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 7
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MEN OF NEW YORK-ALINHATTAN SECTION
Oswald Ottendorfer was born at Zwittan, a Moravian village on the Bohemian border, in Feb- rnary, 1826. His father was a prosperous manufac- turer, and gave Oswald an excellent education. After studying at the gymnasium in the usual German way, he attended the University of Vienna for a year, specializing his work on the subject of juris- prudence. The University of Prague received him next, and gave him a knowledge of the Czech lan- guage and of the law. Returning to Vienna in 1848, he took a prominent part in the movement among the youth of Austria to create an uprising of the people in behalf of their liberties. At the ontbreak of the Schleswig-Holstein war he sought military ex- perience, and volunteered his services against the army of Denmark. After a brief campaign he re- turned to Vienna, where events were moving mapidly. Becoming again one of the leading spirits among the revolutionists, he rendered valuable service to the patriot cause in the student uprisings of October, 1848. Successful at first, the students finally suffered serious reverses ; and many of them were shot or imprisoned. After hiding three days in a chimney, young Ottendorfer fled to Saxony, only to re- new the contest in Prague and elsewhere as opportunity offered. After rescuing Steck, imprisoned in the castle of Bruchsal, he escaped to Switzerland. Planning to begin life anew in Vienna after serving the brief imprisonment that he supposed would constitute his punish- ment, he was dissuaded from this project by friends who predicted certain death if he should give himself up to the authorities. Finally concluding, there- fore, that the safer course would be to leave the continent, he made his way through Poland with the aid of friends, and embarked for New York city.
remarkable aptitude for journalism, she conducted the paper with conspicuous success until 1859, when she and her able co-worker were happily married: Since then Mr. Ottendorfer has been the chief force in determining the destinies of the great German daily. His charming and exceptionally competent consort assisted him greatly until a short time before her death in April, 1884. She made many public bequests, besides leaving 830,000 to be distributed among the employees of the Staats Zeitung.
Mr. Ottendorfer has long been regarded as one of the most influential men of the metropolis. He has been prominent in politics, favoring a sound cur- reney, civil-service reform, and a liberalized tariff. He served one year as an alderman of New York, and frequently declined to run for more important offices. He was one of the famous " Committee of
من حمص
Landing there in 1850, he found him- self seriously handicapped by utter igno- rance of the English tongue -- a draw- back only slightly mitigated by his familiarity with French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and several Slav languages. After eking out a bare livelihood for some time, he obtained a place in the OSWALD OTTENDORFER countingroom of the Staats Zeitung, then owned by Jacob Uhl. Upon the death of the latter gentleman the management of the paper devolved upon his talented and sagacious widow. With the help of Mr. Ottendorfer, who had developed a hattan, City, Century, Reform, and other clubs.
Seventy " at the time of the Tweed exposure. Like Mrs. Ottendorfer, he has distinguished himself by many liberal benefactions. He belongs to the Man-
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MEN OF NEW YORK -MANHATTAN SECTION
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Oswald Ot- tendorfer was born at Zittau, Moravia, February 26, 1826 ; was educated in Austrian schools and uni- versities ; came to the United States in 1850, and en- tered the service of the " Staats Zeitung," New York, soon thereafter ; married Mrs. Jacob Uht of New York
JAMES FARNSWORTH PIERCE
city in 1859 ; has been editor of the " Staats Zeitung" since 1859.
James Farnsworth Dicree is descended from an old New England family that has given to the country many distinguished men and faithful servants, including President Franklin Pierce. Mr. Pierce's father was Dr. Caleb Pierce, a prominent physician, who came from New Hampshire and settled in St. Lawrence county, New York, in the early part of the century.
There Mr. Pierce was born in 1830, and there he received his general and professional education. After studying in common schools and under a private tutor for a time, he entered St. Lawrence
Academy, where he fitted himself for the sophomore class at Yale College. He was compelled by ill health, however, to give up his plans for a college course. Ile was looking forward to the legal pro- fession as his life-work, and after reading law for several months in Potsdam, N. Y., he went to Troy, to study in the office of William A. Beach. In May, 1851, he was admitted to the bar at Albany. In the following year, deeming it desirable to seek a milder climate, he moved to St. Augus- tine, Fla., and associated himself with Judge Isaac H. Bronson in the practice of his profession. This lasted for three years, and he then returned North, and established himself in Canton, the county seat of St. Lawrence county. He soon became one of the most prominent at- torneys in that part of the state, and for ten years carried on a successful law practice there.
