowe Armonk ), Westchester county, N. Y., December 22, 1847; was educated in district schools ; engaged in business as a butcher, 1864-67 ; went to New York city in 1867, and established an iron business ; married Caroline L .. Townsend of Armonk, N. Y., November 2, 1870 ; has been actively con- nected with the management of various cemeteries since 1890.
Joseph ID. Choate, widely re- garded as the leader of the New York bar, has an interesting lineage traceable centuries back from France through Hol- land to England, and thence, in 16443, to Ipswich, Mass. He is the youngest son of Dr. George Choate of Salem, Mass., and was born in that historic town sixty-five years ago. Graduating from Harvard College with the class of 1852, and from the Harvard Law School two years later, he studied in a Boston office for a few months, and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1855. In the fall of that year he visited various west- ern states, and thereafter entered the law office of Scudder & Carter in New York city. In 1856 he entered the office of Butler, Evarts & Southmayd, and was admitted to the New York bar in the same year. Afterward forming a part- nership with W. H. L. Barnes, under the style of Choate & Barnes, he con- tinued that connection until June 1, 1859, when he became a member of the firm of Evarts, Southmayd & Choate.
Ever since then - not far from forty years now - Mr. Choate has remained with this association, the best known, probably, in the Empire State. The firm is now Evarts, Choate & Beaman, with offices at 52 Wall street, near the place where Mr. Choate began his practice as a young man. The senior member is William M. Evarts, most eminent at the bar and in public life ; and Mr. Beaman is a lawyer of great ability. As for Mr. Choate, the statement may safely be made that his fame as a lawyer long ago encompassed the land. His magnificent presence, sound knowl- edge of the law, limitless fund of wit and humor, incessant alertness of mind, and wonderful ease and grace of language -- these and other characteristics give him brilliancy among the legal lights of all ages. Hardly any cause of great importance has been tried
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New York city for a decade in which Mr. Choate has not figured on one side or the other. In jury trials he has been almost irresistibly snc- cessful, and his time has been constantly engaged in such cases. He has also made frequent arguments. on points of law before the highest courts of New York state and the United States Supreme Court at Washington. Before the latter tribunal, in fact, he has achieved many forensic triumphs.
Mr. Choate has never sought nor held public office ; but he has been prominent in the Republi- can party ever since 1856, when he took the stump for Fremont. He was a member of the famous " Committee of Seventy " in the uprising against Tweed, and took a vigorous part in the campaign of 1871 against the public plunderers. During the years 1873-76 he was president of the Union League Club, noted for its powerful aid to the cause of good government ; and in that body of distinguished men he has always been one of the strongest forces working for the welfare of city, state, and nation. In 1894 he was president of the state constitutional convention, and was a great power in that body in the cause of genuine reform. In January, 1897, Mr. Choate was strongly supported for the office of United States senator, and many tributes to his ability and personal worth appeared in the leading newspapers, and in statements from prominent members of his party. He would have made an ideal member of the national senate, and his election would have gone a long way toward restoring the prestige of that body.
In the social world Mr. Choate has exercised a leadership comparable with his professional supremacy. He was president of the New England Society for several years, and of the Harvard Club for a similar period. He still maintains active membership in these and various other clubs, including the Union League, City, University, Metro- politan, Riding, New York Athletic, and Grolier. He belongs also to the Bar Association, the American Society of Natural History, the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art, the Century Association, the Dunlap Society, and the Downtown Association.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Joseph Hodges Choate was born at Salem, Mass., January 24, 1832 : graduated from Harvard College in 1852,
and from the Harvard Law School in 1854; was admitted to the bar in 1856 ; married Caroline O. Sterling in 1861; was president of the New York state constitutional convention in 1894 ; has practiced law in New York city since 1856.
henry Clews, one of the foremost bankers of the country, was born in Staffordshire, England. His father intended to educate him at Cambridge for the ministry of the English Church ; but the boy's natural tendencies were all in a different direc- tion, and the father wisely consented to yield to the inevitable.
