USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 38
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EDWARD W. CLARK.
EDWARD W. CLARK, banker of Philadelphia, the oldest son of Enoch W. Clark and his wife Sarah C. (Dodge) Clark, was born in Providence, R. I., January 28, 1828, and came with his parents to Philadelphia in January, 1837, at which time his father (whose biography precedes this brief sketch) opened, in connection with his brother-in-law, Ed- ward Dodge, the banking house of Enoch Clark & Co., now carried on by the son. He received his education principally at the High School of Phila- delphia, and entered the banking house as office boy in 1844, passing thereafter upward through all of the grades of service until he was admitted as a partner in 1849, to the firm which was constituted by his father, Edward Dodge and Jay Cooke. His brother, Clarence H. Clark, was admitted in 1854. As stated in the sketch of his father, the firm was dissolved in 1857, but it was immediately reorganized, January 1, 1858, under the same name, being then constituted by our subject, his brother Clarence H., F. S. Kim- ball and H. H. Wainwright, the last named of whom
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severed connection with the house after two or three years, though Mr. Kimball remained a mem- ber until the close of 1881. Mr. Clark was honored with election to the high position of President of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company late in the year 1867,-an action whichi exhibited the thor- ough confidence that the directors had in liis finan- cial ability. He retained his interest in the banking house until 1877, when he was made the receiver of the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre Coal Company, and the responsibilities of that position, added to those of the Presidency of the Lehigh Coal and Naviga- tion Company, compelled his withdrawal. Having, however, closed his duties as the receiver at the end of 1881, and contemplating resignation from official connection with the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, in February, 1882, Mr. Clark saw his way clear towards an active resumption of his bank- ing business, and, accordingly, the house was reor- ganized (C. H. Clark and F. S. Kimball retiring) in January, 1882,-still under the old name, by which it had been honorably known for nearly half a cen- tury. Under this reorganization it consisted of Edward W. Clark, Sabin W. Colton, Jr., E. W. Clark, Jr., J. Milton Colton, Edward E. Denniston, H. M. Sill,-Clarence H. Clark, Jr., becoming a partner on January 1, 1884. Mr. Clark's carecr, while not as conspicuous as some others, and pos- sessing nothing of the theatric or startling, has been a remarkable one, and has had an important bearing upon the finances of the country. He has been in the banking business forty odd years, most of the time in active capacity, and much of it as senior and head of the house. He has been a director of the Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Com- pany from its inception; was connected with the First National Bank for many years; was also a director of the Norfolk and Western Railroad Com- pany ; is now a director of the Lehigh Coal and Nav- igation Company, the Ohio River and other railway and coal companies. But the magnitude of his business transactions cannot be realized, except by those who know the important dealings of the house in Government securities during the war period. It is sufficient for the purpose of this sketch to say that in these the firm doubtless did more than any other house in Philadelphia, and highly advantageous to the Federal credit at a critical time. Mr. Clark politically was an advanced and early Republican in principle before the party was formed; a staunch supporter of the Union cause and a consistent ad- herent of the party during later periods of its his- tory. He takes a warm interest in public affairs, and aids nearly all measures for improvement, whether of the moral or material kind, but seldom
appears conspicuously in movements toward such results, preferring to do his share in the work quietly and unobtrusively. Indecd, the force which Mr. Clark has exerted in all affairs, whether of busi- ness, or civil, or political nature, in private or pub- lic interest, has always been of the quiet, silent, but none the less effective order. He is known among his friends as a thoughtful, conservative man of finc equipoise of temperament, steadfastness of purpose in whatever he undertakes, and forceful but finc character. Mr. Clark was married July 19, 1855, to Mary T. Sill, of an old Philadelphia family. They have six children.
CLARENCE HOWARD CLARK.