St. Lawrence county offered but a limited field for professional achieve- ment, and in 1866 Mr. Pierce moved to Brooklyn and began practice in the metropolis. Forming a partnership with Robert Sewell, he continued his asso- ciation with this able member of the New York bar for twenty-five years. After a time George P. Sheldon was admitted to the firm, and for many years Sewell, Pierce & Sheldon was a prominent term in legal circles. Mr. Pierce's talents as a lawyer now had full scope, and he won a large measure of success at a keenly competitive bar.
Mr. Pierce had taken considerable in- terest in public affairs before leaving St. Lawrence county, and had held an im- portant county office there. This interest con- tinued after his removal to Brooklyn, and his party there was not slow to avail itself of his ser- vices. In 1867 he became the Democratic can- didate for state senator in the 2d senatorial dis- trict, and was elected by a majority of nearly 4000, though the district had for years been Repub- lican. From the first he took a prominent part in the deliberations of his associates, and served on important committees ; and his re-election for a second term followed in due time. For some years thereafter he devoted himself to his private affairs, but in 1877 he was again his party's candidate for the senate, and was again elected. This second period of service was followed by an additional four
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years in 1886-89, and Mr. Pierce has therefore the unusual record of ten years' membership in the highest legislative body of the state. During this time he served on the important committees on insurance, judiciary, railroads, and commerce and navigation, as well as on the special committee appointel to investigate the Broadway Street Rail- way franchise.
Mr. Pierce's greatest public service, however, is his able administration of the insurance department of the state for six years. Governor Hill appointed him superintendent of this department in February, 1891, and the nomination was promptly confirmed by the senate. At the expiration of his first term of three years he was reappointed by Governor Flower ; and the Republican senate, on motion of one of the most prominent members of that party, unani- mously confirmed the governor's action. It was felt that the department could not be in abler or more trustworthy hands. A leading Brooklyn paper, com- menting on the matter, said : "The state superintendency of insurance is the easiest office in which to be bad, and per- haps the hardest one in which to be good, that there is in the state. Mr. Pierce, if he ever had any difficulty in being good in it, has overcome that diffi- culty. He has evidently reduced honest administration of the trust to a habit, and the fact of the habit has won the confidence of the entire commonwealth."
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- James Farnsworth Pierce was born at Madrid, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., April 8, 1830 ; was educated at St. Lawo- rence Academy, Potsdam, N. Y. ; was ad- mitted to the bar in 1851 ; practiced his profession in St. Augustine, Fla., 1852- 55 ; married Anna Maria Redington of Waddington, N. Y., in June, 1856 ; prac- ticed laro in Canton, N. Y., 1856-66 : was state senator, 1868-11, 1878-79, and 1886-89 ; was state superintendent of in- surance, 1891-97 ; has practiced law in New York city since 1866.
3ames Robertson Diteber, one of the most successful insurance man- agers of the country, was born at Wind- ham, N. Y., in the Catskill mountains, somewhat more than fifty years ago. fle is of mixed English and Scotch descent, his father having been Dorlon HI. Pitcher, a successful tanner, and his mother
Philira Robertson. After taking a course of study at Whitestone Seminary, Mr. Pitcher began active life at the age of eighteen as a clerk, bookkeeper, and office manager for the firm in which his father's estate was interested. As an outside vocation he took up the business of insurance, and conducted agencies for various life, fire, and accident com- panies. Selling his interest in the tannery at the age of twenty-one, he proceeded to New York, and became a salesman in the great house of H. B. Claflin & Co. He remained there two years, and then entered the wholesale clothing business, in which he continued for thirteen years. He was successful in this business ; but his early interest in the subject of insurance had never abated, and he finally determined to carry out his long cherished plan of organizing an insurance company of his own.
