USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume II > Part 14
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John B. Gest is to-day one of Philadelphia's progressive law- yers, and his connection with legal affairs has been a prominent one ever since his admission to the Bar. Within a comparatively short time after he began his practice he attained a notability for the excellence of his methods of handling cases, and his reputa- tion for forensic ability obtained wide recognition. From time to time he has been identified with important public institutions in addition to those connected with his university career. For many years he was President of the Union Benevolent Association, which organization has done much good in bettering the condition of the poorest classes of the city. Mr. Gest has a wide experience in financial management, and his standing in this important branch of commerce and industry has led to his being connected with many institutions in Philadelphia. He is a member of the Council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a Director of the Mortgage Trust Company of Pennsylvania, and was a corporator and for years a Trustee of the Presbyterian Hospital. He is best known, how- ever, first as Vice-President of the Fidelity Trust Company and afterwards as President of this successful and widely known organ- ization. Mr. Gest's connection with the Fidelity Trust Company in these two offices dates back to 1873, and he is one of the men to whom much of the success of that institution may be ascribed. He is an Elder of the Overbrook Presbyterian Church, having previously sustained that relation to other churches in the city of Philadelphia.
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Mr. Gest is married, his wife being Elizabeth Ann Purves, daughter of Alexander Purves, who was formerly a dry-goods merchant in Philadelphia, and died many years ago. In the financial world, as well as at the Bar, the name of John B. Gest is an honored one.
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WILLIAM WARREN GIBBS.
T THE peculiar trend of mind that is necessary for the conception of an invention and the perfection of the minute details of a device is seldom coupled with the business genius necessary to make it commer- cially successful. The originality and power of con- ception possessed by the inventor brings into existence mechanical marvels that will revolutionize manufacture, but the financial sense and calculating methods of the promoter are, after all, the quali- ties that are needed to attract the attention of the world. In thus developing inventions and in making them commercially profitable few men have been more successful than William W. Gibbs, one of Philadelphia's foremost financiers.
WILLIAM WARREN GIBBS was born in the village of Hope, Warren County, New Jersey, on the eighth day of March, 1846. He is the son of Levi B. Gibbs and Ellen Venatta. His father's ancestors were among the early settlers of Rhode Island, and his mother was a sister of the late Jacon Venatta, one of the leading lawyers of New Jersey, and at one time Attorney-General of that State. Mr. Gibbs was educated in the public schools of his native village, and at fourteen years of age sought employment in a grain, flour and feed store in Newark, New Jersey. A year later he was clerk in a general country store, where he remained for two years, going from there to take a position at a larger establishment at Hackettstown, New Jersey. Here he served for eight years, and abundantly displayed the financial abilities so conspicuous in his subsequent career. At the age of twenty-three he became a part- ner in the business, and two years later, in 1871, his partner died and he closed out the business. With a few thousand dollars
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as capital, he went to New York, and with friends began the retail dry-goods business. This evidently was not altogether successful, and, in 1873, he organized the firm of Bauer, Gibbs & Co., whole- sale grocers. They were hampered, however, by inadequate capi- tal, and he withdrew from the firm in 1875, practically penniless. He was, however, active and aggressive, and, being well read in scientific journals, was on the alert for some new money-making venture. At this juncture he became acquainted with Ferdinand King, inventor and holder of a patent for making gas from petro- leum, and the two formed a corporation called the National Petro- leum Gas Company of New York. Although they had no capital but an abiding faith in the merits of the invention, Mr. Gibbs' ability, shrewdness and untiring energy soon brought the firm a contract to build a gas works in a small country town. He then succeeded in interesting Amos Paul, agent of the Swampscot Machine Company, of South New Market, New Hampshire, and through him made an arrangement to build the works for their new system. This corporation figured as the nominal contractors for the new works, but in reality they were only sub-contractors under Mr. Gibbs' company. In this way a start was made by the National Petroleum Gas Company of New York. The work was satisfactory and the gas was good. His success here procured him a large number of contracts. Conservative, yet energetic, he took upon him the whole burden of the work and did the contracting, negotiating, traveling and superintending. In his first seven years, after withdrawing from the grocery business, he built more than a hundred gas works in all parts of the country from Maine to California, and was worth a quarter of a million. His system of making gas involved the use of large quantities of petroleum, and his heavy purchases soon formed for him the acquaintance of some of the active officials of the Standard Oil Company, whom he suc- ceeded in interesting in his processes. As the result of his repre- sentations the United Gas Improvement Company, of Philadelphia, was formed in 1882, with Mr. Gibbs as General Manager. This company has been highly successful and has paid large dividends. Mr. Gibbs is also prominently identified with railroad interests,
