USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 41
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M. Gazzam
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
towards preventing Secretary of War Floyd from removing the guns, ammunition and other property of the United States from the Allegheny Arsenal. They telegraphed on behalf of the Committee of Safety to Washington regarding the removal of the property, and in response received the following letter :
ORDNANOE OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., May 3, 1861. 5
E. D. GAZZAM, Chairman,
Pittsburgh, Pa.
SIR .- Your telegram of May 1st to the Secretary of War about powder now held by the committee is re- ceived and sent to this office. If any of the powder is needed by the commanding officer of Allegheny Arsenal, and is, in his judgment, of suitable quality for the United States service, it may be delivered to him. The committee must use their discretion about the residue, throwing every proper guard around the disposition to be made of it.
Respectfully, your obedient servant,
JAMES W. RIPLEY, Lt. Col. U. S.
The powder referred to in the above letter was seized by the Committee of Safety, when about to be shipped to some point within the jurisdiction of the Southern States. In 1867 Dr. Gazzam moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, where he died in 1878. On the maternal side of Mr. Gazzam's ances- try there is a dash of the romantic. Almost imme- diately after peace had been signed between the United States and Great Britain, the Emperor Joseph II., of Austria, sent to the new Republic, as the Minister Resident, Antoine De Beelen de Berthoff, who was accompanied by his wife, the Baroness, and their only son Constantine Antoine, a lad of fifteen years, who came in the capacity of Secretary to his father. Baron De Beelen was Minister from 1783 to 1787, when he was ordered home. He, how- ever, did not return to Austria on account of politi- cal troubles, and his estates were seized by the Gov- ernment. He settled in Lancaster County, where in a beautiful and sequestered cemetery on the banks of the Conewango Creek, repose the remains of himself and wife. The son Antoine settled in Pitts- burgh. A digression at this point is necessary for the purpose of properly presenting the romance above referred to. Some time in thic latter half of the last century an Irish gentleman of learning, Patrick Murphy by name, became tutor in the fam- ily, of an Irish nobleman, and while thus engaged fell in love with the daughter, which sentiment was returned. The father, upon becoming aware of the attachment, dismissed Mr. Murphy and forbade further intercourse between him and his daughter. But not having the fear of her father's indignation, she ran away with her lover and was married. They then came to America, and during the Revolu-
tion he became an officer in the Continental Army. After peace, he moved to Pittsburgh, in which city his wife died at the time of the birth of her daughter, who was named Elizabeth Antoinette. Her father lost his life one day in the Monongahela River, while trying to rescue a drowning child. He had already saved its mother and another child. Antoine De Beelen who, as has been stated, settled in Pitts- burgh, in due course of time became acquainted with Elizabeth Antoinette Murphy, whom he mar- ried and had several children, only two of whom married. Mary became the wife of Dr. Simpson, of Pittsburgh, and was the mother of the wife of the late Benjamin Rush, Esq., of Philadelphia. The other daughter, Elizabeth Antoinette, married Dr. Edward D. Gazzam, and they were the parents of the subject of this sketch. As a child Joseph M. Gazzam was delicate, and it was not until he had attained the age of fourteen that his father thought it advisable that he should attend school. His educa- tion during the interim was not, however, neglected, and up to that age he received a very careful train- ing in all branches, by his father. At fourteen he entered the Western University of Pennsylvania, where he remained for three and a half years, when he was compelled to temporarily suspend his studies on account of his health. He then started on an ex- tended tour through the Western States, which greatly benefitted him. In 1861 he entered the law office of David Reed, Esq., with whom he studied, and was admitted to the Allegheny bar three years later. He was then but twenty-one years of age, but immediately took a prominent and leading posi- tion among his legal brethren, and soon acquired a very extensive criminal practice. Six months after his admission to practice he was entrusted with no less than twenty cases before the Quarter Sessions Court. He, however, became disgusted with crim- inal practice, and tried no more cases of that char- acter, excepting for regular clients. In the civil courts he conducted all manner of cases. In 1872 he entered into a law partnership with Hon. Alex- ander G. Cochran, to whom he relinquished the court practice almost entirely. The firm of Gazzam & Cochran continued until 1879, when, owing to the removal of Mr. Cochran to St. Louis, it was dis- solved. During Mr. Cochran's term in Congress Mr. Gazzam attended to all their extensive legal practice. In 1867 Mr. Gazzam was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, in 1869 to practice in the Circuit and District Courts of the United States, and in 1870, on motion of Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, he was ad- mitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, being one of the youngest attor-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