JAMES ROBERTSON PITCHER
Founding, accordingly, in 1877, the United States Mutual Accident Association, in accordance with principles that seemed to him sounder and `more equitable than those previously followed by
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accident companies, he ultimately built up a magnifi- cent insurance business. £ The humble beginning of the enterprise, however, may be understood from the statement that Mr. Pitcher himself at first did all the clerical work involved in the conduct of the business. Ile may be said to have originated mutual accident insurance. In 1892 he sold out his interest in the business for more than $1,000,000 in cash.
Ardently fond of flowers, Mr. Pitcher several years ago built extensive greenhouses at Short Hills, N. J., where he owns 700 acres of land. He found that the general public was interested in his cultivation of orchids, and he finally made his greenhouses serve commercial ends through the firm of Pitcher & Manda. He now has fifty such houses filled with orchids and choice exotic plants. Hle is engaged in numerous other business under- takings. He was one of the incorporators and first directors of the Mercantile Benefit Association. the Lawyers' Surety Co., and the Mercantile ('redit & Guaranty Co. He has been treasurer of the National Mutual Building & Loan Association, New York city, and president of the New Jersey Floricultural Society. Mr. Pitcher is a man of cordial address, and is a welcome visitor at the Manhattan, Players,' Tuxedo, and other clubs.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY-James Rob- ertson Pitcher was born at Windham, N. Y., March 5, 1845 ; was educated at Whitestone Seminary ; wenas clerk in a tannery, 1863-66, and in a New York house, 1866-68 ; conducted a clothing business in New York, 1868-TT : married Helen K. Street of New York September 1, 1870 ; organised the United States Mutual Accident Association in 1877, and con- ducted the same until 1893 : has carried on extensive greenhouses at Short Hills, V. J., since 1899 ; is note president of the Petrolia Manufacturing Co. of New York, and is engaged in many other business enter- prises.
henry Bradley Plant was born in Bran- ford, Conn., during Monroe's first administration. He has an interesting lineage, running back in this country to the year 1636. Mr. Plant's great-grand- father on the paternal side served in Washington's army, and was one of the guard of Major Andre on the occasion of that unfortunate man's execution. Another ancestor was an officer in the Revolution.
After a brief education in the common schools of Connecticut and from private tutors, Mr. Plant be- gan active life in the calling with which he has ever since been closely connected - the transportation industry. Entering the service of the New Haven
Steamboat Co. in 1837, he was soon placed in charge of the express business upon the steamboats between New York and New Haven. On the com- plefion of the railroad between these two cities, he took charge of the express business thus carried on. When the Adams Express Co. was organized, Mr. Plant went South in the service of the corporation. In the fall of 1834 he was appointed superintendent of the southern division of the company, with head- quarters at Angusta, Ga., and continued in that office until 1861. In that year he organized the Southern Express Co., and has since been president thereof continuously. In 1867 he became president of the Texas Express Co., and has ever since retained the position.
Many people commonly think of Mr. Plant in connection with Florida, and are not familiar with his earlier career summarized above. He first visited the Everglade State in 1854, that his invalid wife might test the health-giving qualities of the climate. Her health was prolonged for years by frequent visits there, and Mr. Plant came to see clearly the possibilities of the country. It was not until 1879, however, that he found convenient op- portunity to carry out his plans. After purchasing. with other investors, the Atlantic & Gulf railroad of Georgia, and reorganizing the company as the Savannah, Florida & Western, he shortened the route to Florida by building a line from Way Cross, Ga., to Jacksonville. In 1880 he purchased, with associates, the Savannah & Charleston railroad, now called the Charleston & Savannah railway, and greatly improved the property. Mr. Plant's plans were far-reaching ; and in order to carry them out with unity of management and persistent progress. he obtained in 1882 from the legislature of Con- necticut a charter incorporating the Plant Invest- ment C'o. Ile has been president of the company from the beginning. Several powerful capitalists were associated with him in the venture, and its suc- cess was long ago assured. Various lines of railway have been bought from time to time : connecting links have been built : and an extensive and well- conceived system of lines now gridirons the south- eastern corner of the United States, and serves effectively an increasingly important section of the country. Supplementing the railway properties, and operating in harmony with them, are severa! steamship lines. The most important of these is the line from l'ort Tampa, Fla., to Key West and Havana, which has been in operation since 1886. and has become an important artery of commerce. The familiar symbol of the Plant steamers may also be seen in New England waters every summer, as
MEY OF NEW YORK-ALINILITTIN SECTION
service is regularly maintained between Boston and Halifax by an offshoot of the Plant company.
