USA > Pennsylvania > Prominent and progressive Pennsylvanians of the nineteenth century. Volume II > Part 16
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In the fall of 1849 the proprietor of the Columbia Spy solicited him to return to Columbia, offering the entire charge of the mechanical department. He accepted this position, which he filled until January 8, 1853. On January 10th of this year he was married to Miss Martha Mifflin Houston, daughter of the late Samuel Nelson Houston, of Columbia, and shortly afterwards took a position in the printing establishment of William S. Haven, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, then one of the largest west of the Alle- ghanies. Receiving an offer from the proprietor of the Columbia Spy of a co-partnership, he returned to Columbia in the following April, and purchased a half-interest in the paper. Two years later he succeeded to the entire control of the paper, and under his
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management it acquired an influential position, and the printing department a high reputation.
In 1857 Mr. Greene sold the Columbia Spy establishment, and a year later came to Philadelphia to organize the firm of Ring- walt & Company, printers. In 1860 he retired from this firm, retaining the active management, however, until the following year, when he accepted the position of Superintendent of the printing office of Henry G. Leisenring. Under his efficient and systematic management the business was rapidly increased. The first presses ever used in Philadelphia for printing consecutively numbered railroad coupon and local tickets at one operation were introduced under his supervision; improved local and coupon ticket cases were manufactured, together with all material necessary for fur- nishing railroad passenger and ticket departments with complete supplies. The business grew to such an extent that more com- modious quarters were demanded, where it continued to expand and gained a national reputation for the excellence of its work. In 1871 Mr. Greene severed his connection with this printing house to enter into co-partnership with Helfenstein and Lewis, under the firm name of Helfenstein, Lewis & Greene. Here im- proved machinery and facilities were introduced by him, and a complete system adopted. He became sole owner and proprietor in 1881, and still continues in the general management.
Mr. Greene has been engaged in the printing business for more than half a century. He has assisted and participated in the marvelous progress which has been made. He has also been actively interested in successful railroad and commercial enter- prises.
During the long period of his active business life he has not been unmindful of the obligations, duties and privileges of private life. Devoted to his family and friends, he has regarded their welfare and happiness as of paramount importance, and has con- stantly kept this end in view, at the same time not forgetting the important work of the religious, educational, benevolent and chari- table institutions to which his services and aid have been cheer- fully given.
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GEORGE GRIFFITHS.
S a useful illustration of the high degree to which noble principle and unselfish devotion to duty can be carried into a successful business life, with the preservation of absolute consistency of Chris- tian character, the career of GEORGE GRIFFITHS, of Philadelphia, is noteworthy. A brief sketch can but de- scribe the sphere in which these characteristics have been shown. Mr. Griffiths is well known in business circles as a manufacturer, on a large scale, of shovels and goods in the hardware line, at the Keystone Works, on Locust Street, Philadelphia. He came to the Quaker City very early in life and received his edu- cation in the public schools. Much to his disappointment, he was withdrawn from school while but a boy, his father, in ill health, and with an embarrassed business, needing him. He had cher- ished an ideal of Christian service which he had hoped to carry out in another sphere, but when duty claimed him he gave him- self to it, and he is not the man to take back what he has given, or to falter in doing his duty. From that day to this his story has been that of one "who, when brought among the tasks of real life, hath wrought upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought." "The plan that pleased his boyish thought" the most was to make his life one of service to his fellow man, and he has never lost an opportunity to carry out that plan. If an account could be given of the circumstances under which he entered into business for himself, after his father's death, taking up, while still in his minority, a concern which had not recovered from the wreck of 1857, it would show that he began his career with an exceptionally high standard, which he has always lived up to, so that
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"Whatever record leap to light He never shall be shamed,"
but rather honored for the things which now are concealed by his own modesty and reticence, and his purpose not to let his left hand know what his right hand has done. The unbroken busi- ness success that has marked his life is clear proof that a man can honestly succeed in business who sincerely acts and works according to high principles.