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especially in the Philadelphia, Reading and New England Rail- road Company (which includes the Poughkeepsie Bridge), of which he is a Director. The Poughkeepsie Bridge is a monument to Mr. Gibbs' enterprise, as, in 1886, he undertook to finish the uncompleted structure, which had for years lain dormant and car- ried it to a successful completion in a little over two years. Mr. Gibbs was largely interested in the organization of the Pennsyl- vania Heat, Light and Power Company, in which he is also a Director. He is also Vice-President of the Welsbach Light Com- pany, which he organized in the interest of the United Gas Improvement Company. The reorganization of the Electric Stor- age Battery Company, in 1895, was likewise due to his efforts. This corporation, of which Mr. Gibbs is Vice-President, has control of all the principal storage battery companies in the United States. In February, 1897, Mr. Gibbs organized the Marsden Company, formed for the purpose of utilizing commercially the formerly waste product of corn stalks, which they manufacture into cellulose.
Mr. Gibbs was married on the 16th day of October, 1872, to Frances A. Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson, one of his early employers. They have six children, and reside in a hand- some house on North Broad Street, Philadelphia.
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THOMAS R. GILL.
0 NE of Philadelphia's most praiseworthy and promi- nent self-made men is Thomas R. Gill, who, though a native of New Jersey, has lived the greater measure of his life in the Keystone State, and has been engaged in business in Philadelphia from the time he first entered the mercantile world until he retired.
THOMAS REEVES GILL was born in Gloucester County, near Woodbury, New Jersey, July 4, 1831, and it was singularly in keeping with the patriotic history of his family that this Anni- versary of American Independence should have been the day of his birth. For more than two hundred years his ancestors had been settled in that part of New Jersey and had played no small part in the establishment of its prosperity. They were located on large farms in that vicinity for two centuries, and some of these estates are in possession of the family to-day. The early settlers were of English and Scotch-Irish descent and left to the later members of their family a splendid record. The ancestral names were Gill, Clark, and Reeves, and they are yet represented in the country, and in the city of Philadelphia quite largely. Thomas R. Gill, born from such a stock, was fain to enter the commercial marts of the near-by city of Philadelphia, and the temptation, or, rather, the ambition to leave the charms of rural life and battle with the business realities of the city was so great that he left his ancestral home and went to Philadelphia in the year 1851. His first position was an humble one, in the dry-goods commission house of Wilson, Brown & Company, where he began his appren- ticeship. His ambition was given a great impetus when he saw
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Thomas Rifice
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THOMAS R. GILL.
the opportunities opened up to his energy, and the admirable qualities which he possessed attracted the notice of his employers, who advanced him to a better position in the sales department. Here, and in other branches of the business, he acquired a full knowledge of the dry-goods trade and its requirements, which fitted him so thoroughly for the field that, in 1862, trustful of his ability to secure success, he established himself in business on Strawberry Street, and there he remained until he retired. The property was located at Nos. 4 and 6 Strawberry Street, and, in 1867, he purchased it of the executor of Robert Pollock, the former owner. He adapted the establishment to the sale of the goods he had selected as his specialty, and by careful attention to the wants of his trade built up a very large business, admitting, in 1886, as partners, two young men he had raised, and continued under the firm name of Thomas R. Gill & Company. This establishment for many years has been extensively engaged in the coloring and printing of cotton goods for the clothiers and jobbers of dry-goods, not only in the city of Philadelphia, but throughout the United States. Mr. Gill's business career affords a splendid instance of what success may be achieved from a small beginning, as the result of patient industry and prudence. He retired with a hand- some competency, a respected member of his community. While conducting the large business of the firm, he had the confidence of the trade, and, being the first to embark in that particular line, he obtained, by natural growth, large and wide-spread connections, and the house of Thomas R. Gill & Company was looked upon as a credit to Philadelphia.