neys ever admitted to practice before that august body of counsellors. Mr. Gazzam in 1869 was elected a director for Pennsylvania in the United States Law Association, an association composed of the leading attorneys throughout the Union. He retaincd the directorship until his removal to Phila- delphia, when he resigned in 1879. In early life Mr. Gazzam developed a fondness for the political arena, and while residing in Pittsburgh, by his high toned action, did all that lay in his power to place political affairs upon a respectable and honest foot- ing. In this effort he soon attracted the attention of the citizens of the first ward of that city, and in 1869 he became the Republican nominee for that ward in the Common Council, and was elected. At the time of his nomination the press of the city unit- edly, and irrespective of party affiliations, spoke in the highest terms of him as being "liberal minded and progressive." He contended often and earn- estly in Council for economy in the government of the city affairs, and also for many much needed im- provements, both of a moral and sanitary character. In 1876 Mr. Gazzam became the Republican candi- date for State Senator for the XLIIId Senatorial Dis- trict of Pennsylvania, which is composed of the first fifteen and the twenty-third wards of the city of Pittsburgh. This district includes the entire busi- ness portion of the city, and lies between the Alle- gheny and Monongahela rivers, having a frontage of some three miles on the former and about five miles on the latter named river. This district is probably the second wealthiest in the State. Mr. Gazzam defeated his opponent, the Democratic candidate, Hon. G. M. Irwin, by a large majority. When he was nominated in the Republican conven- tion it was by acclamation. It was a singular coin- cidence that he succeeded Hon. G. H. Anderson, son-in-law of Hon. George Darsie, who defeated Dr. Gazzam thirty years before in the same district for State Senator, by only one vote. In 1877 Senator Gazzam took his seat, it being on the left of the President of the Senate and within ready reach of that officer, and immediately in front of his warm personal friend, Hon. James B. Everhart, of Chester County. Senator Gazzam was not long a member of the Senate before he came to be recognized as one of the most clear headed and thoughtful of its mem- bers. During his first term he presented a large number of petitions and remonstrances, besides in- troducing a number of bills, nearly all of which be- came laws. The session of 1878 was an equally busy one for him, as well as his last term in 1879. Among the bills introduced by him which became a law was "A bill for the protection of the property of absent persons, so that it would not go to ruin."
By this law the courts were enabled to appoint an administrator to look after the estate until it was definitely known what had become of the absentee or until death was presumed by law. He also se- cured the passage in the Senate of a "Supplement to the Act of 1874, extending to women the right to act as incorporators of charitable, benevolent and missionary corporations." Although this bill failed in the House at the time, it subsequently became a law. He secured the passage of the " Free Railway law for Pittsburgh and Allegheny City," whereby several important roads have been constructed through those citics, resulting advantageously by the increased railroad facilities and a reduction of fares and tolls. One of the most important bills that he succeeded in securing passage for was "An act providing returns in regard to the election of State Treasurer and Auditor General, when the Legisla- ture is not in regular session." This law has saved the State hundreds of thousands of dollars and extra sessions. A motion having been made to postpone the further consideration of this bill in the Senate, Mr. Gazzam, in opposing the postponement and urging its passage, remarked :
"Mr. President, I trust this bill will not be post- poned, but that we will pass it without further delay. There is no bill now pending before the Legislature that will meet with more universal approval. There will be a sigh of relief throughout the business com- munity, from Lake Erie to the Delaware. We have too much legislation, too many laws; one year we pass a lot of acts and possibly the next year we follow it up by repealing these same acts. I say that the people of Pennsylvania would be benefitted (with all due respect to my brother Senators and members of the House) if this body would adjourn for five years, and if the Senate and lower House of Congress would adjourn for ten years. The relief from the uncertainties which sessions of the Legislature and Congress give would be beneficial to the people of this State and the United States at large, as the con- tinual agitation of enacting new laws has a per- nicious influence upon the business community."