CLARENCE HIOWARD CLARK, brother of the foregoing, and son of Enoeh W. Clark and Sarah Crawford Dodge, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, April 19, 1833. His father, Mr. E. W. Clark, removed to Philadelphia in the winter of 1836, and opened his office as broker and banker, 35 South Third street, early in 1837. C. H. Clark entered his father's office in the fall of 1849, and was admitted a member of the firm on January 1, 1854. Mr. Clark was a member of the first board of directors of the First National Bank of Philadelphia, the first bank organized under the National Banking Act : and was subsequently elected President of the bank, which position he held till July 1, 1873, when he resigned the office in order to devote his entire time to the affairs of his firm. In 1866 Mr. Clark organ- ized and became the first President of the Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company of Philadelphia, holding that office till the Hon. N. B. Browne, then the United States Assistant Treasurer of Philadelphia, could retire from that position to take the management of this singularly successful corporation. In 1870 Mr. Clark organized the Philadelphia Warehouse Company, and was a di- rector in that corporation for several years. In 1869 lie organized and became first President of the National Life Insurance Company of the United States, a corporation chartered by the Congress of the United States, and remained President of the same till the revulsion of 1873, when through the failure of Jay Cooke & Co., who owned the majority of the stock of the corporation, the company passed into the control of other parties. In 1880 Mr. Clark purchased, at the sale by auction, the railroad then known as the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio R. R., and organized what is now known as the Norfolk & Western R. R. Mr. Clark retired from active business
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Jan. 1, 1882, but still retains his interest in affairs generally. On the death of the Hon. E. A. Rollins, Mr. Clark was elected President of the Centennial National Bank, which office he still holds. Mr. Clark has been twice married; in 1855 to Amic Hampton Westcott of Philadelphia, who died in 1870 ; and in 1873 to Maria Davis Motley, daughter of Thomas Motley of Boston, Mass. He has two sons : one by each marriage.
CHARLES MOSELEY SWAIN.
CHARLES MOSELEY SWAIN, President of the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company, of Philadelphia, was born in that city July 7, 1849. His grandfather, William Swain, was a native of the State of New York, and taught school for many years at Manlius and Bath, dying in the latter place in 1812, from illness contracted in the army in the war with England. His father, William M. Swain, was born at Manlius, but when seven years of age became a resident of Bath, whither his parents had removed. In 1825, being then sixteen years of age, William M. Swain was apprenticed to the printing trade, under his cousin, James T. Wilson, of Utica, N. Y. Later in life he was connected, as business manager, for some years with the New York Sun, under Moses Beach. Subsequently he was associa- ted with Messrs. A. S. Abell and A. H. Simmons, and with them founded the Philadelphia Public Led- ger in 1836. The death of Mr. Simmons in 1854 threw the management of this popular journal upon the shoulders of Mr. Swain and his surviving part- ner, and jointly they carried it along with great success, conducting also, from 1837, the Baltimore Sun. Mr. Swain's career in journalism was a dis- tinguished as well as successful one. He was a man of broad views and unwearying activity, and was keenly alive to the demands of the times. He was associated with Samuel F. B. Morse, Amos Kendall and Col. R. M. Hoe, of Hoe press fame, in the early history of the telegraph, and from 1851 to 1858 was President of the Magnetic Telegraph Co. He mar- ried Miss Sarah James, a native of Bath, England, who came to the United States with her parents when she was sixteen years of age, and is still liv- ing in Philadelphia. In 1864 he retired from his connection with the Philadelphia Ledger, but retained his interest in the Baltimore Sun until his death, which took place February 16, 1868. Charles Mose- ley Swain, the son of the foregoing and the subject of this sketch, received a careful education in his youth. It began in the excellent private school for