When Mr. Gill, some years ago, retired from active business, he directed his energies and his love of industry into other chan- nels. He has given much of his time to his family and has spent some time in Europe with them. In charitable work he takes a great interest, and is of a very benevolent turn of mind. As one of the Managers of the Spring Garden Soup Society he reaches many worthy and deserving ones among the poorer classes. He is a Vestryman in the Episcopal Church of St. Matthias, having served in this office more than a quarter of a century.
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In this work, as in all other of his private life, he brings to bear for the most beneficial results his splendid business training and good judgment. He has been a Director, almost from the begin- ning, of the Merchants' Trust Company, and has taken a very active part in the management of its affairs. Mr. Gill is a mem- ber of the Union League and of other representative social and business organizations.
Mr. Gill has resided in his present house, 2021 Green Street, for over thirty years, and it is there that his interesting family has been raised. He has passed his forty-first year of married life, Mrs. Gill having been a daughter of the late William H. Love, once a prominent merchant of Philadelphia. They have three daughters and one son, the latter in his sixteenth year, and a bright student. The three daughters are married, and there are four grandchildren. Mr. Gill's family life is a happy one in the same measure as his business career was a success.
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Bernard Siepin.
BERNARD GILPIN.
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T HE profession of law, by reason of its attractiveness to men of analytical minds, and because of its honorable traditions and associations, has claimed some of the brightest scholars who have gained fame in the annals of Pennsylvania. Himself the son of one of Philadelphia's most favorably known attorneys, it is easy to understand how the Bar should have had especial attrac- tiveness for Bernard Gilpin. Aside from the prestige and practice inherited from his father, he has, by his own individual efforts, no less than his thorough classical and legal education and brilliant talents, made his mark in the ranks of a profession that is crowded with shrewd and sagacious men battling for pre-eminence.
BERNARD GILPIN was born on the 22d day of December, 1856, at No. 709 Walnut Street, Philadelphia (but a few doors from where his offices are now located). He is the son of Chiarles Gilpin, also one of the most distinguished jurists of the Quaker City. His mother was Sarah Hamilton Hood. Joseph Gilpin, one of his paternal ancestors, settled in Birmingham Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1696, and from this hardy pioneer in the New World sprang one of its most illustrious families-a family which has left its impress in various fields of distinction. John McClellan Hood, of Newtown Stewart, County Tyrone, Ire- land, his progenitor on his mother's side, was one of those sturdy and intelligent Scotch-Irish emigrants who have been so conspicuous in the material development of the nation. Mr. Gilpin's earliest instruction was under E. Roberts, at the school conducted by that well known educator in Philadelphia. He was diligent and studious and having completed the course at that excellent institution, he
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entered the school presided over by Dr. H. D. Gregory, also in Philadelphia. Here he took up a wider range of studies, prepara- tory to a full college course, and so earnest a student was he that when but fifteen years of age he was amply equipped to enter the Classical Department of the University of Pennsylvania. After his entrance into this famous educational institution he applied himself with renewed energy to his studies and graduated in 1875, while still in his teens, with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. During the years he had spent at the University he had not forgotten that a strong and vigorous body is almost essential to the possession of an energetic mind. With his usual zeal and spirit he took to athletics. He was one of the founders and original members of the College Boat Club of the University of Pennsyl- vania and of the Athletic Association. So popular with his fellow- students did his prowess on both field and stream make him that for several years he occupied the Presidency of the Boat Club. When intercollegiate rowing for the Childs' cup was inaugurated by Columbia, Princeton and Pennsylvania, Mr. Gilpin was Chair- man of the Rowing Committee, and it was largely through his efforts that the varying interests of the rival colleges were har- monized and the arrangements for the regattas successfully made.
His father's eminence in the legal profession offering him an exceptional opportunity, he decided to follow his parent's footsteps and entered the elder Gilpin's office as a student in the fall of 1875. After acquiring the rudiments of the profession and much practical experience of value, a year later he entered the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Laws in June of 1878. At the same time the honorary degree of Master of Arts was conferred upon him by the University.