His chief aim in legislation was to perfect the laws, remedy the evils that existed and to abolish those that were not for the general welfare of the Com- monwealth. He examined all bills in the most care- ful manner that he voted upon, and was ever watch- ful and alert to defeat some scheme of a private en- terprise, which was so frequently attempted to be railroaded through by not being understood. Though a strict party man, he was in no way a "machine man." He did what he thought was right without fear or favor. In 1878 he married Miss Mary Anna, only child of John G. Reading, one of the most prominent and successful business men of Philadel- phia, who is a great grandson of Hon. John Read- ing, a distinguished Governor of New Jersey in
George Bullock
199
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
colonial days. When Senator Gazzam moved from his native city to that of his forefathers, the Pitts- burgh papers all spoke of their loss. The Critic said : "Mr. Gazzam's loss we can truly say is Philadelphia's gain. The community had long since learned to respect and estcem him for his manly qualities, his genial disposition, his inborn courtesy, his strict integrity, his usefulness in pub- lic life and his devotion to all that Pittsburghers re- gard as noblest and dearest." As a literary man he has found time, through his methodical ways, to devote considerable attention to literature. He is a life member of the Pennsylvania Historical Society, a life member of the Fairmount Park Art Associa- tion, and a life member of the Horticultural Society. He is also a member of the Union League, Union Republican Club, the Pennsylvania Club, and is at present a member at large of the Republican State Central Committee. Senator Gazzam of late years has not been an extensive practitioner at the bar, on account of his multitudinous positions as an officer of sundry corporations, some of which arc the most important and prosperous iu the State; among which may be named the Beech Creek Railroad Company. This company was first organized as the Beech Creek, Clearfield & South Western Rail- road in 1882, and he was one of the projectors. In 1886 it was sold and the franchises purchased by a committee consisting of Messrs. Vanderbilt, Gaz- zam, Baer, Clark and Langdon, and reorganized under its present name. The starting point is at the town of Jersey Shore and its terminal is in the thriving borough Gazzam, named in honor of Mr. Gazzam. The road is located in the heart of the bituminous coal fields and has numerous branches connecting it with mines. The main line is one hundred and four miles in length and the branches have twenty-seven more miles. Another important enterprise with which Senator Gazzam is connected is the Caledonia Coal Company, which owns 28,000 acres of coal lands in Elk and Clearfield counties. This company is the result of the consolidation of a number of smaller companies, and was consummated on March 27, 1887. Senator Gazzam has been the President of the company since it was organized. He is the Vice-President of the Bloomington Coal & Coke Company and of the Dent's Run Coal Com- pany, and a director in the following companies: Poplar Creek Mining Company, New River Mining Company (both in the State of Tennessee), United Security Life Insurance and Trust Company, and a director in six other companies. He is also the President of the Williamsport Gas Company, and is a member of the Medical Jurisprudence Society of Philadelphia.
GEORGE BULLOCK.
STANDING in the very front rank of textile manu- facturers of Philadelphia, where that line of indus- try is so vast an interest, is George Bullock, who is also engaged in other departments of business in a prominent way, and is President of the First Na- tional Bank of Conshohocken. Strictly speaking, Mr. Bullock's mills are not in the city of Philadelphia, although they are in such close suburbs upon the Schuylkill that it amounts, practically, to the same thing. They are located in Conshohocken, West Conshohocken and Norristown, and are operated collectively by a firm under the title of the Consho- hocken Worsted Mills Company, George Bullock be- ing Treasurer and controlling owner, and James Moir Superintendent. The capital is $600,000. The mills are among the oldest in the country, and have been under the management of the present chief owner for more than a quarter of a century. Our subject is the grandson of Samuel Bullock and his wife, and is of Scotch and English descent. His grandparents came from Yeadon, Yorkshire, Eng- land, to America, and settled in Germantown (now a portion of Philadelphia). Their children were Benjamin, John and Sarah (who became Mrs. Charles Cummings), of whom the first named, the father of George Bullock, was born in Bradford, England, in 1796. He was nineteen years of age when he came to this country in 1815, and he soon began an active business career, and exhibited iu a marked degree those traits of steadfastness and thoroughness and thrift which seem to follow nat- urally the strains of sturdy blood which were com- mingled in him. In 1822 he became associated with Anthony Davis in the wool-pulling business, and in 1837 he embarked in wool manufacturing, in which and in other enterprises he continued for a period of thirty-seven years in Philadelphia and its vicinity. He married Martha, daughter of George Maxwell, and they were the parents of eight children, of whom George Bullock was born March 9, 1830, in Philadelphia, where his boyhood was spent as a pupil in the public schools. At the age of fourteen he entered his father's store, and became thoroughly and practically acquainted with the details of the wool business. In 1851, in recognition of his indus- try and faitli ulness, he was given an interest in the house, and upon the death of his father in 1859 he continued the enterprise alone, acting both as a wool dealer and a woolen manufacturer. Mr. Bul- lock, in 1862, having in the meantime acquired a valuable mill and water power at Conshohocken, moved therc and began an extensive manufacturing business under the firm name of Benjamin Bullock