Mr. Plant is a fine type of the vigorous, resource- ful, and indomitable Americans who have opened up the country, and fructified the earth in number- less ways. It is not too much to say that Florida and adjacent parts of the South are altogether different to-day in many aspects from what they would be if Henry Bradley Plant had not existed, or had chosen to use his powers in some other part of the land. The stamp of his organizing genins will long remain on the map of the southern states, and in the commercial life of their people.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY- Henry Brad- ler Plant was born at Branford, Conn., October 27, 1819 ; was educated in common schools and by private tutors ; was in the employ of various express companies, 18.37-61 ; married, on September 25, 1843, Ellen Elizabeth Blackstone of Bran- ford, Conn., a direct descendant of Thomas Blackstone, who settled in Boston about 1630 ; after her death in 1861, married Margaret Josephine Loughman of New York city in 1873 ; organized the Southern Express Co. in 1861, and has since been president thereof : since 1882 has been president of the Plant Investment Co., de- Poled to railroad and other operations in Florida and elsewhere.
Ulbitelaw Reid, whose name stands for all that is best in modern journalism, and irresistibly calls to mind the New York Tribune, was born near Xenia, Ohio, about sixty years ago. His grandfather, one of the founders of Xenia, was a Scottish Covenanter ; and his mother also traced her descent from a famous line of Highland chieftains. Mr. Reid's early education was obtained at his uncle's academy in Xenia, where he prepared for Miami ( O. ) University. He graduated thence with the scientific honors of his class in 1856.
That was the memorable year which witnessed the birth of the Republican party as a national force, and in which General Frémont ran for the presidency on the new ticket. Mr. Reid had taken up teaching as his first vocation ; but his mind was already set upon larger matters, and he re- mained only a year in the teacher's chair. He was greatly interested in the political questions of the day, making speeches in behalf of Fremont in the
campaign of 1856 : and, naturally enough, he entered the journalistic world. Becoming editor and pro- prietor of the Xenia News in 1857, when only twenty years old, he conducted the paper for several years with a fair measure of success. Regarded in a broad way, and with the perspective of future years, the little country paper was a most important factor in Mr. Reid's career. It proved an admira- ble training in journalism, and disclosed to himself and to others his remarkable aptitude for newspaper work.
In the momentous campaign of 1860 Mr. Reid gained additional prestige by his vigorous editorial articles in support of the Republican cause, and by political speeches. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was sent to the field by the Cincinnati Gazette as a correspondent : and his letters to that
HENRY BRADLEY PI. INT
journal, signed " Agate," attracted national notice by their brilliancy of style and accurate delineation of events. He was at the front in the Virginia cam- paigns of MeClellan and Rosecrans, wrote a graphic
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account of Grant's capture of Fort Donelson, and achieved a remarkable journalistic feat in writing, under fire, a complete and accurate description of the battle of Pittsburg Landing. He was present at the siege of Corinth, at Gettysburg, and other mem- orable battles.
WWWTRILLY REID
After the close of the war Mr. Reid engaged in cot- ton planting in Louisiana for a few months, record- ing his observations of the South in a volume enti- tled "After the War" (Cincinnati, 1866). Re- turning to Ohio. he spent two years in writing "Ohio in the War," published in two volumes in 1868, and containing not only a complete history of the state throughout the war, but also elaborate biographies of most of the leading generals of the Union army. The work is regarded as altogether the best of its class.