Before he was fifteen years old Mr. Clews accom- panied his father, who was extensively engaged in manufacturing for the American market, on a busi- ness trip to the United States ; and the young man
HENRY CLEUS
was so delighted with the practical, enterprising spirit of the country, that he obtained permission to enter mercantile life in New York. He served for several years in the office of Wilson G. Hunt & Co ..
MEN OF NEW YORK-MANHATTAN SECTION
importers of woolen goods, and rose to a position of by newspaper and magazine editors throughout the considerable importance in their office. He was country. desirous, however, of becoming a banker; and in 1858 he embarked on the career in which he has won such signal success, becoming a member of the firm of Stout, Clews & Mason, bankers and brokers. The style was afterwards changed to Livermore, Clews & Co., and the present firm of Henry Clews & Co. was organized in 1877. The members of this firm pledged themselves from the first to avoid all speculative risks ; and the consistent maintenance of this conservative character, and the enormous capital of the concern, have given it for many years a high place in the public confidence. Few bank- ing houses in the United States do a larger or more varied business than this well-known firm.
Mr. Clews's pre-eminence in the financial world is of long standing. At the outbreak of the Civil War he saw that the hope of the nation lay in unity, and gave his support unhesitatingly and actively to the Union cause. Secretary Chase appointed the young banker agent for the sale of the bonds issued to meet the enormous expenses of the war; and Mr. Clews devoted himself with untiring energy to the task of establishing public confidence in government securi- ties, and obtaining a market for them. In 1864 his firm subscribed to the national loan at the rate of from five to ten millions a day : and his successful efforts in this direction, of so vast importance to the country, won for him the grateful esteem of those high in authority. Ever since then, in times of emer- gency, the leaders of the nation have been glad to avail themselves of his sound and accurate judgment, and his exhaustive knowledge of financial conditions.
It is an incontestable fact - though one often dis- regarded - that a man cannot write intelligently on a subject with which he is not familiar ; but it is equally true that many men have not the power to express themselves clearly, be their knowledge ever so great. Mr. Clews possesses both these requisites of a good writer, and he has a reputation as an au- thor that would be accounted considerable if it were not overshadowed by his fame as a banker. His most noteworthy book, entitled " Twenty-eight Years in Wall Street," written in the fluent style that characterizes its author's conversation, and with a minute knowledge of events at the country's financial center that few men possess, is a work of real literary merit and of absorbing interest. Readers of the North American Review, the Forum, and other periodicals of similar standing, are familiar with Mr. Clews's vigorous and forceful treatment of impor- tant public questions ; and his contributions on all subjects in his special line are in constant demand
It is impossible in a brief sketch to give any ac- count of the many financial enterprises and public movements with which Mr. Clews has been identi - fied. He rendered notable public service in helping to organize the famous " Committee of Seventy " that carried on the fight in the interests of good government against the notorious "Tweed ring." As a matter of course, high official positions have been tendered to Mr. Clews, but he has felt obliged to decline them on account of the demands of his business. This fact is the more to be regretted, since many of those most competent to judge agree with the late Duke of Marlborough, who declared, after a visit to this country, that Henry Clews was the brightest, smartest, and quickest man he had ever met. Mr. Clews was one of the founders of the Union League Club, and was for a time a governor of that institution. He served for many years as treasurer of the American Geographical Society. He was the last one of General Grant's friends to call upon him at Mount MeGregor and shake hands with him. At that time, just before Grant's death, Mr. Clews se- cured the consent of the entire Grant family to the project of making New York city the burial place of the general.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Henry Clews was born at Hilderstone, Staffordshire, Eng .; was educated in England; obtained a clerkship in a New York importing house in 1853 ; married Lucy Madison Worthington of Kentucky February 4, 1874 : has car- ried on a banking business in New York city since 1858, establishing the firm of Henry Clews & Co. in 18TT.