children kept by Miss Jane Shaw (who is yet a resi- dent of Philadelphia) where he remained two years. He then spent three years at Samuel Allen's Friends' School, at the corner of Second and Pinc streets. Next he attended for a short time the school presi- ded over by Eliphalet Roberts, at Eighth and Wal- nut streets, quitting it to spend three years in the famous school of the Rev. J. W. Faries, D.D. From here he went to Crittenden's Commercial Col- lege, devoting one year to the mastery of a special business education. Finally he became a pupil of Professor E. D. Saunders, at Thirty-ninth street and Powelton avenue, taking a literary course of one year, which was completed in June, 1867. In the month of October following he entered the law office of Samuel Hood, Esq., as a student of law. The death of his father, occurring early in the suc- ceeding year, interrupted his studies to some extent, but he returned to them as soon as possible, and was admitted to the bar in the city of Philadelphia, November 25, 1871. In anticipation of this event he had prepared his offices, and actually engaged in practice the day following his admission. When he became of age he took charge of his father's estate as attorney, and successfully settled the same. His business as a lawyer was general, but did not include criminal cases. He was associate counsel for the defendants in the Franklin Saving Fund failure ; and also in the John S. Morton over-issue stock case in 1877, which resulted in a plea of guilty and term of ten years. His active interest in the latter case drew upon him the favorable attention of the directors of the Market Street Railroad, (against which the crime was committed by Morton, who, at the time, was its President,) and he was chosen a member of the board. His connection with this company gave him a taste for corporation management, and in 1886 he abandoned general practice to devote him- self exclusively to this important branch of profess- ional work. In 1885 he was elected a director in the American Academy of Music, at the time that Alfred G. Baker sought to obtain control of the same, in which attempt he succeeded after a hard contest. Mr. Swain was afterwards chosen a mem- ber of the Exccutive Committee of the Academy. In 1886 he was elected a director of the Franklin Fire Insurance Company, one of the largest and most important of the fire organizations in Phila- delphia. In the same year also he became Presi- dent of the Electric Protection Company of Phila- delphia, which was formed for the purpose of protecting persons and property from the dangers and disasters consequent on the electric light wires crossing telephone wires, by preventing heavy cur- rents through the use of patents which it controls.
Very truly Yours , Chae . M . @Swain .
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In November, 1886, he became a director in the newly organized Edison Electric Light Company of Philadelphia, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Board. In all work of this char- acter his services are of high value, as from his early youth he has had a decided taste for machin- ery and mechanical inventions, and his judgment in all such matters is to be relied upon. Upon the organization of the City Trust, Safe Deposit and Surety Company of Philadelphia, September 1, 1886, he was elected President. This corporation, which occupies the elegant new building, No. 927 Chestnut strect, already commands an extensive business, and employs almost his entire time and attention. In 1882 Mr. Swain took an active part in behalf of the projected Elevated Railroad for Philadelphia, and . eloquently urged its claims upon public attention at a large meeting of citizens held at the West Phila- delphia Institute. He was appointed Chairman of the committee sent to confer with the City Council on the subject, and addressed that body in its be- half. In politics Mr. Swain acted with the Demo- cratic party, and in 1883 was its nominee in the Fourth Congressional District against Wm. D. Kel- ley. His personal popularity and strong hold on the esteem of his fellow citizens was amply attested in this canvass by the fact that, although his nomi- nation preceded the day of election but two weeks, he was able to reduce his Republican opponent's ma- jority over previous elections, about fifteen hundred votes. In the ensuing year he was nominated in the Twenty-seventh Ward for the Common Council against W. Elwood Rowan. Here again he proved his great personal strength by reducing the usual Republican majority of about nineteen hundred votes to between six and seven hundred. Mr. Swain is a prominent member of the Masonic Order, and has been actively counected for some years with the Montgomery Lodge, No. 19, in which he has filled all the offices in rotation, becoming Master iu 1886. In 1884 he was elected one of the staff in the Ma- sonic School of Instruction, and in 1885-6 was elec- ted and served as President of the school. In 1887 he was appointed Junior Grand Deacon of the Grand Lodge of the State of Pennsylvania, and now occupies that position. In the various circles in which he moves, business, political, Masonic and social, he is esteemed for his many sterling quali- ties. Already noted for his ready grasp of business and political affairs, and for the excellency of his judgment in all practical matters, he has before him a career of broad usefulness to his fellow citizcus, if he cares to assume, and has time to accept, the responsibilities of public life. He married Novem- ber 8, 1870, Miss Mary D. Smedley, whose father
was a prominent member of the Society of Friends in Philadelphia. There has been three children by this union, two of whom-a son and a daughter- are living.
FELIX R. BRUNOT.
