USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of Pennsylvania biography : illustrated, Vol. X > Part 7
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Their business at first was small, but later, in obedience to good storekeeping, assumed such dimensions that the broth- ers were compelled to seek larger quart- ers, and forthwith opened a second store in Allegheny City, now North Side, Pitts- burgh. In 1878 the constant growth of the business and attendant increase of cares, showed to the Kaufmann Brothers the necessity of concentration, and they closed their branch stores and opened a store on the present site, at Smithfield and Diamond streets. The first building at this address was 123 by 120 feet ; then 80 by 130 feet was secured on Fifth ave- nue as an annex, extending to Cherry Way. Later 100 by 120 feet was ac- quired on Smithfield street, until in 1903 the company secured the remainder of the block on Fifth avenue. It was in this year (1913) that the firm became incor- porated and known as "Kaufmann De- partment Stores, Incorporated," which is the title at this writing. Co-incident with this change, Isaac Kaufmann was elected president of the business. Following the
acquisition of this additional property, the entire building of the firm was remod- eled to the height of twelve floors, with basement and sub-basement, giving them one of the most admired stores in Pennsylvania, floor space of over 700,000 feet. In interesting contrast to the mod- est little store of the South Side, this business is now among the foremost of its kind in the world, its employees num- bering in the thousands, its customers in tens of thousands, and doing a yearly business reaching into the millions.
The mutations of time have caused many changes in this wonderful enter- prise, but throughout the two score and more years, the same firm guiding hand has been at the helm, that of Isaac Kauf- mann, as democratic and approachable as the day he commenced his career, con- tinues to direct the destinies of the busi- ness. In 1915, when the store celebrated its forty-fourth anniversary, Mr. Kauf- mann caused to be published in the Pitts- burgh papers the following open letter to the people of the city, and as it breathes the ideals and aims of the man, we here- with use most of it:
Forty-four years ago (I wonder how many of you can look back that far and remember our little store and its few counters of goods out there on the South Side) my brother and I founded this firm. Between us we had $1,500 in cash, but we were millionaires in hope and confi- dence-filled with boyish faith in ourselves and the young city which had begun to stir with vast ambitions-pitting its youth and energy against the coming years. And we had one thing else, an asset that grew as we went-this piece of ad- vice from the good father who sacrificed his own happiness to send his sons into a strange land which would give us opportunities that our birth- place could not promise :
Sell to others as you would buy for yourself.
Good merchants make small profits and many sales.
Deal fairly-be patient, and in time your dis- honest competitors will crowd your store with customers.
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It is a long time since these words were spoken. Meanwhile, the world has improved almost every- thing it holds, but I don't believe that a better piece of wisdom has been offered to a young man starting out on his career-the walls of this great store of ours rest upon that foundation. And I, in turn, pass it to the coming business men of America-the generation which is replacing mine. One thousand five hundred dollars and an axiom may not appeal to some of you as sufficient capi- tal, but I would not fear to begin anew, even in this period of gigantic enterprises, with as little. Integrity and determination, harnessed to a fixed idea, will accomplish as much to-morrow as it brought about yesterday. And this store will last only as long as it continues to be fair and square. No success can survive carelessness and dishon- esty.
I have drilled into our organization that Kauf- mann's won't enjoy the confidence of its cus- tomers longer than we merit it. I know. I nursed this business from its precarious begin- ning up to the present moment; for many years underwent struggle and self-denial (buying and selling so closely that we barely made a living) to establish a reputation honorable. Forty-four years ago-how I recall that stern and poverty- stricken period-we couldn't have picked out a worse stretch of years. The average family could afford but the barest necessities of life. A dollar was a big piece of silver-sufficient to feed and clothe and house a man and a wife and children. We were living in a frontier period. The conti- nent was still in the making. A few miles away were entire villages of whose inhabitants not one had ever been on a railroad or seen the sea. A horse car was a novelty. Travel by power was confined to queer, little, rickety, slow steam rail- roads. Gaslight was a marvel, and kerosene (actually sold as patent medicine, to cure the most ridiculous range of ills) was being experi- mented with for household illumination. But most of us were afraid to bring the "dangerous" stuff into our homes. There was not an electric motor on earth nor typewriter nor a talking machine. Bell hadn't built a telephone, and we used to tap our heads when we heard anybody talk about flying machines. The great mills which have brought prosperity and world-fame to Penn- sylvania, were hardly bigger than overgrown blacksmith shops, and most of the founders worked at their own forges. So you can imagine what sort of a place Kaufmann's was in 1871.
