USA > Pennsylvania > A biographical album of prominent Pennsylvanians, v. 3 > Part 13
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In politics Mr. Brooke is a Republican, and whilst, with the single exception of the District Attorneyship above noted, he has refused to consent to the use of his name for public office, whether appointive or elective, he takes an active, personal interest in municipal, state and national affairs. In religion he has made no public profession, but with his family is an attendant of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
His living children are Estelle Hunter, Hugh Jones, Florence and Francis Mark, Jr. One child, Wayne Vogdes, died in 1882. Mrs. Brooke died Novem- ber 25, 1888.
C. R. D.
F GUTEKUNST.
PHILA.
JAMES B. CANBY.
JAMES BENJAMIN CANBY.
T CHE Commercial Exchange of Philadelphia has from its inception been a potent factor in the commercial affairs of that city. It not only furnishes, through its open board, records of the market for grain and produce, which all merchants use in transmitting quotations to their consigners and correspondents, but it exerts a beneficent influence in checking litigation by providing an arbi- tration board to settle all disputes between members and a committee that has power to establish grades of grain. Previous to 1854 no such organization ex- isted. In January of that year a few of the principal dealers in grain met at the residence of one of their number to discuss the advisability of establishing a corn exchange, and at a general meeting of the trade held at the old Merchants' Exchange a few days afterward preliminary steps were taken to effect a perma- nent organization. For several years it was known as the Corn Exchange, and a regiment which it equipped and sent to the front during the late civil war achieved distinction as the Corn Exchange Regiment.
The Commercial Exchange is now the largest trade organization in Philadel- phia. Any respectable firm is eligible to membership; but none are admitted until after they have passed a searching scrutiny as to their standing and integ- rity. To be president of such an organization is therefore necessarily a mark of honor which most merchants would highly appreciate.
Probably the youngest man who was ever elected President of the Commer- cial Exchange was JAMES B. CANBY, of the firm of Warr & Canby. He was born September 14, 1848, at Betterton, Kent county, Md., on a plantation over- looking the headwaters of Chesapeake bay, where his mother's family, the Prices, had long been settled, having come from Wales and purchased a large tract of land in that colony. The Canby family has been a prominent one in Delaware for nearly two centuries. The original Canbys came from Thorn, Yorkshire, Eng., where the family had occupied estates for several centuries, and settled in Delaware in 1680. In 1722 the Canbys established the celebrated Brandywine Flour and Cornmeal Mills, and for over a hundred years were the largest merchant millers in the United States. Young Canby, after receiving the best education that the private schools of Wilmington afforded, entered these mills at the age of seventeen, and spent several years in acquiring a practical knowledge of the grain and flour trade. In 1873 he accepted a position as sales- man in the well-known house of Alex. G. Cattell & Co., 27 North Water street, Philadelphia, and four years subsequently succeeded them in business, having formed a copartnership with J. P. Warr, under the firm-name of Warr & Canby. This firm, having been made the Philadelphia agents of the old Brandywine Mills, rapidly became one of the leading flour and grain houses of the city. "It holds its own," says the Commercial List, the organ of the trade, "in the
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JAMES B. CANBY.
front rank of the great commercial houses of Philadelphia, but does not make a noise about it. Its credit is of the best, its resources ample, its methods of busi- ness systematic and successful, and its customers among the most desirable in the trade."
Like most merchants of high standing, Mr. Canby became a member of the Commercial Exchange, where his popularity and abilities were soon recognized by his having been elected a Director, then Vice-President, and, in 1887, President of that body. During his administration the Constitutional Celebration was held in Philadelphia, and in accordance with its custom of extending hospitality to distinguished strangers, the Commercial Exchange invited President Cleve- land and those members of his Cabinet who were then with him in Philadelphia to a grand reception, and Mr. Canby had the honor of presenting to his fellow- members and four thousand business men of the city the President of the United States. His administration was in all respects highly successful. His good sense smoothed over many rough places in the management of the Exchange, and his abilities added much to its prosperity and influence.
He married, in 1880, Clara Greenough Platt, daughter of Franklin Platt, Esq., and has three children-a girl and two boys.