He was admitted to the Bar on June 15, 1878, and, in asso- ciation with his father, he at once began practice. This partner- ship continued until the retirement of the elder Gilpin, about 1887, since which time the son has continued the office with renewed energy and success.
So close has been Mr. Gilpin's attention to the interests of
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his clients that he has but little time to devote to matters outside the lines of his profession, the only business organiza- tion with which he is connected being the Chesapeake and Dela- ware Canal Company, of which he is one of the most active and influential Directors. While still a student, however, he was a firm believer in law and order, and served from July 20 to August 5, 1877, in Company A, First Regiment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, during the riots which occurred at the time of the great railroad strike.
On the 26th of February, 1884, he was united in marriage with Miss Clara K. Hollis, daughter of the late Peter C. Hollis. Two daughters, Hannah H. Gilpin, born July 6, 1885, and Clara H. Gilpin, born January 17, 1889, have blessed their union. On the 24th day of September, 1897, Mrs. Gilpin died. Both Mr. and Mrs. Gilpin were members of Tabernacle Presbyterian Church at Thirty-seventh and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia, under the pastorate of Rev. Henry C. McCook.
Mr. Gilpin, though still a comparatively young man, has won an enviable position at the Philadelphia Bar and, by strict atten- tion to the causes entrusted to his care, has gathered together a personal practice, in addition to the extensive one inherited from his father, of which any attorney might well be proud. His suc- cess has been noteworthy in every respect, while there is full promise of a most brilliant career in which he is yet to figure.
HOOD GILPIN.
D ESCENDED from a long line of honorable ances- tors, all of whom were identified in their time with the leading interests of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Hood Gilpin, the subject of this biography, represents many admirable qualities and able talents as a result not only of his lineal inheritance, but of a spirit of enterprise which has animated his entire career. In the legal fraternity he is one of the brightest lights and his con- nection with the progress of the State extends through. a period of many years.
HOOD GILPIN was born at No. 709 Walnut Street, which was No. 171, old style, on the north side of Walnut, above Seventh Street, in the Eighth Ward of Philadelphia, on October 19, 1853. His father was Charles Gilpin, of Wilmington, Delaware, later a prominent and useful citizen of Philadelphia, and his mother was Sarah Hamilton Hood, daughter of John McClellan Hood and Eliza- beth Forepaugh, of Bessie Bell Farm, Limerick Township, Mont- gomery County, Pennsylvania. By his father he was descended from English Puritans, who became members of the Society of Friends and settled in 1696 at Chadd's Ford, Chester County, Pennsylvania, and by his mother from German Lutherans and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, the latter of whom emigrated from Newton Stuart, County Tyrone, Ireland. He has never lived out- side of the Seventh and Eighth wards of Philadelphia. The first school he attended was on the west side of Eighth Street, above Sansom, which was kept by an old schoolmaster named Eliphalet Roberts, whose boast it was that he had taught General Winfield Scott Hancock, when the General was a boy at Norristown, Penn- 184
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sylvania. From there he went to a temporary school kept by Henry D. Gregory at No. 1108 Market Street, Philadelphia, and June, 1868, he entered the Freshman Class of the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Arts, then on the west side of Ninth Street above Chestnut. He graduated from here in June, 1872.
It is believed that this class of "'72" is the only one which has kept up its organization and annual reunions from the date of its entering college to the present time. Mr. Gilpin had the honor of serving his class as its Secretary until the death of its first President, the late Henry C. Olmstead, whom he succeeded in the office of class President. Mr. Gilpin read law with his father for preceptor and was admitted to practice as an attorney in the Dis- trict Court of Philadelphia, on December 1, 1874, and in the Supreme Court of the State of Pennsylvania on January 15, 1877.
On November 12, 1875, he was appointed Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and con- tinued to hold that position until he resigned it on January 14, 1885. On January 1, 1890, he was elected a School Director of the Eighth School Section of Philadelphia, and, on April 6, 1896, was elected President of the Board of Directors of the same section.
Mr. Gilpin has given his entire time since 1874 to the prac- tice of his profession and does not permit himself to be attracted from its well-settled paths, hoping by pursuing this course to give more satisfaction to himself and perhaps also to those of the public whom he serves.