Mr. Griffiths has always been closely identified with religious and charitable work. A communicant member of the Presbyterian Church from early boyhood, Superintendent of a mission Sunday- school, near Fifth and Carpenter streets; then of the Howard Mission Sunday-school, at Fourth and Bainbridge streets, Mr. Griffiths is now Superintendent of the Sunday-school of the old First Presbyterian Church, on Washington Square, an Elder in that Church, President of its Board of Trustees, Recording Secre-
tary of the Pennsylvania Bible Society, and Treasurer of the Church Extension Committee of the Presbytery of Philadelphia. He has several times served as Commissioner to the General As- sembly, and was President of the Presbyterian Social Union, of Philadelphia, in 1892-93. His unselfish devotion has gone on thus year after year, without a day of rest in the week, without a vacation in the summer. His sphere of influence and of interest has steadily grown wider year by year, the principle of growth being always "the plan that pleased his boyish thought," of making his life as useful as possible to his fellows. Several years ago he originated "The Christian League of Philadelphia," which has done and is still doing remarkable work for improving the conditions of the city, morally, sanitarily and politically, removing dangerous evils from the pathway of youth, and revolting scenes from the sight of little children. This work has completely trans- formed certain slum districts which have for more than half a cen- tury been regarded as hopeless and irredeemable lairs of vice, crime and wretched misery. In redeeming some of these, and in improving others, enough has already been done to prove that the Christian League has not undertaken an impracticable task.
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Mr. Griffiths has been solicited to accept nomination for office, but has always declined, feeling that he could accomplish more for the public good by working as a citizen, rather than as an office holder. The course he has pursued has been the outcome of his convictions as to the responsibility belonging to citizenship.
One of the finest and most remarkable features of his career is seen in the relations which have always existed between him and his employés. In manufacturing and other business rela- tions, engaged in on a large scale, it too often is the case that the personal element disappears, and the "cash nexus" is the only bond between the employer and the employed. This has never been the case in the Keystone Works under Mr. Griffiths. He is a just man, without false sentimentality, and knows how to make a carefully conducted establishment pay fair profits. At the same time he considers his men, takes a friendly interest in them and in their home life. He has never had a strike among his workers. They are glad to remain in his employ, and some are still with him who worked in the establishment when he was a boy. When, in 1863, he closed his works, and enlisted as a private soldier for the Gettysburg campaign, most of his men joined the same regiment, and his daily life among them in camp was a beautiful proof of his devotion to their welfare and of their loyalty to him as a leader and a friend.
The public spirit and practical wisdom of Mr. Griffiths were shown several years ago when the employés of the Traction Com- pany of Philadelphia went on a strike. It was largely through his influence that both sides were induced to consent to arbitrate their difficulties, and a peaceful settlement was secured when vio- lence and bloodshed seemed imminent. The expenditure of time and strength on Mr. Griffiths' part was for weeks almost inces- sant, in order to bring about this happy issue to a struggle which tied up the business of the whole city and affected every house- hold in it.
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JOHN GRIPP.
HE method of government in so great a State as Pennsylvania is a chief factor in its affairs, and it has been greatly to the advantage of the State that the men who have occupied the chief posts have generally been of a high order of integrity and public worth. John Gripp, the subject of this biography, has been in the service of the Commonwealth ever since his boyhood days, and his record is an admirable one. He practically began life as the office-boy of an alderman, and from that on until to-day, when he occupies the position of Register of Allegheny County and ex officio Clerk of the Orphans' Court, he has passed from one official position to another, each time with increased honor and distinction.