Robert Grabam Dun, proprietor of the widely known and extremely useful Mercantile Agency, is descended from excellent Scotch stock. His grandfather, the Rev. James Dun, was a minis- ter of the Free Church of Scotland at Glasgow for twenty years ; and his father, Robert Dun, was like- wise educated for the ministry. Emigrating to America, however, about 1815, Robert Dun gave up the idea of entering the clerical profession, and devoted himself to practical pursuits. He moved from Virginia, where he had originally settled, to Ohio ; and there Robert Graham Dun was born about seventy years ago.
Mr. Dun was not able to secure the advantages of a university training, but he received an excellent general education at the district schools and acad- emy of his native town. Beginning business life when sixteen years old at a salary of two dollars a
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week, he soon developed unusual aptitude for commercial affairs, and rose from this modest begin- ning to a partnership in the concern. He saw clearly, however, that the great prizes of life were not to be found in a small country town ; and in 1850, at the age of twenty-four, he betook himself to New York city in quest of fame and fortune. How well rewarded his efforts were, and in what abundant measure both good repute and material wealth have come to him, may be learned by refer- ence to mercantile history.
Soon after reaching New York Mr. Dun engaged in the business with which his name is now inseparably connected. The Mercantile Agency was then con- ducted by Tappan & Douglass. By the time the senior partner retired in 1854 Mr. Dun had acquired such a mastery of the business, notwithstanding his brief service, that he was admitted to the firm. After five years more of effective work in the firm of B. Douglass & Co., Mr. Dun felt sufficiently sure of his grasp of the situation to buy out Mr. Douglass. He did so, accordingly, and has ever since been the sole responsible head of the Mercantile Agency.
An entertaining volume might easily be written -and one of general public interest - concerning the growth and development of the vast organization known as R. G. Dun & Co. Adam Smith's reference to England as a " nation of shopkeepers" applies to us with equal aptness ; and the enormous expansion of commerce in the United States already effected will doubtless gain fresh impetus with the growth of popu- lation. The vitally important part that credit plays in the complex machinery of - modern commerce, makes a mercantile agency simply indispensable to a busi- ness man. If nothing is more timid .. than a million dollars except two million dollars, it is also true that capital acquires such courage as it has, largely through the agency of credit bureaus like that so ably maintained by Mr. Dun. His firm has branch houses in all the chief cities of the United States, Canada, and Europe, and maintains smaller staffs in every important distributing center of the country. The amount of commercial knowl- edge thus collected, marshaled for convenient access, and imparted to legitimate inquirers, is amazing in extent, minuteness, and general accuracy. Such a
system is of course infinitely perfectible, and the Mercantile Agency has doubtless not yet reached its full limit of service ; but the splendid reputation of the concern among bankers, manufacturers, and business men generally throughout the country shows the high standard of excellence already reached and maintained.
On the personal side it may be said that Mr. Dun is widely respected for his upright character, genial temperament, and engaging social qualities. Ile commonly spends the winter season in New York city, and the summer at his country house at Narragan- sett Pier. He has membership in the Union League, Manhattan, Cascapedia Salmon, and other clubs.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-Robert Gra- ham Dun was born at Chillicothe, O., August , 1826 ; went to New York city in 1850, and entered
ROBERT GRAIFIM DUN
the mercantile-agency business ; married Mary D. Bradford, a descendant of Governor Bradford of Massachusetts : has conducted the mercantile agency of R. C. Dun & Co. since 1850.
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MEN OF NEW YORK -- MANHATTAN SECTION
John Bowdish Dutcher, widely known among the railroad managers of the country, was born in Dutchess county, New York, in 1830. As his name indicates, his family came originally from Holland. This statement applies, however, only to
JOHN BOWDISH DUTCHER
the paternal line, as his mother's people were from Massachusetts.
Brought up as a farmer's boy, Mr. Dutcher has remained a farmer to this day, and all his principal interests have been more or less intimately connected with farm products. He has devoted a good deal of time to the development of his own magnificent farm in Dutchess county, where he has 1600 acres of fine grazing land stocked with thoroughbred cattle and horses. This is located in the town of Pawling, of which he has been a resident since April, 1861, and which he has materially helped to make a delightful place to live in ..