How ridiculous I would have considered the idea that the day would come when we would have four thousand employees, and a store in
which you could buy anything from a paper of pins to a diamond necklace-from a necktie to the complete furnishing of any kind of home-that we would spend as much in a single day for newspaper advertisement as the sum total of our capital. Why I could have stuck the whole shop -lock, stock and barrel-into my present office and used the remaining space for a bedroom.
I was the head of the firm and the bookkeeper, salesman and shipping clerk, bundle wrapper and (occasionally) the delivery system. And I am not ashamed to acknowledge that I put up the shutters and swept the floors. We kept ready- made clothes, hats and men's furnishings; did merchant tailoring. And out of that grew this business.
As the years pass our sons must gradually take our place. We are growing old. The responsi- bility for the future will rest more and more upon their shoulders. We have taught them to be good merchants-to deal fairly and honorably, to remember that the forty-four best years of their parents' lives are standing twelve stories high at Fifth and Smithfield streets.
Pittsburgh has been kind to us, has loyally and generously supported our enterprises, and the greatest wish of my life is that from our work will rise and endure,'not only the first establish- ment of this community, but of the world. And if it may not be the greatest-at least, let it be the most worthy.
Intensely public-spirited, this man of tireless industry finds time in the midst of incessant business activity to give loyal support to all measures which he deems conducive to the progress and wellbeing of Pittsburgh. He adheres to the Republican party, but has no inclina- tion for officeholding, preferring to give his undivided attention to the great busi- ness enterprise of which he is head. A liberal giver to charity, he shuns in this phase of his activity everything approach- ing publicity. He and his brother, Mor- ris Kaufmann, organized the Emma Farm, one of the well-known philan- thropic institutions of Pittsburgh. Mr. Kaufmann is a member of the Westmore- land Country and Concordia clubs. He is also a member of Rodef Shalom Congre- gation.
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The personality of Isaac Kaufmann is that of a man exceptionally forceful and aggressive, with cool, calculating, well- balanced judgment. It is to this combi- nation of qualities that he owes his power to make great ventures with safety and success, and to the union of determina- tion with tactfulness may be traced his ability to win the friendship and esteem of men. Of medium height and command- ing appearance, his strong yet sensitive features, accentuated by white hair and mustache, and his whole aspect expres- sive of decision coupled with generous impulses and a genial disposition, he is a fine type of the true Pittsburgh business man.
Mr. Kaufmann married (first) in Ger- many, August 9, 1877, Emma, daughter of Nathan and Jeanette (Lehman) Kauf- mann, and they were the parents of a daughter, Lillian S., wife of Edgar J. Kaufmann, of Pittsburgh, and the mother of a son, Edgar J., Jr., born April 9, 1910. The death of Mrs. Emma Kauf- mann occurred June 12, 1894, and Mr. Kaufmann married (second) March 22, 1899, Belle C., daughter of Jonas and Josephine (Speyer) Meyer, of Quincy, Illinois. Mr. Kaufmann is a man of decided domestic tastes, and the Kauf- mann home in the East End is the seat of a gracious hospitality.
Mr. Kaufmann's portrait precedes this biography. To the biography of this broad-minded public-spirited man of ac- tion, one might fittingly append those lines of Addison's :
'Tis not in mortals to command success.
But we'll do more, Sempronius-we'll deserve it.
BALL, David Ithiel,
Lawyer, Public Official.
The distinctive prestige Mr. Ball has gained as an eminent lawyer is the result
of over forty years' close application to his profession as a member of the War- ren county bar, in practice in all State and Federal courts of the district. In the many notable cases in which he has appeared as counsel, he has demonstrated a deep knowledge of the law, an expert- ness in handling and presenting his cases, a painstaking manner of prepara- tion, an honesty of purpose and a fair- ness which have won him the highest respect of the bench and bar. His clien- tele is a large and influential one, and in professional standing no member of the Warren bar outranks him. As a citizen he has received the continuous support of his fellowmen for every office to which he has aspired, has rendered borough and county most efficient service; and in 1897, had Governor Hastings heeded the strong personal letters and petitions showered upon him, Mr. Ball would have received the appointment to fill a vacancy then existing upon the bench of the Su- perior Court of the State.