,
F JUTEKUNST
FRILA
ANTONY A. CLAY.
ANTONY ALEXANDER CLAY.
A MONG the numerous Pennsylvanians who have won distinction for themselves and honor for their State there are none more deserving of mention than CAPTAIN A. A. CLAY, of Upland, Elk county, now serving his second term in the House of Representatives of the Pennsylvania Legislature. He was born, Feb- ruary 17, 1839, in Vienna, Austria, where his father, Hon. John Randolph Clay, was at that time.serving as Secretary of the American Legation.
Captain Clay is descended from a distinguished ancestry. His grandfather, Hon. Joseph Clay, represented the city of Philadelphia in the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth Congresses of the United States, covering the period from 1803 to 1809. He died in Philadelphia in 1811. He was a Democrat and an intimate friend of the celebrated John Randolph, of Roanoke, Va., after whom his son, John Ran- dolph Clay, the father of Captain Clay, was called. Joseph Clay married Mary Ashmead, daughter of Captain John Ashmead, who commanded an American ship-of-war during the struggle for independence.
John Randolph Clay was born in Philadelphia in 1808. Upon reaching the proper age he began the study of law in Virginia with the Hon. John Randolph, and was admitted to practice there in 1829. In 1830 President Andrew Jackson appointed him Secretary of Legation to the American Mission at St. Petersburg, Russia, John Randolph having been at the same time appointed United States Minister to that country. Mr. Randolph soon returned home, leaving Mr. Clay in charge of the Legation, acting as Charge d' Affaires. When Minister Ran- dolph's successor was appointed Mr. Clay resumed his former position as Sec- retary to the Legation, and remained there in that capacity until 1837, when he was transferred to the Austrian Court at Vienna, as Secretary of the American Legation there. He remained at Vienna until 1845, when he was returned to his former post at St. Petersburg, Russia, remaining there two years. During part of this time, James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, afterwards President of the United States, was the American Minister at the Court of the Czar.
In 1847 Mr. Clay was appointed Charge d' Affaires to Peru, and subsequently was made Minister to that country. He remained there until December, 1860. Thus it will be seen that he served his country in the diplomatic corps continu- ously for thirty years-a longer period than was ever served by any other American diplomat, except Mr. Fay. During this period he was instrumental in doing much towards the opening of the Amazon river to commerce, and nego- tiated several important treaties between the United States and the countries to which he was accredited. He was the intimate friend of a great many prominent statesmen and diplomats of Europe, and ranked among the most accomplished and faithful men in that branch of the public service of his country. In 1834 he married Miss Gibbs, an English lady, at St. Petersburg, who died in 1840, leaving him with two children-A. A. Clay and an elder brother. Two years later Mr.
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Clay obtained leave of absence and brought his sons to Philadelphia, where they were educated. In 1845 Mr. Clay was married a second time, to Miss Crawfurd, a Scotch lady, who is still living, and by whom he had three children, one of whom, a son, survives.
At the breaking out of the war of the rebellion, in 1861, A. A. Clay was engaged in the lumber business in Sullivan county, Pennsylvania. He at once repaired to Philadelphia to tender his services to the government, and was appointed Quartermaster, with the rank of Captain, on the staff of General Pleasanton in the organization of the Philadelphia Home Guard during the municipal administration of Mayor Henry. Though this service was designed for purely local defence, the zeal and patriotism of those engaged in it led them to go beyond the limits of the State, and Captain Clay was stationed for a time at Fort Delaware. He continued in the Home Guard service until he was appointed First Lieutenant of Company K, Fifty-eighth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, commanded by Col. John Richter Jones, who was his uncle by mar- riage, and who had served as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadel- phia. Colonel Jones was killed in action near Newbern, N. C., in May, 1863.