Mr. Dutcher has always been a public-spirited citizen, having begun his public service in 1857, when he was made supervisor of the town of Dover
In 1861-62 he was a member of the assembly, and in 1864-65 he was in the state senate. Like so many other Whigs, he joined the Republican party soon after its organization, and has ever since been a strong advocate of its principles.
For over thirty years Mr. Dutcher has been actively concerned with railroad management. Since 1864 he has been a director of the New York & Harlem railroad ; and he is now a member of the governing board of several other rail- road companies. Since 1865 he has had charge of the department of live-stock transportation of the New York Central & Hudson River railroad.
Mr. Dutcher's rare business judgment has been utilized by various corporations outside the railroad industry ; and he is now a director of the American Safe Deposit Co., and of the Fifth Avenue Bank. He is also president of the National Bank of Pawling, and of the Union Stock Yard & Market Co. of New York. He is a member of the New York Chamber of Commerce and the Produce Exchange, and of several im- portant clubs like the Union League and the St. Nicholas Society. He is now president of the village of Pawling, and is an ex-president of the New York State Agricultural Society and of the Holstein- Friesian Association of America.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- John Bowedish Dutcher was born at Dover, Dutchess county, N. Y., February 13. 1830 ; married Christina Dodge of Par- ling, N. Y., May 20, 1860 ; was member of the New York state assembly, 1861-62, and of the state senate, 1864-65 ; has been a director of the New York & Harlem railroad since 1864, and has had charge of the department of five-stock trans- portation of the New York Central & Hudson River railroad since 1865 ; has lived at Parting, N. Y., since 1861, where he has maintained an extensive farm. 1
Charles 1. Duoson, the son of Isaac N. and Cornelia Bogert-Haight Hudson, was born in New York city in 1852. He received some education in the public schools there, but closed his books at the age of fourteen for the purpose of entering business life. He was fortunate enough to find employment in the Wall-street house of S. M. Mills & Co. Receiving at first only four dollars a week, he rose steadily in the esteem of his employers, until in five
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MEN OF NEW YORK-MANHATTAN SECTION
years he was getting a salary of $1500 yearly. He was intrusted with many important commissions, and became in particular a sort of confidential go- between in the relations of his house with its very important client, Jay Gould. Mr. Gould, indeed, took such a fancy to the trustworthy and active young messenger, that he gave him, in April, 1875, 900 shares of Union Pacific stock. With this sub- stantial nest egg as the foundation of his fortune, Mr. Hudson paid for the seat in the Stock Exchange that he had purchased in Angust, 1874, and estab- lished himself in business on his own account.
Though only twenty-two years old at this time, Mr. Hudson had been acquainting himself with the ways of Wall street for eight years under very effective tutelage ; and he was finely equipped to carry on a brokerage business. On March 1, 1876, he increased his resources by forming a partnership with H. N. Smith, previously a partner of Jay Gould's. C. 1. Hudson & Co. was the style of the new firm, and this title was retained after a reorgani- zation necessitated in 1878 by the retire- ment of Mr. Smith and the accession of Robert R. Lear and T. H. Curtis. This association continued until May, 1881, when a new organization, still under the old style, was effected between Mr. Hud- son, A. H. De Forest, and IT. N. Smith as a special partner. In the fall of 1885 Mr. Smith withdrew from the association ; the two remaining partners continuing as before until 1894, when Mr. Hud- son's brother, Edward J. Hudson, was admitted to the firm. The concern as thus organized is one of the leading houses of Wall street, and transacts a large business during the active invest- ment and speculative seasons. Mr. Hud- son has taken special interest in " Trust " securities - the certificates of the Ameri- can Sugar Refining Co., National Lead Co., and the like -- and was largely in- strumental in having them listed on the Exchange. In a single day his firin has handled as many as 90,000 of these shares.
in the organization of the Fourteenth Street Bank, New York city, and served on its board of directors for several years thereafter. He is a member of the Manhattan Club, and of several other exclusive met- ropolitan organizations. He has a beautiful summer residence in the Thousand Islands, and is a director of the Thousand Islands Club, which he helped to organize.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Charles 1. Hudson was born at New York city August 20, 1852 ; attended public schools ; was a clerk for a firm of Wall-street brokers, 1866-75 ; married Sara E. Kierstede of Scranton, Penn., June 8, 1876 ; was gor- ernor of the New York Stock Exchange in 1891 and in 1896 ; has carried on a stock-brokerage business in New York since 1875.