HON. FELIX R. BRUNOT, a prominent citizeu and philanthropist of Pittsburgh, and for more than forty years connected with the steel industry of that city, was born February 7, 1820, at the United States Arseual, Newport, Ky. His father, Col. Hilary Brunot, was a native of Pennsylvania, and was appointed from that State to the United States Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1814. At the time of his son's birthi he was temporarily stationed at Newport Arsenal, but a year later was ordered to Pittsburgh. Five years later he retired from the army and purchased a large tract of land covering the site of the present Union Railway De- pot. He was successful in his business enterprises, attained promineuce in local affairs in Pittsburgh, auo died there March 26, 1872, in the seventy-seventh year of his age. His eldest son, the subject of this sketch, entered Jefferson College, at Cannonsburgh, when fourteen years of age. Having finished his collegiate studies he engaged as a civil engineer with W. Milnor Roberts, and was occupied in this pro- fessiou until 1842, when he became interested in the milling business at Rock Island, Ill., whither he re- moved. In addition to this he dealt in wheat and grain and owned aud managed a store at Camden, on Rock River, where his mill was situated. The business of his mill proved very successful owing to the universal advance in the price of breadstuffs which took place at that period and which was con- sequent, in part at least, upou the famine in Ireland. In 1847, finding himself in the possession of a com- fortable fortune, Mr. Brunot returned to Pittsburgh, established himself there permanently and invested a portiou of his wealth in the stcel works founded in the following year by the firm of Singer, Hart- mann & Co., in which he became a silent partner. Their works were probably the first on a large scale established in the city of Pittsburgh, where about seventy per cent. of all the steel used in the United States is manufactured. They are amoug the largest and most perfectly equipped iu the United States, cover an area of between nine and ten acres, and give employment to upwards of six hundred work- men. In 1859 changes were made in the firm which in that year took the style of Singer, Nimick & Co., Limited. Mr. Brunot's connection with the
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business has been continuous from its foundation to the present day. It is said of Mr. Brunot that from a very early period in his life he has evinced a warm interest in everything having for its object the ad- vancement of the public welfare, and that "there has not been a moment in his manhood in which he has not had some benevolent or reformatory interest in hand or in heart." An enthusiastic believer in the great value of education and the importance of read- ing as a means of enlarging knowledge and strength- ening character, he was one of the chicf movers in the work of founding the Mercantile Library. This institution, the building of which alone cost a quarter of a million dollars, is one that has accom- plished no end of good in an educational way, and it is justly regarded with pride by every intelligent citizen. Mr. Brunot was its President during many years, and, apart from his labors in founding it, has aided very materially in its advancement during his long connection with its affairs. He was the pro- jector of Library Hall and is still one of its managers. In various other avenues and fields of usefulness, Mr. Brunot found more or less scope for the exer- cise of wise philanthropic effort, and, at the open- ing of the War of the Rebellion, he had already made for himself a name and fame which without another deed would have long survived him. The son of one of the nation's trained soldiers and by profession an engineer, his services would doubtless have proved of high value in a military capacity, and such was the opinion of a personal friend, high in authority, who offered him rank and military command soon after the breaking out of hostilities. Mr. Brunot's patriotism was perfectly equal to any personal sacrifice or risk, but he knew his own heart best and respectfully de- clined the high honor tendered him. Conscious that he could accomplish the greatest amount of good by devoting himself to the sick and wounded soldiers-a duty for which he was admirably fitted by nature and the training of his life-he determined to give him- self up to this work. His first opportunity came with the great battle of Shiloh. The wail of suffer- ing that reached the North from that field of carnage touched every heart. At Pittsburgh two relief boats were immediately stocked with medicines and sup- plies ; and Mr. Brunot, who had been among the most active in getting them ready, giving liberally of his means in procuring what was necessary, was placed in command. Accompanied by a small band of volunteer nurses and surgeons, lie moved with his little fleet down to the Tennessee River, using all possible speed, and at Pittsburgh Landing began his noble work. After rendering all the aid in his power at this point, Mr. Brunot took nearly four hundred of the sick and wounded aboard his boats,