The men composing the Fifty-eighth Regiment were mostly recruited from the sturdy and fearless sons of the north-western counties of Pennsylvania, and no better material was enlisted in the army for the defence of the Union. Cap- tain Clay remained with the regiment all through the war, and participated in the several battles in which it was engaged. At the battle of Cold Harbor the regiment won special mention for courage and hazardous and efficient work. In several other actions it was similarly complimented, and among the officers none were more active and conspicuous for bravery than Captain Clay. In the storming of Fort Harrison, near Richmond, the regiment lost five-sevenths of its officers present in killed and wounded. It was here that Col. Cecil Clay, who then commanded the regiment, planted the first colors on the fort, at which time he was severely wounded and lost his right arm. Colonel Clay is a cousin of Captain Clay. He was subsequently brevetted Brigadier-General for gallantry, and is now the Chief Clerk of the Department of Justice at Washington, D. C., to which post he was appointed by the Hon. Benjamin Harris Brewster, the Attorney-General during the administration of President Arthur. General Clay has held this position ever since, and has rendered great service to the depart- ment by establishing order and method in the management of its details.
After the termination of hostilities Captain Clay was detailed to act as Assistant Adjutant-General and Provost Marshal, with the rank of Captain, with head- quarters at Staunton, Va. He served in this capacity, performing the arduous executive duties of the office with entire satisfaction to the government, until the autumn of 1865, when he was honorably mustered out of service and returned to Philadelphia. He is among the earliest members of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, having joined the order in 1865 ; his insignia being No. 150.
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ANTONY A. CLAY.
In 1866 Captain Clay removed to Elk county, where he engaged in agricultural pursuits-an occupation which he has continued ever since with pleasure and profit. Averse to engaging in political contests, though always an ardent Democrat, he refrained from aspiring to office until 1886, when he became a candidate for a seat in the lower house of the Legislature of the State. He was nominated by acclamation, and elected by the largest majority ever given to a candidate in the county, having received nineteen hundred and forty-two votes against eight hundred and forty-one cast for his opponent. He was unanimously renominated in 1888, and re-elected by seven hundred and forty-six majority, while the national ticket of his party at the same election had only five hundred and two majority.
In the Legislature Captain Clay has made an enviable record. Not given to speech-making, he is, nevertheless, one of the most industrious members and among the most successful in procuring needful legislation. By skilful manage- ment he has been enabled to carry every bill introduced by him, and at the close of his first term he had the reputation of being one of the most prudent and sagacious legislators in the house. He enjoyed the respect and confidence of political associates and opponents alike, and invariably found his colleagues ready and willing to aid him in the furtherance of his legislative plans.
After his re-election to the Assembly a large number of his old fellow-members of Democratic faith, who had also been returned, looked to Captain Clay as a suitable person upon whom to confer the honorary nomination of the Democratic caucus for the Speakership. This distinction in the minority party is merely a testimony of confidence reposed in the person upon whom it is conferred. Captain Clay received numerous letters urging him to become an aspirant for the nomination, but to each he replied in courteous but emphatic terms declining. He had made up his mind to whom the compliment should go, and he took the earliest opportunity to give public expression to his opinion in a newspaper interview. His advice was subsequently followed, and Hon. S. M. Wherry was placed in nomination by the unanimous vote of the caucus.
But modesty, which prevented him from aspiring to the principal honor in the gift of his party confrères, could not prevent him from receiving high consideration in the assignment on committees. He was appointed to service on those of Cor- porations, Appropriations, Ways and Means, Military, Centennial Affairs and Geological Survey. The labor of the Committee on Appropriations has been unusually exacting and arduous during the present term. As a member of sub- committees Captain Clay has visited most of the penal and charitable institutions under State control, and investigated their condition and the manner in which they are conducted and managed. As a result of this intelligent labor by these sub-committees the appropriations have been cut down about $2,000,000, without the least impairment of the efficiency of the institutions.
Captain Clay's zeal in the work of legislation, and his deep-seated integrity, resulted in his selection for service on various special committees during the
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ANTONY A. CLAY.
present and last term in the Legislature. He was a member of the special com- mittee appointed to inquire into the alleged abuses of the Soldiers' Orphans' School Syndicate, and report upon a plan of winding up that State benefac- tion. After the adjournment of the regular session he was also named as a member of the commission authorized by joint resolution to devise a plan for the future maintenance of the charitable and corrective institutions of the State. He was strongly urged to allow his name to be used in the Democratic caucus for the place on the Revenue Commission, to which his party in the House of Representatives was entitled; but he peremptorily declined this honor.