200
CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
& Sons, the style being changed three years later to Benjamin Bullock's Sons, and finally to the Consho- hocken Worsted Mills, with George Bullock as President, Treasurer and owner of the controlling interest. When he first made Conshohocken the principal scene of his manufacturing enterprise Mr. Bullock, being anxious to live in proximity to the mills, which he knew would largely engross his at- tention, purchased a tract of three hundred acres of land in the immediate neighborhood, and in the most favored and picturesque part of it erected a handsome and commodious residence, which he surrounded with the best work of the landscape gardener, and has made one of the most attractive houses in the region. He has also a city dwelling place. The success which has come to Mr. Bullock has resulted logically from his thorough preparation for the business to which he has devoted the most of his years, his close application to it, his unusual force and activity, and his remarkable administra- tive ability. He has always had the well being of the people identified with his various enterprises at heart, and he is a public spirited citizen, ever trying to advance the material and moral interests of the community. He is a staunch advocate of the cause of temperance, and has done much to enhance it both by precept and example, and is a liberal-in fact, the chief-supporter of the Baptist Church of West Conshohocken. Of this thriving little borough he was made Mayor upon its organization. He was one of the original directors of the First National Bank of Conshohocken, upon its incorporation in 1873, and has been for a number of years its Presi- dent. He has served several years on the Board of State Prison Inspectors, and has been for many years on the State Board of Charities, a position for which he is doubly fitted by reason of his benevo- lent spirit and practical knowledge of men and affairs. Politically he is a Republican, but occa- sionally votes independently when men or measures are not such as he can approve. One who knows him well has summarized the character of George Bullock in terms which we cannot do better than to quote : " Mr. Bullock possesses, in the line of busi- ness, what was attributed to the great mind of John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, in the line of political measures-the ability to judge of the future of any public measure. He reads the future from the ex- perience of the past, and from principles evolved from the same. He inherits great business qualifi- cations from his father, Benjamin Bullock, who in his day was a most reliable man on the wool ques- tion, a committee of Congress having honored him by summoning him before them to enlighten them upon this interest of the nation. George Bullock
believes in having everything done in the best way ; hence he has the best workmen, pays well and turns out the best quality of goods. As the President of a bank he has a thorough knowledge of commercial paper, and acts from a fixed principle, not asking how much a man may be worth, nor how large his bank account may be, but what kind of a man is he who made the note, and how does he do business, believing that certain principles of business mean success, while the reverse ensures, sometime in the near future, failure. In the successful management of his large mills he acts with decision and prompt- ness, and at times seemingly with prospective loss, but the end is found to justify the means. As an illustration, if times are dull and goods have accu- mulated largely upon his hands, he takes steps to dispose of them. First, his goods are always exactly as represented, always up to the standard. The severest test of the market may be applied, the closest scrutiny of warp and woof may be made. The material, the work and the finish are all of the highest grade of that class of goods. The large stock will be placed in the market, cash realized, the wareroom cleaned and his hands kept at work. If goods are low so must the raw material be, hence the firm and the mills are ready for new goods, new patterns and, the raw material low, ready for ad- vanced prices when the rise takes place. We at times attribute success to luck, but Mr. Bullock takes small stock in 'luck.' During the seven years of the panic, from 1873 to 1880, he kept his mills running and his hands together. He used good material, the newest and most improved machinery, employed skilled workmen and workwomen, and keeps everything in excellent order and under the most careful management. His hands are well paid and hence feel an interest in the success of the em- ployers. His well known kind and liberal disposi- tion to all with whom he comes in contact, his especial interest in those who are in need, and the great love he has for children, all combine to make the Conshohocken Worsted Mills a name and a suc- cess in all that is valuable in that word both in suc- cess and in reputation. Mr. Bullock maintains largely the church that is upon his grounds, while hundreds of dollars a year are spent upon the Sab- bath-school connected with this Baptist congrega- tion. In his works of charity and benevolence which are as unostentatious as they are commendable, he has the aid and assistance of his excellent lady, the acts of kindness of Mrs. Bullock, like the falling rain, blessing many around her in various ways." Mr. Bullock's wife was Miss Josephine, daughter of Samuel Wright, of Philadelphia, and they were united in marriage in 1851.