He is a son of Abel and Lucy Maria (Northrop) Ball, and a grandson of Moses and Persilla (Ball) Ball, Moses Ball of Connecticut birth, but a resident of New York State. Abel Ball was born in 1800, and died October 19, 1853. He resided in New York until about 1821, then settled in Warren, Pennsylvania, but later moved to a farm in Farmington township, Warren county, where he was engaged in agriculture until six years prior to his death, when he was stricken with an illness which confined him to his bed during those last years of his life. He married Lucy Maria Northrop, born June 14, 1808 died December 26, 1897, daughter of Gideon and Esther (Munson) Northop, he a soldier of the Revolution. Mrs. Ball survived her husband, and alone reared her children, who were young at the time of their father's death.
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This trust she faithfully performed with a true mother's patience and devotion. Mr. and Mrs. Ball were the parents of: David Ithiel Ball, of further mention; Fanny Rosilla, born May 30, 1846, died July 15, 1905; Munson Monroe, born August 26, 1847, died August 13, 1874. By a former marriage Mrs. Ball had a daughter, Mary Sophia, who married James Cooper, and died June 19, 1902, aged seventy-five years.
David Ithiel Ball was born in Farm- ington township, Warren county, Penn- sylvania, June 13, 1844, and there absorbed all the advantages offered by the local schools. He then attended Jamestown (New York) Union School for a time, and later was graduated from Jamestown Collegiate Institute. Follow- ing graduation he taught for several terms in Warren county schools, but hav- ing decided upon his life work, began the study of law under the preceptorship of Judge Brown, of the Warren county bar. In 1875 he passed the required tests of the examining board and was duly admit- ted to the bar of his native county. He was at once admitted a partner with Judge Brown, and as Brown & Ball they practiced in Warren until the elevation of the senior partner to the bench. Mr. Ball then formed a partnership with C. C. Thompson, which association con- tinued several years.
In proof of the importance of the prac- tice Mr. Ball has conducted, it is only necessary to cite the fact that his name is associated as counsel with nearly one hundred and fifty cases in the Supreme and Superior courts of the State, some of them among the most celebrated in the legal annals of the State. Among them are the Ford and Lacy cases, involving valuable lands, which occupied the atten- tion of the court for two years; the con- spiracy case, The Commonwealth vs.
Ralph, Tolles et al., involving the title to oil lands; Babcock vs. Day, and the Borough of Warren vs. Geer. For many years he was an administrator of the estate of L. A. Robertson, his bond being $600,000. Through his professional and business life he has stood for that which was good and true, his character as a man of sterling uprightness equalling his high standing as a lawyer. He is a mem- ber of the various bar associations, county, State and national, and to other professional societies.
In July, 1862, Mr. Ball enlisted in Com- pany C, Independent Pennsylvania In- fantry, and later served in Battery H, Independent Pennsylvania Artillery, serv- ing with the latter in Virginia during the threatening period when Washington was menaced by the Confederates. He is a member of Eben N. Ford Post, Grand Army of the Republic, an organization in which he takes a deep interest. In pol- itics a Republican, Mr. Ball has ever taken active part in campaign work, is a popular platform orator, and in party councils his is a potent voice. In 1871 he was elected treasurer of Warren county, serving one term; from 1893 until 1902 he was a member of the Warren board of education, serving as president of the board during six of those years. He was chairman of the building committee in charge of the erection of the high school building, and served in the same capacity during the erection of two of the grade buildings. In 1897 he was strongly urged for appointment to the Superior Court bench, but stronger influences were brought to bear upon Governor Hastings, and the vacancy then existing was filled by another. When the Progressive move- ment culminated in 1912 in the nomina- tion of Theodore Roosevelt for the Presi- dency, Mr. Ball joined heartily in the movement, and although he had been pre-
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viously nominated for presidential elec- tor by the State Republican Convention, he withdrew his name and accepted the same nomination from the Progressive party. In the campaign which followed he rendered valuable service, and was one of the contributing causes which car- ried Pennsylvania for the National Pro- gressive candidates, Roosevelt and John- son. In religious faith he is a Presbyter- ian, served for a time as president of the board of trustees, and has long been an elder.