JOHN GRIPP was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on July 28, 1856, his parents being John C. Gripp, who was a native of Ger- many, and Louisa Gripp, who was born in France. John C. Gripp, the father, was a boiler-maker in his town in Europe, and came to this country and took service with the Pennsylvania Railroad Company in its shops at Pittsburg, as foreman, in which capacity he continued for several years, and then became foreman of the boiler works of Thorn & Company, at Pittsburg. He remained there until his death, March 29, 1874. He was one of the best known artisans in that section of the country. He was actively connected with the Vigilant Volunteer Fire Company from its origin until the city of Pittsburg established a paid Fire Department system. The Vigilant Volunteer Company brought the first Amoskeag steam engine to the city of Pittsburg after its exhibit at the Paris Exposition. John Gripp's early education
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was received at a German Lutheran school, where he imbibed the doctrines of his parents, while, at the same time, being fitted for an educational course in the secular schools. He entered the Grant Public School of the Third Ward, Pittsburg, where he remained until he had received a complete common school educa- tion. He then entered the Pittsburg High School, and, while attending the B class, in the Academic Department, in 1874, he decided to leave school and enter business life. He began work in the office of Peter Kreuter, who was then Alderman of the Third Ward, Pittsburg, and ex officio Justice of the Peace of Alle- gheny County. He continued with him until his term expired, and then filled a similar position with John Burke, the Alderman who followed, continuing there until 1882, when he resigned to accept a position as Clerk in the Registry Department of the Pittsburg Post-Office, being afterwards made Superintendent of the Department. He remained there over a year, when he resigned to accept a position in the Mayor's office, in 1884, as Clerk to the Mayor. He remained there for more than a year, until elected Alderman of the Third Ward, city of Pittsburg, which position he filled to the entire satisfaction of his constituents, being twice re-elected. He held the office from the first Monday in May, 1885, until the Ist of January, 1897, when he resigned to accept the office he now holds-that of Register of Wills and Clerk of the Orphans' Court of Allegheny County. Mr. Gripp's public service embraces not only the departmental work herein mentioned, but also the duties of Deputy Mayor during two terms, and of Police Magistrate during several terms. He was also a member of Select Council of Pittsburg from 1883 to 1885. This of itself would be a fine record, but he has other connections which have demanded public attention just as strongly. He is a Director of the Citizens' Traction Company and the Times Publishing Com- pany, of Pittsburg, and also of the Keystone Pottery Company, of Rochester, Pennsylvania. In 1881 Mr. Gripp was elected Secre- tary of the Republican County Committee of Allegheny County and he occupied the Chairmanship for several years. He has been an officer of the Committee ever since, in one capacity or another,
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and has been Chairman and Secretary, for a number of years, of the Republican City Executive Committee. He has attended many of the State conventions, and played an important part in the affairs of the party by his counsel and advice at such times. He attended the Minneapolis National Convention which nomi- nated Benjamin Harrison for President, and he has also been a Delegate to several State and National Republican League con- ventions.
In addition to his other business connections, Mr. Gripp has found time to identify himself with several large industrial enter- prises. One of these is the West Virginia Clay Manufacturing Company, and in its affairs, as those of the Pittsburg concerns, he has been quite an aid towards establishing permanent prosperity. In every field of labor covered by Mr. Gripp he has shown the same determination to succeed, backed up by abilities which have unfailingly advanced him to the goal of his ambition. It is gen- erally said in Western Pennsylvania that his political career is one of the brightest in the history of the State.
On May 1, 1884, Mr. Gripp was married to Emma C. Wack. They have two children, Corenna C., aged six years, and Ray- mond Wack, aged three years. Mr. Gripp is one of the best known men in Pittsburg, and is socially very popular. In several organizations, political and otherwise, he is an honored member.
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F. S. GROVES.
NAOST important has been the part played by the com- merce of the port of Philadelphia in advancing the city to the position of mercantile importance which it at present enjoys. The city's magnificent water front is lined with capacious warehouses and man- ufacturing establishments of the first rank. Its business quarter has sought proximity to the Delaware, from whose wharves the mercantile navies of the world are bearing the products of Penn- sylvania's labor to lands beyond the seas, while the not less important flotilla of domestic and coasting vessels are busily engaged in carrying the fruits of hundreds of factories to every harbor on the Atlantic coast. The broad roadstead which bounds the city upon the east ever presents a scene of the greatest activity, and the bustling stevedores that lower the cargoes into the holds of the commercial fleet form a shore force that gives ample proof that Philadelphia's mariners have been no less enterprising than have its merchants and manufacturers. To-day miles upon miles of docks are needed to accommodate the city's shipping. No men have played a more important part in this progress or been more largely instrumental in bringing it about than those composing the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamboat Company, of which F. S. Groves is the agent and manager. The son of one of the founders of the line, he has for more than thirty years devoted almost the whole of his time to its development, and by concen- tration of energy and definiteness of purpose has contributed largely to the success of the company and to the present high degree of perfection of the line which it has established and maintained for so many years.