Captain Clay, in 1864, married Miss Sybella S. Seckel, of New Jersey, a grand- daughter of Lawrence Seckel, a prominent citizen of Philadelphia in his day, whose well-known old country residence in the southern part of the city adjoined that of Stephen Girard. He was a philanthropist, and one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Hospital. Captain and Mrs. Clay have four daughters. G. D. H.
F. GUTEKUNST.
PHIL+
HARRY CONRAD.
HARRY CONRAD.
T HE family from which MR. HARRY CONRAD is descended has been associated with the history of Philadelphia for more than two hundred years. His first American ancestor, variously called Tunis Kunders or Dennis Conrad, was one of a company of thirty-three who came from Crefeld, on the German Rhine, and landed in Philadelphia from the ship " Concord " on October 8, 1683. This little company, made up of thirteen families connected by ties of blood or mar- riage, had been attracted to the province of Pennsylvania by what they had heard or seen of William Penn during his visit to Germany. They came to occupy a part of the tract of land purchased by Pastorius from Penn, and were among the settlers who gave the name to that part of Philadelphia which has ever since been known as Germantown. The land which they had secured was divided by lot, and the portion that fell to Dennis Conrad, on Naglee's Hill, can still be pointed out. Upon this land Kunders, or Conrad, built a substantial house, where he lived for more than forty years. His name is to be found as a burgess upon the township charter, and subsequently as the Recorder of the Corporation Court; and his piety and zeal may be inferred from the fact that, soon after his arrival, the first meeting of the Society of Friends in Germantown was held at his house.
Dennis Conrad died in 1729, and seven children survived him, some of whom had been born in Crefeld and some in Germantown. Their descendants are still to be found in Philadelphia, Montgomery and Bucks counties in this State. Each generation has left some record in the military or civil service in Pennsyl- vania. Their names are found on the roll of the Revolution, in the history of the war of 1812, the Seminole war, and of the war with Mexico; and they occur equally in the records of the bench, of the bar and of the church, and in various legislative and municipal offices in the Commonwealth.
John Conrad, the father of the subject of the present sketch, served as a first- lieutenant in the war of 1812, and was afterwards well known as the largest publisher and bookseller in the United States. Having become financially embarrassed through the failure of paper-mills which he had established at Bal- timore, Pittsburgh and on the Lackawanna, he retired from business ; and, after serving as Mayor of the Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, and in other public offices, he devoted his leisure time to literature, and at his death left a large accumulation of manuscript notes and historical sketches, which, though unfor- tunately not sufficiently complete for publication, contain a mine of information upon the history of the United States, the history and customs of the native Indian tribes and kindred subjects. He was married to Eliza, daughter of the Hon. John Wilkes Kittera, who represented Philadelphia in the Continental Congress, and afterwards was United States District Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
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HARRY CONRAD.
John Conrad had ten children, six of whom were sons. Of these the eldest, John, was educated at West Point and held a commission in the army. He was serving with credit during the Seminole war, when his health gave way under the exposure and the climate which had been fatal to so many. Having been refused a furlough on account of the scarcity of competent officers, he remained at his post of duty on James Island, where he died in 1836. He is buried in the National Cemetery at West Point. The third son, Edward Conrad, was prominent in the political affairs in Texas at the time of its separation from Mexico. Its " Declaration of Independence " was from his pen, but his popular leadership was cut short by an illness which resulted in his death at Victoria, on the Guadaloupe.