Mr. Ball married, in 1871, Lucy Ma- tilda Robinson, daughter of Elijah and Caroline (Northrop) Robinson, of Farm- ington township. Mrs. Ball is an earn- est, efficient worker for the cause of relig- ion and charity, a devoted member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, and the Society of Christian Workers, through whose efforts the Home for the Friendless (now the Warren Emergency Hospital), managed entirely by a board of woman directors. The hospital was incorporated March 25, 1898, Mrs. Ball, a charter member, being elected to serve on the first board of directors, an office she held for twelve years, until her resig- nation in December, 1910.
Mr. and Mrs. Ball are the parents of a daughter May, who married, June 24, 1909, Dr. William Charles DeForest, and has children: David Ball, Lucy Ball, Charles A. L., and William George De- Forest.
MCCLINTOCK, Andrew H., Lawyer, Enterprising Citizen.
Among the learned professions gener- ally, and especially that of the law, there has grown up a great body of tradition, an atmosphere, it might be said, the inten- sity and mass of which it is very difficult to imagine for those who have never
entered it. The law is the heir of many ages, not merely in its substance, its proper matter, but in a myriad connota- tions and associations involving all those great figures who have names to conjure with and all the great mass of its votaries, who from time immemorial have dealt with and in it, also the great men who have made and adapted it, the learned who have interpreted and practiced it, the multitude who have been protected and also, alas, victimized by it. From each and all it has gained its wisdom or wit, its eloquence or its tale of human feeling which may serve to point a moral, until, by a sort of process of natural selection, there has arisen a sort of system of ideals and standards, lofty in themselves and a spur to the high-minded, a check to the unscrupulous, which none may safely dis- regard. The bench and bar in America may certainly point with pride to the manner in which their members have maintained the splendid traditions of the profession, yes, and added their own, no inconsiderable quota to the ideals of a future time. The McClintock family of Pennsylvania has now for two genera- tions contributed to the bar of that State members who have been representative of these best traditions and who, through long careers of successful practice, have maintained and given emphasis to the highest standards and ideals of the law.
The Mcclintock family is an old and honored one in Pennsylvania, and traces its descent to one James McClintock and his wife, Jean (Payne) McClintock, of the little town of Raphoe, County Done- gal, Ireland. But though the progenitor of the family in America lived in Ireland, the line did not originate there, the ances- tors of James McClintock having dwelt originally in Argylshire, Scotland, from which place three sons of Gilbert Mc- Clintock emigrated and settled near Lon-
Pa-10-4
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donderry, Ireland, from one of whom James McClintock was descended. This James McClintock had in turn a son, Samuel McClintock, who emigrated from Ireland to America in the year 1795, and settled in Northumberland county, Penn- sylvania. He was the first of the name to make his home in this State, but later his father followed him here and settled in Lycoming county. Samuel McClintock died in the year 1812, when only thirty- six years of age. He married, July 15, 1806, Hannah Todd, a daughter of Col- onel Andrew Todd, one of the early fami- lies in this State, Colonel Todd having been born in the town of Providence here in 1752. He married Hannah Bowyer, also a native of Providence, born in the same year. They resided during their entire lives in this town, and died May 5, 1833, and May 28, 1836, respectively. Hannah Bowyer was a daughter of Ste- phen and Elizabeth (Edwards) Bowyer, her father having been a farmer near the Providence church. Colonel Andrew Todd was an extensive land owner in the region of Trappe, Upper Providence township, Montgomery county, Pennsyl- vania. He was, according to tradition, something of an inventive genius and very skillful in all sorts of mechanical handicrafts. He was a member of the old Providence Presbyterian Church, and a soldier in the Revolutionary Army. He held the office of justice of the peace for thirty-three years, having been elected thereto, May 22, 1800, and only ceasing to hold it at the time of his death. His father, Robert Todd, was, like the pro- genitor of the McClintock family, a native of Ireland, where he was born in the year 1697. He emigrated to this country with his wife, who had been Isabella Bodley, of County Down, Ireland, where she was born in 1700. Robert Todd's death occurred in 1790, at the age of ninety-
three years, and he and his wife were the parents of nine children of whom Col- onel Andrew Todd was the youngest. The grandfather of Colonel Todd was John Todd, and this was also the name of his great-grandfather, both of whom lived and died in Ireland. Hannah Todd, the daughter of 'Colonel Andrew Todd, mar- ried Samuel McClintock, July 15, 1806, as is stated above, and among their chil- dren was Andrew Todd McClintock, one of the eminent attorneys of the State in his day.