JACaldwell
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
STEPHEN A. CALDWELL.
STEPHEN A. CALDWELL, the well known finan- cier of Philadelphia, and for many years the head of that staunch monetary institution, the Fidelity Insur- ance, Trust and Safe Deposit Company, is of ancient Massachusetts lineage (to which we shall presently revert), but though born and raised in the Bay State, all of his mature years have been passed in Philadelphia, and he has been conspicuously con- nected with the development of its interests, espe- cially those of a fiscal nature. He came to the city in February, 1841, while still in his minority, and entered the counting room of David S. Brown & Co. He had at that time already gained consider- able clerical experience, for he had left school in 1834, when only twelve years of age, and entered the employ of a shipping merchant of Newburyport in his native State; had subsequently served in the office of a mercantile firm engaged in the West India and coastwise trade, and then held for several years the position of clerk and bookkeeper in a bank. He had thus obtained a varied and practical knowledge of details, which well qualified him for service with the Philadelphia house. He remained with David S. Brown & Co. from 1841 to 1848, and upon the 1st of June of the latter year he became associated with Benjamin T. Tredick (of the firm of David S. Brown & Co.) and Samuel E. Stokes, of Thomas & Martin, under the style of Tredick, Stokes & Co., and commenced the dry goods com- mission business. The firm was succeeded by that of Stokes, Caldwell & Co. on December 31, 1865, which continued in existence until December 31, 1879, when it was dissolved by reason of the death of Mr. Stokes. It may be remarked in this connec- tion that of the six members constituting the firm at different periods, Mr. Caldwell is the only survivor. Mercantile matters, however, did not absorb Mr. Caldwell's energies or abilities. He had developed strength and reputation in finances, and upon its organization, in 1866, he became a director of the Fidelity Insurance, Trust and Safe Deposit Com- pany. He was one of the originators and leading promoters of the success of this institution, and his usefulness received early recognition in his election as one of its Vice-Presidents. Active in the dircc- tion of its affairs from the start, and during all the intermediate years, he was finally awarded its Pres- idency in March, 1875, succeeding N. B. Browne, Esq., then lately deceased, and since that date the management of the great corporation, with its capi- tal of $2,000,000, has been vested in his able hands. But this is not all. He is, and has been since its organization, a director of the First National Bank,-
the first chartered in the United States under the Na- tional banking act,-and, May 28, 1880, he was ap- pointed by the United States Circuit Court as one of the receivers of the Philadelphia and Reading Rail- road and Coal and Iron Company, and after an interim of one year was again appointed in June, 1884, serving until the dissolution of the receivership, January 1, 1888. For several years he was a director of the Union League, of Philadelphia, and served one year as its Secretary. He is also director in the Philadelphia & Atlantic Railroad Company, the New York & Rock- away Beach Railroad and in the United Gas Improve- ment Company, of Philadelphia. Reverting to Mr. Caldwell's home and ancestry, it should be men- tioned that the place of his birth was Newburyport, Mass., and the time December 19, 1822. His fore- fathers lived in the town of Ipswich, in the same county (Essex) from about the middle of the seventeenth century. At least the records show that there was in that town in the year 1654 one John Caldwell, a land owner and in good circumstances, who had presumably come from England not long before. He married in that year Sarah Dillingham, who was born in Ipswich in 1634. From this couple have descended a very large and now widely scattered family, though one branch have lived in the same home for two and a quarter centuries. Mr. Stephen A. Caldwellreturned to Massachusetts to marry, being united with Miss Frances C. F. Dodge, of Ipswich, May 29, 1845. They have two daughters, of whom the younger is the wife of Mr. Harry Markoe.
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