He married on October 31, 1882, Emily Olivia, daughter of Oliver Hopkinson and Eliza Swaim, and has three children, Francis Hopkinson, Gabriella and Hood Gilpin, Jr., his wife being a lineal descendant of Thomas Hopkinson, Francis Hopkinson and Joseph Hopkinson, all well known in the political, literary, scien- tific and artistic history of Pennsylvania, and each in his time Judge, either of the Colonial Admiralty or its successor, the Dis- trict Court of the United States, whose walls their pictured effigies adorn.
Mr. Gilpin is an honorary member of the Law Academy, a member of the Law Association, the Historical Society of Penn-
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sylvania, the Union League of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Cricket Club and the Bank Clerks' Beneficial Association. He is also a Manager of the Apprentices' Library Company and the Philadelphia Charity; and is a Director of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal Company. Each of these interests receives his earnest attention, and it follows that Mr. Gilpin's life is a very busy and useful one.
The Resthr- todt Eng Co.Phila,
JOHN JAY GILROY.
OHN JAY GILROY was born in Philadelphia, April 16, 1846, and was the oldest of the eight children of Washington L. and Mary Gilroy. His early education was acquired in the common schools, from which he went to the Central High School in 1862. The following year, however, he left that institution and entered the Pay Department of the United States Navy, for it was the time when the Government needed young men of brain and brawn in its service. He served in the blockading squadron, on the " Paul Jones," along the south Atlantic coast until 1865, when he was appointed to the United States Steamer "Suwanee," pro- ceeding on that boat to the Pacific coast and visiting all the important points. In 1867 he resigned from the navy and took a clerkship in the National Bank of the Republic of Philadelphia. He was gradually promoted until he reached the position of gen- eral bookkeeper. In 1876 he was elected Secretary of the Guar- antee Trust and Safe Deposit Company. Through a long series of important financial operations, Mr. Gilroy served the interests of the Guarantee Company. In 1887 this company was selected by the Re-organization Trustees of the Philadelphia and Reading Company as depository for the reception of bonds and stock obli- gations of that company, amounting to two hundred million dol- lars. This colossal transaction was placed principally in the hands of Mr. Gilroy, whose long experience in financial matters fitted him admirably for the responsibility of such an onerous task. The work of systematizing and handling bonds and certifi- cates and issuing obligations in exchange was done under his direction in ninety days, and without an error. This operation
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was but one of many in which Mr. Gilroy was concerned. Since his election to the position of Secretary of the company he has, by his thorough business qualifications and excellent methods of management, attained an enviable reputation in Philadelphia,
Aside from his interests in the Guarantee Trust and Safe Deposit Company, Mr. Gilroy has found time to identify himself with many important organizations of a similar nature; he is also connected with a number of social and benevolent institutions, being in every sense a public-spirited man and progressive mem- ber of the social body. Mr. Gilroy has been interested in building associations for a number of years and is one of the Philadel- phians chiefly instrumental in developing this highly successful system of saving for people of moderate means. He is President of the Good Hope Building Association, a position which he has held for twenty years successively. He is one of the Board of Managers of the Merchants' and Salesmen's Association and was for a number of years President of the Philadelphia Association of Workingmen's Clubs. In the direction of workingmen's inter- ests Mr. Gilroy is an active figure, and his love of progress has been indicated in many ways along such lines. He was honored several years ago by election for one year to the Presidency of the Congress of Workingmen's Clubs of the United States. The service which Mr. Gilroy gave to the Government when he was in the Paymaster's Department outlined his future course as a business man. Aside from his prominence, however, as a factor in the commercial and financial life of Pennsylvania, Mr. Gilroy is eminent in Masonic circles, being a Thirty-third Degree Mason. He is one of the organizers of the Art Association of the Masonic Temple of Philadelphia and has been its Treasurer since its estab- lishment. He is Past Commander of St. John's Commandery of Knights Templar, of Philadelphia, also Past Master of Corinthian Lodge, No. 368, Free and Accepted Masons. Mr. Gilroy was one of the main organizers of the St. Matthew's Yearly Beneficial Association and is now Secretary of the organization, a post which he has held for twenty-one years. He is also connected with the vestry of St. Matthew's Protestant Episcopal Church. Mr. Gilroy
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