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F. S. GROVES.
F. S. GROVES was born in Philadelphia on the 17th day of August, 1847. He is the son of Anthony Groves, Jr., and Mary A. Boissiea. His father was long known in mercantile as well as in shipping circles as one of the city's most earnest and progres- sive men, and one who never lacked an expedient or acknowledged an obstacle. Progressive to the highest degree, he aroused enter- prise and conceived and successfully carried into execution the bold project of establishing a line of steamers between Philadel- phia and Baltimore, between which ports there had been compara- tively little traffic by water until that time.
The son, after acquiring a substantial education while a pupil at John W. Faires' Classical School, which was then located at Twelfth and Locust streets, Philadelphia, turned his attention to the business which was still being so successfully conducted by his father. Though still but a boy, he appreciated the bright future that was before the corporation and, in 1865, entered the employ of the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamboat Company. For more than thirty years this connection has never ceased, and to-day, as its agent and manager, as well as in other spheres of endeavor, Mr. Groves is known as a prominent and progres- sive man who has done much in bringing to the Quaker City the extensive commerce it now enjoys. Being a native of Phila- delphia, Mr. Groves has naturally felt a deep and lasting con- cern for its prosperity, and has interested himself in many movements and been identified with a number of organizations having for their object the betterment of the conditions govern- ing the city's industries, prominent among which might be men- tioned the Board of Trade, the Trades League and the Maritime Exchange.
Although taking the interest in politics that is natural to any public-spirited citizen, Mr. Groves has asked no recognition from any political organization for his services, and has never consented to accept a public office of any kind. He was mar- ried, in 1874, to Miss Elouise Earp, the youngest daughter of Thomas Earp, Jr. They have two children, a son and a daugh- ter, F. S. Groves, Jr., and Louise N. Groves.
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The Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamboat Company, more widely known, perhaps, as the Ericsson Line, is one of Phila- delphia's oldest institutions in transportation companies. It was organized by Anthony Groves, Jr., early in the forties, and was incorporated in 1844. It has always played a most important part in the development of the commerce of the port. Under the guiding hand of the elder Groves, as it has since been under the management of his son, the line has always been noted for its enterprise. It was the first company to successfully use the pro- peller wheel and engine invented by the famous Swede, Ericsson, for whom the line has been named. The first steamer constructed by the company was also named in honor of this illustrious inventor, as is also the latest addition to their fleet, which has just been turned over to the company by its builders. It is a first- class steamer in every respect, supplied with electric lights, has over seventy staterooms and is fitted out in the finest manner. The original steamer "Ericsson," was only eighty feet long, while the new boat is two hundred and ten feet in length, twenty-four feet in beam, and has ten feet depth of hold, carry seven hundred and forty-seven tons as against eighty-seven tons, the capacity of the original boat. The new steamer is a sister boat to Steamer "Anthony Groves, Jr.," built in 1893, and makes a fleet of thirty steamers built and owned by the Ericsson Line.
WESLEY S. GUFFEY.
F there is one thing more than any other which has made Pennsylvania famous as a producing State throughout the entire civilized world, and has contributed to its own material wealth most largely, it is its wonderful output of petroleum, gas and coal. In the western part of the Keystone State, these vast industries have made many millionaires, and have added to the resources of Pennsylvania that which must keep it in the front rank of producing communities.
One of the pioneer oil operators of the State, Wesley S. Guffey, the subject of this biography, is identified as thoroughly with the development of this source of wealth as any man in the State. His present standing in the same field is unquestionably as a leader, for the firm of Guffey & Queen is among the most successful producers of petroleum.