and returned to Pittsburgh. On the way back Mr. Brunot was himself prostrated by his arduous labors and actual contact with disease; and, suffering from blood poisoning, was confined to his home for sev- eral weeks. He was no sooner up and about again than he resumed his self-appointed task, working with all his heart and energy. It was sufficient for him to know that his services were required at any point. Thither he went with all possible speed, perfectly regardless of danger, being greatly aided in his movements by "a pass from Secretary Stan- ton which allowed him to go through the lines at all places, wherever and whenever he would." Early in the summer of 1862 Mr. Brunot was re- quested to place himself at the head of a small corps of volunteer surgeons, medical cadets and others, organized under the auspices of the Pittsburgh San- itary Committee for work at the front. He gladly accepted the call, and with some twenty-five per- sons proceeded to the field. "They had been en- gaged in their work at Savage Station several weeks when the battle of Gaines' Mills. the first of the great seven days battle, was fought on June 27th. Mc- Clellan's change of base had commenced. The Union troops, where Mr. Brunot and his band were stationed, were ordered to retreat. Such was the suffering about them among the wounded that were to be abandoned, that Mr. Brunot could not bring himself to leave, but with eleven of his young men who would not desert him, he stayed behind and kept faithfully on with his work. When the Union forces withdrew, the Confederates took possession of the point where they were located at Savage Station. Mr. Brunot was told he would not be molested pro- vided he would aid the men in gray as well as those in blue, to which he consented. He kept at his work for nearly a week, when for some reason of their own the rebel authorities broke their word and took the whole party prisoners and sent them to the awful harborage of Libby prison. They were thrust in with the others, the only advantage allowed being that Mr. Brunot was treated as a physician and permitted to sleep in the room set aside for that class of prisoners. They were robbed of their medicines, and of any little appliances for personal comfort they had about them. After an incarceration of eight days, during which he had full opportunity to realize the horrors to which the Union prisoners were subjected, Mr. Brunot was called out by the authorities and told that he was to be sent to Washington to negotiate an exchange of himself and two of his companions for the well known Lawrence Washington and two prominent Southerners who had fallen into Federal hands under grave circumstances. A pledge having been ex-
PROPERTY OF AUSTIN BOYER WEISSPORT, CARBON CO. PA.
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acted from him that in the event of the failure of | from the Government save transportation, these gen- his mission he would return to confinement, he was despatched to the Capital by the way of Petersburg and Fortress Monroe. When admitted to Secretary Stanton's presence he said : "I came to see if you would exchange me for a rebel." "I would give nine of them for you," replied Stanton, who was a warm personal friend of Mr. Brunot. But when the conditions were stated Mr. Stanton explained that the exchange could not be effected. He fur- ther said that Mr. Brunot must not think of return- ing to Richmond, as he was arrested and imprisoned in the face of the most explicit stipulations between the two armies that men engaged in aiding and car- ing for the wounded on the field of battle should not be taken or held as prisoners of war. But Mr. Brunot had given his word and he was not the man to regard his obligation lightly. He, therefore, braved the anger of the Secretary and went back to Savage Station, reporting the failure of his mission. Fortunately for him the exchange commissioners were then at that point and his exchange was soon effected. Upon his departure he received from the Confederate officers a written attest that he had kept faith with them and returned as agreed. His course during the remainder of the war was marked by equal devotion to the Union cause. Whenever he heard of a battle he proceeded with all despatch to the place it had occurred or was occurring, and was unremitting in his efforts to succor those who sadly needed his care. The conclusion of the struggle found him so debilitated by the arduous character of his services and the effect of malarial poisoning that he was ordered to give up everything and betake himself to Europe as the only chance of recovery. After several month's foreign travel, in which he was attended by his devoted wife, he felt a change for the better, and in the fall of 1865 he returned to America. In 1868, when Gen. Grant, then President, attempting to ameliorate the condi- tion of the Indians, whom he believed were not always in the wrong, as many asserted, appointed the famous Board of Indian Commissioners, he named Felix R. Brunot, of Pittsburgh, first on the list. Mr. Brunot was chosen Chairman of the Board. His associates were Robert Campbell, St. Louis ; William Welsh, Philadelphia ; Nathan Bishop, New York ; William E. Dodge, New York; John V. Farwell, Chicago; George H. Stuart, Phil- adelphia ; Edward S. Tobey, Boston; John D. Lang, Maine, and Vincent Colyer, New York, as Secretary. The last named resigned soon after the organization of the Board and was succeeded by Thomas K. Cree, of Pittsburgh. Without compen- sation for their time or services, and with nothing
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