The second son, Robert Taylor Conrad, was still more widely known. At an early age he entered the office of his uncle, Thomas Kittera, Esq., then an accomplished lawyer of the Philadelphia Bar. On the completion of his course he was admitted to practice, and as early as 1835 was called to the bench, having the distinction of being at that time the youngest judge, with but one exception, in Pennsylvania. Three years later he was commissioned in a court of higher jurisdiction, and was afterward for a third time appointed to the bench. In the intervals he practiced law to a limited extent, but devoted the greater part of his time to literature and politics. As an editor he founded the Commercial Intel- ligencer, afterwards merged into the Philadelphia Gazette. As a dramatist and poet, besides many fugitive pieces, he wrote several tragedies, which were played by Murdoch, J. R. Scott, and notably by Edwin Forrest, whose rendering of "Jack Cade " will be long remembered. As a politician he belonged at first to the old Whig party, and later to the native American organization, by which he was later elected the first Mayor of the consolidated city of Philadelphia. He died suddenly on June 27, 1859.
Harry Conrad, the fourth son, showed early in life a marked capacity for busi- ness pursuits. Thrown upon his own resources when quite young, he was equal to the struggle, and while still a boy won the confidence of his employers. His early marriage in 1834 to Miss Hannah S. Kay was a new incentive to exertion, and he soon found himself at the head of a prosperous and thriving business, to which he devoted himself with an energy and skill that made him prominent among the merchants of Philadelphia. From 1838 to 1859 he directed and controlled the business of the firm of which he was the leading member, and had the satisfaction of seeing its development from a comparatively small beginning to a position of acknowledged influence. During all this time Mr. Conrad took an active part in everything which promised to advance the interests of his native city, while he modestly refused to accept positions of dignity or prominence. While his brother was engaged in the difficult task of organizing the administra- tion of the newly consolidated city, of which he was the Mayor, many of his most practical and judicious measures were the result of almost daily counsels with Mr. Harry Conrad, in whose practical wisdom he had the fullest confidence.
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HARRY CONRAD.
.When, a few years later, a number of the prominent members of the Republican party urged Mr. Conrad to accept the nomination for the Mayoralty, their invi- tation, though at once declined, was evidence of his popularity and of the general confidence in him as a man of affairs.
In addition to his other public duties Mr. Conrad also took a leading part in the completion of the North Pennsylvania Railroad. His business tact gave him a controlling influence in the Board of Directors at the time, and at his sugges- tion his old partner, Mr. F. A. Comly, was made President of the road-a posi- tion which he held until his death.
Mr. Conrad did not escape the financial trials and reverses which are almost inevitable in every active business life. Like so many other merchants, he was overwhelmed by the financial crisis of 1857, and found the results of years of labor completely swept away. To many men in middle life this disaster would have been final, but with him it was only an incentive to begin anew with even greater energy, and he was content to start again, as he had done twenty-five years before, without resources. Accepting a position in New York at a small salary he was soon surrounded by friends, who, appreciating his worth and business acumen and ability, were ready to join with him in an enterprise which he proposed in developing the bituminous coal fields of Western Mary- land. The Maryland Coal Company, organized in 1869, was the first result. Mr. W. H. Vanderbilt and other capitalists were largely interested, and the company was at once successful. Three years later the New Central Company was organized. Mr. Conrad was successively President of each of these corpora- tions, and under his administration both became prominent in the mining indus- tries of Maryland. In 1880 Mr. Conrad resigned the formal direction of the New Central Company, but continued his active interest in its affairs, and aided with his counsel the officers whom he had trained to take his place.
Meanwhile his kindly memory of Philadelphia had suggested his return, and before he gave up active business in New York he had again taken up his resi- dence in his native city. Here the later years of his life were spent in the enjoyment of a well-earned rest. His death occurred on August 19, 1888.
Mr. Conrad was the very best type of a thorough man of business. Quick and keen in intelligence, with great personal magnetism and of scrupulous integ- ' rity ; true and manly in every relation, and withal kindly and sympathetic with every one who needed his help or counsel, he was eminently fitted to deal with men of all classes and conditions, winning the confidence and respect of all with whom he was brought in contact in any capacity.
No sketch of Mr. Conrad's life would be adequate which failed to note his interest in religion and in the church. He was a Christian man in the fullest conviction, and from his youth he was active in furthering the work of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Pennsylvania. In the episcopate of Bishop Alonzo Potter his activity and business training were employed in various schemes of church extension, and throughout his life he was always ready to
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