WESLEY S. GUFFEY was born in Madison, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on February 22, 1842. His parents were Pennsylvanians, and all his life he has been an ardent citizen of the same State. He received his early education at the Sulphur Spring school house, which was then the only course of training open to him, and the curriculum of that rural establishment con- stituted both the beginning and the end of his earlier studies. Thus, in education as well as in business, he is a self-made man, for with nothing to start on he developed a remarkable knowledge of not only business, but of general educational matters, which materially aided his advancement through life. It is a fact that to-day he has a conversational polish and general fund of infor- mation which few college graduates possess.
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WESLEY S. GUFFEY.
When, in January, 1865, the tidal wave of the oil excitement carried many men of brawn, brain and energy to the fertile fields of the great petroleum regions, Mr. Guffey was among the first to lease land on which to drill wells. The first well had been struck there in the preceding November, and within a phenome- nally short space of time Pithole was a city of wealth and of important proportions. The oil fever ran high. Hundreds of men brought their labor to Pithole, or poured their wealth into it, while the earth was giving forth returns more than one hundred fold. Many of the pioneers reaped fortunes. Pithole increased in area and population until at one time it had a larger post-office than Pittsburg. Now, as is a matter of history, the last trace of its existence has entirely vanished. Mr. Guffey stayed in the town until $30,000 houses were selling for $1,000 apiece, and left shortly before the final crash came, which left Pithole only a memory. In this remarkable place Mr. Guffey earned by his sagacious business methods the experience which has since enabled him to become a leader in petroleum operations. He is one of the oldest members of the Pithole Pioneers' Association, of which about sixty survivors remain. He still attends the association's annual banquets and has a most amazing fund of reminiscences of those early days.
It was in 1866 that Mr. Guffey left Pithole, certain that a crash must come. He took with him the fruits of his labors and for several years turned his hand to a variety of enterprises, in various fields, but always with splendid judgment, and usually with good success. In 1881 he established himself in Pittsburg, and from that time on he engaged chiefly in the oil and gas business, wherein he met with earned prosperity. Although he has never joined hands with any monopoly, he has become a wealthy man, and is, at the same time, a thoroughly progressive one.
In the city of Pittsburg Mr. Guffey is known as one of the most prominent men of that part of the State, and in matters benevolent he has always displayed a very warm heart. He is identified with many associations of an excellent character. In political life he is a no less important factor; not only in Penn-
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sylvania, but in other States, he is known as one of the most thorough and ardent Democrats that ever held to the faith of Jefferson and Jackson, and he contributes largely to the legitimate campaign funds of the Democratic party. In fact, there is no reasonable call made upon him by the party of his choice to which he does not at all times cheerfully respond.
In the business circles of Pittsburg Mr. Guffey is recognized as a man of unusual merit, and one who rarely errs in judgment. He has given ample testimony of these qualities time and time again, and it is not to be wondered at that he occupies an envi- able position as a Pennsylvanian of both prominence and pro- gressiveness.
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John quiteras
JOHN GUITERAS.
B ORN as he was amid the fever-laden cane-brakes of the Gem of the Antilles, it is not strange that Doctor John Guiteras has devoted his talents and his energies to the study of medicine; and endowed as he was with such an ardent and intense patriotism, it is but natural that to-day his name is known the world over as an expert on what has ever been the scourge, the curse of Cuba, yellow fever.
JOHN GUITERAS, M.D., was born in the city of Matanzas, Cuba, on the 4th day of January, 1852. His father was Eusebio Guiteras, and his mother's maiden name was Josefa Gener. They were both of families who had made their name in the Western World, and he has inherited the high spirit and noble traditions of his race in a very marked degree. Among the fruits and flowers of his native isle, young Guiteras passed his early days, breathing in that longing for freedom which seemed to fill the very breezes that fan that gallant little land. In his native city he attended schools, and prepared an ample groundwork for the profession of his choice. After acquiring all the information that those excellent institutions seemed able to impart, and being impelled by his thirst for knowledge and his determination to devote his life to alleviating the sufferings of his fellow men, and to make a special study of the fevers that so frequently ravage the tropics, he determined to seek wider fields of instruction. With this purpose in mind, he came to Philadelphia, in 1869, and as he had chosen the healing art for his life's work, he entered the Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania, recog- nizing it as one of the foremost institutions of its kind in America.
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