CHARLES 1. HUDSON
Mr. Hudson's standing among his fellow-members of the Exchange is suf- ficiently attested in the circumstance that in May, Morton Prentiss Otis, the famous manu- facturer of elevators, was born in Halifax, Vermont, about fifty-seven years ago. He comes from excel- lent New England stock, tracing his descent through 1891, he was elected governor of that body on an independent ticket, and received over two thirds of the entire vote cast. He was again elected on the independent ticket in 1896. In ISSS he took part . many generations to John Otis, who left his home
MEN OF NEW YORK-MANHATTAN SECTION
in Hingham, England, for Massachusetts, a few years after the Pilgrim settlement.
After attending school in various places -- Albany, N. Y., Hudson, N. J., and Yonkers, N. Y .- because of frequent changes of residence on the part of his family, Mr. Otis began at the age of eighteen the
tering the small elevator factory which had been es- tablished by his father in 1855, he learned there all that was then known about the construction of ele- vators. His father died in 1861, and Norton, with his brother Charles, took charge of the business. Their combined capital was hardly 82000, their plant was small and inconvenient, and the outbreak of the Civil War was still another adverse influence. They succeeded, however, in devising and patenting certain appliances promoting the safety of passenger elevators ; and with this advantage over competitors their business gradually gained momentum. Begin- ning with annual sales of only $15,000, their opera- tions continually expanded until their name came to
suggest elevators as soon as it was mentioned any- where.
The business was incorporated soon after its organization, Norton P. Otis becoming treasurer of the new concern ; and since 1890, when Charles R. Otis retired, Norton has been president. Otis Brothers & Co. are the foremost build- ers of passenger and freight elevators in the world. Their plant in Yonkers cov- ers several acres of ground. and employs about 700 men. They have built some of the largest elevators anywhere used, including three at Weehawken, N. J., each conveying 135 people at one time from the North-river ferry landing to the top of the Palisades ; twelve, of 12,000 Ibs. capacity each, at Glasgow, Scotland. for raising and lowering loaded trucks together with the teams, at the Glas- gow harbor tunnel : several in the Eiffel tower at Paris : one in . the Catskill mountains that drags a train up an in- cline 7000 feet long in ten minutes, thereby saving passengers a journey of four hours by stage ; and one to the top of Prospect mountain, at Lake George. Elevators moved by steam came into use in 1866, and hydraulic apparatus was introduced about ten years later. It is said that Otis Brothers & Co. manufac- tured three fourths of the passenger ele- vators now used in New York city. Their elevators are also to be found in every city in America, in all the large cities of Europe, and in South America and Australia.
NORTON PRENTISS OFIS Mr. Otis has made his home in Yonkers for many years, where he is naturally one of the foremost citizens. He was elected work to which his whole life has Been devoted. En- mayor of Yonkers in 1880, and a member of the New York legislature in 1883. He is a member of the Engineers' and Fulton clubs, and of the Metro- politan Museum of Art.
PERSONAL. CHRONOLOGY-Norton Pren- tiss Otis was born at Halifax, Ft., March 18, 1840 : attended school in various places in New York and New Jersey : learned the business of manufacturing elevators in his father's factory, 1858-51 : took charge of the business with his brother in 1861 ; married Hissie A. Fans of York, Penn .. December 25, 1877 ; was elected mayor of Yonkers, N. Y., in 1880 : was a mem- ber of the New York legislature in 1884 : has been president of the corporation of Otis Brothers & Co. Yonkers, since 1890.
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