Andrew Todd McClintock, LL. D., son of Samuel and Hannah (Todd) McClin- tock, was born February 2, 1810, at his father's home in Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. He was but two years old when his father died, but his mother was determined that he should receive the best possible educational advantages, and as a child sent him to the local public schools. He was prepared for college here and upon graduation from high school matriculated at Kenyon College, Ohio. Here he soon became a prominent member of his class in which were a num- ber of young men destined later to make distinguished names for themselves in various departments of the country's life. Among these the best known was Edwin M. Stanton, the famous Secretary of War under President Lincoln, and there was also future Judge Frank Hurd, one of the most conspicuous figures in Ohio politics on the Democratic side, and there also was Rufus King, the celebrated edu- cator, who became dean of the law school in Cincinnati. In these distinctly stimu- lating surroundings, young Mr. McClin- tock remained for three years, making a reputation for himself as a brilliant and intelligent student, and at the end of this period returned to his native Northum- berland county, having determined in the meanwhile to make law his profession in
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life. Accordingly he entered the office of James Hepburn, but about a year later removed to Wilkes-Barre and completed his studies under the preceptorship of the elder Judge Woodward, an eminent attor- ney of this city. On August 8, 1836, Mr. McClintock was admitted to the practice of his profession at the bar of Luzerne county, and at once became a partner of his former tutor, the firm becoming Woodward & McClintock. This partner- ship continued until the year 1839, by which time Mr. McClintock had already won a brilliant reputation for himself as may be seen in the fact that he was appointed district attorney for Luzerne county. In this responsible post he added to his reputation and discharged the duties of his office in a manner to meet the entire approval of his constituents in the community-at-large. However, at the end of one year, he resigned his post and returned once more to regular prac- tice. It is interesting to note here, as illus- trating Mr. McClintock's disinterested devotion to his profession, that this was the only public office ever held by him, for although he was frequently urged to become a candidate for other honorable posts, he consistently refused and he even declined the candidacy for the judg- ship of the Luzerne county Court of Common Pleas. His friends and associ- ates united in urging upon him this nom- ination, feeling that no man was better fitted to exercise the judicial capacity, but his shrinking from public notice and his interest in his active practice as an attor- ney, combined to make Mr. McClintock firm in his refusal, although he showed evidently how pleased he was at the con- fidence reposed in him. In the year 1873, however, he accepted the appointment of Governor Hartranft to a membership of the commission charged with the revi- sion of the State Constitution, and in this
work was the colleague of such men as Chief Justice Agnew, Benjamin Harris Brewster, Attorney-General Samuel E. Dinnick, United States Senator Wallace, Senator Playford, Henry W. Williams, and the judges of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, who were all his fellow commissioners and eminent jurists, every one. Mr. McClintock, while his practice was a general one, specialized to a cer- tain extent in corporation law, being most deeply versed in this branch of his science and the counsel for many well known corporations.
Andrew Todd McClintock was a man of the greatest public spirit, and was always ready to perform whatever service he could for the community. He was a leader in many movements which had the welfare of the city as their end, and was also affiliated with a number of its most prominent institutions, especially those which were concerned with various civic purposes and philanthropic objects. He was a director of the Wyoming Na- tional Bank, of the City Hospital and the Home for Friendless Children ; president of the Hollenback Cemetery Associa- tion and of the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association. He was a member of the Wyoming Historical and Geologi- cal Society, serving as vice-president of this organization from 1860 to 1875, and president in 1876 and 1889-91. The hon- orary degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him in 1870 by Princeton College.
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