Mr. Reid's acquaintance with Horace Greeley, the founder and venerable editor of the New York Tribune, began during the Civil War, when Mr. Greeley sought unsuccessfully to obtain the services
of the brilliant young journalist. In 1868, how- ever, Mr. Reid decided to leave the Cincinnati Gazette, of which he had become editor, and con- nect himself with the Tribune. At f first he was merely an editorial writer, but his authority was soon broadened, and the position of managing edi- tor was assigned to him. Upon the death of Mr. Greeley in November, 1872, Mr. Reid succeeded him as editor and chief owner of the paper. The Tribune had a great name at that time, but its financial condition was by no means correspondingly secure. Under the vig- orous management of Mr. Reid the paper has sustained the prestige of its best days as one of the great newspapers of the world, and has attained a financial position that would have seemed altogether impossible to the former owners of the property.
Mr. Reid has made the Tribune his chief interest in life. The mission to Germany was tendered to him by Pres- ident Hayes, and afterward by President Garfield ; but in both cases he pre- ferred to remain in private life. In 1878, however, he accepted the office of regent of the University of the State of New York, to which he was chosen for life by the "New York legislature. In the spring of 1889 he was appointed min . ister to France by President Harrison, and resided at the French capital for the next three years. On the completion of the treaties that he had been instructed to negotiate, he resigned and returned home to resume his editorial work. In 1892 he received the Republican nomination for the office of vice president of the United States on the ticket with Benjamin Harri-
son. In 1897 he was appointed special envoy of the United States to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria.
PERSONAL CHRONOLOGY - Whitehat Reid was born near Kenia, O., October 27, 1837 ; graduated from Miami ( O.) University in 1856 : taught school in 1857 : was connected with the Xenia " News." ant the Cincinnati " Gazette," 1857-68, serving as war correspon.lent for the latter paper ; mar- ried Elisabeth Mills, daughter of D. O. Mills of Newe York city, April 26, 1881 ; was United States minister to France, 1889-92 ; has been regent of the Univer- sity of the State of New York since 1878 : has been con- nected with the New York " Tribune" since 1868. and has been its editor and chief owner since 1872.
MMEN OF NEW YORK-MANHATTAN SECTION
JF. J6. Thurber has been identified with the grocery business ever since he left the rocky dairy farm in Delaware county, New York, where he was born, and went to New York city, a lad of fourteen years. Beginning in the humble capacity natural to a young and inexperienced country boy, he advanced rapidly from one post to another, and in the course of a dozen years had attained a position of impor- tance in the commercial world.
Mr. Thurber has long devoted special attention to the question of transportation ; and has done much to establish uniform and stable rates, and to abolish unjust discriminations tending to enrich the few at the expense of the many. With this end in view he organized in 1884 the Anti-Monopoly League of the State of New York, which, after a long fight, secured the appointment of a state rail- road commission, and was largely instru- mental in obtaining the passage, in 1887. of the interstate-commerce law, creating a national commission for the supervision of the transportation interests of the country. Mr. Thurber has always been a firm friend of the Erie canal, and has voiced its interests in the commercial bodies of the state for many years. Ile has been chairman of the committee on railroad transportation of the New York Board of Trade and Transportation for many years ; and he is a member of the committee on internal trade and im- provements of the New York Chamber of Commerce.
Believing with Emerson that "a fool- ish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds," Mr. Thurber has not been afraid to change his opinions on industrial and social problems as the facts and condi- tions upon which those opinions were based have altered. His guiding prin- ciple has always been to secure the rights of the many against the privileges of the few ; but he has been willing to look on both sides of a question, and has tried to act with judicial impartiality. In his view society, unless it purposes to war against progress and civilization, must abandon the prohibition of industrial concentration and combinations. Mod- ern conditions of life demand an abund- ance of commodities at the smallest practicable cost, and experience shows that this demand can be satis- fied only by the employment of capital on the most. extensive scale. The problem that confronts the
student of economics is the restriction of competi- tion to such an extent that the producer shall not suffer, and the supervision of industrial combinations so that the consumer shall receive the benefits of such co-operation without the disadvantages attend- ing its abuse.
Mr. Thurber takes an active interest in all move- ments affecting trade and commerce, both at home and abroad. He is president of the United States Export Association, an organization designed to extend the market for American products in foreign lands. He is also president of the American Grocer Publishing Co., that issues the trade paper called the American Grocer. He is one of the commissioners and the secretary of the new East-river bridge, which is designed to do for the eastern district of Brooklyn what the present bridge has done for the western
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